Any AR/AP accounts marked placeholder will still appear in the dropdown in the posting menu, despite being read only.  However, if you try to post to it, an error message pops up preventing you from posting.  As per warlord, the account should simply have never appeared in the dropdown in the first place.


[2019.05.25 18:36:32] <warlord> CDB-Man, I == Invoice, P == Payment.  It's denoting the type of transaction.
[2019.05.25 18:37:33] <warlord> CDB-Man, you SHOULD NOT use AR/AP manually.  You can lock out your transactions and make them untouchable if you're not careful.
[2019.05.25 18:37:48] <warlord> Those accounts were designed specifically to work ONLY with Invoicing/Billing.
[2019.05.25 18:38:05] <warlord> If you don't want to use Invoicing/Billing then use a standard Asset or Liability account.
[2019.05.25 18:38:21] <warlord> CDB-Man, w.r.t. the extra bill -- reuse it for the next one.
[2019.05.25 18:38:27] <warlord> You cannot delete biz objects.
[2019.05.25 20:32:34] <CDB-Man> thanks warlord. w.r.t existing transactions in those ledgers then, is it fine to just leave those as-is, and start invoicing on top of them within the same account? that or, i should zero them out then start fresh 
[2019.05.25 20:33:07] <warlord> I would not mix them.  Change the existing accounts to Asset, rename them, then create real A/R accounts.
[2019.05.25 20:33:59] <CDB-Man> well, it loosk liek if there are transactions within the account, you cannot change the type to "asset"
[2019.05.25 20:35:56] <CDB-Man> what I could do though, is mark them "placeholder" to prevent further transactions, record 1 entry to move the balance to a temperoary account, then invoice in a real AR/AP with the difference coming from that temp account
[2019.05.25 20:37:39] <warlord> Huh.  You SHOULD be able to change from AR to Asset.  
[2019.05.25 20:37:45] <warlord> What version of gnucash is this?
[2019.05.25 20:38:00] <CDB-Man> Build ID: git 3.5-170-gd62489409+(2019-05-09)
[2019.05.25 20:38:12] <warlord> (I know the "rules" changed at some point).   Although maybe they deny that because AR *is* special.
[2019.05.25 20:38:29] <warlord> Your other option is to manually move the transactions from AR to an Asset account.
[2019.05.25 20:38:36] <warlord> I really wouldn't mix-and-match.
[2019.05.25 20:39:05] <CDB-Man> I don't recall ever being able to convert an asset account to/from an AR account or vice versa, as long as transactions exist
[2019.05.25 20:39:38] <CDB-Man> manual is possible, but given the volume of transactions, I think I will just lock it down using the placeholder flag
[2019.05.25 20:40:18] <CDB-Man> I think this about solves most of my current questions at hand then; the other issue i filed a ticket for
[2019.05.25 20:41:38] <warlord> Hopefully  the placeholder trick will prevent Invoice posting.
[2019.05.25 20:42:44] <CDB-Man> warlord: it definitely does; accounts marked placeholder aren't selectable in the Expense account dropdown
[2019.05.25 20:43:13] <CDB-Man> sorry, I'm thinking for adding splits
[2019.05.25 20:44:10] <CDB-Man> Prfect; upon posting, if you select a placeholder account, an error dialog pops up saying placeholder accoutn selected
[2019.05.25 20:44:24] <CDB-Man> so posting is blocked, the only annoyance is that it clutters the list
[2019.05.25 20:45:54] <warlord> CDB-Man, You tried posting an invoice and selecting a placeholder account?  Interesting.  Honestly, it shouldn't show up in the list.  Please file a bug report on that.
[2019.05.25 20:45:56] <warlord> Thanks.
[2019.05.25 20:45:58] <warlord> Gotta run.
[2019.05.25 20:46:26] <CDB-Man> Indeed, it appears in the list, but you get a warning that it is a placeholder
[2019.05.25 20:46:31] <CDB-Man> Will file a report