Openbravo blogs - Open Source ERP Software

Openbravo documentation. Status update. Part II.

Dmitry Mezentsev — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:05:17 +0000

Dear All,

As a follow up to the initial blog post from Ismael we would like to announce that Documentation project is moving forward and I would like to let you know that 4 other Openbravo Application areas are now available:

General Setup - Owner: Patricia.
Production Management - Owner: Renate.

MRP - Owner: Renate.
Warehouse Management - Owner: Dmitry

This is the first iteration of putting documentation content for these areas in place and there will be several stages to improve it, but from the documentation structure, documentation approach and main content point of view we consider it final.

Please review all what has been delivered so far and start sharing your feedback with us!
Your input is really valuable and will help all of us (documentation is a collaborative project because it is needed for all) to improve Openbravo documentation!!
Finally our goal is for documentation to answer any question you might have during Openbravo presale, implementation, usage phases. If someone cannot address some request with a help of documentation – get in touch with Documentation project team and let´s improve documentation together.

For your information our short term plan is to document the only one area which is pending - Financial Management.
This task is in progress, owner: Patricia and Dmitry.
It is planned to be documented and ready for review by February 15th, 2012

Thanks and regards,

Patricia and Dmitry.

Documentation: Status Update

Ismael Ciordia — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:03:54 +0000

When I presented the Roadmap for 2012 I announced that the new User Documentation would be published by December 2011. Let me give you an update about the current status and the short&mid term plan of the Openbravo 3 User Guide.

Current status

There are already some areas ready for you to review and provide feedback. This documentation set is placed in our wiki (wiki.openbravo.com) and is linked from the main wiki page (User Guide section of it). These are the areas ready for review:

This is the first iteration of putting documentation content for these areas in place and there will be several stages to improve it, but from the documentation structure and documentation approach point of view we consider it final. So you can expect that other application areas of Openbravo will be documented the same way.

As usual we are very interested in your feedback, the best way to do it by posting in our Documentation Forum.

Short term plan

The following areas are in progress:

All these are planned to be documented and ready for review by February 15th, 2012. Some of them will be available even early, you can track our progress.

Mid term plan

After February 15th, there will be an “interaction” period which will end around mid March for us to polish the user guide “content” based on your feedback.

During the same period or a bit later we are going to add 2 additional parts to the User Guide:
(a) Advanced Features, sections describing features hidden in the out-of-the-box Openbravo configuration because they are not commonly used.
These sections are now empty within each application area.
(b) How to scenarios that we also consider to place within each Openbravo application area.

We will keep you informed on our progress.

Spanish Withholding Report: Modelo 190

Víctor Martínez — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:25:00 +0000

We are proud to announce the availability of the Spanish withholding report Modelo 190 for the fiscal year 2011, which lists all the monetary withholdings related to professional activities and must be submitted to the Spanish tax authorities by January 31st, 2012 the latest.
This report takes into account the amounts effectively paid, therefore Modelo 190 is released as explained below:

Withholding Report: Modelo 190 (Spain) - NOT APRM compatible v1.0.3, to be installed in Openbravo 2.50 instances without Advanced Payables and Receivables Management functionality.
Withholding Report: Modelo 190 (Spain) v1.3.2, to be installed in Openbravo 2.50 instances working with the new financial flows (Advanced Payables and Receivables).
Withholding Report: Modelo 190 (Spain) v3.3.2, to be installed in Openbravo 3 instances.

The last two are also ready to work in instances that have been migrated from the old financial flow. The generated report automatically merges the information from both financial flows, allowing Modelo 190 to be launched in any possible scenario.

All these modules are distributed under a commercial license that requires acquiring an activation key before the installation. However, they are available at zero cost to Professional Edition subscribers.

And good news doesn't end here: the Spanish tax report Modelo 390 will come very soon, so stay tuned!

