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File: hledger.info,  Node: Top,  Up: (dir)

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

This is the command-line interface (CLI) for the hledger accounting
tool. Here we also describe hledger's concepts and file formats. This
manual is for hledger 1.20.99.

   `hledger'

   `hledger [-f FILE] COMMAND [OPTIONS] [ARGS]'

   `hledger [-f FILE] ADDONCMD -- [OPTIONS] [ARGS]'

   hledger is a reliable, 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).

   The basic function of the hledger CLI is to read a plain text file
describing financial transactions (in accounting terms, a general
journal) and print useful reports on standard output, or export them as
CSV. hledger can also read some other file formats such as CSV files,
translating them to journal format. Additionally, hledger lists other
hledger-* executables found in the user's $PATH and can invoke them as
subcommands.

   hledger reads data from one or more files in hledger journal,
timeclock, timedot, or CSV format specified with `-f', or
`$LEDGER_FILE', or `$HOME/.hledger.journal' (on windows, perhaps
`C:/Users/USER/.hledger.journal'). If using `$LEDGER_FILE', note this
must be a real environment variable, not a shell variable. You can
specify standard input with `-f-'.

   Transactions are dated movements of money between two (or more) named
accounts, and are recorded with journal entries like this:


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

   For more about this format, see hledger_journal(5).

   Most users use a text editor to edit the journal, usually with an
editor mode such as ledger-mode for added convenience. hledger's
interactive add command is another way to record new transactions.
hledger never changes existing transactions.

   To get started, you can either save some entries like the above in
`~/.hledger.journal', or run `hledger add' and follow the prompts. Then
try some commands like `hledger print' or `hledger balance'. Run
`hledger' with no arguments for a list of commands.

* Menu:

* OPTIONS::
* ENVIRONMENT::
* DATA FILES::
* TIME PERIODS::
* DEPTH::
* QUERIES::
* COSTING::
* VALUATION::
* PIVOTING::
* OUTPUT::
* COMMANDS::
* JOURNAL FORMAT::
* CSV FORMAT::
* TIMECLOCK FORMAT::
* TIMEDOT FORMAT::
* COMMON TASKS::
* LIMITATIONS::
* TROUBLESHOOTING::


File: hledger.info,  Node: OPTIONS,  Next: ENVIRONMENT,  Prev: Top,  Up: Top

1 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

1.1 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

`-e --end=DATE'
     include postings/txns before this date

`-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)

`-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.

`--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.

   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

1.2 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

1.3 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

1.4 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

1.4.1 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


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

1.4.2 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

1.4.3 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

1.4.4 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

1.5 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

1.6 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: DATA FILES,  Prev: OPTIONS,  Up: Top

2 ENVIRONMENT
*************

*LEDGER_FILE* The journal file path when not specified with `-f'.
Default: `~/.hledger.journal' (on windows, perhaps
`C:/Users/USER/.hledger.journal').

   A typical value is `~/DIR/YYYY.journal', where DIR is a
version-controlled finance directory and YYYY is the current year. Or
`~/DIR/current.journal', where current.journal is a symbolic link to
YYYY.journal.

   On Mac computers, you can set this and other environment variables
in a more thorough way that also affects applications started from the
GUI (say, an Emacs dock icon). Eg on MacOS Catalina I have a
`~/.MacOSX/environment.plist' file containing


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

   To see the effect you may need to `killall Dock', or reboot.

   *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 overrides the
-color/-colour option.


File: hledger.info,  Node: DATA FILES,  Next: TIME PERIODS,  Prev: ENVIRONMENT,  Up: Top

3 DATA FILES
************

hledger reads transactions from one or more data files. The default data
file is `$HOME/.hledger.journal' (or on Windows, something like
`C:/Users/USER/.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: DATA FILES

3.1 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 their own sections, 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: DATA FILES

3.2 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: DATA FILES

3.3 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)

   See also: https://hledger.org/checking-for-errors.html

   _experimental._


File: hledger.info,  Node: TIME PERIODS,  Next: DEPTH,  Prev: DATA FILES,  Up: Top

4 TIME PERIODS
**************

* Menu:

* Smart dates::
* Report start & end date::
* Report intervals::
* Period expressions::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Smart dates,  Next: Report start & end date,  Up: TIME PERIODS

4.1 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', `2004.9.1'  is 4+ digits, month is 1-12, day is 1-31
`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'
`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


File: hledger.info,  Node: Report start & end date,  Next: Report intervals,  Prev: Smart dates,  Up: TIME PERIODS

4.2 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.

   Some notes:

   * As in Ledger, end dates are exclusive, so you need to write the
     date _after_ the last day you want to include.

   * 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.

   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: Report intervals,  Next: Period expressions,  Prev: Report start & end date,  Up: TIME PERIODS

4.3 Report intervals
====================

A report interval can be specified so that commands like register,
balance and activity will divide their reports into multiple subperiods.
The basic intervals can be selected with one of `-D/--daily',
`-W/--weekly', `-M/--monthly', `-Q/--quarterly', or `-Y/--yearly'. More
complex intervals may be specified with a period expression. Report
intervals can not be specified with a query.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Period expressions,  Prev: Report intervals,  Up: TIME PERIODS

4.4 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 "from 2009/1"'     the same
`-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 "2009/1/1"'   just that day; equivalent to “2009/1/1 to 2009/1/2”

   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

   The argument of `-p' can also begin with, or be, a report interval
expression. The basic report intervals are `daily', `weekly',
`monthly', `quarterly', or `yearly', which have the same effect as the
`-D',`-W',`-M',`-Q', or `-Y' flags. Between report interval and
start/end dates (if any), the word `in' is optional. Examples:

`-p "weekly from 2009/1/1 to 2009/4/1"'
`-p "monthly in 2008"'
`-p "quarterly"'

   Note that `weekly', `monthly', `quarterly' and `yearly' intervals
will always start on the first day on week, month, quarter or year
accordingly, and will end on the last day of same period, even if
associated period expression specifies different explicit start and end
date.

   For example:

`-p "weekly from 2009/1/1  starts on 2008/12/29, closest preceding Monday
to 2009/4/1"'              
`-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 2009-06-01"' which are first and last days of Q2 2009
`-p "yearly from           starts on 2009/01/01, first day of 2009
2009-12-29"'               

   The following more complex report intervals are also supported:
`biweekly', `fortnightly', `bimonthly', `every
day|week|month|quarter|year', `every N
days|weeks|months|quarters|years'.

   All of these will start on the first day of the requested period and
end on the last one, as described above.

   Examples:

`-p "bimonthly from 2008"' periods will have boundaries on 2008/01/01,
                           2008/03/01, ...
`-p "every 2 weeks"'       starts on closest preceding Monday
`-p "every 5 month from    periods will have boundaries on 2009/03/01,
2009/03"'                  2009/08/01, ...

   If you want intervals that start on arbitrary day of your choosing
and span a week, month or year, you need to use any of the following:

   `every Nth day of week', `every WEEKDAYNAME' (eg
`mon|tue|wed|thu|fri|sat|sun'), `every Nth day [of month]', `every Nth
WEEKDAYNAME [of month]', `every MM/DD [of year]', `every Nth MMM [of
year]', `every MMM Nth [of year]'.

   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 Monday"'  period boundaries will be on second Monday of
                         each month
`-p "every 11/05"'       yearly periods with boundaries on 5th of Nov
`-p "every 5th Nov"'     same
`-p "every Nov 5th"'     same

   Show historical balances at end of 15th each month (N is exclusive
end date):

   `hledger balance -H -p "every 16th day"'

   Group postings from start of wednesday to end of next tuesday (N is
start date and exclusive end date):

   `hledger register checking -p "every 3rd day of week"'


File: hledger.info,  Node: DEPTH,  Next: QUERIES,  Prev: TIME PERIODS,  Up: Top

5 DEPTH
*******

With the `--depth N' option (short form: `-N'), commands like account,
balance and register will show only the uppermost accounts in the
account tree, down to level N. Use this when you want a summary with
less detail. This flag has the same effect as a `depth:' query argument
(so `-2', `--depth=2' or `depth:2' are equivalent).


File: hledger.info,  Node: QUERIES,  Next: COSTING,  Prev: DEPTH,  Up: Top

6 QUERIES
*********

One of hledger's strengths is being able to quickly report on precise
subsets of your data. Most commands accept an optional query expression,
written as arguments after the command name, to filter the data by date,
account name or other criteria. The syntax is similar to a web search:
one or more space-separated search terms, quotes to enclose whitespace,
prefixes to match specific fields, a not: prefix to negate the match.

   We do not yet support arbitrary boolean combinations of search terms;
instead most commands show transactions/postings/accounts which match
(or negatively 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 instead shows 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.

   The following kinds of search terms can be used. Remember these can
also be prefixed with *`not:'*, eg to exclude a particular subaccount.

*`REGEX', `acct:REGEX'*
     match account names by this regular expression. (With no prefix,
     `acct:' is assumed.)  same as above

*`amt:N, amt:<N, amt:<=N, amt:>N, amt:>=N'*
     match postings with a single-commodity amount that is equal to,
     less than, or greater than N. (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 characters which are
     regex-significant, like the dollar sign (`$'), you need to prepend
     `\'. And when using the command line you need to add one more level
     of quoting to hide it from the shell, so eg do: `hledger print
     cur:'\$'' or `hledger print cur:\\$'.

*`desc:REGEX'*
     match transaction descriptions.

*`date:PERIODEXPR'*
     match dates within the specified period. PERIODEXPR is a period
     expression (with no report interval). Examples: `date:2016',
     `date:thismonth', `date:2000/2/1-2/15', `date:lastweek-'.  If the
     `--date2' command line flag is present, this matches secondary
     dates instead.

*`date2:PERIODEXPR'*
     match secondary dates within the specified period.

*`depth:N'*
     match (or display, depending on command) accounts at or above this
     depth

*`note:REGEX'*
     match transaction notes (part of description right of `|', or whole
     description when there's no `|')

*`payee:REGEX'*
     match transaction payee/payer names (part of description left of
     `|', or whole description when there's no `|')

*`real:, real:0'*
     match real or virtual postings respectively

*`status:, status:!, status:*'*
     match unmarked, pending, or cleared transactions respectively

*`tag:REGEX[=REGEX]'*
     match by tag name, and optionally also by tag value. Note a tag:
     query is considered to match a transaction if it matches any of
     the postings.  Also remember that postings inherit the tags of
     their parent transaction.

   The following special search term is used automatically in
hledger-web, only:

*`inacct:ACCTNAME'*
     tells hledger-web to show the transaction register for this
     account. Can be filtered further with `acct' etc.

   Some of these can also be expressed as command-line options (eg
`depth:2' is equivalent to `--depth 2'). Generally you can mix options
and query arguments, and the resulting query will be their intersection
(perhaps excluding the `-p/--period' option).


File: hledger.info,  Node: COSTING,  Next: VALUATION,  Prev: QUERIES,  Up: Top

7 COSTING
*********

The `-B/--cost' flag converts amounts to their cost or sale amount at
transaction time, if they have a transaction price specified. If this
flag is supplied, hledger will perform cost conversion first, and will
apply any market price valuations (if requested) afterwards.


File: hledger.info,  Node: VALUATION,  Next: PIVOTING,  Prev: COSTING,  Up: Top

8 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 `--cost' and
`--value=TYPE[,COMMODITY]' options, but we also provide the simpler
`-V'/`-X' flags, and usually one of those is all you need.

* Menu:

* -V Value::
* -X Value in specified commodity::
* Valuation date::
* Market prices::
* --infer-market-price market prices from transactions::
* Valuation commodity::
* Simple valuation examples::
* --value Flexible valuation::
* More valuation examples::
* Effect of valuation on reports::


File: hledger.info,  Node: -V Value,  Next: -X Value in specified commodity,  Up: VALUATION

8.1 -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

8.2 -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: Market prices,  Prev: -X Value in specified commodity,  Up: VALUATION

8.3 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: Market prices,  Next: --infer-market-price market prices from transactions,  Prev: Valuation date,  Up: VALUATION

8.4 Market prices
=================

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-price' flag) inferred
     from transaction prices.

  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-price market prices from transactions,  Next: Valuation commodity,  Prev: Market prices,  Up: VALUATION

8.5 -infer-market-price: 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 transaction prices as additional market
prices (as Ledger does) ? We could produce value reports without needing
P directives at all.

   Adding the `--infer-market-price' flag to `-V', `-X' or `--value'
enables this. So for example, `hledger bs -V --infer-market-price' will
get market prices both from P directives and from transactions. (And 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-price' 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.)

   * but not, currently, from "more correct" multicommodity
     transactions (no `@', multiple commodities, balanced).



