Windows – Mac – Linux
Luca – An Accounting System for Mac OS X
Luca is a full-featured, fully-functional, accrual-based accounting system that runs on OS X. It has the ability to handle real-time double-entry postings and multiple currencies, yet we try to make it very easy to use, so that it will require minimal accounting knowledge to operate. It is designed for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Objectives:
The primary aim of an accounting system should be to help its users understand the financial information better. And we believe there’s no finer platform for understanding information design than the Mac.
So we’re trying to take advantage of all the wonderful user-interface design technology that is available on a Mac to provide Mac users with an inexpensive, easy-to-use accounting system that has most of the standard accounting features (e.g., double-entry, multi-currency, real-time P&L reporting, the ability to drill down and verify the source of any piece of data), and yet is still recognisably Mac-like in concept and navigation.
We take advantage of multiple windows to allow the user to focus on more-manageable pieces of information at a time, while providing the ability to drill down into the details or bring up related information with just one click. And we take advantage of a Cocoa application’s ability to keep all its windows synchronised when you make changes in any piece of data.
Luca also exploits the relational nature of the underlying database to allow the user to analyse the data from any angle – for example, by starting at the Profit and Loss Statement and drilling down to the specific transactions that made up an account, or by starting at a specific transaction (say, an invoice) and looking up all the payment transactions, comparing them against the debtor’s credit history.
Luca has been built on very strong foundations. It has an open architecture, which allows users to choose which database they want to use to store the accounting data. Luca works with the SQLite database, by default, but users can choose to use it with MySQL, Oracle, PostgresSQL, or any number of industry-standard relational databases in the market.
Also, Luca is written in Objective-C and can be used as an embedded database in mission-critical applications, e.g., in CRM (Customer Relationship Management) or insurance systems.
Therefore, the way we’ve envisaged it, a user can begin to use Luca in a non-critical, entry-level setting. And we’re hoping to make the data entry as streamlined as a Personal Financial Management Tool. Then if Luca proves to be useful, the user can look forward to exploiting the built-in scaleability of Luca’s double-entry engine to handle the accounting requirements of even a large scale business.
The schedule for Luca’s development is to release a beta version and then a production-quality release, both of which we have done, and then to add features like Inventory and Time Billing, etc.
Features:
- Chart of Accounts
- Unlimited levels
- Easily re-ordered thru (Control-)drag and drop
- Double-entry Accounting
- Real-time Postings
- Real-time P&L Reporting
- Can drill down into details
- Makes it easy to audit
- Tracks Sales, Purchases, Receivables, Payables
- Allows partial payment of invoices
- Allows off-setting between invoices of same account
- Multi-Currency
- Billing, Settlement, & Base Currencies can be different
- Calculates Forex Gain/Loss
- Statement of Accounts and Aging Analysis can be generated at any time and for any period
- Can manage Budget against Accounts, e.g., expenses & rental
- Can set up separate cost centres & consolidate them for reporting
- Transactions can be entered for new month without waiting for previous month to close
- Accounts for previous month can be re-opened and balances are auto-updated on close
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