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;imp: doc: account types: prioritise short names, hide old syntax

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Simon Michael 2021-11-22 08:23:13 -10:00
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hledger/hledger.m4.md
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@ -2858,63 +2858,63 @@ account ACCTNAME [ACCTTYPE] [;COMMENT]
### Account types
hledger recognises five main types of account,
corresponding to the account classes in the [accounting equation]:
By adding a `type` tag to the [account directive],
with value
`A`, `L`, `E`, `R`, `X`, `C`
(or if you prefer: `Asset`, `Liability`, `Equity`, `Revenue`, `Expense`, `Cash`),
you can declare hledger accounts to be of a certain type:
`Asset`, `Liability`, `Equity`, `Revenue`, `Expense`.
- **asset**,
**liability**,
**equity**,
**revenue**,
**expense**\
the [standard types] in accounting, or
These account types are important for controlling which accounts
appear in the [balancesheet], [balancesheetequity],
[incomestatement] reports (and probably for other things in future).
- **cash**\
a subtype of asset, used for [liquid assets][CCE].
Additionally, we recognise the `Cash` type, which is also an `Asset`,
and which causes accounts to appear in the [cashflow] report.
("Cash" here means [liquid assets][CCE], eg bank balances
but typically not investments or receivables.)
Declaring account types is a good idea, since it helps enable the easy
[balancesheet], [balancesheetequity], [incomestatement] and [cashflow] reports,
and probably other things in future.
As a convenience, when account types are not declared,
hledger will try to guess them based on english-language account names.
Here is a typical set of top-level account declarations
(because of the aforementioned, with these account names the type tags are not strictly needed,
but with non-english or non-standard account names, they will be):
```journal
account assets ; type: A
account liabilities ; type: L
account equity ; type: E
account revenues ; type: R
account expenses ; type: X
account assets:bank ; type: C
account assets:cash ; type: C
```
It's not necessary to declare the type of subaccounts.
(You can, if they are different from the parent, but this is not common.)
[standard types]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chart_of_accounts#Types_of_accounts
[accounting equation]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accounting_equation
[CCE]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash_and_cash_equivalents
#### Declaring account types
To make the [balancesheet]/[balancesheetequity]/[cashflow]/[incomestatement] reports work,
generally you should declare your top-level accounts, and their types.
For each top-level account, write an [account directive](#declaring-accounts),
with a `type:` [tag](#tags). The tag's value can be any of
`Asset`, `Liability`, `Equity`, `Revenue`, `Expense`, `Cash`,
or (for short) `A`, `L`, `E`, `R`, `X`, `C` (case insensitive).
An account's type is inherited by its subaccounts, unless they declare a different type.
Here's an example, declaring all six account types:
```journal
account assets ; type: Asset
account assets:bank ; type: Cash
account assets:cash ; type: Cash
account liabilities ; type: Liability
account equity ; type: Equity
account revenues ; type: Revenue
account expenses ; type: Expense
```
There is also an older syntax, which is deprecated and will be dropped soon
(A, L, E, R or X separated from the account name by two or more spaces):
```journal
account assets A
account liabilities L
account equity E
account revenues R
account expenses X
```
[account directive]: #declaring-accounts
#### Auto-detected account types
More about "guessing" account types:
hledger tries to find at least one top level account in each of the
six account types (Asset, Liability, Equity, Revenue, Expense, Cash).
When no accounts have been declared for a particular type,
hledger tries to auto-detect some accounts by name,
using [regular expressions](#regular-expressions):
it tries to auto-detect some accounts by name,
using the [regular expressions](#regular-expressions) below.
Note: if you declare any account's type, it's a good idea to declare an account for all six types,
because a mix of declared and auto-detected types can cause confusing results.
The auto-detection rules are:
<!-- monospace to work around https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/issues/1573 -->
```
If account's name matches this case insensitive regular expression:| its type is:
@ -2928,33 +2928,6 @@ using [regular expressions](#regular-expressions):
^expenses?(:|$) | Expense
```
For people using standard english account names,
this feature helps hledger's [high-level reports](#declaring-account-types) work out of the box with minimal configuration.
If you use non-english account names,
you should [declare account types](#declaring-account-types) to make these reports work.
And more generally, declaring accounts and types is usually a good idea,
for increased clarity and predictability
(and for the other benefits of account directives: error checking, display order, etc).
Notes:
- When any account is declared as some type, this disables auto-detection for that particular type.
- If you declare any account's type, it's a good idea to declare
an account for all six types, since a mix of declared and auto-detected
types can cause confusion.
For example, here liabilities is declared to be Equity, but would also
be auto-detected as Liability, since no Liability account is declared:
```journal
account liabilities ; type:Equity
2020-01-01
assets 1
liabilities 1
equity -2
```
### Account display order
Account directives also set the order in which accounts are displayed,