File: hledger.info,  Node: Valuation commodity,  Next: Simple valuation examples,  Prev: --infer-market-price market prices from transactions,  Up: VALUATION

8.6 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-price' 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-price'
     flag, transaction prices 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

8.7 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

8.8 -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: Effect of valuation on reports,  Prev: --value Flexible valuation,  Up: VALUATION

8.9 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: Effect of valuation on reports,  Prev: More valuation examples,  Up: VALUATION

8.10 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 end  DATE/today
balance    unchanged    unchanged    unchanged          unchanged    unchanged
assertions/assignments                                                          

*register*                                                           
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
                        journal                         journal      
                        start                           start        
posting    cost         value at     value at posting   value at     value
amounts                 report end   date               report or    at
                        or today                        journal end  DATE/today
summary    summarised   value at     sum of postings    value at     value
posting    cost         period ends  in interval,       period ends  at
amounts                              valued at                       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 of                     journal end  DATE/today
                        sums of                         of sums of   of sums
                        postings                        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 of  value at     sums of
balances   costs of     report       postings before    report       postings
(-H)       postings     start of     report start at    start of     before
           before       sums of all  respective         sums of all  report
           report start postings     posting dates      postings     start
                        before                          before       
                        report start                    report start 
balance    sums of      same as      sums of values of  balance      value
changes    costs of     -value=end   postings in        change in    at
(bal, is,  postings in               period at          each         DATE/today
bs         period                    respective         period,      of sums
-change,                             posting dates      valued at    of
cf                                                      period ends  postings
-change)                                                             
end        sums of      same as      sums of values of  period end   value
balances   costs of     -value=end   postings from      balances,    at
(bal -H,   postings                  before period      valued at    DATE/today
is -H,     from before               start to period    period ends  of sums
bs, cf)    report                    end at 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 of  sums,        sums,
totals,    averages of  averages of  displayed values   averages of  averages
row        displayed    displayed                       displayed    of
averages   values       values                          values       displayed
(-T, -A)                                                             values
column     sums of      sums of      sums of displayed  sums of      sums of
totals     displayed    displayed    values             displayed    displayed
           values       values                          values       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: PIVOTING,  Next: OUTPUT,  Prev: VALUATION,  Up: Top

9 PIVOTING
**********

Normally hledger sums amounts, and organizes them in a hierarchy, based
on account name. The `--pivot FIELD' option causes it to sum and
organize hierarchy based on the value of some other field instead. FIELD
can be: `code', `description', `payee', `note', or the full name (case
insensitive) of any tag. As with account names, values containing
`colon:separated:parts' will be displayed hierarchically in reports.

   `--pivot' is a general option affecting all reports; you can think
of hledger transforming the journal before any other processing,
replacing every posting's account name with the value of the specified
field on that posting, inheriting it from the transaction or using a
blank value if it's not present.

   An example:


2016/02/16 Member Fee Payment
    assets:bank account                    2 EUR
    income:member fees                    -2 EUR  ; member: John Doe

   Normal balance report showing account names:


$ hledger balance
               2 EUR  assets:bank account
              -2 EUR  income:member fees
--------------------
                   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,
described below):


$ 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: OUTPUT,  Next: COMMANDS,  Prev: PIVOTING,  Up: Top

10 OUTPUT
*********

* Menu:

* Output destination::
* Output format::


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

10.1 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,  Prev: Output destination,  Up: OUTPUT

10.2 Output format
==================

Some commands (print, register, the balance commands) offer a choice of
output format. In addition to the usual plain text format (`txt'),
there are CSV (`csv'), HTML (`html'), JSON (`json') and SQL (`sql').
This is controlled by the `-O/--output-format' option:


$ hledger print -O csv

   or, by a file extension specified with `-o/--output-file':


$ hledger balancesheet -o foo.html   # write HTML to foo.html

   The `-O' option can be used to override the file extension if needed:


$ hledger balancesheet -o foo.txt -O html   # write HTML to foo.txt

   Some notes about JSON output:

   * This feature is marked experimental, and not yet much used; you
     should expect our JSON to evolve. Real-world feedback is welcome.

   * Our JSON is rather large and verbose, as it is quite 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)

   Notes about SQL output:

   * SQL output is also marked experimental, and much like JSON could
     use real-world feedback.

   * 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: COMMANDS,  Next: JOURNAL FORMAT,  Prev: OUTPUT,  Up: Top

11 COMMANDS
***********

hledger provides a number of commands for producing reports and managing
your data. 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'.

   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

   *Add-on commands:*

   Programs or scripts named `hledger-SOMETHING' in your PATH are
add-on commands; these appear in the commands list with a `+' mark.
Two of these are maintained and released with hledger:

   * *ui* - an efficient terminal interface (TUI) for hledger

   * *web* - a simple web interface (WUI) for hledger

   And these add-ons are maintained separately:

   * iadd - a more interactive alternative for the add command

   * interest - generates interest transactions according to various
     schemes

   * stockquotes - downloads market prices for your commodities from
     AlphaVantage _(experimental)_

   Next, the detailed command docs, 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::
* About add-on commands::


File: hledger.info,  Node: accounts,  Next: activity,  Up: COMMANDS

11.1 accounts
=============

accounts
Show account names.

   This command lists account names, either declared with account
directives (-declared), posted to (-used), or both (the default). With
query arguments, only matched account names and account names referenced
by matched postings are shown. 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'.

   Examples:


$ hledger accounts
assets:bank:checking
assets:bank:saving
assets:cash
expenses:food
expenses:supplies
income:gifts
income:salary
liabilities:debts


File: hledger.info,  Node: activity,  Next: add,  Prev: accounts,  Up: COMMANDS

11.2 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: COMMANDS

11.3 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 journal file (if there are
multiple `-f FILE' options, the first file is used.) Existing
transactions are not changed. This is the only hledger command that
writes to the journal file.

   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,
     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 the tutorial for a detailed explanation):


$ 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: COMMANDS

11.4 aregister
==============

aregister, areg
Show the transactions and running historical balance in an account, with
each line item representing one transaction.

   `aregister' shows the transactions affecting a particular account
and its subaccounts, with each line item representing a whole
transaction - as in bank statements, hledger-ui, hledger-web and other
accounting apps.

   Note this is unlike the `register' command, which shows individual
postings and does not always show a single account or a historical
balance.

   A reminder, "historical" balances include any balance from
transactions before the report start date, so (if opening balances are
recorded correctly) `aregister' will show the real-world balances of an
account, as you would see in a bank statement.

   As a quick rule of thumb, use `aregister' for reconciling real-world
asset/liability accounts and `register' for reviewing detailed
revenues/expenses.

   `aregister' shows the register for just one account (and its
subaccounts). This account must be specified as the first argument. 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'.)

   Any additional arguments form a query which will filter the
transactions shown.

   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.

   `aregister' ignores a depth limit, so its final total will always
match a balance report with similar arguments.

   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

11.4.1 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.

   Examples:

   Show all transactions and historical running balance in the first
account whose name contains "checking":


$ hledger areg checking

   Show transactions and historical running balance in all asset
accounts during july:


$ hledger areg assets date:jul


File: hledger.info,  Node: balance,  Next: balancesheet,  Prev: aregister,  Up: COMMANDS

11.5 balance
============

balance, bal
Show accounts and their balances.

   The balance command is hledger's most versatile command. Note,
despite the name, it is not always used for showing real-world account
balances; the more accounting-aware balancesheet and incomestatement
may be more convenient for that.

   By default, it displays all accounts, and each account's change in
balance during the entire period of the journal. Balance changes are
calculated by adding up the postings in each account. You can limit the
postings matched, by a query, to see fewer accounts, changes over a
different time period, changes from only cleared transactions, etc.

   If you include an account's complete history of postings in the
report, the balance change is equivalent to the account's current ending
balance. For a real-world account, typically you won't have all
transactions in the journal; instead you'll have all transactions after
a certain date, and an "opening balances" transaction setting the
correct starting balance on that date. Then the balance command will
show real-world account balances. In some cases the -H/-historical flag
is used to ensure this (more below).

   This command also supports the output destination and output format
options The output formats supported are (in most modes): `txt', `csv',
`html', and `json'.

   The balance command can produce several styles of report:

* Menu:

* Single-period flat balance report::
* Single-period tree-mode balance report::
* Multi-period balance report::
* Depth limiting::
* Colour support::
* Sorting by amount::
* Percentages::
* Customising single-period balance reports::
* Budget report::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Single-period flat balance report,  Next: Single-period tree-mode balance report,  Up: balance

11.5.1 Single-period flat balance report
----------------------------------------

This is the default for hledger's balance command: a flat list of all
(or with a query, matched) accounts, showing full account names.
Accounts are sorted by declaration order if any, and then by account
name. Accounts which have zero balance are not shown unless
`-E/--empty' is used. The reported balances' total is shown as the last
line, unless disabled by `-N'/`--no-total'.


$ hledger bal
                  $1  assets:bank:saving
                 $-2  assets:cash
                  $1  expenses:food
                  $1  expenses:supplies
                 $-1  income:gifts
                 $-1  income:salary
                  $1  liabilities:debts
--------------------
                   0


File: hledger.info,  Node: Single-period tree-mode balance report,  Next: Multi-period balance report,  Prev: Single-period flat balance report,  Up: balance

11.5.2 Single-period tree-mode balance report
---------------------------------------------

With the `-t/--tree' flag, accounts are displayed hierarchically,
showing subaccounts as short names indented below their parent. (This is
the default style in Ledger and in older hledger versions.)


$ hledger balance
                 $-1  assets
                  $1    bank:saving
                 $-2    cash
                  $2  expenses
                  $1    food
                  $1    supplies
                 $-2  income
                 $-1    gifts
                 $-1    salary
                  $1  liabilities:debts
--------------------
                   0

   For more compact output, "boring" accounts containing a single
interesting subaccount and no balance of their own (`assets:bank' and
`liabilities' here) are elided into the following line, unless
`--no-elide' is used. And accounts which have zero balance and no
non-zero subaccounts are omitted, unless `-E/--empty' is used.

   Account balances in tree mode are "inclusive" - they include the
balances of any subaccounts. Eg, the `assets' `$-1' balance here
includes the `$1' from `assets:bank:saving' and the `$-2' from
`assets:cash'. (And it would include balance posted to the `assets'
account itself, if there was any). Note this causes some repetition,
and the final total (`0') is the sum of the top-level balances, not of
all the balances shown.

   Each group of sibling accounts is sorted separately, by declaration
order and then by account name.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Multi-period balance report,  Next: Depth limiting,  Prev: Single-period tree-mode balance report,  Up: balance

11.5.3 Multi-period balance report
----------------------------------

Multi-period balance reports are a very useful hledger feature,
activated if you provide one of the reporting interval flags, such as
`-M'/`--monthly'. They are similar to single-period balance reports,
but they show the report as a table, with columns representing one or
more successive time periods. This is the usually the preferred style
of balance report in hledger (even for a single period).

   Multi-period balance reports come in several types, showing different
information:

  1. A balance change report: by default, each column shows the sum of
     postings in that period, ie the account's change of balance in that
     period. This is useful eg for a monthly income statement:


$ hledger balance --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

  2. A cumulative end balance report: with `--cumulative', each column
     shows the end balance for that period, accumulating the changes
     across periods, starting from 0 at the report start date:


     $ hledger balance --quarterly income expenses -E --cumulative
     Ending balances (cumulative) in 2008:

                        ||  2008/03/31  2008/06/30  2008/09/30  2008/12/31
     ===================++=================================================
      expenses:food     ||           0          $1          $1          $1
      expenses:supplies ||           0          $1          $1          $1
      income:gifts      ||           0         $-1         $-1         $-1
      income:salary     ||         $-1         $-1         $-1         $-1
     -------------------++-------------------------------------------------
                        ||         $-1           0           0           0

  3. A historical end balance report: with `--historical/-H', each
     column shows the actual historical end balance for that period,
     accumulating the changes across periods, and including the balance
     from any postings before the report start date. This is useful eg
     for a multi-period balance sheet, and when you want to see
     balances only after a certain date:


     $ hledger balance ^assets ^liabilities --quarterly --historical --begin 2008/4/1
     Ending balances (historical) in 2008/04/01-2008/12/31:

                           ||  2008/06/30  2008/09/30  2008/12/31
     ======================++=====================================
      assets:bank:checking ||          $1          $1           0
      assets:bank:saving   ||          $1          $1          $1
      assets:cash          ||         $-2         $-2         $-2
      liabilities:debts    ||           0           0          $1
     ----------------------++-------------------------------------
                           ||           0           0           0


   Note that `--cumulative' or `--historical/-H' disable
`--row-total/-T', since summing end balances generally does not make
sense.

   With a reporting interval (like `--quarterly' above), the report
start/end dates will be adjusted if necessary so that they encompass the
displayed report periods. This is so that the first and last periods
will be "full" and comparable to the others.

   The `-E/--empty' flag does two things in multicolumn balance
reports: first, the report will show all columns within the specified
report period (without -E, leading and trailing columns with all zeroes
are not shown). Second, all accounts which existed at the report start
date will be considered, not just the ones with activity during the
report period (use -E to include low-activity accounts which would
otherwise would be omitted).

   The `-T/--row-total' flag adds an additional column showing the
total for each row.

   The `-A/--average' flag adds a column showing the average value in
each row.

   Here's an example of all three:


$ hledger balance -Q income expenses --tree -ETA
Balance changes in 2008:

            ||  2008q1  2008q2  2008q3  2008q4    Total  Average
============++===================================================
 expenses   ||       0      $2       0       0       $2       $1
   food     ||       0      $1       0       0       $1        0
   supplies ||       0      $1       0       0       $1        0
 income     ||     $-1     $-1       0       0      $-2      $-1
   gifts    ||       0     $-1       0       0      $-1        0
   salary   ||     $-1       0       0       0      $-1        0
------------++---------------------------------------------------
            ||     $-1      $1       0       0        0        0

(Average is rounded to the dollar here since all journal amounts are)

   The `--transpose' flag can be used to exchange the rows and columns
of a multicolumn report.

   When showing multicommodity amounts, multicolumn balance reports will
elide any amounts which have more than two commodities, since otherwise
columns could get very wide. The `--no-elide' flag disables this.
Hiding totals with the `-N/--no-total' flag can also help reduce the
width of multicommodity reports.

