[GNC] Split Transaction in One Account results in Multiple Transactions in the Other Account
sunfish62 at yahoo.com
sunfish62 at yahoo.com
Sun Aug 24 09:41:21 EDT 2025
Tom,
As I understand it, the register is built technically to display *splits* for an account, rather than *transactions.* A change of the type you're requesting would entail a fundamental rewrite of the core application. That won't happen.
It would be prudent to look for another way to accomplish your purpose. I would ask why you need to track costs at such a high level of detail?
David T.
On Aug 24, 2025, 3:03 AM, at 3:03 AM, Tom Route-36 <tom.route36 at gmail.com> wrote:
>Hi David's (C and T),
>
>Thanks for both your inputs on this, and your detailed explanations and
>
>testing. I do appreciate it. I think I'll have to agree that the most
>
>practical fix for me at this point is to just set my default view to
>Transaction Journal. I'm not really thrilled with that as a solution,
>having to scroll thru those long detailed split transactions; but at
>least with the Transaction Journal view I'll be back to having just one
>
>single transaction in the other account rather than all those multiple
>transactions, which gets really confusing really fast.
>
>Separately though, I think I'll also try reporting this as a kind-of-a
>bug -- at least in the way that the info is being displayed to the
>user.
> Perhaps if it's not considered a true bug, maybe the developers could
>consider the issue an enhancement or feature request. Using the
>Transaction Journal mode would actually be okay; but it would be nice
>if
>the user had the OPTION to view the registers in that mode with each
>transaction COLLAPSED INTO A SINGLE LINE, at least in the way that it's
>
>displayed.
>
>Anyway, thanks again for your feedback and help.
>
>Tom
>
>
>On 8/23/2025 8:54 PM, David Cousens wrote:
>> David T,
>>
>> I had realized that was the case. I setup a test transaction with 2-3
>> entries and verified that what Tom was seeing happened as he had
>> described it. It is not a bug in the sense that the recorded
>> information is incorrect, more that it maybe could be clearer.
>>
>> On Sat, 2025-08-23 at 22:00 -0400, sunfish62 at yahoo.com wrote:
>>> 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, 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
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> gnucash-user mailing list
>>>>> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
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>>>>
>>>>
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