
hledger_journal(5)           hledger User Manuals           hledger_journal(5)



NNAAMMEE
       Journal - hledger's default file format, representing a General Journal

DDEESSCCRRIIPPTTIIOONN
       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 get-
       ting.

       You can use hledger without learning any more about this file; just use
       the  add  or web commands to create and update it.  Many users, though,
       also edit the  journal  file  directly  with  a  text  editor,  perhaps
       assisted by the helper modes for emacs or vim.

       Here's an example:

              ; A sample journal file. This is a comment.

              2008/01/01 income               ; <- transaction's first line starts in column 0, contains date and description
                  assets:bank:checking  $1    ; <- posting lines start with whitespace, each contains an account name
                  income:salary        $-1    ;    followed by at least two spaces and an amount

              2008/06/01 gift
                  assets:bank:checking  $1    ; <- at least two postings in a transaction
                  income:gifts         $-1    ; <- their amounts must balance to 0

              2008/06/02 save
                  assets:bank:saving    $1
                  assets:bank:checking        ; <- one amount may be omitted; here $-1 is inferred

              2008/06/03 eat & shop           ; <- description can be anything
                  expenses:food         $1
                  expenses:supplies     $1    ; <- this transaction debits two expense accounts
                  assets:cash                 ; <- $-2 inferred

              2008/12/31 * pay off            ; <- an optional * or ! after the date means "cleared" (or anything you want)
                  liabilities:debts     $1
                  assets:bank:checking

FFIILLEE FFOORRMMAATT
   TTrraannssaaccttiioonnss
       Transactions  are  represented  by journal entries.  Each begins with a
       simple date in column 0, followed by three optional fields with  spaces
       between them:

       +o a  status  flag,  which  can be empty or ! or * (meaning "uncleared",
         "pending" and "cleared", or whatever you want)

       +o a transaction code (eg a check number),

       +o and/or a description

       then some number of postings, of some amount to some account,  each  on
       its  own  line.  Usually there are at least two postings, though one or
       even none is possible.

       The (real) posting amounts within a transaction must always balance, ie
       add up to 0.  Optionally one amount can be left blank, in which case it
       will be inferred.

   DDaatteess
   SSiimmppllee ddaatteess
       Within a journal file, transaction dates use Y/M/D (or Y-M-D or  Y.M.D)
       Leading zeroes are optional.  The year may be omitted, in which case it
       defaults to the current year, or you can set the default  year  with  a
       default year directive.

       Some examples: 2010/01/31, 1/31, 2010-01-31, 2010.1.31.

   SSeeccoonnddaarryy ddaatteess
       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,  eg for more accurate balances, write both dates
       separated by an equals sign.  The _p_r_i_m_a_r_y _d_a_t_e, on the left, is used by
       default;  the  _s_e_c_o_n_d_a_r_y  _d_a_t_e,  on the right, is used when the --date2
       flag is specified (For Ledger compatibility, --aux-date or  --effective
       also work.)

       Their  meaning is up to you, but it's best to follow a consistent rule.
       Eg write the bank's clearing date as primary, and when needed, the date
       the transaction was initiated as secondary.

       Here's an example.  Note that a secondary date will use the year of the
       primary date if unspecified.

              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

       Secondary dates require some effort: you must use them consistently  in
       your journal entries and remember whether to use or not use the --date2
       flag for your reports.  Arguably  they  are  now  obsolete,  superseded
       by...

   PPoossttiinngg ddaatteess
       You  can  give  individual  postings a different date from their parent
       transaction, by adding a posting tag (see below) like date:DATE,  where
       DATE  is a simple date.  This is probably the best way to control post-
       ing 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 tt.j register food
              2015/05/30                      expenses:food                  $10           $10

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

       A posting date will use the year of the transaction  date  if  unspeci-
       fied.

       You can also set the secondary date, with date2:DATE2.  For compatibil-
       ity, Ledger's older posting date  syntax  is  also  supported:  [DATE],
       [DATE=DATE2] or [=DATE2] in a posting comment.

       When  using  any of these forms, be sure to provide a valid simple date
       or you'll get a parse error.  Eg a date:  tag  with  no  value  is  not
       allowed.

   AAccccoouunntt nnaammeess
       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, income, expenses, and  equity.

       Account  names  may  contain single spaces, eg: assets:accounts receiv-
       able.  Because of this, they must always be followed by  at  least  two
       spaces (or newline).

       Account names can be aliased.

   AAmmoouunnttss
       After the account name, there is usually an amount.  Important: between
       account name and amount, there must be ttwwoo oorr mmoorree spaces.

       The amount is a number, optionally with a currency symbol or  commodity
       name  on either the left or right.  Negative amounts may have the minus
       sign either before or after the currency symbol (-$1 or $-1).   Commod-
       ity  names  which  contain more than just letters should be enclosed in
       double quotes (1 "person hours").

