Comment by darcys22 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by darcys22 | Hacker News Reader

Hello Hackernews!

I've been building an open source Accounting System and have finally the web interface to a point were I can do a Demo vid!

GoDBLedger is meant to be an accounting system for programmers who want to write scripts for their financial transactions, and then give you access to the database so you can analyse the transactions using whatever analytics software you are comfortable with.

Check it out on github:

https://godbledger.com/ https://github.com/darcys22/godbledger

I also did some cool things with Metabase in an older video, we built a financial dashboard which showed your income month by month live and updated whenever GoDBLedger received a manual journal. That demo video can be found here:

https://youtu.be/PeQR7GseFQI

Happy to discuss any an all things about accounting, and would love any feedback that Hackernews has for this project!

Cheers Sean

This is so cool. I spent yesterday setting up a simple Airtable ledger for my home finances, but the idea of feeding that beast only to have them own/control/charge me for my data is super frustrating. I went with Airtable/Excel approach because so many of the personal finance systems attempt to be “user friendly” by obscuring the General Ledger and journal entries. I majored in Accounting, and simple double entry just feels logical and right to me - Quickbook’s insane menus and complexity never will.

Moreover, other systems too often violate the traditional division of labor that exists between “accounting” - getting the ledger accurately updated, and “finance” - using the ledger for planning, budgeting , etc., by trying to mash-up input and output… It’s great to see the input/output separation here, along with textbook accounting! Well done.

Thank you! Yeah thats pretty much my feeling too. The software out there always puts itself in your way to make their walled gardens more profitable

Curious: are you using [name-redacted] or just manual entry for your Airtable accounting?

I’m using manual entry to the general ledger, with a simple script to populate entries in account tables.

Not an accountant but this looks great! I imagine it could be quite useful for personal finance as well (with a bit more development).

Oh yeah 100%

Right now its just the core functionality. But now I'm starting to think about all the scripts I can run can track everything happening in my personal life. So things like tracking my bank accounts, linking the data with my budgeting spread sheets. So much to build!!

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