Re: At the end of my teather with LSMB

[beamends <..hidden..>]

On Mon, 2008-05-26 at 12:56 -0700, Chris Travers wrote:
> One important point here which gets lost: Accounting knowledge is
> vital to running a business.
> 
> I don't care what accounting system you get, you really want to have
> an accountant you can ask accounting questions to.  The reason is that
> no system is going to meet everyone's needs properly and you can
> always find plenty of ways to shoot yourself in the foot!  It is also
> a good idea, if you are running a business to learn a thing or two
> about accounting (basic principles and the like).  Garage sales are a
> great place to get used accounting textbooks....
> 
> The basic reasons for the above advice are:
> 
> 1)  If you don't have someone to ask questions to, then you are really
> committing yourself to learning all of the accounting details on your
> own (and while generally accepted accounting principles may be largely
> uniform world-wide, accepted practices based on those principles can
> vary).
> 
> 2)  If you are running a business and you know nothing about
> accounting, then you are opening yourself up to a number of possible
> problems.  These include embezzlement by employees, an inability to
> gather the information you need to make good business choices, and any
> number of other problems.  As the business owner, if you want your
> business to be successful, this is a field you need to have a basic
> grounding in.  You don't need to know every detail (that is why you
> hire an accountant), but you do need  basic grounding in accounting
> principles and basic practices.
> 
> Best Wishes,
> Chris Travers
> 

I don't disagree with the above, but software provides the opportunity
to hide the things that cause confusion - debits and credits being "the
wrong way round" being a prime example. Accountants might not have a
problem with that, Joe Bloggs thinks "Sales" and "Purchases" - so why
not implement a system using those terms to make it easier (as my
current system does, until you look under the bonnet) thereby
de-mystifying the process. That's a genuine question about accounts
systems aimed at small businesses in general, not specific to LSMB.

Cheers
Richard

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