linux accounting software or cheap winxp

[Paul Lussier]

Bill McGonigle <bill at bfccomputing.com> writes:

> On 02/24/2009 02:55 PM, Paul Lussier wrote:
>> My goal is to track the gasoline usage, not the cost of the gasoline I
>> use.  The former doesn't vary much, whereas the latter varies
>> drastically.
>
> Can you just enter gallons as dollars?

No, because I want to track both my costs and my usage.

In Ledger I can simply do this:

  08/08 BJ's Wholesale Club
      Expenses:Auto:Fuel          GAL 13.569 @ $ 3.669
      Assets:BankAccounts:Checking            $ -49.78

Then I can run a report like this to see total gas consumption:

  $ ledger -f ledger.dat -p 2008 bal fuel

           GAL 316.516  Expenses:Auto:Fuel
  --------------------
           GAL 316.516  
pll at whozit - /Users/pll/personal/finance/ledger#[949]


Or this when I want to report actual costs for gas:

  $ ledger -f usaack.dat -p 2008 -V bal fuel
            $ 1,161.30  Expenses:Auto:Fuel
  --------------------
            $ 1,161.30  

I use this to track heating oil, gasoline, electricity, and pretty
much anything else that has a frequently fluctuating dollar value.

I haven't yet figured out how to track things like this in GnuCash.

Other things I've done with ledger, not easily recreated in GnuCash
(or any other finance package that I know of) is to track my commuting
costs between driving, taking the T and the Commuter Rail.  For
example when I ride my bike to work during the summer months, I drive
more and take the T less, but I also have to purchase separate
Commuter Rail and T passes since I didn't get monthly passes during
that time.  I can easily track my T and Commuter Rail rides as a
currency:

05/31 MBTA
    Liabilities:CreditCards:USAA             $ -93.00
    Assets:Commute:Train                     CR 12.00

06/04 Train to North Station
    Assets:Commute:Train                     CR -1.00
    Expenses:Commute:Train

06/04 Green Line to Lechmere
    Assets:Commute:Train                      T -1.00
    Expenses:Commute:Train

06/06 Commute Home to Bedford
    Assets:Auto:Fuel             GAL -1.414 @ $2.999
    Expenses:Commute:Fuel

06/06 Commute Bedford to Home
    Assets:Auto:Fuel             GAL -1.414 @ $2.999
    Expenses:Commute:Fuel

Now I can track my commuting only costs:

$ ledger -f BikeCommute.dat bal
        $ -135.23436
             CR 5.00
        GAL -132.812
              T 1.50  Assets
           $ 662.708
            CR 43.00
              T 5.00  Expenses
          $ -480.500  Liabilities
--------------------
      $ 46.973893224
            CR 48.00
        GAL -132.812
              T 6.50  

Which tells me I've put 480.50 on my credit card, I've got 1.5 T rides
left, and 5 Commuter Rail rides left, and I've used 132 Gallons of gas.

And I can quickly figure out the cost basis:

$ ledger -f BikeCommute.dat -VB bal
           $ -663.15
            CR 19.00
             T -5.00  Assets
            $ 662.71
            CR 43.00
              T 5.00  Expenses

Telling me I've spent a total of $662.71 in commuting thus far:
consisting of 43 Commuter Rail rides, and 5 T rides.

The other thing I *really* like about ledger is that it's file is a
simple ascii text file.  I have over 8 years of financial data across
more than 12 different accounts in a total of 4MB.  For comparisson,
the last time I seriously used GnuCash (2000/2001ish), which was right
after they decided to move from plain ascii text to an XML-based file.
My Y2000 GnuCash.xac data file, for only the year 2000 weighs in at 1.7M.

Ledger is both smaller, more flexible, and suits my needs for the
wacky things I like to do better than GnuCash, which, like most
graphical applications, traps you into fairly restrictive interface,
and takes significantly more time to load up.

Please don't take this a slight towards GnuCash.  It's not.  I think
it's a fantastic app if what you require is a GUI like thing that
replaces something similar in the Windows world like MSM or Quicken.

My requirements are significantly different than most people.  My two
biggest reasons for preferring ledger are:

 - I need to be able to simply, quickly enter lots of transactions.  A
   GUI is seldom going to allow me to work at the speed I desire.
   Ledger allows me to enter data from within emacs, from the command
   line, via e-mail/procmail/shell-script (admittedly, I've never done
   the latter, though I've thought about setting such a hook up many
   times).

 - I need to be able enter data from multiple locations without
   waiting for a GUI.  I tend to enter data from my laptop and from
   work.  Since I can ssh into my server from both locations and
   access emacs within my screen session, it's simple to enter my data
   in one location and not worry about sync'ing things up.

Also, being able to run things like perl, sed/awk, and grep on my data
files and have it spit out something meaningful is a huge win for me
most people won't care about.  Also, the fact that ledger has python
bindings is another win, given that I'm now learning python.  Also
interestingly, ledger can read GnuCash XML files :)

One of the things I don't like about ledger, however, is the lack of
built-in reporting.  There are no Cash Flow, Balance Sheet, Income
Statement, or other types of canned reports.  In theory, I can create
them all, and will probably do so at some point.

-- 
Seeya,
Paul