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< title > GnuCash Project Goals< / title >
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< 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
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Application for GNU/Linux and other Unix's. This page reviews
some of the technical issues and development status surrounding
this project. It is a kind of an < b > FAQ< / b > for developers and
contributors, providing status, and suggesting directions and
technologies for deploying new features.
If you simply want to get a better idea of what
< a href = "http://gnucash.org" >
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GnuCash< / a > is and what it does, visit its < a href =
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"http://gnucash.org">home page< / a > . The home page contains
screen shots, news items, and mailing list archives.
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< p > There are currently several different versions of
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GnuCash. We've adopted the kernel numbering scheme:
even minor relase numbers (1.2.x, 1.4.x) are considered to mark
stable releases, while odd numbers (1.3.x) mark development
releases.
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< ul >
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< li > The current stable, production release is gnucash-1.2.5
and is based on the Open Group's Motif GUI library.
Note, however, that the Motif version is no longer being
maintained, and all development efforts have switched over
to the Gnome/GTK version.
< br > < br >
< li > The 1.3.x releases focus on the
the < a href = "http://www.gnome.org" > Gnome< / a > /
< a href = "http://www.gtk.org" > GTK< / a > version.
This version adds many new features that are absent in the Motif
version. Development is progressing well, and the 1.3.x series
are as usable as the 1.2.5 version.
< br > < br >
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< li > Note that some more experimental versions, such as one
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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 > , for the Palm Computing
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platforms, as well as a Java-based version have been
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discussed and/or started. Source code for these, such as there
may be, is in the CVS tree.
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< / li >
< / ul >
< p > The latest Gnome version, and latest versions in general,
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are currently available only via CVS. Occasionally, some of the
more stable CVS versions are given a version number, and packaged
as a precompiled deb or rpm install package.
Naive or begining users should probably stick to version
gnucash-1.2.5: although this version is quite old and lacking in
many features, it is known to work. More adventurous users can try
one of the 1.3.x releases: these days, they are pretty stable, and
work pretty well. However, we cannot gaurentee that they are
flawless. We've tried to make sure that no matter how broken
these get, they won't mangle your data, but we can't make promises.
< p >
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< p > This document is divided into several sections.< / p >
< ol >
< li > < a href = "#arch" > Architectural Goals< / a > < / li >
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< li > < a href = "#reqs" > Requirements< / a > < / li >
< li > < a href = "#size" > Sizings< / a > < / li >
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< li > < a href = "#feats" > Features< / a > < / li >
< / ol >
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< hr > <!-- ================================================== - -->
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< a name = "arch" >
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< h1 > Architectural Goals< / h1 >
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There are some over-reaching design principles
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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 > .
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Thus, the Motif or Gnome GUIs are merely two possible
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manipulators of the data; others, based on < i > e.g.< / i >
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web/cgi-bin, Qt/KDE, emacs, Java applets or Java servlets
ought to be possible.
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< / 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
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Controller interacts with. Views are generated by queries
to the data store.< / li >
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< / 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
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from several users.
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Amongst these terms, the concept of a global Model-View is
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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 >
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< li > < b > Transactions< / b > , which consist of a set of journal entries
(JE's) whose values sum to zero.
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< li > < b > Journal Entries< / b > (internally refered to as 'splits')
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which record prices and values.
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< li > < b > Accounts< / b > , which consist of a list of journal entries.
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< li > < b > Chart of Accounts< / b > , which is a heirarchical tree of
accounts.
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< / ul >
The Engine has a very simple apply/commit model, and a simple
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query mechanism for generating reports and views. The goal of the
commit and query model is to aid/simplify the creation of & merger
with an SQL back-end.
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< 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
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interfaces.
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In order to facilitate the gluing together of these parts,
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as well as simplify the questions of customizability, change
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and rapid development, GnuCash makes use of the
< a href = "http://www.swiss.ai.mit.edu/projects/scheme/index.html" >
Scheme< / a > extension language (as implemented in the FSF
< a href = "http://www.gnu.org/software/guile/guile.html" > Guile< / a >
interpreter), to glue the pieces together.
(Note that the engine interface is also available with
< a href = "http://www.perl.org" > Perl< / a > interfaces, thanks
to a
< a href = "http://starship.skyport.net/crew/beazley/swig.html" >
SWIG< / a > wrapper.
