Hello again Stephane

I'm so pleased that i persisted with my evaluation of Skrooge, after my initial negative experiences. As per our extensive offline email correspondence, your energetic & rapid help with code-changes [beta version 2.17.1] to fix the problems i discovered was very important in me changing my mind about Skrooge. It really is extremely powerful, flexible, & configurable; i have learned that i can control & customise many aspects of the UI that i cannot in KMM. I congratulate you.

Since our last email four days ago i have been running KMM & Skrooge side-by-side, whilst teaching myself lots about detailed active usage of Skrooge. Some of the things i've learned were simple & obvious either just intuitively from its UI, otherwise with guidance from the user-manual. Other "tricks" were very non-obvious & unintuitive, & i discovered them after sometimes hours of frustrated trial & error [they are not documented in the user-manual]. So far the biggest example of that is the following.

Scheduled Operations: i wasted hours in exasperation entirely failing to discover HOW to actually Enter a targeted *future* Schedule into the appropriate Account's Operation table [aka, Ledger in KMM] ahead of time [& be able to edit its details to suit that individual transaction's details -- ie, the equivalent in KMM of entering my creditcard account payment *actual* Direct Debit once i do the monthly Reconciliation]. The apparently obvious thing to do [click the Process button on the Scheduled Operations page] consistently did nothing. I went off on crazy complex tangents trying all sorts of clumsy workarounds [including Templates & additional once-off Schedules], all of which either didn't work either, or did work but only after LOTS of manual faffing about that was hugely inefficient & thus unviable. Eventually i stumbled across the trick -- undocumented in Help -- thus:
1. Select the target row in the Scheduled Operations table
2. Click AND HOLD the Process button
3. Observe that a hidden option then appears in a flyover button; "Process Immediately"
4. Don't release the mouse button [otherwise the flyover vanishes again], but instead slide the mouse pointer into this flyover button, then release it.
5. That sneaky unintuitive hitherto invisible step then selects & actions the flyover button command, which duly executes
6. Observe that my desired Future Scheduled item [eg, next month's creditcard DirectDebit] now has been written into the ledger / Operations table, AND the item's next scheduled date is suitably incremented to the relevant new date. Nice.
7. Edit this newly written Operation for the desired Date, Amount, & Comment, then click the Modify button
8. Done. It's easy & fast now that i know, & i actually like this function a lot... but i wasted many hours before i stumbled across this; it should be documented in the manual.
9. Note that for Overdue & Due Scheduled Operations there is none of this flyover behaviour; a normal left-click on the Process button suffices.


Stephane, my learning about Skrooge has developed to the stage that i know i really like it, & feel strongly inclined to make it my new finance management program instead of KMM. There are still some minor concerns with aspects of it, which i list further below, but none of these is a show-stopper. There is, however, one remaining issue that i cannot solve, & therefore IS a show-stopper for me; i explain this immediately below.

I have deduced how to create Line Charts [/ XY plots] in the formal Graphs tab, for a nominated individual account's historical balances, and for said account's future balance trajectory based on Scheduled Operations. I really like these charts. However i cannot solve HOW to make the Account Balance Scheduled Forecast Chart extend more than 1-Year into the future. This is inadequate; i need it to be multiple years like KMM. Without this, i shall have to remain with KMM. Is there a setting i have missed... otherwise would you be willing to enhance your code to provide a user-chosen future date at least 10 years, but ideally a couple of decades, from today?


Minor matters [but still would be good to also solve these]:

1. I have AutoStarted my Dashboard & Scheduled Operations Bookmarks, which i created when their tabs were pinned, but upon Skrooge relaunch after they do AutoStart, they are unpinned again... how can i keep them pinned across Skrooge launches?

2. Some Dashboard widgets list their items in unusual / undesirable sequences, eg, `Accounts` widget. How can i customise this to change the listed sequence? Also i'd like to show a few more days ahead in the `Scheduled Operations` widget.

3. What controls the data used by the Accounts' tabs Graphs? As far as i can see each graph should plot its account's balance change over time, but my graphs bear no apparent relationship to the true account data, neither for historical nor current balances.

4. `Modes` are proving handy, but how do i edit/delete them? How can i see all Operations with a nominated Mode?

5. Split Operations are confusing in Skrooge. I found double-clicking existing Split row cells allows editing, like KMM, but HOW do i add extra rows to my Split table?

6. "Operations with comments not aligned" --> what does this mean? What am i supposed to do?

7. Mentioned in previous emails, but still important: please can you make the tiny single-row Comment field in the Operations page's Editions pane [which btw in English instead should be called something like Editor] much longer AND multi-row?


