At the end of my teather with LSMB

[beamends <..hidden..>]

On Fri, 2008-05-23 at 14:51 -0400, Luke wrote:
> Use an AP transaction.
> 

But how to deal with VAT (sales tax)?  If I have to deal with that
separately I'm in danger of missing something. 

Sorry to rant, but I've wasted three days now just trying to enter one
fuel receipt - all I want to do is:

Purchases->Expenses->Vehicle Expenses->Fuel

Type in the name of the supplier
Date
Total Amount
VAT amount
Payment method
Done.

I've got 7 days now to get my return in (including the time in the
post). I'm afraid I'm dumbfounded that LSMB can't do this, and the same
for rent, postage, office supplies, sundries, bits bought as one-off's
from rarely used suppliers etc.

Even if I enter it all in manually in the relevant accounts it's going
to take far longer than just tallying the invoices and receipts
manually, with no guarantee of them being correct without manual
intervention, which rather defeats the object of using a computer.

Sorry to the developers who I'm sure are trying hard, but I wasted
so much time with LSMB just trying to do really basic things that I
have lost confidence in it - it simply is not suitable for use by retail
business. I know I keep banging on about VAT, but in the UK taxmen have
more powers than the Police, and fines are automatic, as is interest on
late payments. Having computer problems, or even having you shop burn
down, are NOT acceptable excuses for late returns or payments (you are
allowed to die, but that only gains time!). And how the hell I'm going
to work out opening and closing stock balances I have no idea - I can't
even see how to flag out-of-stock items from suppliers as being
cancelled orders. I'm faced with closing for a week to to a full stock
check now.

LSMB is probably great for accountants for all I know, but the small
businessman who has no time, or frankly interest, to become an
accountant there is an awful lot of work to be done to make it useful.

I just wish my old system, !Prophet (single use only, runs under
RISC-OS), could be seen - that was written by an accountant for
non-accountants and was very good at it - all accounting terminology is
banished which forced the author to think like a user rather than an
accountant.   

I'm going to have to buy their latest Java based offering now, and use
the old !Prophet for stock control. It means running two systems and
transferring financial stuff across every day, but at least I can do VAT
at the press of a button knowing the total will be correct and I don't
have to worry about a VAT inspection in 7 years time requiring me to
prove each and every return is correct (I did this easily with the old
system), and getting a demand for any errors to be paid within 7 days,
potentially a huge sum. The stakes are so high are good degree of
confidence is vital.

I appreciate that the developers are having to re-jig things with the
database for historical reasons, but I would suggest that at least one
of them should concentrate on the UI, responding to users problems.
  
Richard

> On Fri, 23 May 2008, beamends wrote:
> 
> > I'm trying to enter a payment for diesel. I just have a receipt, and
> > paid cash. I'd assumed that this would be a General Ledger entry using
> > the 7300 Motor Expenses account, but I can't see how to register the VAT
> > amount. I've probably totally missed the point, just for a change....
> > 
> > Any pointers appreciated.
> > 
> > Cheers
> > Richard 
> > 
> > 
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