Re: Reconciling an account
I seriously doubt you have found a bug. You probably have a transaction in GnuCash that does not match the bank's transaction. Digits are transposed, debits/credits are reversed, a transaction is in the wrong account (so not in the one you are reconciling) or something like that. I have had this problem in the past. The best way for me to solve it is to get away from the computer screen and use paper and pencil to find the errant transaction(s). In GNUCash, go to Reports (top line menus) and select Transaction Report. Run a transaction report for the account in question for the date range in question. Include the option to include the reconciliation date for each transaction. Print it out. Take a highlighter, and compare each transaction on the GnuCash report with the bank statement. Cross out the ones on BOTH sheets of paper that 100% MATCH - be sure the column for the reconciliation date is blank (or correct for the current period you are working on) for that transaction, or you have reconciled that transaction in an earlier reconciliation (an aha - you have found one error). At the end of this exercise, you should have found the error(s) - either on the bank or on you. ;) Remember, the $195.14 is the SUM of ALL the errors in this reconciliation. Good luck! Mark On Mon, Jun 5, 2017 at 5:08 PM, EngineInstitutewrote: > Colin, > > I was thinking it was a version problem so I updated my software to make > sure this was not the case. > > I love your suggestion. I did not know about the filter option. So I > implemented it and cleared the reconciled items, then went back to the > reconcile for that month and all agrees. Yeh for you! > > But don't celebrate totally yet. I am at the next and final month to > reconcile. I go to do the reconcile dialog box and check everything and all > of the items are ok: date, starting and ending balance all agree with final > statement. When this happens it should be a cake walk right? Not for me. > > I check off all of the credits and debits and compare their totals > (reflected on the bottom) with the statement and everything is in order yet > I am faced with a difference of $195.14. This is definitely not correct. > Have I found a bug? > > > > - > China Blue > -- > View this message in context: http://gnucash.1415818.n4. > nabble.com/Reconciling-an-account-tp4691993p4692053.html > Sent from the GnuCash - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com. > ___ > gnucash-user mailing list > gnucash-user@gnucash.org > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user > - > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. > ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
Re: Reconciling an account
Colin, I was thinking it was a version problem so I updated my software to make sure this was not the case. I love your suggestion. I did not know about the filter option. So I implemented it and cleared the reconciled items, then went back to the reconcile for that month and all agrees. Yeh for you! But don't celebrate totally yet. I am at the next and final month to reconcile. I go to do the reconcile dialog box and check everything and all of the items are ok: date, starting and ending balance all agree with final statement. When this happens it should be a cake walk right? Not for me. I check off all of the credits and debits and compare their totals (reflected on the bottom) with the statement and everything is in order yet I am faced with a difference of $195.14. This is definitely not correct. Have I found a bug? - China Blue -- View this message in context: http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/Reconciling-an-account-tp4691993p4692053.html Sent from the GnuCash - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
Re: Reconciling an account
Wow, now we are getting some well detailed suggestions! I will add a couple: To quickly see if all previous transactions were really reconciled, select View > Filter by .> Status > uncheck Reconciled. If you don't have too many transactions with dates earlier than the bank cleared them, your running balance should agree with the bank's running balance, at least when there is a 'dry' spell. If the difference consistently goes back to the same value, that is a clue of the amount, ant the first time you see that value would be the approximate date. On Mon, Jun 5, 2017 at 3:56 PM, Colin Lawwrote: > Have you possibly entered a transaction the wrong way round (debit > instead of credit or vise versa)? Then not noticed this when you tick > it off? > > A suggestion earlier may be a good one if you still cannot find where > you are going wrong. Draw lines on your statement after every, say, 4 > entries. Then reconcile from the start to the first line by entering > the balance from the statement at that time. If the first one > reconciles ok then do the next, and so on till you find the error. > > Note that others suggesting that this may be due to changed earlier > transactions and so on are wrong. If the starting balance on the > statement agrees with the starting balance in the reconcile window > then the error is to do with the transactions on the statement, > nothing else. > > Colin > > On 5 June 2017 at 18:10, EngineInstitute wrote: > > John, > > > > What baffles me is that I am balancing a credit card statement with > little > > activity. It was reconciled correctly the