[GNC] GNUCash with PostgreSQL

[Suseno Dermawan]

Hi Mark, Wm, and Jim,

Thanks for the responses and the FAQ link.

Just to clarify my idea: I was thinking of a mobile app that scans receipts
and creates simple expense transactions directly into a PostgreSQL-backed
GnuCash database, acting as a single writer (no concurrent users).

>From your replies, it sounds like the risk is not only about multiple
connections, but also about how external writes may interact with GnuCash’s
internal data rules.

Are there other risks or failure cases I should be aware of if a separate
application writes directly to the database in this way?

Thanks,
Suseno



On Fri, Jun 19, 2026 at 12:34 AM Mark at Lorimark <
mark at lorimarksolutions.com> wrote:

> Hi Suseno,
>
> I have an app I have written that gives me a web-style interface for
> gnucash;
>
>  > https://github.com/lorimark/gnucashew-dev
>
> This app uses SQL back-end exclusively, and so runs on sqlite or postgres.
>
> I can tell you from my experience that running multiple users ~can~ be
> problemmatic, and/also, in the scenario you are describing (putting a
> transaction in on-line and seeing it at home) you ~can~ be successful.
>
> When running my web-app on the gnucash sqlite file, I ~can~ leave the
> local gnucash open and running, but I usually shut it down.  I can put
> transaction in via the web app, and when opening the desktop gnucash
> app, all my transactions are there.
>
> I ran in to an issue one day when it seemed I was missing information,
> but upon a little deeper examination, it appeared as though the sqlite
> indexes got corrupted.  It was a very easy fix.
>
> Since this is a sqlite setup, there is certainly a 'collision' issue
> when running apps like this.  If you're going to be running with
> postgres you'll likely not have the indexes issue I had with sqlite, but
> there are other simple multi-user issues - just the fact of having
> multiple people accessing the database simultaneously.
>
> But, as I said, in the scenario you've described, in my experience, I
> have _not had_ issues running multiple apps simultaneously.
>
> ~mark petryk
> ~w:http://www.lorimarksolutions.com
> ~q:i don't know where it's going to go,
>      ...and i don't know what to wear when it gets there.
>
> On 6/18/26 05:41, Suseno Dermawan wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > in context:
> > I've been using gnucash about 5 years + and been using XML and later on
> > using SQLlite.
> > But now i am using postgresql.
> >
> > The question is:
> >
> > Since the db is hosted online. Can i use a different apps (mobile apps)
> to
> > update the db (use case i.e., scanning receipt and auto input to gnucash
> > db) and and then when i reach home, i can review the transaction?
> >
> > Is there a risk to this kind of use case?
> >
> > Thanks
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