hledger project 2024 report

[Simon Michael]

Good day all,

Here's a first year-end report for the hledger project, for 2024. This one is brief, summarising product and development activity and project finances. I hope we'll have one of these in each new year from now on (and possibly smaller reports each quarter).

Product

In 2024 we

• shipped 4 major releases, with these summaries:
  • 1.41: Valuation fix, improved HTML and FODS output, multiple depths, terminal pagination, robust export to Beancount
  • 1.40: Config file support, sortable register, FODS output, prettier tables
  • 1.34: --tldr (short command examples), reorganised commands list, ghc-debug support
  • 1.33: close enhancements, hledger-ui 'dark' theme, GHC 9.8 support, Apple ARM binaries
• and 2 minor releases
• had 24 committers (down from 28 the previous year)
• had 1559 commits across 3 repos (up from 1342)
• had 67 pull requests (up from 45)
• had 97 issues reported (down from 131)
• of which 44 were bugs (down from 79)
• of which 9 were regressions (down from 16)

2025 product goals

Some current personal wish lists:

Top 5 improvement wishes for 2025:

1. More built-in import file management
2. Transaction balancing based on local precisions
3. Non-lossy print
4. Prettier print (better amount aligning)
5. ...

Top 5 new feature wishes 2025:

1. Template system for generating entries, files..
2. Report template system
3. Lot tracking
4. Leaner and faster
5. ...

Finance

Revenues & Expenses, 2024

	Commodity	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Total	Average
Revenues
revenues:donations	USD	386.00	131.00	41.00	41.00	41.00	41.00	41.00	41.00	241.00	141.00	91.00	41.00	1277.00	106.42
Total:	USD	386.00	131.00	41.00	41.00	41.00	41.00	41.00	41.00	241.00	141.00	91.00	41.00	1277.00	106.42
Expenses
expenses	USD	100.92	20.95	9.34	109.84	9.34	9.34	9.34	9.34	313.02	609.80	109.59	59.21	1370.03	114.17
bounties	USD	50.00	0	0	100.00	0	0	0	0	299.77	599.16	100.00	49.21	1198.14	99.84
fees	USD	50.92	20.95	9.34	9.84	9.34	9.34	9.34	9.34	13.25	10.64	9.59	10.00	171.89	14.32
Total:	USD	100.92	20.95	9.34	109.84	9.34	9.34	9.34	9.34	313.02	609.80	109.59	59.21	1370.03	114.17
Net:	USD	285.08	110.05	31.66	-68.84	31.66	31.66	31.66	31.66	-72.02	-468.80	-18.59	-18.21	-93.03	-7.75

Revenues & Expenses, by year

account	revenues:donations	expenses:bounties	expenses:fees	expenses:misc	Total:
commodity	USD	USD	USD	USD	USD
2017	120.00	0	-19.08	0	100.92
2018	225.00	0	-34.93	0	190.07
2019	105.00	0	-23.33	0	81.67
2020	1254.38	0	-189.81	0	1064.57
2021	4721.00	-760.01	-708.34	0	3252.65
2022	3744.00	-400.00	-592.10	-578.12	2173.78
2023	1868.00	-862.00	-303.93	-100.00	602.07
2024	1277.00	-1198.14	-171.89	0	-93.03
total	13314.38	-3220.15	-2043.41	-678.12	7372.70

Asset & Liability year-end balances

account	assets:opencollective	Total:
commodity	USD	USD
2017	100.92	100.92
2018	290.99	290.99
2019	372.66	372.66
2020	1437.23	1437.23
2021	4689.88	4689.88
2022	6863.66	6863.66
2023	7465.73	7465.73
2024	7372.70	7372.70

2024 finance summary

In 2024 we

• had 20 donors (down from 22 the previous year)
• received 1277 in donations (down from 1868)
• spent 1198 on 17 regression finder/fixer bounties, of which 8 were donated back to the project, for a net expense of 798 (In 2023 we spent 862 on 10 regression bounties, of which 1 was donated, for net expense of 812)
• recorded a net loss for the first time (93)

2025 finance goals

1. Put project funds to work, including when at rest (earn interest)
2. Start funding releases, specific projects and/or maintainers
3. Review and reimburse some legacy expenses
4. Clarify and reduce fee expenses
5. Regular finance reports, eg quarterly