;;; -*- mode: ledger; coding: utf-8; -*- ;;; ;;; This is an example/demo file, with some example accounts and ;;; some example transactions. A real-life Ledger file has a lot ;;; more transactions in it, and possibly a very different set ;;; of accounts; feel free to define your own and to change ;;; everything in here if you use this as a template. You can be ;;; creative, because all the account categories and commodities ;;; are entirely generic. (More comments are sprinkled below.) ;;; ;;; The order in which the transactions are declared does not ;;; matter at all... personally I like to organize transactions ;;; in chronological order, within sections that are ;;; more-or-less by account. I normally pretty much keep them in ;;; the order that the converted OFX file presents them. Here ;;; however, I've ordered the transactions for better clarity of ;;; presentation, since this is a file with sample transactions. ;;;;; Initialization ;;; Declaration of Accounts. ;;; Here you can declare a list of valid accounts, and ;;; optionally, a constraint on which kind of commodity they are ;;; allowed to hold (helps you track down mistakes). ;;; ;;; Note that ;;; ;;; - the system supports any currencies, and works with ;;; multiple commodities in the same Ledger. ;;; ;;; - No distinction is made between currency commodities (e.g. ;;; USD, EUR, USD) and investment commodities (e.g. GOOG, ;;; AAPL, MSFT). ;;; ;;; - The Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Income, Expenses ;;; categories are not special; they are simply a convention; ;;; be creative if you like. There are really only two kinds ;;; of accounts: debit accounts and credit accounts, and the ;;; type is only used for reporting (maybe). @defaccount De Assets:Current:Cash @defaccount De Assets:Current:BestBank:Checking USD @defaccount De Assets:Current:BestBank:Savings USD ;@defaccount De Assets:Fixed:Home USD @defaccount De Assets:Investments:UTrade:Account USD @defaccount De Assets:Investments:UTrade:Account:AAPL AAPL @defaccount De Assets:Investments:UTrade:Account:EWJ EWJ ;@defaccount De Assets:Loans @defaccount De Assets:AccountsReceivable ;@defaccount Cr Liabilities:AccountsPayable @defaccount Cr Liabilities:BestBank:Mortgage:Loan USD @defaccount Cr Liabilities:Credit-Card:VISA USD @defaccount Cr Liabilities:Condo-Management USD @defaccount Cr Equity:Opening-Balances @defaccount Cr Income:Investments:Interest:Checking @defaccount Cr Income:Investments:Interest:Savings @defaccount Cr Income:Investments:Dividends @defaccount Cr Income:Investments:Capital-Gains @defaccount Cr Income:Salary:AcmeCo @defaccount De Expenses:Financial:Fees @defaccount De Expenses:Financial:Commissions @defaccount De Expenses:Insurance:Life @defaccount De Expenses:Food:Restaurant @defaccount De Expenses:Food:Grocery @defaccount De Expenses:Food:Alcool @defaccount De Expenses:Communications:Phone @defaccount De Expenses:Communications:Mail ;@defaccount De Expenses:Transportation:Parking @defaccount De Expenses:Transportation:Taxi ;@defaccount De Expenses:Transportation:Trains ;@defaccount De Expenses:Transportation:PublicTrans ;@defaccount De Expenses:Taxes:US-State-California USD @defaccount De Expenses:Taxes:US-Federal USD @defaccount De Expenses:Govt-Services USD @defaccount De Expenses:Clothes @defaccount De Expenses:Car:Gas @defaccount De Expenses:Sports @defaccount De Expenses:Sports:Gear @defaccount De Expenses:Fun:Movie ;@defaccount De Expenses:Fun:Museum @defaccount De Expenses:Books ;@defaccount De Expenses:Travel:Flights ;@defaccount De Expenses:Travel:Accomodation ;@defaccount De Expenses:Toys:Photography ;@defaccount De Expenses:Toys:Computer ;@defaccount De Expenses:Office-Supplies @defaccount De Expenses:Medical @defaccount De Expenses:Charity ;@defaccount De Expenses:Misc ;@defaccount De Expenses:Home:Repair ;@defaccount De Expenses:Home:Maintenance ;@defaccount De Expenses:Home:Taxes:Municipal ;@defaccount De Expenses:Home:Taxes:School ;@defaccount De Expenses:Home:Insurance ;@defaccount De Expenses:Home:Monthly ;@defaccount De Expenses:Home:Monthly:Internet @defaccount De Expenses:Home:Monthly:Condo-Fees ;@defaccount De Expenses:Home:Monthly:Electricity @defaccount De Expenses:Home:Monthly:Loan-Interest ;@defaccount De Expenses:Home:Monthly:Water ;@defaccount De Expenses:Home:Acquisition:Furniture ;@defaccount De Expenses:Home:Acquisition:Renovations ;@defaccount De Expenses:Home:Acquisition:Legal ;@defaccount De Expenses:Home:Acquisition:Inspection ;;; You can provide mappings from the account numbers ("account ;;; ids") that are normally found in OFX files that the ;;; banks/brokers provide, mapping to account names in this ;;; Ledger file. This way, a script that converts the OFX into ;;; Ledger-compatible syntax is able to automatically figure out ;;; the right account names. ;;; Account number mappings. @var ofx accid 123456789012 Assets:Current:BestBank:Checking @var ofx accid 123456789012 Assets:Current:BestBank:Savings @var ofx accid 1234567890 Liabilities:BestBank:Mortgage:Loan @var ofx accid 1234567890123456 Liabilities:Credit-Card:VISA @var ofx accid 1234567890 Assets:Investments:UTrade:Account ;;;;; Assets:Current:BestBank:Checking ;; This entry tells the software to automatically insert an ;; entry at this date, of the amount required to fulfill the ;; next @check directive (chronologically) in the account (for ;; all commodities present). If the required amount is 0, no ;; entry is added. @pad 2007-12-31 Assets:Current:BestBank:Checking Equity:Opening-Balances ;; This directive tells the software to assert that at the given ;; date, in the given account, a specific amount of the given ;; commodity was present. @check 2008-01-01 Assets:Current:BestBank:Checking 1412.24 USD ;; A check deposit, e.g. depositing a government check. 2008-01-05 * GST CANADA | Deposit from govt for consumer tax rebate Assets:Current:BestBank:Checking 77.76 USD Expenses:Taxes:US-Federal ;; This is how salary direct deposit entries might show up ;; within the checking account section. Note how the salaries ;; are negative amounts... that's because Income is a credit ;; account category, and the numbers there are negative (you can ;; interpret this as the "amount of work-dollars that you took ;; from society and placed into your account"). 2008-01-10 * ACME | Salary paid from employer Assets:Current:BestBank:Checking 2000.00 USD Income:Salary:AcmeCo -2000 USD 2008-01-25 * ACME | Salary paid from employer Assets:Current:BestBank:Checking 2000.00 USD Income:Salary:AcmeCo 2008-02-10 * ACME | Salary paid from employer Assets:Current:BestBank:Checking 2000.00 USD Income:Salary:AcmeCo 2008-02-25 * ACME | Salary paid from employer Assets:Current:BestBank:Checking 2000.00 USD Income:Salary:AcmeCo ;; Withdrawal from another bank's ATM machine (with fees). 2008-01-12 * ATM withdrawal - 00044242 Assets:Current:BestBank:Checking -301.50 USD Expenses:Financial:Fees 1.50 USD Assets:Current:Cash ;; ATM withdrawal (without fees). 2008-01-30 * ATM withdrawal Assets:Current:BestBank:Checking -800.00 USD Assets:Current:Cash 2008-02-10 * ATM withdrawal Assets:Current:BestBank:Checking -500.00 USD Assets:Current:Cash 2008-02-24 * ATM withdrawal Assets:Current:BestBank:Checking -500.00 USD Assets:Current:Cash ;; Automated withdrawal for Life insurance payments. 