[GNC] Coloring the Action field

[AC]

No, actually I know exactly what I want to accomplish and the colored 
field to make the particular transaction stand out in the register is 
precisely what I want to do.  That's how I work.

I already have the splits set up exactly they way they need to be.  I 
just don't have the specific amounts in the splits, I have approximate 
amounts.  If it's the loan, it's exactly the same transaction as all the 
fully documented transactions, the total is the same because it's a 
fixed amount, I just have a nominal placeholder for loan principle and 
loan interest splits.  I just want to go back and edit those later.

I DO NOT want to open yet another register every time I want to look for 
transactions that need to be updated. I prefer just to skim through the 
checking account register which has a variety of transactions both fully 
documented and some that are awaiting documentation (final split 
amounts, transaction IDs from the bank, etc.)

On 2021-12-16 10:05, Michael or Penny Novack wrote:
> It might perhaps be better to describe WHAT you want to accomplish 
> instead of asking about possibilities for the first HOW that came to 
> your mind. Why? Because there might be other "hows" even simpler.
> 
> 
> On 12/16/2021 2:25 AM, AC wrote:
>>
>> For example, I have a couple loans that are paid fixed amounts each 
>> month but the split of principal and interest varies (of course). I 
>> have automatic payments at the bank set up to pay those fixed amounts 
>> regularly and I have a matching scheduled transaction in GnuCash that 
>> is a placeholder for it so I know how much comes out of my checking 
>> account. What I don't know at that moment is the split between 
>> principal and interest.
> I'll reword that -- you don't have access (in advance) to the 
> amortization schedule and even if you did, would not help with an 
> automated transaction (but would if a manual transaction_
>>
>>   When the payment has gone through I will check the loan records 
>> wherever the loan is held to see how they distributed the payment and 
>> then go back and update the splits to reflect that.
>>
>> I do a similar thing for my paychecks, setting up a scheduled 
>> transaction with an estimated amount across splits and then go back to 
>> update the splits with the various amounts withheld from the check (I 
>> mark these as "Deposit"). 
> 
> Let's stop here for a second to describe your PROCESS. In either case, 
> you first need to be able to have an automatic transaction (unsplit) 
> that you later need to go back to in order to split once you have the 
> information to do that. You think you need a "marker" of some sort to 
> find the transaction later, to mark the ones you have not yet done.
> 
> But what was the other side of the transaction?. Let's do the loan one 
> first. That was an automatic (scheduled) transaction, credit to your 
> bank account and debit to (there are always tow sides in double entry 
> bookkeeping) what? Let's say for am moment you had an account under 
> Expense with a name like "unallocated loan payments".
> 
> Every so often you look. Is the balance of this account zero? No, then 
> you have a loan payment you have not yet allocated to principle and 
> interest. Assuming enough time has passed that you have that 
> information, Enter split mode. Change the account "unallocated loan 
> payments" to "interest" and the amount to what that portion is. The 
> remainder will now have an account Imbalance which you change to "loan 
> principle".
> 
> Now THAT transaction will no longer appear in "unallocated loan 
> payments" << and if there are no other payments still not allocated the 
> balance of the account  will be zero >>
> 
> In  other words, the very presence of a transaction in "unallocated loan 
> balance" can serve as your "marker" and is the transaction you want to 
> split. You can do the same for your paychecks, except you would use an 
> account under Income "unallocated paychecks".
> 
> Michael D Novack
> 
> 
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