About GnuCash
GnuCash is a program to keep track of your finances. Some
of the features are:
- Multiple accounts, which can be open at
the same time. Create one xacc account
for each of your bank accounts.
- Each account keeps a running balance and
a reconciled balance, so you can keep track
of the checks that have cleared your account.
- A simple interface. If you can use the
register in the back of your checkbook,
you can use xacc.
- Automatic account reconciling. At the end
of the month, open up the reconcile window,
enter your bank statement's ending balance,
and check off the transactions that appear
in the bank statement. This makes it easy
to track down any discrepancies.
- QuickFill... if you begin typing
in the description field, and the text matches a
previous transaction, hitting TAB will copy
that previous transaction. Handy if you have
similar transactions on a regular basis.
- Stock/Mutual Fund Portfolios. Track stocks
individually (one per account) or in portfolio
of accounts (a group of accounts that can be
displayed together).
- Support for multiple currencies and currency
trading accounts. (partial, still broken).
Bank accounts may be established in different
currencies, and trades with indicated prices
may be made, much as stocks would be traded.
- Quicken File Import.
Import Quicken Version 3.0 QIF files.
- Reports. Display
or output as HTML Balance or Profit&Loss reports.
Advanced Features
GnuCash offers some features not usually found
in simpler accounting programs.
- Sub-accounts: A master account can have a hierarchy
of detail accounts underneath it. This allows similar
account types (e.g. Cash, Bank, Stock) to be grouped
into one master account (e.g. Assets).
- Double Entry:
Every transaction can appear in two
accounts; one account is debited and the other is
credited with exactly the same amount. With
double-entry, a transaction edited in one window
will be automatically updated in all other windows
showing that transaction, and in both of the
accounts.
- Income/Expense Account Types
(Categories). When used properly
with the double-entry feature, these can be used
to create both Balance Sheet and Profits & Losses
reports. For example, savings account interest,
stock dividends, or paychecks can be marked as
both a deposit in a bank account, and as income in
an Income account type, using the double-entry
(transfer) feature. Similarly, credit card charges
can be noted in the credit card account, as well
as in a corresponding expense account.
- General Ledger: Multiple accounts can be displayed
in one register window at the same time. This can
ease the trouble of tracking down typing/entry errors.
It also provides a convenient way of viewing a
portfolio of many stocks, by showing all transactions
in that portfolio.
Version Numbering
This version is gnucash-1.2.x, and is the current stable version of
GnuCash.
Lead Developers
- Robin Clark <rclark@hmc.edu>
- wrote the original X-Accountant in Motif
as a school project, taking it to version 0.9 by October 1997.
- Linas Vepstas <linas@linas.org>
- liked what he saw: the GUI was slick,
the code was documented and well structured, and it was all GPL'ed.
And so he re-wrote it: adding cell-widgets to XbaeMatrix, so that
the combobox and arrows would make an even slicker GUI, rewrote the
X-Accountant internals to add double-entry, an account heirarchy,
split out a transaction mini-engine, add support for stocks, and spiff
up the help menus. This was version 1.0 as of January 1998. Since
then, for version 1.1, the engine was expanded & refined, and the
register window code completely redesigned and made mostly
Motif-(and GUI-)independent. Did some prototype OFX work.
- Jeremy Collins <jcollins@gnucash.org>
- publicized the GnoMoney project
widely and broadly, and then changed its name to GnuCash. Jeremy
created the gnucash.org web site, registered the domain, got the
initial GTK/gnome code working.
- Rob Browning <rlb@cs.utexas.edu>
- abused everyone for not using perl,
and then added guile/scheme support. Rob maintains the build
infrastructure, is handling the whole guile/perl extension language
thing, and is dealing with configuration & configurability.
- Dirk Schoenberger <schoenberger@signsoft.com>
- is working on the Qt/KDE port
Fixes & Patches
Andrew Arensburger <arensb@cfar.umd.edu> for FreeBSD & other patches
Matt Armstrong <matt_armstrong@bigfoot.com> for misc fixes
Fred Baube <fred@moremagic.com> for attempted Java port/MoneyDance
Christopher B. Browne <cbbrowne@hex.net> for perl stock scripts
Graham Chapman <grahamc@zeta.org.au> for the xacc-rpts addon package
George Chen <georgec@sco.com> for MS-Money QIF's & fixes
Jeremey Collins <jcollins@gnucash.org> for GnoMoney & GTK port
Patrick Condron <pcondon@rackspace.com> for webserver and T1 connection.
