[ale] The Continuing Saga of Personal Finance Software

[BruceG]

For those of you that have this solved, great! For those still tossing around 
different alternatives, I've got an update on what I've been using and what 
I've seen.

I used to use MS Money a few years back. Really liked it. Had no problem 
setting up accounts and getting online things to work. I did not use Quicken, 
but think I should have.

For my first foray into Personal Finance on Linux, I ran KMyMoney2 0.6.1. It 
was very simply to set up and use. Operated just like a checkbook. Very easy 
to check balances. QIF import worked. No OFX import - and my bank does not 
support QIF, it supports OFX.

No reports or export to CSV in 0.6.1, but that was available in CVS. I tested 
it out for a while, but somehow managed to hose up my accounts. Manually 
re-entered 2 months of data (family of 5, lots of data). Decided to run 
unstable on a clean, fresh SuSE 9.1 install. I wiped the drive, installed 
from scratch, still had messed up accounts under the 0.7 branch, but no 
problems under 0.6.1. I'll wait for 0.8 to hit the streets.

So I thought about it, and installed GnuCash. Read some of the online manual, 
and decided to give it a go. Found the users list supportive. Did not have as 
much trouble as I thought I would. Was very happy with the QIF AND OFX 
import. I can now import from my credit union, bank and credit card company.

Reports are pretty good. I really like the cash flow report. That has helped 
in discussion on finances with my family. The account summary, cash flow, 
liability report and expenses over time are all helpful in showing where your 
cash is going.

The online investments stuff works as well, you can get current prices for 
your investments from online sources. I tested it with some IRA stuff, and 
had no problem. There are no investment graphs or anything like that - so I 
will probably not set up my investments in GnuCash. The payoff doesn't seem 
to be worth the effort, and I can check that online anyway.

There is no QIF export, so once you spend the time loading data and setting it 
up - you are pretty much committed to the product. (there is also no OFX or 
CSV export - once you commit, you commit).

In following the KMyMoney2 discussions, there is a GnuCash reader in the 0.7 
branch. There is also OFX import in 0.7. Once KMyMoney2 hits 0.8, I'll give 
the GnuCash reader a test drive - but for now, GnuCash is getting the job 
done very well.

Think I should have tried Quicken under Wine - but didn't want to pop for 
Quicken Premier to get investment support. I do have Quicken 2002 on my 
wife's laptop - but have absolutely NO patience for reloading data after 
manually re-entering two months worth into KMyMoney2, then doing QIF imports 
into GnuCash, and not having a QIF export out of GnuCash. 

Think I'll stick with GnuCash for the family accounts. Not sure what to use 
for the kids accounts, but will go for easy to use (I want the kids to manage 
their own accounts in time). Easy to use seems to be KMyMoney2 or Quicken on 
Windows or Wine (and I really don't want to mess with Wine if I don't have 
to).