For decades, the world of business accounting has been dominated by a familiar cast of closed, GUI-based systems like QuickBooks, Xero, and FreshBooks. They have set the standard, offering ease-of-use and visual workflows that cater to non-technical users. But for developers, power users, and anyone who values absolute transparency and control, a radically different approach has emerged: Beancount.io.

This article provides a direct comparison of Beancount.io with traditional accounting software. We'll break down their core differences in philosophy, flexibility, cost, and long-term maintainability to help you decide which system truly fits your needs.

1. Philosophy and Workflow​

The most fundamental difference between these two approaches lies in their core philosophy.

Beancount.io Beancount.io is built on the philosophy of plain-text accounting. At its heart, every single financial transaction is an entry in a simple text file. This "accounting as code" model prioritizes human-readable, version-controllable records. Your financial data lives in a timeless, open format that you own completely—it can never be locked away by a vendor. This workflow is designed for users who are comfortable with code editors, version control systems like Git, and command-line tools.

Traditional Software Traditional accounting platforms are GUI-based and form-driven. You enter data using wizards, dropdown menus, and visual forms. This approach prioritizes immediacy and accessibility, making it easy for non-technical users to get started without a steep learning curve. However, your data is stored in a proprietary format or a cloud database, often requiring complex export and import procedures if you ever decide to migrate to another service.

Verdict: If you prioritize full control, data ownership, transparency, and automation, Beancount.io is the clear winner. If you need a "click and go" interface with a minimal learning curve, traditional software will feel more natural.

2. Flexibility and Customization​

How well can the software adapt to your specific needs?

Beancount.io Being 100% scriptable is Beancount.io’s superpower. It integrates seamlessly with Python, allowing you to connect to any API, automate data fetching from bank feeds, programmatically tag transactions based on complex rules, and generate custom reports tailored to your exact specifications. Your ability to extend and customize is practically infinite, free from any vendor-imposed limitations.

Traditional Software These platforms offer a curated selection of integrations with popular tools like PayPal, Stripe, and various payroll services. While convenient, you are operating within the vendor's walled garden. Customization is limited to what the platform allows, and advanced reporting or automation often requires upgrading to a higher-tier plan or purchasing third-party add-ons. You can work with their APIs, but you'll always be bound by their ecosystem's rules and rate limits.

Verdict: Beancount.io provides unmatched flexibility for developers and technical users. Traditional tools are better suited for standard, plug-and-play workflows with popular business applications.

3. Collaboration and Transparency​

How you work with others and audit your records differs significantly.

Beancount.io Collaboration on Beancount.io is managed through Git. This makes every change to your financial ledger completely transparent and auditable. You can see who changed what, when, and why—just like a code review workflow. This is ideal for distributed teams that already embrace tools like GitHub or GitLab. Furthermore, there are no hidden calculations; every number in a report can be traced back to the exact line-item entry in your ledger file, ensuring complete auditability.

Traditional Software Collaboration is handled through built-in user roles and permissions. You can invite your accountant, bookkeeper, or business partners to access the books directly through the web interface. This is highly effective for businesses that follow a traditional model of financial oversight. The downside is that some internal operations, like tax calculations or automated balance adjustments, can be opaque "black boxes," making it difficult to independently verify the logic.

Verdict: Beancount.io is perfect for teams that value granular auditability and code-style collaboration. Traditional systems are more accountant-friendly for real-time, shared GUI access.

4. Cost and Ownership​

The financial models and the concept of data ownership are worlds apart.

Beancount.io The core Beancount software is open-source and free. You only pay for the value-added services of Beancount.io, which include hosting, intelligent automation, and premium features. There are no per-seat licensing fees, so you can scale your team without incurring extra costs. Most importantly, there is zero vendor lock-in. Your data is a collection of text files that you can move, edit, or store anywhere, anytime.

Traditional Software These services operate on a subscription model, typically billed monthly or yearly. Pricing is often tiered based on features, and you may face per-user or per-company fees that scale with your organization. This creates a dependency; if you stop paying, you risk losing access to your data and the software's functionality. This vendor lock-in is a significant long-term risk.

Verdict: Beancount.io is significantly more cost-effective in the long run, especially for technical teams that value data sovereignty. Traditional software offers predictable subscription costs but creates long-term dependency.

5. Learning Curve and Adoption​

How quickly can you get up and running?

Beancount.io The learning curve is undeniably steeper. Adopting this system requires comfort with text-based editing, understanding basic syntax, and familiarity with tools like Git. However, the initial investment pays off. Once mastered, Beancount enables incredibly fast, repeatable workflows and provides a much deeper, foundational understanding of your financial picture.

Traditional Software These platforms are designed for non-technical business owners and offer minimal onboarding friction. You can be up and running, sending invoices and categorizing expenses, within minutes. That said, learning the more advanced features, such as custom report building or setting up multi-entity accounting, still requires a significant time investment.

Verdict: Beancount.io is the right choice if you're willing to invest time in learning a powerful system. Traditional software is faster to start with for non-technical users who need immediate results.

Side-by-Side Comparison

When to Choose Each

The decision ultimately comes down to your team's skills, priorities, and workflow.

Choose Beancount.io if you:

• Are a developer, data analyst, or technically-inclined power user.
• Value absolute transparency, control, and long-term data portability above all else.
• Want to fully automate your accounting and integrate it deeply into your custom workflows.
• Are comfortable treating your financial records with the same rigor as source code.

Choose Traditional Accounting Software if you:

• Want a quick-start, visual interface without any technical setup.
• Need to provide immediate, accountant-friendly access with minimal training.
• Prefer a managed, hosted solution where the vendor handles all updates and compliance.
• Your integration needs are met by popular, off-the-shelf apps.

Final Thoughts

Beancount.io isn’t trying to be a better QuickBooks—it’s a fundamentally different way of thinking. It represents accounting as code. For technical professionals, this shift offers the same leap forward that version control with Git brought to software development: complete transparency, perfect reproducibility, and ultimate control.

At the same time, traditional accounting software continues to win on out-of-the-box ease-of-use and ready-made integrations for non-technical teams. The right choice isn't about which is "better" overall, but which is the perfect fit for your workflow, your priorities, and the degree of control you demand over your financial data.

You formed an S-corp to keep your business lean and tax-efficient. But while the "pass-through" concept sounds simple, the reality involves payroll taxes, potential entity-level charges, and crucial state-by-state differences.

Here’s how the taxes actually work for an S-corp in 2025—and how to keep a clean, audit-proof record in Beancount.

What Gets Taxed (and Where)​

The core of the S-corp structure is how it handles profit. It's a three-part system: pass-through income, entity-level taxes, and payroll taxes.

• Pass-Through at the Federal Level: An S-corp generally pays no federal income tax on its ordinary business profit. Instead, that profit (along with other tax items like credits and deductions) flows through to the shareholders via a Schedule K-1. Shareholders report this income on their personal tax returns, whether or not they actually took the cash out of the business. Crucially, this K-1 profit is not subject to self-employment tax.
• But... Entity-Level Taxes Can Apply: The "no corporate tax" rule isn't absolute. In specific cases, an S-corp may owe tax directly. The most common triggers are the built-in gains (BIG) tax (for recent C-corp conversions) and the excess net passive income tax.
• Payroll Taxes Are Real: This is the most important rule for shareholder-employees. If you work in your business, you must be paid reasonable compensation as W-2 wages before you take any tax-favored distributions. These wages are subject to FICA (Social Security & Medicare) and income tax withholding, just like any other employee's pay.

Payroll, at a Glance (2025) payroll​

For any shareholder-employee, you'll be running payroll and filing standard payroll tax forms, including quarterly Form 941 (for income tax withholding and FICA) and annual Form 940 (for federal unemployment tax, or FUTA).

