On 2/13/2018 2:55 AM, Wm via gnucash-devel wrote:
A couple of times I have noticed that people have said "That's not
what GNUCash is for". It begs the question - where is it defined what
GNUCash is and isn't for? The charter for GNUCash doesn't seem to
ever been formalised.
There is a long term plan, we never write it down because people ask
us about it :) Is it intended that people should establish a
complementary but separate project for functionality they want, but is
not included in GNUCash scope?
I don't see why not if that is what they want to do.
Since I have been one of the people arguing for "separation" (I think
this is being misunderstood) I want to clarify the reasons and what I
mean when I use the term.
a) I do NOT mean that needs to be a separate project. Could be part of a
PACKAGE (even installed together) but not a single program.
b) The reason for separate "packages" that interact with each other
rather than a single program (that a user is or is not allowed to use)
is so that ONE "system" (interacting parts) can be used for all. Those
people who are running "one man band" businesses do not see the problem,
do not see why things like (proposed extensions) like "inventory",
"point of sales", "payroll", etc. cannot be PART of the "general
ledger" program. Call these "one man band" users businesses of class A.
But there is another sort of business user, call these class B. They
have employees, they have division of responsibility and authority. They
may have need of safeguards. I am not meaning JUST businesses since even
a larger non-profit (call these class C, they might have other needs
too) might need safeguards making embezzlement more difficult.
These need separation. They need to be able to have people "log in and
use" things like an inventory system or "point of sales" system WITHOUT
being able to access "general ledger. Does not have to be a very large
small business before it has people waiting on customers, stocking
inventory, etc. These people need to be able to do their jobs without
being able to access "general ledger".
c) A solution with separated subsystems that feed each other would
satisfy the needs of these entities (class B and C) while at the same
time satisfy the needs of entities of class A. The reverse is not true
AND not practical to "first build what would just work for class A and
then modify that to work for classes B and C". That would be pretty much
a complete rewrite.
d) However, the IS a common element for all the proposed additions (if
separate). They need a way to FEED (send transactions to) general
ledger. So general ledger (gnucash as it is) would need a way to accept
feeds. And that includes a component to "input edit" feeds (make sure
all the transactions coming in are valid, in balance, accounts they
refer to exists, etc.) so that "general ledger" can reject (hopefully
with meaningful explanations of the problems) a feed.
e) Not discussing at the present time feeds that might be required
between these proposed extensions. For example, we would want a point of
sales system to feed an inventory system. But things like that would not
be "in common". Likewise not yet discussing safeguards (if a feed was
not accepted, how is the system producing this feed temporarily blocked
from adding to it. However I will say that to start, these systems
should be designed to work "asynchronous batch" and only later consider
expanding to supporting "real time update". Again this is a matter of
"would work for all" while small entities could not safely make the
assumption that all parts are up << and even some VERY LARGE entities do
batch feed to general ledger --- I worked for the 43rd? largest
"financial >>
Michael D Novack
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