
Ledger: Command-line double-entry accounting - mbrubeck
http://github.com/jwiegley/ledger
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idm
I can vouch for ledger. There is a learning curve, but it works great. Hledger
is another implementation in Haskell. I went with ledger, and I'm not looking
back.

I'm so sick of Intuit, and I got burned badly when I bought into their 3-year
obsolescence cycle. In case you're considering Quicken or Quickbooks, DO NOT
BUY IN. They have designed multiple kill-switches into their software to
disable key features after a time delay. Specifically, you will not be able to
download transactions, import them from a file, or export them - after 3
years.

I got ledger, and within a day I had written the code to grab my transactions
and import them. It's a little strange, but it won't ever become obsolete due
to the capricious and profiteering whims of some company.

Ledger is great. It's for hackers.

~~~
oneplusone
www.xero.com is a great accounting system for people that hate QuickBooks. It
is extremely well designed.

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justinhj
If you want something a lot more lightweight and written in emacs-lisp I made
this:

[http://justinsboringpage.blogspot.com/2009/08/simple-
budget-...](http://justinsboringpage.blogspot.com/2009/08/simple-budget-
forecasts-in-emacs.html)

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gcv
Thank you for posting this. Ledger looks fantastic. Not sure yet how I can use
its files to give information to an accountant, but I'm sure I'll achieve
enlightenment after learning more about it.

One more cool thing: look at the TODO file in the planning branch of the
source checkout. Pretty solid-looking example of how to do bug tracking using
org-mode.

~~~
drewr
Not sure what your accountant wants, but the normal register output is very
simple to read.

If you need something more customized, the python integration coming in HEAD
gives you access to the internals without having to speak C++. It's still not
_quite_ done, but it'll give you enough power to do whatever you want.

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vanschelven
I'm looking for an easily extensible double-entry accounting system for
hackers. I would imagine many self employed entrepreneurs/hackers rolling
their own for their needs but haven't been able to find anything open source
in the wild that's both somewhat complete and extensible.

Gnucash is polished but extensibility isn't too great. Command line seems a
bit too much on the other side of the spectrum.

Suggestions anyone?

~~~
idm
Did you just use "hackers" and "too extensible" to describe your problem? :)

As I see it, ledger has two excellent interfaces: text files (i.e. the ledger
itself, where the transactions are stored) and the command line. You extend it
with anything that writes to text files (that is, _anything_ at all) and you
script it with anything that executes commands (bash, python, makefiles, you
name it).

In my case, I added on a transaction downloader/importer that simply extends
the text file aspect. I use other people's scripts to actually generate
reports, from that point on.

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zargon
Wow, this looks way easier to use than gnucash. Thanks!

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joubert
Bizarre, but cool.

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smichael
Maybe I'm too accustomed.. but what's bizarre about it ?

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joubert
Accountants are probably the last people you would think would use the command
line to do their work.

