front accounting (Opens in a new tab) It is a capable Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system for small businesses. It can handle accounting, inventory management, reporting, billing, and even purchasing functions for manufacturing departments. Best of all, FrontAccounting is completely free, and relies on voluntary donations from satisfied users.
Getting started with this powerful free program can be challenging, so we’ve put together this helpful step-by-step guide to help you use it. Hostinger (Opens in a new tab) hosting solution. While the process may seem intimidating at first, it is simpler than it seems. It’s worth the effort, because the amount of functionality you get from this free program is comparable to the more expensive alternatives.
How to set up your own accounting system with FrontAccounting: Preparation
FrontAccounting requires four things before you can start setup:
- a Domain (Opens in a new tab)
- a A database of the Internet (Opens in a new tab) With php (Opens in a new tab) installed
- a MySQL (Opens in a new tab) server
- a PDF reader installed on your computer. (See our summary of Best PDF Readers for Windows (Opens in a new tab)free and paid, to help you choose the right option for your business.)
You don’t need to know any of these things to set up FrontAccounting, but if you want a little more background, we’ve included links to some definitions in the points above.
Installing a PDF reader is a product-specific process, so we won’t cover it in this guide. If you need help, consult the reader’s installation instructions for assistance.
The most affordable web server option is a combined option Website hosting (Opens in a new tab) plan. we chose Hostinger (Opens in a new tab)a highly rated hosting provider, with packages starting at just $1.99 per month.
Hostinger also provides domain names, so you can buy one directly from Hostinger or domain transfer (Opens in a new tab) from another provider in just four clicks.
All Hostinger plans come with PHP installed by default. For MySQL, read the Hostinger guide—What is MySQL (Opens in a new tab)—To update speed, then download and install the free community version of MySQL from MySQL website (Opens in a new tab).
Step 1: Open FrontAccounting’s automatic installer
Installing FrontAccounting manually can be complicated, but Hostinger’s automatic installer does all the hard work for you. You just need to fill in a few fields and click install. Hostinger will do the rest.
To get started, sign in to Hostinger, then go to http://www.hostinger.com Hostinger auto installer (Opens in a new tab), click Other, and select FrontAccounting from the drop-down list. Then click “Select”.
Step 2: Set up and run the FrontAccounting automatic installer
Most of the options in Auto Installer will be pre-populated, but you need to select a few fields on the first page. Namely, you will need to enter the administrator username and password, and then create a password for the MySQL database under the Advanced tab. You must also name your subdirectory, which is part of the web address you will enter to open FrontAccounting.
When the first page is filled out, click Next, leave the second page as it is, and hit Submit. If successful, you should see a brand new link appear under Installed apps in the automatic installer.
Step 3: Try FrontAccounting demo data
Navigate to your domain name/subdirectory, or click the new link in the auto-installer to get to the FrontAccounting login page. From here, you can sign in with your administrator credentials.
You will notice that FrontAccounting is already full of data. This is dummy data that you can use to learn the basics of front-end accounting. The next few steps will outline the various common tasks FrontAccounting helps you do. We recommend that you follow this guide at FrontAccounting, and try out these functions for yourself.
The Basics: Double-Entry Accounting
FrontAccounting has a fully functional double-entry accounting system. You can create journal entries using the easy to use interface in the Banking and General Ledger tab, located at the top of the screen.
With General Ledger Report List, you can automatically generate commonly used financial statements for any date range. These include profit and loss statement, balance sheet, trial balance and many more.
You can also create a one-click audit trail for any date or time. The audit trail will show any changes made, entries created or deleted, who made them, and when. You can filter audit trails by user as well.
Advanced Features: Sales
FrontAccounting’s sales tools are flexible. If you want to keep things simple, you can use Sales List as an invoice manager, creating invoices and marking them as paid when the money arrives.
If you need more granular control, you can set up quotes, convert them into sales orders if closed, send merchandise (which interacts with the inventory list), and track invoices. The level of detail and depth on the sales side of the system is entirely under your supervision.
Advanced features: Inventory
You can keep track of your inventory items, including sales, transfers, and settlements, from the inventory list. You can also quickly adjust units of measure and rearrange levels and inventory locations. Finally, you can track prices and costs, and generate various inventory-related reports from this tab. If you have multiple distribution centers, you can also track inventory individually by location.
When you submit goods on the sales list, FrontAccounting will automatically reduce the inventory in the appropriate location by that amount.
Advanced features: Purchases
Consider this tab opposite Sales. Here, you can track invoices from suppliers and track payments to suppliers. Naturally, any purchases will be allocated to inventory when you log into the system.
Advanced Features: Manufacturing
FrontAccounting allows you to track the progress of work orders and record inventory used in the manufacturing process through this tab. You can also create two manufacturing reports: Bill of Materials and Work Order List.
Advanced features: fixed assets and depreciation
You can record the purchase and depreciation of fixed assets from a dedicated tab. Fixed assets will also automatically appear in the correct place on your balance sheet (and other financial reports) when added through this tab.
You can pull up a report of all your fixed assets, and get a total net depreciation valuation using the fixed asset valuation report.
Advanced features: setup
The Setup tab contains a massive set of tools that control your entire reporting environment. For example, you can set your fiscal year, manage taxes and tax groups, set up user accounts for employees, define their access privileges, and much more. You can also use the Create Companies feature to create a new company, which is useful because there’s no easy way to get rid of trial data in FrontAccounting otherwise.
Once you are familiar with the demo, create a new company using the create companies feature, and connect it to a new, blank MySQL database. Alternatively, connect your existing company to a new, blank database (also from the Create Company screen), to remove the trial data and start FrontAccounting.
summary
FrontAccounting is a powerful, free-to-use web-based accounting platform that can handle everything from financial reporting to sales, inventory management, and manufacturing.
Thanks to Hostinger’s built-in automatic installer, you can install FrontAccounting quickly and easily with just a few clicks. To learn more about accounting software in general, and to see what alternative accounting software has to offer, see our list Best accounting software for small business (Opens in a new tab).
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