Wouldn't it be great if you can leverage the effort you had earlier put in to get this type of transaction just right? The good folks developing GnuCash have thought of all that and have just the solution for you the ability to take an entire transaction and make a duplicate.
- Place the cursor anywhere in the split transaction we created for sales tax in the earlier tutorial.
- Go to Transaction | Duplicate Transaction or right-click and select Duplicate Transaction.
- A dialog called Duplicate Transaction will prompt for a new Date and Number for the transaction. Select a Date and enter 83791 in the Number field:
- Click on OK to add the transaction to the register.
- Edit the transaction so that the new description is Gaming PC, the new check amount is $630, the new Sales amount is $600, and the new sales tax is $30.
Note to self. At the next appointment, should ask the dentist whether there is a way to painlessly duplicate the previous root canal surgery instead of going through the suffering all over again.
GnuCash has several options to change the way the register looks so that transactions can be seen with more details or in a concise view. The default style is the Basic Ledger. This presents a single line view of transactions to allow the most concise view with all the relevant details.
The default view or style can be changed by going to the View menu. Three submenus will allow you to select the desired option.
- Basic Ledger: The default one line per transaction style. Splits are shown as a summary.
- Auto-split Ledger: This style will automatically expand the splits in any transaction selected.
- Transaction Journal: This style expands all transactions so the complete transaction can be seen.
Note
When you are in the Basic Ledger view, the Split toolbar button and Actions | Split Transaction menu are enabled. However, when you are in any of the other two views, these are superfluous and so will be disabled.
When the window closes, the style will revert to the Basic Ledger style. To make this change permanent, change the style in the Edit | Preferences | Register Defaults in the Register display.
- Double Line: Select from the menu View | Double Line, and you will see your transaction line expand to two lines. In addition to the Description line, you can now see the Notes line as well. This helps you enter extra notes, in addition to the brief description of the transaction.
The two other options to change the view of the register are:
- To restrict displayed items with the View | Filter By ....
- Changing the sort order View | Sort By....
Note
If you use filtering, don't forget to go back to the Filter by… dialog and select Show all. I keep hearing about too many people who view a filtered list and later panic thinking that they lost some transactions.
Be careful about which register view you are on while doing a delete. If you're in the Basic Ledger view, GnuCash will delete the selected transaction. However, if you're in one of the expanded views, then it depends on which line you're on. On the summary transaction line, it will ask you whether you want to delete this transaction. On a split line, it will ask you whether you want to delete this split. On the anchor split line, it won't allow you to delete. Instead, you will get this warning:
The anchor split line is the line showing the amount associated with the account that is open. For example, in the tutorial on entering a split transaction above, we are seeing a split transaction in the Checking Account register. The first partial line below the transaction line showing a deposit of $840 in the Checking Account is the anchor split line.
You might want to record notes and memos with the transaction data to help explain transactions as well as to group and organize information. You might want to keep notes on why a particular expense was incurred. For example, tax consultants advise businesses, when recording business entertainment expenses, to be sure to keep good records on who was present, the dates and times, and the reasons for the entertainment and business discussions that took place. They say this is "must have" information in case you are ever audited by the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
These notes are also helpful in other ways. You can search for transactions using text in these fields. You can also sort transactions in the account register by using any of these fields. You can opt to print these fields in reports as well.
There are five places for you to enter such text information; three of those Description, Notes, and Num are transaction fields. The other two, Action and Memo, are associated with each split.
As we saw earlier, the Description field is available always in the account register in the same line as the date.
The Notes field is only available when you enable the "double line" mode. Note that this notes field is what gets printed on a check.
You can use the Num field for Transaction Number, Check Number, Receipt Number, or another similar purpose. You can enter alpha-numeric text, as needed.
Tip
Using the Num field for sorting transactions
You can use the Num field to enter a serial number for all transactions in an account within a given date. By default, the account register sorts the transactions by date and, within a given date, by the Num filed. This is one possible way of using the Num field.
The Action field is only available when you expand the transaction using the "Split" button or in Auto-split Ledger and Transaction Journal views.
The action field has a drop-down list of suggested entries for different account types. However, you need not be restricted to this list. If the list doesn't meet your needs, go ahead and enter other text as desired.
Tip
Example of using Action field
For example, you might want to keep track of Auto:Gas expenses marking Action as 'Local', 'Richmond', and 'Other'. This will help you filter transactions and create reports for gas expenses incurred on trips to Richmond. If the gas expenses under this category exceed a particular threshold, you intend to consider moving your offices to Richmond.
- What will you do to view or edit notes in a transaction?
a. View Basic Ledger
b. View Auto-split Ledger
c. View Transaction Journal
d. View Double Line