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Bug 608098 - Option is hard to find: Change Transaction Report to show account names in multirow txn (instead of "split")
Option is hard to find: Change Transaction Report to show account names in mu...
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Product: GnuCash
Classification: Other
Component: Documentation
2.3.x
Other All
: Normal normal
: ---
Assigned To: Chris Lyttle
Chris Lyttle
: 547167 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
 
Reported: 2010-01-25 22:47 UTC by Andrew Ruthven
Modified: 2018-06-29 22:34 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: ---


Attachments
Example report (65.87 KB, image/jpeg)
2010-01-28 10:46 UTC, Andrew Ruthven
  Details
(Correct) Single style (47.63 KB, image/png)
2010-01-31 06:41 UTC, Andreas Köhler
  Details
(Correct) Multi-line style (71.16 KB, image/png)
2010-01-31 06:44 UTC, Andreas Köhler
  Details
Screenshot of new Display tab (55.05 KB, image/png)
2015-11-01 12:12 UTC, Geert Janssens
  Details
proposed patch (93.81 KB, patch)
2015-11-07 08:08 UTC, Chris Good
committed Details | Review

Description Andrew Ruthven 2010-01-25 22:47:33 UTC
If you generate a Transaction Report which includes split transactions, selecting the "multirow" format shows each line in the transaction but the "to account" is "split", not the actual "to account" as expected.

This has been confirmed in 2.3.8 by warlord.
Comment 1 Christian Stimming 2010-01-27 10:43:10 UTC
Sorry for asking again, but can you add a (small) screenshot illustrating what the problem is (i.e. what did you expect and what was shown instead)? Thanks!
Comment 2 Andrew Ruthven 2010-01-28 10:46:49 UTC
Created attachment 152476 [details]
Example report

Here is an example of the transaction report (I've blanked out the first two transactions).

As you can see each row in the multi-row transactions have "split" as the from/to account.  For the "Tournament Parking" entry I'd expect to see Liabilities:GST, Expenses:Miscellaneous and Liabilities:NZ Expense Claims in that order.
Comment 3 Andreas Köhler 2010-01-31 04:08:45 UTC
Unfortunately, I am unable to reproduce this bug, my transaction report shows the correct account column and "Split" as Other Account Name (Transfer from/to).
May you provide a sample data file and the accompanying book file (~/.gnucash/books/$filename) with the report page open?
Comment 4 Andrew Ruthven 2010-01-31 06:21:12 UTC
Congratulations, the "Split" means you managed to reproduce the bug.

I want to be able to display which accounts the money is going into, not just "Split" since it is obvious that we're dealing with a Split transaction.

Knowing the current account is meaningless since they're (by default) grouped by from account and date.
Comment 5 Andreas Köhler 2010-01-31 06:35:47 UTC
I think the Split string is simply correct. But my reports look different from yours, see the following attachments.
Comment 6 Andreas Köhler 2010-01-31 06:41:38 UTC
Created attachment 152661 [details]
(Correct) Single style

Every split is showed exactly once, namely in group of the account it is anchored in. The transfer from/to shows the other account of the txn related to the showed split if there is one (the txn is not "split", there are only two splits). Otherwise "Split" is printed.
Comment 7 Andreas Köhler 2010-01-31 06:44:35 UTC
Created attachment 152662 [details]
(Correct) Multi-line style

Every transaction is showed in the group of an account, if there it has at least one split anchored there. All its splits are showed, starting with the one anchored. The transfer from/to column shows the same values as in single style mode.
Comment 8 Andrew Ruthven 2010-01-31 07:32:28 UTC
Ah.

So to get the expected result you need to have "Account Name" ticked in the Display tab of the report settings.  I hadn't expected this since the transactions are group by account so I'd made an assumption that this would insert redundant information.

I guess I'll resolve this as not a bug.  But it is certainly non-intuitive!  Hopefully I'll remember the details in 6 months time which I next need to supply information to my accountant.

Thanks Andreas
Comment 9 Andreas Köhler 2010-01-31 15:10:47 UTC
Ah, now I understand.
You have not ticked "Account name", but only "Account number" and the other account name column is rather wide.
No bug, indeed.

BTW, it seems the default transaction report does not show account names or codes, so you chose to show them the way they are. What is non-intuitive about it then?
Comment 10 Christian Stimming 2010-02-03 08:12:37 UTC
Reopening as Documentation bug because this seems to hit other people as well. Does somebody have any proposals on how to improve the documentation (option names, option tooltips, ...) here?
Comment 11 Geert Janssens 2010-02-04 20:28:51 UTC
See also the thread on this topic that is currently weaving on the devel mailing list:
https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-devel/2010-February/027326.html

Documentation would help, but I think some enhancements to the report options dialog would help even more.

While explaining this on the list, I concluded for myself that in multi line style it is very confusing to have the "Other Account xyz" options. All the useful information in multiline mode is conveyed via the "Account xyz" options. For each split the relevant account will be displayed in the Account column.

The Other Account column can be displayed, but doesn't add any useful information:
- When the transaction has got only two splits, the other account column in the first split then has the same information as the account column in the second split and vice versa. This is only visual clutter, not additional information.
- When the transaction has got more than two splits, the other account column only displays "Split" for each line, which doesn't add additional information either.

