hledger budgeting for non paycheck-income

[André Fincato]

hi all,

recently have been trying to use more the --budget option and have a couple of questions.

these questions are directed to people who work for themselves or have not a fixed paycheck at the end of the month, but rather have to budget their expenses based on a fluctuating flow of revenues month by month.

this kind of income can be normalised on a monthly basis by putting it against a fixed budget to cover your monthly expenses and see what’s left.

1. is there a way to show in the budget view the difference that is needed to reach the monthly budget goal? or would you rather check that by doing `hledger bal assets -R` and mentally knowing that you are below or above the budget goal?

2. in the budget view i see both an Assets row at the top and a Revenues row at the bottom, but neither coincide with what i can read from doing `hledger bal assets -R`. what are them and how am i supposed to read them?

3. if you use hledger to manage both your business and life finances, how would you personally setup the budget view? as of now i put both business and personal related costs in the budget file, because i want to be sure i have enough money to cover all my essential, fixed costs. but ideally, i was thinking it would be nice to use the budget view to show me only the money i have available for life stuff, once all the costs of running the business are taken into account in my monthly revenues? does this even make sense?

all in all i think i want to know how other users use hledger --budget as well as --forecast options to manage both life and business finances, and how they reconcile the two of them.


thanks!
af