At the end of 2022, I discovered this software that I’ve been using all year. I’d like to hear your thoughts or experiences with GnuCash, or whatever system/program you use to track your personal finances!
For the ones unfamiliar, it’s based on a double-entry accounting system; every transaction always has at least two accounts involved. Example: if I spend 200 SEK on a restaurant, it goes from Assets:Cash to Expenses:Food.
Starting by creating my own accounts, it helped me immensely to have an overview of my general financial situation.
Around March, I found enlightening to re-define what expenses needed their own category from what I was unconsciously lumping into ‘others’. Having it all already logged, made it quite easy . The caveat is that all the entries are manual, but my finances are not as complex, so with 30-45 minutes a week I have it updated.
You can even create diagrams for your monthly expenses, or general balance, among other reports that come quite handy if you want to run a query.
Used Gnucash many years ago. I’m comfortable with double entry bookkeeping, but the charts and reports were disappointing.
I switched to Ynab and then Moneydance, which is okay. If the charts and UI has improved I’ll take another look at Gnucash.
I’m unsure how the interface has changed in recent years. What’d be some more decent visuals you’d like to see?
By the way, what drove you to Moneydance, any feature you’d highlight?
Charts in Ynab4 were fairly sophisticated. For example, I could easily drill down into categories on monthly income/expenses. They also looked great since the devs put a lot of thought into the UX.
I switched to Moneydance after nYnab came out and Ynab4 was killed off. I’m not an adherent to Ynab’s budgeting philosophy and I didn’t see the worth in the monthly fee.
Like Ynab4, Moneydance is a standalone product. It’s manual accounting, which I don’t mind. It’s quick to enter transactions, has a nice summary view, and can backup to separate locations. When I decide to migrate, I can export my data to QIF or other formats.
I switched from Moneydance to Moneyspire a couple years ago. Similar functionality, and I think it looks better.
I’ll check it out, thanks.
After what happened with Quicken and QuickBooks, using proprietary accounting software seems like an exceedingly bad idea.