# Common Transaction Operations

A transaction represents the movement of money from one account to another account. Whenever you spend or receive money, or transfer money between accounts, that is a transaction. In &app; transactions always involve at least two accounts.

&app; uses accounts as a way of grouping or organizing the recording of transactions. This section describes the methods &app; has to help enter transactions quickly into the register.

&app; has several methods available for entering transactions.

- Entering directly into the register window is the most common way of entering transactions.

- Using the Transfer Funds window .

- Importing transactions either from a file or via on-line banking.

## Transfer Funds Dialog Box

The Transfer Funds Dialog Box, accessed via Actions Transfer... or its shortcut or by pressing the Transfer icon from the account register tab, serves two purposes in &app;:

- A way to create a simple (i.e. two-split) transaction between arbitrary accounts.

- Collect exchange rate or amount information in a multi-currency transaction (see trans-currency-enter).

The Basic Information and Transfer Accounts panes will be disabled in the Transfer Funds dialog when it is being used only to collect exchange rate or amount information.

### Basic Information

The Basic Information section collects the entries for constructing a transaction: Date, description, amount, etc.

- Amount: The amount of the transaction in the Transfer Fromaccount's commodity.

- Date: The posting date for the transaction, i.e. the date that you want to record it in your book.

- Num: A reference number for the transaction, often a check number.

- Description: The description of the transaction, often the payer or payee.

- Memo: Additional information you might want to note about the transaction. Anything entered here will be added to the Memo fields of both splits.

### Transfer Accounts

The Transfer From and Transfer To tree views are used to select the accounts which will participate in the transaction. They normally show only Asset and Liability accounts. If you need to use an Income or Expense account in one of them, check the Show Income/Expense checkbox below the appropriate view.

- Choose the Transfer From account.

- Choose the Transfer To account.

### Currency Transfer

The Currency Transfer pane is used to collect the needed information to enter the amount of the Transfer To split. You may enter either a price or an amount and &app; will compute the other. If you have Online Price Retrieval installed (see Online-price-setup) you can use the Fetch Rate button to retrieve a current quote.

The Currency Transfer pane is enabled only if the selected accounts use different commodities or the Transfer Funds dialog was launched to collect price or amount information from editing a transaction in the register.

The Currency Transfer pane is organized as a radio group with two selections, Exchange Rate and To Amount. Each consists of a radio button and a numeric entry.

If a relevant price is available in the price database (see invest-stockprice-manual) the Exchange Rate will have that as a default entry.

- Select the Exchange Rate radio button if you want to enter a price or use the Fetch Rate button.

- Select the To Amount radio button if you want to enter the amount of the To Account split.

- Enter the price/exchange rate or the amount in the numeric entry corresponding to radio button you selected. &app; will calculate the other amount for you when you exit the field. If it's enabled you can use the Fetch Rate button to retrieve a current quote.

If you have created a price in the Price Editor (see invest-stockprice-manual) for the current date quote retrieval will not update that price. You must first delete the manually-created price in the Price Editor before clicking the Fetch Rate button.

The Fetch Rate button will immediately create or replace a price in the Price Editor unless there is an existing manually-created price for today.

### Finishing Up

Select OK to commit the transaction (or confirm the price/amount) or Cancel to dismiss the dialog without entering the transaction.

When committing a transaction or confirming an exchange rate the price on the transaction date in the Price Editor may be updated. See tool-price for details.

## Enter Transaction via register

When the Account Register Window for an account is opened the list of transactions for that account is shown. This window has the name of the account on its tab. The menus contain several functions that alter the display of transactions. The Toolbar also contains several functions that are often used when entering or manipulating transactions. These are described in the account-register section of this document.

### Entering Directly in the Register Window

The register window will look slightly different depending on the style options you have chosen. The following describes entering simple transactions in the basic ledger style. The cursor is placed in the date field by default when the register window is opened.

When working on transactions in &app;, be aware that the Enter key and the Tab key behave differently, and perform different actions.

The Enter key moves to the first field of the next split, regardless of which field you are in. If there is no next split, proceeds to the next transaction. In any case, Enter finishes the transaction edit, and any imbalance is posted to Imbalance-CUR, where CUR is the currency of the transaction.

The Tab key moves to the next field in the current split. If it's the last field, moves to the next split, creating a new one if there isn't one. If the split is blank, the Tab key finishes the transaction and posts any imbalance to Imbalance-CUR, as above.

1. Selecting the small icon on the right of the date field drops down a date selection calendar. Use the arrows to select the correct month and year for the transaction then select the date. Selecting the icon once more will close the date selection calendar. It is also possible to type in the date or part of the date and let &app; fill the rest.