< / p >
< hr > <!-- ================================================== - -->
< a name = "reqs" >
< h1 > Requirements< / h1 >
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Implicit in this desire for extensibility is the need to build
financial applications supporting two major classes of users:
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< / a >
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< 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 >
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< li > Needs to be approachable and usable by occasional users
who are not knowledgeable about accounting.< / li >
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< li > Ease of use and simplicity is critical.< / li >
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< li > A reasonable selection of reports, graphs,
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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 >
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< li > Some business users may want access to the system from an
MS Windows 95/98/NT box. For these folks, a web-based
interface could be just handy. Web interfaces are also
nice for ASP type deployment.
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< 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.
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Thus, home users don't need < em > much< / em > of the
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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 >
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Another set of contradictory requirements has to do with the
back-end, and interfacing to other systems:
< ul >
< li > Home users need a simple-to-install, simple-to-maintain system.
This essentially rules out the use of SQL for the storage
medium/back-end for home users. (That is, the current state
of the art for SQL on Linux does not offer any simple,
fool-proof management for data).
< li > By contrast, non-SQL systems for business use are almost
unimaginable. SQL provides a high degree of data integrity
and storage robustness, and also simplifies tremendously the
import and export of data. Powerful SQL tools exist that can
work magic in the hands of a good DB admin.
< / ul >
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< 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 >
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< hr > <!-- ================================================== - -->
< a name = "size" >
< h1 > Sizings< / h1 >
This section attempts to guesss how hard it would be to implement
certain features.
< / a >
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< 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 ==
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person-months. These sizings are meant to show 'effort needed to
complete', rather than 'total effort required'. Thus, half-finished
items have smaller sizings.
< / p >
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< 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 >
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< td > < a href = "#reports" > Reports< / a > < / td >
< td > Small< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#graphs" > Graphs< / a > < / td >
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< 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 = "#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 >
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< tr >
< td > < a href = "#overdraft" > Overdraft Alerts< / a > < / td >
< td > Small< / td >
< / tr >
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< tr >
< td > < a href = "#alerts" > Alerts, Recurring
Transactions< / a > < / td >
< td > Medium< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
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< td > < a href = "#quickim" > Quicken(TM) Import< / a > < / td >
< td > Small< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#quickex" > Quicken(TM) Export< / a > < / td >
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< td > Small< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#quote" > Stock Quotes, Price Quotes< / a > < / td >
< td > Small< / td >
< / tr >
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< tr >
< td > < a href = "#tech" > Technical Stock Analysis< / a > < / td >
< td > Medium< / td >
< / tr >
< tr >
< td > < a href = "#sink" > Depreciation, Sinking Funds< / a > < / td >
< td > Medium< / td >
< / tr >
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< tr >
< td > < a href = "#ofx" > OFX, Online Banking, Trading,
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Bill-pay< / a > < / td >
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< 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 >
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< hr > <!-- ================================================== - -->
< a name = "feats" >
< h1 > Features and Functions< / h1 >
This section reviews the current status of various features.
Some of these are 'in process', some are 'almost done', some are
'completely done'. This section thus provides status on both where
we've been, and where we're going.
< / a >
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< 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.
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< p > < b > Current status:< / b >
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< ul >
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< li > All GUI messages currently use GNU < tt > gettext()< / tt > for
the message catalogs. Translations exist for
English, British, French, Sweedish and German.< / li >
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< li > Help pages available only in English and French.
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< li > Monetary and string handling done through glibc.
The latest glibc (2.2.3) is nedded to get the correct
functions.
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< li > Yannick Le Ny < y-le-ny@ifrance.com> traduction
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en francais< / li >
< li > Most GUI input elements use the gtk text widget, and
thus use the XIM input method in asian locales. This
allows e.g. Kanji, Katakana support. However, the
register does *not* use XIM, and thus doesn't currently
support the asian languages. This needs fixing.
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< / ul >
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< / p >
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< / dd >
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< dt > < a name = "reports" > < b > Reports< / b > < / a > < / dt >
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< dd >
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A variety of reports, including Net Worth, Balance
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Sheets, and Profit and Loss statements. These should be
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printable: that is, exportable as HTML as well as print-ready
postscript.
