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An open-source alternative to QuickBooks

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Re: An open-source alternative to QuickBooks

#43
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post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can't help but feel compelled to pause my current tasks and contribute wholeheartedly to this. That is interesting to me, because I had the complete opposite take after less than a minute on the website. I actively avoid QuickBooks because I despise Intuit. But there is no way I would take a project like this seriously when the 'support' link is a link to Discord. Competing with QuickBooks means competing for bus…

For better or worse OSS communities organize on Discord now, having an active server where the core contributors participate is the sign of a healthy project. Honestly looks better than a public Slack imho and it's where they'll get the most engagement from devs. Discord is a serious thing now, I've seen enterprise products add support for Discord before Slack.

Gonna have to disagree with you. Most projects I interact act with are either on IRC or Matrix, or solely communicate through some type of git web instance.

Discord is actively hostile to users by randomly banning and/or phone-walling users, especially any browser or connection that cannot be fingerprinted well enough, and giving them no recourse at all, just saying "yep our automated system is working, bye". There's so many more awful things they do, just search this site to find lots more.

Re: An open-source alternative to QuickBooks

#44
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The last time I looked for quickbooks documentation, I just found some YouTube videos. Support has been useless too. As much as I don’t use discord at all, having a 50% chance of getting someone that understands internet banking to help troubleshoot internet banking would be compelling.

I support QuickBooks for smaller companies by calling tech support for them, YMMV.

Wait, you simply are a middleman? What percentage of the support can you provide without having to call Intuit yourself? Is this lucrative?

Re: An open-source alternative to QuickBooks

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I support QuickBooks for smaller companies by calling tech support for them, YMMV.

Wait, you simply are a middleman? What percentage of the support can you provide without having to call Intuit yourself? Is this lucrative?

It can be a decent side business for an IT support contractor. Quickly you learn the biggest issues, and only really need to spend time on special scenarios.

Re: An open-source alternative to QuickBooks

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I support QuickBooks for smaller companies by calling tech support for them, YMMV.

Wait, you simply are a middleman? What percentage of the support can you provide without having to call Intuit yourself? Is this lucrative?

This is like 90% of Enterprise IT work. Install some box, follow their directions, make sure the port is open on your firewall... call the vendor when it breaks. IT is so often just being the middle man.

Re: An open-source alternative to QuickBooks

#48

Good luck. Many layers of the financial system for small and medium businesses are used to working with QB. It's a means of communication. You can hire people who know it. It integrates with every bank and every, well, everything you might need. You accountant --internal or external-- knows it and has a process to work with it. Etc. While FOSS is great, it isn't always better. I think FOSS works well when you have a…

If it integrates so freely it should be a non-event when you, your CPA, and individual clients exercise autonomy over accounting software choices.

I don't think the FOSS vision in this space is to compel one new option on everyone that isn't an option. I can only imagine it's quite the opposite.

Re: An open-source alternative to QuickBooks

#49
post #18
post #2

I can't help but feel compelled to pause my current tasks and contribute wholeheartedly to this. My frustration with Intuit has reached its tipping point, especially after they acquired a Brazilian financial management software called Zeropaper, which my company heavily relied upon. Intuit then proceeded to discontinue the product and withdraw from the Brazilian market without offering any viable alternatives, leavin…

> I can't help but feel compelled to pause my current tasks and contribute wholeheartedly to this. That is interesting to me, because I had the complete opposite take after less than a minute on the website. I actively avoid QuickBooks because I despise Intuit. But there is no way I would take a project like this seriously when the 'support' link is a link to Discord. Competing with QuickBooks means competing for bus…

What would support be instead, a phone hotline?

Re: An open-source alternative to QuickBooks

#50
I am really happy to see something like this. This is not a criticism of the project. Rather, I lament that more-and-more web-based projects document only a Docker-centered install process for self-hosting as opposed to the process of installing from source. This goes strongly against the spirit of self-hosting where you know what you're running and you see the steps and all the integrations that are needed, including any reliance on third-party services that may come back to bite you.

I feel like Docker-based installs are closer to binary, closed-source installs than they are to open-source, compile-or-build-from-source ones in how much they hide how the program works and limits where and how you can run the application. I'd love to hear points for against this, because I think this may also just be me yelling at a cloud like an old man now a days.

Edited for clarity.

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