diff --git a/doc/manual.md b/doc/manual.md
index a3b396b36..84d370fcb 100644
--- a/doc/manual.md
+++ b/doc/manual.md
@@ -738,21 +738,39 @@ The original order of same-day entries will be preserved, usually.
 
 ### Timelog
 
-hledger can also read time log files. These are (a subset of) timeclock.el's
-format, containing clock-in and clock-out entries like so:
+hledger can also read timelog files.
+[As with Ledger](http://ledger-cli.org/3.0/doc/ledger3.html#Time-Keeping),
+these are (a subset of)
+[timeclock.el](http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/TimeClock)'s format,
+containing clock-in and clock-out entries like so:
 
-    i 2009/03/31 22:21:45 projects:A
-    o 2009/04/01 02:00:34
+    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 the clock-in description ("projects:A") as an account name,
-and creates a virtual transaction (or several - one per day) with the
-appropriate amount of hours. From the time log above, hledger print gives:
+The date is a [simple date](#simple-dates), so hyphen (-) and period
+(.) are also allowed as separators, leading zeroes are optional, the
+year may be omitted (and a [default year directive](#default-year) can
+be used to set it).
 
-    2009/03/31 * 22:21-23:59
-        (projects:A)         1.64h
-    
-    2009/04/01 * 00:00-02:00
-        (projects:A)         2.01h
+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).
+
+hledger treats each clock-in/clock-out pair as a transaction posting
+some number of hours to a (single) account. Or, several transactions
+if the session spans more than one day. Eg for the above time log,
+hledger print gives:
+
+    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.timelog](https://raw.github.com/simonmichael/hledger/master/data/sample.timelog) to
diff --git a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/TimeLog.hs b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/TimeLog.hs
index 3d6315289..b381c783b 100644
--- a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/TimeLog.hs
+++ b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/TimeLog.hs
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ import Hledger.Data.Posting
 import Hledger.Data.Transaction
 
 instance Show TimeLogEntry where
-    show t = printf "%s %s %s" (show $ tlcode t) (show $ tldatetime t) (tlcomment t)
+    show t = printf "%s %s %s  %s" (show $ tlcode t) (show $ tldatetime t) (tlaccount t) (tldescription t)
 
 instance Show TimeLogCode where
     show SetBalance = "b"
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ timeLogEntriesToTransactions now [i]
     | odate > idate = entryFromTimeLogInOut i o' : timeLogEntriesToTransactions now [i',o]
     | otherwise = [entryFromTimeLogInOut i o]
     where
-      o = TimeLogEntry (tlsourcepos i) Out end ""
+      o = TimeLogEntry (tlsourcepos i) Out end "" ""
       end = if itime > now then itime else now
       (itime,otime) = (tldatetime i,tldatetime o)
       (idate,odate) = (localDay itime,localDay otime)
@@ -84,20 +84,22 @@ entryFromTimeLogInOut i o
             tdate2       = Nothing,
             tstatus      = True,
             tcode        = "",
-            tdescription = showtime itod ++ "-" ++ showtime otod,
+            tdescription = desc,
             tcomment     = "",
             ttags        = [],
             tpostings    = ps,
             tpreceding_comment_lines=""
           }
-      showtime = take 5 . show
-      acctname = tlcomment i
       itime    = tldatetime i
       otime    = tldatetime o
       itod     = localTimeOfDay itime
       otod     = localTimeOfDay otime
       idate    = localDay itime
+      desc     | null (tldescription i) = showtime itod ++ "-" ++ showtime otod
+               | otherwise              = tldescription i
+      showtime = take 5 . show
       hours    = elapsedSeconds (toutc otime) (toutc itime) / 3600 where toutc = localTimeToUTC utc
+      acctname = tlaccount i
       amount   = Mixed [hrs hours]
       ps       = [posting{paccount=acctname, pamount=amount, ptype=VirtualPosting, ptransaction=Just t}]
 
