John I had considered writing a payroll plugin a few years ago but found that finding my way around the Gnucash code made it difficult so I have great respect for the business features that Derek has created so far. I started to think more in terms of a separate payroll program which maintained its own user interface and database and exported the necessary accounting information to GnuCash via something like OFX importing. I have looked at a variety of open source and purportedly free offerings most of which are very jurisdiction specific and satisfy local compliance requirements. Many offer a free version for a small number of employees and then scale into plans for more employees. I have not found any which mention exporting or integration of accounting information except where part of an ERP system (rarely free).
As Derek has indicated the software can be complex because there is both a dependence upon the taxation law requirements as well as industrial law requirements and the framework for both varies considerably across many jurisdictions. Tthere is also a high annual maintenance load to satisfy compliance issues in both areas. As a business owner 15 years ago I was happy to pay for software which handled the taxation compliance even though industrial relations compliance was not handled at that time. We have a fairly complex array of federal and state awards negotiated with the unions and ratified by state and federal industial relations tribunals/courts along with individual enterprise bargaining agreements with larger companies and individual employment contracts for salaried staff as well as a compulsory superannuation system paid by the employer and a withholding system for employee tax contributions. I would imagine the situation is not too different in most countries. The need to store employee specific information like tax file numbers, address and contact details also introduces compliance issues re privacy although that is more OS and network security related. David Cousens ----- David Cousens -- Sent from: http://gnucash.1415818.n4.nabble.com/GnuCash-User-f1415819.html _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
