Gnucash versus Gnofin

poosnarky · n00b Joined: 24 Nov 2005 Posts: 27

I can't decide which personal finance manager software to use and I'd like to know if anyone has had experience using either/both of these and comments, thanks.

Nattydraddy · Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 5:56 pm Post subject:

Didn´t even know Gnufin. On there Project Page stands "# Gnofin 0.8.4 Released! 2000-12-01"

Where have been a lot of changes since 2000. The introducing of the Euro as the most impotant thing. But Gnucash looks fine:
GnuCash 1.8.12 Release - (2005-10-20 02:07:49)

poosnarky · n00b Joined: 24 Nov 2005 Posts: 27

does GnuCash provide all the functionality of say M$ money, M$ quicken etc.?

Nattydraddy · Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 7:25 pm Post subject:

No, but who need anyway so much functionality?

Qucken and Money is good for organisation and for people who want to see so much graphics that they can´t see the red numbers at their bank accounts.

mazirian · Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 8:04 pm Post subject:

I'm not in the best position to offer a comparision of gnucash with other packages, especially windows apps, but I will still generally recommend gnucash. I have been using it for the past 4 or 5 months and really like it. There was an initially steep learning curve but the mailing list was very helpful. It's now tracking all my income, expenses, retirement accounts, bank accounts, investments, car loans, student loans, and everything else quite adequately. It handles scheduled transcations nicely, produces decent but not great reports, imports QIF files, is stable, and generally does what I need it to do. That said, others really reccomend KMyMoney (or something like that). I don't want to deal with compiling kdelibs, so I've never tried it. Gnucash is still gtk1, and that may bug you, but gc2 should be coming out shortly.

Mongrol · Guru Joined: 14 Sep 2002 Posts: 376

Up until recently (when I moved country) I used MSMoney2004 on VMWare. Now, since I`m too tight arsed to buy the Aussie version of MSMoney I investigated all the Linux options. I settled on Gnucash as it was the most mature and I actually liked the double entry accounting standards that it uses. Once you get your head around it its pretty simple and makes a lot of sense. I'm pretty disapointed with the reporting though. It supplied reports don't include a rolling or per monthly report and its very difficult to write your own (basically means programming them). It also cant autodownload transactions from my Oz bank but it can do HCBI accounts with a bit of kicking. Other than that I think its the best option currently on Linux.

manny15 · Guru Joined: 01 Dec 2002 Posts: 473 Location: USA

If it helps, I've been using Gnucash since about 2002 for personal financing. Flawless so far. And I think they are working on a GTK2 implementation.

poosnarky · n00b Joined: 24 Nov 2005 Posts: 27

that sounds great. I'm using it to track and update the finances of an organization where reimbursements, dues, etc. are all handled. Looks good so far.

braindead0 · Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 2:12 pm Post subject:

I switched from Quicken to GnuCash.. probably about 2000/2001.. I use it to track business and personal finances..works like a charm.
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Poxart

lefou · Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 2:19 pm Post subject:

Anyone of you compared gnucash with KMyMoney2 in the past 3 month? What are your results?
I'm using gnucash too, but there are also many voices that say: use KMyMoney2!

jstead1 · Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 5:43 pm Post subject:

I tried the latest version of kmymoney2 in portage. I couldn't convert my gnucash files over, (kmymoney would crash) that was the biggest barrier to my using it. I tried everything, and the only thing I could get imported was a bare account tree.

Kmymoney also crashed pretty frequently when I was setting up accounts. I didn't try to resolve the problem since I couldn't import the gnucash data anyway.

I have found gnucash to be extremely reliable. About the only problems I have had with it were

occaisonal corruption on scheduled transactions (hasn't happened for awhile)
a conflict between some gtk1 vs gtk2 requirement (gconf I think) that's fixed also
I deleted the helvetica font and gnucash used it, so it wouldn't start (stupid user trick)

Any problem I have had with gnucash could easily be diagnosed by running it from the command line and looking at the error messages. If I couldn't figure it out myself, the users and developers are very active and very helpful and have found a way to fix anything I have broken.

Kmymoney looks much better (subjective) than gnucash, but as far as the mechanics of putting in data and getting out data, gnucash is very well thought out and very easy to use.
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jim

Mongrol · Guru Joined: 14 Sep 2002 Posts: 376

Has anyone got any tips on getting reports out of Gnucash? Things like categorised spends per month etc.?

alaskazimm · Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2005 1:16 am Post subject:

Just to throw another option into the mix - Money Dance. I've been using it for about 5 or 6 mos now and I like it better than GnuCash. Simpler interface and just makes more sense to me. Yeah, you pay for it but $30 to me is a reasonable price. http://moneydance.com/

*Edit* I should also add that it can be downloaded as a free trial to give it a test drive before you buy it.

manny15 · Guru Joined: 01 Dec 2002 Posts: 473 Location: USA

cabbagewalker · Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2005 11:27 pm Post subject:

asiobob · Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2005 12:02 am Post subject:

moneydance looks interesting. If I use it my collection of non free "dependant" software would be growing.

I really cannot be bothered using gnucash untill it is completely ported over from the ancient gtk to gtk2.

Is jus a misfit on the newest Gnome Desktop

VValdo · Guru Joined: 08 Jan 2005 Posts: 395

FWIW I've been waiting ages for the gtk2 version to come out. When it does, I'm switching from Quicken.

W

chovy · Guru Joined: 03 Dec 2004 Posts: 453

PaulBredbury · Watchman Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 7310

For installation of Gnucash, see bugzilla and wiki.