openerp-expert-accounting team mailing list archive

[Frédéric Clementi <frederic.clementi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

I think this conversation must also be posted on the expert mailing list as
it concerns a lot of people ...
The position of OpenERP about this is also unclear for us.

Thanks for asking, James.

Frédéric CLEMENTI
Business Solutions
Camptocamp SA
Tel : + 41 (0)21 619 1041
http://www.camptocamp.com

 <frederic.clementi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>




2012/5/31 James Jesudason <james.jesudason@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

> Hi Fabien,
>
> As you know, Canonical has been implementing OpenERP for our internal
> finance system. We started entering finance data at the start of April
> and are currently in a period where we are doing double-entry (in
> OpenERP and the legacy Navision system), and reconciling the
> differences. There have been a number of challenges in this process,
> partly operational issues (we have an external provider that manages
> and book-keeps Navision), and partly software issues. That process of
> double-entry and reconciling the two systems (which has been
> challenging!) will continue until at least the end of June. We hope,
> by then, that we will have confirmed that OpenERP can be used
> successfully and transition to using it as our primary system.
>
> One of the challenges that we have had with OpenERP is with the
> banking framework. The lack of an approved and supported banking
> framework module has been a challenge as this is an important part of
> the phase 1 functionality that needs to be working in OpenERP. We
> commissioned Credativ to build a banking module for HSBCNet as they
> had done that work for another company, and they used the
> account_banking module as a base framework for their
> account_banking_uk_hsbc. I had concerns about that as the framework
> did not appear to be well-supported. However, they had the basic
> functionality working, and then I had to take over the development in
> order complete the work (the integration needed someone with an
> HSBCNet account to be able to fully test the work).
>
> With the release of 6.1 we needed the account_banking module upgraded,
> and so I spent a considerable amount of time upgrading the module and
> testing the functionality. Whilst the basics of the module do work
> well, I have concerns that the module is trying to do too much, which
> makes it very difficult to test and keep up-to-date with OpenERP.
>
> I've been discussing the options for having a leaner, more focused
> banking framework within OpenERP that we know will be supported going
> forward. Most of these discussions have been with Frédéric at
> CampToCamp, and he suggested that I contact you to discuss the
> possibility of incorporating an 'official' banking framework within
> OpenERP. Initially I was thinking of getting account_banking
> certified, but I don't think that is the ideal option as it has become
> too complex.
>
> Instead, what I've been thinking of is a basic framework that is very
> similar to the core of the account_banking module. The framework
> should allow other companies to write their own 'plugin' modules for
> different banking systems. The basic functionality that I feel is
> needed is:
>  * Bank statement import
>  * Generating payments from payment orders
>  * (optional) A rule-based invoice-matching system (match a bank
> statement line with one or more invoices, to speed up statement
> reconciliation)
>
> I would like to get your thoughts on having an official banking
> framework and what would be the best approach to move this forward.
>
> As an experiment, I started coding a basic module, one that is based
> on the plug-in approach that is in account_banking, and it was not too
> complicated to get a simple statement import from HSBCNet working. I
> was able to 'extract' the core code of account_banking to create a
> much leaner module. This includes some original code done by EduSense,
> so if this was to be used we may need some agreement from them.
>
> One of the challenges that I have is that Canonical has some more
> immediate needs - we need to ensure that we can use OpenERP for making
> payments. The current account_banking does allow us to do that, but
> setting up bank accounts correctly in OpenERP is not straightforward
> and that can easily lead to payments failing. Also, many of the
> payments that we make are international and a number of suppliers need
> intermediary banks to be entered to make the payment (as some banks
> cannot receive overseas payments). The current banking and payment
> structure does not allow for intermediary banks to be specified or
> used.
>
> Whilst I could just focus on meeting our own needs, building a custom
> module that will only suit us, I'd prefer to find an approach enables
> us to have an official, supported framework that will be a core part
> of OpenERP.
>
> Your feedback on this would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks
>
> James
>