simonmichael/hledger

hledger is a personal finance tracking tool that stores all your financial data in plain text files on your own computer. The core idea, called plain text accounting, is that instead of using a proprietary app or a bank's web dashboard, you write transactions in a simple human-readable file called a journal, then run commands to produce reports. It has been actively maintained since 2007 and runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. The accounting method it uses is double-entry bookkeeping, the same system professional accountants use. Each transaction records where money came from and where it went, so every amount always has two sides. This catches errors and keeps the numbers precise. The README shows a sample journal with opening balances, a grocery purchase, and a paycheck, then shows the balance sheet and income statement those three entries produce. You can track money, investments, cryptocurrency, time spent on projects, invoices, and inventory, all in the same file format. Reports can be exported as plain text, HTML, JSON, or SQL. The tool imports and exports CSV files, so you can paste in a bank statement and process it. It processes 25,000 transactions per second and handles multiple currencies and up to 255 decimal places. Several interfaces are available: a command-line tool, a terminal UI, a local web UI accessible in a browser, and compatibility with common text editors. All data stays local, there is no cloud sync or account required, and the files are just text so they work with version control tools like git. hledger is free and open-source under the GPL v3 license. The README mentions it is part of a broader community called Plain Text Accounting and is partly compatible with another tool called Ledger CLI. Documentation includes a full built-in manual, beginner videos, and tutorials. The README is a brief introduction, the full documentation lives at hledger.org.