These should be easy to customize. Ideally, even novice users
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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,
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etc.
Add to this the consideration that XML is the basis for
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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
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"dockable" subsystem of the whole.
That is, it should be possible to run the report generator
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in a stand-alone, read-only fashion without having to start
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up the main application. It should be possible to run reports
nightly from a command-line and/or cron job.< / p >
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< 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 >
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< p > Generated reports should be exportable to other gnome
systems using bonbo. Reports should also be exportable to
the gnumeric spreadsheet (possibly by writing out gnumeric
file format??)
< p > Reports should make use of the 'action' field ...< / p >
Relationship to budgeting not clear ...
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< p > Stock portfolio tools should include a Cost Averaging
report, Market Index report, Stock Option values,
Estimation of capital gains tax liabilities.< / p >
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< p > < b > Status:< / b >
2000-05-09 03:31:02 +00:00
< ul >
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< li > A general reporting infrastrucutre was implemented in
Perl, in the form of html-embedded perl (ePerl).
However, this reporting mechanism was abondoned
in part because ongoing build and install problems related
to eperl and swig. Also, since eperl didn't poarticipate
in the interpreter even loop, the report generator
had to runn as a separate process, reading data via pipes.
This was uglier than some folks liked.
< li > A general reporting infrastructure has been
< a href = "xacc-reports.html#NEWREP" > implemented in
Scheme< / a > . Currently, there are simple reports for
Profit/Loss, Balance Sheet, and portfolio valuation.
< li > Reports are currently displayed with the gtk-xmhtml widget
but are being ported to the gtk-html widget. The gtkhtml
widget should provide printing abilities through
gnome-print (right ????).
< li > There is currently no way (no longer any way??) to
generate reports from the command line ...
< li > A list of 'required reports' is needed. Then these need
to be implemented.
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< li > Heavy discussion by matt martin, Robert Merkel ...
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< / ul >
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< / p >
< / dd >
< dt > < a name = "graphs" > < b > Graphs< / b > < / a > < / dt >
< dd >
< p > Graph portfolio value vs. cost< / p >
< p > Graphs, charts, etc. too ...< / p >
< p > Asset allocation pie chart.< / p >
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< p > The following graph packages are candidates:
< a href = "http://www.gnome.org/guppi/" > GUPPI< / a > ,
plotutils,
gnumeric/graph code.
The gnumeric/graphcode is already bonobo-ified.
< p > If gnumeric and gnucash are to use a common graph solution,
the following are gnumeric requirements:
-- interactive plot editing
-- each segment attributes totally settable/controllable
-- drag/move callbacks when segments are click-draged.
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< p > < b > Status:< / b >
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< ul >
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< li > Evaluate different graphing packages, including
< a href = "http://www.gnome.org/guppi/" > GUPPI< / a >
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< / ul >
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< / p >
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< / 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 >
< / dd >
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< dt > < b > Documentation< / b > < / dt >
< dd >
Need to add a 'meta keyword' tag to the documetnatin pages,
this will help the search engine (e.g.
< a href = "http://www.htdig.org/" > htdig< / a > ) better categorize
the help.
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< a href = "http://www.senga.org/mifluz/html/" > Mifluz< / a > might
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be more embeddable ...
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I am told that htdig-API is in good solid condition for this, but
undocumented.
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< p >
< / p >
< / dd >
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< a name = "glitz" >
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< dt > < b > Themes, Icons, Glitz< / b > < / dt >
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< / a >
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< dd >
A variety of finer touches need work:
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< p >
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< ul >
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< li >
< p >
< b > Hint-of-the-Day< / b > .
A collection of a some 50-100 hints-of-the-day:
short (2-4 sentance) hints/tips on how to use gnucash.
Every time the user starts gnucash, an new hint shows up ...
< / p >
< / li >
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< li >
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< p >
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< b > Themes< / b > .
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Some theme testing required. The effect of themes on the
register window needs to be reviewed.
< / p >
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< / li >
< li >
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< p >
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< b > Button Bar< / b >
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A user-configurable button-bar would be nice
too. The button bar is the set of 'buttons' (open, edit...)
at the top of a register window and the main window.
