#plaintextaccounting — Public Fediverse posts

feeling a little sheepish that I'm just now closing the financial books on 2024 & 2025.

The data was all in my ledger(1) #plaintextaccounting files. But when I'm dealing with household finances at the rollover of a new year, I tend to drag my feet at the beginning of the year because uncleared transactions throw a wrench in things. And just never got back to it. So apparently I dragged my feet for 2.5yr 😆

I log about 1000 transactions (~150KB of data) annually, so ledger was running a little slow. With those ~2000 transactions/300KB of data archived off, it's back to being quite snappy.

Tangentially, it's all stored in git and synced to various local & remote hosts, so I can maintain finances from any of those machines and have a nigh-instant snapshot of household finances.

feeling a little sheepish that I'm just now closing the financial books on 2024 & 2025.

The data was all in my ledger(1) #plaintextaccounting files. But when I'm dealing with household finances at the rollover of a new year, I tend to drag my feet at the beginning of the year because uncleared transactions throw a wrench in things. And just never got back to it. So apparently I dragged my feet for 2.5yr 😆

I log about 1000 transactions (~150KB of data) annually, so ledger was running a little slow. With those ~2000 transactions/300KB of data archived off, it's back to being quite snappy.

Tangentially, it's all stored in git and synced to various local & remote hosts, so I can maintain finances from any of those machines and have a nigh-instant snapshot of household finances.

@richiekhoo
I can recommend SimpleFIN too. Some notes here:

https://hledger.org/simplefin.html

#plaintextaccounting

@richiekhoo
I can recommend SimpleFIN too. Some notes here:

https://hledger.org/simplefin.html

#plaintextaccounting

#PlainTextAccounting #CLI

Been looking into plain text accounting recently, there are a couple command line based apps that support plain text based accounting... and this resources is excellent:

https://plaintextaccounting.org

That said I've never until now found way to be able to automatically import bank transactions UNTIL NOW.

The BeanHub tool sent me down a rabbit hole] [1] and while they've done excellent work, paying their full USD $15/month [for access to just get their bank data direct connect feature does not add up.

But looks like we can go to the source folks, BeanHub uses something called Plaid to get the bank data from 140+ banks worldwide.

And multiple folks have worked out a direct Plaid to Plain Text Accounting tools.

https://beancount.io/forum/t/my-journey-setting-up-plaid-with-beancount-a-complete-walkthrough/119

https://github.com/chandler150/beancount-plaid-importer

https://github.com/OliverF21/Ledger/blob/main/docs/PLAID_

[1] https://beanhub.io/blog/2025/01/16/direct-connect-repository/)

#PlainTextAccounting #LedgerCLI #BeenCounter #hLedger #Plaid #BankImports #BankConnect #CLITools

cc: @jadehopepunk @teq

#PlainTextAccounting #CLI

Been looking into plain text accounting recently, there are a couple command line based apps that support plain text based accounting... and this resources is excellent:

https://plaintextaccounting.org

That said I've never until now found way to be able to automatically import bank transactions UNTIL NOW.

The BeanHub tool sent me down a rabbit hole] [1] and while they've done excellent work, paying their full USD $15/month [for access to just get their bank data direct connect feature does not add up.

But looks like we can go to the source folks, BeanHub uses something called Plaid to get the bank data from 140+ banks worldwide.

And multiple folks have worked out a direct Plaid to Plain Text Accounting tools.

https://beancount.io/forum/t/my-journey-setting-up-plaid-with-beancount-a-complete-walkthrough/119

https://github.com/chandler150/beancount-plaid-importer

https://github.com/OliverF21/Ledger/blob/main/docs/PLAID_

[1] https://beanhub.io/blog/2025/01/16/direct-connect-repository/)

#PlainTextAccounting #LedgerCLI #BeenCounter #hLedger #Plaid #BankImports #BankConnect #CLITools

cc: @jadehopepunk @teq

I'm trying to write some Python scripts to loop through a csv of my bank transactions, do some aggregations and subtotals, then create some html layouts using Jinja.

It's working fairly well, and is reasonably quick to run, though it does feel like I'm doing a lot of creating JSON objects. It doesn't feel the most efficient, but a database brings other problems.

