Am Mon, 10 Jan 2022 08:04:20 +0100 schrieb Marcin Borkowski <mb...@mbork.pl>:
> On 2022-01-10, at 04:42, Samuel Banya <sba...@fastmail.com> wrote: > > > Ah, Ledger is way too complicated for what it's worth. I've seen > > videos on YouTube about it, and every person who's praised it is > > pretty much too smart enough to be able to explain it in simple > > terms. > > Interesting - I've been using Ledger for many years now, and while > I agree that it has its dark corners, it's much like Org in that > respect > - you are not forced to use them at all. And the "core" is IMHO > /very/ simple - you just record your "transactions" (e.g., using the > very nice Emacs ledger-mode) and look at a report. > > I basically use just one kind of report - the balance report, both to > reconcile my ledger file with my cash and bank and to see the > current/previous month's income and expenses. > > Before I started using Ledger, I used GNUcash (on and off for a few > years, too) - I can't say a bad word about it, but it's not > Emacs-based, so you know. Also, it's not exactly text-based (AFAIR, > it uses XML, so it "kind of" is, but...) - a big advantage of Ledger > is that I can keep my books in Git. (Of course, using Org would have > the same advantage.) > > Also, if you don't insist on Ledger, https://plaintextaccounting.org/ > has a comparison of other text-based accounting tools. > > I'm wondering if your opinion about Ledger isn't influenced by the > fact that it uses basic accounting principles, like the idea of > double-entry accounting. For me, it's /very/ simple and intuitive, > but I graduated in economics many years ago and had a (basic, but > still) course on accounting. If that is your problem, I'd suggest > spending some time on understanding that - even if you don't end up > using Ledger but some other software, you might find learning about > accounting useful. (Also, it's fascinating. No, really! It's an > extremely clever abstract system with a real-life use-case.) > > That said, there are people who just use a regular spreadsheet for > their personal/household finance, and it seems to work for them. Go > figure. (Now that I think of it, I'll have to ask someone who does > how they manage that.) > > Having said all that, would someone be interested in a blog post(s) > with a Ledger basics crash course? Yes. Detlef > > Hth, >