The key 2025 rates are:

• Social Security (OASDI): The wage base is $176,100. The tax rate is 6.2% for the employee and 6.2% for the employer on wages up to this cap.
• Medicare: There is no wage cap. The rate is 1.45% for the employee and 1.45% for the employer on all wages.
• Additional Medicare Tax: A 0.9% tax is withheld from an employee's wages that exceed $200,000 in a year. There is no employer match for this portion.

Entity-Level Taxes You Might See​

While less common, you must be aware of taxes the S-corp itself might owe.

• Built-in Gains (BIG) Tax: If you converted your business from a C-corp to an S-corp, you face a 5-year recognition period. If you sell appreciated assets that the company held during its C-corp days within this window, the S-corp itself will owe a corporate-rate tax on those gains. This is calculated on Schedule D of Form 1120-S.
• Excess Net Passive Income Tax: This applies if your S-corp has accumulated earnings & profits (AE&P) from a prior life as a C-corp and its passive income (like rents, royalties, and interest) exceeds 25% of its gross receipts.
• Quarterly Estimates for These Taxes: If you expect the total of BIG tax, passive income tax, and certain other recapture taxes to be $500 or more, the S-corp must make quarterly estimated payments. For 2025, the calendar-year due dates are April 15, June 16, September 15, and December 15.

State & Local Gotchas 🗺️​

Never assume federal rules apply at the state or city level. Tax treatment varies widely.

• California: S-corps must pay an $800 minimum franchise tax each year, plus a 1.5% tax on net income.
• New York City: NYC does not recognize the S-corp election. A federal S-corp is generally subject to the full NYC General Corporation Tax.
• Elective Pass-Through Entity (PTE) Taxes: As a workaround to the federal $10,000 SALT deduction cap, many states now allow S-corps to elect to pay state income tax at the entity level. The rules are complex and shifting—talk to your CPA before making a PTE election.

What the Owners Pay​

As a shareholder, your personal tax picture is directly linked to the S-corp's performance.

• K-1 Income on Your 1040: You will report the income, losses, deductions, and credits passed through to you on your Schedule K-1 on your personal Form 1040.
• Quarterly Estimated Taxes: Since your K-1 income doesn't have taxes withheld, you will likely need to make personal quarterly estimated tax payments to the IRS using Form 1040-ES to avoid underpayment penalties.
• The QBI Deduction (Section 199A): Your pass-through income may qualify for the valuable Qualified Business Income (QBI) deduction, which can be up to 20% of your business income. At higher income levels, this deduction can be limited by the amount of W-2 wages the S-corp pays—making your "reasonable compensation" figure even more important.

Baseline Filing & Forms​

At a minimum, your annual compliance will include:

• Form 1120-S: The S-corporation income tax return.
• Schedule K-1: For each shareholder.
• Payroll Forms: Quarterly 941s, annual 940, and W-2s/W-3s for employees.
• Form 1099-NEC: For payments of $600 or more to most independent contractors.

Beancount: Map It So You Never Wonder “Where Did That Go?”​

A clear chart of accounts is essential for tracking these moving parts.

Starter Accounts​

Assets:Bank:Operating
Assets:PrepaidTax:Federal            ; For S-corp level estimated payments
Expenses:Payroll:Wages
Expenses:Payroll:Employer:SocialSecurity
Expenses:Payroll:Employer:Medicare
Expenses:Payroll:Employer:FUTA
Expenses:Tax:Federal:S-Corp          ; For BIG/passive income tax expense
Liabilities:Payroll:Withholding:{Federal,SocialSecurity,Medicare}
Equity:Distributions

Transaction Examples​

Run Payroll (Company side + withholdings)

2025-02-28 * "Payroll - February"
  Assets:Bank:Operating                        -10350.00 USD
  Expenses:Payroll:Wages                         12500.00 USD
  Expenses:Payroll:Employer:SocialSecurity         775.00 USD
  Expenses:Payroll:Employer:Medicare               181.25 USD
  Liabilities:Payroll:Withholding:Federal        -3000.00 USD
  Liabilities:Payroll:Withholding:SocialSecurity  -775.00 USD
  Liabilities:Payroll:Withholding:Medicare        -181.25 USD

Owner Distribution (Non-wage)

2025-03-10 * "Shareholder distribution"
  Assets:Bank:Operating                         -5000.00 USD
  Equity:Distributions                           5000.00 USD

Corporate-Level Estimated Tax (If applicable)

2025-04-15 * "1120-S entity-level estimate (BIG/passive tax)"
  Assets:Bank:Operating                         -1200.00 USD
  Assets:PrepaidTax:Federal                      1200.00 USD

Marking Key Filing Dates

2026-03-15 note "E-filed 2025 Form 1120-S; furnished K-1s to all shareholders."

Sanity Checks (bean-query)​

Use queries to ensure your records are sound.

Wages vs. Distributions YTD (Reasonable Comp Reality Check)

SELECT account, SUM(position)
WHERE (account ~ "Expenses:Payroll:Wages" OR account ~ "Equity:Distributions")
  AND year = 2025
GROUP BY account;

Did We Record the K-1 Handoff?

SELECT date, narration WHERE narration ~ "K-1";

Practical Tips (So the IRS Doesn’t Call) ✅​

1. Document "Reasonable Compensation." Keep a simple memo with your job duties, time allocation, and links to market salary data. Pay this amount via formal W-2 payroll.
2. Separate Wages and Distributions Cleanly. Never mix them. Your Beancount ledger should make the distinction obvious.
3. Watch State Rules. Be aware of minimum taxes (like in CA) or S-corp non-recognition (like in NYC).
4. Revisit Estimates. If your income changes significantly mid-year, adjust both your personal 1040-ES and any S-corp level estimated payments.

This guide provides general information, not tax advice. Every business situation is different. Always consult with a qualified CPA for guidance specific to your circumstances.

Meticulous financial records are the foundation of financial clarity and stress-free tax seasons. For those dealing with more than just a simple W-2, preparing for tax filing, strategic planning, and ensuring compliance can be a significant challenge. This guide will help you determine when to hire a tax advisor and how to select the best expert to complement your financial management system.

Why You Might Need a Tax Advisor​

Even with diligent tracking, modern finances can quickly become complex. A professional can be invaluable in several key areas:

• Mitigating Risks from Complex Situations Self-employment income, digital asset trading, international transactions, or equity in a private company can make your tax filings incredibly complicated. A professional advisor minimizes errors and reduces the risk of costly penalties.
• Uncovering Tax-Saving Opportunities Expert insight is necessary to fully leverage deductions, tax deferrals, and tax-advantaged accounts like a Solo 401(k) or SEP IRA. An advisor can identify opportunities you might have missed.
• Saving Valuable Time Your time is better spent building your business, writing code, or creating content than deciphering thousands of pages of tax code. Outsourcing complex tax matters allows you to focus on what you do best.

Common Types of Tax Advisors and When to Hire Them​

Important Note: Only CPAs, Enrolled Agents, and Tax Attorneys can represent clients before the IRS. While anyone can prepare tax returns, these three credentials are the only ones that allow professionals to represent you in IRS proceedings. Tax attorneys have the additional privilege of representing clients in tax court litigation.

Pro Tip: If you frequently trade digital assets or have foreign transactions, seek an advisor with specific experience in cryptocurrency or international tax law.

Five Criteria for Evaluating and Selecting an Advisor​

1. Domain Expertise Verify that the advisor has experience with clients in your specific situation, whether it's freelancing, running a SaaS business, or managing Web3 investments.
2. Communication Style Find an advisor who values organized, detailed financial records. Ask how they prefer to receive your financial data and what level of documentation they require. Their response will indicate their attention to detail and professionalism.
3. Credentials and Standing Confirm that their CPA license, EA credential, or bar license is active and in good standing with the relevant regulatory body.
4. Fee Structure
   • Flat Fee: Common for standard tax forms (e.g., Form 1040, 1065).
   • Hourly Rate: Suitable for one-off consultations or complex planning.
   • Hybrid Model: A flat fee for tax preparation combined with an hourly rate for strategic planning.
5. Data Collaboration Workflow An ideal advisor wants clean, organized data. Ask about their process for receiving and integrating your financial records to ensure a smooth workflow.

