Re: [GNC] questions from a new user

[Jim DeLaHunt]

Hello, Neil, and welcome to GnuCash.

On 2023-01-08 16:14, 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?


Your situation sounds familiar. It reminds me of my requirements for 
invoicing, when starting out my small consulting business.


What I get from your requirements are:

 * main task is to generate invoices
 * small volume of invoices
 * easy

That, plus "track my time spent by project", was my requirements list 
when I looked for an invoicing tool.  GnuCash can generate invoices, but 
it doesn't track time spent, and it is not "easy". GnuCash is really 
good for bookkeeping, keeping track of those bank accounts and credit 
cards. It does some business-related tasks like generating invoices. And 
it has a steep learning curve. And the customer support is this list — 
we are friendly, well-intentioned, but only volunteer, so not always 
fast or effective.


So I ended up paying hundreds of dollars CAD per year to Freshbooks 
, a web-hosted tool which puts a lot of effort 
into making invoice generation easy, making time-tracking easy, and 
having very good customer support.


So, GnuCash is good for a lot of situations. It can certainly meet all 
your requirements except "easy". But it may not be best for your 
requirements.


Best regards,
    —Jim DeLaHunt

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[GNC] questions from a new user

[flywire]

I'd expect there are easier invoicing packages, but you will likely need
much more. I don't know why there is no tutorial for GnuCash business
features (which only support accrual accounting) but each feature has an
example transaction. I don't use those features and agree, they seem
confusing.

The basics of GnuCash are fairly easy if you do the GnuCash Tutorial and
Concepts Guide as an introduction for Getting Started and Managing Personal
Finances (see
https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2022-July/101901.html ). I
wouldn't enter data manually if it is available for download from a bank.
The import process is fairly easy which saves keying errors and allows
balance checks, errors that could cost you real money. Don't worry too much
about assigning the transactions you are not interested in to accounts. I
imagine this is a typical use of GnuCash for tax reporting, and it works
well.
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Re: [GNC] questions from a new user

[David T. via gnucash-user]

Michael,

I took Neil's comment to mean that he didn't want to connect to his bank 
account online. 

Neil,

I'd like to point out that, despite the scope of your endeavor, you're in 
business, which will entail a certain amount of record keeping. Gnucash is 
directly designed for this sort of business, and will allow you to manage those 
finances in the ways you've described, but it *does* have a stiff learning 
curve, and you do have to learn a bit about accounting to use it. That being 
said, many non-accountants (myself among them) have been able to use GnuCash 
successfully to meet their needs. 

⁣David T. ​

On Jan 9, 2023, 4:42 AM, at 4:42 AM, Michael or Penny Novack 
 wrote:
>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
>
>
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Re: [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


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[GNC] questions from a new user

[Neil Morrish]

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?
___
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