[PLUG] Linux accounting software

[Gregg Berkholtz]

I'll 2nd SQL-Ledger; it's a great option if you stay on-top of code updates and revisions, and if you're ready to dive into the nitty-gritty details of accounting and app customizations. My accountant never had issues with it; just dependent on me to write and run the right reports. He does payroll too! :-)

A number of my clients are accountants, and while many seem to greatly dislike Quickbooks, it's less with the specific app, and more how people muck with the structure that Intiut/Quickbooks provides. A few of my clients even go so-far as to assert that many businesses can be run from a well-setup spreadsheet - I'm not that brave. The structure of Quickbooks strikes me as great for someone not strong in accounting and needing to focus more on their business. SQL-Ledger is awesome when there's accessible accounting knowledge, in environments with needs and resources for customizations.

While I have a number of years in SQL-Ledger, the growing and varied code forks have left me with a bitter taste. I've since started looking for other, "simpler", solutions that better fit my business model (IT Consulting & Datacenter Hosting). I've been evaluating Simple Invoices (www.simpleinvoices.org) for the past ~9months and having survived one tax season, I'm still quite happy with it.

Extending Simple Invoices is also proving far easier than SQL-Ledger...but then that statement is based on my specific skills, available time, and continuing business needs, so YMMV.

The idea of importing all my SQL-Ledger data...not so happy about that.

- Gregg
Solid IT Support & Hosting Since 1995: www.tocici.com
Small Parts Design & Machining: www.berkholtz.net

On May 25, 2010, at 4:14 PM, Rich Shepard wrote:

> On Tue, 25 May 2010, Kris wrote:
> 
>> I ran a company on sql-ledger for 5 years before we finally broke down and
>> migrated to Quickbooks last Fall. Mainly we were fighting accountants who
>> wouldn't learn the system, extended training for bookkeepers, weird bugs,
>> and lack of help for those who aren't accountants (me!).
> 
>   My accountant runs Windows only because that's the only platform on which
> her tax software runs. She uses Quackbooks, as do almost all of her clients,
> and she hates it. It's inflexible and forces users to do things its way, not
> their way.
> 
>   My accountant doesn't know SL, and doesn't care to. I send her the reports
> she needs for quarterly and annual filings (as .pdf files) and she works
> from those. There are many consultants who can train bookkeepers on SL;
> that's their business. Bugs have been common in SL because Dieter's coding
> is rather sloppy; the folks doing Ledger123 and LedgerSMB are fixing bugs as
> soon as they are identified and located. They're also adding enhancements.
> 
>   The mail list has been a powerful community for help, both the original
> one set up by Dieter and the current one run by Armaghan. I remember
> answering questions about double-entry bookkeeping and similar issues, and
> I'm not an accountant, either. The accounting questions (in which
> journal/ledger do I post this transaction?) are best answered by the
> accountants. The bookkeeping questions (how to I do this in SL?) are readily
> answered by mail list subscribers. I recall a tee-shirt printing company in
> Texas who got help from the list, and several companies who figured out how
> to do POS and manufacturing assembly accounting with the help of the mail
> list community.
> 
>> Sql-ledger always required odd workarounds for some things.  The
>> accounting firms also rejoiced our decision, and we no longer had to pay
>> twice the time for them to muck around sql-ledger.
> 
>   Your experience is quite different from that of most of us.
> 
>> As for payroll and invoicing AR, forget Quickbooks.  We used PayCycle
>> (which after two years of happy service, they sold out to Intuit), and for
>> billing used Harvest, a SaaS[1] (getharvest.com).
> 
>   If I had payroll I'd pay my accountant to do it; she's up on all the laws
> and requirements. A/R and A/P are simple with SL. And, unlike commercial,
> shrink-wrapped applications, you can tune it to suit your specific business
> and the way you run it.
> 
>> We fought hard for sql-ledger, as our business model depended heavily on FOSS; I
>> myself have been using Debian since you had to write your own X modelines!  In
>> the end we admitted defeat. It was hurting our ability to manage the business,
>> and manage cash flow.
> 
>   That's not the fault of the application. Don't blame it.
> 
> Rich
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