#plaintextaccounting

I'm trying to write some Python scripts to loop through a csv of my bank transactions, do some aggregations and subtotals, then create some html layouts using Jinja.

It's working fairly well, and is reasonably quick to run, though it does feel like I'm doing a lot of creating JSON objects. It doesn't feel the most efficient, but a database brings other problems.

#plaintextaccounting

I'm pleased to announce hledger 2.0 preview release 3!

Highlights:
- conventional file layout for rules/data/prices
- get command
- commodity aliases
- print aligns by decimal mark
- more intuitive precision behaviour
- more robust lot detection
- average cost basis methods
- customisable report titles
- prices --summary report
- a more robust roi report
- and many other improvements and fixes.

https://hledger.org/relnotes.html#2026-06-24-hledger-1993
https://hledger.org/install

#hledger #plaintextaccounting #haskell

I'm pleased to announce hledger 2.0 preview release 3!

Highlights:
- conventional file layout for rules/data/prices
- get command
- commodity aliases
- print aligns by decimal mark
- more intuitive precision behaviour
- more robust lot detection
- average cost basis methods
- customisable report titles
- prices --summary report
- a more robust roi report
- and many other improvements and fixes.

https://hledger.org/relnotes.html#2026-06-24-hledger-1993
https://hledger.org/install

#hledger #plaintextaccounting #haskell

Die Folien zu 💬 " #Buchhaltung nach #Hacker Art" sind da: https://unix-freunde.mro.name/archiv/2026-06-17T220000-buchhaltung.html

#hledger #plaintextaccounting

Die Folien zu 💬 " #Buchhaltung nach #Hacker Art" sind da: https://unix-freunde.mro.name/archiv/2026-06-17T220000-buchhaltung.html

#hledger #plaintextaccounting

For USAians who received a tax refund from the IRS, did it happen to match what you submitted? Strangely ours was $0.60 short of the amount in box 35a ("Amount you want refunded").

It feels like the perfect scam. $0.60 is not enough to be readily noticed, or enough for anybody to actually spend time contacting the IRS over. But multiply that by the ~102 million tax-refunds that were issued, that's possibly over $60m skimmed from the American tax-payers. Like something out of a heist novel.

#ledger #plaintextaccounting #AccountsReceivable

For USAians who received a tax refund from the IRS, did it happen to match what you submitted? Strangely ours was $0.60 short of the amount in box 35a ("Amount you want refunded").

It feels like the perfect scam. $0.60 is not enough to be readily noticed, or enough for anybody to actually spend time contacting the IRS over. But multiply that by the ~102 million tax-refunds that were issued, that's possibly over $60m skimmed from the American tax-payers. Like something out of a heist novel.

#ledger #plaintextaccounting #AccountsReceivable

Hi @simonmic,
thanks for clarifying, so cleaned up, without header and simpler names.

Just the + sign with liabilities:vat looks odd:

; I am renting out for a monthly fee, receive payments and owe the VAT to the tax authorities.

2026-04-01 rent april per contract
assets:receivable:customer 20 €
equity:customer

2026-04-03 rent april payment
assets:bank:customer 20 €
assets:receivable:customer

2026-04-08 rent april billing/tax
assets:bank:customer -20 €
liabilities:vat:customer 3,19 €
revenues:customer 18,81 €

; #hledger #plaintextaccounting

Hi @simonmic,
thanks for clarifying, so cleaned up, without header and simpler names.

Just the + sign with liabilities:vat looks odd:

; I am renting out for a monthly fee, receive payments and owe the VAT to the tax authorities.

2026-04-01 rent april per contract
assets:receivable:customer 20 €
equity:customer

2026-04-03 rent april payment
assets:bank:customer 20 €
assets:receivable:customer

2026-04-08 rent april billing/tax
assets:bank:customer -20 €
liabilities:vat:customer 3,19 €
revenues:customer 18,81 €

; #hledger #plaintextaccounting

Envelope budgeting: planning ahead for known expenses by regularly putting money into pre-determined categories, or envelopes. This week I show how I’m doing that in plain text accounting, specifically, Beancount.

