SQL-Ledger is an open source ERP and accounting system. It gives you all the functionality you need for quotations, order management, invoices, payrolls and much more. The program is written in Perl, runs on an Apache webserver, uses a PostgreSQL database and is highly configurable.
SQL-Ledger was developed until 2023 by DWS Systems Inc..
The master branch contains the original version from DWS. It has version tags,
so you can download a specific version back to 2.6.0 from October 1, 2005.
The full branch, checked out by default, is based on the latest DWS version
and contains more than 100 corrections and improvements. The most important
additions are:
- real Unicode support
- MFA with time-based one-time passwords (TOTP, codes from Authenticator App)
- extended keyboard shortcuts (docs)
- spreadsheet downloads
- recently used objects
- document management with drag and drop and deduplication
- data export for editing and reimport
- dark mode
- markdown for bold, italic and links in templates (docs)
- directive for QR Codes in templates (docs)
- localized postal addresses (docs for addresses, templates)
- database snapshots
- encrypted backups
- JSON API (introduction)
- variables for Swiss QR Bill (docs)
- import of Swiss QR Bills into invoices and transactions
- XML payment export, pain.001 Swiss Payment Standard 2024
- XML payment import, ISO 20022 camt.054
- Docker files for containerized test environment
- WLprinter
- minimalist documentation
- Swiss charts of accounts in German, French and Italian
- several security patches
To install the program on Debian, you can use the Ansible Role for SQL-Ledger. If you are on a different distribution, either follow the instructions from DWS, or open an issue on GitHub.
The Perl modules required to run this application with all additions are:
| Module | Debian package |
|---|---|
| Archive::Extract | libarchive-extract-perl |
| Archive::Zip | libarchive-zip-perl |
| DBD::Pg | libdbd-pg-perl |
| Excel::Writer::XLSX | libexcel-writer-xlsx-perl |
| Image::Magick | libimage-magick-perl |
| Imager::zxing | - |
| IO::Socket::SSL | libio-socket-ssl-perl |
| Mojolicious | libmojolicious-perl |
| Spreadsheet::ParseXLSX | libspreadsheet-parsexlsx-perl |
| Text::QRCode | libtext-qrcode-perl |
For a simple system, you should at least install Archive::Zip, DBD::Pg, and
Excel::Writer::XLSX. Image::Magick and Imager::zxing are only required for
import of QR Bills.
If GnuPG is installed on your server, you can
use it to encrypt backups. Uncomment the $gpg variable in
sql-ledger.conf, create a directory /var/www/gnupg and change its
owner to www-data:www-data on Debian or apache:apache on Fedora
based distributions.
In difference to the original SQL-Ledger, the version in the full branch
internally works with Unicode characters.
This requires that your database, your templates and translations are
all encoded in UTF-8.
With
cd docker
docker compose -p sql-ledger up -dyou can start a simple test environment (without LaTeX support) on
Debian Bookworm. SQL-Ledger will run at
localhost/sql-ledger. At
localhost:8080 and
localhost:8085 you find the database
management tools Adminer and
pgAdmin. You'll have to connect them to the
PostgreSQL database that runs on service db with username and
password sql-ledger.
If you want to try the program on AlmaLinux 9, use the second compose file
cd docker
docker compose -f docker-compose-alma.yml -p sql-ledger up -dWLprinter, included in the full branch, is a Java program
that is executed on the client PC and allows to print directly from SQL-Ledger
to your local printers. It is available for printing if you add a printer with
command wlprinter at System--Workstations. The client program is started
from Batch--WLprinter. You will have to add a Java security exception for
your SQL-Ledger server.
The documentation is very minimalist and doesn't contain much more than the
function names of the different modules. You can browse through it if you open
file sql-ledger.pod in any Perldoc viewer.
If you encounter an error or have an idea for new functionality, open an issue.
© 1999-2023 DWS Systems Inc.
© 2007-2025 Tekki (Rolf Stöckli)