Thanks Stephane.

Hi Steffie,
Thank you for your feedback.

steffie wrote:I have deduced how to create Line Charts [/ XY plots] in the formal Graphs tab, for a nominated individual account's historical balances, and for said account's future balance trajectory based on Scheduled Operations. I really like these charts. However i cannot solve HOW to make the Account Balance Scheduled Forecast Chart extend more than 1-Year into the future. This is inadequate; i need it to be multiple years like KMM. Without this, i shall have to remain with KMM. Is there a setting i have missed... otherwise would you be willing to enhance your code to provide a user-chosen future date at least 10 years, but ideally a couple of decades, from today?

Waouh, more then 10 years of forecast !
Today, there is no option to change the maximum forecast (1 year).
I will study how I can change this. I can image the 3 following options:
1- Linear range but with a maximum set to 20 years ==> impact on bookmarked reports
2- Exponential range but with a maximum set to 20 years ==> impact on bookmarked reports
3- An options in settings to choose the maximum years for forecast ==> no impact for existing reports

I think, I will do the 3.
Option 3 implemented and commited

steffie wrote:Minor matters [but still would be good to also solve these]:

1. I have AutoStarted my Dashboard & Scheduled Operations Bookmarks, which i created when their tabs were pinned, but upon Skrooge relaunch after they do AutoStart, they are unpinned again... how can i keep them pinned across Skrooge launches?

See option in Settings/Bookmarks.

steffie wrote:2. Some Dashboard widgets list their items in unusual / undesirable sequences, eg, `Accounts` widget. How can i customise this to change the listed sequence? Also i'd like to show a few more days ahead in the `Scheduled Operations` widget.

What is unusual /undesirable in 'Accounts' widget? What would you like?
For 'Scheduled Operation' widget, only the 5 next scheduled are displayed? What would you like?

steffie wrote:3. What controls the data used by the Accounts' tabs Graphs? As far as i can see each graph should plot its account's balance change over time, but my graphs bear no apparent relationship to the true account data, neither for historical nor current balances.

This is that. In "Account" page, if you display the graph, you should see the history of the balance of the selected accounts if at least one account is selected else you should see the history of the global balance.
If this is not the case, could be interesting to analyze why?

steffie wrote:4. `Modes` are proving handy, but how do i edit/delete them? How can i see all Operations with a nominated Mode?

"Search and process" page can help you to search all operation corresponding to a criteria.

steffie wrote:5. Split Operations are confusing in Skrooge. I found double-clicking existing Split row cells allows editing, like KMM, but HOW do i add extra rows to my Split table?

If the sum of already entered split is not equal to the global amount of the operation a new line is created.

steffie wrote:6. "Operations with comments not aligned" --> what does this mean? What am i supposed to do?

In skrooge, you can have a comment on the operation and on each of its split.
It means that you have an operation with only one split and the 2 comments are different. This is strange.

steffie wrote:7. Mentioned in previous emails, but still important: please can you make the tiny single-row Comment field in the Operations page's Editions pane [which btw in English instead should be called something like Editor] much longer AND multi-row?

Added in TODO list.

steffie wrote:
Thanks Stephane.

Hi Stephane

Option 3 implemented and committed

Oh, that's fabulous thank you. Will there soon be 2.17.2 Beta Source that i can compile & test then pls?

See option in Settings/Bookmarks.

Silly me, i saw that option a while ago, but did not understand it so did not try it... then i forgot about it -- thanks.

Some Dashboard widgets list their items in unusual / undesirable sequences, eg, `Accounts` widget. How can i customise this to change the listed sequence?

The Dashboard widget's accounts cannot be manually sorted with a user-preference, nor do they at least autosort in alphanumeric sequence ascending or descending. Ideally i'd like all three options pls. Here is the current arrangement... it's almost reverse-alphabetical, but not quite:

Also i'd like to show a few more days ahead in the `Scheduled Operations` widget.

For 'Scheduled Operation' widget, only the 5 next scheduled are displayed? What would you like?