   When the report is still too wide, a good workaround is to pipe it
into `less -RS' (-R for colour, -S to chop long lines). Eg: `hledger
bal -D --color=yes | less -RS'.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Depth limiting,  Next: Colour support,  Prev: Multi-period balance report,  Up: balance

11.5.4 Depth limiting
---------------------

With a `depth:N' query, or `--depth N' option, or just `-N', balance
reports will show accounts only to the specified depth. This is very
useful to hide low-level accounts and get an overview. Eg, limiting to
depth 1 shows the top-level accounts:


$ hledger balance -N -1
                 $-1  assets
                  $2  expenses
                 $-2  income
                  $1  liabilities

   Accounts at the depth limit will include the balances of any hidden
subaccounts (even in flat mode, which normally shows exclusive
balances).

   You can also drop account name components from the start of account
names, using `--drop N'. This can be useful to hide unwanted top-level
detail.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Colour support,  Next: Sorting by amount,  Prev: Depth limiting,  Up: balance

11.5.5 Colour support
---------------------

In terminal output, when colour is enabled, the balance command shows
negative amounts in red.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Sorting by amount,  Next: Percentages,  Prev: Colour support,  Up: balance

11.5.6 Sorting by amount
------------------------

With `-S'/`--sort-amount', accounts with the largest (most positive)
balances are shown first. For example, `hledger bal expenses -MAS'
shows your biggest averaged monthly expenses first.

   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 sign-flipping reports
like `balancesheet' or `incomestatement', which also support `-S'. Eg:
`hledger is -MAS'.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Percentages,  Next: Customising single-period balance reports,  Prev: Sorting by amount,  Up: balance

11.5.7 Percentages
------------------

With `-%' or `--percent', balance reports show each account's value
expressed as a percentage of the column's total. This is useful to get
an overview of the relative sizes of account balances. For example to
obtain an overview of expenses:


$ hledger balance expenses -%
             100.0 %  expenses
              50.0 %    food
              50.0 %    supplies
--------------------
             100.0 %

   Note that `--tree' does not have an effect on `-%'. The percentages
are always relative to the total sum of each column, they are never
relative to the parent account.

   Since the percentages are relative to the columns sum, it is usually
not useful to calculate percentages if the signs of the amounts are
mixed.  Although the results are technically correct, they are most
likely useless. Especially in a balance report that sums up to zero (eg
`hledger balance -B') all percentage values will be zero.

   This flag does not work if the report contains any mixed commodity
accounts. If there are mixed commodity accounts in the report be sure to
use `-V' or `-B' to coerce the report into using a single commodity.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Customising single-period balance reports,  Next: Budget report,  Prev: Percentages,  Up: balance

11.5.8 Customising single-period balance reports
------------------------------------------------

You can customise the layout of single-period balance reports with
`--format FMT', which sets the format of each line. Eg:


$ hledger 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 (plus a newline) 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: Budget report,  Prev: Customising single-period balance reports,  Up: balance

11.5.9 Budget report
--------------------

There is also a special balance report mode for showing budget
performance. The `--budget' flag activates extra columns showing the
budget goals for each account and period, if any. For this report,
budget goals are defined by periodic transactions. This is very 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 flat mode. Eg assets,
     assets:bank, and expenses above.

   * Amounts always include all subaccounts, budgeted or unbudgeted,
     even in flat 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::
* Nested budgets::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Budget report start date,  Next: Nested budgets,  Up: Budget report

11.5.9.1 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: Nested budgets,  Prev: Budget report start date,  Up: Budget report

11.5.9.2 Nested budgets
.......................

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: balancesheet,  Next: balancesheetequity,  Prev: balance,  Up: COMMANDS

11.6 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.

   The asset and liability accounts shown are those accounts declared
with the `Asset' or `Cash' or `Liability' type, or otherwise all
accounts under a top-level `asset' or `liability' account (case
insensitive, plurals allowed).

   (This report is essentially similar to "hledger balance -historical
assets liabilities", with liabilities sign-flipped.)

   Example:


$ hledger balancesheet
Balance Sheet

Assets:
                 $-1  assets
                  $1    bank:saving
                 $-2    cash
--------------------
                 $-1

Liabilities:
                  $1  liabilities:debts
--------------------
                  $1

Total:
--------------------
                   0

   With a reporting interval, multiple columns will be shown, one for
each report period. As with multicolumn balance reports, you can alter
the report mode with `--change'/`--cumulative'/`--historical'. Normally
balancesheet shows historical ending balances, which is what you need
for a balance sheet; note this means it ignores report begin dates (and
`-T/--row-total', since summing end balances generally does not make
sense). Instead of absolute values percentages can be displayed with
`-%'.

   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: COMMANDS

11.7 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.

   The asset, liability and equity accounts shown are those accounts
declared with the `Asset', `Cash', `Liability' or `Equity' type, or
otherwise all accounts under a top-level `asset', `liability' or
`equity' account (case insensitive, plurals allowed).

   (This report is essentially similar to "hledger balance -historical
assets liabilities equity", with liabilities and equity sign-flipped.)

   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 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: COMMANDS

11.8 cashflow
=============

cashflow, cf
This command displays a cashflow statement, showing the inflows and
outflows affecting "cash" (ie, liquid) assets. Amounts are shown with
normal positive sign, as in conventional financial statements.

   The "cash" accounts shown are those accounts declared with the
`Cash' type, or otherwise all accounts under a top-level `asset'
account (case insensitive, plural allowed) which do not have `fixed',
`investment', `receivable' or `A/R' in their name.

   (This report is essentially similar to "hledger balance -change
assets not:fixed not:investment not:receivable".)

   Example:


$ hledger cashflow
Cashflow Statement

Cash flows:
                 $-1  assets
                  $1    bank:saving
                 $-2    cash
--------------------
                 $-1

Total:
--------------------
                 $-1

   With a reporting interval, multiple columns will be shown, one for
each report period. Normally cashflow shows changes in assets per
period, though as with multicolumn balance reports you can alter the
report mode with `--change'/`--cumulative'/`--historical'. Instead of
absolute values percentages can be displayed with `-%'.

   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: COMMANDS

11.9 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

   Here are the checks currently available:

* Menu:

* Basic checks::
* Strict checks::
* Other checks::
* Custom checks::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Basic checks,  Next: Strict checks,  Up: check

11.9.1 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

   * *autobalanced* - all transactions are balanced, inferring missing
     amounts where necessary, and possibly converting commodities using
     transaction prices or automatically-inferred transaction prices

   * *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

11.9.2 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



File: hledger.info,  Node: Other checks,  Next: Custom checks,  Prev: Strict checks,  Up: check

11.9.3 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 (similar to the
     old `check-dates' command)

   * *payees* - all payees used by transactions have been declared

   * *uniqueleafnames* - all account leaf names are unique (similar to
     the old `check-dupes' command).



File: hledger.info,  Node: Custom checks,  Prev: Other checks,  Up: check

11.9.4 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: close,  Next: codes,  Prev: check,  Up: COMMANDS

11.10 close
===========

close, equity
Prints a "closing balances" transaction and an "opening balances"
transaction that bring account balances to and from zero, respectively.
These can be added to your journal file(s), eg to bring asset/liability
balances forward into a new journal file, or to close out
revenues/expenses to retained earnings at the end of a period.

   You can print just one of these transactions by using the `--close'
or `--open' flag. You can customise their descriptions with the
`--close-desc' and `--open-desc' options.

   One amountless posting to "equity:opening/closing balances" is added
to balance the transactions, by default. You can customise this account
name 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.
And if it involves multiple commodities, a posting for each commodity
will be shown, as with the print command.

   With `--interleaved', the equity postings are shown next to the
postings they balance, which makes troubleshooting easier.

   By default, transaction prices in the journal are ignored when
generating the closing/opening transactions. With `--show-costs', this
cost information is preserved (`balance -B' reports will be unchanged
after the transition). Separate postings are generated for each cost in
each commodity. Note this can generate very large journal entries, if
you have many foreign currency or investment transactions.

* Menu:

* close usage::


File: hledger.info,  Node: close usage,  Up: close

11.10.1 close usage
-------------------

If you split your journal files by time (eg yearly), you will typically
run this command at the end of the year, and save the closing
transaction as last entry of the old file, and the opening transaction
as the first entry of the new file. This makes the files self contained,
so that correct balances are reported no matter which of them are
loaded. Ie, if you load just one file, the balances are initialised
correctly; or if you load several files, the redundant closing/opening
transactions cancel each other out. (They will show up in print or
register reports; you can exclude them with a query like
`not:desc:'(opening|closing) balances''.)

   If you're running a business, you might also use this command to
"close the books" at the end of an accounting period, transferring
income statement account balances to retained earnings. (You may want
to change the equity account name to something like "equity:retained
earnings".)

   By default, the closing transaction is dated yesterday, the balances
are calculated as of end of yesterday, and the opening transaction is
dated today. To close on some other date, use: `hledger close -e
OPENINGDATE'. Eg, to close/open on the 2018/2019 boundary, use `-e
2019'. You can also use -p or `date:PERIOD' (any starting date is
ignored).

   Both transactions will include balance assertions for the
closed/reopened accounts. You probably shouldn't use status or realness
filters (like -C or -R or `status:') with this command, or the
generated balance assertions will depend on these flags. Likewise, if
you run this command with -auto, the balance assertions will probably
always require -auto.

   Examples:

   Carrying asset/liability balances into a new file for 2019:


$ hledger close -f 2018.journal -e 2019 assets liabilities --open
    # (copy/paste the output to the start of your 2019 journal file)
$ hledger close -f 2018.journal -e 2019 assets liabilities --close
    # (copy/paste the output to the end of your 2018 journal file)

   Now:


$ hledger bs -f 2019.journal                   # one file - balances are correct
$ hledger bs -f 2018.journal -f 2019.journal   # two files - balances still correct
$ hledger bs -f 2018.journal not:desc:closing  # to see year-end balances, must exclude closing txn

   Transactions spanning the closing date can complicate matters,
breaking balance assertions:


2018/12/30 a purchase made in 2018, clearing the following year
    expenses:food          5
    assets:bank:checking  -5  ; [2019/1/2]

   Here's one way to resolve that:


; in 2018.journal:
2018/12/30 a purchase made in 2018, clearing the following year
    expenses:food          5
    liabilities:pending

; in 2019.journal:
2019/1/2 clearance of last year's pending transactions
    liabilities:pending    5 = 0
    assets:checking


File: hledger.info,  Node: codes,  Next: commodities,  Prev: close,  Up: COMMANDS

11.11 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:


1/1 (123)
 (a)  1

1/1 ()
 (a)  1

1/1
 (a)  1

1/1 (126)
 (a)  1


$ hledger codes
123
124
126


$ hledger codes -E
123
124


126


File: hledger.info,  Node: commodities,  Next: descriptions,  Prev: codes,  Up: COMMANDS

11.12 commodities
=================

commodities
List all commodity/currency symbols used or declared in the journal.


File: hledger.info,  Node: descriptions,  Next: diff,  Prev: commodities,  Up: COMMANDS

11.13 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: COMMANDS

11.14 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: COMMANDS

11.15 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: COMMANDS

11.16 help
==========

help
Show the hledger user manual in one of several formats, optionally
positioned at a given TOPIC (if possible). TOPIC is any heading, or
heading prefix, in the manual. Some examples: commands, print, 'auto
postings', periodic.

   This command shows the user manual built in to this hledger version.
It can be useful if the correct version of the hledger manual, or the
usual viewing tools, are not installed on your system.

   By default it uses the best viewer it can find in $PATH, in this
order: `info', `man', $PAGER (unless a topic is specified), `less', or
stdout. When run non-interactively, it always uses stdout. Or you can
select a particular viewer with the `-i' (info), `-m' (man), or `-p'
(pager) flags.


File: hledger.info,  Node: import,  Next: incomestatement,  Prev: help,  Up: COMMANDS

11.17 import
============

import
Read new transactions added to each FILE since last run, and add them to
the main journal file. 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.

   The input files are specified as arguments - no need to write -f
before each one. So eg to add new transactions from all CSV files to
the main journal, it's just: `hledger import *.csv'

   New transactions are detected in the same way as print -new: by
assuming transactions are always added to the input files in increasing
date order, and by saving `.latest.FILE' state files.

   The -dry-run output is in journal format, so you can filter it, eg to
see only uncategorised transactions:


$ hledger import --dry ... | hledger -f- print unknown --ignore-assertions

* Menu:

* Importing balance assignments::
* Commodity display styles::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Importing balance assignments,  Next: Commodity display styles,  Up: import

11.17.1 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

11.17.2 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: COMMANDS

11.18 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.

   The revenue and expense accounts shown are those accounts declared
with the `Revenue' or `Expense' type, or otherwise all accounts under a
top-level `revenue' or `income' or `expense' account (case insensitive,
plurals allowed).

   (This report is essentially similar to "hledger balance -change
revenues expenses", with revenues sign-flipped.)

   Example:


$ hledger incomestatement
Income Statement

Revenues:
                 $-2  income
                 $-1    gifts
                 $-1    salary
--------------------
                 $-2

Expenses:
                  $2  expenses
                  $1    food
                  $1    supplies
--------------------
                  $2

Total:
--------------------
                   0

   With a reporting interval, multiple columns will be shown, one for
each report period. Normally incomestatement shows revenues/expenses per
period, though as with multicolumn balance reports you can alter the
report mode with `--change'/`--cumulative'/`--historical'. Instead of
absolute values percentages can be displayed with `-%'.

   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: COMMANDS

11.19 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: COMMANDS

11.20 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: COMMANDS

11.21 prices
============

prices
Print market price directives from the journal. With -costs, also print
synthetic market prices based on transaction prices. With
-inverted-costs, also print inverse prices based on transaction prices.
Prices (and postings providing prices) can be filtered by a query. Price
amounts are always displayed with their full precision.


File: hledger.info,  Node: print,  Next: print-unique,  Prev: prices,  Up: COMMANDS

11.22 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.

