> Designing a successful accounting system which could be
> used equally well for NPOs as for retail businesses would be a truly
> monumental task, a task no *proprietary* software company has succeeded in
> accomplishing.
I was not aware of this. All the nonprofits and small business I know
use QuickBooks. I do not understand accounting systems.
Can you explain more of the differences?
> If we target an accounting system specificially for donation-funded
> nonprofits, we have some chance of actually creating it.
I think the accounting system should be a separate project --- either
pre-existing or something we embark upon now.
> That's a surprise since GnuCash dropped their database integration 2 years
> ago.
OK, I'm out of date.
> > *) Quasar --- This was formerly released under GPL, but no longer. I
> > have access to a GPL version of the code, which I believe would be
> > perfectly legal for us to fork. It's a very significant program,
> > written in C++/Qt I believe. The company in general has been moving
> > toward point of sale systems.
>
> Not familiar with that one. If it's been abandoned by its creator, though,
> I don't really think we collectively have the energy to salvage it.
They didn't abandon the code, they took it proprietary.
http://www.linuxcanada.com/
My father uses Quasar for skating club finances and likes it. It's well
featured and stable. I believe he might also use GNU Cash for his
personal finances.
> The most promising systems have been in the realm of ERP. However, ERP
> workflow and accounting is significantly different from NPO accounting, to
> the point where it's possibly faster to build something from scratch than
> to adapt.
Again, something I know not a lot about. You seem to be well versed in
accounting systems, and I'm interested in learning more. Really... I'm
interested in being told to target a particular system without having to
become myself an expert in accounting.
I think it's important to point out that NPO management is not just
accounting or even just donor management. It's many things that have to
work together: marketing, organizational development, donor management,
accounting, and often more. I'm not sure what the perceived scope of
this overall project is. But if we're just building a donor management
system, then it will only work for some NPOs.
> I've done it. A client needed specialty accounting (legal trust
> management), existing systems were very painful to adapt, so we wrote one
> from scatch.
Is it free? (I understand if it's not).
> > The other problem with accounting in nonprofits is that many
> > nonprofits are bound by what software their auditors are willing to
> > use. And that means QuickBooks. I believe that getting nonprofits
> > to use free accounting software will be a huge challenge for this
> > reason alone
>
> *shrug* If they use it, they use it. I need an accounting system for *me*,
> and Quickbooks is not adequate for my needs.
Can you explain what it does not do? I barely even know what QB DOES
do, so this is all a learning curve. The more you can explain about
accounting, the better off I will be.
> > Summary: I think our free software resources would be best spent
> > building up a general purpose accounting system based on client-
> > server database technology (two or three tier, doesn't matter).
>
> I disagree. I think you've dramatically underestimated the effort required
> to please everyone.
Please, please... more specific details!???
And in that case... maybe we should REALLY keep accounting and NPO
systems separate, so that an org can choose the acounting system that
meets its needs, independent of its needs for marketing, sales, donor
management, etc.
Thanks,
-- Bob
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