Re: At the end of my teather with LSMB

["Chris Travers" <..hidden..>]

On Tue, May 27, 2008 at 3:21 AM, beamends <..hidden..> wrote:
>
> 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.

You may want to try the English (UK) translation.  Among other things,
it changes AR to Sales and AP to Purchases.  If this is insufficient,
the .po files allow you to modify strings to whatever you want them to
be.

However, regarding debits/credits, how would you suggest we hide that
from the standpoint of the GL?

The problem is that they are not always "the wrong way around."  When
you invest money in your business, that is a credit to an equity
account, just like you credit your personal bank account when you
invest money in it.  When you withdraw money from your business, that
is a debit.  There are no lables which universally fix this problem.
While bank accounts are treated "the wrong way around" from an average
guy's perspective, this is only because the equity accounts are not.

At best you can reduce the reliance on the GL to adjustments,
investments, and other things that an accountant or a bookeeper needs
to know, but this does not reduce the necessity for transparency to
the system from an accounting perspective, nor does it reduce the
necessity for the business owner to have a basic grounding in
accounting principles and basic practices.  All it does is ensure that
the guy entering the invoices doesn't have to think about debits and
credits (which is the way it is now).

Best Wishes,
Chris Travers