[GNC] Imbalance Records with zero amounts

Thu Jun 27 10:27:13 EDT 2024

Thanks for that clarification, that matches with what I’m experiencing here.

It also seems to fully explain what the OP was on about originally.

Paul

From: sunfish62 at yahoo.com <sunfish62 at yahoo.com> 
Sent: Thursday, June 27, 2024 8:12 AM
To: Paul Kroitor <paul at kroitor.ca>
Cc: David Carlson <david.carlson.417 at gmail.com>; bbc104 via gnucash-user <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
Subject: Re: [GNC] Imbalance Records with zero amounts

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, at 11:42 PM, Paul Kroitor <paul at kroitor.ca <mailto: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 <http://kroitor.ca> @gnucash.org> On Behalf Of Paul Kroitor
Sent: Wednesday, June 26, 2024 11:08 PM
To: 'David Carlson' <david.carlson.417 at gmail.com <mailto:david.carlson.417 at gmail.com> >
Cc: gnucash-user at gnucash.org <mailto: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 <mailto:david.carlson.417 at gmail.com> >
Sent: Wednesday, June 26, 2024 10:39 PM
To: paul at kroitor.ca <mailto:paul at kroitor.ca> 
Cc: stan+gc at fastmail.fm <mailto:stan+gc at fastmail.fm> ; gnucash-user at gnucash.org <mailto: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%20%3cmailto: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+gc at fastmail.fm%20%3cmailto:stan%2Bgc 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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