Mastodawn

https://alternativeto.net/software/quickbooks/?p=2

DEFUND.Aug 4, 2023

@RL_Dane Suggestions from AlternativeTo.net:

GnuCash
Odoo
HomeBank
ERPNext
Skrooge
Akaunting
GreenStash
Ledger
inoERP

Mahmoud - محمود عبدالجواد Aug 4, 2023

@brandon @RL_Dane I second #ERPNext

@mahmoudajawad @brandon

I'll check it out, thank you! :)

I'm familiar with a few of those, but I was wondering if anyone uses them for work.

proedie Aug 4, 2023

@RL_Dane @brandon Friend of mine uses #KMyMoney for his business. Or at least did a few years back. Don’t really know if he’s still using it.

I think I've looked at it before. I'll add it to my list of solutions to evaluate, thanks! :)

Ursidinoj/The Bjornsdottirs Aug 4, 2023

@RL_Dane I store data about all my transactions in a file I process with https://ledger-cli.org/

ledger, a powerful command-line accounting system - ledger

Website and documentation for the open source command-line double-entry accounting system named ledger

I love the idea of commandline accounting (I'm already doing command line time tracking and todos), but this is for work, and I need something that other people can use as well. :)

Vincent Cloutier Aug 4, 2023

@RL_Dane I’m using Odoo for my business and I’m quite happy with it. It’s open core though

I'll take a gander at it, thank you! :)

@RL_Dane https://hledger.org/ ?

aeris 🏳️‍🌈Aug 4, 2023

Home - hledger

plain text accounting, made easy

I love CLI apps, but I need something that'll be user-friendly to others as well.

aeris 🏳️‍🌈Aug 4, 2023

@RL_Dane https://hledger.org/1.30/hledger-web.html 🤣

hledger-web manual (1.30) - hledger

plain text accounting, made easy

AlexanderMars Aug 4, 2023

@aeris @RL_Dane that web interface looks interesting, but it seems like there’s a real lack of baked in security. Seriously, on what internet are you running an unsecured web interface for a book keeping program(something they elude to in the manual)? Really I wonder if I can run this inside my Nextcloud instance?

aeris 🏳️‍🌈Aug 4, 2023

@AlexanderMars @RL_Dane Usually you are supposed to run this web frontend locally, from where your accounting is. So not a real security trouble here.

AlexanderMars Aug 4, 2023

@aeris @RL_Dane yeah, these days I’m pretty skeptical of projects that don’t take security seriously. However it turns out someone did cook up a Nextcloud integration, which would be my personal preference for deployment.

https://github.com/37Rb/nextcloud-hledger

GitHub - 37Rb/nextcloud-hledger: Plain Text Accounting on Nextcloud

Plain Text Accounting on Nextcloud. Contribute to 37Rb/nextcloud-hledger development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub

Yann Büchau

@RL_Dane Very happy with @simonmic's #plainTextAccounting with #hledger:

https://hledger.org

Infinitely customizable, ultra safe data format, git versionable, flexible tagging, budgeting and forecasting capabilities. Great community.

But only if the terminal is your thing. 🙂

@simonmic hands out 100$ if you find a regression, that much they value stability.

Home - hledger

plain text accounting, made easy

@nobodyinperson @simonmic

I'm all-in to plain text and CLI apps for personal use, but for this application, it needs to be usable by an "ordinary mortal." ;)

Simon Michael Aug 4, 2023

@RL_Dane @nobodyinperson isn't that what hledger-web (and to a lesser extent hledger-ui) is for ?

Or anyway a start on that use case. My non-technical spouse uses it..

#plaintextaccounting #hledger

@simonmic @nobodyinperson

Aug 5, 2023

I'll check it out, but I do worry about the high mutability of text files. They're terribly useful for most things, and I use todo.txt (plus some script/plugins and a few of my own front-end bash functions for extra sugar), so I do love CLI and plain text stuff, but having all my business accounting in plain text gives me pause.