   DDeecciimmaall ppooiinnttss aanndd ddiiggiitt ggrroouuppss
       hledger supports flexible  decimal  point  and  digit  group  separator
       styles,  to support international variations.  Numbers can use either a
       period (.) or a comma (,) as decimal point.  They can also  have  digit
       group separators at any position (eg thousands separators) which can be
       comma or period - whichever one you did not use as a decimal point.  If
       you  use  digit group separators, you must also include a decimal point
       in at least one number in the same commodity,  so  that  hledger  knows
       which character is which.  Eg, write $1,000.00 or $1.000,00.

   AAmmoouunntt ddiissppllaayy ssttyylleess
       Based  on  how you format amounts, hledger will infer canonical display
       styles for each commodity, and use these  when  displaying  amounts  in
       that commodity.  Amount styles include:

       +o the  position  (left or right) and spacing (space or no separator) of
         the commodity symbol

       +o the digit group separator character (comma or period) and digit group
         sizes, if any

       +o the decimal point character (period or comma)

       +o the display precision (number of decimal places displayed)

       The  canonical style is generally the style of the first posting amount
       seen in a commodity.  However the display precision will be the highest
       precision seen in all posting amounts in that commmodity.

       The  precisions  used in a price amount, or a D directive, don't affect
       the canonical display precision directly, but they can affect it  indi-
       rectly,  eg  when  D's default commodity is applied to a commodity-less
       amount or when an amountless posting is balanced using a  price's  com-
       modity  (actually  this last case does not influence the canonical dis-
       play precision but probably should).

   VViirrttuuaall PPoossttiinnggss
       When you parenthesise the account name in a posting,  that  posting  is
       considered _v_i_r_t_u_a_l, which means:

       +o it is ignored when checking that the transaction is balanced

       +o it  is  excluded from reports when the --real/-R flag is used, or the
         real:1 query.

       You could use this, eg, to set an  account's  opening  balance  without
       needing to use the equity:opening balances account:

              1/1 special unbalanced posting to set initial balance
                (assets:checking)   $1000

   BBaallaanncceedd VViirrttuuaall PPoossttiinnggss
       When  the  account  name is bracketed, the posting is _b_a_l_a_n_c_e_d _v_i_r_t_u_a_l,
       which is just like a virtual posting except the balanced virtual  post-
       ings  in  a  transaction must balance to 0, like the real postings (but
       separately from them).  Balanced virtual postings are also excluded  by
       --real/-R or real:1.

       Virtual  postings are a feature inherited from Ledger can can occasion-
       ally be useful, but they can be a crutch and you should think twice  or
       three  times  before using them.  You can almost always find an equiva-
       lent journal entry using two or more real postings that  will  be  more
       correct and more error-proof.

   BBaallaannccee AAsssseerrttiioonnss
       hledger  supports  ledger-style  balance  assertions  in journal files.
       These look like =EXPECTEDBALANCE following a posting's amount.   Eg  in
       this  example 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 pro-
       tect you from, eg, inadvertently disrupting reconciled  balances  while
       cleaning  up  old  entries.   You can disable them temporarily with the
       --ignore-assertions flag, which can be useful  for  troubleshooting  or
       for reading Ledger files.

   AAsssseerrttiioonnss aanndd oorrddeerriinngg
       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  dif-
       ferent from Ledger, which sorts assertions only by parse order.  (Also,
       Ledger assertions do not see the accumulated effect of  repeated  post-
       ings to the same account within a transaction.)

       So,  hledger  balance  assertions  keep  working if you reorder differ-
       ently-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  con-
       trol over the order of postings and assertions within a day, so you can
       assert intra-day balances.

       With included files, things are a little more  complicated.   Including
       preserves  the ordering of postings and assertions.  If you have multi-
       ple 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.

   AAsssseerrttiioonnss aanndd ccoommmmooddiittiieess
       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.  We could call this a  par-
       tial  balance  assertion.  This is compatible with Ledger, and makes it
       possible to make assertions about accounts containing multiple commodi-
       ties.

       To  assert  each commodity's balance in such a multi-commodity account,
       you can add multiple postings (with amount 0 if necessary).   But  note
       that  no  matter  how  many  assertions  you add, you can't be sure the
       account does not contain some unexpected commodity.  (We'll add support
       for this kind of total balance assertion if there's demand.)

   AAsssseerrttiioonnss aanndd ssuubbaaccccoouunnttss
       Balance  assertions  do  not  count  the balance from subaccounts; they
       check the posted account's exclusive balance.  For example:

              1/1
                checking:fund   1 = 1  ; post to this subaccount, its balance is now 1
                checking        1 = 1  ; post to the parent account, its exclusive balance is now 1
                equity

       The balance report's flat mode  shows  these  exclusive  balances  more
       clearly:

              $ hledger bal checking --flat
                                 1  checking
                                 1  checking:fund
              --------------------
                                 2

   AAsssseerrttiioonnss aanndd vviirrttuuaall ppoossttiinnggss
       Balance assertions are checked against all postings, both real and vir-
       tual.  They are not affected by the --real/-R flag or real: query.

