This is hledger.info, produced by makeinfo version 7.0.1 from stdin.

INFO-DIR-SECTION User Applications
START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* hledger: (hledger).  Command-line plain text accounting tool.
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY


File: hledger.info,  Node: Top,  Next: PART 1 USER INTERFACE,  Up: (dir)

hledger(1)
**********

hledger - robust, friendly plain text accounting (CLI version)

   ‘hledger’
‘hledger [-f FILE] COMMAND [OPTS] [ARGS]’
‘hledger [-f FILE] ADDONCMD -- [OPTS] [ARGS]’

   hledger is a robust, user-friendly, cross-platform set of programs
for tracking money, time, or any other commodity, using double-entry
accounting and a simple, editable file format.  hledger is inspired by
and largely compatible with ledger(1), and largely interconvertible with
beancount(1).

   This manual is for hledger’s command line interface, version 1.28.99.
It also describes the common options, file formats and concepts used by
all hledger programs.  It might accidentally teach you some
bookkeeping/accounting as well!  You don’t need to know everything in
here to use hledger productively, but when you have a question about
functionality, this doc should answer it.  It is detailed, so do skip
ahead or skim when needed.  You can read it on hledger.org, or as an
info manual or man page on your system (each has benefits).  You can
also get it from hledger itself with
‘hledger --man’, ‘hledger --info’ or ‘hledger help [TOPIC]’.

   The main function of the hledger CLI is to read plain text files
describing financial transactions, crunch the numbers, and print a
useful report on the terminal (or save it as HTML, CSV, JSON or SQL).
Many reports are available, as subcommands.  hledger will also detect
other ‘hledger-*’ executables as extra subcommands.

   hledger reads data from one or more files in journal, timeclock,
timedot, or CSV format.  The default file is ‘.hledger.journal’ in your
home directory; this can be overridden with one or more ‘-f FILE’
options, or the ‘LEDGER_FILE’ environment variable.  hledger CLI can
also read from stdin with ‘-f-’; more on that below.

   Here is a small but valid hledger journal file describing one
transaction:

2015-10-16 bought food
  expenses:food          $10
  assets:cash

   Transactions are dated movements of money (etc.)  between two or more
_accounts_: bank accounts, your wallet, revenue/expense categories,
people, etc.  You can choose any account names you wish, using ‘:’ to
indicate subaccounts.  There must be at least two spaces between account
name and amount.  Positive amounts are inflow to that account (_debit_),
negatives are outflow from it (_credit_).  (Some reports show revenue,
liability and equity account balances as negative numbers as a result;
this is normal.)

   hledger’s add command can help you add transactions, or you can
install other data entry UIs like hledger-web or hledger-iadd.  For more
extensive/efficient changes, use a text editor: Emacs + ledger-mode, VIM
+ vim-ledger, or VS Code + hledger-vscode are some good choices (see
https://hledger.org/editors.html).

   To get started, run ‘hledger add’ and follow the prompts, or save
some entries like the above in ‘$HOME/.hledger.journal’, then try
commands like:
‘hledger print -x’
‘hledger aregister assets’
‘hledger balance’
‘hledger balancesheet’
‘hledger incomestatement’.
Run ‘hledger’ to list the commands.  See also the "Starting a journal
file" and "Setting opening balances" sections in PART 5: COMMON TASKS.

* Menu:

* PART 1 USER INTERFACE::
* Options::
* Environment::
* Input::
* Commands::
* Output::
* Limitations::
* Troubleshooting::
* PART 2 DATA FORMATS::
* Journal::
* CSV::
* Timeclock::
* Timedot::
* PART 3 REPORTING CONCEPTS::
* Time periods::
* Depth::
* Queries::
* Pivoting::
* Generating data::
* Forecasting::
* Budgeting::
* Cost reporting::
* Valuation::
* PART 4 COMMANDS::
* PART 5 COMMON TASKS::


File: hledger.info,  Node: PART 1 USER INTERFACE,  Next: Options,  Prev: Top,  Up: Top

1 PART 1: USER INTERFACE
************************


File: hledger.info,  Node: Options,  Next: Environment,  Prev: PART 1 USER INTERFACE,  Up: Top

2 Options
*********

* Menu:

* General options::
* Command options::
* Command arguments::
* Special characters::
* Unicode characters::
* Regular expressions::


File: hledger.info,  Node: General options,  Next: Command options,  Up: Options

2.1 General options
===================

To see general usage help, including general options which are supported
by most hledger commands, run ‘hledger -h’.

   General help options:

‘-h --help’

     show general or COMMAND help
‘--man’

     show general or COMMAND user manual with man
‘--info’

     show general or COMMAND user manual with info
‘--version’

     show general or ADDONCMD version
‘--debug[=N]’

     show debug output (levels 1-9, default: 1)

   General input options:

‘-f FILE --file=FILE’

     use a different input file.  For stdin, use - (default:
     ‘$LEDGER_FILE’ or ‘$HOME/.hledger.journal’)
‘--rules-file=RULESFILE’

     Conversion rules file to use when reading CSV (default: FILE.rules)
‘--separator=CHAR’

     Field separator to expect when reading CSV (default: ’,’)
‘--alias=OLD=NEW’

     rename accounts named OLD to NEW
‘--anon’

     anonymize accounts and payees
‘--pivot FIELDNAME’

     use some other field or tag for the account name
‘-I --ignore-assertions’

     disable balance assertion checks (note: does not disable balance
     assignments)
‘-s --strict’

     do extra error checking (check that all posted accounts are
     declared)

   General reporting options:

‘-b --begin=DATE’

     include postings/txns on or after this date (will be adjusted to
     preceding subperiod start when using a report interval)
‘-e --end=DATE’

     include postings/txns before this date (will be adjusted to
     following subperiod end when using a report interval)
‘-D --daily’

     multiperiod/multicolumn report by day
‘-W --weekly’

     multiperiod/multicolumn report by week
‘-M --monthly’

     multiperiod/multicolumn report by month
‘-Q --quarterly’

     multiperiod/multicolumn report by quarter
‘-Y --yearly’

     multiperiod/multicolumn report by year
‘-p --period=PERIODEXP’

     set start date, end date, and/or reporting interval all at once
     using period expressions syntax
‘--date2’

     match the secondary date instead (see command help for other
     effects)
‘--today=DATE’

     override today’s date (affects relative smart dates, for
     tests/examples)
‘-U --unmarked’

     include only unmarked postings/txns (can combine with -P or -C)
‘-P --pending’

     include only pending postings/txns
‘-C --cleared’

     include only cleared postings/txns
‘-R --real’

     include only non-virtual postings
‘-NUM --depth=NUM’

     hide/aggregate accounts or postings more than NUM levels deep
‘-E --empty’

     show items with zero amount, normally hidden (and vice-versa in
     hledger-ui/hledger-web)
‘-B --cost’

     convert amounts to their cost/selling amount at transaction time
‘-V --market’

     convert amounts to their market value in default valuation
     commodities
‘-X --exchange=COMM’

     convert amounts to their market value in commodity COMM
‘--value’

     convert amounts to cost or market value, more flexibly than
     -B/-V/-X
‘--infer-market-prices’

     use transaction prices (recorded with @ or @@) as additional market
     prices, as if they were P directives
‘--auto’

     apply automated posting rules to modify transactions.
‘--forecast’

     generate future transactions from periodic transaction rules, for
     the next 6 months or till report end date.  In hledger-ui, also
     make ordinary future transactions visible.
‘--commodity-style’

     Override the commodity style in the output for the specified
     commodity.  For example ’EUR1.000,00’.
‘--color=WHEN (or --colour=WHEN)’

     Should color-supporting commands use ANSI color codes in text
     output.  ’auto’ (default): whenever stdout seems to be a
     color-supporting terminal.  ’always’ or ’yes’: always, useful eg
     when piping output into ’less -R’.  ’never’ or ’no’: never.  A
     NO_COLOR environment variable overrides this.
‘--pretty[=WHEN]’

     Show prettier output, e.g.  using unicode box-drawing characters.
     Accepts ’yes’ (the default) or ’no’ (’y’, ’n’, ’always’, ’never’
     also work).  If you provide an argument you must use ’=’, e.g.
     ’–pretty=yes’.

   When a reporting option appears more than once in the command line,
the last one takes precedence.

   Some reporting options can also be written as query arguments.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Command options,  Next: Command arguments,  Prev: General options,  Up: Options

2.2 Command options
===================

To see options for a particular command, including command-specific
options, run: ‘hledger COMMAND -h’.

   Command-specific options must be written after the command name, eg:
‘hledger print -x’.

   Additionally, if the command is an add-on, you may need to put its
options after a double-hyphen, eg: ‘hledger ui -- --watch’.  Or, you can
run the add-on executable directly: ‘hledger-ui --watch’.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Command arguments,  Next: Special characters,  Prev: Command options,  Up: Options

2.3 Command arguments
=====================

Most hledger commands accept arguments after the command name, which are
often a query, filtering the data in some way.

   You can save a set of command line options/arguments in a file, and
then reuse them by writing ‘@FILENAME’ as a command line argument.  Eg:
‘hledger bal @foo.args’.  (To prevent this, eg if you have an argument
that begins with a literal ‘@’, precede it with ‘--’, eg: ‘hledger bal
-- @ARG’).

   Inside the argument file, each line should contain just one option or
argument.  Avoid the use of spaces, except inside quotes (or you’ll see
a confusing error).  Between a flag and its argument, use = (or
nothing).  Bad:

assets depth:2
-X USD

   Good:

assets
depth:2
-X=USD

   For special characters (see below), use one less level of quoting
than you would at the command prompt.  Bad:

-X"$"

   Good:

-X$

   See also: Save frequently used options.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Special characters,  Next: Unicode characters,  Prev: Command arguments,  Up: Options

2.4 Special characters
======================

* Menu:

* Single escaping shell metacharacters::
* Double escaping regular expression metacharacters::
* Triple escaping for add-on commands::
* Less escaping::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Single escaping shell metacharacters,  Next: Double escaping regular expression metacharacters,  Up: Special characters

2.4.1 Single escaping (shell metacharacters)
--------------------------------------------

In shell command lines, characters significant to your shell - such as
spaces, ‘<’, ‘>’, ‘(’, ‘)’, ‘|’, ‘$’ and ‘\’ - should be "shell-escaped"
if you want hledger to see them.  This is done by enclosing them in
single or double quotes, or by writing a backslash before them.  Eg to
match an account name containing a space:

$ hledger register 'credit card'

   or:

$ hledger register credit\ card

   Windows users should keep in mind that ‘cmd’ treats single quote as a
regular character, so you should be using double quotes exclusively.
PowerShell treats both single and double quotes as quotes.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Double escaping regular expression metacharacters,  Next: Triple escaping for add-on commands,  Prev: Single escaping shell metacharacters,  Up: Special characters

2.4.2 Double escaping (regular expression metacharacters)
---------------------------------------------------------

Characters significant in regular expressions (described below) - such
as ‘.’, ‘^’, ‘$’, ‘[’, ‘]’, ‘(’, ‘)’, ‘|’, and ‘\’ - may need to be
"regex-escaped" if you don’t want them to be interpreted by hledger’s
regular expression engine.  This is done by writing backslashes before
them, but since backslash is typically also a shell metacharacter, both
shell-escaping and regex-escaping will be needed.  Eg to match a literal
‘$’ sign while using the bash shell:

$ hledger balance cur:'\$'

   or:

$ hledger balance cur:\\$


File: hledger.info,  Node: Triple escaping for add-on commands,  Next: Less escaping,  Prev: Double escaping regular expression metacharacters,  Up: Special characters

2.4.3 Triple escaping (for add-on commands)
-------------------------------------------

When you use hledger to run an external add-on command (described
below), one level of shell-escaping is lost from any options or
arguments intended for by the add-on command, so those need an extra
level of shell-escaping.  Eg to match a literal ‘$’ sign while using the
bash shell and running an add-on command (‘ui’):

$ hledger ui cur:'\\$'

   or:

$ hledger ui cur:\\\\$

   If you wondered why _four_ backslashes, perhaps this helps:

unescaped:        ‘$’
escaped:          ‘\$’
double-escaped:   ‘\\$’
triple-escaped:   ‘\\\\$’

   Or, you can avoid the extra escaping by running the add-on executable
directly:

$ hledger-ui cur:\\$


File: hledger.info,  Node: Less escaping,  Prev: Triple escaping for add-on commands,  Up: Special characters

2.4.4 Less escaping
-------------------

Options and arguments are sometimes used in places other than the shell
command line, where shell-escaping is not needed, so there you should
use one less level of escaping.  Those places include:

   • an @argumentfile
   • hledger-ui’s filter field
   • hledger-web’s search form
   • GHCI’s prompt (used by developers).


File: hledger.info,  Node: Unicode characters,  Next: Regular expressions,  Prev: Special characters,  Up: Options

2.5 Unicode characters
======================

hledger is expected to handle non-ascii characters correctly:

   • they should be parsed correctly in input files and on the command
     line, by all hledger tools (add, iadd, hledger-web’s
     search/add/edit forms, etc.)

   • they should be displayed correctly by all hledger tools, and
     on-screen alignment should be preserved.

   This requires a well-configured environment.  Here are some tips:

   • A system locale must be configured, and it must be one that can
     decode the characters being used.  In bash, you can set a locale
     like this: ‘export LANG=en_US.UTF-8’.  There are some more details
     in Troubleshooting.  This step is essential - without it, hledger
     will quit on encountering a non-ascii character (as with all
     GHC-compiled programs).

   • your terminal software (eg Terminal.app, iTerm, CMD.exe, xterm..)
     must support unicode

   • the terminal must be using a font which includes the required
     unicode glyphs

   • the terminal should be configured to display wide characters as
     double width (for report alignment)

   • on Windows, for best results you should run hledger in the same
     kind of environment in which it was built.  Eg hledger built in the
     standard CMD.EXE environment (like the binaries on our download
     page) might show display problems when run in a cygwin or msys
     terminal, and vice versa.  (See eg #961).


File: hledger.info,  Node: Regular expressions,  Prev: Unicode characters,  Up: Options

2.6 Regular expressions
=======================

hledger uses regular expressions in a number of places:

   • query terms, on the command line and in the hledger-web search
     form: ‘REGEX’, ‘desc:REGEX’, ‘cur:REGEX’, ‘tag:...=REGEX’
   • CSV rules conditional blocks: ‘if REGEX ...’
   • account alias directives and options: ‘alias /REGEX/ =
     REPLACEMENT’, ‘--alias /REGEX/=REPLACEMENT’

   hledger’s regular expressions come from the regex-tdfa library.  If
they’re not doing what you expect, it’s important to know exactly what
they support:

  1. they are case insensitive
  2. they are infix matching (they do not need to match the entire thing
     being matched)
  3. they are POSIX ERE (extended regular expressions)
  4. they also support GNU word boundaries (‘\b’, ‘\B’, ‘\<’, ‘\>’)
  5. they do not support backreferences; if you write ‘\1’, it will
     match the digit ‘1’.  Except when doing text replacement, eg in
     account aliases, where backreferences can be used in the
     replacement string to reference capturing groups in the search
     regexp.
  6. they do not support mode modifiers (‘(?s)’), character classes
     (‘\w’, ‘\d’), or anything else not mentioned above.

   Some things to note:

   • In the ‘alias’ directive and ‘--alias’ option, regular expressions
     must be enclosed in forward slashes (‘/REGEX/’).  Elsewhere in
     hledger, these are not required.

   • In queries, to match a regular expression metacharacter like ‘$’ as
     a literal character, prepend a backslash.  Eg to search for amounts
     with the dollar sign in hledger-web, write ‘cur:\$’.

   • On the command line, some metacharacters like ‘$’ have a special
     meaning to the shell and so must be escaped at least once more.
     See Special characters.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Environment,  Next: Input,  Prev: Options,  Up: Top

3 Environment
*************

*LEDGER_FILE* The journal file path when not specified with ‘-f’.

   On unix computers, the default value is: ‘~/.hledger.journal’.

   A more typical value is something like ‘~/finance/YYYY.journal’,
where ‘~/finance’ is a version-controlled finance directory and YYYY is
the current year.  Or, ‘~/finance/current.journal’, where
current.journal is a symbolic link to YYYY.journal.

   The usual way to set this permanently is to add a command to one of
your shell’s startup files (eg ‘~/.profile’):

export LEDGER_FILE=~/finance/current.journal`

   On some Mac computers, there is a more thorough way to set
environment variables, that will also affect applications started from
the GUI (eg, Emacs started from a dock icon): In
‘~/.MacOSX/environment.plist’, add an entry like:

{
  "LEDGER_FILE" : "~/finance/current.journal"
}

   For this to take effect you might need to ‘killall Dock’, or reboot.

   On Windows computers, the default value is probably
‘C:\Users\YOURNAME\.hledger.journal’.  You can change this by running a
command like this in a powershell window (let us know if you need to be
an Administrator, and if this persists across a reboot):

> setx LEDGER_FILE "C:\Users\MyUserName\finance\2021.journal"

   Or, change it in settings: see
https://www.java.com/en/download/help/path.html.

   *COLUMNS* The screen width used by the register command.  Default:
the full terminal width.

   *NO_COLOR* If this variable exists with any value, hledger will not
use ANSI color codes in terminal output.  This is overriden by the
–color/–colour option.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Input,  Next: Commands,  Prev: Environment,  Up: Top

4 Input
*******

hledger reads transactions from one or more data files.  The default
data file is ‘$HOME/.hledger.journal’ (or on Windows, something like
‘C:\Users\YOURNAME\.hledger.journal’).

   You can override this with the ‘$LEDGER_FILE’ environment variable:

$ setenv LEDGER_FILE ~/finance/2016.journal
$ hledger stats

   or with one or more ‘-f/--file’ options:

$ hledger -f /some/file -f another_file stats

   The file name ‘-’ means standard input:

$ cat some.journal | hledger -f-

* Menu:

* Data formats::
* Multiple files::
* Strict mode::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Data formats,  Next: Multiple files,  Up: Input

4.1 Data formats
================

Usually the data file is in hledger’s journal format, but it can be in
any of the supported file formats, which currently are:

Reader:  Reads:                                   Used for file
                                                  extensions:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
‘journal’hledger journal files and some Ledger    ‘.journal’ ‘.j’
         journals, for transactions               ‘.hledger’ ‘.ledger’
‘timeclock’timeclock files, for precise time      ‘.timeclock’
         logging
‘timedot’timedot files, for approximate time      ‘.timedot’
         logging
‘csv’    comma/semicolon/tab/other-separated      ‘.csv’ ‘.ssv’ ‘.tsv’
         values, for data import

   These formats are described in more detail below.

   hledger detects the format automatically based on the file extensions
shown above.  If it can’t recognise the file extension, it assumes
‘journal’ format.  So for non-journal files, it’s important to use a
recognised file extension, so as to either read successfully or to show
relevant error messages.

   You can also force a specific reader/format by prefixing the file
path with the format and a colon.  Eg, to read a .dat file as csv
format:

$ hledger -f csv:/some/csv-file.dat stats

   Or to read stdin (‘-’) as timeclock format:

$ echo 'i 2009/13/1 08:00:00' | hledger print -ftimeclock:-


File: hledger.info,  Node: Multiple files,  Next: Strict mode,  Prev: Data formats,  Up: Input

4.2 Multiple files
==================

You can specify multiple ‘-f’ options, to read multiple files as one big
journal.  There are some limitations with this:

   • most directives do not affect sibling files
   • balance assertions will not see any account balances from previous
     files

   If you need either of those things, you can

   • use a single parent file which includes the others
   • or concatenate the files into one before reading, eg: ‘cat
     a.journal b.journal | hledger -f- CMD’.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Strict mode,  Prev: Multiple files,  Up: Input

4.3 Strict mode
===============

hledger checks input files for valid data.  By default, the most
important errors are detected, while still accepting easy journal files
without a lot of declarations:

   • Are the input files parseable, with valid syntax ?
   • Are all transactions balanced ?
   • Do all balance assertions pass ?

   With the ‘-s’/‘--strict’ flag, additional checks are performed:

   • Are all accounts posted to, declared with an ‘account’ directive ?
     (Account error checking)
   • Are all commodities declared with a ‘commodity’ directive ?
     (Commodity error checking)
   • Are all commodity conversions declared explicitly ?

   You can use the check command to run individual checks – the ones
listed above and some more.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Commands,  Next: Output,  Prev: Input,  Up: Top

5 Commands
**********

hledger provides a number of built-in subcommands (described below).
Most of these read your data without changing it, and display a report.
A few assist with data entry and management.

   Run ‘hledger’ with no arguments to list the commands available, and
‘hledger CMD’ to run a command.  CMD can be the full command name, or
its standard abbreviation shown in the commands list, or any unambiguous
prefix of the name.  Eg: ‘hledger bal’.

* Menu:

* Add-on commands::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Add-on commands,  Up: Commands

5.1 Add-on commands
===================

Add-on commands are extra subcommands provided by programs or scripts in
your PATH

   • whose name starts with ‘hledger-’
   • whose name ends with a recognised file extension:
     ‘.bat’,‘.com’,‘.exe’, ‘.hs’,‘.lhs’,‘.pl’,‘.py’,‘.rb’,‘.rkt’,‘.sh’
     or none
   • and (on unix, mac) which are executable by the current user.

   Addons can be written in any language, but haskell scripts or
programs have a big advantage: they can use hledger’s library code, for
command-line options, parsing and reporting.

   Several add-on commands are installed by the hledger-install script.
See https://hledger.org/scripts.html for more details.

   Note in a hledger command line, add-on command flags must have a
double dash (‘--’) preceding them.  Eg you must write:

$ hledger web -- --serve

   and not:

$ hledger web --serve

   (because the ‘--serve’ flag belongs to ‘hledger-web’, not ‘hledger’).

   The ‘-h/--help’ and ‘--version’ flags don’t require ‘--’.

   If you have any trouble with this, remember you can always run the
add-on program directly, eg:

$ hledger-web --serve


File: hledger.info,  Node: Output,  Next: Limitations,  Prev: Commands,  Up: Top

6 Output
********

* Menu:

* Output destination::
* Output format::
* Commodity styles::
* Colour::
* Box-drawing::
* Debug output::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Output destination,  Next: Output format,  Up: Output

6.1 Output destination
======================

hledger commands send their output to the terminal by default.  You can
of course redirect this, eg into a file, using standard shell syntax:

$ hledger print > foo.txt

   Some commands (print, register, stats, the balance commands) also
provide the ‘-o/--output-file’ option, which does the same thing without
needing the shell.  Eg:

$ hledger print -o foo.txt
$ hledger print -o -        # write to stdout (the default)


File: hledger.info,  Node: Output format,  Next: Commodity styles,  Prev: Output destination,  Up: Output

6.2 Output format
=================

Some commands offer other kinds of output, not just text on the
terminal.  Here are those commands and the formats currently supported:

-                           txt       csv       html         json     sql
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
aregister                   Y         Y                      Y
balance                     Y _1_     Y _1_     Y _1,2_      Y
balancesheet                Y _1_     Y _1_     Y _1_        Y
balancesheetequity          Y _1_     Y _1_     Y _1_        Y
cashflow                    Y _1_     Y _1_     Y _1_        Y
incomestatement             Y _1_     Y _1_     Y _1_        Y
print                       Y         Y                      Y        Y
register                    Y         Y                      Y

   • _1 Also affected by the balance commands’ ‘--layout’ option._
   • _2 ‘balance’ does not support html output without a report interval
     or with ‘--budget’._

   The output format is selected by the ‘-O/--output-format=FMT’ option:

$ hledger print -O csv    # print CSV on stdout

   or by the filename extension of an output file specified with the
‘-o/--output-file=FILE.FMT’ option:

$ hledger balancesheet -o foo.csv    # write CSV to foo.csv

   The ‘-O’ option can be combined with ‘-o’ to override the file
extension, if needed:

$ hledger balancesheet -o foo.txt -O csv    # write CSV to foo.txt

   Some notes about the various output formats:

* Menu:

* CSV output::
* HTML output::
* JSON output::
* SQL output::


File: hledger.info,  Node: CSV output,  Next: HTML output,  Up: Output format

6.2.1 CSV output
----------------

   • In CSV output, digit group marks (such as thousands separators) are
     disabled automatically.


File: hledger.info,  Node: HTML output,  Next: JSON output,  Prev: CSV output,  Up: Output format

6.2.2 HTML output
-----------------

   • HTML output can be styled by an optional ‘hledger.css’ file in the
     same directory.


File: hledger.info,  Node: JSON output,  Next: SQL output,  Prev: HTML output,  Up: Output format

6.2.3 JSON output
-----------------

   • This is not yet much used; real-world feedback is welcome.

   • Our JSON is rather large and verbose, since it is a faithful
     representation of hledger’s internal data types.  To understand the
     JSON, read the Haskell type definitions, which are mostly in
     https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/blob/master/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Types.hs.

   • hledger represents quantities as Decimal values storing up to 255
     significant digits, eg for repeating decimals.  Such numbers can
     arise in practice (from automatically-calculated transaction
     prices), and would break most JSON consumers.  So in JSON, we show
     quantities as simple Numbers with at most 10 decimal places.  We
     don’t limit the number of integer digits, but that part is under
     your control.  We hope this approach will not cause problems in
     practice; if you find otherwise, please let us know.  (Cf #1195)


File: hledger.info,  Node: SQL output,  Prev: JSON output,  Up: Output format

6.2.4 SQL output
----------------

   • This is not yet much used; real-world feedback is welcome.

   • SQL output is expected to work with sqlite, MySQL and PostgreSQL

   • SQL output is structured with the expectations that statements will
     be executed in the empty database.  If you already have tables
     created via SQL output of hledger, you would probably want to
     either clear tables of existing data (via ‘delete’ or ‘truncate’
     SQL statements) or drop tables completely as otherwise your
     postings will be duped.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Commodity styles,  Next: Colour,  Prev: Output format,  Up: Output

6.3 Commodity styles
====================

When displaying amounts, hledger infers a standard display style for
each commodity/currency, as described below in Commodity display style.

   If needed, this can be overridden by a ‘-c/--commodity-style’ option
(except for cost amounts and amounts displayed by the ‘print’ command,
which are always displayed with all decimal digits).  For example, the
following will force dollar amounts to be displayed as shown:

$ hledger print -c '$1.000,0'

   This option can repeated to set the display style for multiple
commodities/currencies.  Its argument is as described in the commodity
directive.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Colour,  Next: Box-drawing,  Prev: Commodity styles,  Up: Output

6.4 Colour
==========

In terminal output, some commands can produce colour when the terminal
supports it:

   • if the ‘--color/--colour’ option is given a value of ‘yes’ or
     ‘always’ (or ‘no’ or ‘never’), colour will (or will not) be used;
   • otherwise, if the ‘NO_COLOR’ environment variable is set, colour
     will not be used;
   • otherwise, colour will be used if the output (terminal or file)
     supports it.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Box-drawing,  Next: Debug output,  Prev: Colour,  Up: Output

6.5 Box-drawing
===============

In terminal output, you can enable unicode box-drawing characters to
render prettier tables:

   • if the ‘--pretty’ option is given a value of ‘yes’ or ‘always’ (or
     ‘no’ or ‘never’), unicode characters will (or will not) be used;
   • otherwise, unicode characters will not be used.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Debug output,  Prev: Box-drawing,  Up: Output

6.6 Debug output
================

We intend hledger to be relatively easy to troubleshoot, introspect and
develop.  You can add ‘--debug[=N]’ to any hledger command line to see
additional debug output.  N ranges from 1 (least output, the default) to
9 (maximum output).  Typically you would start with 1 and increase until
you are seeing enough.  Debug output goes to stderr, and is not affected
by ‘-o/--output-file’ (unless you redirect stderr to stdout, eg:
‘2>&1’).  It will be interleaved with normal output, which can help
reveal when parts of the code are evaluated.  To capture debug output in
a log file instead, you can usually redirect stderr, eg:

hledger bal --debug=3 2>hledger.log


File: hledger.info,  Node: Limitations,  Next: Troubleshooting,  Prev: Output,  Up: Top

7 Limitations
*************

The need to precede add-on command options with ‘--’ when invoked from
hledger is awkward.

   When input data contains non-ascii characters, a suitable system
locale must be configured (or there will be an unhelpful error).  Eg on
POSIX, set LANG to something other than C.

   In a Microsoft Windows CMD window, non-ascii characters and colours
are not supported.

   On Windows, non-ascii characters may not display correctly when
running a hledger built in CMD in MSYS/CYGWIN, or vice-versa.

   In a Cygwin/MSYS/Mintty window, the tab key is not supported in
hledger add.

   Not all of Ledger’s journal file syntax is supported.  See hledger
and Ledger > Differences > journal format.

   On large data files, hledger is slower and uses more memory than
Ledger.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Troubleshooting,  Next: PART 2 DATA FORMATS,  Prev: Limitations,  Up: Top

8 Troubleshooting
*****************

Here are some issues you might encounter when you run hledger (and
remember you can also seek help from the IRC channel, mail list or bug
tracker):

   *Successfully installed, but "No command ’hledger’ found"*
stack and cabal install binaries into a special directory, which should
be added to your PATH environment variable.  Eg on unix-like systems,
that is ~/.local/bin and ~/.cabal/bin respectively.

   *I set a custom LEDGER_FILE, but hledger is still using the default
file*
‘LEDGER_FILE’ should be a real environment variable, not just a shell
variable.  The command ‘env | grep LEDGER_FILE’ should show it.  You may
need to use ‘export’.  Here’s an explanation.

   *Getting errors like "Illegal byte sequence" or "Invalid or
incomplete multibyte or wide character" or "commitAndReleaseBuffer:
invalid argument (invalid character)"*
Programs compiled with GHC (hledger, haskell build tools, etc.)  need to
have a UTF-8-aware locale configured in the environment, otherwise they
will fail with these kinds of errors when they encounter non-ascii
characters.

   To fix it, set the LANG environment variable to some locale which
supports UTF-8.  The locale you choose must be installed on your system.

   Here’s an example of setting LANG temporarily, on Ubuntu GNU/Linux:

$ file my.journal
my.journal: UTF-8 Unicode text         # the file is UTF8-encoded
$ echo $LANG
C                                      # LANG is set to the default locale, which does not support UTF8
$ locale -a                            # which locales are installed ?
C
en_US.utf8                             # here's a UTF8-aware one we can use
POSIX
$ LANG=en_US.utf8 hledger -f my.journal print   # ensure it is used for this command

   If available, ‘C.UTF-8’ will also work.  If your preferred locale
isn’t listed by ‘locale -a’, you might need to install it.  Eg on
Ubuntu/Debian:

$ apt-get install language-pack-fr
$ locale -a
C
en_US.utf8
fr_BE.utf8
fr_CA.utf8
fr_CH.utf8
fr_FR.utf8
fr_LU.utf8
POSIX
$ LANG=fr_FR.utf8 hledger -f my.journal print

   Here’s how you could set it permanently, if you use a bash shell:

$ echo "export LANG=en_US.utf8" >>~/.bash_profile
$ bash --login

   Exact spelling and capitalisation may be important.  Note the
difference on MacOS (‘UTF-8’, not ‘utf8’).  Some platforms (eg ubuntu)
allow variant spellings, but others (eg macos) require it to be exact:

$ locale -a | grep -iE en_us.*utf
en_US.UTF-8
$ LANG=en_US.UTF-8 hledger -f my.journal print


File: hledger.info,  Node: PART 2 DATA FORMATS,  Next: Journal,  Prev: Troubleshooting,  Up: Top

9 PART 2: DATA FORMATS
**********************


File: hledger.info,  Node: Journal,  Next: CSV,  Prev: PART 2 DATA FORMATS,  Up: Top

10 Journal
**********

hledger’s default file format, representing a General Journal.  Here’s a
cheatsheet/mini-tutorial, or you can skip ahead to About journal format.

* Menu:

* Journal cheatsheet::
* About journal format::
* Comments::
* Transactions::
* Dates::
* Status::
* Code::
* Description::
* Transaction comments::
* Postings::
* Account names::
* Amounts::
* Costs::
* Balance assertions::
* Posting comments::
* Tags::
* Directives::
* Accounts::
* Account aliases::
* Commodities::
* Decimal mark::
* Include files::
* Market prices::
* Payees::
* Periodic transactions::
* Other syntax::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Journal cheatsheet,  Next: About journal format,  Up: Journal

10.1 Journal cheatsheet
=======================

# Here is the main syntax of hledger's journal format
# (omitting extra Ledger compatibility syntax).
# hledger journals contain comments, directives, and transactions, in any order:

###############################################################################
# 1. Comment lines are for notes or temporarily disabling things.
# They begin with #, ;, or a line containing the word "comment".

# hash comment line
; semicolon comment line
comment
These lines
are commented.
end comment

# Some but not all hledger entries can have same-line comments attached to them,
# from ; (semicolon) to end of line.

###############################################################################
# 2. Directives modify parsing or reports in some way.
# They begin with a word or letter (or symbol).

account actifs     ; type:A, declare an account that is an Asset. 2+ spaces before ;.
account passifs    ; type:L, declare an account that is a Liability, and so on.. (ALERX)
alias chkg = assets:checking
commodity $0.00
decimal-mark .
include /dev/null
payee Whole Foods
P 2022-01-01 AAAA $1.40
~ monthly    budget goals  ; <- 2+ spaces between period expression and description
    expenses:food       $400
    expenses:home      $1000
    budgeted

###############################################################################
# 3. Transactions are what it's all about; they are dated events,
# usually describing movements of money.
# They begin with a date.

# DATE DESCRIPTION           ; This is a transaction comment.
#   ACCOUNT NAME 1  AMOUNT1  ; <- posting 1. This is a posting comment.
#   ACCOUNT NAME 2  AMOUNT2  ; <- posting 2. Postings must be indented.
#               ; ^^ At least 2 spaces between account and amount.
#   ...  ; Any number of postings is allowed. The amounts must balance (sum to 0).

2022-01-01 opening balances are declared this way
    assets:checking          $1000  ; Account names can be anything. lower case is easy to type.
    assets:savings           $1000  ; assets, liabilities, equity, revenues, expenses are common.
    assets:cash:wallet        $100  ; : indicates subaccounts.
    liabilities:credit card  $-200  ; liabilities, equity, revenues balances are usually negative.
    equity                          ; One amount can be left blank; $-1900 is inferred here.

2022-04-15 * (#12345) pay taxes
    ; There can be a ! or * after the date meaning "pending" or "cleared".
    ; There can be a transaction code (text in parentheses) after the date/status.
    ; Amounts' sign represents direction of flow, or credit/debit:
    assets:checking          $-500  ; minus means removed from this account (credit)
    expenses:tax:us:2021      $500  ; plus  means added to this account (debit)
                                    ; revenue/expense categories are also "accounts"

2022-01-01 Whole Foods | payee name and description can be separated by a pipe char
    ; Transaction or posting comments can contain searchable tags,
    ; written NAME: or NAME:VALUE (value ends at comma or end of line).
    ; Here's tag1:with a value, and an empty tag2:
    ; A few tags have special meaning. A "date:" tag on a posting adjusts its date.
    assets:checking           $-50  ; date:2022-01-03, checking cleared two days later
    expenses:food

2022-01-01                          ; The description is optional.
    ; Any currency/commodity symbols are allowed, on either side.
    assets:cash:wallet     GBP -10
    expenses:clothing       GBP 10
    assets:gringotts           -10 gold
    assets:pouch                10 gold
    revenues:gifts              -2 "Liquorice Wands"  ; Complex symbols
    assets:bag                   2 "Liquorice Wands"  ; must be double-quoted.

2022-01-01 Cost in another commodity can be noted with @ or @@
    assets:investments           2.0 AAAA @ $1.50  ; @  means per-unit cost
    assets:investments           3.0 AAAA @@ $4    ; @@ means total cost
    assets:checking            $-7.00

2022-01-02 assert balances
    ; Balances can be asserted for extra error checking, in any transaction.
    assets:investments           0 AAAA = 5.0 AAAA
    assets:pouch                 0 gold = 10 gold
    assets:savings              $0      = $1000

1999-12-31 Ordering transactions by date is recommended but not required.
    ; Postings are not required.

2022.01.01 These date
2022/1/1   formats are
12/31      also allowed (but consistent YYYY-MM-DD is recommended).


File: hledger.info,  Node: About journal format,  Next: Comments,  Prev: Journal cheatsheet,  Up: Journal

10.2 About journal format
=========================

hledger’s usual data source is a plain text file containing journal
entries in hledger journal format.  This file represents a standard
accounting general journal.  I use file names ending in ‘.journal’, but
that’s not required.  The journal file contains a number of transaction
entries, each describing a transfer of money (or any commodity) between
two or more named accounts, in a simple format readable by both hledger
and humans.

   hledger’s journal format is a compatible subset, mostly, of ledger’s
journal format, so hledger can work with compatible ledger journal files
as well.  It’s safe, and encouraged, to run both hledger and ledger on
the same journal file, eg to validate the results you’re getting.

   You can use hledger without learning any more about this file; just
use the add or web or import commands to create and update it.

   Many users, though, edit the journal file with a text editor, and
track changes with a version control system such as git.  Editor addons
such as ledger-mode or hledger-mode for Emacs, vim-ledger for Vim, and
hledger-vscode for Visual Studio Code, make this easier, adding colour,
formatting, tab completion, and useful commands.  See Editor
configuration at hledger.org for the full list.

   Here’s a description of each part of the file format (and hledger’s
data model).

   A hledger journal file can contain three kinds of thing: file
comments, transactions, and/or directives (counting periodic transaction
rules and auto posting rules as directives).


File: hledger.info,  Node: Comments,  Next: Transactions,  Prev: About journal format,  Up: Journal

10.3 Comments
=============

Lines in the journal will be ignored if they begin with a hash (‘#’) or
a semicolon (‘;’).  (See also Other syntax.)  hledger will also ignore
regions beginning with a ‘comment’ line and ending with an ‘end comment’
line (or file end).  Here’s a suggestion for choosing between them:

   • ‘#’ for top-level notes
   • ‘;’ for commenting out things temporarily
   • ‘comment’ for quickly commenting large regions (remember it’s
     there, or you might get confused)

   Eg:

# a comment line
; another commentline
comment
A multi-line comment block,
continuing until "end comment" directive
or the end of the current file.
end comment

   Some hledger entries can have same-line comments attached to them,
from ; (semicolon) to end of line.  See Transaction comments, Posting
comments, and Account comments below.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Transactions,  Next: Dates,  Prev: Comments,  Up: Journal

10.4 Transactions
=================

Transactions are the main unit of information in a journal file.  They
represent events, typically a movement of some quantity of commodities
between two or more named accounts.

   Each transaction is recorded as a journal entry, beginning with a
simple date in column 0.  This can be followed by any of the following
optional fields, separated by spaces:

   • a status character (empty, ‘!’, or ‘*’)
   • a code (any short number or text, enclosed in parentheses)
   • a description (any remaining text until end of line or a semicolon)
   • a comment (any remaining text following a semicolon until end of
     line, and any following indented lines beginning with a semicolon)
   • 0 or more indented _posting_ lines, describing what was transferred
     and the accounts involved (indented comment lines are also allowed,
     but not blank lines or non-indented lines).

   Here’s a simple journal file containing one transaction:

2008/01/01 income
  assets:bank:checking   $1
  income:salary         $-1


File: hledger.info,  Node: Dates,  Next: Status,  Prev: Transactions,  Up: Journal

10.5 Dates
==========

* Menu:

* Simple dates::
* Posting dates::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Simple dates,  Next: Posting dates,  Up: Dates

10.5.1 Simple dates
-------------------

Dates in the journal file use _simple dates_ format: ‘YYYY-MM-DD’ or
‘YYYY/MM/DD’ or ‘YYYY.MM.DD’, with leading zeros optional.  The year may
be omitted, in which case it will be inferred from the context: the
current transaction, the default year set with a default year directive,
or the current date when the command is run.  Some examples:
‘2010-01-31’, ‘2010/01/31’, ‘2010.1.31’, ‘1/31’.

   (The UI also accepts simple dates, as well as the more flexible smart
dates documented in the hledger manual.)


File: hledger.info,  Node: Posting dates,  Prev: Simple dates,  Up: Dates

10.5.2 Posting dates
--------------------

You can give individual postings a different date from their parent
transaction, by adding a posting comment containing a tag (see below)
like ‘date:DATE’.  This is probably the best way to control posting
dates precisely.  Eg in this example the expense should appear in May
reports, and the deduction from checking should be reported on 6/1 for
easy bank reconciliation:

2015/5/30
    expenses:food     $10  ; food purchased on saturday 5/30
    assets:checking        ; bank cleared it on monday, date:6/1

$ hledger -f t.j register food
2015-05-30                      expenses:food                  $10           $10

$ hledger -f t.j register checking
2015-06-01                      assets:checking               $-10          $-10

   DATE should be a simple date; if the year is not specified it will
use the year of the transaction’s date.
The ‘date:’ tag must have a valid simple date value if it is present, eg
a ‘date:’ tag with no value is not allowed.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Status,  Next: Code,  Prev: Dates,  Up: Journal

10.6 Status
===========

Transactions, or individual postings within a transaction, can have a
status mark, which is a single character before the transaction
description or posting account name, separated from it by a space,
indicating one of three statuses:

mark  status
 
-----------------
      unmarked
‘!’   pending
‘*’   cleared

   When reporting, you can filter by status with the ‘-U/--unmarked’,
‘-P/--pending’, and ‘-C/--cleared’ flags; or the ‘status:’, ‘status:!’,
and ‘status:*’ queries; or the U, P, C keys in hledger-ui.

   Note, in Ledger and in older versions of hledger, the "unmarked"
state is called "uncleared".  As of hledger 1.3 we have renamed it to
unmarked for clarity.

   To replicate Ledger and old hledger’s behaviour of also matching
pending, combine -U and -P.

   Status marks are optional, but can be helpful eg for reconciling with
real-world accounts.  Some editor modes provide highlighting and
shortcuts for working with status.  Eg in Emacs ledger-mode, you can
toggle transaction status with C-c C-e, or posting status with C-c C-c.

   What "uncleared", "pending", and "cleared" actually mean is up to
you.  Here’s one suggestion:

status     meaning
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
uncleared  recorded but not yet reconciled; needs review
pending    tentatively reconciled (if needed, eg during a big
           reconciliation)
cleared    complete, reconciled as far as possible, and considered
           correct

   With this scheme, you would use ‘-PC’ to see the current balance at
your bank, ‘-U’ to see things which will probably hit your bank soon
(like uncashed checks), and no flags to see the most up-to-date state of
your finances.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Code,  Next: Description,  Prev: Status,  Up: Journal

10.7 Code
=========

After the status mark, but before the description, you can optionally
write a transaction "code", enclosed in parentheses.  This is a good
place to record a check number, or some other important transaction id
or reference number.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Description,  Next: Transaction comments,  Prev: Code,  Up: Journal

10.8 Description
================

A transaction’s description is the rest of the line following the date
and status mark (or until a comment begins).  Sometimes called the
"narration" in traditional bookkeeping, it can be used for whatever you
wish, or left blank.  Transaction descriptions can be queried, unlike
comments.

