Like many packages, xfinans allows you to build it and run it without access to the root password. All files get stored in your $HOME directory, or where you put them.

For the most recent version, check http://www.iesd.auc.dk/ lupus/xfinans.html or look on your sunsite CDROM /cdrom/apps/financial/xfinans-5.8.lsm

	su root -c "chgrp gps /usr/src" # allows creation of dirs and slinks.

	tar -C /usr/src/ -zxvf xfinans-5.8.tar.gz
	cd /usr/src 
	mv Xfinans  Xfinans-5.8
	ln -s Xfinans-5.8 Xfinans
	cd Xfinans

	less README	# 1/2 page hello with URL
	less INSTALL	# tells you to ...

	cd Src
	xmkmf
	make depend
	make
	cd ..

	xrdb -merge XFinans.defaults	# repeat every X11 session
	Src/xfinans &

xfinans allows multiple accounts with transfers between them (it creates two seperate lines, which you shouldn't edit in isolation). It includes categories, and has a few helpful editing features - the forms retain their previous texts, so that you can do a batch of petrol receipts (though there is no support for milage).

The output .acc files are viewable text, but be very careful of accidently changing the number of lines. A quick look at the source code should provide you with utilities to read and write those files. Files can be read a line at a time quite easily, even from shell or awk.

Each account is a seperate file. At the end of the year you would archive the files, and build an aggregate with acct1_95 acct1_96 acct2_95 ... being in the same directory.