Best open-source accounting solution for home and small business

It has been a rock solid tool for managing transactions and monitoring fiscal health in the short and long term. I've tried a few different data store backend options (including mysql, postgresql, and XML file) - I landed long term on the XML file storage because it has had the least issues.

Pros

I was appealed by the low barrier to entry, including free download and installation, as well as strong documentation for an administrator that prefers to configure my own software.

Cons

Still haven't solved the multi-user limitation. We generally work from two different computers with a network file share, and often one user will forget to close the application, keeping the file lock in place. The UI still feels a bit dated, even with recent updates since version 3.0. I am okay with this because double-entry accounting is a well-established process and less change is ultimately better. But the menu structure layout is like the late 90s early 00s desktop application era and, in my opinion, can and should be improved upon.

Great accounting software for individuals and freelancers

Overall, I have nothing but high praise for it. Especially as a small business owner and freelancer. Older versions of the software used to crash when running specialized reports (eg pie charts of expenses) used to sometimes crash, however I have not experienced any such behavior as of the the latest versions of 3.0 and up (currently 3.6 as of this review.)

Pros

It was very easy to setup all of my accounts, and track my expenses and income across them. This includes bank accounts, and stock portfolios. And the ability to run reports that turn my accounts in to pie and bar charts is very helpful as well.

Cons

While I found 99% of the software to be easy to use, and despite having used the software for several years now, I still find it difficult to do split-transactions. Instead I find it easier to just make 2 separate transactions manually, noting that they're part of 1 transaction. They really could improve this feature to make it more failproof and intuitive.

Can be of great help when it comes to your personal budget

I've set a goal of saving up for a deposit for a house and GnuCash helps me stay on track with my budget .

Pros

It doesn't cost anything to use .Supports multiple currencies .You can switch between multiple accounts and work on them individually .Income and expenses are easy to distinguish ,which helps you see where you are siphoning money .

Cons

You get several options when it comes to generating reports ( Pie chart ,Bar chart and so on ) . If you pick Line charts ,they often become too large and unreadable on the screen.

Robust free accounting software but support not that fast

For my business needs, I believe GNUCash is the answer though support when faced with a problem not always that fast.

Pros

For those who are searching for a free accounting software for their individual or small business needs, GNUCash is perhaps the best given the robust features incorporated and a large community base. Being open source, the possibilities are endless for developers who can always add new codes to suit the needs.

Cons

Unfortunately, the support is not fast if one faces a hurdle. As a user, if you want to post a query on their forum, you need to subscribe. In my case, I could not understand this condition and so my query was reverted back. GNUCash perhaps should address this point. I then posted my thread to another popular forum (StackExchange: Personal Finances & Money) and received first reply only after one month!

Accounting Alternative

As with other open source software, the world community of users generally makes it easy to solve any issues that come up. I'd recommend it to the more advanced user.

Pros

I use gnuCash as a backup, supplemental accounting platform when I need to step outside of my practice management software. The level of customization makes it useful for special needs.

Cons

A certain familiarity with open source software and a proper understanding of charts of accounts is necessary to get all you can out of this software.

GNUCash Review

GNUCash is an open source free package that works much like the for-profit Quicken program without the spyware (content guard) bundled in by Intuit. On the most basic level you simply fill in your checkbook register. If you want to learn a small amount, you can also download your bank statements in various formats, including Quicken format, and click File Import to auto-magically insert them into your checkbook register. I use GNUCash on my desktop, over my LAN to a server, and over Internet via my SSH connection. Those who delve deeper will find this is actually a double entry (professional) accounting system with any number of ledgers you desire to create. You can split transactions just as you would in a paper based accounting system to show all the elements for the cash flow on every transaction, or use any of the (perhaps 50) built in reports to generate a balance sheet, income statement, and other common accounting reports. In this sense it leaves Quicken in the dust and is far easier to use than QuickBooks. Also, GNUCash will leave your payroll percentages alone while Intuit has programmed QuickBooks to delete all your payroll percentages every time you use it after February each year unless you buy the free IRS Circular E from Intuit each year. The Intuit rep explained to me that I had no choice and was forced to buy this free data from them "because business owners are too stupid to enter the (6) percentages themselves". Yes, she actually said that. GNUCash is not a "pretty" program but it is extremely functional and free. The downside is some non-intuitive behaviour when splitting an already entered transaction (which you will eventually figure out), and the rather obtuse way in which you enter budgeting data - the budgeting report however is very straightforward and allows you to change dates and which accounts are included very easily. It also provides a paper trail after every session as a separate (timestamped) file for review or recovery purposes. If you want more privacy and less cost in your company (or personal) accounting software this is a great choice. If you want for-pay customer support instead of using a FAQ or video tutorials to get answers, don't care if a glitch could lock you out of your own data when ContentGuard decides you're suddenly "not authorized", think business owners are stupid, and prefer to buy every feature for hundreds of dollars each, then by all means buy one of Intuit's packages.

