Plain Text Accounting - plaintextaccounting.org
plaintextaccounting.org
Plain Text Accounting
Welcome! Plain text accounting is a way of<br>doing bookkeeping and accounting with plain text files and efficient,<br>command-line-friendly software like Ledger, hledger, or Beancount.
Quick links
What is Plain Text<br>Accounting ? , PTA<br>FAQ , PTA Cookbook
News & discussion:<br>chat , forum , reddit , mastodon , twitter<br>, bluesky
Docs: PTA app comparisons , PTA app docs , Accounting basics , Intros , Cheatsheets , Cookbooks , FAQs , Slides , Videos
Software: PTA apps , PTA apps feature matrix , AI , Distros/setups , Data conversion/import , Data generation , Editor plugins , Formatting , Invoicing ,<br>Price fetching , Reporting , Time<br>logging , UI, terminal , UI, GUI , UI, web , UI, mobile , Utilities ,<br>Workflows , Libraries
This site is a portal to the PTA community and its tools, docs, and<br>practices, made with love by Simon Michael (PTA fan and hledger project<br>leader). Updates to the repo<br>are welcome. If you find this useful and resources allow, donating is a great way to help. Here are our financial reports. Thank you<br>sponsors, including:
A modern accounting book app based on Beancount and Git
News &<br>discussion
Chat - #plaintextaccounting<br>chat - plaintextaccounting<br>matrix space - #plaintextaccounting<br>IRC channel - project chats
Blogs & articles - See the PTA forum's News category<br>and RSS<br>feed - Older blogs & articles,<br>2006-2024
PTA forum - forum.plaintextaccounting.org
Reddit - /r/plaintextaccounting
Lemmy - lemmy.world/c/plaintextaccounting
Hacker News - stories<br>- comments
Mastodon - #plaintextaccounting<br>- #ledgercli - #hledger - #beancount
Twitter - plaintextaccounting<br>- #plaintextaccounting<br>- #ledgercli<br>- #hledger - #beancount - LedgerTips 2014-2018
Bluesky - plaintextaccounting<br>- #plaintextaccounting
Stack Exchange - ledger-cli<br>tag - ledger-cli<br>search - hledger<br>tag - hledger<br>search
Project specific - Project mail<br>lists - This Week In<br>Hledger
plaintextaccounting.org site - commits<br>- contributors<br>- issues<br>- email the site<br>admin
Docs
PTA app comparisons , PTA app docs , Accounting basics , Intros , Cheatsheets , Cookbooks , FAQs , Slides , Videos
PTA app<br>comparisons
PTA apps
PTA apps feature<br>matrix
FAQ: Which<br>PTA app should I choose ?
Syntax Quick Reference
hledger and Ledger, hledger and Beancount, hledger and<br>other software 2014, 2019, 2022, 2023..
Matthias<br>Kauer: Command Line Accounting – A look at the various ledger ports<br>2015
beancount<br>mail list: Another Ledger user's perspective 2015
Beancount:<br>A Comparison of Beancount and Ledger 2014
ledger<br>list: ledger vs hledger vs beancount or how to choose the right cli<br>client 2014
PTA app docs
Ledger
hledger
Beancount
rustledger
Ledger (Go)
Tackler
pta
Accounting<br>basics
PTA FAQ
hledger:<br>Accounting basics
hledger: Accounting<br>links
Beancount:<br>The Double-Entry Counting Method
Accounting<br>for Computer Scientists
Accounting<br>for Dragons
Intros
What is Plain Text<br>Accounting?
Getting<br>Started With Ledger
hledger: Get<br>Started
Getting<br>Started with Beancount
Tackler:<br>Quickstart
Don't<br>Sink Your First Attempts at Plaintext Accounting
Program<br>your Finances: Command-line Accounting
Plain<br>Text Accounting Workshop
PTA Cookbook: Getting<br>started
BeanHub Academy
Lazy Beancount
Personal<br>Accounting In Ledger (book)
Cheatsheets
Syntax Quick Reference
Ledger CLI cheatsheet
Beancount<br>Syntax Cheat Sheet
Beginners<br>corner: a basic hledger transaction
(Almost)<br>everything you wanted to know about hledger transactions
hledger:<br>Journal cheatsheet
hledger:<br>CSV rules cheatsheet
Cookbooks
PTA Cookbook
Beancount<br>cookbook
hledger<br>cookbook
Ledger wiki
PTA Forum
Reddit:<br>plaintextaccounting
FAQs
PTA FAQ
hledger FAQ
Ledger<br>FAQ
Slides
Marcus<br>Rohrmoser: Buchhaltung, Hacker Art (2026, german)
Youngbin<br>Han: Plain Text Accounting with hledger (2025, korean and<br>english)
Simon<br>Michael: Inside hledger: an architectural tour and how-to 2021
Michael<br>Lynch: An introduction to plaintext accounting 2021
Andreas<br>Pauley: Purely Functional Personal Finance 2018
Matthew<br>Turland: Hacking Your Finances for Fun and Profit 2013
Videos
(PTA videos are currently hard to find<br>on youtube because of slop - if you find good ones, let me know.)
TORGiren<br>DevOpses: hledger part 1 (2026, 10m, polish)
O Clementino:<br>Gerencie suas finanças como um hacker (2026, 20m, brazilian<br>portuguese)
Coder Kaylee:<br>Hledger in 10 Minutes: The Ultimate CLI Tool (2025, 5m)
hledger<br>add and hledger web from<br>Youngbin Han's talk (2025, 1m, korean)
Thanga<br>Ayyanar: Ledger CLI (tamil) 2024
Edwin<br>Espinoza: Ledger CLI, Personal finance in the command line 2023
Prakash Joshi<br>Pax: How to Use Obsidian to Track Your Expenses 2022
Peter<br>Berger: Plain Text Accounting: An Opinionated View 2022
Glenn Ramsey:<br>Plain text accounting for fun and profit 2022
季路LJ:<br>Beancount |简略记账说明 2021
Robert<br>Nielsen: hledger fan channel short hledger beginner lessons,<br>2019-2021
Simon Michael:<br>Inside...