Is the description of "Common Accounts" in Account wizard accurate or confusing?

[Tommy Trussell]

On Wed, Nov 30, 2016 at 12:18 PM, Dr. David Kirkby - Kirkby Microwave Ltd <
drkirkby at kirkbymicrowave.co.uk> wrote:

> I was trying to set up some accounts using the wizard, or to give it the
> name in the software "New Account Hierarchy Setup", and see "Common
> Accounts", where it says
>
> "Most users will want to select this set of accounts. It includes most
> commonly used accounts (checking, savings, cash, debit card, income, common
> expenses).
>
> The fact it is already ticked, and ones told most users will want them,
> sort of suggests they should be left. Yet, from reading the book "Gnucash
> 2.4 Small Business Accounting", it says you don't need these for a
> business. IMHO, it should be better if the description stated this.
>
> As a minor point, I thing there should be an "and" in the description too.
>
> "It includes most commonly used accounts (checking, savings, cash, debit
> card, income *AND* common expenses)"
>

I believe this wording is intended to represent GnuCash's "target user," or
a fictional entity one imagines when designing the software. I think the
target user has always been presumed to be an individual interested in
managing her or his own personal finances.

Of course many of us also use GnuCash to manage small organizations and
businesses, so the wording for the selection in that dialog might need to
be expanded or reworded to specify its target more precisely.

I haven't been through the setup process in a long long time, but I believe
one hurdle to a new user is to emphasize that although the software offers
to create these suggested accounts, the user is not restricted to use (or
even to keep) any of them. HOWEVER this very concept of account freedom
might be too open-ended to express in the space given. (Because the user
might be new to the software and doesn't know what it can do for them yet.)

While it's fresh on your mind, maybe you can help by suggesting a more
exclusive (yet welcoming and informative) wording for the selection on that
wizard so one of us might create a bug report? Something like:

"Most users managing their own personal finances will want to select this
set of accounts. It includes commonly used accounts (cash, debit card,
income, and common expenses)."


-----
> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
>