Re: At the end of my teather with LSMB

[Luke <..hidden..>]

On Mon, 26 May 2008, beamends wrote:

> > 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.
> 
> The VAT should work, but the problem is that if I enter an AP
> transaction it doesn't always appear!

What "it": the VAT or the transaction itself?

> As I understand it, for practical purposes, VAT & GST work the same way
> bar the shouting. Again the issue is really disappearing entries.

Then again the question is: what entries are disappearing, and how are you 
determining that they are?
For that matter, how are you posting them in the first place?

I'm asking you for a real "day in the life" snapshot of the process here.

* I go to AP -> Transaction.
* I select the vendor.
* I enter the date.
* I enter the amount, and description, then select an account on that line 
item.
* I click "update".
* I go to the next line item which has just appeared, and enter the amount 
of the VAT, the description, and select my VAT account.
* I uncheck the "tax" box, and click "update".
* I do the following to attach the payment.
* I click "update", then "post".
* I then go to AP -> Reports.
* I select these options, and when I hit "continue", the AP transaction 
just entered is missing!

Etc., etc., etc..

That is what I am asking you to tell us, because you seem to have a 
complex problem here, requiring a play by play to solve.

No disrespect intended, as you seem like an intelligent fellow from 
your posts in the last months, but I suspect very strongly that what ever 
you think is missing, is not actually missing; or if it is, it is because 
of operator error or misunderstanding.
No offense intended, really, I just think we all need to see that play by 
play of your problem process here.

Think of it this way: if you did have a tech support contract with Intuit 
or the like, the guy on the other end of the phone is going to ask you for 
exactly the same thing.

> The show stopper was on Friday though - I finished up with 10 ledger
> entries for the same fuel bill (not a problem in it's self, but very
> time consuming) all with the SAME number. As is obvious I'm no
> accountant, but there is no way I'd present that to our accountant - if
> I can't work out what's going on on the day I do it, he has no chance!

How did you come by *ten* ledger entries for this?  At most it should have 
been four--two for cost and two for tax; although the whole thing should 
have been a single AP Transaction, as Chris and I have said.

> Together with "missing" invoice, purchase order etc numbers (where I've
> delayed posting due to a queue in the shop, or simply forgetting, the
> accounts would be highly suspect to him, and indeed to the VAT people
> who would, I suspect, reject them out-of-hand and demand a fully audited
> re-count as they would have "unrecorded cash transactions" written all
> over them . As this can be up to 7 years later, such a scenario does not
> even bear thinking about....

Why are they missing again?  Because you forgot to click "post" (your 
immediately preceding paragraph seems to suggest that), or because you 
can't find them in reports, or for some other reason?

Sorry to harp on this mate, but more info, more info, more info.  You keep 
dropping these little bomb shells, and filling in only the most broad 
strokes.
I have about three guesses as to what is going on in the above paragraph, 
and none of them may be right.  Again, that could be my problem, but you 
seem to be saying that you are not entering complete transactions, and 
then wondering why the program doesn't have them on file.  Since that 
makes no sense, I'm sure that's not what you mean.

> Also in Stroller's reply he state that he actually uses a Book Keeper to
> enter data in another system to present to his accountant. That's pretty
> damming - if I'd known that.......... good old 20/20 hindsight.

That's not how I understood his comments at all.  He seemed to be saying 
that he does his thing with LedgerSMB, and then gets all of the data to 
his accountant by one means or another.  Since the accountant doesn't 
use LedgerSMB, she has one of her staff enter the data into what ever 
software she does use, purely as a convenience factor to her, not as any 
kind of comment on the program which Stroller uses.

Regards,

Luke