[GNC] How to find ALL Transactions in ALL Accounts for a Single Specific Date?

[Tom Route36]

Hi David,

I don't think it makes too much difference performance-wise to keep the 
General Journal view unlimited with all transactions showing. My GnuCash 
data file includes almost 400 accounts with transactions going back over 
32 years.  LOTS of transactions.  But my GnuCash data file is still only 
10.7 MB.  And just out of curiosity I did a test today comparing how 
much time it takes to open GnuCash with the General Journal tab open.  I 
did the test twice with a system restart between each test.

In test #1 the General Journal was configured to show only the past 30 
days.  And in test #1, it took 18 seconds for my data file to open.

In test #2, the General Journal was configured to show EVERYTHING -- ALL 
32 years' worth of transactions.  And in that test #2, it took 21 
seconds for my data file to open -- an extra 3 seconds.

I'll admit that my system is a gaming desktop; but it's also a bit over 
3 years old now.  So it's not what I'd call a high-end type system these 
days.  There's much higher performance systems available.  Anyway, 
unless you're on a much older system there, I don't think the General 
Journal view setting is going to make much difference one way or the 
other.  Just FYI.

Tom


On 1/13/2026 5:31 PM, David Carlson wrote:
> I believe that the General Journal should be limited to transactions after
> 30 days before today because some data files (mine for one) have so many
> transactions that if the General Journal tried to load all transactions it
> might take a very long time or even crash the program.  Let the user try a
> manual method to load all so (s)he can see what happens and recover if it
> causes a problem.
>
> The Find Transactions assistant is exceptionally clumsy in its basic
> design, so it isn't surprising that the documentation is too.  I doubt that
> it could be substantially improved with less than a total re-write before
> the conversion to a full database format is completed.  Then it should be
> much easier to fix.
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jan 13, 2026 at 5:31 PM Stan Brown (using GC 4.14)< stan+gc at fastmail.fm> wrote:
>
>> On 2026-01-13 15:00, Adrien Monteleone wrote:
>>> Be aware that changing that time window on the GJ is not persistent.
>>> (unless that has been fixed recently) Next time you start GnuCash, it
>>> will be back to 30 days.
>> I have 4.14, and the filter is persistent if you tick the "Save Filer"
>> box. I'm not sure when the fix was made, but if it works in 4.14 I
>> expect it works in all versions 5.x.
>>
>> I tested this, and if you tick the box, the filter will persist over
>> closing and reopening GC, closing and reopening General Journal, or
>> doing both.
>>
>> Stan Brown
>> Tehachapi, CA, USA
>> https://BrownMath.com
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