From 2a7a42fc5a6f1ada7dec820303dd739bcd7c34f2 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: einhverfr Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2007 07:13:54 +0000 Subject: Adding HTML manual rendition from xhlatex git-svn-id: https://ledger-smb.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/ledger-smb/branches/1.2@1013 4979c152-3d1c-0410-bac9-87ea11338e46 --- doc/html_manual/LedgerSMB-manual.html | 4496 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 4496 insertions(+) create mode 100644 doc/html_manual/LedgerSMB-manual.html (limited to 'doc/html_manual/LedgerSMB-manual.html') diff --git a/doc/html_manual/LedgerSMB-manual.html b/doc/html_manual/LedgerSMB-manual.html new file mode 100644 index 00000000..f1053f41 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/html_manual/LedgerSMB-manual.html @@ -0,0 +1,4496 @@ + + + + +Ledger-SMB Manual v. 1.2 + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + +

Ledger-SMB Manual v. 1.2

+
The LedgerSMB Core Team
+
+
March 26, 2007
+
Copyright ©2006 The LedgerSMB Core Team. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this +document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version +published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no +Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation +License" (Appendix E). +

Contents

+
+ I  Ledger-SMB and Business Processes +
1 Introduction to Ledger-SMB +
 1.1 Why Ledger-SMB +
  1.1.1 Advantages of Ledger-SMB +
  1.1.2 Key Features +
 1.2 Limitations of Ledger-SMB +
 1.3 System Requirements of Ledger-SMB +
2 User Account and Database Administration Basics +
 2.1 Companies and Datasets +
 2.2 How to Create a User +
 2.3 Permissions +
 2.4 User Account Types +
 2.5 Other Features +
3 Chart of Accounts +
 3.1 Introduction to Double Entry Bookkeeping +
  3.1.1 Business Entity +
  3.1.2 Double Entry +
  3.1.3 Accounts +
  3.1.4 Debits and Credits +
  3.1.5 Accrual +
  3.1.6 References +
 3.2 General Guidelines on Numbering Accounts +
 3.3 Adding/Modifying Accounts +
 3.4 Listing Account Balances and Transactions +
4 Administration +
 4.1 Taxes, Defaults, and Preferences + + +
  4.1.1 Adding A Sales Tax Account +
  4.1.2 Setting a Sales Tax Amount +
  4.1.3 Default Account Setup +
  4.1.4 Currency Setup +
  4.1.5 Sequence Settings +
 4.2 Audit Control +
  4.2.1 Explaining transaction reversal +
  4.2.2 Close books option +
  4.2.3 Audit Trails +
 4.3 Departments +
  4.3.1 Cost v Profit Centers. +
 4.4 Warehouses +
 4.5 Languages +
 4.6 Types of Businesses +
 4.7 Misc. +
  4.7.1 GIFI +
  4.7.2 SIC +
  4.7.3 Overview of Template Editing +
  4.7.4 Year-end +
 4.8 Options in the ledger-smb.conf +
5 Goods and Services +
 5.1 Basic Terms +
 5.2 The Price Matrix +
 5.3 Pricegroups +
 5.4 Groups +
 5.5 Labor/Overhead +
 5.6 Services +
  5.6.1 Shipping and Handling as a Service +
 5.7 Parts +
 5.8 Assemblies and Manufacturing +
  5.8.1 Stocking Assemblies +
 5.9 Reporting +
  5.9.1 All Items and Parts Reports +
  5.9.2 Requirements +
  5.9.3 Services and Labor +
  5.9.4 Assemblies +
  5.9.5 Groups and Pricegroups +
 5.10 Translations +
 5.11 How Cost of Goods Sold is tracked +
6 AP +
 6.1 Basic AP Concepts +
 6.2 Vendors +
 6.3 AP Transactions +
 6.4 AP Invoices +
  6.4.1 Correcting an AP Invoice +
 6.5 Cash payment And Check Printing +
  6.5.1 Rapid Payment Entry Screen +
 6.6 Transaction/Invoice Reporting +
  6.6.1 Transactions Report +
  6.6.2 Outstanding Report +
  6.6.3 AP Aging Report +
  6.6.4 Tax Paid and Non-taxable Report + + +
 6.7 Vendor Reporting +
  6.7.1 Vendor Search +
  6.7.2 Vendor History +
7 AR +
 7.1 Customers +
  7.1.1 Customer Price Matrix +
 7.2 AR Transactions +
 7.3 AR Invoices +
 7.4 Cash Receipt +
  7.4.1 Cash Receipts for multiple customers +
 7.5 AR Transaction Reporting +
  7.5.1 AR Transactions Report +
  7.5.2 AR Aging Report +
 7.6 Customer Reporting +
8 Projects +
 8.1 Project Basics +
 8.2 Timecards +
 8.3 Projects and Invoices +
 8.4 Reporting +
  8.4.1 Timecard Reporting +
  8.4.2 Project Transaction Reporting +
  8.4.3 List of Projects +
 8.5 Possibilities for Using Projects +
9 Quotations and Order Management +
 9.1 Sales Orders +
 9.2 Quotations +
 9.3 Shipping +
 9.4 AR Work Flow +
  9.4.1 Service Example +
  9.4.2 Single Warehouse Example +
  9.4.3 Multiple Warehouse Example +
 9.5 Requests for Quotation (RFQ) +
 9.6 Purchase Orders +
 9.7 Receiving +
 9.8 AP Work Flow +
  9.8.1 Bookkeeper entering the received items, order completed in full +
  9.8.2 Bookkeeper entering received items, order completed in part +
  9.8.3 Receiving staff entering items +
 9.9 Generation and Consolidation +
  9.9.1 Generation +
  9.9.2 Consolidation +
 9.10 Reporting +
 9.11 Shipping Module: Transferring Inventory between Warehouses +
10 HR +
11 POS +
 11.1 Sales Screen +
 11.2 Possibilities for Data Entry +
 11.3 Hardware Support +
 11.4 Reports +
  11.4.1 Open Invoices +
  11.4.2 Receipts +
12 General Ledger + + +
 12.1 GL Basics +
  12.1.1 Paper-based accounting systems and the GL +
  12.1.2 Double Entry Examples on Paper +
  12.1.3 The GL in Ledger-SMB +
 12.2 Cash Transfer +
 12.3 GL Transactions +
 12.4 Payroll as a GL transaction +
 12.5 Reconciliation +
 12.6 Reports +
  12.6.1 GL as access to almost everything else +
13 Recurring Transactions +
14 Financial Statements and Reports +
 14.1 Cash v. Accrual Basis +
 14.2 Viewing the Chart of Accounts and Transactions +
 14.3 Trial Balance +
  14.3.1 The Paper-based function of a Trial Balance +
  14.3.2 Running the Trial Balance Report +
  14.3.3 What if the Trial Balance doesn’t Balance? +
  14.3.4 Trial Balance as a Summary of Account Activity +
  14.3.5 Trial Balance as a Budget Planning Tool +
 14.4 Income Statement +
  14.4.1 Uses of an Income Statement +
 14.5 Balance Sheet +
 14.6 What if the Balance Sheet doesn’t balance? +
 14.7 No Statement of Owner Equity? +
15 The Template System +
 15.1 Text Templates +
 15.2 HTML Templates +
 15.3 LATEX Templates +
  15.3.1 What is LATEX ? +
  15.3.2 Using LY X to Edit LATEX Templates +
 15.4 Customizing Logos +
 15.5 How are They Stored in the Filesystem? +
 15.6 Upgrade Issues +
16 An Introduction to the CLI +
 16.1 Conventions +
 16.2 Preliminaries +
 16.3 First Script: lsmb01-cli-example.sh +
  16.3.1 Script 1 (Bash) +
 16.4 Second Script: lsmb02-cli-example.pl +
  16.4.1 Script 2 (Perl) +
II  Technical Overview +
17 Basic Architecture +
 17.1 The Software Stack +
 17.2 Capacity Planning +
  17.2.1 Scalability Strategies +
  17.2.2 Database Maintenance +
  17.2.3 Known issues +
18 Customization Possibilities +
 18.1 Brief Guide to the Source Code +
 18.2 Data Entry Screens +
  18.2.1 Examples + + +
 18.3 Extensions +
  18.3.1 Examples +
 18.4 Templates +
  18.4.1 Examples +
 18.5 Reports +
  18.5.1 Examples +
19 Integration Possibilities +
 19.1 Reporting Tools +
  19.1.1 Examples +
 19.2 Line of Business Tools on PostgreSQL +
  19.2.1 Known Issues +
  19.2.2 Strategies +
  19.2.3 Examples +
 19.3 Line of Business Tools on other RDBMS’s +
  19.3.1 Strategies +
  19.3.2 Integration Products and Open Source Projects +
20 Customization Guide +
 20.1 General Information +
 20.2 Customizing Templates +
  20.2.1 Page Breaks in LATEX +
  20.2.2 Conditionals +
  20.2.3 Loops +
  20.2.4 File Inclusion +
  20.2.5 Cross-referencing and multiple passes of LATEX +
  20.2.6 Variable Substitution +
 20.3 Customizing Forms +
 20.4 Customizing Modules +
  20.4.1 Database Access +
 20.5 CLI Examples +
III  Appendix +
A Where to Go for More Information +
B Quick Tips +
 B.1 Understanding Shipping Addresses and Carriers +
 B.2 Handling bad debts +
C Step by Steps for Vertical Markets +
 C.1 Common Installation Errors +
 C.2 Retail With Light Manufacturing +
D Glossary +
E GNU Free Documentation License +
  1. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS +
  2. VERBATIM COPYING +
  3. COPYING IN QUANTITY +
  4. MODIFICATIONS +
  5. COMBINING DOCUMENTS +
  6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS +
  7. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS +
  8. TRANSLATION +
  9. TERMINATION +
  10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE +
  ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents +
+ + +

+

+

List of Figures

+
1 Simple AR Service Invoice Workflow Example
2 AR Workflow with +Shipping
3 Complex AR Workflow with Shipping
4 Simple AP Workflow
5 AP +Workflow with Receiving
6 Complex AP Workflow
7 Payroll as a GL Transaction (Purely +fictitious numbers)
8 The Ledger-SMB software stack in a Typical Implementation
+
+ + +

Part I
Ledger-SMB and Business Processes

+

1 Introduction to Ledger-SMB

+

+

+

1.1 Why Ledger-SMB

+

+

+
1.1.1 Advantages of Ledger-SMB
+ +

+

+
1.1.2 Key Features
+ +

+

+

1.2 Limitations of Ledger-SMB

+ +

+

+

1.3 System Requirements of Ledger-SMB

+ +

+

+

2 User Account and Database Administration Basics

+

These functions are accessed via the admin.pl script in the installed directory of Ledger-SMB. +

+

+

2.1 Companies and Datasets

+

Ledger-SMB stores its information in locale-specific data sets. When a dataset is created, it sets various +defaults such as currency, a basic chart of accounts setup, and so forth. Note that the default setup is for +Canada, where the author of the software resides. +

Datasets are stored as PostgreSQL databases. The application is designed with the idea that each dataset +will represent exactly one company. If a customer is working with multiple companies, he/she must create a +dataset to for each. +

When creating a dataset, the application asks for both a username and a superusername. If the +superuser’s information is not filled in, Ledger-SMB will attempt to populate an existing dataset, but if this +information is filled in, the program will log into the PostgreSQL cluster with the superusername and +password, create the database, and attempt to add Plpgsql to it. +

+

+

2.2 How to Create a User

+

Users are created by going to the admin.pl page and clicking on "Add User." One then fills out the form and +when it is saved, the user is created. + + +

+

+

2.3 Permissions

+

The permissions system is not rigorously enforced within Ledger-SMB, in the sense that the +permissions API is generally not used in the application itself. Instead permissions are used to +enable/disable menu options. Setting an enforcement of such permissions would require some custom +programming at the present time. Most organizations, however, find that the current system is +adequate. +

The checkboxes which are marked enable menu entries. Those that are unchecked disable those entries on +the menu. +

+

+

2.4 User Account Types

+ +

+

+

2.5 Other Features

+ +

+

+

3 Chart of Accounts

+

The Chart of Accounts provides a basic overview of the logical structure of the accounting program. One can +customize this chart to allow for tracking of different sorts of information. + + +

+

+

3.1 Introduction to Double Entry Bookkeeping

+

In order to set up your chart of accounts in LedgerSMB you will need to understand a bit about double entry +bookkeeping. This section provides a brief overview of the essential concepts. There is a list of references for +further reading at the end. +

+

+
3.1.1 Business Entity
+

You don’t want to mix your personal expenses and income with that of the business or you will +not be able to tell how much money it is making (if any). For the same reason you will want +to keep track of how much money you put into and take out of the business so you will want +to set up a completely seperate set of records for it and treat it almost as if it had a life of its +own. +

+

+
3.1.2 Double Entry
+

Examples:

+ +

You need to record both sides of each transaction: thus double entry. Furthermore, you want to organize +your entries, recording those having to do with money in one place, value of goods bought and sold in +another, money owed in yet another, etc. Hence you create accounts, and record each half of each transaction +in an appropriate account. Of course, you won’t have to actually record the amount in more than one place +yourself: the program takes care of that. +

+

+
3.1.3 Accounts
+

+ + +

+Assets
Valuable stuff the business owns such as money and goods available for sale +
+Liabilities
Debts owned by the business such as bank loans and unpaid bills +
+Equity or Capital
What would be left for the owner if all the assets were converted to money and + all the liabilities paid off ("Share Capital" on the LedgerSMB default chart of accounts: not to be + confused with "Capital Assets".) +
+Revenue
Income from business activity: increases Equity +
+Expense
The light bill, the cost of goods sold, etc: decreases Equity
+

All other accounts are subdivisions of these. The relationship between the top-level accounts +is often stated in the form of the Accounting Equation (don’t worry: you won’t have to solve +it): +

Assets = Liabilities + Equity + (Revenue - Expense) +

You won’t actually use this equation while doing your bookkeeping, but it’s a useful tool for +understanding how the system works. +

