Difference between revisions of "WishList"

From GnuCash
Jump to: navigation, search
(password question is answered here: http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/FAQ#Q:_.22Can_you_please_add_a_password_feature.3F.22)
(use {{BugURL}})
 
(102 intermediate revisions by 51 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
Note: The main place for submitting enhancement requests is the [http://bugzilla.gnome.org bugzilla] database, see [[Bugzilla]]. Use [http://bugzilla.gnome.org/buglist.cgi?product=GnuCash&bug_status=UNCONFIRMED&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=NEEDINFO&bug_status=REOPENED this query] for a direct list of all currently open GnuCash items.
+
'''Note:''' The GnuCash developers '''do not pay much attention''' to the items on this page because it is unstructured and difficult to read. '''Instead''', please post your enhancement requests into [[Bugzilla]] or try the new [http://gnucash.uservoice.com "Uservoice" Feature Request Forum].
 +
 
 +
The main place for submitting enhancement requests is the [{{BugURL}} bugzilla] database, see [[Bugzilla]]. Use one of this queries
 +
* [{{BugURL}}/buglist.cgi?product=GnuCash&bug_status=UNCONFIRMED&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=NEEDINFO&bug_status=REOPENED all currently open GnuCash items]
 +
* [{{BugURL}}/buglist.cgi?query_format=advanced&bug_status=RESOLVED&resolution=FIXED&target_milestone=2.3.0&target_milestone=2.3.1&target_milestone=2.3.2&target_milestone=2.3.3&target_milestone=2.3.4&target_milestone=2.3.5&target_milestone=2.3.6&target_milestone=2.3.7&target_milestone=2.3.8&target_milestone=2.3.9&target_milestone=2.3.10&target_milestone=2.3.11&target_milestone=2.3.12&target_milestone=2.3.13&target_milestone=2.3.14&target_milestone=2.3.15&target_milestone=2.3.16&target_milestone=2.3.x&target_milestone=2.4.0&target_milestone=future&product=GnuCash all items fixed with target >= 2.3]
 +
* [{{BugURL}}/buglist.cgi?query_format=advanced&bug_status=RESOLVED&resolution=WONTFIX&product=GnuCash items we wont fix]
 +
for direct lists.
  
 
== Projects ==
 
== Projects ==
Line 5: Line 11:
 
Some issues which are either big/important or for which some information has already been gaterhered have their own page:
 
Some issues which are either big/important or for which some information has already been gaterhered have their own page:
  
* [[Clickable Reports UI]]
+
* (none right now)
  
 
Other issues which have been mentioned here but should be discussed in [[Bugzilla]] are:
 
Other issues which have been mentioned here but should be discussed in [[Bugzilla]] are:
Line 11: Line 17:
  
 
Old discussions are archived on [[OldDiscussions]].
 
Old discussions are archived on [[OldDiscussions]].
 +
 +
== GnuCash Wishlist ==
 +
 +
This page is intended as an edited list of enhancement requests for [[GnuCash]]. This page needs some heavy editing -- please go ahead, sort and regroup items as you think. Please read [[FAQ]] before adding new requests.
  
 
=== Create a context-sensitive help system. ===
 
=== Create a context-sensitive help system. ===
Line 20: Line 30:
 
===Implement an option that permits to edit a report's preferences 'before' elaborating the report===
 
===Implement an option that permits to edit a report's preferences 'before' elaborating the report===
  
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=107282
+
{{BugURL}}/show_bug.cgi?id=107282
 
 
== GnuCash Wishlist ==
 
  
This page is intended as an edited list of enhancement requests for [[GnuCash]]. This page needs some heavy editing -- please go a head, sort and regroup items as you think. Please read [[FAQ]] before adding new requests.
+
=== Centralized Repository for Custom Reports ===
 +
It would be nice to have an 'exchange' of some sort where people, who have taken the time to create custom reports, can share them. Giving others the ability to improve and tweak them, then release them, will increase the number of custom reports significantly, and could lead to a larger array of default reports included in GnuCash.
  
 
=== Some Wishlist items ===
 
=== Some Wishlist items ===
  
==== Reliability ====
+
* '''Reliability'''
The very first time that I started using Gnu Cash,  
+
** Automatically detect GnuCash's logs for recovering after a crash
after I had spent about an hour and a half entering receipts from my wallet,
+
** More reliable model for saving data in case of a crash (like Quickens transactional model) - ''Professor David DeWitt of University of Wisconsin Computer Science, a fairly prominent man in the database community, has said that he believes that this user level transactional behaviour, guaranteeing almost no loss of work, was one of the biggest factors in Quicken's success.''
it crashed (when I tried to access Help, which Fink had not installed).
+
** an intense reliability testing program, inserting errors and ensuring recovery.
Because I was used to Quicken, I had not expected to have to "Save" my work.
+
* '''Stocks'''
At that time I did not know about Gnu Cash's faciility for manually replaying logs,
+
** Create one druid that will have to use when you create your commodity. This druid should create all the needed accounts for all possible actions (buy, sell, dividend, re-invest dividend, add shares, remove shares, etc) which are used by GnuCash's reports.
so I swore, considered abandoning Gnu cash to return to Quicken,
+
** Create one or more other druids that will take care of the purchasing/selling/dividend etc transactions. Something like Money or Quicken. GnuCash should of course fill in the appropriate accounts in the background when you press apply.
but reentered the data.
+
* '''API Interface'''
 +
**''See:'' [http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/cashutil/ CashUtil], a stand-alone tool for manipulating GnuCash data;  [[list of external software interfaces]]
 +
* Better Invoice printing (including font choice and Fancy invoice customisation
 +
** Maybe output as RTF instead as HTML?
  
By the next day I had learned about Gnu Cash's logs.
+
=== Commonly Requested Improvements ===
I am still surprised that the need to recover by repplaying a log is
 
not automatically detected. It should be.
 
  
But even now, a month later, I still get about one Gnu Cash crash a week.
+
===== Minor items: =====
Of the two occasions I have attempted to repplay the logs,
 
one time succeeded and the other tiime failed.
 
  
I believe that this is a major shortcoming for Gnu Cash.
+
* Ability to have 2 dates per transaction:
 +
*# Posted date (for example, I deposited cash with my bank on 2010-Sep-01)
 +
*# Processed date (... the bank only processed my deposit on 2010-Sep-03)
  
Quicken has a transactional model: every tiime you hit the ENTER key, what you have entered is stored to disk,
+
===== Account Tree Fields, Reordering =====
probably in a log file. I have never lost data entered into Quicken, even though I have had crashes.
+
* I would like to be able to see the Total value in the reporting currency as the leftmost field in the account tree. Of course, overall a general mechanism to specify field ordering in such displays.
Quicken does not even have the concept of "Saving" your work.'
 
  
Professor David DeWitt of University of Wisconsin Computer Science, a fairly prominent man in the database community,  
+
* Be able to select more accounts at one time, making it possible to delete many accounts at once. {{BugURL}}/show_bug.cgi?id=343240
has said that he believes that this user level transactional behaviour, guaranteeing almost no loss of work,
+
* Be able to drag-and-drop accounts to another place {{BugURL}}/show_bug.cgi?id=121695
was one of the biggest factors in Quicken's success.
+
* When accounts are changed in the main window, the accounts in the transaction screen (general ledger?) are not updated.
 +
* The - (minus) key on the keypad can not be used for entering dates, which is an annoyance.
  
I do not know why users might accept the requirement of "Save" in a word processor,
+
===== Other =====
but not in an accounting program.  But Quicken has set expectations here.
+
* One can select and highlight entries' text with the mouse, but the highlight cannot be visually seen - it works, but is invisible.
 +
* Ability to select multiple entries - to, for example, delete them.
 +
* Open/Close accounts - such as close the account for the car or bank account we no longer have.
 +
* Ability to move transactions up or down within a certain date - multiple transactions made on the same day, but done at a different time-of-day, or in a different order.
  
Improving Gnu Cash's reliability will require ensuring
+
===== End of financial year close issues =====
* the need to repplay a log after a crash is detected
 
  
but, also
+
The standard way to run a set of books in a business is to enter transactions as they occur, or in batches daily or weekly, and then reconcile those transactions with statements and reports that come a few weeks later. For example, you may keep track of the deposits and withdrawals to a checking account on an event basis, but certain fees and adjustments may be missed until a bookkeeper receives the monthly bank statement, usually well into the next month, and reconciles the statement with the GL account.
* an intense reliability testing program, inserting errors and ensuring recovery.
 
  
I know: this is Open Source. I am about to volunteer.
+
Furthermore, many reports are performed after periods end, such as a monthly report on payroll to determine what tax to deposit, a quarterly report on payroll to complete government forms, and a full Income Statement (P&L) after a year has ended. These reports are inaccurate if performed during the period in question; they must necessarily be done afterwards, and often, after the period is reconciled.
  
==== Easier Setup of Stocks ====
+
This state of affairs requires that you keep your books for past periods open for a while before leaving them. Many accounting programs that limit your open history allow you to have 24 months open - 2 years - and support the ability to close the last calendar year when you are ready.
  
I like Gnu Cash's use of an arbitrarily nested accounts tree.
+
Imagine running your books - personal or business - to December 31. Now, you face January, and you want to be able to reconcile your statements for various accounts that will arrive in January for December or for October-December (Q4), and you want to be able to run reports on December, Q4, or the whole preceding year, for a little while, perhaps at least until tax day. However, you also want to be able to drop the last year after that, because the data takes up space and processing time, and you need not work with it all the time. You have a choice - you can open a new account and populate starting accounts, which is a nuisance and means you have to update the starting numbers any time you go back and change the old file, or you keep going in the same file and just accrue more and more data. The former is error-prone and the latter is slow.
I like beiing able to set up a separate subaccount for each stock in a brokerage account.
 
  
However, it is a bit painful to HAVE to do so... to have to set up a new coommodity for the stock,
+
What is needed is a built-in function of the application that can drop a chosen set of months at the beginning of the data set and summarize the activity into the starting balances for the remaining data so that an obsolete year can be cleanly dropped later on in the next year. This allows the application to support continous operation.
and then an account corrresponding to it.
 
