Accounts Configuration

The file config/accounts.yaml defines every bank account, credit card, and financial source that Ledger tracks. Copy from the example to get started:

cp config/accounts.yaml.example config/accounts.yaml

Basic account definition

Each account needs a name, source type, and account type:

accounts:
  - name: "My Checking Account"
    source_type: ing
    currency: AUD
    account_type: checking
    file_prefix: my_checking

Fields

Field	Required	Description
name	Yes	Display name (must be unique)
source_type	Yes	Parser identifier: ing, paypal, bankwest, hsbc, coles, amex, airbnb
currency	No	Default AUD
account_type	Yes	One of: checking, savings, credit, loan, other
file_prefix	No	Matches statement filenames to this account (see below)
source_of_truth	No	Set to true for credit cards / PayPal (see below)
payment_patterns	No	Regex patterns for payments TO this account from other accounts
display	No	Set to 0 to hide from the net worth panel

File prefix mapping

When you have multiple accounts with the same bank (e.g. multiple ING accounts), file_prefix maps statement filenames to accounts:

accounts:
  - name: "Everyday Account"
    source_type: ing
    file_prefix: everyday

  - name: "Savings Account"
    source_type: ing
    file_prefix: savings

A file named everyday_2025-01.pdf in staging/ing/ will be assigned to “Everyday Account”. A file named savings_2025-01.pdf goes to “Savings Account”.

If no prefix matches, the parser falls back to a default account name.

Account types

• checking — everyday transaction account
• savings — savings / term deposit
• credit — credit card (balances shown as negative in net worth)
• loan — mortgage / loan (excluded from spending reports, balance shown as debt)
• other — PayPal, Airbnb, etc.

Source-of-truth accounts

This is the key feature that prevents double-counting. See the dedicated source-of-truth guide for the full explanation.

When you pay a credit card from your bank account, the payment appears on both sides:

• Your bank: “BPAY COLES MASTERCARD -$500”
• Your credit card: individual purchases totalling $500

Without source-of-truth, both would be counted as spending. The solution:

  - name: "My Credit Card"
    source_type: coles
    account_type: credit
    source_of_truth: true
    payment_patterns:
      - "COLES MASTERCARD"
      - "COLES CREDIT"

With this config:

• The credit card is marked as source-of-truth (its transactions are the “real” spending)
• Any transaction on a non-source-of-truth account (e.g. ING) matching "COLES MASTERCARD" is automatically marked as a transfer, not spending

PayPal

PayPal works the same way. The bank sees “PAYPAL” but PayPal’s CSV has the actual merchant names:

  - name: "PayPal"
    source_type: paypal
    account_type: other
    source_of_truth: true
    payment_patterns:
      - "PAYPAL"

Full example

accounts:
  # Everyday accounts
  - name: "My Checking Account"
    source_type: ing
    currency: AUD
    account_type: checking
    file_prefix: my_checking

  - name: "My Savings"
    source_type: ing
    currency: AUD
    account_type: savings
    file_prefix: my_savings

  # Credit cards (source-of-truth)
  - name: "My Credit Card"
    source_type: bankwest
    currency: AUD
    account_type: credit
    source_of_truth: true
    payment_patterns:
      - "MY CREDIT CARD"
      - "BPAY.*MY CARD"

  # PayPal
  - name: "PayPal"
    source_type: paypal
    currency: AUD
    account_type: other
    source_of_truth: true
    payment_patterns:
      - "PAYPAL"

  # Airbnb (hidden from net worth)
  # - name: "Airbnb"
  #   source_type: airbnb
  #   currency: AUD
  #   account_type: other
  #   display: 0

After editing

Run ledger init to reload the account config into the database:

ledger init