Do we have any accountants here?

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sliptonic
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Do we have any accountants here?

Post by sliptonic »

Now that the FreeCAD Project Association (FPA) is up and running, we're able to accept donations both corporate and private. We're able to use these assets to further the development of the software, protect our intellectual property, and do other cool things!

However, we need to properly account for everything and none of the FPA founding members has much accounting experience.

We're looking for some help from our community. If you have an accounting background and are willing to get involved, please PM me (sliptonic) or Yorik.

Also, we really won't consider anyone who hasn't been around the project for a while so if you're brand new here, please disregard this.
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Zolko
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Re: Do we have any accountants here?

Post by Zolko »

sliptonic wrote: Thu Jul 28, 2022 7:02 pm protect our intellectual property
Which is ?
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Re: Do we have any accountants here?

Post by Zolko »

Zolko wrote: Thu Jul 28, 2022 11:04 pm
sliptonic wrote: Thu Jul 28, 2022 7:02 pm protect our intellectual property
Which is ?
I might not have been expicit enough

1) what does "protect" mean ? Is it like when à mafioso comes Into a restaurant ...

2) who is "our" ?

3) what "property" are you talking about ?
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Re: Do we have any accountants here?

Post by sliptonic »

Any FreeCAD related trademarks that are registered.

Any copyright that is assigned to the FPA.
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Zolko
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Re: Do we have any accountants here?

Post by Zolko »

Do you realise what that means ?
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Re: Do we have any accountants here?

Post by sliptonic »

Zolko wrote: Thu Jul 28, 2022 11:59 pm Do you realise what that means ?
Yes I do.

What confuses me is what point you're trying to make and why your tone always seems hostile.
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Re: Do we have any accountants here?

Post by jfc4120 »

You can start with something like a free bookkeeping program. I wrote a custom one for a Humane Society and did the books for a few years (volunteer).

What I did:

I got with a CPA, he instructed me on everything that was needed, mainly income / expense. How to handle any payroll, etc.

He did not charge me for a few evenings of instruction since it was a non profit. At year end a CPA handled the final IRS stuff.

So perhaps start there, see if talking to a CPA would get you started. Also see if your town has any retired bookkeepers / accountants that can help.

Usually once you do a couple of months of bookkeeping it gets easier, just boring at times entering the data. All has to be accounted for to be legal.

Of course other volunteers can do some of the data entry. It's important however that it's entered correctly expense / income, and in the correct account, i.e., building maintenance, office supplies, dues, etc.
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Re: Do we have any accountants here?

Post by johnwang »

sliptonic wrote: Thu Jul 28, 2022 11:44 pm Any copyright that is assigned to the FPA.
What copyright fpa have?
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Re: Do we have any accountants here?

Post by drmacro »

jfc4120 wrote: Fri Jul 29, 2022 5:53 am You can start with something like a free bookkeeping program. I wrote a custom one for a Humane Society and did the books for a few years (volunteer).

...
I respect your dedication to have written an accounting application.

But, there is an open source, well respected, and very capable package called GNUCash.

I have used it for personal and business for years.
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Re: Do we have any accountants here?

Post by chennes »

I assume that since the FPA is based in the EU that we are looking for someone with International Accounting Standards background? Are you mostly concerned about bookkeeping or taxes?
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