Beginner with Questions

[Tony Hooker]

I'm a Scout Leader for a Cub Scout pack, and I'm hoping that GnuCash will
be a useful way to track our Pack's Finances.

Until Recently, we've been using a home grown set of spreadsheets, but I
have had a few people suggest a tool such as Quicken might be a better way
to track things.

However, I have absolutely NO accounting background at all.

If it were simply a matter of tracking income, expenses and money in the
account, it wouldn't be a big deal, but We've thrown an additional monkey
wrench in the works, by setting up what we call "Scout Accounts"

For Any boys that exceed the per/scout goal for our annual fundraiser, We
give them a portion of the money set aside into their "Scout Account" The
Money still stays with the pack, but can be used by that scout's family to
pay for camping trips, etc.

I'm not sure what would be the best way to set something like this up. I'm
thinking that if I set up each Scout's Family as a "Customer", And have the
Scout Accounts setup as Liabilities that would work, but I'm not sure if
that is the best way to track things.

I'm generally a huge fan of the Open Source Community, but If something
like Quicken Basic is going to be a more accessible tool for complete
accounting newbies, I'd be willing to spend the money on it. (Basically, if
$30 will save me a steep learning curve, I'd be ok with that) I get the
feeling that GnuCash might be a lot more powerful (And therefore more
complex) than what I need to track this information.

Any Suggestions or comments would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Tony

-- 
Tony Hooker