Future "Tutorial and User Guide" direction

[Derek Atkins]

Jon Lapham <lapham at extracta.com.br> writes:

> > Also, business users may
> > have to pay rent on their office space.
> 
> And should thus be included in the business section, with examples,
> etc. Including discussions of possible business tax implications, etc.

Fair enough.

> > Honestly, I can't think of anything that would belong in a "GnuCash
> > guide to Personal Finance" that wouldn't also belong in a "GnuCash
> > guide to Business Finance".
> 
> 
> Certainly the "Getting Started" chapters would
> be... basically.. identical (Basic Structure and Setup, Accounts,
> Transactions).  However, the chapters Checkbook, Credit Cards,
> Investments, Loans could be very different in the business guide.

I'm not convinced credit cards or loans are very different.  I can
think of a number of examples that show how to account for it that
are the same.  For example, "dinner out" would be a transfer
from L:CC -> E:Dinner

> For example, the "credit card" section of the personal finance guide
> discusses how to deal with accounting for your personal credit card (I
> charged my groceries, what do I do now?).  Whereas the business
> chapter on CCs could deal with accounting for credit card expense
> accounts, expense forms, back charging employees for personal
> expenses, etc.  You know, the business perspective on credit cards.

Honestly, no, I don't see -- I don't see why we cannot use examples
that can be shared.  Sure, the business card will be used for some
things that the personal card would not (and vice-versa), but that
doesn't mean we need to enumerate those differences.

> Certainly investments and loans are quite different in a business
> versus personal finance setting?

No, honestly, I do not believe they are.  Business lease/loans are
exactly the same as personal lease/loans.  A business could have a
mortgage or revolving credit just as easily as a person.

> > The inverse is not true -- I see no
> > reason to discuss AR, AP, Customers, Vendors, Invoices, Bills,
> > Payroll, TaxTables, Billing Terms, etc. in the "Personal Finance"
> > docs.
> 
> I agree.  And, that is the other side of the coin, making the Personal
> Finance guide less intimidating for new users.

I agree wholeheartedly with this...

> > But seriously, I think except for the specific chapters devoted to
> > the above sections, I see no reason to duplicate the docs.
> 
> But, they wouldn't be duplicated, except maybe in name.
> 
> Well, it doesn't matter now.  Let's concentrate on the docs
> organization we have now.

Sounds good.  I think my point is that we could easily have a single
document (instead of two) that handles both personal and business..
IMHO everything that would go into the personal sections are relevant
to a business, so, we just need to offset the "business guide" so as
not to scare the personal users.

Ahh, the joys of trying to be everything to everyone...  NOT!

-derek
-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available