About cash flow forecast
Phil Longstaff
plongstaff at rogers.com
Thu Apr 22 18:05:53 EDT 2010
Hi Daniel,
sorry but I've been busy and distracted.
I'm including gnucash-user mailing list because we may get some helpful
feedback and ideas.
If you were going to be the person who creates this feature, how would
users use it. I assume it would be possible to include a projection
from previous transactions. In other words, if I have a property tax
bill which comes 3 times a year (true in my case), then I can assume
this is true for the future, and can assume some sort of increase (X%)
each year. I assume scheduled transactions could be included. Would
they always be included? What about other transactions which aren't
that regular. Example: I spend $X (roughly) per week for groceries, or
$Y every 1 1/2 months for some other supply. How would these be
entered? Probably for each expense account, you would want a list of
items, each of which has description, start date, frequency and amount
(e.g. "Water softener salt", Jan 1/2010, 6 weeks, $100.00). Given this
list, gnucash could figure out the cash flow. Scheduled transactions
would merge into this by providing 1) an item for the projection, and 2)
an automated way to enter the real expense when it happens.
What controls would the user have? Example: I've worked with an
accounting package which allowed you to 1) copy one budget to another,
2) increase certain accounts in a budget by X%, and other operations.
What operations would be available?
Do you want to be able to have multiple cash projections for what-if
analysis? What kinds of reports or graphs do you want to be able to
generate? For each report or graph, what options are available?
This is the kind of information we need. Once the feature is thought
out, the developers can write the code to make the feature act that way.
Phil
On Wed, 2010-04-21 at 11:55 -0300, Daniel Trezub wrote:
> Phil,
>
> I didn't hear from you back then. Can we resurrect this
> conversation? ;)
>
>
> =====
> Daniel Trezub
> http://www.gameblogs.com.br
>
>
>
>
>
> On 11 September 2009 18:04, Daniel Trezub
> <daniel3ub at gmail.com> wrote:
> Phil, let's talk about this in PVT, then. I am eager
> to help!
>
> What level of detail do you need? What kind of
> documentation do you need? Can I only write about the
> feature or do you want some sort of graphical
> explanation (or graphical visualisation of some window
> or dialog)? Do I have to format this document in some
> special way?
>
> Let me know, and I can start working in this right
> now.
>
>
> =====
> Daniel
> http://dantrez.deviantart.com
> http://www.bandofgamers.com.br
> http://www.continue.com.br
>
>
>
> 2009/9/11 Phil Longstaff <plongstaff at rogers.com>
>
>
> For the next few months (2?), I'm committed to
> seeing 2.3.X/2.4.0 to release, with a database
> backend and webkit for html. Once 2.4.0 is
> complete, the next area I'm interested in is
> reports and potentially tools such as this.
>
> Where you (Daniel) as a user can add value,
> even if you aren't a programmer, is to define
> and specify the feature. If there are any
> dialog boxes, you can figure out their
> layout. You can think through the workflow to
> use the feature.
>
> There have been requests to include future
> scheduled transactions in a budget
> projection. Is that all that would be
> needed? The text below says "This feature
> lets you enter one-time anticipated expenses,
> or create more complex structures such as
> bi-weekly or bi-monthly schedules." How would
> this be done? What flexibility would be
> allowed? Do you want to have a list of these
> schedules with check-boxes beside them, and
> see the effect as you add or remove them, or
> shift them forward or backward in time?
>
> Webkit supports DHTML (dynamic html). Do we
> want to make use of that somehow? One feature
> of Quicken I miss is the shapshot page where I
> can put a number of small charts or bits of
> information. I think that would be easier
> with webkit, but someone needs to specify how
> the user interacts with them.
>
> Phil
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Daniel Trezub <daniel3ub at gmail.com>
> To: Users Gnucash <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
> Sent: Friday, September 11, 2009 2:55:04 PM
> Subject: About cash flow forecast
>
>
> Interesting article that deals with cash flow
> forecast, along other things.
>
> http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2009/09/08/green-sherpa-an-online-cash-flow-management-tool/
>
> >From the article:
>
> With Green Sherpa, budgets are a thing of the
> past, literally. Budgets only
> represent an AVERAGE, or IDEAL, month. In
> reality, cash flow is more fluid
> than that. *Green Sherpa’s Cash Flow
> Projection feature allows you to create
> a forecast of future cash flow based not only
> on your historical spending
> but, more importantly, on your future
> PROJECTED expenses and income.* This
> feature lets you enter one-time anticipated
> expenses, or create more complex
> structures such as bi-weekly or bi-monthly
> schedules.
>
> That was what I was talking about: estimate
> the future cash flow. I really
> hope to see Gnucash having something like this
> in the future.
> No, I am not a programmer and no, I cannot
> code it. :)
>
> Just a topic for discussion between the
> gnucash users: how badly would you
> like to see something like this in gnucash?
>
> =====
> Daniel
> http://dantrez.deviantart.com
> http://www.bandofgamers.com.br
> http://www.continue.com.br
>
>
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