So I would propose:
a. to rework the options dialog as follows:
   - move the "Style" option from the "General" tab to the "Display" tab
   - hide the checkboxes related to the "Other Account" if the "Style" option is set to "Multi line"
b. rework the report itself to never display the Transfer column (which is related to the "Other Account" settings) when the "Multi line" style is selected.
c. Update the documentation to better explain the difference between single line and multi line. My explanation in the above thread can be a starting point for this.
Comment 12 Chris Good 2015-09-26 08:38:18 UTC
http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Using_GnuCash#Displaying_Split_Account_Details_in_Transaction_Report has some good info from Derek Atkins.
Comment 13 Chris Good 2015-09-27 08:53:35 UTC
I'm working on documenting this.
Comment 14 Geert Janssens 2015-10-10 17:26:52 UTC
For your information, I have implemented my proposal in comment 11 in master.

So that version will work slightly differently from the version in 2.6.x and earlier.

As for a. I have moved the options as proposed and renamed it to "Detail Level". I can't "hide" the checkboxes related to "Other Account" but they will be disabled instead. Unfortunately bug 647805 interferes slightly with this in that switching the active state fails for a couple of times when using the "Apply" button.

I'll leave part c. for our great documentation writers :)
Comment 15 Chris Good 2015-10-31 04:33:15 UTC
Hi Geert,

Between which fields is the Detail Level now on the Display tab?
Comment 16 Chris Good 2015-10-31 19:20:13 UTC
Hi Geert,

And so I can document, what will be the first version to have your mods?
Comment 17 Geert Janssens 2015-11-01 12:12:44 UTC
Created attachment 314578 [details]
Screenshot of new Display tab

Chris, the "Detail level" option on the "Display Tab" will be between "Account Code" and "Other Account Name". See also the attached screenshot.

The first (stable) version of GnuCash with this change will be 2.8.0. There will also be a series of 2.7.x "beta" releases, which will also have this option already.
Comment 18 Chris Good 2015-11-07 08:08:13 UTC
Created attachment 315027 [details] [review]
proposed patch

Updated the Help documentation to describe all the report options and how to report on transactions with splits.
Comment 19 Chris Good 2015-11-07 08:09:14 UTC
I've included the screen dump supplied by Geert.
Also included is Help_Report_Screen.png which was found to need a change of dpi by the adjust-dpi script.

Re the Single/Multiline options:
I have borrowed extensively from Geert's comments in the mailing list as he suggested in comment 11, and also from Derek's wiki:
http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Using_GnuCash#Displaying_Split_Account_Details_in_Transaction_Report
for which I requested and gained his permission.

Please let me know if you think I should also include the 2 correct example reports as attached to this bug? (and it is OK by you, Andreas Köhler).
Comment 20 Geert Janssens 2015-11-08 11:47:18 UTC
(In reply to Chris Good from comment #18)
> Created attachment 315027 [details] [review] [review]
> proposed patch
> 
> Updated the Help documentation to describe all the report options and how to
> report on transactions with splits.

Nice patch! This is a very good addition to the help section.

A few minor issues:

* Other Account Name — For split transactions, this parameter is guessed

As far as I understand this is not correct and the remainder of your text explains this differently as well. To start, all transactions are split transactions. I presume you are referring to transactions with more than two splits. And then the parameter is not guessed, in 2.6 and earlier, this sets the transfer column to "Split" and is ignored in 2.8 and up. You explain this properly in the remainder of your text, but this short description doesn't align with that and can cause confusion.

* The text reads as if it's targeted at both 2.6.x and 2.8.x users. So I was confused whether or not you intended it to be applied for both versions of the documentation or not (we keep separate branches for 2.6 and future 2.8 documentation). As most of the information is valid for both versions that would be a sensible thing to do. I would however not talk about future features on the 2.6.x version and reduce mention of differences with older versions on the 2.8.x version. Is that ok with you ?
Comment 21 Chris Good 2015-11-14 06:49:50 UTC
Hi Geert,

Thanks for the comments.

Re Other Account Name:
Yes, I meant to update that but it got left as the mouse-over text. I'll fix it.

Re 2.6 or 2.8:
I intended it to be applied to both. I always look at the latest documentation, as often it also applies to older versions. So long as it clear when the new feature starts, I think it is good not to have to look in multiple places. I think mentioning future features encourages users to upgrade. There seems to be many users running very old versions. If you strongly feel that is the wrong way to go, I'll create 2 separate patches.
Comment 22 Geert Janssens 2015-11-14 17:39:53 UTC
Thank you for your feedback. I agree most of the documentation benefits both the current stable as the development series of gnucash. So I'm all for applying documentation to both branches as much as possible.

I also think however it may be confusing to read when an option is handled differently in two versions and both ways are explained. The user is only using one version (especially true now that future version 2.8 is not released just yet). So I prefer to limit information to what is relevant to the version the documentation targets.

I don't mind making minor references to future or past changes.

So I have chosen to apply your patch in that sense: most of your patch has been applied to both branches. The option explanations for "Style" vs "Detail Level" are only added to the version they are relevant for, with a small note about the name change in the other version.

Unless you find issues in my changes in my commits, I consider this bug closed. In the other case, feel free to send in a fix.

Thanks again for your patch.
Comment 23 Geert Janssens 2015-12-18 16:18:36 UTC
*** Bug 547167 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 24 John Ralls 2018-06-29 22:34:06 UTC
GnuCash bug tracking has moved to a new Bugzilla host. This bug has been copied to https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=608098. Please update any external references or bookmarks.