Addition of non-profit accounts

[Mike or Penny Novack]

>
>I suspect he's asking for an account chart template for NPOs, so that he
>can File -> New -> New File and choose "NPO Account Chart".
>
>If someone donated such an example account set it would be included.
>(hint hint) ;-)
>
>-derek
>  
>
Yes, that is probably what he is asking for BUT non-profits are as 
different from each other in that regard as they are from other sorts of 
entities. I rather seriously doubt that his NPO and any of the ones for 
which I keep the books would share even 50% of their accounts (mine 
don't with each other). Even where accounts similar the structure 
desired could be very different depending on what information is deemed 
useful. Most of the accounts that they would have in common are the 
sorts of things (like "checking account", "savings account") that they 
have in common with other sorts of entities that aren't NPOs.

In other words, I suspect a skeleton useful for non-profits in general 
would contain far too many accounts in the basic chart, ones that THIS 
non-profit would have no use for. I'd much rather hand add twenty 
accounts than hand remove two hundred.

For almost any entity (non-profit or not) expecting to have both useful 
information (for organizational purposes) AND directly what you need for 
your filings without any math is too much to ask of any general purpose 
package. Remember, the Feds and whatever state are unlikely to want 
exactly the same line items, there are lots of states, and GnuCash isn't 
"for US use only" so think of each country that has requirements. You 
set up your accounts so that the information you need will be AVAILABLE, 
not necessarily without adding certain items, subtracting certain items, 
etc.

Michael