Medium (includes blog link) https://medium.com/@miscellaneplans/ptpl-206-plain-text-accounting-envelope-budgeting-in-beancount-8a5b49b3281b
Blog https://ellanew.com/2026/05/04/ptpl-206-beancount-envelope-budgeting
#plainTextAccounting #budgeting #plainText

Envelope budgeting: planning ahead for known expenses by regularly putting money into pre-determined categories, or envelopes. This week I show how I’m doing that in plain text accounting, specifically, Beancount.

Medium (includes blog link) https://medium.com/@miscellaneplans/ptpl-206-plain-text-accounting-envelope-budgeting-in-beancount-8a5b49b3281b
Blog https://ellanew.com/2026/05/04/ptpl-206-beancount-envelope-budgeting
#plainTextAccounting #budgeting #plainText

Constat réel :
Il n'existe pas de logiciel de compta open source / libre en France, pour les petites structures soumises à la TVA.

Oui Dolibarr, mais soyons réalistes, c'est compliqué pour les petites structures / indé.

Quoi d'autre ?

Faites moi mentir j'adorerais ça

#comptabilité #erp #plaintextaccounting #pta #gnu #opensource

Constat réel :
Il n'existe pas de logiciel de compta open source / libre en France, pour les petites structures soumises à la TVA.

Oui Dolibarr, mais soyons réalistes, c'est compliqué pour les petites structures / indé.

Quoi d'autre ?

Faites moi mentir j'adorerais ça

#comptabilité #erp #plaintextaccounting #pta #gnu #opensource

G'day all. I'm pleased to announce hledger 2.0 preview release 2, with many refinements to lot tracking, based on user testing.

(And also hledger 1.52.1, which adds hledger 2-compatible G and U account types to hledger 1.)

- https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/releases/tag/1.99.2
- https://hledger.org/relnotes.html#2026-04-28-hledger-1992
- https://hledger.org/install

Release contributors: Simon Michael, Joshua Chapman.

#hledger #plaintextaccounting

G'day all. I'm pleased to announce hledger 2.0 preview release 2, with many refinements to lot tracking, based on user testing.

(And also hledger 1.52.1, which adds hledger 2-compatible G and U account types to hledger 1.)

- https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/releases/tag/1.99.2
- https://hledger.org/relnotes.html#2026-04-28-hledger-1992
- https://hledger.org/install

Release contributors: Simon Michael, Joshua Chapman.

#hledger #plaintextaccounting

I also have a Beancount repository that has every penny I've made for writing since the beginning. And almost every expense so I know exactly how much in the red I am for my relatively inexpensive hobby. :D

#PlainTextAccounting

I also have a Beancount repository that has every penny I've made for writing since the beginning. And almost every expense so I know exactly how much in the red I am for my relatively inexpensive hobby. :D

#PlainTextAccounting

G'day all. A poll:

Should hledger 2 always infer market prices from @/@@ transacted prices, like Ledger ? (and drop the --infer-market-prices flag)

- Yes, having this always on would be harmless and more useful
- No, having it always on, or changing it, would be harmful
- Other, see my reply

Or vote in the matrix poll: https://matrix.to/#/!6BCfAOV-btRKuqChph9Z_ppkIj8KttMoIL_rB4eU0Os/$JveSoLuLOWS_Mg10JDUJKnu33RAclZML03JQ4Lp46qY?via=asgard.chat&via=matrix.org&via=tchncs.de

#hledger #plaintextaccounting

G'day all. A poll:

Should hledger 2 always infer market prices from @/@@ transacted prices, like Ledger ? (and drop the --infer-market-prices flag)

- Yes, having this always on would be harmless and more useful
- No, having it always on, or changing it, would be harmful
- Other, see my reply

Or vote in the matrix poll: https://matrix.to/#/!6BCfAOV-btRKuqChph9Z_ppkIj8KttMoIL_rB4eU0Os/$JveSoLuLOWS_Mg10JDUJKnu33RAclZML03JQ4Lp46qY?via=asgard.chat&via=matrix.org&via=tchncs.de

