[GNC] Imbalance Records with zero amounts

Thu Jun 27 08:12:19 EDT 2024

Paul, 

When you press ENTER, you commit the transaction, thus creating a permanent split that must be deleted. 

Were you to press TAB to navigate to the next split, the transaction would not yet be committed, and the temporarily-created imbalance split *should* be removed when it returns to zero and you finally commit the transaction. 

This distinction is and has been in the docs for many years.

⁣David T. 

On Jun 26, 2024, 11:42 PM, at 11:42 PM, Paul Kroitor <paul at kroitor.ca> wrote:
>David, if we are both using 5.6 in Windows but have different
>behaviours, then I expect either our settings or our procedures are
>different.
>1. Are you using auto-split as a register default?
>2. My issue appears when I edit only a previously saved transaction. In
>auto-split, one must do this it two steps, the debit side, and then the
>credit side. 
>
>Update:
>Procedure to create a zero imbalance:
>- (in auto-split) edit the first (debit) amount, press ENTER: Imbalance
>split is created (NB: the account field in the split actually says
>"Imbalance").
>- edit second (credit) amount, Press ENTER. Imbalance changes to 0.
>- Press ENTER again, cursor moves to next transaction.
>- Go back to prior transaction, and zero imbalance is still there.
>
>Procedure to NOT create a zero imbalance:
>- exactly as above only use down arrow (or left mouse click) to
>navigate between lines.
>
>Note that in this second case, there is an imbalance amount line
>created but it created in bottom line of the group *without*
>"Imbalance" in the account field.
>
>Paul
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: gnucash-user <gnucash-user-bounces+paul=kroitor.ca at gnucash.org>
>On Behalf Of Paul Kroitor
>Sent: Wednesday, June 26, 2024 11:08 PM
>To: 'David Carlson' <david.carlson.417 at gmail.com>
>Cc: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
>Subject: Re: [GNC] Imbalance Records with zero amounts
>
>I am using 5.6 here (on Windows), but I’m pretty sure this behaviour
>has been around for as long as I can remember (and I started on 2.6).
>
> 
>
>However, in playing around trying to document the exact steps to
>recreate the issue, it seems to me that it’s changed in that it’s more
>pervasive than before.
>
> 
>
>It used to be that some edits of existing transactions would create a
>temporary Imbalance split as the last split, and those ones would
>disappear once the transaction was saved. But other edits would create
>the temporary  Imbalance split in between the debit and credit entries,
>and those would stick around.
>
> 
>
>However, I now cannot edit any existing transaction amounts without a
>zero Imbalance split sticking around.
>
> 
>
>Note that I always work in auto-split registers, so when a transaction
>must be corrected, I change the debit side, which of course creates an
>imbalance line. I then change the credit side, which eliminates the
>imbalance (it becomes zero) but the split line stays in the register
>(in every test I do now, apparently). Something has definitely changed,
>because it wasn’t this bad before.
>
> 
>
> 
>
> 
>
> 
>
>From: David Carlson <david.carlson.417 at gmail.com>
>Sent: Wednesday, June 26, 2024 10:39 PM
>To: paul at kroitor.ca
>Cc: stan+gc at fastmail.fm; gnucash-user at gnucash.org
>Subject: Re: [GNC] Imbalance Records with zero amounts
>
> 
>
>Nobody is revealing which version they are using.  In older versions,
>ie before 5.something,   imbalance entries of 0 automatically
>disappeared when a transaction was saved.  I think it is a bug if they
>are now being saved.  They are disappearing in my copy of release 5.6
>in windows.
>
> 
>
>On Wed, Jun 26, 2024, 9:14 PM Paul Kroitor <paul at kroitor.ca
><mailto:paul at kroitor.ca> > wrote:
>
>I get one of these empty (zero amount) splits every time I have to
>change both sides of an already entered transaction in a register set
>to auto-split.
>
>Oddly, if the transaction shows the credit first, the imbalance gets
>created (temporarily non-zero) as the last split and, once the
>imbalance line shows zero and is deleted when the transaction is saved.
>
>But if the transaction shows the debit first, the imbalance line
>appears in the middle, and even after it reverts to an imbalance of
>zero and is saved, the zero imbalance line stays in the register.
>
>
>Sent from my iPad
>
>> On Jun 26, 2024, at 9:55 PM, Stan Brown (using GC 4.14)
><stan+gc at fastmail.fm <mailto:stan%2Bgc at fastmail.fm> > wrote:
>> 
>> To be clear, you're talking about accidentally hitting the enter key
>
>> instead of the Tab key when moving between fields, right?
>> 
>> Stan Brown
>> Tehachapi, CA, USA
>> https://BrownMath.com
>> 
>>> On 2024-06-26 17:04, Jim DeLaHunt wrote:
>>> 
>>> As you know, double-entry bookkeeping requires every transaction to 
>>> be balanced, that is, to have its credits equal its debits. GnuCash 
>>> enforces this requirement, but only when it saves a transaction, not
>
>>> while you are actively entering or editing the transaction. But, it 
>>> is possible to tell GnuCash to save a transaction when you don't
>mean 
>>> to, while you think you are still doing data entry.
>> 
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