Guides

Step-by-step ways to get things done.

  • Back up and recover a bookEvery save backs up the previous file; a .log journal records changes between saves, and book.replayJournal puts them back after a crash.
  • Buy and sell sharesSet up a security and a brokerage account, record a purchase with its commission, record a sale with the realised gain, and keep the share price up to date.
  • Capital gains with lotsMatch each sale of shares to the purchases it came from by putting them in lots, so the book records the realised gain of every sale as GnuCash does.
  • Check and repair a bookFind and fix splits with no account, unbalanced transactions and broken lots with scrub.checkAndRepair, and know what each repair changed.
  • Close the booksAt the end of a period, move the income and expense balances into equity with book.closeBooks, so those accounts start the next period at zero.
  • Configure red-aleChange red-ale's own settings (accounting period, report directory, network) with config.set, and the settings stored in the book with book.setOptions.
  • Create a budgetPlan income and spending per account and period, fill the amounts by hand or estimate them from past transactions, and compare plan with actuals in the Budget Report.
  • Create, open and save a bookMake a new book as XML or SQLite, open an existing one (read-only if you only want to look), save it with a backup, and close it so its lock is released.
  • Credit cardsRecord charges, payments, refunds and interest on a credit card as a liability account, and know what the sign of its balance means.
  • Depreciate an assetSpread the cost of equipment over its useful life with a monthly scheduled transaction that moves an equal amount into a depreciation expense.
  • Edit, void and reverse transactionsCorrect a transaction in place, void it while keeping a record, undo it with a reversing transaction, or delete it; attach a document link to a receipt.
  • Employees, vouchers and payrollAdd an employee, record expenses they paid as an expense voucher and reimburse them, and record payroll with ordinary accounts and transactions.
  • Export dataGet transactions out as CSV, in GnuCash's simple or complex layout, and the account tree as CSV or as a file of accounts and commodities.
  • Find transactionsSearch for transactions by description, date, amount or account with transaction.find; list an account's register with transaction.list; find business documents with invoice.list.
  • Import business dataLoad customers or vendors, and invoices or bills with their lines, from CSV files in GnuCash's layouts, with a preview before anything changes.
  • Import transactionsBring bank transactions in from a CSV or QIF file: preview what would happen, choose the accounts, apply the proposal, and let red-ale learn which account a description belongs to.
  • Invoices and billsAdd a customer or vendor, optionally a job, then create an invoice or bill, add its lines, post it to Receivable or Payable, and unpost or duplicate it.
  • Migrate from GnuCashOpen a copy of your GnuCash file in red-ale, check that it opens as you expect, and bring over data from other tools with CSV and QIF imports.
  • Multiple currenciesKeep an account in a foreign currency, buy that currency, spend it, and record the exchange rate, with each split's value in the transaction currency and its amount in the account's.
  • Print an invoicePut your company's details in the book, run the Printable Invoice report for a document, and export it as a single HTML page to print or send.
  • Process paymentsRecord a customer's payment (full, part or over-payment) against open invoices, pay a vendor's bills, turn an existing deposit into a payment, and write off a bad debt.
  • Reconcile an accountMatch an account to a bank or card statement: start with the statement date and ending balance, tick the splits that appear on it, and finish when the difference is zero, or postpone.
  • Record deposits and withdrawalsEnter income, expenses and cash withdrawals as balanced transactions, then check the balance and list what you have entered.
  • Record dividends and return of capitalRecord a cash dividend as income, a reinvested dividend as new shares, and a return of capital as a reduction in cost.
  • Record prices and commoditiesAdd a security, record its price by hand, turn on online quotes, and tidy old prices out of the price database.
  • Turn a report into a PDFred-ale exports reports as HTML only; write the HTML to a file with report.export, then convert it with pandoc, wkhtmltopdf or a browser's print-to-PDF.
  • Run and export a reportFind a report, read its options, run it for exact figures, export it as HTML or CSV, save a set of options under a name, and choose a style sheet.
  • Schedule a transactionSet up a transaction that repeats (rent, a salary, a loan payment), see when it falls due, and create what is due with Since Last Run.
  • Set up accountsBuild a chart of accounts for a household (assets, credit cards, income, expenses), change it, renumber it, move and delete accounts, and enter opening balances.
  • Set up the business featuresPrepare a book for invoices and bills: receivable and payable accounts, tax tables, billing terms, document numbering and your company's details.
  • Split transactionsRecord one payment that is divided among several accounts (a pay slip, a shop receipt), then add, change or remove a split while keeping the transaction balanced.
  • Stock splits and mergersRecord a stock split with stock.split, which adds shares at no cost; record a merger by hand with ordinary transactions.
  • Track a loanRecord a loan you owe (a car loan or mortgage) with a liability account, the asset it bought and an interest expense; split each payment into principal and interest.
  • Transfer between accountsMove an amount from one account to another with transaction.transfer, including a transfer between accounts in different currencies at an exchange rate.
  • Use trading accountsTurn on the Use Trading Accounts book option so every transaction that mixes currencies balances in each currency, and see the Trading accounts it creates.
  • Write your own reportWrite a User report as a .rhai script in the report directory, check that report.list shows it, then run it with report.run and export it with report.export.