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.\"t
.TH "HLEDGER" "1" "December 2021" "hledger-1.23.99 " "hledger User Manuals"
.SH NAME
.PP
This is the command-line interface (CLI) for the hledger accounting
tool.
Here we also describe hledger\[aq]s concepts and file formats.
This manual is for hledger 1.23.99.
.SH SYNOPSIS
.PP
\f[C]hledger\f[R]
.PP
\f[C]hledger [-f FILE] COMMAND [OPTIONS] [ARGS]\f[R]
.PP
\f[C]hledger [-f FILE] ADDONCMD -- [OPTIONS] [ARGS]\f[R]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
hledger is a reliable, cross-platform set of programs for tracking
money, time, or any other commodity, using double-entry accounting and a
simple, editable file format.
hledger is inspired by and largely compatible with ledger(1).
.PP
The basic function of the hledger CLI is to read a plain text file
describing financial transactions (in accounting terms, a general
journal) and print useful reports on standard output, or export them as
CSV.
hledger can also read some other file formats such as CSV files,
translating them to journal format.
Additionally, hledger lists other hledger-* executables found in the
user\[cq]s $PATH and can invoke them as subcommands.
.PP
hledger reads data from one or more files in hledger journal, timeclock,
timedot, or CSV format specified with \f[C]-f\f[R], or
\f[C]$LEDGER_FILE\f[R], or \f[C]$HOME/.hledger.journal\f[R] (on windows,
perhaps \f[C]C:/Users/USER/.hledger.journal\f[R]).
If using \f[C]$LEDGER_FILE\f[R], note this must be a real environment
variable, not a shell variable.
You can specify standard input with \f[C]-f-\f[R].
.PP
Transactions are dated movements of money between two (or more) named
accounts, and are recorded with journal entries like this:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2015/10/16 bought food
expenses:food $10
assets:cash
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Most users use a text editor to edit the journal, usually with an editor
mode such as ledger-mode for added convenience.
hledger\[cq]s interactive add command is another way to record new
transactions.
hledger never changes existing transactions.
.PP
To get started, you can either save some entries like the above in
\f[C]\[ti]/.hledger.journal\f[R], or run \f[C]hledger add\f[R] and
follow the prompts.
Then try some commands like \f[C]hledger print\f[R] or
\f[C]hledger balance\f[R].
Run \f[C]hledger\f[R] with no arguments for a list of commands.
.SH OPTIONS
.SS General options
.PP
To see general usage help, including general options which are supported
by most hledger commands, run \f[C]hledger -h\f[R].
.PP
General help options:
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]-h --help\f[B]\f[R]
show general or COMMAND help
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]--man\f[B]\f[R]
show general or COMMAND user manual with man
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]--info\f[B]\f[R]
show general or COMMAND user manual with info
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]--version\f[B]\f[R]
show general or ADDONCMD version
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]--debug[=N]\f[B]\f[R]
show debug output (levels 1-9, default: 1)
.PP
General input options:
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]-f FILE --file=FILE\f[B]\f[R]
use a different input file.
For stdin, use - (default: \f[C]$LEDGER_FILE\f[R] or
\f[C]$HOME/.hledger.journal\f[R])
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]--rules-file=RULESFILE\f[B]\f[R]
Conversion rules file to use when reading CSV (default: FILE.rules)
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]--separator=CHAR\f[B]\f[R]
Field separator to expect when reading CSV (default: \[aq],\[aq])
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]--alias=OLD=NEW\f[B]\f[R]
rename accounts named OLD to NEW
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]--anon\f[B]\f[R]
anonymize accounts and payees
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]--pivot FIELDNAME\f[B]\f[R]
use some other field or tag for the account name
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]-I --ignore-assertions\f[B]\f[R]
disable balance assertion checks (note: does not disable balance
assignments)
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]-s --strict\f[B]\f[R]
do extra error checking (check that all posted accounts are declared)
.PP
General reporting options:
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]-b --begin=DATE\f[B]\f[R]
include postings/txns on or after this date (will be adjusted to
preceding subperiod start when using a report interval)
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]-e --end=DATE\f[B]\f[R]
include postings/txns before this date (will be adjusted to following
subperiod end when using a report interval)
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]-D --daily\f[B]\f[R]
multiperiod/multicolumn report by day
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]-W --weekly\f[B]\f[R]
multiperiod/multicolumn report by week
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]-M --monthly\f[B]\f[R]
multiperiod/multicolumn report by month
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]-Q --quarterly\f[B]\f[R]
multiperiod/multicolumn report by quarter
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]-Y --yearly\f[B]\f[R]
multiperiod/multicolumn report by year
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]-p --period=PERIODEXP\f[B]\f[R]
set start date, end date, and/or reporting interval all at once using
period expressions syntax
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]--date2\f[B]\f[R]
match the secondary date instead (see command help for other effects)
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]--today=DATE\f[B]\f[R]
override today\[aq]s date (affects relative smart dates, for
tests/examples)
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]-U --unmarked\f[B]\f[R]
include only unmarked postings/txns (can combine with -P or -C)
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]-P --pending\f[B]\f[R]
include only pending postings/txns
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]-C --cleared\f[B]\f[R]
include only cleared postings/txns
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]-R --real\f[B]\f[R]
include only non-virtual postings
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]-NUM --depth=NUM\f[B]\f[R]
hide/aggregate accounts or postings more than NUM levels deep
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]-E --empty\f[B]\f[R]
show items with zero amount, normally hidden (and vice-versa in
hledger-ui/hledger-web)
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]-B --cost\f[B]\f[R]
convert amounts to their cost/selling amount at transaction time
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]-V --market\f[B]\f[R]
convert amounts to their market value in default valuation commodities
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]-X --exchange=COMM\f[B]\f[R]
convert amounts to their market value in commodity COMM
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]--value\f[B]\f[R]
convert amounts to cost or market value, more flexibly than -B/-V/-X
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]--infer-market-prices\f[B]\f[R]
use transaction prices (recorded with \[at] or \[at]\[at]) as additional
market prices, as if they were P directives
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]--auto\f[B]\f[R]
apply automated posting rules to modify transactions.