Basically i'd like the Dashboard to give me a good overview of what's coming up for the next xx days or maybe even maximum one week [7 days]. The problem with simply `5 next scheduled are displayed` is that if i have 4 bills due tomorrow, 1 the day after, & 3 the day after [etc], your current design leaves me "blind" after only tomorrow. Fyi here's my real one now... i cannot see beyond 3 days [IMO the Dashboard should give the user such a good quick overview that they do not need to then begin interrogating their data deeper, just to see if they have a bill due at the end of the week, but the current design means i must take the time to go to my Scheduled Operations page to look... rather defeating the benefit of having a Dashboard]:

If this is not the case

It is not the case. Currently none of those charts/graphs appearing immediately below the rows of accounts in the Accounts page, look anything like my reality... now or historically. Fyi, i'm happy to share this one with you... my purse currently has +$56 in it... but here's what the chart thinks:

I have a pretty bad memory, but i'd like to think that i'd not have forgotten those apparent days when my purse had -$7,000

FYI here's one of my real savings accounts. Both charts are for the same account. The first one is correct [& agrees with KMM] - it comes from the actual Reports page. The second one is the Accounts page chart. You would think these charts were from two totally different accounts, judging by their shapes [even without being able to see the balances], wouldn't you?... but they are the one account:

"Search and process" page can help you to search all operation corresponding to a criteria

Ah, ok, i shall explore that.

Added in TODO list.

Lovely - thanks.

Your remaining answers need me to be more awake than i am atm to properly concentrate on them, so later i shall ask more on them if i need to.

Best wishes.

steffie wrote:Hi Stephane

Option 3 implemented and committed

Oh, that's fabulous thank you. Will there soon be 2.17.2 Beta Source that i can compile & test then pls?

Yes:
URL: https://filedn.com/lfh5wtnkbtUFtBhIeKEr ... 7.2.tar.xz
SHA256: 7dfb43b07451a3c973269afa737ed26fee04b443e15aecac9d9e2e2dd298e8a2

steffie wrote:

See option in Settings/Bookmarks.

Silly me, i saw that option a while ago, but did not understand it so did not try it... then i forgot about it -- thanks.

Some Dashboard widgets list their items in unusual / undesirable sequences, eg, `Accounts` widget. How can i customise this to change the listed sequence?
The Dashboard widget's accounts cannot be manually sorted with a user-preference, nor do they at least autosort in alphanumeric sequence ascending or descending. Ideally i'd like all three options pls. Here is the current arrangement... it's almost reverse-alphabetical, but not quite:

The accounts are sorted alphabetical by type (to be able to do a sum by type), then by name.
What are the 3 options that you would like?

steffie wrote:

Also i'd like to show a few more days ahead in the `Scheduled Operations` widget.

For 'Scheduled Operation' widget, only the 5 next scheduled are displayed? What would you like?

Basically i'd like the Dashboard to give me a good overview of what's coming up for the next xx days or maybe even maximum one week [7 days]. The problem with simply `5 next scheduled are displayed` is that if i have 4 bills due tomorrow, 1 the day after, & 3 the day after [etc], your current design leaves me "blind" after only tomorrow. Fyi here's my real one now... i cannot see beyond 3 days [IMO the Dashboard should give the user such a good quick overview that they do not need to then begin interrogating their data deeper, just to see if they have a bill due at the end of the week, but the current design means i must take the time to go to my Scheduled Operations page to look... rather defeating the benefit of having a Dashboard]:

The Dashboard widget's accounts cannot be manually sorted with a user-preference, nor do they at least autosort in alphanumeric sequence ascending or descending. Ideally i'd like all three options pls. Here is the current arrangement... it's almost reverse-alphabetical, but not quite:

I added options. You can test them in Skrooge 2.17.2.

steffie wrote:

If this is not the case

It is not the case. Currently none of those charts/graphs appearing immediately below the rows of accounts in the Accounts page, look anything like my reality... now or historically. Fyi, i'm happy to share this one with you... my purse currently has +$56 in it... but here's what the chart thinks:

I have a pretty bad memory, but i'd like to think that i'd not have forgotten those apparent days when my purse had -$7,000

In the graph, if you double click on the point corresponding to this big change of amount then you will have the list of operations.
Then, you should be able to find the operation causing this change.

Are you able to provide me a sample file reproducing the error?

steffie wrote:
FYI here's one of my real savings accounts. Both charts are for the same account. The first one is correct [& agrees with KMM] - it comes from the actual Reports page. The second one is the Accounts page chart. You would think these charts were from two totally different accounts, judging by their shapes [even without being able to see the balances], wouldn't you?... but they are the one account:

This is clearly strange, are you able to provide me a sample file reproducing the behavior?

steffie wrote:

"Search and process" page can help you to search all operation corresponding to a criteria

Ah, ok, i shall explore that.

Added in TODO list.

Lovely - thanks.

Your remaining answers need me to be more awake than i am atm to properly concentrate on them, so later i shall ask more on them if i need to.

Best wishes.

Regards.

