26 Reply by bruzergear

(10 replies, posted in Installation)

Thanks,

I tried deleting the .htaccess file and everything seems to be working now.

I am a little worried about having to delete that file to get things working on my server.

What exactly does this file do for the system? 
Are there any problems that I will experience without that file?

Anyways, I couldn't get Front Accounting to work with my Linux server when that file was in there and it seems to work without that file, so any explanation or answers as to why this is, would be great.

Thanks,
Dave

Go to forum: Installation

27 Reply by bruzergear

(10 replies, posted in Installation)

Thanks for your reply.

I can't find the .httpaccess file you are referring to.
I am wondering if this file was not included in my download.
I have tried both the zip and the gzip tar downloads and get the same result with both the RC Versions.

Please let me know where this .httpaccess file is at or if I am missing something.
Thanks,
Dave

Go to forum: Installation

28 Topic by bruzergear

(10 replies, posted in Installation)

I am excited to try the new 2.1 RC version after having used the 2.1 Beta versions with a lot of success so far.

However, I can't get the upgrade working from 2.1 beta to 2.1 RC.

I have also tried installing it from scratch and both the update and new install are giving me the following error:

500 Server Error
A misconfiguration on the server caused a hiccup. Check the server logs, fix the problem, then try again.

Any ideas on how I can get the RC version up and running?

I haven't ever had a problem installing previous versions of Front Accounting and am doing everything the same as before.

Thanks.

Go to forum: Installation

29 Topic by bruzergear

(4 replies, posted in Wish List)

Thanks for the great work you guys are doing.
One suggestion that I had, that would make things a lot easier for the purchase orders is this:

Make it so the drop down selection list of products on the Purchase Order Entry only shows the products for the supplier that is selected.

Right now you see all the products for all the suppliers.
This can make it difficult and slow to create purchase orders when you have lots of different products coming from lots of different suppliers, because you can't remember what products that particular supplier sells you and which ones they do not.

I think it is absolutely wonderful that we can enter the product pricing for the various suppliers we have and it would be perfect if we would just see the products for that supplier when placing a purchase order.

One other thing that might also be nice for Purchase orders is to be able to click on an icon in the Supplier Purchasing Data form that will go to the Purchase Order Entry form with that Supplier and Product information already selected.

This will make it easier and faster to place orders for companies that have many products that come from many different suppliers.

I hope that this request isn't too hard to implement because it would be very useful.

Thanks.

Go to forum: Wish List

30 Reply by bruzergear

(31 replies, posted in Wish List)

I am not disagreeing with the concept and legalities of the AGPL, I am just saying that if you go to the AGPL, you will get less people contributing to your project.

I again point to Joomla as an example.  If they used the AGPL license, then I think their project would not get even half the support and contribution of all the developers.
They would not have all those awesome extensions and addons out there that really make Joomla popular.

People would simple just take part in a different opensource community that is less restrictive on what they can and can't do with the code they develop.

I want to see Front Accounting succeed in the long term and that is why I am recommending you stay away from the AGPL, because I don't think you will attract the commercial developers you need in your community to help it grow and become more valuable to all who use it.

I think Front Accounting needs a lot of Developers making awesome modules for it.
There will be a lot more developers interested in making modules and contributing to the project if they can see that they can have the freedom to decide which parts of their code they want to give away for free and which parts they want to sell as a commercial module.
If you require all developers to give all their code all the time, then you will simply see a huge drop in development and get much less code contributed overall.
That is why Joomla is so successful and I can see FrontAccounting being very successful in the long term if they give  developers the same opportunities and freedoms that Joomla gives theirs.

In summary:
It seems that the real problem you are trying to solve is which license you should use to make sure that you get the community contributing as much code back to the project as possible.

I believe the AGPL will lead to less overall code contribution from the community. It will be harder to accomplish your goal of making FA the best opensource accounting software out there if you can't leverage all the talent, financial support, and code that would otherwise come to FrontAccounting if it was under a GPL license.

Dave

Go to forum: Wish List

31 Reply by bruzergear

(38 replies, posted in Wish List)

Alvin, thanks for the link to the POSper system. We'll check it out.

I agree, that the POS system would be a great module for frontaccounting.

If anyone is wanting to develop a good POS module or a bridge to another POS that integrates nicely with Frontaccounting, then we would be willing to help contribute financially to the project.

If Front Accounting had POS and Payroll modules, then we would be happy campers.   Like I said, we would help contribute to this if others are also interested in it as well.

