Paul, I have never had a zero value imbalance line fail to disappear when I edited any transaction. Granted, I never intentionally tried various sequences of edits to see if I could make one stick, since it was always my goal to balance the transaction so that I could save it and go on to the next edit. However, I also did not have a favorite procedure of editing debits or credits first. Sometimes entering a description in a split line intentionally brings along an account name and value from a previous edit in that account. That might temporarily create an imbalance that might stay for a while before I get the transaction balanced. If a nonzero imbalance does exist, another edit to effectively create an offsetting imbalance is all that is required to make both of the imbalances disappear. I have never worried about values because GnuCash always sorts left side first then zero value splits next and right side splits last.
Sorry to ramble but I just never noticed anything weird about imbalances in many years of experience with them. They just came and went as I was completing transaction edits. I would estimate that more than 60 percent of my transactions have three or more split lines too. On Wed, Jun 26, 2024 at 10:41 PM Paul Kroitor <p...@kroitor.ca> wrote: > David, if we are both using 5.6 in Windows but have different behaviours, > then I expect either our settings or our procedures are different. > 1. Are you using auto-split as a register default? > 2. My issue appears when I edit only a previously saved transaction. In > auto-split, one must do this it two steps, the debit side, and then the > credit side. > > Update: > Procedure to create a zero imbalance: > - (in auto-split) edit the first (debit) amount, press ENTER: Imbalance > split is created (NB: the account field in the split actually says > "Imbalance"). > - edit second (credit) amount, Press ENTER. Imbalance changes to 0. > - Press ENTER again, cursor moves to next transaction. > - Go back to prior transaction, and zero imbalance is still there. > > Procedure to NOT create a zero imbalance: > - exactly as above only use down arrow (or left mouse click) to navigate > between lines. > > Note that in this second case, there is an imbalance amount line created > but it created in bottom line of the group *without* "Imbalance" in the > account field. > > Paul > > > -----Original Message----- > From: gnucash-user <gnucash-user-bounces+paul=kroitor...@gnucash.org> On > Behalf Of Paul Kroitor > Sent: Wednesday, June 26, 2024 11:08 PM > To: 'David Carlson' <david.carlson....@gmail.com> > Cc: gnucash-user@gnucash.org > Subject: Re: [GNC] Imbalance Records with zero amounts > > I am using 5.6 here (on Windows), but I’m pretty sure this behaviour has > been around for as long as I can remember (and I started on 2.6). > > > > However, in playing around trying to document the exact steps to recreate > the issue, it seems to me that it’s changed in that it’s more pervasive > than before. > > > > It used to be that some edits of existing transactions would create a > temporary Imbalance split as the last split, and those ones would disappear > once the transaction was saved. But other edits would create the temporary > Imbalance split in between the debit and credit entries, and those would > stick around. > > > > However, I now cannot edit any existing transaction amounts without a zero > Imbalance split sticking around. > > > > Note that I always work in auto-split registers, so when a transaction > must be corrected, I change the debit side, which of course creates an > imbalance line. I then change the credit side, which eliminates the > imbalance (it becomes zero) but the split line stays in the register (in > every test I do now, apparently). Something has definitely changed, because > it wasn’t this bad before. > > > > > > > > > > From: David Carlson <david.carlson....@gmail.com> > Sent: Wednesday, June 26, 2024 10:39 PM > To: p...@kroitor.ca > Cc: stan...@fastmail.fm; gnucash-user@gnucash.org > Subject: Re: [GNC] Imbalance Records with zero amounts > > > > Nobody is revealing which version they are using. In older versions, ie > before 5.something, imbalance entries of 0 automatically disappeared when > a transaction was saved. I think it is a bug if they are now being saved. > They are disappearing in my copy of release 5.6 in windows. > > > > On Wed, Jun 26, 2024, 9:14 PM Paul Kroitor <p...@kroitor.ca <mailto: > p...@kroitor.ca> > wrote: > > I get one of these empty (zero amount) splits every time I have to change > both sides of an already entered transaction in a register set to > auto-split. > > Oddly, if the transaction shows the credit first, the imbalance gets > created (temporarily non-zero) as the last split and, once the imbalance > line shows zero and is deleted when the transaction is saved. > > But if the transaction shows the debit first, the imbalance line appears > in the middle, and even after it reverts to an imbalance of zero and is > saved, the zero imbalance line stays in the register. > > > Sent from my iPad > > > On Jun 26, 2024, at 9:55 PM, Stan Brown (using GC 4.14) < > stan...@fastmail.fm <mailto:stan%2...@fastmail.fm> > wrote: > > > > To be clear, you're talking about accidentally hitting the enter key > > instead of the Tab key when moving between fields, right? > > > > Stan Brown > > Tehachapi, CA, USA > > https://BrownMath.com > > > >> On 2024-06-26 17:04, Jim DeLaHunt wrote: > >> > >> As you know, double-entry bookkeeping requires every transaction to > >> be balanced, that is, to have its credits equal its debits. GnuCash > >> enforces this requirement, but only when it saves a transaction, not > >> while you are actively entering or editing the transaction. But, it > >> is possible to tell GnuCash to save a transaction when you don't mean > >> to, while you think you are still doing data entry. > > > > _______________________________________________ > > gnucash-user mailing list > > gnucash-user@gnucash.org <mailto:gnucash-user@gnucash.org> To update > > your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: > > 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 <mailto:gnucash-user@gnucash.org> To update your > subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: > 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 > To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: > 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. > > -- David Carlson _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. 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