About cash flow forecast
Daniel Trezub
daniel3ub at gmail.com
Thu Apr 22 19:36:02 EDT 2010
Great!
My experience with this kind of feature comes from MS Money, so I think my
vision is very related to MM's features. Keep in mind the following is my
particular vision.
I'd like to have the following views/reports for this feature:
1. A report showing the values for all selected accounts month by month
(just like the actual budget view) or week by week, but for the months/weeks
to come.
2. A line graph illustrating the above.
This is the way GC would get the data to populate the views:
1. Scheduled transactions: GC would look at scheduled transactions and
simply add them to the data.
Since SXs already have a possible ending date, GC would take this into
account.
The user should be able to select if a SX would be included in the Forecast
upon SX creation, with the default to 'yes'.
2. Previous transactions: here we have three types of previous transactions:
a) the ones that occur regularly every once (i.e. the club's fee in january
and june, the paycheck every 5th of the month)): This type would already be
covered by GC as they will already be entered in the SX (see the "c" type
below)
b) the ones that occur frequently but not regularly (i.e. groceries
expenses, and almost every expense that does not fit in "a"): GC would look
at the previous X months (being X selected by the user) and calculate the
average ammount for this accounts. In my oppinion, an weekly average would
be good. This average would then be added to the data for the Forecast.
Let's say I've spend a total of $500 in groceries in the last 5 months. GC
would take this total and calculate an average of $25/week ($100/month, 4
weeks/month) for my groceries expenses.
c) the ones that happen once in a lifetime (i.e. that don't have a defined
frequency, as lottery wins, gifts, etc): The ideal cenario would be that GC
would be aware of these one-time transactions and would ask the user if they
would be added to the Forecast. If this is possible, then GC would be able
to ask if the user would like to add the transaction as a SX, and then they
would fall under the "a" type above.
The most automated this Forecast is, the better. This is why I don't like
the idea of adding new dialogs or making the user enter new data into
his/her existing GC file. I think the Forecast can work well with minimum
user decisions.
Upon creating the Forecast Report/Graph, the user should be presented with a
dialog asking:
1. the accounts to include in the Forecast (or use the Accounts properties
for the Forecast - i.e. each account could include an option to add/remove
it from the Forecasts)
2. the SXs to be included in the Forecast (or use the SX properties - i.e.
each SX could include an option to add/remove it from the Forecasts)
3. how many months should GC look back to gather data
4. if the report would be monthly or weekly
5. the ending date of the forecast
A bonus would be if GC could look at the specified budget and get data from
there :)
This is my vision. Any ideas? Comments? Criticism?
=====
Daniel Trezub
http://www.gameblogs.com.br
On 22 April 2010 19:05, Phil Longstaff <plongstaff at rogers.com> wrote:
> 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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