plain text accounting

Plain text accounting is a way of doing bookkeeping and accounting with plain text files and scriptable, command-line-friendly software, such as Ledger, hledger, or Beancount.

Welcome! This site together with wiki.plaintextaccounting.org is an entry point to the PTA community's tools, docs and practices. It is maintained by Simon Michael (hledger project leader, Ledger contributor, PTA fan) and contributors like you. Updates are helpful; join the chat or send an edit.

Overview:
2022-06: FAQs and Common Tasks links have moved to the wiki.

About ... Newcomer FAQ ... Objections and Concerns ... Getting started FAQ
Tools ... PTA apps ... Editor support ... Data import/conversion ... Price fetching ... Data generation ... Reporting ... Time logging ... UI, console ... UI, curses ... UI, GUI ... UI, web ... UI, mobile ... API
Docs ... Accounting ... Plain Text Accounting ... Wiki/Cookbook
Videos ...
Articles & blog posts ...
News & discussion ...

Tools

PTA apps

To do Plain Text Accounting, choose one of the apps below. Generally it's relatively easy to migrate data from one to another.

Project	Start	Last release	Code	Committers	Stars	Mail list, ~size	Chat, ~size

Popular
Ledger	2003	2021-05	C++	189	4.3k	ledger ~900	irc 60
hledger	2007	2022-12	haskell	155	2.2k	hledger ~200	matrix/irc 120
Beancount	2008	2020-06	python	64	2k	beancount ~600	irc 20, fava gitter/matrix 40

Smaller userbase
Abandon	2013	2019-09	scala	11	162		gitter/matrix
Transity	2018	2019-05	purescript	8	571		gitter/matrix
Ledger in Go	2013	2022-07	go	8	333
rust_ledger	2019	2020-09	rust	4	90
knut	2020	2022-09	go	3	41
Go Ledger	2016		go	3	37
.Net Ledger	2017	2018-08	C#	1	134		gitter/matrix
Goledger	2019	2020-08	go	1	24
blossom	2020		F#	1	20
Tackler	2017	2021-01	scala	1	8		gitter/matrix
ledg	2021	2021-04	javascript	1	30
pta	2020	2020-09	perl	1
Prudent	2018		js (closed); addons	1			@PrudentLedger
awk-pta	2022		awk	1

Inactive
bankroll	2020	2020-08	rust	1	1
acc	2020		rust	1	1
beans	2019	2019	haskell
monescript	2017	2018-01	javascript	1	12
uledger	2015		python
pacioli	2013		python
ledger.pl	2013		perl
Penny	2012	2014	haskell
UMM	2009	2010	haskell
sm-Ledger	2007		squeak smalltalk
cl-ledger	2007		common lisp	4	66

Editor plugins

Helpers which make your text editor or IDE more aware of PTA apps and file formats. These often also work well for PTA apps other than the one they are named for.

Atom language-ledger, ledger
Emacs beancount-mode, hledger-mode, ledger-mode
IntelliJ Ledger Plugin
Nano scopatz/nanorc
Sublime sublime-ledger-syntax
TextMate Ledger.tmbundle
VIM vim-ledger, vim-beancount, hledger-vim
VS Code hledger-vscode, ledger, vscode-beancount

Data import/conversion

Additional helper tools complementing the PTA apps, by category.

Ledger and hledger have CSV conversion built in. Also:
bean-identify, bean-extract, bean-file - Beancount built-in tools
banks2ledger - CSV to *ledger converter
beancount-import web app/framework for converting various formats to beancount (python)
beancount-ynab Import YNAB4 (legacy desktop-based version) into beancount
beancount-ynab5 Import YNAB5 (cloud-based version) transactions into beancount
buchhaltung CSV/FinTS/HBCI/OFX to *ledger conversion/deduplication (haskell)
Costflow convert one line message to beancount/*ledger format
csv2beancount CSV to beancount converter (clojure)
CSV2Ledger CSV to *ledger converter (perl)
fints2ledger FinTS/HBCI to csv to *ledger or beancount journals (python)
gcash2ledger.py GNUCash XML to *ledger converter (python)
gnucash-to-beancount GNUCash sqlite to beancount converter (python)
gnucash2ledger.py GNUCash sqlite to *ledger converter (python)
grisbi2Ledger Grisbi to *ledger converter
hledger-import-dsl alternate, programmable CSV converter for hledger
hledger-to-influxdb hledger to InfluxDB converter (haskell)
hledger2beancount hledger to beancount converter (haskell)
homebank2ledger HomeBank to ledger and beancount converter (perl)
icsvledger interactive CSV to *ledger converter (python)
into-ledger CSV to *ledger converter
invoice2data extract data from PDF invoices (python)
jali downloader/importer to *ledger (python)
kmymoney2hledger KMyMoney to *ledger converter (clojure)
kmymoney2ledgers KMyMoney to *ledger/beancount converter (python)
kmymoney2ledgers.awk KMyMoney to *ledger/beancount converter (Awk)
ldgclip import bank transactions via the clipboard with one click (bash/awk)
Ledger in Go has limport, a CSV to *ledger converter
ledger-autosync OFX download, OFX to *ledger conversion, deduplication
ledger-guesser neural network for generating entries like past ones, can be used with ledger-autosync (javascript)
ledger-myexpenses MyExpenses android app sqlite db to *ledger conversion (python)
ledger-to-beancount yet another simple ledger to beancount converter (python)
ledger-tutorials convert Pete Keen's tutorials to ebook format
ledger2beancount.py *ledger to beancount converter
ledger2beancount/beancount2ledger the best converter between h/ledger and beancount formats (perl).
outofit QuickBooks to *ledger converter
piecash GNUCash SQL to *ledger converter (python)
plaid2qif Download transactions from plaid as QIF or CSV files
plaid2text Plaid API to *ledger/beancount download/conversion
qb2ledger QuickBooks General Journal CSV to *ledger converter
QIFtoLedger (Bank of America's) QIF to *ledger converter
reckon smart interactive/non-interactive CSV to *ledger converter
slc generates Ledger accounting entries, works with generic CSV files as well as the Stripe API
smart_importer library for building smarter CSV to beancount/Fava converters
total_recall CSV to *ledger converter
ynab-to-ledger You Need A Budget (YNAB) to *ledger converter. Handles multiple currencies, multiple number formats, reconciliation, memos, transfers, and split transactions
ynab_to_ledger You Need A Budget to *ledger converter

