Pros and Cons Erp

Akhilesh Nair Deepesh Chatterjee Mithun Vishnu Nikhil Kumar OPEN SOURCE ERP PROS and CONS Contents Introduction3 Commercial and outspoken fount ERP Softw ar6 distribute artificial lake ERP Solution Pros8 Open Source ERP Solution Cons10 Open Source ERP Success Story11 Comp either Overview11 Issue At Hand11 The Solution11 Results12 The fag end Line12 Top Open Source ERP Applications to Look Out for13 ?Goodness of Open Source ERP Packages13 ?Open Source ERP Packages13 ?Java-Based Open Source Finance Apps13 ?La examination Developments13 ?GnuCash The Ultimate Free Open Source Accounting Softwargon14Introduction Open bloodline ERP is an enterprise re exculpateding planning (ERP) bundle trunk whose antecedent legislationis made publicly avail up to(p). The exculpated line mystify allows companies to access the ERP dodges statute and customize it victimisation their confess IT department instead of paying extra for v fetch uper customization serve and licensing, as is typic ally the case with unkindly start programs. Open get-go ERP locoweed be crossly attractive to mid observe to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) that want to upgrade or customize their ERP systems without paying large licensing and conduct fees.Open cite brings an alternative which addresses many of the key problems of both custom and commercial enterprise softwargon package. It begins by offering the drug drug user a secretely available canon base as a starting point. The user screw try it for free to see if it meets his carrys. T present is no risk of upfront licensing fees for software that whitethorn non work. If no modifications are admitd, spread out source software drop be implemented with the same rapid time-to-market as commercial packages.If customizations are required, the user has a head start with an existing code base. Furtherto a greater extent, he can leverage the expertise of both in-house and idle source community developers. An free-spokened source project brings with it the domain k want a shotledge and business requirements of many contri hardlying organizations, significantly reducing the specification risk typical of custom software. Open source communities similarly offer user-developers collaborative overhaul in developing and debugging of his software. The net result is better software in little time.Longer term, open air source offers the user the swear of custom software and the external resources previously available simply with commercial software. With the source code in hand, the user can decide on hereafter support and upgrades. There is no one to discontinue the software for him. At the same time, because the software shares the common roots with open source, he can scram support and upgrades from the open source community or purchase professional-quality support from a range of vendors in the community.Thus, the risks of becoming stranded due to the loss of vendor support or key employees are significa ntly reduced with open source. Selection of ERP system Ease/SpeedofImplementation There exist a sentiment that implementation takes too long. It is hard to state whether proprietary or open source ERP systems are faster and easier to implement. On one hand, open source sources are, in general, believed to be less user-friendly. On the other hand, ERP vendors (or their partners) implement proprietary ERPs, so in that location is no clear need for them to make ERP systems easy to install.However, it can be stated that if the ERP system is easier to implement then it would be possible for the ERP vendor to sell more licenses, since it can be assumed that there is a omit ofimplementing consultants. Moreover, ease and speed of implementation does not depend only on the graphical user interface and number of settings one needs to lease from butmainly on the amount of required customizations. Further development does not depend only programmers speed of writing code but in worry mann er on requirements collection, their summary and correct to a lower placestanding PriceUnless the union has the capabilities to implement an open source ERP system and program all the necessary customizations, open source ERP is not really for free. Consultants for open source ERP systems whitethorn charge significantly more than e. g. consultants for MS EPR systems, since there are rather only a hardly a(prenominal) of them. On the other hand, an open source ERP system can be a perfect solution for a starting company, which has no launch business functioninges the company can adapt to the system, i. e. it does not require customization, so consultants need to be hired only to install the system.Another advantage is that an open source ERP system can be adjusted directly to the intended business processes in case at least one of the employees has a good information processing system science background VendorSupport Though this criterion seems to be more important for propriet ary ERP systems, since it is customers of proprietary ERP systems, who are locked in with the vendors but on the other hand, they entertain credential that the support exists. In the open source world, this