One family member used x, whilst another used y, my s.o. has tried and suggests Z whilst friends say they used to use _. you get the idea, im torn and dont really know which apps to use to have a better hold and understanding on my finances. Whats best for bookkeeping, invoices, notes etc.
Id love to know what people suggest for any reasons!
Thank you!
GnuCash is free. IMO to use it you should have a basic idea of how bookkeeping works (well that’s true in any case with any software), but it’s flexible and the price is right.
One question; are you looking for personal finance software or is this for a business?
Because I’ve used Quicken for my personal finances for a very long time and like it.
I first assumed by your post you’re looking for personal finance software, but you also mention bookkeeping and invoices, which implies business software. If you have numerous friends that use different business software packages I would ask them to tell you why they chose the one they use and see if one of them stands out as being likely the best for you.
If you have an accountant ask them what software they use. Often you can send them files directly at tax time if you have the same software.
I built a custom personal budget spreadsheet in Excel. I was in the middle of taking an online Excel class for work about a dozen years ago and was just building it as practice. Having just learned everything, I was at the peak of my Excel powers and implemented some relatively complex formulas just because I was experimenting with the program. It still works to this day but if something was to break now, I’m not confident I would know how to repair it.
If you’re a current user , what do think? Searching the archives here turn up old mentions of it, some OK (not great) and some negative. I’ve been using Quicken for 25 years but trying to find something else since they’ve transitioned to cloud based pay as you go.
I used GnuCash for a while around 10 years ago, but I am not a current user (not because it’s bad, just don’t need to do any accounting at the moment!), however I doubt they made it worse in the meantime. I think it is suitable for home and for small business use. There is a new account setup wizard to quickly create common types of accounts, and of course you can edit the account hierarchy or set up everything manually.
The only thing you do have to be aware of to use it properly, are bookkeeping concepts and conventions, namely what goes into Assets, Liability, Income, Expense, and Capital (aka Equity), and what is a Debit and what is a Credit. For example, if you buy equipment with cash, you record a debit in the Equipment account and a corresponding credit in the Cash account, keeping in mind both Cash and Equipment are assets (obviously the software automates all this so it is hard to screw transactions up).
If you are not sure, just download it and play with it to see how it works: it’s free software.
Do all of these softwares allow you to categorize expenses and report out on them? I’ve been doing this in excel for a few years, and wouldn’t mind something more sophisticated.
@DPRK Thanks. I’ll give it a try. 10-15 years ago I loved trying out new software. Now I’d rather have a root canal.
GnuCash certainly lets you establish any kind of expense account you want, and in normal use it automatically keeps track of them.
There is a pull-down menu for reports, then under Income and Expense there are a bunch of reports, including Income Statement.
A propos of nothing, the original version of GnuCash was apparently written back in 1998 by someone who used to use Quicken and wanted an alternative.
Other way around isn’t it?
Wikipedia says increases in assets are debits, and decreases in assets are credits. I can double-check this with a professional accountant, but it sounds right? I did learn all this from a book lent to me by a friend who is an accountant.
It must be something with Double Entry accounting that I don’t understand. It seems to me if I pay cash for a tractor (both assets). The cash account decreases and the equipment account increases.
That is correct, I think we both understand it the same way. They are both assets. So, in order for the books to balance, one has to be a credit and the other a debit. Assets are real accounts, so what comes in (equipment) is debited, and what decreases (cash) is credited.
| Debit | Credit | |
|---|---|---|
| Assets | Increase | Decrease |
| Liabilities | Decrease | Increase |
| Equity/Capital | Decrease | Increase |
| Revenues/Income | Decrease | Increase |
| Expenses/Costs | Increase | Decrease |
There is some arbitrary terminology here but it is supposed to make assets = liabilities + equity, so that makes liabilities and equity have the opposite “sign”. We can blame 15th-century Venetian merchants for any confusion.