THIS IS A DRAFT; State of the GnuCash project, part II: What can YOU do to help?

Derek Atkins warlord at MIT.EDU
Mon Nov 3 22:36:43 CST 2003


Michael Hall <ninti at ninti.com> writes:

> Before I proceed with contributing to the GnuCash project, I would like to
> determine if there is any likelihood of modules or whatever being developed to
> handle GST/VAT type taxes in a straight forward manner (no splits, etc). Is
> anyone working on this area at the moment?

It HAS to be handled as splits.  That's the ONLY way it can be done.
Otherwise there is no way to map the GST to a specific Transaction.
Having said that, at this point nobody has stepped up to offer to
implement a more integrated GST system.  I personally have no plans to
do this (without some big incentive).

What we've got now _can_ handle it.  It just isn't the
easiest/prettiest.  I suspect a few extra dialog/druids to help users
set it up, and then a report to clean up at the end, would solve 95%
of the problems I think there are.

> I would like a solution within say six months

And I'd like a pony....  This is a volunteer effort.  If you don't
like what you get, I'll give you triple your money back!

>     ... if I could write C and Scheme
> i would start myself today. I would certainly be willing to help in whatever way
> possible on such a project. 

Well, find someone who can?

> I would appreciate any comments re where GnuCash is going with GST, because
> other than its lack of direct support for GST, GnuCash is a great product. It's
> funny, I have consistently avoided anything related to finance and accounting
> all my life, but now see it as the number one priority to advance the uptake of
> Linux in small business and the wider community.

If it were implemented cleanly I'd gladly apply the patches, but
frankly I just don't see what needs to be done.  A druid to help you
set up the tax tables, and a report to give you the quarterly/yearly
GST report...  What else do you need?

> Mick

-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


More information about the gnucash-devel mailing list