We are beyond spoiled...

[sky-knight]

I'm trying to get my brain wrapped around xTuple, because I refuse to be an Intuit slave.

Their forums are hard to navigate, impossible to search, and no where near as responsive as we have it here. It's amazing what you get used to, and what you take for granted.

[mrunkel]

See we agree for the 2nd time within a week.

[PCS]

See we agree for the 2nd time within a week.

Somebody better knock on wood.

[fasttech]

I'm trying to get my brain wrapped around xTuple, because I refuse to be an Intuit slave.

You don't like Openbravo?

[sky-knight]

That project is a bit over commercialized. I'm sure I can find what I need, but there you have it.

Also, it's far easier to implement and maintain a product whos server is nothing more than a DB server. No web server to worry about securing or configuring.

Besides, I really am not interested in "ERP" specifically. I just need a competent Accounting package that isn't Intuit prisonware.

I *loved* Microsoft Accounting, but since it's a dead product I'm stuck migrating.

Also, and this may seem like a nitpick to many. But, I prefer to do business with American businesses over foreign interests. OpenBravo is a Spanish company that went global. xTuple is based in Virginia.

Finally, mrunkel, I need to find something to yell at you about soon or the world is going to explode!

[Spiral]

As an accountant myself, I have been over to xTuple, and you are absolutely correct. Its not the same environment, but that could be said for many, many other projects well. This place is unique.

Many of my clients are Quickbooks slaves, but there really isn't any good replacement for the same market. I would say that the xTuple products come close though, but I have not had time to really vet it. Openbravo, does look nice too, its just that the ERP thing that scares clients away, making them think $$$$$ and complicated.

[sky-knight]

It *is* complicated. But you can turn off everything but the accounting module to get started. You also have to make all your own reports, templates for forms, and everything else. So it's a really time consuming process, but I think in the long run it will be worth it. Having all my financial data in a database I can run my own queries against is worth anything to me. Microsoft Accounting ran everything out of MSSQL, xTuple runs out of Postgres, and OpenBravo can run out of MSSQL, MySQL, and Postgres.

[Spiral]

I agree completely. The problem is when the client is deciding whether to pay me or another consultant to setup an accounting system, or just buy Quickbooks for a fraction of the cost. For some clients, Quickbooks seems to win every time. And then there is the issue with payroll in the open-source solutions.

[sky-knight]

Payroll for any sane organization is outsourced or run through ADP's software or something similar.

Incidentally, that is all Intuit does... they have ADP on the back end doing all that for them.

[Spiral]

Many small business do outsource the payroll, but many also still do it in-house. Those cost is minimal if you have experienced people doing it, otherwise, it could be more cost effective to go with ADP, if payroll is substantial. Also for contracting businesses they need special payroll reports for "certified payroll", etc. so many times they do payroll in-house.

Not sure about ADP being on the back-end (didn't know that)... Maybe they are supplying the tax tables updates or something, but that is freely available from IRS, and state and city governments.

Even ignoring the payroll issue though, there is still the training issue. There are too many people that "know" Quickbooks. Good for Intuit, but bad for everybody else trying to get a business off it. There are too many people going to these Quickbooks certification schools, and getting jobs as bookkeepers for SMBs. Usually the books these people create are a total disaster, since they really know nothing about accounting, only how to use Quickbooks. So when you give them a different Accounting application, they are totally lost, and now their applicable skills are at zero.

This is a small business conundrum I deal with constantly.