diff --git a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Reports/BudgetReport.hs b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Reports/BudgetReport.hs
index d0f6ec925..83eb0bbaf 100644
--- a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Reports/BudgetReport.hs
+++ b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Reports/BudgetReport.hs
@@ -66,18 +66,24 @@ budgetReport :: ReportOpts -> Bool -> Bool -> DateSpan -> Day -> Journal -> Budg
 budgetReport ropts assrt showunbudgeted reportspan d j =
   let
     q = queryFromOpts d ropts 
-    budgetj = budgetJournal assrt ropts reportspan j
     budgetedaccts = 
       dbg2 "budgetedacctsinperiod" $
       accountNamesFromPostings $ 
       concatMap tpostings $ 
       concatMap (flip runPeriodicTransaction reportspan) $ 
       jperiodictxns j
-    actualj = budgetRollUp budgetedaccts showunbudgeted j
-    budgetgoalreport = dbg1 "budgetgoalreport" $ multiBalanceReport ropts q budgetj
-    actualreport     = dbg1 "actualreport"     $ multiBalanceReport ropts q actualj
+    actualj = dbg1 "actualj" $ budgetRollUp budgetedaccts showunbudgeted j
+    budgetj = dbg1 "budgetj" $ budgetJournal assrt ropts reportspan j
+    actualreport@(MultiBalanceReport (actualspans, _, _)) = dbg1 "actualreport" $ multiBalanceReport ropts  q actualj
+    budgetgoalreport@(MultiBalanceReport (_, budgetgoalitems, budgetgoaltotals)) = dbg1 "budgetgoalreport" $ multiBalanceReport ropts q budgetj
+    budgetgoalreport'
+      -- If no interval is specified:
+      -- budgetgoalreport's span might be shorter actualreport's due to periodic txns; 
+      -- it should be safe to replace it with the latter, so they combine well. 
+      | interval_ ropts == NoInterval = MultiBalanceReport (actualspans, budgetgoalitems, budgetgoaltotals)
+      | otherwise = budgetgoalreport 
   in
-    dbg1 "budgetreport" $ combineBudgetAndActual budgetgoalreport actualreport
+    dbg1 "budgetreport" $ combineBudgetAndActual budgetgoalreport' actualreport
 
 -- | Use all periodic transactions in the journal to generate 
 -- budget transactions in the specified report period.
diff --git a/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Balance.hs b/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Balance.hs
index 09d432458..0a7379168 100644
--- a/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Balance.hs
+++ b/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Balance.hs
@@ -308,9 +308,23 @@ balance opts@CliOpts{rawopts_=rawopts,reportopts_=ropts} j = do
     Left err -> error' $ unlines [err]
     Right _ -> do
       let format   = outputFormatFromOpts opts
+          budget   = boolopt "budget" rawopts
           interval = interval_ ropts
-      case interval of
-        NoInterval -> do
+      case (budget, interval) of
+        (True, _) -> do
+          -- single or multicolumn budget report
+          reportspan <- reportSpan j ropts
+          let budgetreport     = dbg1 "budgetreport"     $ budgetReport ropts assrt showunbudgeted reportspan d j
+                where
+                  showunbudgeted = boolopt "show-unbudgeted" rawopts
+                  assrt          = not $ ignore_assertions_ $ inputopts_ opts
+              render = case format of
+                "csv"  -> const $ error' "Sorry, CSV output is not yet implemented for this kind of report."  -- TODO
+                "html" -> const $ error' "Sorry, HTML output is not yet implemented for this kind of report."  -- TODO
+                _      -> budgetReportAsText ropts
+          writeOutput opts $ render budgetreport
+          
+        (False, NoInterval) -> do
           -- single column balance report
           let report
                 | balancetype_ ropts `elem` [HistoricalBalance, CumulativeChange]
@@ -325,20 +339,7 @@ balance opts@CliOpts{rawopts_=rawopts,reportopts_=ropts} j = do
                 _      -> balanceReportAsText
           writeOutput opts $ render ropts report
           
-        _ | boolopt "budget" rawopts -> do
-          -- multi column budget report
-          reportspan <- reportSpan j ropts
-          let budgetreport     = dbg1 "budgetreport"     $ budgetReport ropts assrt showunbudgeted reportspan d j
-                where
-                  showunbudgeted = boolopt "show-unbudgeted" rawopts
-                  assrt          = not $ ignore_assertions_ $ inputopts_ opts
-              render = case format of
-                "csv"  -> const $ error' "Sorry, CSV output is not yet implemented for this kind of report."  -- TODO
-                "html" -> const $ error' "Sorry, HTML output is not yet implemented for this kind of report."  -- TODO
-                _      -> budgetReportAsText ropts
-          writeOutput opts $ render budgetreport
-          
-          | otherwise -> do
+        _  -> do
           -- multi column balance report
           let report = multiBalanceReport ropts (queryFromOpts d ropts) j
               render = case format of
diff --git a/tests/budget/budget.test b/tests/budget/budget.test
index 51b1eb999..f1ae31b91 100644
--- a/tests/budget/budget.test
+++ b/tests/budget/budget.test
@@ -124,13 +124,18 @@ Budget performance in 2016/12/01-2016/12/03:
   (b)  1
   (c)  1
 
-# 4. --budget with no interval has no effect.
+# 4. --budget with no interval shows total budget for the journal period
+# (in tabular format). 
 $ hledger -f- bal --budget
-                   2  a
-                   2  b
-                   2  c
---------------------
-                   6
+Budget performance in 2018/01/01-2018/01/03:
+
+   ||    2018/01/01-2018/01/03 
+===++==========================
+ a ||       2 [   7% of    30] 
+ b ||       2 [   2% of   100] 
+ c ||       2 [   0% of  1000] 
+---++--------------------------
+   ||       6 [   1% of  1130] 
 
 # 5. Multiple periodic transactions with different intervals are combined. 
 # Budget goals with lower frequency than the report are posted in the