+1 to OP's book, which is the best beginner guide I've found for understanding Beancount / plaintext accounting.

I was also confused about double-entry accounting for most of my life until I read the article, "Accounting for Computer Scientists"[0] by Martin Kleppman (author of Designing Data-Intensive Applications). It explains double entry accounting in a surprisingly accessible way by putting it in terms of graph theory. I don't even like graph theory that much or consider myself competent in it, but Kleppman's explanation was extremely effective.

[0] https://martin.kleppmann.com/2011/03/07/accounting-for-compu...

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why-o-why 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

"Quicken is a single-entry accounting system, which means that amounts can appear out of or disappear into thin air. In a double-entry accounting system you can't put amounts in an account without taking it out of another account."

This summed it up nicely, from https://github.com/mortisj/quicken2beancount

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nonethewiser 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

What did you find hard to understand about double entry accounting? Seems pretty straightforward. Every transaction affects at least two accounts, and the total debits must equal the total credits. I can't imagine how introducing graph theory simplifies it, although I trust there are interesting insights none-the-less.

	▲	youainti 33 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I think it explains the "why" of double entry accounting. Since it is used to track flows of money, a graph representation is a natural representation (just not the only one and not necessarily the most useful for day to day operations).

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siddhant 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Thanks a lot for the shout out, Michael!