Open Source Money Management and ERP Tools for Business
by Sam Dean - May. 23, 2008Comments (9)- Related Blog Posts
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For more than 10 years, I've covered financial management software applications for business use, on the proprietary side and in the open source arena. The availability of robust open source financial applications for businesses is now at a point where many firms are saving a lot of money by turning to free solutions. In particular, open source ERP (enterprise resource planning) applications, which feature strong financial modules, have taken a bite out of the software cost structure for many businesses. In this post, I'll round up eight open source finance solutions that can save your business money.
1. Adaptive Planning Express
Adaptive Planning Express is an open source budgeting and planning application that can take a small business well beyond what can be done in spreadsheets. Although you have to register first, you can request to see an online demo of how it works. Worth watching.
2. GnuCash
GNuCash is a very widely used free, open source accounting software application. You can get a good feel for the reports, ledgers and investment tracking features it offers here.
3. OpenBravo
OpenBravo ERP is designed for much more than just finance, and is a high-end tool, but looks and feels very much like a database application. It has a strong set of financial management features, and is noted for doing supply chain management very well.
4. Xtuple
For a slightly easier-to-digest ERP application than OpenBravo ERP, try Xtuple. It comes in several editions, but the PostBooks Edition of it is particularly optimized for the financial management needs of smaller companies.
5. FrontAccounting
FrontAccounting is an open source application that allows your business to do secure accounting on the web. The advantage here is that workers in disparate locations can easily share and access an on-demand interface. You can find a large collection of screenshots presenting what it does online.
6. RapidMiner
RapidMiner is a powerful open source tool for data mining, and if your business already has a lot of existing financial data, you can use it for financial and accounting data mining and forecasts. You can take an online tour of how it works.
7. DataVision
In the world of proprietary software for producing financial reports, Crystal Reports is very widely used. For an open source product that works very much the same way and is compatible with countless databases and spreadsheets, look into DataVision. You can produce reports that you create here in PDF, HTML, text, PostScript and many other formats.
8. SpagoBI
Business Intelligence (BI) software is now very widely used to track how money flows within and outside of businesses. SpagoBI does very graphical flowcharts and other visual depictions of business money flow trends, and more.
Do you know of any good, open source finance/ERP applications?
