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bkuhn
Merge branch 'master' of oak.sfconservancy.org:npo-acct
## Links

- [[!wikipedia Frontaccounting]] - Wikipedia
- <http://frontaccounting.com> - Project homepage
- Source Code Clone: hg clone http://hg.code.sf.net/p/frontaccounting/mercurial frontaccounting-mercurial
   (Found only by chasing
   [Wiki](http://frontaccounting.com/fawiki/) link from homepage, which
   led to [Sourceforge page](http://sourceforge.net/p/frontaccounting/mercurial/ci/default/tree/)

## Technical

- PHP
- MySQL
- GPLv3 or later

## Preliminary evaluation

### Positive

- [Most recent release 2013-09-05](http://frontaccounting.com/wb3/pages/posts/release-2.3.18193.php)
- Themable
- Seemingly easy to deploy (Looking at their source release, structure looks similar to wordpress, for good or worse)

### Negative

- It seems to be built from scratch and not leverage any frameworks.
- Seems like a messy codebase: Table-based design. No templating, HTML is `echo`-ed to stdout.
- Uses the [deprecated](http://php.net/manual/en/function.mysql-connect.php) PHP `mysql_*` functions.

## Detailed Evaluation

## Evaluation of [[Reporting|UseCases/GeneratingReports]] UseCases
- [[Trial Balance Report|UseCases/GeneratingReports#trial-balance]]: Yes
- [[Bank Reconciliation Report|UseCases/GeneratingReports#bank-reconcilation]]: Yes, seems ok
- [[Chart of Accounts|UseCases/GeneratingReports#chart-of-accounts]]: Yes
- [[Cash Disbursements Journal|UseCases/GeneratingReports#cash-disbursements]]: Yes, looks like GL Account Transactions works for this
- [[Income Report|UseCases/GeneratingReports#income-report]]: Not obviously
  there, but should be easy given the number of reports available.
- [[Expense Report|UseCases/GeneratingReports#expense-report]]: Not obviously
  there, but should be easy given the number of reports available.

## Evaluation of [[Reporting|UseCases/GeneratingReports]] UseCases for Fund Accounting

It seems FrontAccounting's "Dimension" feature likely can do all of these,
since it seems you can limit any of the above reports by "Dimension".

## Evaluation of [[Fund Accounting|UseCases/FundAccounting]] UseCases

- [[Fund-only View|UseCases/FundAccounting#fund-view]]: No, seems to be no way to
restrict a user to a specific Dimension.
- [[Funds as part of whole org View|UseCases/FundAccounting#fundless-view]]:
  Yes, dimensions appear to be purely informative.
- [[Ignore Funds for operations|UseCases/FundAccounting#fundless-view]]:
  Yes, dimensions appear to be purely informative.

# Evaluation of [[Double-entry Accounting|UseCases/DoubleEntryAccounting]] UseCases

- Does the system implement pure double-entry accounting?  Yes, it appears to
  do so.

# Evaluation of [[TrackingDocumentation|UseCases/TrackingDocumentation]] UseCases

- Does the system
  [[link up to external documentation|UseCases/TrackingDocumentation#document-link-up]]?
  Not that I can find.  It doesn't seem to allow addition links to external documents.

- Does it have a [[the ability to explore transactions via documentation linkage|UseCases/TrackingDocumentation#document-link-explore]]?
  Not that I can find.

# Evaluation of [[Handling multiple currencies|UseCases/MultiCurrency]] UseCases

- Does it support the concept of
  [[a single functional currency|UseCases/MultiCurrency]], while still
  permitting multi-currency entries?  It probably could be beat in submission
  to work.  It does have the knowledge of a default currency and converts to
  it based on stored rates and reports come in the default currency.
  However, it doesn't appear that you can confine those to a single
  transaction.

## Evaluation of WorkFlow UseCases
- Is a
  [[specific workflow dictated by the system|UseCases/WorkFlow#workflow-dictated]]
  ?  It does appear that there are certain automated operations that occur
  upon creation of invoices, and purchase orders are required.
  
- Is a [[the workflow configurable|UseCases/WorkFlow#workflow-configurable]]
  ? No.
- [[Unaccrued Invoice|UseCases/WorkFlow#unaccrued-invioice]] ? Seems you
  can't generate an invoice without accruing it.
- [[Purchase Order required|UseCases/WorkFlow#purchase-order-required]] ?
  Seems that way.

# Evaluation of the [[Reading and Reporting API|UseCases/ReadingAPI]]

Interaction with the data seems to happen with embedded SQL statements
intermixed with PHP code.

# Evaluation of the [[Storage API|UseCases/StorageAPI]]