Re: Transaction reversal - I think

[beamends <..hidden..>]

On Tue, 2008-05-20 at 21:01 +1000, Terry Porter wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> I run my own business and I'm in a similar position (My Sql-Ledger records are a mess), tho I have learnt how to avoid duplicate invoices, ... at last. I don't blame Ledger as I was totally clueless when I started using it.
> 
> Personally (I'm not a book keeper or accountant), I think the ability to produce duplicate invoices is a problem, but that's not the only problem I've had with ledger. My main problem has been trying to automate quotation weight (kg) totals, and so far no luck. I have had to total item weights by hand which is time consuming and error prone. I have tried to roll my own SQL query, which I have used for other tasks, but quotation weights still elude me.
> 
> As a result I started looking around for alternates and have made a quick and incomplete list of interesting possibilities, some of which I have installed and are under evaluation at the moment. Summary is on my wiki at :
> http://wifi.homelinux.com/docuwiki/doku.php?id=accounting_reviews
> 
> This is just my personal opinion, but I think Chris has done an amazing job with Smb-Ledger, and pressuring him and the other devs for the next release without sending him buckets of cash (he can't code for free, someone has to pay the bills) may be counter productive.
> 
> Terry
> 
> On Tue, 20 May 2008 08:24:54 +0100
> beamends <..hidden..> wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, 2008-05-19 at 11:48 -0700, ..hidden.. wrote:
> > > if you sell tangible goods check to see the purchase/cogs are calculated
> > > properly. our businese use sl and at each monthend we have to do a journal
> > > entry to correct cog/inventory to reflect the actual values and it is
> > > typical that the values are off by 15-20%. that could be quite a bit of
> > > money if you are a medium business and the irs probably isn't going to
> > > like it too much...tim
> > > 
> > 
> > Hmmmm - that's not good. Not being an accountant, I'd have to go through
> > every transaction manually - might as well use a ledger book! What with
> > no Credit Notes, no Opening Stock valuation (or indeed the facility to
> > do a Stock Valuation on request), and Re-Order Points insisting on
> > ordering *everything* in the data base (most parts are ordered as
> > required and not kept on the shelf) and Supplier (Vendor) info
> > disappearing after every Parts record edit I'm wondering if I haven't
> > made a huge mistake with LSMB. My stock levels are all over the place
> > (I'm having to run our old system in parallel to try and keep track of
> > what's on the shelf). Our first VAT return is due in at the end of the
> > month and I have no confidence in it being correct - we are in big
> > trouble. Not good. Not good at all. Oh, and to cap it all the I'm
> > getting duplicate invoice numbers in the sales ledger, and can't access
> > the duplicate ones to rename and then reverse them. That strikes me as a
> > fundamental flaw. I can see our accountants bill for End Of Year busting
> > us........
> > 
> > Is 1.3 going to fix all this stuff, and soon, or do I need to find an
> > alternative - fast?
> > 

I'm not wanting to run the LSMB team down, far from it - were I in a
position to help financially or practically I'd be at the front of the
queue. Sadly, all the time I spend adjusting accounts and stock levels
etc comes directly out of time that could be used to contribute
something. I have tried all the systems, GPL and otherwise, I could get
demo's for and LSMB stands head and shoulders above the rest, not least
as data import and export is easy - a major requirement for a business
that is already up and running. I've been trialling LSMB for over a
year, but as ever it's only when one does it for real that one really
finds the problems (ok, yes, a proper test strategy would be sensible).
The trouble is that running the whole show yourself is 2 x a full-time
jobs anyway, never mind becoming an accountant too! My last system was
written by an accountant for non-accountants (he does Accountz at
Accountz.com now), and had very good stock control (vital for my
business, both practically and financially), but no longer has stock in
his latest offering. This completely hid the accounts side from the user
(unless they were interested) - just the job for me, and I expect, most
small businesses. The issue of Credit Notes has become a major problem
today as well (we deal with the trade a lot) - one of our customers has
just given me a mouthful for not being able to issue a document with
Credit Note at the top as he is going to get grief off his accounts dept
- I just hope we haven't lost him forever....

I just had a quick look at phreebook on the link above, and straightaway
- no Stock Locations, so that's a non-starter.... I think I've seen the
rest.

Cheers
Richard