diff --git a/pkgs/applications/office/ledger/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/office/ledger/default.nix
index bb6e529f5d2..9675293cfe5 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/office/ledger/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/office/ledger/default.nix
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 { stdenv, fetchFromGitHub, cmake, boost, gmp, mpfr, libedit, python
-, texinfo, gnused }:
+, texinfo, gnused, usePython ? true }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   name = "ledger-${version}";
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   enableParallelBuilding = true;
 
-  cmakeFlags = [ "-DCMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR=lib" ];
+  cmakeFlags = [ "-DCMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR=lib" (stdenv.lib.optionalString usePython "-DUSE_PYTHON=true") ];
 
   # Skip byte-compiling of emacs-lisp files because this is currently
   # broken in ledger...