[GNC] split transaction description field length limit

[Adrien Monteleone]

Combined with the other suggestions of an outside log file, using vendor 
bills, or using the Notes field, consider this:

If you are advised of work as it occurs, record transactions between the 
expense accounts and a liability account named something like "Work 
Payable". Put your detail in each transaction. (either in the Memo, 
Notes, or as an attached file)

When you issue payment, that will be a transaction for the present 
balance (or some subset thereof) of the Work Payable account. This is 
similar to how a credit card account is used. You accumulate the amounts 
owed, then pay it.

If you simply get a time sheet with multiple days of work and projects 
at once (say weekly) then probably just the log file will work.

Also, you can use the Action field on each split however you like. This 
might be a good place for the date if you are putting one project/day on 
each split line and will free up characters for the Memo.

Finally, you can simply enter additional splits with text in the Memo 
and not putting an amount. But if you don't select an account, it will 
default to Orphan. You might want to create an 'account' for "Notes". It 
can be anywhere in your tree as it isn't a real account. (though under 
Expenses work well since it is descriptive of expenses) You can also 
enter transactions with these notes only and no amounts at all. (at 
least one split should be assigned to a real account, either an expense, 
or the payment source) You can see the full transaction either with the 
Split button, using View > Auto-Split, or View > Transaction Journal.

Regards,
Adrien

p.s.—kudos for wanting to record as much info about a transaction as 
possible. At some point, you'll invariably want to move/re-assign some 
transactions to different accounts than you originally used. And that is 
near impossible without sufficient info.

On 3/3/24 5:39 PM, Tim via gnucash-user wrote:
> Should I be setting up an account for the handyman in which the line items
> of his timesheet would be entered as individual transactions which add up to
> the amount he gets paid? I get the impression that I'm probably trying to
> misuse GNU cash again as I was when I paid my credit card bills with long
> split transactions. I was able to fix that by entering the transactions in
> an account for the credit card and then having a single transaction from my
> bank account to pay off the credit card. I'm not adept enough at accounting,
> to put it mildly, to know if there's something analogous I should be doing
> in this case. Can you explain it in a way that a newbie would understand?