diff --git a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Journal.hs b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Journal.hs
index 56d9007b0..d68eedcb4 100644
--- a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Journal.hs
+++ b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Journal.hs
@@ -67,6 +67,7 @@ module Hledger.Data.Journal (
   journalNextTransaction,
   journalPrevTransaction,
   journalPostings,
+  journalTransactionsSimilarTo,
   -- journalPrices,
   -- * Standard account types
   journalBalanceSheetAccountQuery,
@@ -96,6 +97,7 @@ import "extra" Control.Monad.Extra (whenM)
 import Control.Monad.Reader as R
 import Control.Monad.ST (ST, runST)
 import Data.Array.ST (STArray, getElems, newListArray, writeArray)
+import Data.Char (toUpper)
 import Data.Default (Default(..))
 import Data.Function ((&))
 import qualified Data.HashTable.Class as H (toList)
@@ -125,6 +127,7 @@ import Hledger.Data.Transaction
 import Hledger.Data.TransactionModifier
 import Hledger.Data.Posting
 import Hledger.Query
+import Data.List (sortBy)
 
 
 -- try to make Journal ppShow-compatible
@@ -321,6 +324,55 @@ journalAccountNames = journalAccountNamesDeclaredOrImplied
 journalAccountNameTree :: Journal -> Tree AccountName
 journalAccountNameTree = accountNameTreeFrom . journalAccountNames
 
+-- | Find up to N most similar and most recent transactions matching
+-- the given transaction description and query. Transactions are
+-- listed with their description's similarity score (see
+-- compareDescriptions), sorted by highest score and then by date.
+-- Only transactions with a similarity score greater than the minimum
+-- threshold (currently 0) are returned.
+journalTransactionsSimilarTo :: Journal -> Query -> Text -> Int -> [(Double,Transaction)]
+journalTransactionsSimilarTo j q desc n =
+  take n $
+  sortBy (\(s1,t1) (s2,t2) -> compare (s2,tdate t2) (s1,tdate t1)) $
+  filter ((> threshold).fst)
+  [(compareDescriptions desc $ tdescription t, t) | t <- ts]
+  where
+    ts = filter (q `matchesTransaction`) $ jtxns j
+    threshold = 0
+
+-- | Return a similarity measure, from 0 to 1, for two transaction
+-- descriptions.  This is like compareStrings, but first strips out
+-- any numbers, to improve accuracy eg when there are bank transaction
+-- ids from imported data.
+compareDescriptions :: Text -> Text -> Double
+compareDescriptions s t = compareStrings s' t'
+    where s' = simplify $ T.unpack s
+          t' = simplify $ T.unpack t
+          simplify = filter (not . (`elem` ("0123456789" :: String)))
+
+-- | Return a similarity measure, from 0 to 1, for two strings.  This
+-- was based on Simon White's string similarity algorithm
+-- (http://www.catalysoft.com/articles/StrikeAMatch.html), later found
+-- to be https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%B8rensen%E2%80%93Dice_coefficient,
+-- modified to handle short strings better.
+-- Todo: check out http://nlp.fi.muni.cz/raslan/2008/raslan08.pdf#page=14 .
+compareStrings :: String -> String -> Double
+compareStrings "" "" = 1
+compareStrings [_] "" = 0
+compareStrings "" [_] = 0
+compareStrings [a] [b] = if toUpper a == toUpper b then 1 else 0
+compareStrings s1 s2 = 2 * commonpairs / totalpairs
+    where
+      pairs1      = S.fromList $ wordLetterPairs $ uppercase s1
+      pairs2      = S.fromList $ wordLetterPairs $ uppercase s2
+      commonpairs = fromIntegral $ S.size $ S.intersection pairs1 pairs2
+      totalpairs  = fromIntegral $ S.size pairs1 + S.size pairs2
+
+wordLetterPairs = concatMap letterPairs . words
+
+letterPairs (a:b:rest) = [a,b] : letterPairs (b:rest)
+letterPairs _ = []
+
 -- queries for standard account types
 
