[GNC] questions from a new user

[Michael or Penny Novack]

On 1/8/2023 7:14 PM, Neil Morrish wrote:
> Hi
> I am not sure if gnucash is right for me, as it seems quite hard to get
> started. Can you advise me what steps to learn about for my simple
> requirement please?
> I want to keep a record of business transactions so I can send invoices and
> make an annual report for my tax calculation.
> I do work for 4 or 5 customers and like to give an invoice that shows the
> things I've done , the cost of the work, and the expenses I incur.
> I dont want to link this to my bank account.
> When it is set up, is it easy to input the entries quickly?

By "I don't want to "link" to my bank account do you perhaps mean that 
you are NOT wanting this to be a full personal set of books? You want 
this JUST for your small number of customers business.

Yes, you CAN use gnucash for this purpose. In effect, you are setting up 
a subset of what would be full books. It WOULD have a "bank account" for 
when the invoices you sent customers are paid. But this "bank account" 
would be a (virtual) subset of your actual bank account. So don;t 
(later) ask us how you can use gnucash's reconciliation << will be 
manual for you >>

So you would set up using the business features option and just the 
income and expense accounts associated with your business plus that 
asset account "bank". You will be able to run a report for the year 
showing profit (or loss) for tax purposes. The only complication I can 
see is if you file your taxes "cash basis" because using the business 
features requires accrual basis, but it IS possible to adjust for that 
at year end << for tax filing, subtract what's still in "receivables" 
form income and what's still in "payables" from expenses >>

BUT -- if new to double entry bookkeeping do carefully read the tutorial 
and if that's not enough to give you understanding, some standard 
"Bookkeeping 101" text or on-line. Software like gnucash is partially 
automating the process of keeping double entry books but you still have 
to understand what you are doing.

Michael D Novack