In this article I will show you how to install HomeBank, set up accounts, and use the software.

Features

• Import from CSV, QIF, and OFX (although the import filter is VERY finicky).
• Payee and categories support.
• Autocompletion.
• Tag feature
• Pre-defined transaction.
• Pre-filling transactions from bookmark.
• Multiple transaction edit.
• Transfer between accounts.
• Visual paymode.
• Dynamic minor currency toggle.
• Multi-account.
• Annual budget.
• 57 languages
• Works on GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, Microsoft Windows, MacOSX, Nokia N*** and Amiga.

Installation

Installing HomeBank is simple. Since you will find HomeBank in your distributions’ standard repositories you can simply follow these steps:

1. Open up your Add/Remove Software tool.
2. Search for “homebank” (no quotes).
3. Mark the results for installation.
4. Click Apply to install.

That’s it! You should now find the HomeBank menu entry in the Applications > Office menu (or just under Office if you are in KDE).

First run

Figure 1

When you first open up HomeBank you would think a “first run” wizard would start. That is not the case. Instead you will be greeted with a home screen containing no accounts (see Figure 1).

The first task will be to create accounts. To do this, follow these simple steps:

1. Click the Accounts icon.
2. In the new window, click Add.
3. Fill out all necessary information for your account.
4. Click OK.

Your new account will now show up in the main window.

There are two ways to approach using HomeBank. You can use it haphazardly or you can plan out your use so that the yearly budget feature works for you. In order to plan out HomeBank, you will want to first create Payees and Categories. Each transaction can have a Payee and a Category assigned. Here’s how they work:

• Payee: Is who the transaction actually goes to (a retail store, restaurant, utility, etc).
• Category: Is what the transaction is related to. These can be debits or credits (such as Income or expenses).

If you set these up first, you will have a much better time tracking your expenses. Naturally you won’t be able to fill in all payees at first. You can add payees as you go. Creating both Categories and Payees is simple:

1. Click the appropriate button.
2. Enter a name for either the Payee or Category.
3. In case of Category check the “Income” check box if it is an income category.
4. Click the Add button to add the new item.

Figure 2

When you are back at the home window, and you have your accounts listed, you can double click on the account you want to use for a transaction. When you do this the account register will open. In that register (see Figure 2) you can see how simple the interface is.

From this interface you can add a new entry (by clicking the Add button), you can filter the entries in the registry, you can inherit a transaction, you can validate/invalidate a transaction, and you can see a running total of the account.

Reports

The reports feature is a nice way to get a graphical representation of your account(s). From this you can see detailed charts of your accounts. The reports you can view are:

• Statistics
• Overdrawn
• Budget
• Car costs

Final thoughts

If you are looking for an accounting software that is targeted more for users and not accountants or businesses, HomeBank is the software for you. Not only can you keep a running record of your expenses, but you can see your yearly budget at a glance to see your personal spending trends.

Features

The xTuple ERP Postbooks Edition offers the following features:

• Accounting (general ledger, accounts receivable and payable, and much more)
• Sales (quotes, order entry, sales reporting, shipping)
• Built-in CRM tool which includes universal address book, incident management, opportunity management, and more.
• Purchasing
• Product Definition
• Inventory and Distribution
• Light Manufacturing
• OpenRPT open source report writer

Obviously we’re dealing with a powerful tool. But is the installation equally as powerful? Although there are numerous steps to the installation Wizard, the installation itself is fairly painless.

Downloading and installing

The best package to download is a complete package which is the Postbooks installer which includes the Postboooks client, the PostgreSQL database server,  and a number of pre-configured databases to help you get started. Once you have that file downloaded, follow these steps to install:

1. Open up a terminal window.
2. Change to the directory containing the installer.
3. Give the installer executable permissions with the command sudo chmod u+x xTuple-XXX-linux-installer.bin (Where XXX is the release number).
4. Issue the command (from within the same directory holding the installer) sudo ./xTuple-XXX-linux-installer.bin (Where XXX is the release number).

You will now walk through fifteen windows of the installer. Instead of placing them in this tutorial individually, I have created a flash of a presentation for you to view (click HERE to view. NOTE: You might have to click to advance each slide.).

