Journal

All your transactions are stored in plain text files called journal. You can organize your transactions into multiple journal files. The journal_path configuration refers your main journal file. The main journal file can refer other journal files using include directive. The include directive supports wildcards * as well. Transactions are sourced only from the main journal file and other journal files included from the main journal file.

include investments.ledger
include expenses/*.ledger

Editor

Paisa comes with a journal editor. It allows you to edit all the files with the same file extension as your main journal and in the same or sub directories as your main journal.

Backup

Paisa tries its best to keep your journal safe. It creates a backup of your journal file every time you save it. The backup file is created with the same name as your journal file with a .backup.{timestamp} extension. You can revert back to old versions of your journal file via the editor. You can also delete the backup files from the editor.

Warning

It is recommended to keep your journal files and paisa.yaml under version control or other backup mechanism. Paisa's backup mechanism is not a replacement for a proper backup. You can ignore paisa.db file from your version control system, the data in db file can be recreated from your journal files.

Syntax

The journal syntax of the features you use normally along with paisa is documented here. Refer ledger documentation for more details.

Transaction

2022/01/01 Salary
    Income:Salary:Acme      -100,000 INR
    Assets:Checking          100,000 INR

A transaction should start with a date followed by description. Following that you can have 2 or more postings. The posting line should have at least 2 leading spaces. The account name and the amount should be separated by at least 2 spaces.

Commodity

2022/01/07 Investment
    Assets:Checking         -20,000 INR
    Assets:Equity:NIFTY   168.690 NIFTY @ 118.56 INR

commodity cost can be specified using the @ syntax. Here 118.56 is the per unit cost and 168.690 is the quantity you have bought.

Comment

2023/07/01 Rent
    ; This is a transaction comment
    Expenses:Rent             15,000 INR
    Assets:Checking   ; This is a posting comment

Any text after ; is treated as a comment. Comment can be at whole transaction level or individual posting level. Comment is also referred as note in many places, both are same.

Tags

2023/07/01 Rent
    ; Recurring: Rent
    Expenses:Rent             15,000 INR
    Assets:Checking

Transactions can be tagged with extra metadata called tags. Tag has two parts: tag name and value. In the above example, Recurring is the name and Rent is the value. Tag should be inside comment.

Include

include investments.ledger
include expenses/*.ledger

Include directive can be used to include other journal files. It supports wildcards *.