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I use GnuCash for business accounting and it does what I need. I don't use QuickBooks as VC's recommend in blog posts. QB has some convenient features, but that

I use GnuCash for business accounting and it does what I need. I don't use QuickBooks as VC's recommend in blog posts. QB has some convenient features, but that is not enough for me to pay the price QB is asking. I don't need VC money or a CPA. I haven't tried using GnuCash with Sqlite, but I would like to experiment when I get the time. Is it reliable? I used to be a technical/functional engineer for Oracle EBS, so I dealt with very complex schemas that interlinked with each other especially in the sub-ledgers. I've always toyed with the idea of adding Revenue Recognition functionality to GnuCash but am too busy to do so. Perhaps after seeing the schema in Sqlite I can take a shot at it. Cheers

TZubiri 2y ago
Yet another instance of free software succeding for its free as in free beer qualities
VonGuard 2y ago
It's great for personal or very small businesses but god help you if you are building a real startup with GNUCash. I am speaking from experience here, GNUCash zealotry is a plague. I honestly wish this project basically did not exist, because the business world despises GNUCash, ONLY cares about QuickBooks, and using anything else is a giant waste of everyone's time. Believe me, I have been fighting this fight in non-profits and startups since the early 2000's. It's not a fight ANYONE should ever have. I USED TO BE THE "WE MUST USE GNUCASH" GUY! Now, in a perfect world, yes, GNUCash and literally ANYTHING other than Quickbooks would be an option for small business accounting. But we do not live in a perfect world. We live in a world where Intuit has fought VERY hard to make damn sure no one can use anything but Quickbooks, and their iron fist is clad in very specific APIs and file formats. If you do not use Quickbooks: * Your bank will hate you. * Your investors will hate you. * Your payroll system won't work. * Your tax systems won't work. * Your accountant won't work. * Grants are even off the table in some cases. * Some places won't audit without Quickbooks. I constantly run into well intentioned open source zealots who demand the use of GNUCash. This is terrible. Don't be that person. The world has chosen QuickBooks. This choice was made under duress and with corrupt power brokering. But the decision has been made. Maybe there are some OK SaaS options, but they only exist as long as Intuit allows them to exist. Anything competing with Quickbooks is going to be bought and killed by Intuit, so you're going into a dead-end alley. I know that leaves GNUCash on the table, but... Please, do not make the mistake my many non-profits and businesses have repeatedly made when I was not paying enough attention to scream bloody murder about it. I turn my back for one minute, and engineers are installing GNUCash on the accountant's Mac Laptop. It's 100% always come back to bite us in the ass, as we've had to change platforms on-demand in order to meet a funding deadline, a bank requirement, a loan ask, or a grant application. And it's ALWAYS the accountant in the org that gets saddled with the 60+ hour work weeks it takes to redo everything. If I was an acocuntant, I'd quit if told to use GNUCash, but most of them kinda don't know any better because, hey, why not try some thing the techies are all excited about! GNUCash is a wonderful project. I wish we could all use it. But we cannot. Not for real business. And honestly, this is only for contrived, arbitrary reasons. But these reasons exist. The world is 100% built to prevent people from not using Quickbooks at every turn, and you only harm yourself by demanding open source software for accounting. As I said to the director of my most recent non-profit: "You would not tolerate the accountant coming in here and demanding you use NetBeans. Please, give them the same courtesy you'd expect them to give you on tool choice."
- freedomben 2y ago
  I actually have had an accountant come into engineering and tell me I had to use netbeans! Just kidding of course. Thank you for your post. I had considered using gnu cash many times in this situation and I'm likely to have done it. Luckily someone else handled the accounting portion for the last gig. I badly want gnu cash to be a thing. I really hate into it. And I want them to fail. I would love if gnu cash is what made them fail. But it sounds like it's going to take a whole lot more than just a few sacrifices like us. We'll just go through misery, and nothing will be affected cuz we'll end up stuck on QuickBooks anyway.
- notpushkin 2y ago
  I’m pretty sure it is 100% gonna bite you, yes. (In a large part of ex-USSR countries, we had the same problem with 1C – it’s less of a pain to use other options now, I think, but it’s still bad.) But the only way to hopefully get to a world where you don’t need Quickbooks anymore is to fight back, not for them. And like you said, Intuit can buy off startups, so this leaves us with free open source systems... like GnuCash.
- 127 2y ago
  The situation seems quite dire.
- rtpg 2y ago
  Serious question: is it not possible to export/import into Quickbooks for example? I agree with the principle of letting the accountant choose, just wondering if there's any way at all to "fight back", for lack of a better word.
- elric 2y ago
  > Your bank will hate you Why? Surely all US banks use open, standardized data formats to export financial statements and to execute transactions in bulk? Or are you thinking of another reason? US banking is a shitshow which is decades European banking, addressing that would benefit everyone. > Your investors will hate you Why? Surely your investors are interested in accurate accounting? Can gnucash not generate some kind of report they need? If so, that should be a trivial fix. > Some places won't audit without Quickbook That is an impressive shitshow of a situation.
seltzered_ 2y ago
In case anyone is migrating from QB and wants to help others, the qb-escape quickbooks to gnucash converter could use some help: https://github.com/erikmack/qb-escape/ https://github.com/erikmack/qb-escape/
john61 2y ago
sqlite is stable for GnuCash, I moved from xml to sqlite a few years ago. No issues.

