# Using Ledger CLI for Non-Profit Organizational Accounting

Non-profit organizations (NPOs), particularly 501(c)(3) charities in the USA,

have their own specific accounting needs.  These often differ from for-profit

accounting needs.  For example, for-profit-oriented systems often make

problematic assumptions about the workflow of accounting tasks (often because

NPOs rely primarily on donations, rather than fee-for-service or

widget-selling income).  Also, non-profit income is categorized differently

than for-profit income, and the reporting requirements vary wildly from their

for-profit equivalents.

This project is designed to provide some basic templates, tutorials, workflow

documentation and scripts to handle accounting for an NPO.  The primary

example is a

The tutorials herein

# Copyright and License of this project

The intention is that the examples and templates be of maximum use to

everyone in all possible contexts.  As such, no copyleft is applied, and the

examples and templates will be licensed under CC-0v1.0.  The documentation

itself (such as the READMEs and tutorials) are dual-licensed

(GPLv3-or-later|CC-By-SA-3.0) for maximum use as redistributable

documentation, or for use in GPLv3-or-later and/or AGPLv3-or-later projects.

# Copyright and License of this File

This specific document, the README.md file for npo-ledger-cli, is copyrighted:

  Copyright © 2013, Bradley M. Kuhn

The copyright holders wish that this document could be placed into the public

domain.  However, should such a public domain dedication not be possible, the

copyright holders grant a waiver and/or license under the terms of CC0-1.0, as

published by Creative Commons, Inc.  A copy of CC0-1.0 can be found in the

same repository as this README.md file under the filename CC0-1.0.txt.  If

this document has been separated from the repository, a [copy of CC0-1.0 can

; -*- ledger -*-

; -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

;

; config-accounts.ledger: The Ledger CLI accounts declarations for NPO use-case.

;

; Copyright © 2013, Bradley M. Kuhn.

;

; The copyright holders wish that this document could be placed into the

; public domain.  However, should such a public domain dedication not be

; possible, the copyright holders grant a waiver and/or license under the

; terms of CC0-1.0, as published by Creative Commons, Inc.  A copy of CC0-1.0

; can be found in the same repository as this README.md file under the

; filename CC0-1.0.txt.  If this document has been separated from the

; repository, a copy of CC0-1.0 can be found on Creative Commons' website at

; ##############################  GENERAL/SHARED ACCOUNTS #######################

; Shared Asset Accounts

define assetChecker(amt) = (amt > -10.00 or (tag("TaxImplication") !~ /^\s*$/ and tag("Entity") !~ /^\s*$/))

account Asset:Checking

   assert assetChecker(amount)

   note Checking account for entire organization

   assert commodity == "$"

; Shared Liabilities Accounts

account Liabilities:Credit Card:Visa

    note Visa Credit Card account for entire organization

    assert commodity == "$"

; Organizational accrual accounts

account Accrued:Accounts Receivable:Main Org

    note Accrued receivables for Main Org

    assert commodity == "$"

; -*- ledger -*-

; -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

;

; config-commodities.ledger: The Ledger CLI commodities declarations for NPO use-case.

;

; Copyright © 2013, Bradley M. Kuhn.

;

; The copyright holders wish that this document could be placed into the

; public domain.  However, should such a public domain dedication not be

; possible, the copyright holders grant a waiver and/or license under the

; terms of CC0-1.0, as published by Creative Commons, Inc.  A copy of CC0-1.0

; can be found in the same repository as this README.md file under the

; filename CC0-1.0.txt.  If this document has been separated from the

; repository, a copy of CC0-1.0 can be found on Creative Commons' website at

;  ############################## COMMODITIES #############################

commodity $

   note USD

   format $1,000.00

   nomarket

; -*- ledger -*-

; -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

;

; Copyright © 2013, Bradley M. Kuhn.

;

; The copyright holders wish that this document could be placed into the

; public domain.  However, should such a public domain dedication not be

; possible, the copyright holders grant a waiver and/or license under the

; terms of CC0-1.0, as published by Creative Commons, Inc.  A copy of CC0-1.0

; can be found in the same repository as this README.md file under the

; filename CC0-1.0.txt.  If this document has been separated from the

; repository, a copy of CC0-1.0 can be found on Creative Commons' website at

!include config-commodities.ledger

!include config-tags.ledger

!include config-accounts.ledger

; -*- ledger -*-

; -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

;

; config-tags.ledger: The Ledger CLI tag declarations for NPO use-case.

; Copyright © 2013, Bradley M. Kuhn.