* Menu:

* Payee and note::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Payee and note,  Up: Description

10.8.1 Payee and note
---------------------

You can optionally include a ‘|’ (pipe) character in descriptions to
subdivide the description into separate fields for payee/payer name on
the left (up to the first ‘|’) and an additional note field on the right
(after the first ‘|’).  This may be worthwhile if you need to do more
precise querying and pivoting by payee or by note.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Transaction comments,  Next: Postings,  Prev: Description,  Up: Journal

10.9 Transaction comments
=========================

Text following ‘;’, after a transaction description, and/or on indented
lines immediately below it, form comments for that transaction.  They
are reproduced by ‘print’ but otherwise ignored, except they may contain
tags, which are not ignored.

2012-01-01 something  ; a transaction comment
    ; a second line of transaction comment
    expenses   1
    assets


File: hledger.info,  Node: Postings,  Next: Account names,  Prev: Transaction comments,  Up: Journal

10.10 Postings
==============

A posting is an addition of some amount to, or removal of some amount
from, an account.  Each posting line begins with at least one space or
tab (2 or 4 spaces is common), followed by:

   • (optional) a status character (empty, ‘!’, or ‘*’), followed by a
     space
   • (required) an account name (any text, optionally containing *single
     spaces*, until end of line or a double space)
   • (optional) *two or more spaces* or tabs followed by an amount.

   Positive amounts are being added to the account, negative amounts are
being removed.

   The amounts within a transaction must always sum up to zero.  As a
convenience, one amount may be left blank; it will be inferred so as to
balance the transaction.

   Be sure to note the unusual two-space delimiter between account name
and amount.  This makes it easy to write account names containing
spaces.  But if you accidentally leave only one space (or tab) before
the amount, the amount will be considered part of the account name.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Account names,  Next: Amounts,  Prev: Postings,  Up: Journal

10.11 Account names
===================

Account names typically have several parts separated by a full colon,
from which hledger derives a hierarchical chart of accounts.  They can
be anything you like, but in finance there are traditionally five
top-level accounts: ‘assets’, ‘liabilities’, ‘revenue’, ‘expenses’, and
‘equity’.

   Account names may contain single spaces, eg: ‘assets:accounts
receivable’.  Because of this, they must always be followed by *two or
more spaces* (or newline).

   Account names can be aliased.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Amounts,  Next: Costs,  Prev: Account names,  Up: Journal

10.12 Amounts
=============

After the account name, there is usually an amount.  (Important: between
account name and amount, there must be *two or more spaces*.)

   hledger’s amount format is flexible, supporting several international
formats.  Here are some examples.  Amounts have a number (the
"quantity"):

1

   ..and usually a currency symbol or commodity name (more on this
below), to the left or right of the quantity, with or without a
separating space:

$1
4000 AAPL
3 "green apples"

   Amounts can be preceded by a minus sign (or a plus sign, though plus
is the default), The sign can be written before or after a left-side
commodity symbol:

-$1
$-1

   One or more spaces between the sign and the number are acceptable
when parsing (but they won’t be displayed in output):

+ $1
$-      1

   Scientific E notation is allowed:

1E-6
EUR 1E3

* Menu:

* Decimal marks digit group marks::
* Commodity::
* Directives influencing number parsing and display::
* Commodity display style::
* Rounding::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Decimal marks digit group marks,  Next: Commodity,  Up: Amounts

10.12.1 Decimal marks, digit group marks
----------------------------------------

A _decimal mark_ can be written as a period or a comma:

1.23
1,23456780000009

   In the integer part of the quantity (left of the decimal mark),
groups of digits can optionally be separated by a _digit group mark_ - a
space, comma, or period (different from the decimal mark):

     $1,000,000.00
  EUR 2.000.000,00
INR 9,99,99,999.00
      1 000 000.9455

   Note, a number containing a single digit group mark and no decimal
mark is ambiguous.  Are these digit group marks or decimal marks ?

1,000
1.000

   If you don’t tell it otherwise, hledger will assume both of the above
are decimal marks, parsing both numbers as 1.

   To prevent confusing parsing mistakes and undetected typos,
especially if your data contains digit group marks (eg, thousands
separators), we recommend explicitly declaring the decimal mark
character in each journal file, using a directive at the top of the
file.  The ‘decimal-mark’ directive is best, otherwise ‘commodity’
directives will also work.  These are described below.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Commodity,  Next: Directives influencing number parsing and display,  Prev: Decimal marks digit group marks,  Up: Amounts

10.12.2 Commodity
-----------------

Amounts in hledger have both a "quantity", which is a signed decimal
number, and a "commodity", which is a currency symbol, stock ticker, or
any word or phrase describing something you are tracking.

   If the commodity name contains non-letters (spaces, numbers, or
punctuation), you must always write it inside double quotes (‘"green
apples"’, ‘"ABC123"’).

   If you write just a bare number, that too will have a commodity, with
name ‘""’; we call that the "no-symbol commodity".

   Actually, hledger combines these single-commodity amounts into more
powerful multi-commodity amounts, which are what it works with most of
the time.  A multi-commodity amount could be, eg: ‘1 USD, 2 EUR, 3.456
TSLA’.  In practice, you will only see multi-commodity amounts in
hledger’s output; you can’t write them directly in the journal file.

   (If you are writing scripts or working with hledger’s internals,
these are the ‘Amount’ and ‘MixedAmount’ types.)


File: hledger.info,  Node: Directives influencing number parsing and display,  Next: Commodity display style,  Prev: Commodity,  Up: Amounts

10.12.3 Directives influencing number parsing and display
---------------------------------------------------------

You can add ‘decimal-mark’ and ‘commodity’ directives to the journal, to
declare and control these things more explicitly and precisely.  These
are described below, but here’s a quick example:

# the decimal mark character used by all amounts in this file (all commodities)
decimal-mark .

# display styles for the $, EUR, INR and no-symbol commodities:
commodity $1,000.00
commodity EUR 1.000,00
commodity INR 9,99,99,999.00
commodity 1 000 000.9455


File: hledger.info,  Node: Commodity display style,  Next: Rounding,  Prev: Directives influencing number parsing and display,  Up: Amounts

10.12.4 Commodity display style
-------------------------------

For the amounts in each commodity, hledger chooses a consistent display
style to use in most reports.  (Exceptions: price amounts, and all
amounts displayed by the ‘print’ command, are displayed with all of
their decimal digits visible.)

   A commodity’s display style is inferred as follows.

   First, if a default commodity is declared with ‘D’, this commodity
and its style is applied to any no-symbol amounts in the journal.

   Then each commodity’s style is inferred from one of the following, in
order of preference:

   • The commodity directive for that commodity (including the no-symbol
     commodity), if any.
   • The amounts in that commodity seen in the journal’s transactions.
     (Posting amounts only; prices and periodic or auto rules are
     ignored, currently.)
   • The built-in fallback style, which looks like this: ‘$1000.00’.
     (Symbol on the left, period decimal mark, two decimal places.)

   A style is inferred from journal amounts as follows:

   • Use the general style (decimal mark, symbol placement) of the first
     amount
   • Use the first-seen digit group style (digit group mark, digit group
     sizes), if any
   • Use the maximum number of decimal places of all.

   Cost amounts don’t affect the commodity display style directly, but
occasionally they can do so indirectly (eg when a posting’s amount is
inferred using a cost).  If you find this causing problems, use a
commodity directive to fix the display style.

   To summarise: each commodity’s amounts will be normalised to (a) the
style declared by a ‘commodity’ directive, or (b) the style of the first
posting amount in the journal, with the first-seen digit group style and
the maximum-seen number of decimal places.  So if your reports are
showing amounts in a way you don’t like, eg with too many decimal
places, use a commodity directive.  Some examples:

# declare euro, dollar, bitcoin and no-symbol commodities and set their 
# input number formats and output display styles:
commodity EUR 1.000,
commodity $1000.00
commodity 1000.00000000 BTC
commodity 1 000.

   The inferred commodity style can be overridden by supplying a command
line option.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Rounding,  Prev: Commodity display style,  Up: Amounts

10.12.5 Rounding
----------------

Amounts are stored internally as decimal numbers with up to 255 decimal
places, and displayed with the number of decimal places specified by the
commodity display style.  Note, hledger uses banker’s rounding: it
rounds to the nearest even number, eg 0.5 displayed with zero decimal
places is "0").


File: hledger.info,  Node: Costs,  Next: Balance assertions,  Prev: Amounts,  Up: Journal

10.13 Costs
===========

After a posting amount, you can note its cost (when buying) or selling
price (when selling) in another commodity, by writing either ‘@
UNITPRICE’ or ‘@@ TOTALPRICE’ after it.  This indicates a conversion
transaction, where one commodity is exchanged for another.

   (You might also see this called "transaction price" in hledger docs,
discussions, or code; that term was directionally neutral and reminded
that it is a price specific to a transaction, but we now just call it
"cost", with the understanding that the transaction could be a purchase
or a sale.)

   Costs are usually written explicitly with ‘@’ or ‘@@’, but can also
be inferred automatically for simple multi-commodity transactions.
Note, if costs are inferred, the order of postings is significant; the
first posting will have a cost attached, in the commodity of the second.

   As an example, here are several ways to record purchases of a foreign
currency in hledger, using the cost notation either explicitly or
implicitly:

  1. Write the price per unit, as ‘@ UNITPRICE’ after the amount:

     2009/1/1
       assets:euros     €100 @ $1.35  ; one hundred euros purchased at $1.35 each
       assets:dollars                 ; balancing amount is -$135.00

  2. Write the total price, as ‘@@ TOTALPRICE’ after the amount:

     2009/1/1
       assets:euros     €100 @@ $135  ; one hundred euros purchased at $135 for the lot
       assets:dollars

  3. Specify amounts for all postings, using exactly two commodities,
     and let hledger infer the price that balances the transaction.
     Note the effect of posting order: the price is added to first
     posting, making it ‘€100 @@ $135’, as in example 2:

     2009/1/1
       assets:euros     €100          ; one hundred euros purchased
       assets:dollars  $-135          ; for $135

   Amounts can be converted to cost at report time using the ‘-B/--cost’
flag; this is discussed more in the ˜COST REPORTING section.

* Menu:

* Other cost/lot notations::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Other cost/lot notations,  Up: Costs

10.13.1 Other cost/lot notations
--------------------------------

A slight digression for Ledger and Beancount users.  Ledger has a number
of cost/lot-related notations:

   • ‘@ UNITCOST’ and ‘@@ TOTALCOST’
        • expresses a conversion rate, as in hledger
        • when buying, also creates a lot than can be selected at
          selling time

   • ‘(@) UNITCOST’ and ‘(@@) TOTALCOST’ (virtual cost)
        • like the above, but also means "this cost was exceptional,
          don’t use it when inferring market prices".

   Currently, hledger treats the above like ‘@’ and ‘@@’; the
parentheses are ignored.

   • ‘{=FIXEDUNITCOST}’ and ‘{{=FIXEDTOTALCOST}}’ (fixed price)
        • when buying, means "this cost is also the fixed price, don’t
          let it fluctuate in value reports"

   • ‘{UNITCOST}’ and ‘{{TOTALCOST}}’ (lot price)
        • can be used identically to ‘@ UNITCOST’ and ‘@@ TOTALCOST’,
          also creates a lot
        • when selling, combined with ‘@ ...’, specifies an investment
          lot by its cost basis; does not check if that lot is present

   • and related: ‘[YYYY/MM/DD]’ (lot date)
        • when buying, attaches this acquisition date to the lot
        • when selling, selects a lot by its acquisition date

   • ‘(SOME TEXT)’ (lot note)
        • when buying, attaches this note to the lot
        • when selling, selects a lot by its note

   Currently, hledger accepts any or all of the above in any order after
the posting amount, but ignores them.  (This can break transaction
balancing.)

   For Beancount users, the notation and behaviour is different:

   • ‘@ UNITCOST’ and ‘@@ TOTALCOST’
        • expresses a cost without creating a lot, as in hledger
        • when buying (augmenting) or selling (reducing) a lot, combined
          with ‘{...}’: documents the cost/selling price (not used for
          transaction balancing)

   • ‘{UNITCOST}’ and ‘{{TOTALCOST}}’
        • when buying (augmenting), expresses the cost for transaction
          balancing, and also creates a lot with this cost basis
          attached
        • when selling (reducing),
             • selects a lot by its cost basis
             • raises an error if that lot is not present or can not be
               selected unambiguously (depending on booking method
               configured)
             • expresses the selling price for transaction balancing

   Currently, hledger accepts the ‘{UNITCOST}’/‘{{TOTALCOST}}’ notation
but ignores it.

   • variations: ‘{}’, ‘{YYYY-MM-DD}’, ‘{"LABEL"}’, ‘{UNITCOST,
     "LABEL"}’, ‘{UNITCOST, YYYY-MM-DD, "LABEL"}’ etc.

   Currently, hledger rejects these.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Balance assertions,  Next: Posting comments,  Prev: Costs,  Up: Journal

10.14 Balance assertions
========================

hledger supports Ledger-style balance assertions in journal files.
These look like, for example, ‘= EXPECTEDBALANCE’ following a posting’s
amount.  Eg here we assert the expected dollar balance in accounts a and
b after each posting:

2013/1/1
  a   $1  =$1
  b       =$-1

2013/1/2
  a   $1  =$2
  b  $-1  =$-2

   After reading a journal file, hledger will check all balance
assertions and report an error if any of them fail.  Balance assertions
can protect you from, eg, inadvertently disrupting reconciled balances
while cleaning up old entries.  You can disable them temporarily with
the ‘-I/--ignore-assertions’ flag, which can be useful for
troubleshooting or for reading Ledger files.  (Note: this flag currently
does not disable balance assignments, described below).

* Menu:

* Assertions and ordering::
* Assertions and multiple included files::
* Assertions and multiple -f files::
* Assertions and commodities::
* Assertions and prices::
* Assertions and subaccounts::
* Assertions and virtual postings::
* Assertions and auto postings::
* Assertions and precision::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Assertions and ordering,  Next: Assertions and multiple included files,  Up: Balance assertions

10.14.1 Assertions and ordering
-------------------------------

hledger sorts an account’s postings and assertions first by date and
then (for postings on the same day) by parse order.  Note this is
different from Ledger, which sorts assertions only by parse order.
(Also, Ledger assertions do not see the accumulated effect of repeated
postings to the same account within a transaction.)

   So, hledger balance assertions keep working if you reorder
differently-dated transactions within the journal.  But if you reorder
same-dated transactions or postings, assertions might break and require
updating.  This order dependence does bring an advantage: precise
control over the order of postings and assertions within a day, so you
can assert intra-day balances.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Assertions and multiple included files,  Next: Assertions and multiple -f files,  Prev: Assertions and ordering,  Up: Balance assertions

10.14.2 Assertions and multiple included files
----------------------------------------------

Multiple files included with the ‘include’ directive are processed as if
concatenated into one file, preserving their order and the posting order
within each file.  It means that balance assertions in later files will
see balance from earlier files.

   And if you have multiple postings to an account on the same day,
split across multiple files, and you want to assert the account’s
balance on that day, you’ll need to put the assertion in the right file
- the last one in the sequence, probably.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Assertions and multiple -f files,  Next: Assertions and commodities,  Prev: Assertions and multiple included files,  Up: Balance assertions

10.14.3 Assertions and multiple -f files
----------------------------------------

Unlike ‘include’, when multiple files are specified on the command line
with multiple ‘-f/--file’ options, balance assertions will not see
balance from earlier files.  This can be useful when you do not want
problems in earlier files to disrupt valid assertions in later files.

   If you do want assertions to see balance from earlier files, use
‘include’, or concatenate the files temporarily.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Assertions and commodities,  Next: Assertions and prices,  Prev: Assertions and multiple -f files,  Up: Balance assertions

10.14.4 Assertions and commodities
----------------------------------

The asserted balance must be a simple single-commodity amount, and in
fact the assertion checks only this commodity’s balance within the
(possibly multi-commodity) account balance.  This is how assertions work
in Ledger also.  We could call this a "partial" balance assertion.

   To assert the balance of more than one commodity in an account, you
can write multiple postings, each asserting one commodity’s balance.

   You can make a stronger "total" balance assertion by writing a double
equals sign (‘== EXPECTEDBALANCE’).  This asserts that there are no
other commodities in the account besides the asserted one (or at least,
that their balance is 0).

2013/1/1
  a   $1
  a    1€
  b  $-1
  c   -1€

2013/1/2  ; These assertions succeed
  a    0  =  $1
  a    0  =   1€
  b    0 == $-1
  c    0 ==  -1€

2013/1/3  ; This assertion fails as 'a' also contains 1€
  a    0 ==  $1

   It’s not yet possible to make a complete assertion about a balance
that has multiple commodities.  One workaround is to isolate each
commodity into its own subaccount:

2013/1/1
  a:usd   $1
  a:euro   1€
  b

2013/1/2
  a        0 ==  0
  a:usd    0 == $1
  a:euro   0 ==  1€


File: hledger.info,  Node: Assertions and prices,  Next: Assertions and subaccounts,  Prev: Assertions and commodities,  Up: Balance assertions

10.14.5 Assertions and prices
-----------------------------

Balance assertions ignore costs, and should normally be written without
one:

2019/1/1
  (a)     $1 @ €1 = $1

   We do allow prices to be written there, however, and print shows
them, even though they don’t affect whether the assertion passes or
fails.  This is for backward compatibility (hledger’s close command used
to generate balance assertions with prices), and because balance
_assignments_ do use them (see below).


File: hledger.info,  Node: Assertions and subaccounts,  Next: Assertions and virtual postings,  Prev: Assertions and prices,  Up: Balance assertions

10.14.6 Assertions and subaccounts
----------------------------------

The balance assertions above (‘=’ and ‘==’) do not count the balance
from subaccounts; they check the account’s exclusive balance only.  You
can assert the balance including subaccounts by writing ‘=*’ or ‘==*’,
eg:

2019/1/1
  equity:opening balances
  checking:a       5
  checking:b       5
  checking         1  ==* 11


File: hledger.info,  Node: Assertions and virtual postings,  Next: Assertions and auto postings,  Prev: Assertions and subaccounts,  Up: Balance assertions

10.14.7 Assertions and virtual postings
---------------------------------------

Balance assertions always consider both real and virtual postings; they
are not affected by the ‘--real/-R’ flag or ‘real:’ query.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Assertions and auto postings,  Next: Assertions and precision,  Prev: Assertions and virtual postings,  Up: Balance assertions

10.14.8 Assertions and auto postings
------------------------------------

Balance assertions _are_ affected by the ‘--auto’ flag, which generates
auto postings, which can alter account balances.  Because auto postings
are optional in hledger, accounts affected by them effectively have two
balances.  But balance assertions can only test one or the other of
these.  So to avoid making fragile assertions, either:

   • assert the balance calculated with ‘--auto’, and always use
     ‘--auto’ with that file
   • or assert the balance calculated without ‘--auto’, and never use
     ‘--auto’ with that file
   • or avoid balance assertions on accounts affected by auto postings
     (or avoid auto postings entirely).


File: hledger.info,  Node: Assertions and precision,  Prev: Assertions and auto postings,  Up: Balance assertions

10.14.9 Assertions and precision
--------------------------------

Balance assertions compare the exactly calculated amounts, which are not
always what is shown by reports.  Eg a commodity directive may limit the
display precision, but this will not affect balance assertions.  Balance
assertion failure messages show exact amounts.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Posting comments,  Next: Tags,  Prev: Balance assertions,  Up: Journal

10.15 Posting comments
======================

Text following ‘;’, at the end of a posting line, and/or on indented
lines immediately below it, form comments for that posting.  They are
reproduced by ‘print’ but otherwise ignored, except they may contain
tags, which are not ignored.

2012-01-01
    expenses   1  ; a comment for posting 1
    assets
    ; a comment for posting 2
    ; a second comment line for posting 2


File: hledger.info,  Node: Tags,  Next: Directives,  Prev: Posting comments,  Up: Journal

10.16 Tags
==========

Tags are a way to add extra labels or labelled data to transactions,
postings, or accounts, which you can then search or pivot on.

   They are written as a word (optionally hyphenated) immediately
followed by a full colon, in a transaction or posting or account
directive’s comment.  (This is an exception to the usual rule that
things in comments are ignored.)  Eg, here four different tags are
recorded: one on the checking account, two on the transaction, and one
on the expenses posting:

account assets:checking         ; accounttag:

2017/1/16 bought groceries      ; transactiontag-1:
    ; transactiontag-2:
    assets:checking        $-1
    expenses:food           $1  ; postingtag:

   Postings also inherit tags from their transaction and their account.
And transactions also acquire tags from their postings (and postings’
accounts).  So in the example above, the expenses posting effectively
has all four tags (by inheriting from account and transaction), and the
transaction also has all four tags (by acquiring from the expenses
posting).

   You can list tag names with ‘hledger tags [NAMEREGEX]’, or match by
tag name with a ‘tag:NAMEREGEX’ query.

* Menu:

* Tag values::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Tag values,  Up: Tags

10.16.1 Tag values
------------------

Tags can have a value, which is any text after the colon up until a
comma or end of line (with surrounding whitespace removed).  Note this
means that hledger tag values can not contain commas.  Eg in the
following posting, the three tags’ values are "value 1", "value 2", and
"" (empty) respectively:

    expenses:food   $10    ; foo, tag1: value 1 , tag2:value 2, bar tag3: , baz

   Note that tags can be repeated, and are additive rather than
overriding: when the same tag name is seen again with a new value, the
new name:value pair is added to the tags.  (It is not possible to
override a tag’s value or remove a tag.)

   You can list a tag’s values with ‘hledger tags TAGNAME --values’, or
match by tag value with a ‘tag:NAMEREGEX=VALUEREGEX’ query.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Directives,  Next: Accounts,  Prev: Tags,  Up: Journal

10.17 Directives
================

A directive is a line in the journal beginning with a special keyword,
that influences how the journal is processed, how things are displayed,
and so on.  hledger’s directives are based on (a subset of) Ledger’s,
but there are many differences, and also some differences between
hledger versions.  Here are some more definitions:

   • _subdirective_ - Some directives support subdirectives, written
     indented below the parent directive.

   • _decimal mark_ - The character to interpret as a decimal mark
     (period or comma) when parsing amounts of a commodity.

   • _display style_ - How to display amounts of a commodity in output:
     symbol side and spacing, digit groups, decimal mark, and number of
     decimal places.

   Directives are not required when starting out with hledger, but you
will probably want to add some as your needs grow.  Here some key
directives for particular needs:

purpose                                      directives
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
*READING DATA:*
Declare file’s decimal mark to help parse    ‘decimal-mark’
amounts accurately
Rewrite account names                        ‘alias’
Comment out sections of the data             ‘comment’
Include extra data files                     ‘include’
*GENERATING DATA:*
Generate recurring transactions or budget    ‘~’
goals
Generate extra postings on transactions      ‘=’
*CHECKING FOR ERRORS:*
Define valid entities to provide more        ‘account’, ‘commodity’,
error checking                               ‘payee’
*REPORTING:*
Declare accounts’ type and display order     ‘account’
Declare commodity display styles             ‘commodity’
Declare market prices                        ‘P’

* Menu:

* Directive effects::
* Directives and multiple files::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Directive effects,  Next: Directives and multiple files,  Up: Directives

10.17.1 Directive effects
-------------------------

And here is what each directive does, and which files and journal
entries (transactions) it affects:

directivewhat it does                                                   ends
                                                                        at
                                                                        file
                                                                        end?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
*‘account’*Declares an account, for checking all entries in all files; andN
     its display order and type.  Subdirectives: any text, ignored.
*‘alias’*Rewrites account names, in following entries until end of      Y
     current file or ‘end aliases’.  Command line equivalent:
     ‘--alias’
*‘comment’*Ignores part of the journal file, until end of current file orY
     ‘end comment’.
*‘commodity’*Declares up to four things: 1.  a commodity symbol, for checkingN,Y,N,N
     all amounts in all files 2.  the decimal mark for parsing
     amounts of this commodity, in the following entries until end of
     current file (if there is no ‘decimal-mark’ directive) 3.  and
     the display style for amounts of this commodity 4.  which is
     also the precision to use for balanced-transaction checking in
     this commodity.  Takes precedence over ‘D’.  Subdirectives:
     ‘format’ (Ledger-compatible syntax).  Command line equivalent:
     ‘-c/--commodity-style’
*‘decimal-mark’*Declares the decimal mark, for parsing amounts of all   Y
     commodities in following entries until next ‘decimal-mark’ or
     end of current file.  Included files can override.  Takes
     precedence over ‘commodity’ and ‘D’.
*‘include’*Includes entries and directives from another file, as if theyN
     were written inline.  Command line alternative: multiple
     ‘-f/--file’
*‘payee’*Declares a payee name, for checking all entries in all files.  N
*‘P’*Declares the market price of a commodity on some date, for value   N
     reports.
*‘~’*Declares a periodic transaction rule that generates future         N
(tilde)transactions with ‘--forecast’ and budget goals with ‘balance
     --budget’.
Other
syntax:
*‘applyPrepends a common parent account to all account names, in        Y
account’*following entries until end of current file or ‘end apply
     account’.
*‘D’*Sets a default commodity to use for no-symbol amounts;and, if      Y,Y,N,N
     there is no ‘commodity’ directive for this commodity: its
     decimal mark, balancing precision, and display style, as above.
*‘Y’*Sets a default year to use for any yearless dates, in following    Y
     entries until end of current file.
*‘=’*Declares an auto posting rule that generates extra postings on     partly
(equals)matched transactions with ‘--auto’, in current, parent, and
     child files (but not sibling files, see #1212).
*OtherOther directives from Ledger’s file format are accepted but
Ledgerignored.
directives*


File: hledger.info,  Node: Directives and multiple files,  Prev: Directive effects,  Up: Directives

10.17.2 Directives and multiple files
-------------------------------------

If you use multiple ‘-f’/‘--file’ options, or the ‘include’ directive,
hledger will process multiple input files.  But directives which affect
input typically have effect only until the end of the file in which they
occur (and on any included files in that region).

   This may seem inconvenient, but it’s intentional; it makes reports
stable and deterministic, independent of the order of input.  Otherwise
you could see different numbers if you happened to write -f options in a
different order, or if you moved includes around while cleaning up your
files.

   It can be surprising though; for example, it means that ‘alias’
directives do not affect parent or sibling files (see below).


File: hledger.info,  Node: Accounts,  Next: Account aliases,  Prev: Directives,  Up: Journal

10.18 Accounts
==============

‘account’ directives can be used to declare accounts (ie, the places
that amounts are transferred from and to).  Though not required, these
declarations can provide several benefits:

   • They can document your intended chart of accounts, providing a
     reference.
   • In strict mode, they restrict which accounts may be posted to by
     transactions, which helps detect typos.
   • They control account display order in reports, allowing
     non-alphabetic sorting (eg Revenues to appear above Expenses).
   • They help with account name completion (in hledger add,
     hledger-web, hledger-iadd, ledger-mode, etc.)
   • They can store additional account information as comments, or as
     tags which can be used to filter or pivot reports.
   • They can help hledger know your accounts’ types (asset, liability,
     equity, revenue, expense), affecting reports like balancesheet and
     incomestatement.

   They are written as the word ‘account’ followed by a hledger-style
account name, eg:

account assets:bank:checking

* Menu:

* Account comments::
* Account subdirectives::
* Account error checking::
* Account display order::
* Account types::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Account comments,  Next: Account subdirectives,  Up: Accounts

10.18.1 Account comments
------------------------

Text following *two or more spaces* and ‘;’ at the end of an account
directive line, and/or following ‘;’ on indented lines immediately below
it, form comments for that account.  They are ignored except they may
contain tags, which are not ignored.

   The two-space requirement for same-line account comments is because
‘;’ is allowed in account names.

account assets:bank:checking    ; same-line comment, at least 2 spaces before the semicolon
  ; next-line comment
  ; some tags - type:A, acctnum:12345


File: hledger.info,  Node: Account subdirectives,  Next: Account error checking,  Prev: Account comments,  Up: Accounts

10.18.2 Account subdirectives
-----------------------------

Ledger-style indented subdirectives are also accepted, but currently
ignored:

account assets:bank:checking
  format subdirective is ignored


File: hledger.info,  Node: Account error checking,  Next: Account display order,  Prev: Account subdirectives,  Up: Accounts

10.18.3 Account error checking
------------------------------

By default, accounts need not be declared; they come into existence when
a posting references them.  This is convenient, but it means hledger
can’t warn you when you mis-spell an account name in the journal.
Usually you’ll find that error later, as an extra account in balance
reports, or an incorrect balance when reconciling.

   In strict mode, enabled with the ‘-s’/‘--strict’ flag, hledger will
report an error if any transaction uses an account name that has not
been declared by an account directive.  Some notes:

   • The declaration is case-sensitive; transactions must use the
     correct account name capitalisation.
   • The account directive’s scope is "whole file and below" (see
     directives).  This means it affects all of the current file, and
     any files it includes, but not parent or sibling files.  The
     position of account directives within the file does not matter,
     though it’s usual to put them at the top.
   • Accounts can only be declared in ‘journal’ files, but will affect
     included files of all types.
   • It’s currently not possible to declare "all possible subaccounts"
     with a wildcard; every account posted to must be declared.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Account display order,  Next: Account types,  Prev: Account error checking,  Up: Accounts

10.18.4 Account display order
-----------------------------

The order in which account directives are written influences the order
in which accounts appear in reports, hledger-ui, hledger-web etc.  By
default accounts appear in alphabetical order, but if you add these
account directives to the journal file:

account assets
account liabilities
account equity
account revenues
account expenses

   those accounts will be displayed in declaration order:

$ hledger accounts -1
assets
liabilities
equity
revenues
expenses

   Any undeclared accounts are displayed last, in alphabetical order.

   Sorting is done at each level of the account tree, within each group
of sibling accounts under the same parent.  And currently, this
directive:

account other:zoo

   would influence the position of ‘zoo’ among ‘other’’s subaccounts,
but not the position of ‘other’ among the top-level accounts.  This
means:

   • you will sometimes declare parent accounts (eg ‘account other’
     above) that you don’t intend to post to, just to customize their
     display order
   • sibling accounts stay together (you couldn’t display ‘x:y’ in
     between ‘a:b’ and ‘a:c’).


File: hledger.info,  Node: Account types,  Prev: Account display order,  Up: Accounts

10.18.5 Account types
---------------------

hledger knows that accounts come in several types: assets, liabilities,
expenses and so on.  This enables easy reports like balancesheet and
incomestatement, and filtering by account type with the ‘type:’ query.

   As a convenience, hledger will detect these account types
automatically if you are using common english-language top-level account
names (described below).  But generally we recommend you declare types
explicitly, by adding a ‘type:’ tag to your top-level account
directives.  Subaccounts will inherit the type of their parent.  The
tag’s value should be one of the five main account types:

   • ‘A’ or ‘Asset’ (things you own)
   • ‘L’ or ‘Liability’ (things you owe)
   • ‘E’ or ‘Equity’ (investment/ownership; balanced counterpart of
     assets & liabilities)
   • ‘R’ or ‘Revenue’ (what you received money from, AKA income;
     technically part of Equity)
   • ‘X’ or ‘Expense’ (what you spend money on; technically part of
     Equity)

   or, it can be (these are used less often):

   • ‘C’ or ‘Cash’ (a subtype of Asset, indicating liquid assets for the
     cashflow report)
   • ‘V’ or ‘Conversion’ (a subtype of Equity, for conversions (see COST
     REPORTING).)

   Here is a typical set of account type declarations:

account assets             ; type: A
account liabilities        ; type: L
account equity             ; type: E
account revenues           ; type: R
account expenses           ; type: X

account assets:bank        ; type: C
account assets:cash        ; type: C

account equity:conversion  ; type: V

   Here are some tips for working with account types.

   • The rules for inferring types from account names are as follows.
     These are just a convenience that sometimes help new users get
     going; if they don’t work for you, just ignore them and declare
     your account types.  See also Regular expressions.  Note the Cash
     regexp changed in hledger 1.24.99.2.

     If account's name contains this (CI) regular expression:            | its type is:
     --------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------
     ^assets?(:.+)?:(cash|bank|che(ck|que?)(ing)?|savings?|current)(:|$) | Cash
     ^assets?(:|$)                                                       | Asset
     ^(debts?|liabilit(y|ies))(:|$)                                      | Liability
     ^equity:(trad(e|ing)|conversion)s?(:|$)                             | Conversion
     ^equity(:|$)                                                        | Equity
     ^(income|revenue)s?(:|$)                                            | Revenue
     ^expenses?(:|$)                                                     | Expense

   • If you declare any account types, it’s a good idea to declare an
     account for all of the account types, because a mixture of declared
     and name-inferred types can disrupt certain reports.

   • Certain uses of account aliases can disrupt account types.  See
     Rewriting accounts > Aliases and account types.

   • As mentioned above, subaccounts will inherit a type from their
     parent account.  More precisely, an account’s type is decided by
     the first of these that exists:

       1. A ‘type:’ declaration for this account.
       2. A ‘type:’ declaration in the parent accounts above it,
          preferring the nearest.
       3. An account type inferred from this account’s name.
       4. An account type inferred from a parent account’s name,
          preferring the nearest parent.
       5. Otherwise, it will have no type.

   • For troubleshooting, you can list accounts and their types with:

     $ hledger accounts --types [ACCTPAT] [-DEPTH] [type:TYPECODES]


File: hledger.info,  Node: Account aliases,  Next: Commodities,  Prev: Accounts,  Up: Journal

10.19 Account aliases
=====================

You can define account alias rules which rewrite your account names, or
parts of them, before generating reports.  This can be useful for:

   • expanding shorthand account names to their full form, allowing
     easier data entry and a less verbose journal
   • adapting old journals to your current chart of accounts
   • experimenting with new account organisations, like a new hierarchy
   • combining two accounts into one, eg to see their sum or difference
     on one line
   • customising reports

   Account aliases also rewrite account names in account directives.
They do not affect account names being entered via hledger add or
hledger-web.

   Account aliases are very powerful.  They are generally easy to use
correctly, but you can also generate invalid account names with them;
more on this below.

   See also Rewrite account names.

* Menu:

* Basic aliases::
* Regex aliases::
* Combining aliases::
* Aliases and multiple files::
* end aliases::
* Aliases can generate bad account names::
* Aliases and account types::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Basic aliases,  Next: Regex aliases,  Up: Account aliases

10.19.1 Basic aliases
---------------------

To set an account alias, use the ‘alias’ directive in your journal file.
This affects all subsequent journal entries in the current file or its
included files (but note: not sibling or parent files).  The spaces
around the = are optional:

alias OLD = NEW

   Or, you can use the ‘--alias 'OLD=NEW'’ option on the command line.
This affects all entries.  It’s useful for trying out aliases
interactively.

   OLD and NEW are case sensitive full account names.  hledger will
replace any occurrence of the old account name with the new one.
Subaccounts are also affected.  Eg:

alias checking = assets:bank:wells fargo:checking
; rewrites "checking" to "assets:bank:wells fargo:checking", or "checking:a" to "assets:bank:wells fargo:checking:a"


File: hledger.info,  Node: Regex aliases,  Next: Combining aliases,  Prev: Basic aliases,  Up: Account aliases

10.19.2 Regex aliases
---------------------

There is also a more powerful variant that uses a regular expression,
indicated by wrapping the pattern in forward slashes.  (This is the only
place where hledger requires forward slashes around a regular
expression.)

   Eg:

alias /REGEX/ = REPLACEMENT

   or:

$ hledger --alias '/REGEX/=REPLACEMENT' ...

   Any part of an account name matched by REGEX will be replaced by
REPLACEMENT. REGEX is case-insensitive as usual.

   If you need to match a forward slash, escape it with a backslash, eg
‘/\/=:’.

   If REGEX contains parenthesised match groups, these can be referenced
by the usual backslash and number in REPLACEMENT:

alias /^(.+):bank:([^:]+):(.*)/ = \1:\2 \3
; rewrites "assets:bank:wells fargo:checking" to  "assets:wells fargo checking"

   REPLACEMENT continues to the end of line (or on command line, to end
of option argument), so it can contain trailing whitespace.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Combining aliases,  Next: Aliases and multiple files,  Prev: Regex aliases,  Up: Account aliases

10.19.3 Combining aliases
-------------------------

You can define as many aliases as you like, using journal directives
and/or command line options.

   Recursive aliases - where an account name is rewritten by one alias,
then by another alias, and so on - are allowed.  Each alias sees the
effect of previously applied aliases.

   In such cases it can be important to understand which aliases will be
applied and in which order.  For (each account name in) each journal
entry, we apply:

  1. ‘alias’ directives preceding the journal entry, most recently
     parsed first (ie, reading upward from the journal entry, bottom to
     top)
  2. ‘--alias’ options, in the order they appeared on the command line
     (left to right).

   In other words, for (an account name in) a given journal entry:

   • the nearest alias declaration before/above the entry is applied
     first
   • the next alias before/above that will be be applied next, and so on
   • aliases defined after/below the entry do not affect it.

   This gives nearby aliases precedence over distant ones, and helps
provide semantic stability - aliases will keep working the same way
independent of which files are being read and in which order.

   In case of trouble, adding ‘--debug=6’ to the command line will show
which aliases are being applied when.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Aliases and multiple files,  Next: end aliases,  Prev: Combining aliases,  Up: Account aliases

10.19.4 Aliases and multiple files
----------------------------------

As explained at Directives and multiple files, ‘alias’ directives do not
affect parent or sibling files.  Eg in this command,

hledger -f a.aliases -f b.journal

   account aliases defined in a.aliases will not affect b.journal.
Including the aliases doesn’t work either:

include a.aliases

2020-01-01  ; not affected by a.aliases
  foo  1
  bar

   This means that account aliases should usually be declared at the
start of your top-most file, like this:

alias foo=Foo
alias bar=Bar

2020-01-01  ; affected by aliases above
  foo  1
  bar

include c.journal  ; also affected


File: hledger.info,  Node: end aliases,  Next: Aliases can generate bad account names,  Prev: Aliases and multiple files,  Up: Account aliases

10.19.5 ‘end aliases’
---------------------

You can clear (forget) all currently defined aliases (seen in the
journal so far, or defined on the command line) with this directive:

end aliases


File: hledger.info,  Node: Aliases can generate bad account names,  Next: Aliases and account types,  Prev: end aliases,  Up: Account aliases

10.19.6 Aliases can generate bad account names
----------------------------------------------

Be aware that account aliases can produce malformed account names, which
could cause confusing reports or invalid ‘print’ output.  For example,
you could erase all account names:

2021-01-01
  a:aa     1
  b

$ hledger print --alias '/.*/='
2021-01-01
                   1

   The above ‘print’ output is not a valid journal.  Or you could insert
an illegal double space, causing ‘print’ output that would give a
different journal when reparsed:

2021-01-01
  old    1
  other

$ hledger print --alias old="new  USD" | hledger -f- print
2021-01-01
    new             USD 1
    other


File: hledger.info,  Node: Aliases and account types,  Prev: Aliases can generate bad account names,  Up: Account aliases

10.19.7 Aliases and account types
---------------------------------

If an account with a type declaration (see Declaring accounts > Account
types) is renamed by an alias, normally the account type remains in
effect.

   However, renaming in a way that reshapes the account tree (eg
renaming parent accounts but not their children, or vice versa) could
prevent child accounts from inheriting the account type of their
parents.

   Secondly, if an account’s type is being inferred from its name,
renaming it by an alias could prevent or alter that.

   If you are using account aliases and the ‘type:’ query is not
matching accounts as you expect, try troubleshooting with the accounts
command, eg something like:

$ hledger accounts --alias assets=bassetts type:a


File: hledger.info,  Node: Commodities,  Next: Decimal mark,  Prev: Account aliases,  Up: Journal

10.20 Commodities
=================

You can use ‘commodity’ directives to declare your commodities.  In fact
the ‘commodity’ directive performs several functions at once:

  1. It declares commodities which may be used in the journal.  This can
     optionally be enforced, providing useful error checking.  (Cf
     Commodity error checking)

  2. It declares which decimal mark character (period or comma), to
     expect when parsing input - useful to disambiguate international
     number formats in your data.  Without this, hledger will parse both
     ‘1,000’ and ‘1.000’ as 1.  (Cf Amounts)

  3. It declares how to render the commodity’s amounts when displaying
     output - the decimal mark, any digit group marks, the number of
     decimal places, symbol placement and so on.  (Cf Commodity display
     style)

   You will run into one of the problems solved by commodity directives
sooner or later, so we recommend using them, for robust and predictable
parsing and display.

   Generally you should put them at the top of your journal file (since
for function 2, they affect only following amounts, cf #793).

   A commodity directive is just the word ‘commodity’ followed by a
sample amount, like this:

;commodity SAMPLEAMOUNT

commodity $1000.00
commodity 1,000.0000 AAAA  ; optional same-line comment

   It may also be written on multiple lines, and use the ‘format’
subdirective, as in Ledger.  Note in this case the commodity symbol
appears twice; it must be the same in both places:

;commodity SYMBOL
;  format SAMPLEAMOUNT

; display indian rupees with currency name on the left,
; thousands, lakhs and crores comma-separated,
; period as decimal point, and two decimal places.
commodity INR
  format INR 1,00,00,000.00

   Other indented subdirectives are currently ignored.

   Remember that if the commodity symbol contains spaces, numbers, or
punctuation, it must be enclosed in double quotes (cf Commodity).

   The amount’s quantity does not matter; only the format is
significant.  It must include a decimal mark - either a period or a
comma - followed by 0 or more decimal digits.

   A few more examples:

# number formats for $, EUR, INR and the no-symbol commodity:
commodity $1,000.00
commodity EUR 1.000,00
commodity INR 9,99,99,999.0
commodity 1 000 000.

   Note hledger normally uses banker’s rounding, so 0.5 displayed with
zero decimal digits is "0".  (More at Commodity display style.)

   Even in the presence of commodity directives, the commodity display
style can still be overridden by supplying a command line option.