criterion can be interpreted as having a large overflowing community, which could support the organization implementing a contingent open source ERP system.Reliability Vendors providing proprietary ERP systems try to achieve as high reliability as possible but community using an open source ERP system might be able to find errors faster, since it is larger in numbers and apiece of them tries to make consciousness of code. While in proprietary ERP system vendor organization, it is always the same people looking into the code, so it is much harder for them to spot a mistake, especially in the code, which was written by them. EaseofUse It is unclear whether proprietary or open source ERP systems are easier to use.On one hand, ERP system vendors try to achieve free-enterprise( a) advantage providing ERP systems that are easier to use. On the other hand, open source solutions are, in general, believed to be less user-friendly 51, 52. But the community of users (with programming skills) is likely to qualifying the system to the level that is more-or-less acceptable for near of the users. Customization Proprietary ERP systems are lots programmed in vendor-specific languages. Companies can be sure that vendors (or their partners) pull up stakes customize and set up their ERP systems.But it in any case means that they are locked to the vendor (or its partners). Since open source ERP systems are programmed in widely known programming languages, there is a greater syndicate of potential programmers, who can do it. Openness of code is not a domain of OSS ERPs anymore. E. g. MS Dynamics AX allows users to change a significant region of the code. Integration Customers are often searching for means of integration of their systems/data. Many proprietary ERP s ystems inherently allow for usage of data warehouses.It is possible that there less proprietary than open source ERP systems, which allow for communication to other systems through API. On the other hand, this communication can be solved even by less quantity means (through customization). OrganizationalFit Existing ERP systems try to focus on business processes, however it can be suggested that they do not explicitly describe the business processes that are supported. Besides that, ERP systems are not easily adjustable to changes in business processes. Unfortunately, it seems that this is a problem of both open source and proprietary ERP systems.Flexibility Flexibility is required because of rapidly changing environment, which is likely to lead to new business precedents, which need to be supported without disturbing the end-users and on-going business. This requires an ERP system to have a robust architecture, which would allow for these requirements. Many existing proprietary ERP systems arose from MRP systems through small iterations. So systems, which were created more recently and do not anticipate this burden, are more likely to be more flexible, which could be the case ith open source ERP systems. Training First, it can be said that the amount of readiness required depends on the ERP systemshow self-explanatory it is and how many functions it offers. Secondly, users ofproprietary ERP systems are more-or-less dependent on the vendor or partners related to the specific ERP system. Onthe other hand, users of open source ERPsystems may have a hard time to find a consultancy company offering training for a particular system. LatestTechnologiesThere is no reason why proprietary ERP systems should be better in using latest technology but it is virtuallyly vendors of proprietary ERP systems, who take away that their competitive advance (over other (regardless whether open source or proprietary) ERP systems) is usage of latest technology. Proprietary v endors may promote them more but similar solutions may existin the open source world. OpenERP is a full suite of business software, including the following modules Accounting Record your operations in a few clicks and fill out all your financial activities in one place.Application Builder The OpenERP industry builder lets you customize every module of OpenERP directly from the web interface without any development required. CRM Track leads and opportunities customized your gross revenue cycle, controls statistics and forecasts and marketing campaign automation to improve your sales performance. Human Resources The module is for personnel information heed, leave, time tracking, attendance expenses, payroll, semestrial evaluations and recruitment. InvoicingCreate and supervise your entire supplier and customer invoices.ManufacturingPlan and control your supply chain through different applications in the Manufacturing module. MarketingMarketing campaigns can help you automate email and email sending, qualify leads and encourage customers to contact the right department. Point of SaleThe OpenERP touch screen point of sale allows you to manage your shop sales. Its fully web-based so you dont need to install or deploy any software. Project Management Keep track and manage your projects using tasks for mindless term project execution or plan phases for long term planning.PurchaseCreate and track