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

[Federico Atristain]

Thank you all for your very kind replies.

You are right.  This description is the right one:

In my GnuCash installation I have separate book files "Book A" and "Book
B", and separate reports for each, "Monthly Report A" and "Monthly Report
B", and that when I:

   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 is disrupted.

I also adventure to have reports labeled:
ID monthly report
FA monthly report, and
CR monthly report
One for each of the book files, but when I get in and out, it looses the
connection to the accounts.

Or at least that is what I have found with 3 different book files.

Once again, thank you for your help.

Peace,

Federico Atristain


On Mon, Mar 24, 2025 at 1:45 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>
> <https://gnucash.org/viewdoc.phtml?rev=5&lang=C&doc=help>
> [2] <https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Configuration_Locations>
> <https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Configuration_Locations>
> [3] <https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=797124>
> <https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=797124>
>
> Best regards,
>      —Jim DeLaHunt
>
>
>
>

-- 
Federico Atristain
federico.atristain at yahoo.com

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