I am sorry, but to me, this entire discussion seems like various solutions in search of problems. As I wrote earlier, having any form of default, set by any of the methods discussed, would be an enormous irritant. I frequently have both business and statutory reasons for switching reports back and forth between accrual and cash basis. Having the program intervene, no matter when, would be very frustrating and lead to more mistakes than any accidental neglect to make the right choice.
OK then, let’s work harder rather than smarter.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for smarter. My point is only that program-imposed defaults are not necessarily smarter, especially if they make you work harder.
touché
Clearly we have very different opinions or perhaps just use Manager very differently.
What really is the use case in which you find the accounting method for a business is really completely random, is really 50/50 every time a report is created.
I suppose if it makes no difference to you the accounting method should always default to cash. Clearly that will make no difference to you but will help me, so a net overall win.
In fact being able to set up the accounting method in the summary screen prior to the first invoice is less valuable than setting the normal setting for all reports. The summary screen accounting reporting method is never displayed anywhere and can be changed in one place if it is wrong after an invoice is entered.
Accounting method for reports has to be corrected on every report. As soon as an invoice is created it appears in lots of reports. My memory was in older versions the accounting method was not selectable till an invoice was created (but perhaps my memory is wrong).
In summary in my opinion the lack of ability for a business to enter it’s account convention makes Manager behave like a toy, perhaps fun to play with but runs into problems when actually used by a wider audience.
There is already a default. It defaults to accrual basis for all new reports.
Some are just asking that it be possible to have it default to cash basis for all new reports.
The default that makes sense for you, especially when you are regularly switching between them, is whichever one you happen to use most often.