#beancount — Public Fediverse posts

iOS app that scans grocery receipts into Beancount transactions, fully on-device

I think most #beancount users have some automation to import bank statements into their ledger. So do I. But when the monthly summary says "30%+ goes to groceries," I can't make a budget with that coarse number.

So I built #BeanBeaver: an iPhone app that turns a photo of a grocery receipt into a Beancount transaction — one posting per line item, each item sorted into an expense category.

How it works:
- OCR runs entirely on-device (PP-OCRv5 via ONNX Runtime). No server, no network, no analytics — it works in airplane mode.
- The parser uses each text fragment's position on the receipt (its bounding box) to extract merchant, date, item names, and prices.
- The output is plain Beancount text you can copy or share. Optionally, connect a GitHub repo and each scan opens a PR with the transaction.

It's in TestFlight now (iPhone, iOS 17+): https://testflight.apple.com/join/6mw5ScqH

I'd love to hear how it does on your receipts, and what would make it fit your workflow.

iOS app that scans grocery receipts into Beancount transactions, fully on-device

I think most #beancount users have some automation to import bank statements into their ledger. So do I. But when the monthly summary says "30%+ goes to groceries," I can't make a budget with that coarse number.

So I built #BeanBeaver: an iPhone app that turns a photo of a grocery receipt into a Beancount transaction — one posting per line item, each item sorted into an expense category.

How it works:
- OCR runs entirely on-device (PP-OCRv5 via ONNX Runtime). No server, no network, no analytics — it works in airplane mode.
- The parser uses each text fragment's position on the receipt (its bounding box) to extract merchant, date, item names, and prices.
- The output is plain Beancount text you can copy or share. Optionally, connect a GitHub repo and each scan opens a PR with the transaction.

It's in TestFlight now (iPhone, iOS 17+): https://testflight.apple.com/join/6mw5ScqH

I'd love to hear how it does on your receipts, and what would make it fit your workflow.

I’m trying to move away from #Banktivity. #GnuCash was a disaster. I heard about #Beancount but I was skeptical; how could a flat text file have any performance? But I was willing to concede they knew something I didn’t. I fought like hell to import my QIF export and although there were problems, enough worked for me to try it out. It is stunningly … slooow … as expected. It takes 8(!) seconds on an M4 Mac mini to open a single transaction! I deleted the whole awful mess. Still searching.

@alerque

Hi Caleb, I'm so excited to find that I'm not the only person interested in the breakdown of #beancount or other #plaintextaccounting

My current progress: Given this receipt

https://github.com/Endle/beanbeaver/blob/master/demo/receipt_groups/tnt_20251202/receipt_20260217_200222.jpg

It generates such beancount output:

https://github.com/Endle/beanbeaver/blob/master/demo/receipt_groups/tnt_20251202/2025-12-02_t_t_supermarket_32_70.beancount

@alerque

Hi Caleb, I'm so excited to find that I'm not the only person interested in the breakdown of #beancount or other #plaintextaccounting

My current progress: Given this receipt

https://github.com/Endle/beanbeaver/blob/master/demo/receipt_groups/tnt_20251202/receipt_20260217_200222.jpg

It generates such beancount output:

https://github.com/Endle/beanbeaver/blob/master/demo/receipt_groups/tnt_20251202/2025-12-02_t_t_supermarket_32_70.beancount

After almost two months, I’ve finished first version of #BeanBeaver: it parses grocery receipts into #Beancount records.

https://github.com/Endle/beanbeaver

I hope I’m not the only person who cares about a grocery-by-item breakdown 🦫

After almost two months, I’ve finished first version of #BeanBeaver: it parses grocery receipts into #Beancount records.

