People using Freeside?

Ivan Kohler ivan at sisd.com
Mon Aug 24 19:15:45 PDT 1998


Hi Richard,

It isn't really documented yet, but all prices in Freeside (setup and
recur from the part_pkg table) are Perl expressions.  When you use
a number like `15' or `19.95' this is transparant, but you can use a more
complex expression too, so you can have arbitrarily complex billing
without customizing the package itself.

The expressions are evaluated inside a `Safe' compartment (see man Safe) 
so depending on what sorts of operations you need to do you might need to
->permit some operators besides the default (in site_perl/Bill.pm).

Freeside tells you how much a customer owes you on the main customer
screen.

On -1 xxx -1, Richard Archer wrote:

> At 4:55 -0000 24/8/1998, freeside at ran.zipcon.net wrote:
> 
> >  I have yet to find the time to set up Freeside, but I'm looking to make
> >time soon.  Can anyone relay there real world experiences?  So far I've
> >managed to hack together very limited accounting software with shell
> >scripts, and with my programming abilities, they aren't very flexible.
> >
> >  I'd like to make a move to a better system.  Do you think Freeside is
> >the way to go at this point, or should I consider waiting a while or
> >another option?
> 
> 
> Hi Dan,
> 
> I looked at Freeside last week, but decided against using it at present.
> 
> Like you, I've set up a home-grown billing system. The problem I have now
> is that I am used to having infinite flexibility, so I've set up a whole
> lot of different billing options. I am having trouble finding a package
> that can handle all these different options.
> 
> I'm now faced with having to customise a package significantly, or
> simplify our pricing structure (which may not be a bad idea anyway ;)
> 
> Note that I _highly_ recommend using a good account-management package.
> There's nothing worse than not knowing exactly how much each client owes
> you (the corollary of which is not being able to easily follow up overdue
> accounts). I did not get far enough into FreeSide to know whether or not
> it can do this.
> 
> I'll be checking out the new version, to see if it meets my needs yet
> (or can be easily customised for my circumstances).
> 
> Yours sincerely,
> Richard Archer.
> 
> 
> 

-- 
Ivan Kohler <ivan at sisd.com> - finger for PGP key
Silicon Interactive Software Design - http://www.sisd.com/
Open-source billing and administration for ISPs - http://www.sisd.com/freeside
20 4,16 * * * saytime # consciousness is the missing symmetry




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