Open source accounting systems for micro-businesses

This Bachelor thesis focuses on open source accounting systems for micro-businesses. The purpose is to define the scope of the accounting system needed, formulate functional and other requirements for the accounting system, present an overview of available information sources dedicated to accounting systems, analyze the current market situation, and to compare selected open-source accounting systems with a representative of a proprietary solution. The theoretical part of this thesis provides the necessary theoretical basis concerning open source accounting systems. The next part includes an overview of books, websites, bachelor and master theses dedicated to similar topics as this thesis. The following part is an analysis of the market with open-source and proprietary accounting systems. The market analysis forms a basis for selecting representative accounting systems for the subsequent comparison. The products selected for this purpose include the POHODA Komplet proprietary accounting system and the open-source accounting systems of GnuCash and KMyMoney. In the next part, accounting system requirements are defined from the viewpoint of Star Marketing, a notional business inspired by an existing firm. Subsequently, criteria are specified to measure whether the requirements are fulfilled. Based on the criteria defined, the selected accounting systems are then evaluated and compared. The last part of the thesis presents a final summary and evaluation of the findings collected in respect of the selected accounting systems. The main benefit of this thesis is the comparison of the GnuCash and KMyMoney open-source accounting systems with a selected proprietary accounting system, POHODA Komplet. This thesis may be useful for micro-business owners when they need to select an accounting system for their purposes.