Daniel Nitsikopoulos

Plain Text Accounting, a guide to Ledger and friends

http://plaintextaccounting.org/
Cached version

plaintextaccounting.org

Welcome! Plain text accounting is a way of doing bookkeeping and accounting with plain text files and scriptable, command-line-friendly software, such as Ledger, hledger, or Beancount. This site collects the PTA community's tools, docs and practices. It is maintained by Simon Michael (hledger project leader, PTA fan) and contributors like you. See also our discussion forum and chat rooms.

Site map What is Plain Text Accounting ? News & discussion Videos Slides Docs: Accounting basics , PTA app docs , comparisons , intros , cheatsheets , cookbooks , FAQs FAQ Cookbook Software: PTA apps , Feature matrix , Editor plugins , Data import/conversion , Price fetching , Data generation , Workflows , Formatting , Reporting , Time logging , UI, console , UI, curses , UI, GUI , UI, web , UI, mobile , Library , Utilities , API

This is a community-supported site; if you find it useful, why not contribute to the github repo or help with finance. Thank you sponsors, including:

Chat - matrix room - matrix space - IRC channel - project chats Blogs & articles - See the PTA forum's News category and RSS feed - Older blogs & articles, 2006-2024 PTA forum - forum.plaintextaccounting.org Reddit - /r/plaintextaccounting Lemmy - lemmy.world/c/plaintextaccounting Hacker News - stories - comments Mastodon - #plaintextaccounting - #ledgercli - #hledger - #beancount Twitter - #plaintextaccounting - #ledgercli - #hledger - #beancount - LedgerTips 2014-2018 Stack Exchange - ledger-cli tag - ledger-cli search - hledger tag - hledger search Project specific - Project mail lists - This Week In Hledger plaintextaccounting.org site - commits - contributors - issues - email the site admin

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=plaintextaccounting

Accounting basics , PTA app docs , Comparisons , Intros , Cheatsheets , Cookbooks , FAQs

PTA apps , Editor plugins , Data import/conversion , Price fetching , Data generation , Workflows , Formatting , Reporting , Time logging , UI, console , UI, curses , UI, GUI , UI, web , UI, mobile , Library , Utilities , API

To do Plain Text Accounting, try one (or more) of the apps below. Generally it's possible to migrate data between them.

A rough comparison of the big three PTA apps' main features, plus some relevant third-party tools in italics. (Plus some geeky technical bits that you may not care about.) Corrections and suggestions are appreciated (chat). You can also use this as a kind of overview, quick reference or porting guide. (See also syntax quick reference.)