Price fetching

bean-price Beancount's price fetching tool (python)
hledger-stockquotes download market prices for your hledger commodities (haskell)
ledger-get-prices download market prices (ruby)
LedgerStockUpdate update a Ledger price database (go)
market-prices download market prices from several sources (python)
market-prices.hs small, easy to adapt script to scrape market data from the internet (Haskell)
pricehist fetch and format historical price data, with support for multiple sources and output formats (python)
the-solipsist/scripts download prices for your hledger commodities, including indian commodities (bash)
update-hledger-market-prices.hs download market prices (haskell)

Data generation

beancount-extract-price generate prices transactions based on your beancount ledger (python)
DepreciateForLedger generate *ledger depreciation transactions (python)
hledger-interest generate *ledger interest entries (haskell)
ledgerbil schedule recurring txns, interactive reconcile, date sorting
LedgerScheduler move entries from one file to another when they come due (python)
lotter generate postings for capital gain/loss (go)
recurring generate recurring *ledger entries (python)
reorder-journal.sh sort hledger entries, preserving directives/comments at top of file (bash)
sassetti adds lisp macros to ledger files (common lisp)

Reporting

budget_report budget reporting with beancount (python)
hledger-diff report differing transactions between two journals (haskell)
hledger-irr calculate an account's internal rate of return (superseded by roi) (haskell)
hledger-vega makes configurable vega-lite charts from hledger (shell)
hreports customise hledger reports with templates and PDF output (python)
ledger-plot interactive tool for making GNUplot charts from Ledger (python)
ledger-plots R package & script to make charts from Ledger (R)
ludget generate charts from Ledger (python)
r-ledger an R package for reading and reporting on ledger/hledger/beancount files (R)
TaxingLots calculates capital gains for a ledger journal (python)

Time logging

org2tc org to timeclock converter
on-modify.timetrack.py taskwarrior hook for timeclock output
t ledger timeclock shellscript
tim time logging/reporting tool using hledger
timekeeping-template time logging/reporting examples/how-to using hledger
tito time logging bash scripts that avoid double clock-in

UI, console

bean-add interactive transaction entry tool (python)
hledger add interactive transaction entry tool (builtin command)
ladd create and edit a new *ledger transaction by fuzzy-matching past descriptions
ldgr command line tool to add/sort/tag ledger files (ruby)
ledger xact history-aware transaction generator (builtin command)

UI, curses

hledger-iadd TUI for *ledger transaction entry (haskell)
hledger-ui TUI for *ledger browsing (haskell, video)
ledger-add TUI for *ledger transaction entry (python)
regdel TUI for browsing Ledger files (python)

UI, GUI

ledgerble reporting GUI with charts & adjustable reports (Javascript)
ledgerhelpers misc. GUI tools + helper library (Python, GTK)
Prudent integrated journal editing/importing/reporting GUI for Ledger (Javascript, mac only, closed source)

UI, web

fava web UI for beancount browsing (python, demo)
hledger-web web UI for *ledger browsing, data entry (haskell, demo, Sandstorm app)
Ledger in Go web UI for browsing ledger transactions, reports, and porfolios
Ledger Web ledger HTML reporting system (ruby, postgres)
Ledger Web web UI/API for ledger browsing, data entry (python)
ledger-analytics web UI for ledger data analytics (javascript)
ledger-dashboard web UI for ledger browsing, data entry (python)
ledger-pyreport web UI for standard accounting statements and unrealised gains (python)
ledgeraccounting web UI for hledger: data entry, basic reports and budgets (javascript)
ledgible web UI for ledger browsing, data entry (python)
node-ledger-web web UI for ledger browsing (javascript)
WealthPulse web UI for ledger browsing, price fetching (F#)

UI, mobile

Beancount mobile app (Android, IOS)
beancount-mobile data entry app (Android)
cashier mobile or desktop client for ledger and hledger-web (Android/Desktop, javascript, app)
cone data entry app for the h/ledger format (Android, dart)
MoLe mobile client for hledger-web (Android, java)
hledger.org: Mobile apps

API

gledger Go package to interface with Ledger (go)
hledger-lib library for parsing and generating reports from *ledger files (haskell)
hledger-web the web app includes a JSON API server for *ledger files (haskell)
ledgerhelpers extends Ledger's python library (python)
node-hledger Node.js API for *ledger files (javascript)