[ic] Accounting?

[interchange-users@icdevgroup.org (Dan Browning)]

At 12:01 PM 8/12/2002 -0700, you wrote:
>Dan Browning wrote:
>
>>At 07:58 AM 8/12/2002 -0700, you wrote:
>>
>>>Dan Browning wrote:
>>>
>>>>At 09:42 PM 8/11/2002 -0700, you wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>I'm curious to know how Interchange handles transactions. Is there any
>>>>>ledger type accounting included?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Interchange does a lot, but it doesn't try to do all the accounting 
>>>>(GL, AR, etc.) itself.  For Quickbooks, the extensions/quickbooks 
>>>>directory in the tarball has been around for quite some time.  More 
>>>>recently, Mike Heins has been working on a SQL-Ledger module originally 
>>>>written by Daniel Thompson <danht@callthenet.com>.
>>>>Checkout the latest 4.9 CVS to test that out.
>>>>
>>>>>If not, how difficult would it be to
>>>>>integrate with a third party accounting system?  If anyone knows of any
>>>>>open source Perl Accounting scripts, please reply.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>SQL-Ledger is written in Perl.  I highly recommend another open source 
>>>>accounting/ERP/CRM system, Compiere (http://www.compiere.org).
>>>>Compiere developers are interested in integrating it with IC (its about 
>>>>50% down the TODO list), but it hasn't been started yet.
>>>>Another option available to you is engaging a competent IC consultant 
>>>>to integrate IC with whatever backend you want (i.e. already use).
>>>>There have been two integrations with MAS90, another via DBI::Proxy 
>>>>(forgot the backend name), and many others I'm sure done by various 
>>>>consultants.
>>>
>>>
>>>Compiere does have a lot of promise, but the challenge is that it is not 
>>>a ERP system yet as it hasn't any manufacturing or MRP systems at least 
>>>as the last time I exchanged messages with the developer back in June...
>>
>>
>>Well, you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.  ;-)  Not everyone 
>>manufactures their own products, so it fits the definition of ERP for a 
>>lot of people (and these days, everyone makes their own definition).  But 
>>a funny twist is that (being an open source project), someone is already 
>>working on additional MRP features:
>>
>><quote Michal Materny>
>>I am working on mrp with some elements of master scheduling. Alpha stage is
>>planned at november. Scheduling solution will be based on Preactor so 
>>only interface
>>will be provided by me.
>></quote>
>>
>>So you may want to look at Compiere again in a few months.  :-)  Cheers,
>
>Hi Dan,
>
>I meant no ill will with my comments, in fact the main man behind the 
>project (Jorg Janke) was very interested in my manufacturing requirements, 
>so I do know that it is a 'work-in-process' (pun intended) but I believe 
>that even he would still admit that in the ERP sense, it has not yet been 
>developed as there is no MRP, MPS, Integrated BOM/Routing/Costing (ie. 
>Standard, FIFO, LIFO, Average)/Variances to GL, Cycle Counting, etc...  It 
>more resembles a distribution system at the moment and for that I'm sure 
>it does a fine job, we were just looking for a potential replacement for 
>our cable manufacturing plant in England, I've had all of Sage I can take 
>:-) ...

Gotcha.  I've had to do MAS90 (not to mention BusinessWorks/Peachtree) 
stuff myself, and they definitely have their quirks.  What's nice about 
MAS90, however, is the plethora of specific-industry modules that handle 
niche markets (supposedly, I guess, since I have yet to need one ;-) ).

But I think as businesses redirect their license fees into open source 
development, a lot of neat stuff will be coming down the pipelines.  CRM 
Daily ran an article (http://www.crmdaily.com/perl/story/18858.html) on the 
idea that soon open source CRM apps are going to take more market 
share.  Anyway, I should probably cap my OT traffic at some point...  cheers,
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| Dan Browning, Kavod Technologies <db@kavod.com>
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chemistry is applied theology.
                 -- Augustus Stanley Owsley III