[GNC] Split Transaction in One Account results in Multiple Transactions in the Other Account
Paul Kroitor
paul at kroitor.ca
Sun Aug 24 10:39:33 EDT 2025
I guess it's partly a philosophical issue.
My view is that splits exist (in Gnucash and in general) primarily to
distinguish different elements in an accounting entry that need to be
treated differently and not as a form of memo or detail kept for a record.
I use them a lot, and frequently with multiple splits against the same
counter-account.
For example, in one complicated estate I am the executor of there was a
long delay in setting up the estate's bank account and as a result I
found myself paying numerous items pending the estate being able to pay
for itself. To this end, I might pay a caretaker's invoice for three
buildings. The payment transaction in my GC bank account gets separated
in three splits, one for each building, but each split goes against the
same "Paid for Estate" account. Necessary so that the eventual recharge
to the Estate clearly shows the different charges for the three
buildings. Note that the change requested by the OP would break this (or
at least would if it was changed to merge these splits as Quicken used to).
I realize this is long baked-in behaviour of the basic logic and
changing it would be a big discussion, but I just wanted to make it
clear that I at least depend on the status quo for my daily workflow.
Finding a different register view that doesn't exhibit the presentation
the OP mentions is a good work-around.
Paul
On 2025-08-24 9:41 a.m., sunfish62--- via gnucash-user wrote:
> 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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