User interfaces
CLI: ledger hledger beanquery
TUI: regdel hledger add, hledger-ui, hledger-iadd, puffin bean-add
GUI: Prudent, ledgerble, addtrans fruit-credits
WUI: ledgeraccounting, paisa, cashier, ledgible, ledger (howeyc), ledger-web (vifon), ledger-web (peterkeen), ledger-pyreport, ledger-analytics, node-ledger-web hledger-web, ledgeraccounting, paisa, cashier fava, paisa, BeanHub
Android: cashier, NanoLedger cashier, MoLe, NanoLedger Beancount Mobile CE, beancount-mobile (xuhcc)
IOS: Beancount Mobile CE
Help
CLI help: general --help, also available as man page general and command-specific --help, commands summary, built-in asciinema demos command-specific --help
TLDR short help: ledger hledger and commands, also built-in
User manual formats: web web, info, man, also built-in info/man/text with jump to topic web
Active support channels: chat, mail list, forum, reddit mail list
Easy install and setup: yes yes no
Data formats
Input formats: journal (ledger), timeclock, csv journal (hledger), timeclock, timedot, csv, tsv, ssv, *sv journal (beancount)
Output formats: text, csv, xml, lisp text, html, csv, tsv, fods, beancount, sql, json text, ?
Commands
Commands: accounts, balance, cleared, commodities, convert, csv, entry, emacs, equity, lisp, payees, pricemap, pricedb, prices, print, register, select, source, stats, tags accounts, activity, add, aregister, balance, balancesheet, balancesheetequity, cashflow, check, close, codes, commodities, demo, descriptions, diff, files, help, import, incomestatement, payees, prices, print, notes, register, rewrite, roi, stats, tags, test beancount: check, doctor, example, format
Add-on commands: bar, check-fancyassertions, edit, git, iadd, interest, lots, move, pijul, plot.. beanquery: balances, journal, print, select
Configuration
Config file: general options general and command-specific options ?
Extensibility: built-in expression language, embedded python, HTTP-JSON add-on commands, haskell library, HTTP-JSON data-modifying plugins, python library
Other features
Account names: any any capitalised, no spaces, english top level names
Account types awareness: no yes yes
Budget report: built-in built-in fava
Charting tools: paisa, etc.. activity, hledger-bar, hledger-web, hledger-plot, paisa, etc.. paisa..
Commodity names: any, on left or right, optional any, on left or right, optional 2-24 uppercase letters / digits / punctuation, on right, required
Data importing: built-in from CSV, others.. built-in from any input format, others.. beangulp framework, beancount_reds_importers framework, beancount-import library, others..
Data deduplication: checksum-based (requires unique CSV records) date-based (requires date-ordered CSV records) ?
Date range: 1400-01-01 to 9999-12-31 0000-01-01 onward 0001-01-01 to 9999-12-31
Generate postings by rule: built-in built-in ?
Generate recurring transactions: built-in built-in beancount-repete
International number notations: no yes no
Lot management: lot matching syntax, lots report, revaluation transactions, lotter manual, hledger-lots, hledger-move, lotter lot matching syntax, ?
Multi-period balance reports: no yes fava
Pivoting: on single tag on one or more tags / other fields no
Precision (journal): 254 significant digits "unlimited" integer digits + 255 decimal digits 28 significant digits
Precision (internal): "unlimited" (rational numbers) "unlimited" integer digits + 255 decimal digits 28 significant digits
Precision (balancing): max precisions in local entry global commodity precisions max precisions in local entry / 2 (configurable)
Precision (display): inferred commodity precision, or a default max precision of 6 inferred / specified commodity precision, or a default max precision of 8 inferred commodity precision, or a default max precision of 0 (configurable)
Price fetching: pricehist pricehist beanprice, pricehist
Querying: cli options, custom query expressions cli options, custom query expressions, sql SQL-like beancount query language
REPL: built-in haskell GHCI beanquery, python
Shell completions: bash (commands, flags, maybe accounts) bash (commands, flags, flag values, query types, journal data)
Unrealised gains report: --unrealized --gain, roi fava
Validation: configurable configurable always strict
Miscellaneous: ? standard financial reports ?
customisable account display order
customisable amount styles for input and output
documentation-first development
regular releases
regression bounties

Atom - language-ledger - ledger Emacs - beancount-mode - hledger-mode - ledger-mode (good for hledger also) IntelliJ - Ledger CLI Nano - scopatz/nanorc Sublime - sublime-ledger-syntax TextMate - Ledger.tmbundle VIM - vim-ledger - vim-beancount - hledger-vim - cmp-beancount VS Code - hledger-vscode - ledger - vscode-beancount

