[GNC] Any resolution to the 'red flagged' transactions on batch import problem?

[Eric Siegerman]

On Wed, Aug 19, 2026 at 11:14:30AM -0400, Paul Kroitor wrote:
> I think what's confusing the issue here is the choice the developers made to
> use red to denote this particular status (combination of facts). It doesn't
> actually represent an error, and perhaps grey would have been a clearer
> choice.

Agreed.  A red entry seems to mean either "very bad" or "very good":
  1. Very Bad:  GnuCash can't figure out how to proceed; thus, to be
     safe, it will do nothing.  You (the user) will have to figure it out

  2. Very Good: This new transaction is an exact match of an
     existing one, so there's nothing *to* do

Those situations have the same practical outcome -- GnuCash will
make no changes in either case -- but the reasons for that
outcome are diametrically opposite, in ways that the user very
much cares about.

Also, in case (2), I want to see which txn(s) GnuCash decided
this new one is an exact match for, so that I can double-check
its work.  (Not sure, but I think I might have seen a false match
once or twice.)

For case (2), what I'd love to see is:
  a. Colour: Green, or grey as Paul Kroitor suggests, or some
     other colour that doesn't scream "ERROR"
 
  b. "Info" column: maximum bars displayed, because it's an
     excellent match
 
  c. There should be a dropdown with the matching transction(s),
     as is done for good-but-not-perfect matches

  d. Action checkboxes: none checked (i.e. the current behaviour)

Note that the manual (https://gnucash.org/docs/v5/C/gnucash-manual/trans-import.html,
Table 6.1) only describes case (1), with no mention of case (2):
    "Transaction has poor matches and no action was set: – Not to
    be imported.  Intervention required."

>From the user's point of view, a perfect match is a special case
of "good", but GnuCash basically treats it (and documents it) as
a special case of "awful".  That's a confusing UI.

  - Eric