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hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Balance.txt
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@ -3,40 +3,77 @@ Show accounts and their balances.
_FLAGS _FLAGS
The balance command is hledger's most versatile command. Note, despite balance is one of hledger's oldest and most versatile commands, for
the name, it is not always used for showing real-world account balances; listing account balances, balance changes, values, value changes and
the more accounting-aware balancesheet and incomestatement may be more more, during one time period or many. Generally it shows a table, with
convenient for that. rows representing accounts, and columns representing periods.
By default, it displays all accounts, and each account's change in Note there are some higher-level variants of the balance command with
balance during the entire period of the journal. Balance changes are convenient defaults, which can be simpler to use: balancesheet,
calculated by adding up the postings in each account. You can limit the balancesheetequity, cashflow and incomestatement. When you need more
postings matched, by a query, to see fewer accounts, changes over a control, then use balance.
different time period, changes from only cleared transactions, etc.
If you include an account's complete history of postings in the report, balance features
the balance change is equivalent to the account's current ending
balance. For a real-world account, typically you won't have all
transactions in the journal; instead you'll have all transactions after
a certain date, and an "opening balances" transaction setting the
correct starting balance on that date. Then the balance command will
show real-world account balances. In some cases the -H/--historical flag
is used to ensure this (more below).
This command also supports the output destination and output format Here's a quick overview of the balance command's features, followed by
options The output formats supported are (in most modes): txt, csv, more detailed descriptions and examples. Many of these work with the
html, and json. higher-level commands as well.
The balance command can produce several styles of report: balance can show..
Single-period flat balance report - accounts as a list (-l) or a tree (-t)
- optionally depth-limited (-[1-9])
- sorted by declaration order and name, or by amount
This is the default for hledger's balance command: a flat list of all ..and their..
(or with a query, matched) accounts, showing full account names.
Accounts are sorted by declaration order if any, and then by account - balance changes (the default)
name. Accounts which have zero balance are not shown unless -E/--empty - or actual and planned balance changes (--budget)
is used. The reported balances' total is shown as the last line, unless - or value of balance changes (-V)
disabled by -N/--no-total. - or change of balance values (--valuechange)
..in..
- one time period (the whole journal period by default)
- or multiple periods (-D, -W, -M, -Q, -Y, -p INTERVAL)
..either..
- per period (the default)
- or accumulated since report start date (--cumulative)
- or accumulated since account creation (--historical/-H)
..possibly converted to..
- cost (--value=cost[,COMM]/--cost/-B)
- or market value, as of transaction dates (--value=then[,COMM])
- or at period ends (--value=end[,COMM])
- or now (--value=now)
- or at some other date (--value=YYYY-MM-DD)
..with..
- totals (-T), averages (-A), percentages (-%), inverted sign
(--invert)
- rows and columns swapped (--transpose)
- another field used as account name (--pivot)
- custom-formatted line items (single-period reports only) (--format)
This command supports the output destination and output format options,
with output formats txt, csv, json, and (multi-period reports only:)
html. In txt output in a colour-supporting terminal, negative amounts
are shown in red.
Simple balance report
With no arguments, balance shows a list of all accounts and their change
of balance - ie, the sum of posting amounts, both inflows and outflows -
during the entire period of the journal. For real-world accounts, this
should also match their end balance at the end of the journal period
(more on this below).
Accounts are sorted by declaration order if any, and then alphabetically
by account name. For instance, using examples/sample.journal:
$ hledger bal $ hledger bal
$1 assets:bank:saving $1 assets:bank:saving
@ -49,11 +86,43 @@ $ hledger bal
-------------------- --------------------
0 0
Single-period tree-mode balance report Accounts with a zero balance (and no non-zero subaccounts, in tree mode
- see below) are hidden by default. Use -E/--empty to show them
(revealing assets:bank:checking here):
With the -t/--tree flag, accounts are displayed hierarchically, showing $ hledger -f examples/sample.journal bal -E
subaccounts as short names indented below their parent. (This is the 0 assets:bank:checking
default style in Ledger and in older hledger versions.) $1 assets:bank:saving
$-2 assets:cash
$1 expenses:food
$1 expenses:supplies
$-1 income:gifts
$-1 income:salary
$1 liabilities:debts
--------------------
0
The total of the amounts displayed is shown as the last line, unless
-N/--no-total is used.
Filtered balance report
You can show fewer accounts, a different time period, totals from
cleared transactions only, etc. by using query arguments or options to
limit the postings being matched. Eg:
$ hledger bal --cleared assets date:200806
$-2 assets:cash
--------------------
$-2
List or tree mode
By default, or with -l/--flat, accounts are shown as a flat list with
their full names visible, as in the examples above.
With -t/--tree, the account hierarchy is shown, with subaccounts' "leaf"
names indented below their parent:
$ hledger balance $ hledger balance
$-1 assets $-1 assets
@ -69,37 +138,52 @@ $ hledger balance
-------------------- --------------------
0 0
For more compact output, "boring" accounts containing a single Notes:
interesting subaccount and no balance of their own (assets:bank and
liabilities here) are elided into the following line, unless --no-elide
is used. And accounts which have zero balance and no non-zero
subaccounts are omitted, unless -E/--empty is used.
Account balances in tree mode are "inclusive" - they include the - "Boring" accounts are combined with their subaccount for more
balances of any subaccounts. Eg, the assets $-1 balance here includes compact output, unless --no-elide is used. Boring accounts have no
the $1 from assets:bank:saving and the $-2 from assets:cash. (And it balance of their own and just one subaccount (eg assets:bank and
would include balance posted to the assets account itself, if there was liabilities above).
any). Note this causes some repetition, and the final total (0) is the
sum of the top-level balances, not of all the balances shown.
Each group of sibling accounts is sorted separately, by declaration - All balances shown are "inclusive", ie including the balances from
order and then by account name. all subaccounts. Note this means some repetition in the output,
which requires explanation when sharing reports with
non-plaintextaccounting-users. A tree mode report's final total is
the sum of the top-level balances shown, not of all the balances
shown.
