[GNC] What is the intended effect of hiding an account ?

[Michael or Penny Novack]

On 7/21/2022 4:53 PM, David Carlson wrote:
> Perhaps another user misunderstood your question. John R is a major 
> developer and he has a very good idea of what is going on inside the 
> program. Clarifying the documentation is always appreciated.

David, I was NOT asking about how the program worked or about the 
documentation. I have not worked on THIS project but am a retired senior 
systems analyst and senior business analyst, decades in the cypher mines 
for one of the world's largest "financials".

I was asking about PURPOSE.

I can see clear uses for hiding sub accounts but having their contents 
included in the (parental) total. But it is far less clear under what 
circumstances you would want sub accounts (that had non-zero balances) 
to NOT be included in the (parental) total when the sub accounts were 
hidden. That's the behavior that was being asked about.

Documentation unclear that this is not what happens? Unless a clear 
purpose, I would consider NOT including in the totals a more or less 
obvious accounting error. The documentation is supposed to clarify 
"gnucash does not make this error", "gnucash does not make that error?, 
etc.

That's why I was asking "under what circumstances would you NOT want the 
hidden accounts included in the parental total?" Wearing the business 
analyst hat, not the systems analyst hat.

Michael D Novack