[aclug-L] FW: Web-based Accounting on a Linux Desktop?

["Dale W Hodge" <dwh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Linux_Desktop_Apps@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:Linux_Desktop_Apps@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Thursday, March 07, 2002 1:33 AM


LINUX DESKTOP APPLICATIONS --- March 07, 2002
Published by ITworld.com -- changing the way you view IT
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HIGHLIGHTS

* Despite the high overhead, SQL-Ledger brings an effective and feature-
  rich Web-based accounting system to the Linux desktop. 

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Web-based Accounting on a Linux Desktop?
By Eric Foster-Johnson

The lack of financial applications comprises a major complaint about 
using Linux on the desktop. SQL-Ledger (http://www.sql-ledger.org), a 
Web-based multi-user double-entry accounting system, can help address 
some of those concerns.

Supporting invoices, packing lists, balance sheets, sales orders, and 
purchase orders, SQL-Ledger provides accounts receivable, accounts 
payable, and general ledger reports. All of the forms and reports are 
generated to HTML for display in a Web browser and you can customize 
the templates to create any of these forms or reports.

The speed and the completeness of the package, which provides a lot of 
support for businesses that sell physical products, is very impressive. 
A manufactured part can be made up of assemblies and services, and each 
assembly can be made up of other parts. When you sell a part made up of 
the other parts and assemblies, SQL-Ledger automatically updates your 
inventory and counts all of the proper items against the inventory.

SQL-Ledger comes with an impressive set of features, but it also shows 
what you can do with a scripting language such as Perl, which was used 
to program the entire package. The entire interface runs from a Web 
browser, using HTML forms, meaning that users at remote sites could log 
in and update data, depending on your security set up, of course. The 
development team is also working on a Perl/Tk user interface that would 
provide a native graphical user interface.

The requirements to run SQL-Ledger seem a bit steep, as you need a 
database on the back end. You can get a number of free databases for 
Linux, though, including PostgreSQL, one of the databases SQL-Ledger 
supports. Furthermore, if you are using an accounting system, you need 
somewhere to store the data, and a database is a better choice than 
most.

The installation instructions are still quick, though, with just a 
small number of steps. But SQL-Ledger requires you to install 
PostgreSQL, Perl 5, the Apache Web server, the Perl DBI module for 
generic database access, the DBD-Pg module for PostgreSQL access, and 
the SQL-Ledger package itself.

SQL-Ledger appears in 17 different languages and is quite extensive. 
The list of features at http://www.sql-ledger.org/features.html is nice 
for an accounting system. A demo runs at 
http://abacus.sql-ledger.org/sql-ledger/login.pl. 
This demo can give you a good overview of what is available in the package.

About the author(s)
-------------------
Eric Foster-Johnson has written 14 books on Linux, Unix, programming 
and open source tools. Eric can be reached at erc@xxxxxxxxxxxx or at
http://www.pconline.com/~erc.
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X-Watch
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