+

+
3.1.4 Debits and Credits
+

Traditional paper accounting systems used a two-column form in which all increases went in one column +and all deceases in the other. For asset and expense accounts increases went in the left column and decreases +in the right. For liability and capital accounts decreases went in the left column and increases in the right. +Looking at the accounting equation we see that assets are on the left, so it is logical that asset increases would +go on the left. Libilities, capital, and revenue are on the right so it is logical that their increase would go on +the right. Expenses, however, are on the right, so why do their increases go on the left? Because expenses are +subtracted from the right side of the equation and so expense increases decrease the right side of the +equation. +

Entries in the left column of the traditional form are called debits, while entries on the right are called +credits. Neither is "negative". +

+ + + +

Examples: +

You go to the bank and make a deposit. The teller tells you that he is going to credit your +account. This is correct: your account is money the bank owes you and so is a liability from their +point of view. Your deposit increased this liability and so they will credit it. They will make an +equal debit to their cash account. When you return you will debit your bank deposits account +because you have increased that asset and credit cash on hand because you have decreased that +one. +

+

+
3.1.5 Accrual
+

Early accounting systems were usually run on a cash basis. One generally did not consider money owed to +affect the financial health of a company, so expenses posted when paid as did income. +

The problem with this approach is that it becomes very difficult or impossible to truly understand the +exact nature of the financial health of a business. One cannot get the full picture of the financial health of a +business because outstanding debts are not considered. Futhermore, this does not allow for revenue to +be tied to cost effectively, so it becomes difficult to assess how profitable a given activity truly +is. +

To solve this problem, accrual-based systems were designed. The basic principle is that income and +expense should be posted as they are incurred, or accrued. This allows one to track income relative to +expense for specific projects or operations, and make better decisions about which activities will help one +maximize profitability. +

To show how these systems differ, imagine that you bill a customer for time and materials for a project +you have just completed. The customer pays the bill after 30 days. In a cash based system, you would post +the income at the time when the customer pays, while in an accrual system, the income is posted at the time +when the project is completed. +

+

+
3.1.6 References
+

http://www.accounting-and-bookkeeping-tips.com/learning-accounting/accounting-basics-credit.htm +
Discussion of debits and credits as well as links to other accounting subjects. +
+

http://www.computer-consulting.com/accttips.htm +
Discussion of double entry bookkeeping. +
+

http://www.minnesota.com/~tom/sql-ledger/howtos/ +
A short glossary, some links, and a FAQ (which makes the "credit=negative number" error). The FAQ focuses +on SQL-Ledger, LedgerSMB’s ancestor. +
+

http://bitscafe.com/pub2/etp/sql-ledger-notes#expenses +
Some notes on using SQL-Ledger (LedgerSMB’s ancestor). +
+

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accounting_topics +
Wikipedia articles on accounting. +
+

http://www.bized.ac.uk/learn/accounting/financial/index.htm +
Basic accounting tutorial. +
+ + +

http://www.asset-analysis.com/glossary/glo_index.html +
Financial dictionary and glossary. +
+

http://www.geocities.com/chapleaucree/educational/FinanceHandbook.html +
Financial glossary. +
+

http://www.quickmba.com/accounting/fin/ +
Explanation of fundamentals of accounting, including good discussions of debits and credits and of +double-entry. +

+

+

3.2 General Guidelines on Numbering Accounts

+

In general, most drop-down boxes in Ledger-SMB order the accounts by account number. Therefore by +setting appropriate account numbers, one can affect the default values. +

A second consideration is to try to keep things under each heading appropriate to that heading. +Thus setting an account number for a bank loan account in the assets category is not generally +advisable. +

+

+

3.3 Adding/Modifying Accounts

+

These features are listed under System->Chart of Accounts. One can list the accounts and click on the +account number to modify them or click on the "add account" option to create new accounts. +

+ +

+

+

3.4 Listing Account Balances and Transactions

+

One can list the account balances via the Reports->Chart of Accounts report. Clicking on the account number +will provide a ledger for that account. + + +

+

+

4 Administration

+

This section covers other (non-Chart of Accounts) aspects to the setup of the Ledger-SMB accounting +package. These are generally accessed in the System submenu. +

+

+

4.1 Taxes, Defaults, and Preferences

+

One of the new features in 1.2 is the modular sales tax system and the simple sales tax module. This allows +one to install different tax modules and then select which taxes are applied by which programming modules. +The sales tax module has access to everything on the submitted form so it is able to make complex +determinations on what is taxable based on arbitrary criteria. +

The tax rules drop-down box allows one to select any installed tax module (LedgerSMB 1.2 ships only +with the simple module), while the ordering is an integer which allows one to specify a tax run which occurs +on the form after any rules with lower entries in this box. This allows for compounding of sales tax (for +example, when PST applies to the total and GST as well). +

+

+
4.1.1 Adding A Sales Tax Account
+

Sales Tax is collected on behalf of a state or national government by the individual store. Thus a sales tax +account is a liability– it represents money owed by the business to the government. +

To add a sales tax account, create an account in the Chart of Accounts as a liability account, check all of +the "tax" checkboxes, and answer the following question as "yes:" +

"Include this account on the customer/vendor forms to flag customer/vendor as taxable?" +

Once this account is created, one can set the tax amount. +

+

+
4.1.2 Setting a Sales Tax Amount
+

Go to System->Defaults and the tax account will be listed near the bottom of the page. The rate can be set +there. +

+

+
4.1.3 Default Account Setup
+

These accounts are the default accounts for part creation and foreign exchange tracking. +

+

+
4.1.4 Currency Setup
+

The US accounts list this as USD:CAD:EUR. One can add other currencies in here, such as IDR (Indonesian +Rupiah), etc. Currencies are separated by colons. + + +

+

+
4.1.5 Sequence Settings
+

These sequences are used to generate user identifiers for quotations, invoices, and the like. If an identifier is +not added, the next number will be used. +

A common application is to set invoices, etc. to start at 1000 in order to hide the number of issued invoices +from a customer. +

Leading zeros are preserved. Other special values which can be embedded using <?lsmb ?> tags +include: +

+

+DATE
expands to the current date +
+YYMMDD
expands to a six-digit version of the date. The components of this date can be re-arranged + in any order, so MMDDYY, DDMMYY, or even just MMYY are all options. +
+NAME
expands to the name of the customer or vendor +
+BUSINESS
expands to the type of business assigned to the customer or ventor. +
+DESCRIPTION
expands to the description of the part. Valid only for parts. +
+ITEM
expands to the item field. Valid only for parts. +
+PERISCOPE
expands to the partsgroup. Valid only for parts. +
+PHONE
expands to the telephoen number for customers and vendors.
+

+

+

4.2 Audit Control

+

Auditability is a core concern of the architects of any accounting system. Such ensures that any modification +to the accounting information leaves a trail which can be followed to determine the nature of the change. +Audits can help ensure that the data in the accounting system is meaningful and accurate, and that no foul +play (such as embezzlement) is occurring. +

+

+
4.2.1 Explaining transaction reversal
+

In paper accounting systems, it was necessary to have a means to authoritatively track corrections of +mistakes. The means by which this was done was known as "transaction reversal." +

When a mistake would be made, one would then reverse the transaction and then enter it in correctly. For +example, let us say that an office was renting space for $300 per month. Let us say that they inadvertently +entered it in as a $200 expense. + + +

The original transaction would be: +

+
+ + +
Account DebitCredit
5760 Rent $200
2100 Accounts Payable $200
+
+

The reversal would be: +

+
+ + +
Account DebitCredit
5760 Rent $200
2100 Accounts Payable $200
+
+

This would be followed by re-entering the rent data with the correct numbers. This was meant to ensure +that one did not erase data from the accounting books (and as such that erasing data would be a sign of foul +play). +

Ledger-SMB has a capability to require such reversals if the business deems this to be necessary. When +this option is enabled, existing transactions cannot be modified and one will need to post reversing +transactions to void existing transactions before posting corrected ones. +

Most accountants prefer this means to other audit trails because it is well proven and understood by +them. +

+

+
4.2.2 Close books option
+

You cannot alter a transaction that was entered before the closing date. +

+

+
4.2.3 Audit Trails
+

This option stores additional information in the database to help auditors trace individual transactions. The +information stored, however, is limited and it is intended to be supplemental to other auditing +facilities. +

The information added includes which table stored the record, which employee entered the +information, which form was used, and what the action was. No direct financial information is +included. +

+

+

4.3 Departments

+

Departments are logical divisions of a business. They allow for budgets to be prepared for the individual +department as well as the business as a whole. This allows larger businesses to use Ledger-SMB to meet their +needs. +

+

+
4.3.1 Cost v Profit Centers.
+ + +

In general business units are divided into cost and profit centers. Cost centers are generally regarded as +business units where the business expects to lose money and profit centers are where they expect to gain +money. For example, the legal department in most companies is a cost center. +

One of the serious misunderstandings people run up against is that Ledger-SMB tends to more narrowly +define cost and profit centers than most businesses do. In Ledger-SMB a cost center is any department of the +business that does not issue AR transactions. Although many businesses may have cost centers (like +technical support) where customer fees may subsidize the cost of providing the service, in Ledger-SMB, these +are profit centers. +

Ledger-SMB will not allow cost centers to be associated with AR transactions. So if you want this +functionality, you must create the department as a profit center. +

+

+

4.4 Warehouses

+

Ledger-SMB has the ability to track inventory by warehouse. Inventory items can be moved between +warehouses, and shipped from any warehouse where the item is in stock. We will explore this concept more +later. +

+

+

4.5 Languages

+

Languages allow for goods and services to be translated so that one can maintain offices in different +countries and allow for different goods and service descriptions to be translated to different languages for +localization purposes. +

+

+

4.6 Types of Businesses

+

One can create types of businesses and then give them discounts across the board. For example, one might +give a firm that uses one’s services as a subcontractor a 10% discount or more. +

+

+

4.7 Misc.

+

+

+
4.7.1 GIFI
+

GIFI is a requirement for Canadian customers. This feature allows one to link accounts with +Canadian tax codes to simplify the reporting process. Some European countries now use a similar +system. +

People that don’t otherwise have a use for GIFI can use it to create reports which agregate accounts +together. + + +

+

+
4.7.2 SIC
+

Standard Industrial Classification is a way of tracking the type of business that a vendor or customer is in. +For example, an accountant would have an SIC of 8721 while a graphic design firm would have an SIC of +7336. The classification is hierarchical so one could use this field for custom reporting and marketing +purposes. +

+

+
4.7.3 Overview of Template Editing
+

The templates for invoices, orders, and the like can be edited from within Ledger-SMB. The submenus within +the System submenu such as HTML Templates, Text Templates and LATEX templates provide access to this +functionality. +

+

+
4.7.4 Year-end
+

Although the Year-end functionality in Ledger-SMB is very useful, it does not entirely make the process +simple and painless. One must still manually enter adjustments prior to closing the books. The extent to +which these adjustments are necessary for any given business is a matter best discussed with an +accountant. +

The standard way books are normally closed at the end of the year is by moving all +adjusted1 +income and expenses to an equity account usually called "Retained Earnings." Assets and liabilities are not +moved. Equity drawing/dividend accounts are also moved, but the investment accounts are not. The +reasoning behind this process is that one wants a permanent record of the amount invested in a business, but +any dividends ought not to count against their recipients when new investors are brought on +board. +

Ledger-SMB automatically moves all income and expense into the specified year-end/retained earnings +account. It does not move the drawing account, and this must be done manually, nor does it automate the +process of making adjustments. +

Contrary to its name, this function can close the books at any time, though this would likely be of limited +use. +

+

4.8 Options in the ledger-smb.conf

+

The ledger-smb.conf configures the software by assigning site-wide variables. Most of these should be left +alone unless one knows what one is doing. However, on some systems some options might need to be +changed, so all options are presented here for reference: +

+

+templates
is the directory where the templates are stored. + + +
+sendmail
is the command to use to send a message. It must read the email from standard input. +
+language
allows one to set the language for the login screen and admin page. +
+latex
tells Ledger-SMB whether LATEX is installed. LATEX is required for generating Postscript and + PDF invoices and the like. +
+Environmental variables
can be set here too. One can add paths for searching for LATEX, etc. +
+Printers
section can be used to set a hash table of printers for the software. The primary example is +
[printers] +
Default = lpr +
Color = lpr -PEpson +
However, this can use any program that can accept print documents (in Postscript) from + standard input, so there are many more possibilities.
+

+

+

5 Goods and Services

+

The Goods and Services module will focus on the definition of goods and services and the related accounting +concepts. +

+

+

5.1 Basic Terms

+

+

+COGS
is Cost of Goods Sold. When an item is sold, then the expense of its purchase is accrued as + attached to the income of the sale. +
+List
Price is the recommended retail price. +
+Markup
is the percentage increase that is applied to the last cost to get the sell price. +
+ROP
is re-order point. Items with fewer in stock than this will show up on short reports. +
+Sell
Price is the price at which the item is sold.
+ + +

+

+

5.2 The Price Matrix

+

It is possible to set different prices for different groups of customers, or for different customers individually. +Similarly, one can track different prices from different vendors along with the required lead time for an +order. +

+

+

5.3 Pricegroups

+

Pricegroups are used to help determine the discount a given customer may have. +

+

+

5.4 Groups

+

Groups represent a way of categorizing POS items for a touchscreen environment. It is not fully functional +yet, but is sufficient that with some stylesheet changes, it could be made to work. +

+

+

5.5 Labor/Overhead

+

Labor/overhead is usually used for tracking manufacturing expenses. It is not directly billed to a customer. It +is associated with an expense/Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) account. +

+

+

5.6 Services

+

Services include any labor that is billed directly to the customer. It is associated with an expense/COGS +account and an income account. Services can be associated with sales tax. +

+

+
5.6.1 Shipping and Handling as a Service
+

One approach to dealing with shipping and handling is to add it as a service. Create a service called +“Shipping and Handling”, with a sell price $1 per unit, and a 0% markup. Bill it as $1 per unit. This allows +one to add the exact amount of shipping and handling as necessary. +

