Re: At the end of my teather with LSMB

[Luke <..hidden..>]

On Sat, 24 May 2008, beamends wrote:

> 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. 

I don't know how things work with VAT, but here, the vendor puts sales tax 
right on the receipt, and collects it.  So it is an expense to me.

Therefore, on the AP Transaction, it is just another line item, attributed 
to a different expense account.

I'm guessing that VAT works differently, however, or you would have 
already done that, as indicated below.

> 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

Oh, how straight forward, and therefore impossible, that would be.

This needs to be done through AP -> AP Transaction:
Select the vendor (or create one called "cash" or "misc. Fuel Stations" or 
something);
Enter the date;
Enter the first amount, and select the fuel expense account from the 
dropdown;
enter the vat as another line item (may have to update first), selecting 
the proper tax account or expense account from the drop down;
hit update; and post.

Of course, that would would work, if VAT was charged like sales tax is 
here.  I'm guessing that you need something more complex, like our use 
tax, wherein you pay instead of the vendor.
In that case, if your tax calculations are setup correctly, checking the 
box for tax might work.

> Type in the name of the supplier

It has long been a complaint of mine, that a new customer/vendor can not 
be created right on the forms for invoices/transactions.  There is a bug 
report posted, in which someone claims to have made a button for this, and 
posted the code.  Not sure how it works, though.

> 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.

It can be done--you just have to either enter every supplier as a vendor; 
or make a misc vendor of some kind, entering the real name in the notes.
As for VAT: I know plenty of people were doing it with SQL-Ledger, so I 
assume the same techniques would work for Ledgersmb.  I just don't know 
what they are.
Might check the sql-ledger mailing list archives.

> And how the hell I'm going
> to work out opening and closing stock balances I have no idea

A vendor invoice is the normal way to set onhand values.  It would mess up 
COGS to enter one with a zero cost, so you might find your true stocking 
invoices, and enter them correctly.

> - 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.

Not sure I understand that.

> 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.

Indeed.  That is why I keep pushing for a true API, so that alternative 
front ends, such as something with a postbooks/tinyerp feel, could be 
made.

Luke