I am completely aware of that. But I have to correct business names, and
the noise that comes into the memo/notes fields, too. And sometimes
useless stuff shows up in the 'Num' field. After I've cleaned up all
those fields, then I set the transaction to the correct expense account,
which causes it to leave the 'Unspecified' account. I know when I'm
done cleaning up these transactions when the 'Unspecified' account is
empty of entries. I don't have to search through expense registers or
bank/credit registers to find them and clean them.
Transactions that match are set to 'P' and flow through without bringing
any of the stuff I would otherwise clean out. They go to their
designated expense account right away.
So, downloading is a subset of type 'M'?
:George
On 3/17/2023 5:10 PM, Gyle McCollam wrote:
George,
you are probably aware, but just in case, when you use the add you can
actually designate the proper expense account within the matching
window. That way you don't have to go back later to 'unspecified" and
correct the entries.
P.S. BTW, entering by hand is type "M".
Thank You,
*Gyle McCollam*
Gyle McCollam
gmccol...@live.com <mailto:gmccol...@gyleshomes.com>email
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* gnucash-user
<gnucash-user-bounces+gylemc=gmail....@gnucash.org> on behalf of
George Riner <georgeri...@mycogeo.com>
*Sent:* Friday, March 17, 2023 7:33 PM
*To:* gnucash-user@gnucash.org <gnucash-user@gnucash.org>
*Subject:* Re: [GNC] Help with downloading transactions.
I'm and 'M' and a 'K'. I download from banks and I reconcile. I'm also
a enter-by-hand (I don't know what letter-type that would be).
I like downloading because it catches things I don't get receipts for
and that I forget to hand-enter. On-line purchases, gas pumps that run
out of receipt paper, or the receipt didn't get out of my pocket and
went through the laundry.
I reconcile, because it catches when I enter the charge in the wrong
credit card acct, and it informs me for when a check I wrote has not
cleared the bank, or some charge is delayed, or for when I hand-enter
something and I do a typo.
When I download, I never use the 'U' option - there's too much useless
noise in the downloaded transactions that gets into my registers that
only serves to clutter up reports. I'm assuming these numbers are
meaningful to someone at the bank/creditcard, or maybe the retailer, but
I've yet to find anything they match. They aren't Amazon order numbers
or Amazon receipt numbers, nor Amazon invoice numbers. Maybe some
transaction number that only the bank knows about? Plus, names of
businesses rarely match, and even when they do, they're often all UPPER
CASE and often include misguided attempts by the retailer for Customer
Relationship Management by adding in "THANK YOU FOR YOUR PURCHASE!!"
which is totally useless in my accounts & reports.
I wish there was a way to turn off the 'Bayesian" amount matching.
Because I don't want to be close, I want to be exact. So when
reconciling I have to carefully watch the matching transactions to make
sure they're aren't off by $0.02 or some tiny amount.
For downloaded transactions that have to be added, I use the 'A' option,
but I force all those transactions to go into a special account - I name
it 'Unspecified' (under Expenses). I then apply the downloaded
transaction and then go through all the 'Unspecified' entries in Journal
view and clean them up and correct the expense account to apply them to.
The Reconcile function also has a really useful way of creating the
payment transaction and giving it a future date (the payment due date,
for example), and posting it to my bank acct.
:George
Windows 10 build 19045.2604
Gnucash Build ID: 4.11+(2022-06-25)
On 3/17/2023 1:57 AM, ed...@billiau.net wrote:
> On Thu, 16 Mar 2023 15:38:25 +0000
> Gyle McCollam <gmccol...@live.com> wrote:
>
>> You really should try to download and import transactions.
> This is a philosophical point.
> There is group "M" who always enter every transaction first in their
> books and then use the bank documents to reconcile
>
> and
>
> There is group "K" who enter some things and use the bank download to
> keep their accounts.
>
> There are pros and cons to each method. Gnucash allows you to make your
> own choice.
>
>
> Liz
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