npo-accounting-ikiwiki/ExistingProjects/Frontaccounting.mdwn
2013-11-15 12:06:06 -05:00

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## Links
- [[!wikipedia Frontaccounting]] - Wikipedia
- <http://frontaccounting.com> - Project homepage
- Source Code Clone: hg clone http://hg.code.sf.net/p/frontaccounting/mercurial frontaccounting-mercurial
(Found only by chasing
[Wiki](http://frontaccounting.com/fawiki/) link from homepage, which
led to [Sourceforge page](http://sourceforge.net/p/frontaccounting/mercurial/ci/default/tree/)
## Technical
- PHP
- MySQL
- GPLv3 or later
## Preliminary evaluation
### Positive
- [Most recent release 2013-09-05](http://frontaccounting.com/wb3/pages/posts/release-2.3.18193.php)
- Themable
- Seemingly easy to deploy (Looking at their source release, structure looks similar to wordpress, for good or worse)
### Negative
- It seems to be built from scratch and not leverage any frameworks.
- Seems like a messy codebase: Table-based design. No templating, HTML is `echo`-ed to stdout.
- Uses the [deprecated](http://php.net/manual/en/function.mysql-connect.php) PHP `mysql_*` functions.
## Detailed Evaluation
### Evaluation of [[Reporting|UseCases/GeneratingReports]] UseCases
- [[Trial Balance Report|UseCases/GeneratingReports#trial-balance]]: Yes
- [[Bank Reconciliation Report|UseCases/GeneratingReports#bank-reconcilation]]: Yes, seems ok
- [[Chart of Accounts|UseCases/GeneratingReports#chart-of-accounts]]: Yes
- [[Cash Disbursements Journal|UseCases/GeneratingReports#cash-disbursements]]: Yes, looks like GL Account Transactions works for this
- [[Income Report|UseCases/GeneratingReports#income-report]]: Not obviously
there, but should be easy given the number of reports available.
- [[Expense Report|UseCases/GeneratingReports#expense-report]]: Not obviously
there, but should be easy given the number of reports available.
### Evaluation of [[Reporting|UseCases/GeneratingReports]] UseCases for Fund Accounting
It seems FrontAccounting's "Dimension" feature likely can do all of these,
since it seems you can limit any of the above reports by "Dimension".
### Evaluation of [[Fund Accounting|UseCases/FundAccounting]] UseCases
- [[Fund-only View|UseCases/FundAccounting#fund-view]]: No, seems to be no way to
restrict a user to a specific Dimension.
- [[Funds as part of whole org View|UseCases/FundAccounting#fundless-view]]:
Yes, dimensions appear to be purely informative.
- [[Ignore Funds for operations|UseCases/FundAccounting#fundless-view]]:
Yes, dimensions appear to be purely informative.
### Evaluation of [[Double-entry Accounting|UseCases/DoubleEntryAccounting]] UseCases
- Does the system implement pure double-entry accounting? Yes, it appears to
do so.
### Evaluation of [[TrackingDocumentation|UseCases/TrackingDocumentation]] UseCases
- Does the system
[[link up to external documentation|UseCases/TrackingDocumentation#document-link-up]]?
Not that I can find. It doesn't seem to allow addition links to external documents.
- Does it have a [[the ability to explore transactions via documentation linkage|UseCases/TrackingDocumentation#document-link-explore]]?
Not that I can find.
### Evaluation of [[Handling multiple currencies|UseCases/MultiCurrency]] UseCases
- Does it support the concept of
[[a single functional currency|UseCases/MultiCurrency]], while still
permitting multi-currency entries? It probably could be beat in submission
to work. It does have the knowledge of a default currency and converts to
it based on stored rates and reports come in the default currency.
However, it doesn't appear that you can confine those to a single
transaction.
### Evaluation of WorkFlow UseCases
- Is a
[[specific workflow dictated by the system|UseCases/WorkFlow#workflow-dictated]]
? It does appear that there are certain automated operations that occur
upon creation of invoices, and purchase orders are required.
- Is a [[the workflow configurable|UseCases/WorkFlow#workflow-configurable]]
? No.
- [[Unaccrued Invoice|UseCases/WorkFlow#unaccrued-invioice]] ? Seems you
can't generate an invoice without accruing it.
- [[Purchase Order required|UseCases/WorkFlow#purchase-order-required]] ?
Seems that way.
### Evaluation of the [[Reading and Reporting API|UseCases/ReadingAPI]]
Interaction with the data seems to happen with embedded SQL statements
intermixed with PHP code. Thus, writing SQL statements is really the only
way to interact with the data, and as such, given that there isn't anything
specifically innovative about the data model, this is no better nor worse
than most other projects of this nature.
### Evaluation of the [[Storage API|UseCases/StorageAPI]]
Again, SQL appears to be the only way to interact with the storage of
double-entry data. Double-entry data does not appear to be segmented away
from the other information.