Best Free Open Source Accounting Software Download Reviews

Posted by on July 8th, 2010

Jun 19, 2010Chen Nanyang

Accounting software can help computer users easily record and process accounting transactions. it usually integrates the functional modules of accounts payable, accounts receivable, general ledger, billing, stock management, inventory control, purchase order management, sales order management, and cash book. sometimes a fully-featured accounting software solution may also include the functions of debt and bills collection, credit card payment processing, business expenses control, manufacturing accounting, payroll and tax accounting, accounting reports creation, and employee timesheet tracking management.

Prices of Commercial Accounting Software and Open Source Accounting Software

A commercial accounting software application is usually fully-featured but costs hundreds or thousands of US dollars. sometimes this could be too expensive to a small business owner or a personal user. under this circumstance, the user can choose free or open source accounting software applications. They are available for free download online.

Types of Free or Open Source Accounting Software Applications

There are two types of free or open source Accounting software applications:

  • Accounting software that is an independent system for a company’s financial management.
  • Accounting software that is part of a company’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

Best Free Open Source Accounting Software Download and Comparison

The best free or open source independent accounting software applications include:

Best Free Open Source ERP Accounting Software Download and Review

The top free and open source accounting software programs that are part of the ERP systems include:

  • Adempiere is a free and open source ERP software application. it provides accounting functions such as general ledger, accounts receivable, accounts payable, financial reporting, cash Management Budgeting, and VAT/TAX/IVA.
  • Other free or open source ERP accounting software applications include BlueErp, Compiere, Dolibarr,JFire, Apache OFBiz, Openbravo, OpenERP, PhreeBooks, Postbooks, Tryton, GNU Enterprise, and webERP.

Details about Free Accounting Software Applications for different Sectors

  • Image of Free Open Source Accounting Software – Image by Author

Best Free Open Source Accounting Software Download Reviews

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Betting Who's Right on Home Prices: Baker vs Maki

Posted by on June 24th, 2010

June 24, 2010, 10:33 AM EDT

(Updates with record-low mortgage rates in 19th paragraph.)

June 24 (Bloomberg) — Dean Maki, chief U.S. economist at Barclays Capital, says the worst is over for the U.S. housing sector. Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, expects another painful decline.

they reflect an almost even split among forecasters on the outlook for residential real estate, and whichever side turns out to be right will have made a call on more than just home prices. Housing will play a crucial role in the direction of the nation’s economy and global financial markets, just as it triggered a two-year recession that erased more than 8 million U.S. jobs and $37 trillion from world stock markets.

“There is real destruction when housing demand declines because to most American families a home is their most important asset — a very significant part of their wealth and retirement savings,” Joseph Stiglitz, an economics professor at Columbia University in New York and a Nobel Prize winner, said in a telephone interview. “When they feel insecure about its value there obviously is a very big impact on their quality of life.”

Two reports this week showed that home sales reversed course in May after getting a bump higher from government stimulus programs including a buyer tax credit. New-home sales fell 33 percent to a record low annual pace of 300,000, the Commerce Department said yesterday. purchases of previously owned homes unexpectedly dropped 2.2 percent, the National Association of Realtors said June 22.

Case for Bears

The May home-sales declines lend at least temporary credence to housing bears like Baker, a University of Michigan Ph.D and author of “False Profits: Recovering From the Bubble Economy” (PolipointPress, 2010). Baker, who is based in Washington, estimates that home prices will fall 12 percent this year, wiping out a 9.1 percent gain in the median price over the past three months, as gauged by the National Association of Realtors.

Meredith Whitney, founder of Meredith Whitney Advisory Group in New York, told CNBC this week that another housing recession is likely.

Also in the bears’ camp: Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist for MFR inc. in New York, who is calling for a 10 percent decline in prices; and Nariman Behravesh, chief economist of IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts, who expects a loss of 7 percent.

Range of Estimates

“It’s not unusual to have disagreement about the outlook,” Maki said in an interview. “Often these views come down to how one views the broader recovery.”

About half of 106 U.S. forecasters in a study published yesterday by MacroMarkets LLC expect price declines in 2010 and half anticipate either little-changed or increasing values. The estimates in the study range from Baker’s 12 percent drop to the 3.4 percent gain forecast by Bill Watkins, executive director of the Center for Economic Research and Forecasting at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, California.

“Crystal-ball Gazing’

“To some extent economists are engaging in crystal-ball gazing, but it’s important to put down markers,” said Terry Loebs, managing director of MacroMarkets, a Madison, New Jersey- based company that creates securities that allow investors bet on housing. “The width of that spread is a byproduct of uncertainty in the market.”