The Power of a Well-Kept Ledger​

The key to an efficient and productive relationship with a tax advisor is providing them with flawless, easily digestible financial data. This is where a systematic approach to bookkeeping shines. By treating your finances like a transparent, auditable dataset, you empower your advisor to work faster and more accurately.

This is where a plain-text accounting tool like Beancount becomes a superpower. It allows you to maintain a perfect, version-controlled ledger of every transaction. With Beancount available on mobile and tablet devices, you can do bookkeeping anywhere—whether you're at a coffee shop, traveling, or waiting between meetings. This mobility eliminates the need to hire a separate bookkeeper, saving you significant costs while maintaining complete control over your financial records.

Here's how to structure your data to make your advisor's job effortless:

• Align Accounts with Tax Form Fields Structure your chart of accounts to mirror tax categories. Use precise account names like Income:US:Consulting or Expenses:Business:HomeOffice. This helps your CPA instantly map your data to the necessary forms, like Schedule C or Form 8829.

• Leverage Metadata and Tags Tagging transactions provides crucial context. For instance, you can mark income sources to reconcile them with specific 1099 forms. A simple entry in a Beancount ledger might look like this:

2025-03-21 * "Stripe Payout for Project X"
    Assets:Bank:Checking        5000.00 USD
    Income:US:Consulting       -5000.00 USD
    tag: "1099k"

This tag instantly tells your advisor the nature of the income, saving time and preventing confusion.

• Generate Instant, Accurate Reports A well-maintained ledger allows you to generate up-to-the-minute financial statements. Tools like Beancount can export clean income statements and balance sheets to HTML or CSV, so your advisor always has the latest data without needing to ask.

By adopting a system like this, you move from chaotic spreadsheets to a pristine, single source of truth for your financial life.

When to Seek Professional Help Immediately​

• You are planning to start a business and need to decide on entity type (sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC, C-Corp, S-Corp) or are changing your business entity.
• You are granting or receiving equity, or planning to sell your company.
• You hold foreign assets or have foreign sources of income.
• You are planning a large-scale sale of cryptocurrency assets.
• You have received an audit or tax notice from the IRS.

Conclusion​

Mastering your financial data gives you control, while a great tax advisor helps you navigate the complex maze of regulations. By choosing the right professional and empowering them with clean, structured financial data, you can transform tax season from a source of stress into a seamless process. A system built on clarity and precision—as exemplified by tools like Beancount—is the key to a productive partnership and a confident financial future.

When you're running a business or managing your personal finances, the terms bookkeeping and accounting often blur together. But understanding their differences—especially when using a plain-text tool like Beancount—can help you build better systems and make smarter financial decisions.

In this guide, we’ll explore the roles of bookkeeping and accounting, and how Beancount supports both (yes, really).

📘 Bookkeeping: The Art of Daily Tracking​

Bookkeeping is the foundational layer of financial management. It’s about recording what actually happened—no assumptions, no forecasts.

Bookkeeping includes:

• Recording income and expenses
• Keeping track of assets and liabilities
• Tagging transactions for later use
• Maintaining a general ledger

In Beancount, this looks like:

2025-06-27 * "Stripe Payout"
  Assets:Bank:Checking     1,200.00 USD
  Income:Sales

Each transaction is a building block. You’re not analyzing yet—you’re simply recording the truth, one line at a time.

If you're just starting out, Beancount encourages good bookkeeping habits through its explicit structure and readable syntax. You’ll be forced (in a good way!) to track every cent and explain every transaction.

📊 Accounting: Turning Data Into Insight​

Accounting builds on your bookkeeping records to answer deeper questions:

• Are we profitable?
• How much cash runway do we have?
• Should we prepay for that software or expense it monthly?
• How do we minimize taxes?

In accounting, you:

• Reconcile accounts and adjust entries
• Generate reports like profit/loss statements
• Depreciate assets
• Plan for taxes and future expenses

With Beancount, you can analyze your records using tools like beancount.io:

• Navigate balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow charts
• Visualize income by category
• Annotate decisions using metadata (e.g., tag:business-trip)

Want to track that annual Zoom subscription?

2025-01-15 * "Zoom Annual Plan"
  Expenses:Software     149.90 USD
  Assets:Bank:Checking
  tag:business-tools

You can later amortize it monthly or analyze it during budgeting sessions.

👩‍💼 Bookkeeper vs. Accountant: Who Does What?​

• Bookkeeper: Focuses on precision. Records, categorizes, and organizes.
• Accountant: Adds interpretation. Advises, plans, and models outcomes.

Beancount empowers you to be both, or to cleanly hand off one layer to a professional.

For example:

• As a founder, you may do your own bookkeeping with Beancount.
• At tax season, you export reports or raw data for your accountant to finalize.

🛠️ Bookkeeping and Accounting Software: Where Does Beancount Belong?​

Most mainstream tools (e.g., QuickBooks, Xero) blur the line between bookkeeping and accounting. Beancount takes a different approach:

• You manage everything through plain text, stored in version control if you like.
• There's no hiding of transactions or behind-the-scenes magic.
• You're encouraged to understand your own books.

Beancount is ideal for those who value transparency, data integrity, and automation through open-source tools.

🧠 Why This Distinction Matters​

Knowing the difference between bookkeeping and accounting helps you:

• Stay compliant and audit-ready
• Understand where to invest time (daily tracking vs. monthly insights)
• Communicate clearly with financial professionals
• Scale your financial systems without drowning in complexity

🪄 Final Thought: Your Ledger, Your Rules​

Whether you're a solo creator or a small business owner, Beancount gives you the power to manage your books with precision—and eventually make strategic decisions like a CFO.

Remember:

• Bookkeeping = what happened
• Accounting = what it means

With Beancount, you’re building both layers with clarity and confidence.

Let me know if you'd like a printable version or a tutorial follow-up.

Bookkeeping Basics You Can Actually Understand—and Own​

Managing your own books doesn’t have to mean spreadsheets, stress, or expensive software. Beancount gives you a minimalist, auditable, and powerful way to do bookkeeping using just plain text and a double-entry accounting system.

This guide is your complete introduction to getting your small business books in order with Beancount—with real examples and step-by-step direction.

🧾 What Is Beancount?​

Beancount is an open-source plain-text accounting system built around double-entry bookkeeping. You write your transactions in .beancount files and use tools like bean-doctor, bean-report, or Fava to analyze and visualize your books.

Here’s a basic transaction:

2025-06-01 * "Client Payment: Invoice #123"
  Assets:Bank:Business:Checking      1,200.00 USD
  Income:Consulting                 -1,200.00 USD

It's readable, scriptable, and version-controllable—perfect for business owners who want transparency and control.

📌 Why Bookkeeping Matters (and Why Beancount)​

• You need it for taxes
• You need it for clarity
• You need it for funding
• You need it to catch mistakes early

And with Beancount, you can do all of this with just a text editor and a few tools.

🪜 8 Steps to Start Doing Your Own Bookkeeping with Beancount​

1. Separate Business & Personal Finances​

Open a separate business checking account and credit card. Reflect that in Beancount:

2025-06-01 open Assets:Bank:Business:Checking USD
2025-06-01 open Liabilities:CreditCard:Business USD

This keeps your books clean and protects you legally (especially if you're an LLC or corporation).

