What is Gnucash?
Gnucash is an open source, free program designed to allow individuals to keep track of their finances. It is not a budgeting program, but a financial program designed to keep track of account balances and where your money is being spent. Using this program will give you a clear idea of where your money is being spent, how much money you have, what your net worth is, etc. If you reach the end of the month and ask yourself "Where did all my money go?", this program is for you.
Further, this program can be used to keep track of expenditures in a business, as well as generate Invoices. It is actually powerful enough to serve all of the accounting needs of a small business, except for generating payroll (but it will keep track of the payroll).
And did I mention it's free?
Further, this program can be used to keep track of expenditures in a business, as well as generate Invoices. It is actually powerful enough to serve all of the accounting needs of a small business, except for generating payroll (but it will keep track of the payroll).
And did I mention it's free?
Tutorial 1: Getting Gnucash and The guide
The following video explains how to download Gnucash online and where to go to get the GnuCash concepts and tutorial guide, which serves as the basis for this website.
Gnucash can be retried here: http://www.gnucash.org
The concepts and tutorial guide can be retrieved here: http://www.gnucash.org/docs/v2.4/C/gnucash-guide.pdf
Gnucash can be retried here: http://www.gnucash.org
The concepts and tutorial guide can be retrieved here: http://www.gnucash.org/docs/v2.4/C/gnucash-guide.pdf
Tutorial 2: Setting Up Your Accounts
Once you have the program downloaded and installed, you need to set up your accounts. These tutorials deal with setting up personal finance accounts, although the program can be used to run business accounts as well. The key to setting up a new book of accounts is to use 5 specific parent-level accounts:
1. Assets
2. Equity
3. Expenses
4.Income
5.Liabilities
All of your personal transactions can be categorized into these categories. Of course, you're going to have to populate the parent accounts with sub accounts, a process which will also be covered in the tutorial.
1. Assets
2. Equity
3. Expenses
4.Income
5.Liabilities
All of your personal transactions can be categorized into these categories. Of course, you're going to have to populate the parent accounts with sub accounts, a process which will also be covered in the tutorial.
Remember, almost all of your transactions are going to deal with 2 different accounts, the only exception being increases in equity (opening balances). Bought something with cash in your wallet? Money out of your assets and into expenses. Got paid? Money into your Income and also into your Assets, or expenses if you signed your paycheck over to pay for something. Given $100 on your birthday? Call that an increase in Income or Equity and increase your Assets (cash).
There are two ways to go about setting up your accounts: automatically, using the Account Setup "wizard," and setting up your accounts manually.
There are two ways to go about setting up your accounts: automatically, using the Account Setup "wizard," and setting up your accounts manually.
Tutorial 2a: Setting up your accounts using The wizard
Want to get your accounts and opening balances set up quickly? Use the setup wizard. The main downside is that there are probably going to be WAY too many sub accounts; I don't cover this in the tutorial, but it's pretty simple to highlight a sub account you don't want and press the "Delete" key at the top to get rid of it. For instance, if I wanted to set up the accounts like this, I'd be deleting the "Dry Cleaning" sub account expense.
Tutorial 2b: Setting Up Your Accounts Manually
Want more control over what your sub accounts are? Use this tutorial to set up your accounts manually!
Tutorial 3: Opening Balances
If you set up your accounts manually, you're probably going to have to fill in some opening balances. Here's how to do it!
Tutorial 4: Basic Transactions
Ok, now you have your account "book" all set up, ready to use! Now what? Well, it's time to fill those accounts with transactions! This tutorial is one of the most important to understanding how to use the program. This tutorial deals with basic transactions, ones that only involve two accounts.
Remember, as you go through the tutorial, ALL transactions (with the exception of Opening Balance transactions), deal with 2 accounts. As a review: if you spend money, it comes from somewhere, like Checking or your Visa, and it goes somewhere, into an expense account. Even if you are given money, it comes from somewhere and goes somewhere, perhaps from a Gift account in Income and to Cash on Hand. Transactions involve at least 2 accounts! (We'll deal with transactions involving more than two accounts in the next tutorial).
What if you come across a transaction that involves a sub account that you didn't create yet? One of the coolest things about GnuCash is how easy it is to create a new sub account while you are creating a new transaction. The method of doing this also covered in this tutorial.
Remember, as you go through the tutorial, ALL transactions (with the exception of Opening Balance transactions), deal with 2 accounts. As a review: if you spend money, it comes from somewhere, like Checking or your Visa, and it goes somewhere, into an expense account. Even if you are given money, it comes from somewhere and goes somewhere, perhaps from a Gift account in Income and to Cash on Hand. Transactions involve at least 2 accounts! (We'll deal with transactions involving more than two accounts in the next tutorial).
What if you come across a transaction that involves a sub account that you didn't create yet? One of the coolest things about GnuCash is how easy it is to create a new sub account while you are creating a new transaction. The method of doing this also covered in this tutorial.
Tutorial 5: Split Transactions
This tutorial will deal with doing split transactions, meaning transactions that originate in one account but then affect more than one other account. The most common example of this is your paycheck: starting with your gross income, you will then have to pay taxes, and maybe have a few other deductions taken out as well. Then, you may not deposit the paycheck into one account. Maybe some of it goes into your checking and some of it goes into Cash on Hand. . .maybe you even have enough to put into your Savings account! Another potential example is if you spend money at a store, but some of the expenses were one thing and some of the expenses were another kind. For instance, I go into Wal-Mart and buy some groceries (grocery expense), but I also buy some parts to do an oil change on my car (auto expense. This tutorial will show you how to do these types of transactions!
Last Updated May 9, 2014