@@ -122,18 +124,18 @@ tests_Hledger_Data_TimeLog = TestList [
          assertEntriesGiveStrings name es ss = assertEqual name ss (map tdescription $ timeLogEntriesToTransactions now es)
 
      assertEntriesGiveStrings "started yesterday, split session at midnight"
-                                  [clockin (mktime yesterday "23:00:00") ""]
+                                  [clockin (mktime yesterday "23:00:00") "" ""]
                                   ["23:00-23:59","00:00-"++nowstr]
      assertEntriesGiveStrings "split multi-day sessions at each midnight"
-                                  [clockin (mktime (addDays (-2) today) "23:00:00") ""]
+                                  [clockin (mktime (addDays (-2) today) "23:00:00") "" ""]
                                   ["23:00-23:59","00:00-23:59","00:00-"++nowstr]
      assertEntriesGiveStrings "auto-clock-out if needed"
-                                  [clockin (mktime today "00:00:00") ""]
+                                  [clockin (mktime today "00:00:00") "" ""]
                                   ["00:00-"++nowstr]
      let future = utcToLocalTime tz $ addUTCTime 100 now'
          futurestr = showtime future
      assertEntriesGiveStrings "use the clockin time for auto-clockout if it's in the future"
-                                  [clockin future ""]
+                                  [clockin future "" ""]
                                   [printf "%s-%s" futurestr futurestr]
 
  ]
diff --git a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Types.hs b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Types.hs
index a9fd652bc..a35575e70 100644
--- a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Types.hs
+++ b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Types.hs
@@ -155,7 +155,8 @@ data TimeLogEntry = TimeLogEntry {
       tlsourcepos :: SourcePos,
       tlcode :: TimeLogCode,
       tldatetime :: LocalTime,
-      tlcomment :: String
+      tlaccount :: String,
+      tldescription :: String
     } deriving (Eq,Ord,Typeable,Data)
 
 data HistoricalPrice = HistoricalPrice {
diff --git a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/JournalReader.hs b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/JournalReader.hs
index b748dfe11..77a66ba56 100644
--- a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/JournalReader.hs
+++ b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/JournalReader.hs
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ module Hledger.Read.JournalReader (
   datetimep,
   codep,
   accountnamep,
+  modifiedaccountname,
   postingp,
   amountp,
   amountp',
diff --git a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/TimelogReader.hs b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/TimelogReader.hs
index 047481ffa..8ea8d00f2 100644
--- a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/TimelogReader.hs
+++ b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/TimelogReader.hs
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ where
 import Control.Monad
 import Control.Monad.Except
 import Data.List (isPrefixOf, foldl')
+import Data.Maybe (fromMaybe)
 import Test.HUnit
 import Text.Parsec hiding (parse)
 import System.FilePath
@@ -58,7 +59,7 @@ import Hledger.Data
 -- XXX too much reuse ?
 import Hledger.Read.JournalReader (
   directive, historicalpricedirective, defaultyeardirective, emptyorcommentlinep, datetimep,
-  parseJournalWith, getParentAccount
+  parseJournalWith, modifiedaccountname
   )
 import Hledger.Utils
 
@@ -104,8 +105,9 @@ timelogentry = do
   code <- oneOf "bhioO"
   many1 spacenonewline
   datetime <- datetimep
-  comment <- optionMaybe (many1 spacenonewline >> liftM2 (++) getParentAccount restofline)
-  return $ TimeLogEntry sourcepos (read [code]) datetime (maybe "" rstrip comment)
+  account <- fromMaybe "" <$> optionMaybe (many1 spacenonewline >> modifiedaccountname)
+  description <- fromMaybe "" <$> optionMaybe (many1 spacenonewline >> restofline)
+  return $ TimeLogEntry sourcepos (read [code]) datetime account description
 
 tests_Hledger_Read_TimelogReader = TestList [
  ]
diff --git a/tests/timelog/timelog.test b/tests/timelog/timelog.test
index 9e9b35194..a00fd8bd9 100644
--- a/tests/timelog/timelog.test
+++ b/tests/timelog/timelog.test
@@ -1,12 +1,22 @@
 # a timelog session is parsed as a similarly-named transaction with one virtual posting
 hledgerdev -f - print
 <<<
-i 2009/1/1 08:00:00 something
-o 2009/1/1 09:00:00
+i 2009/1/1 08:00:00
+o 2009/1/1 09:00:00 stuff on checkout record  is ignored
 
+i 2009/1/2 08:00:00 account name
+o 2009/1/2 09:00:00
+i 2009/1/3 08:00:00 some:account name  and a description
+o 2009/1/3 09:00:00
 >>>
 2009/01/01 * 08:00-09:00
-    (something)         1.00h
+    ()         1.00h
+
+2009/01/02 * 08:00-09:00
+    (account name)         1.00h
+
+2009/01/03 * and a description
+    (some:account name)         1.00h
 
 >>>2
 >>>= 0