Review: Small Business Accounting Software For Linux

By: Carla Schroder
Monday, January 3, 2005 08:52:44 AM EST
URL: http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reviews/5692/1/

Replacing Quicken/QuickBooks

Choosing small business or personal accounting software seems relatively simple: evaluate features, ease of use, price, support--the usual things. The one factor that can really drive you nuts is migrating away from an existing installation.

Intuit dominates the small business/personal finance market with Quicken and QuickBooks, and for good reasons. They have short learning curves, nice clean interfaces, and they allow people who are not accountants to manage their own finances. And, unlike so much accounting software, they are reasonably priced. It is not uncommon to find hard-core Linux users keeping a Windows box just to run Quicken or QuickBooks.

So why should anyone even consider migrating away from Quicken/QuickBooks (or other Windows accounting program) to a Linux accounting program?

• Using Linux equals greater stability and security. Given Windows' worsening security record, this is a primary consideration.
• Standardize on a single platform for lower licensing costs and simpler administration.
• Data are not held hostage to a closed, proprietary format. Quicken uses the QIF (Quicken Interchange Format) format, which is widely supported, so migrating Quicken data is usually simple. QuickBooks is another story- it supports only its own QBB and IIF formats. Users who want to export their QuickBooks data must use a third-party conversion utility.
• Preference for Free/Open Source code. (Note that not all Linux accounting software is F/OSS.)

The Linux world is chock-full of accounting software of all kinds, in varying stages of maturity and polish. Today we'll take a look at Quasar, Moneydance, and GnuCash.

Quasar Accounting and Point-of-Sale Software

Quasar Accounting, by Linux Canada, gets my vote for best accounting program for Linux. It comes in two packages: Quasar Accounting, and Quasar Point-of-Sale for retail businesses. Quasar Accounting handles the usual accounts payable and receivable, customizable reports, check writing, customer management, and invoicing. Quasar Point-of-Sale has features that are usually found only in larger, more expensive accounting programs, such as point-of-sale, barcode labels, international currency support, multiple stores, returns, and inventory management. And wonder of wonders, it has one feature that is supported in Linux only and not Windows: a handheld barcode scanner interface. How nice to see Linux get the goodies first for a change.

The base package is free for a single user. Additional modules and additional concurrent users cost money. A single user can purchase the entire works for less than $400, including the point-of-sale module, which is quite a bargain. All modules can be previewed in a free demo mode for a thorough try-before-you-buy.

The database backend is your choice of Firebird (free) or Sybase ($149.00). The data format is XML. Migrating data from another program like Quicken or QuickBooks is not simple, but it is possible. Export your files to CSV format, write a conversion script to convert from CSV to XML, then use the "Import" command in Quasar to import the data. Quasar's XML tags and conventions are documented in the User's Guide. Another, and often preferable, way to migrate medium-large data files is to hire a semi-retired secretary or three, and have them do all the data entry manually. Really. A troop of skilled typists are often faster and less error-prone than a scripted conversion.

Quasar runs in client/server mode. Because Quasar is a Linux program first, the server must run on Linux. Client workstations can be either Windows or Linux. It comes with access controls; you need to set up logins and passwords for authorized users, and define the areas they are permitted to work in.

The interface is clean and logically organized, so you can figure out how to do things pretty easily. And the User's Manual is an excellent 347-page PDF. Don't leave home without it.

Linux Canada is releasing version 1.4 in early 2005. 1.4 is a major upgrade with way more of everything: finer-grained access controls, advanced pricing and cost management, greater customization, easier adjustments and exceptions, and more flexible reporting to show your data just about any way you want.

Quasar Accounting 1.2 is closed-source. For 1.4, the base accounting package will be released under the GPL. The retail components will remain closed-source. Linux Canada offers custom programming services. Their customer support is first-rate, so this might be a good option for customers who want some specialized tweaks.

Moneydance

Moneydance is considered to be a personal finance manager, but a lot of small business owners like it for its ease-of-use and convenience, such as support for OFX, QFX, or QIF file formats. Most banks and credit unions let you export your account data in at least one of these formats. It is priced very competitively at $29.99.

Moneydance does budgeting, pretty graphs, loan calculator, check printing, online bill payments, and you can schedule recurring payments, or just set up reminders. It does not do invoicing, inventory, costing, or customer accounts, so if you are billing customers or managing inventory, you'll need something else. It supports multiple currencies. Moneydance's reporting is nice, including reports for missing checks, net worth, and account balances.

Moneydance is Java-based, and runs on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. It is released under a closed-source license. A developer's kit is provided for anyone who wishes to write custom extensions for Moneydance.

Those of you who remember the great TurboTax spyware scandal might be amused by Moneydance's promise that "Unlike some other applications, Moneydance does not install third party software on your computer to monitor or restrict your activities."

GnuCash

GnuCash has come a long way since its initial release. Installation used to be a horror of trying to find the right Java runtime and assembling a huge boatload of obscure dependencies. In these here modern time nice package managers like RPM and apt-get do the work for you. GnuCash runs on just about any Unix/Linux and Mac OS X.

GnuCash is licensed under the GPL, and free of cost. It is quite flexible--you may use it as a simple checkbook program, or to track complex finances. It supports both OFX (Open Financial Exchange) and HBCI (Home Banking Computer Information for German bank customers) for importing bank account data. It supports QIF for easy importing of Quicken files. Strangely, it does not support importing delimited text files such as CSV. GnuCash isn't really suitable for managing a complex retail business; use Quasar for that. Its strengths are generating balance sheets, cash flow reports, graphing, tax reports- in short, tracking where your money is coming from, and where it is going.

The learning curve for GnuCash can be a bit steep. The documentation and online help are pretty good, but still incomplete. One thing that drives me bats is not being able to do check printing in batches. I like to enter a batch of checks to be printed, then send the whole lot to the printer. GnuCash does not do this- you may only print one at a time. Another problem is it does not check for duplicate check numbers, or automatically increment the check numbers as you enter them.

Summary