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I scrolled around for 5 minutes looking for a link to a basic example document and never found one.

Jtsummers 6y ago
You have to click on some of the links. Check under docs, you'll find details about several different systems that are all under the umbrella of "plain text accounting". It's not one app. They have links to information on ledger, hledger, and BeanCount which all work similarly but are not (entirely) compatible (in particular, I know there's a common subset of both ledger and hledger which covers most personal accounting needs, but they each have some features the other lacks, never used BeanCount). https://plaintextaccounting.org/#docs https://plaintextaccounting.org/#docs
OskarS 6y ago
The file format for ledger is very simple, it's literally just a list of transations formatted like this: 2021/01/12 Grocery store Assets:Checking Expenses:Groceries $50 This transaction means that you spent $50 at the grocery store. It's double-entry bookkeeping, so the transfers always balance: "Assets:Checking" account is reduced by $50 and "Expenses:Groceries" is increased by $50. This entry is equivalent to the previous one. 2021/01/12 Grocery store Assets:Checking -$50 Expenses:Groceries $50 But this entry is invalid, since it's not balanced (it's the accounting equivalent of a compiler error, and ledger will throw an error when parsing this): 2021/01/12 Grocery store Assets:Checking -$75 Expenses:Groceries $50 A ledger file is literally just a list of these transactions. Accounts are created the first time you use them in a transaction. Transactions can have more than two associated accounts, but they still have to balance. There are many more advanced features, but this (along with some basic understanding of accounting) is all you really need.
smichael 6y ago
Good feedback. It's hard to know where to stop adding to this wall of text, also each tool has its own format. But, point noted, thanks.
- chadlavi 6y ago
  Different people learn in different ways, but I tend to always want to jump straight to an example I can pore over before reading the docs.

You have to click on some of the links. Check under docs, you'll find details about several different systems that are all under the umbrella of "plain text accounting". It's not one app. They have links to information on ledger, hledger, and BeanCount which all work similarly but are not (entirely) compatible (in particular, I know there's a common subset of both ledger and hledger which covers most personal accounting needs, but they each have some features the other lacks, never used BeanCount). https://plaintextaccounting.org/#docs https://plaintextaccounting.org/#docs

OskarS 6y ago

The file format for ledger is very simple, it's literally just a list of transations formatted like this: 2021/01/12 Grocery store Assets:Checking Expenses:Groceries $50 This transaction means that you spent $50 at the grocery store. It's double-entry bookkeeping, so the transfers always balance: "Assets:Checking" account is reduced by $50 and "Expenses:Groceries" is increased by $50. This entry is equivalent to the previous one. 2021/01/12 Grocery store Assets:Checking -$50 Expenses:Groceries $50 But this entry is invalid, since it's not balanced (it's the accounting equivalent of a compiler error, and ledger will throw an error when parsing this): 2021/01/12 Grocery store Assets:Checking -$75 Expenses:Groceries $50 A ledger file is literally just a list of these transactions. Accounts are created the first time you use them in a transaction. Transactions can have more than two associated accounts, but they still have to balance. There are many more advanced features, but this (along with some basic understanding of accounting) is all you really need.

smichael 6y ago

Good feedback. It's hard to know where to stop adding to this wall of text, also each tool has its own format. But, point noted, thanks.

chadlavi 6y ago
Different people learn in different ways, but I tend to always want to jump straight to an example I can pore over before reading the docs.