Thinking about your question further: I find that when I import transactions, credit cards are the only ones that deal with expenses and need categorization. I find that smart_importer gets almost all of them right. I do skim through the import as a part of my workflow, but it takes less than a minute to rapidly look through a month's data (say, a 100 transactions), and find the occasional one that needs to be fixed.
Yet another way to address this problem is to glance at my monthly expenditure categories in a report (I use Fava), where big miscategorizations (a rare occurrence) stand out fairly obviously. On Saturday, February 10, 2024 at 1:35:09 AM UTC-8 Red S wrote: > I'm not familiar with beancount-importer, but this should work out of the > box if you use smart_importer, with nothing for you to really do. As it > says <https://github.com/beancount/smart_importer>: > > smart_importer only works by appending onto incomplete single-legged > postings > > So in the importer you write, simply leave the ones you want uncategorized > with no further action, and smart_importer will categorize them, and leave > the other ones untouched. > > Trivial to do with beancount_reds_importers too: simply override this > method > <https://github.com/redstreet/beancount_reds_importers/blob/bee9b44758fb37d1ccac5a94f98b96e25825aa5c/beancount_reds_importers/libtransactionbuilder/banking.py#L73-L75> > > to return either your pre-defined postings, or None if you want it to be > auto-categorized by smart_importer. > > On Friday, February 9, 2024 at 12:46:03 PM UTC-8 Danny wrote: > >> *Background* >> >> I've been using beancount for a few years now. I just have a couple >> credits cards and a bank account, nothing especially complex, but I feel >> secure knowing I have a registry of where all my money has gone. Also the >> process of getting transactions into beancount is my check on spending, >> letting me notice anything suspicious. >> >> However, its just way too labor intensive. I already use >> beancount-import, but still get bogged down in hundreds of $2.90 subway >> payments, the grocery store, and sandwiches from the same handful of places. >> >> *What I'm Looking For* >> >> I need a less time-consuming workflow. I discovered Red's five minute >> ledger, and agree completely with the philosophy. However I think I need a >> way to separate transactions from any given account into two separate >> streams. >> >> To better illustrate, this is my ideal pipeline: >> >> 1. Download transactions manually or automatically where possible >> (csv and ofx) >> 2. Run code that has a set of predefined expense category rules (e.g. >> amazon automatically to a zero-sum category, grocery store below certain >> dollar value) >> 3. Separate the categorized transactions and pass the remaining ones >> to beancount-import >> 4. Write everything to the ledger like normal >> >> I haven't found any examples of branching the transaction pipeline like >> this, so my question is whether its even plausible within the framework of >> beancount importers. My back up plan is to write a more or less hardcoded >> script that will do it all, but I'm hoping for a more flexible approach! >> >> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Beancount" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to beancount+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beancount/dbc6c223-e00f-4042-a2d9-0b07da7311a3n%40googlegroups.com.