2. Use Double-Entry Bookkeeping​

Every financial event affects two accounts. Beancount forces this balance by design:

2025-06-05 * "Web hosting payment"
  Expenses:Hosting                  15.00 USD
  Assets:Bank:Business:Checking    -15.00 USD

This guarantees mathematical integrity across your ledger.

3. Choose Cash or Accrual Basis​

• Cash Basis: Only record income/expenses when money is received/spent.
• Accrual Basis: Track obligations (Accounts Payable/Receivable).

Cash basis example:

2025-06-10 * "Client payment received"
  Assets:Bank:Business:Checking     800.00 USD
  Income:Sales                     -800.00 USD

Accrual basis example (invoice sent, then payment received):

2025-06-01 * "Invoice #2001 issued"
  Assets:AccountsReceivable         800.00 USD
  Income:Sales                     -800.00 USD

2025-06-15 * "Payment received for Invoice #2001"
  Assets:Bank:Business:Checking     800.00 USD
  Assets:AccountsReceivable        -800.00 USD

4. Set Up Your Chart of Accounts​

Define your categories clearly. A minimalist example:

2025-01-01 open Income:Sales USD
2025-01-01 open Expenses:Software USD
2025-01-01 open Expenses:Meals USD
2025-01-01 open Equity:Owner USD

Tailor these to your business. Keep it consistent and descriptive.

5. Categorize Transactions (with Metadata)​

Use metadata to track context. This helps with deductions, audits, and clarity.

2025-06-18 * "Team lunch after Q2 milestone"
  Expenses:Meals                    90.00 USD
  Assets:Bank:Business:Checking    -90.00 USD
  ; business_purpose: Q2 celebration
  ; attendees: Alice, Bob, Tian

Add tags or links to receipts:

  ; receipt: ./receipts/2025-06-18-lunch.jpg

6. Store Supporting Documents​

Use Dropbox, Google Drive, or a receipts/ folder. Then link them in Beancount like:

2025-06-02 * "Domain Renewal - GoDaddy"
  Expenses:Hosting                  20.00 USD
  Assets:Bank:Business:Checking    -20.00 USD
  ; receipt: ./receipts/domain-godaddy.pdf

Auditors and tax professionals will love you.

7. Organize for Deductions​

Mark deductible expenses clearly:

2025-06-03 * "Adobe Creative Cloud Subscription"
  Expenses:Software                60.00 USD
  Assets:Bank:Business:Checking   -60.00 USD
  ; deductible: true
  ; usage: 100% business

Use custom metadata or tags like #deductible to track potential write-offs.

8. Make It a Habit​

Create a workflow. Example:

# Weekly bookkeeping routine
git pull origin main
bean-extract transactions.csv >> ledger.beancount
bean-doctor ledger.beancount
bean-check ledger.beancount
fava ledger.beancount

Or just commit to a "Beancount Friday" and reconcile everything weekly.

💼 DIY or Hire Help?​

You can do it all yourself with Beancount. But even power users should:

• Consult a CPA during setup
• Hire an accountant at tax time if needed
• Use Fava for monthly reports

You get all the power of an accounting system without vendor lock-in or subscription fees.

🛠️ Recommended Tools for Beancount Users​

• Fava – beautiful web dashboard for Beancount files
• bean-doctor – health checks for your ledger
• bean-query – run SQL-like reports
• beancount-import / beanie – automated bank import
• Version control – use Git to track changes to your books

✅ Final Example: Complete Transaction Flow​

2025-06-20 * "Consulting payment from Acme Inc."
  Assets:Bank:Business:Checking        3,000.00 USD
  Income:Consulting                  -3,000.00 USD
  ; invoice: 2025-06-acme
  ; project: "Backend API redesign"

2025-06-21 * "Notion Pro Plan"
  Expenses:Software                     10.00 USD
  Assets:Bank:Business:Checking        -10.00 USD
  ; purpose: project documentation
  ; receipt: ./receipts/notion-june.pdf

🎯 Summary​

Beancount is perfect for small business owners who want to:

• Keep costs low
• Stay fully in control of their finances
• Avoid the bloat of legacy software
• Embrace transparency and plain-text simplicity

Would you like a downloadable .bean starter template for your business? Let me know your business type, and I’ll build one tailored for you.

Let's be honest: managing personal finances can feel like a juggling act. From tracking daily spending and budgeting for the month, to saving for big dreams, paying down debt, and trying to grow investments, it's a complex set of tasks. No matter your age, income, or where you live, you've likely encountered frustrating hurdles along the way.

The good news? You're not alone. Many of the challenges you face are widely shared. This post explores some of the most common pain points in personal finance management, looking at why they're so tricky and what strategies people are using to cope.

1. The Scrambled View: Seeing All Your Finances in One Place​

The Pain: Your money lives in many places – a checking account here, a credit card there, a retirement fund somewhere else, maybe even a digital wallet or two. Trying to get a single, clear picture of your overall financial health by logging into multiple apps and websites is time-consuming and frustrating. This fragmentation can lead to missed details and a poor grasp of your true net worth or cash flow. Indeed, studies show over half of consumers would switch financial providers for a more holistic view.

Common Approaches:

• Aggregator Apps: Tools like Empower (formerly Personal Capital), Mint, YNAB, and Monarch promise to bring all your accounts into one dashboard.
• Bank-Provided Aggregation: Some primary banks now offer features to link and view external accounts.
• Manual Spreadsheets: Many still resort to meticulously updating a spreadsheet with balances from each account monthly.
• Logging In Individually: The old-fashioned, one-by-one check-in remains a common, albeit inefficient, habit.

Why It's Still Tough: Despite these solutions, users frequently complain about broken connections requiring re-authentication, incomplete coverage (niche accounts like small regional banks or crypto wallets often don't sync), and data delays. Privacy concerns also prevent some from linking accounts, as over half of people haven't consolidated their accounts digitally due to trust or knowledge gaps.

2. The Budgeting Battle: Creating and Sticking to a Plan​

The Pain: Setting spending limits and actually adhering to them is a classic challenge. Nearly two in five Americans have never had a formal budget, and many who try struggle to maintain it. This can lead to overspending, debt, and anxiety. The pain often stems from budgets feeling restrictive, unexpected expenses derailing plans, or a lack of knowledge on how to create a realistic budget, especially with volatile incomes.

Common Approaches:

• Budgeting Apps: YNAB (You Need A Budget), Mint, Simplifi, and PocketGuard offer various methodologies, from zero-based budgeting to automated tracking with spending alerts.
• Spreadsheets: A go-to for those who want total customization, with about 40% of budgeters using them.
• Cash Envelope Method: A tangible way to control spending by allocating physical cash to envelopes for different expense categories.
• Automated Rules: "Pay yourself first" by auto-transferring to savings, or automating bill payments and spending what's left.
• Financial Coaching & Online Communities: Seeking expert advice or peer support on platforms like Reddit for motivation and tips.

Why It's Still Tough: Budgeting is as much a behavioral challenge as a financial one. Temptation, lifestyle creep, and a lack of financial literacy can undermine even the best intentions. Many apps enforce a specific methodology that doesn't suit everyone, and inaccurate automatic transaction categorization creates tedious manual work.

3. The Mystery of the Missing Money: Tracking Income and Spending​

The Pain: Do you ever get to the end of the month and wonder where a significant chunk of your money went? You're not alone; about 59% of Americans don't track spending regularly. The challenge lies in consistently recording all transactions, especially cash purchases, and categorizing them meaningfully to understand spending habits.

Common Approaches:

• Personal Finance Apps: Most budgeting apps also track expenses by auto-importing transactions from linked bank and card accounts.
• Manual Logs: Using journals, simple expense tracker apps, or even the Japanese Kakeibo method to meticulously record each outlay.
• Periodic Reviews: Instead of daily tracking, some review bank and credit card statements weekly or monthly.
• Specialized Tools: Apps like Expensify for business receipts or subscription trackers for recurring charges.

