Plain Text Accounting (PTA) - plaintextaccounting.org

17 min read Original article ↗

plaintextaccounting.org

Welcome! Plain text accounting is a way of doing bookkeeping and accounting with plain text files and scriptable, command-line-friendly software, such as Ledger, hledger, or Beancount. This site collects the PTA community's tools, docs and practices. It is maintained by Simon Michael (hledger project leader, PTA fan) and contributors like you. See also our discussion forum and chat rooms.

This is a community-supported site; if you find it useful, why not contribute to the github repo or help with finance. Thank you sponsors, including:

News & discussion

Chat - matrix room - matrix space - IRC channel - project chats
Blogs & articles - See the PTA forum's News category and RSS feed - Older blogs & articles, 2006-2024
PTA forum - forum.plaintextaccounting.org
Reddit - /r/plaintextaccounting
Lemmy - lemmy.world/c/plaintextaccounting
Hacker News - stories - comments
Mastodon - #plaintextaccounting - #ledgercli - #hledger - #beancount
Twitter - #plaintextaccounting - #ledgercli - #hledger - #beancount - LedgerTips 2014-2018
Stack Exchange - ledger-cli tag - ledger-cli search - hledger tag - hledger search
Project specific - Project mail lists - This Week In Hledger
plaintextaccounting.org site - commits - contributors - issues - email the site admin

Videos

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=plaintextaccounting

Slides

Docs

Accounting basics , PTA app docs , Comparisons , Intros , Cheatsheets , Cookbooks , FAQs

Accounting basics

PTA app docs

Comparisons

Intros

Cheatsheets

Cookbooks

FAQs

Software

PTA apps , Editor plugins , Data import/conversion , Price fetching , Data generation , Workflows , Formatting , Reporting , Time logging , UI, console , UI, curses , UI, GUI , UI, web , UI, mobile , Library , Utilities , API

PTA apps

To do Plain Text Accounting, try one (or more) of the apps below. Generally it's possible to migrate data between them.

Project Start Last release Code Committers Stars Mail list, size Chat, size Issues
 
Popular
Ledger 2003 2025 C++ 226 5.5k ledger ~900 IRC ~70 1.6k
hledger 2007 2025 haskell 178 3.4k hledger ~250 matrix ~250, IRC ~70 1.5k
Beancount 2008 2023 python 84 4.1k beancount ~700 matrix ~30, matrix (fava) ~240, IRC ~30 0.5k
 
Small userbase
Ledger (Go) 2013 2024 go 12 470
Abandon 2013 2024 scala 11 180 matrix
zhang 2023 2024 rust/ts 5 180
Tackler-NG 2017 2026 rust 3 120 matrix, GH
knut 2020 2024 go 3 60
budget-cli 2023 typescript 3 12
rustledger 2025 rust 2 12
ledg 2021 2025 typescript 1 45
placc 2024 2024 nim (free closed source) 1
awk-pta 2022 awk 1 20
coin 2019 2025 go 1 13
 
Inactive
mynt 2023 rust 1
ubal 2022 uxntal 1
bankroll 2020 2020 rust 1 1
pta 2020 2020 perl 1
blossom 2020 F# 1 30
ledger.bash 2020 bash/awk 1 7
acc 2020 rust 1 1
rust_ledger 2019 2021 rust 4 90
Goledger (mescanne) 2019 2020 go 1 30
beans 2019 2019 haskell 2 24
Transity 2018 2020 purescript 8 571 matrix
Prudent 2018 js, addons 1 @PrudentLedger
.Net Ledger 2017 2021 C# 1 164 matrix
monescript 2017 2018 javascript 1 12
Go Ledger (abourget) 2016 go 3 40
uledger 2015 python 1 17
pacioli 2013 python 1 31
ledger.pl 2013 perl 1 6
Penny 2012 2014 haskell
UMM 2009 2010 haskell
sm-Ledger 2007 squeak
cl-ledger 2007 lisp 4 66

Feature matrix

A rough comparison of the big three PTA apps' main features, plus some relevant third-party tools in italics. (Plus some geeky technical bits that you may not care about.) Corrections and suggestions are appreciated (chat). You can also use this as a kind of overview, quick reference or porting guide. (See also syntax quick reference.)