Modelo 190: Resumen anual de retenciones e ingresos a cuenta

Víctor Martínez — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:24:00 +0000

El modelo tributario oficial 190 de la AEAT para el año fiscal 2011 ya está disponible en Openbravo ERP. Este modelo resume las retenciones practicadas en actividades económicas incluidas dentro de las facturas de compra contabilizadas en Openbravo.
El informe tiene en cuenta las cantidades efectivamente pagadas en cada factura, por lo que se distribuye en tres modalidades diferentes:

Withholding Report: Modelo 190 (Spain) - NOT APRM compatible v1.0.3, para ser ejecutado en instancias de Openbravo 2.50 con el flujo financiero antiguo.
Withholding Report: Modelo 190 (Spain) v1.3.2, para ser instalado en instancias de Openbravo 2.50 con el nuevo flujo financiero (Advanced Payables and Receivables).
Withholding Report: Modelo 190 (Spain) v3.3.2, compatible con Openbravo 3.

Las dos últimas versiones están preparadas también para ser ejecutadas en entornos que han sido migrados desde el antiguo flujo financiero. Los módulos tienen en cuenta la información del flujo financiero antiguo (si existe) y la del nuevo, uniendo automáticamente los datos de ambos flujos en el momento de generar el informe. De esta forma el Modelo 190 puede ser ejecutado en cualquier escenario posible.

Todos estos módulos se distribuyen bajo la Licencia Comercial de Openbravo, pero están disponibles sin coste adicional para los suscriptores de la Edición Profesional.

Y las buenas noticias no terminan aquí: el modelo tributario 390 también estará disponible muy pronto, ¡estén atentos!

Filter Expressions

Rob Goris — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 09:39:00 +0000

They were introduced in maintenance pack 4 last month but have not been given the attention they deserve: Filter Expressions. These are handy clauses that can be applied to grids. Examples are "greater than" (>), "between" (...) or even the more uncommon ones such as "does not end with" (!@) and many more. A boolean "or" can also be used to combine expressions, such as 0...100 or >200, which is "between 0 and 100 or greater than 200".

Once you have created a complex set of filter expressions for your grid, such as "All unpaid invoices in USD with a value higher than $1000 and more than 21 days overdue for customers with names starting with A to G", you may want to use Saving Views to avoid rework next time you want to apply the same filter set.

Here´s the complete list of filter expressions.

Beyond automation with integrated financial and managerial accounting

Paolo — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 23:32:00 +0000

One of the benefits of an ERP is the automation of accounting based on operational transactions. Any good ERP would automatically generate accounting based on the transactions recorded in the system, such as invoices, payments, asset movements, etc. This way your organization can focus on execution, while an accounting view of the business is automatically generated behind the scenes, allowing you to produce your end of period financial statements with no or minimal user intervention.

Financial statements, however, can only go so far in supporting your decision making processes and most businesses complement their financialaccounting view with additional measures or KPI (Key Performance Indicators) to support management decisions. Unlike financial statements, these measures are not standardized and vary radically from organization to organization. Examples of KPI include: revenues by product or by customer, expenses by department, customer profitability, etc.

Unlike other ERPs, Openbravo provides an integrated accounting system that combines financial accounting and managerial accounting, facilitating the process of complementing the financial statements with managerial measures while ensuring that these two views are always consistent and easy to reconcile.

With Openbravo, all documents having an accounting relevance generate an accounting representation in a single data store - called the FACT_ACCT table, short for accounting facts - which is a multi-dimensional datamart that allows to report based on any dimension.

The supported dimensions are:

Time (accounting date, further grouped into periods and fiscal years)
Accounting schema (which is the "policy" used for accounting)
Organization
Account (further grouped by nature of the account: asset, liability, revenue or expense)
Product (further grouped into categories)
Business partner (further grouped into categories)
Project
Sales region
Marketing campaign
User defined 1
User defined 2

For financial accounting, you would primarily exploit the account dimension. For example, a Balance Sheet report allows you to report the position of the asset and liabilities accounts at a given point in time, while an Income Statement report allows you to report the activity in the revenue and expense accounts.

For managerial accounting, you would exploit the other dimensions as well. For example you can analyze the data in the FACT_ACCT table to get the following metrics:

Revenues by product categories and periods
Expenses by organizations
Top 10 revenue generating customers
Margin by product
Project profitability
etc.

