Hello -- first time posting here.
I am trying to understand unexpected behavior of a combination of virtual
transactions with balance assignments. The use-case is using virtual
accounts to hold 'envelope budgets' as has been described by various people
<http://plaintextaccounting.org/#budgeting>. I want to reset the budget
account (a virtual account Assets:Budgets:Groceries) using a balance
assignment at the beginning of the month; I want however much is required
to achieve the new balance to be moved from another account. However, the
balance is always off. Here's a minimal example:
2017/01/01 * Opening Balance
Assets:Checking $100
Equity:OpeningBalances
;match Grocery transactions from Budget
= /Expenses:Groceries/
* [Assets:Budgets:Groceries] -1.0
* [Assets:Checking] 1.0
2017/01/01 * Budgeting for January 2017
[Assets:Checking]
[Assets:Budgets:Groceries] $50
2017/01/02 * groceries
Assets:Checking $-30
Expenses:Groceries
2017/01/25 * Salary
Assets:Checking $100
Income:Salary
2017/02/01 * Budgeting for February 2017
[Assets:Checking]
[Assets:Budgets:Groceries] $20 = $50
Note that the final transaction asserts that after adding $20 to the
Groceries budget, it should equal $50 -- which Ledger agrees it does.
However, the balance report says it's $40, which is also what I get adding
it up by hand:
~> ledger -f journal.txt bal
$170 Assets
$40 Budgets:Groceries
$130 Checking
$-100 Equity:OpeningBalances
$30 Expenses:Groceries
$-100 Income:Salary
--------------------
0
That's the first thing I don't understand. The second: if I change that
last transaction to be:
2017/02/01 * Budgeting for February 2017
[Assets:Checking]
[Assets:Budgets:Groceries] = $40
then the balance report says:
~> ledger -f journal.txt bal
$170 Assets
$10 Budgets:Groceries
$160 Checking
$-100 Equity:OpeningBalances
$30 Expenses:Groceries
$-100 Income:Salary
--------------------
0
My understanding of the documentation is that this assertion transaction
should set the balance to $40. Why is it then being reported as $10, with
the Checking account as $160? I would expect it to be $40 and $130.
I've tried everything I can think of, but I can't figure out what I'm doing
wrong. The documentation seems pretty clear. What do I not understand about
virtual transactions, balance assignments, or the combination of the two?
I'm using ledger 3.1
Thanks,
Hans
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