  
Wish: I would like accounts such as brokerage accounts to be able to contain multiple commodity types,
+
* This feature request is noted in [[Bugzilla]]as {{BugURL}}/show_bug.cgi?id=106383 ; comments are probably better suited there so that they don't get forgotten.
i.e. multiple stocks.  I would like to be able to have a single transaction that deducts cash
 
and adds a commodity like the stock purchased to the account.
 
  
I think it would be perfectly fine if this operated behind the scenes by creating subaccounts.
+
--[[User:Katahdin|Katahdin]] 13:25, 28 February 2008 (EST) Why is closing a requirement?  I still use DOS Quicken ver 8 with all the multiple daily transactions, cash, Credit cards, expenses for two business' - a restaurant and retail store - with 6 years worth of transactions - data,account, info @ 2.5 meg - it has immediate response time for data entry and even almost immediate response time for reports, YTD and "all data".
With queries "are you sure?"
 
I basically want to automate the process.
 
  
: Wouldn't the introduction of a number of druids sort out all (or at least most) issues regarding how to handle/record the various transactions with stocks?
+
--[[User:Scocasso|Scocasso]] 04:38, 3 June 2010 (UTC) I too have been thinking that closing each year would be a great idea, but only because GnuCash gets bogged down with just one year's worth of data showing. With the older versions and the current version. When I try to scroll up and down, it's horrible, GnuCash can barely handle it; it's slow; choppy; often everything goes blank; I have a top of the line new mac computer; I must scroll and change tabs etc. and wait for it to catch up to my movements; it's not the computer, it is the same way on my other computer, Windows/PC.  GnuCash operates like the computer is bogged down with a full memory, but I've got gigs of memory and all of my other programs (even ones that use loads of memory) work very well.  Something is seriously wrong here.  I agree with [[User:Katahdin|Katahdin]], even a computer from 1990 should be able to operate GnuCash fast and smooth as lightning.
  
*Create one druid that will have to use when you create your commodity. This druid should create all the needed accounts for all possible actions (buy, sell, dividend, re-invest dividend, add shares, remove shares, etc) which are used by GnuCash's reports.
+
--[[User:Symbiote|Symbiote]] 00:35, 14 June 2010 (UTC) Not intentionally trying to spam the WishList, but I stumbled across [[User:Scocasso|Scocasso]]'s comments here via Google because my GnuCash 2.2.9 on OSX (Intel iMac, 64-bit OSX 10.6) has an achingly slow UI as well (eg. scrolling account registers scroll at ~5 transactions per second, 2+ seconds for "split transaction" to respond, similarly latent confirmation dialogs). I can confirm it is *not* my GnuCash file (~3k transactions over 3 years): I just installed VirtualBox on my Intel iMac (Ubuntu 10.4 64-bit guest), the virtualized GnuCash running in Ubuntu is very fast on the same GnuCash file. Perhaps the recent Mac OS versions of GnuCash were compiled with the wrong flags or something else trivial. I have tried several versions of GnuCash on my machine, and have even purged GnuCash and done a fresh install, all to no avail. Until something changes, I will just have to use virtualized Linux GnuCash for the (ironic) speed win.
*Create one or more other druids that will take care of the purchasing/selling/dividend etc transactions. Something like Money or Quicken. GnuCash should of course fill in the appropriate accounts in the background when you press apply.
 
: By enforcing this common use of accounts, if would be much easier to create reports I think.
 
: --Bengt 20060405
 
  
===== Implied Stock Price History =====
+
===== Debtors and Creditors =====
When I enter a Buy or Sell transaction, it should be possible for the price recorded
 
to be automatically entered into the price history.
 
  
Perhaps only optionally, since occasionally the price in a transaction has no relationship
+
There has been repeated discussion around the way debtors and creditors (customers in vendors in non-accounting terms) are implemented. The following as needed for international markets, but I believe many US users also need them:
to the fair market value on that day. But at least optionally, since often it does.
 
  
: Why not just store the stock quote as a buy/sell price. When you update the stock quote at the end of the day, you will    get a Last Quote entry. If this is implemented, then when you import QIF files with stock purchase/sell your pricedb should be automatically updated with these prices.
+
* The ability to create credit notes (the inverse of an invoice) for both vendors and customers.  The is essential in real world business and changing invoices or bills to reflect credits is not an option.  The accounting system should reflect what actually happened and when, not merely provide a summary. Allowing the entry of negative items in an invoice (resulting in a negative total amount) and well as negative payments would be an interim way of providing this.
: -- Bengt 20060405
 
  
==== Multiple "Commodities" per Account ====
+
* The need to allow manual allocation of payments to invoices (and selectively pay parts of a bill) is also required.  Once an items is paid for many vendors or clients indicate final approval of the transaction, but refusal to pay for a specific item would indicate non-acceptance of the transaction.  GnuCash must be able to reflect this. Simply allocating payments to the ordest invoice works fine in most cases, but where the real world differs from this, the system must be amended to allow for this, not the other way round.
  
Many  of my suggestions about easier handling of Brokerage and other stock market accounts
+
* Related to previous is the case when the bank charge you for receiving money. Example, I have an invoice of 3,000 Euro, customer pays 3,000 Euro, but my bank keeps 10Euro as a wire receiving fee. I need to be able to split the payment then so the invoice will be paid in full towards accounts receivable, 2,900 will be booked on Asset - Bank Account, and 10 booked on Expense - Bank service charges. Currently you can't split accounts on processing payments, and the expense accounts doesn't show up at all.
would be addressed if it were permissible to have more than one commodity type per account.
 
  
E.g.multiple stocks, plus cash, in the same portfolio.
+
* The lot number, indication which payment has been allocate to which invoice, should be exposed to a user. It will help, both when a customers reads a statement and when reading a vendor statement, tracking how payment were allocated.
  
As mentioned above, I think it is great to implement this by subaccounts. Just automate and facilitate the handling.
 
  
Another situation that might be addressed by this includes keeping track of basis for capital gains reporting. Again, it is possible to do this by creating a separate subaccount
+
===== Scheduled Items Future Balance Predictor =====
for the accoount that holds the stock, but there's a lot of footwoork involved.
+
Clumsy title, feel free to edit it. I would  like to suggest that some way of predicting an account's balance after scheduled transactions have been paid/deposited be included. Quicken and Money both have this. It's a sort of halfway solution to a budget - it can be useful to know how much money will be left after your wages have been paid in and the standing orders for Electricity, Gas, Rent/Mortgage, etc., have been paid out. More importantly, a facility like this could tell you whether there will be money in an account to cover said costs or not. Quicken does this with a calendar that allows you to see the predicted balance on any particular day. Money has a graph that can predict the future value of an account. Both only take into account scheduled transactions that have been set up and that's what I have in mind. Could it be done in GnuCash?
  
<ul><p>
+
===== A "pay now" or "enter now" option in the Scheduled Transaction Editor  =====
NOTE: I can assure you that this will never happen -- it would be a HUGE architectural change. The Account is a core object that collects a single commodity type. Changing that would be not only a HUGE undertaking but would require changing every tool and report, not to mention changing the UI in non-insignificant ways.  So, don't hold your breath for this -- I don't think it will ever happen. 
+
I have repeatedly wished to be able to enter a scheduled transaction a little earlier than my setting. However, it is clumsy to do. How about a "pay now" or "enter now" option on "right click" and/or a button option above.
</p><p>
 
Instead, I think we just need better tools to help users set up Brokerage accounts, druids to create the appropriate subaccounts and attach them together.  Perhaps we can simplify the UI by combining the multiple per-commodity sub-accounts into one view..  But under the covers you can't get away from the 1:1 mapping.
 
</p>
 
-warlord 2006-03-01
 
</ul>
 
  
:Here is a data point: I have 4 brokerage accounts. Each account has stocks, mutual funds, cash, etc.[[User:Doolin|Doolin]] 10:34, 29 September 2007 (EDT)
+
=== Special Interest Wishes ===
  
==== Multiple Views - not just hierarchical account tree ====
+
* Scanning and OCR of receipts/bills/paystubs {{BugURL}}/show_bug.cgi?id=336843
 +
* Islamic Financial Calculations - support fort Zakah/Khums. - ''You know Muslims are supposed to pay a portion of their excess money every year to poor people. If this suggestion is approved we may need to start writing the formula needed to calculate the money someone should pay each year.'' 
  
Gnu Cash's arbitrarily nested account tree is a wonderful improvement over Quicken's accounts and categories.
 
Deep hierarchy capability is better than 2 level hierarchy.
 
  
But multiple hieerarchical views is better still.
+
=== Implied Stock Price History ===
 +
When I enter a Buy or Sell transaction, it should be possible for the price recorded
 +
to be automatically entered into the price history.
  
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=353602
+
Perhaps only optionally, since occasionally the price in a transaction has no relationship
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=165174
+
to the fair market value on that day. But at least optionally, since often it does.
  
For example, one typically has several accounts  associated with a piece of property, say
+
: Why not just store the stock quote as a buy/sell price. When you update the stock quote at the end of the day, you will    get a Last Quote entry. If this is implemented, then when you import QIF files with stock purchase/sell your pricedb should be automatically updated with these prices.
/Asset/Real-Estate/Property1, /Expense/Real-Estate/Property1, /Liability/Real-Estate/Property1/First-Mortgage, etc.
+
: -- Bengt 20060405
  
Sometimes one wants to roll things up by asset/expense/liablity;
+
=== Multiple Views - not just hierarchical account tree ===
sometimes one wants to look at /Property1/{Asset,Expense,Liability};
 
i.e. one often wants to pivot path elements  in the tree.
 
  
One of the big reasons that I want to use Gnu Cash
+
Gnu Cash's arbitrarily nested account tree is a wonderful improvement over Quicken's accounts and categories.
is the hope that I can code up this sort of flexible viewing of accounts and data.
+
Deep hierarchy capability is better than 2 level hierarchy. But [{{BugURL}}/show_bug.cgi?id=165174 multiple hierarchical views] is better still.
  