#hledger #plaintextaccounting

Glad it has helped you! A few things that might help:
- other rust projects linked at plaintextaccounting.org
- https://hledger.org/SPEC-journal.html
- https://hledger.org/hledger.html#amounts (manual is a kind of spec)
- amountp and friends in Hledger.Read.Common

#hledger #plaintextaccounting #haskell

Glad it has helped you! A few things that might help:
- other rust projects linked at plaintextaccounting.org
- https://hledger.org/SPEC-journal.html
- https://hledger.org/hledger.html#amounts (manual is a kind of spec)
- amountp and friends in Hledger.Read.Common

#hledger #plaintextaccounting #haskell

https://youtu.be/hshDr2Af2RU
Getting off another locked in platform
#hledger #plaintextaccounting

And, hledger 2.0 preview 1 (AKA 1.99.1), which adds

automated lot tracking and capital gains calculation,
improvements to `print`'s beancount output,
and a new policy for AI-assisted development.

This is the first hledger release to explore AI-assisted development, so please do check out the evolving AI policy/FAQ: https://hledger.org/AI.html

- https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/releases/1.99.1
- https://hledger.org/relnotes.html#2026-03-28-hledger-1991

#plaintextaccounting #haskell

And, hledger 2.0 preview 1 (AKA 1.99.1), which adds

automated lot tracking and capital gains calculation,
improvements to `print`'s beancount output,
and a new policy for AI-assisted development.

This is the first hledger release to explore AI-assisted development, so please do check out the evolving AI policy/FAQ: https://hledger.org/AI.html

- https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/releases/1.99.1
- https://hledger.org/relnotes.html#2026-03-28-hledger-1991

#plaintextaccounting #haskell

I'm pleased to announce a #hledger double release! First, hledger 1.52, with

more robust paging,
faster valuation,
commodity tags,
and cost basis annotations which are preserved and can be exported (examples provided).

- https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/releases/1.52
- https://hledger.org/relnotes.html#2026-03-20-hledger-152
- https://hledger.org/install

#plaintextaccounting #haskell

I'm pleased to announce a #hledger double release! First, hledger 1.52, with

more robust paging,
faster valuation,
commodity tags,
and cost basis annotations which are preserved and can be exported (examples provided).

- https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/releases/1.52
- https://hledger.org/relnotes.html#2026-03-20-hledger-152
- https://hledger.org/install

#plaintextaccounting #haskell

https://shinglyu.com/blog/2026/03/18/hledger-and-ai.html

“Once you see how clean the numbers are — and how easy it is to verify them — going back to spreadsheets feels like going back to a flip phone.”
#plaintextaccounting @shinglyu

@Bebef ahso - ich verwende client-seitig kein Excel oder ähnliches.
Hab eine selbstgebaute Pipeline, welche mit Hilfe von "mlr" die exportierten CSVs normalisiert und dann basierend auf teils generierten, teils manuell definierten Regeln mit "hledger import..." meine Journals generiert.

Ich sehe also die CSVs im plain-text.

#hledger #plaintextaccounting #miller

@Bebef ahso - ich verwende client-seitig kein Excel oder ähnliches.
Hab eine selbstgebaute Pipeline, welche mit Hilfe von "mlr" die exportierten CSVs normalisiert und dann basierend auf teils generierten, teils manuell definierten Regeln mit "hledger import..." meine Journals generiert.

Ich sehe also die CSVs im plain-text.

#hledger #plaintextaccounting #miller

Support question for the #hledger #plaintextaccounting community:

Prefacing this by acknowledging that I know I'm probably trying to do something weird, but I’m just getting started so please be patient.

I’m trying to import a large CSV file and am running into unbalance transaction errors. For example:
> hledger: Error: /Users/cris/checking.csv:1751-1750:
> 1751 | 2025-03-21 Starting Balance
> | SBA $-100
>
> This transaction is unbalanced.
> The real postings' sum should be 0 but is: $-100

The line from the CSV file is:
> SBA,,03/21/2025,Starting Balance,,,,,$100,$0.00,Cleared

And the relevant rule from my import rules:
> fields account1, , date, description, , , account2, comment, amount-out, amount-in,

I can manually add the above transaction without issues, so I guess I need some clarity as to what I'm doing wrong with my import file.

