[solved] Skrooge

[kalwisti]

I would like to request Skrooge, a personal finance manager for KDE 4, which has become part of KDE Extragear (in the Office module). The program's current version is 0.5.5.

Directions for getting the source code can be found here:

http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/Skrooge

This same webpage also lists the required dependencies. (The one that appears to be missing in the Pardus 2009 repos is libofx).

I have been using Skrooge in PCLinuxOS and now have about 2.5 months' worth of checkbook data in it. It has been stable for me -- with no crashes or freezes. Unlike HomeBank, it can handle split transactions (with multiple splits, if necessary) and it has a reconciliation feature which is similar to KMyMoney and/or Quicken. The program's User Interface does require a bit of time in order to get accustomed to it, but the main developers (St'ephane and Guillaume) are open to users' suggestions and Skrooge's documentation is pretty good.

I believe that Skrooge would be a worthwhile addition to the official Pardus repos -- and of course, the KDE 4 version of KMyMoney when it is ready.

Thanks,
=david

P.S.
In case someone thinks I am being unfair to HomeBank, I am also using HomeBank 4.1 in my Pardus 2009 installation. I have entered the same 2.5 months' worth of data into it, but I prefer Skrooge for the reasons stated above.

I have a semi-workaround for the split transaction problem -- although I imagine this probably violates every known principle of accounting. For example, if I have written a check for $86.00 at the local Super Target store (a US-based department-type store which also sells groceries) and that amount was split between different expense categories, I create separate transactions for each relevant category. For example:

11/03/2009 check # 4662 target $38.00 Clothing
11/03/2009 check # 4662 target $34.00 Food:Groceries
11/03/2009 check # 4662 target $14.00 Household Items

It's not a clean solution, but the program allows you to do it (i.e., it does not protest that there are duplicate check numbers) and this way, you can better track expense categories.

[kalwisti]

In case anyone is feeling adventurous, it is possible to compile Skrooge from source on Pardus. (I'm not especially brave or skilled, and I was able to compile version 0.5.5 on Pardus 2009.1. I have been using it for about two weeks now, and it is working fine -- saving files, calculating correctly, etc.). AFAIK, Skrooge has not damaged anything on my system.

I will try to write up a more detailed how-to, but I have another project I need to finish first. In the meantime, here are the basic steps ...

The source files and instructions are here:

http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/Skrooge

(Note: They have just released stable ver. 0.6.0).

After downloading the source files and reading the instructions, you will need to install the following packages in Pardus:

kdelibs-devel 4.3.4
libofx 0.9.1
qca2-apidocs 2.0.2
Pardus's Build Essentials package (via the Konsole):
http://en.pardus-wiki.org/HOWTO:Installing_build_essentials
(This includes utilities such as gcc, make, automake and cmake. It will also install other tools which you don't need at the moment, but may come in handy later).  

From here, if you follow the instructions on Skrooge's website, you should be able to successfully build Skrooge. On my old system, the make process took about 30 minutes; it was the only application I had up and running. If you have a faster, more powerful processor, the make process will take less time. (On my new system [specs given below], it took make about 5 minutes to build Skrooge ver. 0.6.0).

After installing Skrooge, you might run into one quirk the first time you try to start it. A dialog box will pop up with a message to the effect that "This will run the program Skrooge [for the first time]. If you trust it, click the OK button." (I did not write down the exact message, so I'm relying on memory).

Once you click on the OK button, Skrooge should start. An entry for the program was added under the Applications > Office menu.

[kalwisti]

For anyone who might be interested in trying Skrooge but does not want to compile it from source ... I just noticed that Skrooge 0.7.1 is now available in the Pardus 2009.2 repositories.

A big "Thank you!" to the person(s) responsible for adding this very useful program to the repos.