65 lines
No EOL
2.2 KiB
Text
65 lines
No EOL
2.2 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 Keeping a budget allows you to pay closer attention to your income and\
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expenses, by reporting how far your actual financial activity is from\
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your expectations.\
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\
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To start keeping a budget, put some period transactions at the top of your\
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ledger file. A period transaction is almost identical to a regular transaction,\
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except that it begins with a tilde and has a period expression in\
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place of a payee. For example:\
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\
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@smallexample\
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~ Monthly\
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Expenses:Rent $500.00\
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Expenses:Food $450.00\
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Expenses:Auto:Gas $120.00\
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Expenses:Insurance $150.00\
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Expenses:Phone $125.00\
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Expenses:Utilities $100.00\
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Expenses:Movies $50.00\
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Expenses $200.00 ; all other expenses\
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Assets\
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\
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~ Yearly\
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Expenses:Auto:Repair $500.00\
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Assets\
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@end smallexample\
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\
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These two period transactions give the usual monthly expenses, as well as\
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one typical yearly expense. For help on finding out what your average\
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monthly expense is for any category, use a command like:\
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\
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@example\
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ledger -p "this year" -MAs bal ^expenses\
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@end example\
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\
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The reported totals are the current year's average for each account.\
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\
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Once these period transactions are defined, creating a budget report is as\
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easy as adding @option\{--budget\} to the command-line. For example, a\
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typical monthly expense report would be:\
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\
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@example\
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ledger -M reg ^exp\
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@end example\
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\
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To see the same report balanced against your budget, use:\
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\
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@example\
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ledger --budget -M reg ^exp\
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@end example\
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\
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A budget report includes only those accounts that appear in the\
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budget. To see all expenses balanced against the budget, use\
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@option\{--add-budget\}. You can even see only the unbudgeted expenses\
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using @option\{--unbudgeted\}:\
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\
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@example\
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ledger --unbudgeted -M reg ^exp\
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@end example\
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\
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You can also use these flags with the @command\{balance\} command.} |