   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 transaction price is
implied but not written, it will not appear in the output. You can use
the `-x'/`--explicit' flag to make all amounts and transaction prices
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 transaction prices are converted to
cost using that price. This can be used for troubleshooting.

   With `-m'/`--match' and a STR argument, print will show at most one
transaction: the one one whose description is most similar to STR, and
is most recent. STR should contain at least two characters. If there is
no similar-enough match, no transaction will be shown.

   With `--new', for each FILE being read, hledger reads (and writes) a
special state file (`.latest.FILE' in the same directory), containing
the latest transaction date(s) that were seen last time FILE was read.
When this file is found, only transactions with newer dates (and new
transactions on the latest date) are printed. This is useful for
ignoring already-seen entries in import data, such as downloaded CSV
files. Eg:


$ hledger -f bank1.csv print --new
(shows transactions added since last print --new on this file)

   This assumes that transactions added to FILE always have same or
increasing dates, and that transactions on the same day do not get
reordered. See also the import command.

   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: COMMANDS

11.23 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: COMMANDS

11.24 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.

   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

11.24.1 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: COMMANDS

11.25 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: COMMANDS

11.26 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

11.26.1 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

11.26.2 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

11.26.3 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: COMMANDS

11.27 roi
=========

roi
Shows the time-weighted (TWR) and money-weighted (IRR) rate of return on
your investments.

   This command assumes that you have account(s) that hold nothing but
your investments and whenever you record current appraisal/valuation of
these investments you offset unrealized profit and loss into account(s)
that, again, hold nothing but unrealized profit and loss.

   Any transactions affecting balance of investment account(s) and not
originating from unrealized profit and loss account(s) are assumed to be
your investments or withdrawals.

   At a minimum, you need to supply a query (which could be just an
account name) to select your investments with `--inv', and another
query to identify your profit and loss transactions with `--pnl'.

   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.

   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 report unrealised gains:
     https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/blob/master/examples/roi-unrealised.ledger

   More background:

   "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 an 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
transactions that involve account(s) matching `--inv' argument and NOT
involve account(s) matching `--pnl' argument.

   Presumably, you will also record changes in the value of your
investment, and balance them against "profit and loss" (or "unrealized
gains") account. Note that 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.

   Implementation of IRR in hledger should 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
and out-flows to compute rate of return per each period and then a
compound rate of return. However, internal workings of TWR are quite
different.

   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.

   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

   More examples:

   Lets say that we found an investment in Snake Oil that is proising to
give us 10% annually:


2019-01-01 Investing in Snake Oil
  assets:cash  -$100
  investment:snake oil

2019-12-24 Recording the growth of Snake Oil
  investment:snake oil   = $110
  equity:unrealized gains

   For now, basic computation of the rate of return, as well as IRR and
TWR, gives us the expected 10%:


$ hledger roi -Y --inv investment --pnl "unrealized"
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-----++--------+--------+
|   ||      Begin |        End || Value (begin) | Cashflow | Value (end) | PnL ||    IRR |    TWR |
+===++============+============++===============+==========+=============+=====++========+========+
| 1 || 2019-01-01 | 2019-12-31 ||             0 |      100 |         110 |  10 || 10.00% | 10.00% |
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-----++--------+--------+

   However, lets say that shorty after investing in the Snake Oil we
started to have second thoughs, so we prompty withdrew $90, leaving only
$10 in. Before Christmas, though, we started to get the "fear of mission
out", so we put the $90 back in. So for most of the year, our investment
was just $10 dollars, and it gave us just $1 in growth:


2019-01-01 Investing in Snake Oil
  assets:cash  -$100
  investment:snake oil

2019-01-02 Buyers remorse
  assets:cash  $90
  investment:snake oil

2019-12-30 Fear of missing out
  assets:cash  -$90
  investment:snake oil

2019-12-31 Recording the growth of Snake Oil
  investment:snake oil   = $101
  equity:unrealized gains

   Now IRR and TWR are drastically different:


$ hledger roi -Y --inv investment --pnl "unrealized"
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-----++-------+-------+
|   ||      Begin |        End || Value (begin) | Cashflow | Value (end) | PnL ||   IRR |   TWR |
+===++============+============++===============+==========+=============+=====++=======+=======+
| 1 || 2019-01-01 | 2019-12-31 ||             0 |      100 |         101 |   1 || 9.32% | 1.00% |
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-----++-------+-------+

   Here, IRR tells us that we made close to 10% on the $10 dollars that
we had in the account most of the time. And TWR is ... just 1%? Why?

   Based on the transactions in our journal, TWR "think" that we are
buying back $90 worst of Snake Oil at the same price that it had at the
beginning of they year, and then after that our $100 investment gets $1
increase in value, or 1% of $100. Let's take a closer look at what is
happening here by asking for quarterly reports instead of annual:


$ hledger roi -Q --inv investment --pnl "unrealized"
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-----++--------+-------+
|   ||      Begin |        End || Value (begin) | Cashflow | Value (end) | PnL ||    IRR |   TWR |
+===++============+============++===============+==========+=============+=====++========+=======+
| 1 || 2019-01-01 | 2019-03-31 ||             0 |       10 |          10 |   0 ||  0.00% | 0.00% |
| 2 || 2019-04-01 | 2019-06-30 ||            10 |        0 |          10 |   0 ||  0.00% | 0.00% |
| 3 || 2019-07-01 | 2019-09-30 ||            10 |        0 |          10 |   0 ||  0.00% | 0.00% |
| 4 || 2019-10-01 | 2019-12-31 ||            10 |       90 |         101 |   1 || 37.80% | 4.03% |
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-----++--------+-------+

   Now both IRR and TWR are thrown off by the fact that all of the
growth for our investment happens in Q4 2019. This happes because IRR
computation is still yielding 9.32% and TWR is still 1%, but this time
these are rates for three month period instead of twelve, so in order to
get an annual rate they should be multiplied by four!

   Let's try to keep a better record of how Snake Oil grew in value:


2019-01-01 Investing in Snake Oil
  assets:cash  -$100
  investment:snake oil

2019-01-02 Buyers remorse
  assets:cash  $90
  investment:snake oil

2019-02-28 Recording the growth of Snake Oil
  investment:snake oil
  equity:unrealized gains  -$0.25

2019-06-30 Recording the growth of Snake Oil
  investment:snake oil
  equity:unrealized gains  -$0.25

2019-09-30 Recording the growth of Snake Oil
  investment:snake oil
  equity:unrealized gains  -$0.25

2019-12-30 Fear of missing out
  assets:cash  -$90
  investment:snake oil

2019-12-31 Recording the growth of Snake Oil
  investment:snake oil
  equity:unrealized gains  -$0.25

   Would our quartery report look better now? Almost:


$ hledger roi -Q --inv investment --pnl "unrealized"
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+------++--------+--------+
|   ||      Begin |        End || Value (begin) | Cashflow | Value (end) |  PnL ||    IRR |    TWR |
+===++============+============++===============+==========+=============+======++========+========+
| 1 || 2019-01-01 | 2019-03-31 ||             0 |       10 |       10.25 | 0.25 ||  9.53% | 10.53% |
| 2 || 2019-04-01 | 2019-06-30 ||         10.25 |        0 |       10.50 | 0.25 || 10.15% | 10.15% |
| 3 || 2019-07-01 | 2019-09-30 ||         10.50 |        0 |       10.75 | 0.25 ||  9.79% |  9.78% |
| 4 || 2019-10-01 | 2019-12-31 ||         10.75 |       90 |      101.00 | 0.25 ||  8.05% |  1.00% |
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+------++--------+--------+

   Something is still wrong with TWR computation for Q4, and if you have
been paying attention you know what it is already: big $90 buy-back is
recorded prior to the only transaction that captures the change of value
of Snake Oil that happened in this time period. Lets combine
transactions from 30th and 31st of Dec into one:


2019-12-30 Fear of missing out and growth of Snake Oil
  assets:cash  -$90
  investment:snake oil
  equity:unrealized gains  -$0.25

   Now growth of investment properly affects its price at the time of
buy-back:


$ hledger roi -Q --inv investment --pnl "unrealized"
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+------++--------+--------+
|   ||      Begin |        End || Value (begin) | Cashflow | Value (end) |  PnL ||    IRR |    TWR |
+===++============+============++===============+==========+=============+======++========+========+
| 1 || 2019-01-01 | 2019-03-31 ||             0 |       10 |       10.25 | 0.25 ||  9.53% | 10.53% |
| 2 || 2019-04-01 | 2019-06-30 ||         10.25 |        0 |       10.50 | 0.25 || 10.15% | 10.15% |
| 3 || 2019-07-01 | 2019-09-30 ||         10.50 |        0 |       10.75 | 0.25 ||  9.79% |  9.78% |
| 4 || 2019-10-01 | 2019-12-31 ||         10.75 |       90 |      101.00 | 0.25 ||  8.05% |  9.57% |
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+------++--------+--------+

   And for annual report, TWR now reports the exact profitability of our
investment:


$ hledger roi -Y --inv investment --pnl "unrealized"
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+------++-------+--------+
|   ||      Begin |        End || Value (begin) | Cashflow | Value (end) |  PnL ||   IRR |    TWR |
+===++============+============++===============+==========+=============+======++=======+========+
| 1 || 2019-01-01 | 2019-12-31 ||             0 |      100 |      101.00 | 1.00 || 9.32% | 10.00% |
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+------++-------+--------+


File: hledger.info,  Node: stats,  Next: tags,  Prev: roi,  Up: COMMANDS

11.28 stats
===========

stats
Show some journal 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.

   Example:


$ hledger stats
Main journal file        : /src/hledger/examples/sample.journal
Included journal files   :
Transactions span        : 2008-01-01 to 2009-01-01 (366 days)
Last transaction         : 2008-12-31 (2333 days ago)
Transactions             : 5 (0.0 per day)
Transactions last 30 days: 0 (0.0 per day)
Transactions last 7 days : 0 (0.0 per day)
Payees/descriptions      : 5
Accounts                 : 8 (depth 3)
Commodities              : 1 ($)
Market prices            : 12 ($)

   This command also supports output destination and output format
selection.


File: hledger.info,  Node: tags,  Next: test,  Prev: stats,  Up: COMMANDS

11.29 tags
==========

tags
List the unique tag names used in the journal. With a TAGREGEX argument,
only tag names matching the regular expression (case insensitive) are
shown. With QUERY arguments, only transactions matching the query are
considered.

   With the -values flag, the tags' unique values are listed instead.

   With -parsed flag, all tags or values are shown in the order they are
parsed from the input data, including duplicates.

   With -E/-empty, any blank/empty values will also be shown, otherwise
they are omitted.


File: hledger.info,  Node: test,  Next: About add-on commands,  Prev: tags,  Up: COMMANDS

11.30 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: About add-on commands,  Prev: test,  Up: COMMANDS

11.31 About add-on commands
===========================

Add-on commands are 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.

   Add-ons are a relatively easy way to add local features or experiment
with new ideas. They can be written in any language, but haskell scripts
have a big advantage: they can use the same hledger library functions
that built-in commands use for command-line options, parsing and
reporting. Some experimental/example add-on scripts can be found in the
hledger repo's bin/ directory.

   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: JOURNAL FORMAT,  Next: CSV FORMAT,  Prev: COMMANDS,  Up: Top

12 JOURNAL FORMAT
*****************

hledger's default file format, representing a General Journal.

   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). These are mostly in the order you'll use them, but in some
cases related concepts have been grouped together for easy reference, or
linked before they are introduced, so feel free to skip over anything
that looks unnecessary right now.

* Menu:

* Transactions::
* Dates::
* Status::
* Description::
* Comments::
* Tags::
* Postings::
* Account names::
* Amounts::
* Transaction prices::
* Lot prices lot dates::
* Balance assertions::
* Balance assignments::
* Directives::
* Directives and multiple files::
* Comment blocks::
* Including other files::
* Default year::
* Declaring payees::
* Declaring commodities::
* Default commodity::
* Declaring market prices::
* Declaring accounts::
* Rewriting accounts::
* Default parent account::
* Periodic transactions::
* Auto postings::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Transactions,  Next: Dates,  Up: JOURNAL FORMAT

12.1 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 FORMAT

12.2 Dates
==========

* Menu:

* Simple dates::
* Secondary dates::
* Posting dates::


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

12.2.1 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: Secondary dates,  Next: Posting dates,  Prev: Simple dates,  Up: Dates

12.2.2 Secondary dates
----------------------

Real-life transactions sometimes involve more than one date - eg the
date you write a cheque, and the date it clears in your bank. When you
want to model this, for more accurate daily balances, you can specify
individual posting dates.

   Or, you can use the older _secondary date_ feature (Ledger calls it
auxiliary date or effective date). Note: we support this for
compatibility, but I usually recommend avoiding this feature; posting
dates are almost always clearer and simpler.

   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", as shown here:


2010/2/23=2/19 movie ticket
  expenses:cinema                   $10
  assets:checking


$ hledger register checking
2010-02-23 movie ticket         assets:checking                $-10         $-10


$ hledger register checking --date2
2010-02-19 movie ticket         assets:checking                $-10         $-10


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

12.2.3 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. You can set the secondary date
similarly, with `date2:DATE2'. The `date:' or `date2:' tags must have a
valid simple date value if they are present, eg a `date:' tag with no
value is not allowed.

