Getting money for Gnucash development [was Re: Newbie migration issues]

[TC]

E Dodd wrote:
> My experience was that with quicken my accountant charged me much more for the 
> time involved in straightening out the mess in which i had my books, and the 
> same accountant prefers me using gnucash because i can keep the positives and 
> negatives in the right columns.
> so really, I could do heaps more with quicken than gnucash, but the accountant 
> didn't like it and charged me more for the privilege.

Yeah, well that may say more about accountants than Quicken. :-)  *My* 
experience is that an accounting qualification is no indicator of 
financial sense, mathematical maturity, or ability to tell good software 
from bad (witness their widespread endorsement of "Sage" in the UK.)

The fact is, a key aspect of how traditional double-entry is implemented 
is in respect of it being done done by hand, by humans, and on paper. 
Arithmetic errors are highly likely in those situations, and splitting 
the columns meant that they were easier to avoid, or to find.

But if a *program* is built correctly, arithmetic errors are pretty much 
impossible.  Part of the whole raison d'etre of the traditional 
implementation of double-entry disappeared with the advent of computing 
machines.

Seeing two-column entry as a feature in a book-keeping program is 
similar to seeing days laid out in months as a feature in a calendar 
program. But it's not; it's a remnant of the old implementation - paper. 
  In a computer, it's not needed.  (That said, a nice additional feature 
for Quicken would indeed be the ability to produce reports in two column 
formats, but only so that accountants felt they were in their comfort zone.)

In none of this am I trying to raise Quicken or Gnucash over the other. 
  But let's pick our targets people.  If the main thing going for 
Gnucash is that it is Real Genuine Italian Leather Double-Entry, then it 
doesn't have much of a main thing.  But in fact what it *does* provide 
is freedom (as in beer), Freedom (as in speech), and it runs on 
GNU/Linux. And it is a Cool Tool. Those are all worth shouting about (in 
some order or other, depending on your point of view).

tc

P.S. I slight all accountants in the above, but I don't really mean to. 
  Some of my best friends are accountants :-)