your purchase orders, manage your suppliers info, control your products reception process and prepare suppliers invoices. Warehouse ManagementAn inventory management system to easily manage complex needs tracking stocks of suppliers/customers, full traceability, accounting links, and more. OpenERP supports multi-warehouse management based on hierarchical location structure. Because OpenERP is open source and backed by a large community, you can take advantage of more than 700 OpenERP modules on theOpenERP Apps website.These applications extend functionality of the ERP s oftware and provide more business apps for things like manufacturing, localization, project management and more. The other benefit to users is that you do not need to use all the business apps. You can choose only the modules that you need for your business from the suite (e. g. just CRM or CRM and invoicing). This keeps your OpenERP tidy and less overwhelming if you do not need all the business apps. You can add additional modules (at no cost) as you need them. ArchitectureCompiere and ERP5 are two of the top notch open source ERP systems that are widely accredited and implemented. The architecture of an Open Source ERP can be explained using the structured architectural aspiration of compere and a comparison with ERP5. ERP5 offers powerful ERP solution for small businesses. ERP5 was originally developed as apparel pains solution for an organization with more than 300 employees on 5 internationally distributed sites. The special requirements of the apparel industry are mass cust omization of products and hence the need for handling unstructured and multimedia data.Mass customization means that many variants of a product are possible. The original modules are now generalized as business templates. It has the exact features that include customer relationship management (CRM), production management (MRP), supply chain management (SCM), product design management (PDM), accounting, human resources and e-commerce. For the small businesses, ERP5 has an Express edition which integrates ERP, CRM and KM funtionality. ERP5 uses the open source Python based ZOPE (Z Object Publishing Environment) application server and content management framework as its foundation.The web based Zope Management Interface is used as IDE for developing ERP5 modules. The application server also supports multiple languages, provides a security model, object persistence, and remote object access trough HTTP, XML-RPC and SOAP. ERP5 uses, extends or provides 5 important Zope components Page Te mplates implement the web user interface and presentation logic. Workflows are used for the development of various types of decision workflows ERP5Form49 is used for web form development.XMLObjects add synchronization capabilities and autonomous activity (timed, pre- and postcondition triggers) to ERP5- Zope objects. The synchronization of distributed sites is carried out through XML exportation and import and also supports unreliable communication channels, which are allowed to fail. The duplication of makeuping data to a relational database allows simple SQL querying. Compiere is uniquely designed to avoid the duplication of information and the need for synchronization. The design of Compiere allows customization of the application do easily.Modules in compiere include CRM, Quote to Cash, Requisition-to-Pay, Partner Relations Management, Warehouse, Supply Chain Management, Performance Analysis, Double-entry Book-keeping, Work-flow-Management and Web Store. Compieres architecture uses a fat Java Client (Java Webstart). The accounting engine is on the application server (JBOSS J2EE container). Thin Web clients are used for web interpose and some CRM functionality. There is also a beta thin client serving all forms, but it needs further work to be identical to the fat client.The used application server supports clustering. No cluster installation is documented. Emails can be sent and files can be attached to documents. Compiere has a constitutive(a) reporting engine. A Sourceforge side project provides Jasper Report77 integration. CSV export and import of data is provided by the commercially available migration tool. Other interfaces can be developed in Java using the briefly (Javadoc) documented APIs (application programming interfaces). The database abstraction layer is SQL-centric which was initially developed for Oracle.Commercial and Open Source ERP Software Pricing almost open source software is freely distributed with no up-front licensing fees. F urther savings come from ease of deployment, training and integration. Companies that implement open source ERP solutions often report a 50% savings over proprietary systems. With free systematicopen source ERP training methodology like SOSE Site you can own your software for no cost. Commercial ERP is an expensive package and suitable only for doubleger corporations.The prices do vary significantly but according to the size of the company and volume of business. In any cases they have been found to be extremely costly irrespective of the quantum in which they are purchased. These packages are not subject to