Ciaran Deignan <Ciaran.Deignan@bull.net> for AIX binary version
Tyson Dowd <tyson@tyse.net> for config/make patches & debian maint.
Koen D'Hondt <ripley@xs4all.nl> for Solaris patches to XmHTML
Bob Drzyzgula <bob@mostly.com> for budgeting design notes
Jan-Uwe Finck <ju_finck@mail.netwave.de> for German message translation
Ron Forrester <rjf@aracnet.com> for gnome patches
Dave Freese <DFreese@osc.uscg.mil> for leap-year fix
Otto Hammersmith <otto@bug.redhat.com> for RedHat RPM version
Alexandru Harsanyi <haral@codec.ro> for misc core dumps & lockups.
Jon K}re Hellan <jk@isdn-a33.itea.ntnu.no> misc core dump fixes
Prakash Kailasa <PrakashK@bigfoot.com> for gnome build fixes
Tom Kludy <tkludy@csd.sgi.com> for SGI Irix port
Sven Kuenzler <sk@xgm.de> for SuSE README file
Ted Lemon <mellon@andare.fugue.com> for NetBSD port
Yannick Le Ny <y-le-ny@ifrance.com> pour la traduction en francais
G. Allen Morris III <gam3@ann.softgams.com> for QIF core dump
Peter Norton <spacey@inch.com> for a valiant attempt at a GTK port
OmNiBuS <webmaster@obsidian.uia.net> web site graphics & content
Myroslav Opyr <mopyr@IPM.Lviv.UA> for misc patches
Alain Peyrat <Alain.Peyrat@nmu.alcatel.fr> for configure.in patches
Gavin Porter <maufk@csv.warwick.ac.uk> for euro style dates
Ron Record <rr@sco.com> for SCO Unixware & OpenServer binaries
Christopher Seawood <cls@seawood.org> for XbaeMatrix core dump
Mike Simons <msimons@fsimons01.erols.com> misc configure.in patches
Richard Skelton <rich@brake.demon.co.uk> for Solaris cleanup
Henning Spruth <spruth@bigfoot.com> for German text & euro date rework
Ken Yamaguchi <gooch@ic.EECS.Berkeley.EDU> QIF import fixes; MYM import
Supported Operating Systems
gnucash-1.0.18 (xacc-1.0.18) is known to work in the following configs:
Linux 2.0.x -- Intel w/ RedHat Motif
Linux 2.0.x -- Intel w/ Lesstif v0.81
Linux Debian -- Intel w/ Lesstif v0.81
SGI IRIX -- MIPS
IBM AIX 4.1.5 -- RS/6000
SCO Unixware 7 -- Intel
SCO OpenServer 5.0.4 -- Intel
NetBSD -- Intel
History
The table below shows some historical lines-of-code and number-of-files
counts for the X-Accountant/GnuCash development project
Historical Development Stats
Version
| engine
| register
| ledger
| motif
| gnome
| qt
| prefs (scm)
| docs (html)
| misc
| Total
|
xacc-0.9 Sept 97
| -
| -
| -
| 34 files (7.5+0.9)
| -
| -
| -
| 5 files (0.4)
| -
| 39 files (8.8)
|
xacc-0.9w Dec 97
| -
| -
| -
| 51 files (13.8+1.5)
| -
| -
| -
| 9 files (0.8)
| -
| 60 files (16.1)
|
xacc-1.0.17 Feb 98
| -
| -
| -
| 52 files (14.8+1.8)
| -
| -
| -
| 12 files (1.4)
| -
| 64 files (18.0)
|
gnucash-1.1.15 Aug 98
| 24 files (6.2+1.5)
| 31 files (6.1+1.7)
| 5 files (1.4+0.4)
| 30 files (7.4+0.7)
| 17 files (3.4+0.5)
| 16 files (1.2+0.2)
| 3 files (0.3)
| 16 files (1.9)
| not counted (>1.0)
| 142 files (32.9)
|
Each cell contains:
number of *c and *.h files
(KLOCS in *.c + KLOCS in *.h),
where KLOC == kilo-lines-of-code, as reported by wc.