GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 708941
Some transactions have blank entry in one account but are fine in other
Last modified: 2018-06-29 23:19:31 UTC
Created attachment 255946 [details] 1 Expense account balance is incorrect I just happened to come across an issue where I noticed that one side of a transaction is blank while the other side is fine. This blank amount causes the balance of that particular account to be incorrect, which obviously completely defeats the purpose of using GnuCash. I am using GnuCash v2.4.13 on Mac OSX v10.8.5 Mountain Lion. I have found several transactions with this same problem, and the one common factor seems to be that there is an exchange rate involved between them (one in USD and the other in CAD). So normally I import transactions from a CSV file into say my USD Bank Account register. Once they are imported, I open this register/account (its a BANK ACCOUNT in this case). I then manually go thru each transaction and change the Transfer from Imbalance to the appropriate EXPENSE account. If it involves different currencies the Exchange Rate dialog will open up, and I will set either the Exchange Rate to the To Amount as required. In the case of the example I will show you, you will the Exchange Rate is set to 1.0. I will be adding 5 images ... Image 1.png shows the Expense accounts and its incorrect balance. Image 2.png shows the blank transaction entry in the CAD expense account. Image 3.png shows other side of transaction (original) in the USD bank account. This is where the transaction was originally imported in. Image 4.png shows the dialog when I click Edit Exchange Rate on original USD transaction, showing exchange rate of 1.0. Image 5.png show the dialog when I click Edit Exchange Rate on the blank side transaction in CAD expense account.
Created attachment 255947 [details] 2
Created attachment 255948 [details] 3
Created attachment 255949 [details] 4
Created attachment 255950 [details] 5
Please show #2 in Splits view.
When I opened the Edit Exchange Rate on original USD transaction and clicked OK, it actually fixed the problem, so I will have to wait until I notice it happens again before I can get a split view of the blank transaction.
OK. Since you seem to be routinely dealing in two currencies, you might consider enabling trading accounts in preferences. See http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Trading_Accounts Doesn't the CSV importer run the transaction matcher? That's a more convenient way to set the balancing accounts than going through the Imbalances account afterwards.
Okay the problem has happened again, and I have NOT fixed it yet ... I will leave the issue until you get enough information to track down the bug. FYI I had many issues with transaction matcher so I prefer to import, then manually go thru and assign Imbalance to the proper account. I have taken some new screenshots of the current issue: 1A - original line in USD side where transction is imported into. 1B - same line in split mode. 1C - when I click on Edit Exchange for the line (not in split mode). 2A - original line that appears in CAD in other account when it was assigned. 2B - same line in split mode. 2C - when I click on Edit Exchange for the line (not in split mode). NOTE that when I use JUMP it correctly jumps back and forth between these two transactions. Uploading screenshots below...
Created attachment 258747 [details] 1A USD single line transaction
Created attachment 258748 [details] 1B USD split
Created attachment 258749 [details] 1C USD Edit Exchange
Created attachment 258750 [details] 2A CAD line
Created attachment 258751 [details] 2B split
Created attachment 258752 [details] 2C CAD edit exchange
Bug 736703 reported a similar problem, and I wonder if this might be the same thing. I found that I'm able to replicate the problem in bug 736703 if there's a mismatch between the system currency and the account currency. Can you check your disappearing amounts transactions to see if there's a similar mismatch?
I have not it happen for quite a while now, and have updated to newer versions a couple times since then as well, so it is possible it was fixed in one of these newer releases. One common factor though is that it only happened when currency exchange was involved. The main currency for the file is in CAD dollars, but it always involved USD accounts.
OK. I think it's a similar issue, but at a different point. The CSV importer can only import to one account, and in only one currency, and that's going to be the currency for the account it imports into. The counter-account is going to be Imbalance-CUR, where CUR is the code for whatever that account currency is. In your case it will probably be CAD. So your problem probably happened when you changed the account from Imbalance-CAD to a USD-denominated account. In that case in 2.6 the transfer dialog pops up with a default value of 0, but if you accept that it will change it to 1. Perhaps in 2.4 it wasn't bringing up the transfer dialog; we fixed several bugs in that area just before releasing 2.6.0 last December. I'm going to close this as fixed, but if you encounter the problem again please reopen it.
Reassign version to 2.4.x so that individual 2.4 versions can be retired.
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