2. Press Tab to move to or select the Num field. Here you can enter a check or transaction number. Pressing + (plus) will automatically advance the number by one from the last transaction to have a number.

3. Press Tab to move or select the Description field. This field is used to enter either a payee or other description for the transaction. It will automatically attempt to fill the payee name as you type.

4. At this stage one of two things will happen if tab is pressed. If &app; matches an existing transaction the cursor will jump to one of the amount fields, automatically filling in the transfer account. Selecting any field with the mouse instead of tabbing will not automatically fill the transferring account field. If there is no matching (existing) transaction, &app; will move the cursor to the Transfer field with only one line of the transaction supplied.

5. Accounts may be selected either by typing them in or by pressing the small button on the right of the Transfer field, which will display a pick list of all non-placeholder accounts. Note that this pick list will still display hidden accounts. If you have hidden an account in your chart of accounts, you may want to set the account also to be a placeholder account so that it doesn't display here.

   When typing, &app; will fill in available accounts as you type. For example, if you have Equity and Expenses top-level accounts, typing E will fill in Equity because it sorts before Expenses. Continuing to type x will present Expenses the account separator (: by default, see prefs-accountsAccount Preferences about changing it) will accept the currently offered account so that you can start typing the name of a child account.

6. The next field (R) is used for reconciliation. This is described in the Reconcile an Account to a Statement section. acct-reconcile

7. Press the Tab key to move to the first of the amount fields. The names of the next two columns are different according to what type of account is opened. For example, Bank accounts show Deposit and Withdrawal here, Credit Card accounts show Payment and Charge, and Stock accounts show Shares, Price, Buy and Sell.

8. Enter an amount for the transaction in the correct fields. When the transaction is "balanced" pressing the Enter key, selecting the Enter icon or going to Transaction Enter Transaction will finish the transaction. Selecting the Cancel icon or going to Transaction Cancel Transaction will erase the transaction.

9. Transactions with just one transfer account will show the name of that account in the Transfer field in completed transactions. (The Transfer field is the fourth (4) from the left in the register display.)

10. To move to the blank transaction at the bottom of the register, press the Blank Toolbar icon or go to Actions Blank Transaction.

## Multiple Split Transactions

The register window will look slightly different depending on the style options you have chosen. The following describes entering transactions with multiple splits in the basic ledger style. &app; describes as a Split when money is transferred to or from more than two accounts in a transaction. The cursor is placed in the date field by default when the register window is opened.

The multiple account lines will not be displayed in the Basic Ledger unless the Split icon or the Action Split Transaction option have been selected.

1. Selecting the triangle icon on the right of the date field drops down a date selection dialog. Use the arrows to select the correct month and year for the transaction then select the date. Selecting the icon once more will close the date selection calendar. It is also possible to type in the date or part of the date and let &app; fill the rest.

2. Press Tab to move to or select the Num field. Here you can enter a check or transaction number. Pressing + (plus) will automatically advance the number by one from the last transaction to have a number.

3. Press Tab to move to or select the Description field. This field is used to enter either a payee or other description for the transaction. It will automatically attempt to fill the payee name as you type.

4. At this stage one of two things will happen if tab is pressed. If &app; matches an existing transaction the cursor will jump to one of the amount fields, automatically filling in the transfer account. Selecting any field with the mouse instead of tabbing will not automatically fill the transferring account field. If there is no matching (existing) transaction, &app; will move the cursor to the Transfer field with only one line of the transaction supplied.

5. When typing in the Transfer field &app; will also attempt to automatically match the account. It does this alphabetically, so typing Ex will match the Expenses section of the account list. When the section is matched, it is possible to move to a child account by pressing : (colon). If after typing Ex you press : then the cursor will move to the first child account in the list. Typing combinations of letters and : will allow movement down the tree of accounts quickly. The small icon on the right of the Transfer field can be used as an alternate way of selecting accounts.

6. The next field is used for reconciliation. This is described in acct-reconcile

7. Press Tab to move to the first of the amount fields. The names of the next two columns are different according to what type of account is opened. For example, Bank accounts show Deposit and Withdrawal here, Credit Card accounts show Payment and Charge, and Stock accounts show Shares, Price, Buy and Sell.

8. Enter the total amount for the transaction in the correct field. Before pressing Tab or Enter read next step.

9. To enter the additional splits, press the Split button on the Toolbar or select Actions Split Transaction. Transactions with more than one split show the text --Split Transaction-- and the Split button will need to be used to show the details.

