First, I want to thank everyone who responded with suggestions about my
problems getting GnuCash running under Mandrake 7.0 (586).
Secondly, I was briefly worried about "accuracy" issues when I saw the
discussion about fractional cents with respect to stock purchases, but
I did manage to verify that the "checking" portion seems to be dealing
correctly with cents. (I probably should read the source code on this
one, though. There are some subtle mistakes that are very easily made
if one is not very careful. I know from experience! :-)
Moving on: I've been using Quicken for a number of years, and it is about
the last "practical" thing that I regularly use Windows around for. (There
are still some games, but that's a minor issue, plus a few things that I
use maybe once every year or so.) I use Quicken (and want to use GnuCash)
to simply keep track of my checking account. After seeing some of the
other postings, I finally found that what Quciken calls "catagories",
GnuCash calls accounts, which is fine -- just a different naming convention.
I also (upon RFM'ing for about the third time) realised that _THAT_ is
what the "transfer" column is for -- specifying where to put it. Is there
a way to get GnuCash to "remind" me to select an account to transfer to?
However, Quicken allows me to "split" a transaction -- for example, when I
deposit my paycheck, I usually get some cash. I like to put the whole
paycheck "in" under "Salary" and have an "out" of the cash-back amount, so
that what goes into the "deposit" column for the transaction shows up as the
"net deposit", which I can correlate to my statement at the end of the month,
and still have the Salary correlate to what goes on my 1040 each year. (Yes,
I realise that "manual entry" of the "double" allows me to split it as many
ways as I want, but it seems like a lot of hassle -- and besides, Quicken's
way allows it to immediately complains if the "splits" don't match the "net"
on a single transaction, rather than waiting for a "trial balance".)
A less important feature, but one who's absence is still annoying, is an
"autonumber" -- in Quicken, in the "transaction number" column, I can just
hit the 'n' key, and it will automatically give me the next number in the
sequence. E.g., if I enter check 3456, then a deposit, then have another
check, all I have to do with the cursor in the number column is hit 'n'
key and Quicken will automagically enter 3457. This definitely speeds up
entry, and also serves to verify that you've entered every check into the
program.
I realise that these features may already be in GnuCash but that I'm just
not seeing them, so if they do, I'd appreciate pointers.
Clark
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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are mine and not necessarily
those of anyone else. (As if anyone else would want them!)
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