Survey of existing FLOSS accounting systems (was Re: Revitalization of npoacct project; Brett Smith will take over as project lead)

[Chris Travers]

On Fri, Aug 26, 2016 at 6:43 AM, Chris Travers <chris.travers at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
> The problem at least on NPO ran into with LedgerSMB 1.2/1.3 was the fact
> that they had both projects and funds, and these are orthogonal.  A given
> transaction line could apply to *both* a fund *and* a project.  That's not
> something we could really support in 1.2 or 1.3.
>
> We solved that problem in 1.4 but frankly I don't know what the next issue
> might be.  And I don't know to what extent that is a general problem or
> something specific to their organization.
>

Just as a note as to how we solved this problem in 1.4 because it may be
relevant to other projects here:

SQL-Ledger had a concept of per-transaction departments and per-line-item
projects which we inherited.  The per-transaction projects had a major
issue in that it meant you could not really transfer money between
departments gracefully.

In 1.4 we changed this to a reporting dimensions framework.  Reporting
dimensions are orthogonal and enabled/disabled by module.  Then within each
module you can tag an item as belonging on each dimension.  So you can tag
a particular line item in a purchase for a specific project, department,
and fund.  Behind the scenes we intend to reuse the same structure for
manufacturing via time and material cards.

Then you can run reports on each combination of dimensions (so for this
department, this project, and this fund, show me a trial balance).

>
>
> --
> Best Wishes,
> Chris Travers
>
> Efficito:  Hosted Accounting and ERP.  Robust and Flexible.  No vendor
> lock-in.
> http://www.efficito.com/learn_more
>



-- 
Best Wishes,
Chris Travers

Efficito:  Hosted Accounting and ERP.  Robust and Flexible.  No vendor
lock-in.
http://www.efficito.com/learn_more
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