Re: [GNC] Request for Automatic Reconciliation Function
GnuCash Developers and Maintainers:
Thanks for your suggestion.
Yours,
Bite Gao
Jan 8th, 2023
On 2023/1/8 6:30, Gyle McCollam wrote:
I agree John, this is as close as you need to get to automatic reconciliation.
The only items you need to look at are the ones that don't match and Gnucash
would have no way of knowing what is correct.
Thank You,
Gyle McCollam
Gyle McCollam
gmccol...@live.com<mailto:gmccol...@gyleshomes.com> email
From: gnucash-user on behalf of
John Layman
Sent: Saturday, January 7, 2023 10:35 AM
To: 'Jim DeLaHunt' ; gnucash-user@gnucash.org
Subject: Re: [GNC] Request for Automatic Reconciliation Function
GnuCash already provides the nearest thing resembling "automatic" reconciliation. It
requires periodically downloading and importing account activity from the bank to mark which
transactions have 'cleared'. Then, in reconciliation, GnuCash automatically 'ticks' the cleared
transactions. Nine times out of ten in my experience, this reconciles the account with the bank
statement. There is no logical way to "automagically" reconcile discrepancies.
-Original Message-
From: gnucash-user On
Behalf Of Jim DeLaHunt
Sent: Friday, January 6, 2023 8:35 PM
To: gnucash-user@gnucash.org
Subject: Re: [GNC] Request for Automatic Reconciliation Function
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 institutio
Re: [GNC] Request for Automatic Reconciliation Function
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. ___ 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. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
Re: [GNC] Request for Automatic Reconciliation Function
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 manual 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.
Yours,
Bite, Gao
Jan 6th, 2023
On 2023/1/5 12:03, Liz Dodd Wrote:
On Wed, 4 Jan 2023 15:42:41 +0800
Bite Gao wrote:
GnuCash Developers and Maintainers:
Hello! While your software has done many tedious jobs previously
done by
accountants manually, it cannot automatically reconcile its
accounting data
to the bank statement in its digital form. In my opinion, the
automation of
reconciliation is not only efficient but also accurate since it
reduces human-caused errors.
I would appreciate you a lot if you could add an
auto-reconciliation function to your software.
Yours,
Bite Gao
Jan 4th, 2023
Bite, this is an interesting idea, but to me reconciliation requires
human input.
While I manually reconcile, I have to attend to pending transactions,
for example a payment made on a card which never is taken from the bank
account. At what time do I take that from the active list? Where will I
put the the never finished transactions?
A number which is different in my list to the banks? How will I check
for the correct number? When do I contact the bank?
They are human decisions, different in each jurisdiction.
They are the reason I reconcile - not to have my numbers the same as
the banks, but to see the discrepancies and decide on an action.
Could you please describe more what you want from automated
reconciliation? Your statement about "human-caused errors" implies that
reconciliation introduces errors rather than highlights them.
Liz
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[GNC] Request for Automatic Reconciliation Function
GnuCash Developers and Maintainers: Hello! While your software has done many tedious jobs previously done by accountants manually, it cannot automatically reconcile its accounting data to the bank statement in its digital form. In my opinion, the automation of reconciliation is not only efficient but also accurate since it reduces human-caused errors. I would appreciate you a lot if you could add an auto-reconciliation function to your software. Yours, Bite Gao Jan 4th, 2023 ___ 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.
