[GNC] Scheduling Monthly Transactions for Full Credit Card Balances?

[Tom Route-36]

Hi Sherlock,

I have to say I'm intrigued by what you're describing here.  This could 
well be a solution for me.  On the other hand, I also have to say I'm 
more than a bit intimidated about "building and maintaining my own 
GnuCash program".  I'm still quite a newbie to GnuCash.  If you're 
willing to provide those two patch files -- and maybe a little bit of 
advice on how to use them -- I might want to try building a test program 
to see how things could work.  I do have a question though.  Have you 
ever requested via Bugzilla adding your patched features to an actual 
released version of GnuCash?  It would seem like it would be quite 
useful to have some of that functionality built into the official 
released version.  Just wondering.

Tom



On 9/9/2025 8:43 PM, Sherlock wrote:
> Hi Tom,
> 
> My approach was to implement a few variable estimate functions for use 
> in the schedule transaction template and support in the forecast reports 
> which I've been carrying forward since 4.12.  If you're up for building 
> and maintaining your own GnuCash program, I can provide the two patch 
> files used to provide the functionality.
> 
> balance(variable)
>     forecast balance of the account the day before the next instance.
> 
> credit(variable)
>     forecast the credit statement's closing balance for the next instance
>     using the earliest notification to indicate the closing date.
> 
> last(variable amounts)
>     use the average of the previous amounts provided
>    (up to 6 amounts).
> 
> time(variable amounts)
>     use month of the instance to determine an index for the amounts
>     provided (up to 6 amounts).
> 
> estimate(variable amount)
>      use the amount provide.
> 
> 
> For example, the template for a credit card payment is form:
> 
>    credit card account      credit(balance)
>    checking account                              balance
> 
> 
> When an instance of the scheduled transaction appears on the "Since Last 
> Run..." window, it includes the variable name with the editable 
> estimated amount.
> 
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Harv
> 
> 
> On 9/9/25 6:07 PM, Tom Route-36 wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> This is a follow-up to my earlier email question here.  I really would 
>> like some way of creating ongoing monthly Scheduled Transactions for 
>> each of my credit card accounts that will always default to the full 
>> credit card balance each month.  What I'm trying to do is to be able 
>> to look at a list of Scheduled Transactions for my checking account; 
>> and from that list know each month how high a balance my checking 
>> account needs to be in order to pay off all those credit cards in 
>> full.  It seems like no one has been able to come up with an answer 
>> though.  So let me ask a more specific question.
>>
>> When creating a Scheduled Transaction, the splits for each transaction 
>> include two columns labeled Debit Formula and Credit Formula.  
>> Typically (for say an Internet provider or a Phone carrier) I'd enter 
>> whatever fixed amount I get charged each month as a FIXED dollar 
>> value.  But since these columns are labeled "Formula" that also 
>> implies that I can enter a mathematical expression (i.e., a formula) 
>> that results in a CALCULATED dollar value.  There is some bare bones 
>> documentation about formulas at this link: https://wiki.gnucash.org/ 
>> wiki/ Scheduled_Transactions.  But I don't see any info there on how 
>> to query an account to get its current balance, which is what I need.  
>> Does anyone know how to grab an account balance so that it can be 
>> included as a variable in a formula?  If anyone has an idea about how 
>> to do that please let me know.
>>
>> Tom
>>
>>
>> On 9/8/2025 4:04 PM, Tom Route-36 wrote:
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> Does anyone know if there's a way in GnuCash to create monthly 
>>> Scheduled Transactions for a checking account to pay a credit card 
>>> account where the formula for the monthly transaction amount is 
>>> always equal to the current monthly balance of the credit card 
>>> account?  What I'm hoping to do is to have something functionally 
>>> similar to "Bill and Income Reminders" in Quicken.  Please let me 
>>> know if there's some way of doing that.
>>>
>>> Tom
>>
> 
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