GnucashWorkshop

GNUCash: finance for households, hackerspaces, foundations and small business owners

April 24thMay 21st, 2011, 14:00 hours, Revelation Space, Binckhorstlaan 172, Den Haag.

• WORKSHOP DATE MOVED FROM APRIL TO MAY*

We hackers are an entrepreneurial bunch, spinning of initiatives like a couch-potato is wasting idle cycles. Not only do we tend to start our own business, before we know it we have a foundation or two on our hand, start a hackerspace or dive into event-organisation. With all of these activities comes the need to keep finances in check. There are various ways to keep track of your economic position, from stuffing receipts in a cigar box to out-sourcing everything to a professional book-keeper. Whereas the former makes it hard to do proper yearly reporting to your stakeholders (be it your significant other, your members or the tax office), the latter tends to introduce a layer of abstraction between you and your finances that prevents a day-to-day overview of cash flow and fiscal position.

This workshop will introduce the free/libre open source software package GNUCash that helps you record your finances. A non-exhaustive overview of subjects covered:

• Setting up a basic accounting scheme for personal and organisational purposes;
• Basic book-keeping: double booking, income, expenses, assets and liabilities;
• Annual financial reporting;
• Invoices and bills in GNUCash;
• Taxes, BTW;
• Reservations for expected expenses;
• ????;
• profit !!!

After a first plenary part we will get down and dirty and have participants start using GNUCash. Whether it be for your personal finances, your foundation or hackerspace, business or event, we'll get you started in no time. Before you know it, you come to the realization I had in 2009; "I am an accountant". Don't be afraid of it, there's an accountant in each of us. Once you acknowledge this, you too can take joy from making it all add up!

If you think book-keeping is complicated, think again! This workshop will show you it is actually quite easy, as soon as you grasp one or two basic concepts. Hey, if even a dumb-ass like me can teach himself how to maintain a proper administration, even you geniuses can! The workshop will mainly focus on the Dutch situation, as opposed to the majority of tutorials available on the net which are mostly about the backward and retarted financial system in the US of A.

You do not need any prior knowledge to participate in this workshop. Please do bring your laptop, preferably with GNUCash already installed. If possible, it might help to bring your bank statements or internet-banking appliance and perhaps some invoices or bills to have some actual data to get started with.

About Revelation Space

Revelation space: the hackerspace in Den Haag, NL (also servicing Zoetermeer, Delft, Voorburg, Rijswijk, Rotterdam, Pijnacker and the rest of the world). Revelation Space is part of a global movement of hackerspaces, physical spaces where bright, creative and critical people meet to hang-out, work on projects and plot world dominiation. Hacking is not necessarily restricted to technical subjects, as witnessed by this workshop.

About gmc

Gmc is a serial taker of initiatives, full of good and bad ideas and always short on time. As treasurer for the hacker-event HAR2009 he taught himself how to do proper book-keeping. He founded Revelation Space in 2009. Although he is not in charge of the finances at the hackerspace, he has been treasurer and financial controller for several community- and non-profit groups. His background is in Artificial Intelligence. Work and hobbies include pinball, embedded systems and hanging at the beach.

Registration

Just to get a sense of what to expect, please indicate your intention to swing by below, or send me an email on gmc@revspace.nl or a tweet to @gmchar.

• gmc
• Dekkers
• Cinder
• WinSCaP
• ...