On Sunday, January 1, 2017 at 7:49:53 PM UTC+1, Martin Blais wrote: > > Hi Martin, > > First question: Are you already doing the basic stuff with it? > That is, are you setup to import and update your credit card, banking and > investment accounts, and have you taken the habit of updating these > transactions regularly? > I would start there, that's the most important thing. > I'd do that first, before adding lots of sophistication and custom things. > I *am* setting up to do it. Gonna re-task the time i spent first half of 2016 manually inputting *everything* (well, some copy-and-paste, but mostly data-entry gruntwork) into grokking the beancount importer and plugin infrastructure, so i can automate more things.
> > As for the meta-data, you don't need it to get started. > Meta-data only exists for you to use in custom scripts you write; > Beancount ignores your meta-data. > But in any case, I'll comment below. > oh, yes, I know. this is exactly my point in adding the metadata. I was possibly a bit unclear: I understand the purpose of metadata, and how Beancount treats it, and where to put it. I was hoping to kickstart some discussion around a semi-generalized metadata vocabulary, so as to facilitate sharing of scripts etc > > > > On Sat, Dec 31, 2016 at 9:32 PM, <[email protected] <javascript:>> > wrote: > >> I'm currently re-starting using beancount for 2017, and I'm trying my >> damnedest to do it the 'beancount way' this time - write beancount.ingest >> importers, etc. >> To facilitate the scripting i might be doing soon, i've been seeding my >> accounts with some metadata. I'd love to see other examples of metadata, >> and perhaps >> be a bit inspired :) >> >> currently I have: >> >> - account_id: the institution's account number >> - customer_id: my identification at the institution >> > > These I would attach to the corresponding account's Open directive. > > > >> - pbs_id: the auto-bill-pay ID >> > > I would import those as a ^link on each imported transaction > no, this belongs on the account. Each auto-paid bill has an associated contract number, which all bills from that spcific contract can be identified by. from my design spec rambling of my intended importer: >- find `open` directives in a Beancount file >- extract the pbs_id metadata (as well as other > relevant metadata - a friendly name for the payee > string for instance.) >- compare this to a PBS input file. If the pbs_id matches, > extract the amount, and convert to Beancount format (remove > `.` thousands separator, convert `,` decimal separator to `.`) >- construct a Beancount transaction using > * the account defined with metadata as the *credit* account > * how is a *debit* account defined? > - in metadata (`pay_from_account` metadata field)? > - hardcoded in script? > * the amount extracted from the PBS transaction list. > > > - provider: A friendly name for a service provider >> * an electricity company >> * a phone company >> * a bank >> > > Also attached to the Open directive. > > > >> - interest: a decimal (between 0 and 1) representation of >> an account's interest per year >> - min_payment (loans only): my minimum required payment >> > > Also attach to the Open directive > > > I am envisioning a plugin plugging the last two bits of data >> into a loan amortization calculator, for example. >> > > That's a cool idea. > > > > > > ## Metadata for forecasting >> >> I've also been tentatively adding metadata for forecasting >> and budgeting purposes. >> >> - budget (for variable expenses): If an expense is variable >> in amount, I use this field to keep an eye on my projections >> - rate (for fixed expenses): If a bill is always the same size, >> no fuss, no muss. >> - schedule: monthly, quarterly, biannual, annual. >> >> A plugin could conceivably parse these and convert to fava budget syntax. >> >> -- >> 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 [email protected] <javascript:>. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected] >> <javascript:>. >> To view this discussion on the web visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beancount/ddbe4583-c622-4739-92df-7f38912d148a%40googlegroups.com >> >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beancount/ddbe4583-c622-4739-92df-7f38912d148a%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > > -- 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 [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beancount/f4da2a6c-08e4-4bf8-a5bf-40cc3c5b506f%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
