I am looking for an application (open source is strongly preferred) that lets me manage my finances in a calendar-like manner. The difference to a normal calendar is that it should explicitly support the finances angle (see below).
- A free application is preferred over a commercial one.
- An open source application is preferred over a non-open source one.
Desired system requirements:
- all data stored and processed locally (i.e. no online/cloud services that are crucial for the application to work)
- must be usable on Windows
Desired features:
- management and tracking of deposits and investments
- configuring bank accounts, their interest rates, fees, etc.
- configuring fixed-term deposits, their interest rates, due dates, other important dates and information (e.g. deadlines for canceling the deposit so they do not get automatically prolonged)
- stock portfolio with an occasional entry of the current value (automatic retrieval from some service is nice to have, but not required, and manual entry should definitely be available as an alternative)
- automatic computation of current assets registered by the system1, while taking into account the aforementioned fees, interest rates, etc., as well as payment intervals (e.g. annually, quarterly, …)
- preferably with some graphical display of assets and important dates, in such a way that I can, at a glance, see how much money is bound and how much money is available on which accounts/deposits/investments at any given date
NOT looking for:
- management or tracking of expenses in my daily life
- managing what is in my wallet
- storing precisely where the money that entered the system came from, or what money that leaves the system was used for (rough indicators such as “remove 800€ for the expenses of the next few weeks/months” is fully sufficient)
I have looked into GnuCash, and maybe it does what I want though it seemed to focus a different direction of tasks. For instance, while I could create certain accounts categorized as fixed-term deposits, there did not seem to be any option for setting up due dates and deadlines. Also, computing the interest and adding that to some account is an integral part of the kind of application I am looking for, whereas in GnuCash, the respective capability rather looks like a workaround built around the transaction data model.
As a workaround, I am currently using spreadsheets (of the OpenOffice Calc/MS Works/MS Excel type). However, I repeatedly have to make sure to input values into the correct cells, copy formulas, adapt cell references, etc., and I am still not getting any visual overview. With all this manual work going on, the process seems rather error-prone, and I think a dedicated application would be more suitable.
Maybe I should put my request like this:
I am not so much interested in a finances management application that also allows me to store dates as annotations. I am rather interested in a calendar that also automatically manages some time-related financial things.
While I am fine with a globally usable application, if it makes any difference, I would like one that works with the specifics of the banking system in the EU, particularly in Germany.
Similar questions:
- Gratis personal finance manager: This question seems to focus on very manual applications; possibly something like a finances-related addition/subtraction table, rather than focusing on a calendar aspect.
- Secure personal finance software: This one was closed.
- Double entry book keeping for hardcore personal finance: This one specifically looks for software that stores its data online, whereas I am specifically looking for software that does not store any data online.
- Personal finance application: This one is focused on tracking expenses and optionally compiling reports about them. Also, support for more than one bank account is listed only as a nice to have feature, whereas I am mainly interested in organizing my immediately and indirectly available money across multiple bank accounts and similar banking arrangements.
- Personnal finance webapp: This question does not provide many details, but it sounds more like a detailed tracking of expenses.
1: To be clear here: I am not trying to track my full finances in this tool, just the portion that is currently working for me on some banks by generating interest or otherwise revenue. Subtracting arbitrary amounts that do not appear anymore in the system (because I retrieved the money from the bank), or adding amounts that arrive out of nowhere (because I brought some more money to the bank) should be feasible.
Please write comments in case of any doubts about the requirements. I am not quite sure what a software that is useful for my use case should work like precisely, and while I have some ideas, I also do not want to restrict answers too seriously. Possibly, some of my ideas aren’t actually the optimum solution, and possibly, some of my requirements do not make sense after all.
