Nur Ahmad Furlong

Tag: open-source

  • New tools for my digital nomad belt

    For the longest time now I’ve been agonising over how to manage my collaborations with partners and clients online. Many of the popular web workers swear by Basecamp, and I believe it is a great product. I’m not big on the monthly payment model for software as a service(Saas) and have instead opted for using tools which I can purchase once and own outright, run on my owner machine or servers and own my own data. I’m just weird like that. I also have a limited budget, which is probably the main motivating factor.

    A Few great new tools I’ve started using

    So, Recently I’ve had the pleasure of finding a few really great apps, which include The Hit List (awesome Mac task management) which I now use to keep track of all my projects and to do’s & iClockr (time capturing tool now known as Lumina) which I use in conjunction with Invoice 3 (invoice/billing app) to keep track of time spent and generate invoices from billable hours. These are great for my own personal use, but I was still without a crucial component of this mix, something I could use remotely, to keep track of interactions with clients and other partners.

    Pay once or open source, no monthlies for me please

    I don’t own a credit card and probably never will, so continuously having to pay for services online on a regular basis becomes a little tedious. I’ve tried out a few self hostable solutions like the new collabtive, open goo and a while back active collab, all of which seem to have the makings of a really good web office for the location independent web worker.

    It was only a couple of weeks ago that something else caught my eye. Seems I’ve had quite a few of these in the last few months which is great.

    Hello Open Atrium, goodbye basecamp

    Say Hi to Open Atrium, a drupal based online collaboration system which could be used as an on the fly intranet or for many other purposes depending on your way of thinking of your ability to customize it.

    Picture 1

    I’ve been wanting to get into using drupal for a while, and this little beauty has pushed me a little closer to that point. It’s quite simple to install, not as simple as WordPress, but then WordPress doesn’t do exactly what this does out the box.

    Open Atrium allows you to create mutliple private or open online spaces to which you can invite as many members for each group as you like. The groups allow creation of blogs, uploading and discussion of documents, posting of micro messages like twitter, creation of projects and tasks through it’s case Tracker as well as creation of events on a calendar. Each person’s profile has the ability to add profile specific versions of each of those tools as well.

    My Open Atrium

    What’s even better is it’s open source, easy to install and allows for integration of your own custom features as well if you’re into drupal development. I’m looking forward to seeing how the community extends this one. Check out a list of features as well as a nice intro video on their Feature Page at http://openatrium.com/features

  • VeloCITI session #3 – An introduction to Finance

    Instalment 3 of the VeloCITI business incubation program dealt with Finance, an area many entrepreneurs need lots of help with. Knowing that we might all be intimidated with this session looming ahead of us, Tony Mallam of cape Venture Partners assured us he’d ease us into the subject.

    The Finance module is an optional one, though most of the companies involved in VeloCITI saw the need to attend and with good reason. Getting the numbers right in business can be a matter of life or death, for the business that is.

    We started out with an introduction of what the Finance module will cover in the next few months and I was completely overwhelmed by the amount of business concepts I have either never heard of or never been directly exposed to. It’s all well and good to be a master of your own art, but when you’re an entrepreneur and running your own show you need to be a jack of all trades and a master of a few as well.

    So we started out with a few definitions of what Accounting is all about. I found this one interesting, using the word "Art"

    “the art of recording, classifying and summarizing in a considerable manner and in terms of money, business transactions, activities and events, which are part of a financial character and later on interpreting the results of the reports”

    Keeping Financial Records – Some of the benefits

    Keeping financial records is most definitely an art. Having a clear, logical system, one which can be easily analysed later, and from which certain insights can be gained is a skill which must be developed as a necessity. This is a serious weak point for me having always been an employee and not needing to worry about overheads and that type of thing.

    Budgeting & Tax Records

    Keeping good records helps you budget correctly, helps you easily spot areas you can streamline and keeps things in order for when the taxman inevitably comes knocking at least once a year. Keeping clear financial records is most importantly done for SARS(the South African Taxman) without which you could land yourself and your business in some trouble with the Law. This is an activity which has to be done on a monthly basis. You’ll know when you’re spending too much on entertainment and when and how you might have saved on your telephone budget as well.

    Tracking your businesses health

    Knowing when money comes in and when it goes out gives you a clear idea of how you’re doing, whether you’re making profit or operating at a loss at any given time. Having the figures on a timeline can also allow you to track if any activities engaged in have resulted in significant gains or losses.

    This timeline can be inspected will help should you need to review any inconsistencies in your cash flow as well.

    Investors want to see the money

    Should you be looking to bring partners on board or to apply for investment, loans etc, having a clear financial history in black & white helps make a case for your business.

    How I currently do it

    Currently my accounting procedure involves keeping any and every slip, including coffee at Vida which happens quite regularly for meetings. That’s a business expense by the way. My lovely wife then helps me with a beautifully structured excel document she has created which keeps a nice record of our financial activities broken down into personal and business and allows us to create calculations for each type of expense. This has helped in a few instances for me to determine when an invoice was paid or when I topped up my last data bundle for example, so it serves many other functions as well.

    Petty Cash

    One of the simplest systems you can use to manage your daily expenses is the petty cash float. basically you start out with a box, hopefully one which has a lock. based on your budget for these types of expenses you put some cash in and each time anyone needs to use the petty cash they need to give you a slip of paper with their name, signature, purpose of the cash and amount taken. When they return they hand over the slip and any change. Once all the cash is gone the total amounts from all the IOU’s and the slips should equal the original cash amount.

    Accounting Software

    My process for keeping records is not sophisticated at all and leaves much to be desired, though it’s a starting point and with the help of VeloCITI I hope to take a step up into the world of Quickbooks or Pastel accounting packages pretty soon. I’ve also been investigating a few open source accounting packages though with the little knowledge I have right now it’s a tough decision to make.

    If you’re interested in open source accounting Cubit(made in SA) & Compiere seem like pretty powerful packages for more than just accounting. For now excel is my friend, it will make the transition into an accounting package a little easier than written notes I would imagine. Be sure to back up though.

    I’ve got a long way to go in the area of finance and appreciate every little bit of advice I receive along the way. veloCITI 2008 rocks!!!