2000-03-30 09:50:40 +00:00
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
< html >
< head >
< title > GnuCash Project Goals< / title >
< meta name = "description" content =
"The Linux GnuCash project aims at creating a world-class personal finance package. Goals include ease-of use, double entry, OFX support, charts, and reports, and multi-user support.">
< meta name = "keywords" content =
"linux, OFX, accounting, finance, financial, ledger, double entry, GPL, gnu">
< / head >
< body bgcolor = "#eeeeee" >
< h1 > GnuCash Project Goals< / h1 >
< p > The people behind < a href = "http://gnucash.org" > GnuCash< / a > aim
to create a world-class GPL'ed Open Source Personal Financial
Application for GNU/Linux and other Unix's. This page aims to
review some of the technical and development issues surrounding
this product, representing a sort of < b > FAQ< / b > for developers and
contributors, to suggest directions when developers are trying to
determine how to implement new functionality.< / p >
< p > To get a better idea of what < a href = "http://gnucash.org" >
GnuCash< / a > is and what it does, visit its < a href =
"http://gnucash.org">home page< / a > .< / p >
< p > There are currently several different versions of
GnuCash.< / p >
< ul >
< li > The current stable, production release is gnucash-1.2.x
and is based on the Open Group's Motif GUI library.< br >
< br >
< / li >
< li > However, development efforts have almost entirely
switched over to < a href = "http://www.gnome.org" > Gnome< / a >
and < a href = "http://www.gtk.org" > GTK;< / a > the Motif version
will likely fall by the wayside.< / li >
< li > Note that some more experimental versions, such as one
using the < a href = "http://www.troll.no/products/qt.html" > Qt
library from Troll Tech< / a > FOR the for the < a href =
"http://www.kde.org/"> KDE desktop,< / a > PalmComputing
platforms, as well as a Java-based version have been
discussed and/or started.< br >
< br >
< / li >
< / ul >
< p > The latest Gnome version, and latest versions in general,
are currently available only via CVS.< / p >
< p > Precompiled versions < em > are< / em > available, but usually
only for the stable releases. Don't use the unstable versions
unless you are ready for excitement and adventure, and are
prepared to cope with a need to keep extensive backups.< / p >
< p > This document is divided into several sections.< / p >
< ol >
< li > < a href = "#arch" > Architectural Goals< / a > < / li >
< li > < a href = "#reqs" > Feature Requirements< / a > < / li >
< li > < a href = "#feats" > Features< / a > < / li >
< / ol >
< hr >
< h1 > Architectural Goals< / h1 >
< a name = "arch" > There are some over-reaching design principles
and philosophies that we intend to maintain. Some of these
concepts and terms are introduced in this section.< / a >
< h2 > Separation of GUI and Data< / h2 >
First, we must maintain a clean separation between the data
structures and the GUI that manipulates them, along the lines
of the < b > Model-View-Controller< / b > paradigm.
< ul >
< li > Lists of accounts and the transactions in them can be
thought of as a representation of financial data, a < b >
Model< / b > .< / li >
< li >
The GUI that adds, modifies and deletes these should be
thought of as a manipulator of the data, a < b >
Controller< / b > .
< p > Thus, the Motif or Gnome GUIs are merely two possible
manipulators of the data; others, based on < i > e.g.< / i >
Qt/KDE, emacs, Java applets or Java servlets ought to be
possible.< / p >
< / li >
< li > The < b > View< / b > of the data is a subset or slice of the
data described by the Model. The View may consist of only the
transactions for the month of May, or only the account totals
for certain accounts. The View is used in part to generate
the reports and graphs, but it is also that which the
Controller interacts with.< / li >
< / ul >
< p > GnuCash also needs to deal with multiple distributed data
sources: stock quotations from the net or transaction
confirmations from online banks and brokerage houses, or from
more mundane sources, such as file imports, or merger of data
from several users.< / p >
< p > Amongst these terms, the concept of a global Model-View is
dated, and somewhat inappropriate. Rather, we need to be
concerned about how data is represented in the local address
space of the GUI, how the GUI manipulates it, how data is
brought in and merged from external sources, and how that data
is again output, whether to a file or a local or remote
database.< / p >
< p > Thus, the < b > View< / b > essentially represents a local data
cache of the data that is immediately present and being
displayed, reported, and manipulated. The < b > Model< / b > is the
abstraction of that data that the GUI (the controller) can act
on.< / p >
< h2 > The Financial Engine< / h2 >
In GnuCash, the Model is implemented via the < b > Engine< / b > API,
and the View is the data that is currently in the < b >
Engine< / b > . Thus, the Engine is a set of programming API's that
the GUI (or a script, or even a clever command-line-addict) can
use to manipulate the data.
< p > Currently, the Engine is fairly poor, and is tightly tied
to the data structures that the GUI manipulates. These data
structures include:< / p >
< ul >
< li > Transactions< / li >
< li > Transaction entries (splits)< / li >
< li > Accounts< / li >
< li > Hierarchies of Accounts< / li >
< / ul >
The Engine has a very simple apply/commit model, and a simple
query mechanism for generating reports and views.
