Installation

and
Users Guide
Version 1.5

Preface FrontAccounting User Guide

FrontAccounting Community Edition
Version 1.5, 2008

Copyright © 2007-2008 FrontAccounting.

Written By:
Terrell L. Johnson, CEO
The Walawon Group, LLC
Joe Hunt, Sr. Software Developer
JH Global Consultants

http://frontaccounting.net

This document is subject to change without notice.

License
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License (“License”).
To view a copy of this license, visit http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Com-
mons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

Disclaimer
Your Warranty, Limitations of liability and Indemnity are expressly stated in the License. Please refer to the License for the
specific language governing these rights and limitations

Trademarks
All FrontAccounting logos in this document are registered trademarks of FrontAccounting. See the FrontAccounting trademark
policies at http://www.FrontAccounting.net/erp/open-source/trademark-information.html for more information on how Fron-
tAccounting trademarks can be used.

Preface FrontAccounting User Guide

Preface
FrontAccounting (FA) is a professional web-based Accounting system for the entire ERP chain written
in PHP, using MySQL. FA is multilingual and multicurrency. FA is a further elaboration of the discon-
nected OpenAccounting (OA). OA was a fork of WebERP.

FrontAccounting is based on an open source project, and therefore, advances quickly through the devel-
opment and contribution of new features by its supporting community.
Welcome to the FrontAccounting community!

About this Guide

The FrontAccounting Community Edition User Guide is designed for users who are new to FA, or to
Accounting, ERP and Web-based applications. This guide introduces you to some basic CRM concepts
and helps you get familiar with the FA system. It describes how to access FA through a personal com-
puter and a Web browser to perform a broad range of customer relationship management tasks.

Readers are not required to have any programming or software development knowledge, but should be
generally familiar with the use of a personal computer and a Web browser such as Microsoft Internet
Explorer or Mozilla Firefox.

Audience
The FrontAccounting Community Edition User Guide provides information for users who want to record
and track company activities and outcomes. In addition, this guide provides information for system ad-
ministrators who manage user access and system configuration.

Preface FrontAccounting User Guide

Overview

FA consists of modules, each of which represents a specific functional aspect of Accounting such as Ac-
counts, Accounts Receivable, Accounting Payable, and Opportunities. For example, the Accounts mod-
ule enables you to create and manage customer accounts, and the Activities module enables you to cre-
ate and manage activities related to accounts. These modules are designed to help you manage customer
accounts through each step of their lifecycle.

• FrontAccounting covers:
• Purchase Orders
• Good Receivable Notes
• Supplier Invoices/Credit Notes
• Payments & Allocations
• Accounts Payable
• Items and Inventory
• Stock
• Manufacturing
• Sales Orders
• Customer Invoices / Credit Notes
• Deposits & Allocations
• Accounts Receivable
• Dimensions
• General Ledger
• Multi-Languages
• Multi-Currencies
• Budgets

Preface FrontAccounting User Guide

Requirements
Hardware Requirements
There are many possible configurations that could run this application. The scale of the enter-
prise obviously will have a significant bearing on the final configuration.

The operating system and the database engine chosen will have the largest bearing on System
requirements. Each client connection to the web server and database engine will also consume
RAM so the more connections the larger the RAM requirement. Similarly disk space required is
a function of the volume of customers, suppliers and transactions. Suffice it to say that due to
the efficiency of the components of the system the demands on the hardware are exceptionally
light by client server application standards.

As a guide, an installation for up to 50 simultaneous users could consist of the following: a

Linux operating system, an Apache web server, an entry level server with 512 MB RAM and a
10 Megabit network card. This would provide more than adequate performance. 100 Megabit
network cards are now entry level. RAID SCSI swappable disks are preferred in any mission
critical environment where disk access is intensive.

With multiple servers with SMP, load balancing, a separate database server, and large amounts
of RAM the limit on database size and the number can be scaled to the most demanding busi-
nesses.

