I am looking for simple yet functional php-based ERP solutions and found FrontAccounting as well as WebERP and some others.
I tried both and must say FrontAccounting (let's call it FA) is actually quite user-friendly compared to WebERP (let's call it WE). So big congrats to whoever deserves the credit.
Nontheless the WE project is pretty active and seems to have a significant user base. Quite logical as it seems that WE the grandfather of newborn FA, whose parent was OpenAccounting (let's call it OA).
So my question is : what is the purpose and orientation of FA compared to WE, and now defunct OA project ?
How does FA compares to WE :
a - same or different DB structure ?
b - same, quite the same or different business logic ?
c - GUI : per-page enhancements, underlying GUI logic enhancement or ... ?
Actually, I am about to setup an ecommerce activity based on an ecommerce-enabled CMS. After studying several java-based ERP solutions (including beasts like Compiere/Adempiere and even the Ofbiz moooonster) I decided that I prefer to stick with php-based solution that we (me and my new and dangerous php skills) can actually tweak and control, ie. bind or merge DBs with CMS/ecommerce in a matter of days.
So if I can use FA and still stay in a (more or less strictly) WebERP-ish data model to keep going with WE dev, that's perfect . If FA grows to be something completely different, well, I might probably stick with WE and mod gradually the GUI.
I consider usability as a must-have and FreeAccounting seems to address that but I would hesitate giving-up the WebERP framework/community at the same time.
Sorry for such a long post but I think it would be good for the forum to have a "General" category with this kind of topics and a kind of "why use FA and not WE or XX ?"
Eric