1.1 Introduction

LedgerSMB is an open source, web based ERP system. An ERP is a system which supports business processes of all disciplines throughout the organization, automating as much of those processes as possible. To illustrate this, consider the process of selling goods to a customer in a trade company. Typically, a customer will request a quote, which Sales will provide. When satisfied he or she will convert the quote to an order. Sales will register the order, leading to order-pickers to collect one or more shipments. Upon completion, Finance sends out an invoice and records the customer’s payment. LedgerSMB supports this process by automating the conversion from quotation to order, order to shipment and shipment to invoice, as well as providing pack lists and other production related documents.

LedgerSMB includes a powerful framework which supports building your own extensions and integrations with other applications. Through this philosophy, it aspires to be the (open source) integrated administration system.

The software is being developed by the LedgerSMB project with its homepage at http://ledgersmb.org/. However, the actual project activity can be witnessed at the SourceForge project site hosted at http://sf.net/projects/ledger-smb/ and the mailing list archive hosted at http://archive.ledgersmb.org/. The project employs the Freenode.net IRC network’s #ledgersmb chat channel to help out users and to discuss development.

Its open source nature allows you to download it and use it with any infrastructure you like. So there’s no vendor lock-in: you can always take your data and set up your system with another hardware vendor or set up your own hardware.