I am drowning in emails

[CCAAT]

On 02/24/2015 08:37 AM, Mike or Penny Novack wrote:
>
>>
>> However, what is needed for GnuCash in my opinion, is two mailing lists:
>>
>> 1. One for accounting questions, that could be answered anywhere.
>> 2. One for questions about GnuCash, assuming the user understands
>>    accounting.
> Unfortunately, not likely to be of help. The problem appears to be that
> many people simply aren't aware that they are asking an "accounting
> question" rather than a "gnucash question". For some reason that is
> unclear, too many people seem to think that a computerized accounting
> package means that they can do their bookkeeping without having to learn
> the fundamentals of accounting for their particular sort of entity. In
> other words, confusing "automation of process" with "computer figuring
> out the process for them" (reading their minds).
>
> It's the "manual" vs "user guide" difference, how to use gnucash vs how
> to do accounting (whatever you are using).
>
> Michael D Novack

An excellent (albeit well known) observation. I purchased the now dated 
book by   Ashok Rmachandran, "GnuCash 2.4 Small Business Accounting";
and it bridges the oversimplified principals of book-keeping into the
basics of account, via GnuCash, as the template. I strongly recommend 
this book; and the author's need to update the book to the current 
features found in the latest gnucash builds, along with some more 
details on basic book-keeping/accounting to make the book more 
comprehensive.


As most of us know, the traditional pedantic approach to accounting is
mostly hubris; strongly evidenced by the accounting graduates that need
several years of practical training (experience) before becoming useful. 
I recently ask a young friend that had graduated with a master's degree 
in accounting, had a very high gpa from a very recognizable university 
and passed the CPA exam if he wanted to take over doing my taxes for my 
small S-corp. He was very hesitant since he knew he lacked practical, 
real world experience. So folks on this list need to drop the hubris 
about the pedantic approach to accounting. Sure it is fundamentally 
important, but it falls way short of teaching somebody how to run a 
business, from the accounting/IRS point of view, or even how to complete 
a small business tax return. Likewise, most the young computer scientist 
I run into, do not know how to code. Only those that coded before 
entering a Computer Science program (at an abett certified) university, 
could actually write useful code upon graduation. The University 
pedantic approach to education is of questionable use on a practical 
basis, as we all know!


That said, there are lots of tidbits in the gnucash online resources, 
but organization into a formal book that "BRIDGES" accounting with
a business setup & operation guide, would be a keen book to have, and I 
for one  would pre-purchase a copy to support the author.

You cannot do proper accounting until you have ran several different 
types of businesses, regardless of formal (pedantic) training. 
Accounting in and of itself is almost completely useless. You
cannot master all of the required software, as a computer scientist
needed to roll your own enterprise accounting system, without a 
decade-plus of practical and diversified software development 
experience. You cannot wisely use the tools of accounting and software, 
as an entrepreneur, until you have failed at this sort of effort. 
Business failure pain is the best teacher of lessons of things
that one never forgets. So let's all quit this nonsense of trivializing
this momentous effort; that of the triple threat need to master 
accounting, software and entrepreneurship, in order to become a 
financial success as an entrepreneur.

That said, I do hope that somebody "steps up" and writes the next 
generation book that most of us need. Maybe we need to "crowd fund" this
need by "pre-sales" of the book; so that one of those rare individuals 
can justify the expenditure of time necessary to write the book, become 
famous and really help this community out? Advance hooks for customizing
codes to supplement gnucash would be an excellent follow up book, imho.
Or may combine it with "how to secure various forms of funding" since 
your wonderful ideas are married to a robust, feature rich accounting 
system (gnucash).

"I got 50 bucks (USD) for such a wonderful individual to step forward.
The thoughts and comments of others are most welcome!


James Horton PE