Another examples:  source of account / type of account / company holding account.
+
For example, one typically has several accounts associated with a piece of property, say /Asset/Real-Estate/Property1, /Expense/Real-Estate/Property1, /Liability/Real-Estate/Property1/First-Mortgage, etc.  Sometimes one wants to roll things up by asset/expense/liablity; sometimes one wants to look at /Property1/{Asset,Expense,Liability}; i.e. one often wants to pivot path elements  in the tree.
I have several accounts that are associated with different employers, past and present:
 
e.g. Motorola/401K, Motorola/Pension, Motorola/ESPP,
 
Intel/401K, Intel/SERP, Intel/ESPP, Intel/Options
 
AMD/401K, AMD/ProfitSharing, AMD/ESPP, AMD/Options.
 
  
Sometimes I want to see these by company.
+
One of the big reasons that I want to use Gnu Cash is the hope that I can code up this  sort of flexible viewing of accounts and data.
  
At other times I want to see these by type
+
Another examples:  source of account / type of account / company holding account. I have several accounts that are associated with different employers, past and present: e.g. Motorola/401K, Motorola/Pension, Motorola/ESPP,
- e.g. 401K/{Motorola,Intel,AMD},
+
Intel/401K, Intel/SERP, Intel/ESPP, Intel/Options AMD/401K, AMD/ProfitSharing, AMD/ESPP, AMD/Options.  Sometimes I want to see these by company.  At other times I want to see these by type - e.g. 401K/{Motorola,Intel,AMD},
Options/{Intel,AMDD}
+
Options/{Intel,AMDD} etc.
etc.
 
  
Similarly, some of these accounts are managed by various of the big finanicial firms.
+
Similarly, some of these accounts are managed by various of the big finanicial firms. E.g. AMD/Options is managed by eTrade OptionsLink. But I also have two other eTrade accounts.  Intel/401K is currently managed by Fidelity, although it has been managed by other companies in the past.  But I have Fidelity accounts from several other sources.  Sometimes I want to look at all of my Fidelity accounts at the same time
  
E.g. AMD/Options is managed by eTrade OptionsLink.
+
Fidelity/Intel/401K
But I also have two other eTrade accounts.
+
Fidelity/Motorola/Options
  
Intel/401K is currently managed by Fidelity, although it has been managed by other companies
+
but note: it is not meaningful to place the admin in the path, since at any point in time Amd/Options only has eTrade as the admin.
in the past.  But I have Fidelity accounts from several other sources.
 
  
Sometims I want to look at all of my Fidelity accounts at the same time
+
Sounds useful to me.  You might  also want to look into reports.  --[[User:Rolf|Rolf]] 15:29, 12 July 2008 (EDT)
  
Fidelity/Intel/401K
+
Another way would be to have a configurable dashboard. A single page that shows some important accounts for you and some other information like ratios (e.g. Accounts Payable/Accounts Receivable or Long_term_loans/Long_term_investments. There should be a ratio or formula editor to create this other information. --[[User:chonwell]] , October 4 2008
Fidelity/Motorola/Options
 
  
but note: it is not meaningful to place the admin in the path,
+
Multiple views as explained above could easily be created using MS-Money type Classifications or TAGS as described in the 'Transaction Tagging or Labeling' section below. --[[User:Iwaddo|Iwaddo]] 08:14, 31 December 2010 (UTC)
since at any point in time Amd/Options only has eTrade as the admin.
 
  
===== Change Tracking =====
+
=== Change Tracking ===
  
 
Accounts get sold from one company to another.
 
Accounts get sold from one company to another.
Employers change the adminsitrators of retirrement accounts
+
Employers change the administrators of retirement accounts
- tooday its Fiddelity, tomorrow eTrade.
+
- today it's Fiddelity, tomorrow eTrade.
 
Even within the same company, account numbers get changed:
 
Even within the same company, account numbers get changed:
 
eTrade renumbered everyone last September.
 
eTrade renumbered everyone last September.
  
It would be good if Gnu Cash allowed us to keeep track of such changes.
+
It would be good if Gnu Cash allowed us to keep track of such changes.
Instead of just a single acccount number,
+
Instead of just a single account number,
 
it might allow the account number to be versioned.
 
it might allow the account number to be versioned.
 
Similarly contact info.
 
Similarly contact info.
  
Mysellf, I like wikis - link too arbitrary text, perhaps with particular fields.
+
Myself, I like wikis - link to arbitrary text, perhaps with particular fields.
 
Or, the model of old InfoCentral:
 
Or, the model of old InfoCentral:
 
an account is a relationship between a company like Fidelity and a human.
 
an account is a relationship between a company like Fidelity and a human.
 
There may be multiple such relationships.
 
There may be multiple such relationships.
Rellationships don't last forever.
+
Relationships don't last forever.
  
==== Export an API ====
+
I don't think gnucash should become a wiki.  Use a wiki or a vcs if that is what you want.  You could even track the gnucash file in a vcs if that is what you wantClear vote: gnucash stay focused!  --[[User:Rolf|Rolf]] 15:37, 12 July 2008 (EDT)
I would like to see a simple libgnucash, for a programmer's interface to the programI'm not sure how much work this would really take, but I would find it pretty useful to be able to query an accounts present value, list transactions, enter transactions, et cetera programmatically.
 
  
--[[User:Jdoverholt|Jdoverholt]] 11:31, 3 Dec 2005 (EST)
+
=== Attaching Images to Transactions ===
 +
{{BugURL}}/show_bug.cgi?id=336843 Attach images to transaction items
  
:''See:''
+
=== QIF Import Wishlist Items ===
:* [http://qof.sourceforge.net/QOF QOF], the object persistence layer used by GnuCash
 
:** [http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/cashutil/ CashUtil], a stand-alone tool for manipulating GnuCash data
 
:* [[list of external software interfaces]]
 
  
===== Attaching Images to Transactions =====
+
I'd like to see a screen in the QIF import wizard that works like so: "<i>Find all transactions with ARBYS in the DESCRIPTION and assign those transactions as a transfer to category Expenses:Dining</i>." GnuCash would then show the transactions it had matched and I'd be able to exclude ones that didn't correctly match. [[User:Inanutshellus|Inanutshellus]] 14:06, 25 August 2008 (EDT)
I would like to see the ability to attach images to transaction items.   --[[User:Wookie|Wookie]] 12:31, 6 January 2007 (EST)
 
:See http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=336843 ; please add additional comments there. I'll delete this section soon again.
 
  
===== Scanning and OCR of receipts/bills/paystubs =====
+
=== Usability WishList ===
I would like to suggest adding support for scanning in and OCR'ing receipts/bills/paystubs/etc for two reasons:
 
* The scanned document images could then be attached to corresponding transactions for archival purposes (see wishlist item above).
 
* It would make splitting transactions easier so that I can track sales tax, soc. sec. tax, property tax, etc if GNUCash could OCR the scanned document, highlighting amounts and asking for which account it applies to. --[[User:Wookie|Wookie]] 12:31, 6 January 2007 (EST)
 
:You mean, scanning of bills as an alternative data import function? Instead of importing data from a QIF file, you would like to import data from a scanned-in bill? Sounds... interesting, but certainly not in the near future. As a partial implementation step, one might write a program that scans and OCRs a bill and writes the result into a CSV or QIF file, which can then be imported into gnucash. --[[User:Cstim|Cstim]] 04:50, 8 January 2007 (EST)
 
  
=== Commonly Requested Improvements ===
+
===== Undo / Redo =====
  
===== Minor items: Account Tree Fields, Reordering =====
+
There should be two "undos" in GnuCash :
  
* I would like to be able to see the Total value in the reporting currencyy as the leftmost fieldd in the account tree. Of course, overall a general mechanism to specify field ordering in such displays.
+
* The first one, when changing a description or an amount, the user should be able to revert what was typed, in a similar way to a text editor
 +
* The second one, to undo a transaction just commited or to undo a data importation.
  
* Be able to select more accounts at one time, making it possible to delete many accounts at once. http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=343240
+
(See [{{BugURL}}/show_bug.cgi?id=509267].)
* Make the delete key (on the keyboard) work for deleting accounts.
 
* Be able to drag-and-drop accounts to another place http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=121695
 
* When accounts are changed in the main window, the accounts in the transaction screen (general ledger?) are not updated.
 
* The - (minus) key on the keypad can not be used for entering dates, which is an annoyance.
 
  
 +
===== Movement of Entries Within Date Grouping =====
  
===== End of financial year close issues =====
+
The ability to move entries up or down within a grouping of entries of the same date (i.e. time of day order).  When transactions are made over the course of a day, their order may differ from official bank records. When comparing personal accounting records with official bank records, it's highly annoying that balances are not in the same order. It makes it tedious to find errors too, and in hunting errors down one is forced to re-order transactions by changing the date just to put them in the proper order of time-of-day.  But if there are many transactions on many days in a row, one cannot simply change the date one day ahead or back as there could be a dozen items that need to be sorted.
  
The standard way to run a set of books in a business is to enter transactions as they occur, or in batches daily or weekly, and then reconcile those transactions with statements and reports that come a few weeks later. For example, you may keep track of the deposits and withdrawals to a checking account on an event basis, but certain fees and adjustments may be missed until a bookkeeper receives the monthly bank statement, usually well into the next month, and reconciles the statement with the GL account.
+
===== General interface look and feel =====
 +
I would like to see the main elements of the interface (toolbars, account pages for example) get improved look and feel. As a creative professional working in interface design field I would like to work with someone to make this happen. I believe it could be made easier to use and more attractive and help encourage users who are used to MS Money for example. If interested in working on this contact: email(at)olmec.co.nz
  
Furthermore, many reports are performed after periods end, such as a monthly report on payroll to determine what tax to deposit, a quarterly report on payroll to complete government forms, and a full Income Statement (P&L) after a year has ended. These reports are inaccurate if performed during the period in question; they must necessarily be done afterwards, and often, after the period is reconciled.
+
===== Move close button to tabs =====
 +
Personally I'd like Edit->Preferences->General->"Show close button on notebook tabs" to be enabled by default, and have that option remove the 'big' Close button. Input from a usability expert is desired.
  