After the installation is complete you will notice a number of additions to your Applications menu. Not only has a new sub-menu been created (Applications > xtuple-xtupledir), but new entries to the Applications > Office menu have been added.

Starting the application

Figure 1

This is where many might find confusing settles in. During the installation you created an account and a password. That was for the xTuple account itself. Those credentials will not get you logged into the Postbooks client. What you want to do is go to the Applications > Office > xTuple ERP entry to open the xTuple login window (see Figure 1). Make sure the “Log in to server I specify” is checked and use these credentials:

• Username: admin
• Password: admin

Figure 2

Once those credentials clear you will find yourself in the heart of the Postbooks client (see Figure 2). It should be quickly apparent that Postbooks means business. Naturally the first thing you will want to do is go to the System > Preferences menu entry and change the admin password. You can also add new users from the System > Maintain Users menu entry. Once new users are created you can give them various privileges.

Final thoughts

If you have been on the search for a serious ERP solution, don’t overlook xTuple Postbooks client. And once you are satisfied that this tool is just what you need, you can set up  a single server and have client machines log into that server. And yes, Postbooks Edition is free of charge. xTuple does offer even more powerful, non-free solutions which can be compared here.

One of those tools available with GnuCash is invoicing. With GnuCash you can create a professional invoice that will also automatically post to your accounts receivable. So not only are you able to issue invoices, the creation of these invoices will help you keep track of money owed to you and your company. Let’s see how this is done.

First things first

Figure 1

I will be working with GnuCash 2.2.9 on a Ubuntu desktop machine. I will assume you already have GnuCash set up properly for your business and that you know how to properly track finances with this tool. Before you start creating invoices, you will have to have customers created to bill.  Let’s create a new customer. To do this open up GnuCash and go the Business > Customer > New Customer menu entry to open the New Customer editor (see Figure 1).

You will want to fill out as much information for this customer as possible. If you do not give the customer a Customer Number, GnuCash will automatically fill one in for you. Make sure you fill out both Billing and Shipping addresses for this customer.

When you are finished filling out this information, click OK to save the customer.

Figure 2

Now you are ready to create an invoice. Go to the Business > Customer > New Invoice entry to open up the Invoice creator (see Figure 2).  To associate a customer to this invoice click the Select button and do a search for your customer. If you have a lot of customers, you will appreciate the well planned search filters here. After you have your customer associated to the invoice. If you have a Purchase Order number or another means of identifying this customer account, you can add it to the Billing ID section. If you want to add Billing Terms for this invoice you will need to create Terms in the Billing Terms Editor (you can find this tool in Business > Billing Terms Editor.

When you have filled out all of the information, click OK to create the invoice. The invoice will appear in the GnuCash main window, ready to add items.

Figure 3

In Figure 3 I have added a single item to the invoice (a mixer). Make sure you enter all of the details (such as the correct Income Account). Of course you can add as many items to this invoice as you need. Pay close attention to service items as they may not be taxable items.

Posting and Printing

You can not print the invoice, until you post the invoice. When you post an invoice it moves the transactions to accounts receivable. To post the invoice click the Post button. If your window is too small (as shown in Figure 3), you will have to click the drop-down arrow to reveal the Post button. When

Figure 4

you Post an invoice you can select a Post date. If you have added terms to the invoice the Due Date (see Figure 4) will reflect these terms. NOTE: If you have multiple items in an invoice, and you want them all to be recorded separately in your asset account, uncheck the “Accumulate Splits” box.

If you have not created an account to post to, you will need to click the New button now.

Figure 5

Once you have posted the invoice you can hit <Ctrl>P to print the invoice. A printed invoice will appear like the example in Figure 5.

Final thoughts

GnuCash is a much more versatile application than most assume. Not only can you keep track of your personal finances, GnuCash easily can tackle the task of your small business or consulting finances. Give it a go and see how far you can push this fine open source application.

Buddi requires a Java Virtual Machine which means it can be run on most operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Linux and Apple Macintosh. This is not a professional account software by any means but great for the quick overview. Several plugins are available that add import and export functionality for instance.

Before I started using Buddi I used a simply Excel sheet to write down my earnings and expenses which soon got huge. Buddi is the next step adding statistics and a better display.

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