Ledger hledger Beancount

User interfaces
CLI: ledger hledger beanquery
TUI: regdel hledger add, hledger-ui, hledger-iadd, puffin bean-add
GUI: Prudent, ledgerble, addtrans fruit-credits
WUI: ledgeraccounting, paisa, cashier, ledgible, ledger (howeyc), ledger-web (vifon), ledger-web (peterkeen), ledger-pyreport, ledger-analytics, node-ledger-web hledger-web, ledgeraccounting, paisa, cashier fava, paisa, BeanHub
Android: cashier, NanoLedger cashier, MoLe, NanoLedger Beancount Mobile CE, beancount-mobile (xuhcc)
IOS: Beancount Mobile CE

Help
CLI help: general --help, also available as man page general and command-specific --help, commands summary, built-in asciinema demos command-specific --help
TLDR short help: ledger hledger and commands, also built-in
User manual formats: web web, info, man, also built-in info/man/text with jump to topic web
Active support channels: chat, mail list, forum, reddit mail list
Easy install and setup: yes yes no

Data formats
Input formats: journal (ledger), timeclock, csv journal (hledger), timeclock, timedot, csv, tsv, ssv, *sv journal (beancount)
Output formats: text, csv, xml, lisp text, html, csv, tsv, fods, beancount, sql, json text, ?

Commands
Commands: accounts, balance, cleared, commodities, convert, csv, entry, emacs, equity, lisp, payees, pricemap, pricedb, prices, print, register, select, source, stats, tags accounts, activity, add, aregister, balance, balancesheet, balancesheetequity, cashflow, check, close, codes, commodities, demo, descriptions, diff, files, help, import, incomestatement, payees, prices, print, notes, register, rewrite, roi, stats, tags, test beancount: check, doctor, example, format
Add-on commands: bar, check-fancyassertions, edit, git, iadd, interest, lots, move, pijul, plot.. beanquery: balances, journal, print, select

Configuration
Config file: general options general and command-specific options ?
Extensibility: built-in expression language, embedded python, HTTP-JSON add-on commands, haskell library, HTTP-JSON data-modifying plugins, python library

Other features
Account names: any any capitalised, no spaces, english top level names
Account types awareness: no yes yes
Budget report: built-in built-in fava
Charting tools: paisa, etc.. activity, hledger-bar, hledger-web, hledger-plot, paisa, etc.. fava, paisa..
Commodity names: any, on left or right, optional any, on left or right, optional 2-24 uppercase letters / digits / punctuation, on right, required
Data importing: built-in from CSV, others.. built-in from any input format, others.. beangulp framework, beancount_reds_importers framework, beancount-import library, others..
Data deduplication: checksum-based (requires unique CSV records) date-based (requires date-ordered CSV records) ?
Date range: 1400-01-01 to 9999-12-31 0000-01-01 onward 0001-01-01 to 9999-12-31
Generate postings by rule: built-in built-in ?
Generate recurring transactions: built-in built-in beancount-repete
International number notations: no yes no
Lot management: lot matching syntax, lots report, revaluation transactions, lotter manual, hledger-lots, hledger-move, lotter lot matching syntax, ?
Multi-period balance reports: no yes fava
Pivoting: on single tag on one or more tags / other fields no
Precision (journal): 254 significant digits "unlimited" integer digits + 255 decimal digits 28 significant digits
Precision (internal): "unlimited" (rational numbers) "unlimited" integer digits + 255 decimal digits 28 significant digits
Precision (balancing): max precisions in local entry global commodity precisions max precisions in local entry / 2 (configurable)
Precision (display): inferred commodity precision, or a default max precision of 6 inferred / specified commodity precision, or a default max precision of 8 inferred commodity precision, or a default max precision of 0 (configurable)
Price fetching: pricehist pricehist beanprice, pricehist
Querying: cli options, custom query expressions cli options, custom query expressions, sql SQL-like beancount query language
REPL: built-in haskell GHCI beanquery, python
Shell completions: bash (commands, flags, maybe accounts) bash (commands, flags, flag values, query types, journal data)
Unrealised gains report: --unrealized --gain, roi fava
Validation: configurable configurable always strict
Miscellaneous: ? standard financial reports ?
customisable account display order
customisable amount styles for input and output
documentation-first development
regular releases
regression bounties

Editor plugins

Atom - language-ledger - ledger
Emacs - beancount-mode - hledger-mode - ledger-mode (good for hledger also)
IntelliJ - Ledger CLI
Nano - scopatz/nanorc
Sublime - sublime-ledger-syntax
TextMate - Ledger.tmbundle
VIM - vim-ledger - vim-beancount - hledger-vim - cmp-beancount
VS Code - hledger-vscode - ledger - vscode-beancount

