Who thinks GNUcash rocks

[johntkucz]

I seriously LOVE This program. I know some idiots who didn't switch to linux/ubuntu because of lack of a "quickbooks" equivalent. Gnucash is far superior! I love having an open source financial managament program because financial management is all about "tweaking exactly every detail" of financial input and output, so why not have access to the program that does that's input and output. Anyways, like most ubuntu/linux open source stuff I constantly feel astounded at its simplicity, lucidity, and advanced features.

[mikeyphi]

I use it...it does everything I need!

[johntkucz]

I use it...it does everything I need!

Yeah, I use it, too, big time. Get much more use out of it than other financial programs. Anyways, you offered some help on the mount hda1 internal hd post. still not solved, but thanks!

[kellemes]

I know some idiots who didn't switch to linux/ubuntu because of lack of a "quickbooks" equivalent.

You may have your personal preference and share it with the world if that's you wish..
But there is no need to use rude language like this..

[Dr Small]

I don't believe I have ever used it.
Pray tell me what it is, and what it does.

[johntkucz]

You may have your personal preference and share it with the world if that's you wish..
But there is no need to use rude language like this..

That's not rude, that's fact! A lot of people didn't make the switch, when gnucash is better!

[johntkucz]

I don't believe I have ever used it.
Pray tell me what it is, and what it does.

I like your avatar. It's a financial accounting program -- it can calculate every financial transaction from investment stocks, money markets, income, to every type of expense. The format is just easy to customize and very clean and efficient.

[nelamvr6]

I don't like GNUCash at all, I use KMyMoney instead, I like it a LOT better.

[mistergq]

I am not a fan of GNUcash. I prefer Kmoney too.

Now if you were referring to Quicken versus GNUCash, then I agree to make the switch. Howeer, compared to Quickbooks, there is no comparison...quickbooks is superior.

[dchriscoe]

Everyone has there own personal preference. In the world of personal finance, both MS Money and Quicken are better than GNUcash. I used both and now use Moneydance since it works on both Windows and Linux. I tried to export my data from Quicken to GNUcash and what a mess: Moneydance-no problem.

In the world of business, Peachtree software is perhaps better. However, what works for you is best for you.

[MountainX]

I'm switching from MS Money now that I switched to Ubuntu.

I use the Personal & Business version of MS Money. I need extensive online banking support (anything less than what I get with MS Money would not be acceptable). I also need the "classes" feature of MS Money so I can keep my different businesses separate.

With those requirements in mind, can anyone suggest which finance software I should try?
MoneyDance?
KMyMoney?
GnuCash
jGnash
Crossover Office + Quicken?

Thanks

[tgrisier]

My choice is Kmymoney. It's a wonderful piece of software.

[bodhi.zazen]

Moved to the cafe

[MountainX]

My choice is Kmymoney. It's a wonderful piece of software.

Do you use any of the features I need? Can you comment specifically about them? Thanks.

[forrestcupp]

I think GNUCash would rock even more if it had export features. As it is, once you start using it, you are stuck with it.

[Phosphoric]

I think GNUCash would rock even more if it had export features. As it is, once you start using it, you are stuck with it.

yes, I agree, the lack of facility to export as a QIF file is disasterous. Yuo can't even print out the accounts so that you could manually start a new package.

Once in use you're stuck with it. :(

[johntkucz]

i'm back on my mac. loving it intensely. been a mac user for over 90% of my life, 22 years. Ubuntu last year was great experimenting, learned all about OSes, but other than that, for normal everyday gtd productivity, it was beyond hellish. asinine, inane, zero productivity. it was just all ubuntu lab work. Now acting is my lab! quicken works.

[MountainX]

i'm back on my mac. loving it intensely. been a mac user for over 90% of my life, 22 years. Ubuntu last year was great experimenting, learned all about OSes, but other than that, for normal everyday gtd productivity, it was beyond hellish. asinine, inane, zero productivity. it was just all ubuntu lab work. Now acting is my lab! quicken works.

Quite honestly, I can relate to what you are saying. I had to end up sticking with MS Money 2003 for my personal finances. I would prefer to get rid of that last piece of MS software but so far, I can't do it.

I'm sticking with Ubuntu, but you are correct that there is a big productivity hit. I spend a huge amount of time troubleshooting OS related stuff now, whereas before I just got work done. Now I have to work just to keep my system functioning.

[timzak]

I've been using MS Money for years, and each time I tried to switch to Gnucash, I couldn't get used to the interface. Thus I kept running Money through VirtualBox. For some reason, after I upgraded to Hardy, I gave it another whack and this time it seemed to click with me. I'm still going through my imported transactions and assigning them to categories, but I already feel comfortable enough with Gnucash that I know it will be a solid replacement for Money.