Software Requirements
• PHP greater than 4.2. The system is therefore operating system independent since PHP
can be configured as a CGI module for use on MS IIS or as a module for Apache under
either Windows (NT, 2000 or XP) or Unix/Linux. If transfer of EDI orders is required
the ftp extensions for PHP will be needed.
• MySQL-Max with Innodb transactional tables support. Innodb was introduced in 2001
to MySQL and has Oracle like functionality – with similar speed. (The system could be
used with Oracle or other database systems too with minimal modification.) MySQL
• later than version 4 has Innodb tables in by default. Since MySQL represents such good
value for money it has been used. An example configuration file my.cnf normally un-
der /usr/local/mysql/var is available in the mysql documentation to show typical settings
for the Innodb configuration. The expected size of the data is useful although additional
Requirements FrontAccounting User Guide
 data files can be created retrospectively as necessary. Note that only the tables that require
transaction support are defined as Innodb tables. There is always debate but the MyISAM
tables are reputed to be faster.
• A web server. Apache makes the most sense – but most web servers are supported by
PHP in various forms.
• If the web server is accessible over the Internet and not just over a LAN then encrypted
communications are required. The openssl and mod-ssl modules for apache can be eas-
ily used to ensure all data is transmitted in encrypted form.
There are many sources of information on the compilation and installation of MySQL and PHP.
See the following links:
http://logidac.com/apache/apache-install-rpm.phtml
http://www.linux-sottises.net/en_apache_install.php

The system could be used with many other database servers but it is tested and developed on
MySQL. Independent benchmarks show that MySQL is one of the fastest for most common
database tasks, particularly at establishing connections – since this is required for every page,
MySQL is therefore ideally suited to the web environment. The ftp library for PHP is only re-
quired for sending order files to a Radio Beacon ftp server for remote warehouse services. Us-
ing Apache with mod_ssl and openssl secure sockets makes sense where there is any data trans-
mitted over the Internet and not just over a LAN.

Requirements FrontAccounting User Guide

Installation
Pre-requisites
• A working HTTP web server e.g. Apache, IIS.
• PHP installed on the web server.
• A working MySQL server - with innodb tables enabled (see notes below)
• Adobe Acrobat Reader - for viewing the PDF reports before printing them out.

Important Notes

• One critical aspect of the PHP installation is the setting of session.auto_start in the
php.ini file. Some rpm distributions of PHP have the default setting of ses-
sion.auto_start = 1. This starts a new session at the beginning of each script. However,
this makes it impossible to instantiate any class objects that the system relies on. Classes
are used extensively by this system. When sessions are required they are started by the
system and this setting of session.auto_start can and should be set to 0.
• Innodb tables must be enabled in the MySQL server. These tables allow database trans-
actions which are a critical component of the software. This is enabled by default in the
newer versions of MySQL. If you need to enable it yourself, consult the MySQL man-
ual.
• FrontAccounting is implemented and tested with MySQL. Generally it should work
with other databases, but this is not supported in any way at the moment.

Copying all the project files to the correct directory

• You must obviously have downloaded the project archive to be reading this file.
• All the files inside this archive should be copied to a directory under the web server root
directory.
• For example, create a folder called /account, and extract the archive into this folder.

Installation Steps (automatic, recommended)

1. If you have the option to create multiple databases on your host, create one, e.g. fron-
tacc, otherwise write down the database name for your account. At the same time look
up the username and password for the database. You will need these informations dur-
ing the wizard install.
2. Enter your_url/account/install (or whatever directory you entered). This will run the
install wizard, setup a drill company and populating with initial data. You can later on
Installation 1 FrontAccounting User Guide
 create your own real company. It is a good idea to get familiar with the system before
starting your own company.
3. After successfully install, remove or rename your install directory for safety reasons.
You don't need it any more.

Installation Steps (manual, for advanced users, not recommended)

1. Creating the Database

1. NOTE : As FrontAccounting is still heavily under development, the database
structure will ALWAYS change between releases, so if you have a database that
you created for a previous release of FrontAccounting, it WILL NOT WORK
after installing a new release. Please delete any old databases before proceeding.
2. We strongly suggest using a GUI to manage your database(s) and database users.
If you don’t have any, download phpMyAdmin.
3. Create a database with a name of your choice. The default in config_db.php is
‘frontacc’, but of course you can select whatever name you desire.
4. Populate the database you have created. There are two scripts provided to popu-
late the database (both inside the folder /sql) :
1. en_US-demo.sql. This has a minimal amount of demonstration data set
up so that transactions can be tried to see how the system works.
2. en_US-new.sql. This script has only the basic data necessary to start a
new company system off. If you wish to set up your company on Fron-
tAccounting then this is the script to use.
5. Now that the database is created you will need to set up a database user to access
this database. DO NOT USE THE USER ‘ROOT’. Set up a new user and give
that user full privilege over the database ‘frontacc’.
6. After successfully install, remove or rename your install directory your_url/
account/install (or whatever directory you entered) for safety reasons. You don't
need it any more.

