Install xTuple ERP Postbooks Edition
If you are shopping around for ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solutions, you know the search can be long and hard. And you also know the solutions can be expensive and complex. But did you know there were cross-platform solutions that could run on Linux, Windows, and Mac? One of those solutions is the xTuple ERP Postbooks Edition. This ERP solution is a full-on, feature-rich, enterprise-ready, management tool that should be able to meet (and exceed) all of your needs. But is such a tool difficult to install and run? In this article you will learn a bit about what this solution offers as well as how to install it on a Linux-based machine and begin using. Of course, as with any serious ERP solution, once you fire it up, you know there is a TON of work that can be done. To that end, we won't get into the actual usage of the tool.
Features
The xTuple ERP Postbooks Edition offers the following features:
- Accounting (general ledger, accounts receivable and payable, and much more)
- Sales (quotes, order entry, sales reporting, shipping)
- Built-in CRM tool which includes universal address book, incident management, opportunity management, and more.
- Purchasing
- Product Definition
- Inventory and Distribution
- Light Manufacturing
- OpenRPT open source report writer
Obviously we're dealing with a powerful tool. But is the installation equally as powerful? Although there are numerous steps to the installation Wizard, the installation itself is fairly painless.
Downloading and installing
The best package to download is a complete package which is the Postbooks installer which includes the Postboooks client, the PostgreSQL database server,  and a number of pre-configured databases to help you get started. Once you have that file downloaded, follow these steps to install:
- Open up a terminal window.
- Change to the directory containing the installer.
- Give the installer executable permissions with the command sudo chmod u+x xTuple-XXX-linux-installer.bin (Where XXX is the release number).
- Issue the command (from within the same directory holding the installer) sudo ./xTuple-XXX-linux-installer.bin (Where XXX is the release number).
You will now walk through fifteen windows of the installer. Instead of placing them in this tutorial individually, I have created a flash of a presentation for you to view (click HERE to view. NOTE: You might have to click to advance each slide.).
After the installation is complete you will notice a number of additions to your Applications menu. Not only has a new sub-menu been created (Applications > xtuple-xtupledir), but new entries to the Applications > Office menu have been added.
Starting the application
This is where many might find confusing settles in. During the installation you created an account and a password. That was for the xTuple account itself. Those credentials will not get you logged into the Postbooks client. What you want to do is go to the Applications > Office > xTuple ERP entry to open the xTuple login window (see Figure 1). Make sure the "Log in to server I specify" is checked and use these credentials:
- Username: admin
- Password: admin
Once those credentials clear you will find yourself in the heart of the Postbooks client (see Figure 2). It should be quickly apparent that Postbooks means business. Naturally the first thing you will want to do is go to the System > Preferences menu entry and change the admin password. You can also add new users from the System > Maintain Users menu entry. Once new users are created you can give them various privileges.
Final thoughts
If you have been on the search for a serious ERP solution, don't overlook xTuple Postbooks client. And once you are satisfied that this tool is just what you need, you can set up  a single server and have client machines log into that server. And yes, Postbooks Edition is free of charge. xTuple does offer even more powerful, non-free solutions which can be compared here.
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Possibly because of the name, some people are under the mistaken impression that PostBooks is commercial software. Thanks for the article and for clarifying that it is free open source software.