Newbie: suitable for personal finances?

[Wesley <wsh...@qx...>]

Hi,

I just started looking at sql-ledger, and I like the full-fledged
double-entry accounting, and I like the fact that it runs on Apache,
Perl, and PostgreSQL.  What I'm wondering is how many current users use
it for personal finances, in place of something like GnuCash or
Quicken?  I've been using GnuCash since last Fall, before that I used
CBB, and before that I think I was still using InCharge! under OS/2.  I
really like GnuCash's double-entry and applying full accounting
principals to personal finances.  I suppose specific suitability
questions would be:

* Does anyone use it for personal finances, or only for business
finances?

* Are there any facilities for tracking the value of something like
stocks or mutual funds?  I'm not talking about automatic stock quote
lookup, just being able to enter number of shares, cost per share at
purchase, "today", and at time of sale for historical and tax purposes.

* It appears to be straight Perl CGI scripts.  Is the code safe to run
under mod_perl?  i.e., do all the variables get initialized properly,
has it been tested under mod_perl, etc.?  I know the docs say it will
run on a P100, but I'm trying to run it on a P90.  :-)  It runs, but
slowly, and I'll take any speedup I can get.

* Although I think I have a grasp of double-entry fundamentals, some of
the default accounts weren't entirely clear to me.  Are these documented
anywhere in any way?  Specific ones that looked useful that I don't
completely 'get' are: 
	#1205 - Allowance for doubtful accounts (estimate of how much I think
I'm going to be stiffed?)
	#1825 and #1845: "Accum. Amort."  Is this the same as depreciation?
	#2310 and #2311: "GST" and "PST"???
	#3590 and #3600:  Retained Earnings from Prior years, Current
Earnings.  In GnuCash, I've only used Retained Earnings to balance the
starting balances in various accounts at the time I started using
GnuCash.  It doesn't support a way to "close the books" at the end of
the year.  Does SQL-Ledger support closing the books at year's end?  Is
this the right place to balance my "starting balances"?  I have both
assets (checking, savings, etc.) and liabilities (various loans) to
balance; should the latter have a separate "Retained Losses" account??

Thanks in advance,
	

-- 
Wes Sheldahl
wsh...@qx...