Linux & MYOB

**disco2hse** · 14th April 2008, 11:30 AM

Originally Posted by Dougal

I was echoing your sentiments on the US tax laws not matching ours. I thought that was obvious.
If there's enough interest a patch could be developed for each country (or state) to take care of differences in tax and depreciation legislation.
But you'd need to get support from the accountancy firms to get decent uptake.

Oh right. Sorry. I misunderstood what you meant.

I don't think accountancy firm support is required because they have their own way of auditing data anyway. Most have, for example, import filters for accounting packages for MYOB and most individual packages have export functions for widely used financial formats. Firms tend to respond to statutory requirements, rather than the other way around, e.g. Sarbanes-Oxley.

The fundamental issue, so far as the small company is concerned, is that the package needs to have built in suport for the local environment because they are unlikely to be able to write their alterations, or have the resources to pay for someone to write the changes for them.

**kaa45** · 14th April 2008, 07:16 PM

GNUcash is completely configurable. Your make your own chart of accounts. WHATEVER and HOWEVER YOU want! Not what some programmer thinks you should have.
I made mine to work the way I WORK. Took a little time but the end result is brilliant.
Great info to help set it up and get started.

**Dougal** · 15th April 2008, 07:06 AM

Originally Posted by kaa45

GNUcash is completely configurable. Your make your own chart of accounts. WHATEVER and HOWEVER YOU want! Not what some programmer thinks you should have.
I made mine to work the way I WORK. Took a little time but the end result is brilliant.
Great info to help set it up and get started.

Yes but most of us running small businesses (I have two) don't want to spend time shagging around customising software that doesn't earn us money (though it can save us some).
My accountants firm offer full backup, support and compatibility with MYOB which is the biggest factor for most of their clients looking at an accounting package.
Which ever way you slice it, that makes the choice for probaby 80-90% of their small customers.

**disco2hse** · 15th April 2008, 07:46 AM

Originally Posted by Dougal

Yes but most of us running small businesses (I have two) don't want to spend time shagging around customising software that doesn't earn us money (though it can save us some).
My accountants firm offer full backup, support and compatibility with MYOB which is the biggest factor for most of their clients looking at an accounting package.
Which ever way you slice it, that makes the choice for probaby 80-90% of their small customers.

Ayup. I'm not in the business of making software work for me but to make money, to pay the mortgage, food, fuel, ...

Having said that I am still using the system I wrote 15 years ago for my accounts. The accountant is happy with it because I can give him exactly what he needs and I am happy because I have it set up to do just what I want.

I remember looking at GNUcash ages ago and really I don't think it is suited to a business environment. It is more of a personal accounting package. From what I can see, for example, it has no job logging and tracking functions so I can link them to invoices, payments, etc. Could be wrong though.

**kaa45** · 15th April 2008, 08:32 AM

hey guys,
It was just a suggestion. Go with what suits you.
GnuCash is constantly evolving. If you have a need, ask for it to be included in future releases.
I like it because I can make it work the way I want. And it's free. Having a computer/eletronics business and supporting small business customers, I'm always looking for free programs that work well to offer to my customers.
When Linux becomes user friendly I'll supply that as well (do me out of business, no more support calls for stupid Windows).
Live long and prosper,
Danny

**loanrangie** · 15th April 2008, 12:59 PM

Originally Posted by kaa45

hey guys,
It was just a suggestion. Go with what suits you.
GnuCash is constantly evolving. If you have a need, ask for it to be included in future releases.
I like it because I can make it work the way I want. And it's free. Having a computer/eletronics business and supporting small business customers, I'm always looking for free programs that work well to offer to my customers.
When Linux becomes user friendly I'll supply that as well (do me out of business, no more support calls for stupid Windows).
Live long and prosper,
Danny

PClinux2007 is about as user friendly as Linux gets or the 2008 version with Gnome as the desktop manager is also good- damn close to being a real Windoze alternative.

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