55 lines
No EOL
2.5 KiB
Text
55 lines
No EOL
2.5 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 The most important part of accounting is keeping a good ledger. If\
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you have a good ledger, tools can be written to work whatever\
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mathematically tricks you need to better understand your spending\
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patterns. Without a good ledger, no tool, however smart, can help\
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you.\
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\
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The Ledger program aims at making ledger transaction as simple as possible.\
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Since it is a command-line tool, it does not provide a user interface\
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for keeping a ledger. If you like, you may use GnuCash to maintain\
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your ledger, in which case the Ledger program will read GnuCash's data\
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files directly. In that case, read the GnuCash manual now, and skip\
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to the next chapter.\
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\
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If you are not using GnuCash, but a text editor to maintain your\
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ledger, read on. Ledger has been designed to make data transaction as\
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simple as possible, by keeping the ledger format easy, and also by\
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automagically determining as much information as possible based on the\
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nature of your transactions.\
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\
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For example, you do not need to tell Ledger about the accounts you\
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use. Any time Ledger sees a posting involving an account it knows\
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nothing about, it will create it. If you use a commodity that is new\
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to Ledger, it will create that commodity, and determine its display\
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characteristics (placement of the symbol before or after the amount,\
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display precision, etc) based on how you used the commodity in the\
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posting.\
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\
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Here is the Pacific Bell example from above, given as a Ledger\
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posting:\
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\
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@smallexample\
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9/29 (100) Pacific Bell\
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Expenses:Utilities:Phone $23.00\
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Assets:Checking $-23.00\
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@end smallexample\
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\
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As you can see, it is very similar to what would be written on paper,\
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minus the computed balance totals, and adding in account names that\
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work better with Ledger's scheme of things. In fact, since Ledger is\
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smart about many things, you don't need to specify the balanced\
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amount, if it is the same as the first line:\
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\
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@smallexample\
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9/29 (100) Pacific Bell\
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Expenses:Utilities:Phone $23.00\
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Assets:Checking\
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@end smallexample\
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\
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For this transaction, Ledger will figure out that $-23.00 must come from\
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@samp\{Assets:Checking\} in order to balance the transaction.} |