Additionally, Openbravo 3 allows you to define and implement any KPI using Query List Widgets that allow you to visualize the performance of your company right out of the Openbravo Workspace.

Finally, it is very easy to expose the content of the FACC_ACCT table into business intelligence tools, such as Pentaho, JasperServer or Zoho Reports that business analysts can leverage to slice and dice the data and create charts and pivot tables to support decision making.

If you want to see the Openbravo's integrated accounting in action, check out this short video.

To experience the power of Openbravo directly, you can also visit the Demo Center.

Openbravo Mobile – Idea Phase

Rob Goris — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 11:11:00 +0000

After the first month working on Openbravo Mobile, here´s a little update in pictures on the progress. At the bottom you will find links to a clickable mockup you can play with. Enjoy and let us know what you think.

First, we had to change our mindset from PC to mobile. My first thought was: "How is Openbravo 3 ever going to fit on a mobile device without losing the great user experience?"

Then we dedicated some weeks to analysis, sketching and playing with phones, pads and every device we could lay our hands on:

It became clear that we had to reduce the PC GUI radically and focus on the basics: Lists and contextual actions. Here´s an example of how a sales person would book an order on an iPad:

We also learned that it is important to offer actionable information. Don´t ask users to go out there and find it but bring it to them! Here´s a director reading updates about his team and commenting on an action:

We realized that mobile ERP is all about browsing, viewing, filtering and applying actions. Now let's see this in action. Here´s a clickable scenario for mobile phones. Here´s a clickable scenario for tablets.

Note that these are just mock-ups without any visual design or coding done yet. In this stage everything is still possible, so don't hesitate to tell us what you think via Google+, Facebook or an old-fashioned email to yours truly (rob.goris at you-know-which-company)

UPDATE: The second iteration for tablet and mobile can be found here and here.

What is a Future Proof ERP?

John Fandl — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 18:57:00 +0000

This is a question we think a lot about at Openbravo, because deploying a new ERP is a big investment for our customers, and we want Openbravo to be the last ERP they ever implement. Our goal is not just “Agile ERP” but “ERP for Life”, and that means becoming future proof.

As we engage with customers and prospects, we clearly see that as they grow, a lot of small to medium sized businesses end up supplementing their hard-to-change, legacy ERP back office systems with a complex patchwork of:

"best of breed" applications,
point solutions purchased by end users,
external portals,
spreadsheets, etc.,

… in an attempt to reactively respond to the real needs of the business. This is called a "best practice" by the legacy vendors and system integrators who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. :)

But there is clearly a better way.

A "Future Proof ERP" puts a change-ready business application platform at the center of your business, enabling you to get rid of that complex mess, and deploy all or most of your required functionality natively in the web based ERP.

To communicate this clearly, I created a brief video called (1) "What is a Future Proof ERP?", which addresses the topic in a practical way, and demonstrates three ways in which Openbravo 3 is future proof, today.

So take a few minutes and check it out. If this video strikes a cord, you will probably also be interested in our new (2) technology page. Finally, if you need help getting your company ready to face 2012 and beyond, please fill out this (3) registration form for a free consultation with an Openbravo expert.

(1) http://youtu.be/OZutelDNgzE?hd=1
(2) http://www.openbravo.com/product/erp/technology/
(3) http://www.openbravo.com/form/customer/index.php?source=Blog

Openbravo’s 2012 Road Map

Ismael Ciordia — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 18:15:19 +0000

I am pleased to announce that we have completed the publishing of Openbravo’s Road Map for 2012. You can see the final document here. This is a very detailed description of all the projects that Openbravo Product Development team plans to deliver in the following 15 months. With this Road Map, Openbravo continues to disrupt the ERP industry with a collaborative, user-centered approach that provides the first real alternative to legacy ERP business as usual.

Recently I presented this Road Map in two open webinars, one in English and one in Spanish, including over an hour of interactive Q&A. To view the recorded sessions, please click here for English and here for Spanish. I strongly recommend you to do it if you want to get full understanding of our plan forward.

