[ale] software for service industry

[Scott Castaline]

Paul Cartwright wrote:
> On Sat, 11 Oct 2008 12:48:43 -0400
> Paul Cartwright <paul at pcartwright.com> wrote:
> 
>> On Sat, 11 Oct 2008 12:26:21 -0400
>> "James Sumners" <james.sumners at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Ugh! My father did everything by hand, too. But that means he didn't
>>> do _anything_. So I'm paying the price for that one.
>>>
>>> I use Gnucash[1] to keep track of the accounting. I don't have to
>>> issue any receipts or anything, so I don't know if it can do that,
>>> or what package to suggest. The big thing about Gnucash is that you
>>> have to have a least a basic understanding of accounting. If you
>>> don't, things like transaction splits will be very confusing. But
>>> it is a wonderful accounting package.
>>>
>>> [1] -- http://www.gnucash.org/
>>>
>>  
>  I might even look at it myself.. I currently use Quickbooks  on my
>  ( cough) dual-boot laptop..
>  with my up-to-date Debian Lenny system, I just tried aptitued install
>  gnucash, and it told me I needed 31 packages!!!
>  The following NEW packages will be installed:
>    aqbanking-tools{a} gnucash gnucash-common{a} gnucash-docs{a}
>  guile-1.6{a} guile-1.6-libs{a} guile-1.6-slib{a} libaqbanking-data{a} 
>    libaqbanking-plugins-libgwenhywfar47{a} libaqbanking20{a} 
>    libaqbanking20-plugins{a} libaqbanking20-plugins-qt{a}
>  libaqhbci13{a} libaqofxconnect4{a} libchipcard-ctapi0{a}
>  libchipcard-data{a} libchipcard-libgwenhywfar47-plugins{a}
>  libchipcard-tools{a} libchipcardc2{a} libchipcardd0{a}
>  libfinance-quote-perl{a} libgoffice-0-4{a} libgoffice-0-common{a}
>  libgsf-gnome-1-114{a} libguile-ltdl-1{a} libgwenhywfar47{a}
>  libhtml-tableextract-perl{a} libktoblzcheck1c2a{a} libqbanking5{a}
>  libqthreads-12{a} slib{a} 0 packages upgraded, 31 newly installed, 0
>  to remove and 3 not upgraded.
>  
It is a bit of a pain as far as dependencies go. I used it to track my 
wife's business when she was an independent contractor. It does lack a 
little if you are in need of fancy receipts or invoices. The existing 
forms are not too flexible for customization. Otherwise it's an 
excellent package and has a very active support community.