Linux alternatives to Quicken Personal finance software for Windows?
Gunnar
I was just on the phone with Intuit Canada re my Quicken XG software. It
seems I have to dish out $60 + taxes to continue using the program I
purchased a year ago. I am unwilling to pay more money for a product I have
allready purchased. They want my money so I can continue importing a file
from disk which contains my bank transactions. I think not.
Which similar programs exist for Linux? I remember reading about GNU-cash in
some previous posts here.
I have been contemplating using Linux more anyway, so maybe Intuit helped to
push me in the right direction. :-)
Gunnar.
Dances With Crows
and said:
> I was just on the phone with Intuit Canada re my Quicken XG software.
> Which similar programs exist for Linux? I remember reading about
> GNU-cash in some previous posts here.
GNUcash is not an exact clone of Quicken. It does a lot of things, but
there are always some people who say, "I need feature X, and GNUcash
doesn't do that, so I'm stuck with Quicken...." Follow up to this
message with a list of things you need, like, "I need to do X, Y, and
Z," and someone will be able to tell you whether GNUcash can do those
things.
The only other Linux personal finance program I've heard about is
Moneydance. I've never used that, though. GNUcash works fine for my
personal finances, but my financial situation is simple and I don't have
to import data from other formats or print anything out. YMMV as
always.
--
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Robert Heller
Gnucash is what you want. Gnucash will import QIF files.
">
">
"> Gunnar.
">
">
">
\/
Robert Heller ||InterNet: hel...@cs.umass.edu
http://vis-www.cs.umass.edu/~heller || hel...@deepsoft.com
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Robert Heller
In a message on 10 Jun 2004 17:59:13 GMT, wrote :
DWC> On Thu, 10 Jun 2004 17:47:49 GMT, Gunnar staggered into the Black Sun
DWC> and said:
DWC> > I was just on the phone with Intuit Canada re my Quicken XG software.
DWC> > It seems I have to dish out $60 + taxes to continue using the program.
DWC> > Which similar programs exist for Linux? I remember reading about
DWC> > GNU-cash in some previous posts here.
DWC>
DWC> GNUcash is not an exact clone of Quicken. It does a lot of things, but
DWC> there are always some people who say, "I need feature X, and GNUcash
DWC> doesn't do that, so I'm stuck with Quicken...." Follow up to this
DWC> message with a list of things you need, like, "I need to do X, Y, and
DWC> Z," and someone will be able to tell you whether GNUcash can do those
DWC> things.
At this point there are only a *few* features 'lacking' in GNUCash WRT
Quicken. *Some* of these features are not really useful (mostly
creeping featurism or random eye-candy). Others are 'in the works' in
the 2.0 release of GNUCash (this is mostly a matter of time constraints
on the part of the programs, which could be helped some by making a
donation to GNUCash via SourceForge).
DWC>
DWC> The only other Linux personal finance program I've heard about is
DWC> Moneydance. I've never used that, though. GNUcash works fine for my
DWC> personal finances, but my financial situation is simple and I don't have
DWC> to import data from other formats or print anything out. YMMV as
DWC> always.
I believe that GNUCash imports from all of the known formats used by
banks as download formats and can import from what Quicken can export
(some manual cleanup *might* be needed). It lacks the close-knit
interface level possible with Quicken, but most banks don't require
that functionality to work. GNUCash can only print one check at a
time (there is some work on 'queuing up' checks to print several at a
time -- eg for 3 to the page checkbooks). GNUCash does not presently
have a 'budgeting' hack, but you can generally fake this with scheduled
transactions. Some eye-candy-ish features are 'missing' -- none of
which are really critical.
This is all off the top of my head and from comments in the GNUCash
users' mailing list. I've never used any flavor of Quicken, so I have no
clue what I might be missing. There are no *critical* features missing
that affect me much -- nothing that *I* can't live without.
DWC>
DWC> --
DWC> Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see
DWC> Brainbench MVP for Linux Admin / mail: TRAP + SPAN don't belong
DWC> http://www.brainbench.com / Hire me!
DWC> -----------------------------/ http://crow202.dyndns.org/~mhgraham/resume
DWC>
Rinaldi J. Montessi
> Which similar programs exist for Linux? I remember reading about GNU-cash in
> some previous posts here.
> I have been contemplating using Linux more anyway, so maybe Intuit helped to
> push me in the right direction. :-)
I use both GnuCash and MoneyDance, although MoneyDance has become my
favorite. Gnucash on slackware was no fun to get up and running, while
Moneydance worked "out of the box".
There is a demonstration version of Moneydance http://www.moneydance.com
available, limited number of transactons (100?) registration/purchase
required thereafter. Support is tremendous.
Rinaldi
--
A pedestal is as much a prison as any small, confined space.
-- Gloria Steinem
Noah Roberts
> On Thu, 10 Jun 2004 17:47:49 GMT, Gunnar wrote:
>
>
>>Which similar programs exist for Linux? I remember reading about GNU-cash in
>>some previous posts here.
>>I have been contemplating using Linux more anyway, so maybe Intuit helped to
>>push me in the right direction. :-)
>
>
> I use both GnuCash and MoneyDance, although MoneyDance has become my
> favorite. Gnucash on slackware was no fun to get up and running, while
> Moneydance worked "out of the box".
>
> There is a demonstration version of Moneydance http://www.moneydance.com
> available, limited number of transactons (100?) registration/purchase
> required thereafter. Support is tremendous.
>
Does moneydance have an inventory system? Can payments be associated
with invoices so that you know when a particular invoice is payed
instead of relying on customer balance sheets?
