Demystifying the .ivact File Format

The .ivact file format is a simple text-based file format. It is similar to a HTML file, written in plain text, but it is read differently by the program.

There are 3 .ivact files in each project you saved using the program.
accjournals.ivact
acclist.ivact
acclistdet.ivact

While acclist.ivact and acclistdet.ivact does nothing but records the list of accounts used in the program, accjournals.ivact is slightly more complex.
Open up accjournals.ivact and you will see something similar to this

Breaking down the syntax

<J>0000
<D>01 August 2013/Cash/1500
<D>01 August 2013/Bank/89000
<D>01 August 2013/Furniture/8500
<C>01 August 2013/Owner's Capital/99000
<DE>Start.
</J>

<j> declares the start of a new journal entry and the number that follows behind it represents the journal number.
<d> declares that it is a Debit entry, it shows the date, account, and the value to be debited.
<c> declares that it is a Credit entry, it shows the date, account, and the value to be credited.
<de> declares that the journal entry has a description, it shows the description of the journal entry.
</de></c></d></j> declares that it is the end of the journal entry. The program will add the journal entry when it reaches this point.

The journal entry shown in the code block above is the first journal entry(No.0000) and it has 3 debit entries and 1 credit entry. The journal entry is dated 1st of August 2013 and it has a description of "Start."

Because the program reads through the file line by line, you can break the program very easily if you tamper with the ivact file using a text editor.

See also:
Saving and Loading