Test Driving Linux

Reports

Once you have spent a few months entering your financial details into GnuCash, you will start to appreciate the power that comes from having detailed records of your money habits. It's one thing to have all this information available, but it's quite another to organize it in a way that can help you spot trends or solve problems. Fortunately, GnuCash has a wide selection of reports to give you a firm grasp on almost every aspect of your financial life. The following table shows a list of some of the most common reports and what you can expect each to tell you. You can access any of these reports by navigating through the Reports menu in the accounts window.

Report	Description
Account Summary	Gives you an at-a-glance view of the balances for each account.
Asset Barchart/Piechart	Lets you see how your net worth is divided. For most people, their net worth is primarily in their house, bank accounts, and retirement funds.
Liability Barchart/Piechart	Breaks down your liabilities by percentage. For most people, houses and cars are the greatest liabilities, followed by credit cards and consumer and student loans.
Net Worth Barchart	Net Worth = Assets - Liabilities. This is a graphical representation of that formula. In general, you want the blue and green bars to get higher, and the red bar to get lower.
Expense Barcart/Piechart	Shows you where your money is going. If you spend 80% of your money each month on clothes, this will tell you that (assuming you have structured ...