Stupid user

Fri Oct 7 21:34:18 EDT 2011

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I AM SO USE TO QUICKEN, FOR THE LIFE OF ME, I CANNOT GRASP THE USE OF THIS
PROGRAM. DOUBLE ENTRY ACCOUNTING STUFF. WHO CARES? ACCOUNTANTS CARE,
BUT  I
DON'T WANT TO BE AN ACCOUNTANT. I'M 71 YEARS OLD. I HAVE AN ACCOUNTANT AND
HE TAKES MY PRINT OUT OF WHAT AND WHERE I SPENT AND DOES HIS JOB.

I AM ONLY INTERESTED  IN  LISTING PAYEES, CATEGORIES, BALANCES,
RECONCILING,

 A PROFIT AND LOSS AND A YEAR ENDING PRINTABLE STATEMENT.  "PERIOD"  .
WELL
MAYBE A PIE CHART.

LIKE MICROSOFT, QUICKEN HAS TO KEEP CHANGING THEIR SOFTWARE TO STAY IN
BUSINESS. UNFORTUNATELY FOR ME THE PRODUCT DOES NOT GET EASIER TO USE,
JUST
MORE SOPHISTICATED BELLS AND WHISTLES AND CONFUSING. " REMEMBER I'M
STUPID"

YESTERDAY IN GNUC , I ENTERED FROM MY JANUARY'S BANK STATEMENT INTO YOUR
REGISTER THAT HAD NO WHERE TO PUT A CATEGORY. THEN I SAVED IT. I COULD NOT
BACK IT UP TO DISC.

THIS MORNING I OPENED GNUCASH AND CANNOT FIND THE JANUARY REGISTER I WAS
WORKING ON. I CANT FIND THE FILE IN MY DOCUMENTS OR ANYWHERE.

IF YOU LIKE I WILL COME DOWN WHERE EVER YOU ARE AND SIT DOWN AND YOU CAN
WRITE A PROGRAM, PICKING MY STUPID BRAIN SO THE REST OF THE WORLD CAN
UNDERSTAND HOW TO USE IT.

I'M NOT A SOFTWARE WRITER BUT HOW DIFFICULT WOULD IT BE TO TAKE SEGMENTS
FROM THE GNU PROGRAM , CHANGE SOME WORDS TO CREATE A SIMPLE COMPREHENSIVE
VERSION OF A CHECKING ACCOUNT RECONCILIATION PROGRAM ?

I'LL BET YOU TEN BUCKS THAT MOST OF THE PEOPLE WHO DOWN LOAD YOUR PROGRAM
ARE NON ACCOUNTANTS, JUST LIKE ME AND GIVE UP. BUT YOU DON'T HEAR FROM
THEM.

I'M SURE I'M NOT ALONE WHEN I SAY I WOULD GLADLY PAY FOR AN OPEN SOURCE
PROGRAM THAT DOES NOT CHANGE FROM YEAR TO YEAR UNLESS THE PROGRAM GETS "
EASIER" TO USE!!!!!

BACK IN 1984, I WROTE A LETTER LIKE THIS TO A NICE YOUNG SOFTWARE
WRITER IN
NEWPORT NEWS VA.  AND HELPED HIM WITH SUGGESTIONS TO REWRITE HIS PAYROLL
SOFTWARE CALLED  "PC PAYROLL" THAT WORKED FINE AND CHARLIE WAS
GRATEFUL FOR
MY HELP. I USED THAT PROGRAM FOR THE 2 BUSINESS I HAD. WORKED GREAT.

SOMETIMES PEOPLE ARE TOO CLOSE TO THE TREES TO SEE THE FOREST.

KEEP THEM HONEST. LINUS.  GO GET EM.

THANKS FOR READING THIS

SINCERELY
                                                                      TOM
GRADY

Tom,

You and I are about the same age and I agree with you- make things
simple and not so complex.

I've been using GC for the past 2 plus years and haven't found it too
terribly difficult to learn how to use.  Sometimes it was confusing
but that was because I was "thinking too hard".  GC is A LOT easier to
use than Quicken.  Quicken is more attractive to the eyes and GC is
truly a functional program- nothing greatly beautiful in looks about it.

The big difference between Quicken and GC is that GC relies upon
"accounts" and Quicken relies upon Categories.  As far as I'm
concerned they're the same things.

For example;

An Account named:  		My House

Which has several sub accounts called-	repairs
					telephone
					electricity
					propane
					lawn cutting expenses
					Food

Since I make most payments with my VISA credit card (which I treat as
an account named "VISA", when I get my credit card statement I
download my transactions in a QFX file from VISA (it seems if you
select a "Web Connect file for Quicken download" you'll get a QFX file
which GC uses.

I then go to the account in GC named VISA and click FILE-->IMPORT--->
QFX file and select the file I just downloaded from VISA.  The
transactions ultimately end up in my VISA account.  From there I can
add "accounts" to replace any transactions that have the word
"imbalance" in them.

I don't know if that helps you....but.....for me GC is much easier to
use than Quicken.  I understand your concerns about "double
entry"...it does seem rather strange but it's helpful.

The reason I stopped using Quicken was they had some "partnership"
with Bank of America that received a bailout in 2007/2008 which the
wretched bank should've simply been allowed to fail.  Also, as you
mentioned, they keep changing the software- I was sick and tired of
having to pay for a new program every few years just so I could
download transactions into my accounts.  So, I tried GC using Windows
but everyone suggested using a Linux OS....so I did and am very glad I
did.

Are you running a Linux based system?

There's also a philosophical portion of this that not too many people
address;  GC is Open Source.  The program "code" can be re-viewed by
anyone that has an interest to do so.  The experts that study that
sort of thing can determine, amongst other things, whether the code is
malicious...if it's sending your account information to a 3rd party
(for example) without your permission or "data mining" your
transactions and sending them to some marketing firm.

Quicken is proprietary close source.  Exactly what they do with the
data that's in your QDF file (I think that's the extension) or
information you give them when you buy the program is not too well
known much less understood.  I simply don't trust any program that's
not Open Source and don't care one bit about "proprietary" or copy
right protected software- it's just too risky to use.

As GnuCash is Open Source we derive great benefit from those that are
working on the program world wide 24 hours a day.  Both working to
improve it and help numbskulls like myself in using it.  And it's all
free!  Free tech help and a free program!

As I said before, GnuCash is a lot easier to use than Quicken once you
figure out a few simple steps.  Give it try and work with it in
parallel to Quicken.  People on here will help you with any GC problem
you might have.  They're pretty darn patient and certainly not
belligerent

Best wishes, etc,

Alek

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