Spam:****, Re: Profit and Loss Statement for Closed Books

[Mike or Penny Novack]

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>Another excellent point, but this is, of course, a two-way street, and as well as commitment from the users there would need to be commitment from the developers to such a process.  I see little indication that the developers are interested in working with users in the way you describe.
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Well that is where somebody like myself could be very useful since at 
one time or other I have "worn all the hats". I think you will find that 
with projects like these the developers number few among themselves who 
have worked as "analyst sitting with the users". BTW, that is a very 
important role. Users usually have only a rather vague idea of what the 
system of their dreams should do. They may have a good idea how it 
should behave "usually" but are close to totally unable to conceive of 
all of the  exception/rare situations.



>>Gnucash does accounting for 
>>me just fine, thank you.
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>Indeed it does, and in this regard it is entirely admirable and I have absolutely no complaint.  However, getting information out of the system in a useful form is somewhat problematical.
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>Colin
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How odd. I have never been unable to export data from gnucash and then 
manipulate it as desired. I really think this is a matter of where you 
think this manipulation should take place, inside gnucash or outside 
gnucash.

Let's take a look at *my* requirement.

The report (hereafter called annual financial report) shall consist of:

a) A pair of "Income Statements" for two consecutive accounting periods 
side by side. The account names should appear only once.
b) A pair of "Balance Sheets" ditto
c) Both of the above shall possibly have numbers in parentheses added 
after items.
d) Both of the above, if "c": applies, shall have number identified text 
lines or paragraphs explaining the item (which is in some way unusual 
and to be discussed wen the treasurer's report is delivered).
e) A more of less fixed text, possibly a couple pages, explaining the 
accounting principles in effect. Stuff like how large must an item be to 
be a minimum size "fixed asset" and what depreciation schedule will be 
used (unlike for profit businesses, a non-profit has some leeway of 
choice but still must say what they are choosing to do).

Although that is a standard report for one type of entity (a non-profit) 
I do not expect gnucash to produce that finished product internally. I 
do expect it to be able to export the necessary data (in this case, two 
Income Statements and two Balance Sheets)  and then I use my favorite 
editor to produce the finished product. COULD I write custom software 
that did this? Of course I could. Worth the time and trouble, of course 
not.


Michael


Michael