Comments on: GnuCash: Free Software for Balancing Your Checkbook (and More)

By: Karen

Karen — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 17:06:48 +0000

I saw your post and have a question about using GnuCash. You said: T”he only problem I had when I started was, expense accounts showed a credit instead of a debit when I entered a positive value for expense. After a quick once-over of the user manual I found a setting to change this to what I’m used to. This is probably defaulted to make it easier for people who didn’t learn double-entry in a formal setting.”

When you enter a check amount, do you have to enter as -10.00 – that’s what I’m understanding from your post? Or, did you change it to read check amounts as a negative with the change in setting?
And, if I want to set up expense accts. for say gas, groceries, is this easy to do and can it be printed out by account??

Any help is appreciated. Thanks,
Karen

By: Evan

Evan — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 20:11:38 +0000

I haven’t used a lot of different accounting applications, and I’m not into self-promotion like a few people here. What I do know is, I took Principles of Accounting in college and I really wish I would have had this application in class. It would’ve saved me a ton of time and frustration.

Switching from using Excel to do accounting to this was like stepping out of the dark ages. I can easily apply everything I learned from class. This is a true double-entry book keeping system through and through. For the people who don’t understand the principles, I suggest you come up to speed because it is a great system to track accounts.

The only problem I had when I started was, expense accounts showed a credit instead of a debit when I entered a positive value for expense. After a quick once-over of the user manual I found a setting to change this to what I’m used to. This is probably defaulted to make it easier for people who didn’t learn double-entry in a formal setting.

The reason why Quicken still uses T account tracking (Yes they are using a formal accounting paradigm albeit, and antiquated one) because T accounts are the traditional way of doing things. There are still a lot of older accountants who learned the T-account system before they changed the standard.

I say, try it out and be sure to read this http://svn.gnucash.org/docs/guide/ while you’re getting started.

BTW, I’m running it off a SD card under Portable Apps and it works great.

By: Marv

Marv — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:28:45 +0000

Abassis Finance Manager works for me. It’s free and much easier to use than GnuCash.
Check it out at: http://www.abassis.com/

By: Bustedwheel

Bustedwheel — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:50:13 +0000

I took a quick run through of GnuCash, and think it is fine. I work in enterprise finance software, so I am familiar with double entry accounting. However, I don’t think that this is truly the best alternative for home users. I have tried them all (Mint, Yodlee, Money…) and the best one that I fond, both for features, and ease of use is Ace Money Lite. It’s also free. It gives everything that a normal person would possibly need, but doesn’t over-feature itself with useless stuff. The free version only lets you track one account at a time, but you can create as many as you want, and open them separately. The downside is you can;t report on multiple.
Check it out here. http://www.mechcad.net/products/acemoney/index_lite.shtml

By: TyCarrerra

TyCarrerra — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:33:31 +0000

I’ve been running Gnucash for 5 months now (and for 3 years awhile back), and I love it. It was a pain to install on my Macbook Pro, but I think it was well worth it. Then again, I studied accounting in college, so I’m a double-entry geek.

For me, the best feature it has is support for multiple currencies. Comes in handy when traveling outside the US.

By: Peter Jeziorek

Peter Jeziorek — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 04:10:37 +0000

I used GnuCash for a few months. It’s a nice program, though bit of a hassle to set up if you don’t have Windows, which has an automated installer. I stopped using GnuCash in the end because I ended up with more than ten prosper loans back then that were just too unwieldy — each loan requires a principle, fee, and interest to be accounted for. Hopefully, mint will start to track these automatically.

By: Fred

Fred — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 02:54:02 +0000

Here’s a listing of open-source alternatives to Quicken and Money:

http://www.osalt.com/quicken

Of the four programs listed, GnuCash appears to be the most widely-downloaded, but since they’re all free, it doesn’t hurt to try them all to see which one fits your needs best.

Another thought: if you want to take your finances with you, there’s a portable version of GnuCash that’ll run off a USB stick:

http://portableapps.com/apps/office/gnucash_portable

By: asdf

asdf — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:22:57 +0000

Check out http://www.moneydance.com. Money Dance is probably the best one out there imho and worth the $20

By: David

David — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:45:21 +0000

As a user of GnuCash for the past 3 years, I would really recommend it. It does take some getting use to because it doesn’t hold your hand through everything you do. I believe it does have an initial setup wizard now to help you get started. Tracking your finances using double-entry is really the best way to go.

I’m not sure I understand your concern with balancing a checkbook. When you write a check, you record it in the checking account. If you choose to watch closely, you can mark them as cleared when they clear the bank or you can wait until your statement comes and do a full reconciliation. The status bar at the bottom of the window always shows your current balance and future balance (once everything outstanding clears).

By: Transcendental Success

Transcendental Success — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:50:27 +0000

User of OS’s other than windows probably know how to compile things for themsevles :) I don’t think it’s that bad, they would have ways of installing.

GnuCash is terrible for a home user. I used it for a long time. It doesn’t give you much intelligence at all. There are (or were about 3 years ago) rudimentary reports but there is no easy way to understand much about your finances. Consider it a database and that’s about it.

Double entry book-keeping is awesome and I don’t know why the Quickens of the world don’t have it under the hood, but GnuCash forces you to know how to do double-entry accounting. It matters a lot when you set up your accounts. And if you set them up wrong at first and want to change later then it’s a huge hassle.

If all you need to do is balance your checkbook then use a spreadsheet to record your transactions.

In my opinion there are NO good personal finance packages out there.