This state of affairs requires that you keep your books for past periods open for a while before leaving them. Many accounting programs that limit your open history allow you to have 24 months open - 2 years - and support the ability to close the last calendar year when you are ready.
 
  
Imagine running your books - personal or business - to December 31. Now, you face January, and you want to be able to reconcile your statements for various accounts that will arrive in January for December or for October-December (Q4), and you want to be able to run reports on December, Q4, or the whole preceding year, for a little while, perhaps at least until tax day. However, you also want to be able to drop the last year after that, because the data takes up space and processing time, and you need not work with it all the time. You have a choice - you can open a new account and populate starting accounts, which is a nuisance and means you have to update the starting numbers any time you go back and change the old file, or you keep going in the same file and just accrue more and more data. The former is error-prone and the latter is slow.
+
I agree with this, it would behave more like other programs as we have come to expect.
  
What is needed is a built-in function of the application that can drop a chosen set of months at the beginning of the data set and summarize the activity into the starting balances for the remaining data so that an obsolete year can be cleanly dropped later on in the next year. This allows the application to support continous operation.
+
===== Ctrl-PgUp and Ctrl-PgDown Should Move Between Tabs Regardless of Focus =====
  
* This feature request is noted in [[Bugzilla]]as http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=106383 ; comments are probably better suited there so that they don't get forgotten.
+
Similar to the previous suggestion, it should be possible to move between tabs without having to switch the focus to the tab bar. As in Mozilla, Ctrl-PgUp and Ctrl-PgDown should cycle through the tabs. (This works now if you first click on one of the tabs, but it should work even if the cursor focus is in the main window).
  
===== Invoice printing including font choice and Fancy invoice customisation =====
+
: +1 from me  --[[User:Rolf|Rolf]] 15:50, 12 July 2008 (EDT)
  
The Fancy Invoice is mostly customizable, now, as of 1.9.2.  At least the contents of the report are obtained from the data as opposed to hard-coded in the report.  Ideally we should just integrate something like e-guile and allow users to generate the HTML template with embedded guile.
+
===== Allow Sorting of Columns in Import Window =====
  
===== Choosing a customer or vendor when doing invoices or payments is clumsy =====
+
While importing QFX data for example the "Generic import transaction matcher" window presents "Date", "Amount", Description" columns to name a few. Dates are out of order, so are the descriptions. It would be nice to sort columns (at least date and description) by clicking on the column header.
  
This also applies to choosing an invoice, and perhaps other things.  As it is now, a user has to go to Business->Customers->Find Invoice, fill in search criteria, press the Find button, click an item in the results, and finally click the View/Edit Invoice button.
+
This is already done in other windows; for example, the "Select Account" window that pops up when a transaction is double-clicked from the import window.
  
Why not instead make the path Business->Customers->Open Invoice, and open a dialog with a type-ahead search (similar to choosing accounts in the ledger fields) on the invoice number (or customer name, or vendor name, etc.) by default. A button somewhere in the dialog could open a more comprehensive search function.
+
This has only been tested on Windows v. 2.1.2.
  
Come to think of it, I'm almost always looking for unposted invoices in my books.  So maybe a default dropdown list containing only unposted invoices?  I guess a good way to summarize this RFE is to make opening a customer, vendor, invoice, etc. for editing a two-click operation -- maybe even a one-click operation if we add dropdowns to the toolbar (should be customizable).
+
===== Real-time report updates =====
 +
Any "Search" seems to do this correctly, because it behaves like an account window, but when I generate a report and then change something in a transaction or account that is reflected in the report, the report does not automatically update itself with the new information. This smacks a bit of a tougher architectural problem, not easily solved, but still.
  
===== Islamic Financial Calculations =====
+
===== 'Invoice' name =====
I would like to suggest adding support to Zakah/Khums. You know Muslims are supposed to pay a portion of their excess money every year to poor people. If this suggestion is approved we may need to start writing the formula needed to calculate the money someone should pay each year.
+
Whether a business is a VAT payer or not, some countries (eg. Lithuania) require Invoices to be named as an 'Invoice', or 'VAT-Invoice'. This should be possible to be set by user - not the translator.
  
===== Language =====
+
===== API for creating invoices =====
I would maybe like to suggest as a requested feature that the language settings be part of the preferences menu option as a better way of setting the operating language of GnuCash. I would like to invoice clients in both French and English.
+
An API should be developed that would allow invoices to be created via an external application.  This would include creating and printing invoices.  This would allow other applications that manage inventory, automatic billing etc to create the required invoices.  For example, a client is billed every month based on the amount of services they use.  This amount varies from month to month.  A 3rd party application tracks their usage and the communicates with GnuCash to generate the required invoice.
  
===== Debtors and Creditors =====
+
===== Scheduled / Recurring Invoices =====
 +
{{BugURL}}/show_bug.cgi?id=114421
  
There has been repeated discussion around the way debtors and creditors (customers in vendors in non-accounting terms) are implemented.  The following as needed for international markets, but I believe many US users also need them:
+
===== Account Codes =====
 +
I would like to see an option whereby in the account transactions and transaction report tabs account listing and selection can be by account code rather than account name. I use an intuitive -- at least for me, as I have been using it in other accounting applications -- alphabetic account coding system where for example A is the code for the ASSETS top level account, AC is for Assets, Current, etc. I would find this option much easier than trying to remember account names. [[User:Kenswimmer|Kenswimmer]]
 +
05:07, 24 February 2009 (EST)
  
* The ability to create credit notes (the inverse of an invoice) for both vendors and customersThe is essential in real world business and changing invoices or bills to reflect credits is not an option. The accounting system should reflect what actually happened and when, not merely provide a summary.  Allowing the entry of negative items in an invoice (resulting in a negative total amount) and well as negative payments would be an interim way of providing this.
+
===== Business Entity Lists =====
 +
I would very much like to be able to print an entire vendor list, complete with Company Name, Contact Name, and contact informationI would like the report options to allow me to specify which data to include in the report and which vendors to include. --[[User:Srwight|Srwight]] 14:01, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
  
* The need to allow manual allocation of payments to invoices (and selectively pay parts of a bill) is also required.  Once an items is paid for many vendors or clients indicate final approval of the transaction, but refusal to pay for a specific item would indicate non-acceptance of the transaction. GnuCash must be able to reflect this. Simply allocating payments to the ordest invoice works fine in most cases, but where the real world differs from this, the system must be amended to allow for this, not the other way round.
+
Related to the "vendor list" item above, I would suggest to have a list function for each of the three categories of entities, vendors, customers, employees, under the Business menu. For example, click on "vendors" will open a tab where all the vendors are listed in a table with the main attributes (name, id, and etc) as columns. Columns can also include vital summary data for each vendor, such as total outstanding bill, total payment... Above this list, there can be a filter setting area to allow the list to be filtered. "Open" a vendor will open a new tab with detailed information for this vendor. On this individual vendor tab, one can edit information, view bills, payments, search, create new ones... The same kind of functions can be built for customers and employees. -- [[User:brae09]] Dec 5, 2010
  
* The lot number, indication which payment has been allocate to which invoice, should be exposed to a user. It will help, both when a customers reads a statement and when reading a vendor statement, tracking how payment were allocated.
+
http://gnucash.uservoice.com/forums/101223-feature-request/suggestions/1470567-import-export-client-supplier-details?ref=title
  
=== Usability WishList ===
 
  
===== Transaction Entry Forms =====
+
===== entry field appearence =====
 +
fields where no input is possible should be distinguished by using a grey background. As a possible extension, autocompletion (via drop-down box?) could be supported in these fields (e.g. when creating a new invoice - field "vendor"
  
The addition of a transaction entry form that would permit the use of drop down menus to determine transaction type and accounts, along with memory to pre-select accounts for certain types of payees would make Gnu Cash easier to use. I know this may ape some of what is in MS Money and Quicken, but it would be a big help in usability and "feel" for the user. It seems awkward to enter your transactions directly into the ledger rows - its seems somewhat hard to find the line when you have a whole lost of previously recorded transactions already posted.  
+
===== additional key bindings =====
 +
Beyond key bindings that handles quick modification of date fields and other quick dialog "callers", the following shortcuts would help less dependency on mouse ops:
 +
CTRL-Enter as a generic alias for alt-O (OK-button). CTRL-enter could also be assigned as a short-cut for the invoice "book-in" button. Accidental hits are harmless, because a dialog is popped up (which would also profit from CTRL-Enter).
  
I haven't used a green sheet in over 15 years. ;>)
+
Shortcuts should generally also be reconsidered. E.g. a shortcut for "edit an account" will not be used often. Contrary, a shortcut for opening the "search invoice" dialog may well make more sense (example).
  
===== GNU Cash to go =====
+
===== search invoice, vendor, customer dialog =====
For security I prefer doing online banking not in a browser and store program and data on an USB stick. So attacks can only happen when the stick is connected to the pc. And that is with private use but also in commercial environment not very often. Second advance, on travelling I can use my stick (mobile phone) too.
+
You can start search using Enter, OK. But then the focus is not in the results list, but on the "search" button. Enter should however accept the highlighted choice (which is movable via cursor keys).
  
I think two version make sense. The one is a Linux on USB stick with GNU-Cash on it. And the second is a Windows version which could simply run from any USB-stick and store really all data including all TEMPs on the usb stick. (Please no U3 - just and simple USB-Sticks).  
+
Remove the search entity drop down list, and show the result window right from the start. numbers in front of each tab (e.g. 7 account#) should allow for quick selecting the active search column via alt-7, or another number, where another column is desired (good old borland editor idea).
  
For security a built in encryption of program and data would be a good idea.
+
=== Reports and Charts ===
  
===== Move close button to tabs =====
+
With transition of the data engine towards relational database, a separate reporting system could be utilized for this purpose. The goal being a creation of an easy-to-use reporting generator and the ability to publish finished reports.
Personally I'd like Edit->Preferences->General->"Show close button on notebook tabs" to be enabled by default, and have that option remove the 'big' Close button. Input from a usability expert is desired.
 
