Bitcoin Forum

Hello,
i want to do bookkeeping / accounting for my bitcoin transactions.
I would like to know what people are doing for calculating how much they spend in their fiat currency for bitcoin, etc.

Right now i am buying bitcoin from bitcoinlocal, and after every transaction, finding out how much $1 in my currency equals to how much bitcoin i just got.
Then when i purchase goods online, i can use that as a reference to figure out how much fiat currency i spent.
But im sure there is a better way? Any programs / wallets / spreadsheets available that do this calculating automatically for you??

view transaction history Chain-block is the public records of all Bitcoin transactions, in chronological order, are shared between all users of Bitcoin, Bitcoin transactions recorded database used to verify permanent Bitcoin transactions and to prevent double-spending,can be audited by searching the entire recording transactions.

you don't need to do that because bitcoin already does this for you you just need to see the total transactions that have been carried out.

That's right but the another way can using block trail for showing all of your transaction and histories.

I use a small tool "sentinel" installed on my android phone. I imported all my xpub's from my HD wallets and all of my commonly-used other addresses.
The tool keeps track of all incoming/outgoing transactions, and calculates the total worth of my bitcoin holdings whenever i want based on the current localbitcoins price (IIRC, to lazy to pick up my phone right now  ;D).

It's not the complete answer to your question, merely a step in the "right" direction.

Try to use single bitcoin address to receive and send from so that you can use any explorer like blockchain.info to check total sent and total recevied bitcoin and you can also view those bitcoin in fiat converted on the current market price.

Altough this is a good idear for some people, it does reduce the privacy of the enduser. If you don't mind being tracked, it's the perfect sollution tough.

If you want to see all your transactions, you can just search up you Bitcoin address on Blockchain and that will show all the transactions from your account. Bitcoin received and given.

And that is working for smoothly in android? seems like a good way for me to try that.

Wow I never knew that you could do that. I am gonna start tonight. Hopefully it works as well as your's did. Thanks for the tips.

You dont need to do manual keeping of records of your transaction since there is a transaction history on every wallet online now so you can look over your previous transctions so no need to audit it manually

All transactions are in the blockchain. Most bitcoin wallets have a transaction log.

http://budgetsaresexy.com/images/bitcoin-transactions.gif

These walles have an option to show how much these transactions are worth in $.  You can export them into excel or some small database file which you can easily convert into an excel file.

It's a good idea to show how much they are worth in $, but remember that it may change over time. It's like keeping tracking of your transactions in pounds and saving its value in dollars, over time that may have very different outcomes so I'd only use this as a reference of the spending at the time because the value doesn't remain the same.

Works without a glitch, every time :)
If you only have one wallet, it's a bit overkill, since you could just look at the history (like virtualx already mentioned, most wallets do have some sort of history, sometimes even combined with a price ticker). If you have multiple HD and non-HD wallets, sentinel was the easyest sollution for me :)

you can even generate new addesses from your HD wallet, chose where the tool gets the 'street price', which block explorer to use, which units, you can backup everything and even chose a PIN code (altough, the whole tool is watch-only, so nobody could steal anything from you if they had this tool installed on your cellphone).

PS: i'm not affiliated with them, i cannot give support on their tool, i'm just a happy user

for keeping track of transactions i use Electrum as my wallet and it has all my addresses with or without private keys (watch only) and so it has all the transaction history i need.

but for keeping track of how much you have spent or for example for me i keep track of how much i have earned in trading and stuff like that, i use an excel spreadsheet which i fill in manually and the code takes care of the calculation of the rest.

I have recorded transactions in my wallet and from time to time I check records on blockchain. All transactions that I've maid with my Xapp Bitcoin debit card are recorded there in my wallet so I can keep everything under control.

There are many people mentioning the blockchain keeping history of trades...that is not really what i was asking...
I mean. for example.
you spend 100USD and convert that into 0.1644BTC.
You buy a digital key next week for 0.034BTC.
Then you topup your bitcoin wallet with another 100USD but this time you get 0.1555BTC
And now you buy 2x keys for 0.030BTC each.
How much USD did you spend on the two btc?
These maths problems for bookeeping are doing my head in.
Is there any programs or apps which can track expenses when relating to fiat currency and bitcoin?

I have a lot of bitcoin wallet. I use it because to keep my privacy. in one month I had dealings with a number of transactions reached 8 BTC. it was great for me, I open a money exchange business in my country. maybe the next few months I could break the record of my transaction. My business continued to develop well.

I don't make do many transactions so it is relatively easy for me to.keep track. Most of them are made from my blockchain wallet so I have all data at one place.

I have been here for quite a long time now and I didnt even think about making any records to each transactions. I dont know why. I think I just dont care. But I have memory on how much bitcoin I would leave in my wallet.

Yeah looks like me, I did not record all of my transaction but I always remind on how much bitcoin left in my wallet.

