[grib@linuxdevel.com: Survey results?]

Linas Vepstas linas@linas.org
Thu, 12 Jul 2001 21:08:40 -0500


On Thu, Jul 12, 2001 at 08:40:17PM -0400, fleet@teachout.org was heard to remark:
> 
> I have a *VERY* small business.  I'm just getting into Accts Rec. in a
> more "standardized" way.  I only have three regular bills, so Accts. Pay.
> is not all that important for me.  Therefore when I reached the
> "integrated address-book/contact manager/to-do list" question I kinda went
> "Huh?"  Certainly, for invoicing/billing/checkprinting purposes there's a
> need to have customer contact information available to the computer (but
> not necessarily in human readable form). It would never dawn on me to look
> for a customer's address or phone number in my accounting package.  I

Well, I didn't say 'use gnucash for your addressbook' (that's what
evolution is for).   Instead, its to deal with check printing and
invoicing.  Why?

You want to print the address on a check. Why? 
So that you can use those envelopes with little windows.  Why?
So you can avoid the embbrassment of putting the right check in the
wrong envelope, which, trust me, is easy to do once you have more than
a half-dozen checks you need to mail.    Also, I don't want to mess
with stupid sticky-label printing.   And I don't plan to sit around and
hand-address a couple dozen envelopes if I can avoid it ... So you get 
envelopes with windows, and print checks with adresses on them.

Ditto for invoices. 

> would look for it in an address-book/contact manager/to-do list software
> designed for keeping this information; which also would keep this
> information for my mechanic, bookkeeper, family members, social contacts,
> emergency numbers, etc.  In addition to "do the dang invoices!" and "Meet
> with Mr. Client" entries, the to-do list would include things like "get
> oil change," "get a haircut," "take dog to vet," etc.  So, yes, I *would*
> like an "integrated address-book/contact manager/to-do list" - I just
> don't think I'd like it as part of GnuCash.  (BTW, if anyone knows of a

I didn't say 'use the gnucash to-do list for your dentists
appointments.'  More likely:

You got a bill from someone for $5K.  You agreed to pay $993 this month
and $2K next month, and the rest in 6 months.  And 3 months in you get
another bill from that client for $2049 and you're going, 'what the 
hell is this?' and you are staring at accounts payble, and you see that your
bank says that they cashed a check 3 months ago for $993, and you're
trying to remember what your deal with them was ...  *that* is why you 
need to have the ability to anotate stuff like this with complex notes.
Yes, you could do it scribbling notes on the original paper invoice,
and filing it ...  yeah, paper ... good ol paper ...

I don't think its a feature that you appreciate until you get up to 
a couple dozen pending transactions. But when you do, you will
understand what I'm talking about; until that point, it sounds like an
idea from mars.  

Put it another way: if I saw that the guy I was doing business with had a
to-do list tht looked like 'thursay, get hair cut, pay xyz corp $25,000,
friday, take dog to vet, bill customer pqr for $14,688 in widgets', 
I would start wondering if the guy had some screws loose.  I mean, what
if he accidentally lost the to-do list ??? I'd hate to be corp xyz 
and not get paid.


> GOOD PIM for Linux, drop me a private e-mail.  I haven't found one yet.
> I'm currently grepping a text file.)

Evolution! 

--linas

> 
> 				- fleet -
> 
> 
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-- 
Linas Vepstas -- linas@gnumatic.com -- http://www.gnumatic.com/