[matthiasv]

> How do you deal with Cash?

Move money from Asset:Checking to Expenses:Cash

> How do you deal with interest?

Move money from Income:Interest to Asset:Depot

> How do you keep your bank statements?

I download CSVs once in a while an import them with hledgers import tool (see https://bloerg.net/2016/02/22/ledger-import-of-deutsche-bank...)

> How do you convert your balance sheet into a tax filing compatible format?

I don't, sorry. But it's actually pretty easy to get the relevant data if you split your taxable incoming accordingly.

> How do you track things like rent? Do you keep it as a recurring entry i.e. `~ Monthly` or do you only book it when you pay with buchhaltung?

It's part of the bank statement, so yes it moves money from Assets:Checking to Expenses:Rent whenever the transaction happens.

> How do you track small expenses on the go?

I don't. After a while I found it's not worth the effort. I rarely make financial decisions based on how much I spent on beers and sandwiches, so most of these little things are just subsumed in Expenses:Cash.

[egh]

Great answers. I'd just like to add https://github.com/egh/ledger-autosync as an additional solution for bank statement import.

> I don't. After a while I found it's not worth the effort. I rarely make financial decisions based on how much I spent on beers and sandwiches, so most of these little things are just subsumed in Expenses:Cash.

Agree completely - when keeping track of expenses, it is only worth tracking the numbers that matter to you. If it won't effect your decisions, don't bother tracking.

[gglitch]

> > How do you deal with Cash?

> Move money from Asset:Checking to Expenses:Cash

I've been moving from Assets:Checking to Assets:Cash, and then from Assets:Cash to Expenses:Haircuts (or whatever)

[egh]

You can also move from Assets:Checking to Expenses:Cash, and then from Expenses:Cash to Expenses:Haircuts. This allows you to track the larger cash expenses if you like, while letting the small purchases accrue in Expenses:Cash.

[gglitch]

I just found that workflow described in a blog post elsewhere too:

"Pro-tip: tracking cash withdrawals and purchases can be a pain. I typically just maintain an Expenses:Cash account for these sorts of things. If I can remember how I spent a bit of cash, great: I can just debit Expenses:Cash and credit the appropriate account for what I spent the cash on after the fact. Otherwise, I just leave the amount attributed to Expenses:Cash. It's often not worth the trouble of trying to keep finer track of cash purchases than that." -- http://matthewturland.com/2014/03/29/ledger-basics-and-habit...

Sounds smart, though at the scale of my personal finances, I get much more value out of tracking the petty transactions. I guess I'm pound-wise but penny-foolish.