
Ask HN: Where to get information about payment systems for developers? - tuyguntn
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?
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hrktb
> 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.

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tuyguntn
I 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
In 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.

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zer00eyz
Long 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).

