gnucash in Australia

[Derrick Ashby]

Derek Atkins wrote:

>Derrick Ashby <daeroncs at fastmail.fm> writes:
>
>  
>
>>Hello list,
>>
>>I've been looking at gnucash for about a week, and in general I'm a
>>fan.  This is the first accounting program I've found that seems to be
>>useful for both personal and small business accounts.  (I've so far
>>set up files for me, my wife, our business, our joint affairs and our
>>super fund...) Not only that, but it gives me something useful to do
>>with my linux box!  However, there are a couple of issues that bother
>>me.
>>
>>(1) Down here in Australia we start our financial year in
>>July. Gnucash seems to assume a January - December year, and I can't
>>find any way of changing this.
>>    
>>
>
>All reports let you set the date; you can choose "financial year"
>which is July 1 - June 30.
>
>  
>
>>(2) GST (Goods and Services Tax - similar to VAT). I've read quite a
>>few posts on this issue in the archives. When collecting GST from
>>customers the advice seems to be to set up a tax table, and I tried
>>doing that. It works fine if you use accrual accounting, but that
>>involves paying tax to the government for invoices that haven't been
>>paid yet, and who wants to do that? If one uses cash accounting, one
>>is forced back to doing the thing manually, the way you need to do
>>with purchasing.  I guess I can live with that, but it's a pain.
>>    
>>
>
>Bug #95700.  It's really just a reporting issue, not an accounting
>issue (except for the dates, but if you work with periods it's all ok
>-- except gnucash doesn't support real periods yet).
>
>  
>
>>No doubt I'll find more things to gripe about in the next week or so ...
>>
>>Derrick Ashby
>>    
>>
>
>-derek
>
>  
>
Thanks for the tip on the reporting date.  I note that there is a 
"Default" button on the Options General tab that returns the form to a 
default state, but is there any way to change what the default settings 
are?  I can see myself getting a bit tired of repeatedly changing the 
report date option every time...

On the GST issue, I'm not sure what you mean by it being only a 
reporting issue and not an accounting one.  The difference is that if I 
pay GST on an accrual basis then I want to specify  the tax to come out 
at the time I post the invoice, so that the amount gets posted into the 
Liabilities - GST Collected account .   On the other hand, if I'm  
paying on a  cash basis I only want to post to that account when the 
invoice gets paid.  As far as I can see gnucash works quite well on an 
accrual basis, but not at all on a cash basis.

Derrick