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Ask HN: Where to get information about payment systems for developers?
I want to get some knowledge in Finance for creating software products. Invoices, Invoice Lists, Payouts, Recurring payments and so on. Information on the internet is too dense and located in different places, we want to integrate payments and add payments microservice into our architecture. Is there any place where information is given about such processes and about finance glossaries?
- hrktb 9y ago> Information on the internet is too dense If your intent is to emit invoices and deal with recurring payments, I don’t think you’ll get away with a “invoices for dummy” kind of tutorial. In particular, you seem to be trying to do very generic stuff, I can’t recommend you to do it without finance and legal people. Security and user info management will also be questionned, so you’ll need someone with a good understanding of the privacy laws. TLDR; you should contract people with at least law and privacy knowledge if you intend to even get knee deep in this field.
- tuyguntn 9y agoI agree with you, my intent was getting some knowledge before talking to finance and legal people, so we can prepare and ask them right questions.
- hrktb 9y agoIn my experience they will be the ones asking questions. A ton. As zer00eyz points out, it's a whole world, and they are used to people not knowing anything about what they are doing. Getting relevant info from people has become part of their job I think, the same way we deal with people coming to us with a "I need a website" type of request. As you've experienced yourself, there's so many stuff out there that you'll need advice from finance people even to understand what you should focus on learning.
- zer00eyz 9y agoLong ago I learned the language of accounting and everywhere I go I make friends with accountants. Firstly they are the "other nerds" in the organization - they do speak their own language and have their own "reality". Secondly the accountants always know what is really going on. Yea you might hear some financial info at a company all hands, but the real dirt is always buried in the books, and it isn't always pretty. The people in finance can keep you up on company heath from a perspective that few others have. This having been said, you need friends in finance - because even with a glossary in hand, the reality of any companies books will differ from a generic high level understanding. Honestly, asking a lot of questions is going to be in your best interest because it is going to get you closer to the truth faster. Think of it this way, your a programer by trade, but every business you have ever worked in is somehow different from the last, and you bring your knowledge (programing) to the companies domain and somehow manage to make it work. This is NOT any different. However were talking about money, and NOTHING in these matters should ever be taken lightly - again having finance friends will work to your benefit here as well. Most finance and accounting folks that I know have always been happy to walk through code that deals with money - your rubber ducking them to some extent but your also vetting your understanding of their domain at the same time. There is one critical thing missing in your question and that is the word "taxes" - it may or may not be relevant to what your trying to do but you should be asking (and several times at that).