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]--forecast\f[B]\f[R]
generate future transactions from periodic transaction rules, for the
next 6 months or till report end date.
In hledger-ui, also make ordinary future transactions visible.
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]--commodity-style\f[B]\f[R]
Override the commodity style in the output for the specified commodity.
For example \[aq]EUR1.000,00\[aq].
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]--color=WHEN (or --colour=WHEN)\f[B]\f[R]
Should color-supporting commands use ANSI color codes in text output.
\[aq]auto\[aq] (default): whenever stdout seems to be a color-supporting
terminal.
\[aq]always\[aq] or \[aq]yes\[aq]: always, useful eg when piping output
into \[aq]less -R\[aq].
\[aq]never\[aq] or \[aq]no\[aq]: never.
A NO_COLOR environment variable overrides this.
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]--pretty[=WHEN]\f[B]\f[R]
Show prettier output, e.g.
using unicode box-drawing characters.
Accepts \[aq]yes\[aq] (the default) or \[aq]no\[aq] (\[aq]y\[aq],
\[aq]n\[aq], \[aq]always\[aq], \[aq]never\[aq] also work).
If you provide an argument you must use \[aq]=\[aq], e.g.
\[aq]--pretty=yes\[aq].
.PP
When a reporting option appears more than once in the command line, the
last one takes precedence.
.PP
Some reporting options can also be written as query arguments.
.SS Command options
.PP
To see options for a particular command, including command-specific
options, run: \f[C]hledger COMMAND -h\f[R].
.PP
Command-specific options must be written after the command name, eg:
\f[C]hledger print -x\f[R].
.PP
Additionally, if the command is an add-on, you may need to put its
options after a double-hyphen, eg: \f[C]hledger ui -- --watch\f[R].
Or, you can run the add-on executable directly:
\f[C]hledger-ui --watch\f[R].
.SS Command arguments
.PP
Most hledger commands accept arguments after the command name, which are
often a query, filtering the data in some way.
.PP
You can save a set of command line options/arguments in a file, and then
reuse them by writing \f[C]\[at]FILENAME\f[R] as a command line
argument.
Eg: \f[C]hledger bal \[at]foo.args\f[R].
(To prevent this, eg if you have an argument that begins with a literal
\f[C]\[at]\f[R], precede it with \f[C]--\f[R], eg:
\f[C]hledger bal -- \[at]ARG\f[R]).
.PP
Inside the argument file, each line should contain just one option or
argument.
Avoid the use of spaces, except inside quotes (or you\[aq]ll see a
confusing error).
Between a flag and its argument, use = (or nothing).
Bad:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
assets depth:2
-X USD
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Good:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
assets
depth:2
-X=USD
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
For special characters (see below), use one less level of quoting than
you would at the command prompt.
Bad:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
-X\[dq]$\[dq]
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Good:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
-X$
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
See also: Save frequently used options.
.SS Special characters
.SS Single escaping (shell metacharacters)
.PP
In shell command lines, characters significant to your shell - such as
spaces, \f[C]<\f[R], \f[C]>\f[R], \f[C](\f[R], \f[C])\f[R], \f[C]|\f[R],
\f[C]$\f[R] and \f[C]\[rs]\f[R] - should be \[dq]shell-escaped\[dq] if
you want hledger to see them.
This is done by enclosing them in single or double quotes, or by writing
a backslash before them.
Eg to match an account name containing a space:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger register \[aq]credit card\[aq]
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
or:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger register credit\[rs] card
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Windows users should keep in mind that \f[C]cmd\f[R] treats single quote
as a regular character, so you should be using double quotes
exclusively.
PowerShell treats both single and double quotes as quotes.
.SS Double escaping (regular expression metacharacters)
.PP
Characters significant in regular expressions (described below) - such
as \f[C].\f[R], \f[C]\[ha]\f[R], \f[C]$\f[R], \f[C][\f[R], \f[C]]\f[R],
\f[C](\f[R], \f[C])\f[R], \f[C]|\f[R], and \f[C]\[rs]\f[R] - may need to
be \[dq]regex-escaped\[dq] if you don\[aq]t want them to be interpreted
by hledger\[aq]s regular expression engine.
This is done by writing backslashes before them, but since backslash is
typically also a shell metacharacter, both shell-escaping and
regex-escaping will be needed.