Stock and bond markets began to slide and the economy tumbled into recession at the end of 2007 amid mounting defaults on subprime mortgages. Banks, brokers and insurers worldwide reported $1.8 trillion in losses and cut almost 350,000 jobs, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The U.S. government pumped $460 billion into financial firms to prevent a collapse of the banking system.

The median U.S. home price slid 29 percent to an almost eight-year low of $164,600 in February from a peak of $230,300 in July 2006, according to data from the National Association of Realtors in Chicago. More than a fifth of U.S. mortgage holders owed more than their homes were worth in the first quarter, Seattle-based Zillow.com said last month.

Fed Holds Steady

lower real estate prices increase foreclosures and deflate the profits of banks burdened with seized properties. Federal Reserve policy makers yesterday held the benchmark interest rate in a range of zero to 0.25 percent, saying in a statement that lower home values are impeding consumer spending that accounts for 70 percent of the U.S. economy.

“Household spending is increasing but remains constrained by high unemployment, modest income growth, lower housing wealth and tight credit,” the policy makers said in the statement. “The pace of economic recovery is likely to be moderate for a time.”

Mortgage defaults will push prices lower by adding to the inventory of homes for sale, MFR’s Shapiro said. a record 4.6 percent of U.S. home loans were in foreclosure in the first quarter, according to a report last month by the Mortgage Bankers Association in Washington. The combined share of foreclosures and mortgage delinquencies was 14 percent, or about one in every seven U.S. mortgages.

‘Enormous Looming Overhang’

“We think prices have to come down further because you have an enormous looming overhang of supply,” Shapiro said in an interview. “You can’t say things have bottomed.”

The government began phasing out housing stimulus programs in March, when the Federal Reserve ended its purchases of $1.25 trillion of mortgage-backed securities. The buying kept the average U.S. 30-year fixed-mortgage rate in the range of 4.93 percent to 5.14 percent in the first three months of the year. The rate fell this week to a record low of 4.69 percent, Freddie Mac, a mortgage-finance company in McLean, Virginia, said today.

The tax credit of as much as $8,000 required buyers to have a signed contract by April 30 and close on a property by July 1.

“One reason the estimates on prices are so wide is that no one is sure what impact government intervention in the marketplace will have,” said MacroMarkets’ Loebs. “We haven’t seen a market like this before.”

High Unemployment

Another cause for the debate on the future of the housing sector is economists’ varying forecasts on how fast the economy will recover the jobs lost since the recession began in December 2007, the worst employment slump since World War II.

The U.S. economy probably will expand 3.2 percent this year, following a 2.4 percent loss in 2009, according to the median estimate of 67 economists in a Bloomberg poll. Growth probably will dip to 3 percent in the third quarter from 3.3 percent in the three months ending June 30, according to the survey.

‘Absolutely Zilch’

“Housing is contributing absolutely zilch to economic growth,” said William Wheaton, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “It’s not that people want houses to be expensive. they want the housing sector to start pulling up the economy as it has done after past recessions, and that’s not going to happen until prices rise.”

When that price gain happens, it will have to be substantial to make up for losses in home values, said Columbia’s Stiglitz.

“Even a 3 to 4 percent increase in value won’t help people who have seen their homes decline 20, or 30 or 50 percent,” Stiglitz said.

–With assistance from Lynn Thomasson in New York and Shobhana Chandra in Washington. Editors: Larry Edelman, Rob Urban

To contact the reporter on this story: Kathleen M. Howley in Boston at kmhowley@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kara Wetzel at kwetzel@bloomberg.net.

Betting Who's right on Home Prices: Baker vs Maki

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Review of personal finance software for Mac-iPhone

Posted by on March 22nd, 2010

Personal finance software used to be a straightforward matter for Apple Mac users, in that Intuit Quicken provided a steady, standard service.

At one point, almost 10 years ago, I was very contented with a Palm Treo-Mac syncing option offered by LandWare (Pocket Quicken). this allowed me to enter expenses on-the-go.

The departure of Inuit from the UK market (where they only sell their QuickBooks product now) was a blow to many. And the Treo-Mac bliss is no more.

I moved over to MoneyWell, which has been promising an iPhone syncing option for well over a year now. Increasingly frustrated, I’m reviewing my options now.

Here are my reviews of personal finance software, whether desktop, web-based, and/or iPhone application:

  • Quicken
  • Wesabe
  • Yodlee
  • MoneyWell
  • Cha-Ching
  • Splash Money
  • iBank
  • iCompta

My feature list criteria was:

  • ability to manually add banks to account list
  • multiple currency support
  • account reconciliation
  • iPhone syncing

QUICKENIt took ages for Intuit to upgrade from Quicken for Mac 2007 to their latest Quicken Essentials for Mac. It does have a modernised, Mac interface.

