[Debian-uk] open-source accounting in the UK?

[Paul Tansom]

** Daniel Pocock <daniel at pocock.com.au> [2013-09-27 14:33]:
> I'm just wondering if anybody else is using any of the open source
> accounting solutions (e.g. PostBooks, GnuCash) in the UK and in
> particular, for preparing UK VAT reports?
> 
> Also, has anybody had any positive (or negative?) experiences with
> accountants/book-keepers who have worked with data managed in one of
> these open-source solutions, e.g. when you give them access to the
> system for end-of-year accounts/tax return completion?
** end quote [Daniel Pocock]

I keep thinking about looking again, but I am lucky in that my accounting is
simple enough (no VAT, low volume invoicing, etc.) to manage on the spreadsheet
my accountant supplied. There is a strange satisfaction in the fact that I
create it from his template using LibreOffice Calc, and then export it as an
Excel file for him to import it into Lotus - or at least I think he still uses
Lotus. OK, so Lotus is still proprietary, but there's a humour in only using
Excel as the exchange file format! Maybe it's just me as an ex-IBMer who used
to use Smartsuite because of the fact that the network licensing pricing for
concurrent users was more sensible than Microsofts - hence I have marginally
less aversion to it than Office. That said, the file format was never friendly,
hence not transferring data directly. I switched to StarOffice because it
supported OS/2 and Linux, and was very pleased when it became OpenOffice and
went open source - although it is a shame the calendar server didn't come with
it, something we still lack a good solution form IMHO.

Anyhoo...

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