Here is a discussion on a method for generating PDF invoices from ledger: https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/ledger-cli/uvYxLRJLHws
I've got a similar need. I want to be able to make transactions and use metadata to label them as invoices with each transaction posting a line on the invoice and possibly metadata for each posting with a human-readable description, then come up with some kind of toolchain using LaTeX to generate PDF invoices for me. I'm not sure currently how I could get the line item description out of ledger. Since I haven't worked on this I've just rolled an interim solution using: - an invoice template written in LaTeX - little invoice text files named by invoice id containing the customer name and line items - an awk script that parses the invoice text files - an awk script that parses the customers.txt file database - a inv2pdf shell script that takes an invoice id and outputs the invoice pdf Like I said the caveat is that my invoice line item info is separate from my ledger file, so I have to add the invoice in two places. On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 6:27 PM, Zack Williams <[email protected]> wrote: > On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 11:53 AM, Bradley M. Kuhn <[email protected]> wrote: >> Russell Adams wrote at 10:39 (EDT): >> >>> So what I hear is: We need a way to build business logic on top of >>> Ledger. Would that be a fair summary of both of our issues? >> >> I don't really need the business logic implemented in software. What I >> need are software tools for other accounting-related tasks, like >> invoicing, to work with version control underneath and be aware of >> Ledger. >> >> I think that's the first step. > > Invoicing isn't an accounting task - it's a document generation task. > > My solution to the above problem was a few rake scripts, some PDF > generation code for invoices, and a preprocessor that takes my own > tag-augmented version of markdown and does things like time math for > counting hours, etc. . My output formats are ledger files, PDF > invoices, and various other reports. Everything is text kept in > version control. > > I haven't posted my workflow tools yet as they're extremely rough > around the edges, but I intend to when I get it cleaned up. > > - Zack
