[GNC] Issue with reports when handling multiple account files...

[sunfish62 at yahoo.com]

I'll just say that this structural issue has been noted for a very long time, and there is no indication that it will change any time soon.

When it has been brought up in the past, users have suggested creating separate users in the operating system to separate the various settings files. 

Others suggest (as Jim has done here) creating specifically-named reports for each book and ensuring that you only use reports designated for each file. 

Neither solution is as good as associating reports and credentials with a book rather than a user, but that solution involves more developer time than is available, unfortunately. 

⁣David T. ​

On Mar 24, 2025, 9:46 PM, at 9:46 PM, Jim DeLaHunt <list+gnucash at jdlh.com> wrote:
>Hello, Federico:
>
>On 2025-03-24 10:21, Federico Atristain via gnucash-user wrote:
>> Hi!
>>
>> I am using GnuCash to handle 3 different accounting files.
>>
>> For each accounting file I have different reports that I save their
>> configurations to run them every month, however it looks like the
>"saved
>> configurations" of the reports are common to ALL the accounting files
>> rather than belonging to ONLY the accounting file where I created
>them.
>
>GnuCash intentionally makes saved custom report configurations common
>to 
>all books in use by a given system user.  See the /GnuCash Manual/[1], 
>Chapter 9. *Reports And Charts*, section 9.1. *Introduction*: "Click
>the 
>Save Report Configuration or Save Report Configuration As... button. 
>This will store your customized report options in a file below your
>home 
>directory." The GnuCash Wiki article *Configuration Locations*[2] 
>explains exactly where the report options are stored. I believe there
>is 
>no way to change this in current GnuCash.
>
>Thus, if you are using multiple GnuCash book files as the same user on 
>your computer, then you should probably create separate report 
>configurations for each book file. So for example, if you have "Book A"
>
>and "Book B", you should probably create "Monthly Report A" to use with
>
>Book A only, and "Monthly Report B" to use with Book B only. (I says 
>"probably" because I don't do this myself, and I can't find 
>documentation which addresses this use case. Even if the books have 
>identical account trees, it might be necessary to have separate report 
>configurations for each book, because I suspect each book uses unique 
>internal numbers, rather than names, to identify accounts.)
>
>> It also looks like the Online Banking setup is also common to all of
>them
>> rather than exclusive to each accounting file.
>Yes, that is how I expect GnuCash to behave, and for similar reasons.
>
>> What happens is that even though I saved the account to show, etc.,
>if I
>> open another account file and go back to the first one it says that I
>have
>> not selected an account yet for the report, etc.
>
>What I think you are saying is that your GnuCash installation has 
>separate book files "Book A" and "Book B", and separate reports for 
>each, "Monthly Report A" and "Monthly Report B", and that when you:
>
> 1. open Book A and save report configuration for "Monthly Report A",
> 2. then close Book A,
>3. then open Book B and save report configuration for "Monthly Report
>B",
> 4. then close Book B,
> 5. then re-open Book A,
>
>…then the report configuration for Book A will be disrupted.  This is 
>surprising to me. It is not how I would expect GnuCash to behave. 
>However, I don't use multiple books myself so I have no direct 
>experience of this situation.
>
>Maybe someone else uses multiple books and reports, and can comment
>from 
>their experience.
>
>> Is there a way to have them separate (i.e. reports per accounting
>file)?
>These sort of requests are tracked in the GnuCash bug database, and our
>
>volunteer developers get to them when they have time and interest. This
>
>request is already in there. See Bug 797124 - /Request for Enhancement:
>
>Preferences and Saved Reports should be per-book not per-user/[3]/./
>
>/
>/
>
>[1] <https://gnucash.org/viewdoc.phtml?rev=5&lang=C&doc=help>
>[2] <https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Configuration_Locations>
>[3] <https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=797124>
>
>Best regards,
>      —Jim DeLaHunt
>
>
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