From cameron.purvis at gmail.com Wed Dec 29 14:50:29 2010 From: cameron.purvis at gmail.com (Cameron Purvis) Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2010 08:50:29 -0600 Subject: [Tuxaloosa] Open-source personal finance recommendations? Message-ID: Hope everyone had a good holiday experience - sufficient quality and quantity food... :) So the calendar end of year is upon me. I have used Quicken for personal finances for a very, very long time and have upgraded every couple of years. Still, it's like the MS-Office case - it does all kinds of wonderful things, of which maybe 20% are things I use. I'd like to 'reboot' my financial management. I've tried a few things in the past but would love to hear from anyone out there who's doing personal finance work - what tools do you use? * Quicken - obviously the market leader. It has the benefit of being the most widely-supported app in terms of bank integration for downloading transactions, et c. Despite this, Intuit seems to be in a constant bug-fixing war. Version 2009 is much better but they basically trashed the UI, at least to my notice after moving from 2004 (or 2005). It has lots of features that are nice but could probably be implemented outside the app like bill reminders, memorized transactions, et c. * GNUcash is the knee-jerk answer for OSS personal accounting. It uses a different mental model from Quicken, and I may be too stupid to use it. GNUcash looks like an awesome accounting app but may be overkill. Still, maybe it's time to cowboy up and learn it? * Spreadsheets - several friends of mine just use spreadsheets to do this. It is tempting to even do a google doc so that I have access everywhere but that gets close to the maybe-privacy-concern of... * mint.com which is surprisingly nice but really doesn't handle cash transactions very well at all - which is a problem for dinosaurs who still use cash a lot. Plus you are giving all your financial logins to a third party. Still if you're okay with that, it's a very very smooth service. Gaping hole in their functionality is that there is no concept of reconciling an account, so you can't 'close the books' on a monthly statement, quarter, et c. Also really works best if you knuckle under and use THEIR categories. Android and iPhone app is a bonus. * Moneydance - non OSS but I tried this ages ago. Kind of like Quicken's dumb cousin. * http://www.codelathe.com/mmex/ MoneyManager EX - looks like very similar to Quicken. Anyone used this? Who uses any of these? Do you have any others? I'd love to hear what you prefer (or loathe). My goal here is to have a reasonably good handle on financial ins and outs, the ability to use a relatively limited set of categories (utilities vs. groceries etc) for budgeting purposes, some ability to develop basic reporting (am I overspending, et c) and not spend too much time managing the whole thing. Surprisingly, Quicken for all its features turns out to NOT actually shave much time off the process. So - anybody got any input on this topic? From bamamorgans at gmail.com Wed Dec 29 14:55:53 2010 From: bamamorgans at gmail.com (Todd Morgan) Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2010 08:55:53 -0600 Subject: [Tuxaloosa] Open-source personal finance recommendations? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: I'm not the expert when it comes to home finance organization.......however, I seem to recall being pretty impressed with HomeBank. I'm not sure this fits your needs or not. It is worth a look. http://homebank.free.fr On Wed, Dec 29, 2010 at 8:50 AM, Cameron Purvis wrote: > Hope everyone had a good holiday experience - sufficient quality and > quantity food... :) > > So the calendar end of year is upon me. I have used Quicken for > personal finances for a very, very long time and have upgraded every > couple of years. Still, it's like the MS-Office case - it does all > kinds of wonderful things, of which maybe 20% are things I use. I'd > like to 'reboot' my financial management. I've tried a few things in > the past but would love to hear from anyone out there who's doing > personal finance work - what tools do you use? > > * Quicken - obviously the market leader. It has the benefit of being > the most widely-supported app in terms of bank integration for > downloading transactions, et c. Despite this, Intuit seems to be in a > constant bug-fixing war. Version 2009 is much better but they > basically trashed the UI, at least to my notice after moving from 2004 > (or 2005). It has lots of features that are nice but could probably > be implemented outside the app like bill reminders, memorized > transactions, et c. > > * GNUcash is the knee-jerk answer for OSS personal accounting. It > uses a