* Menu:

* Commodity error checking::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Commodity error checking,  Up: Commodities

10.20.1 Commodity error checking
--------------------------------

In strict mode, enabled with the ‘-s’/‘--strict’ flag, hledger will
report an error if a commodity symbol is used that has not been declared
by a ‘commodity’ directive.  This works similarly to account error
checking, see the notes there for more details.

   Note, this disallows amounts without a commodity symbol, because
currently it’s not possible (?)  to declare the "no-symbol" commodity
with a directive.  This is one exception for convenience: zero amounts
are always allowed to have no commodity symbol.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Decimal mark,  Next: Include files,  Prev: Commodities,  Up: Journal

10.21 Decimal mark
==================

You can use a ‘decimal-mark’ directive - usually one per file, at the
top of the file - to declare which character represents a decimal mark
when parsing amounts in this file.  It can look like

decimal-mark .

   or

decimal-mark ,

   This prevents any ambiguity when parsing numbers in the file, so we
recommend it, especially if the file contains digit group marks (eg
thousands separators).


File: hledger.info,  Node: Include files,  Next: Market prices,  Prev: Decimal mark,  Up: Journal

10.22 Include files
===================

You can pull in the content of additional files by writing an include
directive, like this:

include FILEPATH

   Only journal files can include, and only journal, timeclock or
timedot files can be included (not CSV files, currently).

   If the file path does not begin with a slash, it is relative to the
current file’s folder.

   A tilde means home directory, eg: ‘include ~/main.journal’.

   The path may contain glob patterns to match multiple files, eg:
‘include *.journal’.

   There is limited support for recursive wildcards: ‘**/’ (the slash is
required) matches 0 or more subdirectories.  It’s not super convenient
since you have to avoid include cycles and including directories, but
this can be done, eg: ‘include */**/*.journal’.

   The path may also be prefixed to force a specific file format,
overriding the file extension (as described in hledger.1 -> Input
files): ‘include timedot:~/notes/2020*.md’.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Market prices,  Next: Payees,  Prev: Include files,  Up: Journal

10.23 Market prices
===================

The ‘P’ directive declares a market price, which is a conversion rate
between two commodities on a certain date.  These are often obtained
from a stock exchange, cryptocurrency exchange, or the foreign exchange
market.

   The format is:

P DATE COMMODITY1SYMBOL COMMODITY2AMOUNT

   DATE is a simple date, COMMODITY1SYMBOL is the symbol of the
commodity being priced, and COMMODITY2AMOUNT is the amount (symbol and
quantity) of commodity 2 that one unit of commodity 1 is worth on this
date.  Examples:

# one euro was worth $1.35 from 2009-01-01 onward:
P 2009-01-01 € $1.35

# and $1.40 from 2010-01-01 onward:
P 2010-01-01 € $1.40

   The ‘-V’, ‘-X’ and ‘--value’ flags use these market prices to show
amount values in another commodity.  See Valuation.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Payees,  Next: Periodic transactions,  Prev: Market prices,  Up: Journal

10.24 Payees
============

The ‘payee’ directive can be used to declare a limited set of payees
which may appear in transaction descriptions.  The "payees" check will
report an error if any transaction refers to a payee that has not been
declared.  Eg:

payee Whole Foods

   Any indented subdirectives are currently ignored.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Periodic transactions,  Next: Other syntax,  Prev: Payees,  Up: Journal

10.25 Periodic transactions
===========================

Periodic transaction rules describe transactions that recur.  They allow
hledger to generate temporary future transactions (visible only in
reports) to help with forecasting or budgeting.

   Periodic transactions can be a little tricky, so before you use them,
read this whole section, or at least these tips:

  1. Two spaces accidentally added or omitted will cause you trouble -
     read about this below.
  2. For troubleshooting, show the generated transactions with ‘hledger
     print --forecast tag:generated’ or ‘hledger register --forecast
     tag:generated’.
  3. Forecasted transactions will begin only after the last
     non-forecasted transaction’s date.
  4. Forecasted transactions will end 6 months from today, by default.
     See below for the exact start/end rules.
  5. period expressions can be tricky.  Their documentation needs
     improvement, but is worth studying.
  6. Some period expressions with a repeating interval must begin on a
     natural boundary of that interval.  Eg in ‘weekly from DATE’, DATE
     must be a monday.  ‘~ weekly from 2019/10/1’ (a tuesday) will give
     an error.
  7. Other period expressions with an interval are automatically
     expanded to cover a whole number of that interval.  (This is done
     to improve reports, but it also affects periodic transactions.
     Yes, it’s a bit inconsistent with the above.)  Eg: ‘~ every 10th
     day of month from 2020/01’, which is equivalent to ‘~ every 10th
     day of month from 2020/01/01’, will be adjusted to start on
     2019/12/10.

* Menu:

* Periodic rule syntax::
* Periodic rules and relative dates::
* Two spaces between period expression and description!::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Periodic rule syntax,  Next: Periodic rules and relative dates,  Up: Periodic transactions

10.25.1 Periodic rule syntax
----------------------------

A periodic transaction rule looks like a normal journal entry, with the
date replaced by a tilde (‘~’) followed by a period expression
(mnemonic: ‘~’ looks like a recurring sine wave.):

~ monthly
    expenses:rent          $2000
    assets:bank:checking

   There is an additional constraint on the period expression: the start
date must fall on a natural boundary of the interval.  Eg ‘monthly from
2018/1/1’ is valid, but ‘monthly from 2018/1/15’ is not.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Periodic rules and relative dates,  Next: Two spaces between period expression and description!,  Prev: Periodic rule syntax,  Up: Periodic transactions

10.25.2 Periodic rules and relative dates
-----------------------------------------

Partial or relative dates (like ‘12/31’, ‘25’, ‘tomorrow’, ‘last week’,
‘next quarter’) are usually not recommended in periodic rules, since the
results will change as time passes.  If used, they will be interpreted
relative to, in order of preference:

  1. the first day of the default year specified by a recent ‘Y’
     directive
  2. or the date specified with ‘--today’
  3. or the date on which you are running the report.

   They will not be affected at all by report period or forecast period
dates.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Two spaces between period expression and description!,  Prev: Periodic rules and relative dates,  Up: Periodic transactions

10.25.3 Two spaces between period expression and description!
-------------------------------------------------------------

If the period expression is followed by a transaction description, these
must be separated by *two or more spaces*.  This helps hledger know
where the period expression ends, so that descriptions can not
accidentally alter their meaning, as in this example:

; 2 or more spaces needed here, so the period is not understood as "every 2 months in 2020"
;               ||
;               vv
~ every 2 months  in 2020, we will review
    assets:bank:checking   $1500
    income:acme inc

   So,

   • Do write two spaces between your period expression and your
     transaction description, if any.
   • Don’t accidentally write two spaces in the middle of your period
     expression.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Other syntax,  Prev: Periodic transactions,  Up: Journal

10.26 Other syntax
==================

hledger journal format supports quite a few other features, mainly to
make interoperating with or converting from Ledger easier.  Note some of
the features below are powerful and can be useful in special cases, but
in general, features in this section are considered less important or
even not recommended for most users.  Downsides are mentioned to help
you decide if you want to use them.

* Menu:

* Auto postings::
* Balance assignments::
* Bracketed posting dates::
* Default commodity::
* Default parent account::
* Default year::
* Secondary dates::
* Star comments::
* Valuation expressions::
* Virtual postings::
* Other Ledger directives::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Auto postings,  Next: Balance assignments,  Up: Other syntax

10.26.1 Auto postings
---------------------

"Automated postings" or "auto postings" are extra postings which get
added automatically to transactions which match certain queries, defined
by "auto posting rules", when you use the ‘--auto’ flag.

   Downsides: depending on generated data for your reports makes your
financial data less portable, less future-proof, and less trustworthy in
an audit.  Also, because the feature is optional, other features like
balance assertions can break depending on whether it is on or off.

   An auto posting rule looks a bit like a transaction:

= QUERY
    ACCOUNT  AMOUNT
    ...
    ACCOUNT  [AMOUNT]

   except the first line is an equals sign (mnemonic: ‘=’ suggests
matching), followed by a query (which matches existing postings), and
each "posting" line describes a posting to be generated, and the posting
amounts can be:

   • a normal amount with a commodity symbol, eg ‘$2’.  This will be
     used as-is.
   • a number, eg ‘2’.  The commodity symbol (if any) from the matched
     posting will be added to this.
   • a numeric multiplier, eg ‘*2’ (a star followed by a number N). The
     matched posting’s amount (and total price, if any) will be
     multiplied by N.
   • a multiplier with a commodity symbol, eg ‘*$2’ (a star, number N,
     and symbol S). The matched posting’s amount will be multiplied by
     N, and its commodity symbol will be replaced with S.

   Any query term containing spaces must be enclosed in single or double
quotes, as on the command line.  Eg, note the quotes around the second
query term below:

= expenses:groceries 'expenses:dining out'
    (budget:funds:dining out)                 *-1

   Some examples:

; every time I buy food, schedule a dollar donation
= expenses:food
    (liabilities:charity)   $-1

; when I buy a gift, also deduct that amount from a budget envelope subaccount
= expenses:gifts
    assets:checking:gifts  *-1
    assets:checking         *1

2017/12/1
  expenses:food    $10
  assets:checking

2017/12/14
  expenses:gifts   $20
  assets:checking

$ hledger print --auto
2017-12-01
    expenses:food              $10
    assets:checking
    (liabilities:charity)      $-1

2017-12-14
    expenses:gifts             $20
    assets:checking
    assets:checking:gifts     -$20
    assets:checking            $20

* Menu:

* Auto postings and multiple files::
* Auto postings and dates::
* Auto postings and transaction balancing / inferred amounts / balance assertions::
* Auto posting tags::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Auto postings and multiple files,  Next: Auto postings and dates,  Up: Auto postings

10.26.1.1 Auto postings and multiple files
..........................................

An auto posting rule can affect any transaction in the current file, or
in any parent file or child file.  Note, currently it will not affect
sibling files (when multiple ‘-f’/‘--file’ are used - see #1212).


File: hledger.info,  Node: Auto postings and dates,  Next: Auto postings and transaction balancing / inferred amounts / balance assertions,  Prev: Auto postings and multiple files,  Up: Auto postings

10.26.1.2 Auto postings and dates
.................................

A posting date (or secondary date) in the matched posting, or (taking
precedence) a posting date in the auto posting rule itself, will also be
used in the generated posting.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Auto postings and transaction balancing / inferred amounts / balance assertions,  Next: Auto posting tags,  Prev: Auto postings and dates,  Up: Auto postings

10.26.1.3 Auto postings and transaction balancing / inferred
............................................................

amounts / balance assertions Currently, auto postings are added:

   • after missing amounts are inferred, and transactions are checked
     for balancedness,
   • but before balance assertions are checked.

   Note this means that journal entries must be balanced both before and
after auto postings are added.  This changed in hledger 1.12+; see #893
for background.

   This also means that you cannot have more than one auto-posting with
a missing amount applied to a given transaction, as it will be unable to
infer amounts.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Auto posting tags,  Prev: Auto postings and transaction balancing / inferred amounts / balance assertions,  Up: Auto postings

10.26.1.4 Auto posting tags
...........................

Automated postings will have some extra tags:

   • ‘generated-posting:= QUERY’ - shows this was generated by an auto
     posting rule, and the query
   • ‘_generated-posting:= QUERY’ - a hidden tag, which does not appear
     in hledger’s output.  This can be used to match postings generated
     "just now", rather than generated in the past and saved to the
     journal.

   Also, any transaction that has been changed by auto posting rules
will have these tags added:

   • ‘modified:’ - this transaction was modified
   • ‘_modified:’ - a hidden tag not appearing in the comment; this
     transaction was modified "just now".


File: hledger.info,  Node: Balance assignments,  Next: Bracketed posting dates,  Prev: Auto postings,  Up: Other syntax

10.26.2 Balance assignments
---------------------------

Ledger-style balance assignments are also supported.  These are like
balance assertions, but with no posting amount on the left side of the
equals sign; instead it is calculated automatically so as to satisfy the
assertion.  This can be a convenience during data entry, eg when setting
opening balances:

; starting a new journal, set asset account balances
2016/1/1 opening balances
  assets:checking            = $409.32
  assets:savings             = $735.24
  assets:cash                 = $42
  equity:opening balances

   or when adjusting a balance to reality:

; no cash left; update balance, record any untracked spending as a generic expense
2016/1/15
  assets:cash    = $0
  expenses:misc

   The calculated amount depends on the account’s balance in the
commodity at that point (which depends on the previously-dated postings
of the commodity to that account since the last balance assertion or
assignment).

   Downsides: using balance assignments makes your journal less
explicit; to know the exact amount posted, you have to run hledger or do
the calculations yourself, instead of just reading it.  Also balance
assignments’ forcing of balances can hide errors.  These things make
your financial data less portable, less future-proof, and less
trustworthy in an audit.

* Menu:

* Balance assignments and prices::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Balance assignments and prices,  Up: Balance assignments

10.26.2.1 Balance assignments and prices
........................................

A cost in a balance assignment will cause the calculated amount to have
that price attached:

2019/1/1
  (a)             = $1 @ €2

$ hledger print --explicit
2019-01-01
    (a)         $1 @ €2 = $1 @ €2


File: hledger.info,  Node: Bracketed posting dates,  Next: Default commodity,  Prev: Balance assignments,  Up: Other syntax

10.26.3 Bracketed posting dates
-------------------------------

For setting posting dates and secondary posting dates, Ledger’s
bracketed date syntax is also supported: ‘[DATE]’, ‘[DATE=DATE2]’ or
‘[=DATE2]’ in posting comments.  hledger will attempt to parse any
square-bracketed sequence of the ‘0123456789/-.=’ characters in this
way.  With this syntax, DATE infers its year from the transaction and
DATE2 infers its year from DATE.

   Downsides: another syntax to learn, redundant with hledger’s
‘date:’/‘date2:’ tags, and confusingly similar to Ledger’s lot date
syntax.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Default commodity,  Next: Default parent account,  Prev: Bracketed posting dates,  Up: Other syntax

10.26.4 Default commodity
-------------------------

The ‘D’ directive sets a default commodity, to be used for any
subsequent commodityless amounts (ie, plain numbers) seen while parsing
the journal.  This effect lasts until the next ‘D’ directive, or the end
of the journal.

   For compatibility/historical reasons, ‘D’ also acts like a
‘commodity’ directive (setting the commodity’s decimal mark for parsing
and display style for output).

   The syntax is ‘D AMOUNT’.  As with ‘commodity’, the amount must
include a decimal mark (either period or comma).  Eg:

; commodity-less amounts should be treated as dollars
; (and displayed with the dollar sign on the left, thousands separators and two decimal places)
D $1,000.00

1/1
  a     5  ; <- commodity-less amount, parsed as $5 and displayed as $5.00
  b

   If both ‘commodity’ and ‘D’ directives are found for a commodity,
‘commodity’ takes precedence for setting decimal mark and display style.

   If you are using ‘D’ and also checking commodities, you will need to
add a ‘commodity’ directive similar to the ‘D’.  (The ‘hledger check
commodities’ command expects ‘commodity’ directives, and ignores ‘D’).

   Downsides: omitting commodity symbols makes your financial data less
explicit, less portable, and less trustworthy in an audit.  It is
usually an unsustainable shortcut; sooner or later you will want to
track multiple commodities.  D is overloaded with functions redundant
with ‘commodity’ and ‘decimal mark’.  And it works differently from
Ledger’s ‘D’.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Default parent account,  Next: Default year,  Prev: Default commodity,  Up: Other syntax

10.26.5 Default parent account
------------------------------

The ‘apply account’ directive sets a parent account which will be
prepended to all accounts in following entries, until an ‘end apply
account’ directive or end of current file.  Eg:

apply account home

2010/1/1
    food    $10
    cash

end apply account

   is equivalent to:

2010/01/01
    home:food           $10
    home:cash          $-10

   ‘account’ directives are also affected, and so is any ‘include’d
content.

   Account names entered via hledger add or hledger-web are not
affected.

   Account aliases, if any, are applied after the parent account is
prepended.

   Downsides: this can make your financial data less explicit, less
portable, and less trustworthy in an audit.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Default year,  Next: Secondary dates,  Prev: Default parent account,  Up: Other syntax

10.26.6 Default year
--------------------

You can set a default year to be used for subsequent dates which don’t
specify a year.  This is a line beginning with ‘Y’ (or ‘year’ or ‘apply
year’) followed by the year.  Eg:

Y2009  ; set default year to 2009

12/15  ; equivalent to 2009/12/15
  expenses  1
  assets

year 2010  ; change default year to 2010

2009/1/30  ; specifies the year, not affected
  expenses  1
  assets

1/31   ; equivalent to 2010/1/31
  expenses  1
  assets

   Downsides: omitting the year (from primary transaction dates, at
least) makes your financial data less explicit, less portable, and less
trustworthy in an audit.  Such dates can get separated from their
corresponding Y directive, eg when evaluating a region of the journal in
your editor.  A missing Y directive makes reports dependent on today’s
date.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Secondary dates,  Next: Star comments,  Prev: Default year,  Up: Other syntax

10.26.7 Secondary dates
-----------------------

A secondary date is written after the primary date, following an equals
sign.  If the year is omitted, the primary date’s year is assumed.  When
running reports, the primary (left) date is used by default, but with
the ‘--date2’ flag (or ‘--aux-date’ or ‘--effective’), the secondary
(right) date will be used instead.

   The meaning of secondary dates is up to you, but it’s best to follow
a consistent rule.  Eg "primary = the bank’s clearing date, secondary =
date the transaction was initiated, if different".

   Downsides: makes your financial data more complicated, less portable,
and less trustworthy in an audit.  Keeping the meaning of the two dates
consistent requires discipline, and you have to remember which reporting
mode is appropriate for a given report.  Posting dates are simpler and
better.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Star comments,  Next: Valuation expressions,  Prev: Secondary dates,  Up: Other syntax

10.26.8 Star comments
---------------------

Lines beginning with ‘*’ (star/asterisk) are also comment lines.  This
feature allows Emacs users to insert org headings in their journal,
allowing them to fold/unfold/navigate it like an outline when viewed
with org mode.

   Downsides: another, unconventional comment syntax to learn.
Decreases your journal’s portability.  And switching to Emacs org mode
just for folding/unfolding meant losing the benefits of ledger mode;
nowadays you can add outshine mode to ledger mode to get folding without
losing ledger mode’s features.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Valuation expressions,  Next: Virtual postings,  Prev: Star comments,  Up: Other syntax

10.26.9 Valuation expressions
-----------------------------

Ledger allows a valuation function or value to be written in double
parentheses after an amount.  hledger ignores these.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Virtual postings,  Next: Other Ledger directives,  Prev: Valuation expressions,  Up: Other syntax

10.26.10 Virtual postings
-------------------------

A posting with parentheses around the account name is called a _virtual
posting_ or _unbalanced posting_, which means it is exempt from the
usual rule that a transaction’s postings must balance add up to zero.

   This is not part of double entry bookkeeping, so you might choose to
avoid this feature.  Or you can use it sparingly for certain special
cases where it can be convenient.  Eg, you could set opening balances
without using a balancing equity account:

2022-01-01 opening balances
  (assets:checking)   $1000
  (assets:savings)    $2000

   A posting with brackets around the account name is called a _balanced
virtual posting_.  The balanced virtual postings in a transaction must
add up to zero (separately from other postings).  Eg:

2022-01-01 buy food with cash, update budget envelope subaccounts, & something else
  assets:cash                    $-10  ; <- these balance each other
  expenses:food                    $7  ; <-
  expenses:food                    $3  ; <-
  [assets:checking:budget:food]  $-10  ;   <- and these balance each other
  [assets:checking:available]     $10  ;   <-
  (something:else)                 $5  ;     <- this is not required to balance

   Postings whose account names are neither parenthesised nor bracketed
are called _real postings_.  You can exclude virtual postings from
reports with the ‘-R/--real’ flag or a ‘real:1’ query.

   Downsides: violates double entry bookkeeping, can be used to avoid
figuring out correct entries, makes your financial data less portable
and less trustworthy in an audit.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Other Ledger directives,  Prev: Virtual postings,  Up: Other syntax

10.26.11 Other Ledger directives
--------------------------------

These other Ledger directives are currently accepted but ignored.  This
allows hledger to read more Ledger files, but be aware that hledger’s
reports may differ from Ledger’s if you use these.

apply fixed COMM AMT
apply tag   TAG
assert      EXPR
bucket / A  ACCT
capture     ACCT REGEX
check       EXPR
define      VAR=EXPR
end apply fixed
end apply tag
end apply year
end tag
eval / expr EXPR
python
  PYTHONCODE
tag         NAME
value       EXPR
--command-line-flags

   See also https://hledger.org/ledger.html for a detailed
hledger/Ledger syntax comparison.


File: hledger.info,  Node: CSV,  Next: Timeclock,  Prev: Journal,  Up: Top

11 CSV
******

hledger can read CSV files (Character Separated Value - usually comma,
semicolon, or tab) containing dated records, automatically converting
each record into a transaction.

   (To learn about _writing_ CSV, see CSV output.)

   Note, for best error messages when reading CSV/TSV/SSV files, make
sure they have a corresponding ‘.csv’, ‘.tsv’ or ‘.ssv’ file extension
or use a hledger file prefix (see File Extension below).

   Each CSV file must be described by a corresponding _rules file_.
This contains rules describing the CSV data (header line, fields layout,
date format etc.), how to construct hledger transactions from it, and
how to categorise transactions based on description or other attributes.

   By default hledger looks for a rules file named like the CSV file
with an extra ‘.rules’ extension, in the same directory.  Eg when asked
to read ‘foo/FILE.csv’, hledger looks for ‘foo/FILE.csv.rules’.  You can
specify a different rules file with the ‘--rules-file’ option.  If no
rules file is found, hledger will create a sample rules file, which
you’ll need to adjust.

   There’s an introductory Importing CSV data tutorial on hledger.org.

* Menu:

* Examples::
* CSV rules::
* separator::
* skip::
* date-format::
* timezone::
* decimal-mark::
* newest-first::
* intra-day-reversed::
* fields::
* Field assignment::
* Field names::
* if::
* if table::
* end::
* include::
* balance-type::
* Tips::
* Rapid feedback::
* Valid CSV::
* File Extension::
* Reading multiple CSV files::
* Valid transactions::
* Deduplicating importing::
* Setting amounts::
* Amount signs::
* Setting currency/commodity::
* Amount decimal places::
* Referencing other fields::
* How CSV rules are evaluated::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Examples,  Next: CSV rules,  Up: CSV

11.1 Examples
=============

Here are some sample hledger CSV rules files.  See also the full
collection at:
https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/tree/master/examples/csv

* Menu:

* Basic::
* Bank of Ireland::
* Amazon::
* Paypal::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Basic,  Next: Bank of Ireland,  Up: Examples

11.1.1 Basic
------------

At minimum, the rules file must identify the date and amount fields, and
often it also specifies the date format and how many header lines there
are.  Here’s a simple CSV file and a rules file for it:

Date, Description, Id, Amount
12/11/2019, Foo, 123, 10.23

# basic.csv.rules
skip         1
fields       date, description, _, amount
date-format  %d/%m/%Y

$ hledger print -f basic.csv
2019-11-12 Foo
    expenses:unknown           10.23
    income:unknown            -10.23

   Default account names are chosen, since we didn’t set them.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Bank of Ireland,  Next: Amazon,  Prev: Basic,  Up: Examples

11.1.2 Bank of Ireland
----------------------

Here’s a CSV with two amount fields (Debit and Credit), and a balance
field, which we can use to add balance assertions, which is not
necessary but provides extra error checking:

Date,Details,Debit,Credit,Balance
07/12/2012,LODGMENT       529898,,10.0,131.21
07/12/2012,PAYMENT,5,,126

# bankofireland-checking.csv.rules

# skip the header line
skip

# name the csv fields, and assign some of them as journal entry fields
fields  date, description, amount-out, amount-in, balance

# We generate balance assertions by assigning to "balance"
# above, but you may sometimes need to remove these because:
#
# - the CSV balance differs from the true balance,
#   by up to 0.0000000000005 in my experience
#
# - it is sometimes calculated based on non-chronological ordering,
#   eg when multiple transactions clear on the same day

# date is in UK/Ireland format
date-format  %d/%m/%Y

# set the currency
currency  EUR

# set the base account for all txns
account1  assets:bank:boi:checking

$ hledger -f bankofireland-checking.csv print
2012-12-07 LODGMENT       529898
    assets:bank:boi:checking         EUR10.0 = EUR131.2
    income:unknown                  EUR-10.0

2012-12-07 PAYMENT
    assets:bank:boi:checking         EUR-5.0 = EUR126.0
    expenses:unknown                  EUR5.0

   The balance assertions don’t raise an error above, because we’re
reading directly from CSV, but they will be checked if these entries are
imported into a journal file.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Amazon,  Next: Paypal,  Prev: Bank of Ireland,  Up: Examples

11.1.3 Amazon
-------------

Here we convert amazon.com order history, and use an if block to
generate a third posting if there’s a fee.  (In practice you’d probably
get this data from your bank instead, but it’s an example.)

"Date","Type","To/From","Name","Status","Amount","Fees","Transaction ID"
"Jul 29, 2012","Payment","To","Foo.","Completed","$20.00","$0.00","16000000000000DGLNJPI1P9B8DKPVHL"
"Jul 30, 2012","Payment","To","Adapteva, Inc.","Completed","$25.00","$1.00","17LA58JSKRD4HDGLNJPI1P9B8DKPVHL"

# amazon-orders.csv.rules

# skip one header line
skip 1

# name the csv fields, and assign the transaction's date, amount and code.
# Avoided the "status" and "amount" hledger field names to prevent confusion.
fields date, _, toorfrom, name, amzstatus, amzamount, fees, code

# how to parse the date
date-format %b %-d, %Y

# combine two fields to make the description
description %toorfrom %name

# save the status as a tag
comment     status:%amzstatus

# set the base account for all transactions
account1    assets:amazon
# leave amount1 blank so it can balance the other(s).
# I'm assuming amzamount excludes the fees, don't remember

# set a generic account2
account2    expenses:misc
amount2     %amzamount
# and maybe refine it further:
#include categorisation.rules

# add a third posting for fees, but only if they are non-zero.
if %fees [1-9]
 account3    expenses:fees
 amount3     %fees

$ hledger -f amazon-orders.csv print
2012-07-29 (16000000000000DGLNJPI1P9B8DKPVHL) To Foo.  ; status:Completed
    assets:amazon
    expenses:misc          $20.00

2012-07-30 (17LA58JSKRD4HDGLNJPI1P9B8DKPVHL) To Adapteva, Inc.  ; status:Completed
    assets:amazon
    expenses:misc          $25.00
    expenses:fees           $1.00


File: hledger.info,  Node: Paypal,  Prev: Amazon,  Up: Examples

11.1.4 Paypal
-------------

Here’s a real-world rules file for (customised) Paypal CSV, with some
Paypal-specific rules, and a second rules file included:

"Date","Time","TimeZone","Name","Type","Status","Currency","Gross","Fee","Net","From Email Address","To Email Address","Transaction ID","Item Title","Item ID","Reference Txn ID","Receipt ID","Balance","Note"
"10/01/2019","03:46:20","PDT","Calm Radio","Subscription Payment","Completed","USD","-6.99","0.00","-6.99","simon@joyful.com","memberships@calmradio.com","60P57143A8206782E","MONTHLY - $1 for the first 2 Months: Me - Order 99309. Item total: $1.00 USD first 2 months, then $6.99 / Month","","I-R8YLY094FJYR","","-6.99",""
"10/01/2019","03:46:20","PDT","","Bank Deposit to PP Account ","Pending","USD","6.99","0.00","6.99","","simon@joyful.com","0TU1544T080463733","","","60P57143A8206782E","","0.00",""
"10/01/2019","08:57:01","PDT","Patreon","PreApproved Payment Bill User Payment","Completed","USD","-7.00","0.00","-7.00","simon@joyful.com","support@patreon.com","2722394R5F586712G","Patreon* Membership","","B-0PG93074E7M86381M","","-7.00",""
"10/01/2019","08:57:01","PDT","","Bank Deposit to PP Account ","Pending","USD","7.00","0.00","7.00","","simon@joyful.com","71854087RG994194F","Patreon* Membership","","2722394R5F586712G","","0.00",""
"10/19/2019","03:02:12","PDT","Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.","Subscription Payment","Completed","USD","-2.00","0.00","-2.00","simon@joyful.com","tle@wikimedia.org","K9U43044RY432050M","Monthly donation to the Wikimedia Foundation","","I-R5C3YUS3285L","","-2.00",""
"10/19/2019","03:02:12","PDT","","Bank Deposit to PP Account ","Pending","USD","2.00","0.00","2.00","","simon@joyful.com","3XJ107139A851061F","","","K9U43044RY432050M","","0.00",""
"10/22/2019","05:07:06","PDT","Noble Benefactor","Subscription Payment","Completed","USD","10.00","-0.59","9.41","noble@bene.fac.tor","simon@joyful.com","6L8L1662YP1334033","Joyful Systems","","I-KC9VBGY2GWDB","","9.41",""

# paypal-custom.csv.rules

# Tips:
# Export from Activity -> Statements -> Custom -> Activity download
# Suggested transaction type: "Balance affecting"
# Paypal's default fields in 2018 were:
# "Date","Time","TimeZone","Name","Type","Status","Currency","Gross","Fee","Net","From Email Address","To Email Address","Transaction ID","Shipping Address","Address Status","Item Title","Item ID","Shipping and Handling Amount","Insurance Amount","Sales Tax","Option 1 Name","Option 1 Value","Option 2 Name","Option 2 Value","Reference Txn ID","Invoice Number","Custom Number","Quantity","Receipt ID","Balance","Address Line 1","Address Line 2/District/Neighborhood","Town/City","State/Province/Region/County/Territory/Prefecture/Republic","Zip/Postal Code","Country","Contact Phone Number","Subject","Note","Country Code","Balance Impact"
# This rules file assumes the following more detailed fields, configured in "Customize report fields":
# "Date","Time","TimeZone","Name","Type","Status","Currency","Gross","Fee","Net","From Email Address","To Email Address","Transaction ID","Item Title","Item ID","Reference Txn ID","Receipt ID","Balance","Note"

fields date, time, timezone, description_, type, status_, currency, grossamount, feeamount, netamount, fromemail, toemail, code, itemtitle, itemid, referencetxnid, receiptid, balance, note

skip  1

date-format  %-m/%-d/%Y

# ignore some paypal events
if
In Progress
Temporary Hold
Update to
 skip

# add more fields to the description
description %description_ %itemtitle

# save some other fields as tags
comment  itemid:%itemid, fromemail:%fromemail, toemail:%toemail, time:%time, type:%type, status:%status_

# convert to short currency symbols
if %currency USD
 currency $
if %currency EUR
 currency E
if %currency GBP
 currency P

# generate postings

# the first posting will be the money leaving/entering my paypal account
# (negative means leaving my account, in all amount fields)
account1 assets:online:paypal
amount1  %netamount

# the second posting will be money sent to/received from other party
# (account2 is set below)
amount2  -%grossamount

# if there's a fee, add a third posting for the money taken by paypal.
if %feeamount [1-9]
 account3 expenses:banking:paypal
 amount3  -%feeamount
 comment3 business:

# choose an account for the second posting

# override the default account names:
# if the amount is positive, it's income (a debit)
if %grossamount ^[^-]
 account2 income:unknown
# if negative, it's an expense (a credit)
if %grossamount ^-
 account2 expenses:unknown

# apply common rules for setting account2 & other tweaks
include common.rules

# apply some overrides specific to this csv

# Transfers from/to bank. These are usually marked Pending,
# which can be disregarded in this case.
if
Bank Account
Bank Deposit to PP Account
 description %type for %referencetxnid %itemtitle
 account2 assets:bank:wf:pchecking
 account1 assets:online:paypal

# Currency conversions
if Currency Conversion
 account2 equity:currency conversion

# common.rules

if
darcs
noble benefactor
 account2 revenues:foss donations:darcshub
 comment2 business:

if
Calm Radio
 account2 expenses:online:apps

if
electronic frontier foundation
Patreon
wikimedia
Advent of Code
 account2 expenses:dues

if Google
 account2 expenses:online:apps
 description google | music

$ hledger -f paypal-custom.csv  print
2019-10-01 (60P57143A8206782E) Calm Radio MONTHLY - $1 for the first 2 Months: Me - Order 99309. Item total: $1.00 USD first 2 months, then $6.99 / Month  ; itemid:, fromemail:simon@joyful.com, toemail:memberships@calmradio.com, time:03:46:20, type:Subscription Payment, status:Completed
    assets:online:paypal          $-6.99 = $-6.99
    expenses:online:apps           $6.99

2019-10-01 (0TU1544T080463733) Bank Deposit to PP Account for 60P57143A8206782E  ; itemid:, fromemail:, toemail:simon@joyful.com, time:03:46:20, type:Bank Deposit to PP Account, status:Pending
    assets:online:paypal               $6.99 = $0.00
    assets:bank:wf:pchecking          $-6.99

2019-10-01 (2722394R5F586712G) Patreon Patreon* Membership  ; itemid:, fromemail:simon@joyful.com, toemail:support@patreon.com, time:08:57:01, type:PreApproved Payment Bill User Payment, status:Completed
    assets:online:paypal          $-7.00 = $-7.00
    expenses:dues                  $7.00

2019-10-01 (71854087RG994194F) Bank Deposit to PP Account for 2722394R5F586712G Patreon* Membership  ; itemid:, fromemail:, toemail:simon@joyful.com, time:08:57:01, type:Bank Deposit to PP Account, status:Pending
    assets:online:paypal               $7.00 = $0.00
    assets:bank:wf:pchecking          $-7.00

2019-10-19 (K9U43044RY432050M) Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Monthly donation to the Wikimedia Foundation  ; itemid:, fromemail:simon@joyful.com, toemail:tle@wikimedia.org, time:03:02:12, type:Subscription Payment, status:Completed
    assets:online:paypal             $-2.00 = $-2.00
    expenses:dues                     $2.00
    expenses:banking:paypal      ; business:

2019-10-19 (3XJ107139A851061F) Bank Deposit to PP Account for K9U43044RY432050M  ; itemid:, fromemail:, toemail:simon@joyful.com, time:03:02:12, type:Bank Deposit to PP Account, status:Pending
    assets:online:paypal               $2.00 = $0.00
    assets:bank:wf:pchecking          $-2.00

2019-10-22 (6L8L1662YP1334033) Noble Benefactor Joyful Systems  ; itemid:, fromemail:noble@bene.fac.tor, toemail:simon@joyful.com, time:05:07:06, type:Subscription Payment, status:Completed
    assets:online:paypal                       $9.41 = $9.41
    revenues:foss donations:darcshub         $-10.00  ; business:
    expenses:banking:paypal                    $0.59  ; business:


File: hledger.info,  Node: CSV rules,  Next: separator,  Prev: Examples,  Up: CSV

11.2 CSV rules
==============

The following kinds of rule can appear in the rules file, in any order.
Blank lines and lines beginning with ‘#’ or ‘;’ or ‘*’ are ignored.

*‘separator’*              a custom field separator
*‘skip’*                   skip one or more header lines or matched CSV
                           records
*‘date-format’*            how to parse dates in CSV records
*‘timezone’*               declare the time zone of ambiguous CSV
                           date-times
*‘decimal-mark’*           the decimal mark used in CSV amounts, if
                           ambiguous
*‘newest-first’*           improve txn order when there are multiple
                           records, newest first, all with the same
                           date
*‘intra-day-reversed’*     improve txn order when each day’s txns are
                           reverse of the overall date order
*‘balance-type’*           choose which type of balance assignments to
                           use
*‘fields’*                 name CSV fields, assign them to hledger
                           fields
*Field assignment*         assign a value to one hledger field, with
                           interpolation
*Field names*              hledger field names, used in the fields list
                           and field assignments
*‘if’*                     apply some rules to CSV records matched by
                           patterns
*‘if’ table*               apply some rules to CSV records matched by
                           patterns, alternate syntax
*‘end’*                    skip the remaining CSV records
*‘include’*                inline another CSV rules file


File: hledger.info,  Node: separator,  Next: skip,  Prev: CSV rules,  Up: CSV

11.3 ‘separator’
================

You can use the ‘separator’ rule to read other kinds of
character-separated data.  The argument is any single separator
character, or the words ‘tab’ or ‘space’ (case insensitive).  Eg, for
comma-separated values (CSV):

separator ,

   or for semicolon-separated values (SSV):

separator ;

   or for tab-separated values (TSV):

separator TAB

   If the input file has a ‘.csv’, ‘.ssv’ or ‘.tsv’ file extension (or a
‘csv:’, ‘ssv:’, ‘tsv:’ prefix), the appropriate separator will be
inferred automatically, and you won’t need this rule.


File: hledger.info,  Node: skip,  Next: date-format,  Prev: separator,  Up: CSV

11.4 ‘skip’
===========

skip N

   The word ‘skip’ followed by a number (or no number, meaning 1) tells
hledger to ignore this many non-empty lines at the start of the input
data.  (Empty/blank lines are skipped automatically, so you don’t need
to count those.)  You’ll need this whenever your CSV data contains
header lines.  Header lines skipped in this way are ignored, and not
parsed as CSV.

   ‘skip’ can also be used inside if blocks (described below), to skip
individual data records.  Note records skipped in this way are still
required to be valid CSV, even though otherwise ignored.


File: hledger.info,  Node: date-format,  Next: timezone,  Prev: skip,  Up: CSV

11.5 ‘date-format’
==================

date-format DATEFMT

   This is a helper for the ‘date’ (and ‘date2’) fields.  If your CSV
dates are not formatted like ‘YYYY-MM-DD’, ‘YYYY/MM/DD’ or ‘YYYY.MM.DD’,
you’ll need to add a date-format rule describing them with a
strptime-style date parsing pattern - see
https://hackage.haskell.org/package/time/docs/Data-Time-Format.html#v:formatTime.
The pattern must parse the CSV date value completely.  Some examples:

# MM/DD/YY
date-format %m/%d/%y

# D/M/YYYY
# The - makes leading zeros optional.
date-format %-d/%-m/%Y

# YYYY-Mmm-DD
date-format %Y-%h-%d

# M/D/YYYY HH:MM AM some other junk
# Note the time and junk must be fully parsed, though only the date is used.
date-format %-m/%-d/%Y %l:%M %p some other junk


File: hledger.info,  Node: timezone,  Next: decimal-mark,  Prev: date-format,  Up: CSV

11.6 ‘timezone’
===============

timezone TIMEZONE

   When CSV contains date-times that are implicitly in some time zone
other than yours, but containing no explicit time zone information, you
can use this rule to declare the CSV’s native time zone, which helps
prevent off-by-one dates.

   When the CSV date-times do contain time zone information, you don’t
need this rule; instead, use ‘%Z’ in ‘date-format’ (or ‘%z’, ‘%EZ’,
‘%Ez’; see the formatTime link above).

   In either of these cases, hledger will do a time-zone-aware
conversion, localising the CSV date-times to your current system time
zone.  If you prefer to localise to some other time zone, eg for
reproducibility, you can (on unix at least) set the output timezone with
the TZ environment variable, eg:

$ TZ=-1000 hledger print -f foo.csv  # or TZ=-1000 hledger import foo.csv

   ‘timezone’ currently does not understand timezone names, except
"UTC", "GMT", "EST", "EDT", "CST", "CDT", "MST", "MDT", "PST", or "PDT".
For others, use numeric format: +HHMM or -HHMM.


File: hledger.info,  Node: decimal-mark,  Next: newest-first,  Prev: timezone,  Up: CSV

11.7 ‘decimal-mark’
===================

decimal-mark .

   or:

decimal-mark ,

   hledger automatically accepts either period or comma as a decimal
mark when parsing numbers (cf Amounts).  However if any numbers in the
CSV contain digit group marks, such as thousand-separating commas, you
should declare the decimal mark explicitly with this rule, to avoid
misparsed numbers.


File: hledger.info,  Node: newest-first,  Next: intra-day-reversed,  Prev: decimal-mark,  Up: CSV

11.8 ‘newest-first’
===================

hledger tries to ensure that the generated transactions will be ordered
chronologically, including intra-day transactions.  Usually it can
auto-detect how the CSV records are ordered.  But if it encounters CSV
where all records are on the same date, it assumes that the records are
oldest first.  If in fact the CSV’s records are normally newest first,
like:

2022-10-01, txn 3...
2022-10-01, txn 2...
2022-10-01, txn 1...

   you can add the ‘newest-first’ rule to help hledger generate the
transactions in correct order.

# same-day CSV records are newest first
newest-first


File: hledger.info,  Node: intra-day-reversed,  Next: fields,  Prev: newest-first,  Up: CSV

11.9 ‘intra-day-reversed’
=========================

CSV records for each day are sometimes ordered in reverse compared to
the overall date order.  Eg, here dates are newest first, but the
transactions on each date are oldest first:

2022-10-02, txn 3...
2022-10-02, txn 4...
2022-10-01, txn 1...
2022-10-01, txn 2...

   In this situation, add the ‘intra-day-reversed’ rule, and hledger
will compensate, improving the order of transactions.

# transactions within each day are reversed with respect to the overall date order
intra-day-reversed


File: hledger.info,  Node: fields,  Next: Field assignment,  Prev: intra-day-reversed,  Up: CSV

11.10 ‘fields’
==============

fields FIELDNAME1, FIELDNAME2, ...

   A fields list (the word "fields" followed by comma-separated field
names) is the quick way to assign CSV field values to hledger fields.
(The other way is field assignments, see below.)  A fields list does
does two things:

  1. It names the CSV fields.  This is optional, but can be convenient
     later for interpolating them.

  2. Whenever you use a standard hledger field name (defined below), the
     CSV value is assigned to that part of the hledger transaction.

   Here’s an example that says "use the 1st, 2nd and 4th fields as the
transaction’s date, description and amount; name the last two fields for
later reference; and ignore the others":

fields date, description, , amount, , , somefield, anotherfield

   Tips:

   • The fields list always use commas, even if your CSV data uses
     another separator character.
   • Currently there must be least two items in the list (at least one
     comma).
   • Field names may not contain spaces.  Spaces before/after field
     names are optional.
   • Field names may contain ‘_’ (underscore) or ‘-’ (hyphen).
   • If the CSV contains column headings, it’s a good idea to use these,
     suitably modified, as the basis for your field names (eg
     lower-cased, with underscores instead of spaces).
   • If some heading names match standard hledger fields, but you don’t
     want to set the hledger fields directly, alter those names, eg by
     appending an underscore.
   • Fields you don’t care about can be given a dummy name (eg: ‘_’ ),
     or no name.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Field assignment,  Next: Field names,  Prev: fields,  Up: CSV

11.11 Field assignment
======================

HLEDGERFIELDNAME FIELDVALUE

   Field assignments are the more flexible way to assign CSV values to
hledger fields.  They can be used instead of or in addition to a fields
list (see above).

