How to Use GnuCash on Multiple Computers

This article describes how to make the GnuCash configuration files, which hold for example the currently open tabs and saved report configurations portable in the sense that GnuCash can be used on multiple computers or laptops, like two Windows computers or even a Windows computer and a Linux computer and look the same on both of them.

For this a cloud or network file storage is needed. I am working with Nextcloud as a cloud file storage, but I guess this should work similarly with other cloud file storages like Dropbox.

Configuration Locations

GnuCash has a couple of parameters for the different location settings, which are described here: https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Configuration_Locations

User specific GnuCash configuration data is saved in a directory which is held by the variable GNC_DATA_HOME

Windows Setup

Create a file environment.local and place it %PROGRAMFILES(X86)%\gnucash\etc\gnucash:

[Variables] GNC_DATA_HOME=%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%/Nextcloud/GnuCash

For directories GnuCash on Windows considers "\" to be the same as "/"

But: As "\" is also an escape character you need to use another "\" in front of it, when using "\", therefore "/" is the same as "\\" on Windows