Eg to match a literal \f[C]$\f[R] sign while using the bash shell:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger balance cur:\[aq]\[rs]$\[aq]
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
or:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger balance cur:\[rs]\[rs]$
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Triple escaping (for add-on commands)
.PP
When you use hledger to run an external add-on command (described
below), one level of shell-escaping is lost from any options or
arguments intended for by the add-on command, so those need an extra
level of shell-escaping.
Eg to match a literal \f[C]$\f[R] sign while using the bash shell and
running an add-on command (\f[C]ui\f[R]):
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger ui cur:\[aq]\[rs]\[rs]$\[aq]
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
or:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger ui cur:\[rs]\[rs]\[rs]\[rs]$
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
If you wondered why \f[I]four\f[R] backslashes, perhaps this helps:
.PP
.TS
tab(@);
l l.
T{
unescaped:
T}@T{
\f[C]$\f[R]
T}
T{
escaped:
T}@T{
\f[C]\[rs]$\f[R]
T}
T{
double-escaped:
T}@T{
\f[C]\[rs]\[rs]$\f[R]
T}
T{
triple-escaped:
T}@T{
\f[C]\[rs]\[rs]\[rs]\[rs]$\f[R]
T}
.TE
.PP
Or, you can avoid the extra escaping by running the add-on executable
directly:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger-ui cur:\[rs]\[rs]$
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Less escaping
.PP
Options and arguments are sometimes used in places other than the shell
command line, where shell-escaping is not needed, so there you should
use one less level of escaping.
Those places include:
.IP \[bu] 2
an \[at]argumentfile
.IP \[bu] 2
hledger-ui\[aq]s filter field
.IP \[bu] 2
hledger-web\[aq]s search form
.IP \[bu] 2
GHCI\[aq]s prompt (used by developers).
.SS Unicode characters
.PP
hledger is expected to handle non-ascii characters correctly:
.IP \[bu] 2
they should be parsed correctly in input files and on the command line,
by all hledger tools (add, iadd, hledger-web\[aq]s search/add/edit
forms, etc.)
.IP \[bu] 2
they should be displayed correctly by all hledger tools, and on-screen
alignment should be preserved.
.PP
This requires a well-configured environment.
Here are some tips:
.IP \[bu] 2
A system locale must be configured, and it must be one that can decode
the characters being used.
In bash, you can set a locale like this:
\f[C]export LANG=en_US.UTF-8\f[R].
There are some more details in Troubleshooting.
This step is essential - without it, hledger will quit on encountering a
non-ascii character (as with all GHC-compiled programs).
.IP \[bu] 2
your terminal software (eg Terminal.app, iTerm, CMD.exe, xterm..) must
support unicode
.IP \[bu] 2
the terminal must be using a font which includes the required unicode
glyphs
.IP \[bu] 2
the terminal should be configured to display wide characters as double
width (for report alignment)
.IP \[bu] 2
on Windows, for best results you should run hledger in the same kind of
environment in which it was built.
Eg hledger built in the standard CMD.EXE environment (like the binaries
on our download page) might show display problems when run in a cygwin
or msys terminal, and vice versa.
(See eg #961).
.SS Regular expressions
.PP
hledger uses regular expressions in a number of places:
.IP \[bu] 2
query terms, on the command line and in the hledger-web search form:
\f[C]REGEX\f[R], \f[C]desc:REGEX\f[R], \f[C]cur:REGEX\f[R],
\f[C]tag:...=REGEX\f[R]
.IP \[bu] 2
CSV rules conditional blocks: \f[C]if REGEX ...\f[R]
.IP \[bu] 2
account alias directives and options:
\f[C]alias /REGEX/ = REPLACEMENT\f[R],
\f[C]--alias /REGEX/=REPLACEMENT\f[R]
.PP
hledger\[aq]s regular expressions come from the regex-tdfa library.
If they\[aq]re not doing what you expect, it\[aq]s important to know
exactly what they support:
.IP "1." 3
they are case insensitive
.IP "2." 3
they are infix matching (they do not need to match the entire thing
being matched)
.IP "3." 3
they are POSIX ERE (extended regular expressions)
.IP "4." 3
they also support GNU word boundaries (\f[C]\[rs]b\f[R],
\f[C]\[rs]B\f[R], \f[C]\[rs]<\f[R], \f[C]\[rs]>\f[R])
.IP "5." 3
they do not support backreferences; if you write \f[C]\[rs]1\f[R], it
will match the digit \f[C]1\f[R].
Except when doing text replacement, eg in account aliases, where
backreferences can be used in the replacement string to reference
capturing groups in the search regexp.
.IP "6." 3
they do not support mode modifiers (\f[C](?s)\f[R]), character classes
(\f[C]\[rs]w\f[R], \f[C]\[rs]d\f[R]), or anything else not mentioned
above.
.PP
Some things to note:
.IP \[bu] 2
In the \f[C]alias\f[R] directive and \f[C]--alias\f[R] option, regular
expressions must be enclosed in forward slashes (\f[C]/REGEX/\f[R]).
Elsewhere in hledger, these are not required.
.IP \[bu] 2
In queries, to match a regular expression metacharacter like \f[C]$\f[R]
as a literal character, prepend a backslash.
Eg to search for amounts with the dollar sign in hledger-web, write
\f[C]cur:\[rs]$\f[R].
.IP \[bu] 2
On the command line, some metacharacters like \f[C]$\f[R] have a special
meaning to the shell and so must be escaped at least once more.
See Special characters.
.SH ENVIRONMENT
.PP
\f[B]LEDGER_FILE\f[R] The journal file path when not specified with
\f[C]-f\f[R].
Default: \f[C]\[ti]/.hledger.journal\f[R] (on windows, perhaps
\f[C]C:/Users/USER/.hledger.journal\f[R]).
.PP
A typical value is \f[C]\[ti]/DIR/YYYY.journal\f[R], where DIR is a
version-controlled finance directory and YYYY is the current year.
Or \f[C]\[ti]/DIR/current.journal\f[R], where current.journal is a
symbolic link to YYYY.journal.
.PP
On Mac computers, you can set this and other environment variables in a
more thorough way that also affects applications started from the GUI
(say, an Emacs dock icon).
Eg on MacOS Catalina I have a \f[C]\[ti]/.MacOSX/environment.plist\f[R]
file containing
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
{
\[dq]LEDGER_FILE\[dq] : \[dq]\[ti]/finance/current.journal\[dq]
}
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
To see the effect you may need to \f[C]killall Dock\f[R], or reboot.
.PP
\f[B]COLUMNS\f[R] The screen width used by the register command.
Default: the full terminal width.
.PP
\f[B]NO_COLOR\f[R] If this variable exists with any value, hledger will
not use ANSI color codes in terminal output.
This is overriden by the --color/--colour option.
.SH DATA FILES
.PP
hledger reads transactions from one or more data files.
The default data file is \f[C]$HOME/.hledger.journal\f[R] (or on
Windows, something like \f[C]C:/Users/USER/.hledger.journal\f[R]).
.PP
You can override this with the \f[C]$LEDGER_FILE\f[R] environment
variable:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ setenv LEDGER_FILE \[ti]/finance/2016.journal
$ hledger stats
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
or with one or more \f[C]-f/--file\f[R] options:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f /some/file -f another_file stats
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
The file name \f[C]-\f[R] means standard input:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ cat some.journal | hledger -f-
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Data formats
.PP
Usually the data file is in hledger\[aq]s journal format, but it can be
in any of the supported file formats, which currently are:
.PP
.TS
tab(@);
lw(7.8n) lw(39.5n) lw(22.7n).
T{
Reader:
T}@T{
Reads:
T}@T{
Used for file extensions:
T}
_
T{
\f[C]journal\f[R]
T}@T{
hledger journal files and some Ledger journals, for transactions
T}@T{
\f[C].journal\f[R] \f[C].j\f[R] \f[C].hledger\f[R] \f[C].ledger\f[R]
T}
T{
\f[C]timeclock\f[R]
T}@T{
timeclock files, for precise time logging
T}@T{
\f[C].timeclock\f[R]
T}
T{
\f[C]timedot\f[R]
T}@T{
timedot files, for approximate time logging
T}@T{
\f[C].timedot\f[R]
T}
T{
\f[C]csv\f[R]
T}@T{
comma/semicolon/tab/other-separated values, for data import
T}@T{
\f[C].csv\f[R] \f[C].ssv\f[R] \f[C].tsv\f[R]
T}
.TE
.PP
These formats are described in their own sections, below.
.PP
hledger detects the format automatically based on the file extensions
shown above.
If it can\[aq]t recognise the file extension, it assumes
\f[C]journal\f[R] format.
So for non-journal files, it\[aq]s important to use a recognised file
extension, so as to either read successfully or to show relevant error
messages.
.PP
You can also force a specific reader/format by prefixing the file path
with the format and a colon.
Eg, to read a .dat file as csv format:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f csv:/some/csv-file.dat stats
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Or to read stdin (\f[C]-\f[R]) as timeclock format:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ echo \[aq]i 2009/13/1 08:00:00\[aq] | hledger print -ftimeclock:-
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Multiple files
.PP
You can specify multiple \f[C]-f\f[R] options, to read multiple files as
one big journal.
There are some limitations with this:
.IP \[bu] 2
most directives do not affect sibling files
.IP \[bu] 2
balance assertions will not see any account balances from previous files
.PP
If you need either of those things, you can
.IP \[bu] 2
use a single parent file which includes the others
.IP \[bu] 2
or concatenate the files into one before reading, eg:
\f[C]cat a.journal b.journal | hledger -f- CMD\f[R].
.SS Strict mode
.PP
hledger checks input files for valid data.
By default, the most important errors are detected, while still
accepting easy journal files without a lot of declarations:
.IP \[bu] 2
Are the input files parseable, with valid syntax ?
.IP \[bu] 2
Are all transactions balanced ?
.IP \[bu] 2
Do all balance assertions pass ?
.PP
With the \f[C]-s\f[R]/\f[C]--strict\f[R] flag, additional checks are
performed:
.IP \[bu] 2
Are all accounts posted to, declared with an \f[C]account\f[R] directive
?
(Account error checking)
.IP \[bu] 2
Are all commodities declared with a \f[C]commodity\f[R] directive ?
(Commodity error checking)
.IP \[bu] 2
Are all commodity conversions declared explicitly ?
.PP
You can also use the check command to run these and some additional
checks.
.SH TIME PERIODS
.SS Smart dates
.PP
hledger\[aq]s user interfaces accept a flexible \[dq]smart date\[dq]
syntax.