prior month, so the starting > > balance for the following month is correct. > > > > In this case the initial reconcile box reflects a different balance, so I > > put in the new balance to reflect the statement. Usually if everything > is in > > order that number agrees with the statement. In this case it does not (I > > thought this strange) so I corrected the number. > > > > I then took the normal steps and checked off the expenses (not many) and > > payments as well as the interest against the statement. Yet, there is no > > agreement. > > > > I double checked my work against the statement's payment amounts, > purchase > > amounts and interest charged to make sure that these sums add up to what > was > > in GnuCash. All agree yet the balance in GnuCash is off by hundreds of > > dollars. Since all of the prior months sums are balanced, my data is > correct > > and there is no outstanding activity that might somehow affect the > balance I > > cannot figure out what to look for and how to resolve this weird problem. > > > > Note I have been doing bookkeeping for many years so knowing how to > > reconcile a statement is not the problem. I am wondering if there is > > something that I don't understand with how GnuCash manages the data. > > > > > > > > - > > China Blue > > -- > > View this message in context: http://gnucash.1415818.n4. > nabble.com/Reconciling-an-account-tp4691993p4692041.html > > Sent from the GnuCash - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com. > > ___ > > gnucash-user mailing list > > gnucash-user@gnucash.org > > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user > > - > > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. > > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. > ___ > gnucash-user mailing list > gnucash-user@gnucash.org > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user > - > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. > ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
Re: Reconciling an account
Have you possibly entered a transaction the wrong way round (debit instead of credit or vise versa)? Then not noticed this when you tick it off? A suggestion earlier may be a good one if you still cannot find where you are going wrong. Draw lines on your statement after every, say, 4 entries. Then reconcile from the start to the first line by entering the balance from the statement at that time. If the first one reconciles ok then do the next, and so on till you find the error. Note that others suggesting that this may be due to changed earlier transactions and so on are wrong. If the starting balance on the statement agrees with the starting balance in the reconcile window then the error is to do with the transactions on the statement, nothing else. Colin On 5 June 2017 at 18:10, EngineInstitutewrote: > John, > > What baffles me is that I am balancing a credit card statement with little > activity. It was reconciled correctly the prior month, so the starting > balance for the following month is correct. > > In this case the initial reconcile box reflects a different balance, so I > put in the new balance to reflect the statement. Usually if everything is in > order that number agrees with the statement. In this case it does not (I > thought this strange) so I corrected the number. > > I then took the normal steps and checked off the expenses (not many) and > payments as well as the interest against the statement. Yet, there is no > agreement. > > I double checked my work against the statement's payment amounts, purchase > amounts and interest charged to make sure that these sums add up to what was > in GnuCash. All agree yet the balance in GnuCash is off by hundreds of > dollars. Since all of the prior months sums are balanced, my data is correct > and there is no outstanding activity that might somehow affect the balance I > cannot figure out what to look for and how to resolve this weird problem. > > Note I have been doing bookkeeping for many years so knowing how to > reconcile a statement is not the problem. I am wondering if there is > something that I don't understand with how GnuCash manages the data. > > > > - > China Blue > -- > View this message in context: > http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/Reconciling-an-account-tp4691993p4692041.html > Sent from the GnuCash - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com. > ___ > gnucash-user mailing list > gnucash-user@gnucash.org > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user > - > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
Re: Reconciling an account
