diff --git a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Account.hs b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Account.hs
index 8910d2500..ca362533f 100644
--- a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Account.hs
+++ b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Account.hs
@@ -210,15 +210,9 @@ sortAccountTreeByAmount normalsign a
 
 -- | Add extra info for this account derived from the Journal's
 -- account directives, if any (comment, tags, declaration order..).
--- Currently only sets declaration order.
--- Expects that this account is among the Journal's jdeclaredaccounts
--- (otherwise sets declaration order to 0).
 accountSetDeclarationInfo :: Journal -> Account -> Account
-accountSetDeclarationInfo j a@Account{..} = 
-  a{adeclarationinfo=Just nullaccountdeclarationinfo{
-       adideclarationorder = fromMaybe 0 $ findIndex (==aname) (jdeclaredaccounts j)
-       }
-   }
+accountSetDeclarationInfo j a@Account{..} =
+  a{ adeclarationinfo=lookup aname $ jdeclaredaccounts j }
 
 -- | Sort account names by the order in which they were declared in
 -- the journal, at each level of the account tree (ie within each
diff --git a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Journal.hs b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Journal.hs
index 294febc57..0f73786c5 100644
--- a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Journal.hs
+++ b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Journal.hs
@@ -264,7 +264,7 @@ journalAccountNamesImplied = expandAccountNames . journalAccountNamesUsed
 
 -- | Sorted unique account names declared by account directives in this journal.
 journalAccountNamesDeclared :: Journal -> [AccountName]
-journalAccountNamesDeclared = nub . sort . jdeclaredaccounts
+journalAccountNamesDeclared = nub . sort . map fst . jdeclaredaccounts
 
 -- | Sorted unique account names declared by account directives or posted to
 -- by transactions in this journal.
diff --git a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Types.hs b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Types.hs
index 7355bc857..5a868ce09 100644
--- a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Types.hs
+++ b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Types.hs
@@ -410,7 +410,7 @@ data Journal = Journal {
   ,jparsetimeclockentries :: [TimeclockEntry]                       -- ^ timeclock sessions which have not been clocked out
   ,jincludefilestack      :: [FilePath]
   -- principal data
-  ,jdeclaredaccounts      :: [AccountName]                          -- ^ Accounts declared by account directives, in parse order (after journal finalisation) 
+  ,jdeclaredaccounts      :: [(AccountName,AccountDeclarationInfo)] -- ^ Accounts declared by account directives, in parse order (after journal finalisation) 
   ,jdeclaredaccounttypes  :: M.Map AccountType [AccountName]        -- ^ Accounts whose type has been declared in account directives (usually 5 top-level accounts) 
   ,jcommodities           :: M.Map CommoditySymbol Commodity        -- ^ commodities and formats declared by commodity directives
   ,jinferredcommodities   :: M.Map CommoditySymbol AmountStyle      -- ^ commodities and formats inferred from journal amounts  TODO misnamed - jusedstyles
@@ -444,8 +444,11 @@ type StorageFormat = String
 data AccountDeclarationInfo = AccountDeclarationInfo {
    adicomment          :: Text   -- ^ any comment lines following an account directive for this account
   ,aditags             :: [Tag]  -- ^ tags extracted from the account comment, if any
-  ,adideclarationorder :: Int    -- ^ the relative position of this account's account directive, if any. Normally a natural number.
-} deriving (Data)
+  ,adideclarationorder :: Int    -- ^ the order in which this account was declared,
+                                 --   relative to other account declarations, during parsing (1..)
+} deriving (Eq,Data,Generic)
+
+instance NFData AccountDeclarationInfo
 
 nullaccountdeclarationinfo = AccountDeclarationInfo {
    adicomment          = ""
diff --git a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/Common.hs b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/Common.hs
index 164bbcb77..c8a128ca6 100644
--- a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/Common.hs
+++ b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/Common.hs
@@ -42,7 +42,6 @@ module Hledger.Read.Common (
   getDefaultCommodityAndStyle,
   getDefaultAmountStyle,
   getAmountStyle,
-  pushDeclaredAccount,
   addDeclaredAccountType,
   pushParentAccount,
   popParentAccount,
@@ -362,9 +361,6 @@ getAmountStyle commodity = do
     let effectiveStyle = listToMaybe $ catMaybes [specificStyle, defaultStyle]
     return effectiveStyle
 
