I am currently an active user of a proprietary app on Android to manage all my financial transactions. I cannot imagine using anything other than a smartphone for this sort of thing, because my transactions happen away from my computer 99% of the time, and I enter them into the app immediately as soon as it happens. The app I’m using is great for this and it can also sync with the web. If I don’t do it on the spot, I most certainly will forget the details.
However, I would like to move to a FOSS alternative. KMyMoney seems very sophisticated on the desktop and has probably all of the features that the app I’m using has, so it’s a great candidate. However, without some method of synchronizing with my phone, or at least accessing its database remotely, it feels somewhat pointless.
I would like to suggest one (or both) of the following:
A companion android app that can sync with KMyMoney on the desktop, perhaps via KDE Connect, WiFi, or some other method. This means that I can enter and check my transactions offline while I’m on my phone, but be able to use more advanced features of the desktop when it’s convenient.
Some kind of method to be able to synchronize KMyWallet with an online server, and a web interface to be able to enter and check the transactions.
Hello,
I have been wanting to get into something like this.
I will mention that Gnucash is really great and already has a mobile app. The mobile app was created by a different team than the code Gnucash but it is there.
KMyMoney, could use the output of the Gnucash mobile app. It exports into CSV which can then be imported into KMyMoney if the accounts structure match.
Otherwise, we need to start a new app. That I know of, KMyMoney does not expose a rest API.
I also agree that 99 percent of my purchases happen away from my PC. At the same time KMyMoney does allow you to import a CSV from your Bank’s website. I do this weekly but I agree that if it was more real time it would be more useful. There are some transactions that are scheduled through the bank. Those would still need to be downloaded.
We all need to push our banks to allow integration with non-quicken applications.
I was just doing some research to see if a mobile app existed for KMyMoney and came across this post.
What I’d like to see is a very simple app initially where you can take a picture of the receipt, enter a date, amount and category. Then somehow be able to automatically enter those into KMyMoney. The app could also be created to sync payees and categories with KMyMoney so the data entry goes seamlessly.
I would hesitate to set up any app that exposed account numbers or any other information that could be used to unlawfully gain access to someone’s account.
Bonus would be an ai engine that would recognize the date, amount and payee.
Also note that the gnucash can export to CSV files too.
In other words, you can use the Gnucash app to track expenses on the go and then export and import into your kMY accounts.
Note that Gnucash calls categories accounts and you will need to manually set up your accounts to match your KMyMoney account tree. But if you do that, it will work.
I still think it would be cool to create a KMyMoney version of the mobile app. Things in my personal life will keep me from committing to doing it myself but maybe after the next year or so.
I am also interested in a smartphone app that can help manage personal finances. I’m currently using Gnucash Android, and I plan to make a lot of improvements to it, mainly in the area of syncing with desktop software. Right now I’m in the research phase, where I’m learning about existing accounting software, and whether or not there is user demand for smartphone apps.
The way I see it, an app can either be a standalone accounting app (with an option to sync or import/export data to other apps), or a companion app, which allows you to perform certain operations (e.g. entering new transactions) on the financial data stored elsewhere (e.g. your desktop).
Gnucash Android is essentially a basic accounting app with an option to export data to a variety of formats, including some that can be imported into Gnucash and KMyMoney.
I invite you to try it out as a standalone accounting app, and I would be interested in learning which features are missing for your use-cases.
Personally for me (and judging by responses in this thread for many other people too), it would be better to have a simple “append only” mobile companion app, since I’m mostly using desktop software to manage my finances.
I haven’t tried Gnucash before, I would give it a try. However, I think it’s generally not a good idea to keep all your data in a portable device that can easily get lost. This is why I find that a standalone android app is not good enough for me.
However, what I really want is a libre self hosted alternative to Andromoney, which is what I currently use. The main feature I want is to have all my data synchronized across devices. Andromoney does this if you purchase their paid version, and they use their own servers. However, it doesn’t have to be this way: many apps allow syncing via any cloud provider.
I think it would be ideal if KMyMoney or GNUCash have ther main apps on desktop (for proper visualization and desktop-based UI), and a companion app to view/append/modify the data only. This data would always be kept in sync via a cloud provider specified by the user. This could be the likes of Nextcloud, owncloud, webdav, or perhaps commercial variants like Dropbox, etc. Alternatively, one might be able to self host a sync server, but I think this is too much effort for a typical user.