small business erp software

[lxlv01]

hello,

i have been using ubuntu as a sole operating system for some years now. I am interesting in starting a small online business, mainly selling on ebay and other venues.

I would like to use ubuntu for that too and was wondering about erp/accounting solutions. would like a software that would work for my needs, perform the basic funtions of accounting, crm, inventory etc . without having to use windows at all. it would be good also if it was available in many languages and particularly in german to print german invoices and other stuff. hardware will be some kind of dell inspiron laptop running either 10.04 or 10.10.

thank you in advance for your suggestions.

[Cheesehead]

Consult your accountant (or whomever will be handling your taxes) before choosing software. Your accountant should also help you set up the bookkeeping system. Your bookkeeping / erp -> accounting -> tax payments system is a vital administrative (production) function. I advise against experimenting with it.

So if you want to go Ubuntu for erp/accounting, locate an accountant familiar with it.

For example, my business has an accountant who is convenient and trustworthy. She does a lot of work to keep our various tax payments all in order. Her annual fee is US$650. Since she is not familiar with Ubuntu, we spent the extra one-time $400 for proprietary software so she could work efficiently. At less than 0.5% of our annual expenses, that was a good price for a supported production system that provides a good audit trail.

If I used a package she was unfamiliar with, I could easily spend much more in support and learning-curve costs, plus the liability if the as-is software turns out to make math errors on my taxes!

Businesses are full of such decisions and tradeoffs. Your decision may differ.

Would I switch to an open-source package? Yes, if my accountant learns it first (I don't want to spend $5000 teaching her to save $400). I need to spend a year running the two side-by-side to see all the issues that will inevitably crop up.