   To assign a value to a hledger field, write the field name (any of
the standard hledger field/pseudo-field names, defined below), a space,
followed by a text value on the same line.  This text value may
interpolate CSV fields, referenced by their 1-based position in the CSV
record (‘%N’), or by the name they were given in the fields list
(‘%CSVFIELDNAME’).

   Some examples:

# set the amount to the 4th CSV field, with " USD" appended
amount %4 USD

# combine three fields to make a comment, containing note: and date: tags
comment note: %somefield - %anotherfield, date: %1

   Tips:

   • Interpolation strips outer whitespace (so a CSV value like ‘" 1 "’
     becomes ‘1’ when interpolated) (#1051).
   • Interpolations always refer to a CSV field - you can’t interpolate
     a hledger field.  (See Referencing other fields below).


File: hledger.info,  Node: Field names,  Next: if,  Prev: Field assignment,  Up: CSV

11.12 Field names
=================

Here are the standard hledger field (and pseudo-field) names, which you
can use in a fields list or in field assignments.  For more about the
transaction parts they refer to, see Transactions.

* Menu:

* date field::
* date2 field::
* status field::
* code field::
* description field::
* comment field::
* account field::
* amount field::
* currency field::
* balance field::


File: hledger.info,  Node: date field,  Next: date2 field,  Up: Field names

11.12.1 date field
------------------

Assigning to ‘date’ sets the transaction date.


File: hledger.info,  Node: date2 field,  Next: status field,  Prev: date field,  Up: Field names

11.12.2 date2 field
-------------------

‘date2’ sets the transaction’s secondary date, if any.


File: hledger.info,  Node: status field,  Next: code field,  Prev: date2 field,  Up: Field names

11.12.3 status field
--------------------

‘status’ sets the transaction’s status, if any.


File: hledger.info,  Node: code field,  Next: description field,  Prev: status field,  Up: Field names

11.12.4 code field
------------------

‘code’ sets the transaction’s code, if any.


File: hledger.info,  Node: description field,  Next: comment field,  Prev: code field,  Up: Field names

11.12.5 description field
-------------------------

‘description’ sets the transaction’s description, if any.


File: hledger.info,  Node: comment field,  Next: account field,  Prev: description field,  Up: Field names

11.12.6 comment field
---------------------

‘comment’ sets the transaction’s comment, if any.

   ‘commentN’, where N is a number, sets the Nth posting’s comment.

   You can assign multi-line comments by writing literal ‘\n’ in the
code.  A comment starting with ‘\n’ will begin on a new line.

   Comments can contain tags, as usual.


File: hledger.info,  Node: account field,  Next: amount field,  Prev: comment field,  Up: Field names

11.12.7 account field
---------------------

Assigning to ‘accountN’, where N is 1 to 99, sets the account name of
the Nth posting, and causes that posting to be generated.

   Most often there are two postings, so you’ll want to set ‘account1’
and ‘account2’.  Typically ‘account1’ is associated with the CSV file,
and is set once with a top-level assignment, while ‘account2’ is set
based on each transaction’s description, and in conditional blocks.

   If a posting’s account name is left unset but its amount is set (see
below), a default account name will be chosen (like "expenses:unknown"
or "income:unknown").


File: hledger.info,  Node: amount field,  Next: currency field,  Prev: account field,  Up: Field names

11.12.8 amount field
--------------------

‘amountN’ sets the amount of the Nth posting, and causes that posting to
be generated.  By assigning to ‘amount1’, ‘amount2’, ...  etc.  you can
generate up to 99 postings.

   ‘amountN-in’ and ‘amountN-out’ can be used instead, if the CSV uses
separate fields for debits and credits (inflows and outflows).  hledger
assumes both of these CSV fields are unsigned, and will automatically
negate the "-out" value.  It also requires that at least one of them is
either empty or zero.  See "Setting amounts" below for more on this
topic.

   ‘amount’, or ‘amount-in’ and ‘amount-out’ are a legacy mode, to keep
pre-hledger-1.17 CSV rules files working (and for occasional
convenience).  They are suitable only for two-posting transactions; they
set both posting 1’s and posting 2’s amount.  Posting 2’s amount will be
negated, and also converted to cost if there’s a cost price.

   Note: it might sound as if amount-in is for one posting and
amount-out for the other posting, but no; use the -in and -out rules
together for the same posting, producing one amount from two CSV fields.

   If you have an existing rules file using the unnumbered form, you
might want to use the numbered form in certain conditional blocks,
without having to update and retest all the old rules.  To facilitate
this, posting 1 ignores ‘amount’/‘amount-in’/‘amount-out’ if any of
‘amount1’/‘amount1-in’/‘amount1-out’ are assigned, and posting 2 ignores
them if any of ‘amount2’/‘amount2-in’/‘amount2-out’ are assigned,
avoiding conflicts.


File: hledger.info,  Node: currency field,  Next: balance field,  Prev: amount field,  Up: Field names

11.12.9 currency field
----------------------

‘currency’ sets a currency symbol, to be prepended to all postings’
amounts.  You can use this if the CSV amounts do not have a currency
symbol, eg if it is in a separate column.

   ‘currencyN’ prepends a currency symbol to just the Nth posting’s
amount.


File: hledger.info,  Node: balance field,  Prev: currency field,  Up: Field names

11.12.10 balance field
----------------------

‘balanceN’ sets a balance assertion amount (or if the posting amount is
left empty, a balance assignment) on posting N.

   ‘balance’ is a compatibility spelling for hledger <1.17; it is
equivalent to ‘balance1’.

   You can adjust the type of assertion/assignment with the
‘balance-type’ rule (see below).

   See Tips below for more about setting amounts and currency.


File: hledger.info,  Node: if,  Next: if table,  Prev: Field names,  Up: CSV

11.13 ‘if’
==========

if MATCHER
 RULE

if
MATCHER
MATCHER
MATCHER
 RULE
 RULE

   Conditional blocks ("if blocks") are a block of rules that are
applied only to CSV records which match certain patterns.  They are
often used for customising account names based on transaction
descriptions.

* Menu:

* Matching the whole record::
* Matching individual fields::
* Combining matchers::
* Rules applied on successful match::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Matching the whole record,  Next: Matching individual fields,  Up: if

11.13.1 Matching the whole record
---------------------------------

Each MATCHER can be a record matcher, which looks like this:

REGEX

   REGEX is a case-insensitive regular expression that tries to match
anywhere within the CSV record.  It is a POSIX ERE (extended regular
expression) that also supports GNU word boundaries (‘\b’, ‘\B’, ‘\<’,
‘\>’), and nothing else.  If you have trouble, be sure to check our doc:
https://hledger.org/hledger.html#regular-expressions

   Important note: the record that is matched is not the original
record, but a synthetic one, with any enclosing double quotes (but not
enclosing whitespace) removed, and always comma-separated (which means
that a field containing a comma will appear like two fields).  Eg, if
the original record is ‘2020-01-01; "Acme, Inc."; 1,000’, the REGEX will
actually see ‘2020-01-01,Acme, Inc., 1,000’).


File: hledger.info,  Node: Matching individual fields,  Next: Combining matchers,  Prev: Matching the whole record,  Up: if

11.13.2 Matching individual fields
----------------------------------

Or, MATCHER can be a field matcher, like this:

%CSVFIELD REGEX

   which matches just the content of a particular CSV field.  CSVFIELD
is a percent sign followed by the field’s name or column number, like
‘%date’ or ‘%1’.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Combining matchers,  Next: Rules applied on successful match,  Prev: Matching individual fields,  Up: if

11.13.3 Combining matchers
--------------------------

A single matcher can be written on the same line as the "if"; or
multiple matchers can be written on the following lines, non-indented.
Multiple matchers are OR’d (any one of them can match), unless one
begins with an ‘&’ symbol, in which case it is AND’ed with the previous
matcher.

if
MATCHER
& MATCHER
 RULE


File: hledger.info,  Node: Rules applied on successful match,  Prev: Combining matchers,  Up: if

11.13.4 Rules applied on successful match
-----------------------------------------

After the patterns there should be one or more rules to apply, all
indented by at least one space.  Three kinds of rule are allowed in
conditional blocks:

   • field assignments (to set a hledger field)
   • skip (to skip the matched CSV record)
   • end (to skip all remaining CSV records).

   Examples:

# if the CSV record contains "groceries", set account2 to "expenses:groceries"
if groceries
 account2 expenses:groceries

# if the CSV record contains any of these patterns, set account2 and comment as shown
if
monthly service fee
atm transaction fee
banking thru software
 account2 expenses:business:banking
 comment  XXX deductible ? check it


File: hledger.info,  Node: if table,  Next: end,  Prev: if,  Up: CSV

11.14 ‘if’ table
================

if,CSVFIELDNAME1,CSVFIELDNAME2,...,CSVFIELDNAMEn
MATCHER1,VALUE11,VALUE12,...,VALUE1n
MATCHER2,VALUE21,VALUE22,...,VALUE2n
MATCHER3,VALUE31,VALUE32,...,VALUE3n
<empty line>

   Conditional tables ("if tables") are a different syntax to specify
field assignments that will be applied only to CSV records which match
certain patterns.

   MATCHER could be either field or record matcher, as described above.
When MATCHER matches, values from that row would be assigned to the CSV
fields named on the ‘if’ line, in the same order.

   Therefore ‘if’ table is exactly equivalent to a sequence of of ‘if’
blocks:

if MATCHER1
  CSVFIELDNAME1 VALUE11
  CSVFIELDNAME2 VALUE12
  ...
  CSVFIELDNAMEn VALUE1n

if MATCHER2
  CSVFIELDNAME1 VALUE21
  CSVFIELDNAME2 VALUE22
  ...
  CSVFIELDNAMEn VALUE2n

if MATCHER3
  CSVFIELDNAME1 VALUE31
  CSVFIELDNAME2 VALUE32
  ...
  CSVFIELDNAMEn VALUE3n

   Each line starting with MATCHER should contain enough (possibly
empty) values for all the listed fields.

   Rules would be checked and applied in the order they are listed in
the table and, like with ‘if’ blocks, later rules (in the same or
another table) or ‘if’ blocks could override the effect of any rule.

   Instead of ’,’ you can use a variety of other non-alphanumeric
characters as a separator.  First character after ‘if’ is taken to be
the separator for the rest of the table.  It is the responsibility of
the user to ensure that separator does not occur inside MATCHERs and
values - there is no way to escape separator.

   Example:

if,account2,comment
atm transaction fee,expenses:business:banking,deductible? check it
%description groceries,expenses:groceries,
2020/01/12.*Plumbing LLC,expenses:house:upkeep,emergency plumbing call-out


File: hledger.info,  Node: end,  Next: include,  Prev: if table,  Up: CSV

11.15 ‘end’
===========

This rule can be used inside if blocks (only), to make hledger stop
reading this CSV file and move on to the next input file, or to command
execution.  Eg:

# ignore everything following the first empty record
if ,,,,
 end


File: hledger.info,  Node: include,  Next: balance-type,  Prev: end,  Up: CSV

11.16 ‘include’
===============

include RULESFILE

   This includes the contents of another CSV rules file at this point.
‘RULESFILE’ is an absolute file path or a path relative to the current
file’s directory.  This can be useful for sharing common rules between
several rules files, eg:

# someaccount.csv.rules

## someaccount-specific rules
fields   date,description,amount
account1 assets:someaccount
account2 expenses:misc

## common rules
include categorisation.rules


File: hledger.info,  Node: balance-type,  Next: Tips,  Prev: include,  Up: CSV

11.17 ‘balance-type’
====================

Balance assertions generated by assigning to balanceN are of the simple
‘=’ type by default, which is a single-commodity, subaccount-excluding
assertion.  You may find the subaccount-including variants more useful,
eg if you have created some virtual subaccounts of checking to help with
budgeting.  You can select a different type of assertion with the
‘balance-type’ rule:

# balance assertions will consider all commodities and all subaccounts
balance-type ==*

   Here are the balance assertion types for quick reference:

=    single commodity, exclude subaccounts
=*   single commodity, include subaccounts
==   multi commodity,  exclude subaccounts
==*  multi commodity,  include subaccounts


File: hledger.info,  Node: Tips,  Next: Rapid feedback,  Prev: balance-type,  Up: CSV

11.18 Tips
==========


File: hledger.info,  Node: Rapid feedback,  Next: Valid CSV,  Prev: Tips,  Up: CSV

11.19 Rapid feedback
====================

It’s a good idea to get rapid feedback while creating/troubleshooting
CSV rules.  Here’s a good way, using entr from eradman.com/entrproject:

$ ls foo.csv* | entr bash -c 'echo ----; hledger -f foo.csv print desc:SOMEDESC'

   A desc: query (eg) is used to select just one, or a few, transactions
of interest.  "bash -c" is used to run multiple commands, so we can echo
a separator each time the command re-runs, making it easier to read the
output.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Valid CSV,  Next: File Extension,  Prev: Rapid feedback,  Up: CSV

11.20 Valid CSV
===============

Note that hledger will only accept valid CSV conforming to RFC 4180, and
equivalent SSV and TSV formats (like RFC 4180 but with semicolon or tab
as separators).  This means, eg:

   • Values may be enclosed in double quotes, or not.  Enclosing in
     single quotes is not allowed.  (Eg ‘'A','B'’ is rejected.)
   • When values are enclosed in double quotes, spaces outside the
     quotes are not allowed.  (Eg ‘"A", "B"’ is rejected.)
   • When values are not enclosed in quotes, they may not contain double
     quotes.  (Eg ‘A"A, B’ is rejected.)

   If your CSV/SSV/TSV is not valid in this sense, you’ll need to
transform it before reading with hledger.  Try using sed, or a more
permissive CSV parser like python’s csv lib.


File: hledger.info,  Node: File Extension,  Next: Reading multiple CSV files,  Prev: Valid CSV,  Up: CSV

11.21 File Extension
====================

To help hledger identify the format and show the right error messages,
CSV/SSV/TSV files should normally be named with a ‘.csv’, ‘.ssv’ or
‘.tsv’ filename extension.  Or, the file path should be prefixed with
‘csv:’, ‘ssv:’ or ‘tsv:’.  Eg:

$ hledger -f foo.ssv print

   or:

$ cat foo | hledger -f ssv:- foo

   You can override the file extension with a separator rule if needed.
See also: Input files in the hledger manual.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Reading multiple CSV files,  Next: Valid transactions,  Prev: File Extension,  Up: CSV

11.22 Reading multiple CSV files
================================

If you use multiple ‘-f’ options to read multiple CSV files at once,
hledger will look for a correspondingly-named rules file for each CSV
file.  But if you use the ‘--rules-file’ option, that rules file will be
used for all the CSV files.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Valid transactions,  Next: Deduplicating importing,  Prev: Reading multiple CSV files,  Up: CSV

11.23 Valid transactions
========================

After reading a CSV file, hledger post-processes and validates the
generated journal entries as it would for a journal file - balancing
them, applying balance assignments, and canonicalising amount styles.
Any errors at this stage will be reported in the usual way, displaying
the problem entry.

   There is one exception: balance assertions, if you have generated
them, will not be checked, since normally these will work only when the
CSV data is part of the main journal.  If you do need to check balance
assertions generated from CSV right away, pipe into another hledger:

$ hledger -f file.csv print | hledger -f- print


File: hledger.info,  Node: Deduplicating importing,  Next: Setting amounts,  Prev: Valid transactions,  Up: CSV

11.24 Deduplicating, importing
==============================

When you download a CSV file periodically, eg to get your latest bank
transactions, the new file may overlap with the old one, containing some
of the same records.

   The import command will (a) detect the new transactions, and (b)
append just those transactions to your main journal.  It is idempotent,
so you don’t have to remember how many times you ran it or with which
version of the CSV. (It keeps state in a hidden ‘.latest.FILE.csv’
file.)  This is the easiest way to import CSV data.  Eg:

# download the latest CSV files, then run this command.
# Note, no -f flags needed here.
$ hledger import *.csv [--dry]

   This method works for most CSV files.  (Where records have a stable
chronological order, and new records appear only at the new end.)

   A number of other tools and workflows, hledger-specific and
otherwise, exist for converting, deduplicating, classifying and managing
CSV data.  See:

   • https://hledger.org/cookbook.html#setups-and-workflows
   • https://plaintextaccounting.org -> data import/conversion


File: hledger.info,  Node: Setting amounts,  Next: Amount signs,  Prev: Deduplicating importing,  Up: CSV

11.25 Setting amounts
=====================

Some tips on using the amount-setting rules discussed above.

   Here are the ways to set a posting’s amount:

  1. *If the CSV has a single amount field:*
     Assign (via a fields list or a field assignment) to ‘amountN’.
     This sets the Nth posting’s amount.  N is usually 1 or 2 but can go
     up to 99.

  2. *If the CSV has separate amount fields for debit & credit (in &
     out):*

       a. *If both fields are unsigned:*
          Assign to ‘amountN-in’ and ‘amountN-out’.  This sets posting
          N’s amount to whichever of these has a non-zero value, and
          negates the "-out" value.

       b. *If either field is signed (can contain a minus sign):*
          Use a conditional rule to flip the sign (of non-empty values).
          Since hledger always negates amountN-out, if it was already
          negative, we must undo that by negating once more (but only if
          the field is non-empty):

     fields date, description, amount1-in, amount1-out
     if %amount1-out [1-9]
      amount1-out -%amount1-out

       c. *If both fields, or neither field, can contain a non-zero
          value:*
          hledger normally expects exactly one of the fields to have a
          non-zero value.  Eg, the ‘amountN-in’/‘amountN-out’ rules
          would reject value pairs like these:

     "",  ""
     "0", "0"
     "1", "none"

     So, use smarter conditional rules to set the amount from the
     appropriate field.  Eg, these rules would make it use only the
     value containing non-zero digits, handling the above:

     fields date, description, in, out
     if %in [1-9]
      amount1 %in
     if %out [1-9]
      amount1 %out

  3. *If you want posting 2’s amount converted to cost:*
     Assign to ‘amount’ (or to ‘amount-in’ and ‘amount-out’).  (This is
     the legacy numberless syntax, which sets amount1 and amount2 and
     converts amount2 to cost.)

  4. *If the CSV has the balance instead of the transaction amount:*
     Assign to ‘balanceN’, which sets posting N’s amount indirectly via
     a balance assignment.  (Old syntax: ‘balance’, equivalent to
     ‘balance1’.)

        • *If hledger guesses the wrong default account name:*
          When setting the amount via balance assertion, hledger may
          guess the wrong default account name.  So, set the account
          name explicitly, eg:

          fields date, description, balance1
          account1 assets:checking


File: hledger.info,  Node: Amount signs,  Next: Setting currency/commodity,  Prev: Setting amounts,  Up: CSV

11.26 Amount signs
==================

There is some special handling for amount signs, to simplify parsing and
sign-flipping:

   • *If an amount value begins with a plus sign:*
     that will be removed: ‘+AMT’ becomes ‘AMT’

   • *If an amount value is parenthesised:*
     it will be de-parenthesised and sign-flipped: ‘(AMT)’ becomes
     ‘-AMT’

   • *If an amount value has two minus signs (or two sets of
     parentheses, or a minus sign and parentheses):*
     they cancel out and will be removed: ‘--AMT’ or ‘-(AMT)’ becomes
     ‘AMT’

   • *If an amount value contains just a sign (or just a set of
     parentheses):*
     that is removed, making it an empty value.  ‘"+"’ or ‘"-"’ or
     ‘"()"’ becomes ‘""’.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Setting currency/commodity,  Next: Amount decimal places,  Prev: Amount signs,  Up: CSV

11.27 Setting currency/commodity
================================

If the currency/commodity symbol is included in the CSV’s amount
field(s):

2020-01-01,foo,$123.00

   you don’t have to do anything special for the commodity symbol, it
will be assigned as part of the amount.  Eg:

fields date,description,amount

2020-01-01 foo
    expenses:unknown         $123.00
    income:unknown          $-123.00

   If the currency is provided as a separate CSV field:

2020-01-01,foo,USD,123.00

   You can assign that to the ‘currency’ pseudo-field, which has the
special effect of prepending itself to every amount in the transaction
(on the left, with no separating space):

fields date,description,currency,amount

2020-01-01 foo
    expenses:unknown       USD123.00
    income:unknown        USD-123.00

   Or, you can use a field assignment to construct the amount yourself,
with more control.  Eg to put the symbol on the right, and separated by
a space:

fields date,description,cur,amt
amount %amt %cur

2020-01-01 foo
    expenses:unknown        123.00 USD
    income:unknown         -123.00 USD

   Note we used a temporary field name (‘cur’) that is not ‘currency’ -
that would trigger the prepending effect, which we don’t want here.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Amount decimal places,  Next: Referencing other fields,  Prev: Setting currency/commodity,  Up: CSV

11.28 Amount decimal places
===========================

Like amounts in a journal file, the amounts generated by CSV rules like
‘amount1’ influence commodity display styles, such as the number of
decimal places displayed in reports.

   The original amounts as written in the CSV file do not affect display
style (because we don’t yet reliably know their commodity).


File: hledger.info,  Node: Referencing other fields,  Next: How CSV rules are evaluated,  Prev: Amount decimal places,  Up: CSV

11.29 Referencing other fields
==============================

In field assignments, you can interpolate only CSV fields, not hledger
fields.  In the example below, there’s both a CSV field and a hledger
field named amount1, but %amount1 always means the CSV field, not the
hledger field:

# Name the third CSV field "amount1"
fields date,description,amount1

# Set hledger's amount1 to the CSV amount1 field followed by USD
amount1 %amount1 USD

# Set comment to the CSV amount1 (not the amount1 assigned above)
comment %amount1

   Here, since there’s no CSV amount1 field, %amount1 will produce a
literal "amount1":

fields date,description,csvamount
amount1 %csvamount USD
# Can't interpolate amount1 here
comment %amount1

   When there are multiple field assignments to the same hledger field,
only the last one takes effect.  Here, comment’s value will be be B, or
C if "something" is matched, but never A:

comment A
comment B
if something
 comment C


File: hledger.info,  Node: How CSV rules are evaluated,  Prev: Referencing other fields,  Up: CSV

11.30 How CSV rules are evaluated
=================================

Here’s how to think of CSV rules being evaluated (if you really need
to).  First,

   • ‘include’ - all includes are inlined, from top to bottom, depth
     first.  (At each include point the file is inlined and scanned for
     further includes, recursively, before proceeding.)

   Then "global" rules are evaluated, top to bottom.  If a rule is
repeated, the last one wins:

   • ‘skip’ (at top level)
   • ‘date-format’
   • ‘newest-first’
   • ‘fields’ - names the CSV fields, optionally sets up initial
     assignments to hledger fields

   Then for each CSV record in turn:

   • test all ‘if’ blocks.  If any of them contain a ‘end’ rule, skip
     all remaining CSV records.  Otherwise if any of them contain a
     ‘skip’ rule, skip that many CSV records.  If there are multiple
     matched ‘skip’ rules, the first one wins.
   • collect all field assignments at top level and in matched ‘if’
     blocks.  When there are multiple assignments for a field, keep only
     the last one.
   • compute a value for each hledger field - either the one that was
     assigned to it (and interpolate the %CSVFIELDNAME references), or a
     default
   • generate a synthetic hledger transaction from these values.

   This is all part of the CSV reader, one of several readers hledger
can use to parse input files.  When all files have been read
successfully, the transactions are passed as input to whichever hledger
command the user specified.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Timeclock,  Next: Timedot,  Prev: CSV,  Up: Top

12 Timeclock
************

The time logging format of timeclock.el, as read by hledger.

   hledger can read time logs in timeclock format.  As with Ledger,
these are (a subset of) timeclock.el’s format, containing clock-in and
clock-out entries as in the example below.  The date is a simple date.
The time format is HH:MM[:SS][+-ZZZZ]. Seconds and timezone are
optional.  The timezone, if present, must be four digits and is ignored
(currently the time is always interpreted as a local time).  Lines
beginning with ‘#’ or ‘;’ or ‘*’, and blank lines, are ignored.

i 2015/03/30 09:00:00 some:account name  optional description after two spaces
o 2015/03/30 09:20:00
i 2015/03/31 22:21:45 another account
o 2015/04/01 02:00:34

   hledger treats each clock-in/clock-out pair as a transaction posting
some number of hours to an account.  Or if the session spans more than
one day, it is split into several transactions, one for each day.  For
the above time log, ‘hledger print’ generates these journal entries:

$ hledger -f t.timeclock print
2015-03-30 * optional description after two spaces
    (some:account name)         0.33h

2015-03-31 * 22:21-23:59
    (another account)         1.64h

2015-04-01 * 00:00-02:00
    (another account)         2.01h

   Here is a sample.timeclock to download and some queries to try:

$ hledger -f sample.timeclock balance                               # current time balances
$ hledger -f sample.timeclock register -p 2009/3                    # sessions in march 2009
$ hledger -f sample.timeclock register -p weekly --depth 1 --empty  # time summary by week

   To generate time logs, ie to clock in and clock out, you could:

   • use emacs and the built-in timeclock.el, or the extended
     timeclock-x.el and perhaps the extras in ledgerutils.el

   • at the command line, use these bash aliases: ‘shell alias ti="echo
     i `date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'` \$* >>$TIMELOG" alias to="echo o
     `date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'` >>$TIMELOG"’

   • or use the old ‘ti’ and ‘to’ scripts in the ledger 2.x repository.
     These rely on a "timeclock" executable which I think is just the
     ledger 2 executable renamed.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Timedot,  Next: PART 3 REPORTING CONCEPTS,  Prev: Timeclock,  Up: Top

13 Timedot
**********

‘timedot’ format is hledger’s human-friendly time logging format.
Compared to ‘timeclock’ format, it is

   • convenient for quick, approximate, and retroactive time logging
   • readable: you can see at a glance where time was spent.

   A timedot file contains a series of day entries, which might look
like this:

2021-08-04
hom:errands          .... ....
fos:hledger:timedot  ..         ; docs
per:admin:finance    

   hledger reads this as three time transactions on this day, with each
dot representing a quarter-hour spent:

$ hledger -f a.timedot print   # .timedot file extension activates the timedot reader
2021-08-04 *
    (hom:errands)            2.00

2021-08-04 *
    (fos:hledger:timedot)    0.50

2021-08-04 *
    (per:admin:finance)      0

   A day entry begins with a date line:

   • a non-indented *simple date* (Y-M-D, Y/M/D, or Y.M.D).

   Optionally this can be followed on the same line by

   • a common *transaction description* for this day
   • a common *transaction comment* for this day, after a semicolon
     (‘;’).

   After the date line are zero or more optionally-indented time
transaction lines, consisting of:

   • an *account name* - any word or phrase, usually a hledger-style
     account name.
   • *two or more spaces* - a field separator, required if there is an
     amount (as in journal format).
   • a *timedot amount* - dots representing quarter hours, or a number
     representing hours.
   • an optional *comment* beginning with semicolon.  This is ignored.

   In more detail, timedot amounts can be:

   • *dots*: zero or more period characters, each representing one
     quarter-hour.  Spaces are ignored and can be used for grouping.
     Eg: ‘.... ..’

   • a *number*, representing hours.  Eg: ‘1.5’

   • a *number immediately followed by a unit symbol* ‘s’, ‘m’, ‘h’,
     ‘d’, ‘w’, ‘mo’, or ‘y’, representing seconds, minutes, hours, days
     weeks, months or years.  Eg ‘1.5h’ or ‘90m’.  The following
     equivalencies are assumed:
     ‘60s’ = ‘1m’, ‘60m’ = ‘1h’, ‘24h’ = ‘1d’, ‘7d’ = ‘1w’, ‘30d’ =
     ‘1mo’, ‘365d’ = ‘1y’.  (This unit will not be visible in the
     generated transaction amount, which is always in hours.)

   There is some added flexibility to help with keeping time log data in
the same file as your notes, todo lists, etc.:

   • Blank lines and lines beginning with ‘#’ or ‘;’ are ignored.

   • Before the first date line, lines beginning with ‘*’ are ignored.
     From the first date line onward, a sequence of ‘*’’s followed by a
     space at beginning of lines (ie, the headline prefix used by Emacs
     Org mode) is ignored.  This means the time log can be kept under an
     Org headline, and date lines or time transaction lines can be Org
     headlines.

   • Lines not ending with a double-space and amount are parsed as
     transactions with zero amount.  (Most hledger reports hide these by
     default; add -E to see them.)

   More examples:

# on this day, 6h was spent on client work, 1.5h on haskell FOSS work, etc.
2016/2/1
inc:client1   .... .... .... .... .... ....
fos:haskell   .... ..
biz:research  .

2016/2/2
inc:client1   .... ....
biz:research  .

2016/2/3
inc:client1   4
fos:hledger   3
biz:research  1

* Time log
** 2020-01-01
*** adm:time  .
*** adm:finance  .

* 2020 Work Diary
** Q1
*** 2020-02-29
**** DONE
0700 yoga
**** UNPLANNED
**** BEGUN
hom:chores
 cleaning  ...
 water plants
  outdoor - one full watering can
  indoor - light watering
**** TODO
adm:planning: trip
*** LATER

   Reporting:

$ hledger -f a.timedot print date:2016/2/2
2016-02-02 *
    (inc:client1)          2.00

2016-02-02 *
    (biz:research)          0.25

$ hledger -f a.timedot bal --daily --tree
Balance changes in 2016-02-01-2016-02-03:

            ||  2016-02-01d  2016-02-02d  2016-02-03d 
============++========================================
 biz        ||         0.25         0.25         1.00 
   research ||         0.25         0.25         1.00 
 fos        ||         1.50            0         3.00 
   haskell  ||         1.50            0            0 
   hledger  ||            0            0         3.00 
 inc        ||         6.00         2.00         4.00 
   client1  ||         6.00         2.00         4.00 
------------++----------------------------------------
            ||         7.75         2.25         8.00 

   Using period instead of colon as account name separator:

2016/2/4
fos.hledger.timedot  4
fos.ledger           ..

$ hledger -f a.timedot --alias /\\./=: bal --tree
                4.50  fos
                4.00    hledger:timedot
                0.50    ledger
--------------------
                4.50

   A sample.timedot file.


File: hledger.info,  Node: PART 3 REPORTING CONCEPTS,  Next: Time periods,  Prev: Timedot,  Up: Top

14 PART 3: REPORTING CONCEPTS
*****************************


File: hledger.info,  Node: Time periods,  Next: Depth,  Prev: PART 3 REPORTING CONCEPTS,  Up: Top

15 Time periods
***************

* Menu:

* Report start & end date::
* Smart dates::
* Report intervals::
* Period expressions::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Report start & end date,  Next: Smart dates,  Up: Time periods

15.1 Report start & end date
============================

By default, most hledger reports will show the full span of time
represented by the journal data.  The report start date will be the
earliest transaction or posting date, and the report end date will be
the latest transaction, posting, or market price date.

   Often you will want to see a shorter time span, such as the current
month.  You can specify a start and/or end date using ‘-b/--begin’,
‘-e/--end’, ‘-p/--period’ or a ‘date:’ query (described below).  All of
these accept the smart date syntax (below).

   Some notes:

   • End dates are exclusive, as in Ledger, so you should write the date
     _after_ the last day you want to see in the report.
   • As noted in reporting options: among start/end dates specified with
     _options_, the last (i.e.  right-most) option takes precedence.
   • The effective report start and end dates are the intersection of
     the start/end dates from options and that from ‘date:’ queries.
     That is, ‘date:2019-01 date:2019 -p'2000 to 2030'’ yields January
     2019, the smallest common time span.
   • A report interval (see below) will adjust start/end dates, when
     needed, so that they fall on subperiod boundaries.

   Examples:

‘-b           begin on St. Patrick’s day 2016
2016/3/17’
‘-e 12/1’     end at the start of december 1st of the current year
              (11/30 will be the last date included)
‘-b           all transactions on or after the 1st of the current month
thismonth’
‘-p           all transactions in the current month
thismonth’
‘date:2016/3/17..’the above written as queries instead (‘..’ can also be
              replaced with ‘-’)
‘date:..12/1’
‘date:thismonth..’
‘date:thismonth’


File: hledger.info,  Node: Smart dates,  Next: Report intervals,  Prev: Report start & end date,  Up: Time periods

15.2 Smart dates
================

hledger’s user interfaces accept a flexible "smart date" syntax.  Smart
dates allow some english words, can be relative to today’s date, and can
have less-significant date parts omitted (defaulting to 1).

   Examples:

‘2004/10/1’,              exact date, several separators allowed.  Year
‘2004-01-01’,             is 4+ digits, month is 1-12, day is 1-31
‘2004.9.1’
‘2004’                    start of year
‘2004/10’                 start of month
‘10/1’                    month and day in current year
‘21’                      day in current month
‘october, oct’            start of month in current year
‘yesterday, today,        -1, 0, 1 days from today
tomorrow’
‘last/this/next           -1, 0, 1 periods from the current period
day/week/month/quarter/year’
‘in n                     n periods from the current period
days/weeks/months/quarters/years’
‘n                        n periods from the current period
days/weeks/months/quarters/years
ahead’
‘n                        -n periods from the current period
days/weeks/months/quarters/years
ago’
‘20181201’                8 digit YYYYMMDD with valid year month and
                          day
‘201812’                  6 digit YYYYMM with valid year and month

   Counterexamples - malformed digit sequences might give surprising
results:

‘201813’     6 digits with an invalid month is parsed as start of
             6-digit year
‘20181301’   8 digits with an invalid month is parsed as start of
             8-digit year
‘20181232’   8 digits with an invalid day gives an error
‘201801012’  9+ digits beginning with a valid YYYYMMDD gives an error

   Note "today’s date" can be overridden with the ‘--today’ option, in
case it’s needed for testing or for recreating old reports.  (Except for
periodic transaction rules; those are not affected by ‘--today’.)


File: hledger.info,  Node: Report intervals,  Next: Period expressions,  Prev: Smart dates,  Up: Time periods

15.3 Report intervals
=====================

A report interval can be specified so that commands like register,
balance and activity become multi-period, showing each subperiod as a
separate row or column.

   The following "standard" report intervals can be enabled by using
their corresponding flag:

   • ‘-D/--daily’
   • ‘-W/--weekly’
   • ‘-M/--monthly’
   • ‘-Q/--quarterly’
   • ‘-Y/--yearly’

   These standard intervals always start on natural interval boundaries:
eg ‘--weekly’ starts on mondays, ‘--monthly’ starts on the first of the
month, ‘--yearly’ always starts on January 1st, etc.

   Certain more complex intervals, and more flexible boundary dates, can
be specified by ‘-p/--period’.  These are described in period
expressions, below.

   Report intervals can only be specified by the flags above, and not by
query arguments, currently.

   Report intervals have another effect: multi-period reports are always
expanded to fill a whole number of subperiods.  So if you use a report
interval (other than ‘--daily’), and you have specified a start or end
date, you may notice those dates being overridden (ie, the report starts
earlier than your requested start date, or ends later than your
requested end date).  This is done to ensure "full" first and last
subperiods, so that all subperiods’ numbers are comparable.

   To summarise:

   • In multiperiod reports, all subperiods are forced to be the same
     length, to simplify reporting.
   • Reports with the standard
     ‘--weekly’/‘--monthly’/‘--quarterly’/‘--yearly’ intervals are
     required to start on the first day of a week/month/quarter/year.
     We’d like more flexibility here but it isn’t supported yet.
   • ‘--period’ (below) can specify more complex intervals, starting on
     any date.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Period expressions,  Prev: Report intervals,  Up: Time periods

15.4 Period expressions
=======================

The ‘-p/--period’ option accepts period expressions, a shorthand way of
expressing a start date, end date, and/or report interval all at once.

   Here’s a basic period expression specifying the first quarter of
2009.  Note, hledger always treats start dates as inclusive and end
dates as exclusive:

‘-p "from 2009/1/1 to 2009/4/1"’

   Keywords like "from" and "to" are optional, and so are the spaces, as
long as you don’t run two dates together.  "to" can also be written as
".."  or "-".  These are equivalent to the above:

‘-p "2009/1/1 2009/4/1"’
‘-p2009/1/1to2009/4/1’
‘-p2009/1/1..2009/4/1’

   Dates are smart dates, so if the current year is 2009, the above can
also be written as:

‘-p "1/1 4/1"’
‘-p "january-apr"’
‘-p "this year to 4/1"’

   If you specify only one date, the missing start or end date will be
the earliest or latest transaction in your journal:

‘-p "from 2009/1/1"’   everything after january 1, 2009
‘-p "since 2009/1"’    the same, since is a synonym
‘-p "from 2009"’       the same
‘-p "to 2009"’         everything before january 1, 2009

   A single date with no "from" or "to" defines both the start and end
date like so:

‘-p "2009"’      the year 2009; equivalent to “2009/1/1 to 2010/1/1”
‘-p "2009/1"’    the month of jan; equivalent to “2009/1/1 to 2009/2/1”
‘-p              just that day; equivalent to “2009/1/1 to 2009/1/2”
"2009/1/1"’

   Or you can specify a single quarter like so:

‘-p "2009Q1"’    first quarter of 2009, equivalent to “2009/1/1 to
                 2009/4/1”
‘-p "q4"’        fourth quarter of the current year

* Menu:

* Period expressions with a report interval::
* More complex report intervals::
* Intervals with custom start date::
* Periods or dates ?::
* Events on multiple weekdays::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Period expressions with a report interval,  Next: More complex report intervals,  Up: Period expressions

15.4.1 Period expressions with a report interval
------------------------------------------------

‘-p/--period’’s argument can also begin with, or entirely consist of, a
report interval.  This should be separated from the start/end dates (if
any) by a space, or the word ‘in’.  The basic intervals (which can also
be written as command line flags) are ‘daily’, ‘weekly’, ‘monthly’,
‘quarterly’, and ‘yearly’.  Some examples:

‘-p "weekly from 2009/1/1 to 2009/4/1"’
‘-p "monthly in 2008"’
‘-p "quarterly"’

   As mentioned above, the ‘weekly’, ‘monthly’, ‘quarterly’ and ‘yearly’
intervals require a report start date that is the first day of a week,
month, quarter or year.  And, report start/end dates will be expanded if
needed to span a whole number of intervals.

   For example:

‘-p "weekly from           starts on 2008/12/29, closest preceding
2009/1/1 to 2009/4/1"’     Monday
‘-p "monthly in            starts on 2018/11/01
2008/11/25"’
‘-p "quarterly from        starts on 2009/04/01, ends on 2009/06/30,
2009-05-05 to              which are first and last days of Q2 2009
2009-06-01"’
‘-p "yearly from           starts on 2009/01/01, first day of 2009
2009-12-29"’


File: hledger.info,  Node: More complex report intervals,  Next: Intervals with custom start date,  Prev: Period expressions with a report interval,  Up: Period expressions

15.4.2 More complex report intervals
------------------------------------

Some more complex kinds of interval are also supported in period
expressions:

   • ‘biweekly’
   • ‘fortnightly’
   • ‘bimonthly’
   • ‘every day|week|month|quarter|year’
   • ‘every N days|weeks|months|quarters|years’

   These too will cause report start/end dates to be expanded, if
needed, to span a whole number of intervals.  Examples:

‘-p "bimonthly from         periods will have boundaries on 2008/01/01,
2008"’                      2008/03/01, ...
‘-p "every 2 weeks"’        starts on closest preceding Monday
‘-p "every 5 months from    periods will have boundaries on 2009/03/01,
2009/03"’                   2009/08/01, ...


File: hledger.info,  Node: Intervals with custom start date,  Next: Periods or dates ?,  Prev: More complex report intervals,  Up: Period expressions

15.4.3 Intervals with custom start date
---------------------------------------

All intervals mentioned above are required to start on their natural
calendar boundaries, but the following intervals can start on any date:

   Weekly on custom day:

   • ‘every Nth day of week’ (‘th’, ‘nd’, ‘rd’, or ‘st’ are all accepted
     after the number)
   • ‘every WEEKDAYNAME’ (full or three-letter english weekday name,
     case insensitive)

   Monthly on custom day:

   • ‘every Nth day [of month]’
   • ‘every Nth WEEKDAYNAME [of month]’

   Yearly on custom day:

   • ‘every MM/DD [of year]’ (month number and day of month number)
   • ‘every MONTHNAME DDth [of year]’ (full or three-letter english
     month name, case insensitive, and day of month number)
   • ‘every DDth MONTHNAME [of year]’ (equivalent to the above)

   Examples:

‘-p "every 2nd day of    periods will go from Tue to Tue
week"’
‘-p "every Tue"’         same
‘-p "every 15th day"’    period boundaries will be on 15th of each
                         month
‘-p "every 2nd           period boundaries will be on second Monday of
Monday"’                 each month
‘-p "every 11/05"’       yearly periods with boundaries on 5th of
                         November
‘-p "every 5th           same
November"’
‘-p "every Nov 5th"’     same

   Show historical balances at end of the 15th day of each month (N is
an end date, exclusive as always):

$ hledger balance -H -p "every 16th day"

   Group postings from the start of wednesday to end of the following
tuesday (N is both (inclusive) start date and (exclusive) end date):

$ hledger register checking -p "every 3rd day of week"


File: hledger.info,  Node: Periods or dates ?,  Next: Events on multiple weekdays,  Prev: Intervals with custom start date,  Up: Period expressions

15.4.4 Periods or dates ?
-------------------------

Report intervals like the above are most often used with ‘-p|--period’,
to divide reports into multiple subperiods - each generated date marks a
subperiod boundary.  Here, the periods between the dates are what’s
important.

   But report intervals can also be used with ‘--forecast’ to generate
future transactions, or with ‘balance --budget’ to generate budget
goal-setting transactions.  For these, the dates themselves are what
matters.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Events on multiple weekdays,  Prev: Periods or dates ?,  Up: Period expressions

15.4.5 Events on multiple weekdays
----------------------------------

The ‘every WEEKDAYNAME’ form has a special variant with multiple day
names, comma-separated.  Eg: ‘every mon,thu,sat’.  Also, ‘weekday’ and
‘weekendday’ are shorthand for ‘mon,tue,wed,thu,fri’ and ‘sat,sun’
respectively.

   This form is mainly intended for use with ‘--forecast’, to generate
periodic transactions on arbitrary days of the week.  It may be less
useful with ‘-p’, since it divides each week into subperiods of unequal
length.  (Because gaps between periods are not allowed; if you’d like to
change this, see #1632.)