   Ledger's earlier, more compact bracketed date syntax is also
supported: `[DATE]', `[DATE=DATE2]' or `[=DATE2]'. 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.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Status,  Next: Description,  Prev: Dates,  Up: JOURNAL FORMAT

12.3 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: Description,  Next: Comments,  Prev: Status,  Up: JOURNAL FORMAT

12.4 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

12.4.1 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: Comments,  Next: Tags,  Prev: Description,  Up: JOURNAL FORMAT

12.5 Comments
=============

Lines in the journal beginning with a semicolon (`;') or hash (`#') or
star (`*') are comments, and will be ignored. (Star comments cause
org-mode nodes to be ignored, allowing emacs users to fold and navigate
their journals with org-mode or orgstruct-mode.)

   You can attach comments to a transaction by writing them after the
description and/or indented on the following lines (before the
postings). Similarly, you can attach comments to an individual posting
by writing them after the amount and/or indented on the following lines.
Transaction and posting comments must begin with a semicolon (`;').

   Some examples:


# a file comment
; another file comment
* also a file comment, useful in org/orgstruct mode

comment
A multiline file comment, which continues
until a line containing just "end comment"
(or end of file).
end comment

2012/5/14 something  ; a transaction comment
    ; the transaction comment, continued
    posting1  1  ; a comment for posting 1
    posting2
    ; a comment for posting 2
    ; another comment line for posting 2
; a file comment (because not indented)

   You can also comment larger regions of a file using `comment' and
`end comment' directives.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Tags,  Next: Postings,  Prev: Comments,  Up: JOURNAL FORMAT

12.6 Tags
=========

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

   A simple tag is a word (which may contain hyphens) followed by a full
colon, written inside a transaction or posting comment line:


2017/1/16 bought groceries  ; sometag:

   Tags can have a value, which is the text after the colon, up to the
next comma or end of line, with leading/trailing whitespace removed:


    expenses:food    $10 ; a-posting-tag: the tag value

   Note this means hledger's tag values can not contain commas or
newlines.  Ending at commas means you can write multiple short tags on
one line, comma separated:


    assets:checking  ; a comment containing tag1:, tag2: some value ...

   Here,

   * "`a comment containing'" is just comment text, not a tag

   * "`tag1'" is a tag with no value

   * "`tag2'" is another tag, whose value is "`some value ...'"

   Tags in a transaction comment affect the transaction and all of its
postings, while tags in a posting comment affect only that posting. For
example, the following transaction has three tags (`A', `TAG2',
`third-tag') and the posting has four (those plus `posting-tag'):


1/1 a transaction  ; A:, TAG2:
    ; third-tag: a third transaction tag, <- with a value
    (a)  $1  ; posting-tag:

   Tags are like Ledger's metadata feature, except hledger's tag values
are simple strings.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Postings,  Next: Account names,  Prev: Tags,  Up: JOURNAL FORMAT

12.7 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.

* Menu:

* Virtual postings::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Virtual postings,  Up: Postings

12.7.1 Virtual postings
-----------------------

A posting with a parenthesised 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 accounting, 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:


1/1 opening balances
  (assets:checking)   $1000
  (assets:savings)    $2000

   A posting with a bracketed 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:


1/1 buy food with cash, update budget envelope subaccounts, & something else
  assets:cash                    $-10 ; <- these balance
  expenses:food                    $7 ; <-
  expenses:food                    $3 ; <-
  [assets:checking:budget:food]  $-10    ; <- and these balance
  [assets:checking:available]     $10    ; <-
  (something:else)                 $5       ; <- not required to balance

   Ordinary non-parenthesised, non-bracketed postings are called _real
postings_. You can exclude virtual postings from reports with the
`-R/--real' flag or `real:1' query.


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

12.8 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: Transaction prices,  Prev: Account names,  Up: JOURNAL FORMAT

12.9 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 or commodity name (the "commodity"). This
is a symbol, word, or phrase, to the left or right of the quantity,
with or without a separating space:


$1
4000 AAPL

   If the commodity name contains spaces, numbers, or punctuation, it
must be enclosed in double quotes:


3 "no. 42 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 display style::
* Rounding::


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

12.9.1 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 confusion and
undetected typos, especially if your data contains digit group marks, we
recommend you explicitly declare the decimal mark (and optionally a
digit group mark), for each commodity, using `commodity' directives
(described below):


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

   Note, `commodity' directives declare both the number format for
parsing input, and the display style for showing output. For the former,
they are position-sensitive, affecting only following amounts, so
commodity directives should be at the top of your journal file. This is
discussed more on #793.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Commodity display style,  Next: Rounding,  Prev: Decimal marks digit group marks,  Up: Amounts

12.9.2 Commodity display style
------------------------------

For the amounts in each commodity, hledger chooses a consistent display
style to use in most reports. (Except for price amounts, which are
always displayed as written). The 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.

   Transaction price 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 transaction price). 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.


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

12.9.3 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"). (Guaranteed since hledger 1.17.1; in older versions this could
vary if hledger was built with Decimal < 0.5.1.)


File: hledger.info,  Node: Transaction prices,  Next: Lot prices lot dates,  Prev: Amounts,  Up: JOURNAL FORMAT

12.10 Transaction prices
========================

Within a transaction, you can note an amount's price in another
commodity. This can be used to document the cost (in a purchase) or
selling price (in a sale). For example, transaction prices are useful to
record purchases of a foreign currency. Note transaction prices are
fixed at the time of the transaction, and do not change over time. See
also market prices, which represent prevailing exchange rates on a
certain date.

   There are several ways to record a transaction price:

  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:


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

  4. Like 1, but the `@' is parenthesised, i.e. `(@)'; this is for
     compatibility with Ledger journals (Virtual posting costs), and is
     equivalent to 1 in hledger.

  5. Like 2, but as in 4 the `@@' is parenthesised, i.e.  `(@@)'; in
     hledger, this is equivalent to 2.


   Use the `-B/--cost' flag to convert amounts to their transaction
price's commodity, if any. (mnemonic: "B" is from "cost Basis", as in
Ledger). Eg here is how -B affects the balance report for the example
above:


$ hledger bal -N --flat
               $-135  assets:dollars
                €100  assets:euros
$ hledger bal -N --flat -B
               $-135  assets:dollars
                $135  assets:euros    # <- the euros' cost

   Note -B is sensitive to the order of postings when a transaction
price 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:


2009/1/1
  assets:dollars  $-135              ; 135 dollars sold
  assets:euros     €100              ; for 100 euros


$ hledger bal -N --flat -B
               €-100  assets:dollars  # <- the dollars' selling price
                €100  assets:euros


File: hledger.info,  Node: Lot prices lot dates,  Next: Balance assertions,  Prev: Transaction prices,  Up: JOURNAL FORMAT

12.11 Lot prices, lot dates
===========================

Ledger allows another kind of price, lot price (four variants:
`{UNITPRICE}', `{{TOTALPRICE}}', `{=FIXEDUNITPRICE}',
`{{=FIXEDTOTALPRICE}}'), and/or a lot date (`[DATE]') to be specified.
These are normally used to select a lot when selling investments.
hledger will parse these, for compatibility with Ledger journals, but
currently ignores them. A transaction price, lot price and/or lot date
may appear in any order, after the posting amount and before the
balance assertion if any.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Balance assertions,  Next: Balance assignments,  Prev: Lot prices lot dates,  Up: JOURNAL FORMAT

12.12 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, below).

* Menu:

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


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

12.12.1 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 included files,  Next: Assertions and multiple -f options,  Prev: Assertions and ordering,  Up: Balance assertions

12.12.2 Assertions and included files
-------------------------------------

With included files, things are a little more complicated. Including
preserves the ordering of postings and assertions. If you have multiple
postings to an account on the same day, split across different files,
and you also want to assert the account's balance on the same day,
you'll have to put the assertion in the right file.


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

12.12.3 Assertions and multiple -f options
------------------------------------------

Balance assertions don't work well across files specified with multiple
-f options. Use include or concatenate the files instead.


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

12.12.4 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 unasserted commodities in the account (or, 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

12.12.5 Assertions and prices
-----------------------------

Balance assertions ignore transaction prices, 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

12.12.6 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 precision,  Prev: Assertions and subaccounts,  Up: Balance assertions

12.12.7 Assertions and virtual postings
---------------------------------------

Balance assertions are checked against all postings, both real and
virtual. They are not affected by the `--real/-R' flag or `real:' query.


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

12.12.8 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: Balance assignments,  Next: Directives,  Prev: Balance assertions,  Up: JOURNAL FORMAT

12.13 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). Note that using balance assignments makes your journal a
little less explicit; to know the exact amount posted, you have to run
hledger or do the calculations yourself, instead of just reading it.

* Menu:

* Balance assignments and prices::


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

12.13.1 Balance assignments and prices
--------------------------------------

A transaction price 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: Directives,  Next: Directives and multiple files,  Prev: Balance assignments,  Up: JOURNAL FORMAT

12.14 Directives
================

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

   Directives' behaviour and interactions can get a little bit complex,
so here is a table summarising the directives and their effects, with
links to more detailed docs. Note part of this table is hidden when
viewed in a web browser - scroll it sideways to see more.

directiveend       subdirectivespurpose                       can affect (as of
         directive                                       2018/06)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
`account'          any     document account names,       all entries in all
                   text    declare account types &       files, before or
                           display order                 after
`alias'  `end              rewrite account names         following entries
         aliases'                                        until end of
                                                         current file or
                                                         end directive
`apply   `end              prepend a common parent to    following entries
account' apply             account names                 until end of
         account'                                        current file or
                                                         end directive
`comment'`end              ignore part of journal        following entries
         comment'                                        until end of
                                                         current file or
                                                         end directive
`commodity'          `format'declare a commodity and its   number notation:
                           number notation & display     following entries
                           style                         in that commodity
                                                         in all files ;
                                                         display style:
                                                         amounts of that
                                                         commodity in
                                                         reports
`D'                        declare a commodity to be     default commodity:
                           used for commodityless        following
                           amounts, and its number       commodityless
                           notation & display style      entries until end
                                                         of current file;
                                                         number notation:
                                                         following entries
                                                         in that commodity
                                                         until end of
                                                         current file;
                                                         display style:
                                                         amounts of that
                                                         commodity in
                                                         reports
`include'                  include entries/directives    what the included
                           from another file             directives affect
[`payee']                  declare a payee name          following entries
                                                         until end of
                                                         current file
`P'                        declare a market price for a  amounts of that
                           commodity                     commodity in
                                                         reports, when -V
                                                         is used
`Y'                        declare a year for yearless   following entries
                           dates                         until end of
                                                         current file
`='                        declare an auto posting       all entries in
                           rule, adding postings to      parent/current/child
                           other transactions            files (but not
                                                         sibling files, see
                                                         #1212)

   And some definitions:

subdirectiveoptional indented directive line immediately following a parent
       directive
number how to interpret numbers when parsing journal entries (the
notationidentity of the decimal separator character). (Currently each
       commodity can have its own notation, even in the same file.)
displayhow to display amounts of a commodity in reports (symbol side and
style  spacing, digit groups, decimal separator, decimal places)
directivewhich entries and (when there are multiple files) which files are
scope  affected by a directive

   As you can see, directives vary in which journal entries and files
they affect, and whether they are focussed on input (parsing) or output
(reports). Some directives have multiple effects.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Directives and multiple files,  Next: Comment blocks,  Prev: Directives,  Up: JOURNAL FORMAT

12.15 Directives and multiple files
===================================

If you use multiple `-f'/`--file' options, or the `include' directive,
hledger will process multiple input files. But note that directives
which affect input (see above) typically last only until the end of the
file in which they occur.

   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: Comment blocks,  Next: Including other files,  Prev: Directives and multiple files,  Up: JOURNAL FORMAT

12.16 Comment blocks
====================

A line containing just `comment' starts a commented region of the file,
and a line containing just `end comment' (or the end of the current
file) ends it. See also comments.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Including other files,  Next: Default year,  Prev: Comment blocks,  Up: JOURNAL FORMAT

12.17 Including other 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: Default year,  Next: Declaring payees,  Prev: Including other files,  Up: JOURNAL FORMAT

12.18 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' followed by the year.
Eg:


Y2009  ; set default year to 2009

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

Y2010  ; 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


File: hledger.info,  Node: Declaring payees,  Next: Declaring commodities,  Prev: Default year,  Up: JOURNAL FORMAT

12.19 Declaring 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


File: hledger.info,  Node: Declaring commodities,  Next: Default commodity,  Prev: Declaring payees,  Up: JOURNAL FORMAT

12.20 Declaring commodities
===========================

The `commodity' directive has several functions:

  1. It declares commodities which may be used in the journal. This is
     currently not enforced, but can serve as documentation.

  2. It declares what 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).

  3. It declares a commodity's display style in output - decimal and
     digit group marks, number of decimal places, symbol placement etc.


   You are likely to run into one of the problems solved by commodity
directives, sooner or later, so it's a good idea to just always use them
to declare your commodities.

   A commodity directive is just the word `commodity' followed by an
amount. It may be written on a single line, like this:


; commodity EXAMPLEAMOUNT

; display AAAA amounts with the symbol on the right, space-separated,
; using period as decimal point, with four decimal places, and
; separating thousands with comma.
commodity 1,000.0000 AAAA

   or on multiple lines, using the "format" subdirective. (In this case
the commodity symbol appears twice and should be the same in both
places.):


; commodity SYMBOL
;   format EXAMPLEAMOUNT

; 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

   The quantity of the amount does not matter; only the format is
significant. The number must include a decimal mark: either a period or
a comma, followed by 0 or more decimal digits.

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

* Menu:

* Commodity error checking::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Commodity error checking,  Up: Declaring commodities

12.20.1 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.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Default commodity,  Next: Declaring market prices,  Prev: Declaring commodities,  Up: JOURNAL FORMAT

12.21 Default commodity
=======================

The `D' directive sets a default commodity, to be used for amounts
without a commodity symbol (ie, plain numbers). This commodity will be
applied to all subsequent commodity-less amounts, or until the next `D'
directive. (Note, this is different from Ledger's `D'.)

