The capability for zero value transactions with a single account line was
permitted starting in release 3 point something iirc as hinted by
Christopher.
Really? Odd, then, that I can do it in 2.6.21.
Speaking as a retired senior systems analyst (and senior business
analyst) , this does NOT surprise me (that designed/coded this way)
When you try to enter a transaction that is not in balance, the program
probably looks for an out of balance amount, whether debit or credit,
and if found, adds Imbalance as an account involved with the transaction
for this amount (and sense).
But if ALL the other account amounts sum to zero, transaction is in
balance and allowed to enter. If that's only one account, then one is all.
Exactly WHAT is gnucash supposed to do in this situation. It COULD be
coded to make the minimum number of accounts two, but if it finds only
one, what is the "Imbalance" entry you want to see AND if like me, you
look for a net Imbalance >0 to lead you to going into the Imbalance
account to find an errant transaction, would you ever notice this errant
transaction? << since net Imbalance IS zero)
In other words, this IS a major decision for gnucash. The choice was to
allow the transaction to enter but create an entry in Imbalance (make
Imbalance part of the transaction. The alternative is to stop you (not
allow entry of the transaction, but what do you do NOW? (in terms of
work flow).
1) abort the transaction
2) save/close gnucash
3) decide what to do (what changes you might need to make to the CoA)
4) resume entering the batch of transactions you were working on
----------------------------- or -------------------------
5) you hope you remember to come back to this transaction later <<
in place of "3" >>
I MUCH prefer what happens now.
1) Nothing you notice at the time. When you finish entering the
batch and save, you check Imbalance before closing, and see that you
have something to fix. But you are working on that part of it NOT in the
middle of entering a batch of transactions and gnucash in a "saved" state.
In any case, this is not a matter to go directly to the programmers
maintaining gnucash. First the "business team" (and this involves users)
has to decide on WHAT gnucash should be doing << see, I wore both
analysts hats in my day, sometimes one, sometimes the other >>
Michael D Novack
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