< / p >
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< / li >
< li >
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< p >
< b > Categories/Default Chart of Accounts< / b >
Provide a default Chart of Accounts, which will mostly
consist of a default set of 'Categories'
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(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 >
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< p >
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< b > Household Assets< / b >
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Add an example showing how regular household assets
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(house, car, jewelry, etc.) should be treated. In
particular, show how appreciation and depreciation
should be treated.< / p >
< / li >
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< li >
< p >
< b > More account types< / b >
Introduce more 'fundamental' account types: (ammortized) Loan,
Mortgage, ESOP, House, Line of Credit.
< / p >
< / li >
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< li >
< p >
< b > Cut-n-paste< / b >
Cut-n-paste of items in the regsiter window...
< / p >
< / li >
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< li >
< p >
< b > Bank name in combo-box pull-down< / b >
When user enters a new bank name, should be presented with
a combo-box listing other bank-account names ...
(note this may require implementation of engine callbacks
so that relevent code can be informed when there are new
bank names?)
< / p >
< / li >
< li >
< p >
< b > Currency Selection Popup< / b >
Currency field should get preplaced by menu of long-hand
currency names, three-letter ISO abbreviations, and symbols.
User should be able to add new currency types.
Should also keep a static exchange-rate table.
< / p >
< / li >
< li >
< p >
< b > Popup Calculator< / b >
All price/amount fields should pop up a calculator widget;
output of calculator gets entered in field.
< / p >
< / li >
< li >
< p >
< b > Popup Calender< / b >
All date fields should pop up a calender widget;
selected date should get entered in field.
< / p >
< / li >
< li >
< p >
< b > Register View< / b >
Allow user to view only non-reconciled transactions ...
< / p >
< / li >
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< li >
< p >
< b > Autocompletion< / b >
Quickfill should also auto-complete amount, memo fields.
< / p >
< / li >
< li >
< p >
< b > Autoincrement< / b >
Check numbers should auto-increment.
< / p >
< / li >
< li >
< p >
< b > Configurable main-window Status Bar< / b >
Bottom of main window currently shows total assest, and
total income-expense (profits). Make this configurable,
so that user can show arbitrary sums of arbitrary accounts.
< / p >
< / li >
< li >
< p >
< b > Dockable Registers/ aka "Browser Mode"< / b > .
Currently, when each new register opens, it opens in a new
window. An alternate style would be to 'dock' the register
window in a bigger frame, and just have 'backward/forward'
buttons to navigate through different registers (the way
that a browser navigates web pages.) This of course would
be a user preference.
< / p >
< / li >
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< li >
< p >
< b > Wizards/Context sensitive help< / b > .
When users create new accounts, need to suggest stuff if
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the user typed something unexpected ... (e.g. non-alphanumeric
input) ...
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< / p >
< / li >
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< li >
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< p >
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< b > Navigation< / b >
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Menu navigation using the keyboard should be
possible.
Although menu mnemonics exist, they seem to be
broken. ???< / p >
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< 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
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possible to tab over to the "Commit" button.
It should be.< / p >
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< / li >
< li >
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< p >
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< b > Folder Tabs< / b >
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Currently, Income/Expense accounts can be shown or
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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 >
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< p >
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< b > Fly-Over Help< / b >
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When the user pauses the mouse over a button,
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"fly-over" pop-up help windows should appear.< / p >
< / li >
< li >
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< p >
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< b > Grayed-out Form Help< / b >
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Create grayed out entries in the ledger, titled
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"Memo", "Description", etc, helping users understand
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what should be typed into each field. < b > Status:< / b > Done,
as of version 1.3.2(?)< / p >
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< / li >
< li >
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< p >
< b > < a href = "http://www.emacs.org" > emacs,< / a > vi,
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motif, KDE, gnome Key Bindings for Text Fields< / b >
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Make sure that text fields can handle the vi and
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emacs key bindings, so that < em > e.g.< / em > emacs-style
ctrl-a, ctrl-k does the right thing.< / p >
< / li >
< / ul >
< / dd >
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< a name = "book" >
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< dt > < b > Books, Accounting Periods< / b > < / dt >
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< / a >
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< dd >
Ability to close the book at end of the fiscal year.
