[GNC] Checks outstanding...VERY outstanding!

[David Carlson]

I completely overlooked the setting called Unlikely Match.  Over the years
our family has had a couple of characters that didn't deposit their
birthday checks for months (I was one of them), but we don't send them
checks any more.

Anyway, I would call that a bug if the match is not shown at all when it is
"Unlikely".  The unlikely transaction should still appear but marked as "do
not import" or some similar marking, in my opinion.  If the time limit
cannot be extended beyond 50 days, there should be an option to turn off
that test. Did you try setting the limit to zero?   I have seen reports on
this maillist that sometimes banks still accept 'stale' checks, when most
banks have a reasonably short time limit around 60 to 90 days or even less.

I wonder how that test is applied when the bank normally shows the date
cleared rather than the date written for checks.  The only way one would
know is by the date shown in the check image, when it is actually legible.
Does Gnucash go by the difference between the <DTPOSTED> and one of the
other dates in OFX/QFX files?



On Wed, Aug 28, 2024 at 9:40 AM Eric H. Bowen <eric at ehbowen.net> wrote:

> In my experience with the software that is not the case. True, you can
> reconcile any transaction...but only within a limited window of time. Now,
> if you have an uncleared transaction in your register dated November 8th,
> 2022 and the .OFX file downloaded from your bank indicates that the check
> cleared on November 14th, 2022 you can match it, even though it's (nearly)
> two years later. But if the bank said that the transaction didn't clear
> until March...it doesn't even show up as an option under "Match Manually."
> Believe me, been there, done that.
>
> The key setting appears to be "Unlikely match day threshold," under
> Edit>>Preferences>>Import. I've got that maxed out at 50 days; it will not
> go any higher than that. So if the transaction your bank reports is farther
> away than that from the entry in your register...you don't even see the
> transaction when you go to match it. It just doesn't appear.
> On 8/27/2024 4:47 PM, David Carlson wrote:
>
> I think gmail sent my half written response.  You can match any
> unrrconciled transaction in the transaction import tool.  If you cannot
> find the correct transaction you probably already matchrd it in a previous
> import.
> You can mark the transaction as do not import and re-run the impprt later
> when you have decided how to correct that entry.
> If you are using both of those tools as intended, GnuCash does not lose
> the correct status of any transacion, regardless of how or when it was
> entered.
>
> Sorry about the fat finger spelling errors.
>
> On Tue, Aug 27, 2024, 4:32 PM David Carlson <david.carlson.417 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Gnucash only marks transactions cleared when you use the reconciliation
>> tool.  All uncleared transaction, no matter how old, are available to match
>> in the import transaction
>>
>> On Tue, Aug 27, 2024, 1:27 PM Ken Pyzik <pyz01 at outlook.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Well, you could just not use the clearing function at all – which is
>>> what I do.
>>>
>>> If fact, all my transactions have an "n" on them in Gnucash.  Instead,
>>> of trying to figure out what cleared, I assume everything clears.   This
>>> makes for a much easier task - since almost 100% of transactions do clear -
>>> I only have to worry about the one's that don't - which for me - is almost
>>> none anyway.
>>>
>>> But everyone's situation is different.  For me – clearing is just added
>>> worked I choose not to do.
>>>
>>> Ken
>>>
>>> ________________________________
>>> From: gnucash-user <gnucash-user-bounces+pyz01=outlook.com at gnucash.org>
>>> on behalf of Eric H. Bowen via gnucash-user <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
>>> Sent: Tuesday, August 27, 2024 9:51 AM
>>> To: gnucash-user at gnucash.org <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
>>> Subject: [GNC] Checks outstanding...VERY outstanding!
>>>
>>> I have a few vendors and charities whom I still pay with paper checks
>>> (they're not eligible for my bank's electronic payment system), and some
>>> of them are very lackadaisical about cashing those checks. It's not
>>> unusual for one of them to sit on a check for three months before it
>>> finally shows up in my bank's payment queue...by which time it's long
>>> past even the maximum possible setting on GnuCash for manually matching
>>> a check. More annoying, and this has happened several times, is if I
>>> don't watch the match game with an eagle eye GnuCash will then assume
>>> that the paper check from a month and a half ago which just cleared is
>>> actually the one which is supposed to go out tomorrow and will mark *it*
>>> cleared...and then there's no way to "unclear" it in the matching
>>> algorithm. Oh, I can manually hit the check box and change the clearance
>>> from C to N, but the next time I download transactions it will skip over
>>> that one and not clear it, even when the proper check finally does come
>>> in.
>>>
>>> One of the issues is that, according to my best understanding of U.S.
>>> tax law, payments are officially "made" when the check is written and
>>> dropped in the mail. So, if I write a check in November but it's not
>>> cashed until March (which has happened)...it screws everything up, and
>>> (even if the check is still within the window to manually match) "Update
>>> + Clear" brings the payment out of the proper accounting period. So,
>>> does anyone have a recommendation for dealing with this kind of
>>> kerfuffle?
>>>
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>>

-- 
David Carlson