I've now read this whole thread up-to-the-minute (fine granularity :) ), and I picked your response for my reply because you gave the best explanation.
But I'm replying because the whole thread didn't mention one particular point: In double-entry accounting, the books "have to balance" at every instant in time, and thus all the legs of a transaction have to be dated/timed in the same instant. Otherwise there would be points in time where the books aren't balanced. I gave this issue much thought when I wrote my own accounting software (first in DOS Basic in 1982 and second in FoxPro in 1992), and I have two fields, TransDate and PostedDate. The TransDate is the same for all the legs of a transaction, and the PostedDate is you-know-what. The PostedDate can be used for summaries/reports where we really need the posted date, but of course, such summaries/reports must not be used where they conflict with "always balanced". Hartmut W Sager On Mon 02 Mar 2026 at 19:56:45 -06:00, Jim DeLaHunt <[email protected] <mailto:list%[email protected]>> wrote: > Tom: > > Interesting question. And deeper that it may sound! > > On 2026-03-02 17:00, Tom Route36 wrote: > > …Any transaction in GnuCash always involves at least two accounts. > > For example, when you make a payment to a credit card account you're > > debiting funds from your checking account, and crediting those funds > > to your credit card account. My question here is about how folks > > choose to enter the transaction dates in GnuCash. > > …If you use Feb. 27th, the transaction date differs from your next > > month's bank statement. But if you use March 2nd, the date differs > > from your next credit card statement.… I was just curious how other > > folks deal with these kinds of date differences. > > Most transactions I enter into GnuCash are not instantaneous. They take > non-zero time, often more than a day, from when they start to when all > the settlement of all the parties is finished. There can be four days > from when an interbank transfer leaves my investment account to when it > arrives in my chequing account. There can be weeks between when I write > a paper cheque, to when the recipient deposits the cheque, to when my > bank takes the funds from my account. Different parties can report > different times when they participated in the transaction, for instance, > the moment when I wrote the cheque, the moment when the recipient > received the cheque, the moment when the recipient deposited the cheque, > the moment when the receiving bank requested funds from my bank, the > moment when my bank took the funds from my account. > > Yet GnuCash's data model has room for only one time value per > transaction, and that time value is in increments of calendar days, no > finer. > > Clearly what the GnuCash data model can store will be a simplification > of what actually happens in the transaction. I need to choose one moment > from the many moments when steps happened in the transaction. I need to > record that moment with day granularity. > > I choose to record the date which is closest to my first action in the > transaction. For a credit card purchase, when I made the purchase. For a > cheque, when I write it. For funds I receive, when I deposit it. When my > bank credits me interest, when they say they credited it. I usually > choose to disregard how long the transaction takes to complete. > > The purpose of my bookkeeping is to help me understand my financial > situation to the level that I need to understand it. The actual duration > of a transaction is often immaterial to my financial situation, so I > don't need to worry much about which date I choose to represent the many > moments of a transaction. > > You can imagine a data model which includes a time value, to microsecond > accuracy, of every event that happens as part of a transaction. There > may be some bookkeepers which need that kind of data to be able to > understand their financial situation. GnuCash is not designed for them. > > Best regards, > —Jim DeLaHunt\ > > > _______________________________________________ > gnucash-user mailing list > [email protected] > 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 [email protected] 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.