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This consists of several steps:
< p >
< ul >
< li > Permanently lock some transactions as
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non-editable. This should be straight-forward by using the
< tt > reconciled< / tt > field to indicate a < tt > locked< / tt >
2000-05-09 06:13:04 +00:00
value, and not allowing the GUI to edit locked records.
< li > Transfer the Income minus Expense for the book period
to an equity account, so that each new period starts with
zero income/expense balances.
< li > A mechanism to purge really old transactions from the
database.
< li > Extensions to reporting infrastructure ...
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< li > A user should be allowed to 'delete' an account *only*
if it has no transactions in the currently open book.
Of course, its not deleted from the old books.
From this last, we conclude that every chart of accounts
should have a begining and ending date (that match the
book period), and the file format needs to support
multiple charts ...
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< / ul >
< / p >
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< p > < b > Status:< / b >
< ul >
< li > A mini-design doc exists in src/engine/future.txt
< / ul >
< / p >
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< / dd >
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< a name = "check" >
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< dt > < b > Check Printing< / b > < / dt >
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< / a >
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< dd > Create a check-printing ability.
< p > < b > Status:< / b >
< ul >
< li > Bill Gribble has built a prototype based on the
gnome-print. Waiting for gnome-print to mature ...
< / ul >
< / p >
< / dd >
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< dt > < a name = "userpref" > < b > User Preferences< / b > < / a > < / dt >
< dd >
Create menu system and file format for manipulating user
preferences.
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Preferences include things like default currency,
register layout and colors, etc.
< p >
What are some of the comptitive preference-handling
technologies? Lets get some URL's here ...
Following the unix tradition, there is no global
prefernces registery.
Note that session management and preferences are related things
... sort-of. Right now, we don't treat themn as such ...
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< / p >
< p >
Session management is not implemented; viz, we don't
remember where things were left at when the user shut down
the windowing system, and we don't restore the session
afterwords. This includes: which register windows
were left open, what sizes they were, what thier
placements on the screen were, etc. I beleive session
management needs to be coordinated with KDE and with
gnome, and all compliant window maangers will do the rest (?)
< / p >
< p >
Independently of session management, the register windows should
remember how big they were last time they were poped up, and
they should pop up the same size, again. The app should
remember these sizes from invocation to invocation.
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< / p >
< p > < b > Status:< / b >
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< ul >
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< li > Works good; lots of preferences in the gui.
Implemented in home-grown scheme.
< li > These are saved in the '.gnucash/config.auto' file.
The current file format is raw scheme code, rather
delicate to tweak by hand ...
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< / ul >
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< / p >
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< / 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 >
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< p > < b > Status:< / b >
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< 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 >
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< / p >
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< / dd >
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< a name = "401K" >
< dt > < b > 401(k), RSP< / b > < / dt >
< / a >
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< dd >
401K, 403, IRA, Roth IRA, SEP, Keogh ... "Retirement Savigs
Plans"
< p >
Retirement Savings Plans often do not put a high priority
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on tracking costs, as the tax implication is that amounts are
taxable upon withdrawal, meaning that there is little
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necessity to track capital gains. (huh??)
< / p >
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< / dd >
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< dt > < a name = "note" > < b > Annotate with News Stories< / b > < / a > < / dt >
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< 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.
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< p >
< / p >
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< / dd >
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< dt > < a name = "loan" > < b > Loan and Mortgage Calculators< / b > < / a > < / dt >
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< dd >
Provide a variety of simple GUI utilities to allow user to
calculate the future value of loans, mortgage payments,
interest payments, etc.
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< p > < b > Status:< / b >
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< ul >
< li > Not Started.< / li >
< / ul >
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< / p >
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< / dd >
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< dt > < a name = "overdraft" > < b > Overdraft Alerts< / b > < / a > < / dt >
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< dd >
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Overdraft alerts are popups that pop up whenever the user
enters a transaction that would move an account below some
minimum balance, or above some max balance (for a bank account)
or an expense/spending limit is reached (on an expense account).
A similar but different alert can be implenmented for price highs
& lows. Note that these alerts do *not* require any sort of
calendering or recurring transaction support.
< p >
Design requirements: implement multiple (not just two) alerts
for any account type. Alert should consist of (1) value point
or price point, (2) movement direction (3) 'is active' boolean
flag (i.e. Should be possible to 'turn off alert' without
deleting it) (4) memo text.
