From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Matthew Lundin Subject: Re: Org and financial data Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:35:51 -0600 Message-ID: References: <4962d621.0437560a.287d.ffffa9a1@mx.google.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Return-path: Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1LKDyH-0006Rk-Gk for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:35:57 -0500 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1LKDyF-0006Q4-Rh for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:35:57 -0500 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=60001 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1LKDyF-0006Pl-L7 for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:35:55 -0500 Received: from out2.smtp.messagingengine.com ([66.111.4.26]:50357) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1LKDyF-0002Ml-9w for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:35:55 -0500 In-Reply-To: <4962d621.0437560a.287d.ffffa9a1@mx.google.com> (Memnon Anon's message of "Tue\, 06 Jan 2009 04\:54\:50 +0100") List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: Memnon Anon Cc: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org Hi Memnon, Memnon Anon writes: > Hi! > > A new year has started and I try to get even more organized. > So, I think it is time to keep track of my financial data, and > I think orgmode is the way to go. If your needs are simple (i.e., just tracking discretionary spending) you might consider using properties and column views to keep track of where your money is going. I find that this creates a nice way to sum up weekly, monthly, and yearly expenditures. I described my admittedly simple setup in this post: http://article.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.orgmode/9827 I create a tree for each year, a subtree for each month, and a subtree for each week, such as: ---begin org file--- #+COLUMNS: %30ITEM(Item) %15spendtype(Category) %10amount(Amount){$} %10goal(Goal){$} #+PROPERTY: spendtype_all food office household entertainment * 2008 ** December :PROPERTIES: :END: *** Week One (November 29-December 6) :PROPERTIES: :goal: #fill in your own goal here# :END: **** Post Office[2008-12-02 Tue] :PROPERTIES: :amount: 14.40 :spendtype: office :END: **** Grocery store[2008-12-04 Thu] :PROPERTIES: :amount: 18.86 :spendtype: food :END: # More entries can go here. ---end property--- With this setup, column views provides a nice summary of weekly and monthly spending. If you like, you can also add weekly goals to the headline for the week and compare yearly, monthly, weekly sums to your goals. To search for a type of spending you easily do a tag search (e.g, C-a m +spendtype="food"), optionally restricting the search to a particular subtree. You could then use columns view in the agenda to see the total. Warning: property searches will be really slow if you don't restrict them to your spending file. If you prefer, you could easily use tags to keep track of types of spending. Finally, Eric Schulte's org-collector.el is great for creating filtered tables of results. See this thread for more information: http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.orgmode/9908 For more sophisticated financial tracking, I'd probably recommend a tool devoted to that purpose. Best, Matt