We've been building this system to meet our business needs for over a year, and liked it so much we decided to share it.

The business and organisational needs that the system addresses for

Katipo are...

• Workers are not all in the same office/on the same LAN
• Staff use a variety of computers and operating systems
• We have no wish to change our way of working merely to comply with an accounting/administration package
• We do need to be able to account for our time
• It is useful to have a central repository for client details and key documents such as quotes.

We looked around the web at the time (and since) and haven't seen anything that we like better, although there are already a big list of things we'd like to put into the next version.

The system is designed to be filled in everyday by staff, and that information is then used in two ways - to work out pay, and to build invoices.

The system is built in Perl, backed by a MySQL database running on a Linux box, and served by Apache. The source is open - so if you have the skills you can make your own modifications. If you develop a whole new module we expect you to share that with the rest of us as well.

The "look and feel" is easily changed. The logo, menu, colours, backgrounds etc are all either independent of the database, or are easily changed variables in the display scripts.

We anticipate you could use this system in one of the following ways

• Download the modules we've developed and install them on your own linux box - either on the internet or as an intranet. There is no cost (or strings) attached, if you've got the skills be our guest.
• Get us to set up a Linux box and system for you. We'll charge you for our time, and any hardware
• Or if you are in New Zealand, for $25/month we will set you up a copy on our webserver and you can use it there. If you are not in New Zealand we could still run it for you, but because of the cost of international traffic it might have to be a bit more.

For more information email quotes@katipo.co.nz