[GNC] Reconciling subaccounts

Sat Oct 8 08:38:11 EDT 2022

John, 

I don't know about "typically." There are any of a number of ways that someone might use placeholder accounts. In my own books, I have placeholder accounts for brokerage holdings, where the placeholder represents an institution's account and the leaf accounts represent individual securities. I also have placeholder accounts that represent a class of account types-- for example, a placeholder for savings accounts at different institutions. 

The OP appears to be using the structure to implement an envelope allocation system, in which case the subaccounts are virtual. They want both the real and the virtual accounts to show that reconciliation. GnuCash doesn't currently do that. 

Whether that's a bug or a feature (and whether a sensible implementation can be devised to address it) is perhaps a different matter. 

⁣David T. 

On Oct 8, 2022, 9:17 AM, at 9:17 AM, John Layman <john.layman at laymanandlayman.com> wrote:
>Typically, the place holder account represents an institution, not an
>account.  I have never seen a bank statement that presents rolled up
>account totals at the institution level.  Each checking account,
>savings account, money market account, CD holdings, installment loan
>accounts, etc. are presented separately (even if within the same
>document) with beginning and ending balances shown separately for each
>such account.  Balancing could be an absolute nightmare if you had to
>track down a discrepancy in conglomerated the numbers.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: gnucash-user
><gnucash-user-bounces+john.layman=ieee.org at gnucash.org> On Behalf Of
>Stephen M. Butler
>Sent: Friday, October 7, 2022 2:09 PM
>To: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
>Subject: Re: [GNC] Reconciling subaccounts
>
>For  me the parent placeholder account in GnC is the bank account that
>is being reconciled.  The sub-accounts in GnC are just my way of
>delegating the funds within that account for certain  purposes.
>
>I'm not sure about the use case of using the placeholder as a grand
>total for all accounts held at the bank and then reconciling all of
>them in one step (checking, saving, CD, money market).  I suppose if
>they were all reported on a single statement....
>
>
>On 10/7/22 10:41, R Losey wrote:
>> I kind of like it the way it is currently, for what it's worth.
>>
>> On Thu, Oct 6, 2022 at 1:20 PM Adrien Monteleone < 
>> adrien.monteleone at lusfiber.net> wrote:
>>
>>> Thanks for the details.
>>>
>>> I'd say this is a bug, as the expected result would be to have the 
>>> reconcile status of sub-accounts updated.
>>>
>>> You should file that on bugs.gnucash.org
>>>
>>> It *might* be designed that way however. I could be wrong, but I 
>>> think the idea for this feature is to be used for 'virtual' 
>>> sub-accounts that are used for segregating funds in your own books, 
>>> but not actual multiple real-world accounts with an institution.
>>>
>>> The parent is the real account in such a case, so that might be why 
>>> it is the only one marked reconciled with a date. (it is the only
>one 
>>> with a statement to reconcile against)
>>>
>>> In your case, you seem to be trying to reconcile multiple real 
>>> accounts through a placeholder parent. But GnuCash doesn't know
>that. 
>>> (or 'reconciling' non-institution accounts, such as Expenses.)
>>>
>>> Until it is 'fixed' or changed, I guess your option is to continue
>to 
>>> reconcile-finish the sub-accounts to update them, or else just 
>>> reconcile them all individually rather than together as
>sub-accounts.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Adrien
>>>
>>> On 10/3/22 4:56 PM, Uttam Chakravorty wrote:
>>>> My apologies Adrien, I will be more specific.  Line 2 - >Sales -> 
>>>> A/c No
>>> 01: all the subsequent lines starting '01-' are the subaccounts.
>>> Reconciling 01 with subaccounts ticked will reconcile all of them, 
>>> but only update 01's date field.  I then step through the
>subaccounts 
>>> and as they are all already reconciled I just press 'Finish' to
>update their date.
>>>>
>>>> Line 11 is a single entry with no subaccounts.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Line 12 is similar to Line 2, a Placeholder with three subaccounts.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I have tried to indicate the above in Column E, however I have made
>
>>>> a
>>> mistake with Lines 64, 71 and 77.  They have no subaccounts, I 
>>> annotated them in error as all the top level accounts are
>reconciled.  
>>> In terms of consistency I failed to annotate Lines 12, 17 and 59.  
>>> Looking back this is a scrappy piece of work put together in haste. 
>
>>> I hope you will be able to extract something useful, or I will
>happily do it again.  Please advise.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Line 18 (A/c code 5 (should be 05)) is particularly interesting.  
>>>> This
>>> has subaccounts and they have Placeholders which have subaccounts
>i.e.
>>> three levels deep.  Reconciling the top level reconciles all the 
>>> other levels, however once more it only updates the date at the top
>level.
>>>>
>>>> I do not find it too onerous to live with this little extra
>keyboard
>>> activity.  I just wondered if I was doing something wrong again.
>>>
>>>
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>>
>
>
>--
>Stephen M Butler, PMP, PSM
>Stephen.M.Butler51 at gmail.com
>kg7je at arrl.net
>253-350-0166
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