Hi, I have done a bunch of exploration of beancount over the last few months and really like its capabilities and now ready to get serious about getting it working for me. So far this is what I have done:
- Used the sample files to familiarize myself with the commands and beancount's capabilities. - Created accounts and manually entered some real data for my personal finances. - Tried this <https://github.com/jbms/beancount-import> sem-auto-categorization web-based import tool. It's good but I think I'll mostly go the manual route. - Tried various import methods - Tried importing a quicken file...have had some trouble with this. - Tried a csv2ofx <https://github.com/reubano/csv2ofx> tool - Used reds_importers <https://github.com/redstreet/beancount_reds_importers/blob/master/README.md> for Vanguard. This has worked successfully. This generates output that has two-sided. - Wrote my own csv importer for my bank that is based on this csv <https://gist.github.com/mterwill/7fdcc573dc1aa158648aacd4e33786e8#file-importers-chase-py> importer.. (I'm not a software engineer by training so this took me some time but I'm very happy with this now and understand the code much more). This generates output that is only one-sided. My own conclusion is that I want go the route suggested by Martin and effectively have my own importers for each source and with text-based editor with auto-completion do the categorization. For the brokerages there are a limited number of accounts/categories you can have so doing the two-sided entry can be done here so it is auto-categorization if you will. (e.g. dividends from account xyz always go to this income account, etc). For credit cards and banks it rarely helps as there are so many expense categories. Perhaps a subset (e.g. interest income from the bank can be autocategorized or mortgage payment of specific amount) can be automated. *Q1. Is doing two-side entry for brokerages and single-side for banks/credit cards a good approach the general practice that most here use? * *Q2. Is there other import approaches to consider? I think I'm finding this the hardest part to get going on and that is why other tools like Quicken/Mint/GnuCash are easier to get going. So not sure how, but perhaps data collection and import is something already solved that is not beancount specific?* I also noticed that Martin mentioned this in the import documentation <https://docs.google.com/document/d/11EwQdujzEo2cxqaF5PgxCEZXWfKKQCYSMfdJowp_1S8/edit#> : > A list of things I’d really want to add, beyond fortifying what’s already > there: > > - > > A generic, configurable CSV importer which you can instantiate. I plan > to play with this a bit and build a sniffer that could automatically > figure > out the role of each column. > - > > A hook to allow you to register a callback for post-processing > transactions that works across all importers. > > *Q3. Is there any update/development on these two items?* thanks, Jonathan -- 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beancount/b2b52ac6-b019-4375-adcb-e3f7e6ab0c3bo%40googlegroups.com.
