[GNC] Payroll add-on, module, software?

[Rich Shepard]

On Mon, 30 Jul 2018, Mike or Penny Novack wrote:

> THIS is perhaps what I am not making clear enough. We have been seeing
> calls for gnucash to be able to handle inventory, pos, and here payroll,
> etc. Functions important to businesses, functions which for some would be
> simple systems but for others very complex. Functions which are doing many
> things unrelated to accounting. But which share IN COMMON that they all
> would create transactions for accounting.

   I agree with Mike. Think of GnuCash (the bookkeeping activities) as the
backend; the database that reflects business activities and status.

   Business activities such as POS, inventory, payroll, cost of sales, etc.
are independent actions whose results feed into the company's books, but
they are not directly reported as the business' financial status.

   To have these inputs incorporated with the bookkeeping backend in a
single, comprehensive application is the role of an ERP (Enterprise Resource
Planning) tool. Take a look at SQL-Ledger if you want to see such a tool as
an open source comprehensive package for manufacturing, distribution,
retail, and service businesses. I used a small portion of SL (and a fork
called Ledger-123) for years and had to fit my consulting practice (a
service business) into a product-oriented framework.

   Leave GnuCash as a fully functional bookkeeping application but add
business- or location-specific feedstock activities to other tools. Perhaps
transition modules might be developed if there were any standard data
interchange formats for Point of Sales, payroll, or inventory data.

Rich