Getting started

[Ronal B Morse]

On 02/04/2018 05:45 PM, N B Day wrote:
> On Mon, 2018-02-05 at 00:05 +0000, Buddha Buck wrote:
>> I don't know if it is what new users usually do, but I think it's
>> probably
>> one of the better ways to do it. A lot of the difficulties I see on
>> the
>> gnucash-users list come from trying to import data from other
>> programs,
>> especially multi-year Quicken imports.
>>
>> On Sun, Feb 4, 2018 at 6:52 PM Graham Jacks <grahamjacks at bellsouth.ne
>> t>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I have been using Quicken for my finances for some years, but I
>>> want to
>>> change, and I like what I have read about Gnu Cash.  I’ve had
>>> enough
>>> experience with double-entry book-keeping systems to know what it
>>> means.
>>>
>>> Would it be feasible to use my closing balances from Quicken, at,
>>> say,
>>> Dec 31 2017 as the opening balances to start my Gnu Cash financials
>>> at Jan
>>> 1, 2018?
>>>
>>> I plan to keep and be able to access my Quicken files for
>>> historical
>>> purposes (tax returns come to mind), but I was not planning to
>>> import them
>>> into my new Gnu Cash record.
>>>
> What Budda Buck said.  When I converted to gnucash from that other
> demands-an-annual-update software in 2008, I did what you propose and
> also ran them in parallel for several months until I was comfortable
> that I was getting things right in gnucash.  There is a bit of a
> learning curve when transitioning but gnucash is so much better (and
> free!) that it is more than worth the trouble imho.
>
> We don't thank the developers nearly often enough for this wonderful
> cross-platform software.
>
> Good luck!
>
>
Quicken (gak) has a good reports facility.  I spent some time going 
through my Quicken data and printing to .pdf files stuff I thought I was 
likely to need in the future (mostly tax related).   I can get to the 
reports without having to boot Windows and start Quicken, although I 
keep both intact just in case.

As others have mentioned, there's a learning curve to GnuCash, but I 
found it very much worth the effort.

RBM