GnuCash Reviews

I have been using GnuCash since August 2015 to maintain my personal accounts. Until then, I had been using both Quickbooks and Quicken. I have never regretted the change to GnuCash as I find the programme easy to use and maintain all my bank, cash and asset accounts in one simple-to-use package. I have recommended and set the programme up for many of my friends, all of whom have expressed their satisfaction.

I'm an accountant and have used many accounting/bookkeeping programs including Xero and MYOB. Gnucash is certainly not on that level but it's great for small businesses and individuals who don't need payroll. I'm not registered for GST so I'm not sure if Gnucash can deal smoothly with Australian GST. I recently recommended GnuCash to a relative who is treasurer for a larger Rotary club. He says it's great and a huge improvement over the Excel spreadsheets previously used. Rotary at this level has weird, non-standard reporting requirements. Between the two of us we set up special reports that do the job. Two things needs improving: 1. Bank reconciliations. Not the reconciliation per se but reporting thereof. There doesn't seem to be a way to print a standard reconciliation report. 2. Direct access to Australian bank accounts. This seems to be possible for Europe and the US but Australia misses out. I should add that my relative is not an accountant or bookkeeper and he picked GnuCash up pretty quickly (granted, I helped). Re QIF files: I avoid them as the import is quite clumsy. OFX is smooth and fault-free. If you can't get an OFX file there are plenty of QIF to OFX converters that might be a solution.

Having used Quicken for decades I needed to get out of the expense of a program I use occasionally for my business. Gnucash has the basics covered and few extras but it is not a direct substitute for Quicken. I am thankful to all who have laboured over make this available for free. And for that price you don't get as many features, as intuitive and smart a program or as good looking an interface. But it works, does backups and never crashes. Yes, it will take a weekend to figure out how it works and to set up your accounts. Do take care in importing your bank downloads.

This is a great application once you've got the hang of it which if you don't have an accountancy background can be a bit of an uphill struggle but p****vere, its worth it when you have. There does appear to be a recurring bug with creating reports which has never been resolved, its a bit hit and miss if it works for you. I never had a problem with reports until installing on a Windows 10 machine but now no matter what I try including all the fixes described on GnuCash forums I just cannot get to work at all.

The app is excellent in many aspects but lacks a more friendly support, manly regarding FAQs and tools for finding problem solutions. I recommend firmly this applications for my associates.

As a long-time Quicken user I find GnuCash a refreshing option. Quicken has been getting worse for several years. I have started using GnuCash and completely made the switch for 2020. Six months of completely using GnuCash and I have not looked back at Quicken. Another bonus for GnuCash is that the upgrades have been smooth. After suffering annual Quicken upgrades for many years, it is good to not have so many problems after updating the software.

I had a skim through the reviews here and found them a little harsh. 1) People, remember this is open source FREE software. This means that it will usually be MORE stable than proprietary software. 2) Not to mention more secure from the point of view that there are many developers over many years sifting through the code (at their own expense) to make it as rock solid as possible. 3) You own your data file. You can load it on your own computer with NO net connection. In the last 2 years I have now been done 3 times by software companies forcing me to either store my files in their cloud or be cloud connected to use their software. By done I mean just to look at my files there's usually a starting fee of around USD3k. So yes there is amazing accounting software out there, but if I can't have the original software I load on my computer now or anytime in the future with no net connection, it's useless to me. 4) If you want a point an click solution so that you don't need deal with the back end accounts, then you have no idea what is going on with your accounts anyway. Hire an accountant and just do what they tell you to do. Your financial life is in someone elses hands. 5) For those who slandered the QIF import then yes it's a little basic. The OFX import is much better and has some transaction matching. Agreed though, that some way to train the software with regular expression text matching rules on import would be fantastic. It does a pretty good job though with Bayesian matching 6) Inventory - It has not been designed to handle inventory, Well at a basic level, but it's more service oriented. Would love to find an inventory module. 7) Style sheets need some work, but they do work and it is intuitive enough. Then again, they are about as good as most of the retail packages our there. Most are restricted. If you don't like it then it's open source. Fix it. They've a MySql back end. you can write a third party open source program with your own style sheets without affecting the GnuCash source. Awesome!! Try do that with retail software for under USD10k. 8) Overall ease of use is pretty much as good as you get for an accounting package. The auto split ledger works great and is actually neater than most proprietary packages. 9) Not locked to units - A HUGE step up from almost all other accounting packages. Being able to track stock purchases and see their value relative to your accounting system. Amazing! i.e. You own 100 shares of XYZ. Gnu cash just sees that you have 100 shares and it calculated the value on the day you ask and shows it in your balance sheet. 10) Infinite ledger layer depth. I'm sure some retail software packages support it, but I've not come across any. GnuCash does it gracefully. 11) Rock solid - It just works. 12) Multi platform - I operate across Microsoft, Apple and Linux systems with GNUcash on the same data files easily. Thumbs up GNU cash developers, keep up the awesome work. I love this software! Regards, Dion Patelis.