That may or may not be a rational fear. ;)

Simon Michael Aug 5, 2023

@RL_Dane @nobodyinperson
We (many PTA users, at least) get around that by keeping the text files in version control systems like git or darcs. If there's a killer feature I believe this is it - being able to see every change, roll back to undo, try alternate scenarios, optionally collaborate with others, etc. gives a great feeling of safety and confidence.
#plaintextaccounting

Simon Michael Aug 5, 2023

Also, PTA tools do much validation of the text files to catch errors, like a programmer's compiler. Another technique is to keep the plain text report output in version control also, providing even more visibility of changes.
#plaintextaccounting

@nobodyinperson @RL_Dane @simonmic

ToddZ Ⓥ Aug 5, 2023

This won't help OP, but I've been exploring #plainTextAccounting too and am kinda fascinated with Beancount.

Beancount is similar to Ledger & HLedger, but the author—besides making learning accounting engaging—chooses not to use the confusingly inconsistent presentation of "Debit" & "Credit" in traditional double-entry accounting, and simply focuses on which direction money is flowing.

He details a number of other differences here: https://beancount.github.io/docs/a_comparison_of_beancount_and_ledger_hledger.html

A Comparison of Beancount and Ledger Hledger - Beancount Documentation

⁂Krafty⁂ #NoKings Aug 4, 2023

@RL_Dane Does using a . txt file on my Linux laptop count?

That works for me, but unfortunately not for business.
If I were 100% in charge, I might have the hutzpah to go with that, but I'm not. ;)

Charadon Aug 4, 2023

@RL_Dane I've always heard GNU Cash is a good accounting software.

I've looked at it, but I'd only use it for personal finance unless I were more experienced with it. It's difficult to use something untested (to you) for business purposes.

Charadon Aug 4, 2023

@RL_Dane Obviously, i'd never recommend using something untested for business, but for personal it should be more than fine =)

mmu_man Aug 4, 2023

@RL_Dane I used Grisbi for non-profits, and now for my own self-employment, but it's GTK2 or so, has some rough edges.

There's also GNUCash, Homebank, Kresus…

You can check this list (in French):
https://framalibre.org/tags/comptabilit%C3%A9

In APT I see also Economize.

For larger businesses there are systems like Odoo or Dolibarr, but they need a server and quite some setup.

I know some people do it in #OrgMode other plain text system: https://plaintextaccounting.org/

comptabilité

Framalibre

Thanks, I'll check those out. :)

Hartmut Goebel Aug 6, 2023

In German iX magazine 2023/02 there was a market overview of #OpenSource #ERP. When appling the criteria "accounting included", "taxes and chart of accounts for D", "active German community", "no compulsion to commercially support", then apparently only two remain: #Tryton and #ERPnext. Whereas on the later article says: not easy to install.
https://www.heise.de/select/ix/2023/2/2229313092274680663
IMHO Odoo is not a good choice since upgrading between major versions is not supported in the community edition.
@mmu_man @RL_Dane

Marktübersicht: Open-Source-ERP-Systeme

ERP-Systeme haben sich zu einer universellen Managementsoftware für Unternehmen aller Größen entwickelt. Unter den zahlreichen Open-Source-ERP-Projekten finden sich leistungsfähige Alternativen zu den klassischen kommerziellen Produkten.

heise magazine

Aug 6, 2023

@kirschwipfel @mmu_man

If I go for a web-based solution (which seems quite likely), I don't think I will be self-hosting.
I'm just not ready for that level of complexity and risk. (Although any "cloud" provider has its own inherent and not inconsequential risks)

Donty Aug 4, 2023

@RL_Dane As a suggestion, you could look at https://www.frontaccounting.com/ and host on your local machine/server or run your own server on the net.

Generally quite good but localizing for VAT and stuff was more involved when I used it last.

Their demo at https://frontaccounting.com/wbt/pages/home/demo.php will help check it through a bit.

