>I think the barrier to entry is high because you first need to learn double entry bookkeeping (if you haven't already)

This. Accounting seems easy if you already know accounting. Learning accounting is difficult because the literature is dense, contradictory, and it's not helped by the fact that most accountants don't even seem to understand it at a fundamental level, they've merely memorized false-but-workable ideas like "debits increase assets because debit means left", or the silly idea about viewing it from the perspective of a bank.

Even accounting profs are surprisingly bad at at this, at least in my experience.

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djhworld 3 hours ago | parent [-]

ehhhhhhh I don't think you need to go as far as reading dense accounting literature, I never have and I've been maintaining a beancount files for 7+ years.

I just followed the documentation in here https://beancount.github.io/docs/the_double_entry_counting_m... - it gives you the general principles to follow and you can just pick it up from there.

	▲	stackghost 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The point I was trying to make is that "Debits increase assets" isn't some esoteric technique; it's a fundamental aspect of double-entry that you'd need to know, but it's also counterintuitive and most of the literature out there is full of bullshit explanations that do nothing to help people understand. The link you posted is similarly full of bullshit, written by someone who demonstrably does not understand the double entry system (they even say so in the text). But I'm the sort of person who finds it very grating to have to do something without understanding why I'm doing it. If that's not you then party on.