< / p >
< p > < b > Status:< / b >
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< ul >
< li > Not Started.< / li >
< / ul >
< / p >
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< / dd >
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< dt > < a name = "alerts" >
< b > Recurring Transactions, Calander Alerts< / b > < / a > < / dt >
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< dd >
Add support for automatic, recurring transactions, < em >
e.g.< / em > mortgage payments, fixed-interest bonds, regular
salary checks, regular gas/phone/electric bills, < em > etc.< / em >
< p >
Loans & mortgages are one of the more complicated recurring
transactions. Consider the following dialogue layout:
< pre >
loan amount $_____________ currency _________ (pull-down menu)
Remaining balance $___________
Payment amount $___________
balloon payment $_____________
other payment $________ (e.g. escrow, tax)
Payment frequency (weekly/monthly/bimonthly/quarterly/yearly)
loan start date mm/dd/yy length -----(weeks/months/years/peyments)
loan time left (number of days/weeks/months, rounded)
number of payments left
interest rate %__________________
payee ____________
pay-from account __________________
next due date mm/dd/yy
< / pre >
Note that in the above, not all fields are independent:
some can be calculated from others.
The < tt > other payment< / tt > should bring up a mini-register,
allowing user to add any number of splits.
< / p >
< p >
Recurring bills, salary income, etc. are simpler to handle,
since they don't have intersest rates, balloons, etc. They
do/will have multiple splits (e.g. payroll gross, fica, futa,
income taxes, payroll net).
< / p >
< p >
Provide a calender-display of upcoming & past scheduled
payments. Clicking on a calander day should raise up
editable list of transactions. Calendering should include
generic red-lettering of important dates: taxes due,
insurance renewal dates, domain registration renewal dates,
ISP contract expiration date :-). These may or may not
be associated with transactions. Memoes should be possible.
Popups should happen when dates get close. Technology:
need to find/evaluate gnome-calender/dayplanner for
integration.
< / p >
< p >
Provide list of upcoming & recently paid bills/scheduled
payments/scheduled deposits for the next 1,2,3,6,12 months.
Historical view shows payments crossed out (!?)
< / p >
< p > < b > Design Notes:< / b >
Most alerts & data storage should be driven out of the engine.
This will enable multi-user, distributed use.
< b > Note:< / b > alerts should be piggy-backed on a general alert
infrastructure within the engine, viz, registered callbacks
when balances change, so that windows can be redrawn.
Not clear on if/how calander events might be server-ified.
(On the other hand, a good calander should be server-ified,
and thus viewable by secretaries, co-orkers, etc.)
< / p >
< p > More complex financial instrucments may need a guile-based
extension mechanism to compute values .... simple
interest/mortgage calculators should be done in C in
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the engine ... (e.g. depreciation schedules ... under us tax
law, a variety of different schedules are allowed ... )
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< p > May need interfaces to email for emailed alerts.< / p >
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< p > Plot forcast graphs based on scheduled income & payments ...
2000-05-13 03:36:06 +00:00
is this tied into budgeting ????
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< p > < b > Status:< / b >
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< ul >
2000-05-13 03:36:06 +00:00
< li > Need to create design doc, need to implement engine
pieces, need to hunt down gnome-calandering bonobo.
2000-03-30 09:50:40 +00:00
< / ul >
2000-05-09 06:13:04 +00:00
< / p >
2000-03-30 09:50:40 +00:00
< / dd >
2000-05-09 06:13:04 +00:00
< dt > < a name = "budget" > < b > Budgeting< / b > < / a > < / dt >
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< 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 >
2000-05-09 06:13:04 +00:00
< p > < b > Status:< / b >
2000-03-30 09:50:40 +00:00
< 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 >
2000-05-09 07:34:54 +00:00
< li > Bryan Larsen has begun work .. its scheme based ...
Dave Peticolas has some gui roughed out ...
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< / ul >
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< / p >
2000-03-30 09:50:40 +00:00
< / dd >
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< dt > < a name = "quickim" > < b > Quicken(TM) Import< / b > < / a > < / dt >
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< dd >
2000-05-09 06:13:04 +00:00
Ability to import Quicken QIF files. Both MSMoney and Quicken
use QIF files to export data.
