I know you asked for free and Linux, but if you are serious about starting a business, you should consider Quickbooks. I think it's obnoxious, but I can take my Quickbooks file to any accountant and they can update, analyze, and/or correct it as necessary. You can find cheap older versions on Craigslist or eBay. I despise recommending Quickbooks AND windows, but it's been the right tool, which is more important to me. Good luck! Eric On Apr 26, 2012, at 8:39 PM, Nathan England wrote: > > > I appreciate the info and the quick lesson. I found the program extremely unintuitive, but double-entry accounting completely escapes me! > > On Thursday, April 26, 2012 19:07:20 Matt Graham wrote: > > From: Nathan England > > > > > http://moneydance.com/ > > > Is by far the best, though it is not free > > > > The OP said he was looking for free stuff. I guess this might work if > > you're willing to pay them whatever yearly fee they're charging now. > > > > > GnuCash is an accounting program but it is so complicated to use it > > > is not worth the time or hassle. > > > > Seriously? I started using GNUcash in 2000, when the documentation was > > barely there. I've never had any formal accounting training, and I figured > > it all out pretty quickly. The double-entry bookkeeping that GNUcash uses > > makes it really easy to see how much you've spent from date X to date Y on > > (category of expenses), and it'll track stocks/bonds/mutual funds if you > > install Finance::Quote. > > > > Take a look at the basic help, > > http://gnucash.org/docs/v2.4/C/gnucash-help/help.html , and see if anything > > in the advanced help , > > http://gnucash.org/docs/v2.4/C/gnucash-guide/index.html is interesting. > > > > The thing to do when setting up GNUcash is to start out your checking > > account opening balance with the opening balance on the first of (month), > > then just enter all the income/expenses from then til today that are on > > your bank statement. Start your cash in wallet opening balance with the > > bills in your wallet. *DON'T* try to enter everything you have records of, > > just pick a start date.[0] Then spend 5 minutes every day recording what > > you spent that day and what you spent it on. It should become second > > nature pretty quickly. > > > > If you're going somewhere without your computer[1], one way to keep records > > is to write down how much cash is in your wallet right before you leave, > > and call that X. Then write down how much is in there when you get back, > > and call that Y. Take (X - Y) and charge that to > > Expenses:Entertainment:Travel [2] with a description of "trip to > > $SOMEWHERE". Debit card/whatever charges will show up on your bank's page > > and you can just enter those numbers when you get back. > > > > If you're really hardcore, you can read > > http://gnucash.org/docs/v2.4/C/gnucash-guide/txns-registers1.html#txns-regis > > ters-multiaccount2 , so you can split every grocery/restaurant bill into > > "bill" and "sales tax". Then at the end of the year/month, you can complain > > about how the government's wasting your $XXX.YY on $THINGS_YOU_DONT_LIKE . > > > > [0] Accountants, feel free to gasp in horror here. > > [1] I know, that's crazy talk, man. > > [2] The default setup should create a bunch of expense accounts like that. > -- > > Regards, > > Nathan England > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > NME Computer Services http://www.nmecs.com > Nathan England (nathan@nmecs.com) > Systems Administration / Web Application Development > Information Security and Consulting > (480) 559.9681 > > > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss