Considering GNUCash

[Shane Litherland]

Hi all,

> Message: 3
> Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:42:57 -0500
> From: Mike or Penny Novack <stepbystepfarm at mtdata.com>
<snip>
> However should perhaps note that I am familiar with bookkeeping even of 
> the old pen and ink on paper type. It really helps if you understand the 
> fundamentals and can treat gnucash as simply what is automating the 
> process for you. That is really true of almost any accounting package, 
> even the ones you pay big bucks for.
> 
> Michael
> 
well said indeed Michael.

Jerry, I would recommend GNUcash for you, after having used it for a few
years now for a small family business.

It sounds like you would only need to use the 'bare basics' of GNUcash
which should be fairly easy to pick up if you've already used some form
of electronic accounts before. I found the help docs/FAQ's/Wikis on
GNUcash very good in both explaining the accounting concepts and how to
use GNUcash to achieve it.

So spend a bit of time reading those (mostly online?) first :-)

I've made use of some of the business tools (e.g. A/P, A/R, billing and
invoicing) but in reality, I could probably get all the info I need for
reporting and tax-returns by using direct entry into the ledgers. I just
liked some of the extra detail, tax info and read-only aspects that
those business tools provided.
If you are using it for some business-type records, don't feel compelled
to use all those options in GNUcash if you find keeping it simple works
fine :-)

The reconciling works well for me. Just take heed of the GNUcash warning
about editing amounts in reconciled entries if you ever come across it.
It is possible but one should probably have a healthy understanding of
GNUcash internals (and have a backup) before playing there. Entering new
txns as adjustments is probably a safer way, IMHO.

As for reporting - there's plenty of options, some of which (for me)
seem to overlap a lot so you can often get the answers you want in
different layouts. The report options are generally straight-forward to
change.

A tip that is mentioned reasonably often regarding reports, is if you
design a layout that you like and use a lot, you can either save that
report (see the instructions) or just keep that report tab open all the
time in GNUcash and each time you start up GNUcash it will be there
ready with your settings.

Apart from that... give it a whirl. All it will cost you is a bit of
spare time ;-)

-shane.


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