< p > The Engine currently handles only a small set of data
sources:< / p >
< ul >
< li > It can import and merge in QIF's;< / li >
< li > It can read and write its own binary byte stream;< / li >
< li > It can get stock quotes from the net.< / li >
< / ul >
< p > However, since the Engine is meant to be the interface
between the GUI and the financial data, it is really intended
to be able to do much more.< / p >
< p > In particular, it should be possible to back the Engine
onto an SQL database, and thereby enable multiple users and/or
interface to more complex accounting systems. The engine should
also be expandable to handle other sources of data, such as
OFX, Integrion GOLD, the Open Trading Protocol, the OMG CORBA
General Ledger submission, the IBM San Francisco business
objects, or closer to home, Linux Kontor. In particular, it
should be possible to use GnuCash not only to view data from
these sources, but also to manipulate it and send it back.< / p >
< h2 > Modularity, Extensibility and Customization< / h2 >
< p > The above structure should leads us to view GnuCash not so
much as a tightly integrated application, but rather as a loose
confederation of component objects, libraries and
interfaces.< / p >
< p > In order to facilitate the gluing together of these parts,
as well as simplify the questions of customizability, change
and rapid development, GnuCash makes use of an extension
language to glue the pieces together.< / p >
< p > The extension language that is most central to Gnucash is
< a href =
"http://www.swiss.ai.mit.edu/projects/scheme/index.html">
Scheme,< / a > and in particular, the FSF implementation, < a href =
"http://www.gnu.org/software/guile/guile.html"> Guile,< / a >
although some of the interfaces are also available through < a
href="http://www.perl.org"> Perl.< / a > < / p >
< h2 > Markets and Users< / h2 >
Implicit in this desire for extensibility is the need to build
financial applications supporting two major classes of users:
< ul >
< li > Home Users< / li >
< li > Small Business Users< / li >
< / ul >
They may use some of the same financial terminology, and
hopefully might share a fair bit of code, but have quite
different goals and requirements.
< h3 > Personal Finance Needs< / h3 >
< p > Important properties of a personal finance system
include:< / p >
< ul >
< li > Needs to be approachable to occasional users that are not
terribly knowledgeable about accounting.< / li >
< li > Ease of use < em > by the naive< / em > is critical.< / li >
2000-04-27 06:19:15 +00:00
< li > There is a need for a profligate set of reports, graphs,
2000-03-30 09:50:40 +00:00
charts, and tools for personal finance, such as mortgage
calculations.< / li >
< li > Budgeting support needs to be targeted at < em > naive< / em >
users.< / li >
< li > Interfaces to on-line banking, shopping, stock
systems.< / li >
< li > Support for management of stock portfolios that may
involve considerable sophistication, since individuals
commonly have retirement plans that hold mutual funds,
stocks, options, bonds, and the like.< / li >
< / ul >
< h3 > Small Business Needs< / h3 >
< ul >
< li > With a business system, it is likely that there will be
full-time users, which puts the emphasis on < em >
efficiency< / em > of user interface rather than on its
approachability to naive users.< / li >
< li > Business systems require network support, and the ability
to support multiple simultaneous users.< / li >
< li >
Small businesses do not often have sophisticated investment
portfolios; they instead need support for additional
sophistication in such areas as:
< ul >
< li > Payroll< / li >
< li > Inventory Control< / li >
< li > Shipping and Receiving< / li >
< li > Accounts Receivable< / li >
< li > Accounts Payable< / li >
< li > Asset Management< / li >
< / ul >
< / li >
< li > Support for calculations associated with accrual
accounting.< / li >
< li > Ambitions for the future might include interfaces to
online shopping carts, credit card clearing interfaces, and
ERP systems.< / li >
< / ul >
< h3 > Reconciling Those Needs< / h3 >
< p > A seemingly contradictory factor is that the kinds of
sophistication that are required vary considerably.
Consider:< / p >
< ul >
< li >
A home user does not generally require most of the
sophistication (sophistry?) of accrual accounting that is
required by business enterprises.
< p > Thus, home users don't need < em > much< / em > of the
sophistication of an Accounts Receivable or Payable system,
or the < em > bizarre< / em > depreciation policies that crop up
in Asset Management systems.< / p >
< / li >
< li >
On the other hand, home users are in increasing need of
surprisingly sophisticated financial tools for managing
stock portfolios, including:
< ul >
< li > Mutual funds< / li >
< li > Retirement savings plans, with such identifiers as
401(k), IRA, Roth IRA, RRSP< / li >
< li > Corporate stock purchase plans< / li >
< li > Corporate option plans< / li >
< / ul >
< / li >
< / ul >
< p > It may be that these will require < em > completely< / em >
different systems, and that GnuCash cannot be "all things to
all people." This remains to be seen.< / p >
< h1 > Feature Requirements< / h1 >
< a name = "reqs" > < / a >
< h2 > Personal Financial Application< / h2 >
Below are listed the technical work items needed to implement
the features that home users might hope to have. They are
listed in approximate order of priority.
< p > The right hand column shows a sizing guesstimate. pm ==
person-months< / p >
< ul >
< li > < b > Small< / b > 0 to 4 pm< / li >
< li > < b > Medium< / b > 3 to 12 pm< / li >
< li > < b > Large< / b > More than 12 pm< / li >
< / ul >
< table border = "1" summary = "Personal Finance Functionality
Requirements">
< tr >
< th > Feature< / th >
< th > Sizing< / th >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td >
< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#i18n" > Internationalization< / a > < / td >
< td > Small< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#graphs" > Graphs, Reports< / a > < / td >
< td > Medium< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#stock" > Simplified Stock Ledger< / a > < / td >
< td > Small< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#glitz" > Themes, Icons, Glitz< / a > < / td >
< td > Medium< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#book" > Books, Accounting Periods< / a > < / td >
< td > Small< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#check" > Check Printing< / a > < / td >
< td > Small< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#userpref" > User Preferences< / a > < / td >
< td > Medium< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#ext" > Extension Language Support< / a > < / td >
< td > Medium< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#bond" > Bonds and Interest Bearing
Instruments< / a > < / td >
< td > Small< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#401K" > 401K etc.< / a > < / td >
< td > Small< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#note" > Annotate with Investment News< / a > < / td >
< td > Small< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#loan" > Loan and Mortgage Calculators< / a > < / td >
< td > Small< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#budget" > Budgeting< / a > < / td >
< td > Medium< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#alerts" > Alerts, Recurring
Transactions< / a > < / td >
< td > Medium< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#quick" > Quicken(TM) Export< / a > < / td >
< td > Small< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#quote" > Stock Quotes, Price Quotes< / a > < / td >
< td > Small< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#ofx" > OFX, Online Banking, Trading,
2000-04-27 06:19:15 +00:00
Bill-pay< / a > < / td >
2000-03-30 09:50:40 +00:00
< td > Large< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#currency" > Multiple Currencies< / a > < / td >
< td > Medium< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#double" > Double Entry Accounting< / a > < / td >
< td > Small< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#tab" > Tab-delimited ASCII export< / a > < / td >
< td > Small< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#tax" > Tax Preparation< / a > < / td >
< td > Large< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#palm" > Sync with Palm Pilot
organizers< / a > < / td >
< td > Medium< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#emerg" > Emergency Records Organizer< / a > < / td >
< td > Small< / td >
< / tr >
< / table >
< h2 > Small Business Features< / h2 >
Features that small/medium businesses expect.
