Purchase Order System for Linux?

trav3l3r asks: "Does anyone out there have any experience with Purchase Order software for Linux? Web based would be preferred. I am trying to set up a P.O. system for a small business (5 employees) in the area and trying to keep cost down for them. I have done the pre-requisite search on Google and Freshmeat and found very little. Any advice would be appreciated."

Comments

DotProject

[dj_cel]

I don't know how much this would help, but I am customizing this software (dotProject) for use as an order acquisition tool (webbased). I found it on http://www.opensourcecms.com/ They have some other stuff on there as well. Good luck.

Compiere

[jilles]

http://www.compiere.org/ Compiere might offer some things you could use.

Re:Compiere

[Red Pointy Tail]

Compiere at the moment requires an Oracle database, so unless you want to shell out truckloads of $$$, you might want to take a look at Fyracle as covered by /. earlier for a way to make it work with the open-sourced Firebird SQL database.

OfBiz

[mandreiana]

The Open For Business Project(OfBiz) is an open source enterprise automation software project licensed under the MIT Open Source License. By open source enterprise automation we mean: Open Source ERP, Open Source CRM, Open Source E-Business / E-Commerce, Open Source SCM, Open Source MRP, Open Source CMMS/EAM, and so on.

Re:OfBiz

[adolf]

Jesus fuck.

There's enough meaningless officious buzzwords there to kill a whole team of horses.

What does it DO?

Re:OfBiz

[llefler]

What does it DO?

We'd tell you, but then we'd have to kill you.

Obviously are you are not in the 'business', so you don't know the secret handshake.

ERP - Enterprise Resource Planning
CRM - Customer Relationship Management
MRP - Manufacturing Resource Planning
SCM - Supply Chain Management

E-Commerce is vague. It could be EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) But it looks more like it's just a web store. BFD. Covers B2C, but certainly doesn't my definition for B2B. No mention of EDIFACT or x.12? Maybe in 5 years if ebXML takes off.

CMMS/EAM - Computer Maintenance Management System/Enterprice Asset Mangement

Google will tell you what all the acronyms are. But, despite having all of this in their 'product description', I see no link between that and their features list that explains HOW they meet the criteria for them.

A PHB can see all the acronyms that an IT department might be looking for, but it will be a time consuming process finding out if the system actually supports any of it.

Of course, now I'm going to have to bookmark it as a reference and investigate the component projects they are using. Thank you, I'm supposed to be on vacation until tomorrow.....

Oh, and while OfBiz is MIT licensed. They are aggregating other open source projects that carry their own licenses.

Open Office works for me.

[dan.hunt]

Depends on the level of Purchase Order Control you would like. For many just tracking the document will be enough control. A Open Office Calc template can do this. Include a vlookup for the vendors name and address. Need a P.O.? Click on the template and OOo will create a blank document. Fill in the details and make a PDF, file it in a folder using the purchase order number as the name.

SQL-Ledger

[SwellJoe]

Someone else mentioned it, but I thought it worth a bit more verbiage.

SQL-Ledger is a full accounting system, and includes purchase orders, quotations, RFQs, sales orders, etc. It also handles general double-entry bookkeeping and most everything else you need to keep up with your money, your suppliers, and your customers. It has nice LaTeX templates for checks, POs, quotes, RFQs, invoices, etc. which are easy to modify if you know LaTeX and not horribly difficult if you don't, since there are instructions for editing with LyX.

I first tried it because of two years worth of failed attempts to make GnuCash work reliably (I've been told GnuCash is more stable today than two years ago when I last tried it), and I really needed to get out of the habit of doing no book-keeping until tax-time or until I realized a customer was late with payment. SQL-Ledger was a last resort because I thought I wanted a local GUI app, so I bounced around trying all kinds of things...and finally settled on SQL-Ledger because it didn't crash, lose data, or lack specific features I needed.

It's written in Perl, reasonably easy to modify, and support from the author is cheap. So, while it's not perfect, I don't hesitate to recommend it to folks who want something a little more flexible than QuickBooks (and the fact that it is web-based has been such a huge win for me that I'll never go back to local GUI apps for this purpose).

Anyway, it's not specific to Purchase Orders, but it handles POs very nicely, and I find I use the bits I understand and leave the rest for later (I'm not much of an accountant, but I learn more every day), and it deals well with working in that way.