While this is somewhat ‘mild’ in terms of a way to avoid errant entries, it works well for me. I’ve encountered the problem presented here several times when I first started using GnuCash. I had a bad habit of typing dates too fast and not paying attention, then having to search for errant transactions.
Certainly, I learned reconciling helps tremendously as a filter. I even reconcile my cash on hand account. Second, I took advantage of date completion. I only enter the month and day. I let GnuCash enter the year. Most of the time, I keep up to date so much now that I’m entering transactions on their actual day most of the time and I use the +,- keys to change the displayed date up or down. Since utilizing these two methods, I’ve never had a problem with errant entry again. Of course this isn’t a complete solution, but it does help. Regards, Adrien > On May 27, 2017, at 7:03 AM, Chris Serella <serell...@hotmail.com> wrote: > > Thanks for the reply Don, > > Firstly, you need to use "Reply All" to ensure the list gets your reply and > not just the person you are responding to. > > GNUCash is the only software I've used so I have no reference of other > software or practices have an understanding of what is the common or expected > practice. Your response makes sense don't get me wrong. The reason that I > account the way I do with annual books rather than a continuous system comes > down to ease. > > It might seem old fashioned (I only started doing my business accounts for > the last couple of years so I don't know). > > You are right though for the purposes of reports it should be a persistent > ledger which otherwise would require a separate module of some sort to > compile reports from all of my books. > > Regards retaining historical accounts, closing out the book and starting a > new one does not prevent that. I have to keep two sets of books, one for the > company and one self employment so i have a directory reflecting that with > sub directories in each of 15/16 16/17 17/18 (as i said, only for the past > few years) which does prevent incorrect data entry. > > Anyways, I do think you are on the right path, GUI locking of previous years > would be beneficial. that said, how would you go about dealing with > circumstances where accounts are after a new year has started? EG, accounts > for 16/17 don't have to be filed in the uk until 31 Jan 18 somebody doing > accounts after april 5th 2017 would not be able to complete them because the > year in question would be restricted. > > I guess one solution would be to have a button to manually remove the > restriction but only for the current session, replacing it at closing gnucash > or when manually reset. > > I have just looked into the settings, there is one for date entry, you can > set what the default for new entries is, current year or on a 12 month > sliding scale (edit > preferences > Date/Time) Not sure if this helps, i just > found it. > > > ________________________________ > From: doncram <donc...@gmail.com> > Sent: 27 May 2017 02:43 > To: Chris Serella > Subject: Re: How to find and fix entry miss-dated to previous year (in > General Ledger) > > Thank you for being honest and telling me what I don't like to hear. :) > > It seems increasingly clear that there is a base of happy GnuCash users who > have a way of "closing" their year of data and starting afresh in a new file, > which works for them, however odd it seems to me. It might be called > "old-fashioned", very much akin to manual / paper based historical accounting > books. I do think that you and the others should be supported in continuing > to operate the way you do. I want to help GnuCash get improved > documentation, and reluctantly I am coming around to the realization that > this old-fashioned way needs to be explained in several hard-to-write pages > about the strange practice. :) > > However, it is better for GnuCash to support (also) the now-expected, normal > way of operating, in which all the data is kept, accumulates sensibly, allows > reporting on all history of any one customer or any one account, etc. What > Quickbooks and Peachtree and bigger accounting packages all do, is support a > way to close/lock older data, while keeping it available to allow for > comparative reports, for lookups, for whatever. This is what an accounting > system does. The main objection I understand to supporting that, which > programmers point out (correctly), is that locking via the GUI does not > prevent outright fraud by someone determined to change the data file. Right, > just like putting a combo lock on a storeroom does not absolutely thwart the > most determined theives. Like all management controls, it should not be > over-sold. However, locking via the GUI is what is requested from time to > time, and what many potential users expect and want, and locking via the GUI > is enough to prevent > accidental data entry into the older data. It will be far easier to > document this approach to "closing", in a few sentences. Many more sentences > will have to be used to explain, to most new users, why there is some other > weird option also documented and using confusing language, which they should > ignore. :) > > Seriously, thanks for speaking up, this does help me sort out what I think > needs to be written. :) --Don > > On Fri, May 26, 2017 at 8:50 PM, Chris Serella > <serell...@hotmail.com<mailto:serell...@hotmail.com>> wrote: > > I know this probably isnt the answer your looking for, but I found by keeping > seperate yearly books this will never crop up. If a wrong date is entered > then its going to the top of the book so I can find and correct it. > > As i am in the UK i just have to remember to change the date in preferences > because its absolute, US tax dates are not the same I believe. > > > ________________________________ > From: gnucash-user > <gnucash-user-bounces+serella_c=hotmail....@gnucash.org<mailto:hotmail....@gnucash.org>> > on behalf of doncram <donc...@gmail.com<mailto:donc...@gmail.com>> > Sent: 26 May 2017 21:43 > Cc: gnucash-user@gnucash.org<mailto:gnucash-user@gnucash.org> > Subject: How to find and fix entry miss-dated to previous year (in General > Ledger) > > Because GnuCash doesn't provide password-locking on past years' data, it's > possible you can accidentally give a past year's date to a new > transaction. If that happened, how can you possibly find and fix it? > > Under Tools / General Ledger, i can see and edit General Ledger entries > dated in 2017. I added a few new entries there, accidentally-on-purpose > dated April 1, 2015, and hit enter. Poof! they disappear upon entry, > cannot be seen. I know they were accepted, because Reports / Assets & > Liabilities / Balance Sheet reflects the changes to asset and liability > accounts, in report labelled "Balance Sheet 12/31/2017". > > Trying to see the expense account changes, I run Reports / Income & Expense > / Income Statement, but the report labelled "Income Statement For Period > Covering 01/01/2017 to 12/31/2017" doesn't show the 2015 expenses. (Q1: > how can I see an Income Statement for all time, or for 2015-2017, or for > 2015?) > > Trying to see the entries in Reports / Assets & Liabilities / General > Journal, I find that works, yay! I can see the 2015 entries. > > Trying to see the entries in Reports / Assets & Liabilities / General > Ledger fails...it states "Transaction Report: / No accounts selected / This > report requires accounts to be selected in the report options. / Edit > report options". Clicking on "Edit report options" seems to allow me to > change a start date range for a report named "Transaction Report", but that > has no effect. Same if I change the report field to "General Ledger". > (Q2: how can I get any General Ledger report that I can see?) > > I would like to see the entries in a General Ledger editing window and > correct their dates, but I see no way to open such an edit window showing > them. (Q3: How can a 2015 General Ledger entry be changed?) Note, I do > see that I could compose reversing entries and enter them for the same 2015 > dates, to undo the accidental entries, but it would be far more > straightforward to just correct the General Ledger entries directly, like > can be done for 2017 entries. > > Any suggestions will be appreciated! Thanks in advance, Don > _______________________________________________ > gnucash-user mailing list > gnucash-user@gnucash.org<mailto:gnucash-user@gnucash.org> > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user > gnucash-user Info > Page<https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user> > lists.gnucash.org<http://lists.gnucash.org> > This (occasionally high-volume) mailing list is devoted to the discussion of > general accounting topics as well as how to use GnuCash to implement specific > > > > ----- > 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.
