Trip Ledger

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Trip Ledger is an Obsidian plugin for recording expenses by date for each trip and reviewing totals by category and place. The plugin interface defaults to Korean and also supports English. To switch, open Settings → Trip Ledger → Language.

Usage

1. In Settings → Trip Ledger → Current trip, select Create trip, then enter a trip name and currency code. The plugin creates a separate folder and selects the new trip.
2. Run Open trip ledger from the command palette or select the wallet icon in the left ribbon. If no trip is selected yet, the view prompts you to create one in settings.
3. Select a date and use Add expense to record What, Amount, Where, and Category. You can edit or delete expenses in the table.
4. Select Show statistics to see the current trip's totals and shares by category, plus totals by place.
5. Select Open day note to open that date's Markdown file in Obsidian.

To edit an earlier trip, use Settings → Trip Ledger → Select trip folder. The list includes only direct child folders of the configured ledger folder. Each candidate needs a valid trip.md. An invalid folder shows an error and leaves the current selection unchanged. Creating a new trip for a later visit keeps its records separate. Obsidian restores the selected trip on restart; if that trip is missing, select another or create a new one.

Use Add category in the category picker to create a custom category. Categories are shared by all trips in the current ledger. In Settings → Trip Ledger, you can rename, hide, or show them again. Hidden categories remain in existing records and statistics. You can also change the interface language there.

To rename the ledger folder, enter a name under Settings → Trip Ledger → Ledger folder and select Rename folder. The plugin moves existing trip records, day-note contents, and custom categories. It stops if a file or folder with the target name already exists; it does not merge or overwrite files. On a new installation, changing the name saves it without creating a folder until the first record is written.

To use an existing ledger, select it under Settings → Trip Ledger → Select existing ledger. The list shows top-level vault folders containing at least one valid trip trip.md. Selecting one changes the configured ledger path without moving files. This also lets you reconnect a ledger folder that you renamed outside the plugin. If the selected ledger has exactly one trip with the same ID as your current trip, that trip stays selected; otherwise choose a trip under Select trip folder.

Storage and privacy

All records are stored in a top-level vault folder named Trip Ledger/ by default. Each new trip gets a folder based on its name. If the plain folder name is occupied, a short unique ID is appended. A previously created suffixed folder alone does not reserve the plain name. Each trip has a trip.md with its name and currency, and a dates/YYYY-MM-DD.md file for each recorded date. The ledger folder has a categories.md for custom categories. Expenses are stored in the day file's frontmatter; you can write notes in its body, which the plugin preserves.

Each trip uses one currency. You cannot change it after the first expense, even if you later delete every expense. The plugin does not fetch exchange rates, convert currencies, or combine totals across trips.

The plugin makes no network requests and collects no usage analytics. It reads and edits managed files in the current ledger folder. To find existing ledgers, it checks top-level vault folders and their immediate trip folders, reading candidate trip.md and categories.md files. The configured ledger folder and selected trip ID are stored in the plugin settings.

Development and local installation

Use Node.js 18 or later and npm:

npm install
npm test
npm run build
npm run lint

Place the built main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css in .obsidian/plugins/trip-ledger/ inside your vault. Enable Trip Ledger in Settings → Community plugins. If you develop inside that plugin folder, reload Obsidian after building.

main.js and node_modules/ are generated files and are not committed to Git.

License

Trip Ledger is distributed under the Zero-Clause BSD (0BSD) license. See LICENSE.