FrontAccounting - Welcome to FrontAccounting

Accounting, Web based Accounting systems, ERP, Purchase Orders, Goods Receivable Notes, Supplier Invoices, Sales Orders, Customer Invoices, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Items and Inventory, General Ledger, Budget, Manufacturing.

Thanks, I'll check it out! :)

Kai

@RL_Dane I run a simple operation here so gnucash has worked great for me tbh

Have you had any issues getting the data to an accountant for review?

So far, I've been packaging up an "accountant's file" with quickbooks and shipping it over.

My #1 and #2 concerns (in no certain order) are the ease-of-use for someone other than me to use ("bus factor"), and the ability to deliver the needed data to an accountant with a minimum of fuss. :)

TTimo Aug 4, 2023

@RL_Dane don't use #xero though. Completely overpriced.

Really? The price seems competitive to most online accounting solutions I've looked at.

I've heard that it has a lot of really slick features.

@RL_Dane if you are a small biz, like a bakery maybe with inventory and possibly payroll then I guess it would be ok.

@RL_Dane I'm a software freelancer, I just send invoices and pretty much don't purchase anything. So it wasn't worth the $30.

Ah, that makes sense.
Have you looked at Freshbooks? The IT contractors I worked with a decade ago recommended it highly for their personal finances.
You know, because they had to really keep track of all those benjamins while they were making twice what I was after a decade of laboring in that dying shop. :P

@RL_Dane I switch to waveapps (not FOSS) which does everything and is free .. I don't remember if I looked at freshbooks.

That looks pretty good! I like the payment option a lot.
Does it do double-entry bookkeeping?

@RL_Dane yes it has a full journal and ledger etc. I switched a year and a half ago, and haven't run into anything I was doing in Xero that I can't do in Wave.

Ahh, great. I'm glad that you're able to compare the two.
Does wave have auto-reconciliation as well?

@RL_Dane yeah it'll learn and categorize for you (can be hit or miss) and do bank account reconciliation.

*Nice!*

mirabilos Aug 4, 2023

@RL_Dane the LWN editor has repeatedly written about the same struggle and IIRC decided on one last year or so

Do you mean this article?
https://lwn.net/Articles/501681/

Already very helpful because they're describing things that I need in my solution, but didn't think to mention until now.

The accounting quest: Ledger [LWN.net]

https://lwn.net/Articles/925782/

Michael Cook Aug 4, 2023

@RL_Dane Over the years LWN has had a series of articles as they tried to replace Quickbooks too. They finally settled on a solution a few months ago.

The end of the accounting search

Some things, it seems, just cannot be hurried. Back in 2007, your editor first started conside [...]

LWN.net

Aug 5, 2023

@foobarsoft @mirabilos

Ahh, thanks for this. Very good read.

Unfortunately, from the journey they have described, it looks like no FOSS desktop program would be very workable for me, because the process of importing data from the dreaded QB is pretty pear-shaped.

I think I will investigate Akaunting for now, as they have a QB import feature, and I'll try to avoid going to xero, but may end up going there if Akaunting doesn't work out.

Michael Cook Aug 5, 2023

@RL_Dane @mirabilos Unfortunately that’s the impression I’ve gotten over the years too. As bad as QB is there is no great FOSS option.

Aug 5, 2023

@foobarsoft @mirabilos

Akaunting is looking pretty good. It's FOSS, and you can either self-host it or buy a subscription (pretty competitive pricing, from what I've seen)

Now that I've gotten pretty comfortable with Vimium C on Firefox, I'm not as dead-set against using web-based accounting (except for the lingering security concerns)

Qper Aug 4, 2023

@RL_Dane I used @ff3 a while. Found it to much for what I needed but that’s a really good thing in a way.

I'm not brave enough to self-host an accounting server, but it looks pretty cool.

gtb Aug 4, 2023

@RL_Dane We're currently migrating our company to Odoo. There are accounting features, you can have a cloud solution or host in your own server.

Thanks, they're on my list. I'll give them another look. :)

: j@fabrica:~/src;