   Examples:

‘-p "every         dates will be Mon, Wed, Fri; periods will be
mon,wed,fri"’      Mon-Tue, Wed-Thu, Fri-Sun
‘-p "every         dates will be Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri; periods will
weekday"’          be Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri-Sun
‘-p "every         dates will be Sat, Sun; periods will be Sat, Sun-Fri
weekendday"’


File: hledger.info,  Node: Depth,  Next: Queries,  Prev: Time periods,  Up: Top

16 Depth
********

With the ‘--depth NUM’ option (short form: ‘-NUM’), reports will show
accounts only to the specified depth, hiding deeper subaccounts.  Use
this when you want a summary with less detail.  This flag has the same
effect as a ‘depth:’ query argument: ‘depth:2’, ‘--depth=2’ or ‘-2’ are
equivalent.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Queries,  Next: Pivoting,  Prev: Depth,  Up: Top

17 Queries
**********

One of hledger’s strengths is being able to quickly report on a precise
subset of your data.  Most hledger commands accept optional query
arguments to restrict their scope.  The syntax is as follows:

   • Zero or more space-separated query terms.  These are most often
     account name substrings:

     ‘utilities food:groceries’

   • Terms with spaces or other special characters should be enclosed in
     quotes:

     ‘"personal care"’

   • Regular expressions are also supported:

     ‘"^expenses\b" "accounts (payable|receivable)"’

   • Add a query type prefix to match other parts of the data:

     ‘date:202012- desc:amazon cur:USD amt:">100" status:’

   • Add a ‘not:’ prefix to negate a term:

     ‘not:cur:USD’

* Menu:

* Query types::
* Combining query terms::
* Queries and command options::
* Queries and account aliases::
* Queries and valuation::
* Querying with account aliases::
* Querying with cost or value::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Query types,  Next: Combining query terms,  Up: Queries

17.1 Query types
================

Here are the types of query term available.  Remember these can also be
prefixed with *‘not:’* to convert them into a negative match.

   *‘acct:REGEX’, ‘REGEX’*
Match account names containing this (case insensitive) regular
expression.  This is the default query type when there is no prefix, and
regular expression syntax is typically not needed, so usually we just
write an account name substring, like ‘expenses’ or ‘food’.

   *‘amt:N, amt:<N, amt:<=N, amt:>N, amt:>=N’*
Match postings with a single-commodity amount equal to, less than, or
greater than N. (Postings with multi-commodity amounts are not tested
and will always match.)  The comparison has two modes: if N is preceded
by a + or - sign (or is 0), the two signed numbers are compared.
Otherwise, the absolute magnitudes are compared, ignoring sign.

   *‘code:REGEX’*
Match by transaction code (eg check number).

   *‘cur:REGEX’*
Match postings or transactions including any amounts whose
currency/commodity symbol is fully matched by REGEX. (For a partial
match, use ‘.*REGEX.*’).  Note, to match special characters which are
regex-significant, you need to escape them with ‘\’.  And for characters
which are significant to your shell you may need one more level of
escaping.  So eg to match the dollar sign:
‘hledger print cur:\\$’.

   *‘desc:REGEX’*
Match transaction descriptions.

   *‘date:PERIODEXPR’*
Match dates (or with the ‘--date2’ flag, secondary dates) within the
specified period.  PERIODEXPR is a period expression with no report
interval.  Examples:
‘date:2016’, ‘date:thismonth’, ‘date:2/1-2/15’,
‘date:2021-07-27..nextquarter’.

   *‘date2:PERIODEXPR’*
Match secondary dates within the specified period (independent of the
‘--date2’ flag).

   *‘depth:N’*
Match (or display, depending on command) accounts at or above this
depth.

   *‘note:REGEX’*
Match transaction notes (the part of the description right of ‘|’, or
the whole description if there’s no ‘|’).

   *‘payee:REGEX’*
Match transaction payee/payer names (the part of the description left of
‘|’, or the whole description if there’s no ‘|’).

   *‘real:, real:0’*
Match real or virtual postings respectively.

   *‘status:, status:!, status:*’*
Match unmarked, pending, or cleared transactions respectively.

   *‘type:TYPECODES’*
Match by account type (see Declaring accounts > Account types).
‘TYPECODES’ is one or more of the single-letter account type codes
‘ALERXCV’, case insensitive.  Note ‘type:A’ and ‘type:E’ will also match
their respective subtypes ‘C’ (Cash) and ‘V’ (Conversion).  Certain
kinds of account alias can disrupt account types, see Rewriting accounts
> Aliases and account types.

   *‘tag:REGEX[=REGEX]’*
Match by tag name, and optionally also by tag value.  (To match only by
value, use ‘tag:.=REGEX’.)

   When querying by tag, note that:

   • Accounts also inherit the tags of their parent accounts
   • Postings also inherit the tags of their account and their
     transaction
   • Transactions also acquire the tags of their postings.

   (*‘inacct:ACCTNAME’*
A special query term used automatically in hledger-web only: tells
hledger-web to show the transaction register for an account.)


File: hledger.info,  Node: Combining query terms,  Next: Queries and command options,  Prev: Query types,  Up: Queries

17.2 Combining query terms
==========================

When given multiple query terms, most commands select things which
match:

   • any of the description terms AND
   • any of the account terms AND
   • any of the status terms AND
   • all the other terms.

   The print command is a little different, showing transactions which:

   • match any of the description terms AND
   • have any postings matching any of the positive account terms AND
   • have no postings matching any of the negative account terms AND
   • match all the other terms.

   Although these fixed rules are enough for many needs, we do not
support full boolean expressions (#203), (and you should not write AND
or OR in your queries).  This makes certain queries hard to express, but
here are some tricks that can help:

  1. Use a doubled ‘not:’ prefix.  Eg, to print only the food expenses
     paid with cash:

     $ hledger print food not:not:cash

  2. Or pre-filter the transactions with ‘print’, piping the result into
     a second hledger command (with balance assertions disabled):

     $ hledger print cash | hledger -f- -I balance food


File: hledger.info,  Node: Queries and command options,  Next: Queries and account aliases,  Prev: Combining query terms,  Up: Queries

17.3 Queries and command options
================================

Some queries can also be expressed as command-line options: ‘depth:2’ is
equivalent to ‘--depth 2’, ‘date:2020’ is equivalent to ‘-p 2020’, etc.
When you mix command options and query arguments, generally the
resulting query is their intersection.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Queries and account aliases,  Next: Queries and valuation,  Prev: Queries and command options,  Up: Queries

17.4 Queries and account aliases
================================

When account names are rewritten with ‘--alias’ or ‘alias’, ‘acct:’ will
match either the old or the new account name.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Queries and valuation,  Next: Querying with account aliases,  Prev: Queries and account aliases,  Up: Queries

17.5 Queries and valuation
==========================

When amounts are converted to other commodities in cost or value
reports, ‘cur:’ and ‘amt:’ match the old commodity symbol and the old
amount quantity, not the new ones (except in hledger 1.22.0 where it’s
reversed, see #1625).


File: hledger.info,  Node: Querying with account aliases,  Next: Querying with cost or value,  Prev: Queries and valuation,  Up: Queries

17.6 Querying with account aliases
==================================

When account names are rewritten with ‘--alias’ or ‘alias’, note that
‘acct:’ will match either the old or the new account name.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Querying with cost or value,  Prev: Querying with account aliases,  Up: Queries

17.7 Querying with cost or value
================================

When amounts are converted to other commodities in cost or value
reports, note that ‘cur:’ matches the new commodity symbol, and not the
old one, and ‘amt:’ matches the new quantity, and not the old one.
Note: this changed in hledger 1.22, previously it was the reverse, see
the discussion at #1625.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Pivoting,  Next: Generating data,  Prev: Queries,  Up: Top

18 Pivoting
***********

Normally, hledger groups and sums amounts within each account.  The
‘--pivot FIELD’ option substitutes some other transaction field for
account names, causing amounts to be grouped and summed by that field’s
value instead.  FIELD can be any of the transaction fields ‘status’,
‘code’, ‘description’, ‘payee’, ‘note’, or a tag name.  When pivoting on
a tag and a posting has multiple values of that tag, only the first
value is displayed.  Values containing ‘colon:separated:parts’ will be
displayed hierarchically, like account names.

   Some examples:

2016/02/16 Yearly Dues Payment
    assets:bank account                 2 EUR
    income:dues                        -2 EUR  ; member: John Doe

   Normal balance report showing account names:

$ hledger balance
               2 EUR  assets:bank account
              -2 EUR  income:dues
--------------------
                   0

   Pivoted balance report, using member: tag values instead:

$ hledger balance --pivot member
               2 EUR
              -2 EUR  John Doe
--------------------
                   0

   One way to show only amounts with a member: value (using a query):

$ hledger balance --pivot member tag:member=.
              -2 EUR  John Doe
--------------------
              -2 EUR

   Another way (the acct: query matches against the pivoted "account
name"):

$ hledger balance --pivot member acct:.
              -2 EUR  John Doe
--------------------
              -2 EUR


File: hledger.info,  Node: Generating data,  Next: Forecasting,  Prev: Pivoting,  Up: Top

19 Generating data
******************

Two features for generating transient data (visible only at report time)
are built in to hledger’s journal format:

   • Auto posting rules can generate extra postings on certain
     transactions.  They are activated by the ‘--auto’ flag.

   • Periodic transaction rules can generate repeating transactions,
     usually dated in the future, to help with forecasting or budgeting.
     They are activated by the ‘--forecast’ or ‘balance --budget’
     options, described next.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Forecasting,  Next: Budgeting,  Prev: Generating data,  Up: Top

20 Forecasting
**************

The ‘--forecast’ flag activates any periodic transaction rules in the
journal.  These will generate temporary additional transactions, usually
recurring and in the future, which will appear in all reports.  ‘hledger
print --forecast’ is a good way to see them.

   This can be useful for estimating balances into the future, perhaps
experimenting with different scenarios.

   It could also be useful for scripted data entry: you could describe
recurring transactions, and every so often copy the output of ‘print
--forecast’ into the journal.

   The generated transactions will have an extra tag, like
‘generated-transaction:~ PERIODICEXPR’, indicating which periodic rule
generated them.  There is also a similar, hidden tag, named
‘_generated-transaction:’, which you can use to reliably match
transactions generated "just now" (rather than ‘print’ed in the past).

   The forecast transactions are generated within a _forecast period_,
which is independent of the report period.  (Forecast period sets the
bounds for generated transactions, report period controls which
transactions are reported.)  The forecast period begins on:

   • the start date provided within ‘--forecast’’s argument, if any
   • otherwise, the later of
        • the report start date, if specified (with ‘-b’/‘-p’/‘date:’)
        • the day after the latest ordinary transaction in the journal,
          if any

   • otherwise today.

   It ends on:

   • the end date provided within ‘--forecast’’s argument, if any
   • otherwise, the report end date, if specified (with
     ‘-e’/‘-p’/‘date:’)
   • otherwise 180 days (6 months) from today.

   Note, this means that ordinary transactions will suppress periodic
transactions, by default; the periodic transactions will not start until
after the last ordinary transaction.  This is usually convenient, but
you can get around it in two ways:

   • If you need to record some transactions in the future, make them
     periodic transactions (with a single occurrence, eg: ‘~
     YYYY-MM-DD’) rather than ordinary transactions.  That way they
     won’t suppress other periodic transactions.

   • Or give ‘--forecast’ a period expression argument.  A forecast
     period specified this way can overlap ordinary transactions, and
     need not be in the future.  Some things to note:

        • You must use ‘=’ between flag and argument; a space won’t
          work.
        • The period expression can specify the forecast period’s start
          date, end date, or both.  See also Report start & end date.
        • The period expression should not specify a report interval.
          (Each periodic transaction rule specifies its own interval.)

   Some examples: ‘--forecast=202001-202004’, ‘--forecast=jan-’,
‘--forecast=2021’.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Budgeting,  Next: Cost reporting,  Prev: Forecasting,  Up: Top

21 Budgeting
************

With the balance command’s ‘--budget’ report, each periodic transaction
rule generates recurring budget goals in specified accounts, and goals
and actual performance can be compared.  See the balance command’s doc
below.

   See also: Budgeting and Forecasting.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Cost reporting,  Next: Valuation,  Prev: Budgeting,  Up: Top

22 Cost reporting
*****************

This section is about recording the cost of things, in transactions
where one commodity is exchanged for another.  Eg an exchange of
currency, or a stock purchase or sale.  First, a quick glossary:

   • Conversion - an exchange of one currency or commodity for another.
     Eg a foreign currency exchange, or a purchase or sale of stock or
     cryptocurrency.

   • Conversion transaction - a transaction involving one or more
     conversions.

   • Conversion rate - the cost per unit of one commodity in the other,
     ie the exchange rate.

   • Cost - how much of one commodity was paid to acquire the other.
     And more generally, in hledger docs: the amount exchanged in the
     "secondary" commodity (usually your base currency), whether in a
     purchase or a sale, and whether expressed per unit or in total.
     Also, the "@/@@ PRICE" notation used to represent this.

* Menu:

* -B Convert to cost::
* Equity conversion postings::
* Inferring equity postings from cost::
* Inferring cost from equity postings::
* When to infer cost/equity::
* How to record conversions::
* Cost tips::


File: hledger.info,  Node: -B Convert to cost,  Next: Equity conversion postings,  Up: Cost reporting

22.1 -B: Convert to cost
========================

As discussed in JOURNAL > Costs, when recording a transaction you can
also record the amount’s cost in another commodity, by adding ‘@
UNITPRICE’ or ‘@@ TOTALPRICE’.

   Then you can see a report with amounts converted to cost, by adding
the ‘-B/--cost’ flag.  (Mnemonic: "B" from "cost Basis", as in Ledger).
Eg:

2022-01-01
  assets:dollars  $-135          ; 135 dollars is exchanged for..
  assets:euros     €100 @ $1.35  ; one hundred euros purchased at $1.35 each

$ hledger bal -N
               $-135  assets:dollars
                €100  assets:euros
$ hledger bal -N -B
               $-135  assets:dollars
                $135  assets:euros    # <- the euros' cost

   Notes:

   -B is sensitive to the order of postings when a cost is inferred: the
inferred price will be in the commodity of the last amount.  So if
example 3’s postings are reversed, while the transaction is equivalent,
-B shows something different:

2022-01-01
  assets:dollars  $-135              ; 135 dollars sold
  assets:euros     €100              ; for 100 euros

$ hledger bal -N -B
               €-100  assets:dollars  # <- the dollars' selling price
                €100  assets:euros

   The @/@@ cost notation is convenient, but has some drawbacks: it does
not truly balance the transaction, so it disrupts the accounting
equation and tends to causes a non-zero total in balance reports.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Equity conversion postings,  Next: Inferring equity postings from cost,  Prev: -B Convert to cost,  Up: Cost reporting

22.2 Equity conversion postings
===============================

By contrast, conventional double entry bookkeeping (DEB) uses a
different notation: an extra pair of equity postings to balance
conversion transactions.  In this style, the above entry might be
written:

2022-01-01 one hundred euros purchased at $1.35 each
    assets:dollars      $-135
    equity:conversion    $135
    equity:conversion   €-100
    assets:euros         €100

   This style is more correct, but it’s also more verbose and makes cost
reporting more difficult for PTA tools.

   Happily, current hledger can read either notation, or convert one to
the other when needed, so you can use the one you prefer.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Inferring equity postings from cost,  Next: Inferring cost from equity postings,  Prev: Equity conversion postings,  Up: Cost reporting

22.3 Inferring equity postings from cost
========================================

With ‘--infer-equity’, hledger detects transactions written with PTA
cost notation and adds equity conversion postings to them (and
temporarily permits the coexistence of equity conversion postings and
cost notation, which normally would cause an unbalanced transaction
error).  Eg:

2022-01-01
  assets:dollars  -$135
  assets:euros     €100 @ $1.35

$ hledger print --infer-equity
2022-01-01
    assets:dollars                    $-135
    assets:euros               €100 @ $1.35
    equity:conversion:$-€:€           €-100  ; generated-posting:
    equity:conversion:$-€:$         $135.00  ; generated-posting:

   The conversion account names can be changed with the conversion
account type declaration.

   –infer-equity is useful when when transactions have been recorded
using cost notation, to help preserve the accounting equation and
balance reports’ zero total, or to produce more conventional journal
entries for sharing with non-PTA-users.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Inferring cost from equity postings,  Next: When to infer cost/equity,  Prev: Inferring equity postings from cost,  Up: Cost reporting

22.4 Inferring cost from equity postings
========================================

The reverse operation is possible using ‘--infer-costs’, which detects
transactions written with equity conversion postings and adds PTA cost
notation to them (and temporarily permits the coexistence of equity
conversion postings and cost notation).  Eg:

2022-01-01
    assets:dollars            $-135
    equity:conversion          $135
    equity:conversion         €-100
    assets:euros               €100

$ hledger print --infer-costs
2022-01-01
    assets:dollars       $-135 @@ €100
    equity:conversion             $135
    equity:conversion            €-100
    assets:euros                  €100

   –infer-costs is useful when combined with -B/–cost, allowing cost
reporting even when transactions have been recorded using equity
postings:

$ hledger print --infer-costs -B
2009-01-01
    assets:dollars           €-100
    assets:euros              €100

   Notes:

   For ‘--infer-costs’ to work, an exchange must consist of four
postings:

  1. two non-equity postings
  2. two equity postings, next to one another
  3. the equity accounts must be declared, with account type
     ‘V’/‘Conversion’ (or if they are not declared, they must be named
     ‘equity:conversion’, ‘equity:trade’, ‘equity:trading’ or
     subaccounts of these)
  4. the equity postings’ amounts must exactly match the non-equity
     postings’ amounts

   Multiple such exchanges can coexist within a single transaction,
should you need that.

   When inferring cost, the order of postings matters: the cost is added
to the first of the non-equity postings involved in the exchange, in the
commodity of the last non-equity posting involved in the exchange.  If
you don’t want to write your postings in the required order, the
alternative is not to infer cost; instead, use explicit cost notation,
omitting the equity postings, inferring them later with –infer-equity if
needed.

   –infer-equity and –infer-costs can be used together, if you have a
mixture of both notations in your journal.


File: hledger.info,  Node: When to infer cost/equity,  Next: How to record conversions,  Prev: Inferring cost from equity postings,  Up: Cost reporting

22.5 When to infer cost/equity
==============================

Inferring equity postings or costs is still fairly new, so not enabled
by default.  We’re not sure yet if that should change.  Here are two
suggestions to try, experience reports welcome:

  1. When you use -B, always use –infer-costs as well.  Eg: ‘hledger bal
     -B --infer-costs’

  2. Always run hledger with both flags enabled.  Eg: ‘alias hl="hledger
     --infer-equity --infer-costs"’


File: hledger.info,  Node: How to record conversions,  Next: Cost tips,  Prev: When to infer cost/equity,  Up: Cost reporting

22.6 How to record conversions
==============================

Essentially there are four ways to record a conversion transaction in
hledger.  Here are all of them, with pros and cons.

* Menu:

* Conversion with implicit cost::
* Conversion with explicit cost::
* Conversion with equity postings::
* Conversion with equity postings and explicit cost::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Conversion with implicit cost,  Next: Conversion with explicit cost,  Up: How to record conversions

22.6.1 Conversion with implicit cost
------------------------------------

Let’s assume 100 EUR is converted to 120 USD. You can just record the
outflow (100 EUR) and inflow (120 USD) in the appropriate asset account:

2021-01-01
    assets:cash    -100 EUR
    assets:cash     120 USD

   hledger will assume this transaction is balanced, inferring that the
conversion rate must be 1 EUR = 1.20 USD. You can see the inferred rate
by using ‘hledger print -x’.

   Pro:

   • Concise, easy

   Con:

   • Less error checking - typos in amounts or commodity symbols may not
     be detected
   • Conversion rate is not clear
   • Disturbs the accounting equation, unless you add the –infer-equity
     flag

   You can prevent accidental implicit conversions due to a mistyped
commodity symbol, by using ‘hledger check commodities’.

   You can prevent implicit conversions entirely, by using ‘hledger
check balancednoautoconversion’, or ‘-s/--strict’.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Conversion with explicit cost,  Next: Conversion with equity postings,  Prev: Conversion with implicit cost,  Up: How to record conversions

22.6.2 Conversion with explicit cost
------------------------------------

You can add the conversion rate using @ notation:

2021-01-01
    assets:cash        -100 EUR @ 1.20 USD
    assets:cash         120 USD

   Now hledger will check that 100 * 1.20 = 120, and would report an
error otherwise.

   Pro:

   • Still concise
   • Makes the conversion rate clear
   • Provides more error checking

   Con:

   • Disturbs the accounting equation, unless you add the –infer-equity
     flag


File: hledger.info,  Node: Conversion with equity postings,  Next: Conversion with equity postings and explicit cost,  Prev: Conversion with explicit cost,  Up: How to record conversions

22.6.3 Conversion with equity postings
--------------------------------------

In strict double entry bookkeeping, the above transaction is not
balanced in EUR or in USD, since some EUR disappears, and some USD
appears.  This violates the accounting equation (A+L+E=0), and prevents
reports like ‘balancesheetequity’ from showing a zero total.

   The proper way to make it balance is to add a balancing posting for
each commodity, using an equity account:

2021-01-01
    assets:cash        -100 EUR
    equity:conversion   100 EUR
    equity:conversion  -120 USD
    assets:cash         120 USD

   Pro:

   • Preserves the accounting equation
   • Keeps track of conversions and related gains/losses in one place
   • Standard, works in any double entry accounting system

   Con:

   • More verbose
   • Conversion rate is not obvious
   • Cost reporting requires adding the –infer-costs flag


File: hledger.info,  Node: Conversion with equity postings and explicit cost,  Prev: Conversion with equity postings,  Up: How to record conversions

22.6.4 Conversion with equity postings and explicit cost
--------------------------------------------------------

Here both equity postings and @ notation are used together.  hledger
will usually complain about this redundancy, but when using the
–infer-costs flag it is accepted.

2021-01-01
    assets:cash        -100 EUR @ 1.20 USD
    equity:conversion   100 EUR
    equity:conversion  -120 USD
    assets:cash         120 USD

   Pro:

   • Preserves the accounting equation
   • Keeps track of conversions and related gains/losses in one place
   • Makes the conversion rate clear
   • Provides more error checking

   Con:

   • Most verbose
   • Requires the –infer-costs flag
   • Not compatible with ledger


File: hledger.info,  Node: Cost tips,  Prev: How to record conversions,  Up: Cost reporting

22.7 Cost tips
==============

   • Recording the conversion rate explicitly is good because it makes
     that clear and helps detect errors.
   • Recording equity postings is good because it is correct bookkeeping
     and preserves the accounting equation.
   • Combining these is possible by using the –infer-costs flag (which
     requires well-ordered postings).
   • When you want to see the cost (or sale proceeds) of things, use
     ‘-B’ (or ‘--cost’).  If you use equity conversion postings
     notation, use ‘-B --infer-costs’.
   • If you use PTA cost notation, and you want to see a balanced
     balance sheet or print correct journal entries, use
     ‘--infer-equity’.
   • Conversion to cost is performed before valuation (described next).


File: hledger.info,  Node: Valuation,  Next: PART 4 COMMANDS,  Prev: Cost reporting,  Up: Top

23 Valuation
************

Instead of reporting amounts in their original commodity, hledger can
convert them to cost/sale amount (using the conversion rate recorded in
the transaction), and/or to market value (using some market price on a
certain date).  This is controlled by the ‘--value=TYPE[,COMMODITY]’
option, which will be described below.  We also provide the simpler ‘-V’
and ‘-X COMMODITY’ options, and often one of these is all you need:

* Menu:

* -V Value::
* -X Value in specified commodity::
* Valuation date::
* Finding market price::
* --infer-market-prices market prices from transactions::
* Valuation commodity::
* Simple valuation examples::
* --value Flexible valuation::
* More valuation examples::
* Interaction of valuation and queries::
* Effect of valuation on reports::


File: hledger.info,  Node: -V Value,  Next: -X Value in specified commodity,  Up: Valuation

23.1 -V: Value
==============

The ‘-V/--market’ flag converts amounts to market value in their default
_valuation commodity_, using the market prices in effect on the
_valuation date(s)_, if any.  More on these in a minute.


File: hledger.info,  Node: -X Value in specified commodity,  Next: Valuation date,  Prev: -V Value,  Up: Valuation

23.2 -X: Value in specified commodity
=====================================

The ‘-X/--exchange=COMM’ option is like ‘-V’, except you tell it which
currency you want to convert to, and it tries to convert everything to
that.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Valuation date,  Next: Finding market price,  Prev: -X Value in specified commodity,  Up: Valuation

23.3 Valuation date
===================

Since market prices can change from day to day, market value reports
have a valuation date (or more than one), which determines which market
prices will be used.

   For single period reports, if an explicit report end date is
specified, that will be used as the valuation date; otherwise the
valuation date is the journal’s end date.

   For multiperiod reports, each column/period is valued on the last day
of the period, by default.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Finding market price,  Next: --infer-market-prices market prices from transactions,  Prev: Valuation date,  Up: Valuation

23.4 Finding market price
=========================

To convert a commodity A to its market value in another commodity B,
hledger looks for a suitable market price (exchange rate) as follows, in
this order of preference :

  1. A _declared market price_ or _inferred market price_: A’s latest
     market price in B on or before the valuation date as declared by a
     P directive, or (with the ‘--infer-market-prices’ flag) inferred
     from costs.

  2. A _reverse market price_: the inverse of a declared or inferred
     market price from B to A.

  3. A _forward chain of market prices_: a synthetic price formed by
     combining the shortest chain of "forward" (only 1 above) market
     prices, leading from A to B.

  4. _Any chain of market prices_: a chain of any market prices,
     including both forward and reverse prices (1 and 2 above), leading
     from A to B.

   There is a limit to the length of these price chains; if hledger
reaches that length without finding a complete chain or exhausting all
possibilities, it will give up (with a "gave up" message visible in
‘--debug=2’ output).  That limit is currently 1000.

   Amounts for which no suitable market price can be found, are not
converted.


File: hledger.info,  Node: --infer-market-prices market prices from transactions,  Next: Valuation commodity,  Prev: Finding market price,  Up: Valuation

23.5 –infer-market-prices: market prices from transactions
==========================================================

Normally, market value in hledger is fully controlled by, and requires,
P directives in your journal.  Since adding and updating those can be a
chore, and since transactions usually take place at close to market
value, why not use the recorded costs as additional market prices (as
Ledger does) ?  Adding the ‘--infer-market-prices’ flag to ‘-V’, ‘-X’ or
‘--value’ enables this.

   So for example, ‘hledger bs -V --infer-market-prices’ will get market
prices both from P directives and from transactions.  If both occur on
the same day, the P directive takes precedence.

   There is a downside: value reports can sometimes be affected in
confusing/undesired ways by your journal entries.  If this happens to
you, read all of this Valuation section carefully, and try adding
‘--debug’ or ‘--debug=2’ to troubleshoot.

   ‘--infer-market-prices’ can infer market prices from:

   • multicommodity transactions with explicit prices (‘@’/‘@@’)

   • multicommodity transactions with implicit prices (no ‘@’, two
     commodities, unbalanced).  (With these, the order of postings
     matters.  ‘hledger print -x’ can be useful for troubleshooting.)

   • multicommodity transactions with equity postings, if cost is
     inferred with ‘--infer-costs’.

   There is a limitation (bug) currently: when a valuation commodity is
not specified, prices inferred with ‘--infer-market-prices’ do not help
select a default valuation commodity, as ‘P’ prices would.  So
conversion might not happen because no valuation commodity was detected
(‘--debug=2’ will show this).  To be safe, specify the valuation
commmodity, eg:

   • ‘-X EUR --infer-market-prices’, not ‘-V --infer-market-prices’
   • ‘--value=then,EUR --infer-market-prices’, not ‘--value=then
     --infer-market-prices’

   Signed costs and market prices can be confusing.  For reference, here
is the current behaviour, since hledger 1.25.  (If you think it should
work differently, see #1870.)

2022-01-01 Positive Unit prices
    a        A 1
    b        B -1 @ A 1

2022-01-01 Positive Total prices
    a        A 1
    b        B -1 @@ A 1


2022-01-02 Negative unit prices
    a        A 1
    b        B 1 @ A -1

2022-01-02 Negative total prices
    a        A 1
    b        B 1 @@ A -1


2022-01-03 Double Negative unit prices
    a        A -1
    b        B -1 @ A -1

2022-01-03 Double Negative total prices
    a        A -1
    b        B -1 @@ A -1

   All of the transactions above are considered balanced (and on each
day, the two transactions are considered equivalent).  Here are the
market prices inferred for B:

$ hledger -f- --infer-market-prices prices
P 2022-01-01 B A 1
P 2022-01-01 B A 1.0
P 2022-01-02 B A -1
P 2022-01-02 B A -1.0
P 2022-01-03 B A -1
P 2022-01-03 B A -1.0


File: hledger.info,  Node: Valuation commodity,  Next: Simple valuation examples,  Prev: --infer-market-prices market prices from transactions,  Up: Valuation

23.6 Valuation commodity
========================

*When you specify a valuation commodity (‘-X COMM’ or ‘--value
TYPE,COMM’):*
hledger will convert all amounts to COMM, wherever it can find a
suitable market price (including by reversing or chaining prices).

   *When you leave the valuation commodity unspecified (‘-V’ or ‘--value
TYPE’):*
For each commodity A, hledger picks a default valuation commodity as
follows, in this order of preference:

  1. The price commodity from the latest P-declared market price for A
     on or before valuation date.

  2. The price commodity from the latest P-declared market price for A
     on any date.  (Allows conversion to proceed when there are inferred
     prices before the valuation date.)

  3. If there are no P directives at all (any commodity or date) and the
     ‘--infer-market-prices’ flag is used: the price commodity from the
     latest transaction-inferred price for A on or before valuation
     date.

   This means:

   • If you have P directives, they determine which commodities ‘-V’
     will convert, and to what.

   • If you have no P directives, and use the ‘--infer-market-prices’
     flag, costs determine it.

   Amounts for which no valuation commodity can be found are not
converted.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Simple valuation examples,  Next: --value Flexible valuation,  Prev: Valuation commodity,  Up: Valuation

23.7 Simple valuation examples
==============================

Here are some quick examples of ‘-V’:

; one euro is worth this many dollars from nov 1
P 2016/11/01 € $1.10

; purchase some euros on nov 3
2016/11/3
    assets:euros        €100
    assets:checking

; the euro is worth fewer dollars by dec 21
P 2016/12/21 € $1.03

   How many euros do I have ?

$ hledger -f t.j bal -N euros
                €100  assets:euros

   What are they worth at end of nov 3 ?

$ hledger -f t.j bal -N euros -V -e 2016/11/4
             $110.00  assets:euros

   What are they worth after 2016/12/21 ?  (no report end date
specified, defaults to today)

$ hledger -f t.j bal -N euros -V
             $103.00  assets:euros


File: hledger.info,  Node: --value Flexible valuation,  Next: More valuation examples,  Prev: Simple valuation examples,  Up: Valuation

23.8 –value: Flexible valuation
===============================

‘-V’ and ‘-X’ are special cases of the more general ‘--value’ option:

 --value=TYPE[,COMM]  TYPE is then, end, now or YYYY-MM-DD.
                      COMM is an optional commodity symbol.
                      Shows amounts converted to:
                      - default valuation commodity (or COMM) using market prices at posting dates
                      - default valuation commodity (or COMM) using market prices at period end(s)
                      - default valuation commodity (or COMM) using current market prices
                      - default valuation commodity (or COMM) using market prices at some date

   The TYPE part selects cost or value and valuation date:

‘--value=then’

     Convert amounts to their value in the default valuation commodity,
     using market prices on each posting’s date.
‘--value=end’

     Convert amounts to their value in the default valuation commodity,
     using market prices on the last day of the report period (or if
     unspecified, the journal’s end date); or in multiperiod reports,
     market prices on the last day of each subperiod.
‘--value=now’

     Convert amounts to their value in the default valuation commodity
     using current market prices (as of when report is generated).
‘--value=YYYY-MM-DD’

     Convert amounts to their value in the default valuation commodity
     using market prices on this date.

   To select a different valuation commodity, add the optional ‘,COMM’
part: a comma, then the target commodity’s symbol.  Eg:
*‘--value=now,EUR’*.  hledger will do its best to convert amounts to
this commodity, deducing market prices as described above.


File: hledger.info,  Node: More valuation examples,  Next: Interaction of valuation and queries,  Prev: --value Flexible valuation,  Up: Valuation

23.9 More valuation examples
============================

Here are some examples showing the effect of ‘--value’, as seen with
‘print’:

P 2000-01-01 A  1 B
P 2000-02-01 A  2 B
P 2000-03-01 A  3 B
P 2000-04-01 A  4 B

2000-01-01
  (a)      1 A @ 5 B

2000-02-01
  (a)      1 A @ 6 B

2000-03-01
  (a)      1 A @ 7 B

   Show the cost of each posting:

$ hledger -f- print --cost
2000-01-01
    (a)             5 B

2000-02-01
    (a)             6 B

2000-03-01
    (a)             7 B

   Show the value as of the last day of the report period (2000-02-29):

$ hledger -f- print --value=end date:2000/01-2000/03
2000-01-01
    (a)             2 B

2000-02-01
    (a)             2 B

   With no report period specified, that shows the value as of the last
day of the journal (2000-03-01):

$ hledger -f- print --value=end
2000-01-01
    (a)             3 B

2000-02-01
    (a)             3 B

2000-03-01
    (a)             3 B

   Show the current value (the 2000-04-01 price is still in effect
today):

$ hledger -f- print --value=now
2000-01-01
    (a)             4 B

2000-02-01
    (a)             4 B

2000-03-01
    (a)             4 B

   Show the value on 2000/01/15:

$ hledger -f- print --value=2000-01-15
2000-01-01
    (a)             1 B

2000-02-01
    (a)             1 B

2000-03-01
    (a)             1 B

   You may need to explicitly set a commodity’s display style, when
reverse prices are used.  Eg this output might be surprising:

P 2000-01-01 A 2B

2000-01-01
  a  1B
  b

$ hledger print -x -X A
2000-01-01
    a               0
    b               0

   Explanation: because there’s no amount or commodity directive
specifying a display style for A, 0.5A gets the default style, which
shows no decimal digits.  Because the displayed amount looks like zero,
the commodity symbol and minus sign are not displayed either.  Adding a
commodity directive sets a more useful display style for A:

P 2000-01-01 A 2B
commodity 0.00A

2000-01-01
  a  1B
  b

$ hledger print -X A
2000-01-01
    a           0.50A
    b          -0.50A


File: hledger.info,  Node: Interaction of valuation and queries,  Next: Effect of valuation on reports,  Prev: More valuation examples,  Up: Valuation

23.10 Interaction of valuation and queries
==========================================

When matching postings based on queries in the presence of valuation,
the following happens.

  1. The query is separated into two parts:
       1. the currency (‘cur:’) or amount (‘amt:’).
       2. all other parts.

  2. The postings are matched to the currency and amount queries based
     on pre-valued amounts.
  3. Valuation is applied to the postings.
  4. The postings are matched to the other parts of the query based on
     post-valued amounts.

   See: 1625


File: hledger.info,  Node: Effect of valuation on reports,  Prev: Interaction of valuation and queries,  Up: Valuation

23.11 Effect of valuation on reports
====================================

Here is a reference for how valuation is supposed to affect each part of
hledger’s reports (and a glossary).  (It’s wide, you’ll have to scroll
sideways.)  It may be useful when troubleshooting.  If you find
problems, please report them, ideally with a reproducible example.
Related: #329, #1083.

Report     ‘-B’,        ‘-V’, ‘-X’   ‘--value=then’     ‘--value=end’‘--value=DATE’,
type       ‘--cost’                                                  ‘--value=now’
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*print*
posting    cost         value at     value at posting   value at     value
amounts                 report end   date               report or    at
                        or today                        journal      DATE/today
                                                        end
balance    unchanged    unchanged    unchanged          unchanged    unchanged
assertions/assignments
*register*
starting   cost         value at     valued at day      value at     value
balance                 report or    each historical    report or    at
(-H)                    journal      posting was made   journal      DATE/today
                        end                             end
starting   cost         value at     valued at day      value at     value
balance                 day before   each historical    day before   at
(-H)                    report or    posting was made   report or    DATE/today
with                    journal                         journal
report                  start                           start
interval
posting    cost         value at     value at posting   value at     value
amounts                 report or    date               report or    at
                        journal                         journal      DATE/today
                        end                             end
summary    summarised   value at     sum of postings    value at     value
posting    cost         period       in interval,       period       at
amounts                 ends         valued at          ends         DATE/today
with                                 interval start
report
interval
running    sum/average  sum/average  sum/average of     sum/average  sum/average
total/averageof         of           displayed values   of           of
           displayed    displayed                       displayed    displayed
           values       values                          values       values
*balance
(bs,
bse, cf,
is)*
balance    sums of      value at     value at posting   value at     value
changes    costs        report end   date               report or    at
                        or today                        journal      DATE/today
                        of sums of                      end of       of
                        postings                        sums of      sums
                                                        postings     of
                                                                     postings
budget     like         like         like balance       like         like
amounts    balance      balance      changes            balances     balance
(–budget)  changes      changes                                      changes
grand      sum of       sum of       sum of displayed   sum of       sum of
total      displayed    displayed    valued             displayed    displayed
           values       values                          values       values
*balance
(bs,
bse, cf,
is) with
report
interval*
starting   sums of      value at     sums of values     value at     sums
balances   costs of     report       of postings        report       of
(-H)       postings     start of     before report      start of     postings
           before       sums of      start at           sums of      before
           report       all          respective         all          report
           start        postings     posting dates      postings     start
                        before                          before
                        report                          report
                        start                           start
balance    sums of      same as      sums of values     balance      value
changes    costs of     –value=end   of postings in     change in    at
(bal,      postings                  period at          each         DATE/today
is, bs     in period                 respective         period,      of
–change,                             posting dates      valued at    sums
cf                                                      period       of
–change)                                                ends         postings
end        sums of      same as      sums of values     period end   value
balances   costs of     –value=end   of postings from   balances,    at
(bal -H,   postings                  before period      valued at    DATE/today
is –H,     from                      start to period    period       of
bs, cf)    before                    end at             ends         sums
           report                    respective                      of
           start to                  posting dates                   postings
           period end
budget     like         like         like balance       like         like
amounts    balance      balance      changes/end        balances     balance
(–budget)  changes/end  changes/end  balances                        changes/end
           balances     balances                                     balances
row        sums,        sums,        sums, averages     sums,        sums,
totals,    averages     averages     of displayed       averages     averages
row        of           of           values             of           of
averages   displayed    displayed                       displayed    displayed
(-T, -A)   values       values                          values       values
column     sums of      sums of      sums of            sums of      sums
totals     displayed    displayed    displayed values   displayed    of
           values       values                          values       displayed
                                                                     values
grand      sum,         sum,         sum, average of    sum,         sum,
total,     average of   average of   column totals      average of   average
grand      column       column                          column       of
average    totals       totals                          totals       column
                                                                     totals

   ‘--cumulative’ is omitted to save space, it works like ‘-H’ but with
a zero starting balance.

   *Glossary:*

_cost_

     calculated using price(s) recorded in the transaction(s).
_value_

     market value using available market price declarations, or the
     unchanged amount if no conversion rate can be found.
_report start_

     the first day of the report period specified with -b or -p or
     date:, otherwise today.
_report or journal start_

     the first day of the report period specified with -b or -p or
     date:, otherwise the earliest transaction date in the journal,
     otherwise today.
_report end_

     the last day of the report period specified with -e or -p or date:,
     otherwise today.
_report or journal end_

     the last day of the report period specified with -e or -p or date:,
     otherwise the latest transaction date in the journal, otherwise
     today.
_report interval_

     a flag (-D/-W/-M/-Q/-Y) or period expression that activates the
     report’s multi-period mode (whether showing one or many
     subperiods).


File: hledger.info,  Node: PART 4 COMMANDS,  Next: PART 5 COMMON TASKS,  Prev: Valuation,  Up: Top

24 PART 4: COMMANDS
*******************

Here are the built-in commands, with the most often-used in bold:

   *Data entry:*

   These data entry commands are the only ones which can modify your
journal file.

   • *add* - add transactions using guided prompts
   • *import* - add any new transactions from other files (eg csv)

   *Data management:*

   • check - check for various kinds of issue in the data
   • close (equity) - generate balance-resetting transactions
   • diff - compare account transactions in two journal files
   • rewrite - generate extra postings, similar to print –auto

   *Financial statements:*

   • *aregister (areg)* - show transactions in a particular account
   • *balancesheet (bs)* - show assets, liabilities and net worth
   • balancesheetequity (bse) - show assets, liabilities and equity
   • cashflow (cf) - show changes in liquid assets
   • *incomestatement (is)* - show revenues and expenses
   • roi - show return on investments

   *Miscellaneous reports:*

   • accounts - show account names
   • activity - show postings-per-interval bar charts
   • *balance (bal)* - show balance changes/end balances/budgets in any
     accounts
   • codes - show transaction codes
   • commodities - show commodity/currency symbols
   • descriptions - show unique transaction descriptions
   • files - show input file paths
   • help - show hledger user manuals in several formats
   • notes - show unique note segments of transaction descriptions
   • payees - show unique payee segments of transaction descriptions
   • prices - show market price records
   • *print* - show transactions (journal entries)
   • print-unique - show only transactions with unique descriptions
   • *register (reg)* - show postings in one or more accounts & running
     total
   • register-match - show a recent posting that best matches a
     description
   • stats - show journal statistics
   • tags - show tag names
   • test - run self tests

   And here are some typical add-on commands installed by the
hledger-install script.  If installed, these will also appear in
hledger’s commands list, with a ‘+’ mark:

   • *ui* - hledger’s official curses-style TUI
   • *web* - hledger’s official web UI
   • iadd - a popular alternative to hledger’s ‘add’ command.
   • interest - generates interest transactions
   • stockquotes - downloads market prices.  _(Alpha quality, needs your
     help.)_

   Next, each command is described in detail, in alphabetical order.

* Menu:

* accounts::
* activity::
* add::
* aregister::
* balance::
* balancesheet::
* balancesheetequity::
* cashflow::
* check::
* close::
* codes::
* commodities::
* descriptions::
* diff::
* files::
* help::
* import::
* incomestatement::
* notes::
* payees::
* prices::
* print::
* print-unique::
* register::
* register-match::
* rewrite::
* roi::
* stats::
* tags::
* test::


File: hledger.info,  Node: accounts,  Next: activity,  Up: PART 4 COMMANDS

24.1 accounts
=============

accounts
Show account names.

