Earnings Tracker Free Accounting Software

I first developed Earnings Tracker in 2006 to

a) provide myself with a simple accounting package with which to do my day-to-day company bookkeeping, and

b) to further my PHP and MySQL experience.

Version 1 of the software had a lot of settings hardcoded into the main PHP class script. This was fine for me, but once I made the decision to make Earnings Tracker available to anyone who wanted it, I had to change these hard-coded values into variables.

I see Earnings Tracker as providing a dual role: firstly I see it as an accounting package that people can use, but I also see it as a piece of open source software that can be modified and - dare I say it - improved upon by anyone who is interested in doing so.

My hope is that during the course of the next year, Earnings Tracker will mature into a solid accounting package that will be useful to people.

Earnings Tracker - FREE Accounting Software

In my last post I mistakingly referred to Dividend Certificates when I meant to say Dividend Tax Vouchers.

These are the vouchers that companies need to create when a dividend is paid to a shareholder.

For example, if a net dividend of £1000 is paid, the (non-refundable) Tax Credit is

1000 x 1.11111 = 1111.11

1111.11 - 1000 = 111.11

Therefore the tax credit is £111.11 and the gross dividend is £1111.11.

Earnings Tracker - FREE Accounting Software

We’re currently working on a new bit of functionality for version 4 of Earnings Tracker, which will allow users to generate dividend certificates, and then edit and delete them if necessary. This is aimed at UK companies.

We’re still on track to deliver v4 of Earnings Tracker in September 2008.

Earnings Tracker was originally designed to be used by UK-based contractors, and much of the accountaing and bookkeeping functionality in the current version is aimed at this group of users.

This does not mean, however, that the application can’t be used by anyone who simply wants a basic bookkeeping / accounting package, as any functionality that is not required can be ignored. For example, one of the features enables users to set up a VAT flat rate percentage to be used to calculate the amount of VAT payable. This is only of any significance to UK-based businesses that are registered to use the VAT flat rate scheme. If you are not one of these businesses, you can ignore the figures relating to the amount of VAT payable that are generated and displayed on the main Earnings Tracker spreadsheet.

In version 4 of Earnings Tracker you will be able to hide columns in the spreadsheet that are of no interest to you or that you only need to refer to occasionally.

Version 4.0 of Earnings Tracker is scheduled for release in September 2008.

Currently, the following new features will be included in v4.0:

- More elegant way of selecting months for editing/deleting.

- The ability to show/hide columns in the main spreadsheet.

- The ability to create dividend certificates.

Earnings Tracker - Free Accounting Software

Just a quick note to say that I’ve noticed an error in v3.0 of Earnings Tracker. When you display a spreadsheet showning several months, the months are not listed in the correct order. This bug will be fixed in the next version of Earnings Tracker.

Earnings Tracker - FREE Accounting Software

Hitchin, United Kingdom (PressExposure) May 07, 2008 — Earnings Tracker v3.0 is now available. Earnings Tracker is a free accounting package offering from John Dixon Technology Ltd - a UK-based web development and technical authoring company.

Earnings Tracker is specifically aimed at very small businesses, typically having less than 5 employees, and is available as an installable download or can be used online by taking advantage of a pre-configured version.

The software lets you enter invoice amounts, salaries, and expenses, and calculates tax due and dividends that can be taken. The software is extremely easy to use and, by using the online version, can be dipped into to perhaps just calculate the figures for one or two months, or can be used to keep track of figures for multiple years - the choice is yours!

Earnings Tracker is written in PHP/MySQL, and all the source code is available for free under the GNU license.

John Dixon Technology is proud to offer Earnings Tracker in the hope that it will be useful to businesses who do not want or need a larger more complex accounting package.

Now that version  3.0 of Earnings Tracker is out of the way, we’re concentrating our efforts on what will either be version 3.1 or version 4.0, depending on how many updates we make.

Currently, I know that the way that months are edited will change, as will the way that they are deleted. Instead of users needing to enter text into text boxes, they will be able to click on items, which is a much more elegant way of doing things.

I might also allow users to select the columns they want to display when they are viewing a spreadsheet. I find myself that when I’m viewing a spreadsheet I have to do a lot of horizontal scrolling, whereas there are probably only six or seven columns that I want to view on a regular basis.

None of the features described above address accounting functionality, such as the generation of dividend certificates, and the like. Additional accounting functionality will be addressed, but I’m not sure whether it will be in the next version or in subsequent versions. Naturally, the success or failure of Earnings Tracker as a free accounting package will depend on it usefulness and ease of use, so these are always my main considerations when developing the software.

It’s May and we’ve finally got version 3 of Earnings Tracker - our free accounting software - out the door!

The main improvement in v3.0 over previous versions is the ability to carry financial data across multiple years. The main spreadsheet now displays all the figures for the current financial year, plus a running total for all years.

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