< table border = "1" summary = "Business Functionality
Requirements">
< tr >
< th > Feature< / th >
< th > Sizing< / th >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td >
< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#engine" > Enhanced Engine, Financial
Objects< / a > < / td >
< td > Large< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#sql" > SQL I/O< / a > < / td >
< td > Medium< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#multiuser" > Multi-User Support< / a > < / td >
< td > Medium< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#arap" > A/R, A/P Accounts Payable,
Receivable< / a > < / td >
< td > Medium< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#payroll" > Payroll< / a > < / td >
< td > Medium< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#invoice" > Invoicing< / a > < / td >
< td > Medium< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#estimate" > Job Costing< / a > < / td >
< td > Medium< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#expense" > Expense Accounts< / a > < / td >
< td > Large< / td >
< / tr >
< / table >
< h1 > Features and Functions< / h1 >
< dl >
< dd > < a name = "i18n" > < / a > < / dd >
< dt > < b > Internationalization< / b > < / dt >
< dd >
All menus, markup and help-text should be
internationalized, so that GnuCash may be usable in any
country. This would include the printing of currency values
in the local country conventions.
< p > < b > Current status:< / b > < / p >
< ul >
< li > Most English-language messages have been < tt >
#defined< / tt > and moved to a single header file < tt >
include/messages_en.h< / tt > < / li >
< li > Plan to use gnu < tt > gettext()< / tt > for the message
catalogs.< / li >
< li > Looking for routines that can parse and print
monetary values in different formats, as well as
date/time parsing/printing routines. (gnucash contains
such parsing routines, but they're not very powerful or
i18n'ed.)< / li >
< li > Henning Spruth has translated the README into
German.< / li >
< li > Yannick Le Ny < y-le-ny@ifrance.com> traduction
en francais et < tt > include/messages_fr.h< / tt > < / li >
< / ul >
< / dd >
< dt > < a name = "graphs" > < b > Graphs, Reports< / b > < / a > < / dt >
< dd >
Add a variety of reports, including Net Worth, Balance
Sheets, and Profit and Loss statements. These should be
printable: it might be best to create them as ordinary HTML
pages, and use the printing abilities of the browser. These
should be easy to customize. Ideally, even novice users
should be able to create custom reports.
< p > Other output format possibilities include < a href =
"http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/"> SGML< / a > and < a href =
"http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/xml.html"> Extensible
Markup Language - XML.< / a > In the long run, these are
preferable to HTML, since < a href =
"http://www.jclark.com/dsssl/">DSSSL< / a > tools such as < a
href="http://www.jclark.com/jade/"> Jade (James DSSSL
Engine)< / a > can be used to convert to RTF, Postscript,
etc.< / p >
< p > Add to this the consideration that XML is the basis for
the < a href = "http://www.w3.org/DOM/" > Document Object
Model,< / a > which is being integrated into many web-based
applications, and we can see that XML is an increasingly
significant format as we look to the future.< / p >
< p > The Report Generator should be a separate but
"dockable" subsystem of the whole.< / p >
< p > Thus, it should be possible to run the report generator
in a stand-alone, read-only fashion without having to start
up the main application.< / p >
< p > Graphs, charts, etc. too ...< / p >
< p > Asset allocation pie chart.< / p >
< p > Graph portfolio value vs. cost< / p >
< p > One difficult aspect of reporting is designing a
configurable interface, so that people can build custom
reports. The < a href = "xacc-reports.html#NEWREP" > New
Reporting Infrastructure< / a > is seeking to build this up
using Guile.< / p >
< p > Stock portfolio tools should include a Cost Averaging
report, Market Index report, Stock Option values,
Estimation of capital gains tax liabilities.< / p >
< p > < b > Status:< / b > < / p >
< ul >
< li > A simple HTML output form has been implemented;
GnuCash can act as a very simple web server.< / li >
< li > Reports for Profit/Loss, Balance Sheet, and portfolio
valuation implemented as HTML-embedded Perl scripts. < a
href="xacc-reports.html#NEWREP"> Being re-written in
Scheme.< / a > < / li >
< / ul >
< / dd >
< dt > < a name = "stock" > < b > Simplified Stock Ledger< / b > < / a > < / dt >
< dd >
Stocks and Mutual funds are handled by placing them each in
their own account. Each account can be viewed individually.
If all of the stock accounts are children of a master
trading account, then the trading account can be viewed and
modified in a General Ledger window. The current stock
general ledger window is a bit obtuse, and difficult to
understand and use. A simplified but still powerful ledger
window is desperately needed.
< p > < b > Question< / b > : How to most simply allow the user to
enter loads and fees?< / p >
< p > < b > Answer< / b > : Through splits. Unfortunately, some
users may not properly understand splits, at least not
initially. Thus, a little popup is needed to allow the user
to type in the sales load or fee and such, and then
auto-create the needed splits.< / p >
< p > Note the current transfer window does < em > NOT< / em >
allow a share price to be specified !! Needs fixing ...< / p >
< p > < a name = "glitz" > < / a > < / p >
< / dd >
< dt > < b > Themes, Icons, Glitz< / b > < / dt >
< dd >
A variety of finer touches need work:
< ul >
< li >
< b > Themes< / b > .
