I have written an Order Processing system for distributors, it was not designed with the intention of being an accounting system, but a sales system. After working a bit in Pastel ( and I mean a little bit ) , I have a understanding of how to implement a general ledger into my system, and want to implement it in the second version of my software. I am wanting to license out the software eventually.

The first version of the system has been used for 4 years by a company and there books was done by an accountant by pulling figures from my system. That company is now moving to Pastel. :-( .But as I am the person that is working with the accountant setting up Pastel, I will gain experience in Pastel an can only use it to improve my system or if it is the better option create an stand alone front end application that expands on Pastel's capabilities.

I was told by the accountant not to re-invent the wheel, he is probably right, but who said that the wheel was designed right the first time?


My problem is the following, would accountants of sales business sign off on my system in general and what be needed to export to Pastel for accounting purposes from it?

As far as I now, i have two option on writing software that integrate with Pastel, the first being to use Pastel's SDK or secondly use an ODBC connector to write directly to the Prevasive database.

My problem with the first is that the SDK is expensive and I don't have money at the moment to purchase it. My problem with the second is that I have not yet worked with a Pervasive database and am not sure if I will be able to write and query data from the Pastel database it. What I mean is the database completely open ( for editing and querying ) for a 3rd party developer via odbc?

Does anyone have a bit of insight on this for me?

Thanx
BJ