2008-01-02 * LIFE INSURANCE -- LONDON LIFE Assets:Current:BestBank:Checking -42.69 USD Expenses:Insurance:Life 2008-02-02 * LIFE INSURANCE -- LONDON LIFE Assets:Current:BestBank:Checking -42.69 USD Expenses:Insurance:Life ;; A purchase from a store using the bank's debit card. 2008-01-17 * Interac Purchase - 1341 - ACCES SPORTS S Assets:Current:BestBank:Checking -89.00 USD Expenses:Sports:Gear ;; A monthly fee that the bank takes for its deposit banking services. 2008-01-10 * MONTHLY FEE Assets:Current:BestBank:Checking -4.00 USD Expenses:Financial:Fees ;; A typical bank's return on checking accounts. 2008-01-12 * Deposit interest Assets:Current:BestBank:Checking 0.02 USD Income:Investments:Interest:Checking ;; An example of using the A/R account: I bought an electronic ;; toy for a friend, and I wanted to track the amount that he ;; should pay back to me. Instead of placing it in expenses, I ;; made it a receivable, which was cancelled later on where he ;; paid me back. 2008-03-26 * Bought an iPhone to Gilbert (had to use ATM) Assets:AccountsReceivable 431.92 USD Expenses:Financial:Fees 3.00 USD Assets:Current:Cash -434.92 USD ;; Notice that the amount pay back was for an approximate ;; amount, so the overflow I placed in the cash account. 2008-04-02 * Gilbert paid back for iPhone Assets:Current:Cash 440.00 CAD Assets:AccountsReceivable -431.92 USD Assets:Current:Cash ;; At the end of the month, I take my statements, look at the ;; bottom and enter the amount that the bank says was there at ;; that date. It should corroborate with the data in my Ledger. @check 2008-02-01 Assets:Current:BestBank:Checking 661.49 USD ;;;;; Assets:Current:BestBank:Savings @pad 2007-12-31 Assets:Current:BestBank:Savings Equity:Opening-Balances @check 2008-01-01 Assets:Current:BestBank:Savings 12000 USD ;; Interest paid on balance in savings account. 2008-01-03 * DEPOSIT INTEREST Assets:Current:BestBank:Savings 95.69 USD Income:Investments:Interest:Savings ;; An entry that indicates a bank transfer from a checking account to a savings account. ;; There is a choice to locate this entry with the savings or with the checking, it's up to you. 2008-01-29 * Transfer from checking to savings account Assets:Current:BestBank:Savings 2000.00 USD Assets:Current:BestBank:Checking 2008-02-03 * DEPOSIT INTEREST Assets:Current:BestBank:Savings 102.34 USD Income:Investments:Interest:Savings 2008-02-03 * Transferring money to brokerage account for better investment. Assets:Current:BestBank:Savings -10000.00 USD Assets:Investments:UTrade:Account ;; A monthly check using the amount on the stament. @check 2008-03-01 Assets:Current:BestBank:Savings 2340.19 USD ;; Automated mortgage payments from the savings account. 2008-01-12 * MORTGAGE PAYMENT Assets:Current:BestBank:Savings -464.46 USD Liabilities:BestBank:Mortgage:Loan 171.01 USD Expenses:Home:Monthly:Loan-Interest 2008-01-27 * MORTGAGE PAYMENT Assets:Current:BestBank:Savings -464.46 USD Liabilities:BestBank:Mortgage:Loan 171.01 USD Expenses:Home:Monthly:Loan-Interest 2008-02-12 * MORTGAGE PAYMENT Assets:Current:BestBank:Savings -464.46 USD Liabilities:BestBank:Mortgage:Loan 171.01 USD Expenses:Home:Monthly:Loan-Interest 2008-02-27 * MORTGAGE PAYMENT Assets:Current:BestBank:Savings -464.46 USD Liabilities:BestBank:Mortgage:Loan 171.01 USD Expenses:Home:Monthly:Loan-Interest 2008-03-12 * MORTGAGE PAYMENT Assets:Current:BestBank:Savings -464.46 USD Liabilities:BestBank:Mortgage:Loan 171.01 USD Expenses:Home:Monthly:Loan-Interest 2008-03-27 * MORTGAGE PAYMENT Assets:Current:BestBank:Savings -464.46 USD Liabilities:BestBank:Mortgage:Loan 171.01 USD Expenses:Home:Monthly:Loan-Interest ;;;;; Liabilities:Credit-Card:VISA @pad 2008-01-01 Liabilities:Credit-Card:VISA Equity:Opening-Balances @check 2008-01-01 Liabilities:Credit-Card:VISA -791.34 USD ;; Paying back my credit card. 2008-01-22 * Online Banking payment - 5051 - VISA Assets:Current:BestBank:Checking -791.34 USD Liabilities:Credit-Card:VISA ;; Expenses at restaurants on credit card. 2008-01-15 * Cafe Imagination | Liabilities:Credit-Card:VISA Expenses:Food:Restaurant 47.00 USD 2008-01-19 * Soupe Bol | Liabilities:Credit-Card:VISA -21.00 USD Expenses:Food:Restaurant 2008-01-27 * Scola Pasta | Liabilities:Credit-Card:VISA Expenses:Food:Restaurant 51.17 USD ;; Cell phone bill via credit crad. 2008-01-19 * FIDO | Liabilities:Credit-Card:VISA Expenses:Communications:Phone 121.96 USD ;;;;; Assets:Investments:UTrade:Account @pad 2007-12-31 Assets:Investments:UTrade:Account Equity:Opening-Balances @check 2008-01-01 Assets:Investments:UTrade:Account 31273.02 USD ;; Some example trades. ;; ;; - Notice how I like to create a special account to contain ;; each kind of commodity. This choice is an arbitrary one: I ;; could keep all the stocks in the one investing account ;; (which would then contain many different kinds of ;; commodities) but doing it this way I can more easily track ;; the book value of the remaining shares that I have. I think ;; there may be a better way to do this. ;; ;; - Usually I enter the final amounts from the trade ;; confirmation slips that get emailed to me, because the ;; information there is more precise and detailed than what I ;; seem to get from the online brokerage interface. YMMV. ;; ;; - I still don't have a good generic way to deal with the ;; capital gains automatically, so I enter them by hand for ;; now. The challenge is to find a generic way to account ;; for capital gains while accounting for commissions and ;; trade fees the correct way (they should get removed from the ;; capital gains at both ends of a trade). 2008-01-08 * Buy some Apple Computer Assets:Investments:UTrade:Account:AAPL 30 AAPL @ 185.40 USD Assets:Investments:UTrade:Account Expenses:Financial:Commissions 9.95 USD ;; A divident payment. 2008-02-02 * DIVIDEND from AAPL position Assets:Investments:UTrade:Account 0.68 USD Income:Investments:Dividends ;; Because of my skirt-length statistic computation. 2008-02-28 * Sell off my Apple Assets:Investments:UTrade:Account:AAPL -30 AAPL @ 193.02 USD Assets:Investments:UTrade:Account 5780.65 USD Expenses:Financial:Commissions 9.95 USD (Income:Investments:Capital-Gains) BOOK AAPL ;; The line that says "BOOK AAPL" means to insert the amount that ;; corresponds to the gains/losses for the commodity "AAPL" within ;; the account for the posting in this transaction that includes AAPL ;; (Assets:Investments:UTrade:Account:AAPL, found automatically). ;; The inventory booking is done in FIFO order. ;; ;; The capital gain will show up as a negative number... ;; that's because Income is a credit account, like a salary. ;; This position is kept long, so it gets reflected below in the check. 2008-02-10 * Buy some japanese ETF from iShares Assets:Investments:UTrade:Account:EWJ 100 EWJ @ 13.34 USD Assets:Investments:UTrade:Account Expenses:Financial:Commissions 9.95 USD ;; Run checks against statement summary of positions that gets ;; mailed periodically. @check 2008-03-01 Assets:Investments:UTrade:Account 40138.45 USD @check 2008-03-01 Assets:Investments:UTrade:Account:AAPL 0 AAPL @check 2008-03-01 Assets:Investments:UTrade:Account:EWJ 100 EWJ ;;;;; Expenses:Insurance:Life ;; Estimate of value of life insurance policy, to account for ;; total net worth. 