Income/Expense Report

[Munroe Sollog]

Isn't that motivation to make the gnucash report more robust by adding a
notes field to it?  In addition to a notes field, some sort of
superscript field on a per cell basis?  I understand your reasoning
behind using something like a spreadsheet to prepare your final reports,
but wouldn't it bet better to add that functionality to gnucash? 


I added a day or so ago an item on the wiki's wishlist for an online
repository for custom reports.  This would allow us to easily work
together to implement this kind of report.  The idea of tackling an
entire custom report is a little tiring for me.  I would have no problem
taking an already existing report and tweaking it a bit, as I am sure
many others wouldn't as well.  But we need a place we can share this
work effectively.

Munroe Sollog
Systems Engineer
Digirati Consulting, Inc
sollog at digiraticonsulting.com




Mike or Penny Novack wrote:
>
>> Is there a way to get a table that looks like the Income Statement but
>> with multiple months/time periods, one in each column?
>>
>>  
>>
> This came up with regard to the organization for which I keep books,
> because normal practice for a non-profit to present the data for two
> consecutive fiscal periods side by side like that. I asked should I
> write a "custom report" within GnuCash to produce that output (retired
> after a few decades designing software for financial systems) but was
> told "don't bother". That whoever is preparing the finished version of
> the report will want to use their favorite editor for the purpose so
> just have GnuCash produce the raw reports. Just as easy to have that
> editor copy in the data and place it wherever.
>
> Why? Why editing? A proper according to GAAP report has more than just
> the raw numbers with no explanations. At each point there is something
> that would raise eyebrows and be questioned it saves time and trouble
> to place a "footnote". Let's take an example from my own organization.
> Let's say on the line for "annual meeting" expense the 2007 total was
> $500 and the 2008 total was $1500. Was there actually some big
> difference in cost? (note could explain why) or was this an illusion
> caused by books being on a cash basis (note might be explaining the
> illusion). In our case this was "$500 invoice for the printing/mailing
> for the 2007 meeting paid in Jan  2008" (so the expenses for both
> annual meetings about the same $1000). Having those notes in place
> saves time when presenting the report to the board and you DON'T want
> the government folks coming back to you with all sorts of questions
> about things that look strange but aren't (they'll begin thinking
> "where there's smoke, there's fire").
>
> The point is each "finished" report as presented to the board of
> directors and filed with various authorities might have a half dozen
> such notations plus a significant amount of fixed text. Things like
> setting out what counts as a "fixed asset" vs what is immediately
> expensed and what is the depreciation schedule -- a non-profit is free
> to choose its policy as tax laws don't apply but must state what it is
> in the report. So you WILL be using an editor anyway, might as well
> use that editor for the whole job.
>
> Michael
>
> PS -- Yes I understand, many of you are "home users" not involved with
> formal reports. But you need to understand why the "pros" like myself
> who might have the expertise to write such reports or organizations
> willing to fund a project to do the work aren't stepping forward.
> Normal that the accounting software just produces "raw" reports and
> then the accountant uses that data to prepare the finished report.
>