Smart dates allow some english words, can be relative to today\[aq]s
date, and can have less-significant date parts omitted (defaulting to
1).
.PP
Examples:
.PP
.TS
tab(@);
lw(24.2n) lw(45.8n).
T{
\f[C]2004/10/1\f[R], \f[C]2004-01-01\f[R], \f[C]2004.9.1\f[R]
T}@T{
exact date, several separators allowed.
Year is 4+ digits, month is 1-12, day is 1-31
T}
T{
\f[C]2004\f[R]
T}@T{
start of year
T}
T{
\f[C]2004/10\f[R]
T}@T{
start of month
T}
T{
\f[C]10/1\f[R]
T}@T{
month and day in current year
T}
T{
\f[C]21\f[R]
T}@T{
day in current month
T}
T{
\f[C]october, oct\f[R]
T}@T{
start of month in current year
T}
T{
\f[C]yesterday, today, tomorrow\f[R]
T}@T{
-1, 0, 1 days from today
T}
T{
\f[C]last/this/next day/week/month/quarter/year\f[R]
T}@T{
-1, 0, 1 periods from the current period
T}
T{
\f[C]20181201\f[R]
T}@T{
8 digit YYYYMMDD with valid year month and day
T}
T{
\f[C]201812\f[R]
T}@T{
6 digit YYYYMM with valid year and month
T}
.TE
.PP
Counterexamples - malformed digit sequences might give surprising
results:
.PP
.TS
tab(@);
lw(11.4n) lw(58.6n).
T{
\f[C]201813\f[R]
T}@T{
6 digits with an invalid month is parsed as start of 6-digit year
T}
T{
\f[C]20181301\f[R]
T}@T{
8 digits with an invalid month is parsed as start of 8-digit year
T}
T{
\f[C]20181232\f[R]
T}@T{
8 digits with an invalid day gives an error
T}
T{
\f[C]201801012\f[R]
T}@T{
9+ digits beginning with a valid YYYYMMDD gives an error
T}
.TE
.PP
Note \[dq]today\[aq]s date\[dq] can be overridden with the
\f[C]--today\f[R] option, in case it\[aq]s needed for testing or for
recreating old reports.
(Except for periodic transaction rules; those are not affected by
\f[C]--today\f[R].)
.PP
.SS Report start & end date
.PP
By default, most hledger reports will show the full span of time
represented by the journal data.
The report start date will be the earliest transaction or posting date,
and the report end date will be the latest transaction, posting, or
market price date.
.PP
Often you will want to see a shorter time span, such as the current
month.
You can specify a start and/or end date using \f[C]-b/--begin\f[R],
\f[C]-e/--end\f[R], \f[C]-p/--period\f[R] or a \f[C]date:\f[R] query
(described below).
All of these accept the smart date syntax.
.PP
Some notes:
.IP \[bu] 2
End dates are exclusive, as in Ledger, so you should write the date
\f[I]after\f[R] the last day you want to see in the report.
.IP \[bu] 2
As noted in reporting options: among start/end dates specified with
\f[I]options\f[R], the last (i.e.
right-most) option takes precedence.
.IP \[bu] 2
The effective report start and end dates are the intersection of the
start/end dates from options and that from \f[C]date:\f[R] queries.
That is, \f[C]date:2019-01 date:2019 -p\[aq]2000 to 2030\[aq]\f[R]
yields January 2019, the smallest common time span.
.IP \[bu] 2
A report interval (see below) will adjust start/end dates, when needed,
so that they fall on subperiod boundaries.
.PP
Examples:
.PP
.TS
tab(@);
lw(12.4n) lw(57.6n).
T{
\f[C]-b 2016/3/17\f[R]
T}@T{
begin on St.\ Patrick\[cq]s day 2016
T}
T{
\f[C]-e 12/1\f[R]
T}@T{
end at the start of december 1st of the current year (11/30 will be the
last date included)
T}
T{
\f[C]-b thismonth\f[R]
T}@T{
all transactions on or after the 1st of the current month
T}
T{
\f[C]-p thismonth\f[R]
T}@T{
all transactions in the current month
T}
T{
\f[C]date:2016/3/17..\f[R]
T}@T{
the above written as queries instead (\f[C]..\f[R] can also be replaced
with \f[C]-\f[R])
T}
T{
\f[C]date:..12/1\f[R]
T}@T{
T}
T{
\f[C]date:thismonth..\f[R]
T}@T{
T}
T{
\f[C]date:thismonth\f[R]
T}@T{
T}
.TE
.SS Report intervals
.PP
A report interval can be specified so that commands like register,
balance and activity become multi-period, showing each subperiod as a
separate row or column.
.PP
The following \[dq]standard\[dq] report intervals can be enabled by
using their corresponding flag:
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]-D/--daily\f[R]
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]-W/--weekly\f[R]
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]-M/--monthly\f[R]
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]-Q/--quarterly\f[R]
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]-Y/--yearly\f[R]
.PP
These standard intervals always start on natural interval boundaries: eg
\f[C]--weekly\f[R] starts on mondays, \f[C]--monthly\f[R] starts on the
first of the month, \f[C]--yearly\f[R] always starts on January 1st,
etc.