   This command lists account names.  By default it shows all known
accounts, either used in transactions or declared with account
directives.

   With query arguments, only matched account names and account names
referenced by matched postings are shown.

   Or it can show just the used accounts (‘--used’/‘-u’), the declared
accounts (‘--declared’/‘-d’), the accounts declared but not used
(‘--unused’), the accounts used but not declared (‘--undeclared’), or
the first account matched by an account name pattern, if any (‘--find’).

   It shows a flat list by default.  With ‘--tree’, it uses indentation
to show the account hierarchy.  In flat mode you can add ‘--drop N’ to
omit the first few account name components.  Account names can be
depth-clipped with ‘depth:N’ or ‘--depth N’ or ‘-N’.

   With ‘--types’, it also shows each account’s type, if it’s known.
(See Declaring accounts > Account types.)

   With ‘--positions’, it also shows the file and line number of each
account’s declaration, if any, and the account’s overall declaration
order; these may be useful when troubleshooting account display order.

   With ‘--directives’, it adds the ‘account’ keyword, showing valid
account directives which can be pasted into a journal file.  This is
useful together with ‘--undeclared’ when updating your account
declarations to satisfy ‘hledger check accounts’.

   The ‘--find’ flag can be used to look up a single account name, in
the same way that the ‘aregister’ command does.  It returns the
alphanumerically-first matched account name, or if none can be found, it
fails with a non-zero exit code.

   Examples:

$ hledger accounts
assets:bank:checking
assets:bank:saving
assets:cash
expenses:food
expenses:supplies
income:gifts
income:salary
liabilities:debts

$ hledger accounts --undeclared --directives >> $LEDGER_FILE
$ hledger check accounts


File: hledger.info,  Node: activity,  Next: add,  Prev: accounts,  Up: PART 4 COMMANDS

24.2 activity
=============

activity
Show an ascii barchart of posting counts per interval.

   The activity command displays an ascii histogram showing transaction
counts by day, week, month or other reporting interval (by day is the
default).  With query arguments, it counts only matched transactions.

   Examples:

$ hledger activity --quarterly
2008-01-01 **
2008-04-01 *******
2008-07-01 
2008-10-01 **


File: hledger.info,  Node: add,  Next: aregister,  Prev: activity,  Up: PART 4 COMMANDS

24.3 add
========

add
Prompt for transactions and add them to the journal.  Any arguments will
be used as default inputs for the first N prompts.

   Many hledger users edit their journals directly with a text editor,
or generate them from CSV. For more interactive data entry, there is the
‘add’ command, which prompts interactively on the console for new
transactions, and appends them to the main journal file (which should be
in journal format).  Existing transactions are not changed.  This is one
of the few hledger commands that writes to the journal file (see also
‘import’).

   To use it, just run ‘hledger add’ and follow the prompts.  You can
add as many transactions as you like; when you are finished, enter ‘.’
or press control-d or control-c to exit.

   Features:

   • add tries to provide useful defaults, using the most similar (by
     description) recent transaction (filtered by the query, if any) as
     a template.
   • You can also set the initial defaults with command line arguments.
   • Readline-style edit keys can be used during data entry.
   • The tab key will auto-complete whenever possible - accounts,
     payees/descriptions, dates (‘yesterday’, ‘today’, ‘tomorrow’).  If
     the input area is empty, it will insert the default value.
   • If the journal defines a default commodity, it will be added to any
     bare numbers entered.
   • A parenthesised transaction code may be entered following a date.
   • Comments and tags may be entered following a description or amount.
   • If you make a mistake, enter ‘<’ at any prompt to go one step
     backward.
   • Input prompts are displayed in a different colour when the terminal
     supports it.

   Example (see https://hledger.org/add.html for a detailed tutorial):

$ hledger add
Adding transactions to journal file /src/hledger/examples/sample.journal
Any command line arguments will be used as defaults.
Use tab key to complete, readline keys to edit, enter to accept defaults.
An optional (CODE) may follow transaction dates.
An optional ; COMMENT may follow descriptions or amounts.
If you make a mistake, enter < at any prompt to go one step backward.
To end a transaction, enter . when prompted.
To quit, enter . at a date prompt or press control-d or control-c.
Date [2015/05/22]: 
Description: supermarket
Account 1: expenses:food
Amount  1: $10
Account 2: assets:checking
Amount  2 [$-10.0]: 
Account 3 (or . or enter to finish this transaction): .
2015/05/22 supermarket
    expenses:food             $10
    assets:checking        $-10.0

Save this transaction to the journal ? [y]: 
Saved.
Starting the next transaction (. or ctrl-D/ctrl-C to quit)
Date [2015/05/22]: <CTRL-D> $

   On Microsoft Windows, the add command makes sure that no part of the
file path ends with a period, as that would cause problems (#1056).


File: hledger.info,  Node: aregister,  Next: balance,  Prev: add,  Up: PART 4 COMMANDS

24.4 aregister
==============

aregister, areg

   Show the transactions and running historical balance of a single
account, with each transaction displayed as one line.

   ‘aregister’ shows the overall transactions affecting a particular
account (and any subaccounts).  Each report line represents one
transaction in this account.  Transactions before the report start date
are always included in the running balance (‘--historical’ mode is
always on).

   This is a more "real world", bank-like view than the ‘register’
command (which shows individual postings, possibly from multiple
accounts, not necessarily in historical mode).  As a quick rule of
thumb: - use ‘aregister’ for reviewing and reconciling real-world
asset/liability accounts - use ‘register’ for reviewing detailed
revenues/expenses.

   ‘aregister’ requires one argument: the account to report on.  You can
write either the full account name, or a case-insensitive regular
expression which will select the alphabetically first matched account.
(Eg if you have ‘assets:aaa:checking’ and ‘assets:bbb:checking’
accounts, ‘hledger areg checking’ would select ‘assets:aaa:checking’.)

   Transactions involving subaccounts of this account will also be
shown.  ‘aregister’ ignores depth limits, so its final total will always
match a balance report with similar arguments.

   Any additional arguments form a query which will filter the
transactions shown.  Note some queries will disturb the running balance,
causing it to be different from the account’s real-world running
balance.

   An example: this shows the transactions and historical running
balance during july, in the first account whose name contains
"checking":

$ hledger areg checking date:jul

   Each ‘aregister’ line item shows:

   • the transaction’s date (or the relevant posting’s date if
     different, see below)
   • the names of all the other account(s) involved in this transaction
     (probably abbreviated)
   • the total change to this account’s balance from this transaction
   • the account’s historical running balance after this transaction.

   Transactions making a net change of zero are not shown by default;
add the ‘-E/--empty’ flag to show them.

   For performance reasons, column widths are chosen based on the first
1000 lines; this means unusually wide values in later lines can cause
visual discontinuities as column widths are adjusted.  If you want to
ensure perfect alignment, at the cost of more time and memory, use the
‘--align-all’ flag.

   This command also supports the output destination and output format
options.  The output formats supported are ‘txt’, ‘csv’, and ‘json’.

* Menu:

* aregister and custom posting dates::


File: hledger.info,  Node: aregister and custom posting dates,  Up: aregister

24.4.1 aregister and custom posting dates
-----------------------------------------

Transactions whose date is outside the report period can still be shown,
if they have a posting to this account dated inside the report period.
(And in this case it’s the posting date that is shown.)  This ensures
that ‘aregister’ can show an accurate historical running balance,
matching the one shown by ‘register -H’ with the same arguments.

   To filter strictly by transaction date instead, add the ‘--txn-dates’
flag.  If you use this flag and some of your postings have custom dates,
it’s probably best to assume the running balance is wrong.


File: hledger.info,  Node: balance,  Next: balancesheet,  Prev: aregister,  Up: PART 4 COMMANDS

24.5 balance
============

balance, bal
Show accounts and their balances.

   ‘balance’ is one of hledger’s oldest and most versatile commands, for
listing account balances, balance changes, values, value changes and
more, during one time period or many.  Generally it shows a table, with
rows representing accounts, and columns representing periods.

   Note there are some higher-level variants of the ‘balance’ command
with convenient defaults, which can be simpler to use: ‘balancesheet’,
‘balancesheetequity’, ‘cashflow’ and ‘incomestatement’.  When you need
more control, then use ‘balance’.

* Menu:

* balance features::
* Simple balance report::
* Balance report line format::
* Filtered balance report::
* List or tree mode::
* Depth limiting::
* Dropping top-level accounts::
* Showing declared accounts::
* Sorting by amount::
* Percentages::
* Multi-period balance report::
* Balance change end balance::
* Balance report types::
* Budget report::
* Data layout::
* Useful balance reports::


File: hledger.info,  Node: balance features,  Next: Simple balance report,  Up: balance

24.5.1 balance features
-----------------------

Here’s a quick overview of the ‘balance’ command’s features, followed by
more detailed descriptions and examples.  Many of these work with the
higher-level commands as well.

   ‘balance’ can show..

   • accounts as a list (‘-l’) or a tree (‘-t’)
   • optionally depth-limited (‘-[1-9]’)
   • sorted by declaration order and name, or by amount

   ..and their..

   • balance changes (the default)
   • or actual and planned balance changes (‘--budget’)
   • or value of balance changes (‘-V’)
   • or change of balance values (‘--valuechange’)
   • or unrealised capital gain/loss (‘--gain’)

   ..in..

   • one time period (the whole journal period by default)
   • or multiple periods (‘-D’, ‘-W’, ‘-M’, ‘-Q’, ‘-Y’, ‘-p INTERVAL’)

   ..either..

   • per period (the default)
   • or accumulated since report start date (‘--cumulative’)
   • or accumulated since account creation (‘--historical/-H’)

   ..possibly converted to..

   • cost (‘--value=cost[,COMM]’/‘--cost’/‘-B’)
   • or market value, as of transaction dates (‘--value=then[,COMM]’)
   • or at period ends (‘--value=end[,COMM]’)
   • or now (‘--value=now’)
   • or at some other date (‘--value=YYYY-MM-DD’)

   ..with..

   • totals (‘-T’), averages (‘-A’), percentages (‘-%’), inverted sign
     (‘--invert’)
   • rows and columns swapped (‘--transpose’)
   • another field used as account name (‘--pivot’)
   • custom-formatted line items (single-period reports only)
     (‘--format’)
   • commodities displayed on the same line or multiple lines
     (‘--layout’)

   This command supports the output destination and output format
options, with output formats ‘txt’, ‘csv’, ‘json’, and (multi-period
reports only:) ‘html’.  In ‘txt’ output in a colour-supporting terminal,
negative amounts are shown in red.

   The ‘--related’/‘-r’ flag shows the balance of the _other_ postings
in the transactions of the postings which would normally be shown.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Simple balance report,  Next: Balance report line format,  Prev: balance features,  Up: balance

24.5.2 Simple balance report
----------------------------

With no arguments, ‘balance’ shows a list of all accounts and their
change of balance - ie, the sum of posting amounts, both inflows and
outflows - during the entire period of the journal.  ("Simple" here
means just one column of numbers, covering a single period.  You can
also have multi-period reports, described later.)

   For real-world accounts, these numbers will normally be their end
balance at the end of the journal period; more on this below.

   Accounts are sorted by declaration order if any, and then
alphabetically by account name.  For instance (using
examples/sample.journal):

$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal bal
                  $1  assets:bank:saving
                 $-2  assets:cash
                  $1  expenses:food
                  $1  expenses:supplies
                 $-1  income:gifts
                 $-1  income:salary
                  $1  liabilities:debts
--------------------
                   0  

   Accounts with a zero balance (and no non-zero subaccounts, in tree
mode - see below) are hidden by default.  Use ‘-E/--empty’ to show them
(revealing ‘assets:bank:checking’ here):

$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal bal  -E
                   0  assets:bank:checking
                  $1  assets:bank:saving
                 $-2  assets:cash
                  $1  expenses:food
                  $1  expenses:supplies
                 $-1  income:gifts
                 $-1  income:salary
                  $1  liabilities:debts
--------------------
                   0  

   The total of the amounts displayed is shown as the last line, unless
‘-N’/‘--no-total’ is used.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Balance report line format,  Next: Filtered balance report,  Prev: Simple balance report,  Up: balance

24.5.3 Balance report line format
---------------------------------

For single-period balance reports displayed in the terminal (only), you
can use ‘--format FMT’ to customise the format and content of each line.
Eg:

$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal balance --format "%20(account) %12(total)"
              assets          $-1
         bank:saving           $1
                cash          $-2
            expenses           $2
                food           $1
            supplies           $1
              income          $-2
               gifts          $-1
              salary          $-1
   liabilities:debts           $1
---------------------------------
                                0

   The FMT format string specifies the formatting applied to each
account/balance pair.  It may contain any suitable text, with data
fields interpolated like so:

   ‘%[MIN][.MAX](FIELDNAME)’

   • MIN pads with spaces to at least this width (optional)

   • MAX truncates at this width (optional)

   • FIELDNAME must be enclosed in parentheses, and can be one of:

        • ‘depth_spacer’ - a number of spaces equal to the account’s
          depth, or if MIN is specified, MIN * depth spaces.
        • ‘account’ - the account’s name
        • ‘total’ - the account’s balance/posted total, right justified

   Also, FMT can begin with an optional prefix to control how
multi-commodity amounts are rendered:

   • ‘%_’ - render on multiple lines, bottom-aligned (the default)
   • ‘%^’ - render on multiple lines, top-aligned
   • ‘%,’ - render on one line, comma-separated

   There are some quirks.  Eg in one-line mode, ‘%(depth_spacer)’ has no
effect, instead ‘%(account)’ has indentation built in.  Experimentation
may be needed to get pleasing results.

   Some example formats:

   • ‘%(total)’ - the account’s total
   • ‘%-20.20(account)’ - the account’s name, left justified, padded to
     20 characters and clipped at 20 characters
   • ‘%,%-50(account) %25(total)’ - account name padded to 50
     characters, total padded to 20 characters, with multiple
     commodities rendered on one line
   • ‘%20(total) %2(depth_spacer)%-(account)’ - the default format for
     the single-column balance report


File: hledger.info,  Node: Filtered balance report,  Next: List or tree mode,  Prev: Balance report line format,  Up: balance

24.5.4 Filtered balance report
------------------------------

You can show fewer accounts, a different time period, totals from
cleared transactions only, etc.  by using query arguments or options to
limit the postings being matched.  Eg:

$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal bal --cleared assets date:200806
                 $-2  assets:cash
--------------------
                 $-2  


File: hledger.info,  Node: List or tree mode,  Next: Depth limiting,  Prev: Filtered balance report,  Up: balance

24.5.5 List or tree mode
------------------------

By default, or with ‘-l/--flat’, accounts are shown as a flat list with
their full names visible, as in the examples above.

   With ‘-t/--tree’, the account hierarchy is shown, with subaccounts’
"leaf" names indented below their parent:

$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal balance
                 $-1  assets
                  $1    bank:saving
                 $-2    cash
                  $2  expenses
                  $1    food
                  $1    supplies
                 $-2  income
                 $-1    gifts
                 $-1    salary
                  $1  liabilities:debts
--------------------
                   0

   Notes:

   • "Boring" accounts are combined with their subaccount for more
     compact output, unless ‘--no-elide’ is used.  Boring accounts have
     no balance of their own and just one subaccount (eg ‘assets:bank’
     and ‘liabilities’ above).

   • All balances shown are "inclusive", ie including the balances from
     all subaccounts.  Note this means some repetition in the output,
     which requires explanation when sharing reports with
     non-plaintextaccounting-users.  A tree mode report’s final total is
     the sum of the top-level balances shown, not of all the balances
     shown.

   • Each group of sibling accounts (ie, under a common parent) is
     sorted separately.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Depth limiting,  Next: Dropping top-level accounts,  Prev: List or tree mode,  Up: balance

24.5.6 Depth limiting
---------------------

With a ‘depth:NUM’ query, or ‘--depth NUM’ option, or just ‘-NUM’ (eg:
‘-3’) balance reports will show accounts only to the specified depth,
hiding the deeper subaccounts.  This can be useful for getting an
overview without too much detail.

   Account balances at the depth limit always include the balances from
any deeper subaccounts (even in list mode).  Eg, limiting to depth 1:

$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal balance -1
                 $-1  assets
                  $2  expenses
                 $-2  income
                  $1  liabilities
--------------------
                   0  


File: hledger.info,  Node: Dropping top-level accounts,  Next: Showing declared accounts,  Prev: Depth limiting,  Up: balance

24.5.7 Dropping top-level accounts
----------------------------------

You can also hide one or more top-level account name parts, using
‘--drop NUM’.  This can be useful for hiding repetitive top-level
account names:

$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal bal expenses --drop 1
                  $1  food
                  $1  supplies
--------------------
                  $2  


File: hledger.info,  Node: Showing declared accounts,  Next: Sorting by amount,  Prev: Dropping top-level accounts,  Up: balance

24.5.8 Showing declared accounts
--------------------------------

With ‘--declared’, accounts which have been declared with an account
directive will be included in the balance report, even if they have no
transactions.  (Since they will have a zero balance, you will also need
‘-E/--empty’ to see them.)

   More precisely, _leaf_ declared accounts (with no subaccounts) will
be included, since those are usually the more useful in reports.

   The idea of this is to be able to see a useful "complete" balance
report, even when you don’t have transactions in all of your declared
accounts yet.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Sorting by amount,  Next: Percentages,  Prev: Showing declared accounts,  Up: balance

24.5.9 Sorting by amount
------------------------

With ‘-S/--sort-amount’, accounts with the largest (most positive)
balances are shown first.  Eg: ‘hledger bal expenses -MAS’ shows your
biggest averaged monthly expenses first.  When more than one commodity
is present, they will be sorted by the alphabetically earliest commodity
first, and then by subsequent commodities (if an amount is missing a
commodity, it is treated as 0).

   Revenues and liability balances are typically negative, however, so
‘-S’ shows these in reverse order.  To work around this, you can add
‘--invert’ to flip the signs.  (Or, use one of the higher-level reports,
which flip the sign automatically.  Eg: ‘hledger incomestatement -MAS’).


File: hledger.info,  Node: Percentages,  Next: Multi-period balance report,  Prev: Sorting by amount,  Up: balance

24.5.10 Percentages
-------------------

With ‘-%/--percent’, balance reports show each account’s value expressed
as a percentage of the (column) total.

   Note it is not useful to calculate percentages if the amounts in a
column have mixed signs.  In this case, make a separate report for each
sign, eg:

$ hledger bal -% amt:`>0`
$ hledger bal -% amt:`<0`

   Similarly, if the amounts in a column have mixed commodities, convert
them to one commodity with ‘-B’, ‘-V’, ‘-X’ or ‘--value’, or make a
separate report for each commodity:

$ hledger bal -% cur:\\$
$ hledger bal -% cur:€


File: hledger.info,  Node: Multi-period balance report,  Next: Balance change end balance,  Prev: Percentages,  Up: balance

24.5.11 Multi-period balance report
-----------------------------------

With a report interval (set by the ‘-D/--daily’, ‘-W/--weekly’,
‘-M/--monthly’, ‘-Q/--quarterly’, ‘-Y/--yearly’, or ‘-p/--period’ flag),
‘balance’ shows a tabular report, with columns representing successive
time periods (and a title):

$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal bal --quarterly income expenses -E
Balance changes in 2008:

                   ||  2008q1  2008q2  2008q3  2008q4 
===================++=================================
 expenses:food     ||       0      $1       0       0 
 expenses:supplies ||       0      $1       0       0 
 income:gifts      ||       0     $-1       0       0 
 income:salary     ||     $-1       0       0       0 
-------------------++---------------------------------
                   ||     $-1      $1       0       0 

   Notes:

   • The report’s start/end dates will be expanded, if necessary, to
     fully encompass the displayed subperiods (so that the first and
     last subperiods have the same duration as the others).
   • Leading and trailing periods (columns) containing all zeroes are
     not shown, unless ‘-E/--empty’ is used.
   • Accounts (rows) containing all zeroes are not shown, unless
     ‘-E/--empty’ is used.
   • Amounts with many commodities are shown in abbreviated form, unless
     ‘--no-elide’ is used.  _(experimental)_
   • Average and/or total columns can be added with the ‘-A/--average’
     and ‘-T/--row-total’ flags.
   • The ‘--transpose’ flag can be used to exchange rows and columns.
   • The ‘--pivot FIELD’ option causes a different transaction field to
     be used as "account name".  See PIVOTING.

   Multi-period reports with many periods can be too wide for easy
viewing in the terminal.  Here are some ways to handle that:

   • Hide the totals row with ‘-N/--no-total’
   • Convert to a single currency with ‘-V’
   • Maximize the terminal window
   • Reduce the terminal’s font size
   • View with a pager like less, eg: ‘hledger bal -D --color=yes | less
     -RS’
   • Output as CSV and use a CSV viewer like visidata (‘hledger bal -D
     -O csv | vd -f csv’), Emacs’ csv-mode (‘M-x csv-mode, C-c C-a’), or
     a spreadsheet (‘hledger bal -D -o a.csv && open a.csv’)
   • Output as HTML and view with a browser: ‘hledger bal -D -o a.html
     && open a.html’


File: hledger.info,  Node: Balance change end balance,  Next: Balance report types,  Prev: Multi-period balance report,  Up: balance

24.5.12 Balance change, end balance
-----------------------------------

It’s important to be clear on the meaning of the numbers shown in
balance reports.  Here is some terminology we use:

   A *_balance change_* is the net amount added to, or removed from, an
account during some period.

   An *_end balance_* is the amount accumulated in an account as of some
date (and some time, but hledger doesn’t store that; assume end of day
in your timezone).  It is the sum of previous balance changes.

   We call it a *_historical end balance_* if it includes all balance
changes since the account was created.  For a real world account, this
means it will match the "historical record", eg the balances reported in
your bank statements or bank web UI. (If they are correct!)

   In general, balance changes are what you want to see when reviewing
revenues and expenses, and historical end balances are what you want to
see when reviewing or reconciling asset, liability and equity accounts.

   ‘balance’ shows balance changes by default.  To see accurate
historical end balances:

  1. Initialise account starting balances with an "opening balances"
     transaction (a transfer from equity to the account), unless the
     journal covers the account’s full lifetime.

  2. Include all of of the account’s prior postings in the report, by
     not specifying a report start date, or by using the
     ‘-H/--historical’ flag.  (‘-H’ causes report start date to be
     ignored when summing postings.)


File: hledger.info,  Node: Balance report types,  Next: Budget report,  Prev: Balance change end balance,  Up: balance

24.5.13 Balance report types
----------------------------

The balance command is quite flexible; here is the full detail on how to
control what it reports.  If the following seems complicated, don’t
worry - this is for advanced reporting, and it does typically take some
time and experimentation to get clear on all these report modes.

   There are three important option groups:

   ‘hledger balance [CALCULATIONTYPE] [ACCUMULATIONTYPE] [VALUATIONTYPE]
...’

* Menu:

* Calculation type::
* Accumulation type::
* Valuation type::
* Combining balance report types::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Calculation type,  Next: Accumulation type,  Up: Balance report types

24.5.13.1 Calculation type
..........................

The basic calculation to perform for each table cell.  It is one of:

   • ‘--sum’ : sum the posting amounts (*default*)
   • ‘--budget’ : sum the amounts, but also show the budget goal amount
     (for each account/period)
   • ‘--valuechange’ : show the change in period-end historical balance
     values (caused by deposits, withdrawals, and/or market price
     fluctuations)
   • ‘--gain’ : show the unrealised capital gain/loss, (the current
     valued balance minus each amount’s original cost)


File: hledger.info,  Node: Accumulation type,  Next: Valuation type,  Prev: Calculation type,  Up: Balance report types

24.5.13.2 Accumulation type
...........................

How amounts should accumulate across report periods.  Another way to say
it: which time period’s postings should contribute to each cell’s
calculation.  It is one of:

   • ‘--change’ : calculate with postings from column start to column
     end, ie "just this column".  Typically used to see
     revenues/expenses.  (*default for balance, incomestatement*)

   • ‘--cumulative’ : calculate with postings from report start to
     column end, ie "previous columns plus this column".  Typically used
     to show changes accumulated since the report’s start date.  Not
     often used.

   • ‘--historical/-H’ : calculate with postings from journal start to
     column end, ie "all postings from before report start date until
     this column’s end".  Typically used to see historical end balances
     of assets/liabilities/equity.  (*default for balancesheet,
     balancesheetequity, cashflow*)


File: hledger.info,  Node: Valuation type,  Next: Combining balance report types,  Prev: Accumulation type,  Up: Balance report types

24.5.13.3 Valuation type
........................

Which kind of value or cost conversion should be applied, if any, before
displaying the report.  It is one of:

   • no valuation type : don’t convert to cost or value (*default*)
   • ‘--value=cost[,COMM]’ : convert amounts to cost (then optionally to
     some other commodity)
   • ‘--value=then[,COMM]’ : convert amounts to market value on
     transaction dates
   • ‘--value=end[,COMM]’ : convert amounts to market value on period
     end date(s)
     (*default with ‘--valuechange’, ‘--gain’*)
   • ‘--value=now[,COMM]’ : convert amounts to market value on today’s
     date
   • ‘--value=YYYY-MM-DD[,COMM]’ : convert amounts to market value on
     another date

   or one of the equivalent simpler flags:

   • ‘-B/--cost’ : like –value=cost (though, note –cost and –value are
     independent options which can both be used at once)
   • ‘-V/--market’ : like –value=end
   • ‘-X COMM/--exchange COMM’ : like –value=end,COMM

   See Cost reporting and Valuation for more about these.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Combining balance report types,  Prev: Valuation type,  Up: Balance report types

24.5.13.4 Combining balance report types
........................................

Most combinations of these options should produce reasonable reports,
but if you find any that seem wrong or misleading, let us know.  The
following restrictions are applied:

   • ‘--valuechange’ implies ‘--value=end’
   • ‘--valuechange’ makes ‘--change’ the default when used with the
     ‘balancesheet’/‘balancesheetequity’ commands
   • ‘--cumulative’ or ‘--historical’ disables ‘--row-total/-T’

   For reference, here is what the combinations of accumulation and
valuation show:

Valuation:>no valuation    ‘--value= then’   ‘--value= end’   ‘--value=
Accumulation:v                                                YYYY-MM-DD
                                                              /now’
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
‘--change’change in        sum of            period-end       DATE-value
         period            posting-date      value of         of change in
                           market values     change in        period
                           in period         period
‘--cumulative’change from  sum of            period-end       DATE-value
         report start to   posting-date      value of         of change
         period end        market values     change from      from report
                           from report       report start     start to
                           start to period   to period end    period end
                           end
‘--historicalchange from   sum of            period-end       DATE-value
/-H’     journal start     posting-date      value of         of change
         to period end     market values     change from      from journal
         (historical end   from journal      journal start    start to
         balance)          start to period   to period end    period end
                           end


File: hledger.info,  Node: Budget report,  Next: Data layout,  Prev: Balance report types,  Up: balance

24.5.14 Budget report
---------------------

The ‘--budget’ report type activates extra columns showing any budget
goals for each account and period.  The budget goals are defined by
periodic transactions.  This is useful for comparing planned and actual
income, expenses, time usage, etc.

   For example, you can take average monthly expenses in the common
expense categories to construct a minimal monthly budget:

;; Budget
~ monthly
  income  $2000
  expenses:food    $400
  expenses:bus     $50
  expenses:movies  $30
  assets:bank:checking

;; Two months worth of expenses
2017-11-01
  income  $1950
  expenses:food    $396
  expenses:bus     $49
  expenses:movies  $30
  expenses:supplies  $20
  assets:bank:checking

2017-12-01
  income  $2100
  expenses:food    $412
  expenses:bus     $53
  expenses:gifts   $100
  assets:bank:checking

   You can now see a monthly budget report:

$ hledger balance -M --budget
Budget performance in 2017/11/01-2017/12/31:

                      ||                      Nov                       Dec 
======================++====================================================
 assets               || $-2445 [  99% of $-2480]  $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] 
 assets:bank          || $-2445 [  99% of $-2480]  $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] 
 assets:bank:checking || $-2445 [  99% of $-2480]  $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] 
 expenses             ||   $495 [ 103% of   $480]    $565 [ 118% of   $480] 
 expenses:bus         ||    $49 [  98% of    $50]     $53 [ 106% of    $50] 
 expenses:food        ||   $396 [  99% of   $400]    $412 [ 103% of   $400] 
 expenses:movies      ||    $30 [ 100% of    $30]       0 [   0% of    $30] 
 income               ||  $1950 [  98% of  $2000]   $2100 [ 105% of  $2000] 
----------------------++----------------------------------------------------
                      ||      0 [              0]       0 [              0] 

   This is different from a normal balance report in several ways:

   • Only accounts with budget goals during the report period are shown,
     by default.

   • In each column, in square brackets after the actual amount, budget
     goal amounts are shown, and the actual/goal percentage.  (Note:
     budget goals should be in the same commodity as the actual amount.)

   • All parent accounts are always shown, even in list mode.  Eg
     assets, assets:bank, and expenses above.

   • Amounts always include all subaccounts, budgeted or unbudgeted,
     even in list mode.

   This means that the numbers displayed will not always add up!  Eg
above, the ‘expenses’ actual amount includes the gifts and supplies
transactions, but the ‘expenses:gifts’ and ‘expenses:supplies’ accounts
are not shown, as they have no budget amounts declared.

   This can be confusing.  When you need to make things clearer, use the
‘-E/--empty’ flag, which will reveal all accounts including unbudgeted
ones, giving the full picture.  Eg:

$ hledger balance -M --budget --empty
Budget performance in 2017/11/01-2017/12/31:

                      ||                      Nov                       Dec 
======================++====================================================
 assets               || $-2445 [  99% of $-2480]  $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] 
 assets:bank          || $-2445 [  99% of $-2480]  $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] 
 assets:bank:checking || $-2445 [  99% of $-2480]  $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] 
 expenses             ||   $495 [ 103% of   $480]    $565 [ 118% of   $480] 
 expenses:bus         ||    $49 [  98% of    $50]     $53 [ 106% of    $50] 
 expenses:food        ||   $396 [  99% of   $400]    $412 [ 103% of   $400] 
 expenses:gifts       ||      0                      $100                   
 expenses:movies      ||    $30 [ 100% of    $30]       0 [   0% of    $30] 
 expenses:supplies    ||    $20                         0                   
 income               ||  $1950 [  98% of  $2000]   $2100 [ 105% of  $2000] 
----------------------++----------------------------------------------------
                      ||      0 [              0]       0 [              0] 

   You can roll over unspent budgets to next period with ‘--cumulative’:

$ hledger balance -M --budget --cumulative
Budget performance in 2017/11/01-2017/12/31:

                      ||                      Nov                       Dec 
======================++====================================================
 assets               || $-2445 [  99% of $-2480]  $-5110 [ 103% of $-4960] 
 assets:bank          || $-2445 [  99% of $-2480]  $-5110 [ 103% of $-4960] 
 assets:bank:checking || $-2445 [  99% of $-2480]  $-5110 [ 103% of $-4960] 
 expenses             ||   $495 [ 103% of   $480]   $1060 [ 110% of   $960] 
 expenses:bus         ||    $49 [  98% of    $50]    $102 [ 102% of   $100] 
 expenses:food        ||   $396 [  99% of   $400]    $808 [ 101% of   $800] 
 expenses:movies      ||    $30 [ 100% of    $30]     $30 [  50% of    $60] 
 income               ||  $1950 [  98% of  $2000]   $4050 [ 101% of  $4000] 
----------------------++----------------------------------------------------
                      ||      0 [              0]       0 [              0] 

   For more examples and notes, see Budgeting.

* Menu:

* Budget report start date::
* Budgets and subaccounts::
* Selecting budget goals::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Budget report start date,  Next: Budgets and subaccounts,  Up: Budget report

24.5.14.1 Budget report start date
..................................

This might be a bug, but for now: when making budget reports, it’s a
good idea to explicitly set the report’s start date to the first day of
a reporting period, because a periodic rule like ‘~ monthly’ generates
its transactions on the 1st of each month, and if your journal has no
regular transactions on the 1st, the default report start date could
exclude that budget goal, which can be a little surprising.  Eg here the
default report period is just the day of 2020-01-15:

~ monthly in 2020
  (expenses:food)  $500

2020-01-15
  expenses:food    $400
  assets:checking

$ hledger bal expenses --budget
Budget performance in 2020-01-15:

              || 2020-01-15 
==============++============
 <unbudgeted> ||       $400 
--------------++------------
              ||       $400 

   To avoid this, specify the budget report’s period, or at least the
start date, with ‘-b’/‘-e’/‘-p’/‘date:’, to ensure it includes the
budget goal transactions (periodic transactions) that you want.  Eg,
adding ‘-b 2020/1/1’ to the above:

$ hledger bal expenses --budget -b 2020/1/1
Budget performance in 2020-01-01..2020-01-15:

               || 2020-01-01..2020-01-15 
===============++========================
 expenses:food ||     $400 [80% of $500] 
---------------++------------------------
               ||     $400 [80% of $500] 


File: hledger.info,  Node: Budgets and subaccounts,  Next: Selecting budget goals,  Prev: Budget report start date,  Up: Budget report

24.5.14.2 Budgets and subaccounts
.................................

You can add budgets to any account in your account hierarchy.  If you
have budgets on both parent account and some of its children, then
budget(s) of the child account(s) would be added to the budget of their
parent, much like account balances behave.

   In the most simple case this means that once you add a budget to any
account, all its parents would have budget as well.

   To illustrate this, consider the following budget:

~ monthly from 2019/01
    expenses:personal             $1,000.00
    expenses:personal:electronics    $100.00
    liabilities

   With this, monthly budget for electronics is defined to be $100 and
budget for personal expenses is an additional $1000, which implicitly
means that budget for both ‘expenses:personal’ and ‘expenses’ is $1100.

   Transactions in ‘expenses:personal:electronics’ will be counted both
towards its $100 budget and $1100 of ‘expenses:personal’ , and
transactions in any other subaccount of ‘expenses:personal’ would be
counted towards only towards the budget of ‘expenses:personal’.

   For example, let’s consider these transactions:

~ monthly from 2019/01
    expenses:personal             $1,000.00
    expenses:personal:electronics    $100.00
    liabilities

2019/01/01 Google home hub
    expenses:personal:electronics          $90.00
    liabilities                           $-90.00

2019/01/02 Phone screen protector
    expenses:personal:electronics:upgrades          $10.00
    liabilities

2019/01/02 Weekly train ticket
    expenses:personal:train tickets       $153.00
    liabilities

2019/01/03 Flowers
    expenses:personal          $30.00
    liabilities

   As you can see, we have transactions in
‘expenses:personal:electronics:upgrades’ and ‘expenses:personal:train
tickets’, and since both of these accounts are without explicitly
defined budget, these transactions would be counted towards budgets of
‘expenses:personal:electronics’ and ‘expenses:personal’ accordingly:

$ hledger balance --budget -M
Budget performance in 2019/01:

                               ||                           Jan 
===============================++===============================
 expenses                      ||  $283.00 [  26% of  $1100.00] 
 expenses:personal             ||  $283.00 [  26% of  $1100.00] 
 expenses:personal:electronics ||  $100.00 [ 100% of   $100.00] 
 liabilities                   || $-283.00 [  26% of $-1100.00] 
-------------------------------++-------------------------------
                               ||        0 [                 0] 

   And with ‘--empty’, we can get a better picture of budget allocation
and consumption:

$ hledger balance --budget -M --empty
Budget performance in 2019/01:

                                        ||                           Jan 
========================================++===============================
 expenses                               ||  $283.00 [  26% of  $1100.00] 
 expenses:personal                      ||  $283.00 [  26% of  $1100.00] 
 expenses:personal:electronics          ||  $100.00 [ 100% of   $100.00] 
 expenses:personal:electronics:upgrades ||   $10.00                      
 expenses:personal:train tickets        ||  $153.00                      
 liabilities                            || $-283.00 [  26% of $-1100.00] 
----------------------------------------++-------------------------------
                                        ||        0 [                 0] 


File: hledger.info,  Node: Selecting budget goals,  Prev: Budgets and subaccounts,  Up: Budget report

24.5.14.3 Selecting budget goals
................................

The budget report evaluates periodic transaction rules to generate
special "goal transactions", which generate the goal amounts for each
account in each report subperiod.  When troubleshooting, you can use the
print command to show these as forecasted transactions:

$ hledger print --forecast=BUDGETREPORTPERIOD tag:generated

   By default, the budget report uses all available periodic transaction
rules to generate goals.  This includes rules with a different report
interval from your report.  Eg if you have daily, weekly and monthly
periodic rules, all of these will contribute to the goals in a monthly
budget report.

   You can select a subset of periodic rules by providing an argument to
the ‘--budget’ flag.  ‘--budget=DESCPAT’ will match all periodic rules
whose description contains DESCPAT, a case-insensitive substring (not a
regular expression or query).  This means you can give your periodic
rules descriptions (remember that two spaces are needed), and then
select from multiple budgets defined in your journal.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Data layout,  Next: Useful balance reports,  Prev: Budget report,  Up: balance

24.5.15 Data layout
-------------------

The ‘--layout’ option affects how balance reports show multi-commodity
amounts and commodity symbols, which can improve readability.  It can
also normalise the data for easy consumption by other programs.  It has
four possible values:

   • ‘--layout=wide[,WIDTH]’: commodities are shown on a single line,
     optionally elided to WIDTH
   • ‘--layout=tall’: each commodity is shown on a separate line
   • ‘--layout=bare’: commodity symbols are in their own column, amounts
     are bare numbers
   • ‘--layout=tidy’: data is normalised to easily-consumed "tidy" form,
     with one row per data value

   Here are the ‘--layout’ modes supported by each output format; note
only CSV output supports all of them:

-      txt   csv   html   json   sql
---------------------------------------
wide   Y     Y     Y
tall   Y     Y     Y
bare   Y     Y     Y
tidy         Y

   Examples:

   • Wide layout.  With many commodities, reports can be very wide:

     $ hledger -f examples/bcexample.hledger bal assets:us:etrade -3 -T -Y --layout=wide
     Balance changes in 2012-01-01..2014-12-31:
     
                       ||                                          2012                                                     2013                                             2014                                                      Total 
     ==================++====================================================================================================================================================================================================================
      Assets:US:ETrade || 10.00 ITOT, 337.18 USD, 12.00 VEA, 106.00 VHT  70.00 GLD, 18.00 ITOT, -98.12 USD, 10.00 VEA, 18.00 VHT  -11.00 ITOT, 4881.44 USD, 14.00 VEA, 170.00 VHT  70.00 GLD, 17.00 ITOT, 5120.50 USD, 36.00 VEA, 294.00 VHT 
     ------------------++--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                       || 10.00 ITOT, 337.18 USD, 12.00 VEA, 106.00 VHT  70.00 GLD, 18.00 ITOT, -98.12 USD, 10.00 VEA, 18.00 VHT  -11.00 ITOT, 4881.44 USD, 14.00 VEA, 170.00 VHT  70.00 GLD, 17.00 ITOT, 5120.50 USD, 36.00 VEA, 294.00 VHT 

   • Limited wide layout.  A width limit reduces the width, but some
     commodities will be hidden:

     $ hledger -f examples/bcexample.hledger bal assets:us:etrade -3 -T -Y --layout=wide,32
     Balance changes in 2012-01-01..2014-12-31:
     
                       ||                             2012                             2013                   2014                            Total 
     ==================++===========================================================================================================================
      Assets:US:ETrade || 10.00 ITOT, 337.18 USD, 2 more..  70.00 GLD, 18.00 ITOT, 3 more..  -11.00 ITOT, 3 more..  70.00 GLD, 17.00 ITOT, 3 more.. 
     ------------------++---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                       || 10.00 ITOT, 337.18 USD, 2 more..  70.00 GLD, 18.00 ITOT, 3 more..  -11.00 ITOT, 3 more..  70.00 GLD, 17.00 ITOT, 3 more.. 

   • Tall layout.  Each commodity gets a new line (may be different in
     each column), and account names are repeated:

     $ hledger -f examples/bcexample.hledger bal assets:us:etrade -3 -T -Y --layout=tall
     Balance changes in 2012-01-01..2014-12-31:
     
                       ||       2012        2013         2014        Total 
     ==================++==================================================
      Assets:US:ETrade || 10.00 ITOT   70.00 GLD  -11.00 ITOT    70.00 GLD 
      Assets:US:ETrade || 337.18 USD  18.00 ITOT  4881.44 USD   17.00 ITOT 
      Assets:US:ETrade ||  12.00 VEA  -98.12 USD    14.00 VEA  5120.50 USD 
      Assets:US:ETrade || 106.00 VHT   10.00 VEA   170.00 VHT    36.00 VEA 
      Assets:US:ETrade ||              18.00 VHT                294.00 VHT 
     ------------------++--------------------------------------------------
                       || 10.00 ITOT   70.00 GLD  -11.00 ITOT    70.00 GLD 
                       || 337.18 USD  18.00 ITOT  4881.44 USD   17.00 ITOT 
                       ||  12.00 VEA  -98.12 USD    14.00 VEA  5120.50 USD 
                       || 106.00 VHT   10.00 VEA   170.00 VHT    36.00 VEA 
                       ||              18.00 VHT                294.00 VHT 

   • Bare layout.  Commodity symbols are kept in one column, each
     commodity gets its own report row, account names are repeated:

     $ hledger -f examples/bcexample.hledger bal assets:us:etrade -3 -T -Y --layout=bare
     Balance changes in 2012-01-01..2014-12-31:
     
                       || Commodity    2012    2013     2014    Total 
     ==================++=============================================
      Assets:US:ETrade || GLD             0   70.00        0    70.00 
      Assets:US:ETrade || ITOT        10.00   18.00   -11.00    17.00 
      Assets:US:ETrade || USD        337.18  -98.12  4881.44  5120.50 
      Assets:US:ETrade || VEA         12.00   10.00    14.00    36.00 
      Assets:US:ETrade || VHT        106.00   18.00   170.00   294.00 
     ------------------++---------------------------------------------
                       || GLD             0   70.00        0    70.00 
                       || ITOT        10.00   18.00   -11.00    17.00 
                       || USD        337.18  -98.12  4881.44  5120.50 
                       || VEA         12.00   10.00    14.00    36.00 
                       || VHT        106.00   18.00   170.00   294.00 

   • Bare layout also affects CSV output, which is useful for producing
     data that is easier to consume, eg for making charts:

     $ hledger -f examples/bcexample.hledger bal assets:us:etrade -3 -O csv --layout=bare
     "account","commodity","balance"
     "Assets:US:ETrade","GLD","70.00"
     "Assets:US:ETrade","ITOT","17.00"
     "Assets:US:ETrade","USD","5120.50"
     "Assets:US:ETrade","VEA","36.00"
     "Assets:US:ETrade","VHT","294.00"
     "total","GLD","70.00"
     "total","ITOT","17.00"
     "total","USD","5120.50"
     "total","VEA","36.00"
     "total","VHT","294.00"

   • Tidy layout produces normalised "tidy data", where every variable
     has its own column and each row represents a single data point.
     See
     https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/tidyr/vignettes/tidy-data.html
     for more.  This is the easiest kind of data for other software to
     consume.  Here’s how it looks:

     $ hledger -f examples/bcexample.hledger bal assets:us:etrade -3 -Y -O csv --layout=tidy
     "account","period","start_date","end_date","commodity","value"
     "Assets:US:ETrade","2012","2012-01-01","2012-12-31","GLD","0"
     "Assets:US:ETrade","2012","2012-01-01","2012-12-31","ITOT","10.00"
     "Assets:US:ETrade","2012","2012-01-01","2012-12-31","USD","337.18"
     "Assets:US:ETrade","2012","2012-01-01","2012-12-31","VEA","12.00"
     "Assets:US:ETrade","2012","2012-01-01","2012-12-31","VHT","106.00"
     "Assets:US:ETrade","2013","2013-01-01","2013-12-31","GLD","70.00"
     "Assets:US:ETrade","2013","2013-01-01","2013-12-31","ITOT","18.00"
     "Assets:US:ETrade","2013","2013-01-01","2013-12-31","USD","-98.12"
     "Assets:US:ETrade","2013","2013-01-01","2013-12-31","VEA","10.00"
     "Assets:US:ETrade","2013","2013-01-01","2013-12-31","VHT","18.00"
     "Assets:US:ETrade","2014","2014-01-01","2014-12-31","GLD","0"
     "Assets:US:ETrade","2014","2014-01-01","2014-12-31","ITOT","-11.00"
     "Assets:US:ETrade","2014","2014-01-01","2014-12-31","USD","4881.44"
     "Assets:US:ETrade","2014","2014-01-01","2014-12-31","VEA","14.00"
     "Assets:US:ETrade","2014","2014-01-01","2014-12-31","VHT","170.00"


File: hledger.info,  Node: Useful balance reports,  Prev: Data layout,  Up: balance

24.5.16 Useful balance reports
------------------------------

Some frequently used ‘balance’ options/reports are:

   • ‘bal -M revenues expenses’
     Show revenues/expenses in each month.  Also available as the
     ‘incomestatement’ command.