10. The display will expand, the titles of the amount columns will be renamed and the Transfer column name will be blank. The first line contains the description and the amount of the transaction. The second line contains the currently opened account name in the Account field and the amount of the transaction. The third line contains the transfer account name in the Account field. If the amount is not balanced, &app; will indicate this by placing gray check-boxes in the amount columns with the unbalanced amount in a blank last row.

11. When one of the short lines is selected, the column titles will change. The very first and last (Date and Balance) columns will have blank titles. Num will change to Action, Description to Memo, the now blank Transfer column will change to Account. The last two amount columns will show the name described in step seven.

12. The Action and Memo columns are optional to fill out at this stage. Action is used to describe what kind of account transfer is involved. Memo is an additional description of the transfer.

13. Move to the missing amount field on the third line and fill in the amount. Pressing the Enter key, selecting the Enter icon or going to Actions Enter will now move the cursor to the next line.

14. The Account column contains the list of transfer accounts. This column is the one that is used to add splits. The method described in step five can be used to select another account on a blank line. Add as many additional splits as needed.

15. When the transaction is balanced the gray check-boxes will disappear and the last blank line will not have an amount.

16. Pressing Enter as described above will jump to the next transaction. Selecting the next transaction will close the split or it can be manually closed by pressing the Split icon or selecting Actions Split Transaction.

## Multiple Currency/Commodity Transactions

Any transaction that has splits whose accounts are denominated in different commodities (currencies are a subset of commodities) requires an exchange rate to convert between the two. For more information please see Chapter 10 of the Tutorial and Concepts Guide.

Registers for accounts of type STOCK or FUND display four columns, Shares, Price, Buy, and Sell (the last two will be Credit and Debit respectively if you've enabled Use formal accounting labels in the Accounts tab of Preferences). Enter any two and &app; will calculate the other for you; if you enter 3 and the result doesn't balance &app; will ask which one to change to make the split balance.

Registers of other types have only Credit and Debit (the names will be different depending on the account type if you haven't enabled Use formal accounting labels) and so use the Transfer Dialog with most of the fields disabled to collect either an Exchange Rate or a To Amount (the amount in the other currency/comodity). Please see (trans-win-price) for details of using this dialog.

When committing a transaction or confirming an exchange rate the price on the transaction date in the Price Editor may be updated. See tool-price for details.

## Editing a Transaction

Editing a transaction involves just selecting the part of the transaction that needs to be changed. Once the changes are complete pressing the Enter key, selecting the Enter icon or going to Transaction Enter Transaction will now move the cursor to the next line or transaction.

To see a more detailed view of a transaction for editing in Basic Ledger, press the Split button on the Toolbar or select Actions Split Transaction.

## Deleting a Transaction

If a transaction needs to be removed from the register, select the transaction and press either the Delete icon on the Toolbar or go to Transaction Delete Transaction. A window will appear to confirm the delete, unless the preference has been changed. The window presents two options; "Remember and don’t ask again", and "Remember and don’t ask again this session". The response will be set according to the selected checkbox. The preference can also be reset via Actions Reset Warnings. reset-warning.

Parts of a transaction can also be removed by pressing the Split button on the Toolbar or selecting Actions Split Transaction. The part of the transaction that needs to be deleted can be then selected for deletion.

## Add Reversing Transaction

In formal accounting, transactions should never be deleted or altered. Instead, when a mistake is made, the original transaction remains in the ledger, and a reversing transaction is added to the ledger. This reversing transaction restores the ledger to its state before the error, allowing the user to enter the transaction again correctly.

While a user can certainly enter reversing transactions manually, &app; includes a menu option (Transaction Add Reversing Transaction) that can quickly create the reversing transaction for you. This option only appears when you are in an account register. When you are in the transaction that needs to be reversed, all you need to do is select this menu item, and a duplicate transaction that reverses the active transaction is immediately created.

Once you choose the menu item, a reversing transaction is immediately created in the account using the current date. You may wish to locate the new transaction at the end of the register, and add explanatory notes to it.

## Removing Transaction Splits

Removing Transaction Splits involves erasing all splits except the one for the account that is opened. This is a useful way of reusing a previous transaction that has multiple splits that need to be changed. (Note this can be done without opening the split, but doing so makes the effect more visible)

1. If in Basic Ledger, press the Split button on the Toolbar or select Actions Split Transaction to open the transaction. If in other modes select transaction.