  
===== Closing tab should focus the next tab to the left =====
+
===== Cash Flow Report =====
 +
I expected the cash flow report to take into account all available data, including scheduled transactions. While it shows transactions already entered for a future date, it does not add those which have not yet been posted. Which makes it no better than the account register; you might as well not have the report.
  
Closing tabs in gnucash has unexpected behavior: focus is shifted to the first tab. To be consistent with other tabbed applications (e.g., Mozilla), focus should shift to the tab immediately to the left. The current behavior makes it cumbersome to close a bunch of tabs in a row--you close the tab, and then need to move to the next open tab, then close, repeat, etc..
+
So, I thought, I'll just post the scheduled transactions in advance. If there's a way to do that, I can't find it. Stymied.
  
:[[User:jsled]]: The focus shifts to the last-selected tab; there is a stack of recently-visited tabs.
+
===== Customer Report =====
  
See also http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=346314
+
A report which shows only those invoices which are unpaid, or at least one which excludes which specifically are paid.
  
===== Ctrl-PgUp and Ctrl-PgDown Should Move Between Tabs Regardless of Focus =====
+
===== Clickable Reports =====
  
Similar to the previous suggestion, it should be possible to move between tabs without having to switch the focus to the tab bar. As in Mozilla, Ctrl-PgUp and Ctrl-PgDown should cycle through the tabs. (This works now if you first click on one of the tabs, but it should work even if the cursor focus is in the main window).
+
Before gnucash 2.0 some charts had clickable elements. Clicking on them would open up another chart or an account register or something like that. This functionality was left out in the port to gtk2 due to time constraints and eventually was never readded.
  
===== Using keyboard and drop downs to enter multiple transactions on one form =====
+
===== Expanded pie charts =====
 +
Expanded pie charts,  like those used in [http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html jDiskReport] and the [http://library.gnome.org/users/baobab/2.24/baobab.html#baobab-usage GNOME Disk Usage Analyzer] would be great.  Expanded pie charts are wonderful for displaying a great deal of information, especially when you have a carefully-created hierarchy.  For example, consider the following accounts:
  
It should be possible to make multiple entries without having to use the mouse, on a single form. The current interface forces you to click on a confirmation button for each entry and then use a mouse to scroll down and select a category for each entry. This can be very time consuming if making many entries for the first time
+
Income
 +
* Salary
 +
** Employer1
 +
** Employer2
 +
* Bonuses
 +
* Other Income
 +
Expenses
 +
* Transportation
 +
** Bicycle
 +
** Auto
 +
* Rent
  
: [[User:jsled]] It is possible to enter multiple transactions without using the mouseYou can select the account with the keyboard, even if you need to use to menu (rather than completion)Also, there shouldn't be a confirmation dialog during normal transaction entry. Can you describe what you're seeing, and in what version of gnucash?
+
Rather than have to choose between the 2nd and 3rd level of reports, I'd like to see both the second and third level simultaneouslyThis is the whole point of expanded pie chartsIf I haven't made myself clear, please let me know, and I'll provide a screenshot here. --[[User:Jcarroll|Jcarroll]] 20:24, 20 December 2008 (EST)
  
===== Invoice duplication option =====
+
===== Cash Flow Forecast (Report/Feature) =====
 +
My experience with this kind of feature comes from MS Money, so I think my vision is very related to MM's features. Keep in mind the following is my particular vision.
  
I have a lot of invoices in which the items stay the same, only the prices change.  An example is my phone bill.  It always has the basic phone charge, and the long distance charges, the only thing that changes each month is how much long distance.
+
I'd like to have the following views/reports for this feature:
  
===== Selecting date in calendar popup =====
+
# A report showing the values for all selected accounts month by month (just like the actual budget view) or week by week, but for the months/weeks to come.
 +
# A line graph illustrating the above.
  
When entering a date by clicking the popup calendar, the popup should close upon day selecting.
+
This is the way GC would get the data to populate the views:
 +
# Scheduled transactions: GC would look at scheduled transactions and simply add them to the data. Since SXs already have a possible ending date, GC would take this into account. The user should be able to select if a SX would be included in the Forecast upon SX creation, with the default to 'yes'.
 +
# Previous transactions: here we have three types of previous transactions:
 +
::a) the ones that occur regularly every once (i.e. the club's fee in january and june, the paycheck every 5th of the month)): This type would already be covered by GC as they will already be entered in the SX (see the "c" type below)
  
===== Allow Sorting of Columns in Import Window =====
+
::b) the ones that occur frequently but not regularly (i.e. groceries expenses, and almost every expense that does not fit in "a"): GC would look at the previous X months (being X selected by the user) and calculate the average ammount for this accounts. In my oppinion, an weekly average would be good. This average would then be added to the data for the Forecast. Let's say I've spend a total of $500 in groceries in the last 5 months. GC would take this total and calculate an average of $25/week ($100/month, 4 weeks/month) for my groceries expenses.
  
While importing QFX data for example the "Generic import transaction matcher" window presents "Date", "Amount", Description" columns to name a few. Dates are out of order, so are the descriptions. It would be nice to sort columns (at least date and description) by clicking on the column header.
+
::c) the ones that happen once in a lifetime (i.e. that don't have a defined frequency, as lottery wins, gifts, etc): The ideal cenario would be that GC would be aware of these one-time transactions and would ask the user if they would be added to the Forecast. If this is possible, then GC would be able to ask if the user would like to add the transaction as a SX, and then they would fall under the "a" type above.
  
This is already done in other windows; for example, the "Select Account" window that pops up when a transaction is double-clicked from the import window.
+
The most automated this Forecast is, the better. This is why I don't like the idea of adding new dialogs or making the user enter new data into
 +
his/her existing GC file. I think the Forecast can work well with minimum user decisions.
  
This has only been tested on Windows v. 2.1.2.
+
Upon creating the Forecast Report/Graph, the user should be presented with a
 +
dialog asking:
  
===== Edit time frame for an already-generated report =====
+
# the accounts to include in the Forecast (or use the Accounts properties for the Forecast - i.e. each account could include an option to add/remove it from the Forecasts)
I use Quickbooks at work, and while I find it clunky and unwieldy (granted, it's an older version; I assume things have improved), there are a couple of very useful features I'd love to see in Gnucash (which I use for all my personal finances at home):
+
# the SXs to be included in the Forecast (or use the SX properties - i.e. each SX could include an option to add/remove it from the Forecasts)
 +
# how many months should GC look back to gather data
 +
# if the report would be monthly or weekly
 +
# the ending date of the forecast
  
When I generate a report in Quickbooks, it has a convenient menu bar at the top where I can enter the applicable dates and regenerate it on the spot (say I want this fiscal year first, then last fiscal year, same report), just typing in the desired dates.
+
A bonus would be if GC could look at the specified budget and get data from
 
+
there :)
Of course, these are also clickable (but that's another page, I know)
+
[[User:Daniel3ub|Daniel3ub]] 20:24, 21 December 2010 (UTC)
ALSO:
 
===== Real-time report updates =====
 
Any "Search" seems to do this correctly, because it behaves like an account window, but when I generate a report and then change something in a transaction or account that is reflected in the report, the report does not automatically update itself with the new information. This smacks a bit of a tougher architectural problem, not easily solved, but still.
 
  
=== Reports ===
+
=== Classifications, Transaction Tagging or Labeling ===
 +
{{BugURL}}/show_bug.cgi?id=113772
  
===== Cash Flow Report =====
+
Used for project-based accounting or activity-based accounting, analytic accounting reclassified budget or however you may call it. See also [http://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2010-December/037520.html discussion] and [https://www.odoo.com/documentation/user/9.0/accounting/others/analytic/usage.html Odoo example].
I expected the cash flow report to take into account all available data, including scheduled transactions. While it shows transactions already entered for a future date, it does not add those which have not yet been posted. Which makes it no better than the account register; you might as well not have the report.
 
  
So, I thought, I'll just post the scheduled transactions in advance. If there's a way to do that, I can't find it. Stymied.
+
A work-in-progress specfication for how this might be implemented can be found [http://www.waddo.co.uk/uploads/New%20Feature%20Specification%20GnuCash%20Classifications%20v0.2%20Clean.pdf here]. --[[User:Iwaddo|Iwaddo]] 08:21, 31 December 2010 (UTC)
  
 
==WONTFIX==
 
==WONTFIX==
 
Just in order to avoid any ambiguities, we'll move any wishlist item that definitely won't be implemented in gnucash into this section. ("won't be implemented" means: "will for sure not be implemented by any of the current developers"; if anyone starts the implementation himself, he/she is free to do so.)
 
Just in order to avoid any ambiguities, we'll move any wishlist item that definitely won't be implemented in gnucash into this section. ("won't be implemented" means: "will for sure not be implemented by any of the current developers"; if anyone starts the implementation himself, he/she is free to do so.)
  
===== Use through web browser =====  
+
=== Create a Iphone Version. ===
 +
 
 +
See [[GnuCash and Mobile Devices]] page.
 +
 
 +
=== Use through web browser ===
  
 
I am just starting a small business and I am trying to set up all of my business to be run remotely. This is because as the business expands all my employees will be working remotely. That, and I don't want my business reying on everyone using the same OS. So, I have a content management system and project management system that are hosted elsewhere and can both be accessed through a browser. The next wish is financial management run the same way. Gnucash is the closest I've seen to being exactly what I need.. if only I could access it through a browser.
 