< p > A set of themes would be desirable for the Gnome
version.< / p >
< / li >
< li >
< b > Button Bar< / b >
< p > A user-configurable button-bar would be nice
too.< / p >
< / li >
< li >
< b > Categories< / b >
< p > Provide a default list of "Categories"
(Income/Expense Accounts). These are categories such as
"Automobile Expense", "Bank Interest Income", and
"Employment Income". The user should be able to select
a default set of accounts, and have those created
automatically.< / p >
< p > To actually implement this, it might be best to
simply create a file with these in them, and load that
file. A mechanism should be provided to allow the user
to weed out undesired accounts whilst not preventing
them from using them at a later date, if desired.< / p >
< / li >
< li >
< b > Household Assets< / b >
< p > Add an example showing how regular household assets
(house, car, jewelry, etc.) should be treated. In
particular, show how appreciation and depreciation
should be treated.< / p >
< / li >
< li >
< b > Navigation< / b >
< p > Menu navigation using the keyboard should be
possible.< / p >
< p > Although menu mnemonics exist, they seem to be
broken.< / p >
< p > Similarly, tab-key navigation should be possible.
Currently, it is possible to use the tab key to
navigate from field to field in the register window, to
user arrow keys to navigate menus, and quick-fill to
automatically complete fields. However, it is not
possible to tab over to the "Commit" button.< / p >
< p > It should be.< / p >
< / li >
< li >
< b > Folder Tabs< / b >
< p > Currently, Income/Expense accounts can be shown or
hidden by selecting from a menu. It would be nice to be
able to examine different account types (Asset,
Liability, Income, Expense, Payables, Receivables,
Inventory) by selecting a tab folder.< / p >
< / li >
< li >
< b > Fly-Over Help< / b >
< p > When the user pauses the mouse over a button,
"fly-over" pop-up help windows should appear.< / p >
< / li >
< li >
< b > Grayed-out Form Help< / b >
< p > Create grayed out entries in the ledger, titled
"Memo", "Description", etc, helping users understand
what should be typed into each field.< / p >
< / li >
< li >
< b > < a href = "htttp://www.emacs.org" > emacs,< / a > vi,
motif, KDE, gnome Key Bindings for Text Fields< / b >
< p > Make sure that text fields can handle the vi and
emacs key bindings, so that < em > e.g.< / em > emacs-style
ctrl-a, ctrl-k does the right thing.< / p >
< / li >
< / ul >
< p > < a name = "book" > < / a > < / p >
< / dd >
< dt > < b > Books, Accounting Periods< / b > < / dt >
< dd >
Ability to close the book at end of the fiscal year.
< p > < em > i.e.< / em > Ability to permanently lock records as
non-editable. This should be straight-forward by using the
< tt > reconciled< / tt > field to indicate a < tt > locked< / tt >
value, and not allowing the GUI to edit locked records.< / p >
< p > Also need to report closed books slightly differently.
Need to bring balances forward too...< / p >
< p > < a name = "check" > < / a > < / p >
< / dd >
< dt > < b > Check Printing< / b > < / dt >
< dd > Create a check-printing ability.< / dd >
< dt > < a name = "userpref" > < b > User Preferences< / b > < / a > < / dt >
< dd >
Create menu system and file format for manipulating user
preferences.
< p > Preferences include things like showing/not showing
categories, forcing double-entry, etc.< / p >
< p > < b > Current status:< / b > < / p >
< ul >
< li > Rob Browning has put together a basic infrastructure
that unifies command-line flags with scheme-based config
files.< / li >
< li > Rob also is auto-generating the GUI ...< / li >
< / ul >
< / dd >
< dt > < a name = "ext" > < b > Extension Language Support< / b > < / a > < / dt >
< dd >
The application is wired together partly with C, partly
with Scheme. The architecture of the wiring and how scheme
is fit in needs to be reviewed, with a general overview
created so that additional extensions may be added in a
straightforward manner.
< p > The overall architecture is envisioned thus:< / p >
< p > All code, including the transaction engine, the file
I/O routines, the menus, and the ledger, will be abstracted
into compact modules that can function independently of
each other. At the highest level, there will be a
infrastructure with extension language interfaces that will
"wire together" the various modules.< / p >
< p > Such "wiring together" will consist of a dispatch
infrastructure that will allow arbitrary menu entries to be
hooked to arbitrary modules. The configuration for menu
entries, and their associated callbacks, will be specified
in an extension-language configuration file. At the final
stages, it is < em > highly< / em > desirable to be able to, in
some manner, import new modules < em > without< / em > requiring
that the application itself be recompiled and relinked.< / p >
< p > < b > Status:< / b > < / p >
< ul >
< li > Scheme/Guile is the central extension language.< / li >
< li > Optional interfaces to the data engine can be
generated using < a href =
"http://starship.skyport.net/crew/beazley/swig.html">
SWIG< / a > .< / li >
< li > Rob Browning is the reigning expert.< / li >
< / ul >
< p > < a name = "bond" > < / a > < / p >
< / dd >
< dt > < b > Bonds and Interest Bearing Instruments< / b > < / dt >
< dd >
Support should be added for Mortgages, Bonds, CD's and
other instruments (e.g. savings accounts) that pay interest
on a regular basis. It should be possible to specify the
interest rate, the payment schedule, and other regularly
recurring transactions.
< p > This should be handled by having a way of bouncing out
to some Guile code to generate transactions with computed
values. < a name = "401K" > < / a > < / p >
< / dd >
< dt > < b > 401(k), RRSP< / b > < / dt >
< dd > Retirement Savings Plans often do not put a high priority
on tracking costs, as the tax implication is that amounts are
taxable upon withdrawal, meaning that there is little
necessity to track capital gains. < a name = "note" > < / a > < / dd >
< dt > < b > Annotate with News Stories< / b > < / dt >
< dd >
Download, save, annotate investment news and research.
Provide a way of storing news stories with accounts, and
possibly annotating individual transactions in the same
way.
< p > < a name = "loan" > < / a > < / p >
< / dd >
< dt > < b > Loan and Mortgage Calculators< / b > < / dt >
< dd >
Provide a variety of simple GUI utilities to allow user to
calculate the future value of loans, mortgage payments,
interest payments, etc.
