I repeat the helpful answer from Rich to my similar question asked about a year ago (below). For my business, I'm using gnucash with some success, it is fast and reliable, but invoicing is awkward and I haven't gotten bank transaction downloads to work. (How well does LedgerSMB work for those tasks Rich?).
I gave up on LedgerSMB, when I needed to create the chart of accounts for my company. Seemed like there should have been an example I could tweak, but I didn't find it. Good Luck. Please let us know where your journey ends... -- Pat > On Thu, 20 May 2010, Patrick J. Timlick wrote: > > >> > My question to the group is: Does anyone have experience with (or > > > knowledge of) using gnucash or other linux accounting package to run a > > > small service business? Small, meaning large enough to need accounts for > > > receivables, payroll, checking, savings, but too small to have or rent a > > > bookkeeper. > > >> Patrick, > > >> Yup. > > >> I've been using SQL-Ledger since 2004. At least, that's as far back as I > > had data until I cleaned out the database beyond what my account wants me >> to > > retain. > > >> There's a long history with SQL-Ledger, and I can relate that over a > > microbrew or three some time if you're interested. What I strongly >> recommend > > is that you install and use either the LedgerSMB fork, or -- my preference > > -- Armaghan Saqib's enhanced SL <http://www.ledger123.com>. > > >> SL is a series of perl scripts (the middleware) sitting between a RDBMS > > (most of us use postgres) and any Web browser (including links and lynx). > > The original author shut down the mail list several months ago (and removed > > all archives) except for paying customers. His code is quite buggy, but > > mostly works. Armaghan has cleaned up a lot of the code (his business is SL > > hosting, support, and customization) and he set up a new mail list that's > > quite active and cross-fertilized by the LedgerSMB folks; the developers > > share code so both versions are constantly being improved. Just a couple of > > weeks ago I switched from vanilla SL to Ledger123 and that cured a > > reconciliation issue I've had for years. I recommend it very highly. > > >> SL (Ledger123 and LedgerSMB) are full-featured accounting systems. It's > > designed for manufacturing, distribution, retail, and everything in >> between. > > I don't think it has payroll because that's so location-specific. (There >> are > > L123 users world-wide, from Australia/New Zealand and India to Europe, > > Canada, the US, and South America. Many of us users are service businesses. > > >> You can de-activate the features you don't use. Your inventory can be > > goods or services, so I have inventory entries for all the various services > > we sell. I also record project numbers so I can create time sheets (when I > > have to bill time and expenses), generate sales orders and invoices, and do > > all the other bookkeeping and accounting. > > >> Go to the ledger123 web site, look around, sign up for the mail list, >> and > > see if this will fulfill your needs. > > >> Rich > > > On Fri, Apr 8, 2011 at 6:44 AM, Rich Shepard <rshep...@appl-ecosys.com>wrote: > On Thu, 7 Apr 2011, Daniel Herrington wrote: > > > Does anyone have practical experience with any open source accounting > > software for business? > > Daniel, > > Sure do! There's a fork of SQL-Ledger (although Armaghan refuses to call > it a fork) called Ledger-123. He and the other developers have fixed broken > code, cleaned the code, patched bugs, and added features. I've been nudging > him to add more service-business-oriented features and they'll eventually > be > there. > > L123 is adaptable to virtually all businesses. There is a great community > on the mail list and if you know perl you can do things yourself. Most of > us > use postgres as a backend, but there are choices, and it will work with > almost every Web browser. > > I've been using it for a decade now and really like it. > > Rich > _______________________________________________ > PLUG mailing list > PLUG@lists.pdxlinux.org > http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug > -- p.j.timl...@ieee.org www.timlick.com 503-476-3119 10990 NE Paren Springs Rd. Dundee OR 97115 _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list PLUG@lists.pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
