Aerospace Software Ltd.

GNU Cash Business Howto

For GNU Cash Version 1.8.2

Herman Oosthuysen 16 May 2003

General

GNU Cash is a wee bit buggy still, to put it mildly, but it actually works. GNU Cash is highly configurable and can handle multiple currencies and tax rates.

This howto describes common actions for business users and should get you going.

Installation

It is well nigh impossible to compile and install GNU Cash yourself. Get a modern distribution and install that. Mandrake 9.1 comes with GNU Cash 1.8.2. I tried doing it myself, descended deep into shared library hell and eventually gave up - there was no point in being a damn fool about it... ;-)

Configuration

The important thing is to create a standard Chart of Accounts and to enter all the tax codes for your country and state. Each account can have both a text description and a number. To keep tax time simple, I use the Canadian GIFI codes as the account numbers.

You can use this file: chart-of-accounts to get you started. It defines both USD and CAD accounts for a small consulting business. Save the file where you want to have your company data, rename it to your company name and open it with GNU Cash from the File, Open menu.

If you live in Canada, then that will do to get you going. If not, then you have a little bit of work to do to enter your country's account codes. Once you are happy with the Chart of Accounts, export it to save a copy of the account setup from the File, Export menu. That is how I created this example file.

Create an Invoice

You can create an invoice but it doesn't look very good. Also, the invoice may/may not show up in reports until some time has passed. By the next day, all reports should be OK. You may want to print a better looking invoice by some other means.

Click: Business, Customers, New Invoice
Type an Invoice number or leave it blank, to make GNU Cash make one up
Click: Select to select the customer to invoice
You can now create a New Customer if required, or type the Customer name and click Find
Select the Terms, type some Notes and click OK
Now you get an Edit Invoice dialogue
You can edit the invoice some more if required
Click the Enter button to record the invoice in Current Assets:Accounts Receivable
In this dialogue, the Print button remains greyed out, so you can't print the invoice from here.

Print Invoice

Once you have created the invoice, printing it is not obvious. You cannot print from the New Invoice dialogue. The way to print the invoice, is from the Process Payment dialogue:

Click: Business, Customers, Process Payment
Payment Information dialogue opens
Click: Select
Company Name, Contains: type company name in text box
Click: Find
You can now View/Edit Customer, See Jobs/Invoices or Process a Payment
Click: Customer's Invoices
Click: View/Edit Invoice
Now you can click the Print button

Receive Payment

The main problem with receiving a payment is to figure out what to enter into the Post To text box:

Click: Business, Customers, Process Payment
Payment Information dialogue opens
Click: Select
Company Name, Contains: type company name in text box
Click: Find
You can now View/Edit Customer, See Jobs/Invoices or Process a Payment
Click: Process Payment
Type the Amount into the amount box
In the Post To text box enter: Current Assets:Accounts Receivable
This account name is visible in the View Invoice dialogue in the Posted Account text box
In the Transfer Account text box, select Current Assets:Undeposited Funds CAD
Click: OK