https://github.com/Endle/beanbeaver

I hope I’m not the only person who cares about a grocery-by-item breakdown 🦫

After bouncing around ideas and several experiments, I've decided to launch a new project with the goal of creating CLI tooling that facilitates receipt handling for #plaintextaccounting workflows. LLM based OCR and data extraction has improved to the point that I believe it will be possible to make bulk data extraction useful. If you have ideas, want to contribute, or just want to follow along jump in:

https://codeberg.org/plaintextaccounting/acceptarium

#hledger #ledgercli #beancount #llm #ocr

After bouncing around ideas and several experiments, I've decided to launch a new project with the goal of creating CLI tooling that facilitates receipt handling for #plaintextaccounting workflows. LLM based OCR and data extraction has improved to the point that I believe it will be possible to make bulk data extraction useful. If you have ideas, want to contribute, or just want to follow along jump in:

https://codeberg.org/plaintextaccounting/acceptarium

#hledger #ledgercli #beancount #llm #ocr

@nobodyinperson I'm asking you first because involving #gitannex would be high on my priority list. Really this wouldn't need to be #hledger specific as it could just as well be paired with #ledgercli or #beancount either directly or via CSV or whatever. I'm not a huge GitLab fan these days but can do it if you prefer. Codeberg seems more aligned or GitHub having the advantage of contributor pool. Thoughts?

@nobodyinperson I'm asking you first because involving #gitannex would be high on my priority list. Really this wouldn't need to be #hledger specific as it could just as well be paired with #ledgercli or #beancount either directly or via CSV or whatever. I'm not a huge GitLab fan these days but can do it if you prefer. Codeberg seems more aligned or GitHub having the advantage of contributor pool. Thoughts?

Vibe Coding 了一个扫描 Receipt 生成 #beancount 的工具，现在雏形跑起来了，感觉这开发效率有点快得可怕了

Vibe Coding 了一个扫描 Receipt 生成 #beancount 的工具，现在雏形跑起来了，感觉这开发效率有点快得可怕了

Last night, I did monthly1 accounting for my publishing business. And since it was the beginning of the year, I figured it would be an easy2 task to finally stop regenerating my accounting data from source .xlsx and .csv files from 2002 and just close off each year into a final .beancount.

It did not go well2.

I really need to get to the commission, but I'm going to try fixing it for a few hours before giving up until 2027.

#PlainTextAccounting #Beancount

1. Two months, I skipped December because I couldn't find the energy. ↩︎

2. I didn't do it because it was easy, I did it because I thought it would be easy. ↩︎ ↩︎

Last night, I did monthly1 accounting for my publishing business. And since it was the beginning of the year, I figured it would be an easy2 task to finally stop regenerating my accounting data from source .xlsx and .csv files from 2002 and just close off each year into a final .beancount.

It did not go well2.

I really need to get to the commission, but I'm going to try fixing it for a few hours before giving up until 2027.

#PlainTextAccounting #Beancount

1. Two months, I skipped December because I couldn't find the energy. ↩︎

2. I didn't do it because it was easy, I did it because I thought it would be easy. ↩︎ ↩︎

any #beancount or #fava users here? i’ve been wrestling with a fava-envelope bug for days and unfortunately, i think i’ve hit the upper ceiling of my limited python ability 😭 this is the issue i’ve filed on the repo if anyone’s able to help: https://github.com/polarmutex/fava-envelope/issues/107 i’d be eternally grateful

the initial installation simply fails, what i’ve had success doing is building from source in a virtual environment (homebred-installed python). the plugin registers but doesn’t render any information

hopefully fosstodon gets this to the right people! thanks so much in advance 🙏

#fosstodon @fosstodon #OpenSource #PlainTextAccounting #python

any #beancount or #fava users here? i’ve been wrestling with a fava-envelope bug for days and unfortunately, i think i’ve hit the upper ceiling of my limited python ability 😭 this is the issue i’ve filed on the repo if anyone’s able to help: https://github.com/polarmutex/fava-envelope/issues/107 i’d be eternally grateful

the initial installation simply fails, what i’ve had success doing is building from source in a virtual environment (homebred-installed python). the plugin registers but doesn’t render any information

hopefully fosstodon gets this to the right people! thanks so much in advance 🙏

#fosstodon @fosstodon #OpenSource #PlainTextAccounting #python

If you handle your #plaintextaccounting using either #vim or #neovim based on either #ledgercli or #hledger then be sure to update your plugins! The vim-ledger plugin got some much needed love in the last 48 hours with a lot of rough edges smoothed over and a few new features.

