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Also see Financial Accounting

[edit] Finding a GPL QB (QuickBooks) or PeachTree replacement

The goal here is to find something that supports invoicing, inventory, general accounting, reconciliation etc. There are a lot of packages out there that are false starts - if no one is using it or it seems to be abandoned, there is no reason to consider it.

We consider GPL to be important, so we can modify, and share security updates etc. At this time (10/2007) it is ripe for a GPL package to emerge that will become mainstream. A LAMP technology (Linux, Apache, Mysql, PHP) would be preferred, PHP may not be the ultimate language, but it is battle hardened and works. Mysql or postgresql for a database seems fine.

• I see two patterns after looking at a large number of GPL accounting packages

1. There are lots of them that are fake GPL - they offer a teaser package with know bugs under GPL - once you switch and get invested, you get sucked into the proprietary version!

1. Most small businesses don't need multi-location, work-orders, event triggers etc etc.

Most of the packages below lack good order entry. The user should be able to go to the order entry page and create an order with a _NEW_ customer!

The way invoicing should work is if you enter a new name - it should bring up a new customer dialog. What I see instead is program after program where they expect the customer to already be in the system - (this is almost never the case for most businesses).

The invoice should be a one page form - there is no reason to have a separate page for each line item (as lots of other programs have). The idea, is the form the user is filling out LOOKS like the invoice - instead of the invoice getting pulled together from many different pages. This is what makes QB an intuitive program to use - greatly reduces the learning curve.

[edit] GPL OSS Accounting Packages

Top listed in order of usability.

[edit] phreebooks

Currently phreebooks is the best GPL package and I expect will become very popular - I expect it to be similar to OSC(Open Source Commerce) in the level of adoption. Looks extremely good! At his time Jan-2008 it is late Beta and usable, but still getting better. The author has promised me that the program will always be GPL - he hopes to sell support at some time.

http://www.phreesoft.com GPL java php mysql (LAMP+javascript)

• Phreebooks our page.

[edit] pbooks

Looks good LAMP GPL - not quite ready - http://www.pbooks.org Looks like it need Customer, inventory - forms printing. User interface is clean, well thought out. mysql

[edit] Openbravo

Not for small business - way too heavy
Sorceforge rank = 5
This is yet another GPL-tease with the real program closed.

[edit] Tiny ERP

Tries to do too much Postgresql-python both web and gtk client

Too many pages just to enter an order.

[edit] Blueerp

LAMP gpl - Demo didn't seem to really have invoicing that worked..

[edit] osfinancials

GPL delphi firebird (Linux version runs under wine <groan>) - a OSC companion -written for Dutch . Fork of Turbocash

[edit] Turbocash

GPL?? smells? not native linux

[edit] OAJ (OpenAccountingJ)

java - mysql Pre alpha - no invoicing as of 10/2007 source forge rank 19,717

[edit] webERP

WebERP is GPL and LAMP - the problem is it needs more polish. The base local is England and many of the terms and phrases are poorly chosen. It is set up to use .po files for localization which is problematic to keep updated. It looks like the system works, but it has a very high learning curve and poor usability as of 10/2007.

<Phil>Not sure what the problem with keeping .po files up to date is - since this is almost a standard multi-language structure. It is feature-rich and with functionality comes complexity. webERP is not a Quickbooks/MYOB replacement - it is a full multi-user ERP system. Appreciate the feedback though ... thanks.</Phil>

<admin> The problem with .po files is that if the program changes, updating a language is very labor intensive. Having used both, I would agree that WebERP is not equivalent to Quickbooks, but for different reasons. The user interface is not nearly as intuitive and WebERP is intended for separate workers doing different steps in the process. There are also many features in QB (drill-down reports) not in WebERP. One feature that WebERP does have that QB lacks is multiple stocking locations - complexity a small business doesn't have to deal with. For a QB or PeachTree replacement, I recommend looking at Phreebooks instead.

[edit] FrontAccounting

weberp fork via openaccounting LAMP GPL - Same kind of usability problems - If you go to enter a sales order, and you happen to have a new customer, there isn't even a navigation button to take the detour. Source forge rank = 356

[edit] Compiere

Source forge rank = 35 Very heavy bloat - does too much for a small business. High learning curve. Java, JavaScript, PL/SQL

[edit] ADempiere Bazaar

• Adempiere Fork of Compiere - in order to be more OSS. Very heavy bloat - does too much for a small business. Very high learning curve. No get customer name address and fill out invoice to sale flow

[edit] AVSAP

Looks abandoned - sourceforge rating 46,415

[edit] arias

GPL version of NolaPro - last news on site 2003. LAMP Looks abandoned...

http://arias.sourceforge.net/

[edit] LedgerSMB

Fork of SQL-ledger - perl, uses Postgresql. Should be stable by now - perl(a write-only language) is not the most readable language so customizing the code is not easy. For some reason there isn't a demo of ledgerSMB that I could find.

Go here and and click the "Launch Demo" button.

http://labs.miys.net/ledgersmb

[edit] SQL-ledger

Sadly written in perl, uses Postgresql. The autor wanted to take back the GPL license, deleted posts about security issues etc- better look at the fork LedgerSMB

[edit] GnuCash

Personal finance package currently being extended into ledger system suitable for small businesses.

http://gnucash.org/

http://parit.ca/

[edit] NOT currently GPL !!!

Realize there is a great potential for lock-in if non-GPL. Best to avoid non GPL packages

[edit] PostBooks

Not GPL instead CPAL (Badge-ware not in the FOSS spirit) Written in C++ -QT - uses sql - Source forge rank = 205 Bait and switch - they want to sell their commercial version.

[edit] Quasar

Quasar pretends to be GPL, but there are no distributions with it in it and the only GPL tar ball is out of date and unsupported. Rather a bait and switch. The company that came out with it managed to get the worst of both worlds, no numbers using the software, yet some people cut into their POS business. Sad to say that they don't see that other GPL software will fill the boots.

[edit] NolaPro

Freeware but not GPL, yet contains a modified version of OSC that is GPL! (possible violation of GPL?) Looks like a good start. LAMP based. Better order entry, payroll and inventory than some. Phreebooks is a GPL alternative.