Need help just getting started

[Oliver Hardy]

The fact that other people have actually figured out how to use this program makes me hang my head in shame.

If someone can point me to where in the man pages it describes how to create a journal I would be grateful. Also how does one create accounts, add entries

etc.

Thank you

[Kent R. Spillner]

I couldn't wrap my head around it either until I set aside some time and sat down to read the fine docs from start to finish: https://www.ledger-cli.org/3.0/doc/ledger3.html#Introduction-to-Ledger

You should have a basic understanding by the end of section 1.1, but at the very least I think you should read all the way through the end of section 5.

I know that's probably not the answer you're looking for, but honestly all of that information is there in the first 5 sections. There just isn't one single, self-contained "5 minute getting started guide" in the docs.

Disclaimer: *everything* I know about accounting I learned from section 3 of the docs, and by asking questions on this list. ;)

Thank you

--

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ledger" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ledger-cli+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ledger-cli/8d5e81a1-1874-44a7-bac1-765f525cfc13o%40googlegroups.com.

[Ghanashyam Prabhu]

I recently got interested and started using ledger from the below primer for ledger 

with Emacs - Though the video has some information specific to Emacs editor, it has 

very good introduction to ledger's double entry system for bookkeeping 

https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/46hs9q/conquering_your_finances_with_emacs_and_ledger/   

 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ledger-cli/1595016319.21528752%40apps.rackspace.com.

[Eric S Fraga]

On Friday, 17 Jul 2020 at 12:37, Oliver Hardy wrote:
> If someone can point me to where in the man pages it describes how to
> create a journal I would be grateful. Also how does one create accounts,
> add entries

Just in case, maybe you're missing the very simple point that you create
the files yourself manually. The program doesn't create files or add
accounts for you. It takes a ledger file and outputs different
information from it. This is unlike other accounting software you may
have used in the past.

So crank up your favourite text editor [1] and type in example entries
from the manual. Then use the ledger command line tool to output
balances, registers, etc.

HTH,
eric

Footnotes:
[1] I use Emacs which has a ledger-mode which makes entry much easier.

--
Eric S Fraga via Emacs 28.0.50 & org 9.3.7 on Debian bullseye/sid

[Oliver Hardy]

Just a quick thank you to those who took the time to reply. I do appreciate it. My error, as Eric Fraga points out, was in thinking there were commands to create ledgers, add accounts, etc.

I am working my way through the docs and even though things are still somewhat confusing I believe I'm slowly getting there.

Thanks again

[Sam Tetruashvili]

There are some great resources on ledger (as well as alternatives to ledger here) on https://plaintextaccounting.org. There are a few video presentations linked there that give a great overview; in particular this one: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjoCNRpLanY

--

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ledger" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ledger-cli+...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ledger-cli/9bf4eaee-398a-4239-aea0-39a1f56764a9o%40googlegroups.com.

[Colin Dean]

I'll be conducting an online workshop on July 24, 2020 for Codeland Conference.

https://codelandconf.com/workshops/colin-dean/

I'll publish my materials afterward. They're technically already online but buried in a repo. I'll put them in their own repo within a couple of weeks after.

On Friday, July 17, 2020 at 3:37:30 PM UTC-4, Oliver Hardy wrote:

[Scott Carpenter]

I've been using ledger for 7 years and still have to ask basic questions here from time to time. It's certainly worth the learning curve!

[Taylor R Campbell]

> Date: Fri, 17 Jul 2020 12:37:30 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Oliver Hardy <ohar...@gmail.com>

>
> If someone can point me to where in the man pages it describes how to
> create a journal I would be grateful. Also how does one create accounts,
> add entries
> etc.

Just create a text file with your favourite text editor -- Emacs,
Notepad, Sublime, whatever (make sure it's not a word processor or
rich text or anything) -- and start writing transactions saying how
much money moved into or out of accounts. For example, you can copy &
paste the following into a file called `ledger.dat':

2020-01-01 Opening Balances
Assets:Bank 100.00 EUR
Assets:Cash 40.00 EUR
Assets:Reimbursements:Friend 32.00 EUR
Equity:Opening Balances

2020-01-03 Dinner
Expenses:Food 27.00 EUR
Assets:Cash

Then run `ledger -f ledger.dat balance', and it will show you how much
is in each account after all the transactions. To add entries, simply
add to the end of the ledger.dat text file.

There's no need to take a separate step to create accounts -- ledger
will just take the account names you say in the transactions (but you
can declare them up front with, e.g., `account Assets:Bank', and then
use the `--pedantic' or `--strict' options to check for typos).