But can you manually add your banking accounts? Doesn’t appear so. instead, are you reliant on whether your banking institution is one supported by Intuit? Thus, does QEM even support multiple currencies?

Also, no syncing features.

Instead, Intuit offers Quicken Online, which is a portal for Mint.com, which itself is useless for anyone outside the USA: (a) you cannot import any data, and (b) it only stores the past 90 days of USA bank accounts (linked with Quicken).

Quicken offers an iPhone app, but it is a sync feature between your iPhone and your account at Mint.com. because your Mint.com account has nothing to do with with Quicken desktop software, Quicken appears to have made its mind up firmly that it will not offer desktop-mobile device syncing.

Or if there is to be Quicken-iPhone syncing, it’ll be some absorption of Quicken Online, i.e. USA-only.

Quicken has decided that the USA and automatic banking is its marketplace, leaving behind many thousands of users who used to enjoy manual account management (loans), multiple currencies, and now in the 21st century, mobile device syncing.

Quicken has strategically removed itself from the dominant, global financial management software provider it once was. their new offering provides me no incentive to return.

WESABE Wesabe offers a free online financial management service. its USP is its community focus, where individuals can ask and reply to queries from other users on financial matters.

As for this community aspect, Wesabe is the leader. However, as for its financial software, it’s way behind.

There’s no way to add bank accounts manually. The is the same situation as Quicken Online (Mint.com), but Wesabe isn’t as mean: you can find the major UK banks to add to your list of accounts.

Far worse is the inability to reconcile any of your accounts. I sent a message to Wesable support about this, and their reply was, “Why would you want to do that?” Um, because it’s one of the basic aspects of financial accounting and because I don’t always trust what the bank says I’ve spent.

Wesabe has a solid looking iPhone application that gives you ready access to your online account.

But without the ability to add manual accounts or any reconciliation, Wesabe is too limited and too much of a leap of faith.

YODLEEYodlee provides online financial management software to the banks (and other financial institutions); your bank’s online service may have Yodlee running the show in the background.

Gracefully, Yodlee offers a free online aggregator for individuals, through its Yodlee Money Center service.

Accounts cannot be manually entered; you can only add banks that offer online access. However, the list of supported financial institutions goes even further than Mint.com’s offering in regards to UK banks.

But the lack of adding accounts manually and no prospect of any iPhone/syncing application rules Yodlee out for me.

MONEYWELL MoneyWell has a good all-in-one-page interface. It uses the concept of envelope budgeting, through buckets. I was pleased to see a clean import of my many years of Quicken data.

There is also a good transfer transaction facility between accounts: by using the view matched transaction feature, you can change the actual foreign currency amount (and one-click back to the original transaction).

There are online banking features. However, I’ve never been able to get this to work properly with my USA or UK listed banks.

For well over a year, we’ve been promised an iPhone application. still waiting.

No Thirst Software, who makes MoneyWell, concentrated their recent efforts on upgrading the software to version 1.5. Unfortunately, this latest version is a real memory hog: my MacBook fans kick into high gear as soon as I open the programme, and performance is sluggish; this was not an issue with all previous versions.

No Thirst development is contingent on little staff resources, and consequently I fear that this otherwise innovative programme is going to wither.

CHA-CHING I was attracted to Cha-Ching’s pleasing graphic interface and offer of desktop and iPhone app syncing integration.

Cha-Ching was the only desktop app (beyond MoneyWell) that successfully imported an amalgamated (multiple account) .qif file, but unfortunately without adding the relevant bank accounts to my Cha-Ching list of accounts. (I trust adding individual account .qif files would work.)

But the failure to include any categories with the imported .qif files is a deal breaker in itself.

Cha-Ching does offer the most graphically pleasing iPhone app.

Yet lack of multi-currency support makes this a non-starter.

Added to the fact that it Cha-Ching desktop crashed all the time on me!

Cha-Ching is just not a viable proposition.

SPLASHMONEY SplashMoney, a product by SplashData, has been around for many years. for me in my Treo days, not using SplashMoney was simply a decision I made between them and LandWare’s excellent Pocket Quicken.

SplashMoney comes is many formats: Palm, Pocket PC, iPhone, BlackBerry, and desktop. this is the most extensive offer of platform support that I have found for any personal finance application.

I duly purchased the Desktop and iPhone versions, hoping for the best.

