Hari's Corner

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From GnuCash to KMyMoney back to GnuCash

Filed under: Software and Technology by Hari
Posted on Sun, Jul 29, 2012 at 21:07 IST (last updated: Sun, Jul 29, 2012 @ 21:50 IST)

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CashFrom the time I began to maintain my personal accounts, I used GnuCash for my personal accounting needs in the beginning. Later I shifted to KMyMoney. KMyMoney has a slightly different view of accounting than GnuCash and I believe it is more tailored to home users with no prior experience of accounting. Having said that, GnuCash is intuitive enough for users who have a basic idea of a double-entry book-keeping system and has enough features to expand into a mini-ERP. Both are excellent software, but recently I felt the need to return to GnuCash, because I no longer use KDE as my desktop system and pulling out KDE dependencies just for KMyMoney (about 100 MB worth of packages from the Debian repository) seemed a bit overkill.

(A bit of an aside: I've recently shifted my desktop environment from KDE to Xfce. I am a long time KDE user and fan, though I occasionally used Gnome. But of late, I've had this urge to use a lighter Desktop than KDE simply because KDE applications feel subtly slow and unresponsive at times. Now I use Xfce and am very happy with it. It is a perfect balance between usability, features and responsiveness. Neither stripped down to bare essentials like a WM or bloated like a full-featured DE)

Returning to GnuCash wasn't easy. KMyMoney has a GnuCash importer and that conversion was easy. However, there is no easy way to reconvert your accounts to GnuCash from KMyMoney. Sadly even the mighty google provides no solutions to this one. Well, there is one, but it's almost worthless: that is, to use the QIF export of KMyMoney to convert all your accounts and then import them back into GnuCash (which is a highly lossy process, requiring a lot of manual corrections to rectify problems with reconciliation). The other issue is, of course, that QIF format does not store currency information, so if your accounts use multiple currencies, you're in trouble. After a lot of research into the process, I threw up my hands, and grimly re-entered about a year's worth of entries manually into GnuCash. It wasn't fun, or uplifting; but at least I'm now using a format that other accounting software can import directly from (as a future option).

Too bad GnuCash doesn't import directly from other accounting software, like KMyMoney natively. This is, I think, a much needed feature. Using the QIF format for exported transactions is a pain in the rear end as it is an extremely lossy process. QIF itself is a dubious format with ambiquities and apparently doesn't have currency recognition. If you have thousands upon thousands of entries, or a complex accounts set up, it can be a real pain. For over a year's worth of accounts, I spent about four hours continuously entering the transactions manually.

So be warned: be very careful the first time you choose an accounting software. Evaluate all its features and make sure it has the features you want.  It's not like your web browser or even a basic office app, which can be flippantly traded for another. Each accounting software uses its own native file format with no obvious or easy way to map to or export to a different format losslessly. Add the complexity of multiple currencies and subtly different accounting concepts, it becomes even tougher to do any conversion automatically between file formats. I have learned the hard way.

Yes, I do plan to use GnuCash exclusively for my accounting needs, but having been burned once, I'm keeping the old .kmy file around, just in case I want to use it again - I wouldn't have to re-enter all those thousands of transactions back into it; I'd only have to re-enter the entries from the date of conversion.

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13 comment(s)

  1. You're right when you say that KMyMoney seems to be better geared towards home users with little experience of book-keeping. It seems a pity that the export features are so bad - meaning should a finance newbie want to step up and use proper tools, all their history would be essentially lost.

    Comment by Dion Moult (visitor) on Tue, Jul 31, 2012 @ 10:34 IST #
  2. Yes, that's a big issue, particularly if you have several years' worth of accounts in one format and find that it is next to impossible to convert to another system with automated tools. Even big organizations probably face this problem with ERP solutions, but at least the vendors provide migration solutions because it makes marketing sense.

    As for why I left KDE for Xfce, I would probably post a blog about that too. Been a long time user of KDE (almost 8-10 years, with a few intervals of Gnome between).

    Comment by Hari (blog owner) on Tue, Jul 31, 2012 @ 10:40 IST #
  3. Hi Hari, :-)
    Me too, very similar. I am an extensive KDE user, but use Gnome often. Opensource is after all fun and choice, no?
    I too use gnucash and kmymoney - gnucash more. I have to admit, Kmymoney's reporting is great, far better than gnucash. Moreover, the payee concept in kmymoney gives more control (rather another dimension) to report/information extraction.
    Though KDE is bloated, its software are far more featureful(colorful?) than its other counterparts of gnome, xfce, lxde, etc

    Comment by Rajesh Ganesan (visitor) on Sun, Aug 5, 2012 @ 14:53 IST #
  4. Rajesh, welcome. :-)

    It's true that KMyMoney has some features that are not found in Gnucash, but I preferred the simplicity of Gnucash and its one-to-one association with common accounting principles. Also it appears that KMyMoney format cannot be exported into any other format, while Gnucash format is recognized by most other open-source accounting software.