   For compatibility/historical reasons, `D' also acts like a
`commodity' directive, setting the commodity's display style (for
output) and decimal mark (for parsing input). As with `commodity', the
amount must always be written with a decimal mark (period or comma).
If both directives are used, `commodity''s style takes precedence.

   The syntax is `D AMOUNT'. 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


File: hledger.info,  Node: Declaring market prices,  Next: Declaring accounts,  Prev: Default commodity,  Up: JOURNAL FORMAT

12.22 Declaring market prices
=============================

The `P' directive declares a market price, which is an exchange rate
between two commodities on a certain date. (In Ledger, they are called
"historical prices".) These are often obtained from a stock exchange,
cryptocurrency exchange, or the foreign exchange market.

   Here is the format:


P DATE COMMODITYA COMMODITYBAMOUNT

   * DATE is a simple date

   * COMMODITYA is the symbol of the commodity being priced

   * COMMODITYBAMOUNT is an amount (symbol and quantity) in a second
     commodity, giving the price in commodity B of one unit of
     commodity A.

   These two market price directives say that one euro was worth 1.35 US
dollars during 2009, and $1.40 from 2010 onward:


P 2009/1/1 € $1.35
P 2010/1/1 € $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: Declaring accounts,  Next: Rewriting accounts,  Prev: Declaring market prices,  Up: JOURNAL FORMAT

12.23 Declaring 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.

   * They can help hledger know your accounts' types (asset, liability,
     equity, revenue, expense), useful for reports like balancesheet and
     incomestatement.

   * They control account display order in reports, allowing
     non-alphabetic sorting (eg Revenues to appear above Expenses).

   * They can store extra information about accounts (account numbers,
     notes, etc.)

   * They help with account name completion in the add command,
     hledger-iadd, hledger-web, ledger-mode etc.

   * In strict mode, they restrict which accounts may be posted to by
     transactions, which helps detect typos.

   The simplest form is just the word `account' followed by a
hledger-style account name, eg this account directive declares the
`assets:bank:checking' account:


account assets:bank:checking

* Menu:

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


File: hledger.info,  Node: Account error checking,  Next: Account comments,  Up: Declaring accounts

12.23.1 Account error checking
------------------------------

By default, accounts come into existence when a transaction references
them by name. 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
the 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 in other formats).

   * 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 comments,  Next: Account subdirectives,  Prev: Account error checking,  Up: Declaring accounts

12.23.2 Account comments
------------------------

Comments, beginning with a semicolon, can be added:

   * on the same line, *after two or more spaces* (because ; is allowed
     in account names)

   * on the next lines, indented

   An example of both:


account assets:bank:checking  ; same-line comment, note 2+ spaces before ;
  ; next-line comment
  ; another with tag, acctno:12345 (not used yet)

   Same-line comments are not supported by Ledger, or hledger <1.13.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Account subdirectives,  Next: Account types,  Prev: Account comments,  Up: Declaring accounts

12.23.3 Account subdirectives
-----------------------------

We also allow (and ignore) Ledger-style indented subdirectives, just for
compatibility.:


account assets:bank:checking
  format blah blah  ; <- subdirective, ignored

   Here is the full syntax of account directives:


account ACCTNAME  [ACCTTYPE] [;COMMENT]
  [;COMMENTS]
  [LEDGER-STYLE SUBDIRECTIVES, IGNORED]


File: hledger.info,  Node: Account types,  Next: Account display order,  Prev: Account subdirectives,  Up: Declaring accounts

12.23.4 Account types
---------------------

hledger recognises five main types of account, corresponding to the
account classes in the accounting equation:

   `Asset', `Liability', `Equity', `Revenue', `Expense'.

   These account types are important for controlling which accounts
appear in the balancesheet, balancesheetequity, incomestatement reports
(and probably for other things in future).

   Additionally, we recognise the `Cash' type, which is also an
`Asset', and which causes accounts to appear in the cashflow report.
("Cash" here means liquid assets, eg bank balances but typically not
investments or receivables.)

* Menu:

* Declaring account types::
* Auto-detected account types::
* Interference from auto-detected account types::
* Old account type syntax::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Declaring account types,  Next: Auto-detected account types,  Up: Account types

12.23.4.1 Declaring account types
.................................

Generally, to make these reports work you should declare your top-level
accounts and their types, using account directives with `type:' tags.

   The tag's value should be one of: `Asset', `Liability', `Equity',
`Revenue', `Expense', `Cash', `A', `L', `E', `R', `X', `C' (all case
insensitive).  The type is inherited by all subaccounts except where
they override it.  Here's a complete example:


account assets       ; type: Asset
account assets:bank  ; type: Cash
account assets:cash  ; type: Cash
account liabilities  ; type: Liability
account equity       ; type: Equity
account revenues     ; type: Revenue
account expenses     ; type: Expense


File: hledger.info,  Node: Auto-detected account types,  Next: Interference from auto-detected account types,  Prev: Declaring account types,  Up: Account types

12.23.4.2 Auto-detected account types
.....................................

If you happen to use common english top-level account names, you may not
need to declare account types, as they will be detected automatically
using the following rules:

If name matches regular            account type
expression:                        is:
------------------------------------------------- 
`^assets?(:|$)'                    `Asset'
`^(debts?|liabilit(y|ies))(:|$)'   `Liability'
`^equity(:|$)'                     `Equity'
`^(income|revenue)s?(:|$)'         `Revenue'
`^expenses?(:|$)'                  `Expense'

If account type is `Asset' and name does not contain       account type
regular expression:                                        is:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
`(investment|receivable|:A/R|:fixed)'                      `Cash'

   Even so, explicit declarations may be a good idea, for clarity and
predictability.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Interference from auto-detected account types,  Next: Old account type syntax,  Prev: Auto-detected account types,  Up: Account types

12.23.4.3 Interference from auto-detected account types
.......................................................

If you assign any account type, it's a good idea to assign all of them,
to prevent any confusion from mixing declared and auto-detected types.
Although it's unlikely to happen in real life, here's an example: with
the following journal, `balancesheetequity' shows "liabilities" in both
Liabilities and Equity sections. Declaring another account as
`type:Liability' would fix it:


account liabilities  ; type:Equity

2020-01-01
  assets        1
  liabilities   1
  equity       -2


File: hledger.info,  Node: Old account type syntax,  Prev: Interference from auto-detected account types,  Up: Account types

12.23.4.4 Old account type syntax
.................................

In some hledger journals you might instead see this old syntax (the
letters ALERX, separated from the account name by two or more spaces);
this is deprecated and may be removed soon:


account assets       A
account liabilities  L
account equity       E
account revenues     R
account expenses     X


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

12.23.5 Account display order
-----------------------------

Account directives also set the order in which accounts are displayed,
eg in reports, the hledger-ui accounts screen, and the hledger-web
sidebar. By default accounts are listed in alphabetical order. But if
you have these account directives in the journal:


account assets
account liabilities
account equity
account revenues
account expenses

   you'll see those accounts displayed in declaration order, not
alphabetically:


$ hledger accounts -1
assets
liabilities
equity
revenues
expenses

   Undeclared accounts, if any, are displayed last, in alphabetical
order.

   Note that 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: Rewriting accounts,  Next: Default parent account,  Prev: Declaring accounts,  Up: JOURNAL FORMAT

12.24 Rewriting accounts
========================

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
     or combining two accounts into one

   * 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.

   See also Rewrite account names.

* Menu:

* Basic aliases::
* Regex aliases::
* Combining aliases::
* Aliases and multiple files::
* end aliases::


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

12.24.1 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. 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: Rewriting accounts

12.24.2 Regex aliases
---------------------

There is also a more powerful variant that uses a regular expression,
indicated by the forward slashes:


alias /REGEX/ = REPLACEMENT

   or `--alias '/REGEX/=REPLACEMENT''.

   REGEX is a case-insensitive regular expression. Anywhere it matches
inside an account name, the matched part will be replaced by
REPLACEMENT. If REGEX contains parenthesised match groups, these can be
referenced by the usual numeric backreferences in REPLACEMENT. Eg:


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

   Also note that 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: Rewriting accounts

12.24.3 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: Rewriting accounts

12.24.4 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,  Prev: Aliases and multiple files,  Up: Rewriting accounts

12.24.5 `end aliases'
---------------------

You can clear (forget) all currently defined aliases with the `end
aliases' directive:


end aliases


File: hledger.info,  Node: Default parent account,  Next: Periodic transactions,  Prev: Rewriting accounts,  Up: JOURNAL FORMAT

12.25 Default parent account
============================

You can specify a parent account which will be prepended to all accounts
within a section of the journal. Use the `apply account' and `end apply
account' directives like so:


apply account home

2010/1/1
    food    $10
    cash

end apply account

   which is equivalent to:


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

   If `end apply account' is omitted, the effect lasts to the end of
the file. Included files are also affected, eg:


apply account business
include biz.journal
end apply account
apply account personal
include personal.journal

   Prior to hledger 1.0, legacy `account' and `end' spellings were also
supported.

   A default parent account also affects account directives. It does not
affect account names being entered via hledger add or hledger-web. If
account aliases are present, they are applied after the default parent
account.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Periodic transactions,  Next: Auto postings,  Prev: Default parent account,  Up: JOURNAL FORMAT

12.26 Periodic transactions
===========================

Periodic transaction rules describe transactions that recur. They allow
hledger to generate temporary future transactions to help with
forecasting, so you don't have to write out each one in the journal, and
it's easy to try out different forecasts.

   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.

   Periodic transaction rules also have a second meaning: they are used
to define budget goals, shown in budget reports.

* Menu:

* Periodic rule syntax::
* Two spaces between period expression and description!::
* Forecasting with periodic transactions::
* Budgeting with periodic transactions::


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

12.26.1 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.

   Partial or relative dates (M/D, D, tomorrow, last week) in the period
expression can work (useful or not). They will be relative to today's
date, unless a Y default year directive is in effect, in which case they
will be relative to Y/1/1.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Two spaces between period expression and description!,  Next: Forecasting with periodic transactions,  Prev: Periodic rule syntax,  Up: Periodic transactions

12.26.2 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: Forecasting with periodic transactions,  Next: Budgeting with periodic transactions,  Prev: Two spaces between period expression and description!,  Up: Periodic transactions

12.26.3 Forecasting with periodic transactions
----------------------------------------------

The `--forecast' flag activates any periodic transaction rules in the
journal. They will generate temporary recurring transactions, which are
not saved in the journal, but will appear in all reports (eg print).
This can be useful for estimating balances into the future, or
experimenting with different scenarios. Or, it can be used as a data
entry aid: describe recurring transactions, and every so often copy the
output of `print --forecast' into the journal.

   These transactions will have an extra tag indicating which periodic
rule generated them: `generated-transaction:~ PERIODICEXPR'. And a
similar, hidden tag (beginning with an underscore) which, because it's
never displayed by print, can be used to match transactions generated
"just now": `_generated-transaction:~ PERIODICEXPR'.

   Periodic transactions are generated within some forecast period. By
default, this

   * begins on the later of
        * the report start date if specified with -b/-p/date:

        * the day after the latest normal (non-periodic) transaction in
          the journal, or today if there are no normal transactions.

   * ends on the report end date if specified with -e/-p/date:, or 6
     months (180 days) from today.

   This means that periodic transactions will begin only after the
latest recorded transaction. And a recorded transaction dated in the
future can prevent generation of periodic transactions. (You can avoid
that by writing the future transaction as a one-time periodic rule
instead - put tilde before the date, eg `~ YYYY-MM-DD ...').

   Or, you can set your own arbitrary "forecast period", which can
overlap recorded transactions, and need not be in the future, by
providing an option argument, like `--forecast=PERIODEXPR'. Note the
equals sign is required, a space won't work. PERIODEXPR is a period
expression, which can specify the start date, end date, or both, like
in a `date:' query. (See also hledger.1 -> Report start & end date).
Some examples: `--forecast=202001-202004', `--forecast=jan-',
`--forecast=2020'.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Budgeting with periodic transactions,  Prev: Forecasting with periodic transactions,  Up: Periodic transactions

12.26.4 Budgeting with periodic transactions
--------------------------------------------

With the `--budget' flag, currently supported by the balance command,
each periodic transaction rule declares recurring budget goals for the
specified accounts. Eg the first example above declares a goal of
spending $2000 on rent (and also, a goal of depositing $2000 into
checking) every month. Goals and actual performance can then be compared
in budget reports.

   See also: Budgeting and Forecasting.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Auto postings,  Prev: Periodic transactions,  Up: JOURNAL FORMAT

12.27 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.

   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

12.27.1 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

12.27.2 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

12.27.3 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.


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

12.27.4 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: CSV FORMAT,  Next: TIMECLOCK FORMAT,  Prev: JOURNAL FORMAT,  Up: Top

13 CSV FORMAT
*************

How hledger reads CSV data, and the CSV rules file format.

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

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

   We describe each CSV file's format with a corresponding _rules
file_. By default this is named like the CSV file with a `.rules'
extension added. Eg when reading `FILE.csv', hledger also looks for
`FILE.csv.rules' in the same directory as `FILE.csv'. You can specify a
different rules file with the `--rules-file' option. If a rules file is
not found, hledger will create a sample rules file, which you'll need
to adjust.