[SuperSon!c]

I know some idiots who didn't switch to linux/ubuntu because of lack of a "quickbooks" equivalent.

yeah, complete morons, eh?

[Mr. Picklesworth]

HomeBank (in the repositories!) is another rather interesting, simplified financial management program with a beautiful interface :)

I agree, GNUCash is great. Now all we need is a free tax software project. Open source projects do quite well for localization, so such an endeavour could work out surprisingly well over time. It would cause a lot of positive (for the users) disruption, at any rate.

[50words]

I love GnuCash. I use it to manage my business finances, and Moneydance for my home finances.

I have tried Quickbooks and similar software, but I just got frustrated that they wanted to hide what was happening behind the pretty dialogs. GnuCash is essentially a glorified set of bookkeeping spreadsheets, so you can actually see what your money is doing and where it is going.

Perhaps most telling: Since switching to GnuCash, my accountant has not had a single year-end corrective transaction for me.

[smoker]

HomeBank (in the repositories!) is another rather interesting, simplified financial management program with a beautiful interface :)

i agree about homebank, simple to use and update, excellent:)

[JAPrufrock]

I use Gnucash at home because it can handle more than one currency. However, for a retail business it needs an integrated point of sale. Otherwise, it'll never seriously compete with Quickbooks.

[quinnten83]

I use Gnucash at home because it can handle more than one currency. However, for a retail business it needs an integrated point of sale. Otherwise, it'll never seriously compete with Quickbooks.

Have you suggested this to the developers?

[andrewabc]

I use Gnucash at home because it can handle more than one currency. However, for a retail business it needs an integrated point of sale. Otherwise, it'll never seriously compete with Quickbooks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_accounting_software

One of those GPL software might work better for that.

For example
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiny_ERP
looks to be a full featured program for businesses from what I see on the website.

GNUCash is meant for home personal use. There are other programs for businesses that are free.

[Incense]

Every piece of finance software I've ever used has let me down in some way. So I just started using spreadsheets, and am very happy with that solution. I can manage them on all the different platforms I run (Linux, OSX, and Palm) and I have full control over everything.

[JAPrufrock]

Have you suggested this to the developers?

No, but I will, even though I'm sure others have suggested it already. The one thing stopping me from using Gnucash (and Ubuntu) in my business is the lack of a point of sale. Although there are FOSS software programs available, they are not fully integrated into an accounting package, so daily sales summaries would have to be added manually. That's why I'm still using an old version of Quickbooks. If Gnucash included a POS, it would be a perfect fit because it could handle both dollars and colones (Costa Rican currency), which are the two currencies we get in our over the counter transactions.

[ShiningKarambaStar]

I used GnuCash for a while, but it was too complex for my needs, and I never could get it to do what I wanted. Now I use KMyMoney, and love it. It's simple and does just what I want. I do ecommerce, and most of the transactions are entered in a separate business management system, but I wanted to track basic gross income & expenses.

JAPrufrock, you from Ticoland? Lived in CR for 2 years, loved it.

[MountainX]

I've been using Ubuntu for almost a year now. Unfortunately, I could never get away from MS Money during the past year.

However, I recently tried Yodlee.com and this looks like it will finally be the tool that lets me ditch MS Money. I think I'll supplement Yodlee with OO Calc for some reporting.

Yodlee is an awesome tool. It does all of the online banking/account aggregation stuff that was so important to me in MS Money, and it does it way better than Money did.

[metromari]

GNUCash is great, but use Ledger. Command line accounting.

http://www.newartisans.com/software/ledger.html

[joninkrakow]

Raise the dead! Wow. talk about thread necromancy.....

Well, since the subject's come up..... I love GnuCash in every way over Quicken--except for one thing--reports. I can't get the reports I need, in the format I need, from GC. Quicken makes them easily, and the quick reports with the magnifying glass gives me just the detail I need. I spent almost a year doing parallel accounting in the two apps, and much prefered GC over Quicken in just about every way, including the double-entry bookkeeping that took a while to get used to, but when year-end came, and I needed something for my accountant, I was stuck in GC. Granted, at the time, this was X11 under OSX, but still, even building the latest from source, I couldn't get the reports I needed. I sadly went back to Quicken, and have been stuck with it ever since. I still keep looking. I learned of a couple here on this thread, so a belated thanks to you folks who wrote ages ago, and to the mystics that restored this thread to life. ;-)

-Jon

[50words]

What reports are you looking for? I am able to give my accountant all he needs without any trouble, but maybe yours is looking for something else.