- Each group of sibling accounts (ie, under a common parent) is sorted
separately.
Depth limiting
With a depth:N query, or --depth N option, or just -N, balance reports
will show accounts only to the specified depth, hiding the deeper
subaccounts. Account balances at the depth limit always include the
balances from any hidden subaccounts (even in list mode). This can be
useful for getting an overview. Eg, limiting to depth 1:
$ hledger balance -N -1
$-1 assets
$2 expenses
$-2 income
$1 liabilities
You can also hide top-level account name parts, using --drop N. This can
be useful for hiding repetitive top-level account names:
$ hledger bal expenses --drop 1
$1 food
$1 supplies
--------------------
$2
Multi-period balance report Multi-period balance report
Multi-period balance reports are a very useful hledger feature, With a report interval (set by the -D/--daily, -W/--weekly,
activated if you provide one of the reporting interval flags, such as -M/--monthly, -Q/--quarterly, -Y/--yearly, or -p/--period flag), balance
-M/--monthly. They are similar to single-period balance reports, but shows a tabular report, with columns representing successive time
they show the report as a table, with columns representing one or more periods (and a title):
successive time periods. This is the usually the preferred style of
balance report in hledger (even for a single period).
Multi-period balance reports come in several types, showing different
information:
1. A balance change report: by default, each column shows the sum of
postings in that period, ie the account's change of balance in that
period. This is useful eg for a monthly income statement:
$ hledger balance --quarterly income expenses -E $ hledger balance --quarterly income expenses -E
Balance changes in 2008: Balance changes in 2008:
@ -113,225 +197,240 @@ Balance changes in 2008:
-------------------++--------------------------------- -------------------++---------------------------------
|| $-1 $1 0 0 || $-1 $1 0 0
2. A cumulative end balance report: with --cumulative, each column Notes:
shows the end balance for that period, accumulating the changes
across periods, starting from 0 at the report start date:
$ hledger balance --quarterly income expenses -E --cumulative - The report's start/end dates will be expanded, if necessary, to
Ending balances (cumulative) in 2008: fully encompass the displayed subperiods (so that the first and last
subperiods have the same duration as the others).
- Leading and trailing periods (columns) containing all zeroes are not
shown, unless -E/--empty is used.
- Accounts (rows) containing all zeroes are not shown, unless
-E/--empty is used.
- Amounts with many commodities are shown in abbreviated form, unless
--no-elide is used. (experimental)
- Average and/or total columns can be added with the -A/--average and
-T/--row-total flags.
- The --transpose flag can be used to exchange rows and columns.
- The --pivot FIELD option causes a different transaction field to be
used as "account name". See PIVOTING.
|| 2008/03/31 2008/06/30 2008/09/30 2008/12/31 Multi-period reports with many periods can be too wide for easy viewing
===================++================================================= in the terminal. Here are some ways to handle that:
expenses:food || 0 $1 $1 $1
expenses:supplies || 0 $1 $1 $1
income:gifts || 0 $-1 $-1 $-1
income:salary || $-1 $-1 $-1 $-1
-------------------++-------------------------------------------------
|| $-1 0 0 0
3. A historical end balance report: with --historical/-H, each column - Hide the totals row with -N/--no-total
shows the actual historical end balance for that period, - Convert to a single currency with -V
accumulating the changes across periods, and including the balance - Maximize the terminal window
from any postings before the report start date. This is useful eg - Reduce the terminal's font size
for a multi-period balance sheet, and when you want to see balances - View with a pager like less, eg:
only after a certain date: hledger bal -D --color=yes | less -RS
- Output as CSV and use a CSV viewer like visidata
$ hledger balance ^assets ^liabilities --quarterly --historical --begin 2008/4/1 (hledger bal -D -O csv | vd -f csv), Emacs' csv-mode
Ending balances (historical) in 2008/04/01-2008/12/31: (M-x csv-mode, C-c C-a), or a spreadsheet
(hledger bal -D -o a.csv && open a.csv)
|| 2008/06/30 2008/09/30 2008/12/31 - Output as HTML and view with a browser:
======================++===================================== hledger bal -D -o a.html && open a.html
assets:bank:checking || $1 $1 0
assets:bank:saving || $1 $1 $1
assets:cash || $-2 $-2 $-2
liabilities:debts || 0 0 $1
----------------------++-------------------------------------
|| 0 0 0
Note that --cumulative or --historical/-H disable --row-total/-T, since
summing end balances generally does not make sense.
With a reporting interval (like --quarterly above), the report start/end
dates will be adjusted if necessary so that they encompass the displayed
report periods. This is so that the first and last periods will be
"full" and comparable to the others.
The -E/--empty flag does two things in multicolumn balance reports:
first, the report will show all columns within the specified report
period (without -E, leading and trailing columns with all zeroes are not
shown). Second, all accounts which existed at the report start date will
be considered, not just the ones with activity during the report period
(use -E to include low-activity accounts which would otherwise would be
omitted).
The -T/--row-total flag adds an additional column showing the total for
each row.
The -A/--average flag adds a column showing the average value in each
row.
Here's an example of all three:
$ hledger balance -Q income expenses --tree -ETA
Balance changes in 2008:
|| 2008q1 2008q2 2008q3 2008q4 Total Average
============++===================================================
expenses || 0 $2 0 0 $2 $1
food || 0 $1 0 0 $1 0
supplies || 0 $1 0 0 $1 0
income || $-1 $-1 0 0 $-2 $-1
gifts || 0 $-1 0 0 $-1 0
salary || $-1 0 0 0 $-1 0
------------++---------------------------------------------------
|| $-1 $1 0 0 0 0
(Average is rounded to the dollar here since all journal amounts are)
The --transpose flag can be used to exchange the rows and columns of a
multicolumn report.
