
Show HN: Obort) Attempt to build a generic accounting system platform on Django - iogf
https://github.com/iogf/obort
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rahimnathwani
First - it's great to know that someone is building an accounting system in
Python. Second, some thoughts that I hope will help you:

1) If you want to develop an accounting system from scratch, you should spend
some time looking at how existing accounting systems work. You can play with
commercial systems (e.g. Xero, Sage, QuickBooks) or, even better, look at the
source code for open source accounting systems. I'm a qualified accountant,
have some professional experience with Django, and am a decent product
manager. Even so, I would not attempt a project like this with just my domain
knowledge and technical skill. It's good to learn patterns that have worked
(or not worked) for others.

2) You have an ambitious goal. Great! Now what is the minimum functionality
you need before the software will be useful for you, or for the first set of
users? If you can't deliver that in some reasonable timeframe, you might lose
momentum or interest yourself.

3) I have never been to Bosnia, but I'm guessing that the accounting needs of
small businesses there are 95% the same as the needs of small businesses in
the UK or the US. The things that tend to vary between countries usually
relate to:

\- computations (tax rates and structure)

\- minor presentation details (e.g. whether VAT numbers need to be displayed)

\- bank statement integration

These are easy to customise without changing the design of the system. So, I'm
curious, why do you want to create an accounting system for Bosnia? Why not
create one for the world. Or, more easily, use an existing system and adapt it
for Bosnia?

4) Take a look at these open source accounting systems:

[https://github.com/ledgersmb/LedgerSMB](https://github.com/ledgersmb/LedgerSMB)

[https://github.com/akaunting/akaunting](https://github.com/akaunting/akaunting)
(pretty recent but feature rich, code seems well structured)

[https://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash](https://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash)

5) Finally, if you want people to use and contribute to your project, consider
including these in your README:

\- Installation instructions

\- Current status, including a list of features that already work

~~~
snthpy
Also look at beancount and the other text ledger systems.

