The basics

[Geoff Wright <..hidden..>]

Hello everyone:

I am wondering if someone can give me a shove in the right direction...

I am the treasurer for a relatively small, non-profit cross-country  
ski club and am looking at ledgerSMB as a possible replacement  
(enhancement) to our current accounting application.  The club is run  
by volunteers and provides learn-to-ski programs for about 350  
youngsters each winter.  The club has grown considerably and we are  
now trying to catch up on the administrative side of things. (I have  
limited accounting experience but I will be meeting with one later on  
this week. I would like to know my way around ledgerSMB enough that I  
can convince the accountant that this software is preferable to  
something like QuickBooks. From what I can tell, ledgerSMB will do  
everything that we need and the two big advantages for us are cost  
and integration.  We have built an online registration system that  
could eventually be linked directly into our accounting app, hopefully.)

I am having a bit of trouble getting started -- not so much with the  
installation side of things as I have found the documentation to be  
quite clear.  My problem is moreso on the accounting side of things.   
I am trying to set up our accounts in ledgerSMB and am not sure that  
I am doing this correctly.  Our old accounting regime does not  
revolve around the sales cycle as explicitly as is the case in  
ledgerSMB so there is a shift needed in the way I am thinking about  
this.

A typical transaction for the club:

	There is a family of four (Mom, Dad, Son, Daughter).  The family  
purchases a "Family" membership ($100).  The family also purchases  
"Bunnyrabbit" classes for Son ($30) and "Jackrabbit" classes for  
Daughter ($40).  Mom joins the "Masters" program ($50).

What is the correct way of setting this transaction up?

	1. Add customer - should I add each member of the family separately  
or should I enter it as one single family unit? We tend to think  
about a family as one unit because the parents often pay for their  
children. There can also be multiple transactions over the course of  
the year as a child could be involved in other activities from time  
to time.

	3. What are our products?  The memberships and classes are our  
"products".  Should I set these up as "Services" in ledgerSMB?


Thanks in advance.  Would there be interest if I wrote this up as a  
"Case Study" to be included in the documentation?  Perhaps as a  
complement to the example, "Retail with Light Manufacturing".

(I realize that this request is going above and beyond the call and  
would be interested in hiring a consultant to help us set up our  
accounts and processes correctly ... if the price is not too high = ~ 
$200. Please contact me if you have the time to help us out.)

Cheers. And I just want to say that you have all done an amazing job  
on this program (as have the folks over at sql-ledger prior to the  
port)! I trully respect the job that you have done so far!

Geoff