Personal Finance Software for Unix?

pstreck asks: "I'm trying to find the best personal finance software for Unix. I've been using Quicken for a while, but unfortuantlly it won't run under Wine. I've tried gnucash but it just isn't up to par with what Quicken offers. What do you guys use?" While the free software versions may not quite be up to par with the current commercial offerings, it won't always be the case. The turning point can start now, of course. What finance software are you using now, what features do you like and what features do you think these software packages need?

Comments

Re:The superior linux finance application.

[ikitat]

sc is a older curses based spreadsheet program for unix.

freshmeat had a feature on this a while ago

[SkyIce]

http://freshmeat.net/articles/view/269/

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

I hate it when I forget to close an html tag

[finkployd]

If the only reason you aren't using GnuCash is because you can't directly link to all those sources (401k, bank, CC), then it would seem that you are just a little lazy. Can't you just manually enter it?

Why use GnuCash at all? Why not just manually write down your finances in in your checkbook and do the math in your head? This is exactly the type of thing that Quicken is good for, eliminating worthless "grunt work" like manually entering numbers.

Yeah, I know, computers make things easier, and once you get used to them (lazy) then it is harder to do things for yourself.

I have no fear that I will someday forget how to manually enter numbers into a computer.
You use GnuCash, I use Quicken. Both of us use a computer to do our math and bookeeping for us, the only difference is I don't have to type it in. I completly fail to see the point of your arguement unless you are against both GnuCash and Quicken...

Finkployd

My advice - avoid these programs in general

[Ars-Fartsica]

On a somewhat related note, I have found that most people who purchase these programs want to decrease expenditures, feeling that if they organize their expenses, they will reduce them.

In general I have found this not to be the case. If you simply want a category breakdown, your credit card should already provide it - mine does. Otherwise, a simple check of your accounts once a week should give you a simple idea of how your spending is going.

Simply put, the only way to reduce expenditures is to not buy things. Also, watch for monthly fees you start incurring for this service or that - these monthly fees constitute a huge drain on most people's cash, and our economy is moving more and more to a rental model where it will be hugely important to control recurring service fees.

Added to which, most banks charge for the pleasure of automagically syncing Quicken with your account (although you can still manually update Quicken with a download file for free with most banks). So you could be losing money while trying to save it.

Re:My advice - avoid these programs in general

[horza]

Otherwise, a simple check of your accounts once a week should give you a simple idea of how your spending is going.

So you are suggesting that instead of debugging his financial source line by line, he should do some run-time analysis using profiling? I suggest optimising some of those tight loops, for instance repeated withdrawals from the cash machine on a Friday night. I'd also run TrussFinance to locate any cash leaks, for example that AOL subscription they told you they had cancelled. I wouldn't, however, use a step-by-step debugger as this can be embarrassing for company in restaurants.

Phillip.

Re:Quicken runs on UNIX

[Alexander]

Well, first off, my reply wasn't to you, unless you're the original poster using another user account. If you are the original poster, then what x86 UNIX are you using, a SCO UNIX, ____BSD, Solaris? An ancient copy of NeXTStep?

Second, please re-read my post. The sentence you quote was written specifically to circumvent inane comments like yours. I've read enough of /. do anticipate the disappointingly average responses like the above (indeed, if you check the user # I'm more than a half-million users before you bothered to register - If I had a nickel for every two bit response posted here....)

It was suggested that the individual take a look at the OS X platform "at some point in the future", not "run out and drop down $1200 for a used g4 based powerbook right now just so you can run Quicken and Steve Jobs rules!" Hopefully, the omission of blatant pro-Apple/RISC drivel in my post, with a soft suggestion that indeed these apps are running under the platform in question (UNIX, not Linux) was designed to temper such soft-trolling that amounts to "OS X isn't Linux" and "It doesn't run on x86", both of which quickly devolve into how cheaply the supposedly enterprising geek can build a dual athalon monster machine for the price of an Apple platform that runs comparable GNU software to the commercial application in question (which makes one wonder how many actually have performed this platform gymnastic they're so quick to advocate).

As far as answering your post, either it's a whining piece of self-answering troll, or you somehow believe that I'm privy to the OS X product roadmap. I tend towards the former, which actually suggests that you're actually unhappy with your platform (x86) choice and the commitment you made in that investment, or you wouldn't have wasted the electrons complaining. My guess is "don't hold your breath" for an x86 port. If you really want the breadth of applications and UNIX that OS X offers, then you'll likely need to save several hundred bucks for a used powerbook (Which would be an answer to your "space" issues. If you can't afford the footprint of a laptop, you need to invest in more real estate, not a new platform).

Re:One hitch

[stevey]

The code was big ? LOL!

