[ale] GnuCash [OT]

Wed Aug 1 10:55:51 EDT 2012

I don't know how it used to be, but at least when I set up my corporation
in the Payroll and state tax systems, I had to make personal guarantees.
That said, I am happy to accept that (relatively minor) liability in
exchange for the protection offered by corporate limited liability.

That is, no matter who runs the reports and pays the bills, I am personally
"on the hook" for that liability.
On Aug 1, 2012 10:45 AM, "Lightner, Jeff" <JLightner at water.com> wrote:

> Double entry makes a lot of sense especially because it lets you know when
> you're out of balance when DRs and CRs don't equal the same thing.
>  People were often mystified when I'd go on a "penny hunt".   They would
> say things like "if it's only a penny does it matter?"   I'd have to
> explain that if it was only APPARENTLY a penny it could in fact be
> 1,523,697.01 off in one account and 1,523,697.00 off in another.   Until
> they balance you can't be sure.
>
> Of course the argument could be made that if everything does balance you
> might actually be off 1,523,697.00 in a debit and the same amount in a
> credit.   That is true enough but somewhat beside the point.  Double entry
> accounting is about trying to be insure you're making equivalent DRs and
> CRs not about insuring you've made then in the right places.   The rest of
> accounting is about making them in the right places.   Besides which, only
> an apostate would make that argument. :-)
>
> Rules are sometimes important to know.   Years ago I had gone to a Georgia
> Sales and Use Tax training seminar and found out for the first time about
> estimated sales tax requirements for business collecting over a certain
> amount.    I was the one preparing the monthly return so on doing it the
> next month I did the estimate and remitted the payment.   A senior manager
> who had previously been Controller noticed that the Sales Tax liability
> account was lower than it had usually been at EOM and on asking me about it
> and hearing my explanation said "You can't decide to pay that by yourself."
>    However, he'd subscribed to  CCH when he was controller and forced me to
> read much of what they sent when he'd been my boss.   The one message that
>  came through loud and clear in most of the court cases I read about tax
> law what that if you had the physical ability to make a tax payment (e.g.
> access to checks, signing authority etc...) you had a personal liability
> for that tax payment and could never use "I was ordered not to pay" as an
> excuse.    I advised this senior manager "I couldn't decide NOT to pay that
> by myself however if YOU would like to start doing the monthly return
> yourself I'm willing to let you assume the responsibility."   He never said
> another word about tax payments to me.
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of
> mike at trausch.us
> Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2012 10:15 AM
> To: ale at ale.org
> Subject: Re: [ale] GnuCash [OT]
>
> On 08/01/2012 09:18 AM, JD wrote:
> > When I was forced to deal with accounting, I found that it didn't make
> > sense - the rules seemed arbitrary to me and simply needed to be
> > memorized since a general rule wouldn't work 100%. There wasn't any
> > logic.  I still feel that way.
>
> There are quite a few rules.  But when you stray from them, the reason for
> them often becomes clear.  For the most part, accounting rules and
> generally-accepted accounting practices exist so that the books of
> companies are comparable between multiple different entities.  It is one of
> many systems of rules that help people to make informed decisions about a
> company's financial status.
>
> > My companies pay an accountant and I keep the unofficial company
> > records inside Quicken (running under WINE).  I can track a check book
> > register without issues and assign categories too. ;) The doubt entry
> > stuff seemed like 2x more work than is necessary for a small business.
>
> DAC (double-entry accounting) makes a lot of sense, though it can be (when
> done manually) very mundane.  The rule is that for every debit there must
> be a matching credit, right?  This makes it so that the entire system
> balances.  But then sometimes people wonder "If the whole thing balances,
> and if for every debit there must be an equal credit, how do you record new
> transactions?".  Easy enough; for example, when you run payroll, you accrue
> a liability (actually, more than one liability), which you record both in
> expense and in accounts payable.
> It is an expense, because you had to pay in order to have your employee,
> and it is a liability (in A/P) because you haven't paid it yet, but you
> definitely owe it.
>
> Then when you actually pay it, you credit your asset account from which
> you paid it, and debit the liability (A/P) to indicate that it has been
> paid.  The whole system allows you to "follow" the money so that you can
> see where it went, and hopefully why.
>
> The process of recording the transactions doesn't have to be as manual as
> even GC makes it, though.  It can be mostly hidden under an interface that
> "knows" the procedures for taking business events and turning them into
> accounting transactions.  That's what I eventually plan to have for this
> business' accounting system.  Whether or not I can (read: will have time
> to) make it generalizable for others is TBD.
>
> > I'm certain this shows my ignorance. That's fine. We can't know and
> > understand everything.
>
> Of course not.  Nobody's perfect!  :-D
>
> > I've tried to get our accountants to encrypt emails to us. They don't
> > "get it" either.  We always send them encrypted data. I'm fairly
> > certain our data is not secure on their computer systems, but that is
> > probably an issue at all but the largest accounting companies.
>
> Yes... I know the feeling quite well.  I am trying to see if I can't get
> my payroll people to learn how to securely conduct business.  They
> currently send me everything in plaintext email, which makes me cringe
> every single time that I get a payroll run finished.  I can't get them to
> understand that email is not an inherently secure format for doing things.
>
> Personally, I would prefer to have a notification transmitted by email, so
> that I can go to their (TLS enabled) Web site and pick up my payroll
> documents and reports.  That would be far better.  I think that they, and
> their other customers, see it as unnecessary and extra hassle.
>
>         --- Mike
>
> --
> A man who reasons deliberately, manages it better after studying Logic
> than he could before, if he is sincere about it and has common sense.
>                                    --- Carveth Read, “Logic”
>
>
>
>
>
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