[GNC] gnucash suggestions

[gnucash at 4forl1st5.slmail.me]

On Wednesday, March 20th, 2024 at 04:08, J. A. Harris <product at harrisja.us> wrote:
> 
> Looking at the replies with a long view, to me they are supporting the
> idea of extending gnucash so it supports creating new currencies. Yes,
> one can use existing currencies or create new
> FUNDs/NYSEs/NEWNAMESPACEs. But it appeared there was a consensus that
> those workarounds were a less than ideal kludgy solution. (I have been
> repurposing currencies and do not know how many times I have had to stop
> and figure out what "XTS", "XXX" or "AMD" actually represented.
> Certainly any report I generate will be confusing to anyone who will not
> know how I am using those currencies.)

Wanted to add something to the last part of that "discussion", as I 
hadn't been aware that one could do this, and doing it does appear
to somewhat negate the claim of confusion.

Fred Bone has pointed that you do have the ability to edit the 
"Display Symbol" of any of the pre-supplied ISO 4217 Currencies,
so I thought I'd add in an example of what happens when you do. 

I did this for the obvious choice for a re-adjustment, the

  "Angola Kwanza Reajustado"

changing its "Display Symbol" from AOR to "Air Miles"

An as aside, for folk who like to see what's going on
under the hood, if you have your Gnucash data stored in
uncompressed XML, you get an extra stanza, as follows,
added to the Gnucash file:

51a52,61
>   <cmdty:id>AOR</cmdty:id>
>   <cmdty:slots>
>     <slot>
>       <slot:key>user_symbol</slot:key>
>       <slot:value type="string">Air Miles</slot:value>
>     </slot>
>   </cmdty:slots>
> </gnc:commodity>
> <gnc:commodity version="2.0.0">
>   <cmdty:space>ISO4217</cmdty:space>

which suggests, if you are comfortable editing Gnucash files,
you can probably add "Display Symbol" overrides for more than 
one Currency, without even firing up GnuCash - nice to know!

But. I digress, so, back to the example.

I then created two accounts

  Assets:Future Assets:Air Miles

  Income:Air Miles
  
both denominated in "AOR" (FWIW, the one time I had to choose
my adjusted ISO 4217 Currency by its original name/symbol), 
and then created two sub-accounts of the latter, so

  Income:Air Miles:Scheme
  Income:Air Miles:Petrol Partner

however, both accounts, by virtue of being created as sub-accounts,
automatically get a default of denomination of "AOR", so you no
longer have to remember which ISO 4217 Currency you have overriden
for use with the accounts.

I then created a couple of TXNs, putting Income into the Asset,
and then generated a report (the rendering here is best viewed
in a monospaced font)


Transaction Report

>From 01/01/2024 To 31/12/2024

Date		Description	Transfer from/to		Amount

Air Miles

March 2024
01/03/2024	Opening Offer	Income:Air Miles:Scheme		Air Miles500.00
25/03/2024	Some Fuel Co	Income:Air Miles:Petrol Partner	 Air Miles26.00
Total For
 March 2024							Air Miles526.00
Total For
 Air Miles							Air Miles526.00
Grand Total							Air Miles526.00

As you can see, ALL mention of the "Angola Kwanza Reajustado",
or rather, its ISO 4217 symbol "AOR", has gone and the report
appears to be solely denominated in "Air Miles".

A very simplistic example, I'll grant you but, still - a lot
less confusing that a report denominated in "AOR", which could
well be interpreted as Album-oriented rock pressings in certain
contexts.

Hoping that helps you get closer to where you wanted to be.