Slashdot Mirror
GnuCash 2.0.0 Released
tashanna writes "After a very welcome GTK2 conversion and some additional feature hacking, GnuCash has released version 2.0.0. Other notable changes include: 'OFX DirectConnect which can directly retrieve and import account statements over the Internet, a "Hide account" feature to keep a better overview of your current accounts tabbed window functionality, the ability to create budgets within GnuCash using your account data, support for Accounting Periods, the data file format has been improved with respect to international characters data files with international characters can be transferred to other countries flawlessly, GnuCash Help and Guide are now fully integrated with the GNOME Help system (Yelp).'"
Oh, and has TFA been
Information wants a fueled airplane waiting at the hangar and no one gets hurt.
I'd like to try this out. GnuCash seems like a good foundation for keeping track of finances, but past versions haven't been user friendly enough for non-accountants like myself.
With the adaptation to GTK2 , GNUcash may someday be available for Microsoft Windows according to the GNUcash wiki at http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Windows/
With GTK1, a port of GNUcash for Windows was only a dream.
GnuCash is pretty popular in the Linux world. It would be great to see this OSS project available to Windows users as well.
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
I've been evaluating OSS solution and I found this one pretty interesting. Polished and yet, powerful.
http://kmymoney2.sourceforge.net/
I'll certainly give a try to Gnucash 2.0 anyway.
Double-entry accounting is the only way to fly in the money world. It is the only way to make sure you balance you transactions. For example, instead of having
Dentist Expenses:Health $200.00
You have,
Dentist Expenses:Health $200.00
Liabilities:Visa $200.00
Or even better,
Dentist Expenses:Health $200.00
Expenses:Taxes $15.00
Liabilities:Visa $180.00
Assets:Cash $35.00
Then when your Visa comes in, you reconcile your transactions. This is much, much better than a checkbook register or other back of the napkin accounting methods. The point is that ALL transactions are balanced. Money in = Money out.
from gnucash-users list:
Accounting in Linux Leaps Forward
*/GnuCash 2.0.0 milestone released to public/*
Personal and small business accounting in Linux will be easier and
better after today's release of GnuCash 2.0.0.
This milestone release of the free, open source accounting program
includes generational advances over the last version. GnuCash 2.0.0 is
based on state-of-the-art gtk2 GUI technology. Developers worked hard to
integrate the Gnome Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) for a consistent
behaviour and look-and-feel for the whole Desktop.
Major changes in the milestone release include;
* OFX DirectConnect which can directly retrieve and import account
statements over the Internet.
* A "Hide account" feature to keep a better overview of your current
accounts tabbed window functionality.
* The ability to create budgets within GnuCash using your account data.
* Support for Accounting Periods.
* The data file format has been improved with respect to
international characters. Data files with international characters
can be transferred to other countries flawlessly.
* GnuCash Help and Guide are now fully integrated with the GNOME
Help system (Yelp).
The GnuCash development team said these new features and changes will
make GnuCash easier than ever for newcomers.
GnuCash is the leading free, open source accounting program and the leap
to gtk2 will enable users to be able to enjoy cutting edge functionality
with the freedom of not being locked into proprietory file formats.
*Playing With Others*
As with other leading Linux software that is designed to replace
proprietory programs, GnuCash is a functional replacement for expensive
accounting programs. Like OpenOffice.org and The Gimp, GnuCash is also
programmed to communicate and interact with as many existing programs,
institutions and people as possible.
The GnuCash development team has continued to improve file import
filters, which allow users to import work from old programs like
Microsoft Money and Quicken. GnuCash can load QIF and QFX files, which
are used by both of those programs.
Developers have also continued to incorporate support for online banking
into the program. GnuCash 2.0.0 supports OFX DirectConnect which can
directly retrieve and import account statements over the Internet.
The milestone release is available in 29 languages, including English,
French, German, Spanish, Norwegian, so people from around the world will
have no difficulty operating the program
*Off on the Right Foot*
Users of the GnuCash 2.0.0 will notice a few changes when they start the
program. Improvements have been made on startup speed, scheduled
transactions, currency support and currency quote retrievals.