Yes:
URL: https://filedn.com/lfh5wtnkbtUFtBhIeKEr ... 7.2.tar.xz
SHA256: 7dfb43b07451a3c973269afa737ed26fee04b443e15aecac9d9e2e2dd298e8a2

I can get this file ok, but i cannot get its needed sister-file

Code: Select all

https://filedn.com/lfh5wtnkbtUFtBhIeKEriJz/skrooge/skrooge-2.17.2.tar.xz.sig

Can you please ensure that file is also present?

I didn't have this problem last time, when your link was instead https://download.kde.org/unstable/skroo ... 7.1.tar.xz. That is, i was able to also download the sig file then too... my PKGBUILD process needs both files.

Are you able to provide me a sample file reproducing the error?
are you able to provide me a sample file reproducing the behavior?

Once i've managed to compile & run your next beta, i'll save my latest `*.skg` data file as Anonymised & email it to you. In that email i'll identify the specific accounts to evaluate [though i would imagine that IF those chart anomalies are caused by some code problem, all accounts should be affected...].

The missing file has been added.

7dfb43b07451a3c973269afa737ed26fee04b443e15aecac9d9e2e2dd298e8a2 skrooge-2.17.2.tar.xz
36b8b81fc402c453ccc987a6bd8dbd12db8b75bd9139177fefbadeaba6cf1e96 skrooge-2.17.2.tar.xz.sig

Hi Stephane

Sorry for my delayed reply. I have been / still am quite distracted by a range of unrelated issues, taking up my time. Thanks for that file; the new Beta version thereafter compiled successfully & i've been able to run it a few times. I've seen both those settings changes you made, & confirm they both work. I would like to provide some commentary on them however, as [from a user's perspective] they're possibly not as efficient as they might be. However i need time... spare time... to be able to form my thoughts appropriately & succinctly for you. I hope over coming days i'll get the time. Til then, best wishes.

Hello again Stephane

I must apologise again -- firstly for the woefully long time i left this thread hanging, & secondly because still i have not yet had enough time to anonymise my file [& then deduce the accounts for you to look at re their strange balance history charts in Accounts page] to email you [hopefully in the next few days i might have time]. That said, i have recently been able to spend a lot of time on other things in Skrooge [given i continue to use it daily in parallel with KMM], such that i have this following feedback, problems & requests FYI. Again i shall issue this caveat; nothing below is supposed to be insulting/rude, only constructive.

Requests for Skrooge:

1. Dashboard - Scheduled Operations widget:
a. What is the intended usage of the new function to choose its range via both of "mm schedules max" AND "For nn next days" ? Why not simply have only the latter?

b. Now that we can choose an extended range in this widget [thank you!], a previously hidden bug or design-omission is now exposed. Short-periodicity scheduled operations [eg, Weekly] that occur with at least two instances in the range [eg, 15 days], show only their initial occurrence. KMM's Home page's Future Payments section does the calculations & displays each event that falls due in the range. Hence atm the way Skrooge displays these is slightly misleading.

c. Pls show currency-symbol [eg, $] as prefix not suffix [looks nicer + is then consistent with other widgets]

d. Can the row entries be hyperlinked to the underlying Scheduled Operation, like KMM's Home page?

e. Incorporate a "Skip" button next to each Scheduled Operation row [like KMM has for its Scheduled Transactions, in its Home page]. Unless i'm overlooking it, in Skrooge atm, if a SO falls due that i wish to ignore for that individual occurrence only, i need to change from Dashboard to Scheduled Operations page, then popup the calendar & edit its schedule so that the next instance is now xx days / yy weeks / zz months [ie, whatever its periodicity is], into the future. It's more elegantly handled in KMM via the Skip tool icon/button at the LHS of every row in the Home page's Future Payments section. This clearly is only a minor detail, & logically is low priority... but it would be nice to have.


2. Dashboard - Highlighted Operations widget:
a. Pls include the thousands-separator [eg, comma] in the value.
b. Pls show currency-symbol [eg, $] as prefix not suffix [looks nicer + is then consistent with other widgets]


3. Reports remain [for ME; maybe other users are ok?] excruciatingly unintuitive & difficult to use in Skrooge.
a. Example:
i. Here's a pic of my easy-&-fast-to-build KMM Report for my current Insurance Policies:



ii. By contrast, here's the best i have managed to achieve, so far, in Skrooge [& it took hours even to deduce how to get this partial success]. You can see immediately that the KMM report's table provides vital extra info i need, AND no visually confusing redundant data like $0.00 for vendors from whom i did not buy that particular policy this time:




b. KMM's reports are so fast & intuitive to configure, because ALL the tools [date range selector, Categories, Accounts, Payees etc] that i need are in the single Reports dialogue box. Once i've built my report/chart configuration, with ANY date range i want [including decades into the future for my forecasting charts] per report, it then creates onscreen virtually instantly [~2"].

