Thanks! This is very helpful. I think there will be a learning curve, but I'm impressed with what you and others have done.
On Monday, November 26, 2018 at 11:46:20 AM UTC-5, Martin Blais wrote: > > On Mon, Nov 26, 2018 at 9:34 AM TF <[email protected] <javascript:>> > wrote: > >> I’d like to get started using beancount for personal finance, and have >> started on the tutorial, etc. I have some practical, (mostly) non-technical >> questions that I haven’t found answers to. For example: >> >> - Do I need to create all my accounts from the start? They’re all >> connected, of course — bank account pays credit-card bill and mortgage, >> checking account funds savings, etc. if I don’t create them all at once, >> how do I create those connections as I go? Eg, how can I “pay” a >> credit-card bill before I’ve set up the credit card account? >> > > By "setup" you could mean one of two things: > 1. Declaring the existence of the account, or > 2. Filling it up with transactions that will show the correct balance at > date. > In order to post to an account, you need just the first. > Furthermore, if you'd like that account to show the correct balance at > some date, you can pad it with an entry against a generic equity account > like "Opening-Balances". Just insert a Balance directive and a preceding > (in date) Pad directive to have that done without having to calculate (this > way you can then start filling up the account without having go always > readjust the padding amount). > > There's an example here: > https://bitbucket.org/blais/beancount/src/tip/examples/example.beancount > > > > >> >> - How much history does it make sense to create at the beginning? I would >> have to import bank and card data (no Quicken file or equivalent). I see >> there’s a way of starting an account, padding it to the present and then >> going back to add historical transactions from some arbitrary point before >> I started recording transactions but after the account-open date. Does it >> make more sense to start with the present or a month back/several >> months/beginning of the year? >> > > That's really a choice that depends on how much time you want to invest > before you get started. > > One reasonable way is to choose a starting date (e.g. Sep 1st) and update > all the accounts you care about from that date on. A good date to start > from is the beginning of the calendar year (although this late in December > that will give you a fair amount of work to fill all of this in). > > Another way is to begin with just one account (e.g., if you care about > budgeting, maybe start with only your credit card) and update the last > month, and as you have more time fill in the past months as desired. > > I would say the very most important thing is not to sweat the little > details too much and to get going and get into the habit, on say, basic > accounts like your credit card (and/or checking account), updating them on > a regular basis, and to automate importing for those, to develop a > discipline to do that over several months. Just focus on nailing down the > process for that. The expenses breakdown will already be worthwhile and > when you're comfortable with this start expanding to other accounts. > (Pretty quickly you'll be at a point where you'll have the desire to cover > your entire balance sheet.) > > >> >> - What’s the best way to get up to speed on importing csv or Quicken-type >> files downloaded from a bank? I assume there may be some amount of >> scripting available (I can manage that much python). So far I’ve hand coded >> my most recent transactions from my checking account, just to get a feel >> for what’s involved, but I don’t want to keep doing that for long. >> > > You'll have to write some small amount of code, there's no way around it > unfortunately. > OTOH there's some support library and tools and I created a little > interface to try to organize the process and minimize the amount of code > you'd have to write. > There's an example CSV importer. > Writing a QIF importer if pretty straightforward with qifparse (I have an > example somewhere I could share). > http://furius.ca/beancount/doc/ingest > https://bitbucket.org/blais/beancount/src/tip/examples/ingest/ > > Also see other people's contributions here, there might be something for > you: > http://furius.ca/beancount/doc/contrib > > > > > >> >> Thanks! >> >> -- >> 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/b67a08b4-b720-4b7b-9a3b-563c026109b6%40googlegroups.com >> . >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Beancount" group. 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