diff --git a/Commands/Add.hs b/Commands/Add.hs
index f4c2a50d7..5f5e337f8 100644
--- a/Commands/Add.hs
+++ b/Commands/Add.hs
@@ -191,21 +191,3 @@ transactionsSimilarTo l s =
       ts = ledger_txns $ rawledger l
       threshold = 0
 
-{- doctests
-
-@
-$ echo "2009/13/1"|hledger -f /dev/null add 2>&1|tail -1|sed -e's/\[[^]]*\]//g' # a bad date is not accepted
-date : date : 
-@
-
-@
-$ echo|hledger -f /dev/null add 2>&1|tail -1|sed -e's/\[[^]]*\]//g' # a blank date is ok
-date : description: 
-@
-
-@
-$ printf "\n\n"|hledger -f /dev/null add 2>&1|tail -1|sed -e's/\[[^]]*\]//g' # a blank description should fail
-date : description: description: 
-@
-
--}
diff --git a/tests/add-bad-date-fails.test b/tests/add-bad-date-fails.test
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2c16a7e5f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/add-bad-date-fails.test
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+; ignore the binary we are invoked with
+-f/dev/null; echo "2009/1/32" | hledger add 2>&1 | tail -1 | sed -e's/\[[^]]*\]//g'
+>>>
+date : date : 
diff --git a/tests/add-blank-date.test b/tests/add-blank-date.test
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..23d14689c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/add-blank-date.test
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+; ignore the binary we are invoked with
+-f/dev/null; echo | hledger add 2>&1 |tail -1 |sed -e's/\[[^]]*\]//g'
+>>>
+date : description: 
diff --git a/tests/add-blank-description-fails.test b/tests/add-blank-description-fails.test
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2975766d4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/add-blank-description-fails.test
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+; ignore the binary we are invoked with
+-f/dev/null; printf "\n\n" | hledger add 2>&1 |tail -1 | sed -e's/\[[^]]*\]//g'
+>>>
+date : description: description: