How to Use GnuCash on Multiple Computers

This article describes how to move the GnuCash configuration files, which hold for example the currently open tabs and saved report configurations, to a cloud storage. This enables using GnuCash 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.

This does not really constitute a multi user environment. For this a database server should be considered for the GnuCash account and transactional data.

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

Content:

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

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

Linux Setup on Fedora

Create a file environment.local and place it /etc/gnucash

Content:

[Variables]
GNC_DATA_HOME={HOME}/Nextcloud/GnuCash-config

Verify Configuration

Open GnuCash

Go to Help →About

Check contents of GNC_USERDATA_DIR. It should display the path specified in the environment.local as described above.

Data Files

Above mentioned informations should not be confused with the GnuCash data file which holds the accounts and transactional data.

But the configuration files also hold the location of the recently used GnuCash data files, so the GnuCash data file can also be saved in the same cloud or network file store which makes the whole configuration usable on multiple computers.

In case you would like to use the GnuCash data file with multiple users you probably should consider using a database for holding the accounts and transactional data.