I misspoke. I meant the ending date. When I change the ending date to match the statement, that gives me the corresponding ending balance, every time, so I don't have to adjust it (assuming I've downloaded all the bank/CC transactions). My only "complaint" with the GnuCash reconciliation process, is that if there is a debit balance in a liability reconciliation, I don't get the additional window at the end of the reconciliation, which allows me to transfer the balance to another account. I have to generate that transaction manually (a very tiny amount of extra work). On 2017-06-05 12:10, Derek Atkins wrote: Hi Dean, On Mon, June 5, 2017 2:52 pm, Dean Gibson wrote: Make sure that the reconciliation "beginning date" is the same as that on your statement. A different date will create a different beginning balance. This is not correct. You cannot change the beginning date. That date is the "closing" date from your last reconcile. GnuCash tries to figure out the correct closing date based on the last two reconciles. The EXACT date only affects GnuCash's proposed ending balance, and will affect the next suggested closing date. It has very little other meaning. So yes, you should correct the ending date, and verify the starting date. But if the starting date is wrong there's nothing you can do about it. In any case, don't change the balance manually, unless you have a good reason to. This is ABSOLUTELY wrong. You should ABSOLUTELY change the ending balance to match the correct balance from your statement! You may have entries in your books that didn't clear (e.g. a check that hasn't been deposited yet) that will affect your balance but wont be on the statement. So sorry, you should absolutely change the ending balance in the reconcile dialog to be the correct balance from your statement. Then when you check off the items you'll ensure your books and the bank books are in sync. ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
Re: Reconciling an account
Hi Dean, On Mon, June 5, 2017 2:52 pm, Dean Gibson wrote: > Make sure that the reconciliation "beginning date" is the same as that > on your statement. A different date will create a different beginning > balance. This is not correct. You cannot change the beginning date. That date is the "closing" date from your last reconcile. GnuCash tries to figure out the correct closing date based on the last two reconciles. The EXACT date only affects GnuCash's proposed ending balance, and will affect the next suggested closing date. It has very little other meaning. So yes, you should correct the ending date, and verify the starting date. But if the starting date is wrong there's nothing you can do about it. >In any case, don't change the balance manually, unless you > have a good reason to. This is ABSOLUTELY wrong. You should ABSOLUTELY change the ending balance to match the correct balance from your statement! You may have entries in your books that didn't clear (e.g. a check that hasn't been deposited yet) that will affect your balance but wont be on the statement. So sorry, you should absolutely change the ending balance in the reconcile dialog to be the correct balance from your statement. Then when you check off the items you'll ensure your books and the bank books are in sync. > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. -derek -- Derek Atkins 617-623-3745 de...@ihtfp.com www.ihtfp.com Computer and Internet Security Consultant ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
Re: Reconciling an account
Have you checked against the possibility that GC isn’t the location of the error? If all the transactions on your statement match GC and you’ve checked off only those transactions in the reconciliation window, and the starting balances line up, then if the statement ending balance and GC don’t agree, try manually adding up the statement figures. It is not impossible for the bank statement to not add up correctly. I’ve seen this on invoices many times. It is usually a result of human editing and not proofing, or not properly refreshing a report. While this is certainly less likely from an auto-generated bank statement, I wouldn’t dismiss it entirely. Computers are great, but I’ve caught many (human) errors walking through the math the old fashioned way. (at least with a calculator, not pen and paper) > On Jun 5, 2017, at 12:10 PM, EngineInstitutewrote: > > John, > > What baffles me is that I am balancing a credit card statement with little > activity. It was reconciled correctly the prior month, so the starting > balance for the following month is correct. > > In this case the initial reconcile box reflects a different balance, so I > put in the new balance to reflect the statement. Usually if everything is in > order that number agrees with the statement. In this case it does not (I > thought this strange) so I corrected the number. > > I then took the normal steps and checked off the expenses (not many) and > payments as well as the interest against the statement. Yet, there is no > agreement. > > I double checked my work against the statement's payment amounts, purchase > amounts and interest charged to make sure that these sums add up to what was > in GnuCash. All agree yet the balance in GnuCash is off by hundreds of > dollars. Since all of the prior months sums are balanced, my data is correct > and there is no outstanding activity that might somehow affect the balance I > cannot figure out what to look for and how to resolve this weird problem. > > Note I have been doing bookkeeping for many years so knowing how to > reconcile a statement is not the problem. I am wondering if there is > something that I don't understand with how GnuCash manages the data. > > > > - > China Blue > -- > View this message in context: > http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/Reconciling-an-account-tp4691993p4692041.html > Sent from the GnuCash - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com. > ___ > gnucash-user mailing list > gnucash-user@gnucash.org > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user > - > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
Re: Reconciling an account