2008-01-01 * Life insurance policy resale value Expenses:Insurance:Life 4407.06 USD Equity:Opening-Balances ;;;;; Assets:Fixed:Home ;; You could use this account in order to reevaluate your home. ;;;;; Expenses:Home:Monthly:Condo-Fees @pad 2008-01-01 Liabilities:Condo-Management Equity:Opening-Balances @check 2008-01-01 Liabilities:Condo-Management -41.11 USD 2008-01-01 * Propri-Manage | Expenses:Home:Monthly:Condo-Fees 212.61 USD Liabilities:Condo-Management 2008-01-14 * (998) Propri-Manage | cheque sent by snail mail Liabilities:Condo-Management 800.00 USD Assets:Current:BestBank:Checking 2008-02-01 * Propri-Manage | Expenses:Home:Monthly:Condo-Fees 212.61 USD Liabilities:Condo-Management 2008-03-01 * Propri-Manage | Expenses:Home:Monthly:Condo-Fees 212.61 USD Liabilities:Condo-Management 2008-03-10 * Propri-Manage | special billing, spring works Expenses:Home:Monthly:Condo-Fees 61.25 USD Liabilities:Condo-Management @check 2008-04-01 Liabilities:Condo-Management 59.81 USD ;;;;; Assets:Current:Cash ;;;;; Expenses:* @pad 2007-12-31 Assets:Current:Cash Equity:Opening-Balances ;; Amount in wallet at a given time. @check 2007-12-31 Assets:Current:Cash 200 CAD @check 2007-12-31 Assets:Current:Cash 300 USD ;; Because I don't track individual cash expenses very tightly, ;; I still need to distribute the cash that disappeared into ;; appropriate expense categories. What I like to do is ;; guesstimate that about 80% of it goes into restaurants, and ;; 20% into wine bars. What frequency and categories you choose ;; to use is highly dependent on your lifestyle... 2008-01-02 * Distribution of cash expenses Expenses:Food:Restaurant 300.00 USD Expenses:Food:Alcool 100.00 USD Assets:Current:Cash 2008-01-16 * Distribution of cash expenses Expenses:Food:Restaurant 300.00 USD Expenses:Food:Alcool 100.00 USD Assets:Current:Cash 2008-02-02 * Distribution of cash expenses Expenses:Food:Restaurant 300.00 USD Expenses:Food:Alcool 100.00 USD Assets:Current:Cash 2008-02-16 * Distribution of cash expenses Expenses:Food:Restaurant 300.00 USD Expenses:Food:Alcool 100.00 USD Assets:Current:Cash 2008-03-02 * Distribution of cash expenses Expenses:Food:Restaurant 300.00 USD Expenses:Food:Alcool 100.00 USD Assets:Current:Cash 2008-03-16 * Distribution of cash expenses Expenses:Food:Restaurant 300.00 USD Expenses:Food:Alcool 100.00 USD Assets:Current:Cash ;; ;; Some common cash expenses. ;; 2008-02-18 * DMV | Renewal of driver's license. Expenses:Govt-Services 110.00 USD Assets:Current:Cash 2008-01-21 * WHOLE FOODS | Expenses:Food:Grocery 54.03 USD Assets:Current:Cash 2008-01-21 * USPS | sent package to mom Expenses:Communications:Mail 4.43 USD Assets:Current:Cash 2008-02-04 * taxi home from meeting Expenses:Transportation:Taxi 12.00 USD Assets:Current:Cash ;; Short weekend trip to Skii Mountain. ;; ;; You can use the @begintag and @endtag directives to mark all ;; transactions between them with a specific tag. Later on you ;; can filter the postings to a tag by using a cmdline. This ;; allows you to find out what expenses were incurred during a ;; specific trip. @begintag ski-trip 2008-01-27 * SUNONO | fill'er up Expenses:Car:Gas 40 USD Assets:Current:Cash 2008-01-27 * SKII | Lift tickets Expenses:Sports 120 USD Assets:Current:Cash 2008-01-27 * Dinner at chalet Expenses:Food:Restaurant 35.33 USD Assets:Current:Cash 2008-01-28 * breakfast Expenses:Food:Restaurant 17.23 USD Assets:Current:Cash 2008-01-28 * a new hat, it was cold Expenses:Clothes 40.02 USD Assets:Current:Cash @endtag ski-trip 2008-03-03 * ALDO | new shoes Expenses:Clothes 121.20 USD Assets:Current:Cash 2008-02-24 * AMC | movies with girlfriend Expenses:Fun:Movie 24 USD Assets:Current:Cash 2008-03-06 * Barnes & Noble | books on accounting Expenses:Books 74.43 USD Assets:Current:Cash -74.43 USD 2008-02-03 * ITHURTS MEDICAL CENT | x-ray for broken bones Expenses:Medical 312.00 USD Assets:Current:Cash 2008-03-02 * ZEN CENTER | Donation to Zen center Expenses:Charity 50 USD Assets:Current:Cash @check 2008-03-01 Assets:Current:Cash 200 CAD @check 2008-03-01 Assets:Current:Cash 30.96 USD