   • ‘bal -M -H assets liabilities’
     Show historical asset/liability balances at each month end.  Also
     available as the ‘balancesheet’ command.

   • ‘bal -M -H assets liabilities equity’
     Show historical asset/liability/equity balances at each month end.
     Also available as the ‘balancesheetequity’ command.

   • ‘bal -M assets not:receivable’
     Show changes to liquid assets in each month.  Also available as the
     ‘cashflow’ command.

   Also:

   • ‘bal -M expenses -2 -SA’
     Show monthly expenses summarised to depth 2 and sorted by average
     amount.

   • ‘bal -M --budget expenses’
     Show monthly expenses and budget goals.

   • ‘bal -M --valuechange investments’
     Show monthly change in market value of investment assets.

   • ‘bal investments --valuechange -D date:lastweek amt:'>1000' -STA
     [--invert]’
     Show top gainers [or losers] last week


File: hledger.info,  Node: balancesheet,  Next: balancesheetequity,  Prev: balance,  Up: PART 4 COMMANDS

24.6 balancesheet
=================

balancesheet, bs
This command displays a balance sheet, showing historical ending
balances of asset and liability accounts.  (To see equity as well, use
the balancesheetequity command.)  Amounts are shown with normal positive
sign, as in conventional financial statements.

   This report shows accounts declared with the ‘Asset’, ‘Cash’ or
‘Liability’ type (see account types).  Or if no such accounts are
declared, it shows top-level accounts named ‘asset’ or ‘liability’ (case
insensitive, plurals allowed) and their subaccounts.

   Example:

$ hledger balancesheet
Balance Sheet

Assets:
                 $-1  assets
                  $1    bank:saving
                 $-2    cash
--------------------
                 $-1

Liabilities:
                  $1  liabilities:debts
--------------------
                  $1

Total:
--------------------
                   0

   This command is a higher-level variant of the ‘balance’ command, and
supports many of that command’s features, such as multi-period reports.
It is similar to ‘hledger balance -H assets liabilities’, but with
smarter account detection, and liabilities displayed with their sign
flipped.

   This command also supports the output destination and output format
options The output formats supported are ‘txt’, ‘csv’, ‘html’, and
(experimental) ‘json’.


File: hledger.info,  Node: balancesheetequity,  Next: cashflow,  Prev: balancesheet,  Up: PART 4 COMMANDS

24.7 balancesheetequity
=======================

balancesheetequity, bse
This command displays a balance sheet, showing historical ending
balances of asset, liability and equity accounts.  Amounts are shown
with normal positive sign, as in conventional financial statements.

   This report shows accounts declared with the ‘Asset’, ‘Cash’,
‘Liability’ or ‘Equity’ type (see account types).  Or if no such
accounts are declared, it shows top-level accounts named ‘asset’,
‘liability’ or ‘equity’ (case insensitive, plurals allowed) and their
subaccounts.

   Example:

$ hledger balancesheetequity
Balance Sheet With Equity

Assets:
                 $-2  assets
                  $1    bank:saving
                 $-3    cash
--------------------
                 $-2

Liabilities:
                  $1  liabilities:debts
--------------------
                  $1

Equity:
          $1  equity:owner
--------------------
          $1

Total:
--------------------
                   0

   This command is a higher-level variant of the ‘balance’ command, and
supports many of that command’s features, such as multi-period reports.
It is similar to ‘hledger balance -H assets liabilities equity’, but
with smarter account detection, and liabilities/equity displayed with
their sign flipped.

   This command also supports the output destination and output format
options The output formats supported are ‘txt’, ‘csv’, ‘html’, and
(experimental) ‘json’.


File: hledger.info,  Node: cashflow,  Next: check,  Prev: balancesheetequity,  Up: PART 4 COMMANDS

24.8 cashflow
=============

cashflow, cf
This command displays a cashflow statement, showing the inflows and
outflows affecting "cash" (ie, liquid, easily convertible) assets.
Amounts are shown with normal positive sign, as in conventional
financial statements.

   This report shows accounts declared with the ‘Cash’ type (see account
types).  Or if no such accounts are declared, it shows accounts

   • under a top-level account named ‘asset’ (case insensitive, plural
     allowed)
   • whose name contains some variation of ‘cash’, ‘bank’, ‘checking’ or
     ‘saving’.

   More precisely: all accounts matching this case insensitive regular
expression:

   ‘^assets?(:.+)?:(cash|bank|che(ck|que?)(ing)?|savings?|currentcash)(:|$)’

   and their subaccounts.

   An example cashflow report:

$ hledger cashflow
Cashflow Statement

Cash flows:
                 $-1  assets
                  $1    bank:saving
                 $-2    cash
--------------------
                 $-1

Total:
--------------------
                 $-1

   This command is a higher-level variant of the ‘balance’ command, and
supports many of that command’s features, such as multi-period reports.
It is similar to ‘hledger balance assets not:fixed not:investment
not:receivable’, but with smarter account detection.

   This command also supports the output destination and output format
options The output formats supported are ‘txt’, ‘csv’, ‘html’, and
(experimental) ‘json’.


File: hledger.info,  Node: check,  Next: close,  Prev: cashflow,  Up: PART 4 COMMANDS

24.9 check
==========

check
Check for various kinds of errors in your data.

   hledger provides a number of built-in error checks to help prevent
problems in your data.  Some of these are run automatically; or, you can
use this ‘check’ command to run them on demand, with no output and a
zero exit code if all is well.  Specify their names (or a prefix) as
argument(s).

   Some examples:

hledger check      # basic checks
hledger check -s   # basic + strict checks
hledger check ordereddates payees  # basic + two other checks

   If you are an Emacs user, you can also configure flycheck-hledger to
run these checks, providing instant feedback as you edit the journal.

   Here are the checks currently available:

* Menu:

* Basic checks::
* Strict checks::
* Other checks::
* Custom checks::
* More about specific checks::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Basic checks,  Next: Strict checks,  Up: check

24.9.1 Basic checks
-------------------

These checks are always run automatically, by (almost) all hledger
commands, including ‘check’:

   • *parseable* - data files are well-formed and can be successfully
     parsed

   • *balancedwithautoconversion* - all transactions are balanced,
     inferring missing amounts where necessary, and possibly converting
     commodities using costs or automatically-inferred costs

   • *assertions* - all balance assertions in the journal are passing.
     (This check can be disabled with ‘-I’/‘--ignore-assertions’.)


File: hledger.info,  Node: Strict checks,  Next: Other checks,  Prev: Basic checks,  Up: check

24.9.2 Strict checks
--------------------

These additional checks are run when the ‘-s’/‘--strict’ (strict mode)
flag is used.  Or, they can be run by giving their names as arguments to
‘check’:

   • *accounts* - all account names used by transactions have been
     declared

   • *commodities* - all commodity symbols used have been declared

   • *balancednoautoconversion* - transactions are balanced, possibly
     using explicit costs but not inferred ones


File: hledger.info,  Node: Other checks,  Next: Custom checks,  Prev: Strict checks,  Up: check

24.9.3 Other checks
-------------------

These checks can be run only by giving their names as arguments to
‘check’.  They are more specialised and not desirable for everyone,
therefore optional:

   • *ordereddates* - transactions are ordered by date within each file

   • *payees* - all payees used by transactions have been declared

   • *recentassertions* - all accounts with balance assertions have a
     balance assertion no more than 7 days before their latest posting

   • *uniqueleafnames* - all account leaf names are unique


File: hledger.info,  Node: Custom checks,  Next: More about specific checks,  Prev: Other checks,  Up: check

24.9.4 Custom checks
--------------------

A few more checks are are available as separate add-on commands, in
https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/tree/master/bin:

   • *hledger-check-tagfiles* - all tag values containing / (a forward
     slash) exist as file paths

   • *hledger-check-fancyassertions* - more complex balance assertions
     are passing

   You could make similar scripts to perform your own custom checks.
See: Cookbook -> Scripting.


File: hledger.info,  Node: More about specific checks,  Prev: Custom checks,  Up: check

24.9.5 More about specific checks
---------------------------------

‘hledger check recentassertions’ will complain if any balance-asserted
account does not have a balance assertion within 7 days before its
latest posting.  This aims to prevent the situation where you are
regularly updating your journal, but forgetting to check your balances
against the real world, then one day must dig back through months of
data to find an error.  It assumes that adding a balance assertion
requires/reminds you to check the real-world balance.  That may not be
true if you auto-generate balance assertions from bank data; in that
case, I recommend to import transactions uncleared, then use the
manual-review-and-mark-cleared phase as a reminder to check the latest
assertions against real-world balances.


File: hledger.info,  Node: close,  Next: codes,  Prev: check,  Up: PART 4 COMMANDS

24.10 close
===========

close, equity
Prints a sample "closing" transaction bringing specified account
balances to zero, and an inverse "opening" transaction restoring the
same account balances.

   If like most people you split your journal files by time, eg by year:
at the end of the year you can use this command to "close out" your
asset and liability (and perhaps equity) balances in the old file, and
reinitialise them in the new file.  This helps ensure that report
balances remain correct whether you are including old files or not.
(Because all closing/opening transactions except the very first will
cancel out - see example below.)

   Some people also use this command to close out revenue and expense
balances at the end of an accounting period.  This properly records the
period’s profit/loss as "retained earnings" (part of equity), and allows
the accounting equation (A-L=E) to balance, which you could then check
by the bse report’s zero total.

   You can print just the closing transaction by using the ‘--close’
flag, or just the opening transaction with the ‘--open’ flag.

   Their descriptions are ‘closing balances’ and ‘opening balances’ by
default; you can customise these with the ‘--close-desc’ and
‘--open-desc’ options.

   Just one balancing equity posting is used by default, with the amount
left implicit.  The default account name is ‘equity:opening/closing
balances’.  You can customise the account name(s) with ‘--close-acct’
and ‘--open-acct’.  (If you specify only one of these, it will be used
for both.)

   With ‘--x/--explicit’, the equity posting’s amount will be shown
explicitly, and if it involves multiple commodities, there will be a
separate equity posting for each commodity (as in the print command).

   With ‘--interleaved’, each equity posting is shown next to the
posting it balances (good for troubleshooting).

* Menu:

* close and costs::
* close date::
* Example close asset/liability accounts for file transition::
* Hiding opening/closing transactions::
* close and balance assertions::
* Example close revenue/expense accounts to retained earnings::


File: hledger.info,  Node: close and costs,  Next: close date,  Up: close

24.10.1 close and costs
-----------------------

Costs are ignored (and discarded) by closing/opening transactions, by
default.  With ‘--show-costs’, they are preserved; there will be a
separate equity posting for each cost in each commodity.  This means
‘balance -B’ reports will look the same after the transition.  Note if
you have many foreign currency or investment transactions, this will
generate very large journal entries.


File: hledger.info,  Node: close date,  Next: Example close asset/liability accounts for file transition,  Prev: close and costs,  Up: close

24.10.2 close date
------------------

The default closing date is yesterday, or the journal’s end date,
whichever is later.

   Unless you are running ‘close’ on exactly the first day of the new
period, you’ll want to override the closing date.  This is done by
specifying a report end date, where "last day of the report period" will
be the closing date.  The opening date is always the following day.  So
to close on (end of) 2020-12-31 and open on (start of) 2021-01-01, any
of these will work:

end date        explanation
argument
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
‘-e             end dates are exclusive
2021-01-01’
‘-e 2021’       equivalent, per smart dates
‘-p 2020’       equivalent, the period’s begin date is ignored
‘date:2020’     equivalent query


File: hledger.info,  Node: Example close asset/liability accounts for file transition,  Next: Hiding opening/closing transactions,  Prev: close date,  Up: close

24.10.3 Example: close asset/liability accounts for file transition
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Carrying asset/liability balances from 2020.journal into a new file for
2021:

$ hledger close -f 2020.journal -p 2020 assets liabilities
# copy/paste the closing transaction to the end of 2020.journal
# copy/paste the opening transaction to the start of 2021.journal

   Or:

$ hledger close -f 2020.journal -p 2020 assets liabilities --open  >> 2021.journal  # add 2021's first transaction
$ hledger close -f 2020.journal -p 2020 assets liabilities --close >> 2020.journal  # add 2020's last transaction

   Now,

$ hledger bs -f 2021.journal                   # just new file - balances correct
$ hledger bs -f 2020.journal -f 2021.journal   # old and new files - balances correct
$ hledger bs -f 2020.journal                   # just old files - balances are zero ?
                                               # (exclude final closing txn, see below)


File: hledger.info,  Node: Hiding opening/closing transactions,  Next: close and balance assertions,  Prev: Example close asset/liability accounts for file transition,  Up: close

24.10.4 Hiding opening/closing transactions
-------------------------------------------

Although the closing/opening transactions cancel out, they will be
visible in reports like ‘print’ and ‘register’, creating some visual
clutter.  You can exclude them all with a query, like:

$ hledger print not:desc:'opening|closing'             # less typing
$ hledger print not:'equity:opening/closing balances'  # more precise

   But when reporting on multiple files, this can get a bit tricky; you
may need to keep the earliest opening balances, for a historical
register report; or you may need to suppress a closing transaction, to
see year-end balances.  If you find yourself needing more precise
queries, here’s one solution: add more easily-matched tags to
opening/closing transactions, like this:

; 2019.journal
2019-01-01 opening balances  ; earliest opening txn, no tag here
...
2019-12-31 closing balances  ; clopen:2020
...

; 2020.journal
2020-01-01 opening balances  ; clopen:2020
...
2020-12-31 closing balances  ; clopen:2021
...

; 2021.journal
2021-01-01 opening balances  ; clopen:2021
...

   Now with

; all.journal
include 2019.journal
include 2020.journal
include 2021.journal

   you could do eg:

$ hledger -f all.journal reg -H checking not:tag:clopen
    # all years checking register, hiding non-essential opening/closing txns

$ hledger -f all.journal bs -p 2020 not:tag:clopen=2020
    # 2020 year end balances, suppressing 2020 closing txn


File: hledger.info,  Node: close and balance assertions,  Next: Example close revenue/expense accounts to retained earnings,  Prev: Hiding opening/closing transactions,  Up: close

24.10.5 close and balance assertions
------------------------------------

The closing and opening transactions will include balance assertions,
verifying that the accounts have first been reset to zero and then
restored to their previous balance.  These provide valuable error
checking, alerting you when things get out of line, but you can ignore
them temporarily with ‘-I’ or just remove them if you prefer.

   You probably shouldn’t use status or realness filters (like -C or -R
or ‘status:’) with ‘close’, or the generated balance assertions will
depend on these flags.  Likewise, if you run this command with ‘--auto’,
the balance assertions would probably always require ‘--auto’.

   Multi-day transactions (where some postings have a different date)
break the balance assertions, because the money is temporarily
"invisible" while in transit:

2020/12/30 a purchase made in december, cleared in the next year
    expenses:food          5
    assets:bank:checking  -5  ; date: 2021/1/2

   To fix the assertions, you can add a temporary account to track such
in-transit money (splitting the multi-day transaction into two
single-day transactions):

; in 2020.journal:
2020/12/30 a purchase made in december, cleared in the next year
    expenses:food          5
    liabilities:pending

; in 2021.journal:
2021/1/2 clearance of last year's pending transactions
    liabilities:pending    5 = 0
    assets:bank:checking


File: hledger.info,  Node: Example close revenue/expense accounts to retained earnings,  Prev: close and balance assertions,  Up: close

24.10.6 Example: close revenue/expense accounts to retained earnings
--------------------------------------------------------------------

For this, use ‘--close’ to suppress the opening transaction, as it’s not
needed.  Also you’ll want to change the equity account name to your
equivalent of "equity:retained earnings".

   Closing 2021’s first quarter revenues/expenses:

$ hledger close -f 2021.journal --close revenues expenses -p 2021Q1 \
    --close-acct='equity:retained earnings' >> 2021.journal

   The same, using the default journal and current year:

$ hledger close --close revenues expenses -p Q1 \
    --close-acct='equity:retained earnings' >> $LEDGER_FILE

   Now, the first quarter’s balance sheet should show a zero (unless you
are using @/@@ notation without equity postings):

$ hledger bse -p Q1

   And we must suppress the closing transaction to see the first
quarter’s income statement (using the description; ‘not:'retained
earnings'’ won’t work here):

$ hledger is -p Q1 not:desc:'closing balances'


File: hledger.info,  Node: codes,  Next: commodities,  Prev: close,  Up: PART 4 COMMANDS

24.11 codes
===========

codes
List the codes seen in transactions, in the order parsed.

   This command prints the value of each transaction’s code field, in
the order transactions were parsed.  The transaction code is an optional
value written in parentheses between the date and description, often
used to store a cheque number, order number or similar.

   Transactions aren’t required to have a code, and missing or empty
codes will not be shown by default.  With the ‘-E’/‘--empty’ flag, they
will be printed as blank lines.

   You can add a query to select a subset of transactions.

   Examples:

2022/1/1 (123) Supermarket   
 Food       $5.00
 Checking    

2022/1/2 (124) Post Office
 Postage    $8.32
 Checking

2022/1/3 Supermarket
 Food      $11.23
 Checking 

2022/1/4 (126) Post Office
 Postage    $3.21
 Checking

$ hledger codes
123
124
126

$ hledger codes -E
123
124

126


File: hledger.info,  Node: commodities,  Next: descriptions,  Prev: codes,  Up: PART 4 COMMANDS

24.12 commodities
=================

commodities
List all commodity/currency symbols used or declared in the journal.


File: hledger.info,  Node: descriptions,  Next: diff,  Prev: commodities,  Up: PART 4 COMMANDS

24.13 descriptions
==================

descriptions
List the unique descriptions that appear in transactions.

   This command lists the unique descriptions that appear in
transactions, in alphabetic order.  You can add a query to select a
subset of transactions.

   Example:

$ hledger descriptions
Store Name
Gas Station | Petrol
Person A


File: hledger.info,  Node: diff,  Next: files,  Prev: descriptions,  Up: PART 4 COMMANDS

24.14 diff
==========

diff
Compares a particular account’s transactions in two input files.  It
shows any transactions to this account which are in one file but not in
the other.

   More precisely, for each posting affecting this account in either
file, it looks for a corresponding posting in the other file which posts
the same amount to the same account (ignoring date, description, etc.)
Since postings not transactions are compared, this also works when
multiple bank transactions have been combined into a single journal
entry.

   This is useful eg if you have downloaded an account’s transactions
from your bank (eg as CSV data).  When hledger and your bank disagree
about the account balance, you can compare the bank data with your
journal to find out the cause.

   Examples:

$ hledger diff -f $LEDGER_FILE -f bank.csv assets:bank:giro 
These transactions are in the first file only:

2014/01/01 Opening Balances
    assets:bank:giro              EUR ...
    ...
    equity:opening balances       EUR -...

These transactions are in the second file only:


File: hledger.info,  Node: files,  Next: help,  Prev: diff,  Up: PART 4 COMMANDS

24.15 files
===========

files
List all files included in the journal.  With a REGEX argument, only
file names matching the regular expression (case sensitive) are shown.


File: hledger.info,  Node: help,  Next: import,  Prev: files,  Up: PART 4 COMMANDS

24.16 help
==========

help
Show the hledger user manual in the terminal, with ‘info’, ‘man’, or a
pager.  With a TOPIC argument, open it at that topic if possible.  TOPIC
can be any heading in the manual, or a heading prefix, case insensitive.
Eg: ‘commands’, ‘print’, ‘forecast’, ‘journal’, ‘amount’, ‘"auto
postings"’.

   This command shows the hledger manual built in to your hledger
version.  It can be useful when offline, or when you prefer the terminal
to a web browser, or when the appropriate hledger manual or viewing
tools are not installed on your system.

   By default it chooses the best viewer found in $PATH (preferring info
since the hledger manual is large).  You can select a particular viewer
with the ‘-i’, ‘-m’, or ‘-p’ flags.

   Examples

$ hledger help --help    # show how the help command works
$ hledger help           # show the hledger manual with info, man or $PAGER
$ hledger help journal   # show the journal topic in the hledger manual


File: hledger.info,  Node: import,  Next: incomestatement,  Prev: help,  Up: PART 4 COMMANDS

24.17 import
============

import
Read new transactions added to each FILE since last run, and add them to
the journal.  Or with –dry-run, just print the transactions that would
be added.  Or with –catchup, just mark all of the FILEs’ transactions as
imported, without actually importing any.

   This command may append new transactions to the main journal file
(which should be in journal format).  Existing transactions are not
changed.  This is one of the few hledger commands that writes to the
journal file (see also ‘add’).

   Unlike other hledger commands, with ‘import’ the journal file is an
output file, and will be modified, though only by appending (existing
data will not be changed).  The input files are specified as arguments,
so to import one or more CSV files to your main journal, you will run
‘hledger import bank.csv’ or perhaps ‘hledger import *.csv’.

   Note you can import from any file format, though CSV files are the
most common import source, and these docs focus on that case.

* Menu:

* Deduplication::
* Import testing::
* Importing balance assignments::
* Commodity display styles::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Deduplication,  Next: Import testing,  Up: import

24.17.1 Deduplication
---------------------

As a convenience ‘import’ does _deduplication_ while reading
transactions.  This does not mean "ignore transactions that look the
same", but rather "ignore transactions that have been seen before".
This is intended for when you are periodically importing foreign data
which may contain already-imported transactions.  So eg, if every day
you download bank CSV files containing redundant data, you can safely
run ‘hledger import bank.csv’ and only new transactions will be
imported.  (‘import’ is idempotent.)

   Since the items being read (CSV records, eg) often do not come with
unique identifiers, hledger detects new transactions by date, assuming
that:

  1. new items always have the newest dates
  2. item dates do not change across reads
  3. and items with the same date remain in the same relative order
     across reads.

   These are often true of CSV files representing transactions, or true
enough so that it works pretty well in practice.  1 is important, but
violations of 2 and 3 amongst the old transactions won’t matter (and if
you import often, the new transactions will be few, so less likely to be
the ones affected).

   hledger remembers the latest date processed in each input file by
saving a hidden ".latest" state file in the same directory.  Eg when
reading ‘finance/bank.csv’, it will look for and update the
‘finance/.latest.bank.csv’ state file.  The format is simple: one or
more lines containing the same ISO-format date (YYYY-MM-DD), meaning "I
have processed transactions up to this date, and this many of them on
that date."  Normally you won’t see or manipulate these state files
yourself.  But if needed, you can delete them to reset the state (making
all transactions "new"), or you can construct them to "catch up" to a
certain date.

   Note deduplication (and updating of state files) can also be done by
‘print --new’, but this is less often used.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Import testing,  Next: Importing balance assignments,  Prev: Deduplication,  Up: import

24.17.2 Import testing
----------------------

With ‘--dry-run’, the transactions that will be imported are printed to
the terminal, without updating your journal or state files.  The output
is valid journal format, like the print command, so you can re-parse it.
Eg, to see any importable transactions which CSV rules have not
categorised:

$ hledger import --dry bank.csv | hledger -f- -I print unknown

   or (live updating):

$ ls bank.csv* | entr bash -c 'echo ====; hledger import --dry bank.csv | hledger -f- -I print unknown'


File: hledger.info,  Node: Importing balance assignments,  Next: Commodity display styles,  Prev: Import testing,  Up: import

24.17.3 Importing balance assignments
-------------------------------------

Entries added by import will have their posting amounts made explicit
(like ‘hledger print -x’).  This means that any balance assignments in
imported files must be evaluated; but, imported files don’t get to see
the main file’s account balances.  As a result, importing entries with
balance assignments (eg from an institution that provides only balances
and not posting amounts) will probably generate incorrect posting
amounts.  To avoid this problem, use print instead of import:

$ hledger print IMPORTFILE [--new] >> $LEDGER_FILE

   (If you think import should leave amounts implicit like print does,
please test it and send a pull request.)


File: hledger.info,  Node: Commodity display styles,  Prev: Importing balance assignments,  Up: import

24.17.4 Commodity display styles
--------------------------------

Imported amounts will be formatted according to the canonical commodity
styles (declared or inferred) in the main journal file.


File: hledger.info,  Node: incomestatement,  Next: notes,  Prev: import,  Up: PART 4 COMMANDS

24.18 incomestatement
=====================

incomestatement, is
This command displays an income statement, showing revenues and expenses
during one or more periods.  Amounts are shown with normal positive
sign, as in conventional financial statements.

   This report shows accounts declared with the ‘Revenue’ or ‘Expense’
type (see account types).  Or if no such accounts are declared, it shows
top-level accounts named ‘revenue’ or ‘income’ or ‘expense’ (case
insensitive, plurals allowed) and their subaccounts.

   Example:

$ hledger incomestatement
Income Statement

Revenues:
                 $-2  income
                 $-1    gifts
                 $-1    salary
--------------------
                 $-2

Expenses:
                  $2  expenses
                  $1    food
                  $1    supplies
--------------------
                  $2

Total:
--------------------
                   0

   This command is a higher-level variant of the ‘balance’ command, and
supports many of that command’s features, such as multi-period reports.
It is similar to ‘hledger balance '(revenues|income)' expenses’, but
with smarter account detection, and revenues/income displayed with their
sign flipped.

   This command also supports the output destination and output format
options The output formats supported are ‘txt’, ‘csv’, ‘html’, and
(experimental) ‘json’.


File: hledger.info,  Node: notes,  Next: payees,  Prev: incomestatement,  Up: PART 4 COMMANDS

24.19 notes
===========

notes
List the unique notes that appear in transactions.

   This command lists the unique notes that appear in transactions, in
alphabetic order.  You can add a query to select a subset of
transactions.  The note is the part of the transaction description after
a | character (or if there is no |, the whole description).

   Example:

$ hledger notes
Petrol
Snacks


File: hledger.info,  Node: payees,  Next: prices,  Prev: notes,  Up: PART 4 COMMANDS

24.20 payees
============

payees
List the unique payee/payer names that appear in transactions.

   This command lists unique payee/payer names which have been declared
with payee directives (–declared), used in transaction descriptions
(–used), or both (the default).

   The payee/payer is the part of the transaction description before a |
character (or if there is no |, the whole description).

   You can add query arguments to select a subset of transactions.  This
implies –used.

   Example:

$ hledger payees
Store Name
Gas Station
Person A


File: hledger.info,  Node: prices,  Next: print,  Prev: payees,  Up: PART 4 COMMANDS

24.21 prices
============

prices
Print market price directives from the journal.  With
–infer-market-prices, generate additional market prices from costs.
With –infer-reverse-prices, also generate market prices by inverting
known prices.  Prices can be filtered by a query.  Price amounts are
displayed with their full precision.


File: hledger.info,  Node: print,  Next: print-unique,  Prev: prices,  Up: PART 4 COMMANDS

24.22 print
===========

print
Show transaction journal entries, sorted by date.

   The print command displays full journal entries (transactions) from
the journal file, sorted by date (or with ‘--date2’, by secondary date).

   Amounts are shown mostly normalised to commodity display style, eg
the placement of commodity symbols will be consistent.  All of their
decimal places are shown, as in the original journal entry (with one
alteration: in some cases trailing zeroes are added.)

   Amounts are shown right-aligned within each transaction (but not
across all transactions).

   Directives and inter-transaction comments are not shown, currently.
This means the print command is somewhat lossy, and if you are using it
to reformat your journal you should take care to also copy over the
directives and file-level comments.

   Eg:

$ hledger print
2008/01/01 income
    assets:bank:checking            $1
    income:salary                  $-1

2008/06/01 gift
    assets:bank:checking            $1
    income:gifts                   $-1

2008/06/02 save
    assets:bank:saving              $1
    assets:bank:checking           $-1

2008/06/03 * eat & shop
    expenses:food                $1
    expenses:supplies            $1
    assets:cash                 $-2

2008/12/31 * pay off
    liabilities:debts               $1
    assets:bank:checking           $-1

   print’s output is usually a valid hledger journal, and you can
process it again with a second hledger command.  This can be useful for
certain kinds of search, eg:

# Show running total of food expenses paid from cash.
# -f- reads from stdin. -I/--ignore-assertions is sometimes needed.
$ hledger print assets:cash | hledger -f- -I reg expenses:food

   There are some situations where print’s output can become
unparseable:

   • Valuation affects posting amounts but not balance assertion or
     balance assignment amounts, potentially causing those to fail.
   • Auto postings can generate postings with too many missing amounts.
   • Account aliases can generate bad account names.

   Normally, the journal entry’s explicit or implicit amount style is
preserved.  For example, when an amount is omitted in the journal, it
will not appear in the output.  Similarly, when a cost is implied but
not written, it will not appear in the output.  You can use the
‘-x’/‘--explicit’ flag to make all amounts and costs explicit, which can
be useful for troubleshooting or for making your journal more readable
and robust against data entry errors.  ‘-x’ is also implied by using any
of ‘-B’,‘-V’,‘-X’,‘--value’.

   Note, ‘-x’/‘--explicit’ will cause postings with a multi-commodity
amount (these can arise when a multi-commodity transaction has an
implicit amount) to be split into multiple single-commodity postings,
keeping the output parseable.

   With ‘-B’/‘--cost’, amounts with costs are converted to cost using
that price.  This can be used for troubleshooting.

   With ‘-m DESC’/‘--match=DESC’, print does a fuzzy search for the one
transaction whose description is most similar to DESC, also preferring
recent tranactions.  DESC should contain at least two characters.  If
there is no similar-enough match, no transaction will be shown and the
program exit code will be non-zero.

   With ‘--new’, hledger prints only transactions it has not seen on a
previous run.  This uses the same deduplication system as the ‘import’
command.  (See import’s docs for details.)

   This command also supports the output destination and output format
options The output formats supported are ‘txt’, ‘csv’, and
(experimental) ‘json’ and ‘sql’.

   Here’s an example of print’s CSV output:

$ hledger print -Ocsv
"txnidx","date","date2","status","code","description","comment","account","amount","commodity","credit","debit","posting-status","posting-comment"
"1","2008/01/01","","","","income","","assets:bank:checking","1","$","","1","",""
"1","2008/01/01","","","","income","","income:salary","-1","$","1","","",""
"2","2008/06/01","","","","gift","","assets:bank:checking","1","$","","1","",""
"2","2008/06/01","","","","gift","","income:gifts","-1","$","1","","",""
"3","2008/06/02","","","","save","","assets:bank:saving","1","$","","1","",""
"3","2008/06/02","","","","save","","assets:bank:checking","-1","$","1","","",""
"4","2008/06/03","","*","","eat & shop","","expenses:food","1","$","","1","",""
"4","2008/06/03","","*","","eat & shop","","expenses:supplies","1","$","","1","",""
"4","2008/06/03","","*","","eat & shop","","assets:cash","-2","$","2","","",""
"5","2008/12/31","","*","","pay off","","liabilities:debts","1","$","","1","",""
"5","2008/12/31","","*","","pay off","","assets:bank:checking","-1","$","1","","",""

   • There is one CSV record per posting, with the parent transaction’s
     fields repeated.
   • The "txnidx" (transaction index) field shows which postings belong
     to the same transaction.  (This number might change if transactions
     are reordered within the file, files are parsed/included in a
     different order, etc.)
   • The amount is separated into "commodity" (the symbol) and "amount"
     (numeric quantity) fields.
   • The numeric amount is repeated in either the "credit" or "debit"
     column, for convenience.  (Those names are not accurate in the
     accounting sense; it just puts negative amounts under credit and
     zero or greater amounts under debit.)


File: hledger.info,  Node: print-unique,  Next: register,  Prev: print,  Up: PART 4 COMMANDS

24.23 print-unique
==================

print-unique
Print transactions which do not reuse an already-seen description.

   Example:

$ cat unique.journal
1/1 test
 (acct:one)  1
2/2 test
 (acct:two)  2
$ LEDGER_FILE=unique.journal hledger print-unique
(-f option not supported)
2015/01/01 test
    (acct:one)             1


File: hledger.info,  Node: register,  Next: register-match,  Prev: print-unique,  Up: PART 4 COMMANDS

24.24 register
==============

register, reg
Show postings and their running total.

   The register command displays matched postings, across all accounts,
in date order, with their running total or running historical balance.
(See also the ‘aregister’ command, which shows matched transactions in a
specific account.)

   register normally shows line per posting, but note that
multi-commodity amounts will occupy multiple lines (one line per
commodity).

   It is typically used with a query selecting a particular account, to
see that account’s activity:

$ hledger register checking
2008/01/01 income               assets:bank:checking            $1           $1
2008/06/01 gift                 assets:bank:checking            $1           $2
2008/06/02 save                 assets:bank:checking           $-1           $1
2008/12/31 pay off              assets:bank:checking           $-1            0

   With –date2, it shows and sorts by secondary date instead.

   For performance reasons, column widths are chosen based on the first
1000 lines; this means unusually wide values in later lines can cause
visual discontinuities as column widths are adjusted.  If you want to
ensure perfect alignment, at the cost of more time and memory, use the
‘--align-all’ flag.

   The ‘--historical’/‘-H’ flag adds the balance from any undisplayed
prior postings to the running total.  This is useful when you want to
see only recent activity, with a historically accurate running balance:

$ hledger register checking -b 2008/6 --historical
2008/06/01 gift                 assets:bank:checking            $1           $2
2008/06/02 save                 assets:bank:checking           $-1           $1
2008/12/31 pay off              assets:bank:checking           $-1            0

   The ‘--depth’ option limits the amount of sub-account detail
displayed.

   The ‘--average’/‘-A’ flag shows the running average posting amount
instead of the running total (so, the final number displayed is the
average for the whole report period).  This flag implies ‘--empty’ (see
below).  It is affected by ‘--historical’.  It works best when showing
just one account and one commodity.

   The ‘--related’/‘-r’ flag shows the _other_ postings in the
transactions of the postings which would normally be shown.

   The ‘--invert’ flag negates all amounts.  For example, it can be used
on an income account where amounts are normally displayed as negative
numbers.  It’s also useful to show postings on the checking account
together with the related account:

$ hledger register --related --invert assets:checking

   With a reporting interval, register shows summary postings, one per
interval, aggregating the postings to each account:

$ hledger register --monthly income
2008/01                 income:salary                          $-1          $-1
2008/06                 income:gifts                           $-1          $-2

   Periods with no activity, and summary postings with a zero amount,
are not shown by default; use the ‘--empty’/‘-E’ flag to see them:

$ hledger register --monthly income -E
2008/01                 income:salary                          $-1          $-1
2008/02                                                          0          $-1
2008/03                                                          0          $-1
2008/04                                                          0          $-1
2008/05                                                          0          $-1
2008/06                 income:gifts                           $-1          $-2
2008/07                                                          0          $-2
2008/08                                                          0          $-2
2008/09                                                          0          $-2
2008/10                                                          0          $-2
2008/11                                                          0          $-2
2008/12                                                          0          $-2

   Often, you’ll want to see just one line per interval.  The ‘--depth’
option helps with this, causing subaccounts to be aggregated:

$ hledger register --monthly assets --depth 1h
2008/01                 assets                                  $1           $1
2008/06                 assets                                 $-1            0
2008/12                 assets                                 $-1          $-1

   Note when using report intervals, if you specify start/end dates
these will be adjusted outward if necessary to contain a whole number of
intervals.  This ensures that the first and last intervals are full
length and comparable to the others in the report.

* Menu:

* Custom register output::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Custom register output,  Up: register

24.24.1 Custom register output
------------------------------

register uses the full terminal width by default, except on windows.
You can override this by setting the ‘COLUMNS’ environment variable (not
a bash shell variable) or by using the ‘--width’/‘-w’ option.

   The description and account columns normally share the space equally
(about half of (width - 40) each).  You can adjust this by adding a
description width as part of –width’s argument, comma-separated:
‘--width W,D’ .  Here’s a diagram (won’t display correctly in –help):

<--------------------------------- width (W) ---------------------------------->
date (10)  description (D)       account (W-41-D)     amount (12)   balance (12)
DDDDDDDDDD dddddddddddddddddddd  aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa  AAAAAAAAAAAA  AAAAAAAAAAAA

   and some examples:

$ hledger reg                     # use terminal width (or 80 on windows)
$ hledger reg -w 100              # use width 100
$ COLUMNS=100 hledger reg         # set with one-time environment variable
$ export COLUMNS=100; hledger reg # set till session end (or window resize)
$ hledger reg -w 100,40           # set overall width 100, description width 40
$ hledger reg -w $COLUMNS,40      # use terminal width, & description width 40

   This command also supports the output destination and output format
options The output formats supported are ‘txt’, ‘csv’, and
(experimental) ‘json’.


File: hledger.info,  Node: register-match,  Next: rewrite,  Prev: register,  Up: PART 4 COMMANDS

24.25 register-match
====================

register-match
Print the one posting whose transaction description is closest to DESC,
in the style of the register command.  If there are multiple equally
good matches, it shows the most recent.  Query options (options, not
arguments) can be used to restrict the search space.  Helps
ledger-autosync detect already-seen transactions when importing.


File: hledger.info,  Node: rewrite,  Next: roi,  Prev: register-match,  Up: PART 4 COMMANDS

24.26 rewrite
=============

rewrite
Print all transactions, rewriting the postings of matched transactions.
For now the only rewrite available is adding new postings, like print
–auto.

   This is a start at a generic rewriter of transaction entries.  It
reads the default journal and prints the transactions, like print, but
adds one or more specified postings to any transactions matching QUERY.
The posting amounts can be fixed, or a multiplier of the existing
transaction’s first posting amount.

   Examples:

$ hledger-rewrite.hs ^income --add-posting '(liabilities:tax)  *.33  ; income tax' --add-posting '(reserve:gifts)  $100'
$ hledger-rewrite.hs expenses:gifts --add-posting '(reserve:gifts)  *-1"'
$ hledger-rewrite.hs -f rewrites.hledger

   rewrites.hledger may consist of entries like:

= ^income amt:<0 date:2017
  (liabilities:tax)  *0.33  ; tax on income
  (reserve:grocery)  *0.25  ; reserve 25% for grocery
  (reserve:)  *0.25  ; reserve 25% for grocery

   Note the single quotes to protect the dollar sign from bash, and the
two spaces between account and amount.

   More:

$ hledger rewrite -- [QUERY]        --add-posting "ACCT  AMTEXPR" ...
$ hledger rewrite -- ^income        --add-posting '(liabilities:tax)  *.33'
$ hledger rewrite -- expenses:gifts --add-posting '(budget:gifts)  *-1"'
$ hledger rewrite -- ^income        --add-posting '(budget:foreign currency)  *0.25 JPY; diversify'

   Argument for ‘--add-posting’ option is a usual posting of transaction
with an exception for amount specification.  More precisely, you can use
‘'*'’ (star symbol) before the amount to indicate that that this is a
factor for an amount of original matched posting.  If the amount
includes a commodity name, the new posting amount will be in the new
commodity; otherwise, it will be in the matched posting amount’s
commodity.

* Menu:

* Re-write rules in a file::
* Diff output format::
* rewrite vs print --auto::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Re-write rules in a file,  Next: Diff output format,  Up: rewrite

24.26.1 Re-write rules in a file
--------------------------------

During the run this tool will execute so called "Automated Transactions"
found in any journal it process.  I.e instead of specifying this
operations in command line you can put them in a journal file.

$ rewrite-rules.journal

   Make contents look like this:

= ^income
    (liabilities:tax)  *.33

= expenses:gifts
    budget:gifts  *-1
    assets:budget  *1

   Note that ‘'='’ (equality symbol) that is used instead of date in
transactions you usually write.  It indicates the query by which you
want to match the posting to add new ones.

$ hledger rewrite -- -f input.journal -f rewrite-rules.journal > rewritten-tidy-output.journal

   This is something similar to the commands pipeline:

$ hledger rewrite -- -f input.journal '^income' --add-posting '(liabilities:tax)  *.33' \
  | hledger rewrite -- -f - expenses:gifts      --add-posting 'budget:gifts  *-1'       \
                                                --add-posting 'assets:budget  *1'       \
  > rewritten-tidy-output.journal

   It is important to understand that relative order of such entries in
journal is important.  You can re-use result of previously added
postings.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Diff output format,  Next: rewrite vs print --auto,  Prev: Re-write rules in a file,  Up: rewrite

24.26.2 Diff output format
--------------------------

To use this tool for batch modification of your journal files you may
find useful output in form of unified diff.

