Getting started with beancount_ex

Mix.install([
  {:beancount_ex, "~> 0.2"},
  {:explorer, "~> 0.9"},
  {:kino, "~> 0.13"}
])

Build a ledger

Constructors live directly on the Beancount module - you build a list of typed directive structs.

ledger = [
  Beancount.open(~D[2026-01-01], "Assets:Bank", ["USD"]),
  Beancount.open(~D[2026-01-01], "Income:Salary", ["USD"]),
  Beancount.transaction(~D[2026-01-31], "*", "Employer", "Salary", [
    Beancount.posting("Assets:Bank", Decimal.new("5000"), "USD"),
    Beancount.posting("Income:Salary", Decimal.new("-5000"), "USD")
  ])
]

Render to Beancount text

Rendering is deterministic.

IO.puts(Beancount.render(ledger))

Check the ledger

This requires the Beancount toolchain (pip install beancount). The call dispatches through the configured engine.

case Beancount.check(ledger) do
  {:ok, result} -> result.status
  {:error, result} -> result.normalized.errors
end

Next

See the reporting notebook to turn a ledger into interactive tables with Explorer.