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Ask HN: As a freelancer, what's the best app to track finances?

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Re: Ask HN: As a freelancer, what's the best app to track finances?

#51
post #17

There's a slight learning curve but I've been very happy with GnuCash. It supports multiple accounts and containers, has decent reporting, invoicing, categorizing, etc. I also really like that it's offline. https://www.gnucash.org/

Yes to GnuCash, but for none of the reasons OP wants.

GnuCash is, let’s be honest, crap. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate it, it’s totally free, but it’s crap.

However, it forces you to learn how to do proper double-entry bookkeeping. You’ll get it wrong a bunch of times before you get it right. You’ll Google stuff and be frustrated that you can’t find an answer. You’ll just learn, somehow. But then...

...one day something clicks. And that day, you realise why this system has been the way that accountants do things for literally half a millennium [0]. It’s extraordinary. It’s impossible to lose track of money. The benefits are far too many to explain here, but just trust me when I say that when you ‘get it’, it’s like a transcendental moment.

So how do I plan my future? I put in speculative transactions. I forward-plot my income based on work done, invoice payment dates, and known tax office obligations. I play with the future, what-if this, what-if that. This is all really manual, in this software that will undoubtedly frustrate you, but the control you have is unmatched by any smart online Web 2.0 software. It’s like being in the Matrix of your money.

So yeah. GnuCash. Shite, but amazing.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-entry_bookkeeping_syste...

Re: Ask HN: As a freelancer, what's the best app to track finances?

#54
I'm using Firefly III [1]. Mostly because it's open-source, self-hosted and had nice import feature that I could use to upload CSV from my bank. It's a webapp, so no need for mobile applications. Although few people created some I think.

It has tags, bugdets, categories, multiple currencies, reports. Author is regularly publishing new versions and is very responsive.

[1]: https://firefly-iii.org/

Re: Ask HN: As a freelancer, what's the best app to track finances?

#57
I used Google Sheets to create my accounts. It means I can create different views easily and I am in full control of my accounts without having to pay anything.

I can use Google Finance to pull in FX rates and I save my receipts to folders on the cloud.

Re: Ask HN: As a freelancer, what's the best app to track finances?

#58

I'm a freelance myself (since 2005). I ultimately scratched my own itch and created an app specifically for this: https://www.wisecashhq.com I built it pretty much for what you describe: to plan my future (it computes your runway & "time wealth"), adjust working hours as needed, "make time" for other topics, negotiate based on data etc. The goal is not to "track all expenses", but rather to make a reasonable forecast…

interesting! the features do sound similar to what I'm looking for, unfortunately the monthly cost is too high for me :(
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