terminalbased financial accounting software

On Sun, 23 Apr 2006 22:54:12 -0700, ptrlsn

Spreadsheets and dedicated programs are probably a better solution, but I use the simple method described below. This was a project I worked on before I knew too much about unix command style. If I were to do it now, I'd probably do it differently. My idea was to setup some text files with a decimal point aligned in a specified column using a simple text editor, like gedit.

It works with a text file which has been setup like this:

FINANCIAL LEDGER SHEET -- 2006 -- --------------------------------------------- ------------------------------- REC CHECK T SC DESCRIPTION CREDIT DEBIT Comments # # DEBIT +-----+-----+---+----+----------------------+---------+---------+------------ 0000 ----- 1 Starting Bank Balance lovex.xx 0001 ----- 0 paycheck lovex.xx 0002 DC 0 -gasoline lovex.xx

The data are variable width records. The credits and debits columns must maintain alignment of the decimal point in specific columns. The decimal for the credits is in column 52. The decimal point for the debits is in column 62. "T" (transaction complete flag, column 15) is set when the entry clears the bank. When your data is setup like this, you can use another program to read the file and do the simple math. If you want me to post add2.cpp and screen.cpp (referenced in script below), then let me know. I'll hold off for now, because you may not be interested in this crude approach. I'll go ahead and post the "control" script which generates some key values because it is simple.

All code below is released, "AS IS, NO WARRANTY," per the terms in this

#!-bin-bash # # This script generates totals from a financial ledger sheet # whose format is described elsewhere. # # Usage: totals arg # for RV in 0 1;do $RV -ne 0 && continue if $# -ne 1 ; then echo "usage: totals arg" continue fi if -f $1 ; then echo "Working File is : $1" else echo "File : $1 is not found..." continue fi echo "Total Credits" cat $1 .-add2 -+52 echo "Total Debits" cat $1 .-add2 -+62 echo "Outstanding Credits" cat $1 .-screen "0" -+15 -E .-add2 -+52 echo "Outstanding Debits" cat $1 .-screen "0" -+15 -E .-add2 -+62 break done exit $RV

-- Douglas Mayne