Free or open-source accounting and inventory software...??

R

Rob123

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 13, 2006
Messages
934
Reaction score
36
Location
Jhb
I am looking to replace a very old system called MYOB (Mind Your Own Business) that has been running nicely for many years but I want to move to something with low costs and thought about open-source instead.

I have done the research and tried all the options but they mostly consist of either cloud based or host-your-own-web-service solutions. I don't want to be dependent on an internet link so I would prefer to have something locally installed.

Whilst I can probably set up a web service myself if I had to, I would rather have a good old EXE installation, but these seem to be few and far between.

This is for a sole-proprietor with up to 8 staff and it should be able to handle inventory/stock, accounts and customers. Nothing fancy, just the basics with a few reports maybe, but it must be easy to use and understand.

I did try to move to Quickbooks a few years ago but the staff were not ready to move to something new, but I can try again if I have to.
If there is a paid option that pretty much works out of the box with low overheads/contracts then I will consider that as well.

There must be thousands of small businesses in the same boat that have managed to find something that works for them, so please let me have your thoughts and suggestions! Thanks in advance.:)
 
manager accounting the desktop edition is free and imports lots of formats for the bank statements
 
Ianf1 said:
manager accounting the desktop edition is free and imports lots of formats for the bank statements
Click to expand...
Thanks for this. Looks almost perfect except for the lack of multi-user access. I need to have around 5 or 6 people working at the same time. Anything else come to mind?
 
Rob123 said:
Thanks for this. Looks almost perfect except for the lack of multi-user access. I need to have around 5 or 6 people working at the same time. Anything else come to mind?
Click to expand...
Nope multi user was never a requirement for me sorry
 
Just use xero. It already supports ZA specific accounting things and is cheap, considering you are running your company’s accounting on it. Other Accountants/auditors also know how to use it, and it is simple to allow your customers to pay their invoice by clicking a link
 
@Rob123, my father still uses this as well from the 90's :)

We have tried to get him to something else, but have yet to find anything similar. He also needs to make up "kits" of multiple inventory items.

The new MYOB is crazy expensive now!
 
More and more, offline tools are becoming super-scarce. The only recommendation I'd have for you, if you really can't rely on being connected for whatever reason, is to use an open-source cloud-based accounting system on your local network. Would require a bit of setup. For example, you could run Akaunting on a separate machine on the network, but you'd need to set that machine up to run a web server with PHP and MySQL and ensure all the other machines on the network can access it. Over and above that though, not sure how you'd import all the MYOB data into it…

Out of interest, do you have genuine reasons to not want to rely on an internet connection? Does your area just not provide good coverage/connection?
 
There are quite a few pretty good Free Open Source ERPs but as you say they generally have a browser based interface - with modern responsive web interfaces it tends to make more sense for a client-server application than using a separate desktop client.

Bear in mind that you can still host a web application on a server on your local network - you don't have to expose it to the web (and probably in this case wouldn't want to expose your accounting system to the internet.) You also have a benefit if you have people working remotely in that a web interface will behave better over a VPN connection without needing a remote desktop or similar.

ERPNext is a nice option if you will reconsider a web interface and is available as a Bitnami Stack.

GnuCash is the only Desktop based FOSS accounting software I can think of off the top of my head but it isn't really designed for multi-user access so probably wouldn't be suitable for your requirements.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X