[Linux-aus] Accounting on Linux

[Mike Carden]

On Sat, Jan 26, 2013 at 1:44 PM, Brent Wallis <brent.wallis at gmail.com> wrote:

> Perhaps the LA Treasurer would be best to comment on it's functionality?

Hmmm, those who have been LA members for a while may recall the
controversy whipped up a few years ago by the council deciding to use
a closed source 'cloud' accountancy service rather than an open source
solution hosted on LA servers.

As a council, I think we are well and truly over having that debate,
so it may be hard to get us to reignite it here. It's fair to say that
in my role as Ordinary Council Member for a couple of years and as VP
this last year, I might not have had a lot to do with the accounting
software, but in 2012/13 I have had more than my fair share of
engagement with it as the treasurer for LCA2013.

I am not an accountant and I don't even play one on TV. I am utterly
mystified that tracking money fascinates some people. To me, it is
about as interesting as laying pavers, but each to their own.

Nonetheless... I'm a FOSS guy and all of my general purpose computing
devices run a Linux kernel. I live with and work with Linux every day.
I also use the Xero accounting software for all my LA and LCA money
stuff, and it is excellent. Not only is it excellent but it just keeps
getting better and like any cloud service gets better, I get the
benefit of the improvements without doing anything. Next time I log
in, the new hotness is already there.

For the purposes of running LA and for the purpose of running a
conference under the auspices of LA, Xero is excellent and I strongly
support its use.

-- 
MC