Why It's Still Tough: Automated categorization is often inaccurate, forcing users to constantly make corrections—a common complaint among Mint users, for example. Cash spending is easily forgotten and rarely captured by apps unless manually entered. Real-time feedback is often lacking, meaning insights arrive too late to influence behavior for that month.

4. The Debt Dilemma: Strategies for Repayment​

The Pain: Managing and reducing debt—be it from credit cards, student loans, or personal loans—is a major source of stress. High interest rates can make it feel like you're running on a treadmill, with much of your payment going to interest rather than principal. In fact, heading into 2025, reducing debt was the top financial goal for 21% of Americans.

Common Approaches:

• Debt Payoff Planning Tools: Apps like Debt Payoff Planner or Undebt.it help visualize payoff schedules using strategies like the debt snowball (paying smallest balances first) or avalanche (highest interest first).
• Consolidation and Refinancing: Taking out a new, lower-interest loan or using a 0% APR balance-transfer credit card to combine multiple debts.
• Manual Strategy Application: Adopting the snowball or avalanche method using spreadsheets or simple lists.
• Automated Extra Payments & Round-Ups: Setting up automatic additional payments or using apps that apply spare change from purchases towards debt.
• Support Communities: Online forums where people share progress and find motivation.

Why It's Still Tough: Many users struggle with understanding how interest accrues. Staying motivated over a long payoff journey is difficult. Existing tools often don't seamlessly integrate debt strategy with overall budgeting, nor do they offer sufficiently personalized advice or robust motivational feedback.

5. The Big Goal Hurdle: Saving for a Large Purchase​

The Pain: Saving for a significant purchase like a home, car, or wedding requires discipline over months or even years. It’s challenging to consistently set aside large sums while balancing daily life and resisting the temptation to dip into those savings.

Common Approaches:

• Dedicated Savings Accounts: Opening separate accounts labeled for specific goals (e.g., "House Fund"). Many online banks offer "buckets" or "pots" for this.
• Automation: Setting up automatic transfers from checking to goal-specific savings accounts each payday.
• Goal-Tracking Apps: Some finance apps allow setting targets and visualizing progress.
• Community Saving Strategies: Informal groups like Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs) are common in some cultures.
• Using Illiquid Forms: Temporarily locking money into short-term CDs or bonds to prevent easy access.

Why It's Still Tough: Maintaining discipline for delayed gratification is hard. Tools often don't integrate goal saving well with monthly budgets or dynamically adjust plans if you fall behind. Managing shared goals with a partner can also be tricky with existing app limitations.

6. The Partner Puzzle: Managing Money with Someone Else​

The Pain: Combining finances with a partner, spouse, or even roommate introduces complexities in coordinating budgets, dividing responsibilities, maintaining transparency, and avoiding conflict. Financial disagreements are a leading cause of relationship stress.

Common Approaches:

• Joint Accounts & Shared Cards: A common method for handling shared household expenses. Often used in a "yours, mine, ours" system with separate personal accounts.
• Expense-Sharing Apps: Tools like Honeydue, Tandem, or Splitwise are designed to help couples or groups track shared expenses and settle up.
• Spreadsheets and Regular "Money Dates": Periodically reviewing finances together to discuss spending, bills, and goals.
• Division of Labor & Allowances: Assigning specific financial tasks to each partner or allocating personal spending money to reduce conflict.

Why It'S Still Tough: Most finance apps are designed for single users. Finding a system that feels fair and transparent to both individuals, especially with differing money personalities or incomes, is a persistent challenge. Tools often lack granular privacy controls or features to facilitate better financial communication beyond just sharing numbers.

7. The Investment Maze: Tracking and Understanding Your Portfolio​

The Pain: As wealth grows, so does the complexity of tracking diverse investments like stocks, bonds, retirement accounts, and crypto spread across multiple platforms. Understanding overall performance, asset allocation, and tax implications can be overwhelming.

Common Approaches:

• Portfolio Aggregator Apps: Services like Empower (Personal Capital) or Kubera aim to consolidate investment data from various accounts.
• Brokerage Consolidation: Minimizing the number of platforms by rolling over old accounts to a single brokerage.
• DIY Spreadsheets: Using tools like Google Sheets with functions (e.g., GOOGLEFINANCE) to manually track holdings and performance.
• Robo-Advisors: Relying on the dashboards provided by automated investment services.
• Specialized Trackers: Tools like Sharesight for detailed performance including dividends, or CoinTracker for crypto.

Why It's Still Tough: No single tool perfectly aggregates every asset type automatically. Calculating true investment performance (factoring in contributions, dividends, fees) is complex. Many tools either oversimplify or overwhelm users with data, and often lack clear educational components or goal integration.

Towards Financial Clarity​

Managing personal finances is an ongoing journey filled with potential pitfalls. While technology offers an ever-increasing array of tools, the core challenges often lie in behavior, knowledge, and finding systems that truly fit individual and shared lives. By understanding these common pain points, we can better identify strategies and seek out or advocate for solutions that bring greater clarity, confidence, and control over our financial well-being. The landscape of financial tools is constantly evolving, hopefully leading to more intuitive, integrated, and genuinely helpful ways to navigate our money.

Small business owners spend an average of 11 hours per month manually categorizing expenses - nearly three full workweeks annually devoted to data entry. A 2023 QuickBooks survey reveals that 68% of business owners rank expense tracking as their most frustrating bookkeeping task, yet only 15% have embraced automation solutions.

Plain text accounting, powered by tools like Beancount, offers a fresh approach to financial management. By combining transparent, programmable architecture with modern AI capabilities, businesses can achieve highly accurate expense categorization while maintaining full control over their data.

This guide will walk you through building an expense automation system tailored to your business's unique patterns. You'll learn why traditional software falls short, how to harness Beancount's plain text foundation, and practical steps for implementing adaptive machine learning models.

The Hidden Costs of Manual Expense Management​

Manual expense categorization drains more than just time—it undermines business potential. Consider the opportunity cost: those hours spent matching receipts to categories could instead fuel business growth, strengthen client relationships, or refine your offerings.

A recent Accounting Today survey found small business owners dedicate 10 hours weekly to bookkeeping tasks. Beyond the time sink, manual processes introduce risks. Take the case of a digital marketing agency that discovered their manual categorization had inflated travel expenses by 20%, distorting their financial planning and decision-making.

Poor financial management remains a leading cause of small business failure, according to the Small Business Administration. Misclassified expenses can mask profitability issues, overlook cost-saving opportunities, and create tax season headaches.

Beancount's Architecture: Where Simplicity Meets Power​

Beancount's plain-text foundation transforms financial data into code, making every transaction trackable and AI-ready. Unlike traditional software trapped in proprietary databases, Beancount's approach enables version control through tools like Git, creating an audit trail for every change.

This open architecture allows seamless integration with programming languages and AI tools. A digital marketing agency reported saving 12 monthly hours through custom scripts that automatically categorize transactions based on their specific business rules.

The plain text format ensures data remains accessible and portable—no vendor lock-in means businesses can adapt as technology evolves. This flexibility, combined with robust automation capabilities, creates a foundation for sophisticated financial management without sacrificing simplicity.

Creating Your Automation Pipeline​

Building an expense automation system with Beancount starts with organizing your financial data. Let's walk through a practical implementation using real examples.

