[GNC] Request for Automatic Reconciliation Function

[Bite Gao]

GnuCash Developers and Maintainers:
   Hello! While you pinpoint out the possibility of a mistake in 
automated process, it did not eliminate the meaning of the automatic 
reconciliation.
   What an automatic reconciliation does is: the program concatenates 
the transaction's date, check number and the transaction amount from 
both the bank statement and the GnuCash file. For each split record in 
the GnuCash file, the program scan for its counterpart in the bank 
statement. And when the counterpart is found, the program marks the 
split as reconciled.
   Personally, I do not found that how computer program could make 
mistake in this process. If you believe that the computer could have 
that happen, I would like to learn the detail about it.

   Yours,

    Bite Gao
Jan 7th, 2021

On 2023/1/6 20:57, Adrien Monteleone wrote:

> I understand your explanation, but if you aren't checking and 
> verifying every transaction, how do you ever discover when the 
> automated process makes a mistake?
>
> Reconciliation was invented long before computers, but I appreciate 
> that the process demands one to slow down, take your time, and 
> methodically verify the information.
>
> Think of it as proof-reading - the hard way. (I learned in school to 
> read stuff backwards when proofing!)
>
> That is a pretty good analogy too:
>
> If you've ever used auto-correct with auto-checking for spelling and 
> grammar, or auto-suggestion or auto-completion for entire words and 
> have seen the embarrassment and/or nightmare that can produce when the 
> computer 'gets it wrong', would you want something like that for your 
> financial records?
>
> Regards,
> Adrien
>
> On 1/5/23 7:50 PM, Bite Gao wrote:
>> GnuCash Developers and Maintainers:
>>    Hello! While you have mentioned the requirement of human intervene 
>> in the reconciliation process, I do not see it contradicts with the 
>> presence of automatically reconciliation system.
>>    In a reconcile process, the accountant check the record in the 
>> account book with the record in the bank statement (or statement from 
>> other institution). He (or she) may found out that two record are 
>> identical, or he (or she) may found that some record are not 
>> identical. Only the latter requires human notice, since there its no 
>> point wasting time on reconciled accounting transactions. An 
>> automatic reconciliation system can load the digital statement from 
>> the institution, compares the statement with the transaction in the 
>> accounting book, and pinpoints the discrepancies out. Then human 
>> accountant could step in and perform manual operations, such as 
>> checking other vouchers, contact with banks, etc. In the situation of 
>> single user, the automatic reconcile system have no reason to block manu
>> al reconciliation.
>>    Besides, when I means "human err", I means that the accountant 
>> overlook an discrepancy and regards it as identical. People do not 
>> spend too much time on identical records, since major of the 
>> transaction would be in that state. However, it could cause severe 
>> consequences if there do have a discrepancy.
>
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