   PPrriicceess
   TTrraannssaaccttiioonn pprriicceess
       When recording a transaction, you can also record an amount's price  in
       another  commodity.   This documents the exchange rate, cost (of a pur-
       chase), or selling price (of a sale) that was  in  effect  within  this
       particular  transaction (or more precisely, within the particular post-
       ing).  These transaction prices are fixed, and do not change.

       Such priced amounts can be displayed in their transaction price's  com-
       modity,  by using the --cost/-B flag (B for "cost Basis"), supported by
       most hledger commands.

       There are three ways to specify a transaction price:

       1. Write the unit price (aka exchange rate), as @ UNITPRICE  after  the
          amount:

                  2009/1/1
                    assets:foreign currency   ^a~100 @ $1.35  ; one hundred euros at $1.35 each
                    assets:cash

       2. Or write the total price, as @@ TOTALPRICE after the amount:

                  2009/1/1
                    assets:foreign currency   ^a~100 @@ $135  ; one hundred euros at $135 for the lot
                    assets:cash

       3. Or let hledger infer the price so as to balance the transaction.  To
          permit this, you must fully specify all posting amounts,  and  their
          sum must have a non-zero amount in exactly two commodities:

                  2009/1/1
                    assets:foreign currency   ^a~100          ; one hundred euros
                    assets:cash              $-135          ; exchanged for $135

       With any of the above examples we get:

              $ hledger print -B
              2009/01/01
                  assets:foreign currency       $135.00
                  assets:cash                  $-135.00

       Example  use for transaction prices: recording the effective conversion
       rate of purchases made in a foreign currency.

   MMaarrkkeett pprriicceess
       Market prices are not tied to a particular transaction; they  represent
       historical  exchange  rates  between two commodities, usually from some
       public market which publishes such rates.

       When market prices are known, the -V/--value option will  use  them  to
       convert  reported  amounts  to  their market value as of the report end
       date.  This option is currently available only with  the  balance  com-
       mand.

       You record market prices (Ledger calls them historical prices) with a P
       directive, in the journal or perhaps in a separate included file.  Mar-
       ket price directives have the format:

              P DATE COMMODITYSYMBOL UNITPRICE

       For example, the following directives say that the euro's exchange rate
       was 1.35 US dollars during  2009,  and  $1.40  from  2010  onward  (and
       unknown before 2009).

              P 2009/1/1 ^a~ $1.35
              P 2010/1/1 ^a~ $1.40

       Example use for market prices: tracking the value of stocks.

   CCoommmmeennttss
       Lines  in  the  journal  beginning  with a semicolon (;) or hash (#) or
       asterisk (*) are comments, and will  be  ignored.   (Asterisk  comments
       make  it easy to treat your journal like an org-mode outline in emacs.)

       Also,  anything  between  comment  and  end comment  directives  is   a
       (multi-line)  comment.  If there is no end comment, the comment extends
       to the end of the file.

       You can attach comments to a transaction  by  writing  them  after  the
       description  and/or  indented  on the following lines (before the post-
       ings).  Similarly, you can attach comments to an individual posting  by
       writing them after the amount and/or indented on the following lines.

       Some examples:

              # a journal comment

              ; also a journal comment

              comment
              This is a multiline comment,
              which continues until a line
              where the "end comment" string
              appears on its own.
              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 journal comment (because not indented)

   TTaaggss
       A  _t_a_g is a word followed by a full colon inside a transaction or post-
       ing comment.  You  can  write  multiple  tags,  comma  separated.   Eg:
       ; a comment containing sometag:, anothertag:.   You can search for tags
       with the tag: query.

       A tag can also have a value, which is any text between  the  colon  and
       the  next comma or newline, excluding leading/trailing whitespace.  (So
       hledger tag values can not contain commas or newlines).

       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 (A, TAG2, third-tag, posting-tag):

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

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

   DDiirreeccttiivveess
   AAccccoouunntt aalliiaasseess
       You can define aliases which rewrite your account names (after  reading
       the journal, before generating reports).  hledger's account aliases can
       be useful for:

       +o expanding shorthand account names to their full form, allowing easier
         data entry and a less verbose journal

       +o adapting old journals to your current chart of accounts

       +o experimenting with new account organisations, like a new hierarchy or
         combining two accounts into one

       +o customising reports

       See also How to use account aliases.

