Operating Systems

Review by Marcel Gagn

It is very hard to get excited about accounting . . . for most people anyway. Still, accounting is part of the normal and necessary cycle of doing business. Every business needs an accounting system, even if it is a paper record of transactions. These days, paper is fine if your business is a lemonade stand, but most businesses require a computerized accounting system.

Once upon a time, as development in Linux graphic, multimedia, office productivity, and desktop applications raced ahead, people often asked, "Where are all the accounting packages?" These voices were heard and professional accounting packages for Linux finally arrived. Yet, this very necessary part of business automation seems to get little press and even less respect. In an effort to rectify this injustice, I'm going to venture into the less-than-sexy world of bean-counting as I explore Linux Canada's Quasar Accounting.

Introducing Quasar

The key word in this discussion is business. Quasar Accounting is a business accounting package that offers all the standard features that you would expect. The base package includes a general ledger module, accounts payable, accounts receivable, sales, purchases, customer quotes, invoice printing, check printing, international currency support, financial statement report generation, and more. Additional modules are available to expand Quasar's basic offering, such as inventory control and management, handheld support, and multi-store point-of-sale systems.

Under Quasar's clean graphical interface and functionality, your data is in the hands of Firebird, a cross-platform, open source relational database system (firebird.sourceforge.net) originally based on InterBase, a product of Borland. If you prefer, Quasar also supports Sybase.

Quasar itself is designed for Linux but there is a Windows version available. The Linux package is distributed in RPM format and will install on Red Hat, Mandrake, or SuSE. For non-RPM Linux distributions, tarred and gzipped bundles are also available. To download your copy, visit http://www.linuxcanada.com/.

The stated requirements are 64 MB of RAM, a 500-Mhz processor, and a 1024x768 display. For the sake of this review, I installed it on a Mandrake 9.0 system with 256 MB of RAM and a 1.8-Ghz Athlon processor.

Installation

Installation is worth mentioning in that it is hardly worth mentioning. Quasar Accounting consists of several packages, including a client, server, and database component. If you don't mind downloading a 20-MB bundle, the installation is very simple — one single RPM.

After installation, simply run the command quasar. If you like to point and click, no problem. On my system, Quasar created a link under my KDE application starter's Office menu.

Getting Started with Quasar Accounting

When you first start up the software, you'll be asked to supply a locale (English: US, or English: Canada). The next step is the license agreement. Read it and click OK. Your installation is done and you are ready to roll. A bright, colorful splash screen appears with the option of opening an existing company or the included sample. If this is your first time with the software, you should choose Sample Company. This mode provides you with an opportunity to try out the various functions without risking your own data. A new company set up in seconds.

To start your own set of books, click File and select New Company from the Quasar desktop interface. A setup wizard will appear, guiding you through the various steps of creating your company profile. Fill in the form, click Next, then supply the first month of your fiscal year. Click Next again and enter a filename for this company (note the .fdb extension). That's it. You are done entering the information and barely a minute has passed.

The single most frightening thing I can imagine in terms of setting up an accounting system is the chart of accounts. Luckily, Quasar makes it possible to somewhat streamline the process. A basic chart of accounts is provided for both U.S. and Canadian companies in XML format. All that is necessary is to import the basic ledger file for your respective country, click Import, and you've got the basics covered. You'll still want to edit the results to suit your needs, but as a start, it certainly helps.

One downside for many small business owners coming from the Windows world is the lack of an Import filter for Intuit's Quickbooks. That said, in terms of migrating from another system, the XML format for data means that it should not be too difficult to create the data file necessary to easily perform the input. Look at the following sample of the XML format for importing a customer record and you'll see that the possibilities are certainly there:

<customer>

  <firstName>Colin<</firstName>

  <lastName>Buystuff</lastName>

  <company>Fully Stocked Intl.</company>

  <number>2000</number>

  <street>216 Nonsequitor Road</street>

  <city>Inthisville</city>

  <province>Ontario</province>

  <country>Canada</country>

  <postal>T0M 1X0</postal>

  <phone>555-8634</phone>

  <fax>555-8755</fax>

  <email>colin@fulystocked.dom</email>

  <webPage>www.fullystocked.com</webPage>

  <account>Accounts Receivable</account>

  <terms>Net 30</terms>

  <taxExempt>PST</taxExempt>

  <creditLimit>1000</creditLimit>

  <creditHold>No</creditHold>

  <group>Gold</group>

</customer>

In the course of setting up my hypothetical business, I created several customers and vendors. Entering information is easy, and all the input screens provide help along the way. Either check the included help files or press F1 for context-sensitive help.

