I’ve only ever dealt with one accountant in my life and discussing my tax position with him was more effective than any tranquiliser; he was the human equivalent of ‘temazepam’ but much more expensive.

To me, the subject of accounting is something I would do almost anything to avoid, so ‘Open source accountancy packages’ would not seem an obvious choice for my first article writing for ‘TechNation’.

I have heard VC’s say that they invest as much in a person as they do in a business, and it was the enthusiasm Shannon Roy had for his company and their first product offering, an ‘Open source accountancy package’ that motivated me to find out more about his company Obol Software.

Obol have obtained VC funding to develop their accountancy software and aim to enter a crowded market place offering a product that is easily customisable and scaleable. The company was founded back in late 2005 after a realisation by Shannon and his co-founder Mark Donald that proprietary accounting packages are “Generally, over-featured and built using ancient and obsolete ideas, particularly in the data storage area, but also in terms of interface.”

This was obviously a sentiment shared by their investors and Obol is hoping to address this through their product ‘FiveDash’ which was released in beta back in March at the Pycon conference in Chicago. With future releases to include functionality for payroll, CRM and multi-currency support as well as plans to provide support for mobile devices, it would seem they have a clear goal of where they want to be. I doubt the big boys, the likes of SAGE, QuickBooks and co, are quaking in their boots just yet, but with a global market for accountancy software estimated at $57 billion AUD and the small to medium business end of that at approximately $16 billion AUD, there’s more than enough of the pie to go around.

This perhaps highlights also the continued trend of Open Source as a viable business model, one which attracts VC funding (albeit from Shannon’s comments about investor meetings in Hong Kong, it would appear not Australian VC funding).

So if talk of double entry booking, balance sheets and current liability doesn’t leave you with a blank look on your face as it does me then head over to FiveDash to find out more.

There has been a new development that I think is very important when considering how many iPhones will be sold in Australia following their release on July 11th.

Optus and Vodafone both announced yesterday that they will be launching the device on pre-paid plans, allowing customers to buy the phone outright without being tied into a contract.

Gen-Yer’s who struggle to keep control of their credit card and cash, which is, well, 90% of them, will have at least one war story to tell you of being burned by a fixed cellphone plan. Pre-pay plans suit this demographic a lot better as they have control over how much they spend and are immune to getting stung with a hefty bill at the end of each month.

A week ago the iPhone was out of my reach as i only ever use a cellphone on a pre-pay plan. Now, I’m looking forward to getting one.

I’m anticipating that the above will apply to most consumers sitting within the Gen-Y demographic as well.

If that’s the case, expected iPhone sales will be considerably higher than they would have been prior to yesterdays announcement. Its a very smart move from the telcos involved as one of the iPhones largest target markets will be the Young Professional, Uni Student or Tech Savvy Gen-Yer.

Get ready to see a lot more young iPhone users around the place in the coming months. The financially challenged just got let into the market….