[NTLUG:Discuss] Results from my search for a Quickbooks replacement(so far)

[./aal]

I have received requests to share what I have learned in my quest for an 
alternative to the Intuit/Microsoft solution to small business management.

I have here gathered all information received from the lists I posted to 
and am giving the summation of these replies as a resource to all of the 
lists I asked.

I hope this helps you as it has me.

./aal




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from   http://linux4smallbusiness.com


Fitrix

http://www.fitrix.com/

Fitrix is a complete business software package that provides all the
components needed to implement a fully integrated, highly customized
Business Accounting, Order Processing and Custom software solution for
small to medium sized businesses hosted on a Linux server. Fitrix allows
you to quickly implement using packaged software, then expand and
customize, as your business requires - without any limits! Fitrix is not
only a highly modifiable Business application software suite; Fitrix is
also a complete custom software development environment. Fitrix is based
on a successful mid-range software package relied on by thousands of
mid-sized companies worldwide. Now small to medium sized companies can
enjoy the benefits of high-end technology for a fraction of the cost.

Everything You Need Fitrix is a complete Linux-based package that
provides all of the software you need for a complete business software
solution. You supply the Linux server and Fitrix supplies the rest.

Accounting Software Modules

Order Processing / Distribution Software Modules

Application Source Code

4GL Programming Tools: Four J's BDL

Rapid Application Development (RAD) Tool Set

SQLDatabase

Highly Modifiable The Fitrix software modules are "modifiable by
design"? While many software products don't offer source code, and most
that do offer it reluctantly - Fitrix was developed specifically to be
delivered as a highly modifiable source code software product.

No Limits to your business requirements. With Fitrix you get 100% of the
application source code plus the same software tools we used to develop
the packaged product. There are no limits on your ability to customize
Fitrix to fit the needs of your business, and Fitrix is Modifiable By
Design to keep the cost of creating and supporting customizations down!

No limits to database growth or performance. The Fitrix database engine
will allow individual tables up to 1 gigabyte and a total database size
of many gigabytes but if your business grows beyond this, Fitrix can be
easily upgraded to connect to one of the most scalable and high
performance database engines available - IBM-IDS - with no changes to
your applications.

Choice of user interface clients. Fitrix works with any of the following
clients: MS Windows (Graphical Thin Client), X11, and Character. A
Browser client option will be available in the future, and the Fitrix
portable thin client architecture allows us to provide support for any
new client technologies that become popular.

Linux General Ledger

http://www.linuxledgers.com/lglpage1.html

The Linux General Ledger is a state of the art business application
developed for use in small businesses either by in-house bookkeepers or
outside accountants. It functions either as a complete, stand-alone,
after-the-fact bookkeeping and write-up system or, as a General Ledger
interfaced to locally developed Subsidiary Ledgers (e.g., AR, AP, PR,
Inventory/Order Entry, Billing, etc..) The user has complete control
over creation of the Chart of Accounts, Custom Report Creation, Journal
Entries, and opening and closing of each accounting period.

The Linux General Ledger operates as either client or server, remotely
via telnet, or as a stand-alone system. All screens are activated and
deactivated by quick function key use for speed and ease of entry. Most
input can be managed from the 10-key pad alone. There's no wasting time
positioning and repositioning a mouse for entries. This makes entry of
data and moving around in the program much faster than mouse based
systems. Remote access is available from any terminal supported by Linux.

Current and Prior Year History plus Budget and Comparative Presentations

Close and Reopen Periods as needed

User Defined Chart of Accounts

All Reports Print on Letter Size Paper

Custom Report Generator plus Standard Reports

Complete Year-to-Date and Monthly Detailed Reports

Detailed and Summary Trial Balances

Real-time Inquiry into Accounts and Transactions

Automatic Recurring Journal Entries

"After-the-Fact" Journals

Multi-Company Capability

Local, Remote, Dial-Up, Telnet, Intranet, and Internet Access

Runs in xterm or from Terminal Command Line

Runs under Linux (Also Free BSD, and UNIX)

Server-Client enabled

Consistent Function Key Assignments for Quick and Easy Entry Clear Audit
Trail Use In-House or for Client Write-Up

OPEN SYSTEMS Accounting Software (OSAS)

http://www.osas.com/html/JWD0XXWSMKDMCYST9D9O.htm

OPEN SYSTEMS Accounting Software (OSAS??) is a powerful, award-winning
accounting and business management system that is flexible and easy to
customize to your requirements. Built on a tradition of success, OSAS is
designed to be easy to learn and use. A proven industry leader, OSAS
will help meet your needs and expectations now and in the future.

