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Diffstat (limited to 'NEWS')
| -rw-r--r-- | NEWS | 116 |
1 files changed, 115 insertions, 1 deletions
@@ -2,7 +2,121 @@ * 2.6.1 -- This version has no new features, it's all bug fixes. +- Added the concept of "balance setting transactions": + + # Setting an account's balance + + You can now manually set an account's balance to whatever you want, at + any time. Here's how it might look at the beginning of your Ledger + file: + + 2008/07/27 Starting fresh + Assets:Checking = $1,000.00 + Equity:Opening Balances + + If Assets:Checking is empty, this is no different from omitting the + "=". However, if Assets:Checking did have a prior balance, the amount + of the transaction will be auto-calculated so that the final balance + of Assets:Checking is now $1,000.00. + + Let me give an example of this. Say you have this: + + 2008/07/27 Starting fresh + Assets:Checking $750.00 + Equity:Opening Balances + + 2008/07/27 Starting fresh + Assets:Checking = $1,000.00 + Equity:Adjustments + + These two entries are exactly equivalent to these two: + + 2008/07/27 Starting fresh + Assets:Checking $750.00 + Equity:Opening Balances + + 2008/07/27 Starting fresh + Assets:Checking $250.00 + Equity:Adjustments + + The use of the "=" sign here is that it sets the transaction's amount + to whatever is required to satisfy the assignment. This is the + behavior if the transaction's amount is left empty. + + # Multiple commodities + + As far as commodities go, the = sign only works if the account + balance's commodity matches the commodity of the amount after the + equals sign. However, if the account has multiple commodities, only + the matching commodity is affected. Here's what I mean: + + 2008/07/24 Opening Balance + Assets:Checking = $250.00 ; we force set it + Equity:Opening Balances + + 2008/07/24 Opening Balance + Assets:Checking = EC 250.00 ; we force set it again + Equity:Opening Balances + + This is an error, because $250.00 cannot be auto-balanced to match EC + 250.00. However: + + 2008/07/24 Opening Balance + Assets:Checking = $250.00 ; we force set it again + Assets:Checking EC 100.00 ; and add some EC's + Equity:Opening Balances + + 2008/07/24 Opening Balance + Assets:Checking = EC 250.00 ; we force set the EC's + Equity:Opening Balances + + This is *not* an error, because the latter auto-balancing transaction + only affects the EC 100.00 part of the account's balance; the $250.00 + part is left alone. + + # Checking statement balances + + When you reconcile a statement, there are typically one or more + transactions which result in a known balance. Here's how you specify + that in your Ledger data: + + 2008/07/24 Opening Balance + Assets:Checking = $100.00 + Equity:Opening Balances + + 2008/07/30 We spend money, with a known balance afterward + Expenses:Food $20.00 + Assets:Checking = $80.00 + + 2008/07/30 Again we spend money, but this time with all the info + Expenses:Food $20.00 + Assets:Checking $-20.00 = $60.00 + + 2008/07/30 This entry yield an 'unbalanced' error + Expenses:Food $20.00 + Assets:Checking $-20.00 = $30.00 + + The last entry in this set fails to balance with an unbalanced + remainder of $-10.00. Either the entry must be corrected, or you can + have Ledger deal with the remainder automatically: + + 2008/07/30 The fixed entry + Expenses:Food $20.00 + Assets:Checking $-20.00 = $30.00 + Equity:Adjustments + + # Conclusion + + This simple feature has all the utility of @check, plus auto-balancing + to match known target balances, plus the ability to guarantee that an + account which uses only one commodity does contain only that + commodity. + + This feature slows down textual parsing slightly, does not affect + speed when loading from the binary cache. + +- The rest of the changes in the version is all bug fixes (around 45 of + them). * 2.6.0.90 |