[linas@linas.org: Re: Wondering about features]

Linas Vepstas linas@linas.org
Thu, 26 Jul 2001 09:53:15 -0500


ccing the devel list.

----- Forwarded message from Linas Vepstas <linas@linas.org> -----

To: Federico Sevilla III <jijo@leathercollection.ph>
Cc: GnuCash User Mailing List <gnucash-user@gnucash.org>
Subject: Re: Wondering about features
From: linas@linas.org (Linas Vepstas)

On Thu, Jul 26, 2001 at 06:55:18PM +0800, Federico Sevilla III was heard to remark:
> Hi everyone,
> 
> I am currently attempting to set up GnuCash for a medium-sized
> manufacturing firm. Their current single-user MS-DOS system is out of date
> and is a major bottleneck as far as operations are concerned. I have only
> used GnuCash for my personal accounting but have been happy with it, and
> was wondering if it is ready to support the needs of this company.
> 
> Our accounting manager is a current fan of QuickBooks and Peachtree as he
> has used this in previous organizations he has worked with. I, on the
> other hand, am a Linux fanatic. I was hoping to be able to get GnuCash up
> and running for them, as aside from the fact that it's free, this is a
> chance to increase the use of Linux here. (BTW, I'm also looking for a
> more decent Micro$oft Office alternative than StarOffice which
> unfortunately needs per-user installations that makes it a pain to deploy)
> The local Linux users group I belong to is also interested in how things
> go as far as my deploying GnuCash is concerned. I am based in the
> Philippines and a lot of organizations here and even our government could
> benefit greatly from Linux and other GPL applications like GnuCash.
> 
> Our accounting department submitted to me a list of features or
> functionality required. I have prefixed with a 'o' all those that I am not
> sure exist, or don't know how to implement using GnuCash, and with a '+'
> all those I am confident are working.
> 
> I hope those more experienced with GnuCash can let me know how to work
> around or on the features with a 'o'. Or maybe the developers can let me
> know if these are in their todo lists or in their don't-expect-it-soon
> lists.
> 
>  + Multi-user capability, if possible with a database backend
>  + Double-entry accounting
>  o Subsidiary Book of Accounts (ie: sales book, purchases book,
>    disbursements, et al)
>  o Inventory management (since we are a manufacturing firm)
>  o Invoicing features

You can 'sort-of' work around these by hand, but anyone who likes peachtree
or quickbooks will be disappointed.

>  + Check-writing
>  o Exporting of existing data into reports that can be worked on using
>    spreadsheet programs
>  o Capability to view reports generated via the web

All gnucash reports are in fact just html, and gnucash uses the gtkhtml 
viewer to display them.  The 'export' button on the report will dumpt the
html to a file.  The currently is no (documented) way of running the reports
from the command line (e.g. cron job) to create them.

> I hope someone can help me in my "mini-battle" against the alternative
> Windows-based accounting applications. Thanks a lot in advance!

I doubt you'll convence them to use gnucash. But as you like open source,
you might check out a competitor: www.sql-ledger.com

--linas


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