I am just starting a small business and I am trying to set up all of my business to be run remotely. This is because as the business expands all my employees will be working remotely. That, and I don't want my business reying on everyone using the same OS. So, I have a content management system and project management system that are hosted elsewhere and can both be accessed through a browser. The next wish is financial management run the same way. Gnucash is the closest I've seen to being exactly what I need.. if only I could access it through a browser.
Line 349: Line 350:
  
 
::The recently [http://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2007-March/019720.html announced Python bindings] could be a good start in the direction of a web interface. --[[User:Bastiaan|Bastiaan]] 10:34, 21 March 2007 (EDT)
 
::The recently [http://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2007-March/019720.html announced Python bindings] could be a good start in the direction of a web interface. --[[User:Bastiaan|Bastiaan]] 10:34, 21 March 2007 (EDT)
 +
 +
:::You could also have a look at [http://apps.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/jgnucashlib/index.php?title=Main_Page jGnucashLib]. It can read+write and has a jGnucashEditor with scripting and plugins. --[[User:MarcusWolschon|MarcusWolschon]] 16:01, 30 September 2008 (EDT)
  
 
One of my favorite features of Quicken was WebEntry, which let users enter transactions in a web browser for later download to Quicken.  I'd like to build a lightweight (mobile-friendly) web interface that can turn user input into data suitable for import into GNUCash. [[User:J2xl|J2xl]] 13:01, 24 September 2007 (EDT)
 
One of my favorite features of Quicken was WebEntry, which let users enter transactions in a web browser for later download to Quicken.  I'd like to build a lightweight (mobile-friendly) web interface that can turn user input into data suitable for import into GNUCash. [[User:J2xl|J2xl]] 13:01, 24 September 2007 (EDT)
 +
 +
:If I want to use an application via a web browser, I simply run [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vnc VNC]. The Gnucash developers should spend their time on the financial and usability stuff, not on re-inventing the web interface. This is similar to the encrypted file issue. As a related issue, if you are starting a business and intend to do much work remotely, you should consider using a server in a co-location facility, because you will generally get much better network connectivity, better backup and recovery, and easy expansion. -[[User:Arch dude|Arch dude]] 15:34, 11 May 2008 (EDT)
 +
 +
::Maybe a simple web app that could take the input from a form, and then send it via email as a QIF file? This QIF file could then be imported into GC when the user gets home. This web app doesn´t even need to be GC related: it could help any user from any program that supports QIF importing. --[[User:Daniel3ub|Daniel3ub]] 06:33, 30 August 2009 (UTC)
 +
 +
One thing that delighted me about GnuCash was that the database can be SQLite.  That is a very well supported database. If you want web access just create a website that uses the SQLite database.  When you want to use GnuCash you'll need to inhibit web access to the database. The use of a database backend is a HUGE benefit of GnuCash. [[User:Kd4ttc|Kd4ttc]] 16:24, 27 August 2011 (EDT)
 +
 +
=== Language ===
 +
I would maybe like to suggest as a requested feature that the language settings be part of the preferences menu option as a better way of setting the operating language of GnuCash. I would like to invoice clients in both French and English.

Latest revision as of 21:17, 29 June 2018

Note: The GnuCash developers do not pay much attention to the items on this page because it is unstructured and difficult to read. Instead, please post your enhancement requests into Bugzilla or try the new "Uservoice" Feature Request Forum.

The main place for submitting enhancement requests is the bugzilla database, see Bugzilla. Use one of this queries

for direct lists.

Contents

Projects

Some issues which are either big/important or for which some information has already been gaterhered have their own page:

  • (none right now)

Other issues which have been mentioned here but should be discussed in Bugzilla are:

Old discussions are archived on OldDiscussions.

GnuCash Wishlist

This page is intended as an edited list of enhancement requests for GnuCash. This page needs some heavy editing -- please go ahead, sort and regroup items as you think. Please read FAQ before adding new requests.

Create a context-sensitive help system.

GnuCash can be an intimidating program, at times, in part because it exposes enough complexity from double-entry accounting to be dangerous. One way in which this could be relieved is a conditional-display context-sensitive help system. For first-time users, or on-demand, a sidebar or top-bar containing a short summary of the dialog or window being viewed could come into place. This help-pane should provide a very brief discussion of the goals and terminology used in the dialog, with hyperlinks to more detailed help.

Answer from current developer: This will probably be a lot easier after the Gnome2 port is completed, which will take well into mid-2005. After that, the Gnome2 internal context-sensitive help mechanism can be used for this.

Implement an option that permits to edit a report's preferences 'before' elaborating the report

https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=107282

Centralized Repository for Custom Reports

It would be nice to have an 'exchange' of some sort where people, who have taken the time to create custom reports, can share them. Giving others the ability to improve and tweak them, then release them, will increase the number of custom reports significantly, and could lead to a larger array of default reports included in GnuCash.

Some Wishlist items

  • Reliability
    • Automatically detect GnuCash's logs for recovering after a crash
    • More reliable model for saving data in case of a crash (like Quickens transactional model) - Professor David DeWitt of University of Wisconsin Computer Science, a fairly prominent man in the database community, has said that he believes that this user level transactional behaviour, guaranteeing almost no loss of work, was one of the biggest factors in Quicken's success.
    • an intense reliability testing program, inserting errors and ensuring recovery.
  • Stocks
    • Create one druid that will have to use when you create your commodity. This druid should create all the needed accounts for all possible actions (buy, sell, dividend, re-invest dividend, add shares, remove shares, etc) which are used by GnuCash's reports.
    • Create one or more other druids that will take care of the purchasing/selling/dividend etc transactions. Something like Money or Quicken. GnuCash should of course fill in the appropriate accounts in the background when you press apply.
  • API Interface
  • Better Invoice printing (including font choice and Fancy invoice customisation
    • Maybe output as RTF instead as HTML?

Commonly Requested Improvements

Minor items:
  • Ability to have 2 dates per transaction:
    1. Posted date (for example, I deposited cash with my bank on 2010-Sep-01)
    2. Processed date (... the bank only processed my deposit on 2010-Sep-03)
Account Tree Fields, Reordering
  • I would like to be able to see the Total value in the reporting currency as the leftmost field in the account tree. Of course, overall a general mechanism to specify field ordering in such displays.
Other
  • One can select and highlight entries' text with the mouse, but the highlight cannot be visually seen - it works, but is invisible.
  • Ability to select multiple entries - to, for example, delete them.
  • Open/Close accounts - such as close the account for the car or bank account we no longer have.
  • Ability to move transactions up or down within a certain date - multiple transactions made on the same day, but done at a different time-of-day, or in a different order.
End of financial year close issues

The standard way to run a set of books in a business is to enter transactions as they occur, or in batches daily or weekly, and then reconcile those transactions with statements and reports that come a few weeks later. For example, you may keep track of the deposits and withdrawals to a checking account on an event basis, but certain fees and adjustments may be missed until a bookkeeper receives the monthly bank statement, usually well into the next month, and reconciles the statement with the GL account.

Furthermore, many reports are performed after periods end, such as a monthly report on payroll to determine what tax to deposit, a quarterly report on payroll to complete government forms, and a full Income Statement (P&L) after a year has ended. These reports are inaccurate if performed during the period in question; they must necessarily be done afterwards, and often, after the period is reconciled.

This state of affairs requires that you keep your books for past periods open for a while before leaving them. Many accounting programs that limit your open history allow you to have 24 months open - 2 years - and support the ability to close the last calendar year when you are ready.

Imagine running your books - personal or business - to December 31. Now, you face January, and you want to be able to reconcile your statements for various accounts that will arrive in January for December or for October-December (Q4), and you want to be able to run reports on December, Q4, or the whole preceding year, for a little while, perhaps at least until tax day. However, you also want to be able to drop the last year after that, because the data takes up space and processing time, and you need not work with it all the time. You have a choice - you can open a new account and populate starting accounts, which is a nuisance and means you have to update the starting numbers any time you go back and change the old file, or you keep going in the same file and just accrue more and more data. The former is error-prone and the latter is slow.

What is needed is a built-in function of the application that can drop a chosen set of months at the beginning of the data set and summarize the activity into the starting balances for the remaining data so that an obsolete year can be cleanly dropped later on in the next year. This allows the application to support continous operation.

--Katahdin 13:25, 28 February 2008 (EST) Why is closing a requirement? I still use DOS Quicken ver 8 with all the multiple daily transactions, cash, Credit cards, expenses for two business' - a restaurant and retail store - with 6 years worth of transactions - data,account, info @ 2.5 meg - it has immediate response time for data entry and even almost immediate response time for reports, YTD and "all data".

--Scocasso 04:38, 3 June 2010 (UTC) I too have been thinking that closing each year would be a great idea, but only because GnuCash gets bogged down with just one year's worth of data showing. With the older versions and the current version. When I try to scroll up and down, it's horrible, GnuCash can barely handle it; it's slow; choppy; often everything goes blank; I have a top of the line new mac computer; I must scroll and change tabs etc. and wait for it to catch up to my movements; it's not the computer, it is the same way on my other computer, Windows/PC. GnuCash operates like the computer is bogged down with a full memory, but I've got gigs of memory and all of my other programs (even ones that use loads of memory) work very well. Something is seriously wrong here. I agree with Katahdin, even a computer from 1990 should be able to operate GnuCash fast and smooth as lightning.

--Symbiote 00:35, 14 June 2010 (UTC) Not intentionally trying to spam the WishList, but I stumbled across Scocasso's comments here via Google because my GnuCash 2.2.9 on OSX (Intel iMac, 64-bit OSX 10.6) has an achingly slow UI as well (eg. scrolling account registers scroll at ~5 transactions per second, 2+ seconds for "split transaction" to respond, similarly latent confirmation dialogs). I can confirm it is *not* my GnuCash file (~3k transactions over 3 years): I just installed VirtualBox on my Intel iMac (Ubuntu 10.4 64-bit guest), the virtualized GnuCash running in Ubuntu is very fast on the same GnuCash file. Perhaps the recent Mac OS versions of GnuCash were compiled with the wrong flags or something else trivial. I have tried several versions of GnuCash on my machine, and have even purged GnuCash and done a fresh install, all to no avail. Until something changes, I will just have to use virtualized Linux GnuCash for the (ironic) speed win.