SplashMoney successfully imported my single, multiple-account .qif file, as well as retaining the transaction categories and automatically adding new accounts found in that file. Unfortunately, Splash Desktop made a hash of the transaction data; my manual attempts to resolve balances made the variances even worse. I can’t understand what is happening in the background. However, individual account .qif file import was successful.

But far worse is the fundamental inability to enter any transfer transactions between any two accounts! (At least I couldn’t see how to do this on either the desktop of iPhone app.) how can a financial software programme not provide a transfer transaction feature?

IBANK iBank fantastically failed to import my multiple-account .qif file (painful 15 minute programme hang before quit). Importing individual account .qif files successful.

Like many other reviewers, I don’t care for the Cover Flow view. you can switch to a traditional list view, but in iBank this looks like an ordinary Excel table.

Like SplashMoney, there is an iPhone sync app. Even better, you can create transfer transactions.

iBank does provide a fulsome feature set (manually added accounts, online banking statement downloads, multiple currency support, mobile syncing).

It’s just that I found an less expensive and just as competent alternative, iCompta.

ICOMPTA iCompta is a freeware programme developed in France. Multi-currency support is obviously there. moreover, multiple language localisations are available in French, German, Spanish, and Italian.

iCompta has the full feature set as in iBank — ability to add manual bank accounts, enter transfer transactions, and manual and online account reconciliation.

Its iPhone app (for which you have to pay) syncs easily with the desktop software.

In addition to managing your banking accounts, iCompta has its own unique feature of adding individuals (drawn from your Apple Address Book) to your account list, to keep track of money owed. not an essential feature, but I appreciate the logic (i.e. not all of your money flows via banks).

iCompta is the personal financial application for me. Hooray.

My preference for iCompta is due to its focus on essential functionality and thoughtful execution. in contrast, iBank suffers from its zeal on Cover Flow eye candy, which it presents as an advantageous USP.

This was a long search to find a personal finance programme for Mac users that could be used to sync with an iPhone. in the end, only two programmes — iBank and iCompta — provided manual account addition, multi-currency support, transfer transactions, and account reconciliation.

Review of personal finance software for Mac-iPhone

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Firms up online-media spending

Posted by on March 16th, 2010

Leading local interactive agency Thomas idea yesterday said most companies now used about 2 per cent of their media budgets for online communications.

“But we expect that to increase dramatically in the next five years, to 8-10 per cent,” said CEO Uraiporn Cholsirirungskul.

She said in developed markets like the US and the UK, businesses allocated more than half of their media budgets for online content. They also develop specific content, such as Web videos for broadcast only online.

“Many marketers have increased their online-media spending by almost 20 per cent this year, because they see the fantastic capability of digital media to be an effective tool for brand-building,” Uraiporn said.

She cited Internet World Stats figures that showed there were now 1.6 billion Internet users worldwide, with 16 million of them in Thailand. Thai consumers spend more than 17 hours a week using social media like Facebook and Twitter.

Marketing and advertising researcher Nielsen recently reported local spending on Internet ads increased 90.9 per cent year on year last month, to Bt21 million.

“Many firms are learning and trying to understand the actual benefits of online media for their business,” said Uraiporn.

She said consumer-product, real-estate, automotive, construction and banking firms in particular had become local pioneers in rolling out their own online communications designed to build their brands and strengthen relationships with their customers.

“One of our key accounts, Property Perfect, said 15 per cent of their revenue last year had been generated by online media,” said Uraiporn.

Thomas idea executive director and senior consultant Araya Choutgrajank said compared with offline advertising media like television, online media contributed key benefits that were interactive and measurable and had a global reach.

“One of the most valuable assets in the digital world is branding. Marketers should think very carefully about how their online assets respond to brand strategy,” she said.

Araya said companies that already had a strong brand could use online media as a communication tool for promotional activities and to acquire sales leads and a new group of consumers. They can also create “viral” communications among consumers.

“Online media will also allow individual firms to manage their own corporate communications and digital branding. With digital media, consumers will be highly engaged and recognise a brand,” she said.

Araya added that social media could also allow marketers to segment or track their customers effectively.

Firms up online-media spending

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Latvian Central Bank Cuts Refinancing Rate to 3.5%

Posted by on March 11th, 2010

March 11, 2010, 8:55 AM EST

(Adds GDP forecast in penultimate paragraph.)

March 11 (Bloomberg) — Latvia’s central bank cut its benchmark refinancing rate for the first time this year after rates in the interbank lending market dropped to record lows.

the bank cut the rate to 3.5 percent from 4 percent, Governor Ilmars Rimsevics told reporters in Riga today. the bank lowered the rate by 2 percentage points in 2009. the central bank also lowered the overnight deposit rate by half a percentage point to 0.5 percent and introduced a new seven-day deposit facility with a 1 percent interest rate.

