I’m interested in iteration — at least when it comes to plain text accounting. What do I mean by that? I want to find a healthy cycle of entering data, examining it, and entering corrected data when needed.
To illustrate this, I recently generated an hledger income statement. As my wife and I were reviewing, she mentioned “That’s interesting, …” In this case, there was a withholding amount that should have been the same for both of us, but it wasn’t. Time to update the figures so that they are correct!
There was also an instance where we checked to see if something were recorded in the appropriate category. Specifically, we were looking at work expenses, which included payments to our local dry cleaner. Most of the time, such cleaning expenses are for work attire, so they are naturally a work expense. Very occasionally, however, there is something for home use that needs to be laundered professionally. As we were reviewing a report, we thought to ask if the non-work cleaning had been appropriately categorized as something other than work.
After some additional investigation, it turned out that we had categorized the non-work cleaning correctly. This gave us greater confidence in our data, at least in that specific area.
In short, when it comes to my plain text accounting, a cycle of entering data, examining it, and making any necessary changes gives me confidence that I am getting more and more accurate — and therefore useful — information.