[GNC] Canadian Sales Tax Questions and/or "Canadian Version" of GnuCash

[John Ralls]

> On Apr 8, 2020, at 11:55 AM, Patrick Farrell <tegwaan at sympatico.ca> wrote:
> 
> Is there a "Canadian Version" of GnuCash as all the documentation in the current version of GnuCash 3.4+ (Build 2018-12-30) that I have read relates to the USA Tax System?
> 
> I immediately need to know how to set up automatically calculating how to add Canadian Harmonized Sales Tax ("HST") @ 13% to any Invoices I make up and send out to Clients/Customers, and then how to separately account for HST that I pay on any invoices that I receive from our vendors and subsequently pay. I then need to offset the HST received from Client/Customers versus the HST I have paid out to Vendors and do an official Government HST filing at least Quarterly, and pay them the difference if any!
> 
> Is there an "Update" software function in the program somewhere, as I have not been able to see any obvious place to do this? I see there is GnuCash 3.9 version offered on the website, but will I lose all existing data in my existing GnuCash 3.4+ if I download 3.9 on top of it or have to delete 3.4+ before I install version 3.9?

There are no national versions, and in any case even US residents would be foolish indeed to rely on GnuCash's documentation for tax information. The Tutorial and Concept Guide presents a very basic overview of accounting to help new users understand how GnuCash is different from programs like KMyMoney or Quicken. Beyond that any examples are intended to illustrate how to do tasks in GnuCash.

No, GnuCash has no "check for updates" function. MacOS and Microsoft Windows users can install new all-in-one packages. Linux users can either install the flatpak or rely on their distro's package manager though most of those tend to lag behind releases. Installing an upgrade in the same major release shouldn't affect your data.

Regards,
John Ralls