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Ledger, a command-line accounting system

ledger-cli.org

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Re: Ledger, a command-line accounting system

#101

Post by dragonwriter »

saaadhu wrote: post #74
peteretep wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Double-entry refers to the number of accounts related to a transaction, rather than the process of entering it twice. When you think about it, all transactions have naturally (at least) a from and a to account. In the simplest example, I move $100 from one checking account to another. This is a pain to model in a spreadsheet, where I literally create two entries, but very easy to model in an electronic dual-entry sys…

Newbie to ledger here. Why not move $x from checking to Holiday Budget every month, and then track holiday spending by moving money from Holiday Budget to Spent on Holidays? Guess it throws off net worth calculations a bit, as you'd have to include the Holiday Budget as well in there. Are there other reasons?

In outline, that's not wrong, though in detail it might be because the $ are still, presumably, actually in your checking account. But that's correctable, with the right account structure. Instead of just "Checking" and "Holiday Budget", make it "Assets:Checking" and "Assets:Checking:Holiday Budget" (I'd prefer "Holiday Fund").

Re: Ledger, a command-line accounting system

#102

Post by mercurial »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #93
peteretep wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Experts prefer plain-text formats and command-line tools Sure. Expert computer users prefer Lynx for web-browsing, expert Windows and Apple developers prefer vim and gcc, expert fiction writers prefer using emacs, and professional accountants use command-line accountancy tools...

I think I got Poe'd here - I'm not sure if you're serious or not, because the only thing that sounds stretched to me is the Lynx one. Of adoption of CLI among professional accountants I know nothing about, but the rest pretty much checks out.

In my experience, Windows developers (if they don't come from the *nix world) after often very uncomfortable with the command line (or anything non-Windows), and I doubt many authors know anything about emacs...

Re: Ledger, a command-line accounting system

#104

Post by tectonic »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #98
tectonic wrote: post #13

I 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...

Thank you thank you thank you!

You're welcome :)

Re: Ledger, a command-line accounting system

#105

Post by TeMPOraL »

mercurial wrote: post #102
TeMPOraL wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I got Poe'd here - I'm not sure if you're serious or not, because the only thing that sounds stretched to me is the Lynx one. Of adoption of CLI among professional accountants I know nothing about, but the rest pretty much checks out.

In my experience, Windows developers (if they don't come from the *nix world) after often very uncomfortable with the command line (or anything non-Windows), and I doubt many authors know anything about emacs...

> and I doubt many authors know anything about emacs...

You'd be surprised. There's a list of writers who use Emacs floating somewhere around the interwebz, Vernor Vinge being a notable example. I can't find it right now, but few of those authors are mentioned here: http://irreal.org/blog/?p=4651.

Re: Ledger, a command-line accounting system

#106

Post by kspaans »

Karunamon wrote: post #100
zrail wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YNAB is not double-entry. In fact I interviewed with them one time and they asked me how I would design it, and I started outlining how I run my ledger-based YNAB-like system with double-entry accounting. Their response was something along the lines of "wish we had thought of that, it would have been easier."

Wait, it isn't? My understanding of double entry is that asset moves across accounts are recorded in both accounts, so if I were to, say, pay a credit card bill, I show a debit from my checking account and a credit to my card account. Is this incorrect?

That's my understanding of double-entry.

Re: Ledger, a command-line accounting system

#107

Post by saaadhu »

peteretep wrote: post #85
saaadhu wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Newbie to ledger here. Why not move $x from checking to Holiday Budget every month, and then track holiday spending by moving money from Holiday Budget to Spent on Holidays? Guess it throws off net worth calculations a bit, as you'd have to include the Holiday Budget as well in there. Are there other reasons?

Because Holiday Budget isn't a real account, and my checking one is. If money didn't leave the checking account, it would show an incorrect budget if I marked that it had.

OK. Just that, I find it a bit odd that money goes into the "budget" when you spend, not when you allocate it, and vice versa :)

Re: Ledger, a command-line accounting system

#108

Post by kspaans »

shortstuffsushi wrote: post #77
colindean wrote: post #46

I've used Ledger extensively for a side business as well as for timekeeping for work. It's incredibly powerful and incredibly unforgiving. If you want to keep PDF, JPG, etc. receipts with it, just put them in the same directory and note them in a comment. Additionally, use a VCS that does binaries well. Git does not.

Your "unforgiving" comment is actually exactly what makes me nervous about using this (a command line util) vs a GUI application. I feel like (and this may be a total misconception) my poor typing abilities are better caught in a GUI than cmd line, unless the application itself has something built in (like git's fuzzy commands), where most UI applications, at least on Mac, are sort of validated by the OS level field…

Ledger has a 'strict' mode, where you basically pre-define the accounts you plan on using. That will at least stop you from typoing account names (perhaps like a pre-populated drop-down list in a UI?). Manual entry errors (too many/not enough zeros) are probably just as easy to make on the CLI/in a GUI though.

Re: Ledger, a command-line accounting system

#109

Post by mercurial »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #105
mercurial wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, Windows developers (if they don't come from the *nix world) after often very uncomfortable with the command line (or anything non-Windows), and I doubt many authors know anything about emacs...

> and I doubt many authors know anything about emacs... You'd be surprised. There's a list of writers who use Emacs floating somewhere around the interwebz, Vernor Vinge being a notable example. I can't find it right now, but few of those authors are mentioned here: http://irreal.org/blog/?p=4651 .

I don't doubt it for a second, but these people are outliers. This would be like me advocating how Wordperfect is widespread among authors, based on the fact that George RR Martin still uses it.

Re: Ledger, a command-line accounting system

#110

Post by dllthomas »

peteretep wrote: post #64
maaku wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try doing something the program doesn't support. Experts prefer plain-text formats and command-line tools because with a little bit of elbow grease you can always do things the program creator never thought of or chose not to support.

> Experts prefer plain-text formats and command-line tools Sure. Expert computer users prefer Lynx for web-browsing, expert Windows and Apple developers prefer vim and gcc, expert fiction writers prefer using emacs, and professional accountants use command-line accountancy tools...

None of Lynx, vim, or emacs are "command-line tools."
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