c. In contrast, Skrooge Reports:
i. need me to jump about all over the place; first remember to open the "Configure Skrooge" window if i want to use Scheduled Operations in my reports for more than only 1 year into the future, + i have to remember to have first selected the Categories page entries, + Accounts page entries, + possibly Trackers page entries, then once in the actual Reports page i have to remember to fiddle with the "Other Filters" pane, then trial-&-error experiment with multiple iterations of "Lines" [which really should be renamed as "Rows" for clarity] & "Columns" & "Mode" [all of whose definitions & intentions are incomprehensibly opaque in English to ME (eg, "Base 100" - what is that? As far as i can see all this does is round-up all values to the nearest $100, whereas "Base 100" implies changing to a whole other numbering system, like "Base 2")].

ii. If the report-type i desire does need Forecasting, once i activate that button i must endure a delay of ~3'18" [for my target of 7 years; much longer for a larger range]. Somehow KMM performs its calculations with much greater efficiency than Skrooge for reports involving forecasting based on my Schedules [eg, its 7-Year Forecast chart takes only 2" to appear once i request it]. NB: UPDATE: A day after i tested Skrooge's 7-year Forecast chart & recorded that 3'18", it was mysteriously faster; 1'30"... that's still too slow, but at least better than 3'... but WHY such large variability? Here's the applicable 7 year KMM then Skrooge charts:




iii. The new extended Forecast max years design paradigm is deeply inconvenient to use [for ME; maybe other users like it?], being [a] logistically separate in a different UI ["Configure Skrooge"] to initially activate, global in application, not specific to an individual Report like conveniently in KMM, [c] not then easily fine-tunable back in the Report bottom pane, due to NO calendar popup, but instead only by the Slider which gives NO real-time vision of what date change has occurred til the change is complete [~3' lag each time, which needs repeating over & over [until i finally get the range i want], due to being "date-blind" whilst dragging this Slider]. This paradigm REALLY needs replacing by a conventional calendar date selector popup in the Report page pane, for clarity accuracy & speed.




Possible bugs [31/1/19+]:
1. Each time i launch Skrooge recently, the Dashboard initially displays this Advice:

"Advice are very long to compute"

As soon as i make any change to the file then Save, this message disappears... but the next time i launch Skrooge it recurs. I have tried clicking both "Dismiss this kind of advice" & alternatively "Dismiss this advice", but neither helped; neither changed the behaviour i just described. How can i stop that particular advice pls? NB: UPDATE 2/2/19: When i launched Skrooge today, twice, this Advice did NOT reappear! Over the previous 2 days, with multiple Skrooge launches, that Advice appeared 100% of the time. Huh?

2. Dashboard widgets "Accounts" & "Banks (Light)" give conflicting Totals. They agree for individual components Wallets, Investments & Assets, but conflict with each other on Credit Cards & Savings Accounts, leading to the overall Totals also conflicting.

31/1/19: Aha, i solved it, & it's cool. The 1st one i've now renamed [but only in my Bookmark, not also the Page] as "Accounts (incl. post-current entries)", & the 2nd one i've now renamed [but only in my Bookmark, not also the Page] as "Net Worth @ Today (excl. post-current entries)"... this 2nd one is identical to the KMM "Home" page's "Assets & Liabilities Summary" - "Net Worth"... it ignores any Transactions / Operations due in the Future, which i have already entered into KMM / Skrooge [typical example is my Credit Card account balance payment auto Direct Debits that i DO enter once i perform the monthly Reconciliation against the latest Statement]. I like having this dual-view now in Dashboard.

1/2/19: Ugh, now less than 1 full day later, my deduction is apparently wrong. Today BOTH Totals are identical, despite there still being 3 Future Ops already Entered into the file [2 DDs, 1 EFT]. This implies that somehow today, "Net Worth @ Today (excl. post-current entries)" is not behaving like it did yesterday, whilst "Accounts (incl. post-current entries)" is still consistent with yesterday. Huh?

2/2/19: Same status as yesterday.


FYI.

Best wishes,
Steffie.

steffie wrote:Hello again Stephane

I must apologise again -- firstly for the woefully long time i left this thread hanging, & secondly because still i have not yet had enough time to anonymise my file [& then deduce the accounts for you to look at re their strange balance history charts in Accounts page] to email you [hopefully in the next few days i might have time]. That said, i have recently been able to spend a lot of time on other things in Skrooge [given i continue to use it daily in parallel with KMM], such that i have this following feedback, problems & requests FYI. Again i shall issue this caveat; nothing below is supposed to be insulting/rude, only constructive.

