[hackerspaces] Fundraising for FLOSS non-profit accounting software
jason gessner
jason at multiply.org
Thu May 2 17:50:03 CEST 2013
i'm working on moving this to a straight django app instead of an appengine
app and would be happy to take on contributors!
We don't currently have reconciliation in the app. Right now we:
- use this as our member database
- send out invoices for membership and space rental
- record payments into various accounts
- show stats on our growth
- integrate with our access control system (the app provides a download
of member, access key code (specific to our system) and an expiration date.
- shows some stats from our system.
PS1 has a django app that handles paypal integration that tim offered to
help integrate, but i need to get this to django first. :) Thankfully
that is (so far at least) resulting in a smaller codebase than the
appengine one. I don't have it at feature parity yet, but i have a few
models running in the new app. I'll try to get a new github project
started for the django version this week.
ping me if you are interested in a demo or want to contribute.
-jason
On Thu, May 2, 2013 at 10:32 AM, Pete Prodoehl <raster at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> We've got software we use for billing our members, as we as keeping track
> of rentable storage space.
>
> https://code.google.com/u/jason.gessner/p/mkemakerspace-tools/
>
> Right now I think Milwaukee Makerspace is the only one using it, though I
> believe jason g. (lead developer) has talked with some people at Pumping
> Station: One and Workshop 88 about it.
>
>
> Pete
>
>
> On 5/2/13 10:07 AM, Edward L Platt wrote:
>
> We used to use GNUCash at i3 Detroit, but wound up switching to the
> proprietary software that shall not be named.
>
> The major limitations of GNUCash were:
> * Not a web app - prevented dividing tasks among multiple pepole
> (receipt/payment entry, reconciliation, billing, etc.).
> * No way to track vendors/customers. We wound up creating a sub-account
> for each member, which was really unwieldy, especially since GNUCash didn't
> alphabetize them, and wouldn't total them in our reports.
> * Clunky interface.
> * Learning curve too steep for volunteers.
>
> Also here's a feature request that I've never been able to find in *any*
> accounting software:
> * See the statement date for which each transaction was reconciled.
>
> If anyone starts an open source bookkeeping web app, I'd love to get on
> the dev list.
>
> -Ed
>
>
> On Thu, May 2, 2013 at 9:46 AM, Doug Philips <doug at hackpittsburgh.org>wrote:
>
>> I wonder if they have looked at ledger (http://www.ledger-cli.org/).
>> They're on the cusp of releasing v3,
>> but that'll be soon enough.
>> -=Doug
>>
>>
>>
>> On 5/2/13 9:20 AM, Tim Butram wrote:
>>
>>> I don't think that GNUCash has all of the required features that they
>>> need. From their list I don't think that GNUCash can do:
>>>
>>> * Tracking and reporting of non-profit income types (related business
>>> income, unrelated business taxable income, donations, etc.)
>>> * Basic annual audit preparation reporting
>>> * Ability to easily handle all these features on a project-by-project
>>> subset of the accounts, and to easily export and excise that subset from
>>> the system. (i.e., support for temporarily restricted assets, earmarked for
>>> fiscal-sponsored projects)
>>>
>>>
>>> Unless these are just features are unknown to me. Either way, they were
>>> not ruling out contributing to some project, so it could end up being that
>>> GNUCash gets some more features.
>>>
>>> Tim Butram
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, May 1, 2013 at 6:27 PM, Joshua Pritt <ramgarden at gmail.com<mailto:
>>> ramgarden at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>> I'll donate some of my free time to work on this software! I have
>>> had to help with issues with proprietary software such as Exceed! Basic.
>>> Is Conservancy trying to do the same thing as GNUCash?
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, May 1, 2013 at 5:15 PM, Danny O'Brien <danny at spesh.com<mailto:
>>> danny at spesh.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>> I thought this might be something that many here would see as a
>>> worthwhile project to donate money toward:
>>>
>>> http://sfconservancy.org/campaign/
>>>
>>> Conservancy has a plan to help all non-profit organizations
>>> (NPOs)
>>> by creating an Open Source and Free Software accounting
>>> system
>>> usable by non-technical bookkeepers, accountants, and
>>> non-profit
>>> managers. You can help us do it by donating now.
>>>
>>> To keep their books and produce annual government filings,
>>> most NPOs
>>> rely on proprietary software, paying exorbitant licensing
>>> fees. This
>>> is fundamentally at cross purposes with their underlying
>>> missions of
>>> charity, equality, democracy, and sharing.
>>>
>>> You can help Conservancy fix this problem by donating now.
>>> We seek
>>> to raise $75,000 to employ a developer for one year to make
>>> substantial progress on this project.
>>>
>>> Note that this first year will concentrate on US non-profit
>>> requirements, "Conservancy seeks to lead an international
>>> effort, and
>>> welcomes contributions and input from everyone in the non-profit
>>> community from around the world. Conservancy has created a
>>> mailing list
>>> for discussion of this project and encourages interested parties
>>> from
>>> around the world to join the mailing list and contribute to the
>>> project!"
>>>
>>> http://lists.sfconservancy.org/mailman/listinfo/npo-accounting
>>>
>>> Donation sidebar is on the main page:
>>> http://sfconservancy.org/campaign/
>>>
>>> d.
>>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Edward L. Platt
> http://elplatt.com
> http://civic.mit.edu/users/elplatt
> http://i3detroit.com
> @EdwardLPlatt <http://twitter.com/EdwardLPlatt>
>
>
>
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>
>
--
-jason
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