Reimbursement system vs A/P module

[Glen Whitney]

Re the point of view that the Reimbursement System should be conceived
as essentially the A/P module of npoacct:

I don't see either of the paragraphs below as undermining that point of
view; rather they reinforce it.  Indeed, I think one of the great
potential benefits of npoacct is to provide a low-cost, easy-to-begin-
with system for small NFPs, who may well not have significant
accounting expertise in-house.  Hence the ability for an A/P component
to present itself without accounting jargon (but perhaps with technical
terminology accessible for experts) is a terrific plus.

As for the second paragraph, if I understand the roadmap, it is to
develop npoacct as a collection of interoperating modules, so that it
can be approached piecemeal.  So the idea that A/P qua Reimbursements
can operate independently from the eventual General Ledger module seems
to me completely consistent with such an architecture, and reinforce
the idea that a Reimbursement module now be conceived as suitable to be
the eventual A/P module.  Moreover it seems to imply conversely that
A/P components of existing systems, such as the one Steven described,
should be candidates for  (the foundation of) this Reimbursement
module, if they can be extracted as an independent
module/service/library -- as has been stated before as a likely path
for the npoacct project, to take an existing system or systems and
reconstrue them as a library or toolkit.

I hope this perspective is useful, Glen
---
Glen Whitney
Treasurer, National Museum of Mathematics

On Wed, 2016-08-31 at 19:03 +0000, brett at sfconservancy.org wrote:
> Having a form that comes directly from the accounting system is great
> for integration, but could pose challenges for smoothing over the
> process for filers. An interface that uses terminology from
> accounting
> like “purchase order,” “cost center,” and so on may be opaque to
> filers,
> who often aren’t native English speakers. If they end up e-mailing
> for
> help as a result, that could thwart the goal above.
> 
> Meanwhile, one benefit to having a Reimbursement system that’s
> separate
> from the accounting system is that it’s possible for many different
> organizations to start using and benefiting from it, even while
> they’re
> all using different accounting systems themselves. Several
> organizations
> have already expressed interest. If we can help them start using it
> soon, it would be great to start getting their feedback and
> generating
> more interest, both for the Reimbursement system specifically and the
> Non-Profit Accounting Project generally.