Pros

Simple, resembles check register and most people can use it effectively immediately. It is free and malware free. More interested users can scale up their use to include complicated accounting steps (year end closing, splits across accounts, etc) as much as they wish.

Cons

Some features, such as initiating a split, or finding the budgeting functionality, can be non-intuitive.

Best free accounting software

Once I got the hang of the application, I enjoyed the ease and accuracy of keeping track of my expenses and accounts. It is very stable and does more than I'll ever need!

Pros

This application is feature rich for a software product that is opensource and free. It is great for personal and small businesses.

Cons

A little challenging to setup if you don't understand the basics of bookkeeping and accounting. It took a bit to get used to the interface and understand how the application worked.

Free, and free, accounting software

My small business has run on GnuCash since the late '90s. Never had a problem with it, through numerous upgrades and system replacements. And no calling the vendor for permission to run it on a new computer!

Pros

GnuCash is Free software, as in, you are free to use it, study the code, modify it to suit your own needs, and share it with others. It is also free, as in, zero cost. I use it because it is not Quickbooks, nor Intuit. However, it does have its own merits: auto-complete register entries, bank import with auto-matching, customizable reports, light on system resources. It also saves to compressed or plain-text files. The plain-text files are searchable outside of the program. I can search 20 years of financial records in two seconds.

Cons

User preferences are saved with the company file. So every time you start a new file, you have to set your preferences again.

GnuCash accounting software

I have a monthly clear income/expense balance, so I know what expenses should be avoided or are needed.

Pros

A very good software for personal accounting, and for business accounting too. I am using it for my personal income/expense balance.

Cons

I had troubles to use it on Mac OS X. I almost lost all my accounting details. Lucky me that I use an automatic backup solution.

Tidy little app

Pros

It doesn't cost anything to use . Listing earnings and expensive is intuitive . You can also automate transactions and schedule them in advance.

Cons

While you can export your "books" it can crash the app and doesn't always work as intended.

It's a free, professional, accounting software, kind of usable for personal finance

Pros

I use it to keep my personal finance. It's also a professional tool so it has many features that I will probably never use, but they don't get much in the way. Double entry is a powerful tool when you get the grasps of it, making it possible to bind together transactions between more than two accounts. It can also track stock prices and it's possible to update them with some setup. Charts and reports are available and very flexible. It's free and open source, so you can trust it with your numbers. There are mobile apps that help you not bringing around dozens of receipts to remember where you've spent your money.

Cons

If you're not a professional accountant, you'll need some time to get used to "double entry", and I still get confused sometimes. The setup of stock prices update is definitely not easy (esp. on Linux). Charts and reports require quite some work to get the most out of them, the presets are not that insightful. The Android app I use (GnuCash for Android) is nice but the export/import procedure is annoying: in some cases, you even have to tell GnuCash which date format you're using, and you probably have no idea without checking in the XML file!

Solid accounting software... for free!

Like the fact that it's free and that it gets the job done - ideal for small businesses or contractors who want something simple and free. Doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles but it's a great way to track business expenses and income.

Pros

Love that it's free and that it works all the time, with no fuss and no muss. It might take a bit to get up to speed on how to use it, but individuals familiar with other accounting programs shouldn't have any trouble. It even has a mobile piece (Android) where I can track trip expenses.

Cons

There is a steep learning curve at the beginning - particularly for those who may not be familiar with double-entry accounting. The mobile piece needs to have a better way of integrating with the main data file. There is also no way to have multiple users accessing the main data file.

I have been using GnuCash for personal accounting and for two small businesses for over three years.

No cost for product or use of product. Saves time. Very productive. Ease of use.

Pros

The ease of use, the double entry accounting, and the different functions, reports, and tools are excellent. The tools for different currency accounts are excellent for our international business.

Cons

There is a learning curve. Small things, such as learning how to print a register, can be a bit tedious in learning and doing the first time. While there is a user's manual and searching for assistance online is available, finding the answer to a question or learning how to do something often takes much trial and error and just simple experimenting with clicks key punches.

Free software for creating invoices and tracking payments

I implemented GnuCash when my department did not have a digital invoicing system in place for internal invoicing. We invoice between departments, and we were doing it on a spreadsheet, which was not optimal as sometimes mistakes were made. I implemented GnuCash myself, and I was able to do this as it was free of cost to download and use. We now have an internal billing system that tracks accounts payable and accounts receivable, and it is much more accurate and efficient.

Pros

I like that GnuCash is free, open source software, so there is no cost to use it, so I was able to implement it without putting forward a budget, and this was able to let me implement it quickly.

Cons

It isn't as polished as paid-for software, but it is also more flexible, so I think the negatives and positives on this issue balance out.