The basic modules (card file, ledger, cheques, sales, and purchases) are easily accessible through a single click from the main desktop, as are common functions such as journal entry or creating an invoice. When any one of the five major modules is selected, a flowchart-like diagram appears in the center of the desktop. For instance, when you select Sales, the cycle generally begins with a quote, followed by an invoice (which generates an entry into the journal), followed by (hopefully) payment from that customer, which also generates a journal entry.

Reports are also close at hand with the most likely reports displayed based on which module you are currently using. The only qualm I have with reporting is the lack of graphical reports. Accounting is a numbers game, it's true, and pie charts are hardly a necessity, but we've all grown to like those bright colorful charts. The sales cycle on the Quasar desktop

When it comes to entering data (perhaps you are writing a check), input fields provide easy access to stored information; press F9 and a list of vendors, accounts, and so on, will be presented. Depending on the nature of the data, if the information you need isn't already there, you can just click New and enter it on the fly.

Printing of various reports, checks, and invoices uses whatever system printers you have defined. Should you decide to print to a file, the result is postscript. All of it looks clean and professional. What would take printing from good to wonderful is the means to modify the default print templates.

Incidentally, if you are curious about trying out the additional modules such as Inventory and Point-of-Sale, you can do just that because all of the software is included in that single RPM. It's just a matter of turning it on. Click Help on the menu and select License. You'll be able to switch from Free mode to Demo mode. Checkboxes will appear for the various modules. Check on the ones you would like to try and click OK.

Quasar's Price

Quasar has an interesting pricing model. It is possible to use Quasar without spending a penny. To do so, you can only use Quasar on a single computer and you do not have access to the add-on modules (inventory management, handheld support, and multi-store point-of-sale). Since you aren't spending any money, you won't get any technical support either. If all that still works for you, then start your downloads and send the fine folk at Linux Canada Inc a nice letter of thanks.

Needless to say, if you are looking for support, additional users, or some of those add-on modules I mentioned, there will be a cost. Even there, the prices seem very reasonable. Price is set per concurrent user, starting at $29 (USD) for the base package. Additional modules are then available starting at $39 and go up to as high as $199. If you would like the whole thing delivered on CD-ROM, that cost is $19.95. All pricing, including cost for support and customization is available on the Web site.

Speaking of support, Linux Canada also maintains a bulletin board for Quasar on their site so that you can ask question or offer help to other users.

Conclusion

I can't find much fault with Quasar. Other than the hassles of having to start with a clean data slate, a problem you would have with pretty much any package, Quasar was incredibly easy to set up and use. In fact, it was dead simple. I'm not what you would call a wizard of the accounts by any stretch of the imagination and I had no trouble navigating my way through the system.

As for my complaint about report customization . . . while I would like these features made available as part of the package or even an add-on, Linux Canada will customize Quasar to individual corporate needs at $125 (USD) per hour.

The price structure certainly makes Quasar attractive. If you happen to have a small business running from a single computer, then the price (free) is simply too good to pass up. You must give Quasar a try.

Marcel Gagn lives in Mississauga, Ontario. He is the author of Linux System Administration: A User's Guide from Addison Wesley and is hard at work writing his next book. In real life, he is president of Salmar Consulting Inc., a systems integration and network consulting firm. He loves Linux and all flavors of UNIX and will even admit it in public. He can be reached via email at: mggagne@salmar.com. You can discover lots of other things from his Web site at http://www.marcelgagne.com/.