UPDATE 2: I would love to know if you download anything from the repository. Even if you don't use git, you can download everything in a zip file directly.
UPDATE 1: I've now put some preliminary sketches up in the Double folder on my github repository. Comments on design issues welcome, and if anything is unclear please let me know.
Is anyone using Mathematica for basic accounting purposes? I am responsible for book-keeping and preparation of final accounts for 2 businesses. I've used Excel in the past in other business contexts but found it too unreliable, and it doesn't have the checks and balances that a proper accounting package has. But I found commercial accounting packages inflexible and awkward for small business use, as well as being too expensive. I've used Mathematica for my own accounts as well as for some simple business analysis and cash flow forecasting. I find myself wanting a double-entry system with decent cashflow forecasting and nested accounts (for instance, I'd like to generate a report that aggregates all food sales, whereas I've separate accounts for different food items); the closest thing that's free/accessible for me is gnucash but it doesn't do cashflow and sales tax/VAT and invoicing is a bit of a pain. I've already built an import from html (from my banking website), an export to .qif (for gnucash &c), a system for defining a tree of accounts and associating string pattern matches to individual accounts in the tree and a sketch of a simple design of a transaction database and user interface using associations/Query. My initial idea is to start an open software development on github; I don't have the time to build everything I'd like myself.
An additional aim is to understand accounting better and I'd welcome input on issues of system correctness, design and the potential interest such a system might generate. As I work as a maths teacher in Further Education, I also wonder about the potential to use Mathematica to teach accounting, theory & practice.
If there is any interest here I will find some time to anonymise my data and post a notebook with design notes and code samples. If there is serious interest or if anyone is interested in a commercial partnership I might rethink my plan to publish it all, but somehow I doubt this.