Help non-profit orgs go from Costly proprietary to Open Source & Free Software

[Crow]

Remember .....  to require sophisticated accounting software the organisation would have to be sizable.   

I guess you're right... in some places.  Here the NPOs are strictly checked for government agencies because in the past some was used to laundry money, so everybody else is paying.  Supervisors are very picky and check everything, so good accounting software is important.

[Just17]

Remember .....  to require sophisticated accounting software the organisation would have to be sizable.   

I guess you're right... in some places.  Here the NPOs are strictly checked for government agencies because in the past some was used to laundry money, so everybody else is paying.  Supervisors are very picky and check everything, so good accounting software is important.

Good accounting software ......  it can be good and suitable for smaller agencies/charities/etc without being scalable to large organisations and without all the 'bells and whistles' of high grade sophisticated accountancy packages.
Here it is not 'good accounting software' that is required ......  but 'good accounting practices' ......  which could be carried out on paper without the need for software, by smaller organisations   

[The Chief]

Just remember this is a global forum, in those times we would be a lot happy to have " $2000 to $3000" in the bank, that is probably true for USA, not here, not then.

Well, with $20 or $30 a year dues, 50 to 100 members, and NO paid employees, it doesn't take long for it to accumulate.  No matter where you are.

Yes, very small organizations won't have it, but they probably don't have a computer to run this stuff on, either, so not interested.

[Yankee]

I haven't seen a Linux program yet, but I'm dying to,
that handles NFP Accounting specifically.     There's
some Windows programs around that do so and some
SQL programs that can be adapted and so forth.    But
asking one guy to do it is quite a task.

You might be able to get a copy of American Fundware
for less than $5k  but it would be a scaled down version.

Blackbaud is a super well done Windows SQL accounting
program to adapt, can be adapted to NFP, but not every
computer consultant can do it.   Does report writer adaptations
successfully, but knowledge of Fund Accounting (NFP)
would certainly be req'd.   Computer as well as Accounting
consultants would be req'd.

But starting from the Linux command line and doing these
things, have mercy.

If you had a stable Linux program that could do general
Accounting, payroll, A/P, A/R, journal entries, etc. you
could set that up.    And then use LibreOffice database
to program report specifications, like open A/R, financial
statements, and so forth.   Hopefully, LibreOffice has a
window where programming could be done directly into the
reports where the LibreOffice database functions might be
a tad bit short of what is req'd.     Or to open up more than
3 databases at one time to do a report, as that is also req'd
sometimes.

So I don't know, but SQL, in my experience, is the best way
to go these days.    PeachTree Accounting (another Windows program)
has the general Accounting done, but a very good report writer
adaptation would be needed again to do the NFP stuff.

If I had PeachTree for Linux, LibreOffice database, one good
programmer to add some code to LibreOffice datasbase, I think
something would click OK.   

But it would cost over $5k, probably closer to what was originally
thought of, to do the job over multiple years, fiscal reporting periods,
closing, reopening the books, and so forth.    With a GUI so I could
run it attended.    Ha !

A fresh grad programmer, no way.


.02

[Just17]

But starting from the Linux command line and doing these things, have mercy.

That is not the intention, as I understand it.
They will take an existing project, like for instance http://www.sql-ledger.com/ ,  and adapt it for use in NPOs.

[Yankee]

But starting from the Linux command line and doing these things, have mercy.

That is not the intention, as I understand it.
They will take an existing project, like for instance http://www.sql-ledger.com/ ,  and adapt it for use in NPOs.

You're absolutely right.

The project has to be dynamic, no conflicts allowed.   A project.

Getting the report writer to do certain things, like prior year
info, current year info, current month info, headed up correctly
in financial statement format.    From multiple SQL databases,
with minimal input from the Accountant, who really should run
the reports and check their accuracy.........

That takes much thought, but once done,  to me it's a kind of a
miracle.   Infallible, sown in stone, done without error or exception.
Worthy, worthy, worthy.

You should get a full time job as computer network administrator if
you've ever done such thing, at least I hope so.

Accounting's an art why  shouldn't computer programming be ?

regards,

Yankee

[The Chief]

Accounting's an art why  shouldn't computer programming be ?

Most people say it is...  a black art.