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Beancount and Plain-Text Accounting Forum

discussions on double-entry, journals, Fava, plugins, and workflows in the PTA ecosystem

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2

This resonates with my experience over 4+ years of Beancount usage.

The tension between automation and control is real. I’ve found that understanding comes from doing - when I manually categorize, I notice patterns I’d miss with auto-categorization.

That said, I’m not dogmatic. Some automation (like importers) saves time without sacrificing understanding.

What’s your approach to this balance?

3

As someone newer to this (3 months in), I appreciate the discussion.

Coming from spreadsheets, Beancount felt like MORE work initially. But I’m starting to see the long-term benefits.

The control aspect is growing on me. When something goes wrong, I can debug it. With AI tools, I’d be stuck.

Still learning, but committed to the manual approach for now.