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some intro text

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Simon Michael
2016-02-14 16:55:50 -08:00
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Plain Text Accounting
</h1>
<div class="three columns">
<h3 id="concepts">concepts</h3>
<p>accounting and double-entry bookkeeping</p>
<p>Ledger and the Ledger-likes</p>
<h3 id="accounting..">accounting..</h3>
<p><strong>accounting</strong> is tracking the flow of valuable commodities, such as money or time. It clarifies activity, priorities, obligations, opportunities. It can reduce stress and even be enjoyable.</p>
<p><strong>double-entry bookkeeping</strong> is a process for doing this reliably. For every movement of value (a <strong>transaction</strong>), both the source and destination are recorded. Simple arithmetic invariants help prevent errors.</p>
<p>In traditional double-entry bookkeeping, value at any point in time is tracked in various <strong>accounts</strong>, classified as <strong>asset</strong> (owned), <strong>liability</strong> (owed) or <strong>equity</strong> (invested). Two more classifications track changes during some period: <strong>revenues</strong> (inflows) and <strong>expenses</strong> (outflows).</p>
<p>Transactions consist of <strong>debits</strong> (increases to asset or expense accounts, or decreases to liability or equity accounts) or <strong>credits</strong> (decreases to asset or expense accounts, or increases to liability or equity accounts).</p>
</div>
<div class="five columns">
<h3 id="characteristics">characteristics</h3>
<p>plain text data format</p>
<p>signed numbers instead of debit and credit <!--
Business transactions are events that have a monetary impact on the
financial statements of an organization. When accounting for these
transactions, we record numbers in two accounts, where the debit
column is on the left and the credit column is on the right.
A debit is an accounting entry that either increases an asset or
expense account, or decreases a liability or equity account. It is
positioned to the left in an accounting entry.
A credit is an accounting entry that either increases a liability or
equity account, or decreases an asset or expense account.
--[Debits and Credits](http://www.accountingtools.com/debits-and-credits)
http://www.accountingcoach.com/debits-and-credits/explanation
--></p>
<p>free-form account hierarchy</p>
<p>functional operation</p>
<p>command-line scriptable</p>
<h3 id="with-ledger-likes">with Ledger-likes</h3>
<p><strong>Ledger</strong> and the other <strong>Ledger-likes</strong> which followed it are minimalist software tools for efficient double-entry accounting. This site introduces them and their way of doing things.</p>
<p>Accounting data is valuable; we want to know that it will be accessible for ever - even without software. We want to know when it changes, and revision-control it. We want to search and manipulate it efficiently. So, we store it as human-readable <strong>plain text</strong>.</p>
<p>We simplify by using <strong>signed numbers</strong> instead of debits and credits - positive for inflows to an account, negative for outflows from an account.</p>
<p>We define arbitrary <strong>account hierarchy</strong> to suit our needs. This scales smoothly from simple to complex scenarios, and from high-level overview to fine detail.</p>
<p>Ledger-likes are, at least in part, <strong>command-line</strong> tools. This makes them efficient to use and very <strong>scriptable</strong> and flexible.</p>
<p>Ledger-likes also, at their core, tend towards <strong>functional operation</strong>: they read the input data without changing it, and output a report. This simplicity makes them easy to understand and to rely on.</p>
</div>
<div class="three columns">
<h3 id="why">why ?</h3>
<p>why we exist</p>
<p>who are we for</p>
<p>alternatives</p>
<p>why is this better than QuickBooks ?</p>
<p>what if my accountant only uses QuickBooks ?</p>
<p>can I use this to do my taxes ?</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="row">
@@ -82,23 +73,23 @@ http://www.accountingcoach.com/debits-and-credits/explanation
<tbody>
<tr class="odd">
<td align="left"><a href="http://ledger-cli.org">Ledger</a></td>
<td align="left">the original. C++ <!-- Very fast, advanced features. --></td>
<td align="left"><a href="https://www.openhub.net/p/ledger">openhub</a></td>
<td align="left"><a href="https://www.openhub.net/p/ledger">C++</a>. The original. <!-- Very fast, advanced features. --></td>
<td align="left"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td align="left"><a href="http://hledger.org">hledger</a></td>
<td align="left">Haskell <!-- Easy to use, multi-column reports, multiple UIs. --></td>
<td align="left"><a href="https://www.openhub.net/p/hledger">openhub</a></td>
<td align="left"><a href="https://www.openhub.net/p/hledger">Haskell</a> <!-- Easy to use, multi-column reports, multiple UIs. --></td>
<td align="left"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td align="left"><a href="http://furius.ca/beancount">Beancount</a></td>
<td align="left">Python <!-- Accounting correctness aids, extensible. --></td>
<td align="left"><a href="https://www.openhub.net/p/beancount">openhub</a></td>
<td align="left"><a href="https://www.openhub.net/p/beancount">Python</a> <!-- Accounting correctness aids, extensible. --></td>
<td align="left"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td align="left"><a href="https://github.com/hrj/abandon">Abandon</a></td>
<td align="left">Scala</td>
<td align="left"><a href="https://www.openhub.net/p/abandon">openhub</a></td>
<td align="left"><a href="https://www.openhub.net/p/abandon">Scala</a></td>
<td align="left"></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td align="left"><a href="https://github.com/howeyc/ledger">Ledger in Go</a></td>
@@ -169,7 +160,7 @@ http://www.accountingcoach.com/debits-and-credits/explanation
<div class="row" style="text-align:center;">
<hr>
<p>Send updates via the <a href="https://github.com/simonmichael/plaintextaccounting">github repo</a> or <a href="https://oasis.sandstorm.io/shared/UAYLwagGI0a2pIMg9Hhv74K04nbuxanXiS5ZtBV6NF-">notes page</a></p>
<p>Send updates via the <a href="https://github.com/simonmichael/plaintextaccounting">github repo</a> or <a href="https://oasis.sandstorm.io/shared/UAYLwagGI0a2pIMg9Hhv74K04nbuxanXiS5ZtBV6NF-">etherpad</a></p>
</div>
</div>