Jesse,

I think at least the first two requests are already implemented.

No one is stopping you from editing your opening balance entries.

You can modify them to your heart’s content.

Heck, I changed some of mine because they were initially estimates and I didn’t 
have all of my documentation. Once I did have those papers in hand, I edited 
them. (rather than enter ‘correcting entries', I knew the originals were 
estimates and that I was going to make corrections, and because these books are 
just for me, I saw no need to document this fact)

If I had some need to make any corrections now, years later, I could just do 
so, however, this might throw off reconciled accounts, so it would be best to 
do this as a correcting entry.

As for the second request, when you are editing your original opening balance 
entries, you can do math like a calculator in the debit and credit fields. (you 
can do this in any register)

So if your present opening cash on hand balance is say $300, just change it to 
be "300+50" and hit the tab key. GnuCash will obligingly do the math and change 
the amount to $350. Of course you’ll need to do this for both debits and 
credits as appropriate to make the transaction balance. (or just leave it as 
Orphan if you’re just playing games and don’t want to loose track of how much 
to back out when you’re done. Just open the Orphan register and fix all of your 
entries.) You can use all four major operators +,-,*,/ as well as () to change 
precedence. I’m not sure about ^ (powers) though I suspect you can since 
exponents are useful in present value equations which can be used in the 
Scheduled Transaction editor and so likely can also be used in any register, 
though that is just a guess.

As for requests 3 & 4, GnuCash doesn’t initiate actual transactions. You can 
only record them, either manually, or by importing them from a financial 
institution or other source. It is not a ‘payment processor.’ (though I’m sure 
lots of people would like it to be - especially converts from the Intuit world)

However, you are presently free to record whatever you please in GnuCash. You 
are limited only by your imagination and your willingness to figure out the 
transaction entry. This of course assumes you are keeping books just for you. 
If you are preparing legally required financial reports, you’ll have to abide 
the laws of your jurisdiction - not so free. GnuCash can’t change the law for 
you.

All of that should directly address your specific requests, however, I sense 
they are misplaced. Yes, our monetary system is not the best or particularly 
free. (I know of no country that has such a system so ‘our’ would apply 
everywhere) But I don’t think ‘free’ with respect to monetary systems implies 
some of the things you think it does. Hard money, a la, gold and silver coin, 
is much more ‘free’ than consumer credit cards, but they still don’t give you 
the magical or fanciful ability to simply multiply your current balance (by 
altering your original balance - post hoc) to any amount you choose. You have 
what you have, and that is that.

Finally, you are free not to use GnuCash. Other than actual accounting software 
options, you can use spreadsheets, your own customized database, or even plain 
text files. There’s even a plain text accounting website with its own formats, 
conventions, and just about anything you could imagine. It is probably the most 
‘free’ method of doing accounting because you aren’t locked into ANY method or 
format and your data is always portable. (of course, data quality and 
reliability might suffer your whimsical alterations of real life amounts, but 
that has nothing to do with your software choices)

Regards,
Adrien

> On Dec 4, 2017, at 1:39 PM, Jesse Cochran <jessecochran...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> To whom it may concern,
> 
> Given how limited and un-free our monetary system is nowadays, I think
> GNUcash would make a great tool for the following freedoms below:
> 
> 0 > The Freedom to modify your starting and ending balance. This means you
> can take a @200 balance (yes, I'm using the @ symbol for example use), and
> turn it into @200000 without the need to transfer anything.
> 
> 1 > The Freedom to add and subtract from your ending balance like a
> calculator.
> 
> 2 > The Freedom to send and receive money in any amount you choose.
> 
> 3 > The Freedom to exchange this currency for other currency of any amount
> or size.
> 
> So I am generically requesting a feature that allows this  to be
> implemented into GNUcash, just to exercise this right.
> 
> Thanks for understanding,
> 
> Jesse.
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