>>>>> "CB" == Christopher Browne <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
CB> On 01 May 2000 22:06:07 CDT, the world broke into rejoicing as
CB> John Hasler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said:
>> Christopher Browne writes:
>> > We thus have _three_ times:
>>
>> > a) The moment at which you incurred the transaction,
>> > b) The moment at which the effects of the transaction hit your bank account
>> > and
>> > c) The moment at which you typed in the transaction.
>>
>> > All three being legitimately different.
>>
>> > I would think c) to be the least meaningful of the three.
>>
>> I would think that c) is the most meaningful of the three. It is
>> likely to be the most accurate available record of the date on
>> which you recognized the transaction, and it is the date and time
>> that, when used to sort the transactions, is likely to be least
>> surprising to the user.
>>
>> It is also the only one of three that is always available.
CB> Sorry, I don't think so. If I go on vacation to Nepal for 2
CB> months, and don't get around to entering information 'til I get
CB> back, the backlog doesn't affect the fact that the two months
CB> worth of credit card charges hit accounts whilst I was away.
CB> I've done "box jobs" where _all_ the transactions for the year
CB> were entered at one time, at the end of the year. When I do
CB> that, all transactions might be dated on one single day.
Just to add my voice to the mix:
I want to be able to sort my register using time C (Quicken can do
this, btw) because when I'm doing my monthly reconcile with the bank
stmt, I always end up with a bunch of transactions which I never
entered during the month (for whatever reason). This is like John's
"box job" above. What I do in Quicken is, after figuring out which
ones they are and marking them on the paper stmt from the bank, is
enter them all in order. It's very nice to see them in the register
in "order entered" order during this process so I can see where I am.
If the txns move back to their real dates (dates A or B above) as soon
as I enter them it's harder for me to check my work.
But that said, it's the only time I use sort-by-order-entered. All
other times (in Quicken) I use sort-by-txn-date.
So the upshot is that for me (a home user, not an accountant) both
dates (C and either A or B) can be important, depending on what I'm
doing.
-- Gary Oberbrunner
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