[rhammer01]

I'm still pretty much a newbie, but I have a question about GnuCash. I have used Quicken for a long time and I am used to it. I like most of GnuCash since it mostly functions like Quicken. My question is, in Quicken when make and entry in the registry there is a drop down box so you can choose the type of transaction. As far as I can see, you have to enter the tranaction type manualy. Is there soemthing in the setup that you can choose to have a drop down box or some way to enter that field without having to enter the info for every transaction. I know it is a small thing but, it's what I am used to and it is just easier that way. Thanks for any help!

[forrestcupp]

I am not a fan of GNUcash. I prefer Kmoney too.

Now if you were referring to Quicken versus GNUCash, then I agree to make the switch. Howeer, compared to Quickbooks, there is no comparison...quickbooks is superior.

True. You can compare GNUcash to Quicken, but don't try to compare it to Quickbooks. They're not the same. I don't really know of any viable Linux alternatives to Quickbooks.

[50words]

True. You can compare GNUcash to Quicken, but don't try to compare it to Quickbooks. They're not the same. I don't really know of any viable Linux alternatives to Quickbooks.

What? GNUCash is nothing like Quicken, which is a simple checkbook register program like MoneyDance.

GNUCash is a full, double-entry bookkeeping solution like Quickbooks. It works differently, since Quickbooks hides all the spreadsheet-like transactional details from the user, but I like the difference.

It does not have the rich billing features of Quickbooks, but it does the bookkeeping just fine.

I would recommend GNUCash to small businesses, but not individuals who just want to track finances. It's overkill for that.

[gletob]

It love it.

[wstout]

Like the idea, but still not good enough to convince many small business owners to convert from Quickbooks, and a little bit too much of a pain to set up personal finances on. Great if you are a tweaker but i prefer tweaking more exciting things than financial software.

[thisllub]

I think GNUCash would rock even more if it had export features. As it is, once you start using it, you are stuck with it.

If it used an open source database it would be even better.

Firebird would be ideal.

With a proper database it could evolve into a professional system. As it is it will never aspire to much more than it is.

[arose62]

I think GNUCash would rock even more if it had export features. As it is, once you start using it, you are stuck with it.

Not quite - I've recently had a go at updating the XSL file so that Gnucash 2.2.6 (at least - that's what I'm running) can have it's data file processed into a Gnumeric spreadsheet.

http://sites.google.com/site/gnucashexport/

Cheers,
Andrew

[whitefort]

Tried GNUCash for a while, didn't like it.

KMyMoney does everything I need and more.

[Mateo]

Great application for its time.. but i'm not sure why you would chose this over a more automated web application like Mint or Buxfer.

[50words]

GnuCash is more for business accounting. Mint is completely inadequate for that.

[Cuba71]

I've been trying to test Moneydance for the last couple of days, and so far my impressions are that the Users Guide is useless, and it's very difficult to enter/update transactions. And when you get to the investments sections, forget it. I wouldn't dare to make the switch from Quicken.

[tsali]

Too many hoops to jump through to get a good interface with my bank and other accounts.

Online account management is the ONLY thing I like about managing my money by computer...otherwise, good ol' ledger and pen works well.

[50words]

After using GnuCash for about two years for my business (law practice), I am going to switch to Quickbooks. While I have enjoyed using GnuCash, I have discovered a serious error.

Although the registers read correctly, when I run an income/expense report, GnuCash reports the account totals inaccurately for the time period I select. As a result, I misstated my income on my 2008 tax return, and am paying an accountant to amend my return to correct the error.

For me, GnuCash cost about $500. I will be switching to Quickbooks on January 1st. It is a lot less expensive.

[carley]

I am having a hard time producing reports that mean anything to me.
I can get my charitable contributions at tax time since that is designated as a separate account, but I would like to do more analysis on where my money is going and I have yet to get it to produce any useful reports at all. Suggestions?

[GMU_DodgyHodgy]

Jgnash - the user interface of Money/Quicken with the functionality of Gnucash. It also utilizes Pentaho Reports well.

It is written in Java but utilizes the home system interface (GTK+) so it fits in Gnome well.

It is also requires less resources than GnuCash.

[BewareOfDog]

I will be setting up a computer for my sister in law; dual boot, windows xp & ubuntu 10.04 (or xubuntu 10.04 if it runs too slow). I want it to be as user friendly as possible. Is GNUcash the way to go then? As she will be a new linux user, I just want simplicity for her.

[pwnst*r]

http://www.mint.com/

[Rackstar]

I tried gnuCash for my personal bussiness a couple of time, but I found it to be too bloated (feature-full) for me... It should have a simple/advanced mode switch.

I will take a look at mint

EDIT: mint is only for US residents?