$ hledger rewrite -- --diff -f examples/sample.journal '^income' --add-posting '(liabilities:tax)  *.33'

   Output might look like:

--- /tmp/examples/sample.journal
+++ /tmp/examples/sample.journal
@@ -18,3 +18,4 @@
 2008/01/01 income
-    assets:bank:checking  $1
+    assets:bank:checking            $1
     income:salary
+    (liabilities:tax)                0
@@ -22,3 +23,4 @@
 2008/06/01 gift
-    assets:bank:checking  $1
+    assets:bank:checking            $1
     income:gifts
+    (liabilities:tax)                0

   If you’ll pass this through ‘patch’ tool you’ll get transactions
containing the posting that matches your query be updated.  Note that
multiple files might be update according to list of input files
specified via ‘--file’ options and ‘include’ directives inside of these
files.

   Be careful.  Whole transaction being re-formatted in a style of
output from ‘hledger print’.

   See also:

   https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/issues/99


File: hledger.info,  Node: rewrite vs print --auto,  Prev: Diff output format,  Up: rewrite

24.26.3 rewrite vs. print –auto
-------------------------------

This command predates print –auto, and currently does much the same
thing, but with these differences:

   • with multiple files, rewrite lets rules in any file affect all
     other files.  print –auto uses standard directive scoping; rules
     affect only child files.

   • rewrite’s query limits which transactions can be rewritten; all are
     printed.  print –auto’s query limits which transactions are
     printed.

   • rewrite applies rules specified on command line or in the journal.
     print –auto applies rules specified in the journal.


File: hledger.info,  Node: roi,  Next: stats,  Prev: rewrite,  Up: PART 4 COMMANDS

24.27 roi
=========

roi
Shows the time-weighted (TWR) and money-weighted (IRR) rate of return on
your investments.

   At a minimum, you need to supply a query (which could be just an
account name) to select your investment(s) with ‘--inv’, and another
query to identify your profit and loss transactions with ‘--pnl’.

   If you do not record changes in the value of your investment
manually, or do not require computation of time-weighted return (TWR),
‘--pnl’ could be an empty query (‘--pnl ""’ or ‘--pnl STR’ where ‘STR’
does not match any of your accounts).

   This command will compute and display the internalized rate of return
(IRR) and time-weighted rate of return (TWR) for your investments for
the time period requested.  Both rates of return are annualized before
display, regardless of the length of reporting interval.

   Price directives will be taken into account if you supply appropriate
‘--cost’ or ‘--value’ flags (see VALUATION).

   Note, in some cases this report can fail, for these reasons:

   • Error (NotBracketed): No solution for Internal Rate of Return
     (IRR). Possible causes: IRR is huge (>1000000%), balance of
     investment becomes negative at some point in time.
   • Error (SearchFailed): Failed to find solution for Internal Rate of
     Return (IRR). Either search does not converge to a solution, or
     converges too slowly.

   Examples:

   • Using roi to compute total return of investment in stocks:
     https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/blob/master/examples/investing/roi-unrealised.ledger

   • Cookbook > Return on Investment: https://hledger.org/roi.html

* Menu:

* Spaces and special characters in --inv and --pnl::
* Semantics of --inv and --pnl::
* IRR and TWR explained::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Spaces and special characters in --inv and --pnl,  Next: Semantics of --inv and --pnl,  Up: roi

24.27.1 Spaces and special characters in ‘--inv’ and
----------------------------------------------------

‘--pnl’ Note that ‘--inv’ and ‘--pnl’’s argument is a query, and queries
could have several space-separated terms (see QUERIES).

   To indicate that all search terms form single command-line argument,
you will need to put them in quotes (see Special characters):

$ hledger roi --inv 'term1 term2 term3 ...'

   If any query terms contain spaces themselves, you will need an extra
level of nested quoting, eg:

$ hledger roi --inv="'Assets:Test 1'" --pnl="'Equity:Unrealized Profit and Loss'"


File: hledger.info,  Node: Semantics of --inv and --pnl,  Next: IRR and TWR explained,  Prev: Spaces and special characters in --inv and --pnl,  Up: roi

24.27.2 Semantics of ‘--inv’ and ‘--pnl’
----------------------------------------

Query supplied to ‘--inv’ has to match all transactions that are related
to your investment.  Transactions not matching ‘--inv’ will be ignored.

   In these transactions, ROI will conside postings that match ‘--inv’
to be "investment postings" and other postings (not matching ‘--inv’)
will be sorted into two categories: "cash flow" and "profit and loss",
as ROI needs to know which part of the investment value is your
contributions and which is due to the return on investment.

   • "Cash flow" is depositing or withdrawing money, buying or selling
     assets, or otherwise converting between your investment commodity
     and any other commodity.  Example:

     2019-01-01 Investing in Snake Oil
       assets:cash          -$100
       investment:snake oil
     
     2020-01-01 Selling my Snake Oil
       assets:cash           $10
       investment:snake oil  = 0

   • "Profit and loss" is change in the value of your investment:

     2019-06-01 Snake Oil falls in value
       investment:snake oil  = $57
       equity:unrealized profit or loss

   All non-investment postings are assumed to be "cash flow", unless
they match ‘--pnl’ query.  Changes in value of your investment due to
"profit and loss" postings will be considered as part of your investment
return.

   Example: if you use ‘--inv snake --pnl equity:unrealized’, then
postings in the example below would be classifed as:

2019-01-01 Snake Oil #1
  assets:cash          -$100   ; cash flow posting
  investment:snake oil         ; investment posting

2019-03-01 Snake Oil #2
  equity:unrealized pnl  -$100 ; profit and loss posting
  snake oil                    ; investment posting

2019-07-01 Snake Oil #3
  equity:unrealized pnl        ; profit and loss posting
  cash          -$100          ; cash flow posting
  snake oil     $50            ; investment posting


File: hledger.info,  Node: IRR and TWR explained,  Prev: Semantics of --inv and --pnl,  Up: roi

24.27.3 IRR and TWR explained
-----------------------------

"ROI" stands for "return on investment".  Traditionally this was
computed as a difference between current value of investment and its
initial value, expressed in percentage of the initial value.

   However, this approach is only practical in simple cases, where
investments receives no in-flows or out-flows of money, and where rate
of growth is fixed over time.  For more complex scenarios you need
different ways to compute rate of return, and this command implements
two of them: IRR and TWR.

   Internal rate of return, or "IRR" (also called "money-weighted rate
of return") takes into account effects of in-flows and out-flows.
Naively, if you are withdrawing from your investment, your future gains
would be smaller (in absolute numbers), and will be a smaller percentage
of your initial investment, and if you are adding to your investment,
you will receive bigger absolute gains (but probably at the same rate of
return).  IRR is a way to compute rate of return for each period between
in-flow or out-flow of money, and then combine them in a way that gives
you a compound annual rate of return that investment is expected to
generate.

   As mentioned before, in-flows and out-flows would be any cash that
you personally put in or withdraw, and for the "roi" command, these are
the postings that match the query in the‘--inv’ argument and NOT match
the query in the‘--pnl’ argument.

   If you manually record changes in the value of your investment as
transactions that balance them against "profit and loss" (or "unrealized
gains") account or use price directives, then in order for IRR to
compute the precise effect of your in-flows and out-flows on the rate of
return, you will need to record the value of your investement on or
close to the days when in- or out-flows occur.

   In technical terms, IRR uses the same approach as computation of net
present value, and tries to find a discount rate that makes net present
value of all the cash flows of your investment to add up to zero.  This
could be hard to wrap your head around, especially if you haven’t done
discounted cash flow analysis before.  Implementation of IRR in hledger
should produce results that match the ‘XIRR’ formula in Excel.

   Second way to compute rate of return that ‘roi’ command implements is
called "time-weighted rate of return" or "TWR". Like IRR, it will also
break the history of your investment into periods between in-flows,
out-flows and value changes, to compute rate of return per each period
and then a compound rate of return.  However, internal workings of TWR
are quite different.

   TWR represents your investment as an imaginary "unit fund" where
in-flows/ out-flows lead to buying or selling "units" of your investment
and changes in its value change the value of "investment unit".  Change
in "unit price" over the reporting period gives you rate of return of
your investment.

   References:

   • Explanation of rate of return
   • Explanation of IRR
   • Explanation of TWR
   • Examples of computing IRR and TWR and discussion of the limitations
     of both metrics


File: hledger.info,  Node: stats,  Next: tags,  Prev: roi,  Up: PART 4 COMMANDS

24.28 stats
===========

stats
Show journal and performance statistics.

   The stats command displays summary information for the whole journal,
or a matched part of it.  With a reporting interval, it shows a report
for each report period.

   At the end, it shows (in the terminal) the overall run time and
number of transactions processed per second.  Note these are approximate
and will vary based on machine, current load, data size, hledger
version, haskell lib versions, GHC version..  but they may be of
interest.  The ‘stats’ command’s run time is similar to that of a
single-column balance report.

   Example:

$ hledger stats -f examples/1000x1000x10.journal
Main file                : /Users/simon/src/hledger/examples/1000x1000x10.journal
Included files           : 
Transactions span        : 2000-01-01 to 2002-09-27 (1000 days)
Last transaction         : 2002-09-26 (6995 days ago)
Transactions             : 1000 (1.0 per day)
Transactions last 30 days: 0 (0.0 per day)
Transactions last 7 days : 0 (0.0 per day)
Payees/descriptions      : 1000
Accounts                 : 1000 (depth 10)
Commodities              : 26 (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z)
Market prices            : 1000 (A)

Run time                 : 0.12 s
Throughput               : 8342 txns/s

   This command supports the -o/–output-file option (but not
-O/–output-format selection).


File: hledger.info,  Node: tags,  Next: test,  Prev: stats,  Up: PART 4 COMMANDS

24.29 tags
==========

tags
List the tags used in the journal, or their values.

   This command lists the tag names used in the journal, whether on
transactions, postings, or account declarations.

   With a TAGREGEX argument, only tag names matching this regular
expression (case insensitive, infix matched) are shown.

   With QUERY arguments, only transactions and accounts matching this
query are considered.  If the query involves transaction fields (date:,
desc:, amt:, ...), the search is restricted to the matched transactions
and their accounts.

   With the –values flag, the tags’ unique non-empty values are listed
instead.  With -E/–empty, blank/empty values are also shown.

   With –parsed, tags or values are shown in the order they were parsed,
with duplicates included.  (Except, tags from account declarations are
always shown first.)

   Tip: remember, accounts also acquire tags from their parents,
postings also acquire tags from their account and transaction,
transactions also acquire tags from their postings.


File: hledger.info,  Node: test,  Prev: tags,  Up: PART 4 COMMANDS

24.30 test
==========

test
Run built-in unit tests.

   This command runs the unit tests built in to hledger and hledger-lib,
printing the results on stdout.  If any test fails, the exit code will
be non-zero.

   This is mainly used by hledger developers, but you can also use it to
sanity-check the installed hledger executable on your platform.  All
tests are expected to pass - if you ever see a failure, please report as
a bug!

   This command also accepts tasty test runner options, written after a
– (double hyphen).  Eg to run only the tests in Hledger.Data.Amount,
with ANSI colour codes disabled:

$ hledger test -- -pData.Amount --color=never

   For help on these, see https://github.com/feuerbach/tasty#options
(‘-- --help’ currently doesn’t show them).


File: hledger.info,  Node: PART 5 COMMON TASKS,  Prev: PART 4 COMMANDS,  Up: Top

25 PART 5: COMMON TASKS
***********************

Here are some quick examples of how to do some basic tasks with hledger.

* Menu:

* Getting help::
* Constructing command lines::
* Starting a journal file::
* Setting opening balances::
* Recording transactions::
* Reconciling::
* Reporting::
* Migrating to a new file::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Getting help,  Next: Constructing command lines,  Up: PART 5 COMMON TASKS

25.1 Getting help
=================

Here’s how to list commands and view options and command docs:

$ hledger                # show available commands
$ hledger --help         # show common options
$ hledger CMD --help     # show CMD's options, common options and CMD's documentation

   You can also view your hledger version’s manual in several formats by
using the help command.  Eg:

$ hledger help           # show the hledger manual with info, man or $PAGER (best available)
$ hledger help journal   # show the journal topic in the hledger manual
$ hledger help --help    # find out more about the help command

   To view manuals and introductory docs on the web, visit
https://hledger.org.  Chat and mail list support and discussion archives
can be found at https://hledger.org/support.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Constructing command lines,  Next: Starting a journal file,  Prev: Getting help,  Up: PART 5 COMMON TASKS

25.2 Constructing command lines
===============================

hledger has a flexible command line interface.  We strive to keep it
simple and ergonomic, but if you run into one of the sharp edges
described in OPTIONS, here are some tips that might help:

   • command-specific options must go after the command (it’s fine to
     put common options there too: ‘hledger CMD OPTS ARGS’)
   • running add-on executables directly simplifies command line parsing
     (‘hledger-ui OPTS ARGS’)
   • enclose "problematic" args in single quotes
   • if needed, also add a backslash to hide regular expression
     metacharacters from the shell
   • to see how a misbehaving command line is being parsed, add
     ‘--debug=2’.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Starting a journal file,  Next: Setting opening balances,  Prev: Constructing command lines,  Up: PART 5 COMMON TASKS

25.3 Starting a journal file
============================

hledger looks for your accounting data in a journal file,
‘$HOME/.hledger.journal’ by default:

$ hledger stats
The hledger journal file "/Users/simon/.hledger.journal" was not found.
Please create it first, eg with "hledger add" or a text editor.
Or, specify an existing journal file with -f or LEDGER_FILE.

   You can override this by setting the ‘LEDGER_FILE’ environment
variable.  It’s a good practice to keep this important file under
version control, and to start a new file each year.  So you could do
something like this:

$ mkdir ~/finance
$ cd ~/finance
$ git init
Initialized empty Git repository in /Users/simon/finance/.git/
$ touch 2020.journal
$ echo "export LEDGER_FILE=$HOME/finance/2020.journal" >> ~/.bashrc
$ source ~/.bashrc
$ hledger stats
Main file                : /Users/simon/finance/2020.journal
Included files           : 
Transactions span        :  to  (0 days)
Last transaction         : none
Transactions             : 0 (0.0 per day)
Transactions last 30 days: 0 (0.0 per day)
Transactions last 7 days : 0 (0.0 per day)
Payees/descriptions      : 0
Accounts                 : 0 (depth 0)
Commodities              : 0 ()
Market prices            : 0 ()


File: hledger.info,  Node: Setting opening balances,  Next: Recording transactions,  Prev: Starting a journal file,  Up: PART 5 COMMON TASKS

25.4 Setting opening balances
=============================

Pick a starting date for which you can look up the balances of some
real-world assets (bank accounts, wallet..)  and liabilities (credit
cards..).

   To avoid a lot of data entry, you may want to start with just one or
two accounts, like your checking account or cash wallet; and pick a
recent starting date, like today or the start of the week.  You can
always come back later and add more accounts and older transactions, eg
going back to january 1st.

   Add an opening balances transaction to the journal, declaring the
balances on this date.  Here are two ways to do it:

   • The first way: open the journal in any text editor and save an
     entry like this:

     2020-01-01 * opening balances
         assets:bank:checking                $1000   = $1000
         assets:bank:savings                 $2000   = $2000
         assets:cash                          $100   = $100
         liabilities:creditcard               $-50   = $-50
         equity:opening/closing balances

     These are start-of-day balances, ie whatever was in the account at
     the end of the previous day.

     The * after the date is an optional status flag.  Here it means
     "cleared & confirmed".

     The currency symbols are optional, but usually a good idea as
     you’ll be dealing with multiple currencies sooner or later.

     The = amounts are optional balance assertions, providing extra
     error checking.

   • The second way: run ‘hledger add’ and follow the prompts to record
     a similar transaction:

     $ hledger add
     Adding transactions to journal file /Users/simon/finance/2020.journal
     Any command line arguments will be used as defaults.
     Use tab key to complete, readline keys to edit, enter to accept defaults.
     An optional (CODE) may follow transaction dates.
     An optional ; COMMENT may follow descriptions or amounts.
     If you make a mistake, enter < at any prompt to go one step backward.
     To end a transaction, enter . when prompted.
     To quit, enter . at a date prompt or press control-d or control-c.
     Date [2020-02-07]: 2020-01-01
     Description: * opening balances
     Account 1: assets:bank:checking
     Amount  1: $1000
     Account 2: assets:bank:savings
     Amount  2 [$-1000]: $2000
     Account 3: assets:cash
     Amount  3 [$-3000]: $100
     Account 4: liabilities:creditcard
     Amount  4 [$-3100]: $-50
     Account 5: equity:opening/closing balances
     Amount  5 [$-3050]: 
     Account 6 (or . or enter to finish this transaction): .
     2020-01-01 * opening balances
         assets:bank:checking                      $1000
         assets:bank:savings                       $2000
         assets:cash                                $100
         liabilities:creditcard                     $-50
         equity:opening/closing balances          $-3050
     
     Save this transaction to the journal ? [y]: 
     Saved.
     Starting the next transaction (. or ctrl-D/ctrl-C to quit)
     Date [2020-01-01]: .

   If you’re using version control, this could be a good time to commit
the journal.  Eg:

$ git commit -m 'initial balances' 2020.journal


File: hledger.info,  Node: Recording transactions,  Next: Reconciling,  Prev: Setting opening balances,  Up: PART 5 COMMON TASKS

25.5 Recording transactions
===========================

As you spend or receive money, you can record these transactions using
one of the methods above (text editor, hledger add) or by using the
hledger-iadd or hledger-web add-ons, or by using the import command to
convert CSV data downloaded from your bank.

   Here are some simple transactions, see the hledger_journal(5) manual
and hledger.org for more ideas:

2020/1/10 * gift received
  assets:cash   $20
  income:gifts

2020.1.12 * farmers market
  expenses:food    $13
  assets:cash

2020-01-15 paycheck
  income:salary
  assets:bank:checking    $1000


File: hledger.info,  Node: Reconciling,  Next: Reporting,  Prev: Recording transactions,  Up: PART 5 COMMON TASKS

25.6 Reconciling
================

Periodically you should reconcile - compare your hledger-reported
balances against external sources of truth, like bank statements or your
bank’s website - to be sure that your ledger accurately represents the
real-world balances (and, that the real-world institutions have not made
a mistake!).  This gets easy and fast with (1) practice and (2)
frequency.  If you do it daily, it can take 2-10 minutes.  If you let it
pile up, expect it to take longer as you hunt down errors and
discrepancies.

   A typical workflow:

  1. Reconcile cash.  Count what’s in your wallet.  Compare with what
     hledger reports (‘hledger bal cash’).  If they are different, try
     to remember the missing transaction, or look for the error in the
     already-recorded transactions.  A register report can be helpful
     (‘hledger reg cash’).  If you can’t find the error, add an
     adjustment transaction.  Eg if you have $105 after the above, and
     can’t explain the missing $2, it could be:

     2020-01-16 * adjust cash
         assets:cash    $-2 = $105
         expenses:misc

  2. Reconcile checking.  Log in to your bank’s website.  Compare
     today’s (cleared) balance with hledger’s cleared balance (‘hledger
     bal checking -C’).  If they are different, track down the error or
     record the missing transaction(s) or add an adjustment transaction,
     similar to the above.  Unlike the cash case, you can usually
     compare the transaction history and running balance from your bank
     with the one reported by ‘hledger reg checking -C’.  This will be
     easier if you generally record transaction dates quite similar to
     your bank’s clearing dates.

  3. Repeat for other asset/liability accounts.

   Tip: instead of the register command, use hledger-ui to see a
live-updating register while you edit the journal: ‘hledger-ui --watch
--register checking -C’

   After reconciling, it could be a good time to mark the reconciled
transactions’ status as "cleared and confirmed", if you want to track
that, by adding the ‘*’ marker.  Eg in the paycheck transaction above,
insert ‘*’ between ‘2020-01-15’ and ‘paycheck’

   If you’re using version control, this can be another good time to
commit:

$ git commit -m 'txns' 2020.journal


File: hledger.info,  Node: Reporting,  Next: Migrating to a new file,  Prev: Reconciling,  Up: PART 5 COMMON TASKS

25.7 Reporting
==============

Here are some basic reports.

   Show all transactions:

$ hledger print
2020-01-01 * opening balances
    assets:bank:checking                      $1000
    assets:bank:savings                       $2000
    assets:cash                                $100
    liabilities:creditcard                     $-50
    equity:opening/closing balances          $-3050

2020-01-10 * gift received
    assets:cash              $20
    income:gifts

2020-01-12 * farmers market
    expenses:food             $13
    assets:cash

2020-01-15 * paycheck
    income:salary
    assets:bank:checking           $1000

2020-01-16 * adjust cash
    assets:cash               $-2 = $105
    expenses:misc

   Show account names, and their hierarchy:

$ hledger accounts --tree
assets
  bank
    checking
    savings
  cash
equity
  opening/closing balances
expenses
  food
  misc
income
  gifts
  salary
liabilities
  creditcard

   Show all account totals:

$ hledger balance
               $4105  assets
               $4000    bank
               $2000      checking
               $2000      savings
                $105    cash
              $-3050  equity:opening/closing balances
                 $15  expenses
                 $13    food
                  $2    misc
              $-1020  income
                $-20    gifts
              $-1000    salary
                $-50  liabilities:creditcard
--------------------
                   0

   Show only asset and liability balances, as a flat list, limited to
depth 2:

$ hledger bal assets liabilities -2
               $4000  assets:bank
                $105  assets:cash
                $-50  liabilities:creditcard
--------------------
               $4055

   Show the same thing without negative numbers, formatted as a simple
balance sheet:

$ hledger bs -2
Balance Sheet 2020-01-16

                        || 2020-01-16 
========================++============
 Assets                 ||            
------------------------++------------
 assets:bank            ||      $4000 
 assets:cash            ||       $105 
------------------------++------------
                        ||      $4105 
========================++============
 Liabilities            ||            
------------------------++------------
 liabilities:creditcard ||        $50 
------------------------++------------
                        ||        $50 
========================++============
 Net:                   ||      $4055 

   The final total is your "net worth" on the end date.  (Or use ‘bse’
for a full balance sheet with equity.)

   Show income and expense totals, formatted as an income statement:

hledger is 
Income Statement 2020-01-01-2020-01-16

               || 2020-01-01-2020-01-16 
===============++=======================
 Revenues      ||                       
---------------++-----------------------
 income:gifts  ||                   $20 
 income:salary ||                 $1000 
---------------++-----------------------
               ||                 $1020 
===============++=======================
 Expenses      ||                       
---------------++-----------------------
 expenses:food ||                   $13 
 expenses:misc ||                    $2 
---------------++-----------------------
               ||                   $15 
===============++=======================
 Net:          ||                 $1005 

   The final total is your net income during this period.

   Show transactions affecting your wallet, with running total:

$ hledger register cash
2020-01-01 opening balances     assets:cash                   $100          $100
2020-01-10 gift received        assets:cash                    $20          $120
2020-01-12 farmers market       assets:cash                   $-13          $107
2020-01-16 adjust cash          assets:cash                    $-2          $105

   Show weekly posting counts as a bar chart:

$ hledger activity -W
2019-12-30 *****
2020-01-06 ****
2020-01-13 ****


File: hledger.info,  Node: Migrating to a new file,  Prev: Reporting,  Up: PART 5 COMMON TASKS

25.8 Migrating to a new file
============================

At the end of the year, you may want to continue your journal in a new
file, so that old transactions don’t slow down or clutter your reports,
and to help ensure the integrity of your accounting history.  See the
close command.

   If using version control, don’t forget to ‘git add’ the new file.


Tag Table:
Node: Top210
Node: PART 1 USER INTERFACE3967
Ref: #part-1-user-interface4108
Node: Options4108
Ref: #options4227
Node: General options4369
Ref: #general-options4494
Node: Command options8944
Ref: #command-options9095
Node: Command arguments9511
Ref: #command-arguments9669
Node: Special characters10571
Ref: #special-characters10734
Node: Single escaping shell metacharacters10897
Ref: #single-escaping-shell-metacharacters11138
Node: Double escaping regular expression metacharacters11773
Ref: #double-escaping-regular-expression-metacharacters12084
Node: Triple escaping for add-on commands12654
Ref: #triple-escaping-for-add-on-commands12914
Node: Less escaping13582
Ref: #less-escaping13736
Node: Unicode characters14074
Ref: #unicode-characters14239
Node: Regular expressions15671
Ref: #regular-expressions15811
Node: Environment17653
Ref: #environment17764
Node: Input19375
Ref: #input19475
Node: Data formats20038
Ref: #data-formats20151
Node: Multiple files21603
Ref: #multiple-files21740
Node: Strict mode22225
Ref: #strict-mode22335
Node: Commands23089
Ref: #commands23190
Node: Add-on commands23674
Ref: #add-on-commands23776
Node: Output24943
Ref: #output25046
Node: Output destination25162
Ref: #output-destination25293
Node: Output format25722
Ref: #output-format25868
Node: CSV output27440
Ref: #csv-output27556
Node: HTML output27661
Ref: #html-output27799
Node: JSON output27899
Ref: #json-output28037
Node: SQL output28969
Ref: #sql-output29085
Node: Commodity styles29608
Ref: #commodity-styles29748
Node: Colour30355
Ref: #colour30473
Node: Box-drawing30907
Ref: #box-drawing31031
Node: Debug output31345
Ref: #debug-output31456
Node: Limitations32131
Ref: #limitations32251
Node: Troubleshooting33026
Ref: #troubleshooting33167
Node: PART 2 DATA FORMATS35689
Ref: #part-2-data-formats35836
Node: Journal35836
Ref: #journal35947
Node: Journal cheatsheet36534
Ref: #journal-cheatsheet36675
Node: About journal format41124
Ref: #about-journal-format41286
Node: Comments42824
Ref: #comments42956
Node: Transactions43810
Ref: #transactions43935
Node: Dates44969
Ref: #dates45078
Node: Simple dates45123
Ref: #simple-dates45241
Node: Posting dates45778
Ref: #posting-dates45898
Node: Status46881
Ref: #status46984
Node: Code48736
Ref: #code48841
Node: Description49073
Ref: #description49206
Node: Payee and note49528
Ref: #payee-and-note49636
Node: Transaction comments49983
Ref: #transaction-comments50138
Node: Postings50509
Ref: #postings50644
Node: Account names51653
Ref: #account-names51785
Node: Amounts52297
Ref: #amounts52414
Node: Decimal marks digit group marks53403
Ref: #decimal-marks-digit-group-marks53580
Node: Commodity54604
Ref: #commodity54793
Node: Directives influencing number parsing and display55775
Ref: #directives-influencing-number-parsing-and-display56036
Node: Commodity display style56498
Ref: #commodity-display-style56706
Node: Rounding58917
Ref: #rounding59037
Node: Costs59338
Ref: #costs59456
Node: Other cost/lot notations61487
Ref: #other-costlot-notations61621
Node: Balance assertions64374
Ref: #balance-assertions64527
Node: Assertions and ordering65620
Ref: #assertions-and-ordering65811
Node: Assertions and multiple included files66513
Ref: #assertions-and-multiple-included-files66775
Node: Assertions and multiple -f files67283
Ref: #assertions-and-multiple--f-files67536
Node: Assertions and commodities67945
Ref: #assertions-and-commodities68169
Node: Assertions and prices69359
Ref: #assertions-and-prices69567
Node: Assertions and subaccounts69998
Ref: #assertions-and-subaccounts70221
Node: Assertions and virtual postings70563
Ref: #assertions-and-virtual-postings70803
Node: Assertions and auto postings70943
Ref: #assertions-and-auto-postings71175
Node: Assertions and precision71846
Ref: #assertions-and-precision72030
Node: Posting comments72297
Ref: #posting-comments72445
Node: Tags72830
Ref: #tags72946
Node: Tag values74151
Ref: #tag-values74242
Node: Directives75015
Ref: #directives75135
Node: Directive effects77003
Ref: #directive-effects77159
Node: Directives and multiple files80242
Ref: #directives-and-multiple-files80422
Node: Accounts81132
Ref: #accounts81259
Node: Account comments82445
Ref: #account-comments82588
Node: Account subdirectives83108
Ref: #account-subdirectives83292
Node: Account error checking83434
Ref: #account-error-checking83625
Node: Account display order84844
Ref: #account-display-order85025
Node: Account types86164
Ref: #account-types86298
Node: Account aliases90090
Ref: #account-aliases90232
Node: Basic aliases91282
Ref: #basic-aliases91415
Node: Regex aliases92169
Ref: #regex-aliases92328
Node: Combining aliases93222
Ref: #combining-aliases93402
Node: Aliases and multiple files94696
Ref: #aliases-and-multiple-files94892
Node: end aliases95477
Ref: #end-aliases95672
Node: Aliases can generate bad account names95821
Ref: #aliases-can-generate-bad-account-names96061
Node: Aliases and account types96658
Ref: #aliases-and-account-types96852
Node: Commodities97554
Ref: #commodities97692
Node: Commodity error checking100296
Ref: #commodity-error-checking100436
Node: Decimal mark100965
Ref: #decimal-mark101103
Node: Include files101504
Ref: #include-files101646
Node: Market prices102594
Ref: #market-prices102730
Node: Payees103509
Ref: #payees103639
Node: Periodic transactions103943
Ref: #periodic-transactions104102
Node: Periodic rule syntax105815
Ref: #periodic-rule-syntax105995
Node: Periodic rules and relative dates106470
Ref: #periodic-rules-and-relative-dates106738
Node: Two spaces between period expression and description!107277
Ref: #two-spaces-between-period-expression-and-description107556
Node: Other syntax108246
Ref: #other-syntax108372
Node: Auto postings109023
Ref: #auto-postings109159
Node: Auto postings and multiple files111655
Ref: #auto-postings-and-multiple-files111857
Node: Auto postings and dates112074
Ref: #auto-postings-and-dates112346
Node: Auto postings and transaction balancing / inferred amounts / balance assertions112521
Ref: #auto-postings-and-transaction-balancing-inferred-amounts-balance-assertions112860
Node: Auto posting tags113367
Ref: #auto-posting-tags113580
Node: Balance assignments114242
Ref: #balance-assignments114422
Node: Balance assignments and prices115756
Ref: #balance-assignments-and-prices115926
Node: Bracketed posting dates116137
Ref: #bracketed-posting-dates116329
Node: Default commodity116873
Ref: #default-commodity117056
Node: Default parent account118607
Ref: #default-parent-account118789
Node: Default year119498
Ref: #default-year119658
Node: Secondary dates120471
Ref: #secondary-dates120628
Node: Star comments121460
Ref: #star-comments121622
Node: Valuation expressions122162
Ref: #valuation-expressions122341
Node: Virtual postings122463
Ref: #virtual-postings122644
Node: Other Ledger directives124216
Ref: #other-ledger-directives124381
Node: CSV124951
Ref: #csv125044
Node: Examples126783
Ref: #examples126879
Node: Basic127087
Ref: #basic127189
Node: Bank of Ireland127735
Ref: #bank-of-ireland127872
Node: Amazon129340
Ref: #amazon129460
Node: Paypal131185
Ref: #paypal131281
Node: CSV rules138927
Ref: #csv-rules139043
Node: separator140759
Ref: #separator140879
Node: skip141457
Ref: #skip141569
Node: date-format142152
Ref: #date-format142277
Node: timezone143023
Ref: #timezone143150
Node: decimal-mark144183
Ref: #decimal-mark-1144319
Node: newest-first144658
Ref: #newest-first144804
Node: intra-day-reversed145388
Ref: #intra-day-reversed145540
Node: fields146037
Ref: #fields146171
Node: Field assignment147773
Ref: #field-assignment147912
Node: Field names148969
Ref: #field-names149094
Node: date field149473
Ref: #date-field149591
Node: date2 field149643
Ref: #date2-field149784
Node: status field149846
Ref: #status-field149989
Node: code field150044
Ref: #code-field150189
Node: description field150240
Ref: #description-field150400
Node: comment field150465
Ref: #comment-field150620
Node: account field150933
Ref: #account-field151083
Node: amount field151684
Ref: #amount-field151833
Node: currency field153425
Ref: #currency-field153578
Node: balance field153847
Ref: #balance-field153979
Node: if154367
Ref: #if154474
Node: Matching the whole record154875
Ref: #matching-the-whole-record155044
Node: Matching individual fields155871
Ref: #matching-individual-fields156069
Node: Combining matchers156303
Ref: #combining-matchers156493
Node: Rules applied on successful match156814
Ref: #rules-applied-on-successful-match156999
Node: if table157659
Ref: #if-table157770
Node: end159536
Ref: #end159642
Node: include159866
Ref: #include159984
Node: balance-type160434
Ref: #balance-type160563
Node: Tips161271
Ref: #tips161383
Node: Rapid feedback161383
Ref: #rapid-feedback161512
Node: Valid CSV161968
Ref: #valid-csv162097
Node: File Extension162851
Ref: #file-extension163002
Node: Reading multiple CSV files163455
Ref: #reading-multiple-csv-files163639
Node: Valid transactions163888
Ref: #valid-transactions164065
Node: Deduplicating importing164693
Ref: #deduplicating-importing164871
Node: Setting amounts165917
Ref: #setting-amounts166071
Node: Amount signs168571
Ref: #amount-signs168722
Node: Setting currency/commodity169461
Ref: #setting-currencycommodity169646
Node: Amount decimal places170838
Ref: #amount-decimal-places171025
Node: Referencing other fields171343
Ref: #referencing-other-fields171537
Node: How CSV rules are evaluated172440
Ref: #how-csv-rules-are-evaluated172610
Node: Timeclock174121
Ref: #timeclock174226
Node: Timedot176394
Ref: #timedot176517
Node: PART 3 REPORTING CONCEPTS181368
Ref: #part-3-reporting-concepts181532
Node: Time periods181532
Ref: #time-periods181666
Node: Report start & end date181764
Ref: #report-start-end-date181916
Node: Smart dates183665
Ref: #smart-dates183818
Node: Report intervals185740
Ref: #report-intervals185898
Node: Period expressions187719
Ref: #period-expressions187861
Node: Period expressions with a report interval189712
Ref: #period-expressions-with-a-report-interval189946
Node: More complex report intervals191101
Ref: #more-complex-report-intervals191352
Node: Intervals with custom start date192034
Ref: #intervals-with-custom-start-date192268
Node: Periods or dates ?193928
Ref: #periods-or-dates194132
Node: Events on multiple weekdays194588
Ref: #events-on-multiple-weekdays194769
Node: Depth195678
Ref: #depth195780
Node: Queries196100
Ref: #queries196202
Node: Query types197179
Ref: #query-types197300
Node: Combining query terms200640
Ref: #combining-query-terms200817
Node: Queries and command options201915
Ref: #queries-and-command-options202120
Node: Queries and account aliases202385
Ref: #queries-and-account-aliases202590
Node: Queries and valuation202722
Ref: #queries-and-valuation202917
Node: Querying with account aliases203156
Ref: #querying-with-account-aliases203367
Node: Querying with cost or value203509
Ref: #querying-with-cost-or-value203686
Node: Pivoting203995
Ref: #pivoting204109
Node: Generating data205597
Ref: #generating-data205729
Node: Forecasting206227
Ref: #forecasting206352
Node: Budgeting209239
Ref: #budgeting209359
Node: Cost reporting209630
Ref: #cost-reporting209758
Node: -B Convert to cost210873
Ref: #b-convert-to-cost211029
Node: Equity conversion postings212437
Ref: #equity-conversion-postings212651
Node: Inferring equity postings from cost213280
Ref: #inferring-equity-postings-from-cost213529
Node: Inferring cost from equity postings214503
Ref: #inferring-cost-from-equity-postings214751
Node: When to infer cost/equity216794
Ref: #when-to-infer-costequity217012
Node: How to record conversions217420
Ref: #how-to-record-conversions217612
Node: Conversion with implicit cost217903
Ref: #conversion-with-implicit-cost218108
Node: Conversion with explicit cost219013
Ref: #conversion-with-explicit-cost219258
Node: Conversion with equity postings219685
Ref: #conversion-with-equity-postings219954
Node: Conversion with equity postings and explicit cost220791
Ref: #conversion-with-equity-postings-and-explicit-cost221058
Node: Cost tips221681
Ref: #cost-tips221807
Node: Valuation222566
Ref: #valuation222690
Node: -V Value223476
Ref: #v-value223602
Node: -X Value in specified commodity223801
Ref: #x-value-in-specified-commodity223996
Node: Valuation date224153
Ref: #valuation-date224324
Node: Finding market price224763
Ref: #finding-market-price224968
Node: --infer-market-prices market prices from transactions226148
Ref: #infer-market-prices-market-prices-from-transactions226426
Node: Valuation commodity229272
Ref: #valuation-commodity229485
Node: Simple valuation examples230730
Ref: #simple-valuation-examples230928
Node: --value Flexible valuation231591
Ref: #value-flexible-valuation231797
Node: More valuation examples233483
Ref: #more-valuation-examples233692
Node: Interaction of valuation and queries235703
Ref: #interaction-of-valuation-and-queries235944
Node: Effect of valuation on reports236424
Ref: #effect-of-valuation-on-reports236621
Node: PART 4 COMMANDS244380
Ref: #part-4-commands244523
Node: accounts247444
Ref: #accounts-1247551
Node: activity249535
Ref: #activity249654
Node: add250037
Ref: #add250147
Node: aregister253012
Ref: #aregister253133
Node: aregister and custom posting dates255888
Ref: #aregister-and-custom-posting-dates256054
Node: balance256622
Ref: #balance256748
Node: balance features257756
Ref: #balance-features257896
Node: Simple balance report260026
Ref: #simple-balance-report260211
Node: Balance report line format261856
Ref: #balance-report-line-format262058
Node: Filtered balance report264308
Ref: #filtered-balance-report264500
Node: List or tree mode264827
Ref: #list-or-tree-mode264995
Node: Depth limiting266370
Ref: #depth-limiting266536
Node: Dropping top-level accounts267153
Ref: #dropping-top-level-accounts267353
Node: Showing declared accounts267667
Ref: #showing-declared-accounts267866
Node: Sorting by amount268407
Ref: #sorting-by-amount268574
Node: Percentages269264
Ref: #percentages269423
Node: Multi-period balance report269993
Ref: #multi-period-balance-report270193
Node: Balance change end balance272586
Ref: #balance-change-end-balance272795
Node: Balance report types274243
Ref: #balance-report-types274424
Node: Calculation type274940
Ref: #calculation-type275095
Node: Accumulation type275626
Ref: #accumulation-type275806
Node: Valuation type276734
Ref: #valuation-type276922
Node: Combining balance report types277989
Ref: #combining-balance-report-types278183
Node: Budget report280087
Ref: #budget-report280239
Node: Budget report start date285541
Ref: #budget-report-start-date285719
Node: Budgets and subaccounts287081
Ref: #budgets-and-subaccounts287288
Node: Selecting budget goals290774
Ref: #selecting-budget-goals290946
Node: Data layout291988
Ref: #data-layout292138
Node: Useful balance reports300079
Ref: #useful-balance-reports300229
Node: balancesheet301382
Ref: #balancesheet301527
Node: balancesheetequity302901
Ref: #balancesheetequity303059
Node: cashflow304516
Ref: #cashflow304647
Node: check306137
Ref: #check306249
Node: Basic checks307061
Ref: #basic-checks307179
Node: Strict checks307717
Ref: #strict-checks307858
Node: Other checks308299
Ref: #other-checks308439
Node: Custom checks308950
Ref: #custom-checks309105
Node: More about specific checks309526
Ref: #more-about-specific-checks309686
Node: close310418
Ref: #close310529
Node: close and costs312669
Ref: #close-and-costs312795
Node: close date313187
Ref: #close-date313370
Node: Example close asset/liability accounts for file transition314162
Ref: #example-close-assetliability-accounts-for-file-transition314463
Node: Hiding opening/closing transactions315322
Ref: #hiding-openingclosing-transactions315593
Node: close and balance assertions316980
Ref: #close-and-balance-assertions317238
Node: Example close revenue/expense accounts to retained earnings318614
Ref: #example-close-revenueexpense-accounts-to-retained-earnings318892
Node: codes319802
Ref: #codes319919
Node: commodities320801
Ref: #commodities-1320937
Node: descriptions321019
Ref: #descriptions321156
Node: diff321460
Ref: #diff321575
Node: files322626
Ref: #files322735
Node: help322882
Ref: #help322991
Node: import323986
Ref: #import324109
Node: Deduplication325224
Ref: #deduplication325349
Node: Import testing327271
Ref: #import-testing327436
Node: Importing balance assignments327928
Ref: #importing-balance-assignments328134
Node: Commodity display styles328791
Ref: #commodity-display-styles328964
Node: incomestatement329093
Ref: #incomestatement329235
Node: notes330613
Ref: #notes330735
Node: payees331103
Ref: #payees-1331218
Node: prices331750
Ref: #prices331865
Node: print332174
Ref: #print332293
Node: print-unique337779
Ref: #print-unique337914
Node: register338199
Ref: #register338335
Node: Custom register output343153
Ref: #custom-register-output343284
Node: register-match344659
Ref: #register-match344802
Node: rewrite345153
Ref: #rewrite345277
Node: Re-write rules in a file347197
Ref: #re-write-rules-in-a-file347360
Node: Diff output format348513
Ref: #diff-output-format348696
Node: rewrite vs print --auto349808
Ref: #rewrite-vs.-print---auto349970
Node: roi350544
Ref: #roi350651
Node: Spaces and special characters in --inv and --pnl352416
Ref: #spaces-and-special-characters-in---inv-and---pnl352664
Node: Semantics of --inv and --pnl353162
Ref: #semantics-of---inv-and---pnl353409
Node: IRR and TWR explained355287
Ref: #irr-and-twr-explained355447
Node: stats358559
Ref: #stats358667
Node: tags360070
Ref: #tags-1360177
Node: test361199
Ref: #test361292
Node: PART 5 COMMON TASKS362047
Ref: #part-5-common-tasks362180
Node: Getting help362454
Ref: #getting-help362595
Node: Constructing command lines363359
Ref: #constructing-command-lines363560
Node: Starting a journal file364241
Ref: #starting-a-journal-file364448
Node: Setting opening balances365646
Ref: #setting-opening-balances365851
Node: Recording transactions369004
Ref: #recording-transactions369193
Node: Reconciling369749
Ref: #reconciling369901
Node: Reporting372214
Ref: #reporting372363
Node: Migrating to a new file376352
Ref: #migrating-to-a-new-file376509

End Tag Table


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