I use a copy of a program that was out years ago but is not supported now called microsoft money, it is a great accounting tool for householders

you can  generate addresses for each transaction,  Label then with their respective usage.  from there you can have records of different transaction directly in your wallet.  No need to do extra effort in auditing it outside the bitcoin wallet interface.  We all know that bitcoin can record different transaction precisely  so you just need the address and labels of each transacations.

uhmm and what is the point of having in mind how much bitcoins do you have? besides that if you send the transactions often you dont even need to remember it because you see the number often and if you send the transactions rarely the number just does not change then

to be honest i never record my transactions, especially when it is recorded on the blockchain so why is there a special need to record it somewhere else? you can just open blockchain.info whenever you want and type your address to check it if you really want

i really think that it is just a bullshitish thread that needs to be locked because it attracts a lot of one line posters who tell that they just dont record their transactions because it is obvious that you dont even need to do that

Honestly i dont have any automated calculation in my wallet but there is one place or site that where i can exchange my bitcoins and deposit my bitcoin. and this is my main wallet where i can exchange my fiat to bitcoin and bitcoin to fiat.. there is a history but you can not calculate it all. but there is a record from the past transaction..

Yeah it's a easy way to check in all transactions and everywhere you can check in transaction without need to login first.

i do not nwed to keep records for every tansactions because i belive my wallet is keeping a safe record for the tramsaction [atleast for a specific time] i do not expect someone after 2year come and say me that he mistakenly sent me some coins because i am nor gonna return if he really done so

I don't record them, Bitcoin Core does it for me. I don't see why bookkeeping with Bitcoin is any more difficult than traditional bookkeeping. Even with traditional bookkeeping you have to record all purchases/sales made. Bitcoin is no different. In fact, bookkeeping in Bitcoin can be easier if you use a full node and transact via a wallet you hold.

If your problem is knowing the fiat conversion price you can always consult one of the various price history pages. You can even do that retroactively. For example the Bitcoin explorer of https://bitinfocharts.com/ can show you the entire transaction history of a specific Bitcoin address with prices quoted in dollars as well.

ya.ya.yo!

excel+blockchain+price charts combo should do the trick
you can automate it too-export blockchain data to excel,add price from a chart of your choice
add formulas and you get your btc book keeper software :)
actually,this could be a good idea for a startup to create some standalone software that would do same and cost some 10-20$

that is interesting information, i didnt know that the information could be exported as a excel document, may be useful in the future cheers.

Inspite of blockchain's history i keep a offline note of my all bitcoin transaction in my bitcoin notebook , i keep offline recoreds to study and analyze the usage , profit, loss, and all factors. Sup that I could make out a rough idea of how much bitcoin i earn monthly, weekly.

I am planning to adopt your way of book keeping. Usually I don't know exactly how much i earn monthly or i suffer losses anyway from now itself I will keep all my records in offline notebook.

Blockchain,bitcoinexplorer,blocktrail? and why i need for recording all of my transaction if there are features is already recording my transaction.

your can record all transaction can use txt transaction
because every send transaction all coin bitcoin or altcoin can get receive txt transaction
but i don't record trxt transaction can automatic send and report to spread sheet
because iam not programer

you can use import or export all transaction

For now this is not necessary for me because i am not having big transactions for now. I just keep on converting my amounts into FIAT and keep doing the same all day. Maybe in the future i try to create my data files like excel being saved on google drive.

Well at blockchain there is an option to put some information at the transaction you are making soo you can get control from it, besides that i use some app from google play to help me to know how much im spending, and at which thing, it ask me daily for updates.

It is recorded in my wallet coins.ph all of my transactions because that application is very amazing. Blockchain recorded your transaction in or out of your bitcoin. The cash out flow alsio in your wallet is recorded if you gonna withdraw your bitcoin to convert it into real cash.

my only reference here that  I have in my country is the history record sheet to all my transaction in bitcoin can only be found in the coins.ph all my transfer and withdrawal of bitcoin was in this site.

You can use electrum wallet for this purpose. Load your addresses into it and all your bitcoin transactions would be shown from the blockchain. Further there is a option to add description regarding the transaction, you can add one-liner detail related to that transaction and voila ! your transactions are recorded !

@op, you should give details about your country and its currency so that we can find out a service which is able to show btc values in your currency directly.
electrum wallet shows btc values in GBP, USD and EUR only.

I don't actually record all my transactions myself, I just use the transaction page in the wallet and look at my balance to know how much I have left to spend. Just subtract the amount of bitcoins that you actually use and calculate that into fiat prices with sites like preev.com to find out how much you have spent.

You don't have to record all your transactions because blockchain does it for you. If you're using a different wallet website, I'm pretty sure they would also display you transaction history. The only reason you would record your transactions is when you have different Bitcoin wallets and you want to record the transactions altogether or maybe there's a lot of transactions coming in and coming out so you want to keep them in an excel.

You are doing manual which is also good because you can still be the one who manage your transaction details. The only thing sometimes is if you are very busy so you might not have enough time to do so.

I had blockchain wallet, before upgrading there was option too see how much did you send and received in wallet. That was list with all transaction, with calculation in the end. But now I was searching for that, but I couldn`t find it, I didn`t ask support what happened with that. It was interesting to know how much transactions you had from creating wallet.
Well I don`t know but excel can make you all calculation, but you need to update that document all the time. After every buy, you need to enter amount you spend in excel and in that way you can keep your records.