+

+

5.7 Parts

+

A part is any single item you might purchase and either might resell or use in manufacturing an assembly. It +is linked to an expense/COGS account, an income account, and an inventory account. Parts can be associated +with sales tax. + + +

+

+

5.8 Assemblies and Manufacturing

+

Manufacturers order parts but they sell the products of their efforts. Ledger-SMB supports manufacturing +using the concept of assemblies. An assembly is any product which is manufactured on site. It consists of a +selection of parts, services, and/or labor and overhead. Assemblies are treated as parts in most other +regards. +

However, one cannot order assemblies from vendors. One must instead order the components and stock +them once they are manufactured. +

+

+
5.8.1 Stocking Assemblies
+

One stocks assemblies in the Stock Assembly entry on the Goods and Services submenu. When an assembly +is stocked the inventory is adjusted properly. +

The Check Inventory option will cause Ledger-SMB to refuse to stock an assembly if the inventory +required to produce the assembly would drop the part below the reorder point. +

+

+

5.9 Reporting

+

+

+
5.9.1 All Items and Parts Reports
+

The All Items report provides a unified view of assemblies, parts, services, and labor for the company, while +the Parts report confines it to parts. +

Types of reports are: +

+

+Active
lists all items not marked as obsolete. +
+On
Hand lists current inventory . +
+Short
Lists all items which are stocked below their ROP. +
+Obsolete
Lists all items which are marked as obsolete. +
+Orphaned
Lists all items which have never had a transaction associated with them.
+

One can also list these goods by invoice, order, or quotation. +

For best results, it is a good idea to enter some AR and AP data before running these reports. + + +

+

+
5.9.2 Requirements
+

This report is designed to assist managers determine the quantities of goods to order and/or stock. It +compares the quantity on hand with the activity in a given time frame and provides a list of goods which +need to be ordered and the relevant quantity. +

+

+
5.9.3 Services and Labor
+

This is similar to the Parts and All Items menu but only supports Active, Obsolete, and Orphaned +reports. +

+

+
5.9.4 Assemblies
+

This is similar to the Parts and All Items reports but it also provides an ability to list individual items in the +assemblies as well. +

AP Invoices, Purchase Orders, and RFQ’s are not available on this report. +

+

+
5.9.5 Groups and Pricegroups
+

These reports provide a simple interface for locating groups and pricegroups. The report types are similar to +what they are for services. +

+

+

5.10 Translations

+

One can add translations so that they show up in the customer’s native language in the issued +invoice. +

To issue translations, one must have languages defined. One can then add translations to descriptions and +part groups. +

+

+

5.11 How Cost of Goods Sold is tracked

+

Cost of Goods Sold is tracked on a First-In, First-out (FIFO) basis. When a part is purchased, its cost is +recorded in the database. The cost of the item is then added to the inventory asset account. When the good is +sold, the cost of the item is moved to the cost of goods sold account. +

This means that one must actually provide invoices for all goods entered at their actual cost. If one enters +in $0 for the cost, the cost of goods sold will also be $0 when the item is sold. We will cover this entire process +in more depth after we cover the AP and AR units below. + + +

+

+

6 AP

+

+

+

6.1 Basic AP Concepts

+

The Accounts Payable module tracks all financial commitments that the company makes to other businesses. +This includes rent, utilities, etc. as well as orders of goods and services. +

+

+

6.2 Vendors

+

A vendor is any business that the company agrees to pay money to. +

One can enter vendor information under AP->Vendors->Add Vendor. The vendor list can be searched +under AP->Vendors->Reports->Search. +

Enter start and end-dates for each vendor. This will make searches and drop-down boxes faster when +some vendors are no longer actively supporting your company. +

A few fields that need explanation are: +

+

+BIC
Bank Identifier Code is often the same as the S.W.I.F.T. code. This is a code for the bank a + customer uses for automated money transfers. +
+IBAN
International Bank Account Number is related to the BIC and is used for cross-border + automated money transfers. +
+Terms
is the number of days one has to pay the invoice. +
+Vendor
Number is automatically generated.
+

+

+

6.3 AP Transactions

+

AP Transactions are generally used for items other than goods and services. Utilities, rent, travel expenses, +etc. could be entered in as an AP transaction. +

If the item is paid partially or in full when the transaction is entered, one can add payments to the +payment section. +

All other payments can and should be entered under cash payment (below). +

The PO Number and Order Number fields are generally used to track associations with purchase orders +sent to vendors, etc. These fields can be helpful for adding misc. expenses to orders for reporting +purposes. +

The department drop-down box appears when one has created one or more departments. A +transaction is not required to be associated with a department, but one can use this feature for budget +tracking. + + +

With AP Transactions, there is no option for internal notes. All notes will appear on any printed version of +the transaction. +

Note: Printing a transaction does not post it. No data is committed until the invoice is posted. +

+

+

6.4 AP Invoices

+

AP Invoices are used to enter in the receipt of goods and services. Goods and services are deemed entered +into the inventory when they are invoiced. +

This screen is reasonably similar to the AP Transaction Screen, though the part entry section is a bit +different. +

The AP Invoice section has a capacity to separate internal notes from notes printed on the invoice. Note, +however, that since these are received invoices, it is rare that one needs this ability. +

Note that Ledger-SMB can search for partial part numbers or descriptions. +

Also if you have a group you can use this to select the part. +

To remove a line item from an invoice or order, delete the partnumber and click update. +

+

+
6.4.1 Correcting an AP Invoice
+

If an invoice is entered improperly, the methods used to correct it will vary depending on whether +transaction reversal is enforced or not. If transaction reversal is not enforced, one can simply correct the +invoice or transaction and repost. Note, however, that this violates generally accepted accounting +principles. +

If transaction reversal is in effect, one needs to create a duplicate invoice with exactly opposite values +entered. If one part was listed as received, then one should enter a negative one for the quantity. Then one +can enter the invoice number as the same as the old one. Add an R to the end to show that it is a reversing +transaction. Once this is posted, one can enter the invoice correctly. +

+

+

6.5 Cash payment And Check Printing

+

It is a bad idea to repost invoices/transactions just to enter a payment. The Cash->Payment window allows +one to enter payments against AP invoices or transactions. +

The printing capability can be used to print checks. The default template is NEBS 9085, though you can +use 9082 as well (as Quickbooks does). +

The source field is used to store an identifying number of the source document, such as the check +number. One must select the item to have it paid, and then enter the amount. One can then print a +check. +

+

+
6.5.1 Rapid Payment Entry Screen
+

One can also use the rapid payment entry screen to print multiple checks. However, this does not allow you +to print the multiple checks to the screen as a separate document is created for each check. In this event, one +must print directly to a printer as postscript. + + +

+

+

6.6 Transaction/Invoice Reporting

+

+

+
6.6.1 Transactions Report
+

This report is designed to help you locate AP transactions based on various criteria. One can +search by vendor, invoice number, department, and the like. One can even search by the shipping +method. +

The summary button will show what was placed where, while the details button will show all debits and +credits associated with the transaction. +

To view the invoice, click on the invoice number. In the detail view, to view the account transactions as a +whole, click on the account number. +

Open invoices are ones not fully paid off, while closed invoices are those that have been +paid. +

+

+
6.6.2 Outstanding Report
+

The outstanding report is designed to help you locate AP transactions that are not paid yet. The +ID field is mostly useful for locating the specific database record if a duplicate invoice number +exists. +

+

+
6.6.3 AP Aging Report
+

This report can tell you how many invoices are past due and by how much. +

A summary report just shows vendors while a detail report shows individual invoices. +

+

+
6.6.4 Tax Paid and Non-taxable Report
+

These reports have known issues. It is better to use the GL reports and filter accordingly. +

+

+

6.7 Vendor Reporting

+

+

+
6.7.1 Vendor Search
+

The Vendor Search screen can be used to locate vendors or AP transactions associated with those +vendors. + + +

The basic types of reports are: +

+

+All
Lists all vendors +
+Active
Lists those vendors currently active +
+Inactive
Lists those vendors who are currently inactive. time frame. +
+Orphaned
Lists those vendors who do not have transactions associated with them. These vendors + can be deleted.
+

One can include purchase orders, Requests for Quotations, AP invoices, and AP transactions on this report as +well if they occur between the from and to dates. +

+

+
6.7.2 Vendor History
+

This report can be used to obtain information about the past goods and services ordered or received from +vendors. One can find quantities, partnumber, and sell prices on this report. This facility can be used to +search RFQ’s, Purchase Orders, and AP Invoices. +

+

+

7 AR

+

+

+

7.1 Customers

+

Customers are entered in using the AR->Customers->Add Customer menu. +

The salesperson is autopopulated with the current user who is logged in. Otherwise, it looks fairly similar +to the Vendor input screen. Customers, like vendors can be assigned languages, but it is more important to +do so because invoices will be printed and sent to them. +

The credit limit field can be used to assign an amount that one is willing to do for a customer on +credit. +

+

+
7.1.1 Customer Price Matrix
+

The price list button can be used to enter specific discounts to the customer, and groups of customers can be +assigned a pricegroup for the purpose of offering specific discounts on specific parts to the customer. Such +discounts can be temporary or permanent. + + +

+

+

7.2 AR Transactions

+

AR Transactions are where one can add moneys owed the business by customers. One can associate these +transactions with income accounts, and add payments if the item is paid when the invoice is +issued. +

The PO number field is used to track the PO that the customer sent. This makes it easier to find items +when a customer is asking for clarification on a bill, for example. +

+

+

7.3 AR Invoices

+

AR Invoices are designed to provide for the delivery of goods and services to customers. One would +normally issue these invoices at the time when the everything has been done that is necessary to get paid by +the customer. +

As with AP invoices, one can search for matches to partial part numbers and descriptions, and enter +initial payments at this screen. +

+

+

7.4 Cash Receipt

+

The Cash->Receipt screen allows you to accept prepayments from customers or pay single or multiple +invoices after they have been posted. One can print a receipt, however the current templates seem to be +based on check printing templates and so are unsuitable for this purpose. This presents a great opportunity +for improvement. +

+

+
7.4.1 Cash Receipts for multiple customers
+

The cash->receipts screen allows you to accept payments on all open customer invoices of all +customers at once. One could print (directly to a printer only) all receipts to be sent out if this was +desired. +

+

+

7.5 AR Transaction Reporting

+

The AR Outstanding report is almost identical to the AP Outstanding report and is not covered in any detail +in this document. +

+

+
7.5.1 AR Transactions Report
+

This is almost identical to the AP Transactions Report. +

If a customer’s PO has been associated with this transaction, one can search under this field as +well. + + +

+

+
7.5.2 AR Aging Report
+

This report is almost identical to the AP Aging report, with the exception that one can print up statements for +customer accounts that are overdue. One more application is to calculate interest based on balance owed so +that these can be entered as AR transactions associated with the customer. +

+

+

7.6 Customer Reporting

+

These reports are almost identical to the AP Vendor reports and are not discussed in these notes. +

+

+

8 Projects

+

+

+

8.1 Project Basics

+

A project is a logical collection of AR and AP transactions, orders, and the like that allow one to better +manage specific service or product offerings. Ledger-SMB does not offer comprehensive project management +capabilities, and projects are only used here as they relate to accounting. +

One can also add translated descriptions to the project names as well. +

+

+

8.2 Timecards

+

Timecards allow one to track time entered on specific services. These can then be used to generate invoices +for the time entered. +

The non-chargeable is the number of hours that are not billed on the invoice. +

One can then generate invoices based on this information. +

The project field is not optional. +

+

+

8.3 Projects and Invoices

+

One can select the project id for line items of both AR and AP invoices. These will then be tracked against the +project itself. + + +

+

+

8.4 Reporting

+

+

+
8.4.1 Timecard Reporting
+

The Timecard Report allows one to search for timecards associated with one or more projects. One can then +use the total time in issuing invoices (this is not automated yet). +

+

+
8.4.2 Project Transaction Reporting
+

The Standard or GIFI options can be used to create different reports (for example, for Canadian Tax reporting +purposes). +

This report brings up a summary that looks sort of like a chart of accounts. Of one clicks on the account +numbers, one can see the transactions associated with the project. +

+

+
8.4.3 List of Projects
+

This provides a simple way of searching for projects to edit or modify. +

+

+

8.5 Possibilities for Using Projects

+ +

+

+

9 Quotations and Order Management

+

This unit will introduce the business processes that Ledger-SMB allows. These processes are designed to +allow various types of businesses to manage their orders and allow for rudimentary customer +relationship management processes to be built around this software. In this section, we will +introduce the work flow options that many businesses may use in their day-to-day use of the +software. + + +

+

+

9.1 Sales Orders

+

Sales orders represent orders from customers that have not been delivered or shipped yet. These orders can +be for work in the future, for back ordered products, or work in progress. A sales order can be generated +form an AR invoice or from a quotation automatically. +

+

+

9.2 Quotations

+

Quotations are offers made to a customer but to which the customer has not committed to the work. +Quotations can be created from Sales orders or AR Invoice automatically. +

+

+

9.3 Shipping

+

The Shipping module (Shipping->Shipping) allows one to ship portions or entireties of existing sales orders, +printing pick lists and packing slips. +

One can then generate invoices for those parts that were shipped. +

In general, one will be more likely to use these features if they have multiple warehouses that they ship +from. More likely most customers will just generate invoices from orders. +

+

+

9.4 AR Work Flow

+

+

+
9.4.1 Service Example
+

A customer contacts your firm and asks for a quote on some services. Your company would create a +quotation for the job and email it to the customer or print it and mail it. Once the customer agrees to pay, one +creates a sales order from the quotation. +

When the work is completed, the sales order is converted into a sales invoice and this is presented to the +customer as a bill. +

Note that in some cases, this procedure may be shortened. If the customer places an order without +asking for a quotation and is offered a verbal quote, then one might merely prepare the sales +order. +