Works great, wish it had multi-user

I have been using it for years for my personal needs. I would recommend it to more customers / clients if it could be used on multiple systems. As it stands though, I have recommended it to numerous people that just have one person in accounting / sales / etc.

Pros

It is free, just a click to download and install on Windows. A quick install from the application manager in Linux/Debian/Ubuntu.

Cons

It does not support multi-users. Meaning if you have the file open on one system, you can not open that company on another. So if you want two people to be able to invoice at the same time, they can't.

Fine if you like bookeeping

I have never regretted switching from GnuCash to Xero for my business bookkeeping. But my husband and I still use GnuCash for our household books. It's more work than Xero, but it really is nice to have a free/self-hosted solution to keep our finances under control.

Pros

The price tag (free) is hard to beat. Hosting the database locally yourself (vs. an online cloud solution) lets you control the security of your data.

Cons

It's all so manual. Downloading your bank feeds, importing into the software, categorizing all of your transactions - GnuCash gets a little better at recognizing some of the common ones, but it still miscategorizes a lot of them. You still end up having to go through each one line by line, and it can be pretty slow waiting for the import to happen. The interface is really clunky, too.

I have been using GnuCash for 5 years

I will continue to use for my personal and business needs.

Pros

Very nice functional multi ledger, double-entry accounting with QIX/F files and bank statement imports. You can create balance sheet and income statement financial reports which you can customize and print. Love the price ;) and not being tied to yearly licenses and support up-selling.

Cons

Setting it up takes some work specially when you use it to for business, but GnuCash has a thriving community with lots of information in the web and your bookkeeper should not have trouble finding answers. You can also find resources that could help you further customize the application to suit your business.

Powerful personal accounting software that's free!

Pros

The account setup is customizable and fairly easy to modify / update on the fly. The ability to automatically grab stock quotes (though recently has become a little more difficult) is very helpful. I use the reports often to understand how my investments are going as well as tracking expenses and adjusting my spending accordingly.

Cons

The mobile app does not easily import transactions into the database. A cloud based database would be more useful as I need to be at my computer (or one linked to my cloud drive) to access the database. While I understand the need for it, the double entry book keeping system takes a little getting used to.

GnuCash does it all

I have used GnuCash for over 10 years on Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10. It was an excellent package when I started and has improved with updates. Having taught accounting, I find it provides everything needed for personal and business use.

Pros

GnuCash has drop-down menus to access everything needed in reporting. One drop-down menu has a link to automatically generate all closing entries at the end of the year. When making entries, it will remember information for last corresponding entry, just change amount.

Cons

I can generate a long list of back-up files, if not tuned properly.

Great open source accounting software

Pros

I can setup the accounting structure however I like. It uses double entry bookkeeping to keep track of income and expenses. Does a good job tracking investments and can calculate capital gains based on lots bought/sold for better accuracy. Lots of reporting features.

Cons

Getting used to the double entry system took some time. It used to be able to get online quotes for stocks, but that feature no longer works well. Not their fault since Yahoo broke it, but there isn't a reliable fix yet.

All the financial help you need .

Pros

GnuCash is great for both personal and small business use . It's spreadsheet like design makes it easy to keep track of income and expenses and make the necessary adjustments .It can be customized to your specific needs and is free to use .

Cons

It requires a lot of time to set up initially ,especially if you are using it for a business .Is also hard to integrate on mobile

Helped me immensely with reaching my budgeting goals .

Pros

Very easy to install and use .It is designed to look like a spreadsheet, so you quickly get used to using it .You can make the graphs as detailed as you need and as many incoming payments and expenses as needed .

Cons

I honestly have no complaints .It's a free program that does what it says it does .

A Great Alternative to Quickbooks

Pros

In searching for an alternative to Quickbooks for a new startup business, I stumbled upon Gnucash as a cost-effective alternative. If you are comfortable with Quickbooks, Gnucash is a breeze to catch onto, set up, and use on a daily basis. It mirrors the setup very closely and is simple to set up.

Cons

Gnucash is not set up to automatically integrate with very many other software applications, like its main competitor, so it could lead to a lot of manual data entry if this aspect is not thoroughly researched prior to setup.

Simply brilliant

Pros

I use it for my personal budgeting and am really happy I was recommended this app .The interface is similar to Excel ,which almost eliminates the learning curve .It is the easiest way I have found to track my income and expenses .

Cons

Seeing as how you don't pay anything to use it ,there really isn't anything to complain about

Really happy with it

Pros

GNU Cash is free to use . It has an Excel like design ,quickly making you familiar with the process .Your finances will be more organized and you'll be glad to have it .

Cons

There is a lot of manual data entry at the beginning .

it works, for the most part

i would really like to use this software. we are trying to convert over from quicken. the import function does bring all the data over, but it doesn't necessarily bring it over right. if a user was starting clean, i think the software would probably work really well. if you are importing, it's not going to work for you. perhaps other import functions work better than from quicken, but i do not know. so, your mileage may vary.