different mental model from Quicken, and I may be too stupid to > use it. GNUcash looks like an awesome accounting app but may be > overkill. Still, maybe it's time to cowboy up and learn it? > > * Spreadsheets - several friends of mine just use spreadsheets to do > this. It is tempting to even do a google doc so that I have access > everywhere but that gets close to the maybe-privacy-concern of... > > * mint.com which is surprisingly nice but really doesn't handle cash > transactions very well at all - which is a problem for dinosaurs who > still use cash a lot. Plus you are giving all your financial logins > to a third party. Still if you're okay with that, it's a very very > smooth service. Gaping hole in their functionality is that there is > no concept of reconciling an account, so you can't 'close the books' > on a monthly statement, quarter, et c. Also really works best if you > knuckle under and use THEIR categories. Android and iPhone app is a > bonus. > > * Moneydance - non OSS but I tried this ages ago. Kind of like > Quicken's dumb cousin. > > * http://www.codelathe.com/mmex/ MoneyManager EX - looks like very > similar to Quicken. Anyone used this? > > Who uses any of these? Do you have any others? I'd love to hear what > you prefer (or loathe). My goal here is to have a reasonably good > handle on financial ins and outs, the ability to use a relatively > limited set of categories (utilities vs. groceries etc) for budgeting > purposes, some ability to develop basic reporting (am I overspending, > et c) and not spend too much time managing the whole thing. > Surprisingly, Quicken for all its features turns out to NOT actually > shave much time off the process. > > So - anybody got any input on this topic? > _______________________________________________ > TUXaloosa mailing list > TUXaloosa at tuxaloosa.org > http://tuxaloosa.org/mailman/listinfo/tuxaloosa > -- Todd Morgan Birmingham, AL -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rworkman at tuxaloosa.org Wed Dec 29 15:13:36 2010 From: rworkman at tuxaloosa.org (Robby Workman) Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2010 09:13:36 -0600 Subject: [Tuxaloosa] Open-source personal finance recommendations? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20101229091336.7251e934@liberty> On Wed, 29 Dec 2010 08:50:29 -0600 Cameron Purvis wrote: > Hope everyone had a good holiday experience - sufficient quality and > quantity food... :) Probably too much in both areas... ;-) > * GNUcash is the knee-jerk answer for OSS personal accounting. It > uses a different mental model from Quicken, and I may be too stupid to > use it. GNUcash looks like an awesome accounting app but may be > overkill. Still, maybe it's time to cowboy up and learn it? For those six of us ;-) still using a distribution that doesn't ship gnome, gnucash is a sadistic bitch to build. Therefore, it's out of the question for *me* personally. > * Moneydance - non OSS but I tried this ages ago. Kind of like > Quicken's dumb cousin. I've been using this since 2004. I like it - don't get me wrong - but the "keeper" feature of moneydance is the cross-platform nature. My wife insists on using Windows, and while I would like for her to use linux, I like for her to use *me* much more, so therefore she gets to use Windows. I, on the other hand, obviously use linux. Moneydance offers a consistent interface on both of those, but more importantly, we can each work with the same data file (though not at the same time) over NFS/CIFS from the LAN's file server. I bought Moneydance in 2004 for $35, and the next time I was required to pay was last year, and I got a half-price discount because I was upgrading. > Who uses any of these? Do you have any others? There's also KMyMoney, but I've not used it. -RW From leprkhn at gmail.com Thu Dec 30 00:20:55 2010 From: leprkhn at gmail.com (Erik Hanson) Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2010 18:20:55 -0600 Subject: [Tuxaloosa] Open-source personal finance recommendations? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: > * mint.com which is surprisingly nice but really doesn't handle cash > transactions very well at all - which is a problem for dinosaurs who > still use cash a lot. ?Plus you are giving all your financial logins > to a third party. ?Still if you're okay with that, it's a very very > smooth service. ?Gaping hole in their functionality is that there is > no concept of reconciling an account, so you can't 'close the books' > on a monthly statement, quarter, et c. ?Also really works best if you > knuckle under and use THEIR categories. ?Android and iPhone app is a > bonus. Perhaps coupling the mint app with Day Bank ( http://www.catamount.com/catamountApps.php ). I haven't used it myself, but I hear it's good for keeping track of cash transactions. From leprkhn at gmail.com Thu Dec 30 00:25:25 2010 From: leprkhn at gmail.com (Erik Hanson) Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2010 18:25:25 -0600 Subject: [Tuxaloosa] Open-source personal finance recommendations? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: sed -i s'/Day Bank/PocketMoney/g' Sorry, but the link it correct. :-D On Wed, Dec 29, 2010 at 6:20 PM, Erik Hanson wrote: >> * mint.com which is surprisingly nice but really doesn't handle cash >> transactions very well at all - which is a problem for dinosaurs who >> still use cash a lot. ?Plus you are giving all your financial logins >> to a third party. ?Still if you're okay with that, it's a very very >> smooth service. ?Gaping hole in their functionality is that there is >> no concept of reconciling an account, so you can't 'close the books' >> on a monthly statement, quarter, et c. ?Also really works best if you >> knuckle under and use THEIR categories. ?Android and iPhone app is a >> bonus. > > Perhaps coupling the mint app with Day Bank ( > http://www.catamount.com/catamountApps.php ). I haven't used it > myself, but I hear it's good for keeping track of cash transactions. > From allen at ua.edu Thu Dec 30 05:29:13 2010 From: allen at ua.edu (Beddingfield, Allen) Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2010 23:29:13 -0600 Subject: [Tuxaloosa] Open-source personal finance recommendations? In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <5A6B9F2A9207E84C85F9DCF6422A0E67466DFB5AA0@MAIL1.ua-net.ua.edu> I hung on to Quicken 99 for way too long, and now I just use OpenOffice Calc spreadsheets. Would be curious to see what solution you come up with. That MoneyManager looks promising... Allen B. ----- Original Message ----- From: Cameron Purvis [mailto:cameron.purvis at gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, December 29, 2010 08:50 AM To: Tuscaloosa Linux Users Group Subject: [Tuxaloosa] Open-source personal finance recommendations? Hope everyone had a good holiday experience - sufficient quality and quantity food... :) So the calendar end of year is upon me. I have used Quicken for personal finances for a very, very long time and have upgraded every couple of years. Still, it's like the MS-Office case - it does all kinds of wonderful things, of which maybe 20% are things I use. I'd like to 'reboot' my financial management. I've tried a few things in the past but would love to hear from anyone out there who's doing personal finance work - what tools do you use? * Quicken - obviously the market leader. It has the benefit of being the most widely-supported app in terms of bank integration for downloading transactions, et c. Despite this, Intuit seems to be in a constant bug-fixing war. Version 2009 is much better but they basically trashed the UI, at least to my notice after moving from 2004 (or 2005). It has lots of features that are nice but could probably be implemented outside the app like bill reminders, memorized transactions, et c. * GNUcash is the knee-jerk answer for OSS personal accounting. It uses a different mental model from Quicken, and I may be too stupid to use it. GNUcash looks like an awesome accounting app but may be overkill. Still, maybe it's time to cowboy up and learn it? * Spreadsheets - several friends of mine just use spreadsheets to do this. It is tempting to even do a google doc so that I have access everywhere but that gets close to the maybe-privacy-concern of... * mint.com which is surprisingly nice but really doesn't handle cash transactions very well at all - which is a problem for dinosaurs who still use cash a lot. Plus you are giving all your financial logins to a third party. Still if you're okay with that, it's a very very smooth service. Gaping hole in their functionality is that there is no concept of reconciling an account, so you can't 'close the books' on a monthly statement, quarter, et c. Also really works best if you knuckle under and use THEIR categories. Android and iPhone app is a bonus. * Moneydance - non OSS but I tried this ages ago. Kind of like Quicken's dumb cousin. * http://www.codelathe.com/mmex/ MoneyManager EX - looks like very similar to Quicken. Anyone used this? Who uses any of these? Do you have any others? I'd love to hear what you prefer (or loathe). My goal here is to have a reasonably good handle on financial ins and outs, the ability to use a relatively limited set of categories (utilities vs. groceries etc) for budgeting purposes, some ability to develop basic reporting (am I overspending, et c) and not spend too much time managing the whole thing. Surprisingly, Quicken for all its features turns out to NOT actually shave much time off the process. So - anybody got any input on this topic? _______________________________________________ TUXaloosa mailing list TUXaloosa at tuxaloosa.org http://tuxaloosa.org/mailman/listinfo/tuxaloosa From revrick56 at yahoo.com Fri Dec 31 17:05:18 2010 From: revrick56 at yahoo.com (Rick Williams) Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2010 09:05:18 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Tuxaloosa] Open-source personal finance recommendations? In-Reply-To: <5A6B9F2A9207E84C85F9DCF6422A0E67466DFB5AA0@MAIL1.ua-net.ua.edu> Message-ID: <972682.13633.qm@web112502.