Excellent tips and nice write up! On Thu, Jul 22, 2021 at 2:07 PM Adrien Monteleone < adrien.montele...@lusfiber.net> wrote:
> I'll add some tips for any new user getting their feet wet building > their Chart of Accounts: > > Put as much info into each transaction as you possibly can. > > A. Use the Notes field (visible in Double Line mode) and put info in the > Memo fields for each Split. (if you don't know what Splits are yet, read > that section of the manual and learn them, you'll thank me later) > > B. Don't combine individual line items from an invoice or receipt as an > attempt to 'speed up' data entry. Just enter each line item separately. > (especially tax) Here's why: > > 1. It takes time to do the math to combine the items. GnuCash does > math for you automatically. > 2. You'll inevitably make math mistakes doing so and waste time. (did > I mention GnuCash handles math on the fly?) > 3. A Memo field can only take so much text, so if you are combining > too much, you'll tend not to describe the items there as well. > 4. Keeping each line item separate, and putting good descriptions in > the Memos allows you to split off or change accounts later without > making a mess or having to 'start over'. (this you will certainly > appreciate a few months down the road) If you combine items you later > want to put in different accounts, unless you have the original receipt, > or put the individual amounts in the memo, this will be impossible. > 5. You'll end up saving lots of time for routinely purchased items, > and routinely visited stores because GnuCash utilizes an 'auto-fill' > based on previous entries. In most cases, after a few months of use, > what seemed like a daunting grocery receipt, is just a matter of tabbing > through, editing a word here or there, and adjusting a few prices. > 6. GnuCash lets you 'attach' documents to transactions. Scan *every* > receipt and attach it. That way, if you have an issue later, you can > always correct it. (or if you didn't follow my above advice, you can > re-do the transaction split up correctly) It takes little time to scan > and save, and only a few clicks to attach the scan to a transaction. > > C. As with any new software, it will take time to learn to use it > effectively. Not everything ends up being a 'time saver'. The point of > Accounting is to *spend* time now, so you have better information to > make decisions later, that are, hopefully, more productive or perhaps > less costly. > > D. The best time to record (to 'Account' for) your financial activities > is as soon as possible after they occurred, so make it a daily habit. > That also keeps the workload down. > > Regards, > Adrien > > _______________________________________________ > 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. > _______________________________________________ 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.