[ILUG] OpenERP demo server

[Michael Kennedy]

On 19/09/2011 13:23, Bernhard Rohrer wrote:
>   actually I would do all my accounting in OpenERP, since it allows for cost accounting and project based accounting and cash flow forecasts and a lot of other things that I really really want.

Super...

Unless someone advises us otherwise, can we proceed on the basis that 
OpenERP is "as good as it gets" - compared to other "Cloud" systems... 
Eg, Xero, KashFlow, FrontAccounting, FreeAgent/Iris Openbooks, GNUCash, 
xTuple, LedgerSMB, TurboCash, SQL-Ledger, SageOne, PostBooks, OpenBravo, 
Adempiere, WebERP, GnuAccounting - to name but a few ;-)

Eg, does OpenERP handle all our basic VAT needs - perhaps with add-ins...

> _but_ we also need a way to dump all that info so the accountant can properly massage it and present it to revenue

Technically, that should be simple...

   1. We need a mechanism to get at the data in OpenERP. It's very 
likely that OpenERP has "export" facilities - which allow the user to 
dump all the requested data from the OpenERP DB into some standard 
format, such as CSV, Excel, etc. If not, I expect the DB structures 
inside OpenERP are "standard" (I've not checked - perhaps MySQL, 
PostGreSQL, etc) - in which case it should still be easy to extract 
whatever we need... If neither option is available, then, in an 
emergency, we could "reverse-engineer" the internal filing systems, but 
that's getting serious!, and surely not necessary.

   2. Then, we need to identify which "Accounting/Auditing" systems are 
used by the Accountants, and what "Import" facilities are available - 
perhaps CSV files; perhaps databases from "sister" bookkeeping systems.

   3. Finally, we'd need to re-jig the OpenERP data into the latter. 
That should be a simple task, if both of the data-formats are well 
defined. (I can certainly handle that aspect - if needed).

M.

> ----------------original message-----------------
> From: "Michael Kennedy" Info at kennedysoftware.ie
> To: "Harry Duncan" usr.src.linux at gmail.com
> CC: ilug at linux.ie
> Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2011 11:58:38 +0100
> -------------------------------------------------
>
>
>>> I worked on a project where we implemented the ROS XML schema's
>>> previously, for something like VAT it is simple and quick but for the
>>> larger forms it is quite tedious eg corporation tax and income tax.
>>
>> Yes, your experience ties in exactly with what I would expect.
>>
>> And, just on the VAT support, an important aspect would be the internal
>> VAT features in the app (rather than the extracts for Revenue). Eg, how
>> to handle changes in VAT-rates, support for the Cash-Accounting schemes,
>> support for exempt customers or suppliers, exported goods/services, etc.
>>
>>> I would question though the value in having a completely integrated
>>> solution, I've been doing a demo test of openerp for a business and
>>> the goal is not to provide a full integrated accounts system but
>>> rather to use OpenERP for supply chain through to sales and as a sales
>>> support tool, dump invoice lists out of openerp for the accountant to
>>> import into their book keeping to handle all the tax compliance stuff.
>>>
>>> There are distinct advantages from a revenue audit perspective to not
>>> having a totally integrated solution/ Seems that it is an expectation
>>> of revenue that they can now take a complete dump of your accounts
>>> system to electronically analyse and they have put quite a bit of
>>> money into software for this purpose. If you run a fully integrated
>>> system you're a lamb to the slaughter and will be the largest repayer
>>> of bank bailouts for years to come, keep your accounting practices
>>> business unit focused and you're back to the playing court where you
>>> provide complete accounts and they do the footwork with a calculator
>>> in an audit.
>>
>> Very good points, Harry. Thank you.
>>
>> Also, the Accountant probably already has Accounting systems with
>> whatever features (s)he requires - auditing/accounting features, links
>> to ROS/CRO, etc, etc, (eg, Apex). In that case, the requirement would be
>> to automate the transfer of the data/transactions from OpenERP to the
>> A/c system, rather than to have to manually re-key the data. That should
>> be quite easy, technically:
>> - get the data out of OpenERP, perhaps in a CSV or "Excel" format
>> - re-hash that into the structures needed for the Import options of
>> the accounting systems.
>>
>>> Another colleague of mine who downloaded the OpenERP package later
>>> than me was contacted by a partner in Kerry. They clearly got the lead
>>> from the OpenERP guys, but aren't listed on the site yet.
>>
>> I also did not notice any mentions of Irish agents, etc, in my OpenERP
>> searches.
>>
>>>> But, in case it's a whole waste of time, first we'd need to ensure that
>>>> there's no other similar FOSS "Cloud" system out there with these
>>>> features
>>>> already implemented!
>>>
>>> Not an issue. Everybody knows somebody who's had a hotmail / yahoo /
>>> gmail account hacked / hijacked. Translate that scenario to a cloud
>>> accounting solution. Until cloud solutions are based on strong token
>>> based authentication businesses would be mad to expose themselves to
>>> that degree.
>>
>> Oooppss... I misled you - I was referring to the VAT features, etc, in
>> OpenERP. I meant that we should try to check if someone had already
>> implemented the VAT stuff, ROS interfaces, etc, in OpenERP (but is not
>> here on ILUG), or if these features are already in some other FOSS/Cloud
>> systems similar to OpenERP.
>>
>> - Mike
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>