1 Topic by eviking (edited by eviking 12/23/2008 12:52:13 pm)

  • Registered: 12/23/2008
  • Posts: 3

Topic: Considering FrontAccount

I've just started to experiment a little with FrontAccount, to see if it may be used by Norwegian companies. I would appreciate your thoughts on the following subjects. Some may be easily solvable, others may be just my "way of thinking"....

1. Periods
Most companies in my country reports tax (VAT) on a bimonthly basis. On april 10th we send in a VAT declaration (and payment) for all tax for the months JAN-FEB, etc. Almost all domestic accounting systems will then LOCK those months, making it impossible to add more entries. If you in april should "discover" a lost incoming invoice from january, this would be entered in the APRIL period, with the original DATE. Any tax deductable on that invoice would then appear in the MARCH-APRIL declaration. If there is no lock, and you mistakenly enter the invoice in january, there will be a discrepancy with the GL and the VAT declaration.

2. VAT
Most domestic systems work with VAT codes: For example 1 = 25% deductable VAT. If i enter an invoice for goods (for reselling) i would simply enter

Debit - 4000 (account #) - 1 (VAT code) - 1250.00 (grand total amount of the invoice). 

Credit - Supplier account

Beacause of VAT code ( #1) the system will calculate incoming VAT and automatically enter "1000" on account # 4000 and "250" on account 2320 (Incoming VAT).

Is there a similar way to do this with FA?

3. Invoicing

According to Norwegian laws, once an invoice has been printed, it should not be possible to edit or delete it. Any changes should be in form of a credit memo. Does FA work this way?

Thanks for your making FA available, Any comments on the above would be greatly apreciated,

  • Registered: 12/25/2007
  • Posts: 2,447

Re: Considering FrontAccount

Hello,

1. FrontAccounting does not have implemented month locking, just because most users prefer current flexibility. But we have implemented closing year periods, which can be used for this if you define subsequent periods on month basis.

2. VAT group for purchased items for reselling is defined in items catalog, so there is no need to entry it on every purchase. 

3. There is no such constraint in FA for reasons described in point 1. But of course user can issue credit notes both against any existing sales invoice or freehand one. Keep in mind that this is open source software using mysql as database, so there is no problem for any skilled user to omit such artificial edition restrictions.

Janusz

  • Registered: 12/23/2008
  • Posts: 3

Re: Considering FrontAccount

Hi Janusz,

Thanks for answering, and giving a good explanation on how the software works.

I'll have to do some more testing. I think FA is very well thought out, and it seems very mature and secure.

However the accounting laws here may be a problem. Maybe that is the reason there are no serious open source financial apps translated into Norwegian.

  • joe
  • Administrator
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  • Registered: 03/15/2007
  • Posts: 5,089

Re: Considering FrontAccount

Hello eviking,
I just want to add a couple of comments.
1. Inside the company setup (tab setup) there are fields for tax periods and how long back they go. You can just enter you own values here, then when selecting Tax Report in reports the selection period will correspond to that. In our next release 2.1 you can also make a screen inquiry of the tax report (you can see a demo here , demouser / password ).
2. The VAT is, as Janusz describe it, very professional and handles almost everything you can think of.
3. Again, the flexibility is mandatory for FrontAccounting. I think you can solve the constraints by setting up internal instructions about how to handle the various work flows. It should be possible to reprint invoices, both for own usage, and invoiceses can 'disappear' or get destroyed my mistake.

If you like the program after testing, you might want to translate the texts into Norwegian, right?

/Joe