Commodities and Currencies

Finzytrack uses Beancount ledgers, where every amount is denominated in a commodity — a code such as USD, INR, VOO, or VUSXX. A commodity can be a currency (money you total and report in) or a holding (a security you own a quantity of, such as a stock or fund).

The distinction matters on screens that add amounts together or offer a currency to choose. Adding “84.75 VOO” to a dollar total is meaningless, and a currency picker should not list a share code. Finzytrack keeps currencies and holdings apart using the operating-currency list.

Operating currencies

Your operating currencies are the commodities you track balances and net worth in. Finzytrack treats every commodity on this list as a currency, and every other commodity as a holding.

The list is stored in your ledger as operating_currency options, for example:

option "operating_currency" "USD"
option "operating_currency" "INR"

This is the single source of truth. Finzytrack reads it from the ledger and never keeps a separate copy.

Setting your operating currencies

Open Settings → General → Operating Currencies. Add a currency code, or remove one, then Save. Finzytrack writes the change back to your ledger.

The setup wizard also records your chosen currency as an operating currency when it creates a new ledger.

How Finzytrack decides what is a currency

For each commodity, Finzytrack resolves a currency/holding role in this order:

1. If your ledger lists operating currencies, a commodity is a currency when its code is on that list, and a holding otherwise. The list is the complete whitelist.
2. Otherwise, if the commodity declares an asset-class, it is a currency when that class is cash or currency, and a holding otherwise.
3. Otherwise, the commodity is treated as a currency.

The third rule means a brand-new ledger with no operating currencies shows every commodity as a currency — nothing is hidden. Once you set your operating currencies, the whitelist takes over.

What changes when a commodity is a holding

• Totals such as Net Worth, Total Assets, and Total Liabilities include only currencies. Holdings are excluded from these figures.
• Currency pickers in dashboards and forms list only currencies.
• Transaction and account views are unaffected: they continue to show holding quantities (for example, your VOO purchases), because those views report amounts as recorded, not as combined totals.

Asset class

You can label a commodity with an asset-class metadata value on its commodity directive:

1970-01-01 commodity VOO
  name: "Vanguard S&P 500 ETF"
  asset-class: "etf"

Finzytrack recognises these values: cash, currency, stock, etf, mutual-fund, bond, cd, crypto. Only cash and currency mark a commodity as a currency, and only when no operating currencies are set. Asset class is optional.