< p > < b > Status:< / b >
< ul >
< li > Quicken import is implemented and mostly works.
Work needs to be done for recurring transactions, etc.
< li > QIF processing, as used for on-line banking, is *not*
implemented. That is, staged import isn't done.
Note that since banks use QIF, the *correct* way to
reconcile bank accounts on-line is through QIF.
On one side, we have existing recorded transactions;
on the other, the latest bank statement, in QIF format.
Now, just put them together ...
< / ul >
< / p >
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< / dd >
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< dt > < a name = "quickex" > < b > Quicken(TM) Export< / b > < / a > < / dt >
< dd >
Ability to export Quicken QIF files.
< p >
2000-05-13 07:01:36 +00:00
Several design alternatives are available: 1) a special
'report' that writes out qif could be created. This would use
the 'reports' infrastructure to generate qif's. 2) Its fairly
easy to traverse the data in the engine to write out qif files.
Just do it.
< / p >
< p >
2000-05-09 06:13:04 +00:00
< b > Status:< / b > not started
< / p >
< / dd >
< dt > < a name = "quote" > < b > Stock Quotes, Price Quotes< / b > < / a > < / dt >
2000-03-30 09:50:40 +00:00
< 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).
2000-05-09 06:13:04 +00:00
< p >
Right now, stock prices are stored with everything else,
in the main database, in the transaction table. This leads
to several aesthetic quandries. It bulks up the database
with 'less-than critical' information. Basically, transactions
are either 'critical' vix record the movement of money, or
are non-critical viz record things retreivable from the
historical record, e.g. prices. Shouldn't storage for
prices be moved to somewhere else? Hmmm ... what about
storage for valatility, shares traded, etc? Does indeed sound
like an alternate storage method would be useful. What about GUI
implications?
< p > < b > Status:< / b >
2000-03-30 09:50:40 +00:00
< 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 >
2000-05-09 06:13:04 +00:00
< li > Quote.pm is now a separate development project at
source-forge.
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< li >
Need to integrate with GUI.
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Right now, this is a stand-alone perl script run
from < tt > crontab.< / tt > This will be done by writing
scheme wrappers for the module (???)
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< / li >
< / ul >
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< / p >
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< / dd >
2000-05-13 07:01:36 +00:00
< dt > < a name = "tech" > < b > Technical Stock Analysis< / b > < / a > < / dt >
< dd >
Provide technical sotck analysis graphs, e.g. volume, 90 moving
avg, beta, etc. See gstalker for example of how to do it ...
< p >
< / p >
< / dd >
< dt > < a name = "sink" > < b > Depreciation, Sinking Funds< / b > < / a > < / dt >
< dd >
Hmm ... some variation on the concept of loans? Need to support
different deprciation schedules (see IRS books for that).
< / dd >
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< dt > < a name = "ofx" > < b > OFX support< / b > < / a > < / dt >
2000-03-30 09:50:40 +00:00
< 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.
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OFX is an open spec from Microsoft, Intuit, and
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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
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details.
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< 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
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parser.
This approach was attempted and abandoned because it
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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 >
2000-05-09 06:13:04 +00:00
< p > < b > Status:< / b >
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< ul >
< li > A compile-time parser was developed and
abandoned.< / li >
< / ul >
2000-05-09 06:13:04 +00:00
< / p >
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< 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
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for UNIX.
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< / dd >
2000-05-03 07:08:30 +00:00
< dt > < b > Other on-line support< / b > < / dt >
< dd >
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< pre >
2000-05-03 07:08:30 +00:00
>> 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.
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< / pre >
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< dt > < a name = "currency" > < b > Multiple Currencies< / b > < / a > < / dt >
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< dd >
Need to support multiple currencies. Work is needed in the
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GUI. The engine currently supports multiple
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currencies by treating them as securities, and thus
allowing currency trading. The currency-trading register
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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.
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< / dd >
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< p >
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< dt > < a name = "double" > < b > Forced Double-Entry< / b > < / a > < / dt >
2000-03-30 09:50:40 +00:00
< 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 >
2000-05-16 05:02:07 +00:00
< p > < b > Restricted Double< / b >
Note that sometimes, the words 'single-entry' have a
an alternate meaning: they can mean 'a double entry account
which can only be credited, or debited, but not both'. We
need to implement this.