OSAS provides these key advantages

Robust Functionality - We have over 25 years of experience in providing
award-winning business solutions and incorporating feedback from
real-world users.

Open Source Code - We provide source code for our applications at no
additional cost. We do this to protect your investment in our
technology, as well as encourage customization that will support your
unique needs and changing market conditions.

Availability & Strong Support - Several hundred authorized value added
resellers sell, support and customize Open Systems products. Many
vertical applications are also available from OSAS developers.

Platform Portability - With OSAS, you can choose the platform that suits
your business: Windows, UNIX/Solaris/AIX, or Linux. In addition, OSAS
C/S is a high performance, cost-effective client/server solution that
provides additional platform flexibility and scalability.

Interface Flexibility - some users prefer character-based screens;
others may want to use graphical screens. Have it your way! OSAS allows
you to mix and match screens in the same accounting system.

Modules include:

General ledger

Accounts Receivable

Accounts Payable

Direct Deposit

Payroll

Job Cost

Fixed Assets

Web Interface

Resource Manager

Inventory

Sales Order

Purchase Order

Bill of Materials/Kitting

General Report Writer

ODBC Kit

Contractor's Job Cost

Proven CHOICE Accounting

http://www.provenacct.com/index.html

General Ledger Module

A comprehensive General Ledger system under Linux which is ideal for
mid-size companies, professional service firms, and nonprofit
organizations. The General Ledger's design emphasizes control &
flexibility as well as efficient data entry and report generation.
Features include:

Exclusive Multilevel Account Hierarchy (Tree):

Date Range Flexibility:

Full Trial Balances:

Accounts Receivable Module

This module has all of the control features you would expect from an
Open item system plus the ease-of-use associated with a simpler balance
forward system. Auto Pay Feature With a single keystroke you may
automatically apply a payment to the oldest open items first. Sure, you
can also apply payments to specific invoices or auto-apply and then
edit, whatever is easiest and quickest. Maximize your speed and ease of
entry without losing detailed control. Don't let our Accounts
Receivables ease of use fool you. It is as feature rich as you might
expect in the most expensive AR systems available, including: Full
account & terms control.

Sales Invoicing

This module is an adjunct to the A-R system and allows for the "real
time" printing of bills (invoices) or receipts.

The entry screen allows up to ten entry lines for each Invoice/Receipt.
Each line may represent a separate item or be a description only line.

Accounts Payable Module

Our Accounts Payable is a full-functioned payables management module
which combines all of the power of open item management with the ease of
use of balance forward. In addition to voucher entry and complete, but
convenient, terms control, powerful and easy to use features make this
an ideal AP module for the smallest to the largest business.

Optional Modules:

Inventory Management and integrated Point of Purchase (point of sale)

Professional Time Billing

Import / Export Module

eCHOICE?? -- Internet Shopping Cart

Financial Report Generator

Quasar Accounting

http://www.linuxcanada.com/index.html

Quasar is a full function, stand-alone business accounting package. You
may elect to use the Quasar Accounting base package which is available
for use free of charge on a single computer. Or, you may elect to
purchase some of the Quasar add-on modules which are available for a
nominal fee. With Quasar it is extremely easy to set up remote access to
multiple servers from multiple workstations. You can run Quasar on both
Windows and/or Linux on the same network. For example, you can maintain
a Linux server and access the data from a Windows workstation.

Base Package

for Linux or Windows Quasar and most of its features are available for
both Linux and Windows. The point-of-sale module is available only for
Linux. On Linux Quasar supports Red Hat 7.0+, Mandrake 7.2+ and SuSe
7.1+. On Windows Quasar supports 98, ME, 2000 and XP.

Quasar's new international ready features include the ability to define
your monetary symbol, monetary format, date format, time format, number
format and percentage format. Any and all text can be translated or
changed to suit your specific requirements. In addition Quasar has a
standard Canadian format and a standard United States format.

