[GNC] Brand new and lost...

[David Cousens]

Johnathon,

A database is not necessary to use GnuCash. GnuCash has an XML text file,
which may be compressed as an option, as its default storage. That file can
be located in a cloud storage. I keep my data files in a dropbox account so
that I can access them from several computers. Note however that this does
not support concurrent access from multiple computers, only single access
and that when one computer has the file open another computer can normally
only open the file in read-only mode. This can be overridden, but in normal
circumstances should not be, for the  fairly obvious reason that you can end
up not knowing which computer has the most up to date version of the file.
Closing the files in the wrong order is likely to lead to a loss of data. 

The database backend is an optional extra for GnuCash. The database backends
also currently don't support concurrent access from multiple computers
although this is a future longer term objective. You can choose one of
either SQLite3, PostGreSQL or MYSQL for the database backend. If you have
limited database experience using the XML backend is probably the best
choice.  Backing up and maintaining  databases requires some considerable
investment in developing the necessary skill set. You can always open the
XML file and write it to a database (if your version of GnuCash is compiled
with database support which is the default option) at a later time of your
choosing. A Google search will provide you with tutorials on database
support, setup etc.

Customers and Vendors in GnuCash are associated and accessed with the
business features which support Invoices/Bills/Credit Notes and the
associated Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable accounts. Similar
restrictions apply to the use of the Tax features in GnuCash. If you want to
use them you will need to use the business features which can be a bit
cumbersome for dealing with cash sales subject to VAT/GST type taxes for
example as you have to create an Invoice/Bill even though the sale is not a
credit sale. The default accounts for Invoices and Bills are Accounts
Receivable and Accounts Payable respectively.

David Cousens



-----
David Cousens
--
Sent from: http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/GnuCash-User-f1415819.html