GnuCash

[John Ralls]

On Jan 22, 2012, at 6:00 AM, Herman Lorenz wrote:

> Thanks for the info. Most of the comments are related to Quicken, which is not really intended as a usable business accounting package.
> 
> QuickBooks and Peachtree have multi-dimensional accounting that makes it possible to do financial reports in total, and also by project or department. It appears from the comments that GnuCash isn’t going to work for multi-activity businesses; or even individuals with complicated situations. 
> 
> I for example have to produce a report of revenues and expenses for each of the activities I’m involved in for expense reimbursement purposes. I also have to produce a consolidated report of all of the business activities for tax returns. And I have to produced a consolidated report of all personal and business activities to see where I stand as a whole. With classes or departments I can produce an income statement that shows the specific businesses, one that shows what we spent on our recent trip to Ireland/England, and another that shows our normal personal expenditures.
> 
> For one business I work with, I can produce full income statements for each of the seven lines of business they’re in, and also a consolidated statement.

You can do that with Gnucash, too. Just set up placeholder accounts for each business activity and create expense and income accounts as needed under each:

BusinessA
  Income
    Consulting Fees
  Expense
    Travel
    Office Supplies
    Etc.
BusinessB
  Income
    Consulting Fees
  Expense
    Travel
    Office Supplies
    Etc.

You can set up your various reports by selecting the appropriate accounts in the Options and saving them as Custom Reports.

Regards,
John Ralls