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.
Been using gnucash for ≈7 years and havent found anything better. It has its quirks but once you get used to it its pretty straightforward and easy for the basics
I just wish reports were more customizable/ easier to create custom ones without learning a language i’ve never heard of before
The learning curve wasn’t as steep as I initially thought. For my basic transactions, that is; I haven’t figured out how to deal with stocks though.
Totally agree with the customization. I only toyed around with the options given, but didn’t know you could change them programatically! Is it a language solely for GnuCash?
Stocks and shares and investments docs are here, but let me know if you get stuck and ill try and help out as I also track stocks
I dont know, about the language. Its written in Scheme and Guile. Id never heard of them until Gnucash. That said the built in reports and options are enough for what i want. A multiplot custom chart option would be useful but i just export to spreadsheet at that point and plot there