About us

A major aim of ours is to bring REAL computing power to the smaller end of town.

It is too often forgotten that economies all round the world are actually driven by the spirit, energy and courage of the millions of individuals running their small businesses. We feel that this sector has been poorly served by the major software companies.

Systems presently on offer are either priced out of the reach of small business or are too badly compromised.

Our founder, Francis Chuah, a former Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, has been involved with computers since before the launch of the first PC. He implemented the first computerised system for a Malaysian bank and was the top corporate manager of a major enterprise in Fiji. With the wide range of experiences gained plus the years of auditing work done in England, he found that there is a need for something very different from what's available in terms of accounting software.

We decided some 4 years ago that using and promoting open source community based software is the way to go, and whatever system we develop must be affordable to small business – though the system will not be small at all!

Part of Rebo-Data's activities is running training programs in the use of both Linux (and associated office applications) and commercial accounting packages (running under Windows, of course). We learnt first-hand the difficulties faced by small business owners who have no accounting knowledge but simply want to get on with running their businesses.

We set about developing a business management system (not just an accounting package) that will provide the tools for record-keeping, customer relations, customising analyses, reducing costs, improving efficiency and future-proofing the valuable data. And we feel we have gone a long way to achieving that goal.

Rebo-Data is also about helping the less fortunate and help kick-start promising careers. Both Francis and his wife, Rebecca Ho (in case you haven't noticed, the company is actually named after her and she is also the majority shareholder) have for a few years now been volunteer helpers for Just Enough Faith (nothing religious about “Faith” - simply self-belief) and sponsoring a talented Thai artist, Suchin Jitprathak to paint and display his religious/meditative works in Australia.

Just Enough Faith (JEF) is a private charity, funded and run by Jeff and Alina Gambin, that has been feeding and clothing the homeless in Sydney for the past 12 years without missing a day. It is a wonderful charity that genuinely treats all in the food queue as friends.

Rebo-Data is a can-do company with creative (radical?) solutions to problems, and with that spirit we hope that we can in some way make a small contribution to the people in third world countries.