Data import/conversion

Miscellaneous

  • Ledger and hledger have CSV conversion built in. Also:
  • bean-identify, bean-extract, bean-file - Beancount built-in tools
  • banks2ledger - CSV to *ledger converter
  • beanborg Advanced transaction importer with auto-categorization (python)
  • beancount-import web app/framework for converting various formats to beancount (python)
  • beancount-reds-importers Simple importers and tools for Beancount. A framework to allow you to easily write your own importers.
  • beancount2ledger beancount to h/ledger converter (python)
  • beanhub-extract Simple Python library for extracting all kinds of bank export CSV files into standardized transaction data objects
  • beanhub-import Declarative idempotent rule-based beancount transaction import engine in Python consumes data extracted by beanhub-extract
  • buchhaltung CSV/FinTS/HBCI/OFX to *ledger conversion/deduplication (haskell)
  • Costflow convert one line message to beancount/*ledger format
  • csv2beancount CSV to beancount converter (clojure)
  • CSV2Ledger CSV to *ledger converter (perl)
  • csv2ledger.el CSV to *ledger converter (emacs lisp)
  • double-entry-generator Rule-based double-entry bookkeeping importer (from Alipay/WeChat/Huobi etc. to Beancount)
  • finfetch local web app for downloading csv from your banks via Plaid (categorised, deduplicated, plus edits and deletions)
  • fints2ledger FinTS/HBCI to csv to *ledger or beancount journals (python)
  • grisbi2Ledger Grisbi to *ledger converter
  • gsheet-csv.hs a script to download Google sheets (haskell)
  • hledger-Excel Excel spreadsheet to *ledger journal converter (visual basic for applications)
  • hledger-import-dsl alternate, programmable CSV converter for hledger
  • hledger-to-influxdb hledger to InfluxDB converter (haskell)
  • hledger2beancount hledger to beancount converter (haskell)
  • homebank2ledger HomeBank to ledger and beancount converter (perl)
  • icsvledger interactive CSV to *ledger converter (python)
  • into-ledger CSV to *ledger converter
  • invoice2data extract data from PDF invoices (python)
  • jali downloader/importer to *ledger (python)
  • ldgclip import bank transactions via the clipboard with one click (bash/awk)
  • Ledger in Go has limport, a CSV to *ledger converter
  • ledger-autosync OFX download, OFX to *ledger conversion, deduplication
  • ledger-guesser neural network for generating entries like past ones, can be used with ledger-autosync (javascript)
  • ledger-myexpenses MyExpenses android app sqlite db to *ledger conversion (python, 2017)
  • ledgermyexpenses sync MyExpenses android app to/from Ledger (bash, 2023)
  • ledger-to-beancount yet another simple ledger to beancount converter (python)
  • ledger-tutorials convert Pete Keen's tutorials to ebook format
  • ledger2beancount h/ledger to beancount converter (perl)
  • ledger2beancount.py *ledger to beancount converter (python)
  • moneymoney-ledger MoneyMoney export extension for *ledger
  • plaid2text Plaid API to *ledger/beancount download/conversion
  • reckon smart interactive/non-interactive CSV to *ledger converter
  • slc generates Ledger accounting entries, works with generic CSV files as well as the Stripe API
  • smart_importer library for building smarter CSV to beancount/Fava converters
  • Tiller service to download from mostly-US banks to google or microsoft spreadsheets (commercial but pretty good)
  • total_recall CSV to *ledger converter

GnuCash

Intuit

  • outofit QuickBooks to *ledger converter
  • plaid2qif Download transactions from plaid as QIF or CSV files
  • qb2ledger QuickBooks General Journal CSV to *ledger converter
  • QIFtoLedger (Bank of America's) QIF to *ledger converter

KMyMoney

YNAB

  • beancount-ynab Import YNAB4 (legacy desktop-based version) into beancount
  • beancount-ynab5 Import YNAB5 (cloud-based version) transactions into beancount
  • ynab-to-ledger YNAB5 (transactions) to *ledger converter (2025)
  • ynab-to-ledger You Need A Budget (YNAB) to *ledger converter. Handles multiple currencies, multiple number formats, reconciliation, memos, transfers, and split transactions
  • ynab_to_ledger YNAB to *ledger converter

Price fetching

Data generation

  • beancount-extract-price generate prices transactions based on your beancount ledger (python)
  • DepreciateForLedger generate *ledger depreciation transactions (python)
  • hledger-interest generate *ledger interest entries (haskell)
  • ledger-ts typescript EDSL for generating beancount journals (typescript)
  • ledgerbil schedule recurring txns, interactive reconcile, date sorting
  • LedgerScheduler move entries from one file to another when they come due (python)
  • lotter generate postings for capital gain/loss (go)
  • recurring generate recurring *ledger entries (python)
  • reorder-journal.sh sort hledger entries, preserving directives/comments at top of file (bash)
  • sassetti adds lisp macros to ledger files (common lisp)

