diff --git a/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Balance.txt b/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Balance.txt
index 16ff0d7f1..373713482 100644
--- a/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Balance.txt
+++ b/hledger/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Balance.txt
@@ -45,9 +45,8 @@ $ hledger balance
                    0
 
 By default, accounts are displayed hierarchically, with subaccounts
-indented below their parent. At each level of the tree, accounts are
-sorted by account code if any, then by account name. Or with
--S/--sort-amount, by their balance amount, largest first.
+indented below their parent, with accounts at each level of the tree
+sorted by declaration order if declared, then by account name.
 
 "Boring" accounts, which contain a single interesting subaccount and no
 balance of their own, are elided into the following line for more
@@ -186,6 +185,18 @@ This flag does not work if the report contains any mixed commodity
 accounts. If there are mixed commodity accounts in the report be sure to
 use -V or -B to coerce the report into using a single commodity.
 
+Sorting by amount
+
+With -S/--sort-amount, accounts with the largest (most positive)
+balances are shown first. For example, hledger bal expenses -MAS shows
+your biggest averaged monthly expenses first.
+
+Revenues and liability balances are typically negative, however, so -S
+shows these in reverse order (largest last). To work around this, you
+can add --invert to flip the signs. Or, use one of the sign-flipping
+report like balancesheet or incomestatement, which also support -S. Eg:
+hledger is -MAS.
+
 Multicolumn balance report
 
 Multicolumn or tabular balance reports are a very useful hledger