diff --git a/acconfig.h b/acconfig.h
index 67351e6407..8c6ef29792 100644
--- a/acconfig.h
+++ b/acconfig.h
@@ -29,6 +29,10 @@
 #undef PACKAGE
 #undef VERSION
 
+#undef GNUCASH_MAJOR_VERSION
+#undef GNUCASH_MINOR_VERSION
+#undef GNUCASH_MICRO_VERSION
+
 /* Are we compiling for GNOME?  The answer right now is always yes... */
 #undef GNOME
 
diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index 0fd4af4b23..d610a8924e 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -24,9 +24,23 @@ dnl Process this file with autoconf to produce a configure script.
 ### commands depend on them):
 
 AC_INIT(src/guile/gnucash.h)
-AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(gnucash,1.7.0)
+
+GNUCASH_MAJOR_VERSION=1
+GNUCASH_MINOR_VERSION=7
+GNUCASH_MICRO_VERSION=0
+GNUCASH_VERSION=$GNUCASH_MAJOR_VERSION.$GNUCASH_MINOR_VERSION.$GNUCASH_MICRO_VERSION
+
+AC_SUBST(GNUCASH_MAJOR_VERSION)
+AC_SUBST(GNUCASH_MINOR_VERSION)
+AC_SUBST(GNUCASH_MICRO_VERSION)
+
+AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(gnucash,$GNUCASH_VERSION)
 AM_CONFIG_HEADER(config.h)
 
+AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(GNUCASH_MAJOR_VERSION, $GNUCASH_MAJOR_VERSION)
+AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(GNUCASH_MINOR_VERSION, $GNUCASH_MINOR_VERSION)
+AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(GNUCASH_MICRO_VERSION, $GNUCASH_MICRO_VERSION)
+
 AC_CANONICAL_HOST
 AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
 AM_ACLOCAL_INCLUDE(macros)