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Huygens
Asked: 2010-11-12 13:08:24 +0800 CST

Which tool to use for "home banking"?

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I would like to manage my bank accounts in a secure manner on Ubuntu.

I saw several applications in the Software Centre, but I don't know which one to choose. I don't need fancy features like stock options. I just have regular accounts which I want to follow, I don't want complicated stuff.

As bank data are quite sensitive, I would highly prefer an application that does encryption of the data. Though, if you have a really cool app but it does not have this feature, as long as it offers to store the data in one dedicated place, I could do with encrypting that place.

So what tool do you use that could fit my needs?

software-recommendation finance

8 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Probably the most powerful solution you can use is GnuCash. It's not the easiest to learn, but there is quite a bit of documentation available to teach it, and it has a lot of useful features such as double-entry, hierarchical accounts, and the ability to import from Quicken. The GnuCash developers have specifically stated that they will not take on the responsibility for encryption, as it goes against their philosophy of making a program do one thing well; but they state that they are in full support of using encrypted file systems to store your data.

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  2. Homebank Install homebank

    Homebank is, as the name suggests, a home banking application. It targets home users rather than businesses so seems well suited to your need.

    Homebank

    As far as encryption is concerned, I don't think this is an inbuilt ability. However, you can keep all of your files in a particular folder and encrypt that separately. An encrypted /home might be useful for this. Homebank does allow you to set the default directory for its files, but does not appear to stop you putting them in other, less secure, places.

    preferences

    See also, this related question.

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  3. Grisbi is what I use, and I really find it easy and full-featured.

    It allows for crypting your files if needed.

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  4. There is also kmymoney

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  5. I use wxBanker

    wxBanker is a lightweight personal finance manager. It focuses on being as simple and straightforward to use as possible.

    The main project page is located at https://launchpad.net/wxbanker, which contains downloads as well an Ubuntu PPA. Also linked are resources such as teams and mailing lists for translators, users, and developers.

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  6. I found YNAB (you need a budget) which runs very nice in wine too. The upcoming version 5 appears to be web-based instead.

    There's a free companion app for Android and iOS too, though it's not standalone, it requires you to have the YNAB software also.

    This software completely turned around how I think about money! At its core it's a simple envelope system, but it emphasizes a method that looks forward (give every dollar a job: what does my money need to do before I'm paid again) rather than the backward-looking post-mortem of basically all other tools (what happened, where did all my money go?).

    The YNAB website offers many free online classes - highly recommended. There's also a user forum but frankly the YNAB subreddit is even better.

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  7. I use Mint.com. It is all online, which may bother some people that Mint has access to all your data, but other than that, it works really well for tracking expenses and making a budget.

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  8. While it's not a desktop application I would recommend Mint by Intuit. Being web based it will run on any system with internet connection and can connect to most any bank, credit card, or other money service.

    At this time support for international banks appears to be:

    ...financial institutions in the United States and Canada. We hope to support more countries in the future.

    Which can be a pitfall for those outside of the North American continent that don't have a bank which operates in the US or CA.

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