Gnucash seems to have these features available in the engine, but the
interface doesn't use them. The inventory system especially is needed
for doing sales accurately.
NR
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John-Paul Stewart
>
> Does moneydance have an inventory system? Can payments be associated
> with invoices so that you know when a particular invoice is payed
> instead of relying on customer balance sheets?
>
> Gnucash seems to have these features available in the engine, but the
> interface doesn't use them. The inventory system especially is needed
> for doing sales accurately.
If you're doing business-related finances and thus dealing with
inventory and invoicing issues, you might want to have a look at
SQL-Ledger (http://www.sql-ledger.org/).
John Hasler
> Does moneydance have an inventory system? Can payments be associated
> with invoices so that you know when a particular invoice is payed instead
> of relying on customer balance sheets?
> Gnucash seems to have these features available in the engine, but the
> interface doesn't use them. The inventory system especially is needed
> for doing sales accurately.
Sounds like you want SQL-Ledger.
--
John Hasler
jo...@dhh.gt.org (John Hasler)
Dancing Horse Hill
Elmwood, WI
Christopher Browne
GnuCash is certainly the most "similar" package to Quicken.
There are other options, mostly less functional than GnuCash.
http://cbbrowne.com/info/cbb.html
http://cbbrowne.com/info/miscpersonalfinance.html
If you're after a QuickBooks alternative, I'd point to SQL-Ledger
<http://SQL-Ledger.org/>, which provides a web-based interface on top
of a relational database like PostgreSQL.
They suggest using Apache as the web server to run it; I had to do an
upgrade last night because the box I was hosting my Apache instance
got "shot in the disk drive." I just _despise_ the Apache
configuration scheme; it is bountifully powerful, which is great if
you are trying to configure some hideously complex web server complex,
but it's terrible if all you want is to run a simple CGI application.
I installed Boa, and all I needed to put in place to make it work was
the line:
ScriptAlias /sql-ledger/ /var/www/sql-ledger/
--
"cbbrowne","@","acm.org"
http://www.ntlug.org/~cbbrowne/financelinux.html
Rules of the Evil Overlord #150. "I will provide funding and research
to develop tactical and strategic weapons covering a full range of
needs so my choices are not limited to "hand to hand combat with
swords" and "blow up the planet"." <http://www.eviloverlord.com/>
Christopher Browne
> Rinaldi J. Montessi wrote:
>> On Thu, 10 Jun 2004 17:47:49 GMT, Gunnar wrote:
>>
>>>Which similar programs exist for Linux? I remember reading about GNU-cash in
>>>some previous posts here.
>>>I have been contemplating using Linux more anyway, so maybe Intuit helped to
>>>push me in the right direction. :-)
>> I use both GnuCash and MoneyDance, although MoneyDance has become my
>> favorite. Gnucash on slackware was no fun to get up and running,
>> while Moneydance worked "out of the box". There is a demonstration
>> version of Moneydance http://www.moneydance.com available, limited
>> number of transactons (100?) registration/purchase required
>> thereafter. Support is tremendous.
>
> Does moneydance have an inventory system? Can payments be associated
> with invoices so that you know when a particular invoice is payed
> instead of relying on customer balance sheets?
>
> Gnucash seems to have these features available in the engine, but the
> interface doesn't use them. The inventory system especially is needed
> for doing sales accurately.
It sounds as though you're getting to the "edges" of what GnuCash
supports. It has _some_ support for this, but it's neither mature nor
extensive.
It may be more suitable to look at SQL-Ledger, which is a bit weaker
on "pure cash-oriented" transactions, but which is WAY stronger for
business transaction flow (e.g. - AP, AR, Inventory).
<http://sql-ledger.org/>
--
output = reverse("gro.gultn" "@" "enworbbc")
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"On a normal ascii line, the only safe condition to detect is a
'BREAK' - everything else having been assigned functions by Gnu
EMACS." -- Tarl Neustaedter
Legiret Fabien
I don't understand how someone can say that GnuCash is "the most similar"
package to Quicken !!!???
The two programs philosophy is completely different.
You can try too : "Grisbi" it's the one I use everyday, it's simple and
"personal use" oriented and can import Qif files too.
http://www.grisbi.org/
For my part, i was looking since a very long time before finding a solution
to replace Microsoft Money, few years ago. That was, one of the bigest
reason why I was not using Linux. The offer under linux is very light as
everyone considere Gnucash as the only one usable (we have the same
situation with "The Gimp"). And in fact, I persist to say that Gnucash is
not adapted for a personal use (but it's my own point of view). The result
of that is that nobody produce concurrent programs of Gnucash or "The Gimp"
who are both too complicated in their respective domain for a personal use
(I mean not specialist in the domain).
I hope this help.
Keith Keller
Hash: SHA1
On 2004-06-11, Legiret Fabien <fabien.-...@libertysurf.fr> wrote:
> You can try too : "Grisbi" it's the one I use everyday, it's simple and
> "personal use" oriented and can import Qif files too.
> http://www.grisbi.org/
Is all of Grisbi's documentation only in French, or just the docs
on the web site? If the former, it would seem that GnuCash is the
only (free) Quicken alternative for people who can read English but
not French.
- --keith
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John Hasler
> It may be more suitable to look at SQL-Ledger, which is a bit weaker on
It now has some "POS" stuff which looks like it could handle my cash
transactions, but I haven't been able to get it to work yet.
> ...but which is WAY stronger for business transaction flow (e.g. - AP,
> AR, Inventory).
Which is why I would use it if it would just support cash transactions.
How many businesses never deal in cash?
--
John Hasler
jo...@dhh.gt.org
Dancing Horse Hill
Elmwood, Wisconsin