2. Select Transaction Remove Transaction Splits.

   A window will appear to confirm the delete, unless the preference has been changed. The window presents two options; "Remember and don’t ask again", and "Remember and don’t ask again this session". The response will be set according to the selected checkbox. The preference can also be reset via Actions Reset Warnings. reset-warning.

3. All Accounts and their related details will be removed except for the currently opened account.

4. The amount is not balanced and &app; will indicate this by placing gray check-boxes in the amount columns with the unbalanced amount in the blank last row.

5. Edit the transaction to fill in the new details.

## Copying a Transaction

Copying Transactions is available from the Transaction menu. The Transaction menu has Cut Transaction, Copy Transaction and Paste Transaction which allows a whole transaction to be cut or copied and pasted to a new transaction line. This way of copying a transaction will use the date showing in the new transaction blank line.

The Transaction Duplicate Transaction... or the Toolbar Duplicate which, unlike the Copy method, allows for choosing a different date.

- Select the transaction to duplicate.

- Go to Transaction Duplicate Transaction...

- A dialog called Duplicate Transaction will prompt for a new Date and Num for the transaction.

- Press OK to add the transaction to the register.

## Setting the reconcile status (R field) of a transaction

In the &app; register there is a column named R. This field indicates the status of a transaction. Possible values are:

n

- Default status when a transaction is created

c

- Cleared. Status may be assigned either manually or by an import process.

y

- Status assigned solely by the reconciliation process (see acct-reconcile). Places limits optionally requiring confirmation on editing fields in that line of a transaction.

f

- Frozen. Not implemented at this time

v

- Voided. Status is assigned or released manually through the transaction menu (Trans-transaction-menu) to a transaction and applies to every line in the transaction. It hides most of the transaction details but does not delete them. When a transaction is voided a reason entry is required that appears to the right of the transaction notes. The notes and void reason will only be visible when you have enabled View Double Line.

## Jump to another Account Register

When using the Account Register Window it is frequently useful to be able to view another account and also the transfer account at the same time. &app; allows you to do this quickly by using the Jump button available in the Toolbar or the Actions Jump menu item in the Account Register Window.

Select the transaction in the Account Register Window and either click the Jump icon or select Actions Jump to open the Account Register Window target. If the transaction is split between more than one transfer account then you will need to show all the split transfer accounts first and select the transfer account to jump to.

## Scheduling Transactions

Scheduled Transactions provide the ability to have reminders scheduled or transactions scheduled to be entered at a specified date. This is combined with the Since Last Run assistant (trans-sched-slr) to review and enter the transactions. The Mortgage & Loan Repayment assistant (trans-sched-loans) is used to setup a scheduled transaction to repay a compounding interest loan. The Scheduled Transaction Editor (sched-editor) is used to create and edit transactions that are to be added to the register in an automated way.

The easiest way to setup a scheduled transaction is to use an existing transaction in an account register as a template. Select the transaction you wish to use as a template and then either select the Schedule icon on the Toolbar or go to Actions Schedule.... This will bring up the Make Scheduled Transaction dialog.

- Name: Enter a name to use for the scheduled transaction. This will be used in the Description field of the transaction.

- Frequency: Choose the time period you want between scheduled entries. The dates that the transactions will be entered will show in the mini calendar pane to the right.

- Start Date: Choose a date for the scheduled transaction to start.

- Never End: This scheduled transaction has no finish date.

- End Date: Choose a date for the scheduled transaction to end.

- Number of Occurrences: Enter the number of times you wish the scheduled transaction to be added to the register.

The Advanced... button brings up the Scheduled Transaction Editor’s dialog to Edit the Scheduled Transaction. This is described in the section Scheduled Transaction Editor. sched-editor

### Scheduled Transactions Window

The Scheduled Transactions Window is used to access the list of scheduled transactions and create, edit or remove them. It also provides a calendar which displays upcoming scheduled transactions. Clicking on the calendar view and hovering over any date will pop up a small dialog that shows the transactions scheduled for that day. The yellow highlight in the calendar indicates which days have scheduled transactions. To dismiss the hover dialog click once more.

The top pane of the Scheduled Transaction Window contains the list of scheduled transactions that are currently setup. This window lists the Name of the transaction, if the transaction is enabled for scheduling, the Frequency (month and day) that the transaction is to be entered, the last time the transaction was entered and the next time the transaction will be entered.

The right side of this pane contains a down arrow button that when clicked will pull-down a window to allow selection of the characteristics displayed in the list. Unchecking the appropriate box will remove the characteristic from the display.

