Financial/money management programs?

[hugerobot]

My biggest gripe is backing it up on a floppy. It generates so many log type files I never know which one to save. I wound up accidentally reformatting my /home and lost everything and had to go back and re-enter 9 months worth of account information from my statements. I decided to go back to Quicken not long after that because I couldn't figure out how to resolve the backup problem. Any advice?

 

I have a 2gb partition that I mount as /logs...

 

In there, I have directories for all logs, by applications (currently just Tomcat, Gaim, and Gnucash)

 

I find where the logs are going, move the directory to /logs, and then create a link to replace it. The application now writes to /logs/<directory> and doesnt know the difference.

 

Actually because of the way Gnucash works, my working file, as well as my logs and backups all go to the directory in logs.

 

That way, unless I start messing with /logs, the contents are pretty safe.

 

Unfortunately thats as far as I take it. I plan on running some cron jobs to remove really old stuff, and tar'ing the stuff up and off to cdr. But I am lazy.

 

Anyway, its a good technique for automating much of your backup/logging, and you dont need to mess with floppies. Even if your WHOLE SYSTEM goes down and you have to FDISK, you dont have to hose the log partition. If the HD gets fried, then thats bad news... (Man, I really ought to back that up to cdr soon!)

 

Hope this helps

 

Rob

[83mercedes]

Thanks, I did a little research and you are 100% correct about the double entry thing.

Once I figured out that the money has to go from one account to another within the GnuCash porgram, it all makes sense now, and works fine.

[83mercedes]

Hey Mystfied!

go to

http://jgnash.sourceforge.net/

and download this little goodie.

It looks really good, does NOT write 156,000,000 log files, and will import QIF and GnuCash files.

I think I'm gonna get rid of GnuCash for this one.

Please try it and let me know what you think!

:mrgreen:

[mystified]

I just downloaded and installed Kapital yesterday. It was only $24.95 and so far I like it a lot. It imported my .qif file with no problems and it works a lot like Quicken.

[Guest FenestraeNunquam]

I used gnucash about a year ago for around 3 months on mdk 8.1. I was a long-time Quicken user, so I was slightly disapointed, but after I got used to everything I kind of liked it. I'm an accountant so the "double entry" bookkeeping to me is just normal. Its the way my mind thinks.

 

I agree with the posts that complain about the excessive "log files" but I got used to that too. you only need to have I think 2 master files. then there are dozens of "log" files such as blahblah111702.xxx and blahblah111402.xxx. Everytime you get into the program and then when you are done, you will have another log file with the current date. I just learned to occasionally delete all of the "old" log files with dates earlier than the most current one.

 

Anyway, I read about Kapital a year ago (when it was new) so I am interested in hearing about users experiences with it.

[phunni]

I'm just about to start my own small business. Are the GnuCash tax features (or any other features) US specific or do they tramslate well into other countries too?

 

Also - Mystified - what are your impressions of Kapital after a little use?

 

I could use Quicken as I already have CrossOver office, but I'm hoping that at some point I can completely move away from MS Office apps, so I don't want to still need XOver office at that point...