+
+ + + + + +
Figure 1: Simple AR Service Invoice Workflow Example
+

PICT + + +

+
+
9.4.2 Single Warehouse Example
+

A customer contacts your firm and asks for a quotation for shipping a part. You would create the quotation +and when you get confirmation, convert it to an order. Once the parts are in place you could go to shipping +and ship the part. +

The billing department can then generate the invoice from the sales order based on what merchandise has +been shipped and mail it to the customer. +

Note that this requires that you have the part in your inventory. +

+
+ + + + + +
Figure 2: AR Workflow with Shipping
+

PICT + + +

+
+
9.4.3 Multiple Warehouse Example
+

A customer contacts your firm and asks for a quotation for a number of different parts. You would create a +quotation and when you get confirmation, convert it to a sales order. When you go to ship the item, you +would select the warehouse in the drop-down menu, and select the parts to ship. One would repeat with +other warehouses until the entire order is shipped. +

Then the billing department would go to the sales order and generate the invoice. It would then be +mailed to the customer. +

+
+ + + + + +
Figure 3: Complex AR Workflow with Shipping
+

PICT + + +

+
+

9.5 Requests for Quotation (RFQ)

+

A request for quotation would be a formal document one might submit to a vendor to ask for a quote +on a product or service they might offer. These can be generated from Purchase Orders or AP +Invoices. +

+

+

9.6 Purchase Orders

+

A purchase order is a confirmation that is issued to the vendor to order the product or service. Many +businesses will require a purchase order with certain terms in order to begin work on a product. These can be +generated from RFQ’s or AP Invoices. +

+

+

9.7 Receiving

+

The Shipping->Receiving screen allows you to track the parts received from an existing purchase order. Like +shipping, it does not post an invoice but tracks the received parts in the order. +

+

+

9.8 AP Work Flow

+

+

+
9.8.1 Bookkeeper entering the received items, order completed in full
+

Your company inquires about the price of a given good or service from another firm. You submit an RFQ to +the vendor, and finding that the price is reasonable, you convert it to an order, adjust the price to what they +have quoted, and save it. When the goods are delivered you convert the order into an AP invoice and post +it. +

+
+ + + + + +
Figure 4: Simple AP Workflow
+

PICT + + +

+
+
9.8.2 Bookkeeper entering received items, order completed in part
+

Your company inquires about the price of a given good or service from another firm, You submit an RFQ to +the vendor, and finding that the price is acceptable, you convert it into an order, adjusting the price to what +they have quoted, and save it. When some of the goods are received, you open up the purchase order, enter +the number of parts received, convert that order into an invoice, and post it. Repeat until all parts are +received. +

+
+ + + + + +
Figure 5: AP Workflow with Receiving
+

PICT + + +

+
+
9.8.3 Receiving staff entering items
+

Your company inquires about the price of a given good or service from another firm, You submit an RFQ to +the vendor, and finding that the price is acceptable, you convert it into an order, adjusting the price to +what they have quoted, and save it. When some or all of the goods are received, the receiving +staff goes to Shipping-Receiving, locates the purchase order, and fills in the number of items +received. +

The bookkeeper can then determine when all items have been received and post the invoice at that +time. +

+
+ + + + + +
Figure 6: Complex AP Workflow
+

PICT + + +

+
+

9.9 Generation and Consolidation

+

+

+
9.9.1 Generation
+

The Generation screen allows you to generate Purchase Orders based on sales orders. One selects the sales +orders one wants to use, and clicks "Generate Purchase Orders." Then one selects clicks on the parts to order, +adjusts the quantity if necessary, and clicks "Select Vendor." This process is repeated for every vendor +required. Then the Generate Orders button is clicked. +

+

+
9.9.2 Consolidation
+

One can consolidate sales and/or purchase orders using this screen. For the consolidation to work you must +have more than one order associated with the relevant customer or vendor. +

+

+

9.10 Reporting

+

The reporting functionality in the order management is largely limited to the ability to locate purchase +orders, sales orders, RFQ’s, and quotations. +

+

+

9.11 Shipping Module: Transferring Inventory between Warehouses

+

One can transfer inventory between warehouses if necessary by using the Shipping->Transfer Inventory +screen. +

+

+

10 HR

+

The HR module is currently limited to tracking employees for and their start and end dates. It +has very little other functionality. One could build payroll systems that could integrate with it +however. + + +

+

+

11 POS

+

LedgerSMB 1.2 includes a number of components merged from Metatron Technology Consulting’s SL-POS. +Although it is still not a perfect solution, it is greatly improved in both workflow and hardware support. It is +suitable for retail establishments at the moment. +

+

+

11.1 Sales Screen

+

The sales screen looks very much like a normal invoice entry screen with a few differences. +

+ +

+

+

11.2 Possibilities for Data Entry

+ +

+

+

11.3 Hardware Support

+

As LedgerSMB is a web-based application, the web browser usually does not allow the page to write to +arbitrary files. Therefore hardware support for pole displays, etc. is not readily possible from the application +itself. LedgerSMB gets around this limitation by using an additional set of network sockets from the server to +the client to control its hardware. This naturally requires that other software is also running on the +client. + + +

Notes for specific types of hardware are as follows: +

+

+Touch
screens: The default stylesheet is not really usable from a touchscreen as the items are often + too small. One would need to modify the stylesheets to ensure that the relevant items would be + reasonable. Setting down the resolution would also help. +
+Receipt
Printers: ESC/POS printers generally work in text mode. Control sequences can be + embedded in the template as necessary. +
+Pole
Displays: Generally supported. Only the Logic Controls PD3000 is supported out of the box, + but making this work for other models ought to be trivial. +
+Cash
Drawers: These should be attached to the printer. The control codes is then specified in the + pos.conf.pl so that the command is sent to the printer when the open till button is pushed. +
+Barcode
Scanners: Most customers use decoded barcode scanners through a keyboard wedge + interface. This allows them to scan items as if they were typing them on the keyboard.
+

+

+

11.4 Reports

+

+

+
11.4.1 Open Invoices
+

The POS->Open screen allows one to find any POS receipts that are not entirely paid off. +

+

+
11.4.2 Receipts
+

The POS->Receipts screen allows one to bring up a basic record of the POS terminals. It is not sufficient for +closing the till, however, though it may help for reconciliation. +

The till column is the last component or octet of the terminal’s IP address. Therefore it is a good idea to +try to avoid having IP addresses where the last octet is the same. +

All entries are grouped by date and source in this report. +

+

+

12 General Ledger

+ + +

+

+

12.1 GL Basics

+

The General Ledger is the heart of Ledger-SMB. Indeed, Ledger-SMB is designed to be as close as possible to +a software equivalent of a paper-based accounting program (but with no difference between the General +Ledger and General Journal). +

+

+
12.1.1 Paper-based accounting systems and the GL
+

In order to understand the principle of the General Ledger, one must have a basic understanding of the +general process of bookkeeping using double-entry paper-based accounting systems. +

Normally when a transaction would be recorded, it would first be recorded in the "General Journal" +which would contain detailed information about the transaction, notes, etc. Then the entries from the +General Journal would be transcribed to the General Ledger, where one could keep closer tabs on what was +going on in each account. +

In the general journal, all transactions are listed chronologically with whatever commentary is deemed +necessary, while in the general ledger each account has its own page and transactions are recorded in a +simple and terse manner. The General Journal is the first place the transaction is recorded and the General +Ledger is the last. +

At the end of the accounting period, the GL transactions would be summarized into a trial balance +and this would be used for creating financial statements and closing the books at the end of the +year. +

+

+
12.1.2 Double Entry Examples on Paper
+

Let us say that John starts his business with an initial investment of $10,000. +

This is recorded in the General Journal as follows (in this example, suppose it is page 1): +

+
+ + + + + +
Date Accounts and ExplanationRef DEBITCREDIT
March 1Checking Account 106010000.00
John Doe Capital 3011 10000.00
John Doe began a business
with an investment of
$10000
+
+

This would then be transcribed into two pages of the General Ledger. The first page might be the +Checking Account page: +

+
+ +
DATE EXPLANATIONREF. DEBITSDATEEXPLANATIONREF.CREDITS
March 1 J1 10000.00
+
+

On the John Doe Capital page, we would add a similar entry: +

+ + +
+ +
DATEEXPLANATIONREF.DEBITSDATE EXPLANATIONREF.CREDITS
March 1 J1 10000.00
+
+

+

+
12.1.3 The GL in Ledger-SMB
+

The paper-based accounting procedure works well when one is stuck with paper recording requirements but +it has one serious deficiency— all of this transcribing creates an opportunity for errors. +

Relational databases relieve the need for such transcription as it is possible to store everything +physically in a way similar to the way a General Journal is used in the paper-based systems and then +present the same information in ways which are more closely related to the General Ledger +book. +

This is the exact way that the General Ledger is used in Ledger-SMB. The actual data is entered and +stored as if it was a general journal, and then the data can be presented in any number of different +ways. +

All modules of Ledger-SMB that involve COA accounts store their data in the General Ledger (it is a little +more complex than this but this is very close to the actual mechanism). +

+

+

12.2 Cash Transfer

+

The simplest form of GL entry in Ledger-SMB is the Cash->Transfer screen. This screen shows two +transaction lines, and fields for reference, department, description, and notes. +

The field descriptions are as follows: +

+

+Reference
refers to the source document for the transfer. One can use transfer sheets, bank receipt + numbers, etc for this field. +
+Description
is optional but really should be filled in. It ought to be a description of the transaction. +
+Notes
provide supplemental information for the transaction. +
+FX
indicates whether foreign exchange is a factor in this transaction. +
+Debit
indicates money going into the asset account. +
+Credit
indicates money coming out of the asset account. +
+Source
is the source document for that portion of the transaction. +
+Memo
lists additional information as necessary. + + +
+Project
allows you to assign this line to a project.
+

The credit and debit options seem to be the opposite of what one would think of concerning one’s bank account. +The reason is that your bank statement is done from the bank’s point of view. Your bank account balance is +an asset to you and therefor you show it as having a debit balance, but to the bank it is money they owe you +and so they show it as having a credit balance. +

Note that in this screen, when an item is updated, it will reduce the number of lines to those already filled +in plus an extra line for the new line in the data entry. +

+

+

12.3 GL Transactions

+

The GL Transaction screen (General Ledger->Add Transaction) is identical to the Cash Transfer screen with +the exception that it starts with nine lines instead of two. Otherwise, they are identical. +

Again, one must be careful with debits and credits. Often it is easy to get confused. It is generally worth +while to go back to the principle that one tracks them with regard to their impact on the equity accounts. So +expenses are credits because they debit the equity accounts, and income is a debit because it credits the +retained earning equity account. +

+

+

12.4 Payroll as a GL transaction

+

Currently payroll must be done as a GL transaction. The attempts to create a payroll system that would ship +with LSMB have largely stalled. +

Most customers running their businesses will have an idea of how to do this. +

+
+ + + + + +
Figure 7: Payroll as a GL Transaction (Purely fictitious numbers)
+
+ + + + + + + + +
Account DebitCredit
5101 Wages and Salaries 500
2032 Accrued Wages 450
2033 Fed. Income Tax wthd 30
2034 State Inc. Tax. wthd 15
2035 Social Security wthd 3
2036 Medicare wthd 2
2032 Accrued Wages 450
1060 Checking Acct 450
+
+ + +
+

12.5 Reconciliation

+

To reconcile an account (say, when one would get a checking account statement), one would +go to cash/reconciliation, and check off the items that have cleared. One can then attempt to +determine where any errors lie by comparing the total on the statement with the total that LSMB +generates. +

This can be done for other accounts too, such as petty +cash.2 +

+

12.6 Reports

+

The most flexible report in Ledger-SMB is the GL report because it has access to the entire set of financial +transactions of a business. Every invoice posted, payment made or received, etc. can be located +here. +

The search criteria include: +

+

+Reference
is the invoice number, or other reference number associated with the transaction. +
+Source
is the field related to the source document number in a payment or other transaction.3 +
+Memo
relates to the memo field on a payment. +
+Department
can be used to filter results by department. +
+Account
Type can be used to filter results by type of account (Asset, Liability, etc.) +
+Description
can be used to filter by GL description or by customer/vendor name.
+

The actual format of the report looks more like what one would expect in a paper accounting system’s general +journal than a general ledger per se. A presentation of the data that is more like the paper general ledger is +found in the Chart of Accounts report. +

+

+
12.6.1 GL as access to almost everything else
+ + +

The GL reports can be used to do all manner of things. One can determine, for example, which AP invoice or +transaction was paid with a certain check number or which invoice by a specific customer was paid by a +specific check number. +

+

+

13 Recurring Transactions

+

Any transaction or invoice may be repeated a number of times in regular intervals. To schedule any GL, AR, +or AP transaction or invoice, click the schedule button. +

In general the reference number should be left blank as this will force Ledger-SMB to create a new invoice +or transaction number for each iteration. The rest of the options are self-explanatory. Note that a blank +number if iterations will result in no recurrences of the transaction. +

To process the recurring transactions, click on the Recurring Transactions option on the main menu select +the ones you want to process and click "Process Transactions." +

+

+

14 Financial Statements and Reports

+

Financial statements and reports are a very important part of any accounting system. Accountants and +business people rely on these reports to determine the financial soundness of the business and its prospects +for the next accounting period. +

+

+

14.1 Cash v. Accrual Basis

+

Financial statements, such as the Income Statement and Balance Sheet can be prepared either on a cash or +accrual basis. In cash-basis accounting, the income is deemed earned when the customer pays it, and the +expenses are deemed incurred when the business pays them. +

There are a number of problems with cash-basis accounting from a business point of view. The most +serious is that one can misrepresent the wellbeing of a business by paying a large expense after a deadline. +Thus cash-basis accounting does not allow one to accurately pair the income with the related expense as +these are recorded at different times. If one cannot accurately pair the income with the related expense, then +financial statements cannot be guaranteed to tell one much of anything about the well-being of the +business. +