When showing multicommodity amounts, multicolumn balance reports will
elide any amounts which have more than two commodities, since otherwise
columns could get very wide. The --no-elide flag disables this. Hiding
totals with the -N/--no-total flag can also help reduce the width of
multicommodity reports.
When the report is still too wide, a good workaround is to pipe it into
less -RS (-R for colour, -S to chop long lines). Eg:
hledger bal -D --color=yes | less -RS.
Depth limiting
With a depth:N query, or --depth N option, or just -N, balance reports
will show accounts only to the specified depth. This is very useful to
hide low-level accounts and get an overview. Eg, limiting to depth 1
shows the top-level accounts:
$ hledger balance -N -1
$-1 assets
$2 expenses
$-2 income
$1 liabilities
Accounts at the depth limit will include the balances of any hidden
subaccounts (even in flat mode, which normally shows exclusive
balances).
You can also drop account name components from the start of account
names, using --drop N. This can be useful to hide unwanted top-level
detail.
Colour support
In terminal output, when colour is enabled, the balance command shows
negative amounts in red.
Sorting by amount Sorting by amount
With -S/--sort-amount, accounts with the largest (most positive) With -S/--sort-amount, accounts with the largest (most positive)
balances are shown first. For example, hledger bal expenses -MAS shows balances are shown first. Eg: hledger bal expenses -MAS shows your
your biggest averaged monthly expenses first. biggest averaged monthly expenses first.
Revenues and liability balances are typically negative, however, so -S Revenues and liability balances are typically negative, however, so -S
shows these in reverse order. To work around this, you can add --invert shows these in reverse order. To work around this, you can add --invert
to flip the signs. Or, use one of the sign-flipping reports like to flip the signs. (Or, use one of the higher-level reports, which flip
balancesheet or incomestatement, which also support -S. Eg: the sign automatically. Eg: hledger incomestatement -MAS).
hledger is -MAS.
Percentages Percentages
With -% or --percent, balance reports show each account's value With -%/--percent, balance reports show each account's value expressed
expressed as a percentage of the column's total. This is useful to get as a percentage of the (column) total:
an overview of the relative sizes of account balances. For example to
obtain an overview of expenses:
$ hledger balance expenses -% $ hledger bal expenses -Q -%
100.0 % expenses Balance changes in 2008:
50.0 % food
50.0 % supplies
--------------------
100.0 %
Note that --tree does not have an effect on -%. The percentages are || 2008Q1 2008Q2 2008Q3 2008Q4
always relative to the total sum of each column, they are never relative ===================++=================================
to the parent account. expenses:food || 0 50.0 % 0 0
expenses:supplies || 0 50.0 % 0 0
-------------------++---------------------------------
|| 0 100.0 % 0 0
Since the percentages are relative to the columns sum, it is usually not Note it is not useful to calculate percentages if the amounts in a
useful to calculate percentages if the signs of the amounts are mixed. column have mixed signs. In this case, make a separate report for each
Although the results are technically correct, they are most likely sign, eg:
useless. Especially in a balance report that sums up to zero (eg
hledger balance -B) all percentage values will be zero.
This flag does not work if the report contains any mixed commodity $ hledger bal -% amt:`>0`
accounts. If there are mixed commodity accounts in the report be sure to $ hledger bal -% amt:`<0`
use -V or -B to coerce the report into using a single commodity.
Customising single-period balance reports Similarly, if the amounts in a column have mixed commodities, convert
them to one commodity with -B, -V, -X or --value, or make a separate
report for each commodity:
You can customise the layout of single-period balance reports with $ hledger bal -% cur:\\$
--format FMT, which sets the format of each line. Eg: $ hledger bal -% cur:€
$ hledger balance --format "%20(account) %12(total)" Balance change, end balance
assets $-1
bank:saving $1
cash $-2
expenses $2
food $1
supplies $1
income $-2
gifts $-1
salary $-1
liabilities:debts $1
---------------------------------
0
The FMT format string (plus a newline) specifies the formatting applied It's important to be clear on the meaning of the numbers shown in
to each account/balance pair. It may contain any suitable text, with balance reports. Here is some terminology we use:
data fields interpolated like so:
%[MIN][.MAX](FIELDNAME) A balance change is the net amount added to, or removed from, an account
during some period.
- MIN pads with spaces to at least this width (optional) An end balance is the amount accumulated in an account as of some date
(and some time, but hledger doesn't store that; assume end of day in
your timezone). It is the sum of previous balance changes.
- MAX truncates at this width (optional) We call it a historical end balance if it includes all balance changes
since the account was created. For a real world account, this means it
will match the "historical record", eg the balances reported in your
bank statements or bank web UI. (If they are correct!)
- FIELDNAME must be enclosed in parentheses, and can be one of: In general, balance changes are what you want to see when reviewing
revenues and expenses, and historical end balances are what you want to
see when reviewing or reconciling asset, liability and equity accounts.
- depth_spacer - a number of spaces equal to the account's depth, balance shows balance changes by default. To see accurate historical end
or if MIN is specified, MIN * depth spaces. balances:
- account - the account's name
- total - the account's balance/posted total, right justified
Also, FMT can begin with an optional prefix to control how 1. Initialise account starting balances with an "opening balances"
multi-commodity amounts are rendered: transaction (a transfer from equity to the account), unless the
journal covers the account's full lifetime.
- %_ - render on multiple lines, bottom-aligned (the default) 2. Include all of of the account's prior postings in the report, by not
- %^ - render on multiple lines, top-aligned specifying a report start date, or by using the -H/--historical
- %, - render on one line, comma-separated flag. (-H causes report start date to be ignored when summing
postings.)
There are some quirks. Eg in one-line mode, %(depth_spacer) has no Balance report types
effect, instead %(account) has indentation built in. Experimentation may
be needed to get pleasing results.
Some example formats: For more flexible reporting, there are three important option groups:
- %(total) - the account's total hledger balance [CALCULATIONTYPE] [ACCUMULATIONTYPE] [VALUATIONTYPE] ...