Hi,
Don't be afraid. I take it exactly that way and I really appreciate the time you spend to improve Skrooge.

steffie wrote:Requests for Skrooge:

1. Dashboard - Scheduled Operations widget:
a. What is the intended usage of the new function to choose its range via both of "mm schedules max" AND "For nn next days" ? Why not simply have only the latter?

You are right. This is done. I removed the "nn schedules max"

steffie wrote: b. Now that we can choose an extended range in this widget [thank you!], a previously hidden bug or design-omission is now exposed. Short-periodicity scheduled operations [eg, Weekly] that occur with at least two instances in the range [eg, 15 days], show only their initial occurrence. KMM's Home page's Future Payments section does the calculations & displays each event that falls due in the range. Hence atm the way Skrooge displays these is slightly misleading.

Fixed.

steffie wrote: c. Pls show currency-symbol [eg, $] as prefix not suffix [looks nicer + is then consistent with other widgets]

Fixed.

steffie wrote: d. Can the row entries be hyperlinked to the underlying Scheduled Operation, like KMM's Home page?

Done

steffie wrote: e. Incorporate a "Skip" button next to each Scheduled Operation row [like KMM has for its Scheduled Transactions, in its Home page]. Unless i'm overlooking it, in Skrooge atm, if a SO falls due that i wish to ignore for that individual occurrence only, i need to change from Dashboard to Scheduled Operations page, then popup the calendar & edit its schedule so that the next instance is now xx days / yy weeks / zz months [ie, whatever its periodicity is], into the future. It's more elegantly handled in KMM via the Skip tool icon/button at the LHS of every row in the Home page's Future Payments section. This clearly is only a minor detail, & logically is low priority... but it would be nice to have.

Done

steffie wrote:
2. Dashboard - Highlighted Operations widget:
a. Pls include the thousands-separator [eg, comma] in the value.

Fixed

steffie wrote: b. Pls show currency-symbol [eg, $] as prefix not suffix [looks nicer + is then consistent with other widgets]

Done

steffie wrote:
3. Reports remain [for ME; maybe other users are ok?] excruciatingly unintuitive & difficult to use in Skrooge.
a. Example:
i. Here's a pic of my easy-&-fast-to-build KMM Report for my current Insurance Policies:



ii. By contrast, here's the best i have managed to achieve, so far, in Skrooge [& it took hours even to deduce how to get this partial success]. You can see immediately that the KMM report's table provides vital extra info i need, AND no visually confusing redundant data like $0.00 for vendors from whom i did not buy that particular policy this time:




b. KMM's reports are so fast & intuitive to configure, because ALL the tools [date range selector, Categories, Accounts, Payees etc] that i need are in the single Reports dialogue box. Once i've built my report/chart configuration, with ANY date range i want [including decades into the future for my forecasting charts] per report, it then creates onscreen virtually instantly [~2"].

c. In contrast, Skrooge Reports:
i. need me to jump about all over the place; first remember to open the "Configure Skrooge" window if i want to use Scheduled Operations in my reports for more than only 1 year into the future, + i have to remember to have first selected the Categories page entries, + Accounts page entries, + possibly Trackers page entries, then once in the actual Reports page i have to remember to fiddle with the "Other Filters" pane, then trial-&-error experiment with multiple iterations of "Lines" [which really should be renamed as "Rows" for clarity] & "Columns" & "Mode" [all of whose definitions & intentions are incomprehensibly opaque in English to ME (eg, "Base 100" - what is that? As far as i can see all this does is round-up all values to the nearest $100, whereas "Base 100" implies changing to a whole other numbering system, like "Base 2")].

I will analyze this request.

steffie wrote: ii. If the report-type i desire does need Forecasting, once i activate that button i must endure a delay of ~3'18" [for my target of 7 years; much longer for a larger range]. Somehow KMM performs its calculations with much greater efficiency than Skrooge for reports involving forecasting based on my Schedules [eg, its 7-Year Forecast chart takes only 2" to appear once i request it]. NB: UPDATE: A day after i tested Skrooge's 7-year Forecast chart & recorded that 3'18", it was mysteriously faster; 1'30"... that's still too slow, but at least better than 3'... but WHY such large variability? Here's the applicable 7 year KMM then Skrooge charts:

I can explain why we have it:
The report is able to work only with existing operations.
So, when "forecast" is selected:
1- All "forcast" operations are created (this take time)
2- The report is compuated
3- A rollback is done to come back at the initial state.

