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22. xfinans

This is another mini-accounting system. It handles several accounts (cheque, Visa, cash, ...)

22.1 Installation as a user

Like many packages, xfinans allows you to build it and run it without access to the root password. All files get stored in your $HOME directory, or where you put them.

For the most recent version, check http://www.iesd.auc.dk/~lupus/xfinans.html or look on your sunsite CDROM /cdrom/apps/financial/xfinans-5.8.lsm

        su root -c "chgrp gps /usr/src" # allows creation of dirs and slinks.

        tar -C /usr/src/ -zxvf xfinans-5.8.tar.gz
        cd /usr/src 
        mv Xfinans  Xfinans-5.8
        ln -s Xfinans-5.8 Xfinans
        cd Xfinans

        less README     # 1/2 page hello with URL
        less INSTALL    # tells you to ...

        cd Src
        xmkmf
        make depend
        make
        cd ..

        xrdb -merge XFinans.defaults    # repeat every X11 session
        Src/xfinans &

22.2 Transfers

xfinans allows multiple accounts with transfers between them (it creates two seperate lines, which you shouldn't edit in isolation). It includes categories, and has a few helpful editing features - the forms retain their previous texts, so that you can do a batch of petrol receipts (though there is no support for milage).

22.3 ASCII files

The output .acc files are viewable text, but be very careful of accidently changing the number of lines. A quick look at the source code should provide you with utilities to read and write those files. Files can be read a line at a time quite easily, even from shell or awk.

Each account is a seperate file. At the end of the year you would archive the files, and build an aggregate with acct1_95 acct1_96 acct2_95 ... being in the same directory.


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