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If some people have some recommendations, my wife is asking me for an app to basically input our family expenses. It should be fast, painless and very simple. O

by Loic 3y ago

If some people have some recommendations, my wife is asking me for an app to basically input our family expenses. It should be fast, painless and very simple. Open the app, select the date (default today), select the category, the shop, amount and payment method. Done. Both of us should be able to input the data (so web based). At the start, nothing more in the app. She would be happy to do the data analysis using her laptop. I was thinking about a stupid CRUD app with an SQLite database, but I do not want to reinvent the wheel. If some of you have ideas, we do not need banking integration.

drdo 3y ago
I reinvented the wheel on this one. It does expense tracking and shopping list for now. Just took the opportunity to use it as a personal project to experiment with rust and htmx.
fuegoio 3y ago
I created an app called Banqr to do that. Released it but I developed it mainly for my need : https://banqr.app https://banqr.app
neilv 3y ago
You can set up GnuCash like that. Example usage for recording a grocery trip: 1. Double-click on "Expenses" -> "Groceries" in the account tree. 2. In the blank entry that appears at end end of the list of earlier transactions, edit the date if necessary (it will default to today's date). 3. Next to that date (click or press Tab), enter a description, such as the shop name. With text completion. 4. Next to that, enter the payment method (with completion and default). (Note that this will also add the transaction to the GnuCash account for your bank account, credit card, etc.) 5. Next to that, enter the amount. 6. Press Enter to commit the transaction. You can also leave some of these accounts open as tabs, if you want, rather than find them in the account tree each time.
a8h 3y ago
I've been working on an app for iOS. You can essentially add transactions, categories and accounts. - It's a document based app, the file format is open (JSON zipped), so you can store it on iCloud Drive, Dropbox or anywhere else, thereby giving you and your wife access via cloud sharing. - No Signup, No Account, No Ads I've been using it for a few months to track all my transactions and account balances. It's still a WIP right now. Planning to add a few features more before making it available on Apple App Store.
ellisv 3y ago
You can accomplish that kind of data entry with a Google Form (or similar) that feeds into a spreadsheet.
Phelinofist 3y ago
I wrote my own tool for this: https://77zzcx7.de/gitea/MK13/financer https://77zzcx7.de/gitea/MK13/financer Ticks most of your boxes. Nothing fancy, but gets the job done.
Dennip 3y ago
Give ActualBudget (https://actualbudget.org https://actualbudget.org) a go!
ezfe 3y ago
I started with Actual but moved to YNAB. 1) Imports from our credit cards automatically or from a CSV/Quicken/etc. file 2) Supports entering transactions manually when you can't or don't want to link to a bank 3) Supports reconciliation of the actual account balance with the in-app balance 4) Supports budgeting, but if you just want to track categories then just assign the amounts you spend to each budget at the end of the month and the system will be happy.
- wredue 3y ago
  YNAB is painfully limited for anything beyond extremely basic, single person budgeting.
  - ezfe 3y ago
    I mean, I use it for my family finances (two of us) and it works well. Most of the limitations I run into relate to the types of goals you can set.
    - wredue 3y ago
      There are lots of pretty basic workflows that it doesn’t handle gracefully at all. Before I gave up on YNAB as being complete shit: -you had to email support to unsubscribe. What the fuck is that? -it didn’t support carryover surplus properly, which fucked your budget every time expenses carried over due to, for example, holidays, or just cause you paid on a different date. -it didn’t properly support multiple physical accounts with transfer requirements -it couldn’t be made to understand that certain postings must come from certain accounts -it couldn’t split postings to multiple accounts (it could transfer raw amounts on a schedule, but that’s a bullshit hack, and their scheduling options are shit tier) -it had no, non-bullshit hack way to represent annual payments which should have a monthly accrual to save And on and on and on and on. It’s clear that the developers of this app simply do not have even a rudimentary understanding of a plethora of accounting concepts, or even a basic understanding that different transactions have different period requirements, and it leads to an app that is simply impossible to mangle into working for anything beyond extremely basic budgeting that must be monthly based.
talent_deprived 3y ago
My wife isn't a techie, the average user, and loves GnuCash.
dfinninger 3y ago
I highly recommend YNAB. It pulled my financial life together a decade ago. Synced apps on the phone and web. It also introduced me to envelope budgeting, which I found to be super useful. If you want to do investment tracking, I don’t think it’s the best for that.
- weakfish 3y ago
  Here here for YNAB. I would have preferred something FOSS, but the mobile app makes it much simpler to record transactions as they happen rather than saving receipts and doing it at home.
Loic 3y ago
Replying to myself to thank you all for the help!