- %-20.20(account) - the account's name, left justified, padded to 20
characters and clipped at 20 characters The first two are the most important: calculation type selects the basic
- %,%-50(account) %25(total) - account name padded to 50 characters, calculation to perform for each table cell, while accumulation type says
total padded to 20 characters, with multiple commodities rendered on which postings should be included in each cell's calculation. Typically
one line one or both of these are selected by default, so you don't need to write
- %20(total) %2(depth_spacer)%-(account) - the default format for the them explicitly. A valuation type can be added if you want to convert
single-column balance report the basic report to value or cost.
Calculation type:
The basic calculation to perform for each table cell. It is one of:
- --sum : sum the posting amounts (default)
- --budget : like --sum but also show a goal amount
- --valuechange : show the change in period-end historical balance
values
Accumulation type:
Which postings should be included in each cell's calculation. It is one
of:
- --change : postings from column start to column end, ie within the
cell's period. Typically used to see revenues/expenses. (default for
balance, incomestatement)
- --cumulative : postings from report start to column end, eg to show
changes accumulated since the report's start date. Rarely used.
- --historical/-H : postings from journal start to column end, ie all
postings from account creation to the end of the cell's period.
Typically used to see historical end balances of
assets/liabilities/equity. (default for balancesheet,
balancesheetequity, cashflow)
Valuation type:
Which kind of valuation, valuation date(s) and optionally a target
valuation commodity to use. It is one of:
- no valuation, show amounts in their original commodities (default)
- --value=cost[,COMM] : no valuation, show amounts converted to cost
- --value=then[,COMM] : show value at transaction dates
- --value=end[,COMM] : show value at period end date(s) (default with
--valuechange)
- --value=now[,COMM] : show value at today's date
- --value=YYYY-MM-DD[,COMM] : show value at another date
or one of their aliases: --cost/-B, --market/-V or --exchange/-X.
Most combinations of these options should produce reasonable reports,
but if you find any that seem wrong or misleading, let us know. The
following restrictions are applied:
- --valuechange implies --value=end
- --valuechange makes --change the default when used with the
balancesheet/balancesheetequity commands
- --cumulative or --historical disables --row-total/-T
For reference, here is what the combinations of accumulation and
valuation show:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Valuation: no valuation --value= then --value= end --value= YYYY-MM-DD /now
>Accumulation: v
------------------ ---------------- ----------------- --------------- --------------------------
--change change in period sum of period-end DATE-value of change in
posting-date value of change period
market values in in period
period
--cumulative change from sum of period-end DATE-value of change from
report start to posting-date value of change report start to period end
period end market values from report
from report start start to period
to period end end
--historical /-H change from sum of period-end DATE-value of change from
journal start to posting-date value of change journal start to period
period end market values from journal end
(historical end from journal start to period
balance) start to period end
end
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Useful balance reports
Some frequently used balance options/reports are:
- bal -M revenues expenses
Show revenues/expenses in each month. Also available as the
incomestatement command.
- bal -M -H assets liabilities
Show historical asset/liability balances at each month end. Also
available as the balancesheet command.
- bal -M -H assets liabilities equity
Show historical asset/liability/equity balances at each month end.
Also available as the balancesheetequity command.
- bal -M assets not:receivable
Show changes to liquid assets in each month. Also available as the
cashflow command.
Also:
- bal -M expenses -2 -SA
Show monthly expenses summarised to depth 2 and sorted by average
amount.
- bal -M --budget expenses
Show monthly expenses and budget goals.
- bal -M --valuechange investments
Show monthly change in market value of investment assets.
- bal investments --valuechange -D date:lastweek amt:'>1000' -STA [--invert]
Show top gainers [or losers] last week
Budget report Budget report
There is also a special balance report mode for showing budget The --budget report type activates extra columns showing any budget
performance. The --budget flag activates extra columns showing the goals for each account and period. The budget goals are defined by
budget goals for each account and period, if any. For this report, periodic transactions. This is very useful for comparing planned and
budget goals are defined by periodic transactions. This is very useful actual income, expenses, time usage, etc.
for comparing planned and actual income, expenses, time usage, etc.
For example, you can take average monthly expenses in the common expense For example, you can take average monthly expenses in the common expense
categories to construct a minimal monthly budget: categories to construct a minimal monthly budget:
@ -387,11 +486,11 @@ This is different from a normal balance report in several ways:
goal amounts are shown, and the actual/goal percentage. (Note: goal amounts are shown, and the actual/goal percentage. (Note:
budget goals should be in the same commodity as the actual amount.) budget goals should be in the same commodity as the actual amount.)
- All parent accounts are always shown, even in flat mode. Eg assets, - All parent accounts are always shown, even in list mode. Eg assets,
assets:bank, and expenses above. assets:bank, and expenses above.
- Amounts always include all subaccounts, budgeted or unbudgeted, even - Amounts always include all subaccounts, budgeted or unbudgeted, even
in flat mode. in list mode.
This means that the numbers displayed will not always add up! Eg above, This means that the numbers displayed will not always add up! Eg above,
the expenses actual amount includes the gifts and supplies transactions, the expenses actual amount includes the gifts and supplies transactions,
@ -564,3 +663,62 @@ Budget performance in 2019/01:
liabilities || $-283.00 [ 26% of $-1100.00] liabilities || $-283.00 [ 26% of $-1100.00]
----------------------------------------++------------------------------- ----------------------------------------++-------------------------------
|| 0 [ 0] || 0 [ 0]
Customising single-period balance reports
For single-period balance reports displayed in the terminal (only), you
can use --format FMT to customise the format and content of each line.
Eg:
$ hledger balance --format "%20(account) %12(total)"
assets $-1
bank:saving $1
cash $-2
expenses $2
food $1
supplies $1
income $-2
gifts $-1
salary $-1
liabilities:debts $1
---------------------------------
0
The FMT format string (plus a newline) specifies the formatting applied
to each account/balance pair. It may contain any suitable text, with
data fields interpolated like so:
%[MIN][.MAX](FIELDNAME)
- MIN pads with spaces to at least this width (optional)
- MAX truncates at this width (optional)
- FIELDNAME must be enclosed in parentheses, and can be one of:
- depth_spacer - a number of spaces equal to the account's depth,
or if MIN is specified, MIN * depth spaces.
