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Journal Tab

The Journal Tab provides a comprehensive, raw view of your Beancount ledger—similar to the Fava web interface.

📋 Features​

Complete Entry Stream​

Unlike the Transactions tab, the Journal view shows all entry types:

  • Transactions: Standard double-entry records
  • Notes: Descriptive notes attached to accounts
  • Balance Assertions: Balance checks/reconciliations
  • Other Directives: Any other Beancount directives (pads, documents, etc.)

Full Management Capabilities​

  • View Details: Click any entry to see full information including metadata
  • Edit: Right-click or click the edit button to modify an entry
  • Delete: Remove entries with confirmation to prevent accidents
  • Search: Full-text search across all fields (date, payee, narration, accounts)

Advanced Filtering​

  • Date Range: Filter entries by start and end dates
  • Account Filter: Show entries involving specific accounts
  • Entry Type: Filter by transaction, note, balance assertion, etc.
  • Live Search: Instant results as you type

🔍 Behind the Scenes: BQL Queries​

The Journal tab combines multiple queries to show all entry types:

Transaction Entries​

SELECT id, date, flag, payee, narration, tags, links, filename, lineno, account, number, currency, cost_number, cost_currency, cost_date, price, entry.meta as entry_meta FROM postings WHERE <filters> ORDER BY date DESC, id, account

This queries the postings table and groups results by transaction ID client-side. Includes:

  • All posting details (amounts, currencies, costs)
  • File location (filename, lineno) for editing
  • Transaction-level metadata

Balance Assertions​

SELECT date, account, amount, tolerance, discrepancy FROM #balances WHERE <filters> ORDER BY date DESC, account

Retrieves all balance directives with:

  • Expected amount
  • Allowed tolerance
  • Any discrepancy found by Beancount

Note Entries​

SELECT date, account, comment, tags, links, meta FROM #notes WHERE <filters> ORDER BY date DESC, account

Gets all note directives attached to accounts.

tip

The Journal tab fetches all three entry types in parallel and merges them client-side, sorting by date. This provides a unified chronological view of your ledger.

Learn More: See the Architecture & Queries page for all plugin queries.