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> I don't personally use financial software, but I also use Lighthouse Puppy OS. It includes HomeBank financial. Here is a link to that site: http://homebank.free.fr/I'm not promoting it, just passing it on for info. Rick --- On Wed, 12/29/10, Beddingfield, Allen wrote: From: Beddingfield, Allen Subject: Re: [Tuxaloosa] Open-source personal finance recommendations? To: "'tuxaloosa at tuxaloosa.org'" Date: Wednesday, December 29, 2010, 11:29 PM I hung on to Quicken 99 for way too long, and now I just use OpenOffice Calc spreadsheets.? Would be curious to see what solution you come up with. That MoneyManager looks promising... Allen B. ----- Original Message ----- From: Cameron Purvis [mailto:cameron.purvis at gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, December 29, 2010 08:50 AM To: Tuscaloosa Linux Users Group Subject: [Tuxaloosa] Open-source personal finance recommendations? Hope everyone had a good holiday experience - sufficient quality and quantity food... :) So the calendar end of year is upon me.? I have used Quicken for personal finances for a very, very long time and have upgraded every couple of years.? Still, it's like the MS-Office case - it does all kinds of wonderful things, of which maybe 20% are things I use.? I'd like to 'reboot' my financial management.? I've tried a few things in the past but would love to hear from anyone out there who's doing personal finance work - what tools do you use? * Quicken - obviously the market leader.? It has the benefit of being the most widely-supported app in terms of bank integration for downloading transactions, et c.? Despite this, Intuit seems to be in a constant bug-fixing war.? Version 2009 is much better but they basically trashed the UI, at least to my notice after moving from 2004 (or 2005).? It has lots of features that are nice but could probably be implemented outside the app like bill reminders, memorized transactions, et c. * GNUcash is the knee-jerk answer for OSS personal accounting.? It uses a different mental model from Quicken, and I may be too stupid to use it.? GNUcash looks like an awesome accounting app but may be overkill.? Still, maybe it's time to cowboy up and learn it? * Spreadsheets - several friends of mine just use spreadsheets to do this.? It is tempting to even do a google doc so that I have access everywhere but that gets close to the maybe-privacy-concern of... * mint.com which is surprisingly nice but really doesn't handle cash transactions very well at all - which is a problem for dinosaurs who still use cash a lot.? Plus you are giving all your financial logins to a third party.? Still if you're okay with that, it's a very very smooth service.? Gaping hole in their functionality is that there is no concept of reconciling an account, so you can't 'close the books' on a monthly statement, quarter, et c.? Also really works best if you knuckle under and use THEIR categories.? Android and iPhone app is a bonus. * Moneydance - non OSS but I tried this ages ago.? Kind of like Quicken's dumb cousin. * http://www.codelathe.com/mmex/ MoneyManager EX - looks like very similar to Quicken.? Anyone used this? Who uses any of these?? Do you have any others?? I'd love to hear what you prefer (or loathe).? My goal here is to have a reasonably good handle on financial ins and outs, the ability to use a relatively limited set of categories (utilities vs. groceries etc) for budgeting purposes, some ability to develop basic reporting (am I overspending, et c) and not spend too much time managing the whole thing. Surprisingly, Quicken for all its features turns out to NOT actually shave much time off the process. So - anybody got any input on this topic? _______________________________________________ TUXaloosa mailing list TUXaloosa at tuxaloosa.org http://tuxaloosa.org/mailman/listinfo/tuxaloosa _______________________________________________ TUXaloosa mailing list TUXaloosa at tuxaloosa.org http://tuxaloosa.org/mailman/listinfo/tuxaloosa -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: