On 3/7/07, Brett Neumeier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi, > > My employer is evaluating accounting software packages. We've set up a > sample LedgerSMB instance (using the recent 1.2.0 release candidate), > poked around at it, and looked at the documentation; and now our finance > guy has some questions. I thought I would pitch them here, and am > hopeful that someone will be able to answer one or more ... feel free to > reply off-list; if I get any useful off-list answers, I'll aggregate > them together and post them back. > > Also -- if there is a better forum for seeking this sort of information, > please let me know! > > 1. What happens when there is a problem with the software?
Well, if there is a bug which is a new or severe issue and is common, we fix this as quickly as we can. If it is an older bug in the inherited codebase which is not trivial to fix, we may defer it while we figure out exactly how best to fix it. If this is critical for you and not to everyone else, you can accelerate the re-engineering of the software or sponsor a bugfix. > > 2. How would you rate customer service? Well, I think it is great, but then I tend to be a large portion of the customer service so.... > > 3. How easy is it to query data? I suppose it depends on what you mean. It isn't hard to query data from the user interface as long as you don't have custom reporting requirements. If you do, you can either add reports (which is not too difficult), pay someone to add the report, or use other methods. For example, you could set up OpenOffice.org Base or Microsoft Access to create custom queries of the data from the PostgreSQL back end. You could use JasperReports, etc. if you wanted. Or you could simply create database views and export to spreadsheets. > > 4. Does having multiple users create issues? No. As of 1.2, we will even support Slony-I for replication of the database. > > 5. Can we integrate with tools like F9? > I have no idea. However, reviewing their web site, it looks like it should be possible to make this happen via db views, odbc, and the like, > 6. Can we create and consolidate multiple companies? Creating the companies is easy. Consolidating is less so. It can be done, naturally, but to consolidate, you would reqire some expertise in database systems. > > 7. Can we easily export reports to MS Excel? I believe there are two ways of doing this. You could copy/paste the HTML table into Excel, or you could create a custom view in PostgreSQL and connect via ODBC. I generally prefer the latter. As we continue our rewrite of the software, this will get far easier. > > 8. Can we create imports from Excel files? Not at the moment. As I think about it, it should be possible to add support for Excel 2003 and 2007 files via XML transforms. But it is probably easier to do a CSV import. > > 9. Can we upload a budget and track against it? Not yet. This would not be hard to add. It would take me less than a day. Other people could probably do the work as well. > > 10. Can we create custom fields for GL, AR, AP that can be used for > search and reporting? Yes, but these are not supported on GL or for searching yet. It is not hard to add, however. You need it, we can add the search functionality and/or GL support. Note, however, that this does require that you modify the user interface. > > 11. Can we run without inventory? How do we get pass that module? Use AR/AP transactions and/or use services instead of parts. > > 12. Can we auto generate invoice numbers? Yes. This happens by default. Leave the invoice number blank and one will be generated for you. > > 13. Can I create AR reports by sales person? Yes, but it requires a custom view. > > 14. How easy is it to transfer data from old system – QuickBooks? > Customers/vendors/parts can be transferred easily using converters on the SQL-Ledger site. (we may need to modify some of these when we get to 1.3.) The financial data is harder to move because Quickbooks makes it harder. Best Wishes, Chris Travers ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys-and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV _______________________________________________ Ledger-smb-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ledger-smb-users