Thanks,
Dave

Go to forum: Wish List

32 Reply by bruzergear

(31 replies, posted in Wish List)

Here is my opinion on it all for what it is worth.

We currently contribute money and ideas to many opensource projects.

We have been anxiously awaiting the release of FA 2.1 and to tell you the truth, the only thing we are hesitant about is the new license.

Many of the fastest growing open source projects we participate in are not using this new license you are thinking of going to and I think it is for good reason.

The new license will make people like me stay away from your project.   Mainly for the simple reason that it is different from what most of the rest of the open source community uses.
We don't have time or interest in working with Licenses that we don't understand fully or are not familiar with or which would require us to make changes to our business model that includes many other opensource softare applications.

I would suggest following the model of Joomla.  In my opinion they are really doing the opensource thing in the right way.
They literally have thousands of developers creating all kinds of modules and addons to their core system.  Some of these are commercial addons and some are non-commercial. Some release the code and some don't.  The key is that they have a very open and non-restrictive license that allows a lot of freedom to the developers and community to use and contribute to the software how they please.  This attracts a lot of people to their project and makes it more and more valuable to the developers.

Most of the contributions to the opensource software is made by programmers who are investing their time to develop new applications for their clients or are funded by people like me who provide SAAS to clients who have no interest in getting the source code, they just want  to make sure everything works.

Joomla use the traditional GPL v2 or higher.   They are living proof that if you use this license your project and community will grow tremendously.
If you use other licenses, then I believe your project will not be as popular with developers and SAAS providers in the future for a whole variety of reasons that don't always make logical sense other than it just seems restrictive even if it is not.

In my opinion, FrontAccounting needs to keep in mind that they are an open source accounting software system and that the people who are using this software will also be using website, cms, crm, and many other open source software applications out there to run their businesses. 

If you look at the best cms, crm, and other opensource business software out there, you will notice that very few of them use anything other than the GNU GPL type licenses and so I think you will get the most support for your project if you use the same licenses so as to not confuse or frustrate those that are trying to integrate your great accounting software with all the other great opensource and proprietary software they are using for their clients' or own businesses.

In summary, I would stay away from the AGPL license and if anyone says that the community won't give back or contribute under the traditional GPL licenses, then I think they are wrong and that the opposite is actually true.  Joomla is proof of that.  Follow their example and you may be surprised at how fast your project grows and the support you get from people like me that contribute to the success of projects like Joomla.

That's my 2 cents.
Thanks for the great software.  I look forward to the release of 2.1 under a license that will not scare away people like me who are anxious to contribute to your project.

Dave

Go to forum: Wish List

33 Reply by bruzergear

(38 replies, posted in Wish List)

The biggest thing with the POS is to get the credit card terminal integrated so that the total for the order shows up in the terminal and when the credit card is accepted or declined, it will either enter the sale or not.
Also for cash sales it is important for the change to be calculated.

As far as opening the cash drawer goes.  Most of the cash drawers out there sync up with the receipt printer. 
The receipt printers work just like a regular printer in that they can work with your browser to print a document.

Therefore, when a sale is made and a receipt is set up to print then the cash drawer opens up.

The bar code scanner also works with the browser just fine.  It just goes through the keyboard.

So in my opinion the only thing you need to worry about for POS is the credit card terminal so that we can do credit card swipe transactions easily.

It would also be nice if the receipt can be formated to print with a receipt printer that is connected to the cash drawer.

It would also be nice to see some "End of Day" or "Close Register"  modules so that we can count the cash in the register and generate reports based on the computer terminal that was used for specific sales.

Go to forum: Wish List

34 Topic by bruzergear

(1 replies, posted in Items and Inventory)

Thanks again for being so helpful and fast to respond to questions in these forums and for providing such a great product.

We have many suppliers for our products and each supplier sells us different products. However some of them sell us the same product but at different prices.
It is sometimes hard to keep track of which supplier sells us what and for what price.

My question is this:  Is there a way in frontaccouting to see who the suppliers are of a certain product and what price they supply it to us at?

Here's a scenario: I would love to be able to look at my inventory and see that there is a product that is running low in stock.
I would then love to be able to easily see who my suppliers are for that item and what price they normally sell it to me for. 
Then I would love to be able to select the supplier I wish to order from and create a purchase order for that product and supplier with the price field automatically filled in.
It would also be great if the products in the selection list are only products offered by this supplier so I can then add other products to my purchase order that I know this supplier offers and have the correct pricing show up for that particular product from that particular supplier I am sending the purchase order to.

