[Finance] Hackerspace financial software and processes

[James Nylen]

Good point, I had not thought of that.  We do have the ability to export
data to spreadsheets, which is how we do reporting now, but there may come
a time when we need to rely on outside help.

On Thu, Dec 4, 2014 at 6:56 PM, Robert Davidson <robertdavidson22 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Before you go forth on GNUCash have you found someone that will support it?
>
> You may not be there now but if you ever need to have a CPA, Bookkeeper,
> Audit, loan docs.
>
> It may become an issue it is extremely nice not to have to teach people
> (usually billable) how to use GNUCash.
>
> Most accounting offices are already familiar with quickbooks.
>
> But in the end this really comes down to scale and IMO GNUCash does not
> scale well when you have to bring in third party vendors.
>
> Robert Davidson
>
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Dec 4, 2014, at 8:56 AM, James Nylen <jnylen at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 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
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Finance mailing list
>>> Finance at lists.hackerspaces.org
>>> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/finance
>>>
>>>
>>
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