GnuCash is a free open source accounting program launched in 1998 for small business. GnuCash implements a double entry bookkeeping system. It was first designed for Linux but later in 2004 it was released for Mac and in 2007 was available for Windows. Its current version is 2.6.14. GnuCash is also available for Android in Playstore.
According to GnuCash site ”GnuCash is a personal and small-business financial-accounting software, freely licensed under the GNU GPL and available for GNU/Linux, BSD, Solaris, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows. Designed to be easy to use, yet powerful and flexible, GnuCash allows you to track bank accounts, stocks, income, and expenses. As quick and intuitive to use as a checkbook register, it is based on professional accounting principles to ensure balanced books and accurate reports.”According to Linux Insider “GnuCash is based on professional accounting principles to ensure balanced books and accurate reports. If you venture beyond basic banking registers, you might find its double entry bookkeeping procedures a bit intimidating. In short, every transaction must be entered as a debit in one account and as a credit in the same amount corresponding account.”
Setting up Accounts in GnuCash is very simple. Click on Top and go to file and click new then select currency and then go forward and then select account of your choice.
Then click next and save the file with your name choice. The data will be saved in xml format.
GnuCash supports multiple currencies such as American Dollar, Euro, Pound, Indian Rupee, Pakistani Rupee, and multiple international currencies.
GnuCash can express your data in bar graphs, pie charts and scatter plots. It also comes with a variety of customizable reports, like balance and profit and loss sheets. You can also use GnuCash to have employees fill out expense reports.
Data can be transfer from GnuCash to any other software if it is required.
With this feature, you can print standard checks or you can customize the layout of your desire.
You can balance your own budget too using GnuCash’s checkbook-style register.
GnuCash has a feature that lets you track and receive quotes from stocks and mutual funds, making automatic updates to your portfolios based on data retrieved from websites.
GnuCash is nice to open source software for Linux users who wants to use free software but wants to take advantage of proprietary software. It is free accounting software which saves your dollars and still gives you the best experience to control your account. Version 2.6 has an improved user interface for the checkbook register. All things can be added and removed easily without much difficulty. The problem with GnuCash is that it is user-friendly if you have past experience with accounting software but if you are new to this then it is difficult to understand it first. GnuCash documentation helps a lot to understand it.
In Ubuntu and its derivatives, it can be installed using apt package manager –
or you can compile it from source code here.