< p > < b > Status:< / b > < / p >
< ul >
< li > Not Started.< / li >
< / ul >
< p > < a name = "alerts" > < / a > < / p >
< / dd >
< dt > < b > Alerts, Recurring Transactions< / b > < / dt >
< dd >
Provide pop-up notification of deadlines, events, upcoming
payments.
< p > Add support for automatic, recurring transactions, < em >
e.g.< / em > mortgage payments, fixed-interest bonds, bank
accounts, etc.< / p >
< p > Note that the design for this could be very different,
depending on whether the multi-user functions are available
or not.< / p >
< p > Design/implementation for this is tricky. It should
probably leverage < tt > crontab< / tt > , but this can lead to
difficulties and bugs.< / p >
< p > May need interfaces to email for emailed alerts.< / p >
< p > Interfaces into calendaring systems? < b > Current
status:< / b > < / p >
< ul >
< li > April 1998 -- Design Doc contributed by Bob
Drzyzgula. See < tt > src/budget.txt< / tt > < / li >
< / ul >
< p > < a name = "budget" > < / a > < / p >
< / dd >
< dt > < b > Budgeting< / b > < / dt >
< dd >
Ability to create a budget (i.e. estimates of future
expenditures). Reconcile actual expenditures against future
expenditures. Create simple, step-by-step 'financial plan'
budgeting GUI's:
< ul >
< li > Home purchase planner< / li >
< li > Retirement planner< / li >
< li > College tuition planner< / li >
< li > Debt reduction planner< / li >
< li > Scrimp-n-Save planner< / li >
< li > Special purchase planner (big ticket items)< / li >
< / ul >
Create a summary budget/track-record budget report that a
professional financial planner/advisor could use.
< p > Note that the above 'step-by-step' budgeters will have
a very very different GUI than what the budgeting system
required for a small-business might look like.< / p >
< p > < b > Status:< / b > < / p >
< ul >
< li > A design doc has been submitted by Bob Drzyzgula.
Take a look at < tt > ./src/budget.txt< / tt > in the source
directory.< / li >
< / ul >
< p > < a name = "quick" > < / a > < / p >
< / dd >
< dt > < b > Quicken(TM) Export< / b > < / dt >
< dd >
Ability to export Quicken QIF files. Quicken import is
implemented and mostly works.
< p > < a name = "quote" > < / a > < / p >
< / dd >
< dt > < b > Stock Quotes, Price Quotes< / b > < / dt >
< dd >
Add ability to download stock quotes, other price quotes.
Add ability to download historical prices as well. (e.g.
get 5-year history of mutual fund performance vs. djia).
< p > < b > Status:< / b > < / p >
< ul >
< li > Can obtain stock quotes from Yahoo (NYSE), Fidelity
Investments, T.Rowe Price, and do automated update of
GnuCash data files (with the < tt > gnc-price< / tt > perl
script). Need to add more data sources. See < tt >
src/quotes/Quote.pm< / tt > and < tt >
src/quotes/gnc-price< / tt > for details.< / li >
< li >
Need to integrate with GUI.
< p > Right now, this is a stand-alone perl script run
from < tt > crontab.< / tt > < / p >
< / li >
< / ul >
< p > < a name = "ofx" > < / a > < / p >
< / dd >
< dt > < b > OFX support< / b > < / dt >
< dd >
Provide the SGML DTD parsers to handle the OFX reports that
many banking institutions are providing, or will soon be
providing, to retail customers. See below for OFX
references.
< p > OFX is an open spec from Microsoft, Intuit, and
Checkfree, and which will be supported by Integrion. The
OFX DTD's are included in the 1.1 distributions. See < a
href="http://www.ofx.net">OFX Home Page< / a > for
details.< / p >
< p > There are two ways to build an OFX parser. One way is
to build a compile-time DTD parser that treats the DTD as
if it were an IDL, and generates C language stubs for a
parser.< / p >
< p > This approach was attempted and abandoned because it
leads to fragile C code and a very large binary.< / p >
< ul >
< li > The parser is fragile because minor DTD
non-compliances are hard to parse, handle and recover
from.< / li >
< li > The parser is huge because the DTD results in
hundreds of (C++) objects being generated.< / li >
< / ul >
The other method would be to perform run-time DTD parsing.
This is attractive particularly because it is a more
commonly-used approach; there are a variety of XML tools
available that provide this function.
< p > Run-time parsing may be slower, but on the OFX client
side, this should not be a bottleneck.< / p >
< p > < b > Status:< / b > < / p >
< ul >
< li > A compile-time parser was developed and
abandoned.< / li >
< / ul >
< p > Note that the organizations developing OFX are looking
to use XML as their "formats of the future;" this may
encourage the use of one of the many XML parsers available
for UNIX. < a name = "currency" > < / a > < / p >
< / dd >
2000-05-03 07:08:30 +00:00
< dt > < b > Other on-line support< / b > < / dt >
< dd >
< tt >
>> the German T-Online
>> homebanking system BTX.
>>
>> I Germany we have a very popular online homebanking system,
>> based on the T-Online BTX (Datex-J) system. All of the
>> commercial homebanking software packages like MS-Money or
>> Quicken work with that online system. With that system,
>> you can retrieve account data from your bank, and also
>> send your transfers.
>>
>> I am using since more than 2 years a GPL software written
>> by a former colleague of mine, Niek Busscher, to work with
>> the T-Online homebanking system. That software package with
>> the name ZKA4BTX is very unknown, since Niek published it only
>> by email.
>>
>> Some words to the features of ZKA4BTX :
>>
>> - Completely written in Tcl
>> - Uses Xcept as a BTX browser
>> - Retrieve account data from multiple banks
>> - Send transfers, using TAN
>> - Export retrieved account data to CBB, Xfinans and QIF files
>> - Export retrieved account data to CBB, Xfinans and QIF files
>>
>> With a simple click to an icon on my desktop, ZKA4BTX logs into
>> T-Online, gets all my account datas from several banks, and writes
>> (adds) it to my CBB, Xfinans or GNUcash (QIF) files.
