• From: Canada, Mississauga
  • Registered: 10/23/2023
  • Posts: 13

Topic: Is FrontAccounting right for me?

I've been doing a bit of research on FrontAccounting, I've installed it on my sever and have been playing with it for a few months.

I currently use Quickbooks but am kind of fed up being tied to them and their ever increasing prices.  Also I have the desktop version so the idea of a web based solution is kind of good for me.

I was hoping some members could comment if this is a good fit before I start trying to migrate all my data.  First, I'm experienced in developing in PHP, MySQL, HTML, CSS, and a bit of JS.  I build WP websites, I use SuiteCRM and develop in that so I'm thinking FrontAccounting would be a good fit.  Who knows I might be able to contribute.

My business is in Canada.

Does FA work well with GST/HST and keeping track of remittances to the Government?

I have some clients in the US, does it work well with multi-currency?

I have two employees, I currently do payroll transactions manually in QB, is this fairly easy to replicate in FA?

One great feature of QB is to download and reconcile bank transactions.  Does this work similar in FA?

Is there anything else I should know before diving in?

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

  • From: India, TN, Karur
  • Registered: 05/16/2014
  • Posts: 1,182

Re: Is FrontAccounting right for me?

Hi welcome to FA  community.

If you have some knowledge of these. You can do well.  And we have some active developers to support you as well for some clarifications.

Subscription service based on FA
HRM CRM POS batch Themes

kvvaradha's Website

  • From: Singapore, India, Chennai
  • Registered: 05/02/2009
  • Posts: 6,093

Re: Is FrontAccounting right for me?

GST/HST - ok
Multi Currency - ok
Payroll - contact @notrinos for his Open Source extension and @kvvaradha's commercial extension (do not know if it needs ioncube or other coded licencing)
Reconciliation - rudimentary but sufficient for simple tasks - check the extensions.
For QB features vs FA - there may be other users whose migration experiences may be useful.

Welcome to the project!

apmuthu's Website

  • From: Canada, Mississauga
  • Registered: 10/23/2023
  • Posts: 13

Re: Is FrontAccounting right for me?

Thanks for you input.  I've spent all weekend trying to import Sales Invoices.  I exported from QB, formatted all the data but when I click import, nothing happens. (I opened another thread for that).

When I try to enter a Sales Invoice manually I get...

Unhandled exception [0]: The script tried to modify a property on an incomplete object. Please ensure that the class definition "import_sales_cart" of the object you are trying to operate on was loaded _before_ unserialize() gets called or provide an autoloader to load the class definition. in file: /share/MD0_DATA/Web/frontaccounting/sales/includes/sales_ui.inc at line 32

I have it installed on my local QNAP webserver.  Sometimes this can be wonky, So I also installed it on my cpanel webserver for testing.  Everytime I try and save a setting it logs me out and timeout pops up (even though I managed to edit the timeout settings)???

So far I haven't been able to do anything but import my customers and items directly in the database.

Am I doing something wrong? Are others using this successfully in a production environment?

(Sorry, not trying to be critical, just frustrated at the moment).

  • From: Singapore, India, Chennai
  • Registered: 05/02/2009
  • Posts: 6,093

Re: Is FrontAccounting right for me?

What is the PHP version you are using?

apmuthu's Website

  • From: Canada, Mississauga
  • Registered: 10/23/2023
  • Posts: 13

Re: Is FrontAccounting right for me?

I'm on PHP 8.2 but I also tried on 7.4 and 8.1

I just can't seem to make any headway.  On my webserver, it keeps kicking me out every 10 seconds or so and I have to login again.

The version installed on my NAS seems to work much better but I can only use PHP 8.2.  Neither work to import the sales transactions.

I've read the instructions, they seem kind of sparse.  Is there any tips?  I have all the right headers, my chart of accounts are created, my debtor master is populated, just nothing happens when I try to import transactions.  I installed the import transactions module directly from inside FA.  Is there more updated or better version on Github?

  • From: Singapore, India, Chennai
  • Registered: 05/02/2009
  • Posts: 6,093

Re: Is FrontAccounting right for me?

Are you on Linux or Windows?
Check the includes/session.inc file and make the first constant NULL.

apmuthu's Website

  • From: Canada, Mississauga
  • Registered: 10/23/2023
  • Posts: 13

Re: Is FrontAccounting right for me?

Hmm not sure what you mean by first constant.  There are suggestions of commenting out:

function preventHijacking()
    {
        if (!isset($_SESSION['IPaddress']) || !isset($_SESSION['userAgent']))
            return false;

    //    if ($_SESSION['IPaddress'] != $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'])
    //        return false;

        if ( $_SESSION['userAgent'] != @$_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'])
            return false;

        return true;
    }

I tried that and it makes it worse.  It logs me out and then I can't log back in.

I'm on VPS Centos7 with WHM/Cpanel.  I have SSL setup but just can't seem to click on anything without getting logged out.  When I log back in, it takes me to what I clicked on, but clicking on anything else, logs me out again.

  • From: Singapore, India, Chennai
  • Registered: 05/02/2009
  • Posts: 6,093

Re: Is FrontAccounting right for me?

Switch your hosting provider otherwise to one which allows different versions pf PHP like PHP 5, 5.5.
What is your MySQL/MariaDB versions? As your hosting provider if you do not know how.
What happens if you do not use https and just use http instead?
change Line 14 in includes/session.inc as appropriate:

define('SECURE_ONLY', true); // if you really need also http (unsecure) access allowed, you can set this to NULL

If the above is beyond you, request professional assistance in the Job/Offers board with an appropriate bounty.

apmuthu's Website