Make sure that the reconciliation "beginning date" is the same as that on your statement. A different date will create a different beginning balance. In any case, don't change the balance manually, unless you have a good reason to. On 2017-06-05 10:10, EngineInstitute wrote: John, What baffles me is that I am balancing a credit card statement with little activity. It was reconciled correctly the prior month, so the starting balance for the following month is correct. ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
Re: GNUCash value proposition
I started out with GnuCash casually and quickly found that approach was going to get me in trouble. (or at least make the effort useless) I now get receipts for everything possible and make it a point to enter them every day. (usually the next morning when my memory is fresh) It really is not difficult or a pain since it is rarely I have to enter more than 3 or 4 transactions. Keeping current also prevents large accumulations to ‘miscellaneous’ because I can’t remember where cash went. Certainly a full mobile app would be nice, but the present situation is not impossible. The only inconvenience is that suddenly (within the last 3 months) it seems there is a disease amongst cashiers to either not print, not offer, or throw away an auto-printed receipt. I’ve had to make the habit of asking for one for each transaction. While this has been an issue on rare occasion in the past, it seems some critical mass was reached this spring and now this is an issue in about 90%+ of all my transactions. It’s quite disconcerting. As for downloading transactions from financial institutions, the best application I can see for this is NOT to have them entered into GnuCash for me, but rather to use in the reconciliation process. Instead of doing this on a periodic (monthly) basis, it could be done as transactions are posted by the bank. That way, there is a ‘running reconciliation’ always in progress. THAT I could see as taking full advantage of interconnectivity. Periodic reconciling against statements is to me, still the old ‘pen and paper’ mode of accounting that computers should be able to improve upon. > On Jun 5, 2017, at 10:52 AM, John Morriswrote: > >> If we all had the time and discipline to enter every transaction as it >> was made, this is all true. Entering transactions as they are made is >> very hard, and without a client that you carry with you it is virtually >> impossible, even if one existed, it would be tedious. The fact is the >> Bank is that application, they do it for you. They HAVE to! The >> reason import exists and is widely used (I do), is that it saves the >> time of entering all the transactions. > > To each his own. I enter every transaction just about as soon as possible: > usually when I get home to my computer. However, I often have the computer > with me and enter a gas purchase as we leave the gas station. I find this > much less tedious than trying to remember all our purchases and expected > credits from the last month or so. In addition, entering the transactions as > they come gives me a much closer approximation of our financial situation > that I could get from a monthly reconciliation. > > Best, > John > >> On Jun 4, 2017, at 10:21 PM, Lincoln A Baxter wrote: >> >> If we all had the time and discipline to enter every transaction as it >> was made, this is all true. Entering transactions as they are made is >> very hard, and without a client that you carry with you it is virtually >> impossible, even if one existed, it would be tedious. The fact is the >> Bank is that application, they do it for you. They HAVE to! The >> reason import exists and is widely used (I do), is that it saves the >> time of entering all the transactions. >> >> That said, I review every transaction I import before I complete the >> import. If I don't recognize/remember a transaction, I research it to >> verify if I (or my wife) made it and what it was for. I do this as >> part of assigning transactions to balancing accounts. >> >> I do this for both the Baysian matched tranactions (some transactions >> it never gets right), and for the unmatched transactions. When I find >> things out of balance, it is almost always because a transaction was >> not matched by the Baysian matcher, which then becomes a double >> transaction in the account, or not imported. In the end I believe I >> would catch fraud if it occurred. The Bank's math has never been wrong. >> >> There are two wishes I have for the transaction import review window >> that would improve this experience: >> >> 1) I wish I could edit descriptions, this would be a HUGE improvement, >> over trying to remember to go back and find them and edit them >> afterwards. >> >> 2) I could split transactions in the import window... Same reasons... >> but if I could edit transaction descriptions, I would be able to find >> them more easily after import, and then split them. I use the imbalance >> account to do this when I have to, but it has the draw back of >> confusing the Bayesian matcher. >> >> I'll bet the later (2) is harder than the former. The former would save >> a bunch of time. >> >> Lincoln > ___ > gnucash-user mailing list > gnucash-user@gnucash.org > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user > - > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or
Re: Reconciling an account