It is difficult to summarize such an ambitious plan. In 2012 Openbravo will see many functional enhancements, a state of the art mobile UI, embedded workflow engine, new architecture for Retail, and many additional productivity improvements. As I said during the presentation, “Openbravo 3 is today an excellent product but in 15 months time, after we deliver this Road Map, we are sure our product will be unbeatable“. I hope you share our confidence and excitement.

You can check that many projects have already been delivered, and many others are coming soon. Openbravo 3 technology has boosted our productivity and we move forward at the fastest pace in our history. Stay connected, we will keep this document updated on an automated basis, so use it to monitor our progress!

Finally, I want to stress that this Road Map is a consolidation of the feedback we’ve gotten from our vibrant Community of Partners, Customers and Contributors. And be aware that this plan is open for changes if we see opportunities to improve it, so feedback is still very welcome. Please express your views in the Open Discussion forum. Feedback can also be provided on any deliverable by simply clicking on the Go to Project link for each item and participating in the discussions relating to that project.

Let’s make it happen!

Personalization

Rob Goris — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 08:17:00 +0000

Summary: Every industry, company and business process is different. That´s why it is so important that an ERP system can be customized to specific needs. But what about personalization on user level? Here´s how we do it in Openbravo 3.

Openbravo uses a model-driven approach to describe functionality in business rules (rather than code), making it easy to configure and extend. Together with modularity, open source technology and a modern web-based architecture, Openbravo 3 is easy to customize and extend at any point in time.

This is all great stuff but, as often happens with ERP implementations, the end user is often overlooked. As soon as the smart suited implementation consultants have left the building, the real users start entering their sales orders, goods shipments and payments only to realize that the windows they need to complete are not exactly how they wanted it. Maybe the first couple of fields that are shown on the form are not important to the user because the defaults are always the same. Or the order in which to fill out the form is just a bit different than how the implementation consultants had prepared it. Or the default grids show all records so every time again the same filter needs to be applied. All small things that add up and can make a difference in being highly productive or being annoyed.

So how do we solve this? Do we need to call in the guys who implemented the ERP?

The solution is much easier. Openbravo 3 now offers personalization of windows, grids and filters on user, role, client and organizational level. With form & grid personalization plus the ability to save views including filters and layout, users can fine tune their environment. Let´s see how you can use this.

Personalizing Forms
Launch the Form Builder by clicking the wrench button in the toolbar. On the left hand side you see a list of the available fields for the window. You can drag & drop these fields in the list to change the order in which they appear on the form and set their visibility (of course this is only when a field is not mandatory to fill out). Many forms have different sections and it is recommendable to move less-frequently used forms into the More Information section, so they won´t bother you at first sight. You can also move fields into the status bar area. They will then appear as read-only values on top of the form which is ideal for attributes such as totals or document status.

The preview pane on the right updates with every change, showing you how the real form is going to look like. In the little properties pane on the bottom left you can set the width and the height of the fields. You can also decide here whether the field should start on a new row and whether it will need to have the first focus.

Personalizing Grids
Grids can be personalized in the following ways:

Column visibility (right mouse click on column header)
Column order (drag & drop column headers to a new position)
Column widths (drag the borders of the column header)

These settings are stored on closing the tab. So next time you open a tab of a certain window type you will get the same grid state as how you have left it. This is convenient in many but not all cases. That´s why we now also introduce saving views.

Saving Views
Saving Views stores grid and form settings, column filters and even the entire layout of the screen, for example the position of the splitterbar between the header and lines. So imagine that you rearranged your grid and it´s perfectly adapted to your task. You even added some column filters, for example you only want to see invoices that are more than 21 days overdue for organization East Coast. Now you save all this in one go using a name. Now when you need to work on another task that needs other filters and grid or form settings, you can easily retrieve this view later.

As well as you let your people adjust their office chair you should let them adjust their ERP to their needs. With Openbravo 3 Personalization this can all be done - without the smart suited consultants. And do not worry if you happen to be one of those consultants: You can also benefit by being able to easily personalize/customize views for your customers and store them on higher aggregation levels.

Test drive personalization on demo.openbravo.com and read more about it in the user manual.RP8RFDV98YUM