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Show HN: Transity – Plain Text Accounting

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Re: Show HN: Transity – Plain Text Accounting

#91

Post by eXpl0it3r »

csomar wrote: post #89
eXpl0it3r wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't expect to just get happy feedback, especially from a rather critical thinking community such as HN and when you then write dismissively about stuff, you shouldn't be surprised when it's held against you. > CLI tools also have the advantage that their developers don't have to waste their time building and maintaining a useless GUI, but can instead use the time to improve the tool itself. It's fine if you lik…

The OP is emotional/opinionated, doesn't mean we should follow suit. Regardless of his tone, he built a small CLI tool to do basic bookkeeping that can simplify double-entry bookkeeping with transaction actions/tags. Take it or leave it. But heavily "attacking" him is a useless practice. Maybe if you don't like it just don't upvote it and move on with your life. This toxicity is not doing good for the community here.

I'm not sure what toxicity you're referring to, as I didn't read all HN comments. If you think my comment is also toxic, then I think you may have a bit odd expectations. Just because feedback isn't all happy-buffed doesn't make the feedback toxic. I assume you agree that if I show you something and you don't like it and tell me why, that your act isn't toxic, right?

Plus it's a "Show HN" thread which the whole idea is, that people give feedback.

Posts like "I had this problem and solved it this way" are generally well regarded, the issue with the post here is, that the author didn't just explain what his problem is, but implied that most GUI apps are bad and that his accounting method is way more superior to what everyone else uses.

If you have this high confidence in yourself and your creations, then you should also be able to take some negative feedback on it.

Re: Show HN: Transity – Plain Text Accounting

#92

Post by Draiken »

madhadron wrote: post #47
mikeyjk wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it is fair to say that git users loathe it overall. I enjoy using git, is this not a common experience?

I regard the command line as a last resort if I can't do something in SourceTree. After spending time with a quality source control client, any command line interface feels like wading through quicksand.

I tried using GUI tools with Git when I started but after I took the time to learn the core operations, using the CLI became a lot faster and less scary.

After using other Atlassian products and being very disappointed, I can't even imagine using a GUI built by them.

Re: Show HN: Transity – Plain Text Accounting

#93

Post by maxerickson »

Bromskloss wrote: post #79
eXpl0it3r wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't expect to just get happy feedback, especially from a rather critical thinking community such as HN and when you then write dismissively about stuff, you shouldn't be surprised when it's held against you. > CLI tools also have the advantage that their developers don't have to waste their time building and maintaining a useless GUI, but can instead use the time to improve the tool itself. It's fine if you lik…

What are the benefits of double-entry bookkeeping?

It simplifies reporting and error checking.

Because you are explicitly tracking what you receive, what you have and what you spend, the accounting system can check that the numbers line up.

Re: Show HN: Transity – Plain Text Accounting

#94

Post by JustSomeNobody »

> If this looks (and sounds) confusing or too complicated, you're not alone! It made sense in former times as this layout makes it easier to add up the amounts by hand, but not in times of computers.

Math predates computers, let's just stop using that too!

Double entry is not that complicated and computers or not, it just works.

Re: Show HN: Transity – Plain Text Accounting

#95

Post by ransom1538 »

hjek wrote: post #84
ransom1538 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey madhadron, you sound like you understand bookkeeping. So I have a quick question. After using Mint (from Intuit) I have everything balanced & tagged and 99% automated. I have reports, ways to export, daily/monthly/yearly totals, breakdowns by types, handle liabilities & debts, i can project net, see assets over time, etc etc. Why wouldn't a business just use mint? After watching vidoes on GnuCash like you recomme…

Intuit has a history of squeezing their users: https://web.archive.org/web/20080321021644/http://www.infowo... https://www.cnet.com/news/intuit-products-phone-home-more-of... Also, your company's accounting information can be sensitive, and hence you may not want to share that information with Intuit (and whoever they choose to share/sell it to). > Mint on the otherhand, detects the income by scanning all accounts, a…

"Does this mean that you literally hand over your online account log in details to Intuit? Or how is this "scanning" done?"

Yes. They use your banks credentials and scan the accounts. It is really awesome. Because you can centralize 20+ accounts into one flow in an automated fashion ++ you don't need a bookkeeper. Ironically, it is actually more secure since I can catch things within minutes.

"Also, your company's accounting information can be sensitive, and hence you may not want to share that information with Intuit (and whoever they choose to share/sell it to)."

Worse! Intuit does all my TAX RETURNS. Their tax system is absolutely worth it. I trust them more than "Jeff" at my local small bookkeeper firm. They handle a large percent of american's taxes. [Yes, yes I understand their lobbying is terrible].

Re: Show HN: Transity – Plain Text Accounting

#96

Post by kpil »

maxerickson wrote: post #93
Bromskloss wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the benefits of double-entry bookkeeping?