TZubiri 2y ago

Yet another instance of free software succeding for its free as in free beer qualities

VonGuard 2y ago

It's great for personal or very small businesses but god help you if you are building a real startup with GNUCash. I am speaking from experience here, GNUCash zealotry is a plague. I honestly wish this project basically did not exist, because the business world despises GNUCash, ONLY cares about QuickBooks, and using anything else is a giant waste of everyone's time. Believe me, I have been fighting this fight in non-profits and startups since the early 2000's. It's not a fight ANYONE should ever have. I USED TO BE THE "WE MUST USE GNUCASH" GUY! Now, in a perfect world, yes, GNUCash and literally ANYTHING other than Quickbooks would be an option for small business accounting. But we do not live in a perfect world. We live in a world where Intuit has fought VERY hard to make damn sure no one can use anything but Quickbooks, and their iron fist is clad in very specific APIs and file formats. If you do not use Quickbooks: * Your bank will hate you. * Your investors will hate you. * Your payroll system won't work. * Your tax systems won't work. * Your accountant won't work. * Grants are even off the table in some cases. * Some places won't audit without Quickbooks. I constantly run into well intentioned open source zealots who demand the use of GNUCash. This is terrible. Don't be that person. The world has chosen QuickBooks. This choice was made under duress and with corrupt power brokering. But the decision has been made. Maybe there are some OK SaaS options, but they only exist as long as Intuit allows them to exist. Anything competing with Quickbooks is going to be bought and killed by Intuit, so you're going into a dead-end alley. I know that leaves GNUCash on the table, but... Please, do not make the mistake my many non-profits and businesses have repeatedly made when I was not paying enough attention to scream bloody murder about it. I turn my back for one minute, and engineers are installing GNUCash on the accountant's Mac Laptop. It's 100% always come back to bite us in the ass, as we've had to change platforms on-demand in order to meet a funding deadline, a bank requirement, a loan ask, or a grant application. And it's ALWAYS the accountant in the org that gets saddled with the 60+ hour work weeks it takes to redo everything. If I was an acocuntant, I'd quit if told to use GNUCash, but most of them kinda don't know any better because, hey, why not try some thing the techies are all excited about! GNUCash is a wonderful project. I wish we could all use it. But we cannot. Not for real business. And honestly, this is only for contrived, arbitrary reasons. But these reasons exist. The world is 100% built to prevent people from not using Quickbooks at every turn, and you only harm yourself by demanding open source software for accounting. As I said to the director of my most recent non-profit: "You would not tolerate the accountant coming in here and demanding you use NetBeans. Please, give them the same courtesy you'd expect them to give you on tool choice."

freedomben 2y ago
I actually have had an accountant come into engineering and tell me I had to use netbeans! Just kidding of course. Thank you for your post. I had considered using gnu cash many times in this situation and I'm likely to have done it. Luckily someone else handled the accounting portion for the last gig. I badly want gnu cash to be a thing. I really hate into it. And I want them to fail. I would love if gnu cash is what made them fail. But it sounds like it's going to take a whole lot more than just a few sacrifices like us. We'll just go through misery, and nothing will be affected cuz we'll end up stuck on QuickBooks anyway.
notpushkin 2y ago
I’m pretty sure it is 100% gonna bite you, yes. (In a large part of ex-USSR countries, we had the same problem with 1C – it’s less of a pain to use other options now, I think, but it’s still bad.) But the only way to hopefully get to a world where you don’t need Quickbooks anymore is to fight back, not for them. And like you said, Intuit can buy off startups, so this leaves us with free open source systems... like GnuCash.
127 2y ago
The situation seems quite dire.
rtpg 2y ago
Serious question: is it not possible to export/import into Quickbooks for example? I agree with the principle of letting the accountant choose, just wondering if there's any way at all to "fight back", for lack of a better word.
elric 2y ago
> Your bank will hate you Why? Surely all US banks use open, standardized data formats to export financial statements and to execute transactions in bulk? Or are you thinking of another reason? US banking is a shitshow which is decades European banking, addressing that would benefit everyone. > Your investors will hate you Why? Surely your investors are interested in accurate accounting? Can gnucash not generate some kind of report they need? If so, that should be a trivial fix. > Some places won't audit without Quickbook That is an impressive shitshow of a situation.

seltzered_ 2y ago

In case anyone is migrating from QB and wants to help others, the qb-escape quickbooks to gnucash converter could use some help: https://github.com/erikmack/qb-escape/ https://github.com/erikmack/qb-escape/

john61 2y ago

sqlite is stable for GnuCash, I moved from xml to sqlite a few years ago. No issues.