- account - the account's name
- total - the account's balance/posted total, right justified
Also, FMT can begin with an optional prefix to control how
multi-commodity amounts are rendered:
- %_ - render on multiple lines, bottom-aligned (the default)
- %^ - render on multiple lines, top-aligned
- %, - render on one line, comma-separated
There are some quirks. Eg in one-line mode, %(depth_spacer) has no
effect, instead %(account) has indentation built in. Experimentation may
be needed to get pleasing results.
Some example formats:
- %(total) - the account's total
- %-20.20(account) - the account's name, left justified, padded to 20
characters and clipped at 20 characters
- %,%-50(account) %25(total) - account name padded to 50 characters,
total padded to 20 characters, with multiple commodities rendered on
one line
- %20(total) %2(depth_spacer)%-(account) - the default format for the
single-column balance report

14
hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Balancesheet.txt
View File

@ -11,9 +11,6 @@ the Asset or Cash or Liability type, or otherwise all accounts under a
top-level asset or liability account (case insensitive, plurals top-level asset or liability account (case insensitive, plurals
allowed). allowed).
(This report is essentially similar to "hledger balance --historical
assets liabilities", with liabilities sign-flipped.)
Example: Example:
$ hledger balancesheet $ hledger balancesheet
@ -35,13 +32,10 @@ Total:
-------------------- --------------------
0 0
With a reporting interval, multiple columns will be shown, one for each This command is a higher-level variant of the balance command, and
report period. As with multicolumn balance reports, you can alter the supports many of that command's features, such as multi-period reports.
report mode with --change/--cumulative/--historical. Normally It is similar to hledger balance -H assets liabilities, but with smarter
balancesheet shows historical ending balances, which is what you need account detection, and liabilities displayed with their sign flipped.
for a balance sheet; note this means it ignores report begin dates (and
-T/--row-total, since summing end balances generally does not make
sense). Instead of absolute values percentages can be displayed with -%.
This command also supports the output destination and output format This command also supports the output destination and output format
options The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and options The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and

9
hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Balancesheetequity.txt
View File

@ -10,9 +10,6 @@ declared with the Asset, Cash, Liability or Equity type, or otherwise
all accounts under a top-level asset, liability or equity account (case all accounts under a top-level asset, liability or equity account (case
insensitive, plurals allowed). insensitive, plurals allowed).
(This report is essentially similar to "hledger balance --historical
assets liabilities equity", with liabilities and equity sign-flipped.)
Example: Example:
$ hledger balancesheetequity $ hledger balancesheetequity
@ -39,6 +36,12 @@ Total:
-------------------- --------------------
0 0
This command is a higher-level variant of the balance command, and
supports many of that command's features, such as multi-period reports.
It is similar to hledger balance -H assets liabilities equity, but with
smarter account detection, and liabilities/equity displayed with their
sign flipped.
This command also supports the output destination and output format This command also supports the output destination and output format
options The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and options The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and
(experimental) json. (experimental) json.

13
hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Cashflow.txt
View File

@ -10,9 +10,6 @@ type, or otherwise all accounts under a top-level asset account (case
insensitive, plural allowed) which do not have fixed, investment, insensitive, plural allowed) which do not have fixed, investment,
receivable or A/R in their name. receivable or A/R in their name.
(This report is essentially similar to "hledger balance --change assets
not:fixed not:investment not:receivable".)
Example: Example:
$ hledger cashflow $ hledger cashflow
@ -29,11 +26,11 @@ Total:
-------------------- --------------------
$-1 $-1
With a reporting interval, multiple columns will be shown, one for each This command is a higher-level variant of the balance command, and
report period. Normally cashflow shows changes in assets per period, supports many of that command's features, such as multi-period reports.
though as with multicolumn balance reports you can alter the report mode It is similar to
with --change/--cumulative/--historical. Instead of absolute values hledger balance assets not:fixed not:investment not:receivable, but with
percentages can be displayed with -%. smarter account detection.
This command also supports the output destination and output format This command also supports the output destination and output format
options The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and options The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and

6
hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Check.txt
View File

@ -48,13 +48,11 @@ These checks can be run only by giving their names as arguments to
check. They are more specialised and not desirable for everyone, check. They are more specialised and not desirable for everyone,
therefore optional: therefore optional:
- ordereddates - transactions are ordered by date (similar to the old - ordereddates - transactions are ordered by date in each file
check-dates command)
- payees - all payees used by transactions have been declared - payees - all payees used by transactions have been declared
- uniqueleafnames - all account leaf names are unique (similar to the - uniqueleafnames - all account leaf names are unique
old check-dupes command).
Custom checks Custom checks

68
hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Import.txt
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@ -6,18 +6,68 @@ transactions as imported, without actually importing any.
_FLAGS _FLAGS
The input files are specified as arguments - no need to write -f before Unlike other hledger commands, with import the journal file is an output
each one. So eg to add new transactions from all CSV files to the main file, and will be modified, though only by appending (existing data will
journal, it's just: hledger import *.csv not be changed). The input files are specified as arguments, so to
import one or more CSV files to your main journal, you will run
hledger import bank.csv or perhaps hledger import *.csv.
New transactions are detected in the same way as print --new: by Note you can import from any file format, though CSV files are the most
assuming transactions are always added to the input files in increasing common import source, and these docs focus on that case.
date order, and by saving .latest.FILE state files.
The --dry-run output is in journal format, so you can filter it, eg to Deduplication
see only uncategorised transactions:
$ hledger import --dry ... | hledger -f- print unknown --ignore-assertions As a convenience import does deduplication while reading transactions.
