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Diffstat (limited to 'README')
| -rw-r--r-- | README | 94 |
1 files changed, 92 insertions, 2 deletions
@@ -56,8 +56,8 @@ say where the money came from, in addition to where it's going to. The entry might look like this: <example> -9/29 BAL Pacific Bell $200.00 $200.00 - Equity:Opening Balances $-200.00 +9/29 BAL Pacific Bell $-200.00 $-200.00 + Equity:Opening Balances $200.00 9/29 BAL Checking $100.00 $100.00 Equity:Opening Balances $-100.00 9/29 100 Pacific Bell $23.00 $223.00 @@ -98,6 +98,36 @@ In summary, there are two aspects of Ledger use: Updating the ledger data file, and using the Ledger tool to view the summarized result of your entries. +And just for the sake of example -- as a starting point for those who +want to dive in head-first -- here are the ledger entries from above, +formatting as the ledger program wishes to see them: + +<example> +; Set the year for subsequent entries to 2004 +Y 2004 + +9/29 Pacific Bell + Payable:Pacific Bell $-200.00 + Equity:Opening Balances + +9/29 Checking + Accounts:Checking $100.00 + Equity:Opening Balances + +9/29 Pacific Bell + Payable:Pacific Bell $23.00 + Accounts:Checking +</example> + +The account balances and registers in this file, if saved as +=ledger.dat=, could be reported using: + +<example> +$ ledger -f ledger.dat balance +$ ledger -f ledger.dat register checking +$ ledger -f ledger.dat register bell +</example> + * Building the program Ledger is written in ANSI C++, and should compile on any platform. It @@ -439,6 +469,66 @@ target account: This way, you can still track large cash expenses, while ignoring all of the smaller ones. +** Archiving previous years + +After a while, your ledger can get to be pretty large. While this +will not slow down the ledger program much -- it's designed to process +ledger files very quickly -- things can start to feel "messy"; and +it's a universal complaint that when finances feel messy, people avoid +them. + +Thus, archiving the data from previous years into their own files can +offer a sense of completion, and freedom from the past. But how to +best accomplish this with the ledger program? There are two commands +that make it very simple: "print", and "equity". + +Let's take an example file, with data ranging from year 2000 until +2004. We want to archive years 2000 and 2001 to their own file, +leaving just 2003 and 2004 in the current file. So, use "print" to +output all the earlier entries to a file called =ledger-old.dat=. +(Keeping in mind that the ending date is not inclusive, which is why +2002 is mentioned in the following command): + +<example> +$ ledger -f ledger.dat -b 2000/1/1 -e 2002/1/1 print > ledger-old.dat +</example> + +To delete older data from the current ledger file, use "print" again, +this time specifying year 2002 as the starting date: + +<example> +$ ledger -f ledger.dat -b 2002/1/1 print > x +$ mv x ledger.dat +</example> + +However, now the current file contains *only* transactions from 2002 +onward, which will not yield accurate present-day balances, because +the net income from previous years is no longer being tallied. To +compensate for this, we must append an equity report for the old +ledger at the beginning of the new one: + +<example> +$ ledger -f ledger-old.dat equity > equity.dat +$ cat equity.dat ledger.dat > x +$ mv x ledger.dat +$ rm equity.dat +</example> + +Now the balances reported from =ledger.dat= are identical to what they +were before the data was split. + +How often should you split your ledger? You never need to, if you +don't want to. Even eighty years of data will not slow down ledger +much -- and that's just using present day hardware! Or, you can keep +the previous and current year in one file, and each year before that +in its own file. It's really up to you, and how you want to organize +your finances. For those who also keep an accurate paper trail, it +might be useful to archive the older years to their own files, then +burn those files to a CD to keep with the paper records -- along with +any electronic statements received during the year. In the arena of +organization, just keep in mind this maxim: Do whatever keeps you +doing it. + ** Virtual transactions A virtual transaction is when you, in your mind, see money as moving |