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choosing accounts: updates

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Simon Michael
2025-10-19 14:19:10 -10:00
parent 0e052c1dd7
commit ffe9829689

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% Choosing accounts
Some rules of thumb:
Your chart of accounts is an important factor in the success of your accounting system.
Here are some rules of thumb when choosing account names:
- You don't need to try to pick the perfect set of accounts at the start.
They can always be changed later with search and replace.
This is plain text accounting - account names can always be changed later with search and replace.
- Your chart of accounts is an important factor in the success of your accounting system.
Expect it to change, as your accounting know-how and accounting needs do.
- Expect your chart of accounts to change, as your accounting know-how and accounting needs do.
It's worth investing time to review and improve it periodically.
- If you are required to use some legally mandated chart of accounts, start with that.
@@ -42,9 +42,10 @@ Some rules of thumb:
Spaced names look nice to humans, but tend to cause headaches in command lines and scripts, requiring extra work.
- For categorising, should you use accounts, tags, descriptions, or other fields?
Use accounts for your primary categorising as they are best supported.
Consider using tags if you have cross-cutting categorising schemes.
For adhoc/infrequent categorising, some matchable text in the description might be enough.
Use accounts primarily, as they are the best supported.
For adhoc/infrequent categorising, some matchable text in the description can be enough.
If you have cross-cutting categorising schemes, tags can be handy.
More on this [in the FAQ](https://plaintextaccounting.org/FAQ#should-i-categorise-with-account-payee-description-tags...).
- Beancount account names are more restrictive than hledger's/Ledger's.
If you might be exporting to Beancount in future (say, to use the Fava web UI),