1. Setting Up Your Beancount Structure​

First, establish your account structure and categories:

2025-01-01 open Assets:Business:Checking
2025-01-01 open Expenses:Office:Supplies
2025-01-01 open Expenses:Software:Subscriptions
2025-01-01 open Expenses:Marketing:Advertising
2025-01-01 open Liabilities:CreditCard

2. Creating Automation Rules​

Here's a Python script that demonstrates automatic categorization:

import pandas as pd
from datetime import datetime

def categorize_transaction(description, amount):
    rules = {
        'ADOBE': 'Expenses:Software:Subscriptions',
        'OFFICE DEPOT': 'Expenses:Office:Supplies',
        'FACEBOOK ADS': 'Expenses:Marketing:Advertising'
    }
    
    for vendor, category in rules.items():
        if vendor.lower() in description.lower():
            return category
    return 'Expenses:Uncategorized'

def generate_beancount_entry(row):
    date = row['date'].strftime('%Y-%m-%d')
    desc = row['description']
    amount = abs(float(row['amount']))
    category = categorize_transaction(desc, amount)
    
    return f'''
{date} * "{desc}"
    {category}                               {amount:.2f} USD
    Liabilities:CreditCard                  -{amount:.2f} USD
'''

3. Processing Transactions​

Here's how the automated entries look in your Beancount file:

2025-05-01 * "ADOBE CREATIVE CLOUD"
    Expenses:Software:Subscriptions            52.99 USD
    Liabilities:CreditCard                   -52.99 USD

2025-05-02 * "OFFICE DEPOT #1234 - PRINTER PAPER"
    Expenses:Office:Supplies                  45.67 USD
    Liabilities:CreditCard                   -45.67 USD

2025-05-03 * "FACEBOOK ADS #FB12345"
    Expenses:Marketing:Advertising           250.00 USD
    Liabilities:CreditCard                  -250.00 USD

Testing proves crucial—start with a subset of transactions to verify categorization accuracy. Regular execution through task schedulers can save 10+ hours monthly, freeing you to focus on strategic priorities.

Achieving High Accuracy Through Advanced Techniques​

Let's explore how to combine machine learning with pattern matching for precise categorization.

Pattern Matching with Regular Expressions​

import re

patterns = {
    r'(?i)aws.*cloud': 'Expenses:Cloud:AWS',
    r'(?i)(zoom|slack|notion).*subscription': 'Expenses:Software:Subscriptions',
    r'(?i)(uber|lyft|taxi)': 'Expenses:Travel:Transport',
    r'(?i)(marriott|hilton|airbnb)': 'Expenses:Travel:Accommodation'
}

def regex_categorize(description):
    for pattern, category in patterns.items():
        if re.search(pattern, description):
            return category
    return None

Machine Learning Integration​

from sklearn.feature_extraction.text import TfidfVectorizer
from sklearn.naive_bayes import MultinomialNB
import re
from typing import List, Tuple

class ExpenseClassifier:
    def __init__(self):
        self.vectorizer = TfidfVectorizer()
        self.classifier = MultinomialNB()
    
    def parse_beancount_entries(self, beancount_text: str) -> List[Tuple[str, str]]:
        """Parse Beancount entries into (description, category) pairs."""
        entries = []
        for line in beancount_text.split('\n'):
            # Look for transaction descriptions
            if '* "' in line:
                desc = re.search('"(.+)"', line)
                if desc:
                    description = desc.group(1)
                    # Get the next line which should contain the expense category
                    next_line = next(filter(None, beancount_text.split('\n')[beancount_text.split('\n').index(line)+1:]))
                    if 'Expenses:' in next_line:
                        category = next_line.split()[0].strip()
                        entries.append((description, category))
        return entries
        
    def train(self, beancount_text: str):
        """Train the classifier using Beancount entries."""
        entries = self.parse_beancount_entries(beancount_text)
        if not entries:
            raise ValueError("No valid entries found in training data")
            
        descriptions, categories = zip(*entries)
        X = self.vectorizer.fit_transform(descriptions)
        self.classifier.fit(X, categories)
        
    def predict(self, description: str) -> str:
        """Predict category for a new transaction description."""
        X = self.vectorizer.transform([description])
        return self.classifier.predict(X)[0]

# Example usage with training data:
classifier = ExpenseClassifier()

training_data = """
2025-04-01 * "AWS Cloud Services Monthly Bill" 
    Expenses:Cloud:AWS                         150.00 USD
    Liabilities:CreditCard                   -150.00 USD

2025-04-02 * "Zoom Monthly Subscription"
    Expenses:Software:Subscriptions            14.99 USD
    Liabilities:CreditCard                    -14.99 USD
    
2025-04-03 * "AWS EC2 Instances"
    Expenses:Cloud:AWS                         250.00 USD
    Liabilities:CreditCard                    -250.00 USD

2025-04-04 * "Slack Annual Plan"
    Expenses:Software:Subscriptions           120.00 USD
    Liabilities:CreditCard                   -120.00 USD
"""

# Train the classifier
classifier.train(training_data)

# Test predictions
test_descriptions = [
    "AWS Lambda Services",
    "Zoom Webinar Add-on",
    "Microsoft Teams Subscription"
]

for desc in test_descriptions:
    predicted_category = classifier.predict(desc)
    print(f"Description: {desc}")
    print(f"Predicted Category: {predicted_category}\n")

This implementation includes:

• Proper parsing of Beancount entries
• Training data with multiple examples per category
• Type hints for better code clarity
• Error handling for invalid training data
• Example predictions with similar but unseen transactions

