When deciding on free open source platform to manage your invoices, quotes and finances, you may want to look up Akaunting. This accounting platform has all the tools you need to manage your money online, for free.
Akaunting is an open source, self-hosted application for managing quotes, invoices, payments and accounting. It’s based on the LAMP / LEMP stack. It is designed from the ground up for ease of use and allows you to see your financials online anytime, anywhere on your computer, tablet or phone.
When looking for an enterprise accounting platform for your business, Akaunting is a good place to start. Everything you need to manage your finances and track of all of your payments, invoices, expenses, etc. in one place on your own servers.
This brief tutorial is going to show students and new users how to install Akaunting on Ubuntu 16.04 and 18.04 LTS with Apache2, MariaDB and PHP 7.2 support.
To get started with installing Akaunting, follow the steps below:
Step 1: Install Apache2
Akaunting requires a webserver and the most popular webserver in use today is Apache2. So, go and install Apache2 on Ubuntu by running the commands below:
sudo apt update sudo apt install apache2
After installing Apache2, run the commands below to disable directory listing.
sudo sed -i "s/Options Indexes FollowSymLinks/Options FollowSymLinks/" /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
Next, run the commands below to stop, start and enable Apache2 service to always start up with the server boots.
sudo systemctl stop apache2.service sudo systemctl start apache2.service sudo systemctl enable apache2.service
Step 2: Install MariaDB
Akaunting also requires a database server. and MariaDB database server is a great place to start. To install it run the commands below.
sudo apt-get install mariadb-server mariadb-client
After installing MariaDB, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable MariaDB service to always start up when the server boots.
Run these on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
sudo systemctl stop mysql.service sudo systemctl start mysql.service sudo systemctl enable mysql.service
Run these on Ubuntu 17.10 and 18.04 LTS
sudo systemctl stop mariadb.service sudo systemctl start mariadb.service sudo systemctl enable mariadb.service
After that, run the commands below to secure MariaDB server by creating a root password and disallowing remote root access.
sudo mysql_secure_installation
When prompted, answer the questions below by following the guide.
- Enter current password for root (enter for none): Just press the Enter
- Set root password? [Y/n]: Y
- New password: Enter password
- Re-enter new password: Repeat password
- Remove anonymous users? [Y/n]: Y
- Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n]: Y
- Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n]: Y
- Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n]: Y
Restart MariaDB server
sudo systemctl restart mysql.service
Step 3: Install PHP 7.2 and Related Modules
PHP 7.2 may not be available on Ubuntu default repositories… in order to install it, you will have to get it from third-party repositories.
Run the commands below to add the below third party repository to upgrade to PHP 7.2
sudo apt-get install software-properties-common sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
Then update and upgrade to PHP 7.2
sudo apt update
Run the commands below to install PHP 7.2 and related modules.
sudo apt install php7.2 libapache2-mod-php7.2 php7.2-common php7.2-imap php7.2-mbstring php7.2-xmlrpc php7.2-soap php7.2-gd php7.2-xml php7.2-intl php7.2-mysql php7.2-cli php7.2-ldap php7.2-zip php7.2-curl
After install PHP, run the commands below to open Apache2 PHP default file.
sudo nano /etc/php/7.2/apache2/php.ini
Then make the change the following lines below in the file and save.
file_uploads = On allow_url_fopen = On memory_limit = 256M upload_max_filesize = 20M post_max_size = 20M max_execution_time = 30 zend.assertions = 0 display_errors = Off max_input_vars = 1500 date.timezone = America/Chicago
Step 4: Create Akaunting Database
Now that you’ve install all the packages that are required, continue below to start configuring the servers. First run the commands below to create Akaunting database.
Run the commands below to logon to the database server. When prompted for a password, type the root password you created above.
sudo mysql -u root -p
Then create a database called akaunting
CREATE DATABASE akaunting;
Create a database user called akauntinguser with new password
CREATE USER 'akauntinguser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_password_here';
Then grant the user full access to the database.
GRANT ALL ON akaunting.* TO 'akauntinguser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'user_password_here' WITH GRANT OPTION;
Finally, save your changes and exit.
FLUSH PRIVILEGES; EXIT;
Step 5: Download Akaunting Latest Release
Next, visit Akaunting site and download the latest version.
After downloading, run the commands below to extract the download file into Apache2 root directory.
sudo apt install curl cd /tmp && curl -O -J -L sudo mkdir -p /var/www/html/akaunting sudo unzip Akaunting_1.2.12-Stable.zip -d /var/www/html/akaunting/
Then run the commands below to set the correct permissions for Concrete5 to function.
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/akaunting/ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/akaunting/
Step 6: Configure Apache2
Finally, configure Apahce2 site configuration file for Akaunting. This file will control how users access Akaunting content. Run the commands below to create a new configuration file called akaunting.conf
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/akaunting.conf
Then copy and paste the content below into the file and save it. Replace the highlighted line with your own domain name and directory root location.
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin [email protected]
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/akaunting/
ServerName example.com
ServerAlias www.example.com
<Directory /var/www/html/akaunting/>
Options +FollowSymlinks
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
Save the file and exit.
Step 7: Enable the Akaunting and Rewrite Module
After configuring the VirtualHost above, enable it by running the commands below
sudo a2ensite akaunting.conf sudo a2enmod rewrite
Step 8 : Restart Apache2
To load all the settings above, restart Apache2 by running the commands below.
sudo systemctl restart apache2.service
Then open your browser and browse to the server domain name followed by install. You should see Akaunting setup wizard to complete. Please follow the wizard carefully.
Then follow the on-screen instructions until you’ve successfully installed Akaunting. First select your language and continue
From here, you should confirm all required packages are installed. setup the database connection info and click Next.
Next, type in the business name and admin account.
If everyting is configured correctly, you should have a Akaunting successfully installed..
Enjoy!
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