Financial reports include balance sheets, profit and loss statements and
trial balances. A transaction journal provides the detail of selected
transactions. An inquiry screen provides detailed activity of an
account, customer or vendor.

Provide credit terms to your customers. An aged receivable screen
provides an aged summary and aged detail of your receivables. Receive
payments on account and allocate payments to specific invoices. Define
customer payment terms and give early payment discounts. Print customer
statements.

View aged payables both in summary and in detail. Select a specific
vendor to pay, or choose to pay several bills. Pay an entire invoice or
make a partial payment. Know your bank balance and know your cash
requirements.

Inventory Management

departments and sub-departments

purchasing and receiving.

advanced price management

superior cost management

true landed cost

full margin control

container deposits

create kits

physical counts

multiple case sizes

multiple lookup numbers

stock locations

multiple vendors per item

sales history

barcode labels and signs

item adjustments

active and stocked status

SQL Ledger Accounting

http://www.sql-ledger.org/

Accounts Receivables

multiple AR accounts

tax, due date calculated based on customer selected tax can be included
or on top

customizable reports

aging report for all customers or one customer

tax report for tax collected

Accounts Payables

multiple AP accounts

tax, due date calculated based on vendor selected tax can be included or
on top

aging report for all vendors or one vendor

enter payments for open invoices

vendor invoices

purchase orders

General Ledger

selection list for accounts

customizable reports for all accounts or asset, liability, equity,
income or expense accounts source, a range of dates, description

create sales journal purchase journals or tax reports

create multiple reports from just one interface

data entered to filter reports is carried over to the next report

Inventory

parts link to inventory, income, expense and tax accounts

fields for Make and Model part will fit

assemblies (manufactured goods) link to income and tax accounts service
items link to income, expense and tax accounts

inventory is recorded when items are purchased all expenses for cost of
goods are posted when an item is sold expenses for service items are
recorded when purchased entry to inventory is in no particular order
stock parts with Vendor Invoice (Merchandise Received) stock assemblies
when they are built

re-order point calculates how many should be on hand

customizable reports

Many more features like Billing / Invoicing, Purchase / Sales Orders,
Customizable Taxes, Multi-company, Audit Control, Foreign Currency,
Internationalization, Access Control, SQL server backend, Customizable
Templates, Customers, Vendors, Assemblies (BOM, kits), Chart of
Accounts, Customizable Reports Financial Statements, Administration Module

Next: the Web Application Packages

This software architecture differs from client server mainly in two
ways: (1) the server side is a web server, not a network server (as in
local area network). It serves up web pages which happen to have
accounting data in them. (2) the client part is not a special program,
but simply a web browser. This makes the system much simpler to use and
easier maintain (no special software). A database system also holds and
manages the accounting data and interacts the the web server to get you
what you want.

I know what you are thinking, "I don't want my accounting data to be
open to the entire Internet." Well, first of all, a web server can run
on your network and be isolated from the Internet. In this way it is as
secure as a client server system. But even if it is accessible through
the general Internet, it can be still be secure because web servers have
special security features built in. In addition, the presence of network
firewalls prevent unwanted outside access. Really, the main disadvantage
can be (let me emphasize that can be) performance. If you have a high
speed connection through a local area network or VPN (that's Virtual
Private Network) connection to another office, it should be very fast. A
dial up connection will only do for that quick update when you are on
the road. Of course, remote access to client server packages suffer
performance problems too, under these conditions. The web application
architecture is the newer of the two architectures, but is definitely
the coming trend.

XIWA

http://xiwa.sourceforge.net/

XIWA (zee' wuh) is a web based accounting package built with Perl and
postgreSQL. It is released under the GPL. It is free to modify and
distribute but you must make your modifications available to others.

The package currently runs out of a Portal environment that provides
sessions, users, and other web features. Other apps that will share the
same data (such as timekeeping and payroll) will also run out of the
portal. The Portal is released under the perl license so as to be widely
useful to everyone.

Features

Current Features:

General Ledger

Double Entry Accounting

Import QIF data

Track Securities

Create and Customize Reports

Have multiple sets of books (ledgers)

Share Accounts/Codes between ledgers

Use Sub Entities or Departments within ledgers

Enter Depreciation and amortization data Payroll Reports (Federal 941
and Missouri 941)

The Reporting engine is very powerful. Reports can be easily customized
and new reports can be created with different styles and layouts. Also,
new account types can be added easily. For example we will soon add an
Administrative Expenses type in addition to the Operating Expenses type.
This is as simple as adding the record to the database with a SQL insert
and adding the row to the report with a few clicks.

