[GNC] Confusing and inconsistent headers in transaction entry and report forms

Adrien Monteleone adrien.monteleone at lusfiber.net
Wed Aug 3 22:40:12 EDT 2022


On 8/3/22 7:28 PM, Peter S. Shenkin wrote:
> Adrian,
> 
> I do have full account names turned on. I forget where I did that. I have
> no customized sort that affects the order of accounts within a transaction
> in either register view nor in the transaction report. (I prefer to sort
> the transactions by date in the transaction report, but that's just me.)

I'm not speaking of the register order, but the report order, I've added 
a screenshot of the sorting defaults.
> 
> You point out correctly that in the register view, where transactions are
> entered, each line of the transaction (which is shown completely in my
> screen shot) shows the debit first (on the left) and credit second, as is
> customary. I had the labeling of the columns set to the out-of-the-box
> defaults of Increase and Decrease, respectively. This is highly misleading,
> because in fact both of these accounts increase as the result of the
> transaction. I later changed the labels to Debit and Credit, an available
> option, which is less misleading, but other than the labels, the
> transaction looks exactly the same in both the account register and the
> transaction report. That is, the Credit and Debit labels are still reversed
> in the transaction log.

I know you changed the labels to Debit/Credit. That is not at issue here.

The Transaction Report is *not* reversed. Debits are on the left, 
Credits on the right. And the figures are in the correct columns.

I've attached another sample of this report this time with some highlights.

The account names circled in yellow are telling you that the next line 
is from the perspective of *that* account. (these labels are missing in 
the screenshot you provided in your first post, I'm not even sure how to 
turn that off on the report as there is no preference that affects it.)

The account names circled in red are the *other* account.

The report is *not* telling you that you have a debit in Donations or a 
credit in Checking.

The first line (in your report, second in mine) is telling you that you 
have a transaction in the Donation account that has a credit and the 
*other* account is Checking. (it is listed in the column labeled 
'transfers from/to')

The other line is telling you that you have a transaction in the 
Checking Account that has a debit and the *other* account is Donations.

This is all correct. Nothing is reversed.

You also turned off the Totals. (or cropped them out) That's fine, but 
leaving them on would have made it clear that you have a debit balance 
in Checking and a credit balance in Donations. (as my version of the 
report, with defaults, shows in the attached screenshot)


> 
> You seemed to express uncertainty about the account register. 

Not at all. I'm not sure why you think I have any uncertainty about it.

The way I
> enter transactions is to pick an account (for instance, by clicking on it
> in a balance sheet). That opens the register tab, set to that account. 

I guess one can get into an account register from a report to enter 
transctions, but that isn't the 'usual' workflow. (not that it really 
matters) The Accounts tab stays on the screen for that very reason - 
easy access to all accounts. You don't *need* to run a report first to 
then click the account name link.


If I
> am remembering correctly, it will always list that account on the first
> line of the transaction, then you can add your currency total in either the
> Debit or the Credit column for that account. For the balancing account or
> accounts (in the case of a split), you similarly enter the currency total
> for each account on a succeeding line, in either the debit or the credit
> column, and select the account from a pulldown you can invoke from that
> line.

> There is no specified order in the register view for the accounts involved
> in a transaction; the account you selected to open the tab will always be
> listed on the first line nd the succeeding lines will appear in the order
> in which you entered them.

In Basic Journal view mode, you only see the 'other' account. 
('Transfer' is the label in the header)

In Auto-Split or Transaction Journal view mode, you can see all splits 
at once, but the order of them can be changed. Gnucash will re-order 
them only to put all Debit splits first then list all Credit splits.

But none of that has any affect on the Transaction Report.

Regards,
Adrien
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Transaction Report - two accounts.png
Type: image/png
Size: 29814 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/attachments/20220803/54e508ab/attachment-0002.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Transaction Report Sorting.png
Type: image/png
Size: 200582 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/attachments/20220803/54e508ab/attachment-0003.png>


More information about the gnucash-user mailing list