by Loic 3y ago

drdo 3y ago

I reinvented the wheel on this one. It does expense tracking and shopping list for now. Just took the opportunity to use it as a personal project to experiment with rust and htmx.

fuegoio 3y ago

I created an app called Banqr to do that. Released it but I developed it mainly for my need : https://banqr.app https://banqr.app

neilv 3y ago

You can set up GnuCash like that. Example usage for recording a grocery trip: 1. Double-click on "Expenses" -> "Groceries" in the account tree. 2. In the blank entry that appears at end end of the list of earlier transactions, edit the date if necessary (it will default to today's date). 3. Next to that date (click or press Tab), enter a description, such as the shop name. With text completion. 4. Next to that, enter the payment method (with completion and default). (Note that this will also add the transaction to the GnuCash account for your bank account, credit card, etc.) 5. Next to that, enter the amount. 6. Press Enter to commit the transaction. You can also leave some of these accounts open as tabs, if you want, rather than find them in the account tree each time.

a8h 3y ago

I've been working on an app for iOS. You can essentially add transactions, categories and accounts. - It's a document based app, the file format is open (JSON zipped), so you can store it on iCloud Drive, Dropbox or anywhere else, thereby giving you and your wife access via cloud sharing. - No Signup, No Account, No Ads I've been using it for a few months to track all my transactions and account balances. It's still a WIP right now. Planning to add a few features more before making it available on Apple App Store.

ellisv 3y ago

You can accomplish that kind of data entry with a Google Form (or similar) that feeds into a spreadsheet.

Phelinofist 3y ago

I wrote my own tool for this: https://77zzcx7.de/gitea/MK13/financer https://77zzcx7.de/gitea/MK13/financer Ticks most of your boxes. Nothing fancy, but gets the job done.

Dennip 3y ago

Give ActualBudget (https://actualbudget.org https://actualbudget.org) a go!

ezfe 3y ago

I started with Actual but moved to YNAB. 1) Imports from our credit cards automatically or from a CSV/Quicken/etc. file 2) Supports entering transactions manually when you can't or don't want to link to a bank 3) Supports reconciliation of the actual account balance with the in-app balance 4) Supports budgeting, but if you just want to track categories then just assign the amounts you spend to each budget at the end of the month and the system will be happy.

wredue 3y ago
YNAB is painfully limited for anything beyond extremely basic, single person budgeting.
- ezfe 3y ago
  I mean, I use it for my family finances (two of us) and it works well. Most of the limitations I run into relate to the types of goals you can set.
  - wredue 3y ago
    There are lots of pretty basic workflows that it doesn’t handle gracefully at all. Before I gave up on YNAB as being complete shit: -you had to email support to unsubscribe. What the fuck is that? -it didn’t support carryover surplus properly, which fucked your budget every time expenses carried over due to, for example, holidays, or just cause you paid on a different date. -it didn’t properly support multiple physical accounts with transfer requirements -it couldn’t be made to understand that certain postings must come from certain accounts -it couldn’t split postings to multiple accounts (it could transfer raw amounts on a schedule, but that’s a bullshit hack, and their scheduling options are shit tier) -it had no, non-bullshit hack way to represent annual payments which should have a monthly accrual to save And on and on and on and on. It’s clear that the developers of this app simply do not have even a rudimentary understanding of a plethora of accounting concepts, or even a basic understanding that different transactions have different period requirements, and it leads to an app that is simply impossible to mangle into working for anything beyond extremely basic budgeting that must be monthly based.

talent_deprived 3y ago

My wife isn't a techie, the average user, and loves GnuCash.

dfinninger 3y ago

I highly recommend YNAB. It pulled my financial life together a decade ago. Synced apps on the phone and web. It also introduced me to envelope budgeting, which I found to be super useful. If you want to do investment tracking, I don’t think it’s the best for that.

weakfish 3y ago
Here here for YNAB. I would have preferred something FOSS, but the mobile app makes it much simpler to record transactions as they happen rather than saving receipts and doing it at home.

Loic 3y ago

Replying to myself to thank you all for the help!