Ask HN: Graduating from gsheets without going full ERP

2 points by dundercoder 2y ago ↗ HN

I have a friend who is outgrowing his Google sheets financial system (many many scripts) and as a former Python developer (been in management recently) I thought “Oh let’s do a proper business rules/state engine” then I remembered how bad I am at UI and how much actual work that would be from scratch.

What’s out there now with a decent drag/drop UI, backed by a real dbms, that has good business rules for a one or two person show that isn’t necessarily a black box? Maybe if ms access had a grandchild that was a prodigy (and wasn’t written by Microsoft TBH)

4 comments

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8organicbits 2y ago ↗

I'd start here: https://alternativeto.net/software/microsoft-access/

hisamafahri 2y ago ↗

If I were to really invest in dbms, and only able to read-only the data (analyze, query, etc) something like Metabase is my go to choice (https://www.metabase.com).

If I also need update the data itself, internal tools builder like Retool (https://retool.com) probably good enough.

But, it all depends on the use case.

dundercoder 2y ago ↗

Have you used retool? What was your experience?

alex_tailor 2y ago ↗

I think BznsBuilder could be a perfect fit for your friend's needs. With its business rules and workflow automation, it can help your friend manage their business effectively without going full ERP.