Plain text accounting file from your bitcoin transactions

Thu, 7 Mar 2024 18:00:00 +0100

A while back I wrote a small script to extract the Bitcoin +transactions in a wallet in the +ledger plain text accounting +format. The last few days I spent some time to get it working +better with more special cases. In case it can be useful for others, +here is a copy:

+ +

+#!/usr/bin/python3
+#  -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+#  Copyright (c) 2023-2024 Petter Reinholdtsen
+
+from decimal import Decimal
+import json
+import subprocess
+import time
+
+import numpy
+
+def format_float(num):
+    return numpy.format_float_positional(num, trim='-')
+
+accounts = {
+    u'amount' : 'Assets:BTC:main',
+}
+
+addresses = {
+    '' : 'Assets:bankkonto',
+    '' : 'Assets:bankkonto',
+}
+
+def exec_json(cmd):
+    proc = subprocess.Popen(cmd,stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
+    j = json.loads(proc.communicate()[0], parse_float=Decimal)
+    return j
+
+def list_txs():
+    # get all transactions for all accounts / addresses
+    c = 0
+    txs = []
+    txidfee = {}
+    limit=100000
+    cmd = ['bitcoin-cli', 'listtransactions', '*', str(limit)]
+    if True:
+        txs.extend(exec_json(cmd))
+    else:
+        # Useful for debugging
+        with open('transactions.json') as f:
+            txs.extend(json.load(f, parse_float=Decimal))
+    #print txs
+    for tx in sorted(txs, key=lambda a: a['time']):
+#        print tx['category']
+        if 'abandoned' in tx and tx['abandoned']:
+            continue
+        if 'confirmations' in tx and 0 >= tx['confirmations']:
+            continue
+        when = time.strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M', time.localtime(tx['time']))
+        if 'message' in tx:
+            desc = tx['message']
+        elif 'comment' in tx:
+            desc = tx['comment']
+        elif 'label' in tx:
+            desc = tx['label']
+        else:
+            desc = 'n/a'
+        print("%s %s" % (when, desc))
+        if 'address' in tx:
+            print("  ; to bitcoin address %s" % tx['address'])
+        else:
+            print("  ; missing address in transaction, txid=%s" % tx['txid'])
+        print(f"  ; amount={tx['amount']}")
+        if 'fee'in tx:
+            print(f"  ; fee={tx['fee']}")
+        for f in accounts.keys():
+            if f in tx and Decimal(0) != tx[f]:
+                amount = tx[f]
+                print("  %-20s   %s BTC" % (accounts[f], format_float(amount)))
+        if 'fee' in tx and Decimal(0) != tx['fee']:
+            # Make sure to list fee used in several transactions only once.
+            if 'fee' in tx and tx['txid'] in txidfee \
+               and tx['fee'] == txidfee[tx['txid']]:
+                True
+            else:
+                fee = tx['fee']
+                print("  %-20s   %s BTC" % (accounts['amount'], format_float(fee)))
+                print("  %-20s   %s BTC" % ('Expences:BTC-fee', format_float(-fee)))
+                txidfee[tx['txid']] = tx['fee']
+
+        if 'address' in tx and tx['address'] in addresses:
+            print("  %s" % addresses[tx['address']])
+        else:
+            if 'generate' == tx['category']:
+                print("  Income:BTC-mining")
+            else:
+                if amount < Decimal(0):
+                    print(f"  Assets:unknown:sent:update-script-addr-{tx['address']}")
+                else:
+                    print(f"  Assets:unknown:received:update-script-addr-{tx['address']}")
+
+        print()
+        c = c + 1
+    print("# Found %d transactions" % c)
+    if limit == c:
+        print(f"# Warning: Limit {limit} reached, consider increasing limit.")
+
+def main():
+    list_txs()
+
+main()
+

+ +

It is more of a proof of concept, and I do not expect it to handle +all edge cases, but it worked for me, and perhaps you can find it +useful too.

+ +

To get a more interesting result, it is useful to map accounts sent +to or received from to accounting accounts, using the +addresses hash. As these will be very context dependent, I +leave out my list to allow each user to fill out their own list of +accounts. Out of the box, 'ledger reg BTC:main' should be able to +show the amount of BTCs present in the wallet at any given time in the +past. For other and more valuable analysis, a account plan need to be +set up in the addresses hash. Here is an example +transaction:

+ +

+2024-03-07 17:00 Donated to good cause
+    Assets:BTC:main                           -0.1 BTC
+    Assets:BTC:main                       -0.00001 BTC
+    Expences:BTC-fee                       0.00001 BTC
+    Expences:donations                         0.1 BTC
+

+ +

It need a running Bitcoin Core daemon running, as it connect to it +using bitcoin-cli listtransactions * 100000 to extract the +transactions listed in the Wallet.

+ +

As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my +activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address +15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b.

Petter Reinholdtsen - Entries from March 2024

Plain text accounting file from your bitcoin transactions