In accrual basis accounting, income is considered earned when the invoice is posted, and +expenses are considered incurred at the time when the goods or services are delivered to the +business. This way, one can pair the income made from the sale of a product with the expense +incurred in bringing that product to sale. This pairing allows for greater confidence in business +reporting. +

+

+

14.2 Viewing the Chart of Accounts and Transactions

+

The Reports–>Chart of Accounts will provide the chart of accounts along with current totals in each +account. + + +

If you click on an account number, you will get a screen that allows you to filter out transactions in that +account by various criteria. One can also include AR/AP, and Subtotal in the report. +

The report format is similar to that of a paper-based general ledger. +

+

+

14.3 Trial Balance

+

+

+
14.3.1 The Paper-based function of a Trial Balance
+

In paper-based accounting systems, the accountant at the end of the year would total up the debits and +credits in every account and transfer them onto another sheet called the trial balance. The accountant +would check to determine that the total debits and credits were equal and would then transfer +this information onto the financial statements. It was called a trial balance because it was the +main step at which the error-detection capabilities of double-entry accounting systems were +used. +

+

+
14.3.2 Running the Trial Balance Report
+

This report is located under Reports –>Trial Balance. One can filter out items by date, accounting period, or +department. One can run the report by accounts or using GIFI classifications to group accounts +together. +

From this report, you can click on the account number and see all transactions on the trial balance as well +as whether or not they have been reconciled. +

+

+
14.3.3 What if the Trial Balance doesn’t Balance?
+

If the trial balance does not balance, get technical support immediately. This usually means that transactions +were not entered properly. Some may have been out of balance, or some may have gone into non-existent +accounts (believe it or not, Ledger-SMB does not check this latter issue). +

+

+
14.3.4 Trial Balance as a Summary of Account Activity
+

The trial balance offers a glance at the total activity in every account. It can provide a useful look at financial +activity at a glance for the entire business. +

+

+
14.3.5 Trial Balance as a Budget Planning Tool
+ + +

By filtering out departments, one can determine what a department earned and spent during a given +financial interval. This can be used in preparing budgets for the next accounting period. +

+

+

14.4 Income Statement

+

The Income Statement is another tool that can be used to assist with budgetary planning as well as provide +information on the financial health of a business. +

The report is run from Reports–>Income Statement. The report preparation screen shows the following +fields: +

+

+Department
allows you to run reports for individual departments. This is useful for budgetary + purposes. +
+Project
allows you to run reports on individual projects. This can show how profitable a given project + was during a given time period. +
+From
and To allow you to select arbitrary from and to dates. +
+Period
allows you to specify a standard accounting period. +
+Compare to
fields allow you to run a second report for comparison purposes for a separate range of + dates or accounting period. +
+Decimalplaces
allows you to display numbers to a given precision. +
+Method
allows you to select between accrual and cash basis reports. +
+Include
in Report provides various options for reporting. +
+Accounts
allows you to run GIFI reports instead of the standard ones.
+

The report shows all income and expense accounts with activity during the period when the report is run, the +balances accrued during the period, as well as the total income and expense at the bottom of each section. +The total expense is subtracted from the total income to provide the net income during the period. If there is +a loss, it appears in parentheses. +

+

+
14.4.1 Uses of an Income Statement
+

The income statement provides a basic snapshot of the overall ability of the business to make money. It is one +of the basic accounting statements and is required, for example, on many SEC forms for publicly traded +firms. + + +

Additionally, businessmen use the income statement to look at overall trends in the ability of the business +to make money. One can compare a given month, quarter, or year with a year prior to look for trends so that +one can make adjustments in order to maximize profit. +

Finally, these reports can be used to provide a look at each department’s performance and their +ability to work within their budget. One can compare a department or project’s performance to +a year prior and look for patterns that can indicate problems or opportunities that need to be +addressed. +

+

+

14.5 Balance Sheet

+

The balance sheet is the second major accounting statement supported by Ledger-SMB. The balance sheet +provides a snapshot of the current financial health of the business by comparing assets, liabilities, and +equity. +

In essence the balance sheet is a statement of the current state of owner equity. Traditionally, it does not +track changes in owner equity in the same way the Statement of Owner Equity does. +

The Balance Sheet report preparation screen is much simpler than the Income Statement screen. +Balance sheets don’t apply to projects, but they do apply to departments. Also, unlike an income +statement, a balance sheet is fixed for a specific date in time. Therefore one does not need to select a +period. +

The fields in creating a balance sheet are: +

+

+Department
allows you to run separate balance sheets for each department. +
+As
at specifies the date. If blank this will be the current date. +
+Compare to
specifies the date to compare the balance sheet to. +
+Decimalplaces
specifies the number of decimal places to use. +
+Method
selects between cash and accrual basis. +
+Include
in report allows you to select supplemental information on the report. +
+Accounts
allows you to select between standard and GIFI reports.
+

The balance sheet lists all asset, liability, and equity accounts with a balance. Each category has a total listed, and +the total of the equity and liability accounts is also listed. +

The total assets should be equal to the sum of the totals of the liability and equity accounts. + + +

+

+

14.6 What if the Balance Sheet doesn’t balance?

+

Get technical support immediately, This may indicate that out of balance transactions were entered or that +transactions did not post properly. +

+

+

14.7 No Statement of Owner Equity?

+

The Statement of Owner Equity is the one accounting statement that Ledger-SMB does not support. +However, it can be simulated by running a balance sheet at the end of the time frame in question and +comparing it to the beginning. One can check this against an income statement for the period in question +to verify its accuracy. The statement of owner equity is not as commonly used now as it once +was. +

+

+

15 The Template System

+

Ledger-SMB allows most documents to be generated according to a template system. This allows financial +statements, invoices, orders, and the like to be customized to meet the needs of most businesses. Company +logos can be inserted, the format can be radically altered, one can print letters to be included +with checks to vendors instead of the checks themselves, and the like. In the end, there is very +little that cannot be accomplished regarding modification of these documents with the template +system. +

One can define different templates for different languages, so that a customer in Spain gets a different +invoice than a customer in Canada. +

+

+

15.1 Text Templates

+

The only template that uses a text-only format is the POS receipt. This example provides the simplest way to +understand the template system. +

The first two lines are: +
<%company align=center width=40%> +
<%address align=center width=40%> +
+

The first line tells Ledger-SMB to print the company name as passed to it via a variable, centered, with a +page width of 40 characters. The second line does the same thing with the address. +

These variables are usually passed to the invoice using form fields (hidden or otherwise) in the +submitting web page. The printing script, however, can disable some of these fields or add others via +database lookups and the like. +

In all types of templates, variable substitution occurs between <% and %>. One can optionally specify an +alignment or a width but these are really only useful in text templates. + + +

+

+

15.2 HTML Templates

+

The following templates exist in HTML format: +

+ +

These templates can be edited by an HTML editor. However, it is generally recommended that one back up +templates first. The reason is that some HTML editors will fully re-parse the HTML and save it back without +what they see as invalid tags. Most editors, however, will save the variable substitution tags because similar +tags are also used by Microsoft’s active server pages. +

Finally, some editors are known to mangle formatting, so many problems can be avoided by ensuring that +one has a backup of the templates, especially if they have already been customized. + + +

+

+

15.3 LATEX Templates

+

The following templates, by default, are available in LATEX : +

+ +

LATEX templates allow one to generate PDF and postscript documents and print directly to a postscript-enabled +printer or print software (like CUPS). +

LATEX templates can be edited using a standard text editor (like vim or emacs), or using a synchronous +LATEX implementation such as LY X. + + +

+

+
15.3.1 What is LATEX ?
+

LATEX (pronounced LAY-tech) is an extension on the TEX typesetting system. It largely consists of a set of +macros that allow one to focus on the structure of the document while letting the TEX engine do the heavy +lifting in terms of determining the optimal formatting for the page. LATEX is used in a large number of +academic journals (including those of the American Mathematics Association). It is available at http://www.tug.org and is included in most Linux distributions. +

Like HTML, LATEX uses plain text documents to store the formatting information and then when the +document is rendered, attempts to fit it onto a page. LATEX supports the concept of stylesheets, allowing +one to separate content from format, and this feature is used in many higher-end applications, like journal +publication. +

Unlike HTML, LATEX is a complete though simple programming language that allows one to redefine +internals of the system for formatting purposes. +

This document is written in LATEX. +

+

+
15.3.2 Using LY X to Edit LATEX Templates
+

LY X is a synchronous LATEX editor that runs on Windows, UNIX/Linux, and Mac OS X. It +requires an installed LATEX-2e implementation and can be obtained at http://www.lyx.org. Like +the most common LATEX implementations, it is open source and is included with most Linux +distributions. +

+

+

15.4 Customizing Logos

+

LATEX requires different formats of logos depending on whether the document is going to be +generated as a PDF or as postscript. Postscript requires an embedded postscript graphic, while PDF +requires any type of graphic other than embedded postscript. Usually one uses a PNG’s for +PDF’s, though GIF’s could be used as well. The logo for a LATEX document resides in the users +directory. +

HTML documents can have logos in many different formats. PNG’s are generally preferred for printing +reasons. The image can be stored anywhere and merely referenced in the HTML. +

Note: Always test the an invoice with images to ensure that the rest of the page format is not thrown off +by it. +

+

+

15.5 How are They Stored in the Filesystem?

+

The template directory ("templates" in the root Ledger-SMB install directory) contains all the root templates +used by Ledger-SMB. These follow a naming convention of COAType-templatename.ext where COAType is +the type of dataset that was created when the user was created, templatename is the name of the template, +and ext is either txt, html, or tex (for text, html, and LATEX respectively). +

Inside this directory are one or more subdirectories where the relevant templates have been copied as +default language templates for the user. Many users can use the same user directory (which bears the name +of the Ledger-SMB username). Within this directory are more subdirectories for translated templates, one for +each language created. + + +

+

+

15.6 Upgrade Issues

+

When Ledger-SMB is upgraded, the templates are not replaced. This is designed to prevent the upgrade +script from overwriting changes made during the course of customizing the templates. +

Occasionally, however, the data model changes in a way which can cause the templates to stop printing +certain information. When information that was showing up before an upgrade stops showing up, one can +either upgrade the templates by copying the source template over the existing one, or one can edit the +template to make the change. +

+

+

16 An Introduction to the CLI

+

+

+

16.1 Conventions

+

The command-line API will be referred to as the API. +

+

+

16.2 Preliminaries

+

Logging into Ledger-SMB (1.2+) updates a row in the users_conf table containing your account configuration +defaults and other information. The implication for API users of LSMB is that you must login as part of +running API scripts. For security purposes, it is recommended that scripts prompt for a password rather than +storing it. +

All scripts included in the documentation can also be found in the doc/samples directory. +

Consider a simple example: +

cd /usr/local/ledger-smb ./ct.pl "login=name&path=bin&password=xxxxx&action=search&db=customer" +

The cd command moves your terminal session’s current working directory into the main Ledger-SMB +directory. Then the Ledger-SMB perl script ct.pl is called with one long line as an argument. The argument is +really several variable=value pairs separated by ampersands (&). The value for the login variable is the +username that Ledger-SMB is to use, and the value for the password variable is the plaintext +password. +

To build our examples we will use a username of "clarkkent" who has a password of "lOis,lAn3". +

cd /usr/local/ledger-smb ./ct.pl "login=clarkkent&path=bin&password=lOis,lAn3&action=search&db=customer" +

If we execute these commands we will get the html for the search form for the customer database. This +result isn’t useful in itself, but it shows we are on the right track. +

+

+

16.3 First Script: lsmb01-cli-example.sh

+ + +

With a working example, we can start to build reproducible routines that we can grow to do some useful +work. +

This is a bash script which: +

1. sets NOW to the current working directory 2. prompts for and reads your Ledger-SMB login 3. prompts +for and reads (non-echoing) your Ledger-SMB password 4. changes directory to /usr/local/ledger-smb 5. +constructs login and logout commands and a transaction command 6. logins into ledger-smb (in a real +program, output would be checked for success or failure) 7. executes the transaction 8. logs out +of ledger-smb (although this is not necessary) 9. returns to the original working directory 10. +exits +

Running lsmb01-cli-example.sh produces: +

$ lsmb01-cli-example.sh +

Ledger-SMB login: clarkkent +

Ledger-SMB password: + + +

+
+<body> + 
+ 
<form method=post action=ct.pl> + 
+ 
<input type=hidden name=db value=customer> + 
+ 
<table width=100%> + 
  <tr> + 
    <th class=listtop>Search</th> + 
. + 
. + 
. +
+
+

+

A script like this would work well for simple batch transactions, but bash is not a very friendly language +for application programming. +

A nicer solution would be to use a language such as perl to drive the command line API. +

+

+
16.3.1 Script 1 (Bash)
+ + +
+#!/bin/bash + 
####################################################################### + 
# + 
# lsmb01-cli-example.sh + 
# Copyright (C) 2006. Louis B. Moore + 
# + 
# $Id: $ + 
# + 
# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify + 
# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by + 
# the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or + 
# (at your option) any later version. + 
# + 
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, + 
# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of + 
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the + 
# GNU General Public License for more details. + 
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License + 
# along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software + 
# Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. + 
# + 
####################################################################### + 
+ 
NOW=‘pwd‘ + 
+ 
echo -n ~Ledger-SMB login: ~ + 
read LSLOGIN + 
echo + 
+ 
echo -n ~Ledger-SMB password: ~ + 
stty -echo + 
read LSPWD + 
stty echo + 
echo + 
+ 
ARG=~login=${LSLOGIN}&password=${LSPWD}&path=bin&action=search&db=customer~ + 
+ 
LGIN=~login=${LSLOGIN}&password=${LSPWD}&path=bin&action=login~ + 
LGOT=~login=${LSLOGIN}&password=${LSPWD}&path=bin&action=logout~ + 
+ 
cd /usr/local/ledger-smb + 
+ 
./login.pl $LGIN 2>&1  > /dev/null + 
./ct.pl $ARG + 
./login.pl $LGOT 2>&1  > /dev/null + 
+ 
cd $NOW + 
+ + + 
exit 0 +
+
+

