8 ms·

No judgement, but can someone explain to me the use case for this sort of thing? I'd imagine for anything other than the simplest stuff, you're going to start u

No judgement, but can someone explain to me the use case for this sort of thing? I'd imagine for anything other than the simplest stuff, you're going to start using something a bit more powerful, and for the simple stuff - who with the skills and knowledge of this type of tool really needs to do small time pocketbook budgeting?

LVB 8y ago
I'm not sure what your point of reference is for the question, but at least for personal finance tracking I think such tools work well. I have a long history with apps such as Quicken and Mint, and some years ago I migrated to plain text (https://www.ledger-cli.org/ https://www.ledger-cli.org/) and have not felt any lack of functionality. I think the type of person who would even consider these types of tool also tends to value the flexibility of being able to get data in and out of the system however they want.
hannibalhorn 8y ago
I can't speak to Transity, but I use HLedger for my entity (nothing fancy, just a single member LLC.) I can keep my ledger in git, I don't need to pay for or even learn to use QuickBooks, I can quickly write a script to import data from basically anywhere, and I can use all the standard tools in my toolbox (grep, diff, python) to visualize and work with the data. I'm sure mainstream accounting programs add value as the organization grows, but I spent a few minutes playing with Quickbooks and I was ready to just use Excel when I discovered the whole plain text accounting thing. And it's been working well for me.
- nodesocket 8y ago
  I also have a single member LLC, but can't understand the advantages of using a cli tool over Quickbooks. Beyond the obvious transactions list and graphs of income and expenses, Quickbook self-employed estimates quarterly taxes and even allows me to make payments to the IRS directly via eftps.gov. At tax time, it exports all transactions tagged and categorized to TurboTax.
  - ams6110 8y ago
    ... and sends a copy of everything to Intuit.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
- brianjoseff 8y ago
  from where/how are you getting your data in?
  - bsilvereagle 8y ago
    I'm not the parent, but it's fairly straightforward to get data into the ledger format. I have written a handful of Python scripts to convert CSV credit card statements (Chase, credit unions, etc) to ledger. Additionally, pdfquery can be used to extract data from PDF statements.
- ams6110 8y ago
  I used ledger to keep the books as treasurer for a small non-profit for a few years. It worked really well for me but the problem came with handing it off to the next person or thinking about involving an accountant to do the annual reports. Very few are going to be able to deal with a text file of journal entries. QuickBooks is the standard for all small business accounting, like it or not.
  - _emacsomancer_ 8y ago
    I've never actually used it (or Quickbooks), but does ledger have any way of exporting something that could imported by Quickbooks? > Very few are going to be able to deal with a text file of journal entries. QuickBooks is the standard for all small business accounting, like it or not. I always find this lowest-common-denominator as de facto standard depressing. It's how we end up with word processing documents as a standard for exchange and collaboration (and word processors are horrible environments to create in).
    - Jtsummers 8y ago
      Ledger can output to CSV, so yes. But, not having QuickBooks, I couldn't tell you what it wants in the CSV and what needs to be altered from ledger's output.
    - gglitch 8y ago
      I have recently learned a technical term for the scenario you're describing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_equilibrium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_equilibrium "Informally, a strategy profile is a Nash equilibrium if no player can do better by unilaterally changing his or her strategy. To see what this means, imagine that each player is told the strategies of the others. Suppose then that each player asks themselves: 'Knowing the strategies of the other players, and treating the strategies of the other players as set in stone, can I benefit by changing my strategy?' If any player could answer "Yes", then that set of strategies is not a Nash equilibrium. But if every player prefers not to switch (or is indifferent between switching and not) then the strategy profile is a Nash equilibrium. Thus, each strategy in a Nash equilibrium is a best response to all other strategies in that equilibrium. The Nash equilibrium may sometimes appear non-rational in a third-person perspective. This is because a Nash equilibrium is not necessarily Pareto optimal."
djhworld 8y ago
I use beancount for personal finances. I've only recently moved to it in fact, previously used tools like YNAB and so on, but this approach seems to be a bit more flexible, especially around managing investments etc I think you need to have the mindset for it, I've always reconciled my transactions and like to keep an overview of everything, so people saying it's tedious etc doesn't wash with me, in an odd way I sort of enjoy it
erikb 8y ago
Probably an interesting read for you: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e4Vz3wZB_8-ZcAwIFde8X5CjzKshE4-OXtVVHm4RQ8s/edit https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e4Vz3wZB_8-ZcAwIFde8X5Cj...

