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Hi listers! It's been a long road coming to LedgerSMB and I don't know if this will be the end. I've been building systems of all types for professional applications since way back in the day. Mostly for A/V and DTP. I moved to a small town a couple years ago and it was like moving to the 80's (it's one of the charms, not a fault) - not much use for pro A/V systems though. This region is however rich with small businesses and entrepreneurs in need of technical services and modern systems to run their businesses . Ya for me! Most are only aware of commercial applications run on windoze and end up paying through the nose for programs they only use a little or want to run pirated copies. I started setting up systems using 100% open source software and since these businesses need both the applications and the support, I can offer them great on-site support (I can usually get away with walking or riding my bike) for custom systems with oodles of capabilities: inhouse graphics and layout, pos, accounting, tracking and invoicing, contact management, etc... - I also recently built a realtime video mixing and manipulation rig for a company that promoted live music in the area using 100% open source software and am working on a barcoded ticket printing system. I'm now working with one business initially to develop a solid system to use in a production and retail environment. A good accounting package, pos, payroll, cheque printing, etc... is what I'm looking for plus I am producing some custom features, namely a recipe database, that will sit between sales tracking and the vendor / purchasing system to track base ingredients. It also prints custom product labels calling on psql for ingredient data, price, etc... I've tried a number of ERP/CRM's already, Openbravo and TinyERP being the two that stood out. OB imo is too big / complex for a small business. After the initial learning curve, expected with any app, it seems it will still take up a lot of time to use. Fine if you have on staff a bookkeeper or accountant but for a business owner who has to wear many hats... I'm still keeping an eye on TinyERP though. It's nice but I'm concerned about the workflow for my current client and how I will implement some of the custom functions. I also really like SQL Ledger but the switching of licenses, lack of keys (i don't know this for a fact, just read it on the LSMB site) and concern of how custom functions I produce will be received and supported in future releases is a concern. All this brings me to LedgerSMB. I like the framework and the open community. I'm excited to start offering services locally setting up nice 100% open source systems for small businesses in my area but have to admit my lack of understanding accounting practices and concepts has made this very difficult. Building applications and seeing how it all works together is no problem but choosing an application that will suit the accounting needs of a small business is outside of what I know. There is a local firm that handles accounting for many of the businesses and I'm going to approach them in working together in offering services but first need to have a solid foundation. More later, I'm sure I've wasted enough of your day. I'd love to hear any comments or suggestions. dh Express yourself with free Messenger emoticons. Get them today! |