On Sat, Feb 28, 2015 at 6:46 PM, Jeremy Baron <jeremy(a)tuxmachine.com> wrote:
> On Feb 28, 2015 12:07 PM, "rupert THURNER" <rupert.thurner(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>> What is so special about npo s so that Accounting software would need to
>> be special? Or open source accounting software just does not exist?
>
> You might start by reading Nemo's link. (The "Background" section is a good
> place to start.)
oh, should have stated that i read that. maybe it is better to copy
out what seems to be the reason:
"Our auditors were only familiar with proprietary accounting software,
and so our system seemed foreign to them, as it relies on Ledger CLI's
text files, Emacs and version control. During their questions about
our setup, we asked them to hypothetically prescribe a specific
proprietary software setup as a model for managing Conservancy's
accounts. Our chief auditor started by mentioning a few well-known
proprietary solutions. But then he paused and continued: Given that
Conservancy's a fiscal sponsor with so many temporarily restricted
accounts, existing systems really wouldn't do that good of a job for
you."
this means that they use ledger cli, a software written in the C++
programming language. in a time where 95% of the software is written
in languages like PHP, Python, Ruby, Java. for human beeings, this
would be comparable to speak latin nowadays. they use command line
interface (cli) when 95 % of the software has some native or web GUI.
last but not least they state that "they have restricted accounts",
when 100% of the companies operate with restricted budgets.
i would have loved to read why other software is not good enough, amongst them:
* odoo: https://www.odoo.com/page/accounting, or its fork tryton:
http://www.tryton.org/
* adempiere: http://www.adempiere.com/ADempiere_ERP
* compiere: http://www.compiere.com/
* SQL ledger: http://www.sql-ledger.com/
or others out of the list here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_accounting_software
or did i overlook something?
best,
rupert