LVB 8y ago

I'm not sure what your point of reference is for the question, but at least for personal finance tracking I think such tools work well. I have a long history with apps such as Quicken and Mint, and some years ago I migrated to plain text (https://www.ledger-cli.org/ https://www.ledger-cli.org/) and have not felt any lack of functionality. I think the type of person who would even consider these types of tool also tends to value the flexibility of being able to get data in and out of the system however they want.

hannibalhorn 8y ago

I can't speak to Transity, but I use HLedger for my entity (nothing fancy, just a single member LLC.) I can keep my ledger in git, I don't need to pay for or even learn to use QuickBooks, I can quickly write a script to import data from basically anywhere, and I can use all the standard tools in my toolbox (grep, diff, python) to visualize and work with the data. I'm sure mainstream accounting programs add value as the organization grows, but I spent a few minutes playing with Quickbooks and I was ready to just use Excel when I discovered the whole plain text accounting thing. And it's been working well for me.

nodesocket 8y ago
I also have a single member LLC, but can't understand the advantages of using a cli tool over Quickbooks. Beyond the obvious transactions list and graphs of income and expenses, Quickbook self-employed estimates quarterly taxes and even allows me to make payments to the IRS directly via eftps.gov. At tax time, it exports all transactions tagged and categorized to TurboTax.
- ams6110 8y ago
  ... and sends a copy of everything to Intuit.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
brianjoseff 8y ago
from where/how are you getting your data in?
- bsilvereagle 8y ago
  I'm not the parent, but it's fairly straightforward to get data into the ledger format. I have written a handful of Python scripts to convert CSV credit card statements (Chase, credit unions, etc) to ledger. Additionally, pdfquery can be used to extract data from PDF statements.
ams6110 8y ago
I used ledger to keep the books as treasurer for a small non-profit for a few years. It worked really well for me but the problem came with handing it off to the next person or thinking about involving an accountant to do the annual reports. Very few are going to be able to deal with a text file of journal entries. QuickBooks is the standard for all small business accounting, like it or not.
- _emacsomancer_ 8y ago
  I've never actually used it (or Quickbooks), but does ledger have any way of exporting something that could imported by Quickbooks? > Very few are going to be able to deal with a text file of journal entries. QuickBooks is the standard for all small business accounting, like it or not. I always find this lowest-common-denominator as de facto standard depressing. It's how we end up with word processing documents as a standard for exchange and collaboration (and word processors are horrible environments to create in).
  - Jtsummers 8y ago
    Ledger can output to CSV, so yes. But, not having QuickBooks, I couldn't tell you what it wants in the CSV and what needs to be altered from ledger's output.
  - gglitch 8y ago
    I have recently learned a technical term for the scenario you're describing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_equilibrium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_equilibrium "Informally, a strategy profile is a Nash equilibrium if no player can do better by unilaterally changing his or her strategy. To see what this means, imagine that each player is told the strategies of the others. Suppose then that each player asks themselves: 'Knowing the strategies of the other players, and treating the strategies of the other players as set in stone, can I benefit by changing my strategy?' If any player could answer "Yes", then that set of strategies is not a Nash equilibrium. But if every player prefers not to switch (or is indifferent between switching and not) then the strategy profile is a Nash equilibrium. Thus, each strategy in a Nash equilibrium is a best response to all other strategies in that equilibrium. The Nash equilibrium may sometimes appear non-rational in a third-person perspective. This is because a Nash equilibrium is not necessarily Pareto optimal."

djhworld 8y ago

I use beancount for personal finances. I've only recently moved to it in fact, previously used tools like YNAB and so on, but this approach seems to be a bit more flexible, especially around managing investments etc I think you need to have the mindset for it, I've always reconciled my transactions and like to keep an overview of everything, so people saying it's tedious etc doesn't wash with me, in an odd way I sort of enjoy it

erikb 8y ago

Probably an interesting read for you: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e4Vz3wZB_8-ZcAwIFde8X5CjzKshE4-OXtVVHm4RQ8s/edit https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e4Vz3wZB_8-ZcAwIFde8X5Cj...