>>
>> Another very important thing is that I can do all my tranfers
>> offline, editing a transfer sheet, and ZKA4BTX sends these
>> transfers in one step to my bank.
>
>One thing we could do in the short-medium term is have gnucash
>launch ZKA4BTX to get the data, export it to QIF, and then load
>it in, all through one command.
< / tt >
2000-03-30 09:50:40 +00:00
< dt > < b > Multiple Currencies< / b > < / dt >
< dd >
Need to support multiple currencies. Work is needed in the
2000-05-03 07:08:30 +00:00
GUI. The engine currently supports multiple
2000-03-30 09:50:40 +00:00
currencies by treating them as securities, and thus
allowing currency trading. The currency-trading register
2000-05-03 07:08:30 +00:00
needs a complete overhaul. (Its obtuse and unintuitive).
< p >
A simplfied way of dealing with one-shot currency exahnges needs
to be implemented. basically, just a simple calculator popup.
2000-03-30 09:50:40 +00:00
< / dd >
2000-05-03 07:08:30 +00:00
< p >
< a name = "double" > < / a > < / p >
2000-03-30 09:50:40 +00:00
< dt > < b > Forced Double-Entry< / b > < / dt >
< dd >
The system supports double-entry: every transaction
indicates a pair of accounts: one is debited, and one is
credited.
< p > Double-entry is a powerful way of ensuring the
integrity of of the financial data. Currently, while
double-entry is supported, its use is not enforced: the
user < em > can< / em > create dangling transactions, where only
one account is indicated.< / p >
< p > Although this is acceptable for home use (even
desirable, since it allows the casual user the simplicity
they desire), it is not acceptable for business use.< / p >
< p > It must be possible to enable forced-double entry, so
that a transaction cannot be completed until two accounts
have been specified.< / p >
< p > < b > Current status:< / b > < / p >
< ul >
< li > April 1998 -- The engine has a couple of flags in it
that control double-entry behavior: it can be made lax,
or strict: however, they are compiled in, there is no way
to change them from the GUI.< / li >
< li > Dec 1998 -- Scrubber functions implemented to crawl
through data, and find all unbalanced or orphaned
transactions.< / li >
< / ul >
< p > < a name = "tab" > < / a > < / p >
< / dd >
< dt > < b > Tab-delimited ASCII file format< / b > < / dt >
< dd >
People < em > like< / em > to be able to read file contents in
ASCII; there are many Unix tools for manipulating ASCII. An
ASCII equivalent of the current file format should be easy
to develop ... just substitute the writes with < tt >
printf()< / tt > s.
< p > The tab-delimited format should be compatible with that
of < tt > /rdb< / tt > , aka < a href =
"ftp://ftp.rand.org/pub/RDB-hobbs/"> RAND/Hobbs /rdb< / a > or
< a href =
"ftp://ftp.linux.it/pub/database/RDB/nosql-0.8.tar.gz">
NoSQL.< / a > (NoSQL is available as part of the < a href =
"http://www.debian.org"> Debian GNU/Linux< / a > distribution,
for instance.)< / p >
< p > The < tt > /rdb< / tt > format is thus:< / p >
< pre >
field-name tab fieldname tab fieldname \n
------------------------------------------ \n
value tab value tab value \n
value tab value tab value \n
etc ...
< / pre >
< p > It is a very simple, very basic flat table format. The
use of < tt > /rdb< / tt > with GnuCash should try to match with
SQL schemas as much as possible in order to minimize I/O
complexity and incompatibility.< / p >
< / dd >
< dt > < a name = "tax" > < b > Tax Preparation< / b > < / a > < / dt >
< dd >
Gotta prepare those taxes.
< ul >
< li >
TurboTax
< p > categorize items according to different tax
schedules< / p >
< / li >
< li > VAT< / li >
< li > estimate income taxes< / li >
< li > estimate itemized deductions, find potential
deductions, categorize them< / li >
< / ul >
< / dd >
< dt > < a name = "palm" > < b > Sync with Palm Pilot
organizers< / b > < / a > < / dt >
< dd > There are Quicken-workalikes that run on the
2000-04-27 06:19:15 +00:00
PalmComputing platform; it would be good to inter-operate with
2000-03-30 09:50:40 +00:00
this. < a name = "emerg" > < / a > < / dd >
< dt > < b > Emergency Records Organizer< / b > < / dt >
< dd >
Put together a single-page report showing critical info
about accounts, etc.
< p > < a name = "engine" > < / a > < / p >
< / dd >
< dt > < b > Enriched Engine, Financial Objects< / b > < / dt >
< dd >
The current system makes a distinction between the data
(account, transaction) and they GUI that displays it. The
data is embedded within and controlled by the "Engine",
which is a set of routines to access accounts,
transactions, etc. The engine serves as a kind of a dynamic
cache between the permanent data repository (file, sql db)
and the GUI.
< p > The current engine is rather simple: it provides
support for accounts, account hierarchies and transactions
consisting of multiple entries.< / p >
< p > Many of the features described elsewhere will require
that the engine have a far richer, more sophisticated data
model, including such things as:< / p >
< ul >
< li > Linking to "Address Info" (< em > e.g.< / em > names,
addresses)< / li >
< li > Transaction identifiers< / li >
< li > Part numbers, SKU IDs< / li >
< li > Interest rates< / li >
< li > Budget policy< / li >
< / ul >
< p > Note: it makes no sense at this point to make the
engine API much richer than what the GUI can currently
support.< / p >
< ul >
< li > < b > Locks< / b > When splits are implemented, and the
parent transaction has been marked as cleared, the record
should be locked, so that further modifications to the
amount can't be performed (or at least, a warning is
generated. This prevents accidental garbaging up of old
transactions.)< / li >
< li >
< b > Books< / b > Ability to close a book at the end of the
fiscal year, thus indicating that nobody is permitted
to "mess around" with that old data.
