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OpenVPMS is developed with the help of various tools including the Java profiler 
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OpenVPMS is developed with the help of various tools including the Java profiler
Re: users in Southern Africa and Namibia
Markus - I have not seen evidence of any South African or Namibian users on this forum, and I suspect that the people who administer the OpenVPMS subscriptions will not provide you with any contact details if there are indeed any subscribers from your part of the world.
In terms of 'fit' I think you are in good shape - language is English, current dollars & cents, 15% VAT [which appears to operate like the Australian GST (ie you show the tax on the invoice, but unlike the UK VAT you don't have to show VAT, ex-VAT and inc-VAT amounts on each line item)]. Given the $N exchange rate, I suspect that like the practice I look after in Hong Kong, you would prefer to operate in whole dollars but will put up with dollars and cents.
Suitability of OpenVPMS - it is in use by both small 1 vet practices and far larger operations running a 24/7/365 business. Conversion from other systems is quite possible - but a lot of work if you want to do a clean conversion of a large data set. If you are starting out and have only a minimal set of paper or spreadsheet records then there is probably no conversion requirement.
If you are technically competent, then you can almost certainly run the system up yourself. Otherwise there are integrators who will do things for you - and given the net, the fact that you are in Namibia and they are here in Australia should not matter. I happily look after my son & daugher-in-law's business in Hong Kong and they are a good 12 hours travel from here.
This user forum works well, and if you have problems or questions they are normally quickly answered.
The documentation set is quite good - see http://www.openvpms.org/documentation/csh/1.7/topics - and start with the Introduction and Concepts sections. Then go to the http://www.openvpms.org/ page and download 1.7 and have a play.
Regards, Tim G
Re: users in Southern Africa and Namibia
Hi Tim,
I see you mention a 15% VAT figure - I am not familiar with other country's VAT or GST percentages, but in South Africa we are on 14% VAT. Do you know if this is something that is embedded in the OpenVPMS system or is it something that could be changed depending on needs? Obviously this would be a deal-breaker if it couldn't be adapted, so I would imagine that it's maleable....?
You also mention conversions - at the moment the only digital information in the clinic we have just taken over is the accounting and that's on Pastel. Do you know if one would need to continue with a separate accounting package or would OpenVPMS do the whole lot?
Any advice much appreciated! Thanks
Daryl H
Re: users in Southern Africa and Namibia
Daryl - you can set any rate you want - see http://www.openvpms.org/documentation/csh/1.7/admin/lookup/taxType. Note that in general as little as possible in OpenVPMS is hard coded and a significant amount of the system can be adjusted - see for example the various Style entries in http://www.openvpms.org/documentation/csh/1.7/reference.
Regards, Tim G
Re: users in Southern Africa and Namibia
Openvpms is NOT a fully featured accounting program - it handles invoicing clients, reciepting clients and accounts for clients, estimates etc. It also has limited support for recording supplier invoices and payments , but it isnt really set up for proper accounting -ie doing tax returns etc...for that you would use a 2nd piece of software...many are moving to the cloud for that - Xero is an example.
Openvpms cant be used to classify income quite nicely and to some extent could tell you how much VAT you collected, but probably not how much you have paid to all your suppliers.
Good luck
Ben
Re: users in Southern Africa and Namibia
Thanks for the info Ben, much appreciated! Concurs with a few locals I have spoken to, most seem to back onto an accounting package, pity because it seems that a lot of stuff needs to be duplicated that way. I will look into Xero for sure. Thanks again,
Daryl
Re: users in Southern Africa and Namibia
Not really...I mean - Openvpms can send and recieve orders and do stock management. It can send and pay invoices - and thus record total income and its breakdown into its classes, but really it was never going to do wages, and other non medical suppliers such as building maintenance etc...for that you always need an accounting package.
We simply use the depositing feature of openvpms and reconcile that against bank accounts and the accounting package we use.
I dont think its much replication
Re: users in Southern Africa and Namibia
Daryl - see also http://www.openvpms.org/documentation/csh/1.7/concepts/accounting
Regards, Tim