   This file contains rules describing the CSV data (header line, fields
layout, date format etc.), and how to construct hledger journal entries
(transactions) from it. Often there will also be a list of conditional
rules for categorising transactions based on their descriptions. Here's
an overview of the CSV rules; these are described more fully below,
after the examples:

*`skip'*                        skip one or more header lines or matched
                                CSV records
*`fields'*                      name CSV fields, assign them to hledger
                                fields
*field assignment*              assign a value to one hledger field,
                                with interpolation
*`separator'*                   a custom field separator
*`if' block*                    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
*`date-format'*                 how to parse dates in CSV records
*`decimal-mark'*                the decimal mark used in CSV amounts, if
                                ambiguous
*`newest-first'*                disambiguate record order when there's
                                only one date
*`include'*                     inline another CSV rules file
*`balance-type'*                choose which type of balance assignments
                                to use

   Note, for best error messages when reading CSV files, use a `.csv',
`.tsv' or `.ssv' file extension or file prefix - see File Extension
below.

   There's an introductory Convert CSV files tutorial on hledger.org.

* Menu:

* Examples::
* CSV rules::
* Tips::


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

13.1 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

13.1.1 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

13.1.2 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

13.1.3 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

13.1.4 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: Tips,  Prev: Examples,  Up: CSV FORMAT

13.2 CSV rules
==============

The following kinds of rule can appear in the rules file, in any order.
Blank lines and lines beginning with `#' or `;' are ignored.

* Menu:

* skip::
* fields::
* field assignment::
* separator::
* if block::
* if table::
* end::
* date-format::
* decimal-mark::
* newest-first::
* include::
* balance-type::


File: hledger.info,  Node: skip,  Next: fields,  Up: CSV rules

13.2.1 `skip'
-------------


skip N

The word "skip" followed by a number (or no number, meaning 1) tells
hledger to ignore this many non-empty lines preceding the CSV data.
(Empty/blank lines are skipped automatically.) You'll need this whenever
your CSV data contains header lines.

   It also has a second purpose: it can be used inside if blocks to
ignore certain CSV records (described below).


File: hledger.info,  Node: fields,  Next: field assignment,  Prev: skip,  Up: CSV rules

13.2.2 `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. It
does two things:

  1. it names the CSV fields. This is optional, but can be convenient
     later for interpolating them.

  2. when you use a standard hledger field name, it assigns the CSV
     value 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

   Field names may not contain whitespace. Fields you don't care about
can be left unnamed. Currently there must be least two items (there
must be at least one comma).

   Note, always use comma in the fields list, even if your CSV uses
another separator character.

   Here are the standard hledger field/pseudo-field names. For more
about the transaction parts they refer to, see the manual for hledger's
journal format.

* Menu:

* Transaction field names::
* Posting field names::


File: hledger.info,  Node: Transaction field names,  Next: Posting field names,  Up: fields

13.2.2.1 Transaction field names
................................

`date', `date2', `status', `code', `description', `comment' can be used
to form the transaction's first line.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Posting field names,  Prev: Transaction field names,  Up: fields

13.2.2.2 Posting field names
............................

account `accountN', where N is 1 to 99, causes a posting to be
generated, with that account name.

   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").  amount `amountN' sets posting N's amount. If the
CSV uses separate fields for inflows and outflows, you can use
`amountN-in' and `amountN-out' instead. By assigning to `amount1',
`amount2', ... etc. you can generate anywhere from 0 to 99 postings.

   There is also an older, unnumbered form of these names, suitable for
2-posting transactions, which sets both posting 1's and (negated)
posting 2's amount: `amount', or `amount-in' and `amount-out'. This is
still supported because it keeps pre-hledger-1.17 csv rules files
working, and because it can be more succinct, and because it converts
posting 2's amount to cost if there's a transaction price, which can be
useful.

   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.  currency If the CSV has the currency
symbol in a separate field (ie, not part of the amount field), you can
use `currencyN' to prepend it to posting N's amount. Or, `currency'
with no number affects all postings.  balance `balanceN' sets a balance
assertion amount (or if the posting amount is left empty, a balance
assignment) on posting N.

   Also, for compatibility with hledger <1.17: `balance' with no number
is equivalent to `balance1'.

   You can adjust the type of assertion/assignment with the
`balance-type' rule (see below).  comment Finally, `commentN' sets a
comment on the Nth posting. Comments can also contain tags, as usual.

   See TIPS below for more about setting amounts and currency.


File: hledger.info,  Node: field assignment,  Next: separator,  Prev: fields,  Up: CSV rules

13.2.3 field assignment
-----------------------


HLEDGERFIELDNAME FIELDVALUE

Instead of or in addition to a fields list, you can use a "field
assignment" rule to set the value of a single hledger field, by writing
its name (any of the standard hledger field names above) followed by a
text value. The value may contain interpolated 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

   Interpolation strips outer whitespace (so a CSV value like `" 1 "'
becomes `1' when interpolated) (#1051). See TIPS below for more about
referencing other fields.


File: hledger.info,  Node: separator,  Next: if block,  Prev: field assignment,  Up: CSV rules

13.2.4 `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: if block,  Next: if table,  Prev: separator,  Up: CSV rules

13.2.5 `if' block
-----------------


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 block

13.2.5.1 Matching the whole record
..................................

Each MATCHER can be a record matcher, which looks like this:


REGEX

   REGEX is a case-insensitive regular expression which 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
https://hledger.org/hledger.html#regular-expressions doc.

   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 block

13.2.5.2 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 block

13.2.5.3 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 block

13.2.5.4 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 block,  Up: CSV rules

13.2.6 `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: date-format,  Prev: if table,  Up: CSV rules

13.2.7 `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: date-format,  Next: decimal-mark,  Prev: end,  Up: CSV rules

13.2.8 `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
date parsing pattern, which 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

   For the supported strptime syntax, see:
https://hackage.haskell.org/package/time/docs/Data-Time-Format.html#v:formatTime


File: hledger.info,  Node: decimal-mark,  Next: newest-first,  Prev: date-format,  Up: CSV rules

13.2.9 `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: include,  Prev: decimal-mark,  Up: CSV rules

13.2.10 `newest-first'
----------------------

hledger always sorts the generated transactions by date. Transactions on
the same date should appear in the same order as their CSV records, as
hledger can usually auto-detect whether the CSV's normal order is oldest
first or newest first. But if all of the following are true:

   * the CSV might sometimes contain just one day of data (all records
     having the same date)

   * the CSV records are normally in reverse chronological order
     (newest at the top)

   * and you care about preserving the order of same-day transactions

   then, you should add the `newest-first' rule as a hint. Eg:


# tell hledger explicitly that the CSV is normally newest first
newest-first


File: hledger.info,  Node: include,  Next: balance-type,  Prev: newest-first,  Up: CSV rules

13.2.11 `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,  Prev: include,  Up: CSV rules

13.2.12 `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,  Prev: CSV rules,  Up: CSV FORMAT

13.3 Tips
=========

* Menu:

* 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: Rapid feedback,  Next: Valid CSV,  Up: Tips

13.3.1 Rapid feedback
---------------------

It's a good idea to get rapid feedback while creating/troubleshooting
CSV rules. Here's a good way, using entr from
http://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: Tips

13.3.2 Valid CSV
----------------

hledger accepts CSV conforming to RFC 4180. When CSV values are enclosed
in quotes, note:

   * they must be double quotes (not single quotes)

   * spaces outside the quotes are not allowed


File: hledger.info,  Node: File Extension,  Next: Reading multiple CSV files,  Prev: Valid CSV,  Up: Tips

13.3.3 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: Tips

13.3.4 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: Tips

13.3.5 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: Tips

13.3.6 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 -> sidebar -> real world setups

   * https://plaintextaccounting.org -> data import/conversion


File: hledger.info,  Node: Setting amounts,  Next: Amount signs,  Prev: Deduplicating importing,  Up: Tips

13.3.7 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 Debit and Credit amount fields:*
     Assign to `amountN-in' and `amountN-out'. This sets posting N's
     amount to whichever of these has a non-zero value, guessing an
     appropriate sign.

        * *If hledger guesses the wrong sign:*
          Prepend a minus sign to flip it. Eg:


          fields date, description, amount-in, amount-out
          amount-out -%amount-out

        * *If both fields contain a non-zero value:*
          The `amountN-in'/`amountN-out' rules require that each CSV
          record has a non-zero value in exactly one of the two fields,
          so that hledger knows which to choose. So these would all be
          rejected:


          "",  ""
          "0", "0"
          "1", "none"

          If your CSV has amount values like this, use conditional
          rules instead.  For example, to make hledger to choose the
          value containing non-zero digits:


          fields date, description, in, out
          if %in [1-9]
           amount1 %in
          if %out [1-9]
           amount1 %out


  3. *Using the old numberless syntax:*
     Assign to `amount' (or to `amount-in' and `amount-out').  This
     sets posting 1's and posting 2's amounts (and converts posting 2's
     amount to cost). This is supported for backwards compatibility (and
     occasional convenience).

  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: Tips

13.3.8 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: Tips

13.3.9 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: Tips

13.3.10 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: Tips

13.3.11 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: Tips

13.3.12 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 FORMAT,  Next: TIMEDOT FORMAT,  Prev: CSV FORMAT,  Up: Top

14 TIMECLOCK FORMAT
*******************

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).


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 FORMAT,  Next: COMMON TASKS,  Prev: TIMECLOCK FORMAT,  Up: Top

15 TIMEDOT FORMAT
*****************

hledger's human-friendly time logging format.

   Timedot is a plain text format for logging dated, categorised
quantities (of time, usually), supported by hledger. It is convenient
for approximate and retroactive time logging, eg when the real-time
clock-in/out required with a timeclock file is too precise or too
interruptive. It can be formatted like a bar chart, making clear at a
glance where time was spent.

   Though called "timedot", this format is read by hledger as
commodityless quantities, so it could be used to represent dated
quantities other than time. In the docs below we'll assume it's time.

   A timedot file contains a series of day entries. A day entry begins
with a non-indented hledger-style simple date (Y-M-D, Y/M/D, Y.M.D..)
Any additional text on the same line is used as a transaction
description for this day.

   This is followed by optionally-indented timelog items for that day,
one per line. Each timelog item is a note, usually a
hledger:style:account:name representing a time category, followed by two
or more spaces, and a quantity. Each timelog item generates a hledger
transaction.

   Quantities can be written as:

   * dots: a sequence of dots (.) representing quarter hours. Spaces may
     optionally be used for grouping. Eg: .... ..

   * an integral or decimal number, representing hours. Eg: 1.5

   * an integral or decimal number immediately followed by a unit symbol
     `s', `m', `h', `d', `w', `mo', or `y', representing seconds,
     minutes, hours, days weeks, months or years respectively. Eg: 90m.
     The following equivalencies are assumed, currently: 1m = 60s, 1h =
     60m, 1d = 24h, 1w = 7d, 1mo = 30d, 1y=365d.


   There is some flexibility allowing notes and todo lists to be kept
right in the time log, if needed:

   * Blank lines and lines beginning with `#' or `;' are ignored.

   * Lines not ending with a double-space and quantity are parsed as
     items taking no time, which will not appear in balance reports by
     default.  (Add -E to see them.)

   * Org mode headlines (lines beginning with one or more `*' followed
     by a space) can be used as date lines or timelog items (the stars
     are ignored). Also all org headlines before the first date line
     are ignored.  This means org users can manage their timelog as an
     org outline (eg using org-mode/orgstruct-mode in Emacs), for
     organisation, faster navigation, controlling visibility etc.


   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 t.timedot print date:2016/2/2
2016-02-02 *
    (inc:client1)          2.00

2016-02-02 *
    (biz:research)          0.25


$ hledger -f t.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

   I prefer to use period for separating account components. We can make
this work with an account alias:


2016/2/4
fos.hledger.timedot  4
fos.ledger           ..


$ hledger -f t.timedot --alias /\\./=: bal date:2016/2/4 --tree
                4.50  fos
                4.00    hledger:timedot
                0.50    ledger
--------------------
                4.50

   Here is a sample.timedot.


File: hledger.info,  Node: COMMON TASKS,  Next: LIMITATIONS,  Prev: TIMEDOT FORMAT,  Up: Top

16 COMMON TASKS
***************

Here are some quick examples of how to do some basic tasks with hledger.
For more details, see the reference section below, the
hledger_journal(5) manual, or the more extensive docs at
https://hledger.org.

* 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: COMMON TASKS

16.1 Getting help
=================


$ hledger                 # show available commands
$ hledger --help          # show common options
$ hledger CMD --help      # show common and command options, and command help
$ hledger help            # show available manuals/topics
$ hledger help hledger    # show hledger manual as info/man/text (auto-chosen)
$ hledger help journal --man  # show the journal manual as a man page
$ hledger help --help     # show more detailed help for the help command

Find more docs, chat, mail list, reddit, issue tracker:
https://hledger.org#help-feedback


File: hledger.info,  Node: Constructing command lines,  Next: Starting a journal file,  Prev: Getting help,  Up: COMMON TASKS

16.2 Constructing command lines
===============================

hledger has an extensive and powerful command line interface. We strive
to keep it simple and ergonomic, but you may run into one of the
confusing real world details described in OPTIONS, below. If that
happens, here are some tips that may help:

   * command-specific options must go after the command (it's fine to
     put all options there) (`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 is being parsed, add `--debug=2'.


File: hledger.info,  Node: Starting a journal file,  Next: Setting opening balances,  Prev: Constructing command lines,  Up: COMMON TASKS

16.3 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: COMMON TASKS

16.4 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: COMMON TASKS

16.5 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: COMMON TASKS

16.6 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: COMMON TASKS

16.7 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 --flat -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 --flat -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: COMMON TASKS

16.8 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.


File: hledger.info,  Node: LIMITATIONS,  Next: TROUBLESHOOTING,  Prev: COMMON TASKS,  Up: Top

17 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 file format
differences.