 -- | Get a query for accounts of the specified types in this journal. 
diff --git a/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Add.hs b/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Add.hs
index df6f65dc3..2cd37dced 100644
--- a/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Add.hs
+++ b/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Add.hs
@@ -11,7 +11,6 @@ module Hledger.Cli.Commands.Add (
   ,add
   ,appendToJournalFileOrStdout
   ,journalAddTransaction
-  ,transactionsSimilarTo
 )
 where
 
@@ -26,7 +25,6 @@ import Data.Char (toUpper, toLower)
 import Data.Either (isRight)
 import Data.Functor.Identity (Identity(..))
 import "base-compat-batteries" Data.List.Compat
-import qualified Data.Set as S
 import Data.Maybe (fromJust, fromMaybe, isJust)
 import Data.Text (Text)
 import qualified Data.Text as T
@@ -49,6 +47,7 @@ import Text.Printf
 import Hledger
 import Hledger.Cli.CliOptions
 import Hledger.Cli.Commands.Register (postingsReportAsText)
+import Hledger.Cli.Utils (journalSimilarTransaction)
 
 
 addmode = hledgerCommandMode
@@ -176,7 +175,7 @@ confirmedTransactionWizard prevInput es@EntryState{..} stack@(currentStage : _)
 
   EnterDescAndComment (date, code) -> descriptionAndCommentWizard prevInput es >>= \case
     Just (desc, comment) -> do
-      let mbaset = similarTransaction es desc
+      let mbaset = journalSimilarTransaction esOpts esJournal desc
           es' = es
             { esArgs = drop 1 esArgs
             , esPostings = []
@@ -258,15 +257,6 @@ confirmedTransactionWizard prevInput es@EntryState{..} stack@(currentStage : _)
   where
     replaceNthOrAppend n newElem xs = take n xs ++ [newElem] ++ drop (n + 1) xs
 
--- Identify the closest recent match for this description in past transactions.
-similarTransaction :: EntryState -> Text -> Maybe Transaction
-similarTransaction EntryState{..} desc =
-  let q = queryFromFlags . rsOpts $ reportspec_ esOpts
-      historymatches = transactionsSimilarTo esJournal q desc
-      bestmatch | null historymatches = Nothing
-                | otherwise           = Just $ snd $ head historymatches
-  in bestmatch
-
 dateAndCodeWizard PrevInput{..} EntryState{..} = do
   let def = headDef (T.unpack $ showDate esDefDate) esArgs
   retryMsg "A valid hledger smart date is required. Eg: 2014/2/14, 14, yesterday." $
@@ -482,49 +472,3 @@ registerFromString s = do
 capitalize :: String -> String
 capitalize "" = ""
 capitalize (c:cs) = toUpper c : cs
-
--- | Find the most similar and recent transactions matching the given
--- transaction description and report query.  Transactions are listed
--- with their "relevancy" score, most relevant first.
-transactionsSimilarTo :: Journal -> Query -> Text -> [(Double,Transaction)]
-transactionsSimilarTo j q desc =
-    sortBy compareRelevanceAndRecency
-               $ filter ((> threshold).fst)
-               [(compareDescriptions desc $ tdescription t, t) | t <- ts]
-    where
-      compareRelevanceAndRecency (n1,t1) (n2,t2) = compare (n2,tdate t2) (n1,tdate t1)
-      ts = filter (q `matchesTransaction`) $ jtxns j
-      threshold = 0
-
--- | Return a similarity measure, from 0 to 1, for two transaction
--- descriptions.  This is like compareStrings, but first strips out
--- any numbers, to improve accuracy eg when there are bank transaction
--- ids from imported data.
-compareDescriptions :: Text -> Text -> Double
-compareDescriptions s t = compareStrings s' t'
-    where s' = simplify $ T.unpack s
-          t' = simplify $ T.unpack t
-          simplify = filter (not . (`elem` ("0123456789" :: String)))
-
--- | Return a similarity measure, from 0 to 1, for two strings.  This
--- was based on Simon White's string similarity algorithm
--- (http://www.catalysoft.com/articles/StrikeAMatch.html), later found
--- to be https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%B8rensen%E2%80%93Dice_coefficient,
--- modified to handle short strings better.
--- Todo: check out http://nlp.fi.muni.cz/raslan/2008/raslan08.pdf#page=14 .
-compareStrings :: String -> String -> Double
-compareStrings "" "" = 1
-compareStrings [_] "" = 0
-compareStrings "" [_] = 0
-compareStrings [a] [b] = if toUpper a == toUpper b then 1 else 0
-compareStrings s1 s2 = 2 * commonpairs / totalpairs
-    where
-      pairs1      = S.fromList $ wordLetterPairs $ uppercase s1
-      pairs2      = S.fromList $ wordLetterPairs $ uppercase s2
-      commonpairs = fromIntegral $ S.size $ S.intersection pairs1 pairs2
-      totalpairs  = fromIntegral $ S.size pairs1 + S.size pairs2
-
-wordLetterPairs = concatMap letterPairs . words
-
-letterPairs (a:b:rest) = [a,b] : letterPairs (b:rest)
-letterPairs _ = []
diff --git a/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Print.hs b/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Print.hs
index fea2eaf5d..b55347384 100644
--- a/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Print.hs
+++ b/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Print.hs
@@ -32,7 +32,6 @@ import Hledger.Read.CsvReader (CSV, printCSV)
 import Hledger
 import Hledger.Cli.CliOptions
 import Hledger.Cli.Utils
-import Hledger.Cli.Commands.Add ( transactionsSimilarTo )
 