This does not mean "ignore transactions that look the same", but rather
"ignore transactions that have been seen before". This is intended for
when you are periodically importing foreign data which may contain
already-imported transactions. So eg, if every day you download bank CSV
files containing redundant data, you can safely run
hledger import bank.csv and only new transactions will be imported.
(import is idempotent.)
Since the items being read (CSV records, eg) often do not come with
unique identifiers, hledger detects new transactions by date, assuming
that:
1. new items always have the newest dates
2. item dates do not change across reads
3. and items with the same date remain in the same relative order
across reads.
These are often true of CSV files representing transactions, or true
enough so that it works pretty well in practice. 1 is important, but
violations of 2 and 3 amongst the old transactions won't matter (and if
you import often, the new transactions will be few, so less likely to be
the ones affected).
hledger remembers the latest date processed in each input file by saving
a hidden ".latest" state file in the same directory. Eg when reading
finance/bank.csv, it will look for and update the
finance/.latest.bank.csv state file. The format is simple: one or more
lines containing the same ISO-format date (YYYY-MM-DD), meaning "I have
processed transactions up to this date, and this many of them on that
date." Normally you won't see or manipulate these state files yourself.
But if needed, you can delete them to reset the state (making all
transactions "new"), or you can construct them to "catch up" to a
certain date.
Note deduplication (and updating of state files) can also be done by
print --new, but this is less often used.
Import testing
With --dry-run, the transactions that will be imported are printed to
the terminal, without updating your journal or state files. The output
is valid journal format, like the print command, so you can re-parse it.
Eg, to see any importable transactions which CSV rules have not
categorised:
$ hledger import --dry bank.csv | hledger -f- -I print unknown
or (live updating):
$ ls bank.csv* | entr bash -c 'echo ====; hledger import --dry bank.csv | hledger -f- -I print unknown'
Importing balance assignments Importing balance assignments

13
hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Incomestatement.txt
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@ -11,9 +11,6 @@ the Revenue or Expense type, or otherwise all accounts under a top-level
revenue or income or expense account (case insensitive, plurals revenue or income or expense account (case insensitive, plurals
allowed). allowed).
(This report is essentially similar to "hledger balance --change
revenues expenses", with revenues sign-flipped.)
Example: Example:
$ hledger incomestatement $ hledger incomestatement
@ -37,11 +34,11 @@ Total:
-------------------- --------------------
0 0
With a reporting interval, multiple columns will be shown, one for each This command is a higher-level variant of the balance command, and
report period. Normally incomestatement shows revenues/expenses per supports many of that command's features, such as multi-period reports.
period, though as with multicolumn balance reports you can alter the It is similar to hledger balance '(revenues|income)' expenses, but with
report mode with --change/--cumulative/--historical. Instead of absolute smarter account detection, and revenues/income displayed with their sign
values percentages can be displayed with -%. flipped.
This command also supports the output destination and output format This command also supports the output destination and output format
options The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and options The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and

17
hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Print.txt
View File

@ -79,20 +79,9 @@ transaction: the one one whose description is most similar to STR, and
is most recent. STR should contain at least two characters. If there is is most recent. STR should contain at least two characters. If there is
no similar-enough match, no transaction will be shown. no similar-enough match, no transaction will be shown.
With --new, for each FILE being read, hledger reads (and writes) a With --new, hledger prints only transactions it has not seen on a
special state file (.latest.FILE in the same directory), containing the previous run. This uses the same deduplication system as the import
latest transaction date(s) that were seen last time FILE was read. When command. (See import's docs for details.)
this file is found, only transactions with newer dates (and new
transactions on the latest date) are printed. This is useful for
ignoring already-seen entries in import data, such as downloaded CSV
files. Eg:
$ hledger -f bank1.csv print --new
(shows transactions added since last print --new on this file)
This assumes that transactions added to FILE always have same or
increasing dates, and that transactions on the same day do not get
reordered. See also the import command.
This command also supports the output destination and output format This command also supports the output destination and output format
options The output formats supported are txt, csv, and (experimental) options The output formats supported are txt, csv, and (experimental)

269
hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Roi.txt
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@ -4,24 +4,23 @@ your investments.
_FLAGS _FLAGS
This command assumes that you have account(s) that hold nothing but your
investments and whenever you record current appraisal/valuation of these
investments you offset unrealized profit and loss into account(s) that,
again, hold nothing but unrealized profit and loss.
Any transactions affecting balance of investment account(s) and not
originating from unrealized profit and loss account(s) are assumed to be
your investments or withdrawals.
At a minimum, you need to supply a query (which could be just an account At a minimum, you need to supply a query (which could be just an account
name) to select your investments with --inv, and another query to name) to select your investment(s) with --inv, and another query to
identify your profit and loss transactions with --pnl. identify your profit and loss transactions with --pnl.
If you do not record changes in the value of your investment manually,
or do not require computation of time-weighted return (TWR), --pnl could
be an empty query (--pnl "" or --pnl STR where STR does not match any of
your accounts).
This command will compute and display the internalized rate of return This command will compute and display the internalized rate of return
(IRR) and time-weighted rate of return (TWR) for your investments for (IRR) and time-weighted rate of return (TWR) for your investments for
the time period requested. Both rates of return are annualized before the time period requested. Both rates of return are annualized before
display, regardless of the length of reporting interval. display, regardless of the length of reporting interval.
Price directives will be taken into account if you supply appropriate
--cost or --value flags (see VALUATION).
Note, in some cases this report can fail, for these reasons: Note, in some cases this report can fail, for these reasons:
- Error (NotBracketed): No solution for Internal Rate of Return (IRR). - Error (NotBracketed): No solution for Internal Rate of Return (IRR).
@ -33,10 +32,61 @@ Note, in some cases this report can fail, for these reasons:
Examples: Examples:
- Using roi to report unrealised gains: - Using roi to compute total return of investment in stocks:
https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/blob/master/examples/roi-unrealised.ledger https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/blob/master/examples/roi-unrealised.ledger
More background: - Cookbook -> Return on Investment
Semantics of --inv and --pnl
Query supplied to --inv has to match all transactions that are related
to your investment. Transactions not matching --inv will be ignored.
