[GNC-dev] Data Model Schema

[Michael or Penny Novack]

On 8/20/2022 3:06 PM, Scott Morgan wrote:
> Hi John,
>
>    Well, I did some work building an open source Java Accounting Model (
> adligo.org) a few times of the past two decades.  Now I find my self using
> QuickBooks online, so I have been looking for some collaborators and
> gnucash seems like the most successful project out there.   The enriched
> metadata would allow me to build ETL tools to go back and forth between
> QuickBooks, my system and gnucash.
>    In my opinion accounting systems are basically the evolution of / fancy
> spreadsheets.  The main difference is the way transactions are linked in
> double-sided accounting.  Longer term I'm hoping for some sort of
> import-export standardization of accounting data.    The current standard
> seems to still be CSV files, which have problems binding the accounts
> together.  You can do this by tracking source systems and source Ids.  But
> it's still fairly painful.
>    So I figured I would start looking at the model you all were using inside
> of GnuCash.
>
At the "data model" level you should not be thinking about language of 
implementation.

I do not understand what you could mean by going back and forth from 
Quickbools to gnucash (or any other double entry bookkeeping software) 
as Quickbooks is not double entry.

No, did not evolve from spreadsheets. Double entry bookkeeping is many 
hundreds of years old. Was once done pen and ink on paper (was still 
done that way during my lifetime and how I learned). THAT process, enter 
transactions into a book called the journal, then posted from there into 
a book called the ledger, could be directly implemented using a 
spreadsheet application instead of paper. But note that the posting 
process was particularly prone to error.

IF you were using gnucash in "journal entry mode" (what you are using 
entering transactions that are splits) you would see the evolution more 
clearly. When you  complete the journal entry and hit enter, the posting 
is automatic (and error free -- the computer will not miss copy a digit, 
transpose digits, etc.)

Michael D Novack