OFBiz: The road ahead RE Accounting

[Pierre Smits <pi...@gmail.com>]

Hi all,

With the release of 10.04 we come to a point in time where we can think
about the future of the Accounting application. In order to draw up a plan
for future releases we would like have your input.

What do you feel is important? What should be in, what should be removed,
what can be improved?

Please join us in this discussion about the Accounting application.

Regards,

Pierre Smits

Re: OFBiz: The road ahead RE Accounting

[MikeBranch <mi...@whiterabbitservices.com>]

Greetings - I'm really just posting here to introduce myself more than
anything else, but first, to answer your question:

My main interest is in maintaining a core set of entities (and not just in
Accounting) that I can sync QuickBooks to. The main requirement here is the
stability of core features (general ledger, accounts receivable, accounts
payable, as well as a few non-accounting components like product catalog).

I've been tinkering with OFBiz "in the lab" for 6+ months, and recently
landed my first paid project, with another in the pipeline. At the same
time, I've been looking for ways to help QB users in the mid-market, who are
faced with using QB with multiple add-on applications and/or workarounds in
order to avoid making the leap to an expensive ERP system, which more often
than not includes an accounting module which is much less user-friendly than
QB. Most of the requirements QB can't handle well tend to be around
manufacturing, supply chain and eCommerce. OFBiz integrated with QB seems to
be the obvious answer.

I could go on and on about my plans for OFBiz + QB, but to stay more or less
on topic I'll just make 2 points:

1) At one time I was going to use the QB Web Connector and then add code to
OFBiz to talk to it (SOAP). This turned out to be a major pain, so now my
approach is to build my own desktop app to sync QB with core OFBiz
accounting tables, with minimal impact on OFBiz. Thus the need for relative
stability in OFBiz's core accounting entities.

2) Many mid-market QB users who are candidates for OFBiz will not want to
give up QB as their accounting system. That's just the way it is. But I
don't see this as preventing them from using accounting features that exist
in OFBiz but not in QB. As long as the necessary data makes its way to the
core OFBiz entities, such as invoices, I think the integration should work
fine.

There's obviously much more that could be discussed on this topic, but I
just saw your post and saw it as a good opportunity to introduce myself and
let everybody know what's on my mind.

Since my expertise is mainly in QB, I actually have spent very little time
looking at all the accounting features in OFBiz, but I will try to do so and
provide feedback. I would also love to be involved in any discussions about
making OFBiz accounting more user-friendly, based on my experience with QB.

Also, to complete my introduction, you should know that I spent 10 years in
the dark Satanic mills (Microsoft), and I have very little experience in the
open source world, so I hope you'll all be patient with me.

Thanks,

Mike Branch
www.whiterabbitservices.com


Pierre Smits-3 wrote:
> 
> With the release of 10.04 we come to a point in time where we can think
> about the future of the Accounting application. In order to draw up a plan
> for future releases we would like have your input.
> 
> What do you feel is important? What should be in, what should be removed,
> what can be improved?
> 

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Re: OFBiz: The road ahead RE Accounting

[Jacques Le Roux <ja...@les7arts.com>]

Hi Pierre,

I think it's good to discuss about those points like you are doing for accounting here.

I'd just like to suggest to do it only in user ML. I think almost all active devs are reading also user ML so they should not miss 
any messages. This will clear things a bit ;o)

Also when things will have settled down, I'd recommend to collect all the information in one wiki page and to create sections for 
each point. It's far easier then to work from there; creating a link to Jira umbrella with sub-tasks from there if necessary

HTH

Jacques

Pierre Smits wrote:
> Following improvements I would like to see:
>
>
>   - Better layout of reports
>   - e-invoicing
>   - import of e-invoices from suppliers
>   - import of bank statements
>
>
> 2011/1/27 Pierre Smits <pi...@gmail.com>
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> With the release of 10.04 we come to a point in time where we can think
>> about the future of the Accounting application. In order to draw up a plan
>> for future releases we would like have your input.
>>
>> What do you feel is important? What should be in, what should be removed,
>> what can be improved?
>>
>> Please join us in this discussion about the Accounting application.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Pierre Smits 

Re: OFBiz: The road ahead RE Accounting

[Pierre Smits <pi...@gmail.com>]

Following improvements I would like to see:


   - Better layout of reports
   - e-invoicing
   - import of e-invoices from suppliers
   - import of bank statements


2011/1/27 Pierre Smits <pi...@gmail.com>

> Hi all,
>
> With the release of 10.04 we come to a point in time where we can think
> about the future of the Accounting application. In order to draw up a plan
> for future releases we would like have your input.
>
> What do you feel is important? What should be in, what should be removed,
> what can be improved?
>
> Please join us in this discussion about the Accounting application.
>
> Regards,
>
> Pierre Smits
>

Re: OFBiz: The road ahead RE Accounting

[Pierre Smits <pi...@gmail.com>]

Following improvements I would like to see:


   - Better layout of reports
   - e-invoicing
   - import of e-invoices from suppliers
   - import of bank statements


2011/1/27 Pierre Smits <pi...@gmail.com>

> Hi all,
>
> With the release of 10.04 we come to a point in time where we can think
> about the future of the Accounting application. In order to draw up a plan
> for future releases we would like have your input.
>
> What do you feel is important? What should be in, what should be removed,
> what can be improved?
>
> Please join us in this discussion about the Accounting application.
>
> Regards,
>
> Pierre Smits
>

Re: OFBiz: The road ahead RE Accounting

[David E Jones <de...@me.com>]

I started a design effort along these lines a while back, perhaps it will get some more interest and attention someday, perhaps:

https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBREQDES/OFBiz+EZBiz

-David


On Jan 27, 2011, at 11:49 AM, ScottA wrote:

> 
> I'd love to see the accounting tightened up a bit and put into a more user
> friendly approach. While I am not a great fan of the closed source
> QuickBooks, it does make it very easy to navigate and get things done.
> Within a couple of clicks you are right where you need to be. After two
> years with OFBiz, the entire accounting UI still confuses me. I love the
> idea that OFBiz could run my entire business from start to finish. It has
> all the parts, it just needs the ui and process pieced together.
> -- 
> View this message in context: http://ofbiz.135035.n4.nabble.com/OFBiz-The-road-ahead-RE-Accounting-tp3241759p3243017.html
> Sent from the OFBiz - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

Re: OFBiz: The road ahead RE Accounting

[ScottA <Sc...@UnionDiamond.com>]

I'd love to see the accounting tightened up a bit and put into a more user
friendly approach. While I am not a great fan of the closed source
QuickBooks, it does make it very easy to navigate and get things done.
Within a couple of clicks you are right where you need to be. After two
years with OFBiz, the entire accounting UI still confuses me. I love the
idea that OFBiz could run my entire business from start to finish. It has
all the parts, it just needs the ui and process pieced together.
-- 
View this message in context: http://ofbiz.135035.n4.nabble.com/OFBiz-The-road-ahead-RE-Accounting-tp3241759p3243017.html
Sent from the OFBiz - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com.