Fw: Canadian use

[Mike or Penny Novack]

>Good day,
>
>My wife recently opened up a home daycare and we would like to have a few ideas on how to set up a canadian-type (ontario) chart of account in GC 2.4.11 (linuxmint) to reflect this so we can keep track of the business.
>
>We also sell a few homemade goods and delicacies that we would like to keep track of.
>
>
>Dom
>Petawawa
>Ontari0
> 
>  
>
I'm going to ask you a question (request to clarify yours). Are you 
asking ..........

1) "How would I set up the double entry books for this no matter whether 
I was keeping the books using gnucash or any other accounting package or 
even the old fashioned way pen and ink on accounting paper (or the 
slightly more modern way using spreadsheet pages ruled the way 
traditional accounting paper would be)?"

or

2) "I know how to do it (say pen and ink on accounting paper) but how do 
I set that up using gnucash?" Especially with regard to any differences 
caused by the OS we are using?

and

3) Do you understand the difference between the two? In terms of the 
sort of help you are asking for. If you have any experience keeping 
books the old fashioned way you will appreciate how gnucash (or any 
other accounting package) automates the most error prone parts of the 
traditional* process. But none of these packages eliminates having to 
know the basics of double entry bookkeeping. Just like a nail gun can 
speed up the job and save on wrist fatigue compared to pounding them in 
by hand but of little use if you haven't a clue where the nails should go.

Michael D Novack

* In the traditional process you first entered the transaction into the 
journal and then posted the entry into each of the ledger accounts 
affected by the transaction. Process very subject to transcription 
errors. With a software package you enter the transaction for any one of 
the ledger accounts affected which places the proper entry into each of 
the other ledger accounts affected and constructs an implied journal 
entry, never making a transcription error and giving you immediate 
feedback if you entered the transaction out of balance. BUT it can't 
help you with "which accounts should this transaction be affecting?" if 
you don't know that.