 
 printmode = hledgerCommandMode
@@ -194,16 +193,7 @@ postingToCSV p =
 -- | Print the transaction most closely and recently matching a description
 -- (and the query, if any).
 printMatch :: CliOpts -> Journal -> Text -> IO ()
-printMatch CliOpts{reportspec_=rspec} j desc = do
-  case similarTransaction' j (rsQuery rspec) desc of
-      Nothing -> putStrLn "no matches found."
-      Just t  -> T.putStr $ showTransaction t
-
-  where
-    -- Identify the closest recent match for this description in past transactions.
-    similarTransaction' :: Journal -> Query -> Text -> Maybe Transaction
-    similarTransaction' j q desc
-      | null historymatches = Nothing
-      | otherwise           = Just $ snd $ head historymatches
-      where
-        historymatches = transactionsSimilarTo j q desc
+printMatch opts j desc = do
+  case journalSimilarTransaction opts j desc of
+    Nothing -> putStrLn "no matches found."
+    Just t  -> T.putStr $ showTransaction t
diff --git a/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Utils.hs b/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Utils.hs
index b8bbb2e60..4bb092ce5 100644
--- a/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Utils.hs
+++ b/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Utils.hs
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ module Hledger.Cli.Utils
      pivotByOpts,
      anonymiseByOpts,
      utcTimeToClockTime,
+     journalSimilarTransaction,
      tests_Cli_Utils,
     )
 where
@@ -38,7 +39,7 @@ import qualified Data.Text.IO as T
 import qualified Data.Text.Lazy as TL
 import qualified Data.Text.Lazy.IO as TL
 import Data.Time (UTCTime, Day, addDays)
-import Safe (readMay)
+import Safe (readMay, headMay)
 import System.Console.CmdArgs
 import System.Directory (getModificationTime, getDirectoryContents, copyFile, doesFileExist)
 import System.Exit
@@ -302,6 +303,17 @@ backupNumber f g = case g =~ ("^" ++ f ++ "\\.([0-9]+)$") of
                         (_::FilePath, _::FilePath, _::FilePath, [ext::FilePath]) -> readMay ext
                         _ -> Nothing
 
+-- Identify the closest recent match for this description in past transactions.
+-- If the options specify a query, only matched transactions are considered.
+journalSimilarTransaction :: CliOpts -> Journal -> T.Text -> Maybe Transaction
+journalSimilarTransaction cliopts j desc = mbestmatch
+  where
+    mbestmatch = snd <$> headMay bestmatches
+    bestmatches =
+      dbg1With (unlines . ("similar transactions:":) . map (\(score,Transaction{..}) -> printf "%0.3f %s %s" score (show tdate) tdescription)) $
+      journalTransactionsSimilarTo j q desc 10
+    q = queryFromFlags $ rsOpts $ reportspec_ cliopts
+
 tests_Cli_Utils = tests "Utils" [
 
   --  tests "journalApplyValue" [