[GNC] Transaction inconsistency when deleting account

[john]

Gyle,

How can you not agree that an option that says "delete transactions" and doesn't in fact delete transactions isn't a bug? 

Your argument doesn't address that, it argues that the fix for that bug should be to remove the "delete transactions" option should be removed. But that wouldn't solve your straw man argument: As David T. points out you can very quickly delete all of the transactions in a register one at a time and potentially make just as much of a mess. Of course you can also make a mess editing transactions, so to protect you from yourself GnuCash shouldn't allow editing either, right?

Many industrial-strength accounting programs do that: Just like in Michael Novak's pen and paper days if you make a mistake you don't change what you wrote, you make a new entry that corrects the error. GnuCash even has an option that makes transactions older than a configurable number of days read-only that gets you most of the way there. A bit of self discipline will take care of the rest. But not everyone wants GnuCash to work that way and it's up to each user to choose the point where they trade off convenience against the risk of making a mess.

Regards,
John Ralls

> On Sep 5, 2023, at 14:00, Gyle McCollam <gmccollam at live.com> wrote:
> 
> John,
> for the 1st time, I have to disagree with you.  If you delete the transactions when you delete an account it is not only an accounting issue, but will seriously mess up your other accounts.  Say there are debits (deposits) and credits (withdrawals) from your checking account.  If the account your deleting has been around for years, good luck trying to get your bank account to balance after those entries are gone.
> 
> Thank You,           
> Gyle McCollam
> Gyle McCollam
> gmccollam at live.com <mailto:gmccollam at gyleshomes.com>           email
> From: john <jralls at ceridwen.us>
> Sent: Tuesday, September 5, 2023 11:44 AM
> To: Gyle McCollam <gmccollam at live.com>
> Cc: Maf. King <maf at chilwell.net>; Mark <mrpenner at mailbox.org>; gnucash-user at gnucash.org <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
> Subject: Re: [GNC] Transaction inconsistency when deleting account
>  
> Yeah, it's a bug. It's supposed to delete the transactions, not just the splits in that account only to recreate them in an imbalance account. Otherwise it's the same as the move to account option.
> 
> The fact that it's poor accounting practice is beside the point. If the user wants to follow good accounting practice they can choose to move the splits to another account.
> 
> Regards,
> John Ralls
> 
> > On Sep 5, 2023, at 08:18, Gyle McCollam <gmccollam at live.com> wrote:
> > 
> > No Mark, it is not a bug.  If you made credit card purchases and subsequent payments to that card, those transactions have already been made and if you were to delete an account and the transaction within, it would be the same as if the transactions had never happened and they did.  Gnucash, offering to move them to another account is the only way not to screw up all the account affected by the account you are deleting.
> > 
> > 
> > Thank You,
> > 
> > Gyle McCollam
> > 
> > Gyle McCollam
> > 
> > gmccollam at live.com<mailto:gmccollam at gyleshomes.com>           email
> > 
> > ________________________________
> > From: gnucash-user <gnucash-user-bounces+gylemc=gmail.com at gnucash.org> on behalf of Mark via gnucash-user <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
> > Sent: Tuesday, September 5, 2023 11:04 AM
> > To: Maf. King <maf at chilwell.net>
> > Cc: gnucash-user at gnucash.org <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
> > Subject: Re: [GNC] Transaction inconsistency when deleting account
> > 
> > 
> > Sep 5, 2023 08:33:44 Maf. King <maf at chilwell.net>:
> > 
> >> I just tried deleting an account.   As expected, I was presented with the
> >> choice to "move transactions to..." or "Delete all transactions" (see
> >> screenshot - this is GC 4.x, maybe the wording is different in v5)
> >> 
> >> Deleting the transactions does not really seem to delete anything, the
> >> transaction splits effectively moved to Imbalance-GBP.
> >> 
> >> One could argue that "splits" in the deleted account have been deleted, and
> >> GC has auto-created new splits to the Imbalance account - I don't know what
> >> the internal process is- but it "feels" to the end user like a move, not a
> >> delete.
> >> 
> >> Given a "transaction" is a collection of "at least 2 splits",  then I think I
> >> agree with the OP, (whatever the validity of the reason for wanting to delete
> >> an account), being told that "transactions" will be deleted and them still
> >> existing seems a bug (maybe only in wording in the dialog box)
> > 
> > Ah, it's been a while since I deleted an account, and I don't remember the option to delete all transactions being there (maybe I just forgot). I agree that is confusing at least, and maybe a bug.
> > 
> > I don't think I would ever use that option, though. That seems like a confusing side effect to have transactions deleted by deleting an account. Maybe I'm just used to the way GnuCash has done things.
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