Their explanation (pdf) of double-entry accounting, for example, is succint and gets the concept across nicely. GnuCash has very extensive Help Files, and overall they’re very well written. Sort of.)īottom line: You’ll need at least a basic accounting knowledge to efficiently utilize GnuCash. (Searching for “unhide” gave me nothing workable at all, and “hidden” gave me WAY too much to have to sort through.)Īt this point, if I’m Joe Sixpack, I’m already done with GnuCash, and that’s even before I ask “Why does it show me ‘Profits’ at the bottom? And why do my expenses not affect my equity?” (Which may be precisely what its developers want. But I couldn’t find anything in the Help Files that covered this, and I only stumbled upon the answer by following the “Open New Account” procedure and hovering over the “Hidden Account” checkbox. Sure, once you know how, it’s no big deal. When you hide accounts in GnuCash, figuring out how to unhide them isn’t easy. For Joe, “liability” is whether or not you can convince your boss that it wasn’t you who broke the expensive GlassVac 9000 the store just bought.Īnd it isn’t just that. Create a “Liability” top-level account? Yes, I’m fully versed in such accounting concepts, but I’m a money and software dork. … then right away you know it’s Game Over for Joe Sixpack and GnuCash. If you are tracking only the payments you make to the credit card company, then all you need is a bank account and a credit card account to enter your transactions. To begin managing your credit cards in GnuCash, you should set up a “Liability” top level account and under this parent account create credit card type accounts for each credit card you use. When your Help Files, under the heading “Credit Cards,” tell you this … Within thirty minutes of initial install, and a cursory glance of the Help Files, I could tell that GnuCash was a no-go for your Average Home Financial User. There are also business-software users who can’t get the right answer from a Windows 7 calculator without extensive hand-holding.) GnuCash Fits Your Average Home User? No. (Yes, I’ve dealt with personal-finance users who would likely excel with business accounting software, if asked. Years of dealing with web readers and spreadsheet customers has made me very aware of the super-wide range of expectations (and, of course, computer-operating abilities) of personal- and business-software users. Now, when I see this particular claim, I’m immediately skeptical. GnuCash’s homepage tells us that their software can be used for both personal and business financial management tasks. GnuCash allows for sales-tax tables, as well as customer and vendor setups and invoice entry - none of which applies to household use whatsoever. What are called “categories” in Quicken are called “accounts” in GnuCash, just as they are in Quickbooks and most other business-geared accounting programs. In fact, GnuCash resembles Quickbooks much more than it does Quicken. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing rather, it’s more about what you, as user and money-tracker, need your software to do.įor starters, unlike Quicken, GnuCash is based upon double-entry accounting standards. As quick and intuitive to use as a checkbook register, it is based on professional accounting principles to ensure balanced books and accurate reports.įirst point: GnuCash is NOTHING like Quicken. Designed to be easy to use, yet powerful and flexible, GnuCash allows you to track bank accounts, stocks, income and expenses.
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