[GNC-dev] New Account Hierarchy Setup Assistant Questions

[D]

On September 12, 2018, at 11:08 PM, John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us> wrote:

>It’s not a bit disingenuous. Consider the millions of mostly satisfied Quicken users out there, some of whom wander our way and wonder why they should have to learn about accounting just to track their bank accounts. IMO most of them would be happier with KMyMoney, which operates a lot more like Quicken does. GnuCash is a formal accounting program for people who want that. No need for a CPA, Accounting 101 at the local community college will suffice. There’s no reason for GnuCash to cater to people who don’t have that knowledge when there are alternatives that 
>So maybe the first thing to change in the T&CG is the first paragraph of the Introduction:
>"GnuCash is the personal finance software package made for you. It is versatile enough to keep track of all your financial information, from the simple to the very complex. It is one of the few financial software packages that supports global currencies, and it is the only open-source program of its kind. Best of all, GnuCash is easy to learn and use!”

 "Gnucash is the finance software package that's a bitch to learn and use! At least it's open source!" - - It has a definite ring to it!

;)

Seriously, I'll look at ways to make that a little less breathless.


>GnuCash isn’t at all a personal finance software package and it isn’t made for everyone. It’s a formal accounting software package and it’s made for people who run small businesses, are fiduciaries of some sort, have complicated finances, or are compulsive about using formal accounting. If it was easy to learn and use we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
>Now back to creating a new book.
>I didn’t propose shunting off creating the basic accounts to the ANBA. I proposed that File>New would create the accounts currently created by the set of accounts selected by default in the current NAHSA. It contains two bank accounts (“savings” and “checking” in the en_US one) and cash-in-wallet under Assets:Current Assets, A range of income and expense accounts, Equity:Opening Balances, and a single credit card account under Liabilities. The other add-ons are mostly trivial or insufficient (for an example of the latter, investment includes dividend income but not capital gains).

Indeed. 

I wonder whether there's some better mechanism for getting users up and running with a set of books...

David

>Regards,
>John Ralls