[GNC] Fields present in invoices?

[Adrien Monteleone]

Simon,

I'm not sure why this reply from you was not appearing on the list. The 
server must have had a hiccup.

I'm quoting and replying inline below.

Regards,
Adrien

On 1/2/23 9:21 PM, Simon Roberts wrote:
> Oh... so the fields to show are specific to the invoice? Oh, that's a pity, and we were doing so well!

I'm not sure what you mean, but the invoice fields are generic to all 
invoices.

The *options* are a feature of Reports. Different reports have different 
options. There is no way for GnuCash to know what options to show you to 
customize until a report is run. Otherwise, there is no sane context for 
those options. That's why the button on the toolbar and the menu entry 
are not visible until you have a report on screen.

> Is there a mechanism for configuring the default selections? Having to do the same selections (well, de-selections) every time will have my bookkeeper whining.
Yes. Read up in the Help &/or Tutorial documents about Saved Report 
Configurations. However, as I noted earlier, while this lets you save a 
set of options (including which stylesheet to use) you have to run it 
first, then select an invoice, then apply that change to see the final 
invoice as desired. It is quite cumbersome especially if you're dealing 
with many invoices.

There are other places in the app, such as the Find Invoice dialog, the 
Customer Report, and the AR register, where you can click an invoice 
number to generate an Invoice Report with less effort. But there is no 
way to apply a saved configuration automatically as a default. In fact, 
there's no way to apply a saved configuration to an already open Invoice 
Report. (or any report) You have to 'run' the saved configuration first. 
That works okay for things like a Balance Sheet or Income Statement. It 
isn't fun for invoices.

Think of Saved Configurations as their own customized reports. But you 
can't specify one to always be 'your default' for that type of report. 
The workflow/UX in that regard could use a major revamp.

> I guess if all else fails, I try to learn scheme. It looks a helluvalot like lisp, and I had a handle on that 35 years or so ago, so that's not completely inconceivable.

Scheme is indeed, a dialog of Lisp.