Budgeting in GnuCash

[Matthew Vanecek]

Joshua Sled wrote:
> | It's pretty difficult to limit
> | expenditure when everything is actually stored in one place (bank account,
> | cash), and the allocations are stored separately to where the spending
> | decisions are made (at the mall)...
> 
> Yes.  Maybe some PalmPilot application can help, here, but I'm trying
> to keep that idea out of my head for the moment. :)  It can also help
> with creation of the budget in the first place, but PocketQuicken may be
> enough... and I digress...
> 

There are several Palm applications out there.  I'm currently trying
Quik Budget (http://www.quikbudget.com).  It uses the envelopes
approach, and is pretty capable.  Doesn't sync with any Linux apps (yet
=P).  It has a csv exporter for which the author released the
source--I'm currently porting it to Linux.  It's a bitch--it was written
in VC++ using some VC++ reference programs.  It just reminds how much I
hate that program...

Anyhow, AFAICT, there are not any free budgeting tools for the Palm OS
which are capable.  What I want to do is create a conduit for this Quik
Budget to GNUCash (but I'd like the interface to be generic enough so
that anyone could write a Palm OS budget app and use this conduit).  I'm
thinking right now just on a transactional level--getting transactions
off the Visor (or Palm) into GNUCash into the appropriate account.

Hopefully any budget interface would export enough of an API to also
include it in a conduit.  That would really depend on how it's written,
though.  If you go with my idea, then transactions entered would be
automagically applied to the appropriate Budget
category/envelope/wallet/whatever, and a conduit to the Budget wouldn't
really be necessary.

Anyhow, I'm working on the csv exporter from Quik Budget, which I hope
to turn into a QIF exporter or something similar.

Eventually, I'll probably want to write my own budget software for the
Palm OS, but this seemed like a good place to start.
-- 
Matthew Vanecek
perl -e 'print
$i=pack(c5,(41*2),sqrt(7056),(unpack(c,H)-2),oct(115),10);'
********************************************************************************
For 93 million miles, there is nothing between the sun and my shadow
except me.
I'm always getting in the way of something...