+

+

+

16.4 Second Script: lsmb02-cli-example.pl

+

Our second script is written in perl and logs you in but it still uses the API in its simplest form, that is, it +builds commands and then executes them. This type of script can be used for more complex solutions than +the simple bash script above, though it is still fairly limited. If your needs require, rather than have the script +build and then execute the commands it could be written to generate a shell script which is executed by +hand. +

This script begins by prompting for your Ledger-SMB login and password. Using the supplied +values a login command is constructed and passed into the runLScmd subroutine. runLScmd +changes directory to /usr/local/ledger-smb/ for the length of the subroutine. It formats the +command and executes it and returns both the output and error information to the caller in a +scalar. +

The script checks to see if there was an error in the login, exiting if there was. +

Next, the script reads some records which are stored in the program following the __END__ token. It +takes each record in turn, formats it then feeds each transaction through runLScmd and looks at the results +for a string that signals success. +

Once all the transactions are processed, runLScmd is called one last time to logout and the script +exits. +

+

+
16.4.1 Script 2 (Perl)
+ + +
+#!/usr/bin/perl -w + 
# + 
#  File:         lsmb02-cli-example.pl + 
#  Environment:  Ledger-SMB 1.2.0+ + 
#  Author:       Louis B. Moore + 
# + 
#  Copyright (C)   2006  Louis B. Moore + 
# + 
#  This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or + 
#  modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License + 
#  as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 + 
#  of the License, or (at your option) any later version. + 
# + 
#  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, + 
#  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of + 
#  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the + 
#  GNU General Public License for more details. + 
# + 
#  You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License + 
#  along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software + 
#  Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA. + 
# + 
#  Revision: + 
#       $Id$ + 
# + 
# + 
+ 
use File::chdir; + 
use HTML::Entities; + 
+ 
+ 
print ~\n\nLedger-SMB login: ~; + 
my $login = <STDIN>; + 
chomp($login); + 
+ 
+ 
print ~\nLedger-SMB password: ~; + 
system(~stty -echo~); + 
my $pwd = <STDIN>; + 
system(~stty echo~); + 
chomp($pwd); + 
print ~\n\n~; + 
+ 
$cmd = ~login=~ . $login . ’&password=’ . $pwd . ’&path=bin&action=login’; + 
+ 
$signin = runLScmd(~./login.pl~,$cmd); + 
+ 
if ( $signin =~ m/Error:/ ) { + + + 
+ 
print ~\nLogin error\n~; + 
exit; + 
+ 
} + 
+ 
+ 
while (<main::DATA>) { + 
+ 
chomp; + 
@rec = split(/\|/); + 
+ 
$arg = ’path=bin/mozilla&login=’ . $login . ’&password=’ . $pwd . + 
’&action=’       . escape(substr($rec[0],0,35)) . + 
’&db=’           . $rec[1] . + 
’&name=’         . escape(substr($rec[2],0,35)) . + 
’&vendornumber=’ . $rec[3] . + 
’&address1=’     . escape(substr($rec[4],0,35)) . + 
’&address2=’     . escape(substr($rec[5],0,35)) . + 
’&city=’         . escape(substr($rec[6],0,35)) . + 
’&state=’        . escape(substr($rec[7],0,35)) . + 
’&zipcode=’      . escape(substr($rec[8],0,35)) . + 
’&country=’      . escape(substr($rec[9],0,35)) . + 
’&phone=’        . escape(substr($rec[10],0,20)) . + 
’&tax_2150=1’ . + 
’&taxaccounts=2150’ . + 
’&taxincluded=0’ . + 
’&terms=0’; + 
+ 
$rc=runLScmd(~./ct.pl~,$arg); + 
+ 
if ($rc =~ m/Vendor saved!/) { + 
+ 
print ~$rec[2] SAVED\n~; + 
+ 
} else { + 
+ 
print ~$rec[2] ERROR\n~; + 
+ 
} + 
+ 
} + 
+ 
+ 
$cmd = ~login=~ . $login . ’&password=’ . $pwd . ’&path=bin&action=logout’; + 
+ 
$signin = runLScmd(~./login.pl~,$cmd); + 
+ 
if ( $signin =~ m/Error:/ ) { + 
+ 
    print ~\nLogout error\n~; + 
+ + + 
} + 
+ 
exit; + 
+ 
+ 
#******************************************************* + 
# Subroutines + 
#******************************************************* + 
+ 
+ 
sub runLScmd { + 
+ 
    my $cmd  = shift; + 
    my $args = shift; + 
    my $i    = 0; + 
    my $results; + 
+ 
    local $CWD = ~/usr/local/ledger-smb/~; + 
+ 
    $cmd = $cmd . ~ \~~ . $args . ~\~~; + 
+ 
    $results = ‘$cmd 2>&1‘; + 
+ 
    return $results; + 
+ 
} + 
+ 
sub escape { + 
+ 
    my $str = shift; + 
+ 
    if ($str) { + 
+ 
decode_entities($str); + 
$str =~ s/([^a-zA-Z0-9_.-])/sprintf(~%%%02x~, ord($1))/ge; + 
    } + 
+ 
    return $str; + 
+ 
} + 
+ 
+ 
#******************************************************* + 
# Record Format + 
#******************************************************* + 
# + 
# action | db | name | vendornumber | address1 | address2 | city | state | zipcode | country | phone + 
# + 
+ 
__END__ + 
save|vendor|Parts are Us|1377|238 Riverview|Suite 11|Cheese Head|WI|56743|USA|555-123-3322| + 
save|vendor|Widget Heaven|1378|41 S. Riparian Way||Show Me|MO|39793|USA|555-231-3309| + + + 
save|vendor|Consolidated Spackle|1379|1010 Binary Lane|Dept 1101|Beverly Hills|CA|90210|USA|555-330-7639 x772| + 
+ 
+
+
+

+ + +

+

Part II
Technical Overview

+

17 Basic Architecture

+

Ledger-SMB is a web-based Perl program that interfaces with PostgreSQL using the relevant Perl modules. +The code is well partitioned, and the main operation modules are written in an object oriented +way. +

+

+

17.1 The Software Stack

+
+ + + + + +

PICT +

Figure 8: The Ledger-SMB software stack in a Typical Implementation
+ + +
+

Ledger-SMB runs in a Perl interpreter. I do not currently know if it is possible to run it with Perl2C or +other language converters to run in other environments. However, except for high-capacity environments, +Perl is a good language choice for this sort of program. +

Ledger-SMB used to support DB2 and Oracle as well as PostgreSQL. However, currently some of the +functionality is implemented using PostgreSQL user-defined functions. These would need to be ported to +other database managers in order to make the software work on these. It should not be too hard, but the fact +that it has not been done yet may mean that there is no real demand for running the software under other +RDBMS’s. +

One can substitute other web servers for Apache. Normally Ledger-SMB is run as a CGI program +but it may be possible to run it in the web server process (note that this may not be entirely +thread-safe). +

The operating system can be any that supports a web server and Perl (since PostgreSQL need not run on +the same system). However, there are a few issues running Ledger-SMB on Windows (most notably in trying +to get Postscript documents to print properly). +

On the client side, any web-browser will work. Currently, the layout is different for Lynx (which doesn’t +support frames), and the layout is not really useful under eLinks (the replacement for Lynx which does +support frames). Some functionality requires Javascript to work properly, though the application is usable +without these features. +

+

17.2 Capacity Planning

+

Some companies may ask how scalable Ledger-SMB is. In general, it is assumed that few companies are +going to have a need for a high-concurrency accounting system. However, with all the features available in +Ledger-SMB, the staff that may have access to some of the application may be senior enough to make the +question worthwhile. +

This question also becomes more important when companies might look at integrating Ledger-SMB with +a CRM solution, online store, or other environment. This section looks at a number of the known issues and +their solutions. +

+

+
17.2.1 Scalability Strategies
+

Ledger-SMB is a fairly standard web-based application. However, sometimes the database schema changes +during upgrades. In these cases, it becomes impossible to use different versions of the software against the +same database version safely. Ledger-SMB checks the version of the database and if the version is higher than +the version of the software that is running, will refuse to run. +

Therefore although one strategy might be to run several front-end web servers with Ledger-SMB, in +reality this can be a bit of a problem. One solution is to take half of the front-end servers off-line while +doing the initial upgrade, and then take the other offline to upgrade when these are brought back +online. +

The database manager is less scalable in the sense that one cannot just add more database servers and +expect to carry on as normal. However, aside from the known issues listed below, there are few performance +issues with it. If complex reports are necessary, these can be moved to a replica database (perhaps using +Slony-I). +

If this solution is insufficient for database scalability, one might be able to move staff who do not need +real-time access to new entries onto a PG-Pool/Slony-I cluster where new transactions are entered on the +master and other data is looked up on the replica. In certain circumstances, one can also offload a number of +other queries from the master database in order to minimize the load. Ledger-SMB has very few issues in the + + +scalability of the application. +

+

+
17.2.2 Database Maintenance
+

PostgreSQL uses a technique called Multi-version Concurrency Control (MVCC) to provide a snapshot of the +database at the beginning of a statement or transaction (depending on the transaction isolation level). When a +row is updated, PostgreSQL leaves the old row in the database, and inserts a new version of that row into the +table. Over time, unless those old rows are removed, performance can degrade as PostgreSQL has to search +through all the old versions of the row in order to determine which one ought to be the current +one. +

Due to the way the SQL statements are executed in Ledger-SMB, most inserts will also create a dead +row. +

A second problem occurs in that each transaction is given a transaction id. These id’s are numbered using +32-bit integers. If the transaction id wraps around (prior to 8.1), data from transactions that appear +(due to the wraparound) to be in the future suddenly becomes inaccessible. This problem was +corrected in PostgreSQL 8.1, where the database will refuse to accept new transactions if the +transaction ID gets too close to a wraparound. So while the problem is not as serious in 8.1, the +application merely becomes inaccessible rather than displaying apparent data loss. Wraparound +would occur after about a billion transactions between all databases running on that instance of +PostgreSQL. +

Prior to 8.1, the main way to prevent both these problems was to run a periodic vacuumdb command +from cron (UNIX/Linux) or the task scheduler (Windows). In 8.1 or later, autovacuum capabilities are part of +the back-end and can be configured with the database manager. See the PostgreSQL documentation for +treatment of these subjects. +

In general, if performance appears to be slowly degrading, one should try to run vacuumdb -z from the +shell in order to attempt to reclaim space and provide the planner with accurate information about the size +and composition of the tables. If this fails, then one can go to other methods of determining the bottleneck +and what to do about it. +

+

+
17.2.3 Known issues
+

The PostgreSQL planner assumes a minimum page size of ten pages for a physically empty table. The +reasoning behind this choice is that a table could grow rapidly and one could end up with bad database +performance if the planner assumes a very small table. +

However, if you end up with joins between a very large table with millions of rows and a physically +empty table, one can end up with a very bad query plan. In this case, the planner will choose a nested loop +join and run through this loop for every row in the large table. As a result, performance will suddenly drop +once the large table becomes too large to effectively do index scans of the join criteria on both tables. +This problem most often occurs when people have no warehouses, departments, or projects +defined and are running systems with a large number of transactions (such as a point of sale +environment). +

Last time I saw this problem, the server would wait for thirty seconds to display a new point of sale +screen while the server CPU activity would spike to 100%. +

One solution is to define one warehouse, department, and project, and then run vacuumdb -z from the +shell to force the planner to acknowledge these tables as single-row tables. The other option is to go into the +source code and edit the database queries to omit unused tables. + + +

+

+

18 Customization Possibilities

+

Ledger-SMB is designed to be customized relatively easily and rapidly. In general, the source +code is well written and compartmentalized. This section covers the basic possibilities involving +customization. +

+

+

18.1 Brief Guide to the Source Code

+

Ledger-SMB is an application with over 34000 lines of code. While it is not possible to cover the entire +application here, a brief overview of the source code is in order. +

In the root of the install directory, one will find a setup.pl program, a number of other .pl programs, and a +number of directories. The setup.pl program is used to update or install Ledger-SMB. The other .pl programs +provide a basic set of services for the framework (including authentication) and then pass the work on to the +data entry screen file in the bin directory. +

The bin directory contains another directory for each terminal type. The main two offered are lynx and +mozilla. Lynx would be used for web browsers that do not support frames and is ideal for a text-mode VGA +terminal. Mozilla is the terminal type used for most other web browsers. The perl files within these +directories provides the user interface of the software. +

The css directory in the root install directory contains CSS documents to provide various stylesheets one +can select for changing various aspects of the look and feel of the application. +

The locale directory contains translation files that Ledger-SMB uses to translate between different +languages. One could add translations to these files if necessary. +

The LSMB directory is where the Perl modules reside that provide the core business logic in Ledger-SMB. +These modules provide functionality such as form handling, email capabilities, and access to the database +through its at least partially object oriented API. +

Finally, the sql directory provides the database schemas and upgrade scripts. +

+

+

18.2 Data Entry Screens

+

One can customize the data entry screens to optimize work flow, display additional information, +etc. +

+

+
18.2.1 Examples
+

We set up hot keys for payment lines, automatically focused the keyboard on the last partnumber field, +removed separate print and post buttons to ensure that invoices were always printed and posted together, +and removed the ability to print to the screen, and even the ability to scan items in when an invoice was +received (using a portable data terminal) and import this data into Ledger-SMB. Finally we added the ability +to reconcile the till online in a paperless manner. +

For another customer, we added the ability to print AR invoices in plain text format and added templates +(based on the POS sales template) to do this. + + +

+

+

18.3 Extensions

+

One can add functionality to the Perl modules in the LSMB directory and often add missing functions +easily. +

+

+
18.3.1 Examples
+

For one customer, we added a module to take data from a portable data terminal collected when inventory +items were taken and use that to add shrinkage and loss adjustments. We also extended the parts model to +add a check id flag (for alcohol sales) and added this flag to the user interface. +

For another customer, we added a complex invoice/packing slip tracking system that allowed one to +track all the printed documents associated with an order or invoice. +