After they enter the program, users will find a double-ledger account
system, exhaustive report options and account hierarchy tools. Also at
their disposal is a full system of tutorials and documentation.
*Getting GnuCash*
GnuCash 2.0.0 can be downloaded from gnucash.org. It is available as
source code.
To install GnuCash, users will need Gnome 2, guile, slib and g-wrap.
*http://www.gnucash.org *
*http://download.sourceforge.net/gnucash
*
*About the Program*
GnuCash is a free, open source accounting program released under the GNU
General Public License (GPL) and available for GNU/Linux, *BSD, Solaris
and Mac OSX. It is collaboratively developed by 10 people from over 5
countries.
Programming on GnuCash began in 1997, and its first stable release was
in 1998.
man, I feel like mold.
Hear hear!! My method of accounting is simple:
1. Only one bank account (with a debit card) into which everything I make is direct deposited
2. No credit cards (they are EVIL)
3. Mentally remember how much you generally have in the account ($9786, OK, so I've got about $10,000 in the bank)
4. Confirm what you mentally think you have with your bank's automated phone system so that you have a fresh guess as to how much you've got
5. Never spend more than %50 of what you think you have in the account unless you have a REALLY GOOD reason
6. DO NOT bank online. Evar
7. Memorize the general amounts of your monthly charges, which should all be automatic withdrawals. ($54.99 for cable? OK so assume $60 a month)
In general it's all based on assumptions with a mental attitude that you have less than you actually do. So far it's worked wonders for my money situation in that I really don't have to think about it unless it matters at the moment. Because if there's one thing people like us HATE to do, it's thinking about money. Money is a nuisance in every way just as non-techs feel computers are a nuisance in every way. For those of you that have a strong interest in money, well... get help.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
I've tried gnucash a few times and alwasy found it lacking and was forced to use Quicken in Crossover Office. Finally sometime earlier this year I read a post that mentioned Moneydance (http://www.moneydance.com) and gave the trial version a try. Its not quite as feature rich as Quicken but has all the features I needed and I ended up buying a lic for it. I have used it now for about four months I think and have been very happy with it. It runs on Windows, Linux, and MacOS X. I'm not trolling or really even promoting but I just figued with the lack of good accounting apps out there for linux (at least on the personal finances side) I would mention it. I do hope that gnucash has improved with this realease but for now I'll probably stick with Moneydance.
Oh, and yes it is java but the install was quick and painless and it runs quick (for me at least).
just my limited experience here...
.qif type format and import into gnucash just fine. then you have control over your payroll... my biggest reasons for switching from quickbooks: 1. tired of forced upgrades when the software already did more than I wanted and 2. (the real killer) if you don't use their subscription payroll system, then the payroll calculations will be WRONG. I had some local payroll taxes implemented in my quickbooks. When I got tired of paying them for tax tables that I could get for free from the govt, I let that subscription lapse and guess what happened... the payroll deductions calculated by those taxes I had setup were suddenly wrong. Hours of research later, i determined that without the subscription, it dropped a couple points of precision on the other, custom numbers it was computing. WTF! so screw intuit. IMHO.
depending on what you're doing, gnucash IS a good replacement for quickbooks. It handles a/p. a/r and a reasonable slew of business reports. It does NOT do payroll, which may be a killer for a lot of people, but in my experience, quickbooks payroll wasn't all that. Once you've built a decent spreadsheet for doing payroll, you can format it into a
man, I feel like mold.
Good luck buying a car, or a house.
Unfortunately today, the costs of purchasing such major items necessitate the usage of credit. My mother at 49 is unable to get a loan to fix her house, because she's paid in cash her entire life and has no credit history. She'll just have to save up until she has enough, right?
While I appreciate the simpleness and ease of what you're promoting, fact is unless you are independently wealthy or have no interest in having a family (how are you paying for the kids' college?), you have to have some form of credit.
People like us? Sounds rather elitist...
(By the way, I gave up a career in IT to work with kids, so I'm pretty sure I don't have a strong interest in money.)
Get over yourself.
You don't have to enter anything twice. Everything is a single transaction which refers to two accounts. So as soon as you enter something saying "$200 from Checking into Expenses" there is automatically a "$200 into Expenses from Checking". It's just two ways of looking at the same transaction.