[GNC] personal accounting. Work flow?

[Bart A.J. Seesing]

Hi Carlo,

Very recognizable. I have been keeping my books since 2002, GnuCash has 
all my data since 2013.

For years and years I updated every weekend, similar workflow to yours. 
Fortunately my life is very regular and predictable. And the transaction 
recognition in GnuCash is excellent, with repeat transactions the system 
gets things right in over 95 percent of cases.

Since a few years I have settled for updating my books every two or 
three weeks. And I have trained myself to make a note (Notes app on my 
iPhone) of irregular transactions and/or cash transactions. Supporting 
my memory. And I accept that some transactions land in 'other' if I 
really cannot recall what it was for. Sometimes I have to Google a 
company name to refresh my memory. I try to keep things simple. So 
'Groceries' is one account, not split into a number of subcategories. 
That helps.

Best regards,
Bart Seesing

> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2025 20:03:36 +0000
> From: Carlo Albrile<carlo.gnucash at outlook.com>
> To:"gnucash-user at gnucash.org" <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
> Subject: [GNC] personal accounting. Work flow?
> Message-ID:
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>
> Hello,
>
> For years we (my wife and I) have used GNUCash on my laptop to track our expenses.
> Time and again I have adapted the ledger to our needs.
> The simplified workflow is as follow:
>       A) Make as many as possible payments via Bank Card, VISA... Rational: use preferably any methods that will allow me to download transaction lists from the Bank.
>       B) Keep a paper note for cash payments.
>       C) Export data from banks and Credit Card
>       D) Import transaction as of point C) to GNUCash.
>       E) Reconcile. Bucket the expenses.
>
> This activity is not fun so we tend to do it with delay bigger than our memory allows us to identify what and where we spent money for.
> We found ourself with bank records of which we have no recollection. Several transaction from regular shops and wandering have been there as often?
> How do people check transaction list downloaded from a Bank?
>
> I experimented a bit with an APP (GNUCash Android) on my mobile phone. It turned out this is not the same project as GNUCash Version: 5.12 on my laptop.
>
> What is the workflow people generally follow?
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Bye,