In these transactions, ROI will conside postings that match --inv to be
"investment postings" and other postings (not matching --inv) will be
sorted into two categories: "cash flow" and "profit and loss", as ROI
needs to know which part of the investment value is your contributions
and which is due to the return on investment.
- "Cash flow" is depositing or withdrawing money, buying or selling
assets, or otherwise converting between your investment commodity
and any other commodity. Example:
2019-01-01 Investing in Snake Oil
assets:cash -$100
investment:snake oil
2020-01-01 Selling my Snake Oil
assets:cash $10
investment:snake oil = 0
- "Profit and loss" is change in the value of your investment:
2019-06-01 Snake Oil falls in value
investment:snake oil = $57
equity:unrealized profit or loss
All non-investment postings are assumed to be "cash flow", unless they
match --pnl query. Changes in value of your investment due to "profit
and loss" postings will be considered as part of your investment return.
Example: if you use --inv snake --pnl equity:unrealized, then postings
in the example below would be classifed as:
2019-01-01 Snake Oil #1
assets:cash -$100 ; cash flow posting
investment:snake oil ; investment posting
2019-03-01 Snake Oil #2
equity:unrealized pnl -$100 ; profit and loss posting
snake oil ; investment posting
2019-07-01 Snake Oil #3
equity:unrealized pnl ; profit and loss posting
cash -$100 ; cash flow posting
snake oil $50 ; investment posting
IRR and TWR explained
"ROI" stands for "return on investment". Traditionally this was computed "ROI" stands for "return on investment". Traditionally this was computed
as a difference between current value of investment and its initial as a difference between current value of investment and its initial
@ -55,34 +105,34 @@ smaller (in absolute numbers), and will be a smaller percentage of your
initial investment, and if you are adding to your investment, you will initial investment, and if you are adding to your investment, you will
receive bigger absolute gains (but probably at the same rate of return). receive bigger absolute gains (but probably at the same rate of return).
IRR is a way to compute rate of return for each period between in-flow IRR is a way to compute rate of return for each period between in-flow
or out-flow of money, and then combine them in a way that gives you an or out-flow of money, and then combine them in a way that gives you a
annual rate of return that investment is expected to generate. compound annual rate of return that investment is expected to generate.
As mentioned before, in-flows and out-flows would be any cash that you As mentioned before, in-flows and out-flows would be any cash that you
personally put in or withdraw, and for the "roi" command, these are personally put in or withdraw, and for the "roi" command, these are the
transactions that involve account(s) matching --inv argument and NOT postings that match the query in the--inv argument and NOT match the
involve account(s) matching --pnl argument. query in the--pnl argument.
Presumably, you will also record changes in the value of your If you manually record changes in the value of your investment as
investment, and balance them against "profit and loss" (or "unrealized transactions that balance them against "profit and loss" (or "unrealized
gains") account. Note that in order for IRR to compute the precise gains") account or use price directives, then in order for IRR to
effect of your in-flows and out-flows on the rate of return, you will compute the precise effect of your in-flows and out-flows on the rate of
need to record the value of your investement on or close to the days return, you will need to record the value of your investement on or
when in- or out-flows occur. close to the days when in- or out-flows occur.
Implementation of IRR in hledger should match the XIRR formula in Excel.
Second way to compute rate of return that roi command implements is
called "time-weighted rate of return" or "TWR". Like IRR, it will also
break the history of your investment into periods between in-flows and
out-flows to compute rate of return per each period and then a compound
rate of return. However, internal workings of TWR are quite different.
In technical terms, IRR uses the same approach as computation of net In technical terms, IRR uses the same approach as computation of net
present value, and tries to find a discount rate that makes net present present value, and tries to find a discount rate that makes net present
value of all the cash flows of your investment to add up to zero. This value of all the cash flows of your investment to add up to zero. This
could be hard to wrap your head around, especially if you haven't done could be hard to wrap your head around, especially if you haven't done
discounted cash flow analysis before. discounted cash flow analysis before. Implementation of IRR in hledger
should produce results that match the XIRR formula in Excel.
Second way to compute rate of return that roi command implements is
called "time-weighted rate of return" or "TWR". Like IRR, it will also
break the history of your investment into periods between in-flows,
out-flows and value changes, to compute rate of return per each period
and then a compound rate of return. However, internal workings of TWR
are quite different.
TWR represents your investment as an imaginary "unit fund" where TWR represents your investment as an imaginary "unit fund" where
in-flows/ out-flows lead to buying or selling "units" of your investment in-flows/ out-flows lead to buying or selling "units" of your investment
@ -93,158 +143,3 @@ your investment.
References: * Explanation of rate of return * Explanation of IRR * References: * Explanation of rate of return * Explanation of IRR *
Explanation of TWR * Examples of computing IRR and TWR and discussion of Explanation of TWR * Examples of computing IRR and TWR and discussion of
the limitations of both metrics the limitations of both metrics
More examples:
Lets say that we found an investment in Snake Oil that is proising to
give us 10% annually:
2019-01-01 Investing in Snake Oil
assets:cash -$100
investment:snake oil
2019-12-24 Recording the growth of Snake Oil
investment:snake oil = $110
equity:unrealized gains
For now, basic computation of the rate of return, as well as IRR and
TWR, gives us the expected 10%:
$ hledger roi -Y --inv investment --pnl "unrealized"
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-----++--------+--------+
| || Begin | End || Value (begin) | Cashflow | Value (end) | PnL || IRR | TWR |
+===++============+============++===============+==========+=============+=====++========+========+
| 1 || 2019-01-01 | 2019-12-31 || 0 | 100 | 110 | 10 || 10.00% | 10.00% |
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-----++--------+--------+
However, lets say that shorty after investing in the Snake Oil we
started to have second thoughs, so we prompty withdrew $90, leaving only
$10 in. Before Christmas, though, we started to get the "fear of mission
out", so we put the $90 back in. So for most of the year, our investment
was just $10 dollars, and it gave us just $1 in growth:
2019-01-01 Investing in Snake Oil
assets:cash -$100
investment:snake oil
2019-01-02 Buyers remorse
assets:cash $90
investment:snake oil
2019-12-30 Fear of missing out
assets:cash -$90
investment:snake oil
2019-12-31 Recording the growth of Snake Oil
investment:snake oil = $101
equity:unrealized gains
Now IRR and TWR are drastically different:
$ hledger roi -Y --inv investment --pnl "unrealized"
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-----++-------+-------+
| || Begin | End || Value (begin) | Cashflow | Value (end) | PnL || IRR | TWR |
+===++============+============++===============+==========+=============+=====++=======+=======+
| 1 || 2019-01-01 | 2019-12-31 || 0 | 100 | 101 | 1 || 9.32% | 1.00% |
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-----++-------+-------+
Here, IRR tells us that we made close to 10% on the $10 dollars that we
had in the account most of the time. And TWR is ... just 1%? Why?
