Using GnuCash to track inventories and stages of completion?

[Allan Gray]

Mark and Charles,

    Fair enough,  Some searching after my question made me quickly realize
that GnuCash will not meet these requirements without a lot of extra work
for the user and it would likely be error prone as you mentioned.

    Establishing a committed server and database is in the plan but right
now we are just working off of cloud space and shopping around for
options.

I'll keep working with it for now while we keep looking at our options.

Thank you for both for your input.
Allan


On Tue, Feb 2, 2016 at 8:27 AM, Mark Phillips <mark at phillipsmarketing.biz>
wrote:

> Allan,
>
> Gnucash does not have an inventory module.
>
> With that said, I have used Gnucash to track a small inventory of a
> softball team's uniforms and equipment using the stock method you
> mentioned. It is kludgey and I would not use it for any important inventory
> that has lots of moving parts. I only used it for a finished goods
> inventory and as a way to track cost versus price of the various items, as
> well as historically what happened to the inventory. A spreadsheet was just
> as good, but did not capture the history very well. There is no WIP (what
> you specifically asked about), waste, aging, or any other important
> manufacturing type inventory management available with this method. It is
> also easy to make mistakes using this method because you have to mentally
> translate the stock related labels/functions into inventory equivalents.
> Finally, it was several years ago, so I am not sure I still have all those
> brain cells rattling around any more! ;) The best way to set this up is to
> open a separate testing gnucash file and play with the stock functionality
> until you get something that works for what you want. Then make a
> cheat-sheet for entering transactions that translates the stock related
> labels/actions to the inventory actions. Also, the reports are confusing
> because they are labeled as stock transactions and not as inventory
> transactions.
>
> There are so many accounting packages with inventory management included
> that I would go that route instead. Much easier to use and better inventory
> reports. Keep Gnucash for your personal stuff, and if you need inventory go
> another route.
>
> Mark
>
> On Tue, Feb 2, 2016 at 5:10 AM, charles dandridge <chazdiezal at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Allan,
>>
>> I do not believe that Gnucash is designed for enterprise functionality
>> such as inventory management.  Do you have access to a web server and
>> database?
>>
>>
>>
>> > On Feb 1, 2016, at 5:36 PM, Allan Gray <allan.gray at sunetrike.com>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> > Hi everybody,
>> >
>> > I've been using gnucash for a few years for my own personal
>> bookkeeping.  I
>> > like its stripped down approach and so far have found it good for
>> passing
>> > back and forth between users.
>> >
>> > As I start to move into a new business, it has occurred to me that I
>> could
>> > (in theory) use the stock account to keep track of inventories.
>> >
>> > I'm new to this sort of record-keeping (especially how inventory moves
>> from
>> > raw parts to unfinished goods, to completed product for sale).
>> >
>> > Does anyone know of people who have tried gnucash for this purpose and
>> what
>> > their experience has been?  Alternatively, maybe there is an open
>> sourced
>> > option that is better suited for the task?
>> >
>> > Take care
>> > Allan
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>


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