I give up on beancount. I finally had it installed with brew, yay. After trying everthing else (docker lazy-beancount, github directly, favagtk via flatpak, toolboxes). Mind you i'm on an immutable fedora system (ublue).
Only to run into new issues with deprecated commands i got from the "documentation". I'm cool with tinkering, learning by doing, thinking myself into complex things. But there is a... Limit to your love (james blake voice).
On to hledger
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.
Seeking your input #hledger users,
https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/pull/2402 proposes to change how we check for balanced transactions; and if merged, next hledger version will reject some existing hledger files, requiring a (easy) workaround or fix. Any feedback or testing welcome.
Also, the setup command that was added in 1.43 needs user testing; let me know if it's reliable and describes your setup accurately. Feel free to share output eg at https://pub.microbin.eu .
And here's 1.43.1, with a fix for `cur:`.
https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/releases/tag/1.43.1
https://hledger.org/relnotes.html#2025-06-04-hledger-1431
hledger 1.43 is out!
New `setup` command, better boolean queries, `add` assertions,
and more.
Thank you to contributors Michael Rees, Thomas Miedema, Dmitry Astapov, Pranesh Prakash, Stephen Morgan, Sam Almahri, Ben Sima, and Doug Goldstein.
- https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/releases/1.43
- https://hledger.org/relnotes.html#2025-06-01-hledger-143
- https://hledger.org/install
#hledger is free, robust, friendly, multicurrency, double-entry,
#plaintextaccounting software for unix, mac, windows, and the web,
written in #haskell for reliability.
@SouthFresh Yeah, what was that? Like his screenname? I'm trying to count beans over here. #hledger
#hledger 1.42.2 released, with an important fix for hledger's edit form. Details:
https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/releases/tag/1.42.2
Had to switch back to base C++ #nix from #lix to package :hledger: #hledger's prebuilt release version, because lix still has an annoying builitins.fetchTarball bug¹ that prevents using tarballs that just contain a bunch of files without an extra single directory at the top level. (As you know, tarballs only EVER contain a top-level directory and never just a bunch of files, right?). In #cppnix it's already fixed.
¹https://git.lix.systems/lix-project/lix/issues/582
²https://github.com/NixOS/nix/pull/11195
³https://gitlab.com/nobodyinperson/nixconfig/-/commit/7198ae401c6b6dd875c7409bd009e6e59b9d8e0a#90cc0c517a4752361c635864aed25f106afccd7d_5_4
I've been experimenting with doing plain text accounting using #ledger-mode in #Emacs and the #hledger reporting tool to get a better handle on my finances, particularly in relation to share investments. On my blog I have posted a simple walk-through demonstrating what I have learned with regards to using these #foss tools to help track trades in a share portfolio.
the #hledger timedot format works way better with my mental mode of #timetracking than the #orgmode clocking commands do. It's easier to process visually for me, it's easier to retroactively add missing entries/logs for a day, and I don't have to keep bock on "clocking-in/clocking-out" anymore. Currently hacking on an agenda integration (which should be easy as it's *almost* similar to diary format) and a QoL major mode for working with .timedot files.
As much as I love plain text accounting, there are subtle things about it that make me want to write a program. That's a lot of how I do my book keeping for my publishing company and apparently how I'm handling Partner's babysitting.
The only difference is that this uses Deno instead of Node and I'm trying out hledger verses beancount. Mostly because I wanted to try out puffin which I don't exactly like. But, hledger is more popular than beancount so I might as well let them war in my head for a while before I decide on one or the other.
@dmoonfire another #hledger TUI:
https://github.com/Yaser-Amiri/dravik
@astrophoenix @ellane
I use a depth limit in my default queries.
So if under assets:bank:wf:checking I have assets:bank:wf:checking:tax:2024:us and assets:bank:wf:checking:tax:2025:us, I normally limit balance reports to depth 4 to hide those, eg by adding
[balance] -4
to ~/.hledger.conf. I also hide lot subaccounts this way. My chart of accounts is arranged so that this simple depth limit works for all, but if not I could set per-account depth limits.
hledger 1.42 is out, with new run and repl commands.
Thank you to contributors Dmitry Astapov, gesh, Thomas
Miedema, Joschua Kesper, and Lars Kellogg-Stedman !
- https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/releases/1.42
- https://hledger.org/relnotes.html#2025-03-07-hledger-142
- https://hledger.org/install
#hledger is free, robust, friendly, multicurrency, double-entry,
#plaintextaccounting software for unix, mac, windows, and the web,
written in #haskell for reliability.
The hledger project's first year-end report.
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
New notes on my #hledger workflow:
https://joyful.com/hledger+workflow+2025
Anybody know how to compute per-commodity totals in ledger/hledger? I'm trying to figure out total revenue per product. I posted some more details here in the Plain Text Accounting forum.
https://forum.plaintextaccounting.org/t/totals-by-commodity/466
#hledger #plaintextaccounting #askfedi
@stardot Congratulations on PTA year one !
Thanks, that was a good read and some valuable #hledger feedback. Unfortunate that you had so many encoding / Windows issues. We have some related tips on the Install page etc. but I think we need more help from Windows users to make those effective.
> hledger does not pool balances in high level categories like I initially expected it to.
That sounds like a thing it normally does, could you say more about this ?
y'a @dav qui parle de comptabilité en texte brut dans son dernier billet https://larlet.fr/david/2025/01/01/ ... ça fait un moment que ça me fait de l'œil (pour éviter d'utiliser un logiciel privateur notamment) ...
Y'a des adeptes par ici ?
