Managing Money With Linux Apps

lisah writes, "As part of a series of special reports this week, Linux.com is reviewing several ways to manage your money using Linux apps. First up is a review of GnuCash 2.0, a personal and small business accounting package. Though it has a bit of a learning curve, the reviewer says the application is 'stable and robust' and an upgrade from previous versions is well worth it for the program's new features and improved online banking support." Linux.com and Slashdot are both part of OSTG.

GNUcash? GNOsupport.

[uvajed_ekil]

GNUcash is undoubtedly a fine application, and one I wish more people would consider using. Though it does most everything quite well, very few banks and accountants support it fully. Some (many) of us are stuck using Quickbooks because it has become so standard. To its credit, Quickbooks works well for most of us, but it would be nice to have a viable free (or even more reasonably-priced) alternative.

Re:OO Calc or Excel

[Xrikcus]

Someone else has already setup the spreadsheet and shortcuts for you :)

Really it's just a spreadsheet dedicated to a particular task that it does well. You're paying someone a little to do that setup for you.

Re:MoneyDance is better

[Copperhead]

I second the MoneyDance recommendation. I used GnuCash for a while (pre 2.0), and it was really too complicated for what I needed. MoneyDance does what I need it to do, plus I can have a client on my linux box at home and my windows laptop on the road.

MANAGING MONEY != CHECKBOOK REGISTER

[dwayner79]

I would like to budget, reconcile each month, many months, or yearly against the budget. I want to track spending, forecast spending. I would also like to track interest payments, automatically get yearly tax return values, and plan out my retirement.

I guess someone COULD do that with an excel sheet, but it would be a crapload of work, and foolish considering other software packages exist that do it already.

Intuit has an online version (I do not remember it as IE only). So that may be another option for the linux users who don't wear tin hats.

Re:Moneydance rocks my stocks

[Yort]

The appeal of MoneyDance is: it works, and it is relatively simple.

There are many people, at least in my sphere of influence, who only really need a computer for websurfing and email. Those two things can easily be done with Linux, and as long as I set up the plugins for them so that Flash and RealPlayer and all that work, they don't even really realize that they're not running what everyone else is.

However, for many people this falls apart when you get to money managing. Most people know about Quicken, and would like to be able to track finances that way. These people just want some simple application - they really don't care about double-entry accounting, they just care that the interface is clean and easy to understand. Moneydance delivers. It also lets them download bank and credit card statements, and it even has a lot of the bells and whistles that a more advanced financial person uses.

I initially looked at both Moneydance and GnuCash, and at that point Moneydance was far more user-friendly, both from a setup/maintenance and usability standpoint. Plus, I've been able to keep the same program as I had to move my primary computer from Linux to Windows to Mac.

So if you're a hard-core Linux/Open-Source geek, then sure, Moneydance doesn't hold a lot of sway over GnuCash. But if you're a more casual user who just wants to know how much money they've got to spend on Guitar Hero II, then Moneydance rocks.

Re:Moneydance rocks my stocks

[Yort]

This is true if you are on Windows. If you are not on Windows, or are someone (like me) for whom your OS is not always consistent, then Quicken/Money are not really options (if you can figure out how to run Quicken/Money on Linux/Mac, then you can figure out GnuCash). Moneydance is more for Mac users as well as casual Linux users - for example, there are some people for whom I am able to either replace or put together a small, cheap Linux machine that they can surf the web and read email from, and that's all they need... but sometimes they want to be able to write a document (OpenOffice/Abiword) or track their finances (Moneydance). For Mac users, I've heard that Quicken for Mac is horrible, in which case Moneydance would be the clear winner.