[Linux-aus] Accounting on Linux

[Scott Ferguson]

Some useful comparisons of accounting software that includes Linux
support. No information on GST support - but most are capable with some
modification. I don't know of any that will prepare a BAS without
customisation (a little scripting).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_accounting_software#Free_and_open_source_software

Though no one has mentioned payroll. Most of the commercial accounting
packages that support GNU/Linux have payroll support. ie intuit,
ascentis, and nola.

I'd be very interested to hear of any Open Source/FLOSS accounting
applications that offer payroll support. I understand it is part of the
ledgerSMB roadmap.


> On 26/01/13 14:23, Robert Brockway wrote:
>> On Sat, 26 Jan 2013, Scott Ferguson wrote:
>>
>>> For larger companies *ledgerSMB* is popular
>> I used LedgerSMB (and formerly SQL-Ledger) for a 1-2 person business in 
>> Canada.  I was very happy with it.

:)
My bad - I should have been clearer.
LedgerSMB is great for medium *and* small business, however GNUCash
doesn't support employees and payrolls (at least not yet, or easily).
GNUCash is also a shorter learning curve due to it's more limited
application.

I'm not sure of the current limitations for ledgerSMB - certainly it
will cope with 100 employees.

>>
>>> Cons - same as GNUCash
>>> Pros - integrates into CMR and ERP, strong community, very flexible and
>>> extendible (Perl), also has features the commercial alternatives don't have.
>> LedgerSMB allows you to load a country-specific template to set up a 
>> business in the system (I believe it would happyily support multiple 
>> businesses in one instance but never tried this), making it very flexible. 
>> Not sure if GNUCash works this way too.

Sort of, GNUCash will allow you to work with multiple currencies. ie. my
US and local business in the same workbook.
Templates are easily modified.
I wouldn't say GNUCash is better than LedgerSMB - they are different
beasts with some overlap.
LedgerSMB is much more powerful which makes it a clear winner if you use
the additional features.
>>
>>> GST support - easily implemented
>> LedgerSMB (and SQL-Ledger) certainly supported Canadian GST (and 
>> provincial taxes) in the template.  When a new tax was introduced (and old 
>> ones removed) it was nearly trivial for me to update the template.
>>
>> I'd be surprised if the Australian template didn't cover Australian GST.

It'll deal with a single fixed rate of tax out of the box. I'm not sure
if you need to spend 30 seconds modifying to wording on the invoices or
not, as I haven't configured it recently.

On a slightly different tangent I recently discovered Kraft which in
combination with GNUCash allows you to do some of the things ledgerSMB
is capable of.   www.volle-kraft-voraus.de/

Though the grandparent focus (I presume) was on alternatives to Quicken
and MYOB for small business, there are a number of GNU/Linux friendly
CRM (not CMR as I wrote earlier) and ERP applications the incorporate
accounting components. Some I've mentioned, and David Lyon mentioned
Tryton, but their is also Sugar and a number of others.


>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Rob
>>

> On 26/01/13 12:41, Brenda Aynsley wrote:
> On 26/01/13 09:17, Paul Parker wrote:
>> In discussion of the Treasurers Report 2012  was brief mention of
>> software currently or proposed to be used.
>>
>>
>> Have things improved with accounting packages for Linux ?
>>
> I'm told that the big two offer online accounting now that might work 
> for a SMEs in the linux world.
>
> http://online.reckon.com.au/

I've just been informed that Reckon only supports Microsoft clients (I
was wrong about Apple support).

NOTE: Quicken or MYOB are used mainly by small business and are unsuited
to larger businesses. My 'guess' is that SAP is probably the biggest
shareholder in the medium sized enterprise accounting software market,
but there are many packages in use and a lot of custom systems.
In large enterprise, especially the finance sector, Linux is one of the
major platforms for accounting systems.


Kind regards, Scott Ferguson