Financial accounting in openoffice ??

Guest

What do you people think about the idea of having a complete accounting application in starbasic and OpenOffice ?? Is it practical ?? What about the speed and scalability issues ??

The reason I am doing this is because the thought of a completely configurable accounting system excites me. You can make your financial statements look whatever way you want. Since, all rules and regulations will be stored as macros, it can be easily configured for different currencies, countries and languages. Keep in mind that our target audience will be only sole properietorships of small size so that we don't have to handle too many transactions per day. And this system will be operated by a fairly knowledgable accountant. The principle of KISS is the key here.

Now, what I want to know is that is there any similar work existing ? I am learning StarBasic and feel that I should be able to do it from scratch if need be. But, do you think it can be useful to any of you ?? Any further ideas ??

You CAN laugh if you think this is stupid !! Laughing

kx_in at yahoo dot com

The Liquidator · Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 3:54 pm Post subject:

An enormous task, I would think, which would always come a very poor second to the commercial applications out there, which appear to very much comprise of databases.

Ian

draude · Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 10:12 pm Post subject:

I think that's a really cool idea. It all boils down to implementation. If the installation, setup and execution of the macro is seamless and easy, then you may find quite a few people who want to use it. If you think about what a Quicken register does, it's basically a spreadsheet with built-in functions for accounting purposes. So, some basic macros on top of Calc could be the basis for an accounting application.

I often use spreadsheets for very basic accounting tasks. They're easier to use than Quickbooks and I can customize them for different needs. Having some built-in functionality via accounting macros would be welcome.

I agree with Ian that it will be difficult to compete with products like Quicken/Quickbooks but those products are expensive and proprietary. In open source, there's GnuCash which I haven't tried. But don't let these applications discourage you.

I think you should go for it. Sounds like a great reason to learn the OOo API.

Ed

GraemeWi · Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 11:20 pm Post subject:

I recently spent some time looking at freeware accounting packages...I was looking for a suitable system for a club with a couple of hundred members with a some merchandise, memberships, fundraising etc type activities.

I would welcome any development in the accounting area, especially with something that is open and easy to use.

Anyway here is a summary of free accounting pachages I have found:

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Critec Accounting was made by a NZ company...they went bust in 1998, leaving
their core program freeware. It's really good, the only problem being is that you can't
migrate data to or from another system.
http://tucows.wave.net.br/files6/critacct.zip - a 4 meg download. There is a little blurb on Tucows on it http://tucows.wave.net.br/business/preview/198045.html

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Found a neat freeware package from India called AQURA8 that looks really good, small download and is quite powerful - looks like a much better option than Critec Accounting. Just needs a bit of setting up as the defaults are Indian currency. It has a limit on the number of transactions per year (1000)
http://www.sadhanasoft.com/aqura.htm - click on download AQURA lite and fill in the form. There is a PDF user guide available from the site as well -also a free download.

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TurboCash is a commercial product that has just gone to open source.

It is a little more complex to use than OneStep, but is much more attractive in that it comes with several themes. It also has very strong export capabilities eg to text files, Excel, Email etc.

Download from http://www.turbocashuk.com/accounting-software-download.html
about 40meg. Very easy to install. You will need to get a registration code
as well from http://www.pinksoftware.com/pink/home.nsf/frmregister.html . I had problems getting my reg code email back until I tried one of my .com email addresses, it didn't like my .co.nz address.

There is a user guide you can buy for TurboCash, however it comes with a reasonable online help. I'm searching to see if I can find a free user guide for it as I believe it is a strong program, just needs more information. Somebody who is more familiar with accounting may be able to get it working happily more quickly than I!

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The best program I have found so far (that I can easily follow) is OneStepAccounting, closely followed by TurboCash.

OneStep can be download from http://www.enablecomputing.com/ choose the
Standard edition. You will need to pick up a registration code as well from
http://www.enablecomputing.com/ShowPage.ec?pageId=PGE5b0d18bea0002&menuId=MNU5b0d0744b0001

OneStep looks the easiest to use. One distinct advantage is that you can do one step cash receipts ie receipt cash from somebody who isn't a debtor so would be easy to use for memberships / donations etc. The only issue is that it doesn't export in any format. The standard version is free to use. 19 meg download, slightly complex to install as you need to do a install for a database engine (included in the download) before the accounting package. It comes with a very good 100+ page user guide in PDF. Also has quite good online help.

