Some time in the past, I used Quicken to handle my funds. It’s proprietary software program, and 12 months after 12 months, it price me an increasing number of cash for upgrades. Eventually, I spotted it is not prudent to remove from my funds to assist me management my funds.
Fortunately, I discovered about HomeBank whereas studying an article about open source money management tools. HomeBank is free private banking software program. It runs on Linux, Windows, and macOS, and it is provided in 56 totally different languages. These benefits guarantee it is accessible to you regardless of your selection of working system and the language you converse.
Install and arrange HomeBank
Once you download the software program and run the installer, it should begin and run by itself with none compiling, configuration (except you should), or further steps.
I will use some randomly generated info to do a walkthrough of the right way to use HomeBank.
Create an account the simple manner
The best option to get began with a brand new account in HomeBank is to import a knowledge file out of your financial institution. Go to your financial institution’s web site and log into your account. Find the choice to export your account’s transactions, establish the time interval for which you need your transactions, and choose the file kind you need. I discovered the best choice is QFX; it is extensively utilized in Quicken, so most funds/monetary purposes know it.
Return to HomeBank and import the info file with File > Import > OFX/QFX. Your new account can be created with all the transactions for the time interval you chose.
Create an account manually
The more durable option to begin is by manually inputting your account info. Create a brand new file and set its properties, e.g., proprietor title, forex, language (you should utilize the built-in system detection), and so forth., and create an account as proven within the screenshots under.
Once all of that is arrange, you may add transactions by clicking Transaction > Add. A kind will seem the place you may add the small print in your transactions. The screenshot under exhibits a cost—all outgoing transactions will need to have a unfavorable quantity. Transactions with constructive numbers are handled as credit.
Analyze your funds
Once you will have a adequate variety of transactions in HomeBank, you should utilize your knowledge for reporting and trending. This provides you a option to visualize the place your cash goes and helps you establish funds tendencies.
For instance, the Statistics Report initially shows particulars about your transactions’ funds classes.
The menu on the high lets you select a graphic kind to show your knowledge. Here, I selected the Donut graph kind.
Now your knowledge is visualized so that you can use and work with.
You may also development your knowledge over time, reminiscent of by month for a 12 months, as proven right here.
As you add extra info, you may development by day per 30 days or by month per 12 months, primarily based in your wants.
Features
I have not gotten via all the features accessible in HomeBank but, however listed below are some I particularly like.
Support for varied currencies is beneficial when I’ve worldwide transactions or am taking a visit and have to run a funds with the precise forex.
A scheduling template helps me maintain monitor of all of my recurring expenditures and paychecks. I may also create a couple of template shortly and add them . This provides me a extra stabilized funds as a result of I do know what’s incoming and outgoing frequently.
Finally, I discovered car price within the analytics part significantly worthwhile. I’ve been debating utilizing ride-sharing companies, and seeing the price of utilizing my car helped me resolve that it makes extra sense to separate my time between working from residence extra and utilizing a ride-sharing service to get to the workplace.
Happy budgeting!
HomeBank provides greater than I can cowl on this temporary overview, however I hope these fundamentals offer you some good concepts to get extra management over your funds this 12 months. I like that this software program provides me the chance to make use of my knowledge to do extra analytics and make higher decisions about my spending habits.
If you want extra info, HomeBank provides an intensive quantity of documentation, and if you wish to look over every little thing, go forward and take a look at HomeBank‘s web site.