+

+

18.4 Templates

+

As noted before templates can be modified or extended, though sometimes this involves extending the user +interface scripts. Most templates are easy enough to modify. +

+

+
18.4.1 Examples
+

For one customer we added text-only invoices for AR and AP transactions/Invoices and an ability to use +Javascript in them to automatically print them on load. +

+

+

18.5 Reports

+

The fact that all the data is available within the database manager is a huge advantage of Ledger-SMB over +Quickbooks and the like. The rapid development of reports allows for one to easily develop reports of any +sort within Ledger-SMB. +

+

+
18.5.1 Examples
+

For one customer, we developed a report of parts sold and received during arbitrary time frames. The report +allows one to go back and look up the invoices involved. + + +

+

+

19 Integration Possibilities

+

An open database system and programming API allows for many types of integration. There are some +challenges, but in the end, one can integrate a large number of tools. +

+

+

19.1 Reporting Tools

+

Any reporting tool which can access the PostgreSQL database can be used with Ledger-SMB for custom +reporting. These can include programs like Microsoft Access and Excel (using the ODBC drivers), PgAccess +(A PostgreSQL front-end written in TCL/Tk with a similar feel to Access), Rekall, Crystal Reports, +OpenOffice and more. +

+

+
19.1.1 Examples
+

We have created spreadsheets of the summaries of activity by day and used the ODBC driver to import these +into Excel. Excel can also read HTML tables, so one can use PostgreSQL to create an HTML table of the result +and save it with a .xls extension so that Windows opens it with Excel. These could then be served via the +same web server that serves Ledger-SMB. +

+

+

19.2 Line of Business Tools on PostgreSQL

+

Various line of business tools have been written using PostgreSQL in large part due to the fact that it is far +more mature than MySQL in areas relating to data integrity enforcement, transactional processing, and the +like. These tools can be integrated with Ledger-SMB in various ways. One could integrate this program with +the HERMES CRM framework, for example. +

+

+
19.2.1 Known Issues
+

Ledger-SMB uses a single ’id’ sequence across many tables. At the same time it is expected that these tables +do not have identical id values in their records as they are used as a sort of pseudo-foreign key by the +acc_trans table which stores the financial transaction information. +

If the integration solution does not keep this in mind, it is possible to create a situation where the account +transactions are ambiguously associated with a number of different types of financial transactions. This +would lead to a large number of problems. +

+

+
19.2.2 Strategies
+ + +

In general, it is advisable to run all such programs that benefit from integration in the same database but +under different schemas. This allows PostgreSQL to become the main method of synchronizing the data in +real time. However, sometimes this can require dumping the database, recreating the tables etc. in a different +schema and importing the data back into Ledger-SMB. +

One possibility for this sort of integration is to use database triggers to replicate the data between the +applications in real-time. This can avoid the main issue of duplicate id’s. One issue that can occur however +relates to updates. If one updates a customer record in HERMES, for example, how do we know which +record to update in Ledger-SMB? There are solutions to this problem but they do require some +forethought. +

A second possibility is to use views to allow one application to present the data from the other as its own. +This can be cleaner regarding update issues, but it can also pose issues regarding duplicate id +fields. +

+

+
19.2.3 Examples
+

Others have integrated L’ane POS and Ledger-SMB in order to make it work better with touch screen +devices. Still others have successfully integrated Ledger-SMB and Interchange. In both cases, I believe that +triggers were used to perform the actual integration. +

+

+

19.3 Line of Business Tools on other RDBMS’s

+

Often there are requests to integrate Ledger-SMB with applications like SugarCRM, OSCommerce, and other +applications running on MySQL or other database managers. This is a far more complex field and it requires +a great deal more effort than integrating applications within the same database. +

+

+
19.3.1 Strategies
+

Real-time integration is not always possible. MySQL does not support the SQL extension SQL/MED +(Management of External Data) that supports non-MySQL data sources so it is not possible to replicate the +data in real-time. Therefore one generally resorts to integrating the system using time-based updates. +Replication may be somewhat error-prone unless the database manager supports triggers (first added to +MySQL in 5.0) or other mechanisms to ensure that all changed records can be detected and replicated. In +general, it is usually advisable to add two fields to the record– one that shows the insert time and one that +shows the last update. +

Additionally, I would suggest adding additional information to the Ledger-SMB tables so that you can +track the source record from the other application in the case of an update. +

In general, one must write replication scripts that dump the information from one and add it to the other. +This must go both ways. +

+

+
19.3.2 Integration Products and Open Source Projects
+ + +

While many people write Perl scripts to accomplish the replication, an open source project exists called +DBI-Link. This package requires PL/Perl to be installed in PostgreSQL, and it allows PostgreSQL to present +any data accessible via Perl’s DBI framework as PostgreSQL tables. DBI-Link can be used to allow +PostgreSQL to pull the data from MySQL or other database managers. +

DBI-Link can simplify the replication process by reducing the operation to a set of SQL queries. +

+

+

20 Customization Guide

+

This section is meant to provide a programmer with an understanding of the technologies enough +information to get up to speed quickly and minimize the time spent familiarizing themselves with the +software. Topics in this section are listed in order of complexity. As it appeals to a narrower audience than +previous discussions of this topic, it is listed separately. +

+

+

20.1 General Information

+

The main framework scripts (the ar.pl, ap.pl, etc. scripts found in the root of the installation directory) handle +such basic features as instantiating the form object, ensuring that the user is logged in, and the +like. They then pass the execution off to the user interface script (usually in the bin/mozilla +directory). +

Ledger-SMB in many ways may look sort of object oriented in its design, but in reality, it is far more +data-driven than object oriented. The Form object is used largely as a global symbol table and also as a +collection of fundamental routines for things like database access. It also breaks down the query string into +sets of variables which are stored in its attribute hash table. +

In essence one can and often will store all sorts of data structures in the primary Form object. These can +include almost anything. It is not uncommon to see lists of hashes stored as attributes to a Form +object. +

+

+

20.2 Customizing Templates

+

Templates are used to generate printed checks, invoices, receipts, and more in Ledger-SMB. Often the format +of these items does not fit a specific set of requirements and needs to be changed. This document will not +include LATEX or HTML instruction, but will include a general introduction to editing templates. Also, this +is not intended to function as a complete reference. +

Template instructions are contained in tags <?lsmb and ?>. The actual parsing is done by the +parse_template function in LSMB/Form.pm. +

+

+
20.2.1 Page Breaks in LATEX
+

The first tag one will see with LATEX templates is <?lsmb pagebreak num1 num2 num3 ?> +

+ + + +

The pagebreak block is terminated by <?lsmb end pagebreak ?>. Any text within the pagebreak block is ignored +by the template. +

+

+
20.2.2 Conditionals
+ +

+

+
20.2.3 Loops
+

<?lsmb foreach varname ?>is used to iterate through a list of vars set by the user interface system (usually +one of the files under bin/mozilla (or otherwise). The block is repeated for each varname in a list. Block ends +with <?lsmb end varname ?> +

+

+
20.2.4 File Inclusion
+ +

+

+
20.2.5 Cross-referencing and multiple passes of LATEX
+

In LATEX cross-references require two passes with latex to resolve. This is because the type is set page by +page and the program really doesn’t know on which page a given reference will fall. This becomes an +even larger issue where floats are concerned as they can move between pages for formatting +reasons. +

In rare cases, cross-references may point at incorrect pages even with two passes (if the inclusion of the +cross-reference data moves the object to another page). In this case you will need to use three passes of +LATEX in order to have accurate references. +

Ledger-SMB as of the time of this writing (2.6.8) only makes one pass at the LATEX file. To +force it to make more than one pass, open Form.pm with your favorite text editor. Look for the +line: +

system("latex –interaction=nonstopmode $self->{ tmpfile} > $ self->{ tmpfile} .err"); +

Duplicate this line for two passes, or add two copies if you need three passes. +

+

+
20.2.6 Variable Substitution
+

The following format is used for variable substitution: +

+ + + +

+

+

20.3 Customizing Forms

+

Data entry forms and other user interface pieces are in the bin directory. In Ledger-SMB 1.0.0 and later, +symlinks are not generally used. +

Each module is identified with a two letter combination: ar, ap, cp, etc. These combinations are generally +explained in the comment headers on each file. +

Execution in these files begins with the function designated by the form->{action} variable. This variable +is usually derived from configuration parameters in the menu.ini or the name of the button that was clicked +on to submit the previous page. Due to localization requirements, the following process is used to determine +the appropriate action taken: +

The $locale->getsub routine is called. This routine checks the locale package to determine if the value +needs to be translated back into an appropriate LSMB function. If not, the variable is lower-cased, and all +spaces are converted into underscores. +

In general there is no substitute for reading the code to understand how this can be customized and how +one might go about doing this. +

+

+

20.4 Customizing Modules

+

The Perl Modules (.pm files) in the LedgerSMB directory contain the main business logic of the application +including all database access. Most of the modules are relatively easy to follow, but the code quality leaves +something to be desired. The API calls themselves are likely to be replaced in the future, so work on +documenting API calls is now focused solely on those calls that are considered to be stable. At the +moment, the best place to request information on the API’s is on the Developmers’ Email List +(ledger-smb-devel@lists.sourceforge.net). +

Many of these modules have a fair bit of dormant code in them which was written for forthcoming +features, such as payroll and bills of materials. +

One can add a new module through the normal means and connect it to other existing modules. +

+

+
20.4.1 Database Access
+

The $form object provides two methods for accessing the database. The $form->dbconnect(%myconfig) method +commits each individual statement as its own transaction. The $form->dbconnect_noauto(%myconfig) +method requires a manual commit. Both these functions are thin wrappers around the standard Perl DBI +operations. +

+

+

20.5 CLI Examples

+

Louis Moore contributed some SQL-Ledger CLI examples that still work for LedgerSMB. You can find his page at +http://www.sql-ledger.org/cgi-bin/nav.pl?page=contrib/moore.html&title=Louis%20B.%20Moore. + + +

+

Part III
Appendix

+

A Where to Go for More Information

+

There are a couple of relevant sources of information on Ledger-SMB in particular. +

The most important resources are the LedgerSMB web site (http://www.ledgersmb.org) and the email +lists found at our Sourceforge site. +

In addition, it is generally recommended that the main bookkeeper of a company using Ledger-SMB +work through at least one accounting textbook. Which textbook is not as important as the fact that a textbook +is used. +

+

+

B Quick Tips

+

+

+

B.1 Understanding Shipping Addresses and Carriers

+

Each customer can have a default shipping address. This address is displayed prominantly in the add new +customer screen. To change the shipping address for a single order, one can use the ship to button at the +bottom of the quote, order, or invoice screen. +

The carrier can be noted in the Ship Via field. However, this is a freeform field and is largely used as +commentary (or instructions for the shipping crew). +

+

+

B.2 Handling bad debts

+

In the event that a customer’s check bounces or a collection requirement is made, one can flag the customer’s +account by setting the credit limit to a negative number. +

If a debt needs to be written off, one can either use the allowance method (by writing it against the contra +asset account of "Allowance for Bad Debts" or using the direct writeoff method where it is posted as an +expense. +

+

+

C Step by Steps for Vertical Markets

+

+

+

C.1 Common Installation Errors

+ + + +

+

+

C.2 Retail With Light Manufacturing

+

For purposes of this example we will use a business that assembles computers and sells them on a retail +store. +

+

    +
  1. Install Ledger-SMB. +
    2. +
  2. Set preferences, and customize chart of accounts. +

    +

      +
    1. Before customizing the COA it is suggested that you consult an accountant.
    +
    3. +
  3. Define Goods, Labor, and Services as raw parts ordered from the vendors. +
      +
    • These are located under the goods and services menu node.
    +
    4. +
  4. Define assemblies. +
      +
    • These are also located under goods and services. +
      • +
    • Component goods and services must be defined prior to creating assembly.
    +
    5. +
  5. Enter an AP Invoice to populate inventory with proper raw materials. +
      +
    • One must generally add a generic vendor first. The vendor is added under + AP->Vendors->Add Vendor.
    + + +
    6. +
  6. To pay an AP invoice like a check, go to cash->payment. Fill out approrpiate fields and click + print. +
      +
    • Note that one should select an invoice and enter in the payment amount in the appropriate + line of the invoice list. If you add amounts to the master amount list, you will find that + they are added to the amount paid on the invoice as a prepayment. +
      • +
    • The source field is the check number.
    +
    7. +
  7. Stock assemblies +
    8. +
  8. One can use AR Invoices or the POS interface to sell goods and services. +
      +
    • Sales Invoice +
        +
      • Can be generated from orders or quotations +
        • +
      • Cannot include labor/overhead except as part of an assembly +
        • +
      • One can make the mistake of printing the invoice and forgetting to post it. In this event, + the invoice does not officially exist in the accounting system. +
        • +
      • For new customers, you must add the customer first (under AR->Customers->Add + Customer.
      +
      • +
    • POS Interface +
        +
      • Cannot include labor/overhead except as part of an assembly +
        • +
      • Printing without posting is often even easier in the POS because of the rapid workflow. + Yet it is just as severe a problem.
      +
      • +
    • Ecommerce and Mail Order Operations +
        +
      • See the shipping workflow documentation above.
      +
      • +
    • Customers are set up by going to AR->Customers->Add Customer (or the equivalent localized + translation). The appropriate fields are filled out and the buttons are used at the bottom to save the + record and optionally use it to create an invoice, etc. + + +
        +
      • Saving a customer returns to the customer screen. After the appropriate invoice, + transaction, etc. is entered and posted, Ledger-SMB will return to the add customer + screen.
      +
    +
    9. +
  9. One can use the requirements report to help determine what parts need to be ordered though one + cannot generate PO’s directly from this report.
+

Note, the needs of Ledger-SMB are mostly useful for light manufacturing operations (assembling +computers, for example). More manufacturing capabilities are expected to be released in the next +version. +

