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<div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Hi again,</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">It seems to me that since for now I am only dealing with accounts, I will confine my questions to them.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">You said you can close an account. Is this like archiving an account? </div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">The rule that it has to have a zero balance is the way it happens in a bank. I can't close a bank account in my bank unless it has a zero balance.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Yes it is all very helpful. I am on a short vacation, and next week I will I hope have an outline ready.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">I also agree that closing and account is the correct approach. And it makes me think that deleting an account would be to get rid of mistakes.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">This gives me a lots to work on,</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">thanks again.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Aarom</div><div><br></div>
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On Wednesday, December 16, 2020, 07:05:27 PM EST, Jack <ostroffjh@users.sourceforge.net> wrote:
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<div>On 2020.12.12 18:43, Aaron Mehl wrote:<div class="yqt6654047791" id="yqtfd86209"><br clear="none">> Hi all,I want to delete an account. I see that in the Account menu <br clear="none">> the is a delete item. The delete item is grayed out, so I started to <br clear="none">> fish to see where and how it works. I tried right clicking the <br clear="none">> account name in the Home view pane, but there was no context menu. I <br clear="none">> when into the Accounts view pane, I highlighted an account and went <br clear="none">> into the Account menu and delete was still grayed out. I next tried <br clear="none">> to right mouse click on the account name and delete account was <br clear="none">> grayed out. <br clear="none">> So, when, can I delete an account and how do I do it? This should be <br clear="none">> a task that is self explanatory as far as I can see, but I am <br clear="none">> mightily confused.Help,Aaron</div><br clear="none"><br clear="none">I'm replying to the original message, and not one of the replies. <br clear="none">However, the other replies do raise valid points. I'll start out with <br clear="none">some more general observations about KMM, which may provide a better <br clear="none">context in which you can read the existing Handbook and complete your <br clear="none">short-term writing goal.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">The current KMM handbook was first written long ago, and was not <br clear="none">updated for many releases of the program. I took primary <br clear="none">responsibility for the Handbook over ten years ago, after making <br clear="none">similar complaints about how out of date it was. That was for version <br clear="none">2. Unless you're really interested, I'll skip all the gory details of <br clear="none">trying to keep the Hanbook up to date with changes and enhancements to <br clear="none">the program, but even with some help, I am still not fully caught up. <br clear="none">Each chapter of the doc indicates the version of the program for which <br clear="none">it was most recently updated, and there are still several chapters for <br clear="none">version 4.x. I'm slowly working my way through the rest of it, but I <br clear="none">end up focusing on areas with major UI changes, and when we get <br clear="none">specific questions. I'm always open to suggestions on both specific <br clear="none">edits and general improvements.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">One of the driving intents of KMM has been to follow good bookkeeping <br clear="none">practices, specifically double-entry bookkeeping. There are probably <br clear="none">numerous areas where the UI could be made simpler, but only by dropping <br clear="none">that restriction. I've put a fair effort into the docs to try to <br clear="none">explain some of the logic as to why things are as they are. No, that <br clear="none">understanding is not absolutely required to use the program, but I <br clear="none">believe it is important and helps to understand and accept things that <br clear="none">may not otherwise make sense to the naive user. A major example of <br clear="none">that is that Categories and treated internally as Accounts.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Another point is that there are often multiple ways to accomplish the <br clear="none">same task. It might be simpler for there to only be one way to <br clear="none">accomplish each task, but some people prefer to use the keyboard as <br clear="none">exclusively as possible, and some prefer the mouse. Also, using the <br clear="none">KDE frameworks (libraries) and Qt under that as the foundation of the <br clear="none">program has an effect on the look and feel. I suppose it's just an <br clear="none">extension of these that the same menu item can be found not only on the <br clear="none">main menu bar, but also on the context menu for an item on the screen <br clear="none">(raised by right-clicking on the item.) Most actions can also be <br clear="none">accomplished by clicking a button on the task bar, and the list of <br clear="none">buttons displayed is configurable by the user.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">The issue of why some menu items are grayed out was discussed <br clear="none">elsewhere, but the philosophy followed here is that the displayed menu <br clear="none">items shouldn't change, but some will be disabled (grayed out) if that <br clear="none">action is not currently possible. It is a known issue that figuring <br clear="none">out WHY a particular action is not currently possible is sometimes far <br clear="none">more difficult than it should be, and I believe there are a number of <br clear="none">bugs for specific examples of this issue. More directly to your <br clear="none">original question, an entity (account or other) cannot be deleted if it <br clear="none">is referred to by some other entity in the system. Accounts are <br clear="none">referenced not only by transactions, but also by schedules, and the <br clear="none">presence of either can prevent the deletion of an account. Hopefully, <br clear="none">at least the delete action will be disabled consistently everywhere it <br clear="none">could be triggered.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Further discussion on closing vs. deleting an account - closing an <br clear="none">account can be done if it has a zero balance. (I forget whether there <br clear="none">are other requirements.) It is pretty much the same as actually <br clear="none">closing the account with the bank or credit card company. It prevents <br clear="none">any further activities for that account, but the records and history <br clear="none">still remain available for examination and reporting. It is also <br clear="none">possible to control whethe or not closed accounts are shown or not in <br clear="none">most displays. Truly deleting an account is a much more drastic <br clear="none">action. It leaves no trace that the account ever existed, which is why <br clear="none">it is harder to do, requiring deletion of any other reference to that <br clear="none">account. I believe there will be users who think they want to delete <br clear="none">and account, when closing it is actually more likely to achieve their <br clear="none">actual goals.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Enough blathering for now. Hopefully this is of some use.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Jack</div>
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