Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Plain Text Accounting, a guide to Ledger and friends

plaintextaccounting.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 126 posts

Re: Plain Text Accounting, a guide to Ledger and friends

#31

Post by kqr »

wsc981 wrote: post #15
ilammy wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it seems to me it’s a lot of work to keep everything up to date Unless you do dozens of transactions every day, it's not much of a hassle to keep track of them manually. If you're like a day trader or a small business owner then yeah, you'll probably need some helper tools.

> Unless you do dozens of transactions every day, it's not much of a hassle to keep track of them manually. I don't have too many transactions indeed. I am actually contemplating to switching from my Numbers sheet to the Ledger command line tool. I do like that this tool is multiplatform and based on simple text files. And it shouldn't be too hard to write a few scripts to convert data from my banks and brokers into…

I actually switched from the plain-text hledger to a spreadsheet. I still do double-entry in the spreadsheet, but the latter was easier to use on the phone (0--3 transactions per day) and easier to share with other family members.

Re: Plain Text Accounting, a guide to Ledger and friends

#33

Post by Tomte »

prog5 wrote: post #24

Slightly off topic, but I finally broke down and paid for YNAB this year and it has literally changed my life. It doesn't feel like accounting anymore, it feels like playing monopoly. Use QB for biz, and tried mint for years, both feel like work. YNAB not only tracks historical categories but makes it fun to plan future expenses.

I have used the old "lifetime" version. How is the new subscription software compared to it? Is it much improved? How?

Re: Plain Text Accounting, a guide to Ledger and friends

#34

Post by tomnipotent »

hardtoreason wrote: post #8

I've used the ledger-likes extensively, and they have two major problems: (1) One of the hard problems in personal finance is data capture and input validation. Programs like QuickBooks and Xero don't just hide the GL because they're being mean, they're doing it because even experienced bookkeepers make mistakes on the general ledger all the time. "Since it's a text file it's easy to read" solves exactly the wrong pr…

> hard problems in personal finance is data capture and input validation

It's also true for business accounting. Getting data into your accounting/ERP software is always a clusterfuck, and I've yet to see a process that didn't require many hours/days of reconciliation and posting manual journal entries to close a reporting period.

Re: Plain Text Accounting, a guide to Ledger and friends

#35

Post by account-5 »

As someone who "manages" there accounts in spreadsheets what would be the advantages? I'm already downloading CSVs from my accounts which I clean and import into a spreadsheet.

Also can someone link to what the actual text file looks like? The format. I can't find a decent example, I just want to see this human readable format, thanks.

Re: Plain Text Accounting, a guide to Ledger and friends

#36

Post by themmes »

account-5 wrote: post #35

As someone who "manages" there accounts in spreadsheets what would be the advantages? I'm already downloading CSVs from my accounts which I clean and import into a spreadsheet. Also can someone link to what the actual text file looks like? The format. I can't find a decent example, I just want to see this human readable format, thanks.

Here you will find an example and more format details https://plaintextaccounting.org/quickref/#h.8v2r9qqwt9f8

Re: Plain Text Accounting, a guide to Ledger and friends

#38

Post by simonmic »

account-5 wrote: post #35

As someone who "manages" there accounts in spreadsheets what would be the advantages? I'm already downloading CSVs from my accounts which I clean and import into a spreadsheet. Also can someone link to what the actual text file looks like? The format. I can't find a decent example, I just want to see this human readable format, thanks.

Spreadsheets have lots of strengths. I believe one of the difficulties is (a) managing an increasingly large number of transactions over time, with (b) an uncertain number of postings to (c) arbitrary accounts in a hierarchy. Though I haven't tried myself, I suspect modelling a full double-entry-bookkeeping General Journal in a spreadsheet just gets cumbersome. Secondly, while certain kinds of calculations and queries are easier in a spreadsheet, other kinds of queries and ad hoc reports are easier with PTA tools. Thirdly (big one), the plain text format lends itself to version control (good for data integrity and auditing), scripting and integration, and future-proofness.

An example of Ledger/hledger's main file format:

    2021-01-01 opening balances on january 1st
        assets:checking         $1000  ; a posting, increasing assets:checking's balance by $1000
        assets:cash              $100
        liabilities                $0
        equity                 $-1100  ; each transaction must sum to zero
    
    2021-03-05 client payment
        assets:checking         $2000
        revenues:consulting    $-2000  ; revenues/liabilities/equity normally appear negative
    
    2021-03-20 Sprouts
        expenses:food:groceries  $100
        assets:cash               $40
        assets:checking                ; a missing amount will be inferred ($-140 here)

Re: Plain Text Accounting, a guide to Ledger and friends

#39

Post by account-5 »

themmes wrote: post #36
account-5 wrote: post #35

As someone who "manages" there accounts in spreadsheets what would be the advantages? I'm already downloading CSVs from my accounts which I clean and import into a spreadsheet. Also can someone link to what the actual text file looks like? The format. I can't find a decent example, I just want to see this human readable format, thanks.

Here you will find an example and more format details https://plaintextaccounting.org/quickref/#h.8v2r9qqwt9f8

Cheers mate.

Re: Plain Text Accounting, a guide to Ledger and friends

#40

Post by simonmic »

hardtoreason wrote: post #8

I've used the ledger-likes extensively, and they have two major problems: (1) One of the hard problems in personal finance is data capture and input validation. Programs like QuickBooks and Xero don't just hide the GL because they're being mean, they're doing it because even experienced bookkeepers make mistakes on the general ledger all the time. "Since it's a text file it's easy to read" solves exactly the wrong pr…

Another data point: 95% of my data entry (all but cash) is automatic CSV download (using plaid2qif) and mostly-automatic deduplicating import (I tweak the import rules when needed). So, a daily `make import`. I have also run this from a nightly cron job. For most of us, that's a little too automatic; usually we want a bit more oversight and awareness.
Post reply on HN