Reliability of Gnu Cash software

[John Dablin]

I started using Gnucash on Linux to keep the accounts for a community 
wind band I play in. I'm startled to see that the first entries are 
dated April 2001, but I may have copied the first year's entries from my 
old system meaning I've been using Gnucash for 12 years!. I now handle 
some £8000 a year income and expenditure for the band.

 From 2006 to 2011 I worked for myself as a sole trader and used Gnucash 
for my accounts, using the A/R system to keep track of invoices (I 
didn't need accounts payable as my expenditure was too simple). Then 
last year I started to use it to keep the accounts for another 
organisation where I'm treasurer.

In all that time I can't remember any problems with the program. It 
never crashes, and if I've ever lost data it was something I did wrong, 
usually because I didn't understand what I was doing. Luckily I back up 
the data files after every session so I can always go back to a recent copy.

It was a fairly steep learning curve to begin with, mainly because I'm 
not an accountant and didn't understand the accounting principles behind 
Gnucash, not because its particularly difficult to use. I've been on the 
mailing list a long time as well, and my impression is that half the 
queries are concerned with online banking, rather than the core Gnucash 
program. Also users of Microsoft Windows seem to have more problems 
installing and setting up the program than Linux users, where it's 
usually packaged with the distro.

So I would highly recommend Gnucash, it's improved a lot while I've been 
using it, and it does everything I need it to do and more. My wife's 
even started using it to keep her personal accounts.

John Dablin
UK