Budgeting with GnuCash

[John Arrowwood]

Well, on the plus side, MOST of what I wanted is already handled, by means 
of scheduled transactions and the fact that there is a 'balance' as of 
today, as well as for the future.  Some of what I asked about was give me 
that ability.  Since that is there, that part is moot.

Most of the rest of what I want can be accomplished through reports, and 
modifying the transactions after they have been auto-created.  And until I 
get a chance to learn scheme, I've already got an export to csv that I can 
use Access to query with SQL.  So my budgeting needs are handled for now.

The rest of what I asked for is just for the anal-retentive types who like 
detailed reports.  Business users would want those features...I don't really 
NEED them.

But...when I finish my other projects...if I ever do...then you may get some 
patches from me! :)


>From: Derek Atkins <warlord at MIT.EDU>
>To: john at hanlonsrazor.com
>CC: gnucash-user at lists.gnucash.org, gnucash-devel at lists.gnucash.org
>Subject: Re: Budgeting with GnuCash
>Date: Sat, 29 May 2004 21:10:55 -0400
>
>"John Arrowwood" <jarrowwx at hotmail.com> writes:
>
> > Could someone please describe the features of GnuCash for use with
> > budgeting?
>
>Gnucash doesn't support budgetting...  You should go through the
>archive from around September 2003 and read the huge thread on this
>topic.
>
> > Here's a summary of what I'd LIKE to be able to do.  Could someone
> > please tell me which are doable now, and which would require changes
> > to GnuCash?  And for those requiring changes, how hard it would be to
> > get those changes?
>
>The latter question is easy:  it's as easy as you sending in patches.
>As for the former....
>
> > * Ability to specify a budget amount for each account.
> >   - the amount is for a given period, e.g. the week, month, quarter,
> > or year.  (I'd be happy if it was just months)
> >   - previous budget amounts are saved, facilitating budget vs. actual
> > reports after-the-fact.
>
>Nope, would require changes.
>
> > * Budget vs. Actual report, single and multi-column
>
>Would require changes.
>
> > * Budgeting report - multi-column showing e.g. one column per month,
> > with 'average' for the last column
>
>Would require changes..  Seeing a pattern?
>
> > * Spreadsheet like interface to budget amounts allowing easy data
> > entry and scenario exploration
> >   - alternatively, a report that exports a spreadsheet format which
> > can be opened and tweaked
> >   - maybe with auto-re-import of the spreadsheet after tweaking (yeah,
> > right!)
>
>ibid.
>
> > * Flag on transactions indicating that the transaction is
> > 'placeholder' or budget
> >   - allow alternate coloration for placeholder transactions for easy
> > identification
> >   - additional 'balance'...  one that includes placeholder
> > transactions, one without
> >   - alternatively, the field for reconciliation could just have
> > another state for 'budget'
>
>Uhh... This doesn't make sense.  The budgetting system should be
>completely different from the financial transactions.  The budgets
>should be directly mapped to existing accounts.
>
> > * Additional transaction fields
> >   - Transaction time
> >   - Receipt?  (flag)
> >   - Who performed the transaction
> >   - Date cleared
> >   - Bank transaction description
> >   - ???
>
>All of these would require changes..  The txn time is probably the
>easiest of them all -- no data format changes at all, just a small API
>and UI change.
>
> > Is this doable with GnuCash, or would you suggest using something else?
>
>Well, it's all "doable" if changes are made to the code.  None of it
>is doable _now_ (i.e., gnucash doesn't do any of this right now).
>
>You're welcome to work on this.  You should work with Darin Willits to
>make sure you don't overlap with the budgetting work he's been hacking
>on.  As much of this is UI work, it should happen on the g2 branch.
>
>I look forward to your patches.  Thank you for volunteering!  :)
>
> > Thanks!
>
>-derek
>
>--
>        Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
>        Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
>        URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
>        warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available
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