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


File: hledger.info,  Node: TROUBLESHOOTING,  Prev: LIMITATIONS,  Up: Top

18 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



Tag Table:
Node: Top76
Node: OPTIONS2505
Ref: #options2606
Node: General options2748
Ref: #general-options2873
Node: Command options6442
Ref: #command-options6593
Node: Command arguments6992
Ref: #command-arguments7150
Node: Special characters8028
Ref: #special-characters8191
Node: Single escaping shell metacharacters8354
Ref: #single-escaping-shell-metacharacters8595
Node: Double escaping regular expression metacharacters8997
Ref: #double-escaping-regular-expression-metacharacters9308
Node: Triple escaping for add-on commands9834
Ref: #triple-escaping-for-add-on-commands10094
Node: Less escaping10740
Ref: #less-escaping10894
Node: Unicode characters11220
Ref: #unicode-characters11385
Node: Regular expressions12794
Ref: #regular-expressions12934
Node: ENVIRONMENT14675
Ref: #environment14791
Node: DATA FILES15773
Ref: #data-files15892
Node: Data formats16433
Ref: #data-formats16551
Node: Multiple files18033
Ref: #multiple-files18175
Node: Strict mode18645
Ref: #strict-mode18760
Node: TIME PERIODS19410
Ref: #time-periods19527
Node: Smart dates19625
Ref: #smart-dates19751
Node: Report start & end date21055
Ref: #report-start-end-date21230
Node: Report intervals22774
Ref: #report-intervals22942
Node: Period expressions23330
Ref: #period-expressions23470
Node: DEPTH27849
Ref: #depth27949
Node: QUERIES28280
Ref: #queries28379
Node: COSTING32331
Ref: #costing32434
Node: VALUATION32707
Ref: #valuation32815
Node: -V Value33511
Ref: #v-value33635
Node: -X Value in specified commodity33829
Ref: #x-value-in-specified-commodity34022
Node: Valuation date34171
Ref: #valuation-date34333
Node: Market prices34770
Ref: #market-prices34951
Node: --infer-market-price market prices from transactions36133
Ref: #infer-market-price-market-prices-from-transactions36397
Node: Valuation commodity37746
Ref: #valuation-commodity37956
Node: Simple valuation examples39181
Ref: #simple-valuation-examples39377
Node: --value Flexible valuation40039
Ref: #value-flexible-valuation40241
Node: More valuation examples41883
Ref: #more-valuation-examples42084
Node: Effect of valuation on reports44090
Ref: #effect-of-valuation-on-reports44272
Node: PIVOTING52169
Ref: #pivoting52274
Node: OUTPUT53953
Ref: #output54055
Node: Output destination54106
Ref: #output-destination54239
Node: Output format54664
Ref: #output-format54787
Node: COMMANDS56950
Ref: #commands57062
Node: accounts60452
Ref: #accounts60552
Node: activity61244
Ref: #activity61356
Node: add61738
Ref: #add61841
Node: aregister64636
Ref: #aregister64750
Node: aregister and custom posting dates66945
Ref: #aregister-and-custom-posting-dates67111
Node: balance67932
Ref: #balance68051
Node: Single-period flat balance report69697
Ref: #single-period-flat-balance-report69905
Node: Single-period tree-mode balance report70606
Ref: #single-period-tree-mode-balance-report70860
Node: Multi-period balance report72301
Ref: #multi-period-balance-report72514
Node: Depth limiting78125
Ref: #depth-limiting78288
Node: Colour support78982
Ref: #colour-support79135
Node: Sorting by amount79231
Ref: #sorting-by-amount79387
Node: Percentages79877
Ref: #percentages80048
Node: Customising single-period balance reports81181
Ref: #customising-single-period-balance-reports81408
Node: Budget report83539
Ref: #budget-report83690
Node: Budget report start date88949
Ref: #budget-report-start-date89116
Node: Nested budgets90443
Ref: #nested-budgets90590
Node: balancesheet93977
Ref: #balancesheet94115
Node: balancesheetequity95748
Ref: #balancesheetequity95899
Node: cashflow97118
Ref: #cashflow97242
Node: check98574
Ref: #check98679
Node: Basic checks99312
Ref: #basic-checks99430
Node: Strict checks99963
Ref: #strict-checks100104
Node: Other checks100408
Ref: #other-checks100548
Node: Custom checks100985
Ref: #custom-checks101105
Node: close101523
Ref: #close101627
Node: close usage103144
Ref: #close-usage103239
Node: codes106047
Ref: #codes106157
Node: commodities106870
Ref: #commodities106999
Node: descriptions107081
Ref: #descriptions107211
Node: diff107515
Ref: #diff107623
Node: files108668
Ref: #files108770
Node: help108916
Ref: #help109018
Node: import109741
Ref: #import109857
Node: Importing balance assignments110777
Ref: #importing-balance-assignments110960
Node: Commodity display styles111607
Ref: #commodity-display-styles111780
Node: incomestatement111909
Ref: #incomestatement112044
Node: notes113500
Ref: #notes113615
Node: payees113982
Ref: #payees114090
Node: prices114616
Ref: #prices114724
Node: print115063
Ref: #print115175
Node: print-unique121005
Ref: #print-unique121133
Node: register121419
Ref: #register121548
Node: Custom register output125992
Ref: #custom-register-output126123
Node: register-match127460
Ref: #register-match127596
Node: rewrite127944
Ref: #rewrite128061
Node: Re-write rules in a file129967
Ref: #re-write-rules-in-a-file130130
Node: Diff output format131280
Ref: #diff-output-format131463
Node: rewrite vs print --auto132555
Ref: #rewrite-vs.-print---auto132715
Node: roi133265
Ref: #roi133365
Node: stats145558
Ref: #stats145659
Node: tags146446
Ref: #tags146546
Node: test147063
Ref: #test147179
Node: About add-on commands147924
Ref: #about-add-on-commands148061
Node: JOURNAL FORMAT149194
Ref: #journal-format149322
Node: Transactions151502
Ref: #transactions151617
Node: Dates152634
Ref: #dates152750
Node: Simple dates152815
Ref: #simple-dates152935
Node: Secondary dates153442
Ref: #secondary-dates153590
Node: Posting dates154924
Ref: #posting-dates155047
Node: Status156416
Ref: #status156533
Node: Description158238
Ref: #description158368
Node: Payee and note158686
Ref: #payee-and-note158794
Node: Comments159128
Ref: #comments159250
Node: Tags160443
Ref: #tags-1160554
Node: Postings161952
Ref: #postings162076
Node: Virtual postings163100
Ref: #virtual-postings163211
Node: Account names164513
Ref: #account-names164650
Node: Amounts165136
Ref: #amounts165271
Node: Decimal marks digit group marks166330
Ref: #decimal-marks-digit-group-marks166519
Node: Commodity display style167866
Ref: #commodity-display-style168054
Node: Rounding170080
Ref: #rounding170198
Node: Transaction prices170608
Ref: #transaction-prices170774
Node: Lot prices lot dates173204
Ref: #lot-prices-lot-dates173387
Node: Balance assertions173874
Ref: #balance-assertions174052
Node: Assertions and ordering175082
Ref: #assertions-and-ordering175264
Node: Assertions and included files175961
Ref: #assertions-and-included-files176198
Node: Assertions and multiple -f options176529
Ref: #assertions-and-multiple--f-options176779
Node: Assertions and commodities176910
Ref: #assertions-and-commodities177136
Node: Assertions and prices178291
Ref: #assertions-and-prices178499
Node: Assertions and subaccounts178940
Ref: #assertions-and-subaccounts179163
Node: Assertions and virtual postings179487
Ref: #assertions-and-virtual-postings179723
Node: Assertions and precision179864
Ref: #assertions-and-precision180051
Node: Balance assignments180316
Ref: #balance-assignments180486
Node: Balance assignments and prices181649
Ref: #balance-assignments-and-prices181815
Node: Directives182041
Ref: #directives182204
Node: Directives and multiple files187609
Ref: #directives-and-multiple-files187805
Node: Comment blocks188467
Ref: #comment-blocks188644
Node: Including other files188819
Ref: #including-other-files188993
Node: Default year189917
Ref: #default-year190075
Node: Declaring payees190482
Ref: #declaring-payees190648
Node: Declaring commodities190893
Ref: #declaring-commodities191074
Node: Commodity error checking192915
Ref: #commodity-error-checking193065
Node: Default commodity193321
Ref: #default-commodity193501
Node: Declaring market prices194386
Ref: #declaring-market-prices194575
Node: Declaring accounts195433
Ref: #declaring-accounts195613
Node: Account error checking196820
Ref: #account-error-checking196986
Node: Account comments198163
Ref: #account-comments198347
Node: Account subdirectives198773
Ref: #account-subdirectives198958
Node: Account types199273
Ref: #account-types199447
Node: Declaring account types200182
Ref: #declaring-account-types200361
Node: Auto-detected account types201012
Ref: #auto-detected-account-types201253
Node: Interference from auto-detected account types202152
Ref: #interference-from-auto-detected-account-types202429
Node: Old account type syntax202912
Ref: #old-account-type-syntax203109
Node: Account display order203410
Ref: #account-display-order203570
Node: Rewriting accounts204721
Ref: #rewriting-accounts204900
Node: Basic aliases205659
Ref: #basic-aliases205795
Node: Regex aliases206497
Ref: #regex-aliases206659
Node: Combining aliases207379
Ref: #combining-aliases207562
Node: Aliases and multiple files208839
Ref: #aliases-and-multiple-files209038
Node: end aliases209619
Ref: #end-aliases209766
Node: Default parent account209868
Ref: #default-parent-account210058
Node: Periodic transactions210942
Ref: #periodic-transactions211125
Node: Periodic rule syntax213042
Ref: #periodic-rule-syntax213242
Node: Two spaces between period expression and description!213945
Ref: #two-spaces-between-period-expression-and-description214258
Node: Forecasting with periodic transactions214943
Ref: #forecasting-with-periodic-transactions215242
Node: Budgeting with periodic transactions217288
Ref: #budgeting-with-periodic-transactions217521
Node: Auto postings217928
Ref: #auto-postings218064
Node: Auto postings and multiple files220247
Ref: #auto-postings-and-multiple-files220445
Node: Auto postings and dates220653
Ref: #auto-postings-and-dates220921
Node: Auto postings and transaction balancing / inferred amounts / balance assertions221096
Ref: #auto-postings-and-transaction-balancing-inferred-amounts-balance-assertions221442
Node: Auto posting tags221787
Ref: #auto-posting-tags221996
Node: CSV FORMAT222633
Ref: #csv-format222761
Node: Examples225342
Ref: #examples225445
Node: Basic225652
Ref: #basic225754
Node: Bank of Ireland226298
Ref: #bank-of-ireland226435
Node: Amazon227900
Ref: #amazon228020
Node: Paypal229741
Ref: #paypal229837
Node: CSV rules237485
Ref: #csv-rules237603
Node: skip237915
Ref: #skip238010
Node: fields238382
Ref: #fields238506
Node: Transaction field names239667
Ref: #transaction-field-names239829
Node: Posting field names239940
Ref: #posting-field-names240094
Node: field assignment242455
Ref: #field-assignment242600
Node: separator243414
Ref: #separator243551
Node: if block244093
Ref: #if-block244220
Node: Matching the whole record244618
Ref: #matching-the-whole-record244795
Node: Matching individual fields245599
Ref: #matching-individual-fields245805
Node: Combining matchers246029
Ref: #combining-matchers246227
Node: Rules applied on successful match246541
Ref: #rules-applied-on-successful-match246734
Node: if table247391
Ref: #if-table247512
Node: end249248
Ref: #end249362
Node: date-format249586
Ref: #date-format249720
Node: decimal-mark250470
Ref: #decimal-mark250615
Node: newest-first250952
Ref: #newest-first251095
Node: include251778
Ref: #include251911
Node: balance-type252353
Ref: #balance-type252475
Node: Tips253175
Ref: #tips253266
Node: Rapid feedback253565
Ref: #rapid-feedback253684
Node: Valid CSV254143
Ref: #valid-csv254275
Node: File Extension254467
Ref: #file-extension254621
Node: Reading multiple CSV files255050
Ref: #reading-multiple-csv-files255237
Node: Valid transactions255477
Ref: #valid-transactions255657
Node: Deduplicating importing256285
Ref: #deduplicating-importing256466
Node: Setting amounts257498
Ref: #setting-amounts257655
Node: Amount signs259874
Ref: #amount-signs260028
Node: Setting currency/commodity260715
Ref: #setting-currencycommodity260903
Node: Amount decimal places262083
Ref: #amount-decimal-places262275
Node: Referencing other fields262587
Ref: #referencing-other-fields262786
Node: How CSV rules are evaluated263684
Ref: #how-csv-rules-are-evaluated263859
Node: TIMECLOCK FORMAT265308
Ref: #timeclock-format265448
Node: TIMEDOT FORMAT267516
Ref: #timedot-format267654
Node: COMMON TASKS271917
Ref: #common-tasks272046
Node: Getting help272453
Ref: #getting-help272587
Node: Constructing command lines273138
Ref: #constructing-command-lines273332
Node: Starting a journal file274031
Ref: #starting-a-journal-file274231
Node: Setting opening balances275418
Ref: #setting-opening-balances275616
Node: Recording transactions278749
Ref: #recording-transactions278931
Node: Reconciling279488
Ref: #reconciling279633
Node: Reporting281878
Ref: #reporting282020
Node: Migrating to a new file285940
Ref: #migrating-to-a-new-file286090
Node: LIMITATIONS286388
Ref: #limitations286516
Node: TROUBLESHOOTING287257
Ref: #troubleshooting287372

End Tag Table
