I used GnuCash for a few years too, then switched to something else because:
1) I couldn't make transaction importing work for the statements that I want
2) I couldn't get to the report that igpay got (this was many years back) for some reason, I also wanted more custom reports and it seemed really complicated to create one
3) I wanted a tool that was more malleable. Although GnuCash is completely open source, the codebase does not look too approachable for me
After trying a few other approaches (including spreadsheets), I settled with Ledger CLI. I also built importing tools over 3 years of coding on weekends and finally got a complete set of features and financial institutions that I want :) Started with the reporting / analytics part recently... You can check it out here:
Same here, I tried the data entry way (telling myself that the friction encourages thinking more before spending). It lasted about 2 years before I started creating import helpers to get transactions from my current accounts and etc.
Now, I put together some JS to create custom import helpers that adapts to different bank formats. Unsurprisingly, banks doesn't seem to want to converge/adopt a standard on transaction exports still (like a simple standard on the CSV will do), despite all the hype about open banking and such. Step by step?
I have some libraries that I reuse to create these custom helpers documented here:
I have similar requirements, except I wanted something on my laptop (well, I could self-host locally too). After about 10 years or so with GnuCash, I started using Ledger-CLI. Both satisfied those requirements...But I wanted to have more control over imports and reports.
As I go about normalizing that in my life, I started writing GUIs to make interaction easier and import helpers to make imports easy. Sometime ago, I packaged all of that into a desktop/laptop app: https://prudent.me
With Prudent, you can combine multiple ledger journals from different users (maybe share the journal text files via Git) and obtain aggregated financial reports based on the combined ledgers.
I use Linux, so Prudent is not an option. And even considering its workflow, it would be impossible for my users to adopt it. I have a retail business in which I employ non-tech people.
But I appreciate your suggestion anyway. I think Prudent looks very elegant from a UI perspective -- 100x more elegant than GnuCash, for example. And it ended up stimulating me to think about a possible text/command-line based financial solution for SMEs. That would be great in many ways. For example, imagine something like IntelliSense working on top of a workflow.
>Create expense of $39.99 paid to Staples on 6/1/2019
>Show me expenses this month
Well, I believe design and implementation of such solution would be enormous given all the processes and situations that would have to be covered and forethought, but the end result would give so much agility to end users that I believe it would compensate the effort.
In Prudent, you can combine multiple journals. Your wife can maintain a separate journal while you maintain another one. This way, both parties can do whatever they want or agree to some set of rules. Most importantly, at any time, you or your wife can see the combined financial strength, or individual financial situation. Awareness of both can make a big difference in making important financial decisions. Avoid being penny wise, pound foolish. The combined report (of savings, etc.) gives both of you better insights on the financial journey that you can embark together (i.e. buying a house, having kids, moving cities, etc.)
I didn't know about Ledger [1], which this is said to be based on. It seems like a proper UNIX tool like Remind [2] but for finance. I would really like to use these types of applications all the time, but either usability suffers a lot or useful principles get lost when trying to integrate them with smartphones and tablets.
1) I couldn't make transaction importing work for the statements that I want 2) I couldn't get to the report that igpay got (this was many years back) for some reason, I also wanted more custom reports and it seemed really complicated to create one 3) I wanted a tool that was more malleable. Although GnuCash is completely open source, the codebase does not look too approachable for me
After trying a few other approaches (including spreadsheets), I settled with Ledger CLI. I also built importing tools over 3 years of coding on weekends and finally got a complete set of features and financial institutions that I want :) Started with the reporting / analytics part recently... You can check it out here:
https://prudent.me
Any feedback will be very appreciated :)