04 - Beancount Basics for Users¶
Beancount stores accounting as readable text. Each transaction says what happened, on which date, who was involved, and which accounts changed.
Basic transaction shape¶
2026-01-13 ! "Tragerwerk Soziale Dienste in Sachsen-Anhalt GmbH" "RgNr. T-2504"
Vermoegen:Bank:Sparkasse-Tohuwabohu:Freies-Geld 680.00 EUR
Einnahmen:Sonstiges
| Part | Meaning |
|---|---|
2026-01-13 |
Date of the transaction. |
! |
Status marker. In this system it is commonly used for imported or not-yet-finally-reviewed entries. |
| First quoted text | Payee or sender. |
| Second quoted text | Description or booking text from the bank. |
| First account line | Where money went or came from. |
| Second account line | The opposite category. If no amount is written, Beancount calculates it automatically. |
Account names¶
Account names are separated by colons:
Vermoegen:Bank:Sparkasse-NICA:Freies-Geld
Read it from left to right: asset, bank account, NICA Sparkasse, freely available funds.
The five account families¶
| Family | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
Vermoegen |
Assets: bank, PayPal, cash, inventory. | Vermoegen:Bank:Sparkasse-NICA |
Verbindlichkeiten |
Liabilities: money owed to people or others. | Verbindlichkeiten:Person:Marc-Bielert |
Equity |
Opening balances and balancing entries. | Equity:Opening-Balances |
Einnahmen |
Income. | Einnahmen:Vereinsbeitrag |
Ausgaben |
Expenses. | Ausgaben:Buero:Miete |
Income and expense signs¶
In Beancount reports, income often appears with a negative sign internally and expenses with a positive sign. Fava and the dashboards often present these values in a more user-friendly way. Do not change transactions just because an income number looks negative in a raw query.
Balance checks¶
A balance check states that an account must have a specific balance on a date:
2026-03-13 balance Vermoegen:Bank:Sparkasse-NICA 1234.56 EUR
If Beancount cannot match that balance from the transactions before that date, Fava shows an error. Balance checks are the main quality control mechanism.
Open and close accounts¶
Before an account is used, it is opened:
2025-04-01 open Ausgaben:Projekt:25-ZGV:Honorar
When a project is finished and the project account is zero, it can be closed:
2026-02-27 close Ausgaben:Projekt:TOHUCON-25
Closed accounts should normally not receive new transactions.
Comments and documents¶
Lines starting with ; are comments. They explain decisions or uncertain situations and do not affect the numbers.
Receipts can be connected with document lines:
2025-10-02 document Ausgaben:Projekt:TOHUCON-25:Essen "Belege Ausgaben/Quittung-Tohu25-001.pdf"