Thanks!

Support question for the #hledger #plaintextaccounting community:

Prefacing this by acknowledging that I know I'm probably trying to do something weird, but I’m just getting started so please be patient.

I’m trying to import a large CSV file and am running into unbalance transaction errors. For example:
> hledger: Error: /Users/cris/checking.csv:1751-1750:
> 1751 | 2025-03-21 Starting Balance
> | SBA $-100
>
> This transaction is unbalanced.
> The real postings' sum should be 0 but is: $-100

The line from the CSV file is:
> SBA,,03/21/2025,Starting Balance,,,,,$100,$0.00,Cleared

And the relevant rule from my import rules:
> fields account1, , date, description, , , account2, comment, amount-out, amount-in,

I can manually add the above transaction without issues, so I guess I need some clarity as to what I'm doing wrong with my import file.

Thanks!

This aside, I understand the wish to have your accounting be on a rock solid foundation - I feel the same. No software is perfect, but you can still achieve it: keep your data, and if you need extra assurance, your reports, in version control; use double entry bookkeeping; regularly reconcile with real world balances; and perhaps run extra correctness checks. (#plaintextaccounting FTW.)
It is now very hard to miss any mistake made by your software - you'll see and address it right away.

This aside, I understand the wish to have your accounting be on a rock solid foundation - I feel the same. No software is perfect, but you can still achieve it: keep your data, and if you need extra assurance, your reports, in version control; use double entry bookkeeping; regularly reconcile with real world balances; and perhaps run extra correctness checks. (#plaintextaccounting FTW.)
It is now very hard to miss any mistake made by your software - you'll see and address it right away.

+1 for https://github.com/rustledger/rustledger; there's also

https://github.com/themoritz/turbobean

https://github.com/zhang-accounting/zhang

https://github.com/tackler-ng/tackler

https://github.com/tesujimath/limabean

(#plaintextaccounting in #rustlang)

+1 for https://github.com/rustledger/rustledger; there's also

https://github.com/themoritz/turbobean

https://github.com/zhang-accounting/zhang

https://github.com/tackler-ng/tackler

https://github.com/tesujimath/limabean

(#plaintextaccounting in #rustlang)

Me! 👋

Don't Skip The Docs.
For emacs tips, start at https://hledger.org/editors.html#emacs.

Don't assume you need hledger-mode (ledger-mode also works well, I use it).

With flycheck-hledger (or a VCS precommit hook), don't feel you need maximal error checking - do what's most useful now, you can always do stricter checks manually.

Don't try for perfect accounts/files/workflow up front - expect evolution.

Don't limit yourself with an ancient hledger version - get the latest.

#hledger #plaintextaccounting

Me! 👋

Don't Skip The Docs.
For emacs tips, start at https://hledger.org/editors.html#emacs.

Don't assume you need hledger-mode (ledger-mode also works well, I use it).

With flycheck-hledger (or a VCS precommit hook), don't feel you need maximal error checking - do what's most useful now, you can always do stricter checks manually.

Don't try for perfect accounts/files/workflow up front - expect evolution.

Don't limit yourself with an ancient hledger version - get the latest.

#hledger #plaintextaccounting

@platymew That is a pretty big space ... maybe too much for a video to cover. Are you thinking mobile apps or web or desktop or plain text accounting? Or all of the above? Or you didn't know #plaintextaccounting was a thing?

@platymew @msdropbear42 Oh I'd love to make videos about #hledger and #plaintextAccounting, has been on my TODO list for a long time, but I just have to prioritise other stuff. But I'll get there eventually 👍

@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

If you are a user of my HLedger Formatter VSCode extension, you might like my just-released `hledger-fmt` CLI tool! It allows you to do the same format/sort as you can with the VSCode extension, but in your CLI. I am using this a lot in my codex skills to keep the journals consistently formatted.

https://www.npmjs.com/package/@iiatlas/hledger-fmt

https://github.com/iiAtlas/hledger-formatter/blob/main/packages/cli/README.md

#hledger #plaintextaccounting #opensource