Pros

i like the look and feel of the software. i am used to using quicken, and this looks almost the same. there are differences, but that is to be expected.

Cons

the import of data from other software does not work that well. i have tried numerous times to import data from quicken, and it does not come out right.

Best free open source accounting software for personal finance

No need to pay for subscriptions. No fee and completely free.

Pros

This is perhaps the best free open source accounting software for personal finance which is also used for business accounting by SMEs. As there is a large community of users, one can stay assured of the latest updates as well as forum support.

Cons

This is not cloud-based. One needs to download the software. There is a learning curve. One needs to follow documentation which fortunately is well compiled.

GnuCash - Who Knew?

I use GnuCash for personal and small business money tracking. I find it a much better tool than Quick Books.

Pros

I hate bookkeeping. Finance is not my thing. But, I like charts and I really need to track money. Since I can use a check book, I can use GnuCash. I like the interface, which is familiar to anyone who remembers the world before credit cards and whatever people are doing waving their phones at checkout gadgets. Me, I am old school enough to remember double entry accounting. Thank goodness. This is a powerful money tracking tool and worth working a bit to get comfy with it. The result is the ability to actually chart money flow. Wow!

Cons

GnuCash isn't simple because accounting isn't simple. Too bad. But, the features hidden behind the check book are worth digging out and exploring.

Simply amazing !

Pros

GnuCash has revolutionized the way I budget . The way expenses are listed really helps me realize where I should stop spending so much .One of small number of apps I'd gladly pay for ,however it's free .

Cons

Especially if using it for a business ,more comprehensive accounting sheets are hard to properly create .Exporting your work can also be more intuitive on the mobile app .

Free accounts software that is very reliable

I needed an accounts software package that was able to generate invoices and track payments, and GnuCash has been working well for us.

Pros

I like that this software is free, with no hidden payments unlike other software packages we looked at.

Cons

Because it doesn't seem to be very popular, I had to learn how to use it from the manual. But it is compatible with other data formats.

A lot for your money

I am using gnucash for my personnal usage.

Pros

The application is really reliable, easy to maintain and quite flexible.

Cons

I would like if the application could sync with my bank (BNC)

Great value

Pros

GnuCash helped me lift my budgeting efforts to the next level .The interface looks like an Excel spreadsheet ,which breeds familiarity and in my opinion,eases the "getting to know you" phase of the process

Cons

Manually adding all of your income ,expenses and other misc items takes a lot of time.

Good Value (It's FREE)

I am using GnuCash to track income & expenses for my business, plus rental properties & my personal accounts. It took awhile to fully understand the double accounting system, but the documentation was pretty easy to follow. The software's intuitive nature when uploading new bank statements is nice... until a transaction needs to be categorized differently from the original. Overall, I like the program and will continue to use it to track my spending.

Pros

Easy to upload statements from bank, credit cards, etc. into the program.

Cons

Some questions are difficult to find answers in the documentation.

No reason not have this app .

Pros

GNU Cash helps me keep track of my budget and ensures I meet my financial goals .It works like a standard spreadsheet ( a more automated one ) and is free to use .

Cons

The initial set up where you enter your income and expenses ,can take a lot of time to properly organize.

Made budgeting a lot easier for me

Pros

I love the app ! It is free to use and easy to install . Entering your income and expenses is really simple and quick .You can automate transactions and make sure you never forget anything . You can get your reports in the form of a Bar Chart , Pie Chart or Line Chart and can see monthly ,quarterly or yearly views .

Cons

No complaints .GnuCash has everything I needed .Even things I didn't know I need !

Free ,neat financial helper .

Pros

GnuCash really helped me keep my personal finances in check . It is free to use , so that only adds to the financial benefits you get from it .

Cons

Constantly entering your expenses can be tedious ,but well worth it .

Helps easily organize finances

I would recommend it to any trying to get their finances in control.

Pros

Helps me get my finances in control. The documentation is also really good. And you can easily resolve issues yourself

Small business accounting software

I use GNU Cash to keep my small business accounts. It's simple and straight forward and keeps my finances in check. Best of all it was free and a permanent program on my computer.

Pros

Simple Accounting Book Platform for small business finances. Keeps me in check with my spending and earning and everything nice and neat, for zero dollars, Thank you.

Cons

Slow to open

Cheap n Easy

It's ok, not as impressive as others I've seen. You can customize it and it's rather simple to figure out if you're a beginner.

useful for little business or family

Pros

It is simple and easy to use, it is free

Cons

maybe it is not so complete and somebody could miss some features

Awesome for accounting

Pros

Great interface, user friendly, smooth, easy installation.

Cons

Would be great if customer support was better