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.
I do!
Been using it for years. It’s the only double entry system I’ve found that I like.
As others have noted, the reports kind of suck, however, the one feature I love is the tax report functionality.
Tag any number of accounts as tax related, and then, at least for the US, the tax form and line/box number, and you can run the tax report that will, hopefully, give you a report for the selected period with stuff like “Form 1040 Box 32: $32,839.09” etc.