[GNC] Accounting Modules

[Robert Heller]

At Tue, 27 Nov 2018 15:49:17 -0800 "Stephen M. Butler" <kg7je at arrl.net> wrote:

> 
> On 11/27/18 4:46 AM, Robert Heller wrote:
> > At Tue, 27 Nov 2018 10:13:37 +0100 Geert Janssens <geert.gnucash at kobaltwit.be> wrote:
> >
> >> Op dinsdag 27 november 2018 00:17:06 CET schreef John Ralls:
> >>>> On Nov 27, 2018, at 6:35 AM, Stephen M. Butler <kg7je at arrl.net> wrote:
> >>> The other big issue is that your description of the various modules in a
> >>> business accounting system is for *big* business. That’s not what GnuCash
> >>> is designed for and not what the current development team is interested in,
> >>> never mind (as you point out) capable of supporting. There are a several
> >>> open-source projects in that space, search the web for “foss erp” to find
> >>> them. GnuCash is focussed on very small businesses (as in sole
> >>> proprietorships) and individuals.
> >> I mostly agree, yet I think many small businesses would benefit from a simple
> >> inventory management system. My own business would have for that matter.
> >>
> >> And while inventory is not strictly accounting it would make gnucash a viable
> >> option to quite a few extra small businesses. So I'm in two minds with respect
> >> to inventory support and have been for quite a while. In the past I envisioned
> >> implementing it myself (reusing certain parts of the existing code and adding
> >> the missing bits) but for various reasons shifted to other priorities. If
> >> someone would step in to write it, I would still support the effort though.
> > "Inventory Management" is so close to managing stocks, that it should be
> > possible to implement with bit of recycling/repurposing the existing code for
> > stocks...  One can *almost* fake it now by considering physical inventory as
> > if it were a stock and using a "stock" type account.
> Hmm.  I'll have to read up on stocks.  My retirement accounts are 
> managed by a firm so I haven't felt the need to track the details.

A stock (or commodity) account contains a number of units (shares) at a value
of so much each. It is a "small" leap to think of an "account" for say a
supply of widgets valued at so much each. You would have an "account" for each
sort of widget, all grouped under some master account for one's complete
inventory. And then you would need to store the widget characteristics (size,
color, and so on) in addition to how many you have and what they are worth and
you might want to store things like base value, retail and wholesale sale
price, etc.

> >> Payroll on the other hand is not my cup of tea and likely more targeted at
> >> larger businesses.
> > Yes, a full fledged Payroll module would likely to be major bit of coding, but
> > maybe a simplified small scale Payroll module *might* be of use to smaller
> > businesses (say < 5 employees).
> 
> 
> The one I built was for a 700 employee hospital in S. California.  They 
> had strange rules about on-call and overtime.
> 
> Something for a Mom and Pop would be interesting.  Not this year!
> 
> >
> >> More generally, we can certainly use more hands to carry gnucash forward. So
> >> Stephen your offer to lend us a hand is highly appreciated :)
> I'm curious as to how many developers contribute.
> > +1
> >
> >> Regards,
> >>
> >> Geert
> >>
> >>
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> >>                                             
> 
> 

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