[GNC] split transaction description field length limit

[Alan Johnson]

You don't have to have 'a business' to use the business features.  You
would need to set up an AP and AR account to post the invoices to.  To
me, the vendor bill - payment system is the proper way to store the
data, rather than kludging the memo fields.  Here is an example of a
Costco receipt entered as a bill, then paid with a credit card through
the vendor-payments section.  

I think that this would be the best way to handle the handyman payments
as requested and job tracking (create various expense accounts). It
would also allow for multiple types of payments - e.g. check, credit
card, cash all on the same bill if needed.  

On Sun, 2024-03-03 at 21:41 -0600, David Carlson wrote:
> Whatever the actual character count limit is for the memo field in a
> transaction line, I have found the practical limit is what can be
> printed in reports that show that field.  On the computer screen you
> cannot directly see anything that is after a linefeed character
> unless you scroll past that character since the 'window' is one line
> tall.
> 
> I do not use business features so I don't have invoices or vendors. 
> Another possibility would be to use spreadsheets and refer to them in
> the document link field.  I don't remember if that is associated with
> individual lines or to the entire transaction.
> 
> 
> 
> On Sun, Mar 3, 2024 at 9:13 PM Alan Johnson via gnucash-user
> <gnucash-user at gnucash.org> wrote:
> > I suggest you put your handyman in as a vendor. Then you can create
> > a bill with long descriptions per item, and then pay the bill with
> > a check. If you want to see what was paid, right click on the
> > payment entry in the register and choose jump to invoice/bill. You
> > can also run a vendor report.
> > 
> > Mar 3, 2024 18:39:49 Tim via gnucash-user
> > <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>:
> > 
> > > The descriptions that I enter in GNU cash for split items get
> > truncated. Is
> > > there a way to change this or is this a hard limit?
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > To provide some context, I pay a handyman to work on various
> > projects. When
> > > I write the check to pay him I split the amount among the various
> > projects
> > > (which correspond to line items on his timesheet)that he worked
> > on to
> > > allocated it to the different expense accounts associated with
> > those
> > > projects. I like to enter a fairly long description which
> > includes things
> > > like the date the work was done, the location, and a brief
> > description of
> > > what was done but GNU cash truncates it when producing reports or
> > when I go
> > > back and look at data that I entered earlier.
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 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?
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Thank you
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
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> 
> -- 
> David Carlson
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