Quasar (was Re: Status on NPO Accounting project: Conservancy seeks a contractor to begin work)

[Marc Paré]

Hi Bradley,

Le 2013-08-28 18:40, Bradley M. Kuhn a écrit :
>> It would seem to me that, taking a step back, there could be room for
>> >negotiating good relationship with the Quasar devs and trying to come
>> >to some kind of mutually beneficial relationship.
> Perhaps so -- although, is there any reason to believe their code base
> is miles above the many other codebases out there of this type?  I'm
> reluctant to burn time trying to get a codebase liberated that isn't
> uniquely suited.
>
They do have a proven track record for their software as POS systems; 
they are making a living on servicing clients and selling licenses for 
their POS modules; the GUI has been translated into some languages; 
there has been some international cooperation with some of their users 
as far as the tax label codes; their GUI is very familiar to MYOB users ...

Is it miles above other codebases? I would not be able to pass judgement 
on this, but I did work with GnuCash for my business a few years back 
and found the GUI a little confusing, tried KMyMoney, TurboCASH and a 
few others and when measured against Quasar's GUI, Quasar always seemed 
to win out. This is not to say that the learning curve is at zero, but, 
it is intuitive and the package itself is built for serious business 
usage. .

I personally don't think, if this project is going to "borrow" from 
pre-existing open source code, that the accounting principals coded into 
most well known accounting software packages will be the problem. I 
think where the package will either make it or break is at the user GUI. 
Familiarity and intuitiveness should be high up on the list of features 
to help ease its usage by groups with fewer "volunteer"/cash resources 
than others. Otherwise, the project will either fail in attracting a 
critical mass of NPO users or it will cater to those medium-large NPO's 
who can afford to hire an accountant with their own cash reserves.

This is also just a lot of talk about possibilities, there is no saying 
that Quasar would consider this as they have not been approached with 
the idea.

I wonder, how is the initial codebase going to be picked? Will it be 
determined by the hired dev? or will the there be a panel discussion? or 
has the code base been already decided?

Cheers,

Marc

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Marc Paré
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