Dear colleagues, As I struggle more and more to keep track of the cash flow in my lab, I figured I could ask the community if there is a tool to answer my problem. As a matter of fact, I don't think it is a very specific problem, as it should match the needs of any PI in academia. In short, I'm looking for a software that works in the world of academia and grant funding.
This software should at the very least have the following features: - free software; - installable on a web server (whether shared hosting or not); - transaction based, i.e. the elementary unit is a transaction; - categories for transactions (e.g. food, salary, purchase, travel, grant, etc.) which are associated to income or expense; - multi-users (with different roles and permissions), so that lab members can edit their own transactions, without necessarily having access to the entire lab budget or past transactions; - multiple accounts/projects/grants, to differentiate different pots of money; - able to deal with salaries (recurring payroll) without the need of a manual action; - possibility to add attachments (admin reports, travel authorization, etc.) and additional information (detailed description, note, etc.). Optional (but highly desired) features: - provide status of a transaction (e.g. none, clear, reconciled) to track reconciliation; - split bills over several accounts, i.e. a single transaction can be split to use several sources of money; - possibility to group transactions under a single umbrella (for instance all expenses related to a single travel with a Travel Report Number), e.g. with tags or reference number; - possibility to use a template for transactions, or add a transaction that inherits the characteristics of an existing transaction. I use HomeBank [1] for my own personal use. While it is (almost) perfect for a single person, it is not on-line, and thus not possible to share it with other lab members. That makes it non-scalable within a lab. I am currently testing Akaunting [2], which seems to be tailored for business that actually sell products. It could be set to cover almost all of my needs, but can't handle (yet?) payroll, and implement a rather constraining approach of vendors, which need to be listed prior to add any transaction. Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated. Best, Mathieu Basille. [1] https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__homebank.free.fr_en_&d=DwIDaQ&c=pZJPUDQ3SB9JplYbifm4nt2lEVG5pWx2KikqINpWlZM&r=fUqryl6k9G4nZHa3j4i9CwGHGosQc60u5GTpOWeHcCk&m=0l4EtanYzVO6Np2buEEFlBfvi9_Gei4K6x1z6hV-bto&s=N6gMM-kWuYiL9XkBUX7PYR4hrYTWLiCkmQCdnrCLV10&e= [2] https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__akaunting.com_&d=DwIDaQ&c=pZJPUDQ3SB9JplYbifm4nt2lEVG5pWx2KikqINpWlZM&r=fUqryl6k9G4nZHa3j4i9CwGHGosQc60u5GTpOWeHcCk&m=0l4EtanYzVO6Np2buEEFlBfvi9_Gei4K6x1z6hV-bto&s=Yys0wgDbhVxkv_nBi5QYymnui5Wbby4zK5U8Xpu1SDU&e= -- Mathieu Basille basi...@ufl.edu | https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__mablab.org_&d=DwIDaQ&c=pZJPUDQ3SB9JplYbifm4nt2lEVG5pWx2KikqINpWlZM&r=fUqryl6k9G4nZHa3j4i9CwGHGosQc60u5GTpOWeHcCk&m=0l4EtanYzVO6Np2buEEFlBfvi9_Gei4K6x1z6hV-bto&s=OuQ3ue_lv6JaXk7a3LYHRbLCNVSS_B-CnalUCgmWc7M&e= +1 954-577-6314 | University of Florida FLREC « Le tout est de tout dire, et je manque de mots Et je manque de temps, et je manque d'audace. » — Paul Éluard
