[GNC] Transactions in Placeholder

[David T.]

Michael, 

I disagree. The importer shouldn't put transacting into an account that is--by definition-- write protected. 

My counter example would be a write-protected file folder. An operating system that allowed a user to put data into a write-protected folder would come in for serious criticism.

Temporary records should go somewhere, for sure. It's been my experience that GnuCash uses Imbalance-xxx for such transactions. Why would you ever expect to put them in write-protected accounts? 

⁣David T. ​

On Apr 29, 2023, 4:52 PM, at 4:52 PM, Michael or Penny Novack <stepbystepfarm at comcast.net> wrote:
>On 4/29/2023 2:39 AM, David T. via gnucash-user wrote:
>> There's no hard rule either way. Some users feel strongly about not
>having any transactions in placeholder accounts, though, and advocate
>loudly on the list in support of it.  But there's nothing in the
>software preventing a placeholder account having transactions in it.
>>
>> That said, the importer really shouldn't put transactions into a
>placeholder, since the whole point of the placeholder designation is to
>prevent transactions from being put there. That sounds like a bug.
>
>I wouldn't go so far as to call it a bug. Do we really need a prevent 
>stupid mistake fence here? A hard fence? << a soft fence that can be 
>enabled/disabled as a user option significantly more work >>
>
>In the normal course of things, the logical INTENT of having a 
>placeholder account is that it is an account concept (sort of account) 
>that has a number of child  accounts dividing that concept up in finer 
>detail. That said ....
>
>Consider the work flow ... you are entering transactions and in that 
>process find you have a number within that concept that do NOT properly
>
>fit any of the existing child accounts. Yes you can create accounts on 
>the fly BUT you might immediately see that once you have created this 
>new child or children, SOME of the transactions currently recorded in 
>one or more of the preexisting children really should be moved to one
>of 
>these new children.
>
>In other words, you have work to do, and maybe in the middle of
>entering 
>transactions not the best place to do that work. I, for one, do not
>want 
>to ever interrupt the task of entering a stack of transactions because 
>THAT is a possible source of error, one that gnucash or any other 
>accounting app does not protect us from << getting wrong where we were 
>when resuming entering that stack; do one twice or miss one >>
>
>SO .... I like it that I could temporarily enter these transactions
>into 
>the parent and leave the clean-up for a later time. The presence of 
>transactions in the parent that is logically a placeholder serves as a 
>reminder "you've got work to do here" << for THAT reason I would use
>the 
>following work flow for that --- first create the new child/children, 
>second move any in the preexisting children that better fit here, and 
>only last distribute those in parent to the proper children. That way, 
>if this task is interrupted, the transactions remaining in the parent 
>serve to indicate "not done yet". And in exceptional situations maybe 
>you want to leave an oddball transaction there  (in the parent) because
>
>you do not expect there to be others oddball in the same way.
>
>So I would prefer using gnucash with the option "allow" (transactions
>in 
>parent intended as a placeholder) trusting my good sense from keeping
>me 
>from ACCIDENTALLY entering a transaction there.
>
>
>Michael D Novack
>
>
>
>
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