Hi all,
If you'll bare with me... :)
I've just joined the committee for my daughter's pre-school; a not-for-profit, community service.
The Federal Government (Department of Family and Community Services) requires that they provide information and funding/refunding material etc, to them in a particular format. One of the recommended programs is called CentreCalc, e.g.:
http://www.facs.gov.au/internet/facsinternet.nsf/childcare/services-software_issues.htm
Quote:
"The software packages listed in the table below have been authorised for disk lodgement of child care usage statements. The authorisation of these packages is limited to the statements for payment summary and child care usage modules, and does not extend to other aspects of the software package such as receipting and invoicing"
I've had a look at the options provided and they appear to be all proprietary software. The major problem is that, as with CentreCalc, they issue new versions (that meet the changing standards of FACS) and build them for upgraded OSs. For example, the current version runs on Winders98 (it did run on Win95), W2k and XP - I spoke to them by phone and they 'suggested' XP, though agreed that W2k would "currently" do the job.
The present PC is running Win95 and is not powerful enough to run W98. So an upgrade is required (which I'm looking into).
Finally, can anyone provide advice about where to start in looking at encouraging an FOSS version. Other services around the country would be in exactly the same position. If each contributed a small amount of money, it would be, in total, quite a large amount of money (grass-roots action etc).
Is anyone aware of whom I may be able to speak about the possibility of an FOSS version of such things? I've done a quick search but no luck. Who would I speak to about getting such a package developed?
Any advice etc would be most appreciated.
(Sorry for the long story)
Regards,
Patrick
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