Finally ditched my 47-tab Excel monster for Beancount - here's what I learned

General
1

After 8 years of maintaining an increasingly complex Excel workbook for personal finances (47 tabs, 200+ formulas, and regular circular reference errors), I finally made the jump to Beancount. Here’s my journey and what I wish I’d known earlier.

The Breaking Point:
My Excel file corrupted during year-end reconciliation. The backup was 3 months old. I spent 14 hours rebuilding transactions from bank statements. Never again.

Why Beancount Won:

  • Version control: Git tracks every change. No more “Budget_v2_final_FINAL_actually_final.xlsx”
  • Plain text: Can’t corrupt, works everywhere, will work in 30 years
  • Double-entry: Forced me to actually understand where money goes
  • Speed: Processes 5 years of data in seconds vs Excel’s 30-second recalc

The Migration Process (2 weeks):

Week 1: Setup and Learning

; Started simple with just checking and credit cards
2024-01-01 open Assets:Checking USD
2024-01-01 open Liabilities:CreditCard USD
2024-01-01 open Expenses:Groceries USD
2024-01-01 open Expenses:Utilities USD

Week 2: Automation and Historical Import

  • Wrote Python script to convert 5 years of bank CSV exports
  • Set up bean-extract for ongoing imports
  • Created Fava dashboards to replace my Excel charts

Unexpected Benefits:

  1. Found $3,400 in accounting errors - Double-entry caught duplicate transactions Excel missed
  2. Tax prep took 2 hours instead of 2 days - Queries gave me exact numbers instantly
  3. Wife actually understands our finances now - Fava’s visualizations are clearer than my Excel maze
  4. Monthly close takes 10 minutes - Down from 2 hours of Excel reconciliation

What I Miss from Excel:

  • Quick “what-if” scenarios (working on Beancount scripts for this)
  • Dragging formulas down (but don’t miss fixing them when they break)
  • Pretty formatting (but Fava is growing on me)

Tips for Excel Refugees:

  1. Start with just one account to learn the syntax
  2. Don’t try to replicate every Excel feature immediately
  3. Use assertions liberally - they’re like Excel’s balance checks but better
  4. Embrace the command line - it’s faster than clicking through ribbons

My Favorite Query (replaces 15 Excel formulas):

SELECT month, sum(position) 
WHERE account ~ "Expenses:" 
GROUP BY month

6 Months Later:
I can’t imagine going back. My financial data is portable, scriptable, and actually trustworthy. Plus, I can track finances on my phone via Termux without licensing fees!

Anyone else make this transition? What was your breaking point with spreadsheets?

2

Fred, this resonates so much! My breaking point was when Excel ‘’‘helpfully’‘’ auto-corrected my cost basis calculations and I didn’''t notice until filing taxes. The IRS notice was… unpleasant. :sweat_smile:

My Excel Trauma:

  • 62 tabs for different tax scenarios
  • Formulas so complex I needed documentation to understand my own work
  • That moment when you realize Excel rounded differently than the IRS
  • The ‘’‘#REF!’‘’ errors that appeared randomly and broke everything

Beancount Surprises:
The strict double-entry actually helped me understand tax law better! When you have to balance every entry, you really grasp concepts like basis adjustments and wash sales.

My favorite tax query:

SELECT account, sum(position)
WHERE account ~ "Income:" OR account ~ "Expenses:"
  AND date >= {year_start} AND date <= {year_end}
  AND NOT account ~ "Expenses:Taxes"
GROUP BY account
ORDER BY sum(position) DESC

Instant Schedule C preparation! What took 4 hours in Excel now takes 4 seconds.

Pro tip for Excel converts: Start by replicating just ONE Excel report in Beancount. Once you see how clean it is, you’''ll be motivated to move everything!

3

47 tabs?! I thought my 23-tab monster was bad! :joy:

My Excel breaking point: Client asked ‘’‘why is this number different from last month?’‘’ Spent 3 hours tracing through linked cells across 8 sheets. The answer? Someone had typed over a formula with a hard-coded number.

The revelation: Beancount’''s assertions would have caught that immediately!

What really sold me:

2024-01-31 balance Assets:Checking 5234.67 USD
  ; If this doesn'''t match, Beancount STOPS. No silent errors!

In Excel, if your bank rec is off by 10 cents, you might never notice. In Beancount, it won’''t let you proceed until you find that dime!

Migration tip: I kept Excel running in parallel for 3 months. Every discrepancy Beancount found was a real error Excel had been hiding. Found ,400 in duplicate entries Excel had been double-counting for YEARS.