The layout is not broken. When the default display order is on screen, the program can calculate a running balance. This is not a variable that is stored, but is calculated on the fly based on the order of transactions extracted from the database. Whenever that default order is disrupted, whether by a search or a sort (on any column, not just on date), the calculation cannot be performed. In many circumstances, the running balance would have no meaning. Obviously, you did not look for other discussions about this on the forum, or you would have encountered this explanation.
No, I do not. It has been like that from the beginning. You are the one seeking an innovation on behalf of your client, who apparently does not understand the ramifications.
As I explained above, you do not “have the balance column.” The display code calculates figures in the balance column, but only under the specified situation.
Quoting the developer:
More explicitly, something is not a bug when it functions as designed, as is the case here. The developer did not intend or expect you to see a running balance once the default list order on which the calculation is based is changed.
You and your client are free to do whatever you wish with the data by copying it to a spreadsheet, whether or not there is any accounting basis for doing so. But changing the sort order does not mean a running balance has rational meaning any longer. Your client’s desire to have a meaningless column demonstrates why the developer did not include running balances after searches or sorts.