Recent content on The Bean Ledger
A .beancount file is a stream of directives — dated instructions that either record that something happened or assert that something is true. The asserting ones are what make Beancount stricter than a spreadsheet: when an assertion fails, the file refuses to load, and the error points at exactly where your records and reality diverged. The language defines more directives than you’ll ever…
The Problem of Non-integer Shares Open a modern brokerage account and you own fractional shares almost before you mean to. Dividend reinvestment turns a 53.31 USD payout into 0.079 shares of an ETF; dollar-based recurring buys convert a flat 200 USD into whatever slice of a share that happens to buy today; fractional-share trading lets you order half a share outright. Whole-number lots are…
It’s payday. Your checking account goes up by 8,192 USD. You open your ledger, add one line — salary came in, cash went up — and move on with your day. That entry feels complete. It balances, the number matches the deposit, nothing is wrong. And yet you’ve just thrown away most of the information you were actually paid. Because 8,192 USD isn’t your income. It’s what’s…
Here’s a scene from my ledger that happens a few times a year. Over the course of a month, we buy a scattered pile of medical things out of pocket — a doctor’s visit copay, a box of prescribed supplies from the pharmacy, some physical-therapy sessions, a couple of online orders for a brace and a monitor. Nothing gets billed to insurance automatically, because these are the kinds of…
You sign for a new car, and 30,000 USD leaves your checking account in a single transfer to the dealer. That night you open Beancount to record it, and the entry stalls on what feels less like data entry than a type error. Expense it, and Expenses absorbs 30,000 USD in one month — the income statement now reports that you torched a year’s discretionary budget, when in fact a car worth nearly…
Introduction Tax accounting is one of the most crucial aspects of personal and business bookkeeping, yet it can be intimidating for newcomers to double-entry accounting systems like Beancount. This guide will walk you through the fundamental concepts and practical techniques for accurately recording various types of taxes in your Beancount ledger.
Introduction Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) are a common part of compensation packages in tech and other industries. They can represent a significant portion of your income—but they also introduce complexity to your personal finances. RSUs vest over time, are subject to income taxes when they vest, and may later be sold, triggering capital gains. If you’re already using Beancount to track…
Introduction Tracking your investments can easily become a mess of PDFs, spreadsheets, and inconsistent brokerage exports. If you’re already using Beancount to manage your personal finances, why not bring that same clarity and precision to your stock portfolio? Beancount isn’t just for daily finances—it’s a powerful tool for investment tracking. With its plain-text syntax and double-entry…
Accounting for health-related expenses in the U.S. is slightly different from typical expense tracking because it usually involves insurance. In this post, we’ll walk through how to use Beancount to track your healthcare expenses in the U.S. How Healthcare System Work in US How healthcare system works In its simplest form, the healthcare system typically works as follows: You visit a healthcare…
One of the first steps to mastering Beancount is designing a clean, flexible, and future-proof Chart of Accounts (CoA). This structure defines how you categorize your financial life—and ultimately, how useful and insightful your reports will be. In this post, I’ll walk through the principles, pitfalls, and patterns I’ve learned while building my own CoA in Beancount. Principles I have been using…
Introduction In the United States, retirement accounts are specialized investment vehicles designed to support long-term financial security during post-employment years. These accounts—primarily Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) and employer-sponsored plans such as 401(k)s—offer significant tax advantages to incentivize consistent saving. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) sets and…
Managing real estate investments involves tracking numerous financial activities, including property purchases, rental income, and eventual sales. This guide illustrates how to leverage Beancount , a plain-text double-entry accounting system, to accurately model real estate transactions. By structuring appropriate accounts for assets, liabilities, income, and expenses, readers will learn to…
Understanding the foundational principles of Beancount is essential for effective personal finance management. This post delves into the core concepts that underpin Beancount’s plain-text double-entry accounting system. You’ll explore how every transaction must be balanced, the five fundamental account types (Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Income, Expenses), and the role of commodities…
As your financial records grow, maintaining clarity and efficiency becomes paramount. This guide presents a structured approach to organizing your Beancount files, moving beyond a single, monolithic ledger. By categorizing accounts by type and segmenting transactions based on their nature and time frame, you can enhance readability, simplify maintenance, and facilitate future adjustments. Whether…
In an age of overly complex personal finance tools, Beancount offers a refreshing alternative: a simple, transparent, and programmable plain-text accounting system. This post introduces the foundational concepts of Beancount, guiding you through setting up your first ledger, understanding its double-entry system, and visualizing your finances with Fava and advanced plugins. Whether you’re…
In a landscape dominated by opaque financial tools and cloud-dependent apps, Beancount emerges as a refreshing alternative—a plain-text, open-source accounting system that prioritizes transparency, control, and extensibility. This post explores why Beancount stands out as a powerful solution for managing personal finances. You’ll discover how Beancount’s double-entry bookkeeping…