I'm looking at ramping up some of the freelance tech work I do on the side, and I'm wanting to find some software to help me organize and do some very lightweight CRM and accounting. I'm not remotely skilled at accounting or business, but I'm pretty comfortable hacking around with Linux, MySQL/Postgresql, PHP, etc.

I've tried several things from the debian and ubuntu repositories, but I'm not finding what I need yet. I'm looking for something like this:

1. Aimed at single-users who are not accountants
2. Track customers, jobs, vendors, expenses in a database
3. Print invoices, profit-loss-sheets, basic reports
4. Do some simple accounting, maybe tax prep help

I tried sql-ledger (couldn't figure out how to use it, the manual costs $$$), omb (got it installed, but nowhere could I find the default login info, or how to set an admin account!), futuralux (I'm english-only, I'm afraid), and kraft (too beta). Anyone have any other suggestions?

I do not know but gnucash may do some of that.

For "spreadsheet accounting" a lot of people use 'gnucash'. If you're looking for accounting software that knows all the local accounting practices and rules, I don't know of any for Linux.

I don't know of any 'light' CRM - I think by definition they're bloatware. Have a look at "egroupware" to see if it's any use to you.

I had passed over GNUcash because I always thought it was a personal finances app like kmymoney, but having looked at it again last night, I see it does business accounting and invoicing too. I think it might do the trick!

Thanks