.PP
Certain more complex intervals, and more flexible boundary dates, can be
specified by \f[C]-p/--period\f[R].
These are described in period expressions, below.
.PP
Report intervals can only be specified by the flags above, and not by
query arguments, currently.
.PP
Report intervals have another effect: multi-period reports are always
expanded to fill a whole number of subperiods.
So if you use a report interval (other than \f[C]--daily\f[R]), and you
have specified a start or end date, you may notice those dates being
overridden (ie, the report starts earlier than your requested start
date, or ends later than your requested end date).
This is done to ensure \[dq]full\[dq] first and last subperiods, so that
all subperiods\[aq] numbers are comparable.
.PP
To summarise:
.IP \[bu] 2
In multiperiod reports, all subperiods are forced to be the same length,
to simplify reporting.
.IP \[bu] 2
Reports with the standard
\f[C]--weekly\f[R]/\f[C]--monthly\f[R]/\f[C]--quarterly\f[R]/\f[C]--yearly\f[R]
intervals are required to start on the first day of a
week/month/quarter/year.
We\[aq]d like more flexibility here but it isn\[aq]t supported yet.
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]--period\f[R] (below) can specify more complex intervals, starting
on any date.
.SS Period expressions
.PP
The \f[C]-p/--period\f[R] option accepts period expressions, a shorthand
way of expressing a start date, end date, and/or report interval all at
once.
.PP
Here\[aq]s a basic period expression specifying the first quarter of
2009.
Note, hledger always treats start dates as inclusive and end dates as
exclusive:
.PP
.TS
tab(@);
l.
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]from 2009/1/1 to 2009/4/1\[dq]\f[R]
T}
.TE
.PP
Keywords like \[dq]from\[dq] and \[dq]to\[dq] are optional, and so are
the spaces, as long as you don\[aq]t run two dates together.
\[dq]to\[dq] can also be written as \[dq]..\[dq] or \[dq]-\[dq].
These are equivalent to the above:
.PP
.TS
tab(@);
l.
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]2009/1/1 2009/4/1\[dq]\f[R]
T}
T{
\f[C]-p2009/1/1to2009/4/1\f[R]
T}
T{
\f[C]-p2009/1/1..2009/4/1\f[R]
T}
.TE
.PP
Dates are smart dates, so if the current year is 2009, the above can
also be written as:
.PP
.TS
tab(@);
l.
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]1/1 4/1\[dq]\f[R]
T}
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]january-apr\[dq]\f[R]
T}
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]this year to 4/1\[dq]\f[R]
T}
.TE
.PP
If you specify only one date, the missing start or end date will be the
earliest or latest transaction in your journal:
.PP
.TS
tab(@);
l l.
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]from 2009/1/1\[dq]\f[R]
T}@T{
everything after january 1, 2009
T}
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]from 2009/1\[dq]\f[R]
T}@T{
the same
T}
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]from 2009\[dq]\f[R]
T}@T{
the same
T}
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]to 2009\[dq]\f[R]
T}@T{
everything before january 1, 2009
T}
.TE
.PP
A single date with no \[dq]from\[dq] or \[dq]to\[dq] defines both the
start and end date like so:
.PP
.TS
tab(@);
l l.
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]2009\[dq]\f[R]
T}@T{
the year 2009; equivalent to \[lq]2009/1/1 to 2010/1/1\[rq]
T}
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]2009/1\[dq]\f[R]
T}@T{
the month of jan; equivalent to \[lq]2009/1/1 to 2009/2/1\[rq]
T}
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]2009/1/1\[dq]\f[R]
T}@T{
just that day; equivalent to \[lq]2009/1/1 to 2009/1/2\[rq]
T}
.TE
.PP
Or you can specify a single quarter like so:
.PP
.TS
tab(@);
l l.
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]2009Q1\[dq]\f[R]
T}@T{
first quarter of 2009, equivalent to \[lq]2009/1/1 to 2009/4/1\[rq]
T}
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]q4\[dq]\f[R]
T}@T{
fourth quarter of the current year
T}
.TE
.SS Period expressions with a report interval
.PP
\f[C]-p/--period\f[R]\[aq]s argument can also begin with, or entirely
consist of, a report interval.
This should be separated from the start/end dates (if any) by a space,
or the word \f[C]in\f[R].
The basic intervals (which can also be written as command line flags)
are \f[C]daily\f[R], \f[C]weekly\f[R], \f[C]monthly\f[R],
\f[C]quarterly\f[R], and \f[C]yearly\f[R].
Some examples:
.PP
.TS
tab(@);
l.
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]weekly from 2009/1/1 to 2009/4/1\[dq]\f[R]
T}
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]monthly in 2008\[dq]\f[R]
T}
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]quarterly\[dq]\f[R]
T}
.TE
.PP
As mentioned above, the \f[C]weekly\f[R], \f[C]monthly\f[R],
\f[C]quarterly\f[R] and \f[C]yearly\f[R] intervals require a report
start date that is the first day of a week, month, quarter or year.
And, report start/end dates will be expanded if needed to span a whole
number of intervals.
.PP
For example:
.PP
.TS
tab(@);
lw(25.5n) lw(44.5n).