A custom assembly is a bit difficult to make. One must add the assembly prior to invoice (this is not true +of goods and services). If the assembly is based on a different assembly but may cost more (due to +non-standard parts) you can load the old assembly using Goods and Services->Reports->Assemblies and +then make necessary changes (including to the SKU/Partnumber) and save it as new. +

Then one can add it to the invoice. +

+

+

D Glossary

+

+

+BIC
Bank Identifier Code is often the same as the S.W.I.F.T. code. This is a code for the bank a + customer uses for automated money transfers. +
+COGS
is Cost of Goods Sold. When an item is sold, then the expense of its purchase is accrued as + attached to the income of the sale. It is tracked as COGS. +
+Credit
: A logical transactional unit in double entry accounting. It is the opposite of a debit. Credits + affect different account types as follows: +

+

+ Equity
: Credits are added to the account when money is invested in the business. +
+ Asset
: Credits are added when money is deducted from an asset account. +
+ Liability
: Credits are added when money is owed to the business account. +
+ Income
: Credits are added when income is earned. +
+ Expense
: Credits are used to apply adjustments at the end of accounting periods to indicate + that not all the expense for an AP transaction has been fully accrued.
+ + +
+Debit
: A logical transactional unit in double entry accounting systems. It is the opposite of a credit. Debits + affect different account types as follows: +

+

+ Equity
: Debits are added when money is paid to business owners. +
+ Asset
: Debits are added when money is added to an account. +
+ Liability
: Debits are added when money that is owed is paid off. +
+ Income
: Debits are used to temporarily adjust income to defer unearned income to the next + accounting period. +
+ Expense
: Debits are added as expenses are incurred.
+
+IBAN
International Bank Account Number is related to the BIC and is used for cross-border automated + money transfers. +
+List
Price is the recommended retail price. +
+Markup
is the percentage increase that is applied to the last cost to get the sell price. +
+ROP
Re-order point. Items with fewer in stock than this will show up on short reports. +
+Sell
Price is the price at which the item is sold. +
+SKU
Stock Keeping Unit: a number designating a specific product. +
+Source
Document : a paper document that can be used as evidence that a transaction occurred. + Source documents can include canceled checks, receipts, credit card statements and the + like. +
+Terms
is the number of days one has to pay the invoice. Most businesses abbreviate the terms as Net n + where n is the number of days. For example, Net 30 means the customer has 30 days to pay the net + due on an invoice before it is late and incurs late fees. Sometimes you will see 2 10 net 30 + or similar. This means 2% discount if paid within 10 days but due within 30 days in any + case.
+

+

+

E GNU Free Documentation License

+ + +
+

+

Version 1.2, November 2002 +

Copyright ©2000,2001,2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc. +

51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA +

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing +it is not allowed.

+
+

+

Preamble

+

The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other functional and useful document "free" in +the sense of freedom: to assure everyone the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it, with or without +modifying it, either commercially or noncommercially. Secondarily, this License preserves for the author and +publisher a way to get credit for their work, while not being considered responsible for modifications made +by others. +

This License is a kind of "copyleft", which means that derivative works of the document must themselves +be free in the same sense. It complements the GNU General Public License, which is a copyleft license +designed for free software. +

We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free software, because free +software needs free documentation: a free program should come with manuals providing the +same freedoms that the software does. But this License is not limited to software manuals; it +can be used for any textual work, regardless of subject matter or whether it is published as a +printed book. We recommend this License principally for works whose purpose is instruction or +reference. +

+
+

+

1. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS

+

This License applies to any manual or other work, in any medium, that contains a notice placed by the +copyright holder saying it can be distributed under the terms of this License. Such a notice grants a +world-wide, royalty-free license, unlimited in duration, to use that work under the conditions stated herein. +The "Document", below, refers to any such manual or work. Any member of the public is a licensee, and is +addressed as "you". You accept the license if you copy, modify or distribute the work in a way requiring +permission under copyright law. +

A "Modified Version" of the Document means any work containing the Document or a portion of it, +either copied verbatim, or with modifications and/or translated into another language. +

A "Secondary Section" is a named appendix or a front-matter section of the Document that deals +exclusively with the relationship of the publishers or authors of the Document to the Document’s overall +subject (or to related matters) and contains nothing that could fall directly within that overall subject. (Thus, +if the Document is in part a textbook of mathematics, a Secondary Section may not explain any +mathematics.) The relationship could be a matter of historical connection with the subject or with +related matters, or of legal, commercial, philosophical, ethical or political position regarding +them. + + +

The "Invariant Sections" are certain Secondary Sections whose titles are designated, as being those of +Invariant Sections, in the notice that says that the Document is released under this License. If a section does +not fit the above definition of Secondary then it is not allowed to be designated as Invariant. The Document +may contain zero Invariant Sections. If the Document does not identify any Invariant Sections then there are +none. +

The "Cover Texts" are certain short passages of text that are listed, as Front-Cover Texts or Back-Cover +Texts, in the notice that says that the Document is released under this License. A Front-Cover Text may be at +most 5 words, and a Back-Cover Text may be at most 25 words. +

A "Transparent" copy of the Document means a machine-readable copy, represented in a format whose +specification is available to the general public, that is suitable for revising the document straightforwardly +with generic text editors or (for images composed of pixels) generic paint programs or (for drawings) +some widely available drawing editor, and that is suitable for input to text formatters or for +automatic translation to a variety of formats suitable for input to text formatters. A copy made in an +otherwise Transparent file format whose markup, or absence of markup, has been arranged to thwart +or discourage subsequent modification by readers is not Transparent. An image format is not +Transparent if used for any substantial amount of text. A copy that is not "Transparent" is called +"Opaque". +

Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain ASCII without markup, Texinfo input +format, LaTeX input format, SGML or XML using a publicly available DTD, and standard-conforming simple +HTML, PostScript or PDF designed for human modification. Examples of transparent image formats include +PNG, XCF and JPG. Opaque formats include proprietary formats that can be read and edited only by +proprietary word processors, SGML or XML for which the DTD and/or processing tools are not generally +available, and the machine-generated HTML, PostScript or PDF produced by some word processors for +output purposes only. +

The "Title Page" means, for a printed book, the title page itself, plus such following pages as +are needed to hold, legibly, the material this License requires to appear in the title page. For +works in formats which do not have any title page as such, "Title Page" means the text near +the most prominent appearance of the work’s title, preceding the beginning of the body of the +text. +

A section "Entitled XYZ" means a named subunit of the Document whose title either is precisely XYZ or +contains XYZ in parentheses following text that translates XYZ in another language. (Here XYZ stands for a +specific section name mentioned below, such as "Acknowledgements", "Dedications", "Endorsements", or +"History".) To "Preserve the Title" of such a section when you modify the Document means that it remains a +section "Entitled XYZ" according to this definition. +

The Document may include Warranty Disclaimers next to the notice which states that this License applies +to the Document. These Warranty Disclaimers are considered to be included by reference in this License, but +only as regards disclaiming warranties: any other implication that these Warranty Disclaimers may have is +void and has no effect on the meaning of this License. +

+
+

+

2. VERBATIM COPYING

+

You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either commercially or noncommercially, +provided that this License, the copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License applies to the +Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no other conditions whatsoever to those of this +License. You may not use technical measures to obstruct or control the reading or further copying of the +copies you make or distribute. However, you may accept compensation in exchange for copies. If +you distribute a large enough number of copies you must also follow the conditions in section +3. + + +

You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above, and you may publicly display +copies. +

+
+

+

3. COPYING IN QUANTITY

+

If you publish printed copies (or copies in media that commonly have printed covers) of the Document, +numbering more than 100, and the Document’s license notice requires Cover Texts, you must +enclose the copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all these Cover Texts: Front-Cover Texts +on the front cover, and Back-Cover Texts on the back cover. Both covers must also clearly and +legibly identify you as the publisher of these copies. The front cover must present the full title +with all words of the title equally prominent and visible. You may add other material on the +covers in addition. Copying with changes limited to the covers, as long as they preserve the +title of the Document and satisfy these conditions, can be treated as verbatim copying in other +respects. +

If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit legibly, you should put the first +ones listed (as many as fit reasonably) on the actual cover, and continue the rest onto adjacent +pages. +

If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering more than 100, you must either +include a machine-readable Transparent copy along with each Opaque copy, or state in or with each Opaque +copy a computer-network location from which the general network-using public has access to +download using public-standard network protocols a complete Transparent copy of the Document, +free of added material. If you use the latter option, you must take reasonably prudent steps, +when you begin distribution of Opaque copies in quantity, to ensure that this Transparent copy +will remain thus accessible at the stated location until at least one year after the last time you +distribute an Opaque copy (directly or through your agents or retailers) of that edition to the +public. +

It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of the Document well before redistributing +any large number of copies, to give them a chance to provide you with an updated version of the +Document. +

+
+

+

4. MODIFICATIONS

+

You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document under the conditions of sections 2 and +3 above, provided that you release the Modified Version under precisely this License, with the Modified +Version filling the role of the Document, thus licensing distribution and modification of the Modified +Version to whoever possesses a copy of it. In addition, you must do these things in the Modified +Version: +

+ +

If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or appendices that qualify as Secondary +Sections and contain no material copied from the Document, you may at your option designate some +or all of these sections as invariant. To do this, add their titles to the list of Invariant Sections +in the Modified Version’s license notice. These titles must be distinct from any other section +titles. +

You may add a section Entitled "Endorsements", provided it contains nothing but endorsements of your +Modified Version by various parties–for example, statements of peer review or that the text has been +approved by an organization as the authoritative definition of a standard. +

You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front-Cover Text, and a passage of up to 25 words as a +Back-Cover Text, to the end of the list of Cover Texts in the Modified Version. Only one passage of +Front-Cover Text and one of Back-Cover Text may be added by (or through arrangements made by) any one +entity. If the Document already includes a cover text for the same cover, previously added by you or by +arrangement made by the same entity you are acting on behalf of, you may not add another; but you +may replace the old one, on explicit permission from the previous publisher that added the old +one. +

The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License give permission to use their names +for publicity for or to assert or imply endorsement of any Modified Version. +

+
+

+

5. COMBINING DOCUMENTS

+

You may combine the Document with other documents released under this License, under the terms +defined in section 4 above for modified versions, provided that you include in the combination all of the +Invariant Sections of all of the original documents, unmodified, and list them all as Invariant +Sections of your combined work in its license notice, and that you preserve all their Warranty +Disclaimers. +

The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and multiple identical Invariant Sections +may be replaced with a single copy. If there are multiple Invariant Sections with the same name but different +contents, make the title of each such section unique by adding at the end of it, in parentheses, the name of the +original author or publisher of that section if known, or else a unique number. Make the same +adjustment to the section titles in the list of Invariant Sections in the license notice of the combined +work. +

In the combination, you must combine any sections Entitled "History" in the various original documents, +forming one section Entitled "History"; likewise combine any sections Entitled "Acknowledgements", and +any sections Entitled "Dedications". You must delete all sections Entitled "Endorsements". +

+
+

+

6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS

+ + +

You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other documents released under this License, +and replace the individual copies of this License in the various documents with a single copy that is included +in the collection, provided that you follow the rules of this License for verbatim copying of each of the +documents in all other respects. +

You may extract a single document from such a collection, and distribute it individually under this +License, provided you insert a copy of this License into the extracted document, and follow this License in all +other respects regarding verbatim copying of that document. +

+
+

+

7. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS

+

A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other separate and independent documents or +works, in or on a volume of a storage or distribution medium, is called an "aggregate" if the copyright +resulting from the compilation is not used to limit the legal rights of the compilation’s users beyond what the +individual works permit. When the Document is included in an aggregate, this License does not +apply to the other works in the aggregate which are not themselves derivative works of the +Document. +

If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these copies of the Document, then if the +Document is less than one half of the entire aggregate, the Document’s Cover Texts may be placed on covers +that bracket the Document within the aggregate, or the electronic equivalent of covers if the +Document is in electronic form. Otherwise they must appear on printed covers that bracket the whole +aggregate. +

+
+

+

8. TRANSLATION

+

Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may distribute translations of the +Document under the terms of section 4. Replacing Invariant Sections with translations requires +special permission from their copyright holders, but you may include translations of some or +all Invariant Sections in addition to the original versions of these Invariant Sections. You may +include a translation of this License, and all the license notices in the Document, and any Warranty +Disclaimers, provided that you also include the original English version of this License and +the original versions of those notices and disclaimers. In case of a disagreement between the +translation and the original version of this License or a notice or disclaimer, the original version will +prevail. +

If a section in the Document is Entitled "Acknowledgements", "Dedications", or "History", the +requirement (section 4) to Preserve its Title (section 1) will typically require changing the actual +title. +

+
+

+

9. TERMINATION

+ + +

You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document except as expressly provided for under +this License. Any other attempt to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Document is void, and will +automatically terminate your rights under this License. However, parties who have received copies, or rights, +from you under this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in full +compliance. +

+
+

+

10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE

+

The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions of the GNU Free Documentation +License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in +detail to address new problems or concerns. See http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/. +

Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version number. If the Document specifies that a +particular numbered version of this License "or any later version" applies to it, you have the option of +following the terms and conditions either of that specified version or of any later version that has been +published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation. If the Document does not specify a version +number of this License, you may choose any version ever published (not as a draft) by the Free Software +Foundation. +

+
+

+

ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents

+

To use this License in a document you have written, include a copy of the License in the document and +put the following copyright and license notices just after the title page: +

+

+

Copyright ©YEAR YOUR NAME. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify + this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or + any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, + no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the + section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

+

If you have Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts and Back-Cover Texts, replace the "with...Texts." line +with this: +

+

+

with the Invariant Sections being LIST THEIR TITLES, with the Front-Cover Texts being + LIST, and with the Back-Cover Texts being LIST.

+ + +

If you have Invariant Sections without Cover Texts, or some other combination of the three, merge those +two alternatives to suit the situation. +

If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we recommend releasing these +examples in parallel under your choice of free software license, such as the GNU General Public License, to +permit their use in free software. +

+ + + + + + -- cgit v1.2.3