rust_ledger

command line accounting tool

As a former CPA, I could not resist building my own accounting system.

Summary

• Spiritual port of ledger
• Uses double-entry accounting paradigm
• Small feature set based on typical use cases
• Uses yaml files as data store
• Includes a tool to convert csv files to yaml format

Contributing

• See CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md for fundamental guidelines
• PRs, issues and feature requests are welcome and encouraged
• Join us on Matrix (#rust_ledger:matrix.org) at https://matrix.to/#/!dYISGJYNNiZcUrxhcm:matrix.org?via=matrix.org

Install

From Cargo

cargo install rust_ledger

Build from Source

Alternatively, clone this repo and do the following:

• If Rust is not installed on your machine, follow the instructions on how to do that here: https://www.rust-lang.org/tools/install
• run cargo build --release to compile the binary
• go to /target/release and copy the rust_ledger binary in your path: /usr/bin

Usage

rust_ledger -l LEDGER_FILE_PATH COMMAND -f OPTION

LEDGERFILEPATH (denoted by -l) - relative path to location of yaml ledger file

• Optionally, the ledger file path can be set via the environment variable RLEDGER_FILE in lieu of specifying whenever the program is invoked.
• If -l is provided with a file path the file provided will be used instead of any RLEDGER_FILE set.

RLEDGER_FILE=~/rledger.yaml rust_ledger balances

RLEDGER_FILE can be set as a system or user environment variable.

export RLEDGER_FILE="$HOME/rledger.yaml"

COMMAND - ledger command (account, balance, register, or csv)

OPTION (denoted by -f) - allows you to filter the output of the register command by account type. For example, if you wish to only see "expense" transactions in the output, you would pass in expense as the option here.

Environment Variables

RLEDGER_FILE - Path to rledger file. ex: RLEDGER_FILE=~/rledger.yaml

NO_COLOR - Disables color output. ex: NO_COLOR=true

Features

Transactions

Transactions can be expressed in two different ways. One is a "simplified" format for transactions that only impact two accounts:

yaml - date: 01/01/2020 amount: 200 offset_account: liability:credit_card_amex description: grocery store account: expense:expense_general

The sign (debit / credit) associated with the offset_account value is the opposite of the sign of the value contained in amount field.

In the above example transaction, since expense_general was debited by 200, the credit_card_amex account will be credited by the same amount.

Transactions that involve more than two accounts are expressed in the following manner:

yaml - date: 01/01/2020 description: grocery store transaction: - amount: 20 account: expense:general - amount: 180 account: expense:grocery - amount: -200 account: liability:credit_card_amex

Transactions that only involve two accounts can also be expressed in the above format.

Test

• cargo test

API

• account
  • lists accounts
  • example output:

```

Account

asset:cashchecking
asset:cashsavings
liability:creditcardamex
equity:equity
expense:grocery
expense:general
expense:mortgage
income:general ```

• balance
  • lists account balances to date
  • example output:

```

Account Balance

asset asset:cashchecking $ -700.00
asset:cashsavings $ 1000.00
liability liability:creditcardamex $ -455.00
equity equity:equity $ -3500.00
expense expense:grocery $ 635.00
expense:general $ 1020.00
expense:mortgage $ 2000.00
income income:general 0

check 0
```

• register
  • lists general ledger transactions to date
  • can filter output by any field via optional parameter
  • example output:

```

Date Description Accounts

11/4/2019 weekly groceries grocery $ 455.00 $ 455.00 creditcardamex $ -455.00 0 07/04/2020 mortage mortgage $ 2000.00 $ 2000.00 cashchecking $ -2000.00 0 07/04/2020 stuff general $ 1000.00 $ 1000.00 cashsavings $ -1000.00 0 06/21/2020 grocery store general $ 20.00 $ 20.00 grocery $ 180.00 $ 200.00 cash_checking $ -200.00 0 ```

• csv
  • converts csv files to yaml format expected by rust_ledger
  • most financial institutions (banks, credit unions and credit card companies) will provide exports of transaction history in csv format
  • note - prior to importing your csv file into the tool, you must rename the columns in the first line of the csv file in the following schema: "date","transaction","name","memo","amount"

rust_ledger yaml file format

• example ledger yaml file can be found at examples/example.yaml
• rust_ledger utilizes yaml files in the following format:

```yaml accounts: - account: amount:

transactions: - date: amount: description: account: offset_account: - date: description: transaction: - amount: account: - amount: account: ```

The ledger format schema is purposely lightweight. The only requirements are as follows: - the account field should be expressed in the following format: account_classification:account_name. - the amount field should be a number. It can include up to two (2) decimal points.
- the date field should be in the following format: MM-DD-YYYY.