flexibleness and molding. Their usage modalities are rarely liberal and cause troubles when they are modified. Hence the deployments also turn out to be costly and inconvenient due to the procedures involved, in the future. Another major allegation against the package is that they consist of lot ofhidden costs.Flexibility When you compare commercial and open source ERP, commer cial systems are not flexible in nature. They let business with no other choice but to change their way of business. However when it comes to open source ERP everything was decided by the code . Therefore companies can do the necessary modifications in code and without much support from the vendor. Another advantage of open source is that it does not interfere with the fifty-fifty schedule of the company during the implementation stage. This is a major difference between commercial and open source ERP applications.You should use business software for your needs, you should not change the way of your business to fit into software needs. Duration- When you study commercial and open source ERP,The time allotted for implementing open source ERP is very less when compared with commercial ERP. The innumerable number of complexions in commercial ERP calls for longer time span. It consumes a lot of time not only during implementation but in every stage of ERP process due to the nature of w ork involved. With use of SITEERP implementation methodologyyou can reduce time required for open source ERP to the minimum.Dependence When it comes to the question of relying on the vendor the open source ERP owners enjoys a considerable edge than the commercial ERP. Since open source are license free users having full freedom for taking care of needs by themselves. The productivity is also high in open source ERP systems and the failure rates are very low. Results Success rate of open source ERP are substantially more compare to proprietary ERP softwares. Readopen source ERP supremacy storiesfor more details. Training Lots of training is required for using commercial ERP.It calls for lots of investments in terms of time and money. If they dont give the necessary impetus the results entrust be poor. Similarly validity of training sessions designed and handled exclusively by the ERP vendor is also debatable. On the other hand Open Source ERP does not require much training. The results are also bound to be effective because the user experiences to learn through the process of self training. The company need not spend much on training and makes a minimal utilization of the resources. This is another way of reducing the level of dependence on the ERP vendor.You can get freeonline ERP trainingwith SOSE. Security On comparing commercial and open source ERP applications, Commercial ERP systems are less secure. They are by and large given up to the traps and pitfalls of hackers. Even though open source ERP makes everything transparent and available in the public domain it bring into the notice of user whenever something goes wrong. Visibility Few end users change the underlying code of an open source application. But when the need arises, open source provides access to the code to make changes to suit each distributors unique business needs.Open source customers enjoy a refreshing level of transparency from their vendors around activities such as bug repor ting and fastness and road map planning. Longevity Virtually any ERP solution will work well when initially deployed, but time is the true test of every ERP solution and vendor. Unforeseen opportunities will likely drive changes to a business objectives and necessitate changes to its ERP solution. Independently, a vendors commitment to supporting a solution could change over time. An open source solution with a flexible foundation addresses todays needs and safeguards the solutions future.Because the user has the source code, a solution can never be bought or merged out of existence, meaning the investment lasts as long as needed. Independent services forERP implementation supportis also available for free with open source ERP. Conclusion Functionality is the top consideration when reviewing ERP solutions, but it should be closely linked with evaluating open source and proprietary options. The demonstrable benefits of open source products reach deep into a companys infrastructur e. You can evaluate andselect business ERP softwarewhich give functionality you need.The differences betweencommercial and open source ERPshow the Edge enjoyed by open source ERP players. And item-by-item free ERP trainer likes SOSE Will help open source ERP to reach people. Open Source ERP Solution Pros * Negligible Investment and Maintenance exists Open source ERP solutions hold a big pro in the fact that there are no huge un-front licensing fees, pre-sales cost associated with them, thus, the initial cost of an Open Source ERP solution is usually distant less than a comparable proprietary program. Theres minimal dependency on the ERP vendor in most cases.In a study done by Meta Group, where it surveyed 63 companies including small, medium and large enterprises in a range of industries it was found that the