   BBaassiicc aalliiaasseess
       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 full account names.  hledger will  replace  any  occur-
       rence  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"

   RReeggeexx aalliiaasseess
       There is also a more powerful variant that uses a  regular  expression,
       indicated  by  the forward slashes.  (This was the default behaviour in
       hledger 0.24-0.25):

              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 REPLACE-
       MENT.  If REGEX contains parenthesised match groups, these can be  ref-
       erenced by the usual numeric backreferences in REPLACEMENT.  Note, cur-
       rently regular expression  aliases  may  cause  noticeable  slow-downs.
       (And if you use Ledger on your hledger file, they will be ignored.) Eg:

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

   MMuullttiippllee aalliiaasseess
       You can define as many aliases as you like  using  directives  or  com-
       mand-line  options.  Aliases are recursive - each alias sees the result
       of applying previous ones.   (This  is  different  from  Ledger,  where
       aliases are non-recursive by default).  Aliases are applied in the fol-
       lowing order:

       1. alias directives, most recently seen first (recent  directives  take
          precedence over earlier ones; directives not yet seen are ignored)

       2. alias options, in the order they appear on the command line

   eenndd aalliiaasseess
       You   can  clear  (forget)  all  currently  defined  aliases  with  the
       end aliases directive:

              end aliases

   aaccccoouunntt ddiirreeccttiivvee
       The account directive predefines account names, as in Ledger and  Bean-
       count.   This may be useful for your own documentation; hledger doesn't
       make use of it yet.

              ; account ACCT
              ;   OPTIONAL COMMENTS/TAGS...

              account assets:bank:checking
               a comment
               acct-no:12345

              account expenses:food

              ; etc.

   aappppllyy aaccccoouunntt ddiirreeccttiivvee
       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 0.28, legacy account and end spellings were also sup-
       ported.

   MMuullttii--lliinnee ccoommmmeennttss
       A line containing just comment starts a multi-line comment, and a  line
       containing just end comment ends it.  See comments.

   DDeeffaauulltt ccoommmmooddiittyy
       You  can  set  a default commodity, to be used for amounts without one.
       Use the D directive with a sample amount.  The commodity (and the  sam-
       ple  amount's  display style) will be applied to all subsequent commod-
       ity-less amounts, up to the next D directive.  (Note this is  different
       from Ledger's default commodity directive.)

       Also  note  the  directive  itself  does  not influence the commodity's
       default display style, but the amount it is applied to  might.   Here's
       an example:

              ; set ^A-L as the default commodity
              D ^A-L1,000.00

              2010/1/1
                a  2340
                b

              2014/1/1
                c  ^A-L1000
                d

              $ hledger print
              2010/01/01
                  a     ^A-L2,340.00
                  b    ^A-L-2,340.00

              2014/01/01
                  c     ^A-L1,000.00
                  d    ^A-L-1,000.00

   DDeeffaauulltt yyeeaarr
       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

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

              include path/to/file.journal

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

       Glob patterns (*) are not currently supported.

       The  include directive may only be used in journal files, and currently
       it may only include other journal  files  (eg,  not  CSV  or  timeclock
       files.)

EEDDIITTOORR SSUUPPPPOORRTT
       Add-on modes exist for various text editors, to make working with jour-
       nal files easier.  They add colour, navigation aids  and  helpful  com-
       mands.   For  hledger  users  who  edit  the journal file directly (the
       majority), using one of these modes is quite recommended.

       These were written with Ledger in mind,  but  also  work  with  hledger
       files:


       tab(@);       lw(16.5n)       lw(51.5n).       T{      Emacs      T}@T{
       http://www.ledger-cli.org/3.0/doc/ledger-mode.html  T}  T{  Vim   T}@T{
       https://github.com/ledger/ledger/wiki/Getting-started   T}  T{  Sublime
       Text T}@T{ https://github.com/ledger/ledger/wiki/Using-Sublime-Text  T}
       T{   Textmate  T}@T{  https://github.com/ledger/ledger/wiki/Using-Text-
       Mate-2       T}       T{       Text       Wrangler                T}@T{
       https://github.com/ledger/ledger/wiki/Editing-Ledger-files-with-Tex-
       tWrangler T}



RREEPPOORRTTIINNGG BBUUGGSS
       Report bugs at http://bugs.hledger.org (or on the #hledger IRC  channel
       or hledger mail list)


AAUUTTHHOORRSS
       Simon Michael <simon@joyful.com> and contributors


CCOOPPYYRRIIGGHHTT
       Copyright (C) 2007-2016 Simon Michael.
       Released under GNU GPL v3 or later.


SSEEEE AALLSSOO
       hledger(1),      hledger-ui(1),     hledger-web(1),     hledger-api(1),
       hledger_csv(5), hledger_journal(5), hledger_timeclock(5), hledger_time-
       dot(5), ledger(1)

       http://hledger.org



                                  April 2016                hledger_journal(5)