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]weekly from 2009/1/1 to 2009/4/1\[dq]\f[R]
T}@T{
starts on 2008/12/29, closest preceding Monday
T}
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]monthly in 2008/11/25\[dq]\f[R]
T}@T{
starts on 2018/11/01
T}
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]quarterly from 2009-05-05 to 2009-06-01\[dq]\f[R]
T}@T{
starts on 2009/04/01, ends on 2009/06/30, which are first and last days
of Q2 2009
T}
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]yearly from 2009-12-29\[dq]\f[R]
T}@T{
starts on 2009/01/01, first day of 2009
T}
.TE
.SS More complex report intervals
.PP
Some more complex kinds of interval are also supported in period
expressions:
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]biweekly\f[R]
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]fortnightly\f[R]
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]bimonthly\f[R]
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]every day|week|month|quarter|year\f[R]
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]every N days|weeks|months|quarters|years\f[R]
.PP
These too will cause report start/end dates to be expanded, if needed,
to span a whole number of intervals.
Examples:
.PP
.TS
tab(@);
lw(25.5n) lw(44.5n).
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]bimonthly from 2008\[dq]\f[R]
T}@T{
periods will have boundaries on 2008/01/01, 2008/03/01, ...
T}
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]every 2 weeks\[dq]\f[R]
T}@T{
starts on closest preceding Monday
T}
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]every 5 month from 2009/03\[dq]\f[R]
T}@T{
periods will have boundaries on 2009/03/01, 2009/08/01, ...
T}
.TE
.SS Intervals with custom start date
.PP
All intervals mentioned above are required to start on their natural
calendar boundaries, but the following intervals can start on any date:
.PP
Weekly on custom day:
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]every Nth day of week\f[R] (\f[C]th\f[R], \f[C]nd\f[R],
\f[C]rd\f[R], or \f[C]st\f[R] are all accepted after the number)
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]every WEEKDAYNAME\f[R] (full or three-letter english weekday name,
case insensitive)
.PP
Monthly on custom day:
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]every Nth day [of month]\f[R]
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]every Nth WEEKDAYNAME [of month]\f[R]
.PP
Yearly on custom day:
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]every MM/DD [of year]\f[R] (month number and day of month number)
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]every MONTHNAME DDth [of year]\f[R] (full or three-letter english
month name, case insensitive, and day of month number)
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]every DDth MONTHNAME [of year]\f[R] (equivalent to the above)
.PP
Examples:
.PP
.TS
tab(@);
lw(23.9n) lw(46.1n).
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]every 2nd day of week\[dq]\f[R]
T}@T{
periods will go from Tue to Tue
T}
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]every Tue\[dq]\f[R]
T}@T{
same
T}
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]every 15th day\[dq]\f[R]
T}@T{
period boundaries will be on 15th of each month
T}
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]every 2nd Monday\[dq]\f[R]
T}@T{
period boundaries will be on second Monday of each month
T}
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]every 11/05\[dq]\f[R]
T}@T{
yearly periods with boundaries on 5th of November
T}
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]every 5th November\[dq]\f[R]
T}@T{
same
T}
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]every Nov 5th\[dq]\f[R]
T}@T{
same
T}
.TE
.PP
Show historical balances at end of the 15th day of each month (N is an
end date, exclusive as always):
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger balance -H -p \[dq]every 16th day\[dq]
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Group postings from the start of wednesday to end of the following
tuesday (N is both (inclusive) start date and (exclusive) end date):
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger register checking -p \[dq]every 3rd day of week\[dq]
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Periods or dates ?
.PP
Report intervals like the above are most often used with
\f[C]-p|--period\f[R], to divide reports into multiple subperiods - each
generated date marks a subperiod boundary.
Here, the periods between the dates are what\[aq]s important.
.PP
But report intervals can also be used with \f[C]--forecast\f[R] to
generate future transactions, or with \f[C]balance --budget\f[R] to
generate budget goal-setting transactions.
For these, the dates themselves are what matters.
.SS Events on multiple weekdays
.PP
The \f[C]every WEEKDAYNAME\f[R] form has a special variant with multiple
day names, comma-separated.
Eg: \f[C]every mon,thu,sat\f[R].
Also, \f[C]weekday\f[R] and \f[C]weekendday\f[R] are shorthand for
\f[C]mon,tue,wed,thu,fri\f[R] and \f[C]sat,sun\f[R] respectively.
.PP
This form is mainly intended for use with \f[C]--forecast\f[R], to
generate periodic transactions on arbitrary days of the week.
It may be less useful with \f[C]-p\f[R], since it divides each week into
subperiods of unequal length.
(Because gaps between periods are not allowed; if you\[aq]d like to
change this, see #1632.)
.PP
Examples:
.PP
.TS
tab(@);
lw(17.8n) lw(52.2n).
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]every mon,wed,fri\[dq]\f[R]
T}@T{
dates will be Mon, Wed, Fri; periods will be Mon-Tue, Wed-Thu, Fri-Sun
T}
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]every weekday\[dq]\f[R]
T}@T{
dates will be Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri; periods will be Mon, Tue, Wed,
Thu, Fri-Sun
T}
T{
\f[C]-p \[dq]every weekendday\[dq]\f[R]
T}@T{
dates will be Sat, Sun; periods will be Sat, Sun-Fri
T}
.TE
.SH DEPTH
.PP
With the \f[C]--depth NUM\f[R] option (short form: \f[C]-NUM\f[R]),
commands like account, balance and register will show only the uppermost
accounts in the account tree, down to level NUM.
