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Re: LedgerSMB book progress

TQ for the short comment. BTW, Peachtree in the box came with a Getting Started and a User Guide book, so you are spot on. Out of curiosity, are you a person with an accounting or systems background ?

Yes, the functions in LSMB is pretty advanced. I would rate LSMB as an intermediate level application for SMB rather than SOHO.

For references, try looking up for Peachtree or Quickbooks books in your library. Both are pretty good and highly rated in the market (except that these are standalone, single site systems). Unfortunately the 'Dummies' series on these systems are not well written.

There are few videos on Peachtree accounting : 

http://youtu.be/OGJiJkAXp6k

http://youtu.be/4NiCvlYPP1g

Are these useful ? Sorry for these references to Peachtree, but looking at it, I think LSMB has the potential to be a step up for users who have used Peachtree before. The functionalities are there, just a little bit more spit-and-polish ;-)

If you are interested in the bits and bytes, then a good reference would be books on accounting / financial information systems (I had a good book but misplaced it when I moved houses). Get a book with good flow chart and includes sample diagrams of the forms eg quotation, invoices, etc. The book I had, had a good explanation of journals. Will try to find it in the bookstores later this month.

I dont recommend any books with the title how to develop an accounting system. Looking at the codes in LSMB and learning how to create reports are better routes to learning. Actually, learning how to amend the HTML templates is a good starting point.






On Sun, Jun 3, 2012 at 11:27 PM, Tone Irene Andersen <..hidden..> wrote:
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 “dummies” have to be a good thing, right?
 
 
Mvh / Best Regards


Tone Irene Andersen
 
Sent: Sunday, June 03, 2012 5:09 PM
Subject: Re: [Ledger-smb-users] LedgerSMB book progress
 
ok will do
 
wrt to structure, normally the flow that i adopt when teaching Peachtree Accounting to accountants (this was 5 - 15 years ago)
  1. Introduction, Basics and Quickstart
  2. Accounting and General Ledger
  3. Purchasing and Accounts Payable
  4. Sales and Accounts Receivable
  5. Inventory and Assemblies
  6. Assets and Depreciation
  7. Payroll and Timesheet
my perspective then was the other end of the spectrum of matthew's
  1. growing businesses (between 10 - 50 employees)
  2. all were multi-users (having grown out from single standalone systems)
  3. at least 1 user was someone with an accounting background
  4. 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:
  1. assets - what is owned and owing to the business, including cash, equipment and debtors
  2. liabilities - what the business owes to others, including creditors and bank borrowings
  3. equity - the capital and profits (or loss) that is invested into the business
  4. income - what you get for selling goods and services
  5. costs - what is the direct cost of producing the goods and services
  6. expenses - what you need to pay to keep the business going
these parts are shown on 2 type of financial statements
  1. balance sheet for assets, liabilities and equity
  2. 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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will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware
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Live Security Virtual Conference
Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and 
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