Interesting uses of Ledger

[Chris Bennett]

Hi all,

I've started a new thread related to Andrew Maffei's query about using
Ledger for recording scientific data (to avoid derailing that thread).

But I've always wanted to see what others are doing with Ledger that
is not your standard bookkeeping/accounting.

John Wiegley wrote:
"since Ledger isn't really about accounting, after all. :)"

Personally I use Ledger for:
- personal & business finance/bookkeeping
- time accounting (billable hours)
- Health Insurance / Fund extras tracking
- Credit card reward points & conversion to gift cards etc
- Daily calorie counting/recording
- Comparing Energy companies annual contracts for value based on
average used kW-h & MJ per quarter, factoring in different prace
brackets for units consumed.
- Pricing up & planning holidays (flights, accommodation,
activities) by keying in different choices in the account
structure for easily comparison.
- Experimenting with Quantified Self practices by trying to record
every minute/hour/day (within reason) as time entries.

Sometimes I feel a little crazy (mis)using Ledger for some of these
purposes, and nobody else seems to get it, but I like it :)

So I'm curious what other interesting uses people have found for the
Ledger & it's variants.

Regards,

Chris

[Andrew Maffei]

On Thursday, November 19, 2015 at 11:14:01 PM UTC-5, Chris Bennett wrote:

Hi all,

I've started a new thread related to Andrew Maffei's query about using
Ledger for recording scientific data (to avoid derailing that thread).

I think this is a great idea, thanks Chris! 

Strangely perhaps, I use ledger little on a day-to-day basis. I have

immense respect for it, but my ADD type tendencies and struggles to be disciplined

keeping any sort of financial records make my regular personal use of it difficult. 

So my current use of ledger is to support my intense (my wife says obsessive)

"side" interest in double entry bookkeeping.  I have worked on the technical

staff at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for 30+ years. I

helped to start up an ocean informatics program there and a led a number of

research projects that employed ontologies, semantics, and other more "traditional"

methods to help scientists share their data and improve research results.

I think that someday double entry bookkeeping will help oceanographers do their

important work on climate change and ecosystem health. I could never have uttered

this idea to any of them if I had not found ledger-cli a few years ago and had my

hopes raised that this would be possible -- not that they take me seriously yet ;-).

[Alan Schmitt]

Hello,

On 2015-11-20 05:13, Chris Bennett <ch...@ceegeebee.com> writes:

> Hi all,
>
> I've started a new thread related to Andrew Maffei's query about using
> Ledger for recording scientific data (to avoid derailing that thread).
>
> But I've always wanted to see what others are doing with Ledger that
> is not your standard bookkeeping/accounting.
>
> John Wiegley wrote:
> "since Ledger isn't really about accounting, after all. :)"
>
> Personally I use Ledger for:

I've never thought of using Ledger for anything but my personal
finances, and I find the idea fascinating. Out of curiosity, do you have
on file for each domain you track using Ledger?

Thanks,

Alan

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OpenPGP Key ID : 040D0A3B4ED2E5C7
Athmospheric CO₂ (Updated November 9, 2015, Mauna Loa Obs.): 399.06 ppm

[Kyle Spaans]

A friend and I are looking into using Ledger for brewing beer.

The double-entry features means one can track inventory and consumption of ingredients. And then the commodity pricing features means you can formulate recipes! A kilogram of malted barley equals 5 sugar units and 2.5 sugar units means 1% of alcohol in the finished beer, etc.

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[Chris Bennett]

> I've never thought of using Ledger for anything but my personal
> finances, and I find the idea fascinating. Out of curiosity, do you have
> on file for each domain you track using Ledger?

Most of the time it is a separate ledger file with no sharing of
accounts with my regular personal & business bookkeeping, and the only
ones I've thought about integrating are things like credit card reward
points, gift vouchers & health insurance/extras benefits. Then when I
spend voucher money on regular expenses, my reporting on expenses is
accurate even when real $$ weren't part of the transaction.

For health insurance, I'm treating my annual fees as a credit into
accounts that I can draw on (in part) when I submit claims. I get 60%
back on expenses for different categories of 'extras' care up to some
limit per calendar year. Ledger allows me track all of these quite
nicely :)

Regards,

Chris

[Jostein Berntsen]

I posted a Project accounting example by using ledger some time back:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/ledger-cli/jostein$20project/ledger-cli/EoYTM8g9Kmg/IT5aGDbflRkJ

Another way I use it for in my work is to keep a separate account for my commuting costs to work, including expenses for lunch and related costs. This is useful to get an overview to plan for different periods and align with travel discounts and more.

Jostein

[NG]

Hi Chris,

Do you have an example file for tracking kw/h?

Cheers.