Accounting software.

[Derek Trotter]

I also dislike windows, but have no opinion of quickbooks.

I would suggest to anyone starting a business that they use linux for 
everything they can.  Also they should use vmware or some similar 
virtualization app plus windows for any software they absolutely must 
have that does not run on linux or does not have a suitable linux 
equivalent.  That way the new small business owner can use windows for 
quickbooks plus use linux for everything else.  Also it would make 
backing up the windows installation easier.  Just copy  the one file 
your virtualization software uses for the windows hard drive.

I'm thinking this would work.  Is there something I'm missing?

On 4/26/2012 21:30, Eric Cope wrote:
> I know you asked for free and Linux, but if you are serious about starting a business, you should consider Quickbooks. I think it's obnoxious, but I can take my Quickbooks file to any accountant and they can update, analyze, and/or correct it as necessary. You can find cheap older versions on Craigslist or eBay.
>
> I despise recommending Quickbooks AND windows, but it's  been the right tool, which is more important to me.
>
> Good luck!
>
> Eric
>
> On Apr 26, 2012, at 8:39 PM, Nathan England<nathan at nmecs.com>  wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> I appreciate the info and the quick lesson. I found the program extremely unintuitive, but double-entry accounting completely escapes me!
>>
>> On Thursday, April 26, 2012 19:07:20 Matt Graham wrote:
>>> From: Nathan England<nathan at nmecs.com>
>>>
>>>> http://moneydance.com/
>>>> Is by far the best, though it is not free
>>> The OP said he was looking for free stuff. I guess this might work if
>>> you're willing to pay them whatever yearly fee they're charging now.
>>>
>>>> GnuCash is an accounting program but it is so complicated to use it
>>>> is not worth the time or hassle.
>>> Seriously? I started using GNUcash in 2000, when the documentation was
>>> barely there. I've never had any formal accounting training, and I figured
>>> it all out pretty quickly. The double-entry bookkeeping that GNUcash uses
>>> makes it really easy to see how much you've spent from date X to date Y on
>>> (category of expenses), and it'll track stocks/bonds/mutual funds if you
>>> install Finance::Quote.
>>>
>>> Take a look at the basic help,
>>> http://gnucash.org/docs/v2.4/C/gnucash-help/help.html , and see if anything
>>> in the advanced help ,
>>> http://gnucash.org/docs/v2.4/C/gnucash-guide/index.html is interesting.
>>>
>>> The thing to do when setting up GNUcash is to start out your checking
>>> account opening balance with the opening balance on the first of (month),
>>> then just enter all the income/expenses from then til today that are on
>>> your bank statement. Start your cash in wallet opening balance with the
>>> bills in your wallet. *DON'T* try to enter everything you have records of,
>>> just pick a start date.[0] Then spend 5 minutes every day recording what
>>> you spent that day and what you spent it on. It should become second
>>> nature pretty quickly.
>>>
>>> If you're going somewhere without your computer[1], one way to keep records
>>> is to write down how much cash is in your wallet right before you leave,
>>> and call that X. Then write down how much is in there when you get back,
>>> and call that Y. Take (X - Y) and charge that to
>>> Expenses:Entertainment:Travel [2] with a description of "trip to
>>> $SOMEWHERE". Debit card/whatever charges will show up on your bank's page
>>> and you can just enter those numbers when you get back.
>>>
>>> If you're really hardcore, you can read
>>> http://gnucash.org/docs/v2.4/C/gnucash-guide/txns-registers1.html#txns-regis
>>> ters-multiaccount2 , so you can split every grocery/restaurant bill into
>>> "bill" and "sales tax". Then at the end of the year/month, you can complain
>>> about how the government's wasting your $XXX.YY on $THINGS_YOU_DONT_LIKE .
>>>
>>> [0] Accountants, feel free to gasp in horror here.
>>> [1] I know, that's crazy talk, man.
>>> [2] The default setup should create a bunch of expense accounts like that.
>> --
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Nathan England
>>
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> NME Computer Services http://www.nmecs.com
>> Nathan England (nathan at nmecs.com)
>> Systems Administration / Web Application Development
>> Information Security and Consulting
>> (480) 559.9681
>>
>>
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