Based on the transactions in our journal, TWR "think" that we are buying
back $90 worst of Snake Oil at the same price that it had at the
beginning of they year, and then after that our $100 investment gets $1
increase in value, or 1% of $100. Let's take a closer look at what is
happening here by asking for quarterly reports instead of annual:
$ hledger roi -Q --inv investment --pnl "unrealized"
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-----++--------+-------+
| || Begin | End || Value (begin) | Cashflow | Value (end) | PnL || IRR | TWR |
+===++============+============++===============+==========+=============+=====++========+=======+
| 1 || 2019-01-01 | 2019-03-31 || 0 | 10 | 10 | 0 || 0.00% | 0.00% |
| 2 || 2019-04-01 | 2019-06-30 || 10 | 0 | 10 | 0 || 0.00% | 0.00% |
| 3 || 2019-07-01 | 2019-09-30 || 10 | 0 | 10 | 0 || 0.00% | 0.00% |
| 4 || 2019-10-01 | 2019-12-31 || 10 | 90 | 101 | 1 || 37.80% | 4.03% |
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-----++--------+-------+
Now both IRR and TWR are thrown off by the fact that all of the growth
for our investment happens in Q4 2019. This happes because IRR
computation is still yielding 9.32% and TWR is still 1%, but this time
these are rates for three month period instead of twelve, so in order to
get an annual rate they should be multiplied by four!
Let's try to keep a better record of how Snake Oil grew in value:
2019-01-01 Investing in Snake Oil
assets:cash -$100
investment:snake oil
2019-01-02 Buyers remorse
assets:cash $90
investment:snake oil
2019-02-28 Recording the growth of Snake Oil
investment:snake oil
equity:unrealized gains -$0.25
2019-06-30 Recording the growth of Snake Oil
investment:snake oil
equity:unrealized gains -$0.25
2019-09-30 Recording the growth of Snake Oil
investment:snake oil
equity:unrealized gains -$0.25
2019-12-30 Fear of missing out
assets:cash -$90
investment:snake oil
2019-12-31 Recording the growth of Snake Oil
investment:snake oil
equity:unrealized gains -$0.25
Would our quartery report look better now? Almost:
$ hledger roi -Q --inv investment --pnl "unrealized"
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+------++--------+--------+
| || Begin | End || Value (begin) | Cashflow | Value (end) | PnL || IRR | TWR |
+===++============+============++===============+==========+=============+======++========+========+
| 1 || 2019-01-01 | 2019-03-31 || 0 | 10 | 10.25 | 0.25 || 9.53% | 10.53% |
| 2 || 2019-04-01 | 2019-06-30 || 10.25 | 0 | 10.50 | 0.25 || 10.15% | 10.15% |
| 3 || 2019-07-01 | 2019-09-30 || 10.50 | 0 | 10.75 | 0.25 || 9.79% | 9.78% |
| 4 || 2019-10-01 | 2019-12-31 || 10.75 | 90 | 101.00 | 0.25 || 8.05% | 1.00% |
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+------++--------+--------+
Something is still wrong with TWR computation for Q4, and if you have
been paying attention you know what it is already: big $90 buy-back is
recorded prior to the only transaction that captures the change of value
of Snake Oil that happened in this time period. Lets combine
transactions from 30th and 31st of Dec into one:
2019-12-30 Fear of missing out and growth of Snake Oil
assets:cash -$90
investment:snake oil
equity:unrealized gains -$0.25
Now growth of investment properly affects its price at the time of
buy-back:
$ hledger roi -Q --inv investment --pnl "unrealized"
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+------++--------+--------+
| || Begin | End || Value (begin) | Cashflow | Value (end) | PnL || IRR | TWR |
+===++============+============++===============+==========+=============+======++========+========+
| 1 || 2019-01-01 | 2019-03-31 || 0 | 10 | 10.25 | 0.25 || 9.53% | 10.53% |
| 2 || 2019-04-01 | 2019-06-30 || 10.25 | 0 | 10.50 | 0.25 || 10.15% | 10.15% |
| 3 || 2019-07-01 | 2019-09-30 || 10.50 | 0 | 10.75 | 0.25 || 9.79% | 9.78% |
| 4 || 2019-10-01 | 2019-12-31 || 10.75 | 90 | 101.00 | 0.25 || 8.05% | 9.57% |
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+------++--------+--------+
And for annual report, TWR now reports the exact profitability of our
investment:
$ hledger roi -Y --inv investment --pnl "unrealized"
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+------++-------+--------+
| || Begin | End || Value (begin) | Cashflow | Value (end) | PnL || IRR | TWR |
+===++============+============++===============+==========+=============+======++=======+========+
| 1 || 2019-01-01 | 2019-12-31 || 0 | 100 | 101.00 | 1.00 || 9.32% | 10.00% |
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+------++-------+--------+