GnuCash is a terrific (and free) alternative to personal finance applications such as Microsoft Money and Quicken from Intuit; and I think it's much better. I've used all of them at one time or another. I was even a Managing Your Money user at one time.

I know from experience myself that first time users can be a little intimidated by GnuCash's basic, all business all the time interface.I thought I'd go with some basic GnuCash business today, the fundamental kind of stuff that gets a new user started in the right direction.

Let's have a look at GnuCash's view of your checkbook. In the account hierarchy, it's found under Assets: Current Assets: Checking Account. It's a logical place to put your checking account. Checking funds are liquid (or current) assets after all. Double click on your checking account and open it up to have a look.

Click on the top line to enter the first transaction. This will be your opening balance. Pick a date for your opening balance, if it's some other date than the default, and then tab over to the column marked "Description" and input Opening Balance.

Now tab three times and you'll be in the second line under the Account column. Assets: Current Assets: Checking Account should automatically be selected for you. Tab from there into the Deposit column and enter your opening balance amount.

When you tab twice more to the next line the Withdrawal column is automatically filled with the same amount as your deposit. You now need to tell GnuCash which account to withdraw your opening balance from. Tab to the Account column and select Equity:Opening Balances from the drop-down menu. This is the catch-all account which holds all your starting balances. It's the "equity" you bring to the program when you first start using it. To finish funding your account hit the return key. There, you have money in your account.

Next time we'll walk through the process of depositing a check into our checking account.