Latvia is stuck in the European Union’s deepest recession after a credit-fueled housing boom collapsed, credit markets froze and the country’s second-biggest bank needed a state bailout. the government turned to a group led by the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund for a 7.5 billion-euro ($10.3 billion) loan to shore up the economy.

Today’s rate changes “will further push the interbank lending rates down for overnight and one-day lending,” said Kaspars Jansons, head of treasury at Parex Banka AS. “Banks have a lot of lati and they need to place them somewhere, and this will likely be another push on the lending side.”

Latvian lenders may move their money from overnight deposits at the central bank to the new seven-day facility at after today’s cuts, Jansons said.

Rigibor

Asking rates on the three-month Rigibor, the interbank lending rate, fell to 2.33 percent yesterday, the lowest since the central bank began calculating the index 12 years ago. the three-month rate climbed to a high of 29.8 percent on June 26 when speculation mounted that the country would have to devalue its currency.

“Low lending activity currently is not due to the interest rates but is still explained by the bank’s cautious lending policy in these complicated economic conditions, also the low demand for credit from households and from business,” Rimsevics said today.

Banks are holding between 250 million lati ($483 million) and 300 million lati on deposit at the central bank, he said.

on Feb. 24, Latvia’s Treasury sold 8 million lati ($15.4 million) in two-year Treasury bills at auction, the first sale of such a maturity since may 2007, with an interest rate of about 6.07 percent. Yesterday the Treasury sold 12 million lati of 2-year paper with an average yield of 5.6 percent.

Contraction

the government should begin work on the 2011 budget now, or risk taking last minute budgetary decisions only after October parliamentary elections, Rimsevics said. the economy is showing signs of stabilization as interbank lending rates drop, exports have begun to improve and productivity is increasing, he said.

Foreign investors are showing a renewed interest in Latvia, especially in the country’s domestic Treasury bill market, Romsevics said.

the economy contracted 16.9 percent in the fourth quarter after shrinking 19 percent in the third, the central statistics office said today. the central bank kept its forecasts for a 2.5 percent contraction this year and 3.8 percent deflation at the press conference.

the economy may grow 0.2 percent on an annual basis in the fourth quarter, according to a chart Rimsevics showed today. the economy may contract an annual 5 percent in each of the first two quarters and 0.8 percent in the third quarter.

the refinancing rate affects the minimum interest rate on central bank swaps and repurchase agreements, worth about 75 million lati a week. the bank runs a quasi-currency board system, where lati in circulation are backed by foreign currency.

–Editors: Tasneem Brogger, Chris Kirkham.

To contact the reporter on this story: Aaron Eglitis in Riga at aeglitis@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor for this story: Chris Kirkham at ckirkham@bloomberg.net

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Latvian Central Bank Cuts Refinancing Rate to 3.5%

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Dream Dictionary – Software Dungeon

Posted by on January 8th, 2010

Nerraw Dream Dictionary is an in depth electronic reference guide to exploring and understanding dreams. the author separates the guide into three main topics including defining your dreams, how to recall your dreams easier by keeping a dream journal with Alconsofts text editor and a collection of useful information on dreams including Sigmund Freud. this program is not only easy to use but it looks great also. By better understanding your dreams, in turn you will be able to better understand yourself. in defining your dreams, you will have an increased knowledge about yourself, bring about self-awareness and self-healing. Dreams are an extension of how you perceive yourself. they can be a source of inspiration, wisdom and joy.” following the introduction Calico goes on to catalog several thousand verbs, nouns, feelings and adjectives that one may dream about, and what it represents. For instance, to dream that you are throwing darts, ex: Type in “darts and hit search and your definition will display: “To dream that you are throwing darts in your dream refers to some hurtful or harmful remarks that you or someone have said. Alternatively, it represents your goals and your “go-getter” attitude.” However, if one were to dream that you are pleasantly surprised, indicates that you are opened in acknowledging and confronting your unconscious feelings.”……..need more?..download now free!!

Dream Dictionary (Version 1.0 ) is Freeware and is 7653885 bytes in size. Nerraw Dream Dictionary is an in depth electronic reference guide for dreams

In Category: Mystic Software

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Dream Dictionary Requires: Win95,Win98,WinME,Windows2000,WinXP,Windows Vista Starter,Windows Vista Home Basic,Windows Vista Home Premium,Windows Vista Business,Windows Vista Enterprise,Windows Vista Ultimate

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Dream Dictionary – Software Dungeon

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