[sf-lug] finance software for linux

[jim stockford]

seems to me one of the most important factors in the proliferation of 
linux on the desktop is financial software, both for personal as well 
as for small business financial management. Here's a digest presenting 
some recent candidates:

Moneydance 2007 from Reilly Technologies costs US$30 for Linux, 
Macintosh, and one other OS. It's similar to Quicken and can import 
Quicken QIF files. A free trial version permits up to 100 transactions. 
The user interface is particularly good.

GNUCash is an open source project available from gnucash.org and 
sourceforge.net. It's designed not only for personal finances but also 
for small business functions such as Double-Entry Accounting, 
Small-Business Accounting, Customers, Vendors, Jobs, Invoices, Accounts 
Payable, Accounts Receivable, and Stock/Bond/Mutual Fund Accounts. It 
imports QIF files as well as OFX and HBIC files.

Kmymoney, for the KDE interface, is for personal finances and can 
import QIF files.

Grisbi is another personal finances program that can run on most linux 
distributions.

Qasar from Linux Canada is released under both GPL and commercial 
licenses. It handles most small business accounting functions, 
including retail.


Note that Quicken, from Intuit, is available for the Macintosh and one 
other OS, but NOT for Linux. The reason given is that the Linux desktop 
market is still too small to justify the costs of porting the code from 
existing platforms.