A transaction, in database terms, is the entire set of actions that occur during a complex process such as this. If the sale gets interrupted - the customer leaves without paying - you would need to reverse all of the previous actions; you have to put the items back in the inventory, making sure your accounts receivable is still correct. A transaction wraps all of these actions into a single, all-or-nothing action. If the final part of the action never occurs, none of the earlier actions are committed to the database. Because SQL Ledger uses transactions, it's more reliable than Aria; if something interrupts its processing, no changes are made to the database. Your books need to be balanced before SQL Ledger even allows you to commit. In this respect, SQL Ledger is capable of handling much bigger, more intensive business more reliably.

SQL Ledger is great for keeping all of your ledgers, managing inventories, and generating and e-mailing invoices, orders, and statements. We'll take a closer look at SQL Ledger later.

Small Business Accounting: SQL Ledger
We've already seen a few reasons why SQL Ledger is a good choice for a small business: it's reliable and easy to access from any computer, provides all the basic accounting features of any business package, and is inexpensive to extend to meet your needs. The first question most bookkeepers ask about a system that can be accessed by many users is, can they be restricted from accessing the sensitive parts? You don't want unauthorized people adding a vendor to your system, creating a way to embezzle. You also may not want contract people who may interact with your competition to know the financial health of your company. In SQL Ledger, you can set up different login accounts, and for each account specify which menu items they're allowed to use. Only those items a user has permission to see appear in the menu. You can set up an account for your accountant, and they'll be able to run whatever reports they need, or drill down to each transaction to find any details you've entered. Using SQL Ledger is as simple as browsing to the URL where SQL Ledger is installed and entering your username and password. From there you get a menu of options in the left frame, and a welcome screen in the right frame.

Like other professional accounting packages, to find out anything you have to run a report. Since you may have hundreds of customers, you can find the one you're looking for by searching for specific characteristics: name, contact, e-mail, etc. SQL Ledger requires that your transactions balance. If you need to make an adjustment, you need to provide an account for the other side of the transaction - and the money needs to come from somewhere. This is true of inventory items, too. SQL Ledger keeps track of parts and assemblies, generates a Bill of Materials, and handles all kinds of variations of taxes. It handles international transactions particularly well, including support for multiple currencies. You can create orders to use as a work order or estimate, and then convert it to an invoice for payment.

Customizing Invoices and Statements
One benefit SQL Ledger has over Aria is the ability to create PDF versions of forms. You can generate and e-mail a PDF-based invoice directly from the Web site from any browser, without having to install any software on your desktop to generate the PDF. You can also send statements in plain HTML format if you're unsure about the technical capabilities of the person you're sending the form to. Each of the forms and reports can be customized. The reports are generated in HTML; checks and receipts are created using a text layout language called LaTeX; and statements, invoices, and orders can be generated in either. Customizations in SQL Ledger involve generating the raw code that results in the appearance you want and posting it into the site. To customize the HTML forms, you need to be able to understand and edit HTML code, inserting placeholders for names, addresses, items, and amounts. Likewise, for the LaTeX forms, you need to generate the markup by hand or by using another program, and paste it into the Web form in SQL Ledger. While this system isn't user friendly, it provides a degree of control over the appearance and layout of each item - a professional Web designer and desktop publisher will be able to make the payee and dollar amount appear at a precise location on your checks.

Summary
The real value of a system like SQL Ledger is the ability to inexpensively customize the software to meet the needs of your business. Need to create a custom report? All you need is somebody who knows a bit of Perl to figure out where to add the module and write a short chunk of code. The source code is well documented, and the way it's designed makes it easy to add menu items and pages that do all kinds of task you might need.

Should your business use an open source accounting package? There are good reasons for and against this. If you want friendly interfaces with lots of built-in advice provided by the software, you should probably stick with QuickBooks or Peachtree. If you plan to use bookkeepers who work from locations other than your office, an online solution has some big advantages. As your business grows, inevitably your accounting systems will become more complex and outgrow the basic accounting packages. When your business reaches this level of complexity, the open source offerings start to become compelling for ease of customization and their cost.

Adapted and Reprinted from Open Source Solutions for Small Business Problems ©2004 Charles River Media.