< p > In a business environment, the auditors may have
"signed off" on the validity of the data; at that
point, the ability to modify audited data should be
< em > very< / em > tightly controlled, or even downright
forbidden.< / p >
< / li >
< / ul >
< p > < b > Current Status:< / b > < / p >
< ul >
< li > The basic engine has been detangled from the GUI
elements, as of version gnucash-1.1.4.< / li >
< li > Binary file I/O mostly detangled into a separate
module.< / li >
< li > Crude transaction logging in place; should be
suitable for error/crash recovery but has not been "tried
by fire."< / li >
< li > Backup files automatically created and
time-stamped.< / li >
< li >
< tt > BeginEdit()/RollbackEdit()/CommitEdit()< / tt >
routines mostly in place,
< p > These "Transaction processing constructs" should
simplify creation of an SQL back end, or some other
more sophisticated database engine.< / p >
< / li >
< li > Multiple currency support is present but still pretty
"raw."< / li >
< li > Query engine is minimal/sparse in capabilities.< / li >
< li > Linas < linas@linas.org> is maintaining the
engine code.< / li >
< / ul >
< p > < a name = "sql" > < / a > < / p >
< / dd >
< dt > < b > SQL I/O< / b > < / dt >
< dd >
A module is necessary to allow data to be fetched from an
SQL database, and for that database to be updated. Some
thoughts: SQL databases do not need to be locked during
editing: instead, an optimistic approach, similar to that
employed by CVS (concurrent version system, a mechanism for
storing versions of source code) could be used: if the
edits conflict with changes made by others, the edit could
be rejected en-masse, allowing the user to merge and
correct their changes. This is a very important note:
updating SQL does NOT require locks to be held for long
periods of time!
< p > There has been < em > much< / em > discussion about this on
mailing lists both for GnuCash and < a href =
"http://www.menet.umn.edu/~curt/cbb/"> CBB.< / a > Major
points have included:< / p >
< ul >
< li >
Those SQL databases available on Linux tend to involve
considerable < em > administrative< / em > overhead in terms
of getting them set up.
< p > This may be a minor cost to a business enterprise
that hires DataBase Administrators.< / p >
< p > It is < em > not< / em > acceptable to require this of
naive users that may find "simple" things like< / p >
< pre >
% su -
Password:
# cd /tmp
# rpm -i gnucash-4.1.3.i386.rpm
# exit
< / pre >
to be challenging.
< / li >
< li > The < em > real< / em > need may be to use an embedded
database engine like unto < a href =
"http://www.sleepycat.com/"> Sleepycat DB,< / a > < a href =
"ftp://koobera.math/uic.edu/www.cdb.html"> cdb,< / a > or
something like < a href =
"http://www.opengroup.org/public/prods/dmm4.htm"> Open
Group - ISAM.< / a > < / li >
< li >
GnuCash presently uses a document-oriented model, where
the < em > entire< / em > set of books are loaded in, and
dumped out, all at one fell swoop.
< p > Changing GnuCash to be suited to use a DBMS in
other than a "load-it-all" / "dump-it-all" manner, but
to rather update the database in a transactional
manner.< / p >
< p > That being said, it may be possible to recast the
GnuCash < tt > engine< / tt > functionality so as to handle
storage in a transactional manner.< / p >
< / li >
< / ul >
< / dd >
< dt > < a name = "multiuser" > < b > Multi-user Support< / b > < / a > < / dt >
< dd >
Multi-user support should be added with either an SQL
backend to the engine, and/or through CORBA interfaces to
the engine. Project Kontor and also FreeMoney is working on
SQL schemas; Kontor is also working on Java RMI/CORBA
interfaces. Another possibility is to create a
web-application-server, and have users do much/most of I/O
with a web interface, possibly using the register object as
a browser plugin.
< p > The following industrial-strength features are
needed:< / p >
< ul >
< li > transaction-oriented queuing of updates< / li >
< li > event subscription channel for updates< / li >
< li > user authentication< / li >
< li > user authorization< / li >
< li > non-repudiability< / li >
< li > encryption of network connections< / li >
< / ul >
< / dd >
< dt > < a name = "arap" > < b > Accounts Payable,
Receivable< / b > < / a > < / dt >
< dd > Add features to track sales receipts and other pending
sources of income, as well as owed sums.< / dd >
< dt > < a name = "payroll" > < b > Payroll< / b > < / a > < / dt >
< dd >
Payroll introduces a < em > sizable< / em > amount of complexity
in terms of the need to comply with constantly-changing
government regulations in whatever country one is in.
< p > While the GnuCash "engine" might remain free,
maintenance of payroll functionality would require
"subscribing" to an update scheme; it might be troublesome
to try to provide such a "subscription" free of charge.< / p >
< / dd >
< dt > < a name = "invoice" > < b > Invoicing< / b > < / a > < / dt >
< dd > Invoicing.< / dd >
< dt > < a name = "estimate" > < b > Job Costing< / b > < / a > < / dt >
< dd > Ability to prepare and track estimates.< / dd >
< dt > < a name = "expense" > < b > Expense Accounts< / b > < / a > < / dt >
< dd > Expense Account Automation, including air, car, hotel,
dining. Receipts, reservations, cancellations.< / dd >
< / dl >
< h1 > References< / h1 >
< ul >
< li > < a href = "http://gnucash.org/" > GnuCash Home Page< / a > < / li >
< li > < a href = "http://www.hex.net/~cbbrowne/finances.html" >
Christopher Browne's List of GNU/Linux Accounting
Software< / a > < / li >
< li > < a href = "http://gnucash.org/gnucash-devel/" > Official
GnuCash mail archives< / a > < / li >
< li > < a href =
"http://www.mail-archive.com/gnucash-devel@gnucash.org/">
GnuCash Mail archives< / a > < / li > -- alternate.