I am not actally planing to show anybody my wallets, how much money I have on them or where I sent coins to.
So basically there is no need for me to keep a record.
I think that is only necessary if you run a business or you are very curious about keeping statistics.
But If I had to I would do it manually.

You don't need tell to use your wallet address, we are discussed needs or not record the transaction it self.

What wallet are you using? If you have a HD wallet then it keeps all the transactions and you dont have to take additional notes.
I don't record my transaction neither the balance because I try to protect the details as much as possible.

Thanks a lot i don't know actually how to  checking all records . Thanks to Block chain system for providing such valuable information.It will really helpful to BTC users to update records.

I don’t remember all of my transactions exactly, but I remember how much I still have in my wallet. It’s enough to me  :)

Sorry but I am not that good in monitoring my transactions with bitcoin.  I do not know maybe I am not that conscious on where my bitcoin earnings go.  Maybe because I always exchange it into fiat currency and spend it right away. 

I don't record by my self about transaction of bitcoin, because it has been recorded automatic by bitcoin wallet service are like Blockchain,jaxx.io, BTC.com include on markets places and i just saw last history of transaction on there.

I also use blockchain.info, and I just check sent and received bitcoin when I need to know how much bitcoin I've received and sent.

I don't know whether another wallet have this menu or not, just check your wallet first.

I recorded my all transactions by printed out all of my withdrawal in terms of cashout money. I kept all of my receipt that came from my bitcoin funds. All printed transaction is subject for book binding so that i have a book of memories in bitcoin industry.

How you print out the bitcoin transaction? I have never heard someone printing out bitcoin transaction. Which wallet you using or you talking about ATM /exchanger cashout receipt from selling your bitcoin?

Most accounting software will handle it.

Manual entries though. Much better to keep a sale purchase ledger. Balance sheet, tax due etc will be a breeze.

IMHO.

You just write your own backend API calls for Microsoft Money and/or Quicken.  Takes about 15 minutes and that includes the time that it takes to get the keys and accounting info.

so far i manage it manually, like how much fiat that i have spent for buying bitcoin, also to manage how many altcoins that i have, i record them on spreadsheet, actually i don't know if there's any programs like that.
And about bitcoin transaction that i have made i think we can check it on blockchain or blocktrail, so we don't need any programs.

You could use the Blockchain to do this, but you would be compromising your own financial privacy. If I were you, I would rather record

the transactions offline in a little black book. You can make encrypted notes online, and reference the black book for the details. You can

make small remarks for example : Am = Amazon purchase / FF = Fast food etc.. etc.. Only you will know what the abbreviations means.  8)

All transactions're publicly visible on the blockchain. You could check them anytime. Maybe, it's a bit difficult to do the query without tools, but you can get tools that do it for you easily. What's more, most wallets, online and desktop alike, help you view your records without coding.

i dont really track any off my financial transactions well not my bitcoin ones anyway.  do you?  and if so how do you do it?

no one does that because there is just no need to do that in my opinion, you can always check it on the blockchain

I don't record them regularly since BTC is not taxable in my country and don't really need to keep track of it, but if you do then using something like blockchain to sort through them might be useful, it would also be possible if you write them in a notepad for everyday etc...

YOu can view transaction on blockchain , there are lots of transaction are made there because they using api of block chain
and if you are going to ask how many transaction are made by a minute well we cant see that because it really fast that there are new transaction are being made per seconds

The only thing im thinking to adopt it to put notes on the transaction to know where im sending the money or where the money camed from, because the value we can see already, in dollar or bitcoin or other currencie.

I use a ledger wallet. Scrue enough for my purpose

yeah it is always in my wallet to be honest and i never need to track it too, it is the best in my opinion

I don't record them for taxes or the like since there are no taxes on commodities and things like bitcoins in my country but I just keep them for reference and highlight each transaction with cause "useful in remembering the reason for each one".

I do wanna to control where the bitcoins are going and for what but im lazy and usuall i just send the money without put something information about it, but i will try to control my spendings.

The blockchain holds the books of accounts for all my record keeping purposes when it comes to Bitcoin transactions. On my electrum wallet, I backup the histroy of received and spent transactions along with the timestamps so that I'll know with ease when the transaction happened without having to have a look at the blockchain tx online.

well, i'm not very worried on how much i paid for every bitcoin i bought... but i do have a registry of my transactions on a spreadsheet. sometimes the simple are the better

When I buy Bitcoin the exchange I use keeps a record of all trades performed, and as such I can just go and look at that information if I really want to try and turn a profit off of some trading. Most of the time, for my P2P transactions, my wallet has a record of them, and I just use that as a reference. It really doesn't become an issue at that point, and I like that.

Currently I am just using my online wallets to record whatever transactions I perform, and I namely use blockchain. It's a nice and simplistic record book (in case I ever need it for one reason or another), and I personally haven't had any issues with data retention or whatever.