https://github.com/ledger/vim-ledger/releases/tag/v1.3.0

If you're a #beancount peep then carry on as before. If you do #bookkeeping without PTA at all then what are you even waiting for? If you use #emacs then this post is in another castle.

If you handle your #plaintextaccounting using either #vim or #neovim based on either #ledgercli or #hledger then be sure to update your plugins! The vim-ledger plugin got some much needed love in the last 48 hours with a lot of rough edges smoothed over and a few new features.

https://github.com/ledger/vim-ledger/releases/tag/v1.3.0

If you're a #beancount peep then carry on as before. If you do #bookkeeping without PTA at all then what are you even waiting for? If you use #emacs then this post is in another castle.

Who needs a financial advisor when you’ve got ten years of **plain text files**? 📂✨ Just spend a casual 3045 minutes each month in a thrilling relationship with #Beancount and voila, your bank statements become your best friends! 🤑🔧 Because nothing screams ‘financial wizard’ like being a spreadsheet sorcerer. 🪄📜
https://sgoel.dev/posts/10-years-of-personal-finances-in-plain-text-files/ #financialadvice #personalfinance #spreadsheets #moneymanagement #HackerNews #ngated

Who needs a financial advisor when you’ve got ten years of **plain text files**? 📂✨ Just spend a casual 3045 minutes each month in a thrilling relationship with #Beancount and voila, your bank statements become your best friends! 🤑🔧 Because nothing screams ‘financial wizard’ like being a spreadsheet sorcerer. 🪄📜
https://sgoel.dev/posts/10-years-of-personal-finances-in-plain-text-files/ #financialadvice #personalfinance #spreadsheets #moneymanagement #HackerNews #ngated

@nobodyinperson @realestninja Second on both counts here; #plaintextaccounting is the only way to fly. Any of #beancount, #ledger, or #hledger are decent choices which some tradeoffs for each, but the latter is my choice as well having tried the other two.

@nobodyinperson @realestninja Second on both counts here; #plaintextaccounting is the only way to fly. Any of #beancount, #ledger, or #hledger are decent choices which some tradeoffs for each, but the latter is my choice as well having tried the other two.

Going deep into #beancount; I can't get `bean-price` to work, but `pricehist` and some bash is magic:

```
uv run bean-query --no-errors --format csv books.bean 'SELECT DISTINCT currency' | tail -n +2 | tr -d '\r' | xargs -I {} uv run pricehist fetch -s 2025-10-01 -e 2025-10-24 -o beancount --quantize 2 --type close yahoo {} 2> /dev/null || true
```

... and I have price history for all my securities.

Going deep into #beancount; I can't get `bean-price` to work, but `pricehist` and some bash is magic:

```
uv run bean-query --no-errors --format csv books.bean 'SELECT DISTINCT currency' | tail -n +2 | tr -d '\r' | xargs -I {} uv run pricehist fetch -s 2025-10-01 -e 2025-10-24 -o beancount --quantize 2 --type close yahoo {} 2> /dev/null || true
```

... and I have price history for all my securities.

