I like the idea of using ledger-cli for automation, but honestly, this needs a web-ui.
Unlike all GUI apps out there, this one gives you the ability to write one, using the interface as an API. Go for it!
Ledger, a command-line accounting system
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Re: Ledger, a command-line accounting system
#12(Coming from a Windows background) I often wonder what the appeal is to something like this. (Seriously!) Why would you use something like this over say a spreadsheet? Is it really much easier than opening a browser and running Google Docs???
Granted, this is the extreme, but in my mind this is simply the manifestation of the "do one thing well" mantra of *nix. The basic chains of tools allowing extensibility and chaining from one to another because they're so well-rounded in their own right.
This has always been a thing (reduction to absurdity); these days you just see it more often as javascript libraries for anything you could possibly want.
Re: Ledger, a command-line accounting system
#13I use and love ledger, and wrote a Ruby wrapper a few years ago called reckon that applies Naive Bayes to your bank CSV (kind of link Mint.com) and outputs a ledger input file.
http://blog.andrewcantino.com/blog/2013/02/16/command-line-a...
Re: Ledger, a command-line accounting system
#14WHY? There are a bunch of legit accounting packages out there. No need to re-invent the wheel or (in this case) clean the parade ground with a toothbrush. Off the shelf SME accounting package or if you really need it a proper ERP. Anything else is likely to end in tears. Unless its for your one man show...in which case go wild with the CLI / Excel custom rolled solutions & sundry DIYs. Source: Accountant
Because if you just spent $50 instead of inventing your own accounting software you might have more than one person working at your business.
Re: Ledger, a command-line accounting system
#15WHY? There are a bunch of legit accounting packages out there. No need to re-invent the wheel or (in this case) clean the parade ground with a toothbrush. Off the shelf SME accounting package or if you really need it a proper ERP. Anything else is likely to end in tears. Unless its for your one man show...in which case go wild with the CLI / Excel custom rolled solutions & sundry DIYs. Source: Accountant
> Off the shelf SME accounting package
Isn't that what this is? For those of us who haven't used this, what makes it less "legit" than competing options?
Re: Ledger, a command-line accounting system
#16(Coming from a Windows background) I often wonder what the appeal is to something like this. (Seriously!) Why would you use something like this over say a spreadsheet? Is it really much easier than opening a browser and running Google Docs???
> Why would you use something like this over say a spreadsheet?
Because doing double entry accounting with the kind of reporting, balance checking, automatic addition of balancing entries, etc., that ledger-cli provides is difficult.
And because its plain text, it works quite well with the same kind of version control, diffing, etc., tools used for code.
> Is it really much easier than opening a browser and running Google Docs???
Yes.
Re: Ledger, a command-line accounting system
#17(Coming from a Windows background) I often wonder what the appeal is to something like this. (Seriously!) Why would you use something like this over say a spreadsheet? Is it really much easier than opening a browser and running Google Docs???
You ask "why" on a site named "Hacker News"?
Re: Ledger, a command-line accounting system
#18Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7707262 Unaffiliated with, but an extremely pleased user of http://www.youneedabudget.com .
accounting != budget management
accounting is more a business thing. all accounts needs to be balanced ie you always needs to have zero.
Re: Ledger, a command-line accounting system
#19WHY? There are a bunch of legit accounting packages out there. No need to re-invent the wheel or (in this case) clean the parade ground with a toothbrush. Off the shelf SME accounting package or if you really need it a proper ERP. Anything else is likely to end in tears. Unless its for your one man show...in which case go wild with the CLI / Excel custom rolled solutions & sundry DIYs. Source: Accountant
> There are a bunch of legit accounting packages out there
What makes ledger not 'legit'?
Re: Ledger, a command-line accounting system
#20WHY? There are a bunch of legit accounting packages out there. No need to re-invent the wheel or (in this case) clean the parade ground with a toothbrush. Off the shelf SME accounting package or if you really need it a proper ERP. Anything else is likely to end in tears. Unless its for your one man show...in which case go wild with the CLI / Excel custom rolled solutions & sundry DIYs. Source: Accountant
> There are a bunch of legit accounting packages out there.
How are they more "legit" than ledger?
> No need to re-invent the wheel or (in this case) clean the parade ground with a toothbrush.
Ledger's been around for a while. Using it is no more "reinventing the wheel" than using any other accounting package.