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As someone who "manages" there accounts in spreadsheets what would be the advantages? I'm already downloading CSVs from my accounts which I clean and import int

As someone who "manages" there accounts in spreadsheets what would be the advantages? I'm already downloading CSVs from my accounts which I clean and import into a spreadsheet. Also can someone link to what the actual text file looks like? The format. I can't find a decent example, I just want to see this human readable format, thanks.

themmes 5y ago
Here you will find an example and more format details https://plaintextaccounting.org/quickref/#h.8v2r9qqwt9f8 https://plaintextaccounting.org/quickref/#h.8v2r9qqwt9f8
- account-5 5y ago
  Cheers mate.
smichael 5y ago
Spreadsheets have lots of strengths. I believe one of the difficulties is (a) managing an increasingly large number of transactions over time, with (b) an uncertain number of postings to (c) arbitrary accounts in a hierarchy. Though I haven't tried myself, I suspect modelling a full double-entry-bookkeeping General Journal in a spreadsheet just gets cumbersome. Secondly, while certain kinds of calculations and queries are easier in a spreadsheet, other kinds of queries and ad hoc reports are easier with PTA tools. Thirdly (big one), the plain text format lends itself to version control (good for data integrity and auditing), scripting and integration, and future-proofness. An example of Ledger/hledger's main file format: 2021-01-01 opening balances on january 1st assets:checking $1000 ; a posting, increasing assets:checking's balance by $1000 assets:cash $100 liabilities $0 equity $-1100 ; each transaction must sum to zero 2021-03-05 client payment assets:checking $2000 revenues:consulting $-2000 ; revenues/liabilities/equity normally appear negative 2021-03-20 Sprouts expenses:food:groceries $100 assets:cash $40 assets:checking ; a missing amount will be inferred ($-140 here)
- account-5 5y ago
  I suppose the biggest barrier for me would be learning double entry bookkeeping as I'm not doing that just now. I wouldn't know where to start. Currently the above makes no sense to me.
  - hiq 5y ago
    I'm not that familiar with the theory, in my case I just got started and now I'm used to it. Just to take the last example: 2021-03-20 Sprouts expenses:food:groceries $100 assets:cash $40 assets:checking This means you took 140 from your checking account, withdrew 40 that you now have in cash, and spent 100 in groceries. Does that still make no sense?
    - account-5 5y ago
      Honestly no. When I first read it I thought you'd spent 140 on sprouts which I thought was excessive, but each to their own. Even though you've explained it I'm still struggling to make sense of it. The 3 indented lines don't related at all in an intuitive manner at least for me.
      - chromatin 5y ago
        Understandable, they are using transaction balancing / elision What they should be showing beginners is: 2021-03-20 Sprouts expenses:food:groceries $100 assets:cash $40 assets:checking $-140 How’s that?
      - bokstavkjeks 5y ago
        I don't think the file format above is especially conductive to learning. In my experience, most people learn double-entry bookkeeping with T accounts; debit is on the left, credit is on the right, and total credit has to equal total debit. If you're interested, this seems like a fairly decent guide: https://www.open.edu/openlearn/money-business/introduction-bookkeeping-and-accounting/content-section-2.5 https://www.open.edu/openlearn/money-business/introduction-b...
djhworld 5y ago
I think the biggest advantages are its just a text file, so you can use version control. Additionally spreadsheets group logic and data - whilst this is very flexible csn get hairy if you are not disciplined. Beancount files are just text, and the logic part comes from the beancount engine so there is a clean separation.
- account-5 5y ago
  I fully appreciate text. I use plain text with minimal formatting for as much as I can. I tend to save my yearly spreadsheets as CSV for storage as after the year they are not live documents. My system is obviously not fully tracking everything / double entry. It's just a log transactions on an account. I have a sheet for each account.

themmes 5y ago

Here you will find an example and more format details https://plaintextaccounting.org/quickref/#h.8v2r9qqwt9f8 https://plaintextaccounting.org/quickref/#h.8v2r9qqwt9f8

account-5 5y ago
Cheers mate.

smichael 5y ago

Spreadsheets have lots of strengths. I believe one of the difficulties is (a) managing an increasingly large number of transactions over time, with (b) an uncertain number of postings to (c) arbitrary accounts in a hierarchy. Though I haven't tried myself, I suspect modelling a full double-entry-bookkeeping General Journal in a spreadsheet just gets cumbersome. Secondly, while certain kinds of calculations and queries are easier in a spreadsheet, other kinds of queries and ad hoc reports are easier with PTA tools. Thirdly (big one), the plain text format lends itself to version control (good for data integrity and auditing), scripting and integration, and future-proofness. An example of Ledger/hledger's main file format: 2021-01-01 opening balances on january 1st assets:checking $1000 ; a posting, increasing assets:checking's balance by $1000 assets:cash $100 liabilities $0 equity $-1100 ; each transaction must sum to zero 2021-03-05 client payment assets:checking $2000 revenues:consulting $-2000 ; revenues/liabilities/equity normally appear negative 2021-03-20 Sprouts expenses:food:groceries $100 assets:cash $40 assets:checking ; a missing amount will be inferred ($-140 here)

account-5 5y ago
I suppose the biggest barrier for me would be learning double entry bookkeeping as I'm not doing that just now. I wouldn't know where to start. Currently the above makes no sense to me.
- hiq 5y ago
  I'm not that familiar with the theory, in my case I just got started and now I'm used to it. Just to take the last example: 2021-03-20 Sprouts expenses:food:groceries $100 assets:cash $40 assets:checking This means you took 140 from your checking account, withdrew 40 that you now have in cash, and spent 100 in groceries. Does that still make no sense?
  - account-5 5y ago
    Honestly no. When I first read it I thought you'd spent 140 on sprouts which I thought was excessive, but each to their own. Even though you've explained it I'm still struggling to make sense of it. The 3 indented lines don't related at all in an intuitive manner at least for me.
    - chromatin 5y ago
      Understandable, they are using transaction balancing / elision What they should be showing beginners is: 2021-03-20 Sprouts expenses:food:groceries $100 assets:cash $40 assets:checking $-140 How’s that?
    - bokstavkjeks 5y ago
      I don't think the file format above is especially conductive to learning. In my experience, most people learn double-entry bookkeeping with T accounts; debit is on the left, credit is on the right, and total credit has to equal total debit. If you're interested, this seems like a fairly decent guide: https://www.open.edu/openlearn/money-business/introduction-bookkeeping-and-accounting/content-section-2.5 https://www.open.edu/openlearn/money-business/introduction-b...

djhworld 5y ago

I think the biggest advantages are its just a text file, so you can use version control. Additionally spreadsheets group logic and data - whilst this is very flexible csn get hairy if you are not disciplined. Beancount files are just text, and the logic part comes from the beancount engine so there is a clean separation.

account-5 5y ago
I fully appreciate text. I use plain text with minimal formatting for as much as I can. I tend to save my yearly spreadsheets as CSV for storage as after the year they are not live documents. My system is obviously not fully tracking everything / double entry. It's just a log transactions on an account. I have a sheet for each account.