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+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<chapter id="makingmostof">
+<chapterinfo>
+  <authorgroup>
+    <author>
+      <firstname>Joe</firstname>
+      <surname>(joe1011010)</surname>
+      <affiliation>
+        <address><email>joe1011010_km@users.sourceforge.net</email></address>
+      </affiliation>
+    </author>
+  </authorgroup>
+  <date>2009-05-05</date>
+  <releaseinfo>1.0</releaseinfo>
+</chapterinfo>
+
+<title>Making the most of &kappname;</title>
+
+<para>
+  Whilst you could go ahead, clicking some buttons and filling in some data,
+  after a time, you could decide you have done it wrong and start again, even if
+  you did read the documentation on each part of &kappname;.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+  You will get a more effective system if you spend a little time planning how
+  you are going to use &kappname;, so follow the steps given here.
+</para>
+
+<sect1 id="makingmostof.basicaccounting">
+<title>Basic Accounting</title>
+
+<para>
+  Imagine your money as balls, or beans, and to stop them rolling around you
+  keep them in a box, or pot. Accounting, or Book Keeping, is the process of
+  counting the beans in the pot, or several pots.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+  You have some money in the pot marked <quote>Cash</quote>. You buy some goods,
+  so you take some beans out of the cash pot and place them into another pot
+  marked <quote>Supplier</quote>. The supplier gives you some goods in exchange
+  for the cash, so you take the beans out of the pot marked
+  <quote>Supplier</quote> and put them in the pot marked <quote>Goods</quote>.
+</para>
+<para>
+  The goods have a value (the price you paid) so you still have the same amount
+  of beans, some representing cash and some representing goods.
+</para>
+<para>
+  In this case you have two movements of beans, or transactions. Each
+  transaction needs two entries, one to take beans out and one to put beans
+  in. This is called <quote>double entry book keeping</quote> or <quote>double
+  entry accounting</quote>. The recording of the transactions is done in a
+  <quote>Ledger</quote>; each pot is known as an <quote>Account</quote> or
+  <quote>Ledger code</quote>.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+  Now you take some goods and give them to a customer, who gives you some cash
+  in exchange. The goods were worth some beans and, hopefully, the customer has
+  given us more beans than that, so making a profit. To over simplify, the beans
+  from the Goods pot come back as Cash, but we can split that as the <quote>Cost
+  of Goods sold</quote> and <quote>Profit</quote>. This transaction has three
+  entries; one side of the <quote>double entry</quote> has been split.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+  This will be covered properly in setting up accounts for Businesses.
+</para>
+
+<sect2 id="makingmostof.basicaccounting.personalaccounts">
+<title>Defining the accounts (personal records)</title>
+
+<para>
+  Most accounts, or pots, above represent a measure of our
+  <quote>Worth</quote>. The cash and goods represent our <quote>Assets</quote>;
+  so does what we are owed if our customers have not yet given us the money. The
+  money we owe, say if we had not paid our suppliers, are our
+  <quote>Liabilities</quote>. These accounts are transferable to Cash and have a
+  value.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+  Any pots that cannot be valued are <quote>Income</quote> or
+  <quote>Expense</quote>, such as an unpaid phone bill that would be an expense
+  as we have already made the calls. Although these do not have a value, it is
+  useful to monitor how much is in each.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+  In some cases a supplier is a <quote>Liability</quote>, in others it is an
+  <quote>Expense</quote>. This is something we need to consider and decide for
+  each case. Similarly, you may set up a loan as a Liability, particularly if
+  you transfer the money into your bank account, but it could be an Expense if
+  it was to buy some furniture.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+  Consider how you want to analyze your income and expenses. This will decide how you set them up.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+  Finally, consider if you want everything in one set of accounts, or two or
+  more. This may depend on the legal framework or just how you want to analyze
+  things. Each set of accounts would be handled separately.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 id="makingmostof.basicaccounting.businessaccounts">
+<title>Defining the accounts (business records)</title>
+
+<para>
+  This is similar to setting up for personal use, but needs to follow legal
+  guidelines. We do not discuss them here, but you should be aware of what these
+  are.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+</sect1>
+
+<sect1 id="makingmostof.mapping">
+<title>Mapping your finances to &kappname;</title>
+
+<para>
+  So, collect up your papers and see the following sections for each item in
+  &kappname;.
+</para>
+
+<sect2 id="makingmostof.mapping.accounts">
+<title>Accounts</title>
+
+<para>
+  These hold a value. Transactions are created against one or more accounts.
+</para>
+
+<sect3 id="makingmostof.mapping.accounts.asset">
+<title>Accounts - Asset</title>
+
+<para>
+  These are the accounts which hold your money and possessions that you wish to
+  monitor. The following types are available:
+</para>
+
+<variablelist>
+  <varlistentry>
+    <term>Checking</term>
+    <listitem>
+      <para>
+        Standard bank checking account.
+      </para>
+    </listitem>
+  </varlistentry>
+
+  <varlistentry>
+    <term>Savings</term>
+    <listitem>
+      <para>
+        Standard bank savings account.
