Adrien,
Yes, in the old days before debit cards and auto-pay we did a reconciliation
once a month... when the paper bank statement showed up in the mail box. In
those days if we didn't write a check then no bank transaction should appear...
other than bank charges. Much simpler times :-)
Now days there are often several incidental debit card charges plus a number of
auto-pay charges that hit the bank.
We check the bank transactions daily to make sure we didn't miss recording any
of these.
The reason for my post was to get some guidance on using the GnuCash built in
tools to help find duplicate transactions.
The problem to us... as you mentioned is...
- Our Check Register Description Field doesn't match the banks- The Transaction
Dates are often not the same
Regarding doing the bank transactions to recorded GC transactions comparison
manually...I wrote an App Script for Google Sheets that helps with that... but
it is still a lot of work... thus my question on using GnuCash tools to help.
I see David has also responded to this post so I'll read his comments then
probably make a test copy of the GnuCash file and do some experimentation.
That said... for one particular entity with a lot of auto-pays and incidental
debit card transactions... I still don't see any option but to check the bank
daily to check what hit the bank and verify their entry into GnuCasy.
How do you handle a loose cannon with a debit card?How do you handle capturing
transactions from a vendor that generates a lot of individual auto pay and/or
auto deposit charges each month?
Thanks for the help.
On Saturday, October 17, 2020, 7:58:34 PM EDT, Adrien Monteleone
<adrien.montele...@lusfiber.net> wrote:
The Help/Guide and probably the wiki (as well as various threads in this
list) will provide more insight into how the Import Matcher works, along
with tips and tricks to use it most effectively.
My first question would be, "What is the reason for doing this daily?
What advantage over larger periods does this level of effort give you?"
I ask, because my first recommendation would be to do so less
frequently, maybe even weekly at the most, but monthly would be a most
likely target. What you appear to be doing is essentially reconciliation
and that is traditionally (though it doesn't have to be) a monthly
procedure.
I don't download bank transactions or use the import matcher myself, but
after reading many, many threads here on the various nuances, I'd think
the matcher *should* recognize 'amount', 'date', and 'description' and
flag those qualifying transactions as potential duplicates. You get to
decide before completing the import if they really are duplicates. If
you leave them marked as such, if I recall correctly, GnuCash will
change the flag in the "r" column from 'n' to 'c'—meaning the
transaction has cleared the bank. When you do a formal reconciliation of
the account with a periodic bank statement, those marked 'c' will be
pre-checked for you. You would only need to verify and check off the
remaining transactions in the reconcile window.
The date that your bank shows for the transaction may not be the same
date as the real-world transaction. (the real date *should* be what you
have entered in GnuCash) I think the matcher is smart enough to flag
those for a closer look if the other key data matches.
For transactions that don't qualify as true duplicates (thus needing to
just be 'cleared') they will be imported as new with the 'c' flag
already set.
My second question is, "Why are you doing the comparison manually
outside of GnuCash when GnuCash has built-in methods of helping you find
those duplicates?"
If you still really need to do a comparison outside the matcher, yes,
there are ways to script it, to a point. But I caution that approach
because it will be a bit of work to set up and my suspicion is you'll
find most of that effort will be duplicating what GnuCash is already
capable of.
Regards,
Adrien
On 10/16/20 9:45 AM, Fran_3 via gnucash-user wrote:
> Given a checking account with a number incidental and auto pay transactions
> ocuring daily...
> Is there a way to automate...- logging on to the bank daily- determining
> which transactions have hit the bank but are not posted in GnuCash- then
> updating GnuCash with those unrecorded transactions?
> Doing this manually when the account has a number of incidential and auto pay
> transactions occurring daily is a lot of work.It is also prone for error as
> the transaction date and description at the bank do not always match how they
> are entered in GnuCash.
> Manually we have been daily downloading CSV files, and comparing them in
> spreadsheets...or screen capturing the latest bank transactions and the
> latest GC transactions, pasting them into PC Paint, and then doing the
> compare.or printing them out on paper to do the compare.
> In summary...1 - How can we automate this daily task?2 - If there is a way...
> does GC use the description field and amount field to "match" transactions?3
> - or what?
> Thanks for any help.
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