< p > < b > Current status:< / b >
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< 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 >
2000-05-16 05:02:07 +00:00
< li > May 2000 -- Default will be changed to double-entry
always. It will not be possible to disable single-entry.
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< / ul >
2000-05-16 05:02:07 +00:00
< / p >
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< / dd >
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< dt > < a name = "tab" > < b > Tab-delimited ASCII file format< / b > < / a > < / dt >
2000-03-30 09:50:40 +00:00
< 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
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PalmComputing platform; it would be good to inter-operate with
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this.< / dd >
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< dt > < a name = "emerg" > < b > Emergency Records Organizer< / b > < / a > < / dt >
2000-03-30 09:50:40 +00:00
< dd >
Put together a single-page report showing critical info
about accounts, etc.
< / dd >
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< dt > < a name = "engine" > < b > Enriched Engine, Financial Objects< / b > < / a > < / dt >
2000-03-30 09:50:40 +00:00
< 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 >
2000-05-13 03:36:06 +00:00
< li > Crude transaction logging/auditing in place; should be
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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 >
< / dd >
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< dt > < a name = "sql" > < b > SQL I/O< / b > < / a > < / dt >
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< dd >
A module is necessary to allow data to be fetched from an
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SQL database, and for that database to be updated.
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< 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.
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This may be a minor cost to a business enterprise
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that hires DataBase Administrators.< / p >
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It is < em > not< / em > acceptable to require this of
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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 >
2000-05-06 05:23:52 +00:00
< li > It might be useful to use an embedded
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database engine like unto < a href =
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"http://www.sleepycat.com/"> Sleepycat DB< / a > , < a href =
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"ftp://koobera.math/uic.edu/www.cdb.html"> cdb,< / a > or
something like < a href =
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"http://www.opengroup.org/public/prods/dmm4.htm">
ISAM< / a > (Note CQL++ supports ISAM access methds),
or even an embedded SQL engine such as
< a href = "http://www.ispras.ru/~knizhnik/gigabase.html" > GigaBASE< / a > .
The point of doing so would be to to provide a uniform,
more-easily-extensible, more portable interface to the data.
< / li >
2000-03-30 09:50:40 +00:00
< 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.
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GnuCash needs to be modified to access the database in a
transactional manner. This at least partly implemented
with the Begin()/End() constructs in the engine.
< p >
Some transactional thoughts: entire SQL tables/databases
do not need to be locked while the user is editing a transaction
via the GUI.
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!
< li >
The SQL engine chosen should be fully transactional, passing the 'ACID'
test (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability).
Note that < a href = "http://openacs.org/why-not-mysql.html" > MySQL
doesn't pass the 'ACID' test< / a > .
< p >
2000-03-30 09:50:40 +00:00
< / 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 >
2000-05-13 07:01:36 +00:00
< dd > Invoicing. To design an invoice, need to have a
mini-word-processor/simple drawing plug-in.
Is Abisource/Abiword a candidate? Probably needs bonobo...
< p >
< / p >
< / dd >
2000-03-30 09:50:40 +00:00
< 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 >
2000-05-13 07:01:36 +00:00
< li > < a href = "http://sourceforge.net/project/?group_id=3522" >
Accountant< / a > project at sourcforge aims to create a generic
business library.
2000-03-30 09:50:40 +00:00
< 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/" >
2000-05-06 05:23:52 +00:00
-lucre< / a > a publicaly available version of e-cash.< / 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 >
2000-05-06 05:23:52 +00:00
< li > < a href = "http://www.ispras.ru/~knizhnik/gigabase.html" > GigaBASE< / a >
embeddabale SQL database.
2000-03-30 09:50:40 +00:00
< / 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 >
2000-05-09 07:34:54 +00:00
Draft version 0.37 -- May 2000
2000-03-30 09:50:40 +00:00
< p > Linas Vepstas < a href = "mailto:linas@linas.org" >
linas@linas.org< / a > < br >
< / p >
2000-05-09 07:34:54 +00:00
< p > updates by Christopher Browne < a href = "mailto:cbbrowne@ntlug.org" >
2000-03-30 09:50:40 +00:00
cbbrowne@ntlug.org< / a > < br >
< / p >
< / body >
< / html >
