Is there a difference between creating a new customer and new account?

[L. D. James]

On 07/19/2015 03:50 PM, Wm... wrote:
> Wed, 15 Jul 2015 20:38:51 <55A6FD1B.8000909 at apollo3.com>
> Larry D. James <ljames at apollo3.com> wrote...
>
>> I understand what you're saying.  My question might not have been as 
>> clear as intended.  I probably don't have the diction to make fully 
>> clear.  But a reference here and there is a great help.
>>
>> I understand what both of you have said.  I have introduced Gnucash 
>> to one of my clients who don't have any background in accounting.  I 
>> gave her steps in creating customers and told her when she's needs to 
>> bill someone, start off by entering them in the system using the new 
>> (create) customer option.  Then proceed to making a new invoice for 
>> that customer, and eventually follow thought with adding payments to 
>> the invoice for the customer.
>>
>> She used the words I created the new account.  I wanted to say, you 
>> didn't create an account, you created a customer.  I wanted to say 
>> there is a difference.  While I choose to refer to the difference by 
>> name.  I wanted more concrete ways of validating why she should call 
>> the first process creating customer instead of creating account (for 
>> a customer).
>>
>> I realize when I go to a vendor the vendors refer to us customers as 
>> having an account with us.  So the customer does have an account.  I 
>> guess in a sense we are creating an account by the customers name. So 
>> while in the actually books there is some similarities, and of course 
>> there is the difference that you guys are mentioning, such as the 
>> customers are living breathing being.  But for the record, what is 
>> the difference when we are looking in the books.
>>
>> A similar question is the fact that we have more than one data file. 
>> The building where I'm introducing Guncash have more than one lawyer 
>> there who will have separate data files.  I refer to them as 
>> different businesses... different data files.  She has a tendency to 
>> want to refer to them as different accounts.
>>
>> While I understand clearly the real difference, I was looking for a 
>> good way to use the right nomenclature to explain this to my client.
>>
>> That was the sense that I was mentioning.
>
> Whoa!
>
> I think this is the first time you have mentioned lawyers in this 
> conversation.  The legal profession uses accounts (both in terminology 
> and accounting) in ways very unusual to a normal business or individual.
>
> You don't say where you are but every jurisdiction works in a slightly 
> different way and it is a good 20 years since I last did any 
> specialised law accounting but here are some reasons why I wouldn't 
> use gnc unless you are already familiar with legal accounting.
>
> Accounts may refer to money held on behalf of a client or other party, 
> these are (even if not government mandated) usually kept physically 
> separate, i.e. different actual bank accounts, in some cases different 
> banks and multiple bank accounts.  If the money is held in trust there 
> is a whole layer that goes with that.
>
> The you have fee earners accounts (the lawyers and other people that 
> generate income) as well as expenses that get allocated to accounts.
>
> It goes on.
>
> I haven't thought about this at any length but I'm not sure I'd 
> implement gnc in a legal practice with multiple fee earners without 
> careful analysis.
>
> Maybe I have misunderstood what you are planning

Hi, Wm.  Thanks for the input.  I have mentioned lawyers, doctors and 
other professional people many times.  The other professional people 
includes doctors, judges, politicians, block clubs, hight school and 
college people, teachers and small business owners.

As far as the current customers I made a reference to, it's not 
something I'm planning... it's something that I have already put in 
place.  My question was about nomenclature while I'm in the process of 
teaching the system.

You're right about the intricate legal parts about keeping accounts, 
money and things of that source separate and totally accounted for. The 
lawyers understand that and have always been doing it.  In fact one of 
my lawyer clients, separate from these two I'm referring to, is a 
retired judge and has been a lawyer for about the past 15 years.  Her 
husband was both a lawyer and judge.  She'll probably be retiring from 
her law work soon.

But yea, they understand about the legal requirements of keeping things 
separate.  And it's not the Lawyers I'm introducing the system to.  It's 
their secretaries and receptionist.

But again, regardless of who will be using the accounting, creating a 
new customer, creating a new account, creating a new invoice will still 
have the steps provided in Gnucash.

I gave the secretary the steps for creating a new customer.  When she 
did it and acknowledged it was done, she told me she created the new 
account and gave me the customer's information.

I was just trying to be accurate in saying, the step she did wasn't the 
creation of a new account, even though now the customer has an account 
in the system.  She created a new customer.  I was trying to get 
verification from that group of the nomenclature for that particular 
step.  Was I wrong to not refer to the customer entry in the accounting 
system as a customer, and not an account.

I'll use the same nomenclature for my clients who rent appointments if I 
introduce them to Gnucash.

By the way, I recently became active in my block club.  I don't know 
what accounting system they are using.  But I might introduce them to 
Gnucash also.

-- L. James

-- 
L. D. James
ljames at apollo3.com
www.apollo3.com/~ljames