2. Editing config_db.php

7. config_db.php contains connection information for the database. These must be

set to your local settings or you will not be able to access FrontAccounting. This
information is commented out. Uncomment it.
8. FrontAccounting allows multiple connections; you can enter as many connec-
tions as you have separate entities (most people will use only one).
9. $db_connections is an array of connections – for each connection :
10. “name” is the name of the connection, this is the name that will be displayed to
Installation 2 FrontAccounting User Guide
 the user
11. “host” is the computer IP address or name where the database is. The default is
localhost assuming that the web server is also the sql server.
12. “dbuser” is the user name under which the database should be accessed. NB,
again, do not use the user ROOT. A user with appropriate privileges must be set
up.
13. “dbpassword” is the password for “dbuser”. You would have entered this when

you created “dbuser”.

14. “dbname” is the name of the database. The provided scripts use the name fron-
tacc.

15. “tbpref” is the table prefix for the tables. If you only have access to one data-
base, you must use table prefix to separate the companies. Table prefix is set by
a table prefix counter inside config_db.php, e.g. 0_ for the first company.

Logging In For the First Time

1. Open a browser and enter the URL for the web server directory where FrontAccounting
is installed.
2. Enter the user name: 'admin'
3. Enter the password: 'password'
4. (NB : enter without quotation marks. If you went through the automatic install, en-
ter your password here).
5. You can set up additional user accounts from the System Setup tab. Be careful not to
delete the demonstration user until a new user has been set up. If there are no users de-
fined the next time you try to login you won't be able to enter the system. The only way
then to login is to manually edit the SQL table "users" by inserting a user.

Setting Up Company Specific Data

1. The entire standing configuration data is defined from the Setup tab and each link
should be reviewed to enter appropriate data for the business. Setup wizard that guide
you through this process has been implemented and we strongly recommend you to use
this approach, see Installation steps (automatic, recommended).

Installation 3 FrontAccounting User Guide

Troubleshooting

1. If FrontAccounting is installed locally, you may have the session save path not set cor-
rectly. Normally this is set in your php.ini (for Windows). The entry is called ses-
sion.save_path. Make sure this is set to a directory that actually exists. The default is set
to /tmp, which may not be valid.
2. If you are installing FrontAccounting onto a shared server, you may have to set the ses-
sion save path within FrontAccounting. At the top of config.php you will find this line :
3. Uncomment this line and set the path to a directory that exists on your server. Make sure
that you have read/write privileges on this directory.

Installation 4 FrontAccounting User Guide

Update

Important Notes
• You can easily upload all the files to your installation folder on the server overwriting
the existing files, if you take these important steps:
1. Backup (download) the following files to another folder:
1. config_db.php (contains information about the companies and connec-
tion info).
2. config.php (contains various settings. You only need to backup this file
if you have done manually changes to it.
3. /lang/installed_languages.inc (contains information about the installed
languages)
4. /modules/installed_modules.php (contains information about installed
modules, only vers. 1.1)
5. if you have made changes to other files, like themes or so, backup these
files too.
2. Upload all the new files.
3. Restore the files mentioned in #1. Be careful with config.db. Look into vari-
ances. There might be new variables in the new version. It might be easier to
manually change your former values in the new file.
4. Rename or remove the /install folder (you have already performed the install
process earlier).

Update FrontAccounting User Guide

Company Setup
Click on > Setup > Company Setup > (enter company information)

Name
Tax ID#
Tax Authority Reference
Tax Periods
Tax Last Period
Country Currency

Fiscal Year:
Current Fiscal Year can not be deleted

Getting Started FrontAccounting User Guide

How to setup initial balances?
The easiest way of doing this is to, create a fiscal year that is one year back and enter a com-
plete Voucher (Journal Entry) with all the open balances. You should use the last day of this
fiscal year as the entry date. You must be able to enter Bank Transactions in the Journal Entry
form, and to do that you must be logged in as an Administrator. Bank transactions are normally
done in the Bank Deposits/Bank Payment forms. Finally you can enter the stock item levels in
the Inventory module. If you are doing this before you enter item prices, the entries will not cre-
ate any GL transactions. The GL open balance must include the Inventory balance. After you
are done, you create the correct new fiscal year, change to this year in the Setup, and continue
from here.

Address
Telephone Number
Facsimile Number
Email Address
Company Logo
Domicile or Office

Use Dimensions: “What are Dimensions” Simply speaking it is just a way of keeping track of
various departments, cost centers, projects inside the company. You can have 2 levels, e.g. level
1, department, level-2, cost-centre. When you create the dimension you decide if it should be of
level 1 or level 2. You can by this keep track of cost centers inside a department inside a com-
pany.

Getting Started FrontAccounting User Guide

Default the system haves 1 level of dimensions. That is, you can keep a simple track of depart-
ments or cost centers or whatever, but just in one level. That is, you can keep track of depart-
ment’s only or cost centers only inside a company.

