“Plain text accounting is a way of doing bookkeeping and accounting with plain text files and scriptable, command-line-friendly software.”
Advertise here with Carbon Ads
This site is made possible by member support. 💞
Big thanks to Arcustech for hosting the site and offering amazing tech support.
When you buy through links on kottke.org, I may earn an affiliate commission. Thanks for supporting the site!
kottke.org. home of fine hypertext products since 1998.
Beloved by 86.47% of the web.
Comments 2
Crazy coincidence, I’ve been working on a CLI and terminal-based bookkeeping app. I didn’t know about most of these, but the exercise of building my own (with a lot of help from Claude) was fun and worthwhile. I have a little preview here: https://nigel.rygn.io. (The Mac DMG isn’t built yet but it’s super easy to build with Rust.)
As someone who has operated a bookkeeping service for over 30 years, I was curious about what Plain Text Accounting is and how it operates. Until I got to this:
“Getting started. First, to clone your repository locally, you can create an access token set with proper Git operation permissions on the access token management page.” https://app.beanhub.io/repos/beanhub/example/
I know I’m kind of old-fashioned (can’t help it; I’m old) but this is just more tech-talk gobbledygook that undercuts the premise of “plain text” right off the hop. If you need a language tutorial before you even get started, does it matter how useful it is? Clearly, plain text does not mean plain language.
Hello! In order to comment or fave, you need to be a current kottke.org member. If you'd like to sign up for a membership to support the site and join the conversation, you can explore your options here.
Existing members can sign in here. If you're a former member, you can renew your membership.
Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions. Or try logging out and then back in. Still having trouble? Email me!
In order to comment or fave, you need to be a current kottke.org member. Check out your options for renewal.
If you feel like this comment goes against the grain of the community guidelines or is otherwise inappropriate, please let me know and I will take a look at it.
Hello! In order to leave a comment, you need to be a current kottke.org member. If you'd like to sign up for a membership to support the site and join the conversation, you can explore your options here.
Existing members can sign in here. If you're a former member, you can renew your membership.
Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions. Or try logging out and then back in. Still having trouble? Email me!