GnuCash financial software

Ross Boylan rossboylan at stanfordalumni.org
Sat Oct 25 15:23:44 EDT 2014


I think the responses display a bit of a culture clash between hackers
and ordinary users.  The responses are mostly reasonable for someone
who is computer literate and comfortable playing around with software,
but, I fear, off-putting for a more typical user.  I think this slows
the adoption of free software in general, and gnucash in particular.

I don't know the answer to the original question #1, but it would be
good if it were easier to answer.  If everyone considering the
software is advised they have to test and test and test, there aren't
going to be a lot of takers.  The 2 responses are also contradictory
about whether automatic operation is possible.

It's true that the only way to be sure software works as you like is
to try it, but it shouldn't be necessary to get basic answers about
functionality.

If the issue is that it's hard to know if a particular financial
provider will work, it would be good to maintain info on ones that
work and ones that don't, with dates, gnucash version, and tips, since
both providers and gnucash are moving targets.  I assume there is
some basic info like "works if provider uses OFX" that would at least
make it possible to check with the  provider.

Ross Boylan

On Sat, Oct 25, 2014 at 1:56 AM, David Carlson
<david.carlson.417 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 10/25/2014 12:05 AM, Liz wrote:
>> On Fri, 24 Oct 2014 15:24:03 -0400
>> RF <RLF_Software at bellsouth.net> wrote:
>>
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> I just learned of GnuCash, being an exasperated Quicken Premiere 2014
>>> user and tired of being manipulated by their "sunset" expiration
>>> policy. I have just three main questions before trying GnuCash out:
>>>
>>> 1- Will it automatically update/download all my online financial
>>> account information from banks such as Wells Fargo, credit card
>>> accounts, Vanguard accounts and fundsand stocks of interest to follow?
>> No, you will always something that won't.
>> Automatically download most? Yes
>>
>>> 2- If so is this feature free without expiration?
>> This is Free Open Source Software. There is no such thing as
>> "expiration"
>>
>>> 3- Can my existing .xls files be integrated with it such as a sync,
>>> so I can work on them from either end and not have to re-create them
>>> in a GnuCash specific format?
>> Perhaps some more details here would allow someone to answer.
>>
>>> Thank you,
>>> Bret
>>> _______________________________________________
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>
> Bret,
>
> You need to do your own investigation and testing and testing and more
> testing.  Other users can help with specific details of testing, but we
> do not know whether you will be satisfied with the results.  You used
> the word automatic, GnuCash does nothing automagically.  It is capable
> of doing a lot of tasks well, but manually.
>
> Since we are using the product, you can be confident that it meets our
> needs fairly well, but your needs may differ.
>
> David C
> _______________________________________________
> gnucash-user mailing list
> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
> -----
> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.


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