www.gnucash.org dont know if its got an html front end. I've got half of one written in .net (mono should work) but with the above it took away the motivation
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On Wed, Nov 03, 2004 at 08:21:53AM +0000, tom potts wrote:
www.gnucash.org dont know if its got an html front end. I've got half of one written in .net (mono should work) but with the above it took away the motivation
The fundamental problem with GnuCash (and many other similar packages) is that they make things so difficult for the small business user. Or at least they don't seem to be designed to work well for small businesses. GnuCash in particular seems not to be able to help at all with VAT and VAT returns.
My (self written) accounts package has a single 'ledger' (if you like to call it that) where *all* transactions are entered. What GnuCash calls different accounts are identified in my entries by a transaction type and an account type. Thus all entries are done serially in one place without having to move from account to account at all.
Reconciliation is done by reporting all transactions (with running balances etc.) for one account type. E.g. for bank reconciliation one simply runs a report of all transactions of type B[ank]. Accounts are identified by a single letter, as there are only three or four accounts it's not a problem to remember the letters and if you forget the database will tell you anyway (and won't allow non-existent ones).
Analysis etc. can be done by reporting all transactions of a certain type, e.g. one can run a Computer Hardware purchases report. The types are three letter abbreviations - simple to remember.
Then the bit I've not seen elsewhere, the VAT is calculated automatically once you have filled in the Ex. VAT column, the rate is derived from the transaction type, 17.5% for most things, 0% for books, exempt for bank charges and such. If rates change then I just adjust the database table that holds these values. Having automatically filled the VAT and the Inc VAT columns one can then change these values manually if necessary. E.g. if VAT isn't charged on a whole amount one reduces the VAT amount and the other amounts are recalculated. The way in which the recalculations are done means that most entries you just enter the Ex VAT amount and you're done but you can adjust easily for special cases.
At the end of each quarter I just run a VAT Report which outputs the figures to enter onto my VAT return.
On 2004-11-03 08:35:02 +0000 Chris Green chris@areti.co.uk wrote:
On Wed, Nov 03, 2004 at 08:21:53AM +0000, tom potts wrote:
www.gnucash.org
The fundamental problem with GnuCash (and many other similar packages) is that they make things so difficult for the small business user. Or at least they don't seem to be designed to work well for small businesses. GnuCash in particular seems not to be able to help at all with VAT and VAT returns.
Pardon me for being ignorant, not being VAT registered yet, but can you create a VAT account and split the invoices between them? I'm very suspicious of "automatic" VAT calculations, as there always seems to be some exception or other oddity that gets the numbers wrong and it's usually awkward to check.
My (self written) accounts package has a single 'ledger' (if you like to call it that) where *all* transactions are entered. [...]
I have one too. I call the transaction entry/display a journal right now, as it started off as a copy of a book, but I'm not sure whether that's still the right name for it. I do reconciliation the same way you describe. My account codes are two-character ones for now, but it's all drop-down lists to the user, through a web front-end. My accountant seems happy with its output.
I agree that SQL-Ledger is overkill for nearly all small businesses. Also, it wasn't fun perl to work with last time I looked and I'd rather not let messy code track my business accounts unless I have time to treat it as a black box and run many tests.
On Wed, Nov 03, 2004 at 11:51:10AM +0000, MJ Ray wrote:
On 2004-11-03 08:35:02 +0000 Chris Green chris@areti.co.uk wrote:
On Wed, Nov 03, 2004 at 08:21:53AM +0000, tom potts wrote:
www.gnucash.org
The fundamental problem with GnuCash (and many other similar packages) is that they make things so difficult for the small business user. Or at least they don't seem to be designed to work well for small businesses. GnuCash in particular seems not to be able to help at all with VAT and VAT returns.
Pardon me for being ignorant, not being VAT registered yet, but can you create a VAT account and split the invoices between them? I'm very suspicious of "automatic" VAT calculations, as there always seems to be some exception or other oddity that gets the numbers wrong and it's usually awkward to check.
But (as I said, in another message maybe) my program automatically calculates the VAT and then allows you to change it if necessary. In practice this works well, nearly all my entries have standard rate VAT on the whole amount and the automatic calculation works correctly. I then manually fix the odd ones like purchases from outside the EC. The automatic system copes with 0% rate on books and knows that bank charges and such are exempt.
Creating a VAT account and splitting the invoices would be very counterintuitive for entry I should think and would require two entry lines for every item you buy.
My (self written) accounts package has a single 'ledger' (if you like to call it that) where *all* transactions are entered. [...]
I have one too. I call the transaction entry/display a journal right now, as it started off as a copy of a book, but I'm not sure whether
Ah, yes, maybe a 'journal' is a better name for the transaction entry table than a 'ledger'.
that's still the right name for it. I do reconciliation the same way you describe. My account codes are two-character ones for now, but it's all drop-down lists to the user, through a web front-end. My accountant seems happy with its output.
I agree that SQL-Ledger is overkill for nearly all small businesses. Also, it wasn't fun perl to work with last time I looked and I'd rather not let messy code track my business accounts unless I have time to treat it as a black box and run many tests.
On Wed, 3 Nov 2004 08:21:53 +0000 (GMT), "tom potts" madtom1999@yahoo.com said:
www.gnucash.org dont know if its got an html front end. I've got half of one written in .net (mono should work) but with the above it took away the motivation
The SQL Ledger project http://www.sql-ledger.org/ is sort of aimed at small businesses.
(Debian packages: http://packages.debian.org/testing/web/sql-ledger for testing and unstable)
Richard
On Wed, Nov 03, 2004 at 09:39:51AM +0000, Richard Lewis wrote:
On Wed, 3 Nov 2004 08:21:53 +0000 (GMT), "tom potts" madtom1999@yahoo.com said:
www.gnucash.org dont know if its got an html front end. I've got half of one written in .net (mono should work) but with the above it took away the motivation
The SQL Ledger project http://www.sql-ledger.org/ is sort of aimed at small businesses.
This looks a bit more aimed at a small business than GnuCash is, however it appears to be totally OTT for *my* small business. I don't want 'Purchase Ledger' and 'Sales Ledger' or anything that complex. We only raise two or three invoices a month and we don't have any need for the 'assembly' feature that seems so important in SQL Ledger.
We are a small business selling services. Just about all of our purchases are overheads not assignable to any particular sale. Each sale is just a single item saying 'xxx hours at £yyy/per hour, total £zzzz'.
My requirement is a simple way of keeping track of purchases and sales to produce VAT returns each quarter and to give to my accountant at the end of the year. I'm sure this is hardly a unique situation.
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Chris Green -
MJ Ray -
Richard Lewis -
tom potts