GNUcash - tutorial and concepts guide

[David T.]

I don't use the business functions myself, but I was wondering if Geert's summary would be appropriate for placement in documentation somewhere (Wiki, Help, FAQ, Quickstart???). It seems to me that it's a really succinct summary of the main steps for getting going with invoices... Of course, where to put it is another question.

David

--- On Thu, 8/5/10, Geert Janssens <janssens-geert at telenet.be> wrote:

> From: Geert Janssens <janssens-geert at telenet.be>
> Subject: Re: GNUcash - tutorial and concepts guide
> To: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> Cc: gnucash-user at lists.gnucash.org, "Barry Seidenstat" <barry at roicomm.com>
> Date: Thursday, August 5, 2010, 2:41 AM
> On Tuesday 3 August 2010, John Ralls
> wrote:
> > On Aug 2, 2010, at 2:34 PM, Barry Seidenstat wrote:
> > > Hi John,
> > >
> > > Yes I did read the readme.  I can't seem to
> find the show package
> > > contents. However, I did find the online help.
> All I wanted to do today
> > > was ender a customer, a project, a billing amount
> and print an invoice. 
> > > Couldn't figure out how to get that done. This
> tool may be too complex
> > > for me.
> A prerequisite for using the Business features of GnuCash
> is that you have 
> some business related accounts setup (Accounts
> Receivable/Accounts Payable).
> The most easiest way to do this is to create a new file and
> add Business 
> Accounts in addition to the Common Accounts.
> 
> To get to your invoice you could take these steps:
> 1. If you want GnuCash to deal with taxes properly you
> should first set up the 
> proper tax tables for your country
> * Select Business-Tax Table Editor
> * Create a new tax table and set the proper tax amounts
> (for example, here in 
> Belgium we have 21% VAT, so I have a tax table with one
> entry for 21%)
> 2. Customer
> * Select Business->Customer->New Customer
> * Enter the required fields
> * Optionally select a tax table
> * Hit ok
> 3. For your project, you can create a job
> * Select Business->Customer->New Job
> * Enter the information you need
> * Note: in 2.2.x you have to use the "Select" button to
> enter a customer, the 
> text field is read-only
> * Hit ok
> 4. Now you can create your invoice
> * Select Business->Customer->New Invoice
> * Select a customer and job and set the other fields to
> your likings
> * Hit OK
> * The invoice entry window should appear now as a new tab
> in the main window
> * Enter all the lines you wish to appear on your invoice in
> this window. The 
> entry method is similar to the normal GnuCash register.
> Enter here for example 
> your work, the items you sell to the customer and
> additional charges such as 
> freight and insurance.
> * Note that GnuCash will calculate the taxes and totals
> automatically. You 
> find them at the bottom of the window.
> 5. When you are satisfied with the invoice entries, you
> have to post the 
> invoice:
> * Select Edit->Post Invoice
> * Choose a post date and hit OK
> 
> That should be it. You can now print your invoice:
> * You can use either
>   * Reports->Business->Easy Invoice
>   * Reports->Business->Fancy Invoice
>   * Reports->Business->Printable Invoice
>   I'm not exactly sure what the difference is. Just
> take the one you like best
> * Choose one of the three reports above
> * It will open with an empty window. Click on the options
> button (second 
> button from the right in the toolbar) to configure your
> report.
> * The most important information is the invoice number (use
> the Select button)
> * Other than that, you can play a little with the layout of
> your invoice, by 
> changing the other options.
> * When finished, hit ok and the invoice will display
> onscreen. You can choose 
> to print it from there.
> 
> Hope that helps.
> 
> Geert
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