If you don't need dimensions you can set it to 0 in the company setup. Here you can choose be-
tween level 0, 1 or 2.

Custom Field Name

Custom Field Valve

Click > update

NOTE: Once Company information is set-up now you can setup users.

Click > Setup > User Accounts Setup

Click > New User (enter information)

Enter User Login:

Password:

Getting Started FrontAccounting User Guide

Full Name:
Telephone No:
Email address:
Access Level:
1. Inquiries- for customers only to inquire about their accounts
2. Accountant -
3. System Administrator – Full system access
This is an extract from the file CONFIG.PHP regarding the User Access Levels:

"Security Group definitions - Depending on the AccessLevel of the user defined in the user set
up the areas of functionality accessible can be modified.
Each AccessLevel is associated with an array containing the security categories that the user is
entitled to access Each script has a particular security category associated with it.

If the security setting of the page is contained in the security group as determined by the access
level then the user will be allowed access.
Each page has a $page security = x; variable this value is compared to contents of the array ap-
plicable which is based on the access level of the user.
Access authorization is checked in header.inc this is where _SESSION["AccessLevel"] is the
index of the security groups array. If you wish to add more security groups with then you must
add a new Security Heading to the security headings array and a new array of Security catego-
ries to the Security Groups arrays, this mechanism allows more fine grained control of access
security groups is an array of arrays.
The index is the order in which the array of allowed pages is defined new ones can be defined at
will or by changing the numbers in each array the security access can be tailored. These num-
bers need to read in conjunction with the Page Security index"
Code:
$security_headings = array(
_("Inquiries"),
_("Accountant"),
_("System Administrator")
);

$security_groups = array(
array(1,2),
array(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14),
array(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15)
);
As you can see there are 3 levels of User Access Levels at present. The corresponding arrays
shows which page a user can access. Every page has its own security level.
Language:

Getting Started FrontAccounting User Guide

NOTE: When you change the language in User Account Setup you should logout and login
again. If everything is ok, you should se your new language.

Display Setup

For current exchange rate you can go to: http://www.x-rates.com/

Getting Started FrontAccounting User Guide

NOTE: To save the language setting go into your user account and change the language here,
save, and the next time you log on it should have changed.

Banking and General Ledger (Maintenance)

To Setup Bank Accounts

Click > Banking and General Ledger > Bank Accounts (under Maintenance)

Getting Started FrontAccounting User Guide

New Bank Account (enter information) > Save

Sales (Maintenance)

To Setup Sales Person:

Click > Sales > Sales Persons (under Maintenance)

New Sales Person (enter information) > Save

Note: This person needs to be set-up as a user if they are going to be entering customer account
information

Getting Started FrontAccounting User Guide

Banking and General Ledger
Transactions

Click > Banking and General Ledger Tab

For payments:
Click > Payments

Choose From (account you are debiting) > Pay to: (for work orders enter work order number) >
Payment Type > Date: >
To the Order of: > Reference account number (if any) > Enter Account Code > Account De-
scription > Dimensions (1 or 2) > Amount > Memo
Click > Add Item.
To make any changes, Click > edit > (Make whatever changes), Then Click > Update.

Bank Account Deposit Entry:

Click > Deposits

Banking & General Ledger FrontAccounting User Guide

Choose From (account you are funding) > Pay to: (for work orders enter work order number) >
Payment Type > Date: > To the Order of: > Reference account number (if any) > Enter Ac-
count Code > Account Description > Dimensions (1 or 2) > Amount > Memo
Click > Add Item.
To make any changes, Click > edit > (Make whatever changes), Then Click > Update.

Bank Account Transfers:

Click > Bank Account Transfers

Journal Entry:
Click > Journal Entry

Budget Entry:

Banking & General Ledger FrontAccounting User Guide

Click > Budget Entry

Inquiries and Reports

Bank Statement:
Click > Bank Account Inquiry

General Ledger Account Inquiry:

Click > GL Account Inquiry

Banking & General Ledger FrontAccounting User Guide

Trial Balance:
Click > Trial Balances

Banking Reports:
Click > Banking Reports

General Ledger Reports:

Click > General Ledger Reports

Banking & General Ledger FrontAccounting User Guide

Maintenance

Bank Accounts:
Click > Bank Accounts

New Bank Account

Top of Form

Banking & General Ledger FrontAccounting User Guide

 Bank Account 1420 Stocks of Finsihed Goods
GL Code:

Account Type: Cash Account

Bank Name:

Bank Account
Name:

Bank Account
Number:

Bank Account GBP - Pounds

Currency:

Bank Address:

Bank Transaction Types

Click > Payment, Deposit and Transfer Types

Banking & General Ledger FrontAccounting User Guide

Currencies:
Click > Currencies

Exchange Rates:
Click > Exchange Rates

USD - US Dollars
Select a currency:

The selected currency is the company currency.

