accounting software

[Donald Allen]

On Mon, Jun 28, 2010 at 2:31 PM, Amiruddin Nagri <amir.nagri at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Donald,
>
> Thanks for sharing your insight and experience with us.
>
> I am a developer and looking to explore and extend Gnu Cash, also I am a
> beginner to accouting/account keeping.
> I am going through the help manual provided with Gnu Cash but some of the
> domain specific terms and logic are not very clear to me given that I don't
> have the relevant experience. How do you suggest I fill this experience gap
> ? If there are some manuals/tutorials/lectures available in any ocw style
> open university where I can study more details about accounting that
> probably will help me get an insight into this domain.

First, for your future reference (I understand you didn't start this
thread; I'm just trying to give you sense of what belongs where), I'll
echo John Ralls' comment that this is not the appropriate mailing list
for a discussion of this kind. It belongs on

gnucash-user at gnucash.org

But since we're already into it: have you read the Gnucash Tutorial
and Concepts Guide? It's quite good. A key to success with Gnucash is
understanding double-entry bookkeeping and it's explained well in this
document. Double-entry is not difficult (at least the fundamental
concept is not; applying it correctly in an accounting sense is
another matter), but it's avoided by commercial financial-management
packages because these days, such software is written for the least
common denominator -- folks who either won't or can't master a few
concepts that would have been thought simple when I went to school.
Gnucash does not suffer from the dumbing-down craze.

As for accounting, I'd suggest John Tracey's classic "How To Read A
Financial Report" as a place to begin. I am self-taught in accounting
myself and while I'm hardly an expert, I found that book quite
valuable.

/Don


>
> Thanks,
> Amiruddin Nagri
>
>
> On Sun, Jun 27, 2010 at 8:56 PM, Donald Allen <donaldcallen at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> On Sat, Jun 26, 2010 at 11:50 PM, John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us> wrote:
>> >
>> > On Jun 26, 2010, at 11:24 AM, Darla J. Wood wrote:
>> >
>> >> To Whom it may concern,
>> >> My name is Darla Wood and I am a small business owner. I am very new to
>> >> the Smartphone environment and am a typical computer user. The information I
>> >> found on your website concerning gnucash was very confusing to me. Is this
>> >> program ready for the public? Is it user friendly for people like me. I
>> >> would need step by step instructions on downloading and instillation. Any
>> >> issues after instillation would confuse me as to weather it is a problem
>> >> with program or me. I really need an affordable solution to my accounting
>> >> needs, I have looked at QuickBooks but do not feel that I should have to
>> >> rent the program yearly. Any info you can give me will be appreciated.
>> >> Darla J. Wood, SBO
>> >
>> > This is a developer mailing list for the programmers who work directly
>> > on Gnucash. Please in future post user questions to
>> > gnucash-users at lists.gnucash.org
>> >
>> > Yes, Gnucash is very mature; it has been available for almost 20 years.
>> > It is rather more demanding of the user than are many personal finance
>> > programs; more like QuickBooks than Quicken, for example.
>> >
>> > Gnucash does not support smartphones, though there are smartphone "apps"
>> > that will work with gnucash.
>> >
>> > You'll find lots of step by step instructions on all manner of different
>> > things in the wiki, at http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki.
>> >
>> > That said, while Gnucash is free, book-keeping is a lot of work. If you
>> > think that Quickbooks is expensive, go to Staples or OfficeDepot, get
>> > yourself a ledger pad, and keep your books by hand for a year. Be sure to
>> > record your time on a timesheet and bill yourself at whatever is your hourly
>> > rate. At the end of the year, I expect that you'll have a different
>> > perspective on software cost. You might at that point even appreciate the
>> > benefits of paying an accountant to take care of it for you so that you can
>> > devote more time to something profitable, like selling.
>> >
>> > Regards,
>> > John Ralls
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > gnucash-devel mailing list
>> > gnucash-devel at gnucash.org
>> > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel
>> >
>>
>> Excellent advice from John Ralls. But, if you decide you still want to
>> keep your books yourself, I recommend simply downloading and
>> installing gnucash, as well as reading the documentation (the Concepts
>> and Help guides). Even if you decide not to use the program, your time
>> will not have been wasted; you will learn some useful things. While I
>> don't run a small business, I've been keeping track of my personal
>> finances with a computer for over twenty years now, going back to
>> Managing Your Money on a Mac Plus. I used Quicken for a number of
>> years, Microsoft Money for a year (awful!), tried Gnucash 5 years ago,
>> and have been a happy user ever since. It's a powerful tool designed
>> and built by some very smart people and while it requires some effort
>> to learn to use it well, it will reward you if/when you do. And, as
>> you've already found out, there's an active user community that will
>> help you, including the developers.
>> _______________________________________________
>> gnucash-devel mailing list
>> gnucash-devel at gnucash.org
>> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel
>
>