Anyway, I will analyze this performance issue.

steffie wrote: iii. The new extended Forecast max years design paradigm is deeply inconvenient to use [for ME; maybe other users like it?], being [a] logistically separate in a different UI ["Configure Skrooge"] to initially activate, global in application, not specific to an individual Report like conveniently in KMM, [c] not then easily fine-tunable back in the Report bottom pane, due to NO calendar popup, but instead only by the Slider which gives NO real-time vision of what date change has occurred til the change is complete [~3' lag each time, which needs repeating over & over [until i finally get the range i want], due to being "date-blind" whilst dragging this Slider]. This paradigm REALLY needs replacing by a conventional calendar date selector popup in the Report page pane, for clarity accuracy & speed.

I will analyze this request.

steffie wrote:Possible bugs [31/1/19+]:
1. Each time i launch Skrooge recently, the Dashboard initially displays this Advice:

"Advice are very long to compute"

As soon as i make any change to the file then Save, this message disappears... but the next time i launch Skrooge it recurs. I have tried clicking both "Dismiss this kind of advice" & alternatively "Dismiss this advice", but neither helped; neither changed the behaviour i just described. How can i stop that particular advice pls? NB: UPDATE 2/2/19: When i launched Skrooge today, twice, this Advice did NOT reappear! Over the previous 2 days, with multiple Skrooge launches, that Advice appeared 100% of the time. Huh?

This advice is displayed when the computation of advice took more than 3s.
I did a fix, now this advice can be rejected as all other.

steffie wrote:
2. Dashboard widgets "Accounts" & "Banks (Light)" give conflicting Totals. They agree for individual components Wallets, Investments & Assets, but conflict with each other on Credit Cards & Savings Accounts, leading to the overall Totals also conflicting.

31/1/19: Aha, i solved it, & it's cool. The 1st one i've now renamed [but only in my Bookmark, not also the Page] as "Accounts (incl. post-current entries)", & the 2nd one i've now renamed [but only in my Bookmark, not also the Page] as "Net Worth @ Today (excl. post-current entries)"... this 2nd one is identical to the KMM "Home" page's "Assets & Liabilities Summary" - "Net Worth"... it ignores any Transactions / Operations due in the Future, which i have already entered into KMM / Skrooge [typical example is my Credit Card account balance payment auto Direct Debits that i DO enter once i perform the monthly Reconciliation against the latest Statement]. I like having this dual-view now in Dashboard.

1/2/19: Ugh, now less than 1 full day later, my deduction is apparently wrong. Today BOTH Totals are identical, despite there still being 3 Future Ops already Entered into the file [2 DDs, 1 EFT]. This implies that somehow today, "Net Worth @ Today (excl. post-current entries)" is not behaving like it did yesterday, whilst "Accounts (incl. post-current entries)" is still consistent with yesterday. Huh?

2/2/19: Same status as yesterday.

The "Banks (Light)" gives you a status at a given date (displayed on top of the widget = the last day of the current month).
The "Accounts" gives you a status taking into account all operations.

So, if you have an operation in the future after the last day of the current month, this operation is taken into account for "Accounts" but not for Banks (Light)".
This could explain the conflicting Totals.

steffie wrote:
FYI.

Best wishes,
Steffie.

Regards

Hi Stephane

This is done ... Fixed ... Done ... I will analyze this performance issue ... I will analyze this request ... I did a fix

What a magnificent response - thank you!

I can explain why we have it

I recognise that i know nothing about the underlying algorithms & coding, & that i have no skills in these areas. I therefore would like to state that in no way would i wish to minimise the difficulty of the design challenge you face. All i wanted to do, whilst acknowledging my own ignorance, is to convey to you that purely from a User's perspective [& with great respect], i find the current Reports & Forecasts designs very confusing & difficult to use. Maybe i have been spoiled by my long-term usage of KMM [& i acknowledge that you are probably fed up with me constantly mentioning KMM!]. To be honest Stephane i feel really "psychologically distressed", because with my several weeks now of intensive usage of Skrooge, & my gradual discoveries of its amazing powerfulness & flexibility, i truly value it & really really want to make it my new default instead of KMM. The single major roadblock for me, sadly, continues to be the complexity & non-intuitiveness [& speed] of the Reports & Charts.

The "Banks (Light)" gives you a status at a given date (displayed on top of the widget

Oh dear! I cannot see this date:

an operation in the future after the last day of the current month, this operation is taken into account for "Accounts" but not for Banks (Light)".

