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Hi @apmuthu, ah yes, I see great heights ahead!

A couple of quick questions, if you will:

1. Since we are only going to use FA in its most basic form, do you think it would be safe to start with v2.4?

2. Is it possible to enter purchase orders without any items in inventory, so that invoices from suppliers can be matched to the original PO?

Tks, A

Hi @instance, I appreciate your appreciation, but the thanks really must go to @apmuthu for being so helpful.

I think FA is a tremendous system that meets almost any accounting requirement that one could run into, and it has many features that go well beyond most other systems I have seen.

Of primary importance for us is the fact that it is written with good old php/mysql, so it is relatively easy to make custom linkages for shopping carts like we need. We also have a number of different divisions within our company, and the 'dimensions' feature makes divisional tracking very easy.

We had some other software/hardware engineering that took priority, and I had actually dropped this accounting project since Christmas, but today we are starting back on it. We have just finished up the fiscal year end in our old MYOB system, so we're ready to start the new calendar year with FA.

I have decided that for now we will not tackle inventory control as we have limited time to spend on it. We have multiple warehouse locations in different countries, so that will take some time to properly implement. Nice that it can accommodate that situation, though!

We're going to set it up so that it at least is doing what we are doing with MYOB, and we'll expand on the features as the year progresses. It's a new environment for our accounting department and I don't want to throw too much at them too quickly. It's tricky enough that our home currency is CAD, but our sales currency is $US (almost all our biz is worldwide export).

We had a lot of discussion about the Canadian COA, and after careful analysis I decided there really wasn't a whole lot of difference between the standard US version and what would be a Canadian version. So we're going to stick with the US version and just modify it as we go, via the regular UI.

So today I'm going to do a fresh install, using the link from apmuthu elsewhere in this thread. I'll be installing and configuring it on our 10' projector screen so that our accounting crew can see exactly how it is done, and then we'll proceed with an exploration of the menu system to see how it works. It should be quite an adventure ... if accounting can be looked upon that way.

Cheers, Adrian

Hi apmuthu, I agree, I had actually been thinking about how I could keep the CoA differences separated, there really isn't much difference. This would allow the generic US CoA accounts to be somewhat standard, which will probably make things easier in the long run. After all, double entry accounting is double entry accounting, no matter where you are.

Thanks for the CoA tips, I'll keep muttering along ...

Regards, Adrian

ah, thanks, using the wrong word to search ...  transactions <-> orders

Hi apmuthu, ok, I see the changes I need to implement. Just to be really clear, when I see - and + symbols in front of a line in the FAmods at github, it means add(+) and remove(-), is that correct? like here:

- PRIMARY KEY (`parent`,`component`,`workcentre_added`,`loc_code`),
+ PRIMARY KEY (`parent`,`loc_code`,`component`,`workcentre_added`),

I'm also finding there is very little difference between the US and Canadian CoA's, and the Canadian one is actually missing quite a few accounts that we would use (that are in the US one), so I think I'll make a whole new CCoA anyway.

Regards, Adrian

Hi @apmuthu, one question I had about the US CoA is that I am getting a sql error with regards to the indexes on the 0_bom table, could you tell me if this is correct:

  PRIMARY KEY  (`parent`,`component`,`workcentre_added`,`loc_code`),
  KEY `component` (`component`),
  KEY `id` (`id`),
  KEY `loc_code` (`loc_code`),
  KEY `parent` (`parent`,`loc_code`),
  KEY `workcentre_added` (`workcentre_added`)

Tks, Adrian

Hi @apmuthu, thanks for the tips and the kind words. Frankly, I would have been completely lost if it was not for your very thorough and prompt assistance. This project is one of the most complex I have ever tackled, and definitely not for the faint hearted.

Speaking about the time zone latency, you seem to be another one that never sleeps, like some others I know!

Regards, Adrian

ok, I tried the mods but it just splorked so for now I'm going to use the default install from snapshot. At least I got the Canadian CoA to work, and I also deleted company#2 and ran it from default 0_ company because some features weren't available to the admin user and I didn't want to jump back and forth. I'll send what I found re CoA once I'm sure it's working.

Tks, A

Hi @apmuthu, the new title for this thread is a good one! I spent quite a lot of time today on the Canadian CoA sql file, and it was not a trivial undertaking. I don't know how you would ever do that without a *great* tool like WinMerge, thanks for the tip on that. I made a list of changes that I did, and I will publish them here once I'm sure it is correct.

So I got as far as creating the second company with the Canadian CoA and it worked ok. At first it reported errors in the sql file, and the nice thing is that FA told me where to look. So I went back and reversed some of the changes.

But the problem now is that I can't log into company 2, only the default company 1. The setup doesn't ask for a separate username for company 2, and I put the same pwd in as company 1, but no go. I presume the admin has the same username  for both companies?

I'm seeing some references to this problem elsewhere, but I can't quite put my finger on a solution - do you have any idea about this? As far as I know my server has all the proper configs as I have dozens of db's and I haven't had this problem before.

I went to delete the cached files in company 2 as per your instructions, but there was nothing there.

Regards, Adrian

Well, we are escaping from a commercial desktop accounting program that can't be modified to suit our needs, so it is worth it to spend the time. I think the end result will be awesome and will save us an enormous amount of time wasted posting data that is already there as data. In some cases we are are re-entering data 3 times, sheesh.

I think our cost benefit will be at least one salary that can be re-directed into production.

I took a look at your mods, and for now they are a bit beyond me, so I think I'll wait until I have time to really study what they do.

Am I safe by using the snapshot by itself, without any mods? In other words, are these critical corrections or just enhancements?

Tks, Adrian

Hi, I'm just wondering now what I have to do to make this work properly. I presume I need the Canadian chart of accounts because of tax issues, etc.

I see a new file in the SQL folder called "en_CA-general.sql" which I presume was put there when I installed the Canadian Chart of Accounts via the interface.

My question is this: is that the only file I have to change to make it match the "en_US-new.sql" file in the stable snapshot? (which I also downloaded).

I did the install with Softaculous and the version of FA I have is 2.3.22, which looks like the most current version. It defaulted to the fl_ prefix for the tables when I did the install, and I usually let the default happen, if I don't know any better. Should I have changed it to 0_ like what I see in the stable snapshot version? Will this give me trouble later?

Sorry for all the questions, but if I don't get this right our whole system is in jeopardy.

Regards, Adrian