Debtors and Creditors

There has been repeated discussion around the way debtors and creditors (customers in vendors in non-accounting terms) are implemented. The following as needed for international markets, but I believe many US users also need them:

  • The ability to create credit notes (the inverse of an invoice) for both vendors and customers. The is essential in real world business and changing invoices or bills to reflect credits is not an option. The accounting system should reflect what actually happened and when, not merely provide a summary. Allowing the entry of negative items in an invoice (resulting in a negative total amount) and well as negative payments would be an interim way of providing this.
  • The need to allow manual allocation of payments to invoices (and selectively pay parts of a bill) is also required. Once an items is paid for many vendors or clients indicate final approval of the transaction, but refusal to pay for a specific item would indicate non-acceptance of the transaction. GnuCash must be able to reflect this. Simply allocating payments to the ordest invoice works fine in most cases, but where the real world differs from this, the system must be amended to allow for this, not the other way round.
  • Related to previous is the case when the bank charge you for receiving money. Example, I have an invoice of 3,000 Euro, customer pays 3,000 Euro, but my bank keeps 10Euro as a wire receiving fee. I need to be able to split the payment then so the invoice will be paid in full towards accounts receivable, 2,900 will be booked on Asset - Bank Account, and 10 booked on Expense - Bank service charges. Currently you can't split accounts on processing payments, and the expense accounts doesn't show up at all.
  • The lot number, indication which payment has been allocate to which invoice, should be exposed to a user. It will help, both when a customers reads a statement and when reading a vendor statement, tracking how payment were allocated.


Scheduled Items Future Balance Predictor

Clumsy title, feel free to edit it. I would like to suggest that some way of predicting an account's balance after scheduled transactions have been paid/deposited be included. Quicken and Money both have this. It's a sort of halfway solution to a budget - it can be useful to know how much money will be left after your wages have been paid in and the standing orders for Electricity, Gas, Rent/Mortgage, etc., have been paid out. More importantly, a facility like this could tell you whether there will be money in an account to cover said costs or not. Quicken does this with a calendar that allows you to see the predicted balance on any particular day. Money has a graph that can predict the future value of an account. Both only take into account scheduled transactions that have been set up and that's what I have in mind. Could it be done in GnuCash?

A "pay now" or "enter now" option in the Scheduled Transaction Editor

I have repeatedly wished to be able to enter a scheduled transaction a little earlier than my setting. However, it is clumsy to do. How about a "pay now" or "enter now" option on "right click" and/or a button option above.

Special Interest Wishes

  • Scanning and OCR of receipts/bills/paystubs https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=336843
  • Islamic Financial Calculations - support fort Zakah/Khums. - You know Muslims are supposed to pay a portion of their excess money every year to poor people. If this suggestion is approved we may need to start writing the formula needed to calculate the money someone should pay each year.


Implied Stock Price History

When I enter a Buy or Sell transaction, it should be possible for the price recorded to be automatically entered into the price history.

Perhaps only optionally, since occasionally the price in a transaction has no relationship to the fair market value on that day. But at least optionally, since often it does.

Why not just store the stock quote as a buy/sell price. When you update the stock quote at the end of the day, you will get a Last Quote entry. If this is implemented, then when you import QIF files with stock purchase/sell your pricedb should be automatically updated with these prices.
-- Bengt 20060405

Multiple Views - not just hierarchical account tree

Gnu Cash's arbitrarily nested account tree is a wonderful improvement over Quicken's accounts and categories. Deep hierarchy capability is better than 2 level hierarchy. But multiple hierarchical views is better still.

For example, one typically has several accounts associated with a piece of property, say /Asset/Real-Estate/Property1, /Expense/Real-Estate/Property1, /Liability/Real-Estate/Property1/First-Mortgage, etc. Sometimes one wants to roll things up by asset/expense/liablity; sometimes one wants to look at /Property1/{Asset,Expense,Liability}; i.e. one often wants to pivot path elements in the tree.

One of the big reasons that I want to use Gnu Cash is the hope that I can code up this sort of flexible viewing of accounts and data.

Another examples: source of account / type of account / company holding account. I have several accounts that are associated with different employers, past and present: e.g. Motorola/401K, Motorola/Pension, Motorola/ESPP, Intel/401K, Intel/SERP, Intel/ESPP, Intel/Options AMD/401K, AMD/ProfitSharing, AMD/ESPP, AMD/Options. Sometimes I want to see these by company. At other times I want to see these by type - e.g. 401K/{Motorola,Intel,AMD}, Options/{Intel,AMDD} etc.

Similarly, some of these accounts are managed by various of the big finanicial firms. E.g. AMD/Options is managed by eTrade OptionsLink. But I also have two other eTrade accounts. Intel/401K is currently managed by Fidelity, although it has been managed by other companies in the past. But I have Fidelity accounts from several other sources. Sometimes I want to look at all of my Fidelity accounts at the same time

Fidelity/Intel/401K Fidelity/Motorola/Options

but note: it is not meaningful to place the admin in the path, since at any point in time Amd/Options only has eTrade as the admin.

Sounds useful to me. You might also want to look into reports. --Rolf 15:29, 12 July 2008 (EDT)

Another way would be to have a configurable dashboard. A single page that shows some important accounts for you and some other information like ratios (e.g. Accounts Payable/Accounts Receivable or Long_term_loans/Long_term_investments. There should be a ratio or formula editor to create this other information. --User:chonwell , October 4 2008

Multiple views as explained above could easily be created using MS-Money type Classifications or TAGS as described in the 'Transaction Tagging or Labeling' section below. --Iwaddo 08:14, 31 December 2010 (UTC)

Change Tracking

Accounts get sold from one company to another. Employers change the administrators of retirement accounts - today it's Fiddelity, tomorrow eTrade. Even within the same company, account numbers get changed: eTrade renumbered everyone last September.

It would be good if Gnu Cash allowed us to keep track of such changes. Instead of just a single account number, it might allow the account number to be versioned. Similarly contact info.

Myself, I like wikis - link to arbitrary text, perhaps with particular fields. Or, the model of old InfoCentral: an account is a relationship between a company like Fidelity and a human. There may be multiple such relationships. Relationships don't last forever.

I don't think gnucash should become a wiki. Use a wiki or a vcs if that is what you want. You could even track the gnucash file in a vcs if that is what you want. Clear vote: gnucash stay focused! --Rolf 15:37, 12 July 2008 (EDT)

Attaching Images to Transactions

https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=336843 Attach images to transaction items

QIF Import Wishlist Items

I'd like to see a screen in the QIF import wizard that works like so: "Find all transactions with ARBYS in the DESCRIPTION and assign those transactions as a transfer to category Expenses:Dining." GnuCash would then show the transactions it had matched and I'd be able to exclude ones that didn't correctly match. Inanutshellus 14:06, 25 August 2008 (EDT)

Usability WishList

Undo / Redo

There should be two "undos" in GnuCash :

  • The first one, when changing a description or an amount, the user should be able to revert what was typed, in a similar way to a text editor
  • The second one, to undo a transaction just commited or to undo a data importation.

(See [1].)

Movement of Entries Within Date Grouping

The ability to move entries up or down within a grouping of entries of the same date (i.e. time of day order). When transactions are made over the course of a day, their order may differ from official bank records. When comparing personal accounting records with official bank records, it's highly annoying that balances are not in the same order. It makes it tedious to find errors too, and in hunting errors down one is forced to re-order transactions by changing the date just to put them in the proper order of time-of-day. But if there are many transactions on many days in a row, one cannot simply change the date one day ahead or back as there could be a dozen items that need to be sorted.

General interface look and feel

I would like to see the main elements of the interface (toolbars, account pages for example) get improved look and feel. As a creative professional working in interface design field I would like to work with someone to make this happen. I believe it could be made easier to use and more attractive and help encourage users who are used to MS Money for example. If interested in working on this contact: email(at)olmec.co.nz

Move close button to tabs

Personally I'd like Edit->Preferences->General->"Show close button on notebook tabs" to be enabled by default, and have that option remove the 'big' Close button. Input from a usability expert is desired.


I agree with this, it would behave more like other programs as we have come to expect.

Ctrl-PgUp and Ctrl-PgDown Should Move Between Tabs Regardless of Focus

Similar to the previous suggestion, it should be possible to move between tabs without having to switch the focus to the tab bar. As in Mozilla, Ctrl-PgUp and Ctrl-PgDown should cycle through the tabs. (This works now if you first click on one of the tabs, but it should work even if the cursor focus is in the main window).

+1 from me --Rolf 15:50, 12 July 2008 (EDT)
Allow Sorting of Columns in Import Window

While importing QFX data for example the "Generic import transaction matcher" window presents "Date", "Amount", Description" columns to name a few. Dates are out of order, so are the descriptions. It would be nice to sort columns (at least date and description) by clicking on the column header.

This is already done in other windows; for example, the "Select Account" window that pops up when a transaction is double-clicked from the import window.

This has only been tested on Windows v. 2.1.2.

Real-time report updates

Any "Search" seems to do this correctly, because it behaves like an account window, but when I generate a report and then change something in a transaction or account that is reflected in the report, the report does not automatically update itself with the new information. This smacks a bit of a tougher architectural problem, not easily solved, but still.

'Invoice' name

Whether a business is a VAT payer or not, some countries (eg. Lithuania) require Invoices to be named as an 'Invoice', or 'VAT-Invoice'. This should be possible to be set by user - not the translator.

API for creating invoices

An API should be developed that would allow invoices to be created via an external application. This would include creating and printing invoices. This would allow other applications that manage inventory, automatic billing etc to create the required invoices. For example, a client is billed every month based on the amount of services they use. This amount varies from month to month. A 3rd party application tracks their usage and the communicates with GnuCash to generate the required invoice.