I've been meaning to get organized and look at putting my finances, mortgage, bills, etc online - I keep them all for years so I'd be able to see where my money goes
After reading this I decided to download GNUCash - imagine my suprize: 15Mb!

root@hell:/home/skx# apt-get install gnucash
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
bonobo defoma dialog gs gs-common gsfonts guile-common guile1.4
guile1.4-slib libbonobo2 libdate-manip-perl libdigest-md5-perl libefs1
libfinance-quote-perl libgal19 libgdk-pixbuf-gnome2 libghttp1 libgimpprint1
libgnomeprint-bin libgnomeprint-data libgnomeprint15 libgtkhtml20 libguile9
libguppi16 libgwrapguile1 libhtml-parser-perl libhtml-tableextract-perl
libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl libltdl3 libmime-base64-perl liboaf0
liburi-perl libwww-perl libzvt2 oaf slib
The following NEW packages will be installed:
bonobo defoma dialog gnucash gs gs-common gsfonts guile-common guile1.4
guile1.4-slib libbonobo2 libdate-manip-perl libdigest-md5-perl libefs1
libfinance-quote-perl libgal19 libgdk-pixbuf-gnome2 libghttp1 libgimpprint1
libgnomeprint-bin libgnomeprint-data libgnomeprint15 libgtkhtml20 libguile9
libguppi16 libgwrapguile1 libhtml-parser-perl libhtml-tableextract-perl
libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl libltdl3 libmime-base64-perl liboaf0
liburi-perl libwww-perl libzvt2 oaf slib
0 packages upgraded, 38 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 15.7MB of archives. After unpacking 47.2MB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] n
Abort.

Re:I want

[mike_the_kid]

In MS Money 2002, under Tools / Options, there is a checkbox in the "Display" set of options on the default options page called "Turn off sponsorship and shopping links." If you do go onto some of the MSN services, such as the home finder, you will see some ads, but if you wait 5 seconds, they go away. Checking "Turn off sponsorship and shopping links" removes all ads and special offers from the core program, as far as I can tell.

Tracking does save

[nuggz]

I disagree, knowing that I spent $400 last month on junk food DOES help me save money.

Knowing where/how you spend your money is the first step on spending less.

My experiences with trying GnuCash

[Laplace]

At one point I tried to install and use GNUCash as my personal finance manager. The first problem that I ran in to was dependency hell. The program relies on tens of libraries. I went through quite a few ./configure --> download dependency --> install dependency --> ./configure until I was able to finally produce a build.

Now, GNUCash works on a double entry accounting system. That means every time you take money away from one account it goes into another, and vice versa. In some sense, it depends upon the idea that money just can appear out of nowhere, and it just can't disappear into the void. Supposedly it is a very powerful system of accounting. However, the problem that I ran in to was setting my accounts up. I have several different debts (student loans), and several different investments (401K, personal investments), as well as the balances in my checking and savings accounts. I just couldn't figure out how to reasonably set up my initial finances, let alone creating special accounts for things like payroll and taxes. I have a degree in Mathematics, but GNUCash tries to be a serious accounting program. Quicken and the like are different, and single entry accounting is much easier for a beginner to use. Apparently it is much easier to lie, cheat, and make mistakes with single accounting systems.

I finally settled on just keeping a sort of ledger. Pen and paper. I track spending in my budget with it, my current checking account levels, and I update the value of my savings and investments from time to time. It serves me well and keeps my finances on track, which is all I really need. It is also very portable, which makes it easier to account for things like grocery bills and ATM withdrawls.

What GNUCash really needs is a _good_ step by step tutorial on how to set the software up, and I'm not refering to the ./configure dependency hell.

Expertise

[m_evanchik]

The real expertise in a program like quicken is not on the programming end. Balancing books is a pretty trivial algorithm.

Where the real value of Quicken lies in the financial and legal expertise that it describes. For this they need the expertise of accountants and lawyers and economists etc..

If you want to develop a good open-source personal finance program, you need to find some good accountants (and tax lawyers, and financial advisers, etc) to help out in distilling their expertise, working with the programmers.

And because laws and finance are such ever-changing areas, especially at the margins, constant updating is necessary.

One big hurdle with open-source financial programs (please keep responding flames articulate) is a lack of accountability as well. When I buy turbotax, I know there is a company behind it that must take some responsibility with the program. Just for that reason, a good lawyer or accountant may be hesitant to contribute on open-source. If the software fucks up, he may be professionally liable.

I do wish at least a polished proprietary financial and tax software were available on Linux. My guess is that Linux just doesn't have the market penetration yet to justify the port.

Because of the need for updates, I even think that proprietary software might have some viability on a limited, non-transfereable, open source basis.

I haven't tried gnucash, but if intuit came out with quicken and turbotax for Linux, I would be one step closer to wiping my windows partition. Incidentally, I still wouldn't buy the linux version right away, because I still need the windows partition for other things, and my windows quicken works fine.