Aha, that makes complete sense & fully explains why i saw a difference, & then a day later [when the month changed] the difference vanished. Given the periodicity of my DDs & ~when i do the monthly reconciliations then enter those DDs into KMM & Skrooge, now i realise that i shall expect to see the difference reappear at the end of each future month, then again vanish when the month rolls over. I shall re-edit my widget names to reflect this [given my lousy memory, i might otherwise soon forget & then get confused all over again].

As usual, once you feel happy to share it, i would enjoy downloading source & compiling your latest Beta version pls.

Hi Steffie,

My fault: the date is displayed in the widget in QML mode but not in HTML mode. I fixed it !

For information, I have gotten into the habit of adding the nickname of the people who help me in the about Skrooge. Yours will be in the next version.

I did a new version (2.17.3). You can get it here: https://my.pcloud.com/#page=filemanager ... foldergrid
Here are the sha:
31f014fd0cf5db4f4117ae8bcf0070126b4e580c6274841a0ff14f6b13d717d1 skrooge-2.17.3.tar.xz
35a1112aff6aa2f88e3fd1f350a38b13607dd44ebf649d9495d5e5694c8399f3 skrooge-2.17.3.tar.xz.sig

Thanks Stephane [that's kind of you ]

I don't suppose you have any idea if/when you might also be able to incorporate a solution for this minor issue, do you? viewtopic.php?f=210&t=136143&p=410288#p410288

Sorry to have to ask this, but i can't compile 2.17.3 yet, due to both files failing the sha256sum test after download:

Code: Select all

[steffie@pc 2.17.3]$ makepkg
==> Making package: skrooge 2.17.3-2 (Sun 03 Feb 2019 23:19:40 AEDT)
==> Checking runtime dependencies...
==> Checking buildtime dependencies...
==> Retrieving sources...
  -> Downloading skrooge-2.17.3.tar.xz...
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100  126k  100  126k    0     0  55808      0  0:00:02  0:00:02 --:--:-- 55808
  -> Downloading skrooge-2.17.3.tar.xz.sig...
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100  126k  100  126k    0     0  69311      0  0:00:01  0:00:01 --:--:-- 69273
  -> Found sqlcipher4-fix.patch
==> Validating source files with sha256sums...
    skrooge-2.17.3.tar.xz ... FAILED
    skrooge-2.17.3.tar.xz.sig ... FAILED
    sqlcipher4-fix.patch ... Passed
==> ERROR: One or more files did not pass the validity check!
[steffie@pc 2.17.3]$

Actually i even had a problem before that, which i solved when i discovered that my build process fails at the 2 `&` symbols in your url, so i had to escape them to get past that early step:

Code: Select all

source=(https://my.pcloud.com/#page=filemanager\&folder=2306777503\&tpl=foldergrid/$pkgname/$pkgname-$pkgver.tar.xz{,.sig}

With respect, are you certain those are the correct sha256sums this time? After getting the validity failure per above, i then used Dolphin to calculate the sums for both files downloaded by my `makepkg` process... & it is WEIRD, they BOTH show `7059339023c71267c0f0009effc28dbec4f324f9e597252ac5dc9afc48ac1e14`... which i'd have thought was impossible.

Try with this URL: https://filedn.com/lfh5wtnkbtUFtBhIeKEr ... 7.3.tar.xz

It's 45' > midnight, so i'm going to bed now... i'll play with it tomorrow... thanks.

Hello Stephane

I noticed 2 relatively minor problems today.

steffie wrote [Dashboard - Scheduled Operations widget]:
b. Now that we can choose an extended range in this widget [thank you!], a previously hidden bug or design-omission is now exposed. Short-periodicity scheduled operations [eg, Weekly] that occur with at least two instances in the range [eg, 15 days], show only their initial occurrence. KMM's Home page's Future Payments section does the calculations & displays each event that falls due in the range. Hence atm the way Skrooge displays these is slightly misleading.

Fixed.

Thank you for fixing it, but though the later iterations of the applicable operations now do show in this widget's list, they break the chronological sequence, as per my picture. Is it possible pls to re-sort this list into chronological sequence after you generate those other iterations?


2. `Dashboard - Highlighted Operations widget` -- somehow i think i previously overlooked actually clicking the hyperlinks, but today i tried them. Currently i have 2 items in here. Both links jump to the wrong page. They each go to:

...whereas they should go to:

Actually, ideally, i'd like the jumps to go to my corresponding 2 items on my Scheduled Operations page, but for some reason i'm unable to add the `Highlighted` column there, so i had instead highlighted the applicable Template items associated with those schedules. Whatever, those hyperlinks do not take me to the correct page/place, which is confusing & reduces the benefit of me using that Highlighted Operations widget.