< li > < a href = "http://www.pathcom.com/~sstratos/" > gstalker< / a >
gtk/gnome stock grapher.< / li >
< li > < a href =
"http://prope.insa-lyon.fr/~rhertzog/geniustrader/">Genius
Trader< / a > stock graphing tool. Based on Perl and Tk.< / li >
< li > < a href = "http://www.daveware.com/linuxrapid.html" >
Xrapid< / a > stock technical analysis.< / li >
< li > < a href = "http://www.ios-online.de/Linux-Kontor/" >
Linux-Kontor< / a > - an industrial accounting package that uses
Java and SQL databases.< / li >
2000-05-03 08:36:40 +00:00
< li > < a href = "http://www.pango.org/" > Pango< / a >
internationalized text rendering for gtk.
2000-03-30 09:50:40 +00:00
< li > < a href = "http://www.gnu.org/projects/gnue/gnue.html" > Gnu
Enterprise< / a > a business financial project.
< li > < a href =
"http://members.iweb.net.au/~steveoc/ERP/index.html ">ERP< / a >
Business Accounting project< / li >
< li > < a href = "http://obelisk.dhs.org" > Obelisk< / a > Business
Accounting project< / li >
< li > < a href = "http://www.didx.com/xml-builder.html" > XML
Builder< / a > allows GUI screens to be described using XML
markup. See also mozilla.org's xpfe ...< / li >
< li > < a href = "http://www.ofx.net/" > Open Financial Exchange< / a >
a consortium backed by Intuit, CheckFree and Microsoft do
advance on-line banking.< / li >
< li > < a href = "http://http://www.otp.org/" > Open Trading
Protocol< / a > . An XML-based message protocol for
payment, invoice presentation, and payment receipts.
< li > < a href = "http://www.semper.org/" > Secure Electronic Marketplace
for Europe< / a > . SEMPER is a European R& D project in the area of
secure electronic commerce over open networks.
< li > HBCI 2.0: Homebanking Computer Interface
< li > < a href = "http://ganges.cs.tcd.ie/mepeirce/Project/oninternet.html" >
Payment mechanisms designed for the Internet< / a > provides a
2000-04-27 06:19:15 +00:00
treasure-trove of links for zillions of standards and proposals.
2000-03-30 09:50:40 +00:00
< li > < a href = "http://www.sabotage.net/redhat/ssl.html" > SSLeay
RPM's< / a > < / li >
< li > < a href = "http://www.sabotage.net/security/ecash/lucre/" >
2000-04-27 06:19:15 +00:00
-lucre< / a > a publicly< / li >
2000-03-30 09:50:40 +00:00
< li > < a href = "http://www.openapplications.org/" > Open
Applications Group< / a > is developing specs for accounting
systems.< / li >
< li > < a href = "http://www.compassgl.org/newhometest/990305fr1.html" >
OMG General Ledger (GL) Facility< / a > The Compass submission for
the OMG (CORBA) General Ledger.
< li > < a href = "http://www.xfrml.org/" > XFRML, XML-based Financial
Reporting Markup Language< / a > . Quote from thier site:
< i > XFRML is a framework that will allow the financial community a
standards-based method to prepare, publish in a
variety of formats, exchange and
analyze financial reports and the information
they contain.
< / i >
< li > < a href = "http://www.ibm.com/java/sanfrancisco" > IBM San
Francisco< / a > Business and Financial Java classes.< / li >
< li >
< a href = "http://www.integrion.com/" > Integrion< / a > , a
16-bank + IBM consortium aimed at building up on-line
banking infrastructure.
Mostly aimed at mainframes, middleware, high
transaction volumes and data integrity.< / p >
< / li >
< li > < a href = "http://www.sun.com/980224/javapos/" > Java Point
of Sale< / a > interfaces.< / li >
< li > < a href = "ftp.gnu.org:/pub/gnu/plotutils/" > Gnu
Plotutils< / a > needed for building the graphing portions of
the code.< / li >
< li > < a href = "http://www.im.lcs.mit.edu/~magnus/ml/" > partly
finished GTK grid widget< / a > may be better than Clint,
gtktable.< / li >
< li > < a href = "http://glade.pn.org/" > Glade< / a > an XML-based
GTK+ User Interface Builder< / li >
< li > < a href = "www.php.net" > PHP-3< / a > for html-embedded
perl-like language.< / li >
< li > < a href = "http://www.engelschall.com/sw/eperl" > Embedded
Perl< / a > < / li >
< li > < a href = "http://www.transaction.net/money/" > How Money
Works< / a > < / li >
< li > < a href = "http://www.penguincomputing.com/antarctic.html" >
Antarctic Project Server< / a > < / li >
< li > < a href = "http://www.im.lcs.mit.edu/~magnus/ml/" > Maxwell's
Lemur -- a GTK based table widget< / a > < / li >
< / ul >
< h1 > Historical References< / h1 >
The following URL's are inactive, obsolete or otherwise wasting
away, but are here for historical interest, in part to document
the way things used to be. Of archeological, nostalgic use only.
< ul >
< li > < a href = "http://www3.hmc.edu/~rclark/xacc/" > X-Accountant
Home Page< / a > < / li > - this was the original site for the GPL'ed
accounting package that eventually evolved into GnuCash. Robin
Clark wrote the first version while at school at Harvey Mudd
College.
< / li >
< li > The original < a href =
"http://www.dnaco.net/~bcooper/watermark/index.html">
WaterMark< / a > Gnome/KDE personal finance project page.
Watermark and GnoMoney were proposed about the same time,
and there was talk of joining forces with X-Accountant.
< li > < a href = "http://www.telly.org/freemoney/" > FreeMoney< / a >
Linux small-business accounting s/w.< / li > A proposal to
build a business package back by SQL.
< / ul >
< hr >
Draft version 0.36 -- March 2000
< p > Linas Vepstas < a href = "mailto:linas@linas.org" >
linas@linas.org< / a > < br >
< / p >
< hr >
Revised December 1999
< p > Christopher Browne < a href = "mailto:cbbrowne@ntlug.org" >
cbbrowne@ntlug.org< / a > < br >
< / p >
< / body >
< / html >
