diff --git a/Utils.hs b/Utils.hs
index 30caab3b6..28779a934 100644
--- a/Utils.hs
+++ b/Utils.hs
@@ -7,17 +7,31 @@ Utilities for top-level modules and/or ghci. See also "Ledger.Utils".
 module Utils
 where
 import qualified Data.Map as Map (lookup)
+import Text.ParserCombinators.Parsec
 import Options
 import Ledger
 
 
--- | get a RawLedger from the given file path
+-- | Get a RawLedger from the given string, or raise an error.
+rawledgerfromstring :: String -> RawLedger
+rawledgerfromstring = fromparse . parsewith ledgerfile
+
+-- | Get a filtered and cached Ledger from the given string, or raise an error.
+ledgerfromstring :: [String] -> String -> Ledger
+ledgerfromstring args s =
+  cacheLedger apats $ filterRawLedger Nothing Nothing dpats False False l
+      where
+        (apats,dpats) = parseAccountDescriptionArgs args
+        l = rawledgerfromstring s
+           
+-- | Get a RawLedger from the given file path, or a dummy one if there was an error.
 rawledgerfromfile :: FilePath -> IO RawLedger
 rawledgerfromfile f = do
   parsed <- parseLedgerFile f
   return $ either (\_ -> RawLedger [] [] [] "") id parsed
 
--- | get a cached Ledger from the given file path, filtered by the patterns.
+-- | Get a filtered and cached Ledger from the given file path, or a dummy
+-- one if there was an error.
 ledgerfromfile :: [String] -> FilePath -> IO Ledger
 ledgerfromfile args f = do
   l  <- rawledgerfromfile f
@@ -25,21 +39,21 @@ ledgerfromfile args f = do
       where
         (apats,dpats) = parseAccountDescriptionArgs args
            
--- | get a RawLedger from the file your LEDGER environment variable
--- variable points to or (WARNING) an empty one if there was a problem.
+-- | Get a RawLedger from the file your LEDGER environment variable
+-- variable points to, or a dummy one if there was a problem.
 myrawledger :: IO RawLedger
 myrawledger = do
   parsed <- ledgerFilePathFromOpts [] >>= parseLedgerFile
   return $ either (\_ -> RawLedger [] [] [] "") id parsed
 
--- | get a cached Ledger from the file your LEDGER environment variable
--- variable points to or (WARNING) an empty one if there was a problem.
+-- | Get a cached Ledger from the file your LEDGER environment variable
+-- variable points to, or a dummy one if there was a problem.
 myledger :: IO Ledger
 myledger = do
   l <- myrawledger
   return $ cacheLedger [] $ filterRawLedger Nothing Nothing [] False False l
 
--- | get a named account from your ledger file
+-- | Get a named account from your ledger file.
 myaccount :: AccountName -> IO Account
 myaccount a = myledger >>= (return . fromMaybe nullacct . Map.lookup a . accountmap)