Scheduled / Recurring Invoices

https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=114421

Account Codes

I would like to see an option whereby in the account transactions and transaction report tabs account listing and selection can be by account code rather than account name. I use an intuitive -- at least for me, as I have been using it in other accounting applications -- alphabetic account coding system where for example A is the code for the ASSETS top level account, AC is for Assets, Current, etc. I would find this option much easier than trying to remember account names. Kenswimmer 05:07, 24 February 2009 (EST)

Business Entity Lists

I would very much like to be able to print an entire vendor list, complete with Company Name, Contact Name, and contact information. I would like the report options to allow me to specify which data to include in the report and which vendors to include. --Srwight 14:01, 12 September 2010 (UTC)

Related to the "vendor list" item above, I would suggest to have a list function for each of the three categories of entities, vendors, customers, employees, under the Business menu. For example, click on "vendors" will open a tab where all the vendors are listed in a table with the main attributes (name, id, and etc) as columns. Columns can also include vital summary data for each vendor, such as total outstanding bill, total payment... Above this list, there can be a filter setting area to allow the list to be filtered. "Open" a vendor will open a new tab with detailed information for this vendor. On this individual vendor tab, one can edit information, view bills, payments, search, create new ones... The same kind of functions can be built for customers and employees. -- User:brae09 Dec 5, 2010

http://gnucash.uservoice.com/forums/101223-feature-request/suggestions/1470567-import-export-client-supplier-details?ref=title


entry field appearence

fields where no input is possible should be distinguished by using a grey background. As a possible extension, autocompletion (via drop-down box?) could be supported in these fields (e.g. when creating a new invoice - field "vendor"

additional key bindings

Beyond key bindings that handles quick modification of date fields and other quick dialog "callers", the following shortcuts would help less dependency on mouse ops: CTRL-Enter as a generic alias for alt-O (OK-button). CTRL-enter could also be assigned as a short-cut for the invoice "book-in" button. Accidental hits are harmless, because a dialog is popped up (which would also profit from CTRL-Enter).

Shortcuts should generally also be reconsidered. E.g. a shortcut for "edit an account" will not be used often. Contrary, a shortcut for opening the "search invoice" dialog may well make more sense (example).

search invoice, vendor, customer dialog

You can start search using Enter, OK. But then the focus is not in the results list, but on the "search" button. Enter should however accept the highlighted choice (which is movable via cursor keys).

Remove the search entity drop down list, and show the result window right from the start. numbers in front of each tab (e.g. 7 account#) should allow for quick selecting the active search column via alt-7, or another number, where another column is desired (good old borland editor idea).

Reports and Charts

With transition of the data engine towards relational database, a separate reporting system could be utilized for this purpose. The goal being a creation of an easy-to-use reporting generator and the ability to publish finished reports.

Cash Flow Report

I expected the cash flow report to take into account all available data, including scheduled transactions. While it shows transactions already entered for a future date, it does not add those which have not yet been posted. Which makes it no better than the account register; you might as well not have the report.

So, I thought, I'll just post the scheduled transactions in advance. If there's a way to do that, I can't find it. Stymied.

Customer Report

A report which shows only those invoices which are unpaid, or at least one which excludes which specifically are paid.

Clickable Reports

Before gnucash 2.0 some charts had clickable elements. Clicking on them would open up another chart or an account register or something like that. This functionality was left out in the port to gtk2 due to time constraints and eventually was never readded.

Expanded pie charts

Expanded pie charts, like those used in jDiskReport and the GNOME Disk Usage Analyzer would be great. Expanded pie charts are wonderful for displaying a great deal of information, especially when you have a carefully-created hierarchy. For example, consider the following accounts:

Income

  • Salary
    • Employer1
    • Employer2
  • Bonuses
  • Other Income

Expenses

  • Transportation
    • Bicycle
    • Auto
  • Rent

Rather than have to choose between the 2nd and 3rd level of reports, I'd like to see both the second and third level simultaneously. This is the whole point of expanded pie charts. If I haven't made myself clear, please let me know, and I'll provide a screenshot here. --Jcarroll 20:24, 20 December 2008 (EST)

Cash Flow Forecast (Report/Feature)

My experience with this kind of feature comes from MS Money, so I think my vision is very related to MM's features. Keep in mind the following is my particular vision.

I'd like to have the following views/reports for this feature:

  1. A report showing the values for all selected accounts month by month (just like the actual budget view) or week by week, but for the months/weeks to come.
  2. A line graph illustrating the above.

This is the way GC would get the data to populate the views:

  1. Scheduled transactions: GC would look at scheduled transactions and simply add them to the data. Since SXs already have a possible ending date, GC would take this into account. The user should be able to select if a SX would be included in the Forecast upon SX creation, with the default to 'yes'.
  2. Previous transactions: here we have three types of previous transactions:
a) the ones that occur regularly every once (i.e. the club's fee in january and june, the paycheck every 5th of the month)): This type would already be covered by GC as they will already be entered in the SX (see the "c" type below)
b) the ones that occur frequently but not regularly (i.e. groceries expenses, and almost every expense that does not fit in "a"): GC would look at the previous X months (being X selected by the user) and calculate the average ammount for this accounts. In my oppinion, an weekly average would be good. This average would then be added to the data for the Forecast. Let's say I've spend a total of $500 in groceries in the last 5 months. GC would take this total and calculate an average of $25/week ($100/month, 4 weeks/month) for my groceries expenses.
c) the ones that happen once in a lifetime (i.e. that don't have a defined frequency, as lottery wins, gifts, etc): The ideal cenario would be that GC would be aware of these one-time transactions and would ask the user if they would be added to the Forecast. If this is possible, then GC would be able to ask if the user would like to add the transaction as a SX, and then they would fall under the "a" type above.

The most automated this Forecast is, the better. This is why I don't like the idea of adding new dialogs or making the user enter new data into his/her existing GC file. I think the Forecast can work well with minimum user decisions.

Upon creating the Forecast Report/Graph, the user should be presented with a dialog asking:

  1. the accounts to include in the Forecast (or use the Accounts properties for the Forecast - i.e. each account could include an option to add/remove it from the Forecasts)
  2. the SXs to be included in the Forecast (or use the SX properties - i.e. each SX could include an option to add/remove it from the Forecasts)
  3. how many months should GC look back to gather data
  4. if the report would be monthly or weekly
  5. the ending date of the forecast

A bonus would be if GC could look at the specified budget and get data from there :) Daniel3ub 20:24, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Classifications, Transaction Tagging or Labeling

https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=113772

Used for project-based accounting or activity-based accounting, analytic accounting reclassified budget or however you may call it. See also discussion and Odoo example.

A work-in-progress specfication for how this might be implemented can be found here. --Iwaddo 08:21, 31 December 2010 (UTC)

WONTFIX

Just in order to avoid any ambiguities, we'll move any wishlist item that definitely won't be implemented in gnucash into this section. ("won't be implemented" means: "will for sure not be implemented by any of the current developers"; if anyone starts the implementation himself, he/she is free to do so.)

Create a Iphone Version.

See GnuCash and Mobile Devices page.

Use through web browser

I am just starting a small business and I am trying to set up all of my business to be run remotely. This is because as the business expands all my employees will be working remotely. That, and I don't want my business reying on everyone using the same OS. So, I have a content management system and project management system that are hosted elsewhere and can both be accessed through a browser. The next wish is financial management run the same way. Gnucash is the closest I've seen to being exactly what I need.. if only I could access it through a browser.

We're sorry, but this "wish" would basically require to write a completely new program. GnuCash has been designed as a normal Desktop application from ground up, and it is completely impossible to adapt this into a webserver-based application. If you're really looking for a server-based software, SQLedger might be much more suited for your needs. In GnuCash, this won't happen (WONTFIX). See also some gnucash-devel discussion in April/May. --Cstim 04:56, 9 October 2006 (EDT)
If I recall correctly, gnucash was, by policy, never going to be available on MS Windows either. I would also very much like to move all my financial activity to web-based applications, but I do recognize the difficulty and potential risk. No hurry, no complaint, and thanks for the MS Windows version.Doolin 10:24, 29 September 2007 (EDT)
Hmm... speak for yourself. I'd love to expose (specific) functionality through a web interface. As well, it's not at all "completely impossible"; UIs should just be UIs over application logic. At the same time, I'm not actively working towards this goal right now, and there's a lot of distance between here and there. ---jsled
I'm really new to this all but I'd love to see some sort of online interface also. Possibly not fully powered, but enough where you could enter a transaction. Let's say you're out of town and use your debit card, go home, log in, create the transaction and when you get back home, everything is updated. Or your at a cafe with WiFi, take out your PDA, get online, browse to your site, and enter the transaction for the mocha you just bought. I think it would be very useful to help keep track of cash purchases and such. Being new, I'm not sure of the possibilities, but would you be able to use PHP with the QOF (see List of external software interfaces) library to update GNUCash? Has this been tried? (Or if Postgres support was better, PHP directly to Postgres) Any thoughts? --met1205 20:14, 2 March 2007 (EST)
QOF doesn't know anything about GnuCash internals ... think of QOF as somethhttp://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2007-March/019720.htmling like glib. The best approach would be to use the SWIG bindings to get at the gnucash "engine" via your favorite scripting language. Jsled 11:45, 3 March 2007 (EST)
The recently announced Python bindings could be a good start in the direction of a web interface. --Bastiaan 10:34, 21 March 2007 (EDT)
You could also have a look at jGnucashLib. It can read+write and has a jGnucashEditor with scripting and plugins. --MarcusWolschon 16:01, 30 September 2008 (EDT)

One of my favorite features of Quicken was WebEntry, which let users enter transactions in a web browser for later download to Quicken. I'd like to build a lightweight (mobile-friendly) web interface that can turn user input into data suitable for import into GNUCash. J2xl 13:01, 24 September 2007 (EDT)

If I want to use an application via a web browser, I simply run VNC. The Gnucash developers should spend their time on the financial and usability stuff, not on re-inventing the web interface. This is similar to the encrypted file issue. As a related issue, if you are starting a business and intend to do much work remotely, you should consider using a server in a co-location facility, because you will generally get much better network connectivity, better backup and recovery, and easy expansion. -Arch dude 15:34, 11 May 2008 (EDT)
Maybe a simple web app that could take the input from a form, and then send it via email as a QIF file? This QIF file could then be imported into GC when the user gets home. This web app doesn´t even need to be GC related: it could help any user from any program that supports QIF importing. --Daniel3ub 06:33, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

One thing that delighted me about GnuCash was that the database can be SQLite. That is a very well supported database. If you want web access just create a website that uses the SQLite database. When you want to use GnuCash you'll need to inhibit web access to the database. The use of a database backend is a HUGE benefit of GnuCash. Kd4ttc 16:24, 27 August 2011 (EDT)

Language

I would maybe like to suggest as a requested feature that the language settings be part of the preferences menu option as a better way of setting the operating language of GnuCash. I would like to invoice clients in both French and English.