In summary, I would like to know if there is a way to keep track of suppliers and the individual products and prices they sell to me at with frontaccounting.

Thanks,
Dave

Go to forum: Items and Inventory

35 Topic by bruzergear

(1 replies, posted in Items and Inventory)

Hello,
I am trying to figure out how to use frontaccounting for sales in the USA.

We have to charge sales tax for items sold in our store at retail price, but when we sell those same items at wholesale prices we do not have to charge sales tax.

I noticed that when you set up a new product that it asks for the Tax Type.

In our situation and every other company in the USA that sells products both wholesale and retail, we have to charge different tax amounts on the same item.

How do we do this with Front Accounting?

In my mind it makes sense to have the Tax Type assigned on the Different Sales Prices and not on the item, incase there is more than one tax rate for that item.

The other case that this happens is if we have multiple store locations. Each location must charge a different tax rate even though they are selling the same product.

Please let me know how to best handle this with Front Accounting.

Thanks for the great work.

Dave

Go to forum: Items and Inventory

36 Reply by bruzergear

(38 replies, posted in Wish List)

Thanks for your reply,

It sounds like you have some good things coming this summer with 2.1

Some of the critical features needed for the POS system to be valuable to retailers is the ability to integrate with their credit card processing systems and hardware.

In my opinion the credit card terminal, cash drawer and receipt printer all need to work well with the system for merchants to want to switch from their current POS systems to Front Accounting.

Bar code scanners are easy because they just work like the keyboard. But the credit card processing might be a little trickier unless you just tie into the authorize.net api and allow your system to work with card swipers that work with their system.

I think Quickbooks POS or Microsoft POS are ones that you can pattern after for features and hardware integration if you need some ideas.

WaspBarcode.com has some of the best and affordable equipment out there for POS and they have a technical support team that is easy to access by phone that could answer any questions you have related to hardware.  Their phone # is: 214-547-4100

In the future it would also be great to have some Payroll and Timetracking features in Front Accounting so we can easily manage employees and expenses there.   Timetrex.com may give you some ideas for payroll and tax stuff.

Hope this helps,

Dave

Go to forum: Wish List

37 Topic by bruzergear

(38 replies, posted in Wish List)

I noticed in the forum and the 2.1 demo that a POS system is being worked on.

However, I couldn't find where this was at on the demo.  The only link I saw was in in the setup area with a link I don't have access to click on.

Is there a place where I can see the POS system and how it will work?  I have a big need for POS and have used many POS systems in the past. I would love to give feedback and any help that I can in developing the best POS system possible for Front Accounting.

Please let me know what the vision is for the POS system and what features will be available in 2.1 for it.
Also what hardware it will work with.

Thanks,
Dave

P.S. Any idea on when 2.1 will be released?  It looks like it will have some good stuff.

Go to forum: Wish List

38 Reply by bruzergear

(6 replies, posted in FA Modifications)

One thing that would be great in the future for Front Accounting is if they allowed us to set up Custom Fields for each part of the system.

For example if you want to track specific data on a supplier or a customer or a product you could add custom fields to keep track of those things.

There would be more flexibility.  One system that does this pretty well is vtiger crm.

Check out how they do custom fields and picklists for their system and it might give you some ideas.

Thanks,
Dave

Go to forum: FA Modifications

39 Reply by bruzergear

(2 replies, posted in Wish List)

Thanks for the update, Joe.

I looked at the demo of 2.1.
Great job on the quick entry.  I am excited to use it.  I think it will really make front accounting much easier to use for those that don't have an accounting background.

You mentioned that you are having a POS option with barcodes.
That would be great.
Most of our clients run small retail stores and it would be great if their sales data at their POS station can go straight into front accounting in a similar way to how quickbooks POS works.
Most of our clients use quickbooks POS right now.

Any idea when you will be releasing 2.1?  I am sure you get that question a lot. 

Let me know if there is any specific help you need at this point and we will do our best to support the project.

Thanks,
Dave

Go to forum: Wish List

40 Topic by bruzergear

(2 replies, posted in Wish List)

We would love the ability to set presets for things like certain expenses, sales or transactions that happen often.

For example, if we have an expense like Fed Ex shipping charges that happen often but are not the same amount each month, it would be great to have the ability to just hit our preset button that will allow us to enter the amount of the transaction but already has the GL accounts preset so we don't have to select them each time.

It will save a ton of time with data entry.

There is a great example of how you could set up your presets in an opensource software located at: 

http://myfina.ridinglinux.org/

There progamming structure is similar to fa's in terms of how they set up their database for multiple companies and use php and mysql just like fa.

