Philosophical Question (GnuCash)

[Vaughn Treude]

My two cents again:
I'd also like to try GnuCash.  I use QuickBooks right now, but the most 
annoying thing (other than the fact that it runs in Windows) is that they 
keep trying to wring extra money out of you.  Every year there's a new set of 
tax tables, and they're not cheap.  And they're always pushing new versions 
and changing the file formats.  I got tired of paying for the new tax tables 
- since I'm my company's only employee, it was a small convenience.  I 
finally just took the IRS Employers' Guide and used it to do a spreadsheet to 
calculate my withholding, then I'd enter all those figures in manually.  I 
would've already converted to GnuCash, but the QB file formats are different 
than Quicken's, and the last time I checked, there were no converters for 
QB's files.  If I can ever make the time, maybe I'll look into working on 
that myself.

Vaughn Treude

On Thursday 30 January 2003 23:19, you wrote:
> > I'm inclined to want to keep on with it instead of learning a whole new
> > program, but on the other hand I sort of like the dea of going all open
> > source.
>
> Life is learning, I would recommend stopping either :)
>
> > What will win out, convienience or ideology?
> >
> > Are there any gnucash users out there that can give some feedback, pro
> > and con on this application? My accounting is one of my mission criticle
> > items so I don't want to make a mistake.
>
> Well, I've been a GnuCash user since the mid nineties when it was still
> Xaccountant (that's not quite the history, but it works).  I would have to
> say that I'm pretty impressed with the program, especially in it's growth
> (it wasn't always the program it is today, and 1.8 is coming out shortly).
> Here are some things that I like:
>
> - GnuCash is full double entry accounting, but you don't have to know that
> to use it.  GnuCash allows you to set up your Expense categories (like
> Quicken, except that it doesn't come with a default set :( ) and then just
> put every expense into a category right on the register.  But then, if you
> want to use true double entry for a transaction (something like a split
> transaction) you can go into the full register and have fun.  (I do this
> for things like my paycheck, which has various taxes taken out of it, but
> is still one transaction)
>
> - There are some nice default graphs.  I have about 5 graphs that I use
> consitently to look at how my finances are doing, and how much I'm
> spending.  These allow me to see whether I can really afford that flat
> screen :)  (I'm not entirely sure if realizing that I can't afford the
> flat screen is a good thing though)
>
> - Scriptability.  There is complete Scheme back end for custom reports.
> I've played with it a little, but I have done anything impressive yet.
> Some people may see this as a bad thing, but (like (I Scheme)).
>
> - It's simple and straightforward.  I tried to work with my dad on Quicken
> and dialogs kept popping up and trying to show me movies and stuff, I
> really found that annoying.  If nothing else the GnuCash people can't
> afford to make movies :)
>
> - Quicken won't run on my PPC Linux (yes, I could run Quicken in MOL, but
> what about if I switch to Alpha or MIPS?)
>
> Some downsides:
>
> - I haven't found a good way to import all my data into Turbo Tax, but I
> don't have that much tax related data, so it isn't a really issue for me.
>
> - I have never seen a program with more dependencies.  If it doesn't come
> with your distribution, don't try installing it yourself - there is no
> pain like trying to find the dependencies for GnuCash (apt would probably
> help now, but I tried for 1.6...)
>
> - Start up time is a little bit slow, not enough to be annoying, but
> longer that alot of other program.  This also could be because my data
> files are over 3 MB now :)
>
>
> So, I like GnuCash, I hope that you give it a try... Ask if you have any
> questions.
>
> 		--Ted
>
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