[GNC] GnuCash modifications

[Derek Atkins]

Hi David,

I will attempt to answer your questions in-line below...

On Mon, September 2, 2024 7:56 am, David Gay wrote:
> Good afternoon,
>
> Our firm is using GnuCash as an accounting software and I want to ask some
> questions:
> 1. Can multiple users be added to using gnucash? so I, as an accountant,
> could check what type of data other people working insert into software.

GnuCash is not a multi-user application -- only one person can be using it
at a time.  Moreover, there is no centralized auditing feature, so no,
there is no way you can easily see what others are entering.

Having said that, there /is/ the transaction log..  But it's not meant as
an auditing tool.  It's not user-friendly.  And it's stored locally on the
user's machine, not "shared" with the data file.

One option is that you could open the General Journal, view all
transactions, and then sort transactions by date-entered.

> 2. Could there be any modifications made to GnuCash initial soft version?
> For example if our firm wants to customize the software and make it more
> convenient for our specific tasks, could all this be done by modifying
> GnuCash initial code? If it can be done, could you provide such a service
> to us? I mean the coders who would do specific modifications for us for
> the
> payment.

GnuCash is open source, so yes, you could certainly make changes to the
software.  Whether you could find a developer to pay to work on it is a
different question.

> 3. Can I add more users to the software? So multiple users could
> input transactions to it

At this time, no, GnuCash is not multi-user nor does it allow parallel
entry.  The best you could do is store the GnuCash file on a shared
storage server and then the individual users could open the file when they
need to make entries and then close it when they are done.  But you will
need an out-of-band mechanism to ensure that only one person has the file
opened at a time.  If multiple people have it opened, then the "second"
will overwrite the changes of the "first".

> 4. How can I add typical journal entries to the software? So that a user
> who does not understand the double-entry system can enter the transaction
> type in the description, or somewhere else, and the journal entry is
> created automatically according to the recorded transaction type.

GnuCash is double entry.  There is no "shortcut" around that.

The closest you have is basic entry mode -- but when entering transactions
you always have to specify the "other" account.  E.g., you open your
Checking account and then need to supply the Expense (or Income) account
for any Credits (or Debits) to the account.

Having said that, autofill can help with repetitive transactions by
repeating the 'other account' info from previous transactions based on the
description and allowing the user to only enter the amount.  However, if
autofill fails, the user will need to supply the account.

>
> Thanks a lot in advance for your feedback!

Hope this helps.

>
> Regards,
> David

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-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins                 617-623-3745
       derek at ihtfp.com             www.ihtfp.com
       Computer and Internet Security Consultant