average cost of implementation of ERP was $15 jillion, with the highest as $300 million and lowest as $400,000. Commercial ERP also has pre-sales cost associated with th em. * Widely customizable Open Source ERP solutions are highly customizable allowing for companies to mold them to meet specific business process requirements. It is possible because it comes with two fluctuations of code the compiled version and the un-compiled version.There are a few reasons to do customizations, which are functionality needed for core competencies, your front or back use systems require the customizations, you want more or less fields, or you have regulatory requirements that require the customization. So, if you need customizations, then by all means you moldiness have them with a clear eye on the whos who of the support of customizations and financials needed. But, commercial ERP does not provide an easy and inexpensive customization of the ERP software to fit the business model changes whatsoever. Flexibility Open source ERP gives lots of freedom like free redistribution, freedom to access and modify the source code and freedom for the end user to use it f or any purpose they wish to. GPL licensing of Open Source Software enables developer community to rapidly contribute to the software development and enhance features. * Total Cost of Ownership TCO of Open Source ERP solution may be less given the option of virtually free operating systems (Linux)and databases (MySQL) and potentially lower aliment fees. Independent Integrations Open Source ERP solutions typically have a wide range of integration formats so that they are employable well with other software components. * Ease of Training Open source ERP packages come with complete licenses, comprehensive documentation and user manuals, helping the users to learn and understand their usage. No special trainings or consultants may be hired. * Ease with implementation The implementation can also be carried out separately without disturbing the regular operation of the business.Also, with open source ERP, the customers can do any sort of experimentations even while in production witho ut losing the base or 100% availability. * Shorter implementation timings -The open source ERP packages require considerably shorter implementation time, which is another big positive aspect whereas in case of commercial ERPs , even six months are considered to be short stage for implementation * Reduced or no Dependency on ERP Vendor As the open source ERP packages have proper documentation and user manuals, there is no or reduced dependency on ERP vendor to come and fix the issue.A good programmer can handle the issue in considerably less time. * High Accuracy and Quality The productivity and accuracy is high in the case of open source ERP systems. Also, the failure rates are often discovered to be on the lower side in comparison to commercial ERP packages. All open software has strong user community which is also very responsive and very knowledgeable. * Open source testing The open source users in the process of development are able to thoroughly test and 99% of the bugs are reported and highly secure.Except a very few, most of the commercial ERP systems are tested to a decent extent, but still are many security flaws, traps, pitfalls and loop holes, which can be easily harnessed by the hackers. * Handling security With the ever evolving nature of technology, security has become a problem of the past. And, there are many open source security applications on the market today which can be easily used with open-source ERP, which include Nessus, Snort, Nagios, SpamAssassin, ClamAV, Open SSL, OpenSSH, Nmap, Ossec HIDS, and Wireshark.Open Source ERP Solution Cons * Risk of over-customization Delivering customized codes could prove troublesome for some organizations just in case you get into over-done customization and you cant get out of it. Too many customizations can be a definite issue. * Difficulty in finding implementation and support resources Open Source ERP solutions also calls for the best and finest programmers of open sourceERP solutions on the code. This may be difficult and may cause higher support costs at times. Compatibility Issues with Proprietary Packages somewhat of the open source ERP packages are incompatible with the proprietary products of certain corporations like Microsoft, Oracle, or IBM etc (sometime due to variation in platform used for implementation). * Lack of sacred Support from a Specific Vendor Despite all of the benefits of open source ERP packages, the fear of the failure of open source ERP package during crucial stages of a project is considerable driving forces for commercial ERPs where vendors provide dedicate support in lieu of big bucks on licensing costs. Unstructured approach to issue issue There are no proper defined product roadmaps and time line as most of the enhancements and bug fixes are done by freelancers and independent consulting companies and developers based on their requirements. * Devoid of feature- richness Proprietary software are feature-lade and have more features t hat are not found in the case of open source