[GNC] New auto-clear splits pop-up in reconcile

[Patrick James]

The "audit to mark *specific* transactions" is situational.

A few of the accounts I reconcile have 5-10 transactions, and few to none are the same amount. In one case, I have an account that has a monthly deposit (same amount) and six regular withdrawals (most are different every month, but two are fixed, but the two fixed amounts are different). I'm very confident that if the autoclear suggests that it's able to balance, then all is well.

This might be contrasted by someone who has a bunch of same amount transactions, but, then again, if we're talking about a bunch of low-value transactions, then it's not going to be worth sorting out the potential error (i.e. just adjust to the bank's records if the difference is small enough).

I suppose there is some chance of multiple paths to the same reconcile amount where the autoclear could (and would) select the wrong grouping. That's not been my personal experience, but it must be possible, even if the probability of selecting the wrong group is small.

Even beyond the benefit above, it's quick and easy to reject the autoclear (select "cancel"), and it's not too much work to review over the autoclear's selection after allowing such.

So when reconciling some of my accounts, it is my personal experience that in some cases the autoclear is very helpful, saves many clicks. In other cases, a reconciliation that involves many transactions, I either reject the autoclear or it's not offered.

The autoclear has been helpful to my workflow, and thus, I view the autoclear feature as favorable.


> On 12/11/2025 6:26 PM PST Adrien Monteleone <adrien.monteleone at lusfiber.net> wrote:
> 
>  
> This feature is baffling.
> 
> Reconciliation isn't a math problem. It isn't just checking off *any* 
> combination of transactions that get you from Starting to Ending 
> balance, it is an audit to mark *specific* transactions that cleared the 
> account.
> 
> Regards,
> Adrien
> 
> On 12/11/25 6:12 PM, Bruce Olson via gnucash-user wrote:
> > I'm testing the following nightly build on Debian 13.
> > 
> > This is for the latest nightly build, stable-C5.13-112-g46fe45570f- 
> > D5.13-1-g285f67b7.
> > 
> > I get a new pop-up window (attached) in reconcile right after I accepted 
> > the statement ending date and ending balance.  I searched previous 
> > emails and I couldn't find the bug this was created for. I also searched 
> > the open bug list.
> > 
> > I have a couple questions:
> > 
> > What are the consequences of selecting Auto-clear vs Cancel?
> > 
> > Can this pop-up be turned off in preferences?