Table of Contents
What is Bizuno #
Bizuno is a full-featured, self-hosted ERP and accounting system — open source
(AGPL-3.0), written in PHP, running on MySQL/MariaDB. Double-entry books,
inventory, purchasing and sales, CRM, quality management, and reporting in one
application you run on your own server. It’s the modern continuation of the
PhreeBooks/PhreeSoft lineage.
If you’re deciding whether Bizuno fits, this page is the honest 90-second answer.
What Bizuno does well #
| Area | What you get |
|---|---|
| Double-entry accounting | A real GL: chart of accounts, journals, register, reconciliation, fiscal-year close — see PhreeBooks |
| Sales & purchasing | The full cycle — quotes, orders, invoices, payments, deposits, and the vendor mirror (PO → bill → pay). See Daily Workflows |
| Inventory | Stocked goods, assemblies/BOMs, serialized items, master-stock variants, FIFO/LIFO/average costing — see Inventory |
| Contacts & CRM | One universal contact record that can be customer, vendor, employee, lead, and more at once — see Contacts |
| Quality (ISO-9001-style) | CA/PA tickets, audits, training, maintenance, objectives — see Quality |
| Reporting & forms | PhreeForm: a built-in report/form designer with PDF output — see PhreeForm |
| Multi-everything | Multiple stores, periods, and currencies in one install — see Core Concepts |
| Integrations | A WooCommerce bridge, EDI X12, and a REST surface |
| Customizable without forking | The myExt/ pattern — client-specific code beside the core, not in it |
What Bizuno is not #
Setting expectations honestly here saves disappointment everywhere else:
- Not a SaaS you rent. Bizuno is software you host yourself (or have hosted
for you). That means no per-seat subscription and no vendor lock-in — but also
that you own backups, updates, and uptime. See
Backup and restore. - Not a bank-feed aggregator. There are no automatic bank connections;
reconciliation is done against a statement, by hand. - Not a full FX-accounting engine. Bizuno records foreign-currency
transactions and posts the GL in your home currency, but it does not
auto-calculate realized or unrealized FX gain/loss — those are manual journal
entries. See Multi-currency. - Not POS-first. It has a point-of-sale journal, but it’s an accounting/ERP
system with POS, not a retail-checkout product with books bolted on. - Not zero-setup. It rewards understanding a few core concepts
(fiscal periods, the journal model, inventory types) before you configure a
business — skipping them is the usual source of early pain.
How it compares #
A rough orientation, not a scorecard:
| vs. | The short version |
|---|---|
| PhreeBooks 5 | Bizuno is its successor — same financial DNA, rebuilt architecture. There’s a built-in migration. |
| QuickBooks (Desktop/Online) | Bizuno is self-hosted and open-source, with deeper inventory/manufacturing and quality features, but without QuickBooks’ bank feeds and huge app ecosystem. No direct importer — you start fresh. |
| Wave / other free SaaS | More capable for product businesses (real inventory, multi-store, EDI, quality) — at the cost of running it yourself. |
| ERPNext / larger open ERPs | A similar “self-hosted open ERP” niche; Bizuno is PHP/MySQL and accounting-first, and lighter to stand up on ordinary LAMP hosting. |
Who uses Bizuno #
- Small and mid-sized businesses that want real double-entry books without a
subscription or a cloud they don’t control. - Multi-store retailers and distributors needing per-store inventory and
consolidated books. - Light manufacturers using assemblies/BOMs and ISO-9001-style quality
processes. - Accountants and consultants serving multiple clients, who value a
customizable, self-hostable platform — one install per client, with the
myExt/pattern for per-client
tweaks. - WooCommerce sellers keeping the storefront public and the books in a
back-office Bizuno via the bridge.
Where to go next #
- New to ERP/accounting? Read Core Concepts next — it’s
the section that prevents the common setup mistakes. - Ready to install? See the ways to run it and the
install walkthroughs (Docker, LAMP/LEMP, WordPress). - Coming from PhreeBooks 5 or QuickBooks? Skim this, then go to
Migration & Upgrade.