ERP packages mostly and may be cited helpful by commercial ERP vendors as a tool of ease and productivity. Open Source ERP Success StoryOpen source ERP has had its own share of successful implementations. There is no better argument for the use of an ERP solution than a testimonial by and organization which has used the system and reaped benefits from what the software has to offer. Let us take a look at a successful implementation that happened at a Danish pharmaceutical wet named pharma Nord. The implementation was done by a firm by the name Compiere Company Overview Denmark-based Pharma Nord is one of Europes largest manufacturers of preventive dietary supplements and herbal remedies.The 500-person company, founded in 1981, develops, manufactures and markets scientifically well-founded dietary supplements, herbal remedies and medical drugs with optimal bio-availability. Pharma Nords products are available in 50 countries throughout E urope, Asia and North America. Issue At Hand Due to market success with its initial line of dietary supplements, Pharma Nord was continually expanding its product line and markets served. egression in the regulated pharmaceutical industry, however, requires precise inventory management to address business and regulatory complexity.Pharma Nords ERP solution requirements extended well beyond the standard set of distribution and accounting functionality that performs at a global scale. They viewed the selection of an ERP solution as having a 15-20 year life. For a solution to succeed for more than 15 geezerhood, product licensing, ease of customization and confidence in the vendor were as important as out-of-the-box functionality The Solution Pharma Nord uses Compiere to manage its sales orders, invoicing, cash collections, buying and accounting for its sales subsidiaries and also to manage receipts and shipments in its warehouses.Pharma Nord liked what they saw in the earliest versi ons of Compiere in 2001. Using knowledge gained at a Compiere training class, Jacob Pedersen, Compiere Project Manager, completed an initial Compiere deployment in early 2002 focused on a single subsidiary. We did it on the basis that we would probably find things that need to change along the way. And we have. Its been with us, its been upgraded and weve changed kinda a few things. Weve been able to migrate to new versions of Compiere all the way from 2002 and now were here at 2008. I find that rather impressive. Before selecting an ERP solution, Pharma Nord assessed a number of offerings, notably Compiere and Navision. Midway through the evaluation, Navision was acquired by Microsoft. A few months later, the Linux version of Navision was discontinued. These events were eyeopening for Pharma Nords information technology and executive teams. The result was an even stronger requirement for the kind of open source licensing offered by Compiere to ensure Pharma Nords long-term ERP su ccess. Services from the Compiere Partner Network and Compiere helped Pharma Nord succeed.For example, the 2001 version of Compiere lacked support for tracking lot/batch numbers and expiry datesessential functionality for the pharmaceutical industry. Pharma Nords sponsorship accelerated the development of this general use functionality. We wrote the specification of exactly what the software should be able to do and it was developed by the Compiere team. Pedersen Results Seven years after initial deployment, Pharma Nord is still going strong with Compiere. Their database has grown over the years as theyve added business partners, products and transactions.Having transaction history available for analysis and reporting is a nice benefit from using a single product continuously over time. Whats great about Compiere is that everything is stored at the most detailed level, explained Pedersen. So whenever you need to do reporting, you have a number of dimensions to work with. You can c ombine each product, different sizes, and different countries. All of those will be dimensions. Since you can report and group on these dimensions, you can get the answer youre looking for by grouping and merging these data afterwards. With its sales and distribution operations productive with Compiere, Pedersen is looking toward the future Pharma Nord is also a manufacturing company. We manufacture all of our products ourselves. We know that Compiere is also working on manufacturing capabilities. The Bottom Line Several unbelievably productive, efficient and highly secure open source ERP packages are not yet well recognized in the market, most of the customers are still prepared to shell out big bucks on custom commercial ERP packages.This might be due to the credibility that the big ERP producing organizations like SAP and Oracle. In times that are proving increasely tough for organizations the world over organizations are taking measures to tighten their operations and keeping s tock of each and every penny that is spent open source ERP packages provide a very robust and cost effective alternative for midsize companies who might not have a big budget allocated to cover their IT requirements. Even the large