### Combining Both Approaches

```bean
2025-05-15 * "AWS Cloud Platform - Monthly Usage"
    Expenses:Cloud:AWS                        234.56 USD
    Liabilities:CreditCard                   -234.56 USD

2025-05-15 * "Uber Trip - Client Meeting"
    Expenses:Travel:Transport                  45.00 USD
    Liabilities:CreditCard                    -45.00 USD

2025-05-16 * "Marriott Hotel - Conference Stay"
    Expenses:Travel:Accommodation             299.99 USD
    Liabilities:CreditCard                   -299.99 USD

This hybrid approach achieves remarkable accuracy by:

1. Using regex for predictable patterns (subscriptions, vendors)
2. Applying ML for complex or new transactions
3. Maintaining a feedback loop for continuous improvement

A tech startup implemented these techniques to automate their expense tracking, reducing manual processing time by 12 hours monthly while maintaining 99% accuracy.

Tracking Impact and Optimization​

Measure your automation success through concrete metrics: time saved, error reduction, and team satisfaction. Track how automation affects broader financial indicators like cash flow accuracy and forecasting reliability.

Random transaction sampling helps verify categorization accuracy. When discrepancies arise, refine your rules or update training data. Analytics tools integrated with Beancount can reveal spending patterns and optimization opportunities previously hidden in manual processes.

Engage with the Beancount community to discover emerging best practices and optimization techniques. Regular refinement ensures your system continues delivering value as your business evolves.

Moving Forward​

Automated plain-text accounting represents a fundamental shift in financial management. Beancount's approach combines human oversight with AI precision, delivering accuracy while maintaining transparency and control.

The benefits extend beyond time savings—think clearer financial insights, reduced errors, and more informed decision-making. Whether you're technically inclined or focused on business growth, this framework offers a path to more efficient financial operations.

Start small, measure carefully, and build on success. Your journey toward automated financial management begins with a single transaction.

Hand-stitched ledgers beat tangled spreadsheets—especially when every cent counts.

For the artists, makers, and curators on Etsy, passion drives the business. But as your shop grows, financial clarity becomes just as important as creative vision. Juggling fees, tracking material costs, and preparing for taxes can feel overwhelming, pulling you away from the workbench.

What if you could manage your shop’s finances with the same care and precision you put into your products? This guide introduces a plain-text accounting workflow using Beancount, an open-source engine designed for accuracy and control. It’s a method that helps you master your numbers so you can focus on your craft.

Why Etsy Bookkeeping Is Different​

An Etsy shop has a unique financial fingerprint, with complexities that generic accounting software often misses.

• Marketplace fees everywhere: Your final payout is what’s left after Etsy takes its share. Listing fees, transaction fees, payment processing fees, and advertising costs all nibble away at every sale. Without tracking them individually, you can't know your true profit margins. (Bench)
• Platform-controlled sales tax: In a huge win for sellers, Etsy now automatically calculates, collects, and remits sales tax on your behalf in most states. However, if you sell on other channels or have a physical presence in certain states, you might still have your own sales tax obligations due to "nexus" rules. (Bench)
• Flexible payout cadence: Depending on your settings and account history, Etsy can deposit your funds daily, weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. This flexibility can make cash flow feel unpredictable, especially when funds are held in reserve or delayed. (Etsy Help)
• Lower 1099-K thresholds: The days of flying under the tax radar are over. The IRS reporting threshold for Form 1099-K, which reports your gross sales, is set at $5,000 for 2024 and is planned to drop to just$600 by 2026. This means nearly every shop will receive an IRS form, and your books must be able to reconcile with it perfectly. (IRS)

Beancount Blueprint in Seven Quick Steps​

This plain-text blueprint will help you build a clear, accurate, and stress-free bookkeeping system.

1. Separate Channels Up Front​

If Etsy isn't your only sales channel, create separate income and expense accounts for each one. This simple separation at the top level of your chart of accounts keeps your analytics clean and makes tax time much easier.

2025-07-22 open Income:Etsy               USD
2025-07-22 open Expenses:Etsy:ListingFee   USD
2025-07-22 open Assets:Etsy:Payout         USD

2. Explode Every Payout​

Never record an Etsy deposit as a single line of income. Instead, download your monthly Payment Account CSV from your Shop Manager. Use this report to create a single Beancount transaction that "explodes" each deposit into its gross sales and individual fee components.

; weekly payout from the Etsy Payment Account CSV
2025-07-15 * "Etsy Deposit #2025-28"
  Assets:Bank:Operating             1842.77 USD
  Income:Etsy:Sales               -2100.00 USD
  Expenses:Etsy:TransactionFee        136.50 USD  ; 6.5 %
  Expenses:Etsy:PaymentProcessing      66.00 USD  ; 3 % + $0.25 per order
  Expenses:Etsy:ListingFee             14.00 USD  ; $0.20 x 70 renewals
  Assets:Etsy:Reserve                -75.73 USD

3. Track Inventory & COGS with Lots​

For sellers of physical goods, Beancount's "lots" feature is a game-changer for tracking Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). When you buy raw materials, you record them as inventory at a specific cost. When you sell a finished product, you can expense the exact cost of the materials used.

; Purchase bulk materials for inventory
2025-07-01 * "Bulk yarn purchase | Supplier XYZ"
  Assets:Inventory:ScarfBlue     500 ScarfBlue {@ 3.45 USD}
  Assets:Bank:Operating

; Record the COGS when an item sells
2025-07-20 * "Sold Blue Scarf | Order #1234"
  Expenses:COGS                  1 ScarfBlue {3.45 USD}
  Assets:Inventory:ScarfBlue

4. Pick Your Accounting Method Early​

You have two main choices:

• Cash basis: Simple and easy. You record income when the money lands in your bank and expenses when you pay for them. This works well for small, hobby-scale shops.
• Accrual basis: Provides a truer picture of profitability. You record revenue when you make the sale (not when you get paid) and expenses when you incur them. This is better for shops that buy supplies in bulk or sell made-to-order items. (Bench)

5. Automate Imports​

Save time by automating data entry. The plain-text ecosystem offers several options:

• Use bean-extract with custom rules to parse the Etsy CSV files.
• Configure a bank CSV importer to catch ad charges or shipping labels paid by credit card.
• For advanced users, write a Python script to pull reports directly from the Etsy API.

6. Reconcile Weekly​

Set aside a few minutes each week to check your numbers. Use Beancount's command-line tools to quickly validate your balances and spot any issues like released reserves, refunds, or fee adjustments before the month ends.

# Check the balance of your Etsy holding account
bean-balance books.bean "Assets:Etsy:Payout" "2025-07-21"

# Generate an income statement for the last period
bean-report books.bean income_statement -e 2025-07-21

7. Attach Source Docs​

Create a completely self-contained and auditable record by linking to source documents directly in your transaction metadata. This is perfect for supplier receipts, shipping label PDFs, or purchase orders.

2025-07-12 * "Etsy shipping label for order #4321"
  Expenses:ShippingLabel         4.25 USD
  Assets:Bank:Operating
  document: "docs/labels/2025-07-12-order4321.pdf"

Know Your Etsy Fees (U.S.)​

To get a true picture of your profit, track each fee type in its own expense account:

• Listing fee: $0.20 per item, which automatically renews every 4 months or after a sale. (Etsy)
• Transaction fee: 6.5% of the total order amount (including item price, shipping, and gift-wrapping). (Etsy)
• Payment processing fee: Varies by country, but for the U.S. it's typically 3% + $0.25 per order processed through Etsy Payments. (Etsy Help)
• Subscription (Etsy Plus): An optional $10/month for additional tools. (Bench)

Sales-Tax & Compliance Tips​

• While Etsy remits sales tax for most U.S. states, be aware that selling on other platforms or having a physical workshop can create additional tax obligations ("nexus"). Track your sales thresholds carefully. (Bench)
• Once the 1099-K thresholds apply to your shop, ensure your Income:Etsy:Sales total in Beancount reconciles to the gross amount on the form to the cent. (IRS)

Common Pitfalls (and Fixes)​

• Pitfall: Net-deposit accounting.
  • Fix: Always use the payment CSV to break deposits into gross sales, fees, and reserves.
• Pitfall: Stale inventory costs.
  • Fix: Record your supply and material purchases as inventory the moment you buy them. Don’t wait until the finished product sells.
• Pitfall: Refund blind spots.
  • Fix: When issuing a refund, log the expense and also reverse the original COGS entry to move the cost back into your inventory account.
• Pitfall: Ignoring reserve holds.
  • Fix: Open an Assets:Etsy:Reserve account to track money that Etsy is holding. This keeps your cash-flow statements honest.

Quick-Start Checklist​

• In your Shop Manager, set up monthly statements and download your first CSV.
• Clone the Beancount starter repository and sketch out your shop's chart of accounts.
• Decide on cash or accrual accounting and commit to it.
• Write a basic importer script or rules file and schedule a weekly sync.
• Reconcile your payouts, inventory levels, and bank balance every Monday.
• Generate an income statement each month and review your gross margin trends.
• Back up your .bean files using Git and an off-site storage solution.

