Survey

[W. Scott Wilburn]

Hi,

I just filled out your survey - thanks for asking. A couple of
points deserve more than a simple yes/no or 1-5 rating. Here are a few
comments:

1) Ease of installation - when my distro (RH) uses the same version of
   gnome as gnucash, it is plenty easy. When that's not true, it takes
   more time than I'm willing to spend. In that case, I just wait for RH
   to fix the problem for me. (Between home and work I maintain 8
   machines and decided about a year ago that, being a scientist and not
   a sysadmin, if I was to stay productive and have a life I needed to
   stop doing most things that required more than rpm -Uvh). This is not a
   complaint. I understand that developers and distribution packagers have
   different criteria for when to switch. Just a piece of reality from
   someone who is neither a newbie or a hacker.

2) Tax preparation - While I'm not willing to pay for most things, I would
   pay for tax preparation. I currently pay H&R Block $20 each year to use
   their web-based system. Although designed for use by a browser, it is
   still MS oriented and marginal w/ Linux. I need some confidence that
   you guys know tax law though, since I really don't have time for an IRS
   audit. It may take a parnership with some one like Block to convince
   me, I'm afraid. I'd pay $40 a year for this.

3) Gnucash is by far the best non-geek-oriented app I have used. Great
   work guys. I much prefer it to Quicken and only miss the scheduled
   transaction feature.

Best regards,
Scott Wilburn

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Re: debits/credits and field names

[W. Scott Wilburn]

This will probably seem obvious to most of you and may even have been said
before, but anyway this thought helped me understand the debit/credit
labels, so I'll put it out in the (unlikely) case there is someone as slow
as I am.

If you think of all the institutions you have accounts with as your
customers, the debit/credit labels make sense. Two quick examples:

1. You're a bartender who allows his patrons to buy drinks on a tab.

   When you give a customer (Joe) somethink of value (a drink) this is a
   debit to his account (Joe's tab).

   When he gives you something of value (payment) this is a credit to his
   account.

2. You're an ordinary person with a bank account.

   When you give a customer (bank) somethink of value (your pay
   check) this is a debit to his (the bank's) account (checking).

   When he (the bank) gives you something of value (cash from ATM) this is
   a credit to his (the bank's) account (checking).


Sorry for the waste of bandwidth, but I couldn't help myself.

Best regards,
Scott Wilburn

Re: Titling of Register Columns

[W. Scott Wilburn]

I'd vote for this solution.

On Wed, 17 May 2000, Christopher Browne wrote:

> 
> I think this can be resolved by making the terminology a _CONFIGURABLE
> OPTION_.
> 
> The names are controlled in src/register/splitreg.c.  At this point,
> the associations are effectively "hard coded" in the C code.
> 
> The Way Out is to separate this, and provide a table in the configuration
> dialog that lets the Gentle User configure what names get used at runtime.
> Whether that means:
>   a) Pulling defaults from i8n database,
>   b) Proposing the "Naive User" set versus the "Pro Accountant" set versus
>  the "I'll fill in my own values for this!" set"
> I'm not sure.
> 
> I've only half thought this out; everyone feel free to improve on the
> strategy.
> 
> Please do so by consulting the file and suggesting what would be done
> _there_; we've had quite enough blathering about different Points Of
> View that there should be a reasonable set of options that could be
> mapped onto this...
> --
> "I've discovered  that P=NP, but the  proof is too long  to fit within
> the confines of this signature..."
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] - 
> 

Combining Files

[W. Scott Wilburn]

Is there a way to combine two .xac files? The accounts in each file are
different, so there is no need to combine accounts.

Best regards,
Scott Wilburn

Misleading Message/Bug

[W. Scott Wilburn]

I am using gnucash-1.3.7

When I specify a file on the command line with a non-existent path, I get
the "...appears to be in use by another user ... remove .LCK
file..." message box instead of the "...could not be found" message box
that appears if the path is valid, but the file doesn't exist.

Best regards,
Scott Wilburn

Documentation Suggestion

[W. Scott Wilburn]

I know you guys are busily coding (I can see the results), so you might
want to save this until someone takes another look at documentation.

It would be useful to have a detailed description of how each account type
differs. At present, the docs just describe the way they are intended to
be used. For example, what is different in the behavior of cash and bank
types? or stock and mutual fund?

This is really useful when I want to use a type for something not
described (like a kids allowance), or when I don't like the behavior of
the type intended (I track mutual funds by dollar value, not shares, so
bank type works better).

Best regards,
Scott Wilburn

Feedback

[W. Scott Wilburn]

I'm impressed by how quickly gnucash is coming a long. I am using it in
parallel with Quicken under wine and can easily see the day when I can
just use gnucash! Thought I would share my list of needed/desired
features, FWIW. I'm using 1.3.5.

Bugs


   I've only seen one. Seg fault when selecting copy transaction from
menu.


Needed Features
---

1. Split transactions. From some of the mail, it sounds like this may now
   exist.

2. Recurring transactions. Sounds like its in the works.


Desired Features


1. Better auto-completion. I don't have any specific requirements here,
   but anything to reduce typing is good. For example, Quicken auto
   completes the category and allows +/- keys to scroll alphabetically
   through memorized transactions.

2. Configurable fields at the bottom of the main window. While Assets is
   something useful for me, Profits is not. If I could define which
   accounts contribute to various sums and give them titles, i.e. Money On
   Hand = Checking + Credit Card, this would be nice (this was suggested
   by someone in a reply to an earlier question from me). Alternatively, a
   report that allows such user defined fields would do the job. Simple
   sums of selected accounts would do for me.


Keep up the good work! I think I'll be free of all vestiges of Windows
soon!

Best regards,
Scott Wilburn




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Re: Generic acct type needed?

[W. Scott Wilburn]

I like you're solution better. A window where one could define various
sums would serve as well.

On Thu, 16 Mar 2000, Dave Peticolas wrote:

> > I would like to be able to see the sum of my 'monthly' money
> > (checking minus credit card) separate from my 'long term' money (savings,
> > etc.) The easiest way I can think to do this is to parent the monthly
> > stuff to one account, the long term stuff to another. Unfortunately, none
> > of the existing account types allow both asset and liability type sub
> > accounts. Is a generic account type (like the top level account) needed,
> > or am I trying to do this the hard way?
>  
> I'm not sure if a generic account type is feasible or not.
> Another way to do this is to have a customizable 'summary'
> bar instead of fixed profits and assets sums the way we
> have now.
> 
> 
> dave
> 
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> 
> 
> 



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Generic acct type needed?

[W. Scott Wilburn]

I would like to be able to see the sum of my 'monthly' money
(checking minus credit card) separate from my 'long term' money (savings,
etc.) The easiest way I can think to do this is to parent the monthly
stuff to one account, the long term stuff to another. Unfortunately, none
of the existing account types allow both asset and liability type sub
accounts. Is a generic account type (like the top level account) needed,
or am I trying to do this the hard way?

BTW, I'm _really_ impressed with gnucash.

Scott Wilburn


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