+      </para>
+    </listitem>
+  </varlistentry>
+
+  <varlistentry>
+    <term>Cash</term>
+    <listitem>
+      <para>
+        Money in your hand or wallet.
+      </para>
+    </listitem>
+  </varlistentry>
+
+  <varlistentry>
+    <term>Loan</term>
+    <listitem>
+      <para>
+        Loans you make to someone else.
+      </para>
+    </listitem>
+  </varlistentry>
+
+  <varlistentry>
+    <term>Investment</term>
+    <listitem>
+      <para>
+        Money you invest.
+      </para>
+    </listitem>
+  </varlistentry>
+
+  <varlistentry>
+    <term>Asset</term>
+    <listitem>
+      <para>
+        Property, collections, etc.
+      </para>
+    </listitem>
+  </varlistentry>
+</variablelist>
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3 id="makingmostof.mapping.accounts.liability">
+<title>Accounts - Liability</title>
+
+<para>
+  These are the accounts which represent your debts and money owed that you wish
+  to monitor. The following types are available:
+</para>
+
+<variablelist>
+  <varlistentry>
+    <term>Credit card</term>
+    <listitem>
+      <para>
+        Standard credit card account.
+      </para>
+    </listitem>
+  </varlistentry>
+
+  <varlistentry>
+    <term>Loan</term>
+    <listitem>
+      <para>
+        Loans made to you, mortgages, etc.
+      </para>
+    </listitem>
+  </varlistentry>
+
+  <varlistentry>
+    <term>Liability</term>
+    <listitem>
+      <para>
+        Anything else you owe that is not a loan.
+      </para>
+    </listitem>
+  </varlistentry>
+</variablelist>
+</sect3>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 id="makingmostof.mapping.institutions">
+<title>Institutions</title>
+
+<para>
+  These are completely optional and can be used to group accounts, and show a
+  total value for all accounts in each group.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 id="makingmostof.mapping.categories">
+<title>Categories</title>
+
+<para>
+  These represent non-managed income and expense accounts that do not have a
+  value. The total value of transactions is shown against each category. A
+  category or transfer account is required for each transaction.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 id="makingmostof.mapping.subcategories">
+<title>Sub-Categories</title>
+
+<para>
+  Categories can be split into sub-categories, but the sub-category totals are
+  not included in the higher level category total.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 id="makingmostof.mapping.payees">
+<title>Payees</title>
+
+<para>
+  These are optional for transactions. They are required for Scheduled
+  transactions. A transaction history, with category, is shown against each
+  payee.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 id="makingmostof.mapping.schedules">
+<title>Scheduled transactions</title>
+
+<para>
+  Where regular transactions occur, these can be set up against a
+  Schedule. Transactions are created from a schedule; any that are overdue can
+  be seen on the home page.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+</sect1>
+
+<sect1 id="makingmostof.usefultips">
+<title>Useful Tips</title>
+
+<para>
+  Unless you keep you money under the floorboards, you probably make use of one
+  or more institutions where you have accounts which may be in credit or
+  debit. In order to familiarise yourself with the way &kappname; works, choose
+  an account you want to track of with &kappname; and select File>New in order
+  to set up an account file.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+  If you have used another personal finance manager, you may be able to import
+  the data from it into &kappname;.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+  If you have some regular receipts into or outgoings from this account, go to
+  Payee and enter the names of both the payers and the payees involved; then go
+  to Schedule and fill in a New Schedule for each transaction. If you haven't
+  entered the payee or payer, &kappname; will offer you the opportunity to do
+  this in the middle of entering the schedule.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+  To add other new transactions go to Ledgers; you can add new payees and
+  categories in the middle of a transaction or by going to Payees or Categories
+  before entering the transaction.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+  You will probably find that the default Categories do not exactly match your
+  needs; you can easily delete ones you know you are never going to need and add
+  others that you need. But when you are entering a transaction, you only have
+  to type a few letters of a category and &kappname; will offer you a drop down
+  list of the matching categories from which to choose.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+  You can add different accounts managed by different institutions; the
+  preferred one will show when you open &kappname; but you can quickly switch to
+  any of the others.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+  When you make a payment, &kappname; will work out what the next cheque number
+  should be; delete this if you are not making a cheque payment or edit it if
+  the first cheque you enter is not cheque number 1. Alternatively, it is
+  possible to switch off auto-increment of cheque numbers.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+  Every so often you may get statements of your account from the institutions
+  you use; you can reconcile your &kappname; accounts against these statements
+  so that you have an accurate statement of the current state of your finances.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+  If you go to Reports, you will find several default reports; to customise
+  these, open one similar to the sort you perfer and then select 'New' (not
+  'Copy'); you can then customise this to your needs and mark it as a preferred
+  report if you wish.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+  Though &kappname; is not intended for use in a business context, if you are
+  running a business on your own and so do not need payroll functions, you will
+  probably find that &kappname; is sufficiently customisable to meet your needs
+  particularly as it comes with budgeting and forecasting features and you can
+  export your customised reports via CSV into other applications.
+</para>
+</sect1>
+</chapter>