Pulindo a configuración do meu Emacs como "Python IDE", ainda non queda fina de todo.
Tamén probando BeanCount, para contabilidade en texto plano.
#emacs #emacsElpaca #eglot #tree-sitter #BeanCount

https://codeberg.org/salvari/emacs30_elpaca_public

Pulindo a configuración do meu Emacs como "Python IDE", ainda non queda fina de todo.
Tamén probando BeanCount, para contabilidade en texto plano.
#emacs #emacsElpaca #eglot #tree-sitter #BeanCount

https://codeberg.org/salvari/emacs30_elpaca_public

Vim Macros for Beancount

https://tangled.sh/@adam.tngl.sh/vim-beancounting

#HackerNews #Vim #Macros #Beancount #Productivity #Coding #Tips

Vim Macros for Beancount

https://tangled.sh/@adam.tngl.sh/vim-beancounting

#HackerNews #Vim #Macros #Beancount #Productivity #Coding #Tips

Нашёл исследование о бухгалтерских способностях языковых моделей:

https://accounting.penrose.com

Результаты любопытные. Не то, чтобы я доверил свой учёт сторонним сервисам без надлежащей ответственности, но попробовать поставить мелкую модель и потестить хочется, вдруг сможет.

И ещё момент: насколько хорошо они воспринимают текстовые системы типа #Ledger или #Beancount ? Масштабируемость у них безграничная, а формат устойчивый, было бы здорово

Нашёл исследование о бухгалтерских способностях языковых моделей:

https://accounting.penrose.com

Результаты любопытные. Не то, чтобы я доверил свой учёт сторонним сервисам без надлежащей ответственности, но попробовать поставить мелкую модель и потестить хочется, вдруг сможет.

И ещё момент: насколько хорошо они воспринимают текстовые системы типа #Ledger или #Beancount ? Масштабируемость у них безграничная, а формат устойчивый, было бы здорово

Finally upgraded to Beancount v3. My hand was forced when bean-price stopped working. Its latest version had Beancount v3 as a dependency. v3 is a breaking change but this post by @siddhantgoel helped a lot:
https://sgoel.dev/posts/moving-from-beancount-2x-to-3x/

#beancount #plaintextaccounting

For those of you who are into #PlainTextAccounting: Which software are you using and why?

I'd like to finally start personal accounting again. I stopped when #YNAB became SaaS. YNAB's "envelope budgeting" worked really well for me, and I'd like to get back to a similar workflow. (Or, if you think you know something superior, let me know!)

I'm very open to comments and suggestions here, but it has to be open source software.

#Beancount #hledger #ledgerCLI #ledger #accounting #FOSS

For those of you who are into #PlainTextAccounting: Which software are you using and why?

I'd like to finally start personal accounting again. I stopped when #YNAB became SaaS. YNAB's "envelope budgeting" worked really well for me, and I'd like to get back to a similar workflow. (Or, if you think you know something superior, let me know!)

I'm very open to comments and suggestions here, but it has to be open source software.

#Beancount #hledger #ledgerCLI #ledger #accounting #FOSS

I think I'm giving up at keeping track of my money with Beancount, adding transactions to it is painful, so I always end up procastinating it, and after a couple months of procastination figuring everything out is pretty much impossible...

Maybe I should make my own simpler but quicker tool for that instead...

#Beancount

My Beancount books are 95% automatic after 3 years (2024)
https://fangpenlin.com/posts/2024/12/30/my-beancount-books-are-95-percent-automatic/
#ycombinator #beancount #startup

My Beancount books are 95% automatic after 3 years (2024)
https://fangpenlin.com/posts/2024/12/30/my-beancount-books-are-95-percent-automatic/
#ycombinator #beancount #startup

My Beancount books are 95% automatic after 3 years (2024) — https://fangpenlin.com/posts/2024/12/30/my-beancount-books-are-95-percent-automatic/
#HackerNews #Beancount #Automation #PersonalFinance #FinancialTracking #Productivity

My Beancount books are 95% automatic after 3 years (2024) — https://fangpenlin.com/posts/2024/12/30/my-beancount-books-are-95-percent-automatic/
#HackerNews #Beancount #Automation #PersonalFinance #FinancialTracking #Productivity

https://joyful.com/Lot+tracking+in+PTA

Tracking investment lots is often necessary to calculate capital gains accurately and to comply with tax law. It's a tricky, increasingly widespread bookkeeping need. This page aims to be a useful guide to the topic, for PTA users and PTA developers.

