[GNC] Issue with Balances and Phantom Transactions

[Derek Atkins]

HI,

The version of GnuCash you are using is so old, it probably has many MANY
bugs..  And it DEFINITELY has bugs related to business features and MySQL!

Note:  You cannot edit an Invoice, Bill, or Credit Note directly from the
register.  If you try, it SHOULD fail.  If it does not fail, that is a
bug.  This includes the Invoice/Bill/Credit Note date.  To change anything
on that transaction you must unpost the Invoice/Bill/Credit Note, make the
change, and then re-post it.

If you DUPLICATE the entry in the A/R or A/P account, you will generate a
detached entry and there is no way to recover.

Note that you CAN change the //date// of a payment transaction safely. 
However, if you change the //amount// of a payment transaction you will
throw off all the calculations.

Similarly, duplicating a payment transaction could cause problems (but
this is recoverable).

The first thing you should do is backup your data file.
Next, you should upgrade your GnuCash version.

THEN we can look at fixing your data problems.

Good Luck,

-derek

On Thu, April 21, 2022 8:13 pm, Grant Alexander wrote:
> This is my first post here.
>
> I have been belting my head against a brick wall to trying to solve a
> problem (presumably of my own making).
>
> Background
> Running Gnucash 2.6.17 on Linux (Fedora 24) using a MySQL database.   I
> know stuff is a bit antiquated but this is to keep costs down as I am
> keeping accounts for an incorporated society.
>
> This issue presented itself when I was reviewing Receivables Aging.  
> We invoice members once a year and receive payments in March/April.  
> We offer a discount on membership if paid before 31 March and the
> member can take that up by paying their dues $10 short.  I create a
> credit note and apply it, along with their original invoice against the
> bank account.   All good.  
>
> However, I have sometimes messed up and an applied transactions to the
> wrong date and then gone in and updated the dates in the Bank Account
> which has then corrected the date in Accounts Receivable.  But the
> Receivables Aging has then looked like the attached.  Selection_047.png
>
> Somehow the transactions have become orphaned.   The AR is overstated.
>   But the invoices have been credited, the Bank Account is correct.
>
> I have also ended up with a similar scenario in Accounts Payable where
> I posted a Bill that was supposed to be dated 31/12/2021 but ended up
> 31/12/2022.   I corrected the date in the AP transactional window and
> then I ended up with Orphaned transactions.
>
> I am happy to share my database with anyone who may be able to unravel
> this.   I found there were records in "invoices" where owner_type=0
> which accounted for these errant transactions.  I also found the
> corresponding entries in entries and slots but I can't figure out how
> to fix them or whether there are records elsewhere I need to locate
> too.
>
> Any help would be gratefully received.
>
>
> --
> Grant Alexander
> Ngapouri Highlands
> https://www.ngapourihighlands.co.nz_______________________________________________
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-- 
       Derek Atkins                 617-623-3745
       derek at ihtfp.com             www.ihtfp.com
       Computer and Internet Security Consultant