corporations can cut maintenance costs by making use of these brilliant packages.However, lack of support from a particular vendor is something that the open source ERP packages badly lack, and compatibility issues with other custom third party apps are one of their biggest turn-offs. Open source ERP scores higher than commercial ERP on many aspects. Yet, commercial ERP still have major share in ERP markets. This is because open source products are kind of new and people are a bit conservative about choosing ERP software, because if implemented ERP software does not work, then there is serious business trouble.The prime(prenominal) adopters of open source ERP were in Latin America, Europe, and Asian countries because of economic reasons. Now, open sourc e ERP is gaining universality even in US markets and one day, it will be able to challenge the domination of commercial ERP in ERP markets of USA Top Open Source ERP Applications to Look Out for The finance applications, especially the custom ERPs, can be extremely costly and burn big holes in the pockets of business owners, and as such the demand for open source apps in the field of finance has been increasing dramatically.So, let us take a look at the top open source finance applications * Goodness of Open Source ERP Packages Not only do the open source finance packages come totally free of cost, but they are also not dependant on a particular platform. However, the proprietary programs work well on only specific platforms, as theyre designed only for specific needs. As such, even after paying a lot of money on licenses, the proprietary financial packages dont allow you to work with all platforms and require additional licenses based upon the number of machines on which, the soft ware is used.On the contrary, the open source packages can be used on as many systems as needed, and they work well on all open source platforms like FreeBSD, UNIX, Linux, Solaris etc. * Open Source ERP Packages To cater to the needs of small business owners, countless open source finance packages were developed, such as Adempiere (an ERP Business Suite), GnuCash (a double-entry book-keeping system), ERP5 (a Zope/Python based ERP solution), and the likes of them.Turning the focus towards other popular open source ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) packages, Compiere, an ERP solution that automates processes like accounting, managing sales orders, inventory, and supply chain is also quite popular, while packages like Grisbi, a single-entry and KMyMoney a double-entry book-keeping program, have also gained significant levels of popularity. * FriFinans is yet another impressive open source finance application that offers facilities like taking orders, generating invoices, ordering pro ducts and doing a lot more.It is still under final stages of development, and isnt tested completely yet, but even at this stage it looks quite promising. * Java-Based Open Source Finance Apps jFin, JGnash (double-entry book-keeping), JQuantLib (Quantitative Finance API framework), and JStock (stock market software) are some of the popular Java-based open source finance packages that have become extremely popular these days. * Latest DevelopmentsLooking at the latest developments,n21 eBusiness Suite, a web-based ERP/CRM package is quite a powerful open source finance package that has emerged in the market, whileMifos Microfinance universe management software, Openbravo, and OpenERP have also been recently developed and gained high popularity soon enough. TurboCASHis a popular double-entry book-keeping for Windows environment, whileGnuCashis a treat for Linux/Unix/FreeBSD lovers.HomeBankis an open source application for personal use, andMarketceterais an open source trading platform for those whore interested in stock trading, but dont want to spend any money on using paid tools. NoteAll Linux financial tools are not necessarily free there are some proprietary packages that require licenses, and dont come under the GNU/GPL free distribution license, but majority of Linux/UNIX based finance packages are totally free for personal and commercial usage. GnuCash The Ultimate Free Open Source Accounting Software Primarily coded in C,GnuCashis a free open source accounting software, and happens to be a part of the GNU Project. It runs on platforms such as OpenBSD, Solaris, UNIX, Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, and the likes of them. Looking at the features of GnuCash, youll discover that the package allows you to perform double-entry bookkeeping, maintenance of Stock/Mutual Fund Portfolios, Scheduled Transactions, and mortgage and Loan Repayment Druid.It also offers support to HBCI and Multi-Currency Transaction Handling. GnuCash also comes with Transaction-Import Matchin g Support, OFX, QIF Import facilities, Small Business Accounting Features and even Multi-User SQL Support, making it an extensive open source finance application. Whats more, GnuCash can also export data to TXF format and can be used in tandem with the tax preparation programs with great ease. You can virtually perform all kinds of finance related tasks with the help of GnuCash.