Bug 462513 - Setup/creation of Investment account not possible : account type stock not existing
Summary: Setup/creation of Investment account not possible : account type stock not ex...
Status: RESOLVED INTENTIONAL
Alias: None
Product: kmymoney
Classification: Applications
Component: general (show other bugs)
Version: 5.1.3
Platform: Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows
: NOR major
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: KMyMoney Devel Mailing List
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2022-12-01 18:14 UTC by KB.claim
Modified: 2024-08-17 20:29 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:


Attachments
the screenshots of the bug (256.87 KB, application/pdf)
2022-12-01 18:14 UTC, KB.claim
Details

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Description KB.claim 2022-12-01 18:14:28 UTC
Created attachment 154203 [details]
the screenshots of the bug

SUMMARY
***
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***


STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Create a new Asset Account  of Type investment without institution assigned (lets name it "Depots", and it shall hold several different (sub) accounts for different brokers)
2. Add a (sub) account, i.e. a child of "depots": name Broker1, account type: INVESTMENT (there is no "Stocks" in the account type selection list available!!!), next, create a brokerage account (or not, is irrelevant), parent account "Depots", Finish:
Name: Broker1
Subaccount of Depots
Type: Investment !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Currency: Euro
Opening date: Samstag, 1. Jänner 2022
Institution: Broker xyz
3. click Finish brings the error message:
Unable to create account: Investment account can only have stock accounts as children C:\_\9b0777e7\kmymoney\kmymoney\mymoney\mymoneyfile.cpp:1019

OBSERVED RESULT
There is no such thing as a "stock account" in the type list when creating a new (sub) account. The list contains: Liability, Asset, Investment, Loan, Cash, Credit Card, Savings, Checking. There is nothing better in the list than "Investment" which throws the above error message.

EXPECTED RESULT
That the (sub) account is created.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Windows: 11
macOS: 
Linux/KDE Plasma: 
(available in About System)
KDE Plasma Version: 
KDE Frameworks Version: 
Qt Version: 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
The documentation is completely vague, it describes 5 main account types: Asset Liability, Expense, Equity. I see only two types: Assets and Liabilities in my installation. Where is the rest? Not a single word where these Account types are administered, configured, reset. Why are they not existing at all in my installation?
The description of "Categories" is weird. What a category is or for waht it is used is nowhere explained. The pdf manual is really bad for beginners. The basic accounting chapter is childish honestly, balls or beans rolling around in a box .... I think one who installs a personal finance manager to manage his accounts and so on should understand what accounting is, and for a starter with kmyMoney the first at least 30 pages are completely unnecessary. If the handbook is made for users then how about starting with screenshots of a sample setup that contains cash, bank accounts, savings accounts, loans, credit cards, investments, etc. based on a practical outline, i.e. 3 bank accounts, 2 savings, 3 depots, a crypto depot, 2 credit cards, etc. This should immediately show the categorisation of accounts, the tags, and what not, so users without need for reading embarrassing beans statements come to the point. I am aware this is a harsh comment, but would recommend to add a practical example use case as introduction. It is very clear in many passages of the manual that developers wrote the manual, without the reader in mind.
Category is described as a "non-managed income and expense account that do not have a value". I am not sure who may find this helpful, but certainly 99.9% of starters are lost here. Certainly if one develops the concept for years this is a totally clear statement of highest technical nature, but for users this is unusable. Statement of this confusion level are all over the manual.
Comment 1 Jack 2022-12-01 18:51:27 UTC
This behavior is as designed.  Investment accounts cannot be nested.  An Investment Account can only contain Stock Accounts.  A Stock Account is only an account to hold a single security within one Investment Account.  It is created by KMM the first time you enter a transaction in an Investment Account referring to a security.  That is why it is not explicitly listed in the dropdown of account types.  If you want an account just to  hold other Investment Accounts, make it an Asset type account.

I agree we need to find a way to make this more obvious, and I agree that error message (while technically correct) is not very helpful.

As for your complaints about the manual, I would be happy to have an offline discussion about how you might help improve it.  Some of your statements are correct and well known to the documentation team (mainly myself) but others are simply not true - although I do admit that the information in the manual is not necessarily easy to find when you need it.  In particular, please note that the manual explicitly identifies those chapters which have not been updated since prior to the switch from KDE4 to KDE5, although I also admit that some of your issues are legitimately with updated chapters.

I'll leave this bug open for a while, in case there are specific questions.  General discussion would be better handled on one  of the venues listed at https://kmymoney.org/support.html.
Comment 2 KB.claim 2022-12-02 09:42:33 UTC
Thanks Jack for the info & the graceful reception of the comments related to documentation.
I will try to support hands on with the documentation once I know more of kMyMoney. Is the documentation available as source, too? So I could hack in my comments directly?

For the brokerage accounts. It means, when someone has several brokerage accounts, the cannot be grouped into an investment account, but have to be directly under assets for each broker?
It would be great to see all brokerage accounts under one umbrella.
Will keep testing - probably all is fine, just I did not understand the details so far.
Comment 3 Jack 2022-12-02 17:21:08 UTC
Documentation is written as docbook files, and is part of the source repository.  Look in the docs folder at https://invent.kde.org/office/kmymoney.

Most accounts can have subaccounts of similar type, but Investment Accounts are special in only allowing Stock accounts inside.  Investment accounts CAN be grouped, but not under another Investment Account.  If you create a new account, and use "Asset" as the account type, you can then put any Investment Account within it.  That is how I have my own file set up.
Comment 4 KB.claim 2022-12-11 08:02:10 UTC
Usage explained and issue fixed.

Support of documentation project to be handled directly via eMail to Jack.