Hi.. I so agree with Raja. This is a very advanced system even for
accountants. A good detailed Getting started section and explainations of
everything is a good thing.
PS: I still dont get the many of the words he explains in the mail so a
good cleanup for âdummiesâ have to be a good thing, right?
ok
will do
wrt to structure, normally the flow that i adopt when teaching Peachtree
Accounting to accountants (this was 5 - 15 years ago)
- Introduction, Basics and Quickstart
- Accounting and General Ledger
- Purchasing and Accounts Payable
- Sales and Accounts Receivable
- Inventory and Assemblies
- Assets and Depreciation
- Payroll and Timesheet
my perspective then was the other end of the spectrum of matthew's
- growing businesses (between 10 - 50 employees)
- all were multi-users (having grown out from single standalone systems)
- at least 1 user was someone with an accounting background
- typically the 'developer' portion is outsourced... example creating new
reports (eventhough peachtree came with it's own report writer and some
version having crystal reports)
therefore matthew's end of the spectrum is equally important
for a start, it will be easier with just 1 document.
as an alternative to the present accounting principles, perhaps a short
chapter to explain that the accounts of a business is split into several
parts:
- assets - what is owned and owing to the business, including cash,
equipment and debtors
- liabilities - what the business owes to others, including creditors and
bank borrowings
- equity - the capital and profits (or loss) that is invested into the
business
- income - what you get for selling goods and services
- costs - what is the direct cost of producing the goods and services
- expenses - what you need to pay to keep the business going
these parts are shown on 2 type of financial statements
- balance sheet for assets, liabilities and equity
- income statement for income, costs and expenses
also some basic stuff about journals, debits and credits : usually i
explain this through examples such as the following
A Cash Sales transaction for $100
DR Asset : Bank $100
CR Income : Sales $100
every transaction creates a journal that must have a matching total sum of
debits and credits and these are recorded in the ledgers and summarised in the
trial balance, the trial balance then makes up the financial statements.
in an accounting system, these are all done for the user automagically in the
database / background.
matthew, would things like these be helpful for you to understand the chart
of accounts ?
On Sun, Jun 3, 2012 at 8:50 PM, Erik Huelsmann
<..hidden..> wrote:
Hi Raja,
Thanks for taking the time to respond.
imho, perhaps we can split this into 2 books ? 1 for accountants
(section II) and another for admins and developers ? in my projects,
typically i have 3 manuals : end user, administrator, and
developers.
While I completely understand the urge - I've even considered making each
part a separate book. However, I think as Matthew puts it very well:
I would also like to respond to
the suggesting of splitting the book up. I have no idea what the
"typical" LSMB user's situation is, I will be the administrator and the
(only) end user for my LSMB system for the foreseeable future, and I really
like the idea of having a single book to document all of what I need to
know. Indeed, the title "Running Your Business with LSMB" appeals to
me because I also hope that it can evolve into a book from which people like
me can learn not only about this software but about basic
bookkeeping/accounting as well. (I've noticed this already in the
explanation which I've seen in the book of why it is a bad idea to edit
invoices.)
The audience of the book falls into multiple categories as you say:
* admins
* developers
* accountants
However, in a small and even a medium sized business, these are really
very likely to map to one and the same person. Additionally, that person isn't
very likely to have major accounting experience. Getting this kind of person
up to speed is the goal of "getting started". Once they're up to speed, they
should know enough to understand the remaining chapters (mostly).
The remarks such as those on the "editing of invoices" are targeted to
this group as well. I hope they're not in the way for more professional
readers.
can i suggest that we rethink about chapter 3 ? particularly 3.2
accounting principles.....
i would like to give this a shot in writing for section II. i have a
few accounting systems manuals lying around in the house.
Sure! By all means! If you don't have time to write it, that's fine as
well: maybe you do have time to make more suggestions as to the structure of
the chapter?
Anyway, I'm too busy writing the other chapters first, so please don't
feel pressured to come up with something too soon. When you're ready to get
started, please let us know (to avoid overlapping work being done).
Thanks for taking the time to respond and thanks for the offer of writing
parts of the book!
Bye,
Erik.
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