The question was not a theoretical one, it was a practical one. I agree, theoretically, you would expect GC to treat all AssetClass accounts the same. In fact, in object-oriented coding, it's best practice to have a parent class that you'd derive the child classes from, so that association is enforced by the code. However, the reality is, GC started as a C program, with hand-coded OO aspects, and is being morphed into a C++ OO program over time. I applaud the coders for their work, this code base is amazing and robust, but it's not perfect. So it actually does make sense to ask "I know these account types are all Asset accounts. GnuCash seems to treat them all as Asset accounts. Are there actually any differences?" To answer that, you either have to test all the corner cases in the app (tedious), or, luck us, GC is open source, we can look and see what the code actually does.
An example of the sort of thing I discovered: there originally was the intent to have separate sub-types for bank accounts of type _CHECKING, _SAVINGS, _MONEYMRKT, _CREDITLINE - but it was never fleshed out, and I assume the coders have since found that there's really not enough value in treating them differently. Code archeology - an underappreciated art. :) Ross On Wed, Oct 2, 2024 at 11:44 AM R Losey <rlo...@gmail.com> wrote: > Perhaps I'm being overly dense here... > > Cash, Bank Accounts, etc are sub-elements of Assets. > > So certainly, GnuCash treats assets the same - an asset is an asset. > > But once you divide assets up - in any way - you are treating them as > different things... therefore, > "Is 'Cash on Hand' an asset?" - Yes. > "Is it treated like other assets?" - Yes. > Is it the same thing as some other asset? - No > > > Just seems to me that we are trying to distinguish between a head category > (Asset) and its various sub-categories (Cash on Hand) -- this is not really > a like-to-like comparison. > > On Wed, Oct 2, 2024 at 11:05 AM Brook Milligan via gnucash-user < > gnucash-user@gnucash.org> wrote: > > > Is it really the case that the _only_ impact of account type is to change > > the headings in the GUI? > > > > Cheers, > > Brook > > > > > On Oct 2, 2024, at 9:29 AM, Stan Brown (using GC 4.14) < > > stan...@fastmail.fm> wrote: > > > > > > Thanks for this, Ross. I asked a similar question in July, but your > look > > > into the code gave a much better answer than I got. > > > > > > It would be very nice if this information can be added to section 2.8.2 > > > of the Tutorial and Concepts manual. > > > > > > Stan Brown > > > Tehachapi, CA, USA > > > > > > https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbrownmath.com%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cbrook%40biology.nmsu.edu%7C4b705d077b4e4fd6e86708dce2f70ea9%7Ca3ec87a89fb84158ba8ff11bace1ebaa%7C1%7C0%7C638634797952949749%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=%2FZfS2v%2BkUjHKAXXXRpevKzz30kumTnp5oXhJO28ce1A%3D&reserved=0 > > > > > > On 2024-10-01 10:54, Ross Reedstrom wrote: > > >> So, answering the question. Internally, GnuCash has an enumeration > > >> GnuAccountType, which that drop down is populated from. There are > > >> conditionals all over the code that switch based on the account type. > > One > > >> significant one for answering your question (Cash vs. Bank or any > other > > >> Asset account, Credit vs. generic Liability) is that there are two > > >> mappings for human friendly column names for "debit" and "credit" > > actions. > > >> > > >> Cash uses "Receive" and "Spend". Bank uses "Deposit" and "Withdraw". > > Asset > > >> uses "Increase" and "Decrease". On the other side of the ledger, > Credit > > >> uses "Payment" (debit) and "Charge" (credit), generic Liability uses > > >> "Decrease" (debit) and "Increase" (credit). Helps get past the > > >> non-accountants "Wait, I debit the cash account when I put money in my > > >> wallet???" confusion. > > >> > > >> There are probably other differences, but that's what I found with a > > quick > > >> search through the code. Note that the code is well structured, and > > >> heavily commented with good comments, for example: > > >> > > >> /* The type field is the account type, picked from the enumerated > > >> * list that includes ACCT_TYPE_BANK, ACCT_TYPE_STOCK, > > >> * ACCT_TYPE_CREDIT, ACCT_TYPE_INCOME, etc. Its intended use is to > > >> * be a hint to the GUI as to how to display and format the > > >> * transaction data. > > >> */ > > >> > > >> Hope that helps. > > >> > > >> Ross > > >> > > >> On Tue, Oct 1, 2024 at 12:24 PM Chris Miller via gnucash-user < > > >> gnucash-user@gnucash.org> wrote: > > >> > > > _______________________________________________ > > > gnucash-user mailing list > > > gnucash-user@gnucash.org > > > To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: > > > > > > https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flists.gnucash.org%2Fmailman%2Flistinfo%2Fgnucash-user&data=05%7C02%7Cbrook%40biology.nmsu.edu%7C4b705d077b4e4fd6e86708dce2f70ea9%7Ca3ec87a89fb84158ba8ff11bace1ebaa%7C1%7C0%7C638634797952949749%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=E5KraKJqm4YtxXo8Y2LOXr3vvxQmaSrYW%2F6%2FCFYnBmE%3D&reserved=0 > > > ----- > > > 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. > > > > > -- > _________________________________ > Richard Losey > rlo...@gmail.com > Micah 6:8 > _______________________________________________ > 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. > _______________________________________________ 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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