It simplifies reporting and error checking. Because you are explicitly tracking what you receive, what you have and what you spend, the accounting system can check that the numbers line up.

There are also a whole system of account categories and mandated systems for reporting.

Nice intro here : https://www.accountingcoach.com/debits-and-credits/explanati...

Re: Show HN: Transity – Plain Text Accounting

#97

Post by JustSomeNobody »

csomar wrote: post #64

I'm not sure why the OP is getting s%%t from the community. He built a simple application, probably out of love of software development. It is not complete or perfect. It is also probably not the best use of his business time. But we do waste time on other stuff too. This CLI app could be useful to me for a subset of accounting I do. Yes, it won't be able to track VAT accounts. It won't amortize my expenses. But if I…

> I'm not sure why the OP is getting s%%t from the community.

OP states, in large font, that Transity is "The Future of Plain Text Accounting". If you're going to make a bold statement like that, then people are going to be critical.

Re: Show HN: Transity – Plain Text Accounting

#98

Post by dec0dedab0de »

hjek wrote: post #84
ransom1538 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey madhadron, you sound like you understand bookkeeping. So I have a quick question. After using Mint (from Intuit) I have everything balanced & tagged and 99% automated. I have reports, ways to export, daily/monthly/yearly totals, breakdowns by types, handle liabilities & debts, i can project net, see assets over time, etc etc. Why wouldn't a business just use mint? After watching vidoes on GnuCash like you recomme…

Intuit has a history of squeezing their users: https://web.archive.org/web/20080321021644/http://www.infowo... https://www.cnet.com/news/intuit-products-phone-home-more-of... Also, your company's accounting information can be sensitive, and hence you may not want to share that information with Intuit (and whoever they choose to share/sell it to). > Mint on the otherhand, detects the income by scanning all accounts, a…

Does this mean that you literally hand over your online account log in details to Intuit? Or how is this "scanning" done?

Yes, mint screen scrapes any bank that doesnt have an api. The sheer number of sites it works with is impressive. I have moved away from it, because if the security concerns, but I wish there was a self hosted open source solution that had connectivity into everything you could want.

Re: Show HN: Transity – Plain Text Accounting

#99

Post by dec0dedab0de »

ransom1538 wrote: post #95
hjek wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Intuit has a history of squeezing their users: https://web.archive.org/web/20080321021644/http://www.infowo... https://www.cnet.com/news/intuit-products-phone-home-more-of... Also, your company's accounting information can be sensitive, and hence you may not want to share that information with Intuit (and whoever they choose to share/sell it to). > Mint on the otherhand, detects the income by scanning all accounts, a…

"Does this mean that you literally hand over your online account log in details to Intuit? Or how is this "scanning" done?" Yes. They use your banks credentials and scan the accounts. It is really awesome. Because you can centralize 20+ accounts into one flow in an automated fashion ++ you don't need a bookkeeper. Ironically, it is actually more secure since I can catch things within minutes. "Also, your company's ac…

Worse! Intuit does all my TAX RETURNS.

Tax returns are generally a lot less sensitive than bank/credit card statements. Plus they have your plain text credentials too, so if they get hacked someone could transfer money out of your bank account.

Re: Show HN: Transity – Plain Text Accounting

#100

Post by maxerickson »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #62
stevievee wrote: post #5

"Simple - No more confusing debit / credit / asset / liability mumbo jumbo" It is just "mumbo jumbo" to you because accounting/finance is not your area of expertise.

Somebody should write a proper "accounting for regular people" guide, because I too find those terms confusing - and also completely separated for any experience ever that I had with money. And it only gets worse from there, with "accounts receivable" and "accounts payable". Is that an American thing? I try not to fall into the trap of being proud of my own ignorance; but after many hours of reading introductory acco…

You'd have 5 main accounts there.

  Income:Job
  Asset:Bank1
  Asset:Bank2
  Expenses:whatever
  Liabilities:whatever
And then each transaction moves the money from one account to another. Income->Asset, Asset->Expenses, etc. Value moves into the system from income, Expenses are (more or less) transactions where value moves out of the accounting system. You track your salary but probably not the hours you work and that you spent $50 on food (Asset->Expenses:Food) but not the food.

Equity is mostly just the offsetting account for balances that aren't tracked more specifically. So beginning balances are booked against equity instead of coming from some source of income.

Liabilities are amounts that you owe. When you buy something on credit, you are receiving the thing, so you book a transaction (booking an expense against the liability). Then later you book another transaction to pay for the thing (booking a decrease in assets against the liability).

Accounts receivable and accounts payable come up because businesses care about how (and when) they recognize payments and non payments and so on. For personal accounting just put money you owe as a liability and money you are owed as an asset.

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