I often have duplicate entries appear in transfer accounts when I import transactions resulting from imperfect matching during the import process. While these are usually easy to find and fix, sometimes I make an error and "fix" the wrong transaction or split. If a previously reconciled transaction is deleted, that is one of several ways the "starting" balance can change from the previous month end balance. It is usually ok to just ignore the starting balance and see what falls out when every transaction on the statement is matched to a Gnucash transaction. David C On Jun 5, 2017 12:26 PM, "EngineInstitute"wrote: > John, > > What baffles me is that I am balancing a credit card statement with little > activity. It was reconciled correctly the prior month, so the starting > balance for the following month is correct. > > In this case the initial reconcile box reflects a different balance, so I > put in the new balance to reflect the statement. Usually if everything is > in > order that number agrees with the statement. In this case it does not (I > thought this strange) so I corrected the number. > > I then took the normal steps and checked off the expenses (not many) and > payments as well as the interest against the statement. Yet, there is no > agreement. > > I double checked my work against the statement's payment amounts, purchase > amounts and interest charged to make sure that these sums add up to what > was > in GnuCash. All agree yet the balance in GnuCash is off by hundreds of > dollars. Since all of the prior months sums are balanced, my data is > correct > and there is no outstanding activity that might somehow affect the balance > I > cannot figure out what to look for and how to resolve this weird problem. > > Note I have been doing bookkeeping for many years so knowing how to > reconcile a statement is not the problem. I am wondering if there is > something that I don't understand with how GnuCash manages the data. > > > > - > China Blue > -- > View this message in context: http://gnucash.1415818.n4. > nabble.com/Reconciling-an-account-tp4691993p4692041.html > Sent from the GnuCash - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com. > ___ > gnucash-user mailing list > gnucash-user@gnucash.org > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user > - > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. > ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
Re: Reconciling an account
John, What baffles me is that I am balancing a credit card statement with little activity. It was reconciled correctly the prior month, so the starting balance for the following month is correct. In this case the initial reconcile box reflects a different balance, so I put in the new balance to reflect the statement. Usually if everything is in order that number agrees with the statement. In this case it does not (I thought this strange) so I corrected the number. I then took the normal steps and checked off the expenses (not many) and payments as well as the interest against the statement. Yet, there is no agreement. I double checked my work against the statement's payment amounts, purchase amounts and interest charged to make sure that these sums add up to what was in GnuCash. All agree yet the balance in GnuCash is off by hundreds of dollars. Since all of the prior months sums are balanced, my data is correct and there is no outstanding activity that might somehow affect the balance I cannot figure out what to look for and how to resolve this weird problem. Note I have been doing bookkeeping for many years so knowing how to reconcile a statement is not the problem. I am wondering if there is something that I don't understand with how GnuCash manages the data. - China Blue -- View this message in context: http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/Reconciling-an-account-tp4691993p4692041.html Sent from the GnuCash - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
Re: GNUCash value proposition
> If we all had the time and discipline to enter every transaction as it > was made, this is all true. Entering transactions as they are made is > very hard, and without a client that you carry with you it is virtually > impossible, even if one existed, it would be tedious. The fact is the > Bank is that application, they do it for you. They HAVE to! The > reason import exists and is widely used (I do), is that it saves the > time of entering all the transactions. To each his own. I enter every transaction just about as soon as possible: usually when I get home to my computer. However, I often have the computer with me and enter a gas purchase as we leave the gas station. I find this much less tedious than trying to remember all our purchases and expected credits from the last month or so. In addition, entering the transactions as they come gives me a much closer approximation of our financial situation that I could get from a monthly reconciliation. Best, John > On Jun 4, 2017, at 10:21 PM, Lincoln A Baxterwrote: > > If we all had the time and discipline to enter every transaction as it > was made, this is all true. Entering transactions as they are made is > very hard, and without a client that you carry with you it is virtually > impossible, even if one existed, it would be tedious. The fact is the > Bank is that application, they do it for you. They HAVE to! The > reason import exists and is widely used (I do), is