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.

  • deconstruct@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Charts in Ynab4 were fairly sophisticated. For example, I could easily drill down into categories on monthly income/expenses. They also looked great since the devs put a lot of thought into the UX.

    I switched to Moneydance after nYnab came out and Ynab4 was killed off. I’m not an adherent to Ynab’s budgeting philosophy and I didn’t see the worth in the monthly fee.

    Like Ynab4, Moneydance is a standalone product. It’s manual accounting, which I don’t mind. It’s quick to enter transactions, has a nice summary view, and can backup to separate locations. When I decide to migrate, I can export my data to QIF or other formats.