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Mid-Range Accounting Solutions for Linux?

Posted by Cliff on from the penguins-in-big-business dept.

markdavis asks: "For Linux to really succeed in business, it must first have support by vendors for the core financial applications: General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, and Payroll/HR. I am the IT Director for a long-term-care medical facility (400 employees) and found out a few weeks ago that the vendor that supplies our GL, AP, HR, and Payroll software is dropping support for Linux, in November (after using them for four years). They code in Progress and have decided to convert to a proprietary web GUI (IIS + IE6 + ActiveX) rather than use Progress + Apache + any browser. This means we either abandon Linux, or we are in the market for new accounting software modules (I bet you know which is my preferred choice). Does anyone use Linux server AND client (or web browser under Linux) software for financials in a medium or smaller/medium sized organization? If so, what do you use? Do you like it? What problems did you have in using it? What other advice can you give to someone trying to use Linux in this manner?" All businesses require the core accounting functions, mentioned above. Most companies also require 'industry specific' software which is customized for their industry. For example, in healthcare, AR (Accounts Receivable) is VERY different from all other industries. It is 2007, so hopefully the Linux choices for at least the core, non-industry specific financial software have improved since our last search, four years ago.

have been working on an RFI/RFP (Request for Information/Proposal) and identifying as many possible vendors as possible. I have searched through hundreds of vendors so far and identified 39 possibilities, but could always use more."

7 of 137 comments (clear)

  1. "For Linux to succeed..." by LDoggg_ · · Score: 3, Informative

    For Linux to really succeed in business

    Why do people so often preface Linux questions with things like that? "For Linux to really succeed in business" "For linux to succeed on the desktop".

    Linux is succeeding in many aspects. Success doesn't have to mean 90% of the market share.

    Anyway, that pet peeve aside. Take a look at compiere. Only drawback that I see is that it requires a non-free database to run on top of.

    --

    "If they have both, tell them we use Linux. And if they have that, tell them the computers are down." -Dave Chapelle
    1. Re:"For Linux to succeed..." by numbski · · Score: 4, Informative

      Precisely. My company does Windows -> Linux/Mac migrations. I just did a small 2-machine shop yesterday, moved both machines to Kubuntu. Client's happy, I'm happy, and he didn't pay Microsoft to upgrade to Vista. :) He needed to reload, didn't have his Windows installer discs, and well...

      The 90% market share isn't important. Get the small stuff first. Market share comes with time. I can tell you this much: anyone I've moved from Windows to mac has NOT wanted to go back. I have had an occassional user go from Linux to Mac, usually because product X needs commercial support, but is not available on Linux, but none have gone back to Windows. None.

      Linux has and is succeeding. So is FreeBSD. All of my servers, sans a couple of Mac OpenDirectory servers, run FreeBSD. I interoperate with several other ISP's around here, 2 run FreeBSD, another runs on Linux.

      Yup, it's failing. :P

      --

      Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).

  2. Oracle by stoolpigeon · · Score: 2, Informative

    Oracle offers a few packages that do all the things you mention - and will run on a variety of platforms. They have versions of at least two of their products that are tailored for small to medium business. So you could take a look at: http://www.oracle.com/applications/suites.html
     
    I've never worked with any of their small business stuff -- so I can't recommend it, just pointing it out.

    --
    It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
  3. LedgerSMB by 6031769 · · Score: 5, Informative

    I think just about everything is now covered in LedgerSMB or the project from which it was forked - SQL-Ledger. My business has been using these systems for the last four years and has found them to be stable, flexible and reliable.

    The back end runs on an Apache server with PostgreSQL underneath. The client side can be just about any browser platform (including Lynx). There are online demos where you can test most of the functionality before deploying in your own network.

    HTH.

    --
    Burns: We're building a casino!
    McAllister: Arrr. Give me 5 minutes.
    1. Re:LedgerSMB by itwerx · · Score: 2, Informative

      I think just about everything is now covered in LedgerSMB or the project from which it was forked - SQL-Ledger. My business has been using these systems for the last four years and has found them to be stable, flexible and reliable.

      We've been using SQL-Ledger for a couple of years now and while it does a great job, it has a few minor annoying bugs that have lasted through several development cycles and the long-awaited payroll module is still nowhere to be seen. What have your experiences with LedgerSMB been like?

  4. Re:Go with the leader by div_2n · · Score: 2, Informative

    SAP is right now aggressively marketing to mid-sized businesses with pricing quite competitive. I know this because I've taken a few sales calls from them.

  5. OpenBravo by ninevoltz · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://demo.openbravo.com/ OpenBravo is the only one I've seen that looks promising. Compiere was incredibly difficult to setup, I never actually succeeded. Try the demo link above. Don't even think about using Sage products. They are TERRIBLE! I speak from experience here. They were written using 20 year old "Business BASIC" language. They are not even truly client-server applications, they use file sharing and locking instead. Very unreliable. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ProvideX

    --
    Death is life's great reward. R. Hoek