Love this program. Once you set it up, it is a pleasure to use. Thanks to everyone involved for creating an excellent program.

Love this program. Once you set it up, it is a pleasure to use. Thanks to everyone involved for creating an excellent program.

You need to know bookkeeping and how other software programs work to make best use of this one. I'm in Canada and this is a US based free software so some things don't relate. However, creating new accounts is easy and entering data is also easy. Not so easy is the reporting system...and one of the worst aspects of all is being able to perform a bank reconciliation BUT NOT BE ABLE TO PRINT IT!!! What use is that? Creating re-usable reports isn't bad but the choices of formatting are very limited. This is a basic nuts and bolts program if you just want to keep a bookkeeping record but the features of the optional reporting system is very limited. As for importing QIF files from online banking, it did work for me in the beginning but I haven't tried lately...so not sure if an upgrade has caused a problem. I found it easier not to import QIF and just do manual entries anyway. Great work on the bookkeeping aspect, lousy at what you can do with the info once you have it. I've used Bedford, ACCPAC, Simply Accounting, and Quickbooks over the years. I needed a free software for my boss and his small company but this has been a trial. Now that it is all setup I'm debating on switching to something else but hate to lose all of the data and entry history.

Feature rich and powerful.

On Windows 10 version 3.2 starts the first time but then crashes on each subsequent attempts to start the application again. Column resizing on the transaction display is hopeless. It is difficult to see the amount column if there more that 6 digits, and it is not possible to resize that column. Those are the only issues I have otherwise a very well done application.

One of the best programs for personal money account. Hope the devs will release version for small enterprises.

'bit miffed that my custom reports were not imported during the upgrade to version 3.1. But, as ever, GNUCash is a great piece of accopunting software which I have been using for more than 10 years for the household accounts.

My data is finally fully available to me. Wish I had switched to GnuCash earlier.

I have been using GnuCash for more than five years. Through the forums, support is excellent and searches of the web generally provide me with what I need to resolve issues. My difficulties with the package are caused through not having a formal accounting background rather than GNUCash shortcomings. When I do (finally) get a strategy for resolving an issue, GNUCash does it elegantly and efficiently. The latest for me was after I entered payment of invoices through reconciling with my bank statement instead of through the Business section. The result was a balanced reconciliation with invoices showing as unpaid. It took me a while to get the terminology right in my searches but GNUCash gave me an easy path once I knew what to do. For the uninitiated, there is a steep learning curve but this is around the subject matter, not the package. It is a powerful app which has many fail safes. Reading of the difficulties others have had, most seemed linked to misunderstanding what is being attempted. GNUCash is best learnt through the many tutorials and a clear understanding about what the user wants to do. It is intuitive but it deals with a subject that is not - tracking what is happening with finances.

Gnucash has to be one of the best accounting packages available, certainly in the open source and free software categories. It may not be customized to a particular country's tax system, legal and business framework as many commercial packages are but it does have the flexibility to be used world wide, supports Generally Accepted Accounting Practice and can be readily customized for individual requirements.

I have used money management software for years. I have used Microsoft Money & Quicken. I switched to Gnucash about five years ago, because I wanted more control over where the data is stored and who has access to account information. Gnucash provides that over the other software I have used. It does take a bit getting used to the way Gnucash manages accounts and imports data. But, if you take the time to read the manual, and test your own data, you will actually come to appreciate the care and detail provided by this package.

