Bite Gao:
Thank you for continuing this conversation. I am glad to have your ideas
in this discussion.
While I think I understand what feature you are asking for, I do see
some difficulties with it. For example, you say:
On 2023-01-06 17:22, Bite Gao wrote:
…For each split record in the GnuCash file, the program scan for its
counterpart in the bank statement.… Personally, I do not found that
how computer program could make mistake in this process.…
The obvious difficulty is that for a single transaction, the text in the
GnuCash file is probably different than the text in its counterpart in
the bank statement. For example, suppose I have a weekly purchase where
I enter the description as "SPUD, Vancouver BC" and the date as January
5, but the bank statement may say "Small Potatoes Delivery * Paypal" and
the date as January 6. It is difficult — not impossible, but difficult
— for GnuCash to see that these two transactions are counterparts. Their
description text and their dates differ.
It turns out that GnuCash's Import Matcher can successfully recognise
the link between these two. But it often makes mistakes in this process.
Best regards,
—Jim DeLaHunt
On 2023-01-06 17:22, Bite Gao wrote:
GnuCash Developers and Maintainers:
Hello! While you pinpoint out the possibility of a mistake in
automated process, it did not eliminate the meaning of the automatic
reconciliation.
What an automatic reconciliation does is: the program concatenates
the transaction's date, check number and the transaction amount from
both the bank statement and the GnuCash file. For each split record in
the GnuCash file, the program scan for its counterpart in the bank
statement. And when the counterpart is found, the program marks the
split as reconciled.
Personally, I do not found that how computer program could make
mistake in this process. If you believe that the computer could have
that happen, I would like to learn the detail about it.
Yours,
Bite Gao
Jan 7th, 2021
On 2023/1/6 20:57, Adrien Monteleone wrote:
I understand your explanation, but if you aren't checking and
verifying every transaction, how do you ever discover when the
automated process makes a mistake?
Reconciliation was invented long before computers, but I appreciate
that the process demands one to slow down, take your time, and
methodically verify the information.
Think of it as proof-reading - the hard way. (I learned in school to
read stuff backwards when proofing!)
That is a pretty good analogy too:
If you've ever used auto-correct with auto-checking for spelling and
grammar, or auto-suggestion or auto-completion for entire words and
have seen the embarrassment and/or nightmare that can produce when
the computer 'gets it wrong', would you want something like that for
your financial records?
Regards,
Adrien
On 1/5/23 7:50 PM, Bite Gao wrote:
GnuCash Developers and Maintainers:
Hello! While you have mentioned the requirement of human
intervene in the reconciliation process, I do not see it contradicts
with the presence of automatically reconciliation system.
In a reconcile process, the accountant check the record in the
account book with the record in the bank statement (or statement
from other institution). He (or she) may found out that two record
are identical, or he (or she) may found that some record are not
identical. Only the latter requires human notice, since there its no
point wasting time on reconciled accounting transactions. An
automatic reconciliation system can load the digital statement from
the institution, compares the statement with the transaction in the
accounting book, and pinpoints the discrepancies out. Then human
accountant could step in and perform manual operations, such as
checking other vouchers, contact with banks, etc. In the situation
of single user, the automatic reconcile system have no reason to
block manu
al reconciliation.
Besides, when I means "human err", I means that the accountant
overlook an discrepancy and regards it as identical. People do not
spend too much time on identical records, since major of the
transaction would be in that state. However, it could cause severe
consequences if there do have a discrepancy.
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