61 lines
No EOL
2.7 KiB
Text
61 lines
No EOL
2.7 KiB
Text
{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\cocoartf949\cocoasubrtf460
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{\fonttbl\f0\fmodern\fcharset0 Courier;}
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{\colortbl;\red255\green255\blue255;}
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\pard\tx560\tx1120\tx1680\tx2240\tx2800\tx3360\tx3920\tx4480\tx5040\tx5600\tx6160\tx6720\sl264\slmult1\ql\qnatural\pardirnatural
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\f0\fs28 \cf0 After a while, your ledger can get to be pretty large. While this\
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will not slow down the ledger program much---it's designed to process\
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ledger files very quickly---things can start to feel ``messy''; and\
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it's a universal complaint that when finances feel messy, people avoid\
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them.\
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\
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Thus, archiving the data from previous years into their own files can\
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offer a sense of completion, and freedom from the past. But how to\
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best accomplish this with the ledger program? There are two commands\
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that make it very simple: @command\{print\}, and @command\{equity\}.\
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\
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Let's take an example file, with data ranging from year 2000 until\
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2004. We want to archive years 2000 and 2001 to their own file,\
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leaving just 2003 and 2004 in the current file. So, use\
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@command\{print\} to output all the earlier transactions to a file called\
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@file\{ledger-old.dat\}:\
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\
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@smallexample\
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ledger -f ledger.dat -b 2000 -e 2001 print > ledger-old.dat\
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@end smallexample\
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\
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To delete older data from the current ledger file, use @command\{print\}\
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again, this time specifying year 2002 as the starting date:\
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\
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@example\
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ledger -f ledger.dat -b 2002 print > x\
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mv x ledger.dat\
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@end example\
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\
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However, now the current file contains @emph\{only\} postings from\
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2002 onward, which will not yield accurate present-day balances,\
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because the net income from previous years is no longer being tallied.\
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To compensate for this, we must append an equity report for the old\
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ledger at the beginning of the new one:\
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\
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@example\
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ledger -f ledger-old.dat equity > equity.dat\
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cat equity.dat ledger.dat > x\
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mv x ledger.dat\
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rm equity.dat\
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@end example\
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\
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Now the balances reported from @file\{ledger.dat\} are identical to what\
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they were before the data was split.\
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\
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How often should you split your ledger? You never need to, if you\
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don't want to. Even eighty years of data will not slow down ledger\
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much---and that's just using present day hardware! Or, you can keep\
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the previous and current year in one file, and each year before that\
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in its own file. It's really up to you, and how you want to organize\
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your finances. For those who also keep an accurate paper trail, it\
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might be useful to archive the older years to their own files, then\
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burn those files to a CD to keep with the paper records---along with\
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any electronic statements received during the year. In the arena of\
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organization, just keep in mind this maxim: Do whatever keeps you\
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doing it.} |