February 2024 – Ledger123.com

Remembering Dieter Simader and the Future of SQL-Ledger ERP

I’m writing today with mixed emotions. Last year, in February, the open-source community lost a visionary leader with the passing of Dieter Simader, the creator of SQL-Ledger ERP. News of his death was received in reply to a support request by a user signed by his wife, Wilma Simader (as disclosed in the forum post linked below). Dieter’s dedication and innovation not only brought us a powerful accounting tool but also fostered a vibrant community of users and developers.

As someone deeply invested in the SQL-Ledger community, I felt compelled to continue Dieter’s legacy. With that in mind, I’m excited to announce that I will be taking over the development and support of the final SQL-Ledger release by Dieter. This means:

Continued Development: I will actively maintain and improve the current version of SQL-Ledger, ensuring its stability and security.
User Support: My forums will continue to be a platform for users to seek help, share knowledge, and connect with each other.
Documentation & Resources: I’m committed to providing comprehensive documentation and resources to empower SQL-Ledger users of all levels.
Usage & Customization Support: Whether you’re just starting with SQL-Ledger or require advanced customization, I’ll be here to offer guidance and support.

While Dieter’s absence leaves a void, I believe his spirit lives on in the strong community he built. Together, we can ensure that SQL-Ledger continues to thrive as a valuable tool for businesses and individuals worldwide.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing more details about my plans for SQL-Ledger’s future. In the meantime, I encourage you to visit my forums and connect with other users.

Let’s honor Dieter’s legacy by keeping SQL-Ledger a vibrant and thriving open-source project.

News source: https://sql-ledger.com/userforum/index.php?mode=thread&id=1793

Enhancement

Enhanced audit log in SQL-Ledger

SQL-Ledger has this powerful audit log feature which records users actions (adding, editing, deletion transactions) in a database table named ‘audittrail’. Recently I had this requirement to log the transaction values into the audit table to see what has been changed. The solution I came out was to save the important column values as json in a new column formdata in the audittrail table. This new enhancements is now in testing phase with the help of a customer before it will be rolled out to all our hosting clients.

Next is to improve this code to add exception handling and also add the audit feature to the places in SQL-Ledger where it is not implemented like addition of customers and vendors and many such form.

Enhancement

Fixing printing without posting in SQL-Ledger

In official SQL-Ledger, it is possible to add an invoice or a POS transaction without posting it and then forgetting to post it unintentional or sometimes, intentionally, by user to commit fraud.

I have made few changes in SQL-Ledger code which prevent this:

An invoice cannot be printed if it is not posted already.
As much invoice lines are printed as are already posted.

Here are these code changes which you can also do in your SQL-Ledger installation to achieve this.

I intend to make few more changes to avoid the situation where user makes some changes to the invoice, prints it and then skips posting it. I have marked this plan with TODO in these code diffs.

If you have any further ideas or queries on this topic, you can share them in comments.