Small entrepreneur and Open Source Software?

[gregory house]

I have a friend who runs a small retail business. He uses Tally for accounting and inventory purposes. The problem is that he has thousands of items and each item/ group has a separate multi-tier purchase/sale discount structure.Tally cannot handle such stuff. When we contacted Tally regarding the same, they said that they would not be able to offer such customisation (this was some three years ago). Some other software vendors had products but if one had a feature missing in Tally, it would take away 10 which Tally had. The budget was another problem. A customised solution to this problem would cost at least INR 25,000-50,000 (conservative estimates) which he cannot afford.Finally I had to write an application in VB/ Access which handled all the item wise-supplier wise-client wise-rate management. The software exports a master file in xml which can be imported inside Tally. That is what he is using today.The problem is, although this method has been working fine all these years, the solution is basically a hack-job. It is neither here nor there and requires far more steps than a software that could actually handle both.So, about two months ago I started looking for an Open Source solution that could handle everything. I went through TurboCash, osFinancials and even Adempiere. But nothing fits his case. Adempiere might work out if I can figure out how to use that bloody thing.Open Source is always touted as the panacea for every thing. But the problem is that in this case, although the proprietary solutions are useless, Open Source does not do much better. If I have to spend two months reading a mountain of code in C or Java before I start editing something and hope that it works, it does not help him does it. It might in fact be a simpler solution for me, if I can find the time, to rewrite the entire inventory management feature that Tally provides and merge it with the multi-tier rate management thing.Anybody has any bright Open Source ideas?

 

[netfreak]

It would be cool if Open Source would work for him. I have some experience is setting up weberp. Lets see if that can help in this case.By the way... have you disabled PM?

 

[gregory house]

Thanks for the suggestion. I will check on webERP to see if it meets the requirements.And yes, I have disabled pm. Public posts work fine for me.

 

[netfreak]

Okay, I will be glad to assist in making WebERO or some other Open Source tool work in this situation. You can PM me for contact details.

 

[gregory house]

Have a confession to make. I am not very comfortable around server-style databases - SQL Server, Oracle, MySql etc. Can get up to speed in a few days if really necessary. But the problem is some thing else.

For those who are not sure of how Tally and similar accounting packages work, here are a few details:
[*] Stores data in flat-file databases (format is either proprietary or something like MS-Access)
[*] Backup-and-restore can be done to-and-from floppy-disks/ thumb-drives through the application itself. Or a simple copy-paste db/ folder through explorer.
[*] Are (nearly) idiot proof when it comes to installation.
[*]Allows a company to be 'split' into two at the end of a financial year. The old data can be backed up, the new company can be renamed, and business as usual.
[/list]Of the applications I mentioned, TurboCash and osFinancials (a fork from TurboCash) work similarly but don't meet the requirements.

Adempiere requires one to install JAVA JDK and Oracle XE. After that there is a complex series of steps that took me two hours to figure out. Got Adempiere running after completing those. But it is too complex for day-to-day accounting/ inventory management for a one-two man show.

webERP (suggested by netfreak) installation was relatively simpler because I already have EasyPHP installed (never needed MySQL till now). Added a virtual directory in the apache config file, modified the windows hosts file and then installed the demo company. Am working through the same.

But these things are too complicated for someone who is just about technically competent. We can forget about those who just about know how to do accounting and nothing else.

I was googling around and found this - Jim O’Halloran’s Weblog » Blog Archive » Open Source Accounting Apps

and this - BambooInvoice: Simple, Beautiful, Open Source, Online Invoicing

So, finally I have three options:
1. Make one of the above work.
2. Write an application in C# with an Access/ Firebird back-end and port the vb code to add to this. Have to find the time though.
3. Let him continue with the current setup till a configurable Open Source accounting-and-inventory package which is just about right for small businesses comes up (might have to wait for a long time for that to happen).

 

[netfreak]

I here that, its a mess if user has to manage mysql+apache+php.Good thing is, user does not need to. What I do is:1. Package PHP+MySQL+Apache as a Windows dekstop app. Configure MySQL/Apache to run on obscure ports.2. Create an app that is basically IE control embedded in a windows App / Is a URL shortcut.3. Package the whole thing as a setup.exe4. Generate export/import things that dump transactions in a single file. Basically a script around "mysqldump "For an end user, he clicks on some start menu thing, that program starts mysql/apache and opens up browser pointing to proper URL.basically a Web App packaged as desktop app. Is a hack but does not require constant access to Internet for "hosted" webERP and does not require end user to manage MySQl/Apache.

 

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[vishalrao]

lol, nice way to spamedit: this was addressing a spam post just above this one, which is now deleted by the mods i guess

 

[netfreak]

what?

 

[gregory house]

Had shelved this thing and tried to get yet another third party to write the app but to no avail. Finally decided to do it on my own in C# using firebird as the database. Don't know how long it will take.....

 

[sneezymelon]

I didnt get vishalrao's point :S