[GNC] Is GnuCash the right application for me?

[Michael or Penny Novack]

> I run the accounts for a couple of clubs with similar needs.  Setup
> one accounts file for each club so they are kept separate.  I have not
> bothered with the complexities of the business features (invoices etc)
> as I have not found them necessary.

I am a person who is treasurer for organizations and gnucash is 
certainly suitable.

One issue though. It is unfortunate that that the "invoice" system is 
limited to "business features" and the assumption that accounting will 
be on the accrual basis (and that invoiced amounts are "receivables"  << 
the members of many organizations want to receive invoices for 
membership fees, etc. >>

HOWEVER -- this cannot be considered a fault of gnucash since many of 
the commercial alternatives share that same defect << even when the 
product is being sold as "the non-profit version" >> The general case 
situation for non-profits is that they need invoicing capability for 
BOTH "receivables" (say billing for services provided) and 
"non-receivables" (like membership dues -- there is NO legal obligation 
to continue paying those). To make things even worse, members may be 
making "pledges" which ARE receivables but only under conditions of the 
pledge AND members usually want those shown on a "unified statement".

The sad truth is that the "small non-profit" market probably isn't large 
enough to support the creation of accounting systems so specialized. So 
we get by with work arounds.

Michael D Novack