[TriLUG] Financial Tracking Software

[Alan Porter]

> So what's the preferred home use checking account register program

I looked at several... can't recall all of the names.  Kmymoney,
cbb, grisbi.

GnuCash turned me off at first because everyone said it was too
complicated for home use, too much like an accounting package.
Later, I chose to give it a good try in spite of the advice.

I'm glad I did.

It is basically like Quicken, with one major exception (see below).
You have registers for your checking and savings accounts, and you
enter your data in the same way.  You reconcile the same way.  You
get a few basic reports (not many).

The exception?  GnuCash treats your "categories" (Quicken term) just
like any other "account" (GnuCash term).  You can click on a category
and see a register of transactions, just like you do with your bank
accounts.  It's like looking at your transactions from the other side.

In the Quicken world, it's like a detailed report on that category.

For example, I can open the account called "expenses:car:gas" and
see every transaction I made at gas stations.  This is because GnuCash
treats all transactions as if they were transfers between accounts
(double-entry accounting).  For example, there will be a transaction
that transfers $10 from "liabilities:creditcard:visa" to "expenses:car:gas".
I can see the same transaction from either "account" (or in Quicken
terms, from the Visa "account" or the gas "category").

I also liked the fact that it imported my Quicken data with very
little hassle.

If you want a short introductory show-n-tell, reply offline and I'll
show you all of my financial secrets.

Alan



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