-pushDeclaredAccount :: AccountName -> JournalParser m ()
-pushDeclaredAccount acct = modify' (\j -> j{jdeclaredaccounts = acct : jdeclaredaccounts j})
-
 addDeclaredAccountType :: AccountName -> AccountType -> JournalParser m ()
 addDeclaredAccountType acct atype = 
   modify' (\j -> j{jdeclaredaccounttypes = M.insertWith (++) atype [acct] (jdeclaredaccounttypes j)})
diff --git a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/JournalReader.hs b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/JournalReader.hs
index 9fdcab5ee..b3d20aec1 100644
--- a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/JournalReader.hs
+++ b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/JournalReader.hs
@@ -253,13 +253,15 @@ orRethrowIOError io msg = do
     Right res -> pure res
     Left errMsg -> fail errMsg
 
+-- Parse an account directive, adding its info to the journal's
+-- list of account declarations.
 accountdirectivep :: JournalParser m ()
 accountdirectivep = do
   string "account"
   lift (skipSome spacenonewline)
   -- the account name, possibly modified by preceding alias or apply account directives
   acct <- modifiedaccountnamep
-  -- and maybe something else after two or more spaces ?
+  -- maybe an account type code after two or more spaces
   matype :: Maybe AccountType <- lift $ fmap (fromMaybe Nothing) $ optional $ try $ do
     skipSome spacenonewline -- at least one more space in addition to the one consumed by modifiedaccountp 
     choice [
@@ -270,16 +272,30 @@ accountdirectivep = do
       ,char 'R' >> return (Just Revenue) 
       ,char 'X' >> return (Just Expense) 
       ]
-  -- and maybe a comment on this and/or following lines ? (ignore for now)
-  (_cmt, _tags) <- lift transactioncommentp
-  -- and maybe Ledger-style subdirectives ? (ignore)
+  -- maybe a comment, on this and/or following lines
+  (cmt, tags) <- lift transactioncommentp
+  -- maybe Ledger-style subdirectives (ignored)
   skipMany indentedlinep
 
   -- update the journal
+  addAccountDeclaration (acct, cmt, tags)
   case matype of
     Nothing    -> return ()
     Just atype -> addDeclaredAccountType acct atype
-  pushDeclaredAccount acct
+
+-- Add an account declaration to the journal, auto-numbering it.
+addAccountDeclaration :: (AccountName,Text,[Tag]) -> JournalParser m ()
+addAccountDeclaration (a,cmt,tags) =
+  modify' (\j ->
+             let
+               decls = jdeclaredaccounts j
+               d     = (a, nullaccountdeclarationinfo{
+                              adicomment          = cmt
+                             ,aditags             = tags
+                             ,adideclarationorder = length decls + 1
+                             })
+             in
+               j{jdeclaredaccounts = d:decls})
 
 indentedlinep :: JournalParser m String
 indentedlinep = lift (skipSome spacenonewline) >> (rstrip <$> lift restofline)
diff --git a/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Accounts.hs b/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Accounts.hs
index 61087b5a4..2ff78eebc 100644
--- a/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Accounts.hs
+++ b/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Accounts.hs
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ accounts CliOpts{rawopts_=rawopts, reportopts_=ropts} j = do
       -- just the acct: part of the query will be reapplied later, after clipping
       acctq    = dbg1 "acctq" $ filterQuery queryIsAcct q
       depth    = dbg1 "depth" $ queryDepth $ filterQuery queryIsDepth q
-      matcheddeclaredaccts = dbg1 "matcheddeclaredaccts" $ filter (matchesAccount nodepthq) $ jdeclaredaccounts j
+      matcheddeclaredaccts = dbg1 "matcheddeclaredaccts" $ filter (matchesAccount nodepthq) $ map fst $ jdeclaredaccounts j
       matchedusedaccts     = dbg5 "matchedusedaccts" $ map paccount $ journalPostings $ filterJournalPostings nodepthq j
       accts                = dbg5 "accts to show" $ -- no need to nub/sort, accountTree will
         if | declared     && not used -> matcheddeclaredaccts