GnuCash 2.6 Tries To Improve Open-Source Accounting

[deanjo]

You go right ahead and tell government organisations that they're doing it wrong =D

Did it for a living and had a ton of companies CFO's and accounting staff relieved of their duties (fired or arrested) because if their spreadsheet hijinks.

[deanjo]

So what software do you recommend? It seems you know about accounting, so I would like to know about your perspective both in FOSS and propietary sides

Ya I've got a ton of experience with accounting and real time accounting software. Developed, supported and deployed hundreds of trucking companies over the years (the software not only entailed the financial end of the industry but also the logistics of it, an all in one solution). GnuCash is OK, no major gripes about it other then it's UI and it at least utilizes accrual based accounting (cash based is a relic of the past and shouldn't be utilized except in a few very special cases). Intuit is bad in the perspective that it allows "cooking of the books". A good financial software does not allow such practices (such as arbitrary blanket journal entries to AR/AP/Retained earnings etc) and Intuit in their infinite wisdom allows this. It totally defeats the entire purpose of accounting by doing so. If adjustments are to be made to those accounts they have to be by GAAP handled on the individual transaction that is causing the discrepancy not by adjusting the summed total of the GL account.

During the transition to our software there is sometimes during the transition a HUGE time of discovery and it usually isn't good for companies that rely on uncontrolled spreadsheets. When transitioning software accounting systems you have to be absolutely 100% accurate on your opening balances or you will never have a proper ledger that can be justified and relied on. There have been times where transitioning from a QB/spreadsheet solution where our customers have seen from hundreds of thousands to millions in savings in their first year alone because they are not relying on sloppy accounting.

A "general" accounting software is OK maybe for a small business or personal finances but the problem with those is that they often don't handle all aspects of the business. For example many accounting packages don't handle factoring well (if at all). Factoring is a pretty big now days for many start ups now days and revenue and expenses can get out of hand really quick if not handled properly. Because of this as a company gets more dynamic in their business model it is usually better to start looking for an accounting package that is geared towards their industry. (GnuCash requires a lot of manual entry for this to accommodate factoring and allows for a lot of human error).

The downside to a specialized accounting package is that they are usually expensive but on the other hand they usually pay for themselves in a short period. My companies software ranges anywhere from $30k to $150k to purchase depending on the options wanted for example and all the clients that have been audited have found it to be a painless experience after they switched over. It's built on a integrated application platform that happens to be GPL 2.

[DDF420]

Here in Aus, quite often if you question a government payer 'where's my cheque?', they'll happily pay you the next day and pass the contract to your competitor. They pay when they're good and ready =D

I have never had a problem receiving payment from either local or state government in either QLD or NSW. When tenders were won the Government?s policy was to pay within 30 days of receiving an invoice.

If they don't pay you are within your rights to start charging penalty interest at the current overdraft rates.

[stiiixy]

Did it for a living and had a ton of companies CFO's and accounting staff relieved of their duties (fired or arrested) because if their spreadsheet hijinks.

I figured you had some sort of upper-echelon experience. I was merely trying to relate to a differant world with slightly differant rules that obviously dont apply to your own =)

[deanjo]

I figured you had some sort of upper-echelon experience. I was merely trying to relate to a differant world with slightly differant rules that obviously dont apply to your own =)

Lol, after a while you get a feeling for how bad things are like when their CFO or controller call to ask you how to restrict the owners from seeing the financials or lock them out of the system even in read only mode.

[stiiixy]

I have never had a problem receiving payment from either local or state government in either QLD or NSW. When tenders were won the Government?s policy was to pay within 30 days of receiving an invoice.

If they don't pay you are within your rights to start charging penalty interest at the current overdraft rates.

I understand that. I was making examples. I didn't say it was rote. And not every departments the same.

I think people are reading to far in to what I'm saying =D

[stiiixy]

Lol, after a while you get a feeling for how bad things are like when their CFO or controller call to ask you how to restrict the owners from seeing the financials or lock them out of the system even in read only mode.

Wow. You'd have to be completely oblivious to not set off alarm bells with (granted, overly simplified statement) actions like hat =O

[fnielsen]

Is GnuCash really rudimentary?

I don't understand why GnuCash is described as rudimentary. Like with any other serious accounting programs there is a learning curve with GnuCash. I recommend the ?Gnucash 2.4 Small Business Accounting: Beginner's Guide?. If one understand the principles of book keeping, learn the keyboard shortcuts and automation options then GnuCash becomes a very efficient and reliable companion for both private finance and small companies. I have yet to find any missing features.

I have been using GnuCash to handle private finances for more than ten years and a small company for five years. The largest dataset contains 14000+ transactions and runs fast on modest hardware ? faster under Linux than Windows. One dataset has accounts in six currencies, including stocks in three currencies. Exchange rates and share prices are automatically updated when the program is opened. Bank statements are imported directly in MT940 and QIF format. For the company accounts we generate monthly VAT payment reports and reports of upcoming bills, late payments, depreciation etc. Compared to the spreadsheets we used before this requires hardly any time and is 100% reliable.

The reporting options are excellent ? and more comprehensive than a casual look may indicate. The invoicing just works but theming is indeed limited largely to a company logo, a bit of text and colour options ? unless one wants to get into programming. Since we always send a covering letter this is not an issue for us.

The main issues is that GnuCash is a one-user program, e.g. two people cannot add invoices at the same time. I understand that this limitation is disappearing after database support has been added. Also entries that reference two accounts in different currencies does not always bring up the exchange rate dialog but assume a 1:1 exchange rate. The rate can be fixed manually but it is a thing that should just work.

[deanjo]

Also entries that reference two accounts in different currencies does not always bring up the exchange rate dialog but assume a 1:1 exchange rate. The rate can be fixed manually but it is a thing that should just work.

That is actually kind of difficult to do as you are often dealing with different entities on what that exchange rate is and when they are posted by those institutions. It's not as simple as is sounds.

[akincer]

Those are generally the companies that get themselves in deep audit trouble. With a proper accounting package there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to use a spreadsheet. If a spreadsheet is needed there is likely one or more of the following happening:

1) Their current accounting solution is crap (I'm looking at you Intuit that allows disconnecting do accounts to allow one sided arbitrary entries)
2) Their current accounting package has crap data in put into it
3) The user doesn't know or understands G.A.A.P.
4) The user wants to "cook" the books, usually to cover up true financials to either to embezzle or to try to secure additional funding for the business by covering up their financial trouble

Umm, no. Just ... no.

This might be true for people that use it as an integral part of calculations, but not for other common and very benign things such as quicker and easier filtering of data on the fly without having to load up a GUI.

Or for finance types that aren't report writing gurus that want to quickly generate some on the fly reports (they KNOW Excel though).

Or for people that want to look over some numbers when on a plane and don't have internet access (that's changing though with in-flight WiFi.

Or for sharing data with folks that need it for one reason or another, but don't have access to the accounting software (nor do you want them to). Those cases DO exist.

If I spent more than 2 minutes thinking about it, I'm sure I could come up with plenty more common reasons that using Excel in conjunction with your accounting software is legitimate and doesn't fall within any of your categories. I would submit that THESE are the more likely use cases for Excel/spreadsheets with an accounting software package.

You might be shocked what some Excel gurus can put together. I've seen stuff thrown together in 30 minutes that would probably take 3 or 4 hours at least to build using Crystal Reports. The difference, of course, is that the Crystal report can be run again and again whereas the Excel job was a one-off albeit one that the CFO needed/wanted in far less time than was possible with Crystal.