The Toolbar of this window contains three buttons to create, delete and edit scheduled transactions. New and Edit buttons opens the Edit Scheduled Transaction dialog. Delete removes the selected scheduled transaction. The same options are available thru Schedule New/Edit/Delete, from the Scheduled Transaction Tab.

Below the list of scheduled transactions is the Upcoming calendar. This calendar displays up to the next year and highlights the dates that the scheduled transactions are scheduled to occur so it is easy to see when the transactions are scheduled. Clicking on a date in the calendar brings up a list of scheduled transactions for that date. Moving the mouse over other dates changes to the list of transactions on those dates. Clicking once more on the calendar removes the transaction list.

The Scheduled Transaction Window is activated from the Account tab or the Transaction Register via Actions Scheduled Transaction Scheduled Transaction Editor....

## Edit Scheduled Transaction Window

The Edit Scheduled Transaction Window is divided into a Name area, Options area, Occurrences area, Recurrence Frequency area, mini calendar and Template Transaction pane.

The Name field is used to enter the name for the scheduled transaction. This will be used in the Description of the transaction.

The Options area contains check-boxes to set if the transaction is automatically created and how many days in advance the transaction is created and/or a reminder posted.

The Occurrences area contains selections to set for dates limits on transactions to be entered or the number of transactions to be entered.

The Recurrence Frequency area contains selections to set how often the transaction is scheduled to be added and on what dates this occurs.

The mini calendar provides a visual indication of what transactions are already scheduled.

The Template Transaction pane allows you to setup the transaction as you would like it to be entered into the register.

These options are described in more detail in trans-sched

- From the Scheduled Transaction tab selecting a transaction from the list and pressing the Edit or New buttons will bring up the Edit Scheduled Transaction Editor.

## Printing Checks

Checks are printed in &app; from the account register. &app; provides the ability to print to several standard Quicken Checks (including US Letter) or to make a custom check format. Check position and Date formats are also customizable.

To print a single check in &app;, select the transaction to print a check for and go to File Print Checks. This will open the Print Checks properties dialog to print the selected transaction.

To print multiple checks in &app; execute a search to find the transactions you wish to print. With the search results window as the front window go to File Print Checks. This will open the Print Checks properties dialog to print all the transactions in the search results window.

The Print Checks dialog has two tabs. The first tab, Options, is used to setup the most common options to print a check. The second tab, Custom format, is used to setup the position of various fields on the check. It is useful to print a test check to a plain piece of paper first and use that to make any adjustments needed.

The default selection in Options is for Quicken/Quickbooks (tm) US-Letter checks.

- Check format: Test with Quicken first then use custom if the position is incorrect.

- Check position: This sets if the Top, Middle or Bottom check is printed. Custom is used if the position of the checks on the page is incorrect.

- Date format: The default here is set in the Preferences International section. Choose a date format. This can also be adjusted by the Use of the Months: and Years: lines. Custom allows the date format to be set in the Format: box (%m means month, %d means day, %Y means year) A Sample of the format chosen is displayed below.

- Address: This sets the address of the Payee, if the check format includes a space for it and you are printing a single check.

The Custom format tab has two sections. The top half of the window (above the dividing line) allows you to position the fields in each check. It contains two columns to enter in the X and Y co-ordinates of the field position on the check. Positions in the Custom Check Format entry area are specified with x = 0 at the left edge of the check with x increasing to the right, and y = 0 at the top edge of the check with y increasing as you travel down. (If you are using a version of GTK prior to 2.10, then y = 0 is at the bottom of the page and y increases as you travel up.)

- Payee:

- Date:

- Amount (words):

- Amount (numbers):

- Address:

- Notes:

- Memo:

- Splits Amount:

- Splits Memo:

- Splits Account:

The part of the custom format tab below the dividing line contains fields to position the entire check correctly on the page. The Translation field is the distance from the top left corner and the Rotation field rotates the check clockwise by the indicated amount.

The Units field in the bottom half of the window specifies the units used in all the fields in both halves of the window.

Once OK is pressed on the Print Check dialog the Print &app; Document dialog is presented. Press OK to print the check.

## Online Actions ...

This section is "under construction - any input will be welcome !!".

### Get Balance

### Get Transactions ...

### Issue Transaction

### Direct Debit

## General Journal

The General Journal is an advanced register used to enter transactions without needing to open individual accounts. The General Journal shows the transaction entries for all accounts on one register.

Entering transactions in the General Journal is more complicated than entering them in the individual account registers. The advantage is the General Journal provides a more comprehensive view of the transactions you have entered in all your accounts.

The General Journal defaults to showing only the previous month of transactions. This is changeable by using the "Filter By..." on the View menu.