diff --git a/hledger/hledger.m4.md b/hledger/hledger.m4.md
index d3d877c8a..276c059ac 100644
--- a/hledger/hledger.m4.md
+++ b/hledger/hledger.m4.md
@@ -106,14 +106,19 @@ For more about how to do that on your system, see [Common tasks > Setting LEDGER
 
 ## Text encoding
 
-Data files containing non-ascii characters must use UTF-8 encoding, with the exception being `csv` files (see [`encoding`](#encoding) below).
-An optional [byte order mark (BOM)](https://www.unicode.org/faq/utf_bom.html#BOM) is allowed, at the beginning of the file (only).
+hledger input files containing non-ascii characters must use UTF-8 encoding,
+with the exception of CSV (SSV, TSV..) files, which can be read from other encodings (see [`encoding`](#encoding) CSV rule).
 
-Also, your system should be configured with a locale that can decode UTF-8 text.
-On some unix systems, you may need set the `LANG` environment variable, eg.
+In UTF-8 input files, an optional [byte order mark (BOM)](https://www.unicode.org/faq/utf_bom.html#BOM) at the beginning of the file is allowed.
+
+Your system may need to be configured with a locale that understands the input file's encoding.
+Eg on some unix systems, you may need set the `LANG` environment variable.
 You can read more about this in [Unicode characters](#unicode-characters), below.
 
-On unix systems you can check a file's encoding with the `file` command.
+On some unix systems you can use the `file` command to show a file's text encoding.
+On mac, you'll need the version from homebrew: `brew install file-formula`.
+
+hledger's text output is always UTF-8 encoded.
 
 ## Data formats
 
@@ -3215,7 +3220,7 @@ The following kinds of rule can appear in the rules file, in any order.
 |                                                 |                                                                                                |
 |-------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
 | [**`source`**](#source)                         | optionally declare which file to read data from                                                |
-| [**`encoding`**](#encoding)                     | optionally declare which encoding the data has                                                 |
+| [**`encoding`**](#encoding)                     | optionally declare which text encoding the data has                                            |
 | [**`separator`**](#separator)                   | declare the field separator, instead of relying on file extension                              |
 | [**`skip`**](#skip)                             | skip one or more header lines at start of file                                                 |
 | [**`date-format`**](#date-format)               | declare how to parse CSV dates/date-times                                                      |
@@ -3268,70 +3273,21 @@ See also ["Working with CSV > Reading files specified by rule"](#reading-files-s
 encoding ENCODING
 ```
 
-Specifying `encoding` followed by a valid encoding tells HLedger how to convert a
-csv to be able to make use of it.
-This is most often useful when getting a csv from a bank as they are sometimes
-in an old encoding.
+hledger normally expects non-ascii text to be UTF8-encoded.
+If you need to read CSV files which have some other encoding,
+you can do it by adding `encoding ENCODING` to your CSV rules.
+Eg: `encoding ISO88591`.
 
-If none is given, `utf8` is assumed.
+The following encodings are supported
+(these names are case-insensitive, and can be written with inner spaces or hyphens if you prefer):
+ASCII, UTF8, UTF16, UTF32, ISO88591, ISO88592, ISO88593, ISO88594,
+ISO88595, ISO88596, ISO88597, ISO88598, ISO88599, ISO885910,
+ISO885911, ISO885913, ISO885914, ISO885915, ISO885916, CP1250, CP1251,
+CP1252, CP1253, CP1254, CP1255, CP1256, CP1257, CP1258, KOI8R, KOI8U,
+GB18030, MacOSRoman, JISX0201, JISX0208, ISO2022JP, ShiftJIS, CP437,
+CP737, CP775, CP850, CP852, CP855, CP857, CP860, CP861, CP862, CP863,
+CP864, CP865, CP866, CP869, CP874, CP932.
 
-The encoding will be checked case-insensitive with some alternative spellings also allowed.
-The full list of valid encodings is:
-- ASCII
-- UTF8
-- UTF16
-- UTF32
-- ISO88591
-- ISO88592
-- ISO88593
-- ISO88594
-- ISO88595
-- ISO88596
-- ISO88597
-- ISO88598
-- ISO88599
-- ISO885910
-- ISO885911
-- ISO885913
-- ISO885914
-- ISO885915
-- ISO885916
-- CP1250
-- CP1251
-- CP1252
-- CP1253
-- CP1254
-- CP1255
-- CP1256
-- CP1257
-- CP1258
-- KOI8R
-- KOI8U
-- GB18030
-- MacOSRoman
-- JISX0201
-- JISX0208
-- ISO2022JP
-- ShiftJIS
-- CP437
-- CP737
-- CP775
-- CP850
-- CP852
-- CP855
-- CP857
-- CP860
-- CP861
-- CP862
-- CP863
-- CP864
-- CP865
-- CP866
-- CP869
-- CP874
-- CP932
-
-Alternate spellings may be found in the [source code of `encoding`](https://hackage.haskell.org/package/encoding/docs/src/Data.Encoding.html#encodingFromStringExplicit)
 
 ## `separator`