Personal Finances: Book-keeping

[peterc10]

I used to use spreadsheets for my accounts, starting with one on a cassette tape for an early Amstrad, and going on to Lotus 1-2-3, then Quatro and finally Excel, all on PCs. They worked but I found them limiting and time consuming. Once reasonably priced home accounts packages started for my PC I went on to use a free version of Quicken, which got upgraded to a £20 version, before I ended up with the free sunset version of MS Money.

Having used the software I would never go back to the spreadsheet, which was much more time consuming to set up and more cumbersome to use. My wife would never go near the spreadsheet version, but is quite happy to use the intuitive systems in the software packages. And we get much better information from the software than the spreadsheets.

But at the end of the day the answer to which is best will depend upon personal choice and the complexity of your accounts, i.e. the number of bank, savings and credit card accounts you have and want to keep at tag on. And also how much information you want to get about your spending and savings. We have several accounts and 4 credit cards between us, as well as ISAs, NS&I accounts and so on. And I am also still classed as self employed and need to keep detailed records of my business income and expenditure for the tax and VAT men.

If you have one bank account, one savings account and a couple of credit cards then the spreadsheet option may be OK for you, although I still think it actually takes longer than the software does and gives you less information.

If you have a windows computer I would recommend that you download the MS Money software (its free) one evening, open it up and have a look and play with it. You may be pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to use. And if you don't like it all you have wasted is a bit of time.

 

[Gromett]

I agree with @peterc10, If you are running a business, do your own books and have complicated savings and multiple bank accounts the spreadsheet method can be a bit tough.

However if you have simple accounts and it is just personal finance then a spreadsheet is simpler in my opinion.

I have used Sage in the past and GnuCash, I much prefer the spreadsheet for my simpler needs.

 

[peterc10]

I have used Sage in the past and GnuCash, I much prefer the spreadsheet for my simpler needs.

I am not sure about GnuCash (never heard of it) but AFAIK Sage is a double entry book keeping system isn't it? That's always more difficult than the simple single entry systems that I use (Quicken & MS Money), which are specifically designed for home type accounts.

 

[Gromett]

http://www.gnucash.org/

It even has an android app for data entry on the move. It is a pretty good package.

 

[Mags52]

I use an iphone / ipad app called Expense. I put in our income and the sum of all fixed outgoings at the start of the month and then it's easy to log everything you spend. It was a real eye opener at first. I had no idea how much we spent on things like coffee and cake

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[golly]

I still use quicken, got a copy from America via eBay. So long as you don't mind it showing dollars instead of £ then no problem, and if you set the exchange rate within the program as one dollar to the pound, your reports will s show in pounds

 

[laird of Dunstan]

I always suspected that having an accountant as your missus has its benefits

 

[peterc10]

I always suspected that having an accountant as your missus has its benefits

Ah but how much pocket money does she allow you??

 

[laird of Dunstan]

Ah but how much pocket money does she allow you??

Err what's pocket money ,don't get that ,she says something about keeping me skint and hungry for her