Invoicing

  • kairos (repo) generate invoices from hledger timedot files (go)

Workflows

  • docker-finance hledger/hledger-flow/docker-based system for tracking and reporting on traditional and cryptocurrency finances
  • Full-fledged hledger scripts and detailed tutorial for generating hledger journals from CSV files (haskell, shell)
  • hledger-flow command-line tool to generate hledger (or Ledger) journals from CSV files (haskell)
  • rtrledger another hledger journals from CSV files system, designed for chaotic German freelancers (shell etc.)
  • Lazy Beancount Beancount packaged in Docker with additional plugins and tools

Formatting

Reporting

  • budget_report budget reporting with beancount (python)
  • gainstrack personal wealth analysis app with beancount export (scala/typescript)
  • hledger-diff report differing transactions between two journals (haskell)
  • hledger-irr calculate an account's internal rate of return (superseded by roi) (haskell)
  • hledger-lit show multiple charts in web browser (python)
  • hledger-sankey Script + HTML files to plot income next to expense money flows from an hledger ledger file (shell + javascript)
  • hledger-tools generating charts from hledger (typescript)
  • hledger-vega makes configurable vega-lite charts from hledger (shell)
  • hreports customise hledger reports with templates and PDF output (python)
  • ledger-plot interactive tool for making GNUplot charts from Ledger (python)
  • ledger-plots R package & script to make charts from Ledger (R)
  • r-ledger an R package for reading and reporting on ledger/hledger/beancount files (R)
  • TaxingLots calculates capital gains for a ledger journal (python)

Time logging

UI, console

  • bean-add interactive transaction entry tool (python)
  • hledger add interactive transaction entry tool (builtin command)
  • ladd create and edit a new *ledger transaction by fuzzy-matching past descriptions
  • ldgr command line tool to add/sort/tag ledger files (ruby)
  • ledger xact history-aware transaction generator (builtin command)

UI, curses

  • dravik TUI for hledger browsing (python)
  • hledger-iadd TUI for *ledger transaction entry (haskell)
  • hledger-ui TUI for *ledger browsing (haskell, video)
  • ledger-add TUI for *ledger transaction entry (python)
  • puffin TUI for hledger browsing (go)
  • regdel TUI for browsing Ledger files (python)

UI, GUI

  • favagtk app of Fava web UI for beancount browsing (Python, GTK)
  • fruit-credits data entry/reporting GUI for hledger (Vala, GNOME)
  • ledgerble reporting GUI with charts & adjustable reports (Javascript)
  • ledgerhelpers misc. GUI tools + helper library (Python, GTK)
  • Prudent integrated journal editing/importing/reporting GUI for Ledger (Javascript, mac only, closed source)

UI, web

  • cash offline-capable web UI for data entry to CSV (js/html)
  • fava web UI for beancount browsing (python, demo)
  • finfetch local web app for downloading csv from your banks via Plaid (categorised, deduplicated, plus edits and deletions)
  • hledger-web web UI for *ledger browsing, data entry (haskell, demo, Sandstorm app)
  • hledger-web-rs web UI for hledger reports (rust)
  • Paisa web UI or desktop app for ledger, hledger and beancount (go, javascript, demo)
  • Ledger in Go web UI for browsing ledger transactions, reports, and porfolios
  • Ledger Web ledger HTML reporting system (ruby, postgres)
  • Ledger Web web UI/API for ledger browsing, data entry (python)
  • ledger-analytics web UI for ledger data analytics (javascript)
  • ledger-dashboard web UI for ledger browsing, data entry (python)
  • ledger-pyreport web UI for standard accounting statements and unrealised gains (python)
  • ledgeraccounting web UI for hledger: data entry, basic reports and budgets (javascript)
  • ledgible web UI for ledger browsing, data entry (python)
  • n4s danish-language ERP system (php)
  • node-ledger-web web UI for ledger browsing (javascript)
  • WealthPulse web UI for ledger browsing, price fetching (F#)
  • BeanHub web UI for beancount browsing, data entry with a Git repository (proprietary SaaS; some components open source)

UI, mobile

Library

Utilities

API

  • gledger Go package to interface with Ledger (go)
  • hledger-lib library for parsing and generating reports from *ledger files (haskell)
  • hledger-web the web app includes a JSON API server for *ledger files (haskell)
  • ledgerhelpers extends Ledger's python library (python)
  • node-hledger Node.js API for *ledger files (javascript)
  • BeanHub API proprietary SaaS API for operating on hosted beancount repositories and beanhub-forms