Check out there presets feature and it may give you some ideas for how you could do an even better preset feature for fa.

Hope this helps,
Dave

Go to forum: Wish List

41 Reply by bruzergear

(31 replies, posted in Wish List)

Thanks everyone for your great responses to my comments on the new license and opinions on front accounting.

I am very excited about what the future has for front accounting and I think if we are ok to just put a link to fa's website for our clients to download the code from there if they want it, then that would work just fine for us.

We will do our best to contribute any valuable ideas we have for improving front accounting, but it sounds like you guys are already on top of a lot of the things we would like to see.

We look forward to the future releases and we will definitely talk with our investors about getting some funding together that we can contribute to your project if we decide to embrace front accounting as a core part of our business.

Thanks again for such a wonderful program,

Dave

Go to forum: Wish List

42 Reply by bruzergear

(31 replies, posted in Wish List)

Thanks for your message, Rasmus.

I agree that it is important for everyone to give and not just take.
My main concern is that we do not want to make it a hassle or a confusion for our clients using our services. Or a hassle for us to provide our accounting services.

We are not very familiar with this new license and so I think a simple explanation of what we must do with our clients on our website would be helpful.

Will it be ok to  simply put a link on our website to the frontaccounting website page where the code is able to be downloaded? Or are we required to do more than that with this new license?  I read the license and it is not completely clear to me as to what we can and can't do.

We do not plan on making changes to the frontaccounting code.
We are not programmers, we are accountants who plan on using the software to help our clients and we would like to support the frontaccounting community by offering advice on how to improve the system and possibly even financial support for programming features that we need.

Thanks,
Dave

Go to forum: Wish List

43 Topic by bruzergear

(1 replies, posted in Wish List)

We are a company that is providing Software as a service for our clients.
We are looking at using Front Accounting for our accounting service we offer.
However we are concerned about this new license you are going to.
Our clients have no interest in downloading the source code.
Software as a service is designed for those who have clients that don't want to mess with code.

So my question is, if you go to this new license, how does it affect what we have to offer our clients?

Do we just have to have a link to your website where they can download the code if they choose? or do we have to actually give them the code and have a lot of hassle and headache getting our clients a bunch of code that they don't want anyways.

I can appreciate your desire to keep the community alive and for us to contribute to your project, but that license you are thinking about going to does not make any sense to me, because the only people it hinders are those who have clients that don't want to do anything with the code anyways, so why even bother?

Anyways, I like what you guys are doing and I hope that you stay focused on producing an awesome ACCOUNTING software.  Don't get distracted with all the crm, project management, and erp junk that so many others are trying to do. It only will make your accounting portion weaker because you will use up valuable resources to do things that aren't your core focus.
Just focus on having the very best Accounting software and you will go far.

We will do what we can to contribute to your project, but if you start getting distracted in your roadmap or start requiring users to  have lots of hassle trying to figure out the licenses and how to offer software as a service, then I think you will be making a big mistake and lose a lot of momentum in your project.

Thanks for the great work so far.

Dave

Go to forum: Wish List

44 Reply by bruzergear

(31 replies, posted in Wish List)

We are a company that is providing Software as a service for our clients.
We are looking at using Front Accounting for our accounting service we offer.
However we are concerned about this new license you are going to.
Our clients have no interest in downloading the source code.
Software as a service is designed for those that don't want to mess with code.

So my question is, if you go to this new license, how does it affect what we have to offer our clients?

Do we just have to have a link to your website where they can download the code if they choose? or do we have to actually give them the code and have a lot of hassle and headache getting our clients a bunch of code that they don't want anyways.

I can appreciate your desire to keep the community alive and for us to contribute to your project, but that license you are thinking about going to does not make any sense to me, because the only people it hinders are those who have clients that don't want to do anything with the code anyways, so why even bother?

Anyways, I like what you guys are doing and I hope that you stay focused on producing an awesome ACCOUNTING software.  Don't get distracted with all the crm, project management, and erp junk that so many others are trying to do. It only will make your accounting portion weaker because you will use up valuable resources to do things that aren't your core focus.
Just focus on having the very best Accounting software and you will go far.

We will do what we can to contribute to your project, but if you start getting distracted in your roadmap or start requiring users to  have lots of hassle trying to figure out the licenses and how to offer software as a service, then I think you will be making a big mistake and lose a lot of momentum in your project.

Thanks for the great work so far.

Dave

Go to forum: Wish List