The brainchild of Perth accountant Edward Metcalfe, Surf Your Money Books Online, or SYMBOL, is a Web-based accounting and payroll system developed on the Linux, Apache, PostgreSQL, and Perl (LAPP) platform.
Metcalfe first looked at another open source accounting application called SQL-Ledger but deemed it unsatisfactory for local businesses.
"As good as it is, SQL-Ledger is not written with the Australian taxation system in mind," Metcalfe said, adding the last thing any accountant wants to do is to trawl through individual transactions for compliance reporting to the Australian Taxation Office.
"When I was working with Bega Garnbirringu Health Services [Western Australia] I had developed another accounting system using Filemaker Pro 4. It was then that I realized the huge benefit of customizing an accounting system to my own needs."
Three years later SYMBOL, developed from scratch, is now freely available under the FreeBSD licence.