[Finance] Hackerspace financial software and processes

[James Nylen]

Thanks for the info Paul, Kill Bill looks very promising!  I have briefly
looked at Seltzer CRM, what were you guys' conclusions on that software?

At this point I don't think we are in a position to deny members who would
rather pay cash (and really that group includes me).  I think automated
reminders and overdue notices would help there, as well as some integration
between the financial system and the billing/membership system.

GnuCash definitely doesn't do everything we want.  Still, I'd strongly
prefer an open-source solution, so I'm inclined to keep using it as a
backend and building stuff around it, eventually replacing it.  I think
we've made good progress already:  https://github.com/nylen/gnucash-django

On Wed, Dec 3, 2014 at 8:00 PM, Paul Brown <paul90brown at gmail.com> wrote:

> For streamlining the way you record membership payments, I would recommend
> a billing system. Here are the ones we looked at:
> https://dallasmakerspace.org/wiki/Financial_Research#Invoicing_and_Billing
> (we ended up going with WHMCS) However, I saw Killbill.io recently and it
> looked really interesting too.
>
> I would recommend not accepting cash. Here's some of the logic behind that
> decision:
> https://dallasmakerspace.org/wiki/Board_of_Directors_Meeting_20130630#No_Longer_Accepting_Cash_For_Membership_Dues_.28Paul_Brown.29
>
> We use quickbooks, and we're about to switch to quickbooks online. It's
> industry standard and generally better than gnucash. This page has some
> details about that:
> https://dallasmakerspace.org/wiki/Bookkeeping_Software#Quickbooks_Desktop
>
> On Wed, Dec 3, 2014 at 7:49 PM, James Nylen <jnylen at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi, I'm James Nylen, the treasurer at Red Mountain Makers in Birmingham,
>> AL.
>>
>> I'm very interested in getting our financial and membership workflows
>> streamlined.  Here are the common tasks I've automated so far:
>>
>> - Pull transactions from bank websites and PayPal, and load them into
>> GnuCash
>> - Allow viewing and basic editing through a web interface on top of
>> GnuCash
>>
>> Here's what I think are the next steps:
>>
>> - Streamlining the way we record cash membership payments, and cash and
>> non-cash donations
>> - Report active and lapsed membership (several different types; paid via
>> PayPal and cash/checks)
>> - Generate monthly financial reports, and maybe even projections
>>
>> What do your processes look like for these items?  Anything that has
>> worked particularly well or badly, and anything else I should be thinking
>> about?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> James
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>
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