Re: [SL] SL Configuration Questions - multiple businesses

[James P. K. I. <jk...@lo...>]

I would recommend that you completely seperate all three. As business A
and B are not really subsets of either, having them organized in
departments is not accurate.

While it is easy to lump all business assets in as personal ones for a
sole prop, as you mentioned, the plan is to convert one to a corp in the
future. Having the accounting already a standalone function makes the
initial setup much easier.

BTW: When you look at doing the corp transition, check out the process
of doing an LLC. It's the protection of a corporation with the structure
of a sole prop. Most states have it now. The federal IRS (in the US)
treats a single owner LLC as a sole prop for tax purposes so you fil it
just as before. It's easy to convert to a mutiple ownership LLC as it is
treated just like a partnership. Conversion to an S-corp is possible as
well by an assignment of shares relative to the % ownership of each LLC
member.

On Mon, 2004-10-11 at 02:33, Roland Porth wrote:
> I am attempting to set up SL to record my finances.  I have two small bus=
inesses which
> because they are sole proprietorships are really just subsets of my perso=
nal finances=20
> and US tax return.  What is the best way to configure SL to support my ne=
eds? =20
>=20
> (I have purchased the SL support & manual but it has very little informat=
ion in using=20
> SL Departments vs SL Projects)
>=20
> -------------------
> Structure 1:
>         Dataset 1
>           -Dept A - Personal, non business
>           -Dept B - Business 1
>           -Dept C - Business 2
>          where everything is contained in either Departments A, B, or C
> -------------------
> Structure 2:
>         Dataset 2
>           -Dept A - Business 1
>           -Dept B - Business 2
>          where all personal accounts are not defined to be in a Departmen=
t
> -------------------
> Structure 3:
>           Dataset 3 - Personal
>           Dataset 4 - Business 1
>           Dataset 5 - Business 2
>         where all datasets are independent
> Questions:
>=20
> 1) Is anyone using SL Departments?
>=20
> 2) Is this a reasonable way to use SL Departments?
>=20
> 3) Should I be using Projects instead?
>=20
> 4) What are the advantages and disadvantages in the above structures?
>=20
> 5) Which structure should I use?
>=20
> 6) Is there a better structure which I have not considered?
>=20
> 7) Business 1 may be converted to a corporation in about 2-3 years.  Shou=
ld this effect
> what structure I choose now?
>=20
>=20
> --Roland
>=20
> !DSPAM:416a32f385671544364091!
--=20
James P. Kinney III          \Changing the mobile computing world/
CEO & Director of Engineering \          one Linux user         /
Local Net Solutions,LLC        \           at a time.          /
770-493-8244                    \.___________________________./
http://www.localnetsolutions.com

GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics)
<jk...@lo...>
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