The company currency is the base currency so exchange rates cannot be set for it.

Chart of Accounts:
Click > Chart of Accounts

Banking & General Ledger FrontAccounting User Guide

 Edit Account
Select an Account:

New Account

Account
Code:
Account
Code 2:
Account
Name:
Account
Group:

Tax Type:

Add Account

The Chart of Accounts

A default chart of accounts is set up. However, in most cases the company will wish to adopt
the chart of accounts it has used traditionally. Chart of accounts maintenance - deletion of ac-
counts and adding of new accounts is done from the General Ledger tab. This would be a start-
ing point for data input of a new system. Where the GL integration features are to be used, set-
ting up the chart of accounts will be a necessary first step. Once a general ledger account has a
posting to it then it will not be allowed to be deleted.

Banking & General Ledger FrontAccounting User Guide

General Ledger - Maintenance. It is important to get the chart of accounts right before entries
are made which make it difficult to modify the chart. You can't delete accounts with postings
made to them.

GL Account Groups:
Click > GL Account Groups

Class
Name Subgroup Of
Type
Cash/Bank Assets Edit Delete
Accounts Receivable Assets Edit Delete
Fixed Assets Assets Edit Delete
Inventory Assets Edit Delete
Cash Account - Counter
Cash/Bank Assets Edit Delete
Clerks
Liabili-
Accounts Payable Edit Delete
ties
Sales Income Edit Delete
Cost of Sales Costs Edit Delete
Expenses Costs Edit Delete
Depreciations Costs Edit Delete
Financials Costs Edit Delete
Equity Equity Edit Delete
Staff Fund Balances Equity Edit Delete

New Account Group

Banking & General Ledger FrontAccounting User Guide

 Name:

Sub-
group
Of:
Class
Type:

ave
Save

GL Account Classes:

Click > GL Account Classes

Class ID Class Name Balance Sheet

1 Assets Yes Edit Delete
2 Liabilities Yes Edit Delete
3 Income No Edit Delete
4 Costs No Edit Delete
5 Equity Yes Edit Delete

New Account Class

Top of FormClass
ID:

Class Name:

Balance Sheet: No

ave
Save

Banking & General Ledger FrontAccounting User Guide

Sales
Transactions
Click > Sales Tab

Sales Order Entry:

To enter sales orders
Click > Sales > Sales Order Entry
Current Exchange Rates must be updated for accuracy
Click > Get to update exchange rates
(Add all Items before placing order)

Sales FrontAccounting User Guide

Note: Customer accounts and items must be setup prior to making a transaction.

Search Outstanding Sales Orders:

Click > Sales >Select a Sales Order to Invoice
(You can search by Order#, Customer# or Dates)

Sales FrontAccounting User Guide

Customer Payment Entry:
Click > Sales > Customer Payments

Customer Credit Note:

Click > Sales > Customer Credit Note

Customer Allocations:
Click > Sales > Allocate Customer Payments or Credit Notes

Sales FrontAccounting User Guide

 Junk Beer ApS - DKK
Select a customer:

Show Settled Items:

Refer- Left To Al-

Transaction Type # Date Total
ence locate
2007.08
Bank Deposit 7 16 11,79 11,79 Allocate
.24
Customer Pay- 2007.08 5.000,0
7 116 5.000,00 Allocate
ment .23 0

Inquiries and Reports

Click > Sales Tab

Search All Sales Orders:

Click > Sales > Sales Order Inquiry
(You can search by Order#, Date or Location)

Sales FrontAccounting User Guide

Customer Inquiry:
Click > Sales > Customer Transaction Inquiry

Customer Allocation Inquiry:

Click > Sales > Customer Allocation Inquiry

Sales FrontAccounting User Guide

Reports and Analysis:
Click > Sales > Reports and Analysis

Maintenance
Click > Sales Tab

Customers:
Click > Sales > Add and Manage Customers

Sales FrontAccounting User Guide

To Setup Customer Contact, Salesperson and GL Accounts
Customer Branches:
Click > Sales > Customer Branches

Sales Types:
Click > Sales > Sales Types

Sales FrontAccounting User Guide

To add Your Companies Salesperson
Sales Persons:
Click > Sales > Sales Persons

Defining your Companies Sales Area

Sales Areas:
Click > Sales > Sales Areas

Sales FrontAccounting User Guide

Credit Status:
Click > Sales > Credit Status Setup

Sales FrontAccounting User Guide

Notes:

Sales FrontAccounting User Guide