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GnuCash 5.9

gnucash.org

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Re: GnuCash 5.9

#51

Post by bdjsiqoocwk »

blacklion wrote: post #18

I've tried many personal accounting software and all of them (but old Pcoket Money for PalmOS!) are very unhelpful in filling in expenses. If you need to record whole shop visit as one transaction (like "Food at Lidl") it is tolerable, but as soon as you want to enter each line in your receipt as separate part of split transaction (like, food:milk = 2 euro, food:bread = 1 euro, food:eggs = 3 euro, food:meat:pork = 8…

May I ask why you want this? Does it have an actual purpose or do you just enjoy processing data? If the purpose is "check what % I'm spending in each category", you don't need account software for this. You just need a table with 2 columns, price and category and group by and sum. How you get that table has nothing to do with accounting.

Re: GnuCash 5.9

#52

Post by jjav »

bdjsiqoocwk wrote: post #47
trollied wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Suppose you don't have SQLite, how do you open a SQLite database? The only way is you have to re-implement SQLite from scratch. Good luck with that. Now imagine you don't have vim, how do you open an XML file? You can use any of other thousands of text editors out there, or any of tens of libs in tens of different languages. I think your take that sqlite is simpler than a text file is the weird one.

> Suppose you don't have SQLite, how do you open a SQLite database? The only way is you have to re-implement SQLite from scratch. Good luck with that.

Or, you know, install SQLite. Although it is so ubiquitous that it is almost certainly installed already. Even on a mac it's there already. Or if you are on some system where it is not, a single package install away.

Re: GnuCash 5.9

#53

Post by muti »

RussianCow wrote: post #43
stouset wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it actually all that useful to you to track each receipt line-item? For a few specific types of purchases, maybe, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest you might be taking on needless work that doesn't create value for you anywhere near that level of effort.

I did this exercise for a little over a year to understand my expenses in detail. Like the OP, I found it really frustrating to do with any bookkeeping software I tried, to the point where I eventually gave up as I didn't think it was worth the effort. I started writing a web app to make this easier but just didn't have the motivation to finish. With that said, I learned quite a bit as a result of that level of granu…

There are many levels in between tracking at the "Amazon" level vs the "Meat:Pork" level. For example I currently track all unprepared food shopping as "Groceries", and would break down "Amazon" shopping into categories such as "Electronics" or "Books".

Ultimately it comes down to how much effort you want to spend categorising spending, but there are many levels of granularity and orthogonal dimensions to slice against

Re: GnuCash 5.9

#54

Post by jjav »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #37
trollied wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

How is SQLite DB simpler than a human readable markup language?!

If you intend to read it by human eyes, you're right.

That seems like a rare edge case though. If you want to interact with the data outside of the software, the common case is you're writing some script for that, in which case being able to use SQL is much easier.

Re: GnuCash 5.9

#55

Post by jjav »

misnome wrote: post #23

I don't like the GNUcash model very much, it is a bit fiddly to use, and is pretty hard to get the right stats I want out of it. I've used and settled on several other packages in the past. But GNUCash existed when I first got a job decades ago. GNUCash exists today. I don't think any other package really matches the endurance.

> I don't think any other package really matches the endurance.

This is hugely valuable. I've been using gnucash since the late 90s, and have the all data files going back to 2000.

Re: GnuCash 5.9

#56

Post by jjav »

DaoVeles wrote: post #33
misnome wrote: post #23

I don't like the GNUcash model very much, it is a bit fiddly to use, and is pretty hard to get the right stats I want out of it. I've used and settled on several other packages in the past. But GNUCash existed when I first got a job decades ago. GNUCash exists today. I don't think any other package really matches the endurance.

It is charming in that it has that mid 90s utility design. It is absolutely frustrating because it has that mid 90s utility design. I don't think I have seen any other utility hasnt really progressed on interface design like GNUcash. Like they built a prototype went "Nailed it!" And then moved onto back end stuff while ignoring all input from users.

That's a big win! There are very few things more frustrating than software that keeps changing the UI just because some designed somewhere wants to feel busy.

Make it work well and then stop fiddling with it.

Re: GnuCash 5.9

#57

Post by klysm »

bdjsiqoocwk wrote: post #2

GnuCash is solid. One thing that I love: I have full control over my data, and its stored as a simple xml (also supports SQLite, but why use more complex when simpler works just as well?) I have a few (comparatively minor) complaints about GnuCash, but they're around UI. Things like: it would be nice to assign all matching (eg Regen) transactions to a selected account, and stuff like that. But overall, having somethi…

XML is human readable, but barely. I do not trust any executable other than SQLite, postgres and a few others to correctly manage state on disk without corrupting it.

Re: GnuCash 5.9

#59

Post by throw0101b »

blacklion wrote: post #18

I've tried many personal accounting software and all of them (but old Pcoket Money for PalmOS!) are very unhelpful in filling in expenses. If you need to record whole shop visit as one transaction (like "Food at Lidl") it is tolerable, but as soon as you want to enter each line in your receipt as separate part of split transaction (like, food:milk = 2 euro, food:bread = 1 euro, food:eggs = 3 euro, food:meat:pork = 8…

> Maybe, I don't find it yet? Any suggestions?

It would be nice if there was a QRcode format on receipts for this. Off the top of my head, the encoded format would have:

* store name/location

* total amount

* field for tax(es) broken out

* a general category of the purchase if it's simple ("fuel", "food" for receipt from McDonald's)

* groupings of items for certain types/categories: at (e.g.) Costco you can buy groceries and clothing, so have a grouping for all your food with the total for that categorized as "food", clothes grouped together with its category; you can also get gas and tire/oil changes ("transportation")

The major categories could be what a lot of countries use for CPI categories:

* https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/71-607-x/2018016/cpi-ipc...

* https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t01.htm

* https://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/cpi/158c.html

* https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/macroeconomic_and_sectoral/h...

Re: GnuCash 5.9

#60

Post by bbor »

I know the aesthetic is part of the “simple” appeal, but it’s just inexcusable to not have a responsive (aka “mobile friendly”) site in 2024. It’s also a great example of why I don’t trust hand-rolled guis like this, if I can avoid it: the standards are standard for a reason.
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