smichael
PS: I also like your shorter syntax and would be happy if it became a cross platform standard - Shebang 2.0..
Why not a standard unix shebang line at top of index.py ?
All the major PTA tools support this - perhaps the chat could help ?
> my net worth, my income over period of time, capital gains / losses.
The first two are easy, the third is more complicated but also possible - unrealized gains at least, I forget how easy realized gains are in the various tools, it might not be fully automatic.
Emacs users should look into Flycheck integration, eg https://hledger.org/editors.html#flycheck-hledger . Real time indication of parse and balance errors as you edit is nice!
PS a little daily-ish data-entry-and-reconciling ritual, with a pleasant tool setup, can be quite satisfying! I actually look forward to it. (That right there is part of my PTA success story. I used to suffer a lot of stress around all things finance.)
hledger add, hledger-iadd and hledger-web are some of the data entry uis with auto completion.
Alternatives: other ways of generating entries means less manual data entry, such as copy/paste in your editor, predefined templates (org-capture, yasnippet or equivalents), or conversion from bank csv data.
[PS I realize now you were asking for more than account name auto-completion, ie: filling in defaults for all postings (legs) when you reuse a transaction description. I don't know of many PTA tools doing this yet; hledger add is one.]
balancednoautoconversion validation may be relevant, if so (https://hledger.org/hledger.html#strict-checks)
PTA tools, some of them at least, can scale well from beginner-level single entry accounting, or even zero entry "accounting" (just a list of dated event descriptions), to fully general double entry accounting that can model any financial event. I always encourage people to start out simple. What usually happens is they learn and become more interested and more sophisticated as time goes on.
So I would say one group of people this appeals to is people who want to get their hands dirty with Double Entry Bookkeeping, with the support of a lively and enthusiastic community, in order to understand it better.
Another is people who are expert with text editors, scripting and programming and want an accounting system where they can bring these skills and insights to bear.
Another is people who want total control and privacy of their financial records.
Another is people who want their financial data to be accessible and usable for a very long time (even without software, if it came to that).
* Use a version control system - keep journal files in eg a github repo; control access, manage pull requests, audit changes in the usual way.
* Use multiple files - the journal can be composed from multiple files, each with different filesystem permissions/accessibility.
* Maintain files on a server, and run a web UI like hledger-web or fava, perhaps behind a login form, to give read-only or add-only access to remote users.
An example of Ledger/hledger's main file format:
2021-01-01 opening balances on january 1st
assets:checking $1000 ; a posting, increasing assets:checking's balance by $1000
assets:cash $100
liabilities $0
equity $-1100 ; each transaction must sum to zero
2021-03-05 client payment
assets:checking $2000
revenues:consulting $-2000 ; revenues/liabilities/equity normally appear negative
2021-03-20 Sprouts
expenses:food:groceries $100
assets:cash $40
assets:checking ; a missing amount will be inferred ($-140 here)Or Explore, Freenode, hntop.