Re: Question Regarding Creating Workflow For Automatic Formulas For Finance Based Org Spreadsheet

[Marcin Borkowski]

On 2022-01-10, at 04:42, Samuel Banya <sbanya@fastmail.com> wrote:

> Ah, Ledger is way too complicated for what it's worth. I've seen videos on 
> YouTube about it, and every person who's praised it is pretty much too smart 
> enough to be able to explain it in simple terms.

Interesting - I've been using Ledger for many years now, and while
I agree that it has its dark corners, it's much like Org in that respect
- you are not forced to use them at all.  And the "core" is IMHO /very/
simple - you just record your "transactions" (e.g., using the very nice
Emacs ledger-mode) and look at a report.

I basically use just one kind of report - the balance report, both to
reconcile my ledger file with my cash and bank and to see the
current/previous month's income and expenses.

Before I started using Ledger, I used GNUcash (on and off for a few
years, too) - I can't say a bad word about it, but it's not Emacs-based,
so you know.  Also, it's not exactly text-based (AFAIR, it uses XML, so
it "kind of" is, but...) - a big advantage of Ledger is that I can keep
my books in Git.  (Of course, using Org would have the same advantage.)

Also, if you don't insist on Ledger, https://plaintextaccounting.org/
has a comparison of other text-based accounting tools.

I'm wondering if your opinion about Ledger isn't influenced by the fact
that it uses basic accounting principles, like the idea of double-entry
accounting.  For me, it's /very/ simple and intuitive, but I graduated
in economics many years ago and had a (basic, but still) course on
accounting.  If that is your problem, I'd suggest spending some time on
understanding that - even if you don't end up using Ledger but some
other software, you might find learning about accounting useful.  (Also,
it's fascinating.  No, really!  It's an extremely clever abstract
system with a real-life use-case.)

That said, there are people who just use a regular spreadsheet for their
personal/household finance, and it seems to work for them.  Go figure.
(Now that I think of it, I'll have to ask someone who does how they
manage that.)

Having said all that, would someone be interested in a blog post(s) with
a Ledger basics crash course?

Hth,

-- 
Marcin Borkowski
http://mbork.pl