As the global financial crisis stifles businesses in every industry, the ways and means to reduce costs are now high on the corporate agenda, whether large corporations or SMEs. One of the costs associated with business operations is that of software licences. And when it comes to computerization, there’s no better solution than an enterprise resource planning system, which has traditionally been a high-cost software investment, mostly out of reach for small businesses. With Open Source, this trend will change, as there are a number of free ERPs available that companies can use to automate and centrally manage their dispersed accounting, purchasing, and inventory activities through a single, integrated interface. These ERPs mostly have a paid support package in addition to a free version to help those with spending power, as well as those who just need the system to get started with the in-house experience. One of these ERPs is PostBooks, available in the form of PostBooks.

This guide walks through the installation process on an Ubuntu 7.04 (and higher) system and a brief introduction to the system. Keep in mind that unlike other software systems that are ready to run after download, ERPs require a little more setup as these systems are not stand-alone. They make use of a database application to maintain all the user data and reports etc. while the front-end provides an interface to enter business transactions. Often ERPs are web-based, which means they require a web server where the entire application is hosted. For this reason, there could be several files to download: one for the main program, and there could be database scripts to create the necessary tables, etc. However, over time, these installation steps are becoming easier.

Installing PostBooks on Windows:

Windows installation is a fairly simple process as the installer comes with the database installation along with sample data. Just download and install using the single executable file and run it using the administrator username and password.

Installing PostBooks on Ubuntu:

Uubntu installation requires a database and a bit of manual configuration. That’s how:

Step 0 – Install PostgreSQL

This is an additional database for PostBooks ERP. Install it using the following command:

sudo apt-get install postgresql-8.1 postgresql-contrib-8.1

Step 1: Download the post books

PostBooks offers several types of downloads that can be tailored to different needs. For example, full installers, separate client and database, documents, videos, and even a virtual machine version, which means a ready-to-run image of a complete pre-installed system in Virtual Box and VMWare formats. This guide walks through a common, easy-to-test installation where everything resides on one system. Advanced users can install the database separately on a different machine to allow access by multiple clients over the network.

Download the following 3 installation files using the wget command:

The tar.bz2 file for Linux

quick start file

init.sql file

Note that the wget command downloads to the existing folder.

Step 2 – Unzip the zip file

Use the following command which unpacks the downloaded file and creates a folder with the same name as the file.

tar xvfj PostBooks-2.2.0Beta3-Linux6.tar.bz2

Step 3 – Set up PostgreSQL and configure it for PostBooks

Open the /etc/postgresql/8.1/main/pg_hba.conf file in the Text Editor and look at the last section titled # TYPE DATABASE USER CIDR-ADDRESS METHOD. Here, comment out the 3 uncommented lines by placing the hash character in front of them and replace them with the underlined lines as shown below:

Existing section of the file:

# DATABASE TYPE USER ADDRESS CIDR METHOD

# “local” is for Unix domain socket connections only

local all all ident same user

# Local IPv4 connections:

host all all 127.0.0.1/32 md5

# Local IPv6 connections:

host all all ::1/128 md5

Updated section of the file (updates are shown underlined)

# DATABASE TYPE USER ADDRESS CIDR METHOD

# “local” is for Unix domain socket connections only

#local all all ident same user

local all all trust

# Local IPv4 connections:

#host all all 127.0.0.1/32 md5

host all all 127.0.0.1/32 trust

# Local IPv6 connections:

#host all all ::1/128 md5

host all all ::1/128 trust

And then restart the server using:

sudo /etc/init.d/postgresql-8.1 restart

Now create the PostBooks database

sudo in postgres

psql -U postgres -f init.sql template1

createdb -U mfgadmin mfg

pg_restore -U mfgadmin -d mfg postbooks_quickstart.backup -v

Note that these commands must be run from the same folder where the downloaded files reside.

Step 4: Launch PostBooks

From the folder where PostBooks is unzipped, use the following command to start PostBooks:

./Postal books

The username and password are: mfgadmin

Post Books Overview

As is the case with any ERP, PostBook is tailored to all major operations of a small to medium manufacturing company. It can also serve other businesses, for example in the service or retail sector, as only a subset of modules are required and they automatically remain redundant. The main interface has menus at the top that describe each functional area of ​​the business it serves. This includes Products, Inventory, Purchasing, Manufacturing, CRM, Sales, and Accounting. Start with the System menu to set up the basic structure of the organization. The Master Information submenu allows the user to define the calendar, currencies, exchange rates, and departments, etc. The second important area to configure is the Configure Modules submenu, where all the details of handling the modules listed above can be set. For example, while managing inventories, a check can be implemented to not allow receipt of the purchase order if the quantity differs from the order, or to display a warning if the difference is in a user-defined range. Similarly, there are a number of configuration items that can define business rules, such as allowing or disallowing sales discounts. The general ledger can be defined in detail through the accounting module settings by setting the format of the general ledger hierarchy showing the main segment, profit center, sub-accounts and their character lengths, together with the definition of mandatory accounts such as retained earnings, exchange rate difference, and discrepancy accounts.

Once the modules are configured for the basic features and parameters, the next task is to define the maser information for each relevant module using its own menu. This details module-specific information. For example, in Products, units of measure, product category, and product class make up your master data. For accounts, this includes bank accounts, cost and expense categories, etc. Below each module are submenus for reporting and analytics, making this ERP quite comprehensive in nature.

There are other free ERPs available for Ubuntu as well, and most of them run on Mac and Windows as well. With extensive documentation, user manuals, and free online demos available, small businesses can spend some time researching the options available to save on the cost of purchasing a custom ERP.

Options that can be explored include MyERP5, OpenBravo, Compiere, etc.

Open source ERPs have come a long way from being just a concept to a reality used by many companies around the world, with and without paid support. It is ironic that OpenSource solutions have not been fully explored. But if done like this, it promises a lot from the operating system level and growing to the level of specialized applications such as ERPs.

Note: All commands must be used as the root user.