  • Ledger and hledger have CSV conversion built in. Also:
  • bean-identify, bean-extract, bean-file - Beancount built-in tools
  • banks2ledger - CSV to *ledger converter
  • beanborg Advanced transaction importer with auto-categorization (python)
  • beancount-import web app/framework for converting various formats to beancount (python)
  • beancount-reds-importers Simple importers and tools for Beancount. A framework to allow you to easily write your own importers.
  • beancount-ynab Import YNAB4 (legacy desktop-based version) into beancount
  • beancount-ynab5 Import YNAB5 (cloud-based version) transactions into beancount
  • beancount2ledger beancount to h/ledger converter (python)
  • beanhub-extract Simple Python library for extracting all kinds of bank export CSV files into standardized transaction data objects
  • beanhub-import Declarative idempotent rule-based beancount transaction import engine in Python consumes data extracted by beanhub-extract
  • buchhaltung CSV/FinTS/HBCI/OFX to *ledger conversion/deduplication (haskell)
  • Costflow convert one line message to beancount/*ledger format
  • csv2beancount CSV to beancount converter (clojure)
  • CSV2Ledger CSV to *ledger converter (perl)
  • double-entry-generator Rule-based double-entry bookkeeping importer (from Alipay/WeChat/Huobi etc. to Beancount)
  • fints2ledger FinTS/HBCI to csv to *ledger or beancount journals (python)
  • gcash2ledger.py GNUCash XML to *ledger converter (python)
  • gnucash-to-beancount GNUCash sqlite to beancount converter (python)
  • gnucash2ledger.py GNUCash sqlite to *ledger converter (python)
  • grisbi2Ledger Grisbi to *ledger converter
  • gsheet-csv.hs a script to download Google sheets (haskell)
  • hledger-Excel Excel spreadsheet to *ledger journal converter (visual basic for applications)
  • hledger-import-dsl alternate, programmable CSV converter for hledger
  • hledger-to-influxdb hledger to InfluxDB converter (haskell)
  • hledger2beancount hledger to beancount converter (haskell)
  • homebank2ledger HomeBank to ledger and beancount converter (perl)
  • icsvledger interactive CSV to *ledger converter (python)
  • into-ledger CSV to *ledger converter
  • invoice2data extract data from PDF invoices (python)
  • jali downloader/importer to *ledger (python)
  • kmymoney2hledger KMyMoney to *ledger converter (clojure)
  • kmymoney2ledgers KMyMoney to *ledger/beancount converter (python)
  • kmymoney2ledgers.awk KMyMoney to *ledger/beancount converter (Awk)
  • ldgclip import bank transactions via the clipboard with one click (bash/awk)
  • Ledger in Go has limport, a CSV to *ledger converter
  • ledger-autosync OFX download, OFX to *ledger conversion, deduplication
  • ledger-guesser neural network for generating entries like past ones, can be used with ledger-autosync (javascript)
  • ledger-myexpenses MyExpenses android app sqlite db to *ledger conversion (python, 2017)
  • ledgermyexpenses sync MyExpenses android app to/from Ledger (bash, 2023)
  • ledger-to-beancount yet another simple ledger to beancount converter (python)
  • ledger-tutorials convert Pete Keen's tutorials to ebook format
  • ledger2beancount h/ledger to beancount converter (perl)
  • ledger2beancount.py *ledger to beancount converter (python)
  • moneymoney-ledger MoneyMoney export extension for *ledger
  • outofit QuickBooks to *ledger converter
  • piecash GNUCash SQL to *ledger converter (python)
  • plaid2qif Download transactions from plaid as QIF or CSV files
  • plaid2text Plaid API to *ledger/beancount download/conversion
  • qb2ledger QuickBooks General Journal CSV to *ledger converter
  • QIFtoLedger (Bank of America's) QIF to *ledger converter
  • reckon smart interactive/non-interactive CSV to *ledger converter
  • slc generates Ledger accounting entries, works with generic CSV files as well as the Stripe API
  • smart_importer library for building smarter CSV to beancount/Fava converters
  • Tiller service to download from mostly-US banks to google or microsoft spreadsheets (commercial but pretty good)
  • total_recall CSV to *ledger converter
  • ynab-to-ledger You Need A Budget (YNAB) to *ledger converter. Handles multiple currencies, multiple number formats, reconciliation, memos, transfers, and split transactions
  • ynab_to_ledger You Need A Budget to *ledger converter
  • bean-price Beancount's price fetching tool (python)
  • hledger-stockquotes download market prices for your hledger commodities (haskell)
  • ledger-get-prices download market prices (ruby)
  • LedgerStockUpdate update a Ledger price database (go)
  • market-prices download market prices from several sources (python)
  • market-prices.hs small, easy to adapt script to scrape market data from the internet (Haskell)
  • pricehist fetch and format historical price data, with support for multiple sources and output formats (python)
  • the-solipsist/scripts download prices for your hledger commodities, including indian commodities (bash)
  • beancount-extract-price generate prices transactions based on your beancount ledger (python)
  • DepreciateForLedger generate *ledger depreciation transactions (python)