;

; The copyright holders wish that this document could be placed into the

; public domain.  However, should such a public domain dedication not be

; possible, the copyright holders grant a waiver and/or license under the

; terms of CC0-1.0, as published by Creative Commons, Inc.  A copy of CC0-1.0

; can be found in the same repository as this README.md file under the

; filename CC0-1.0.txt.  If this document has been separated from the

; repository, a copy of CC0-1.0 can be found on Creative Commons' website at

; ################################# TAGS ################################

; The Statement, Receipt, and Invoice tags' values should always a be a

; relative path names.  Note that we "check", but do not "assert" that the

; file name match a standard Unix-like path syntax, without spaces in the

; file name.

tag Statement

    assert value =~ /[^\/].+/

    check value =~ /[^\/][^ ]+(\/[^ ])+/

tag Receipt

    assert value =~ /[^\/].+/

    check value =~ /[^\/][^ ]+(\/[^ ])+/

tag Invoice

    assert value =~ /[^\/].+/

    check value =~ /[^\/][^ ]+(\/[^ ])+/

; IncomeType refers to the types of income a non-profit can receive.  In this

; example, it's for the categorizations on the USA Form 990.  This could be

; changed to accommodate other jurisdictions around the world.

Non-Profit Accounting With Ledger CLI, A Tutorial

=================================================

Non-profit organizations (NPOs), particularly 501(c)(3) charities in the USA,

have their own specific accounting needs.  These often differ from for-profit

accounting needs.  For example, for-profit-oriented systems often make

problematic assumptions about the workflow of accounting tasks (often because

NPOs rely primarily on donations, rather than fee-for-service or

widget-selling income).  Also, non-profit income is categorized differently

than for-profit income, and the reporting requirements vary wildly from their

for-profit equivalents.

This project is designed to provide some basic templates, tutorials, workflow

documentation and scripts to handle accounting for an NPO.  The primary

example is a

This tutorial was written primarily based on

from 2008-10-22 to present for its own accounting needs.  While Conservancy

has done well using this system, and believes that its account system meets

Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), this document **does not**

constitute advice from a CPA nor legal advice for a non-profit that seeks to

comply with relevant state and/or federal accounting requirements for USA

non-profits.  The authors make no representations nor warranties regarding

this information and this information is provided for discussion purposes

only.  Readers of these tutorial and templates are urged to seek professional

advice from a CPA and/or tax legal counsel in constructing an accounting

system appropriate for your organization.

Furthermore, given the authors' limited knowledge of accounting requirements

outside the USA, the suggestions herein probably are not particularly useful

at all for organizations outside the USA.

Configuration of Chart of Accounts

----------------------------------

The first thing any accountant will ask to see is your so-called "chart of

accounts".  The first time I heard this phrase, I thought it was something

complicated.  Fact of the matter is, it's really just a list of all the

accounts that you use.  Accountants also use "account codes", which, as near

as I can tell, are of primary interest because they get better sorting.

Ledger CLI doesn't really support account codes, so I've ignored them.

Copyright and License of This File

----------------------------------

This specific document, the README.md file for npo-ledger-cli, is copyrighted:

  Copyright © 2013, Bradley M. Kuhn

This document's license gives you freedom; you can copy, modify, convey,

propagate, and/or redistribute this software under the terms of either:

    * The GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software

      Foundation, Inc.; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option)

      any later version (aka GPLv3-or-later).

    * *or* the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States

      license, as published by Creative Commons, Inc. (aka CC-By-SA-USA-3.0)

In addition, when you convey, distribute, and/or propagate this document

and/or modified versions thereof, you may also preserve this notice so that

recipients of such distributions will also have both licensing options

described above.

A copy of GPLv3 and CC-By-SA-3.0-USA can be found in the same repository as

this file under the filenames GPLv3.txt and CC-By-SA-3.0-USA.txt.  If this

document has been separated from the repository, a

and a

Some documentation is  already there on internal representation of numbers in ledger. It stores numbers as rational numbers avoid rounding problems arising of floating point representation.

The only time when rounding occurs is while displaying. But there are some other rounding problems in accountancy and it will be good to have a discussion on them.

From the point of view of accountants,

1.  Control over displayed precision

There is no option to force a desired display precision. There is no option to increase or decrease display precision via command line.

for example 

D $1

2014-06-09 day 2

  A		$1.89

  C	

The ledger pay attention to the  the precision used in specifying the amount, whether thousand marks were used, etc. This is done so that printing the commodity looks the same as the way you use it. Using options like D will be overridden.

You may use option "D" to increase the display precision but not decrease. Point to note is that there is no effect on calculations.

2. Too much accuracy.

It is good that ledger is very accurate in calculations but it sometimes becomes inconsistent with real world practices due to this accuracy. At times we may need to truncate some amounts even though amounts specified in the journal may be of higher precision. Uptill now, the precision is really controlled by amounts and they are always rounded and not truncated.

3. Accumulated inaccuracy

If rounding up was done per transaction, then the error per transaction may add up to significant difference than the actual total.   

  For example :

2014-06-09 day 2

  A		2 AAA @$5.52

  C	

2014-06-08 day 1

  A		1 BBB @$5.52

  C

In the above example if there is rounding up in each transaction then the overall result will be off by few cents.

This problem does not occur in ledger as rounding is deffered till the last point that is at the time of display.