#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
#plaintextaccounting
What's everyone's opinion about an automated tax calculation software?
@andre123 se interessa la gestione della contabilità in maniera alternativa prova a dare un occhiata a #plaintextaccounting https://plaintextaccounting.org/ . Io uso sia #ledger che #hledger e versiono su git. 👌🏻
On the recent @talkpython about Django Ledger with Miguel Sanda, it sounded like the project shares a lot of overlap with BeanCount/Fava from the #plaintextaccounting realm.
welcome to the #plaintextaccounting club!
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.
Using hledger to support share trading
#plainTextAccounting just got a whole lot more fun! I don't know about hledger, but did you know that Beancount allows symbols/emojis in file names?
Be aware that symbols must not be immediately preceded by a colon or they will flag as an error.
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.
@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.
For those who use #plaintextaccounting and hledger, I just saw a cool TUI for reviewing the files.
https://terminaltrove.com/puffin/
Sadly, I'm using beancount instead of hledger, but that might make it worth it to write a program to convert. :)
Simple really is better, more times than not.
Yesterday I figured out how to track savings goals in Beancount (Fava) by creating a parallel BGT currency. It involves more data entry, but it does the calculation between what's already saved and my goal.
Nice, but unnecessary.
Today I scrapped all that (yay for backups!) and simply added the savings goal to the name of each account. Thanks for the tip on the forum, @simonmic
I love #PlainTextAccounting but this week learnt there's also plain text #screenplay writing with the Fountain syntax:
This syntax is already understood by FOSS writing tools such as Trelby:
The perfect combo to ensure that movie you're writing will still be readable by future civilizations.
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
After 7 months of #plainTextAccounting, insights are starting to flow. Honestly I have no idea how I'd have tracked all this without a) paying a ridiculous amount of $ every month, b) locking myself into an app that doesn't do what I need it to, and c) makes it hard to move somewhere else!
Admittedly the hardest thing about PTA wasn't learning how to use the command line. It was learning the principles of accounting, and how to apply them to my situation.
New notes on my #hledger workflow:
https://joyful.com/hledger+workflow+2025
Great idea to do accounting via text files and command line, thanks @gisgeek for introducing me in this world !
Awesome world/national #finance dashboards can be found at
Seen on Hacker News today, also discussed at https://forum.plaintextaccounting.org/t/470
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