I'll 2nd SQL-Ledger; it's a great option if you stay on-top of code updates and revisions, and if you're ready to dive into the nitty-gritty details of accounting and app customizations. My accountant never had issues with it; just dependent on me to write and run the right reports. He does payroll too! :-)
A number of my clients are accountants, and while many seem to greatly dislike Quickbooks, it's less with the specific app, and more how people muck with the structure that Intiut/Quickbooks provides. A few of my clients even go so-far as to assert that many businesses can be run from a well-setup spreadsheet - I'm not that brave. The structure of Quickbooks strikes me as great for someone not strong in accounting and needing to focus more on their business. SQL-Ledger is awesome when there's accessible accounting knowledge, in environments with needs and resources for customizations. While I have a number of years in SQL-Ledger, the growing and varied code forks have left me with a bitter taste. I've since started looking for other, "simpler", solutions that better fit my business model (IT Consulting & Datacenter Hosting). I've been evaluating Simple Invoices (www.simpleinvoices.org) for the past ~9months and having survived one tax season, I'm still quite happy with it. Extending Simple Invoices is also proving far easier than SQL-Ledger...but then that statement is based on my specific skills, available time, and continuing business needs, so YMMV. The idea of importing all my SQL-Ledger data...not so happy about that. - Gregg Solid IT Support & Hosting Since 1995: www.tocici.com Small Parts Design & Machining: www.berkholtz.net On May 25, 2010, at 4:14 PM, Rich Shepard wrote: > On Tue, 25 May 2010, Kris wrote: > >> I ran a company on sql-ledger for 5 years before we finally broke down and >> migrated to Quickbooks last Fall. Mainly we were fighting accountants who >> wouldn't learn the system, extended training for bookkeepers, weird bugs, >> and lack of help for those who aren't accountants (me!). > > My accountant runs Windows only because that's the only platform on which > her tax software runs. She uses Quackbooks, as do almost all of her clients, > and she hates it. It's inflexible and forces users to do things its way, not > their way. > > My accountant doesn't know SL, and doesn't care to. I send her the reports > she needs for quarterly and annual filings (as .pdf files) and she works > from those. There are many consultants who can train bookkeepers on SL; > that's their business. Bugs have been common in SL because Dieter's coding > is rather sloppy; the folks doing Ledger123 and LedgerSMB are fixing bugs as > soon as they are identified and located. They're also adding enhancements. > > The mail list has been a powerful community for help, both the original > one set up by Dieter and the current one run by Armaghan. I remember > answering questions about double-entry bookkeeping and similar issues, and > I'm not an accountant, either. The accounting questions (in which > journal/ledger do I post this transaction?) are best answered by the > accountants. The bookkeeping questions (how to I do this in SL?) are readily > answered by mail list subscribers. I recall a tee-shirt printing company in > Texas who got help from the list, and several companies who figured out how > to do POS and manufacturing assembly accounting with the help of the mail > list community. > >> Sql-ledger always required odd workarounds for some things. The >> accounting firms also rejoiced our decision, and we no longer had to pay >> twice the time for them to muck around sql-ledger. > > Your experience is quite different from that of most of us. > >> As for payroll and invoicing AR, forget Quickbooks. We used PayCycle >> (which after two years of happy service, they sold out to Intuit), and for >> billing used Harvest, a SaaS[1] (getharvest.com). > > If I had payroll I'd pay my accountant to do it; she's up on all the laws > and requirements. A/R and A/P are simple with SL. And, unlike commercial, > shrink-wrapped applications, you can tune it to suit your specific business > and the way you run it. > >> We fought hard for sql-ledger, as our business model depended heavily on >> FOSS; I >> myself have been using Debian since you had to write your own X modelines! >> In >> the end we admitted defeat. It was hurting our ability to manage the >> business, >> and manage cash flow. > > That's not the fault of the application. Don't blame it. > > Rich > _______________________________________________ > PLUG mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
