Generating Customer Bills

Fri Mar 29 14:51:22 EDT 2013

Derek,

Your answer implies that our books are "done in pencil" i.e. alterable to
correct errors. "Correct" errors, not correct the effects.  Some accountants
I know would have kittens.  What used to be called "pen and ink" created a
permanent record, warts and all, and then recorded needed (and performed)
corrections.

All of this assumes that, in GNUcash, altering an erroneous entry does not
leave indelible tracks.  Does it?  I cannot tell and this brings me to my
concern: GNUcash does superb things automatically; it does not (to my
knowledge) enable user easily to manipulate known parameters.  E.g., How can
I change the placement of information on a report?  Sometimes, by altering
font size with GNUcash automatically adjusting margins, border, boxes etc.
Now trial and error is not a bad way to do forms design (nor particularly
good either) but in more precise areas, parameters are crucial.  My
discomfort is based on my difficulty in parameterizing what GNUseems to be
doing.

Is this on purpose?  I may be overinterpreting but it seems to me that the
change from programs to "apps" has been accompanied by laxness in the
structures in many cases.  On the other hand, 35 years in Windows World may
have left me incapable of shifting gears to Linux/Unix/whatever superlogic
may be behind the structures.

In the 1960-80s, we used to joke about revising the problem to become
something that IBM can solve; it was, like most jokes, not devoid of a germ
of truth.   Many times, that is a legitimate approach if it will lead to the
useful results.

I have already learned from you that sometimes the answer is in precise
attention to a seemingly broad statement the manuals.  Other suggestions are
welcome. Oh, and as to "corrections," is the evidence of what was done
remain?

Herb

From: Derek Atkins [via GnuCash]
[mailto:ml-node+s1415818n4660748h36 at n4.nabble.com] 
Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2013 1:09 PM
To: HerbEber
Subject: Re: Generating Customer Bills

Hi, 

"Herbert W. Eber" <[hidden email]> writes: 

> Another branch: 
> Suppose my books now manage AR-members, consisting of reconstructed
entries 
> and it all works - EXCEPT that some entries are wrong.  Good old Joe paid 
> his dues when the treasurer was mentally elsewhwere and so I need to
correct 
> his AR.  Bus->Cus->P credits cash and thus is wrong; an attempt to post a 
> negative amount (accounting-ly logically correct) is rejected. Again, I am

> sure that this is not a previously unfaced problem. Can you (again) point
me 
> in the right direction? 

Delete the incorrect transaction and Process Payment correctly. 

> Thanks - Herb 

-derek 

> -----Original Message----- 
> From: gnucash-user-bounces+herb.eber=[hidden email] 
> [mailto:gnucash-user-bounces+herb.eber=[hidden email] 
> g] On Behalf Of Herbert W. Eber 
> Sent: Wednesday, March 13, 2013 1:56 PM 
> To: 'Derek Atkins' 
> Cc: [hidden email] 
> Subject: RE: Generating Customer Bills 
> 
> Derek, 
> Thanks for such rapid replies.  I meanwhile have started printing the 
> manual, discovering that it reads better than it jumps around in "modern" 
> style.  This may result in fewer questions. 
> 
> As for the limited invoicing (and statement) capacity, I now understand. 
> Indeed, I can live with it for the Lions Club which has 60 members, half
of 
> whom pay in the first month, the rest bye and bye; we typically send
20-odd 
> second notices about 3-4 months into the FY and raise hell with the
laggards 
> 3 months later.  GNU-cash can easily support that pattern. 
> 
> I am curious why others in the group have not done it.  Seems like some 
> bright hustler might have incorporated into a systematic set of auxiliary 
> procs reading the data from a Gnu system and producing whatever he wants. 
> Perhaps that has happened; I know so little of my contemporary history 
> having been busy as a cockroach in my bailiwick. 
> 
> Again, thanks 
> Herb 
> 
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: Derek Atkins [mailto:[hidden email]] 
> Sent: Wednesday, March 13, 2013 12:39 PM 
> To: Herbert W. Eber 
> Cc: [hidden email] 
> Subject: Re: Generating Customer Bills 
> 
> Hi, 
> 
> "Herbert W. Eber" <[hidden email]> writes: 
> 
>> Derek, 
>> Now that you pointed me to the AR technology and I have some ARs, the 
>> receivables aging report is ideal for one of the questions I asked. 
>> The other is: 
>> 
>> How can I prepare the end of month (or whatever time) bills to send to 
>> a non-trivial number of customers whose AR accounts are up to date and 
>> show a non zero balance/  One at a time?  I hope not. 
> 
> Unfortunately there is no easy way to mass create invoices.  You can 
> duplicate older invoices to effectively re-issue new invoices, but you
still 
> need to do it one-at-a-time.  When I wrote the code I wrote it for my
usage, 
> which was a consultant with a small number of concurrent customers, so 
> invoicing wasn't a common task, and repetative invoicing was a
non-existing 
> task. 
> 
>> Herb 
> 
> -derek 
> 
>>> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. 
>>> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. 
> 
> -derek 

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory 
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB) 
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH 
       [hidden email]                        PGP key available 
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