[Phpbalancesheet-devel] Accounting Issues

[kenny j. <jeo...@ya...>]

Hi, Jame,

I agree with Duncan for the following points: 
 
1) "An online accounts system that I can reference, my
accountant can
reference or download from, that customers can get
invoices from and
login and check their details, and bills."
 
It is why we need an web based accounting system.
 

2) "Equity into the business e.g. cash shows on the
balance sheet but 
is not
income or expense - it will reflect in the bank
accounts and will 
depend
on whether its a loan or cash injection." 

For cash investment: shown as CASH and EQUITY on the
balance sheet;
For property investment, for contributed a used
computer: shown as 
FIXED ASSET and EQUITY.
For loan from shareholders/partners: shown as CASH and
LIABILITY
 
3)"For fixed assets (in NZ anything over about $200
that is not an 
expense)
we then need amortization rates and a description
mechanism of the 
item.
We also get into working out the depreciation relative
to any given
period. This is often a separate module though."

Depreciation and amortization schedules can be handled
by Excel 
efficiently. 
A general purpose input form for depreciation and
amortization is good 
enough.
A general purpose input form can be used for fund
transfers between two 
bank   accounts,bad debt, credit memo, debit memo,and
more.  

It is better not to worry about the depreciation and
amortizartion 
schedules at this point because the users only need to
input two figures: 
Depreciation Expense and Accumulated Depreciation, or
Amortization 
Expense and Accumulated Amortization(or directly
CREDIT the amortizable 
asset account).
 
4) "Invoicing and receipts are interesting because
then do we add a 
debtors
ledger and the ability to generate statements - the
good thing with
invoices etc is that if we were clever customers could
look at their
individual details online" 

It is not very hard to generate the reports with PHP
and MySql.
  
*****************************
Followings are for James' questions;

5) Accounting methods: it is not a big issue for the
accounting program 
if the accounting program allows the users to make a
choice. It means 
that the program must be able to handle Accounts
Receivable and Accounts 
Payable.

6) Buy and sell of business properties, such as
equipment and 
furniture: is it taxable or nontable?
 
Actually, it is the depreciation and amortization
case. See #3 above.

7)Inventory: when a user records the purchase, he also
needs to record the number of units purchased; when
the products are sold, the user records the number of
units sold. Anything onhand is the 
$ending_inventory=$unit_on_hand*$unit_cost. If the
number of units is too low, reorder.

8)Users may have to pay taxes. Some are tax
deductible, but some are not. "I'm not quite aure what
you mean here, could you elaborate?"

If a business is making a profit, it may need to pay
income taxes. Income taxes may or may not tax
deductible, but a business needs to record the amount
of income taxes that it has to pay, how much it has
paid and when. 
This is the tax payable situation.

9)The methods of payments: paid by check,cash,credit
card; payment term, such as, 
COD,Due on Receipt, 1% 10 Net 30, 2% 10 Net 30, Net
15, Net 30, Net 60.

A business needs to know how the purchases are
paid,where the money is going; 
A business also needs to know if a customer has paid
on-time, has not paid a bill, how late. What the
collection actions should be taken.

A business should need to know how much it owes
others, how late.

With the above information, it is easier to generate
the Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable reports.

10)Date: Would you please review this one that I am
using?

<select name="date">
<?
$i=0;
while ($i<1825){

$date = date("Y-m-d",date("U")-$i*24*60*60 );
?>
<BR>
?>
<option value='<? echo $date; ?>'><? echo $date;
?></option>

<?
$i=$i+1;
}

?>

</select>

*************************
11)I am an accountant, but I am not a programmer. I
started to learn PHP and MySql in May after I
installed your Php Balance Sheet. I am still learning
the basic things of PHP and MySql. 

I copied something from PHP Balance Sheet and wrote
something. It is for my learning purposes and it has
not be completed yet, but I know that I have to make
lots of improvement. I will rewrite the whole thing
when I learn more about PHP and MySql.

You may look at my homework at
http://www.cpaea.com/accounting



Thanks,

Kenny Jeong 


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