#plaintextaccounting
#hledger
#ledgercli
#beancount
#bookkeeping

https://joyful.com/Lot+tracking+in+PTA

Tracking investment lots is often necessary to calculate capital gains accurately and to comply with tax law. It's a tricky, increasingly widespread bookkeeping need. This page aims to be a useful guide to the topic, for PTA users and PTA developers.

#plaintextaccounting
#hledger
#ledgercli
#beancount
#bookkeeping

Today, for the first time in several years of reading, I seem to be getting the hang of #plaintextaccounting [1]. Whenever I have read the #beancount [2] docs in the past, I have found the concept incredibly difficult to understand. However, after stumbling across the #Hibiscus project [3], with a focus on German #banking, and several other tools (ofxget, beancount_reds_imp.), I seem to be making progress!

[1]: https://plaintextaccounting.org/
[2]: https://beancount.github.io/docs/index.html
[3] https://www.willuhn.de/products/hibiscus/

Going through #beancount's documentation and being overwhelmed when it's supposed to be the "easier" of the #plaintextaccounting tools (compared to #ledger) makes me feel a lot of trepidation for trying to set this up.

Almost all the documentation for these tools seems to assume you already have a file set up with your accounts information to some degree.

Going through #beancount's documentation and being overwhelmed when it's supposed to be the "easier" of the #plaintextaccounting tools (compared to #ledger) makes me feel a lot of trepidation for trying to set this up.

Almost all the documentation for these tools seems to assume you already have a file set up with your accounts information to some degree.

Good morning all. More robust #beancount export has landed in #hledger master, if you’d like to help me test before release.
This should just work (maybe with a few --alias options):

hledger print -o foo.beancount
pip install fava
fava foo.beancount

Docs: https://hledger.org/dev/hledger.html#beancount-output

#plaintextaccounting

Good morning all. More robust #beancount export has landed in #hledger master, if you’d like to help me test before release.
This should just work (maybe with a few --alias options):

hledger print -o foo.beancount
pip install fava
fava foo.beancount

Docs: https://hledger.org/dev/hledger.html#beancount-output

#plaintextaccounting

@ellane :

#hledger-vscode extension doesn't do it

#ledger extension doesn't do it

#Beancount extension says it can align decimal marks, when you type them, but it didn't for me

Beancount Formatter extension will do it if you set the file's type to beancount and press Shift-Alt-F (Control-Shift-I on linux). But only if you use beancount-style commodity symbols: capital letters on the right side.

I use Meta-Q in ledger-mode in #Emacs to do it (running in a #VSCode terminal pane, perhaps).

beancount 如果是服務要怎麼紀錄可以更好？我現在是純粹當前一年年費就紀錄下去，但其實這應該要算成接下來12個月的分攤消費，只是帳款是在當前繳掉

這樣才會反應每月平均的消費，不然就會變成 service 那個月消費爆增

#beancount #fava #forecast #amortize_over

#plaintextaccounting folk, I was updating my #ledger/#hledger differences doc and ended up adding #beancount to make a feature matrix for the big 3:

<https://plaintextaccounting.org/#feature-matrix>

Corrections welcome. It’ll probably get linkified eventually (I’m not really looking forward to that task 😆)

Hey #AskFedi / #HiveMind,

What do you think of #BeanCount / https://beancount.io?

cc: @amin

P.S./PSA/TLDR: It's run by cryptobros. Steer very clear.

#Beangrep 0.6 just released, with support for overriding defaults via environment variables (thanks to J. Pendleton) and portability improvements (thanks to A. Gurgel). https://github.com/zacchiro/beangrep

#beancount #plaintextaccounting