Hey everyone, new Tryton user, brand new to ERP’s and my first post on the forums. My big question: how in the world do I get Tryton configured in the admin interface so that I can issue my first customer invoice?
I have Tryton running on Amazon web survices in a docker container, postgres database with vpn connection to my office with TLS keys, can SSH into the instance and get a docker shell, IP whitelists for security, automated backups to Amazon S3 containers…the IT setup side is NOT a problem for me.
Where I’m now completely lost is how I configure Tryton in the admin interface after module installation and company setup, to issue my first customer invoice? What is a “sequence”? What is a “move”?
After searching, I’m aware that end user documentation for Tryton is an issue. Are there any ERP’s out there with a similar structure? Perhaps I can run through their documentation to figure out how to use Tryton. I’ve written end user tutorials in the past, if you all could point me in the right direction I could figure things out and create some howto’s for your documentation. I’ll need them for my staff anyway, and Tryton seems like such an incredible tool that should be more accessible.
At the moment I feel like I’m staring at a system that can do anything I want and revolutionize my business, but it feels like a big box of parts with mysterious tools and no instructions.
Background: manager of a small insurance agency, totally run on open source GNU/linux software. Proficient in python.
Welcome! please don’t walk away. Like any other ERP system you have to have get your head around how things work. Thanks to @dave the documentation is a lot more rich now but this structure is a bit different than the other documentation. This has everything to do with the great modularity of Tryton so the documentation is created around a module rather then around a complete system.
Very short answer … ask an accountant Longer answer, a sequence is basically a number generator or counter. Your invoices must have a unique number by law, the sequence helps with that. Most of the time you use it also in other parts in the system because it’s unique you can use it as reference when a customer is calling. When an invoice is posted, a move is created what basically means that a new entry is created in your chart of accounts. When the customer has paid the invoice a new entry is created and both are then reconciled. To be honest I’m also way out of my comfort zone here, but this is normal bookkeeping. I had great help from my accountant who helped me out with how things should work.
Because of the modularity of Tryton, there is no module installed so you have an empty database.
So you have to:
Install the different modules Administration -> Modules -> Modules. In your case you need at least account_invoice. When you install that one, other modules are also installed as dependencies
Create / Install chart of accounts, Tryton has some chart available, but you can create your own
Create Fiscal Year, Periods and Sequences, you can find the sequences at Administration -> Sequences
Create Taxes
Create Parties
Create an invoice and post it
I would recommend to setup a test system or fiddle around with demo6.0.tryton.org and try different things.
Hopefully this get you a bit further into this magical and mysterious system And yes it needs a bit of work to get started but isn’t that the case with everything?
Yes for new comers, first hour on Tryton is a nightmare. I hope edbo enlightened it.
I know some in the community have worked on documentation to guide new comers. Maybe your case can be a good trial for what they’ve done.
On my side, I try to ease starting with Tryton by dedicated tools.
There are at first two difficulties for beginners:
Install Tryton and manage it safely
Set initial local accounting parameters (charts, fiscal years etc…)
I’ve put a service on line free of charge with a web tool to create new databases with pre-defined settings. It allows users to skip the two steps above and test a new sale/purchase/deliver/invoice out of the box.
Unfortunatly, as soon as you say “pre-defined” it means it will not be good for everybody.
My installation way is specific ( because of hosting constraints)
On the initial accounting setup, it is dependent on country.
Because I am in France, I pre-install french accounting and use french accounts for moves.
It wouldn’t be difficult to adapt this script (or an equivalent done by someone else) to other countries but it must be done by somebody who knows the accounts to use and their names in the local language.
When the script is adapted to your country, there would be three options:
get in two clicks Tryton on line with your country specifics on my server (http://sisalp.com)
install your own Tryton and run the script locally
install your own Tryton and download a backup of a pre-parametered database according to your version, but this would not be my recommendation.
Of course, after some time, the user will be able to make his own settings before going to production.
Thanks to both of you! I’m slowly getting it figured out, drawing on some Accounting 101 from years ago. The initial learning curve after Tryton install feels more like a “cliff”, fortunately the accounting module documentation is well fleshed-out.
I just wasn’t sure were to go in the docs after docker installation and jumping into the interface to play around. As always RTFM, but I think it would be be nice to have a very obvious starting point for adventurous beginners before they get lost in the weeds, a la the Python Django tutorial: Writing your first Django app, part 1 | Django documentation | Django
But that’s a diferent topic. The Tryton equivalent tutorial should be focused on development of custom modules which will not even fit your needs as you are searching for a user point of view which may be very diferent depending on the kind of user.
BTW, if you are interested there is a Working in progress development tutorial but probably it’s a bit outdated and does not cover all the features.
Welcome to tryton. You’ve got challenging days (weeks, months?) ahead - but I’m sure it’s worth it.
As I was in the same situation a year ago, I tried as good as I could to record my steps. You can find the results here. Please do me the favour and report back any problem with it you encounter, so I can improve the piece.
Longer answer, a sequence is basically a number generator or counter. Your invoices must have a unique number by law, the sequence helps with that. Most of the time you use it also in other parts in the system because it’s unique you can use it as reference when a customer is calling. When an invoice is posted, a move is created what basically means that a new entry is created in your chart of accounts. When the customer has paid the invoice a new entry is created and both are then reconciled. To be honest I’m also way out of my comfort zone here, but this is normal bookkeeping. I had great help from my accountant who helped me out with how things should work.
And yes it needs a bit of work to get started but isn’t that the case with everything?