diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 3c9bad2203..3f992c5b0f 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -187,7 +187,6 @@ intl-scm/guile-strings.c:
 
 GIT_CMD = @GIT_CMD@
 SVN = svn
-XSLTPROC = xsltproc
 SCM_TYPE = @SCM_TYPE@
 
 if BUILDING_FROM_SCM
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index ab6e559a12..7825846f24 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -492,6 +492,14 @@ AS_SCRUB_INCLUDE(LIBXLT_CFLAGS)
 AC_SUBST(LIBXSLT_CFLAGS)
 AC_SUBST(LIBXSLT_LIBS)
 
+# xsltproc is not included in libxslt on all distributions
+# so check for it separately
+AC_PATH_PROG(XSLTPROC, xsltproc, [""])
+
+if test -z "$XSLTPROC"; then
+  AC_MSG_ERROR([xsltproc is required to build GnuCash])
+fi
+
 ### --------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ### Zlib
 
diff --git a/src/gnome-utils/Makefile.am b/src/gnome-utils/Makefile.am
index b7c9e3e7ee..4b32491706 100644
--- a/src/gnome-utils/Makefile.am
+++ b/src/gnome-utils/Makefile.am
@@ -212,10 +212,10 @@ libgncmod_gnome_utils_la_LIBADD = \
 BUILT_SOURCES = gnc-warnings.c gnc-warnings.h
 
 gnc-warnings.c: gschemas/org.gnucash.warnings.gschema.xml.in make-gnc-warnings-c.xsl
-	xsltproc -o $@ $(srcdir)/make-gnc-warnings-c.xsl $<
+	$(XSLTPROC) -o $@ $(srcdir)/make-gnc-warnings-c.xsl $<
 
 gnc-warnings.h: gschemas/org.gnucash.warnings.gschema.xml.in make-gnc-warnings-h.xsl
-	xsltproc -o $@ $(srcdir)/make-gnc-warnings-h.xsl $<
+	$(XSLTPROC) -o $@ $(srcdir)/make-gnc-warnings-h.xsl $<
 
 if HAVE_X11_XLIB_H
   libgncmod_gnome_utils_la_LIBADD += -lX11