Was using another program and decided to test this. Love how, after the accounts are set up, entering transactions was very easy. The auto fill type of feature with memory is very helpful. Scheduled transactions worked on time, every time. However what killed this for me now is that there is no note field on the individual transactions. There is a way to link to external text files etc., however I found it too time consuming for all those little transaction notes. Also the main database file that is being used is very sensitive to any change like moving it to another folder etc. If this is done the file does not open in the program anymore. I had to start from scratch 3 or 4 times because I forgot and moved it, or changed its name and then changed it back. Frustrating. However overall other then that it shows a lot of promise and I will watch it to see if improvements are made. Might be nice one day.

Like another user, I could not even get gnuCash to import the QIF file from my existing program (MoneyDance). It goes through the various stages, and I can see my import data being processed, but when I hit the final APPLY button, the program just closes with no message - nothing. Pretty disappointing to fail like this before it even gets started.

I moved to GnuCash from Quicken to manage my personal economy at the end of 2012 and this software has been growing on me ever since. I love following up my spending with reports and graphs and the latest release (2.6) features major usability improvements in this area with configurable custom reports and more visually appealing graphs which definitely struck a chord with me. Big thumbs up to all the developers! Keep up the great work!

I've used Quickbooks for a couple years now and have been *very* dissatisfied. GnuCash's clear interface, discoverability, and transparency have added a new dimension to accounting productivity. I have read the (excellent) guide and now understand double-entry accounting better than I ever have, and am now using it to track personal finances. If, Lord willing, I start a business, this will be an easy go-to solution even for AR and AP!

I have been using Quicken for 20 years, but I have always been dissatisfied. Quicken is limited, and they never seem to make progress quickly enough. It seems like they are always working against the user. So I have been following Gnucash for many years, waiting for a time when it might be an acceptable alternative. Unfortunately, Gnucash is not even close to being mature software yet. The documentation is excellent. Very rare to see excellent documentation in a free-software project. However, the software itself (under Windows 8) does not work at all. The stable version 2.4.13 will not even open. I am sitting and looking at the start-up screen now on my computer, which has frozen at the splash screen. Version 2.5.5 (unstable) lives up to its name. Although it gets past the splash screen, it crashes when attempting to save a transaction into PostgreSQL. So, I will continue to monitor this project. Maybe in another 10 years...

Exec summary: I upgraded both a GnuCash major version and operating system (Windows to Linux) at the same time, and GnuCash worked flawlessly. Respect, GnuCash! Don't try this at home, but if it happens to you, like it did to me, GnuCash will show its quality. Longer version: I have used GnuCash (2.3) on Windows XP for a couple of accounting years now, for a family business. Its support for GST (Australia/NZ's version of VAT) is modest. But I p****vered... Recently, part way through closing a year end, I decided to upgrade my computer from Windows XP to Linux Mint. That's a great upgrade- I wish I did it ages ago. Linux Mint is far more usable than any Windows since XP. Hardware just works, performance is great. Anyway, I decided to slim down Windows but leave a bootable Windows as insurance, so I could complete the year-end safely and keep a couple of other apps I wanted to take my time in converting across. Yes of course I backed up. Something I did, Windows didn't like. I still don't know what. Anyway, my carefully-preserved Windows doesn't boot any more. it gets partway through then croaks. So I restored my GnuCash data- backed up on 32-bit Windows, restored to 64-bit Linux. Installed the latest (2.4) GnuCash, Linux version; fired it up and opened my part-done year end data. Instant success. No ifs, buts or gotchas (so far). This is among the easiest migrations I have performed- and that includes migrations where I kept the same application version and just upgraded Windows versions. I work in IT, and it's the best accidental upgrade I have had- ever! The other couple of apps I kept Windows around for- don't care now. Windows is gone. I can still get to the data files on the old Windows partition and in every case, I know what Linux app I will use and how it will use the data files. The worst case was Dragon Naturally Speaking, which now works well in Linux under VirtualBox. GnuCash team, thank you very much! Keep up the outstanding work.

Keep your finance history! I've used excel. But at the moment I use this app, Gnucash