[GNC] Split Transaction in One Account results in Multiple Transactions in the Other Account

[sunfish62 at yahoo.com]

David C.,

He is seeing 17 transactions in Groceries because he's entered 17 separate splits for the Groceries account. As you note, if he were to change to Transaction Journal mode, he wouldn't see it as 17 entries, but one multi split transaction. 

Tom, that's your fix. GnuCash has always rendered splits this way, and I don't expect that will change any time soon. So, set your default view to Transaction Journal, or settle for entering less detail into GnuCash generally. 

⁣David T. ​

On Aug 23, 2025, 9:50 PM, at 9:50 PM, David Cousens <davidcousens49 at gmail.com> wrote:
>Tom 
>This is an artefact of the View mode selectable with the View->(Basic
>Ledger, Auto-Split Transaction, Transaction Journal) menu item while
>the register is selected (also Edit->Preferences->Regiter Default
>settings). 
>In Transaction Journal mode the transaction is displayed as a single
>transaction with the splits as you would expect.
>
>In Basic Ledger mode, and Auto-Split mode only a single line is
>displayed for the transaction. At present to show all the entries to
>that account, GnuCash does not display the sum of all splits against
>that line for the transaction but displays each split as though it were
>a separate transaction and similarly in the Auto-Split ledger mode
>where you will notice that the total for each split as a single line is
>only the value of the split. 
>
>When you open the transaction in Auto-Split mode you will see that the
>transaction total now displays as the sum of the splits and each split
>is listed. You can open the transaction from any of the single line
>displays of the splits, but it is the same transaction being opened
>from any of the splits belonging to that transaction, so the
>transaction is not recorded multiple times although it may appear to
>be. 
>
>It may be possible that this could be fixed to display the total of the
>transaction splits in the Basic Ledger mode and Auto-Split in single
>line mode and not display the individual splits on separate lines and
>similarly in the Auto-Split mode. 
>
>If you report this as a bug (see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Bugzilla
>) there is a much higher chance of it being addressed by one of the
>developers, however it may also be a result of the way the underlying
>GTK library used for the GnuCash register display works in which case
>it may be much harder to program to do this as you would like. That is
>a likely explanation for the way it is currently working.
>
>On Sat, 2025-08-23 at 18:27 -0600, Tom Route-36 wrote:
>> Hi all,
>> 
>> I'm still new and learning my way around GnuCash; but I'm noticing an
>> annoying behavior.  When I record a transaction I put a LOT of detail
>> into the recording of that transaction.  For example, let's say I
>> bought 
>> a large quantity of groceries at a particular grocery store and
>> charged 
>> it to a credit card.  For the example here, let's say it was 17
>> grocery 
>> items on a single credit card transaction, and the total charge came
>> to 
>> $136.00.
>> 
>> When I record this $136.00 transaction in GnuCash, the credit card 
>> account will have a single transaction consisting of 17 splits, where
>> each split documents the description (in each Memo field) and the
>> cost 
>> of each of those 17 items.  And all 17 split items get recorded into
>> my 
>> Expenses:Groceries account.
>> 
>> In the credit card account all looks normal the way I expect it to
>> be. 
>> It's a single transaction with 17 SPLITS, each split going to the 
>> Expenses:Groceries account.  But when I jump to the
>> Expenses:Groceries 
>> account, there I see 17 SEPARATE INDIVIDUAL TRANSACTIONS -- all with
>> the 
>> same date, and all with the identical set of 17 splits.  The only
>> thing 
>> different among these 17 separate transactions is that the Expense 
>> column amount of each transaction shows the amount of each individual
>> split line entry.  That is not at all what I expect.
>> 
>> What I would expect to see in the Expenses:Groceries account is also
>> a 
>> SINGLE transaction, just like I entered in the credit card account. 
>> And 
>> I would expect that that single transaction would have 17 splits in
>> it 
>> documenting each of the 17 grocery items and amounts the same as it 
>> appears in my credit card account.  Why is that not happening?  And
>> is 
>> there some setting or option in GnuCash to change that behavior?
>> 
>> Tom
>> 
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