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
<mailto:frederic.clementi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
2012/5/31 James Jesudason <james.jesudason@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto: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
_______________________________________________
Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~openerp-expert-accounting
Post to : openerp-expert-accounting@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~openerp-expert-accounting
More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
