diff --git a/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Balance.hs b/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Balance.hs
index ddddf4a9d..2f8988d41 100644
--- a/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Balance.hs
+++ b/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Balance.hs
@@ -359,10 +359,10 @@ balancemode = hledgerCommandMode
     ,flagReq  ["layout"] (\s opts -> Right $ setopt "layout" s opts) "ARG"
       (unlines
         ["how to lay out multi-commodity amounts and the overall table:"
-        ,"'wide[,WIDTH]': commodities on one line"
-        ,"'tall'        : commodities on separate lines"
-        ,"'bare'        : commodity symbols in one column"
-        ,"'tidy'        : every attribute in its own column"
+        ,"'wide[,W]': commodities on same line, up to W wide"
+        ,"'tall'    : commodities on separate lines"
+        ,"'bare'    : commodity symbols in a separate column"
+        ,"'tidy'    : each data field in its own column"
         ])
      ,flagReq  ["base-url"] (\s opts -> Right $ setopt "base-url" s opts) "URLPREFIX" "in html output, generate links to hledger-web, with this prefix. (Usually the base url shown by hledger-web; can also be relative.)"