  • hledger-interest generate *ledger interest entries (haskell)
  • ledger-ts typescript EDSL for generating beancount journals (typescript)
  • ledgerbil schedule recurring txns, interactive reconcile, date sorting
  • LedgerScheduler move entries from one file to another when they come due (python)
  • lotter generate postings for capital gain/loss (go)
  • recurring generate recurring *ledger entries (python)
  • reorder-journal.sh sort hledger entries, preserving directives/comments at top of file (bash)
  • sassetti adds lisp macros to ledger files (common lisp)
  • kairos (repo) generate invoices from hledger timedot files (go)
  • docker-finance hledger/hledger-flow/docker-based system for tracking and reporting on traditional and cryptocurrency finances
  • Full-fledged hledger scripts and detailed tutorial for generating hledger journals from CSV files (haskell, shell)
  • hledger-flow command-line tool to generate hledger (or Ledger) journals from CSV files (haskell)
  • rtrledger another hledger journals from CSV files system, designed for chaotic German freelancers (shell etc.)
  • Lazy Beancount Beancount packaged in Docker with additional plugins and tools
  • budget_report budget reporting with beancount (python)
  • gainstrack personal wealth analysis app with beancount export (scala/typescript)
  • hledger-diff report differing transactions between two journals (haskell)
  • hledger-irr calculate an account's internal rate of return (superseded by roi) (haskell)
  • hledger-sankey Script + HTML files to plot income next to expense money flows from an hledger ledger file (shell + javascript)
  • hledger-tools generating charts from hledger (typescript)
  • hledger-vega makes configurable vega-lite charts from hledger (shell)
  • hreports customise hledger reports with templates and PDF output (python)
  • ledger-plot interactive tool for making GNUplot charts from Ledger (python)
  • ledger-plots R package & script to make charts from Ledger (R)
  • r-ledger an R package for reading and reporting on ledger/hledger/beancount files (R)
  • TaxingLots calculates capital gains for a ledger journal (python)
  • org2tc org to timeclock converter
  • on-modify.timetrack.py taskwarrior hook for timeclock output
  • t ledger timeclock shellscript
  • tim time logging/reporting tool using hledger
  • timekeeping-template time logging/reporting examples/how-to using hledger
  • tito time logging bash scripts that avoid double clock-in
  • bean-add interactive transaction entry tool (python)
  • hledger add interactive transaction entry tool (builtin command)
  • ladd create and edit a new *ledger transaction by fuzzy-matching past descriptions
  • ldgr command line tool to add/sort/tag ledger files (ruby)
  • ledger xact history-aware transaction generator (builtin command)
  • hledger-iadd TUI for *ledger transaction entry (haskell)
  • hledger-ui TUI for *ledger browsing (haskell, video)
  • ledger-add TUI for *ledger transaction entry (python)
  • puffin TUI for hledger browsing (go)
  • regdel TUI for browsing Ledger files (python)
  • favagtk app of Fava web UI for beancount browsing (Python, GTK)
  • fruit-credits data entry/reporting GUI for hledger (Vala, GNOME)
  • ledgerble reporting GUI with charts & adjustable reports (Javascript)
  • ledgerhelpers misc. GUI tools + helper library (Python, GTK)
  • Prudent integrated journal editing/importing/reporting GUI for Ledger (Javascript, mac only, closed source)
  • fava web UI for beancount browsing (python, demo)
  • hledger-web web UI for *ledger browsing, data entry (haskell, demo, Sandstorm app)
  • hledger-web-rs web UI for hledger reports (rust)
  • Paisa web UI or desktop app for ledger, hledger and beancount (go, javascript, demo)
  • Ledger in Go web UI for browsing ledger transactions, reports, and porfolios
  • Ledger Web ledger HTML reporting system (ruby, postgres)
  • Ledger Web web UI/API for ledger browsing, data entry (python)
  • ledger-analytics web UI for ledger data analytics (javascript)
  • ledger-dashboard web UI for ledger browsing, data entry (python)
  • ledger-pyreport web UI for standard accounting statements and unrealised gains (python)
  • ledgeraccounting web UI for hledger: data entry, basic reports and budgets (javascript)
  • ledgible web UI for ledger browsing, data entry (python)
  • n4s danish-language ERP system (php)
  • node-ledger-web web UI for ledger browsing (javascript)
  • WealthPulse web UI for ledger browsing, price fetching (F#)
  • BeanHub web UI for beancount browsing, data entry with a Git repository (proprietary SaaS; some components open source)
  • gledger Go package to interface with Ledger (go)
  • hledger-lib library for parsing and generating reports from *ledger files (haskell)
  • hledger-web the web app includes a JSON API server for *ledger files (haskell)
  • ledgerhelpers extends Ledger's python library (python)
  • node-hledger Node.js API for *ledger files (javascript)
  • BeanHub API proprietary SaaS API for operating on hosted beancount repositories and beanhub-forms

(c) 2016-2024 Simon Michael & contributors | Send updates via github

Tags: ledger

Published on: 2016-02-26