On 8/20/2022 3:06 PM, Scott Morgan wrote:
Hi John,
Well, I did some work building an open source Java Accounting Model (
adligo.org) a few times of the past two decades. Now I find my self using
QuickBooks online, so I have been looking for some collaborators and
gnucash seems like the most successful project out there. The enriched
metadata would allow me to build ETL tools to go back and forth between
QuickBooks, my system and gnucash.
In my opinion accounting systems are basically the evolution of / fancy
spreadsheets. The main difference is the way transactions are linked in
double-sided accounting. Longer term I'm hoping for some sort of
import-export standardization of accounting data. The current standard
seems to still be CSV files, which have problems binding the accounts
together. You can do this by tracking source systems and source Ids. But
it's still fairly painful.
So I figured I would start looking at the model you all were using inside
of GnuCash.
At the "data model" level you should not be thinking about language of
implementation.
I do not understand what you could mean by going back and forth from
Quickbools to gnucash (or any other double entry bookkeeping software)
as Quickbooks is not double entry.
No, did not evolve from spreadsheets. Double entry bookkeeping is many
hundreds of years old. Was once done pen and ink on paper (was still
done that way during my lifetime and how I learned). THAT process, enter
transactions into a book called the journal, then posted from there into
a book called the ledger, could be directly implemented using a
spreadsheet application instead of paper. But note that the posting
process was particularly prone to error.
IF you were using gnucash in "journal entry mode" (what you are using
entering transactions that are splits) you would see the evolution more
clearly. When you complete the journal entry and hit enter, the posting
is automatic (and error free -- the computer will not miss copy a digit,
transpose digits, etc.)
Michael D Novack
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