[GNC] Help with downloading transactions.

[Michael or Penny Novack]

> This is a philosophical point.
> There is group "M" who always enter every transaction first in their
> books and then use the bank documents to reconcile
>
> and
>
> There is group "K" who enter some things and use the bank download to
> keep their accounts.
>
> There are pros and cons to each method. Gnucash allows you to make your
> own choice.

Well put, but more than a philosophical difference.

The former group is "reconciling", confirming that their records match 
those of the bank. Dealing with an errors or omissions. In my personal 
experience, bank errors though rare do occur. Also rare but every now 
and then, the error or omission at the books side.

The second group is NOT reconciling anything. If the transactions in the 
books came from a download from the bank it WILL match what the bank 
bank statement. So the reconcile process in gnucash meaningless. Any 
errors the bank might have made, say misreading a check, will not be 
detected. We should also note that at any time the balance in the books 
will be larger than the actual balance by the amount of the "float" 
(checks written and sent but not yet cleared)

Michael D Novack