Family usage of gnucash

Mike or Penny Novack stepbystepfarm at mtdata.com
Wed Dec 9 12:56:25 EST 2009


Валерий Булаш wrote:

>gnucash is not convenient for family usage.
>Family from my point of view is a little community where ...:
>  
>
Valerie,

Let me first ask you a couple questions because there may be some 
misunderstandings about fundamentals

1) Are you trying to keep the entire family's accounting on in one set 
of books? Or are you thinking that a single installation of the PROGRAM 
couldn't handle any number of completely separate books.

2) Are you confusing with the (limited) set of built in book structures 
("charts of accounts") thinking that these have anything to do with the 
personalized set of accounts you might wish instead?. NOTHING says that 
you have to use the "sample" accounts just like NOTHING says that you 
have to make use of the new account wizards. If they don't fit your 
needs, skip using them.

3) Do you know how you would be setting up the sort of books you want 
were you doing it the old fashioned way with pen and ink on paper? 
(ruled accounting paper) IMHO an application like GnuCash is most 
immediately useful if you already know the fundamentals of 
accounting/bookkeeping. If you don't, you are having to learn 
"Bookkeeping 101" at the same time you are learning "how do I use 
GnuCash to automate much of that process". If you do know how you would 
have the sort of family books you want "the old fashioned way" I promise 
you that you could use GnuCash to do it also.

4) "Multiuser" covers two rather different concepts. There is 
"sequential" multiuser which means that there may be more than one user 
but only one at a time logged in to the computer. GnuCash supports THAT 
just fine. Then the is "simultaneous" multiuser which means that 
POSSIBLY more than one user could be accessing the same database at the 
same time. To prevent there EVER being a disaster with that calls for 
some complicated systems coding and GnuCash doesn't have that. In fact, 
that's the purpose of the "lock" mechanism that it does have, to prevent 
simultaneous access.

Note that I am not here necessarily referring to a multiple computer 
network. In spite of the fact that few of us use our computers this way 
(and lack the hardware to accommodate it) the operating systems which 
some of use (Linux, for example) WOULD allow for multiple simultaneous 
users on the same computer (the "hardware" I referred to being things 
like multiple keyboards, multiple screens, etc. which the video cards, 
etc. currently installed might not support but some do). Even without 
special hardware might be possible (one user ON the computer while 
another connected to it from another computer via "remote terminal" 
software).

Michael D Novack


>   1. ... some people got separate salaries and other incomes.
>   2. ... all / most people can have common wallet - i.e. cash for food.
>   3. ... some people can have own wallets - kid for ice cream, wife for
>   make-up, husband for weapons and so on. I guess such wallets are transparent
>   for others, but it is not evident and not obvious.
>   4. ... every person can perform exact / similar financial operation.
>
>I see that implementation of multi-user access to gnucash data is not a
>family issue in general.
>How it is implemented in gnucash 2.2.9 (correct me where I'm wrong):
>
>No number... Term "person" (not just "user of program"!) doesn't exist at
>all. I see it is root cause of all problems.
>
>   1. Implemented with tricks. I can write in account name "Mary's income"
>   or "Joe's salary", but it is not applicable for sorting / filtering /
>   reporting.
>   2. Fully implemented where ALL persons want to share money. Not
>   implemented where SOME persons want to share money.
>   3. Not implemented at all. Full multi-user access with exact rights to
>   accounts and some rules of account visibility for others could help here.
>   Simpler way - every operation entered on personal account will record
>   account's owner name / code.
>   4. Not implemented at all. Transation must include person's name / code
>   or "all" as mark of transation owner / performer.
>
>Regards,
>Valery Bulash
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>  
>


-- 
There is no possibility of social justice on a dead planet except the equality of the grave.



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