Personal Accounts Software

rootoo · 20 March 2007 at 12:57PM

I'm a debt-free wannabee! I am at the beginning stages of creating a budget and debt planning (and knowing me) bits of paper everywhere to see if I'm meeting it or not just aren't going to work!

I'm looking for a cheap (or better still FREE!!) Windows based accounts package that I can use to predict expenditure and set budgets with to compare against the reality!

Any ideas? Thanks!

P.S Martin Lewis - should you ever read this - MSE is a great idea. There are several generations of people out there who have never been taught how to deal with credit and more importantly - how NOT to deal with it! So thanks! I'm looking at setting up a blog to chart my progress as I really want people to know they aren't alone - wud that be something MSE fans would want to read? If so I'll post details of the blog to the forum?

SunderlandBlackCat · 20 March 2007 at 1:19PM

The best free personal finance software I've come across is GNU Cash but unfortuantely it only runs on unix/linux so you would need to install one of these first

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Windows_Services_for_UNIX

or

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cygwin

rootoo · 20 March 2007 at 1:44PM

Thanks Black Cat,

Sadly Unix OS wouldn't be an option - it would involve spending more money!!! (See I'm getting the hang of this!).

Any other ideas, fellow wanabees?

hbl_2 · 20 March 2007 at 1:47PM

If you want absolutely free, nuts and bolt accounting software, you could use a spreadsheet, in which case OpenOffice is gratis (google it), but you might already have a spreadsheet with your office suite?

Alternatively your options are pretty limited. There's Quicken, which is no longer supported in the UK, which is a shame cos it wasn't a bad bit of kit, and they're still making it in the US and making it better.

Same pretty much goes for MS Money - which is what I use. I'm getting by with Money 2004 (apparently the 2005 update wasn't enough of an improvement to require upgrading), and it hasn't been updated of late. I read a rumour somewhere that it's still being supported in the UK and it might get an update soon, but again google is your friend on this one.

I've had a pop around with GNU cash too, which has a nice intro to double entry book-keeping, so is aimed at small business use, but it's ugly as hell.

If you're together with online banking then MS Money allows you to import statements straight into it which I find invaluable (and one of the reasons I'm happy with my HSBC account). You d/load it whenever you want, and Money will only update the new entries. My dad uses quicken and still inputs all his receipts in my hand and then checks them against his statement... I've shown him what I do and he still does it. Oh well!

catewithers · 20 March 2007 at 1:49PM

EagerLearner has done a fantastic spreadsheet for budgeting and keeping track of your savings as well.....

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=238575&highlight=eagerlearner

hope that helps.

Crown · 20 March 2007 at 1:55PM

Hi Rootoo,

Have a look at Acemoney Lite.

I have used this software for ages and always found it good and runs on Micro$oft Windows what I assume you are currently using.

There is a better version for about £15 but if you look aroundon compouter magazines theres sometimes good upgrade offers.

http://www.mechcad.net/products/acemoney/index_lite.shtml

Also GNUcash works on many OS including Linux what is absolutley free to install. Infact there is no need to pay for any Software at all as new Linux systems such as Ubuntu are just like Windows in apperance and come wiuth all the software for free!

rootoo · 20 March 2007 at 2:01PM

Brilliant gang. You are bountiful sources of information and quick with it!

I'll check out all of the above tonight. I have sneaky suspicion that that the free stuff will do what I need it to, but in my new found persona of 'DFW' I'll take a look rather than rushing out and buying spangly new software as I would have done in my old life.

Is it just me or does this money saving stuff get a bit addictive?!

EagerLearner · 20 March 2007 at 3:23PM

Gets a bit addictive in my experience

You won't know what you used to do in your spare time :rotfl:

hbl_2 · 22 March 2007 at 1:24PM

Ah ha!

I had to search to find this thread again, but I was able to find the following bit of software since last posting.

http://buddi.sourceforge.net/en/

It's free and it's written in java, so it pretty much runs on anything.

Personal Accounts Software

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