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Cheers,

G

Guest · Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2003 1:36 am Post subject:

The Liquidator · Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2003 1:42 am Post subject:

Perhaps I had better get my comment into perspective.

I work in the insolvency department of a financial services firm, or accountants by another name. The de-facto standardin the UK is currently Sage (not MS\Great Plains thank God - Yet!) and this is pretty complex, producing stuff like trial balances, aged debtors and creditors listings Profit and Loss etc, etc. They also work on the basis of double entry i.e for every transaction there is an equal and opposite entry, hence everything revolves on "balance".

It accomplishes this by linking a whole load of databases of course, and clients are encouraged to use it so that in the verification of their accounts they can simply transfer from 1 PC to another. So in the day to day business, buying and selling on credit, with assets that depreciate, then a specific package must be the way to go. Having said that, for club, church, personal accounts, i.e where there are no complex transactions and no desperate need for double entry, it is quite feasible that something could be devised that would run in OpenOffice.

Myself, for personal finance I run quicken 2002 standard - cost £20. I got this because of a little nasty in MS Money that wouldn't upgrade from 99 to 2002 wiyhout buying the interim one first! Gnu cash will open quicken files but as I can run quicken from Linux (simply calling on the executable with Wine) I haven't bothered using it, but it doesn't look bad as a package.

Having said that, it will be nice to see how Guest does with this.
Ian

maxqnz · Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2003 2:08 am Post subject:

If you haven't tried Gnucash, I would strongly recommend you check it out. I'm just starting in business for myself, and I like Gnucash's combination of functionality and simplicity. Plus it helps that it offers NZD as a currency option. Very Happy

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brianfay · OOo Enthusiast Joined: 09 Jul 2003 Posts: 133

Max, I like GNUcash also. I just wish there was a site like this for users to help one another with it. I haven't found such a site yet.

singingcrow · Guest

I"ve been in business for myself for two years now and have been looking for a freeware accounting program. Many I've tried are only trials and I have not been happy with them What I've been looking for isn't as complicated as they seem to make it. Acctuallly from what you've said... you want to create what I'm looking for. As for now I've simply designed Calc as a general ledger with basic calculations, but need somthing...extra. I have all the faith in your endeavours. Very Happy

Your work would be very much appreciated,
Singingcrow

elwis · Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2004 6:52 am Post subject:

Funny, I was just thinking on something like this myself, since there are too few good Accounting applications in the small buisness area that runs on Linux.
(But gnucash is certainly one of them)

get on with it, and please report back Smile

cwchia · Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2004 9:10 pm Post subject:

Just to share my experience with GnuCash.

I only have 1 word for it:

EXCELLENT!!!

I only have very limited accounting knowledge despite having studied Accounting for my pre-U as I was always sleeping during my accounting classes Embarassed

. I Started with GnuCash 1.8 that comes with MDK9.2 and it is so simple to use. Now my staff is also happily using it after giving her a simple demo. More so for those who find accouting terminology like 'debit' and 'credit' confusing, GnuCash has a great feature that making my life simple, it can swith between the accounting terms or simply change it to 'Expense' and 'Rebate' etc.

elwis · Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2004 9:55 pm Post subject:

Nice to hear. I thought gnuCash was a little bit confusing, but I never played with it much. Maybe I should grab myself a tutorial and give it another go.

Guest · Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2004 9:36 am Post subject:

It is indeed great idea to make a script, which works in already installed software, to do the accounting thing. I have always wondered why there is no accounting in "Office" package, since it is essentially place where it belongs.
About implementation. It has to use database. Any, that user wants, i.e. use a set of spreadsheets as a DB, use external DB, whichever is reachable in OpenOffice.
There has to be a possibility for plugings. Say, one plugin is written by canadian guy for canadian taxes, the other - by american, for US taxes, etc. Or plugin that perform reports of some needed type. It is indeed interesting to think what information should be given to a generic plug (API for a plugin?).
This script will run on OpenOffice, therefore it will run on ANY OS, on which OpenOffice exist. It will just help to spread the OpenOffice. Script nature - not compiled - will allow LOCAL guys to do what they wonna do.
With script, one uses already-invented-and-installed-weals.