Powerful Investment tracking was a requirement of the project. Most
accounting packages avoid investments (we can understand why). The
investment section of the project is a huge task that was not easy to
work out but gives a very detailed, precise history.

NOLA

Web Site: http://nola.noguska.com/main.html

LinuxWorldArticle:
http://www.linuxworld.com/site-stories/2002/0225.xterminal13.html

Redefining the scope of Enterprise Software

The NOLA web based software package allows your business to effortlessly
reach further than previously thought possible. NOLA provides your
company's accounting, inventory, point of sale, contact management,
billing, purchasing, and reporting all in one integrated package. NOLA
takes e-commerce to the next step, allowing for real time inventory
quantity updates. Users are able to do ANYTHING from ANYWHERE.

Rock solid stability

The NOLA system is built around a secure, open platform. NOLA ships with
the Apache Web Server, the most widely used web server in the world.
Apache is used to serve more web sites than every other web server
combined1. Also supplied is the MySQL database engine, a lightning fast
SQL server designed for large amounts of data. MySQL is also used by
NASA and Yahoo!.

Gather Round the Campfire

Okay, now we have our list of longhorn ledgers pulled together into the
makings of a herd. In the next article, let's round up the strays and
see if we can find the ones worth driving down that long dusty trail to
meet your business accounting needs.

Web Site: http://nola.noguska.com/main.html

LinuxWorldArticle:
http://www.linuxworld.com/site-stories/2002/0225.xterminal13.html

Redefining the scope of Enterprise Software

The NOLA web based software package allows your business to effortlessly
reach further than previously thought possible. NOLA provides your
company's accounting, inventory, point of sale, contact management,
billing, purchasing, and reporting all in one integrated package. NOLA
takes e-commerce to the next step, allowing for real time inventory
quantity updates. Users are able to do ANYTHING from ANYWHERE.

Rock solid stability

The NOLA system is built around a secure, open platform. NOLA ships with
the Apache Web Server, the most widely used web server in the world.
Apache is used to serve more web sites than every other web server
combined1. Also supplied is the MySQL database engine, a lightning fast
SQL server designed for large amounts of data. MySQL is also used by
NASA and Yahoo!.

Gather Round the Campfire

Okay, now we have our list of longhorn ledgers pulled together into the
makings of a herd. In the next article, let's round up the strays and
see if we can find the ones worth driving down that long dusty trail to
meet your business accounting needs.

=======================

http://www.cfoweb.com.au/softwareguide06/product.asp?byid=1

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http://www.ledgersmb.org/

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http://freshmeat.net/articles/view/269/

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http://www.turbocashuk.com/

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http://lwn.net/Articles/149383/

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And in closing,
One of the members of a list I have asked
had this to say on the subject:

.........

Look, my open source creds speak for themselves, so take what I'm about
to say seriously.

I use QB and I run it on XP.  It is literally the only reason I ever use
Windows besides testing web sites under IE.  It costs a couple hundred
bucks (and the price seems to be pretty steady) and is a good product.
The payroll piece costs a lot more, but so does an accountant (which I
also use, btw).

If you're in business, you must surely know that there are expenses.  I
pay 7 different taxes to 5 different taxing authorities.  I have to use
an accountant.  And I use QB with the payroll module to handle that
side.  It's just part of doing business.

This has been discussed to death elsewhere, but let me say this.  There
is no open source software that handles payroll taxes.  It is one of the
extremely few (note: extremely few) instances where open source software
probably will never exist.  The reasons are myriad, but in general it's
not "sexy" (it's very boring to program) and most people won't do it
without being paid.  Also, there's little incentive for anyone to
reinvent that wheel since QB is very reasonably priced and handles it
well.

I don't know what your business is, but if you think QB is expensive I'm
guessing that you haven't really looked at the cost of doing business.
It's substantial.  Be forewarned.

Michael
-- Michael Darrin Chaney mdchaney at michaelchaney.com 
http://www.michaelchaney.com/

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