Ready to stitch bookkeeping into your creative workflow? Install Beancount, commit your first entry, and let plain-text clarity free up more time at the workbench. Happy bean-keeping!

In today's blog post, we will be breaking down a Beancount ledger for businesses, which will help you understand the intricacies of this plain text double-entry accounting system.

Let's start with the code first:

1970-01-01 open Assets:Bank:Mercury
1970-01-01 open Assets:Crypto

1970-01-01 open Equity:Bank:Chase

1970-01-01 open Income:Stripe
1970-01-01 open Income:Crypto:ETH

1970-01-01 open Expenses:COGS
1970-01-01 open Expenses:COGS:Contabo
1970-01-01 open Expenses:COGS:AmazonWebServices

1970-01-01 open Expenses:BusinessExpenses
1970-01-01 open Expenses:BusinessExpenses:ChatGPT

2023-05-14 * "CONTABO.COM" "Mercury Checking ••1234"
  Expenses:COGS:Contabo                               17.49 USD
  Assets:Bank:Mercury                                -17.49 USD

2023-05-11 * "Amazon Web Services" "Mercury Checking ••1234"
  Expenses:COGS:AmazonWebServices                  14490.33 USD
  Assets:Bank:Mercury                             -14490.33 USD

2023-03-01 * "STRIPE" "Mercury Checking ••1234"
  Income:Stripe                                   -21230.75 USD
  Assets:Bank:Mercury                              21230.75 USD

2023-05-18 * "customer_182734" "0x5190E84918FD67706A9DFDb337d5744dF4EE5f3f"
  Assets:Crypto                                         -19 ETH {1,856.20 USD}
  Income:Crypto:ETH                                      19 ETH @@ 35267.8 USD

Understanding the Code​

1. Opening Accounts: The code starts by opening a series of accounts on 1970-01-01. These include a mix of asset accounts (Assets:Bank:Mercury and Assets:Crypto), an equity account (Equity:Bank:Chase), income accounts (Income:Stripe and Income:Crypto:ETH), and expense accounts (Expenses:COGS, Expenses:COGS:AmazonWebServices, Expenses:BusinessExpenses, and Expenses:BusinessExpenses:ChatGPT).

2. Transactions: It then progresses to record a series of transactions between 2023-03-01 and 2023-05-18.

   • The transaction on 2023-05-14 represents a payment of $17.49 to CONTABO.COM from Mercury Checking ••1234. This is recorded as an expense (Expenses:COGS:Contabo) and a corresponding deduction from the Assets:Bank:Mercury account.

   • Similarly, the transaction on 2023-05-11 represents a payment of $14490.33 to Amazon Web Services from the same bank account. This is logged under Expenses:COGS:AmazonWebServices.

   • The transaction on 2023-03-01 shows income from STRIPE being deposited into Mercury Checking ••1234, totaling $21230.75. This is recorded as income (Income:Stripe) and an addition to the bank account (Assets:Bank:Mercury).

   • The last transaction on 2023-05-18 represents a crypto transaction involving 19 ETH from a customer. This is tracked under Assets:Crypto and Income:Crypto:ETH. The {1,856.20 USD} shows the price of ETH at the time of transaction, while the @@ 35267.8 USD specifies the total value of the 19 ETH transaction.

In all transactions, the principle of double-entry accounting is maintained, ensuring that the equation Assets = Liabilities + Equity always holds true.

Final Thoughts​

This Beancount ledger provides a straightforward yet robust system for tracking financial transactions. As seen in the final transaction, Beancount is flexible enough to account for non-traditional assets like cryptocurrency, which is a testament to its utility in our increasingly digital financial landscape.

We hope this breakdown helps you better understand the structure and capabilities of Beancount, whether you're a seasoned accountant or a beginner trying to keep track of your personal finances. Stay tuned for our next blog post, where we'll delve further into advanced Beancount operations.

A plain‑text template, a repeatable workflow, and a single query for “Who still owes me?”

Invoicing can feel like a chore, stuck between the work you've finished and the payment you're waiting for. But a good invoice process is the backbone of healthy cash flow. It pulls double duty: it clearly tells your clients what they owe and when, and it feeds your accounting system the unassailable facts it needs.

While dedicated SaaS apps can send slick, automated PDFs, they often come with monthly fees and lock your data in a proprietary silo. A lightweight, plain-text approach using Beancount offers a powerful alternative. You can turn each invoice into a clear set of accounting entries, giving you all the benefits of version control, powerful metadata, and instant querying—no subscription required.

The Minimum Viable Invoice (Fields You Should Never Skip)​

Before you touch your ledger, you need a professional invoice. The format can be simple, but the contents must be precise. These fields, borrowed from time-tested small-business practice, are non-negotiable.

• Seller details: Your business name and physical address.
• Client details: Your client’s name and (ideally) their address.
• Invoice number: A unique, sequential ID that is never reused. INV-045 follows INV-044.
• Issue & due dates: Clearly state when the invoice was issued and when payment is expected.
• Line items: A clear description of services or products, along with quantity, rate, and the line total.
• Subtotal, tax, and total: Show the math so the client can follow it easily.
• Optional notes: A place for a thank you, wiring instructions, or a client-provided purchase order number.

To get you started, we've created a set of ready-to-edit templates that include all these fields. The spreadsheet versions even pre-calculate the totals for you.

Grab our templates here: beancount.io/invoice‑templates (Available in Google Docs, Word, Sheets, Excel, and PDF formats)

Record the Invoice in Your Ledger​

Once you've sent the invoice PDF to your client, you must record it in Beancount. This is a crucial step that recognizes the revenue when it's earned, not just when it's paid. The process involves two distinct transactions.

1. When you issue the invoice:

You create a transaction that moves the total amount from your Income account into Assets:AccountsReceivable. This creates a digital IOU in your books.

; 2025‑07‑21 Invoice #045  Web design sprint for Acme Corp.
2025-07-21 * "Acme Corp" "INV-045 Web design sprint"
  Assets:AccountsReceivable          3500.00 USD  ; due:2025-08-04
  Income:Design:Web
  invoice_id: "INV-045"
  contact_email: "ap@acme.example"
  link: "docs/invoices/2025-07-21_Acme_INV-045.pdf"

Here, you debit AccountsReceivable and credit your Income account. Notice the rich metadata: the due date, a unique invoice_id, and even a direct link: to the PDF you sent.

2. When the client pays:

When the cash hits your bank account, you record a second transaction to "close out" the IOU. This moves the balance from AccountsReceivable to your checking account.

2025-08-01 * "Acme Corp" "Payment INV-045"
  Assets:Bank:Checking               3500.00 USD
  Assets:AccountsReceivable
  invoice_id: "INV-045"

The balance for INV-045 in Assets:AccountsReceivable is now zero, and your books are perfectly balanced.

Attach the PDF: The link: metadata key is especially powerful when used with Fava, Beancount's web interface. Fava will render a clickable link directly in the transaction view, so the source document is never more than a click away. This workflow was envisioned as early as 2016 in a feature request (GitHub).

One Query to List All Open Invoices​

So, who still owes you money? With this system, you don't need to hunt through emails or spreadsheets. You just need one simple query.

Save the following as a file named open-invoices.sql:

SELECT
  meta('invoice_id') AS id,
  payee,
  narration,
  date,
  number(balance) AS outstanding
WHERE
  account = "Assets:AccountsReceivable"
  AND balance != 0
ORDER BY
  date;

Now, run it from your command line:

bean-query books.beancount open-invoices.sql

In seconds, you'll get a clean, up-to-the-minute aging report of all outstanding invoices, showing the invoice ID, client, date issued, and amount owed. No extra software required.

Automate the Busywork​

The beauty of plain text is scriptability. You can automate the tedious parts of this workflow.

• Template + Pandoc = PDF: Maintain your invoice template in Markdown. A tiny Python script can populate the variables (client name, line items, invoice number), and the command-line tool Pandoc can instantly convert it to a professional PDF.
• Git Pre-commit Hook: If you store your ledger in Git, a simple pre-commit hook can run checks before you save your work. It can verify that every new invoice_id is unique, that the transaction postings balance to zero, and that the file referenced in the link: metadata actually exists.
• Cron Job: Set up a scheduled task (a cron job) to run your open-invoices.sql query every night and email you the summary. You'll start each day knowing exactly who needs a friendly nudge.

A Realistic Caveat​

Beancount is an accounting tool, not an invoicing service. It will not automatically send payment reminders to your clients or process their credit card payments. The workflow is: you create and send the invoice using your chosen method (like the templates above), and then you book the accounting entries in your ledger.

For most freelancers and small shops, this manual step is a small price to pay for a bulletproof, auditable, and free accounting system that you completely own and control (beancount.io).

Next Steps​

Ready to take control of your invoicing? Here’s how to start.

1. Download a template and use it to create your next real invoice, making sure to use a sequential invoice number.
2. Store your sent PDFs in a dedicated folder like docs/invoices/ and use the link: metadata key in your Beancount transaction to reference them.
3. Save the open-invoices.sql query and make running it a part of your weekly financial review.

Plain-text accounting doesn’t mean giving up polish or control—it just means the database is grep-able. With a simple template and the snippets above, you’ll get paid faster and keep your books immaculate.