that it saves the > time of entering all the transactions. > > That said, I review every transaction I import before I complete the > import. If I don't recognize/remember a transaction, I research it to > verify if I (or my wife) made it and what it was for. I do this as > part of assigning transactions to balancing accounts. > > I do this for both the Baysian matched tranactions (some transactions > it never gets right), and for the unmatched transactions. When I find > things out of balance, it is almost always because a transaction was > not matched by the Baysian matcher, which then becomes a double > transaction in the account, or not imported. In the end I believe I > would catch fraud if it occurred. The Bank's math has never been wrong. > > There are two wishes I have for the transaction import review window > that would improve this experience: > > 1) I wish I could edit descriptions, this would be a HUGE improvement, > over trying to remember to go back and find them and edit them > afterwards. > > 2) I could split transactions in the import window... Same reasons... > but if I could edit transaction descriptions, I would be able to find > them more easily after import, and then split them. I use the imbalance > account to do this when I have to, but it has the draw back of > confusing the Bayesian matcher. > > I'll bet the later (2) is harder than the former. The former would save > a bunch of time. > > Lincoln ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
Re: GNUCash value proposition
I won’t tell you how much trouble I had years ago when a bank employee accidentally keyed in the dollar portion of a check twice, and instead of a $621 check, I got tagged for $621,621. Imagine my surprise when I saw that my account was overdrawn by some $600,000… David > On Jun 5, 2017, at 1:47 PM, prlwrote: > > On 5/06/2017 18:24, Colin Law wrote: >> On 5 June 2017 at 03:21, Lincoln A Baxter wrote: >>> If we all had the time and discipline to enter every transaction as it >>> was made, this is all true. Entering transactions as they are made is >>> very hard, and without a client that you carry with you it is virtually >>> impossible, even if one existed, it would be tedious. The fact is the >>> Bank is that application, they do it for you. They HAVE to! The >>> reason import exists and is widely used (I do), is that it saves the >>> time of entering all the transactions. >> It depends on whether you trust your bank and, for example, its OCR >> cheque reader. I keep all my receipts then it is easy to enter the >> transactions. A little tedious I agree but for most using this for >> personal accounts I imagine it is only a handful a day. For business >> users I would have thought that keeping receipts and entering >> transactions manually is mandatory. For cash I enter significant >> items (that I have kept receipts for) then balance the cash in hand >> with GC once a week or so, assigning the missing cash to >> Expenses:misc. >> >> Colin > It's not just the bank that can be the source of erroneous transactions. I've > had instances where I was double charged on a credit card (the same charge > twice for a single restaurant meal), and I was once double charged for my > home and contents insurance (again two transactions on the account for the > same amount for a single premium). In both cases it wasn't the "banks > application" that had made the error, it was the business making the charges. > The bank had done nothing wrong. > > Peter > > ___ > gnucash-user mailing list > gnucash-user@gnucash.org > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user > - > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
Re: GNUCash value proposition
On 5/06/2017 18:24, Colin Law wrote: On 5 June 2017 at 03:21, Lincoln A Baxterwrote: If we all had the time and discipline to enter every transaction as it was made, this is all true. Entering transactions as they are made is very hard, and without a client that you carry with you it is virtually impossible, even if one existed, it would be tedious. The fact is the Bank is that application, they do it for you. They HAVE to! The reason import exists and is widely used (I do), is that it saves the time of entering all the transactions. It depends on whether you trust your bank and, for example, its OCR cheque reader. I keep all my receipts then it is easy to enter the transactions. A little tedious I agree but for most using this for personal accounts I imagine it is only a handful a day. For business users I would have thought that keeping receipts and entering transactions manually is mandatory. For cash I enter significant items (that I have kept receipts for) then balance the cash in hand with GC once a week or so, assigning the missing cash to Expenses:misc. Colin It's not just the bank that can be the source of erroneous transactions. I've had instances where I was double charged on a credit card (the same charge twice for a single restaurant meal), and I was once double charged for my home and contents insurance (again two transactions on the account for the same amount for a single premium). In both cases it wasn't the "banks application" that had made the error, it was the business making the charges. The bank had done nothing wrong. Peter ___ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user - Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.