    Comment by Hari (blog owner) on Sun, Aug 5, 2012 @ 15:56 IST #
  5. Thanks for your blog hari,
    I'm a long time ubuntu user and just recently trying to make the switch to KDE. Reason is Unity. I wan google to find out wheather kmymoney is compatible with gnucash files as I use gnucash to maintain my small business account. After reading your post I think I will stick with gnucash in KDE. Only thing is I need to download all the gnome software that come autoinstall like rhytmbox...etc.
    Thanks for the blog

    Comment by kumar (visitor) on Sat, Aug 18, 2012 @ 08:03 IST #
  6. kumar, thanks for your feedback. You can continue to use gnucash. I am not sure you require other Gnome stuff. If necessary turn off the "APT::Install-Recommends" setting to avoid pulling in non-required packages.

    Comment by Hari (blog owner) on Sat, Aug 18, 2012 @ 09:07 IST #
  7. I use Gnome exclusively and I use GnuCash. However, I do find some annoying disadvanteges of GnuCash. First of all, it lacks a "bulk-editing" feature, which means you have to manually edit transactions one-by-one after import QFX files from your banks for the first time. For people like me who only has a-year-long bank statements it has already cost me a whole day to do the chore, I cannot image what's that like for those who have several years long histories. Second, there is no "Undo" function in GnuCash! Third, it depends on many obsoleted gnome libraries and there is no clear plan porting to modern libraries either, which makes UIs and Reports look so ugly and also slow.

    The biggest advantage of GnuCash is that, you can always have a portable File, which is almost promised to be compatiable with existing finanical softwares. I think this will be the only reason that makes me stick with GnuCash for the following several years. If it still chooses to stick with those obsoleted libraries, I may have to find substituters .

    Comment by Ye Li (visitor) on Fri, Sep 7, 2012 @ 21:12 IST #
  8. Ye Li, yeah, GnuCash is not the best out there, but it is quite simple and it has a close concept match with the double-entry book-keeping method, which is a plus.

    I agree with the disadvantages you list, but like you, I am sticking with it for its portable file format.

    Comment by Hari (blog owner) on Fri, Sep 7, 2012 @ 21:34 IST #
  9. Hello everyone,

    I have a question about using gnucash. I wonder if gnucash is able to save all of item inventory and make a print out for invoice and others.

    Thank you before.

    Comment by Franciska (visitor) on Tue, Nov 6, 2012 @ 13:41 IST #
  10. I just transitioned from Windows to Debian GNU/Linux. I've played with GNU/Linux off and on for years, but finally committed to making the switch: PRISM had a lot to do with that. I was using Moneydance (paid software) which I think really is the best, but it is proprietary and I'm trying to get away entirely from proprietary software.

    GnuCash is ugly as sin but it gets the job done. I use KDE4, which is responsive enough for me, but after reading this post I didn't want to get trapped in KMyMoney's format inflexibility: I do prefer KMM's interface, though.

    I tried Homebank and Skrooge but neither seems capable of tracking investment portfolios by security, only by dollar amount. Skrooge's interface really takes some getting used to, and I found it less intuitive than GnuCash.

    Comment by Daryl (visitor) on Sat, Jun 22, 2013 @ 22:12 IST #
  11. Daryl, glad that the post helped you. I think Gnucash just works better as a proper accounting software than KMyMoney. KMyMoney is more oriented to home users who don't have much idea of accounting concepts.

    Comment by Hari (blog owner) on Sun, Jun 23, 2013 @ 13:03 IST #
  12. I think everyone should record their personal finance, atleast to stay safe from the taxman. I &#039;ve been trying to use GnuCash for last couple of years, but recording equity stock/mf sale with capital gain/loss, for tax tracking purposes is real pain in the rear. I&#039;m trying out KMyMoney now, hoping it will have better interface and make my life simple.

    Comment by Ashok (visitor) on Mon, Apr 20, 2015 @ 08:34 IST #
  13. Ashok, yeah, it's a good idea to keep track of personal finances, especially for non-salaried professionals whose income is variable, or for people who have multiple income sources.

    Comment by Hari (blog owner) on Mon, Apr 27, 2015 @ 18:52 IST #

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