Use this when you want a summary with less detail.
This flag has the same effect as a \f[C]depth:\f[R] query argument:
\f[C]depth:2\f[R], \f[C]--depth=2\f[R] or \f[C]-2\f[R] are equivalent.
.SH QUERIES
.PP
One of hledger\[aq]s strengths is being able to quickly report on a
precise subset of your data.
Most hledger commands accept optional query arguments to restrict their
scope.
The syntax is as follows:
.IP \[bu] 2
Zero or more space-separated query terms.
These are most often account name substrings:
.RS 2
.PP
\f[C]utilities food:groceries\f[R]
.RE
.IP \[bu] 2
Terms with spaces or other special characters should be enclosed in
quotes:
.RS 2
.PP
\f[C]\[dq]personal care\[dq]\f[R]
.RE
.IP \[bu] 2
Regular expressions are also supported:
.RS 2
.PP
\f[C]\[dq]\[ha]expenses\[rs]b\[dq] \[dq]accounts (payable|receivable)\[dq]\f[R]
.RE
.IP \[bu] 2
Add a query type prefix to match other parts of the data:
.RS 2
.PP
\f[C]date:202012- desc:amazon cur:USD amt:\[dq]>100\[dq] status:\f[R]
.RE
.IP \[bu] 2
Add a \f[C]not:\f[R] prefix to negate a term:
.RS 2
.PP
\f[C]not:cur:USD\f[R]
.RE
.SS Query types
.PP
Here are the types of query term available.
Remember these can also be prefixed with \f[B]\f[CB]not:\f[B]\f[R] to
convert them into a negative match.
.PP
\f[B]\f[CB]acct:REGEX\f[B], \f[CB]REGEX\f[B]\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Match account names containing this (case insensitive) regular
expression.
This is the default query type when there is no prefix, and regular
expression syntax is typically not needed, so usually we just write an
account name substring, like \f[C]expenses\f[R] or \f[C]food\f[R].
.PP
\f[B]\f[CB]amt:N, amt:<N, amt:<=N, amt:>N, amt:>=N\f[B]\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Match postings with a single-commodity amount equal to, less than, or
greater than N.
(Postings with multi-commodity amounts are not tested and will always
match.) The comparison has two modes: if N is preceded by a + or - sign
(or is 0), the two signed numbers are compared.
Otherwise, the absolute magnitudes are compared, ignoring sign.
.PP
\f[B]\f[CB]code:REGEX\f[B]\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Match by transaction code (eg check number).
.PP
\f[B]\f[CB]cur:REGEX\f[B]\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Match postings or transactions including any amounts whose
currency/commodity symbol is fully matched by REGEX.
(For a partial match, use \f[C].*REGEX.*\f[R]).
Note, to match special characters which are regex-significant, you need
to escape them with \f[C]\[rs]\f[R].
And for characters which are significant to your shell you may need one
more level of escaping.
So eg to match the dollar sign:
.PD 0
.P
.PD
\f[C]hledger print cur:\[rs]\[rs]$\f[R].
.PP
\f[B]\f[CB]desc:REGEX\f[B]\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Match transaction descriptions.
.PP
\f[B]\f[CB]date:PERIODEXPR\f[B]\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Match dates (or with the \f[C]--date2\f[R] flag, secondary dates) within
the specified period.
PERIODEXPR is a period expression with no report interval.
Examples:
.PD 0
.P
.PD
\f[C]date:2016\f[R], \f[C]date:thismonth\f[R], \f[C]date:2/1-2/15\f[R],
\f[C]date:2021-07-27..nextquarter\f[R].
.PP
\f[B]\f[CB]date2:PERIODEXPR\f[B]\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Match secondary dates within the specified period (independent of the
\f[C]--date2\f[R] flag).
.PP
\f[B]\f[CB]depth:N\f[B]\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Match (or display, depending on command) accounts at or above this
depth.
.PP
\f[B]\f[CB]note:REGEX\f[B]\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Match transaction notes (the part of the description right of
\f[C]|\f[R], or the whole description if there\[aq]s no \f[C]|\f[R]).
.PP
\f[B]\f[CB]payee:REGEX\f[B]\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Match transaction payee/payer names (the part of the description left of
\f[C]|\f[R], or the whole description if there\[aq]s no \f[C]|\f[R]).
.PP
\f[B]\f[CB]real:, real:0\f[B]\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Match real or virtual postings respectively.
.PP
\f[B]\f[CB]status:, status:!, status:*\f[B]\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Match unmarked, pending, or cleared transactions respectively.
.PP
\f[B]\f[CB]tag:REGEX[=REGEX]\f[B]\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Match by tag name, and optionally also by tag value.
(To match only by value, use \f[C]tag:.=REGEX\f[R].) Note that postings
also inherit tags from their transaction, and transactions also acquire
tags from their postings, when querying.
.PP
(\f[B]\f[CB]inacct:ACCTNAME\f[B]\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
A special query term used automatically in hledger-web only: tells
hledger-web to show the transaction register for an account.)
.SS Combining query terms
.PP
Most commands select things which match:
.IP \[bu] 2
any of the description terms AND
.IP \[bu] 2
any of the account terms AND
.IP \[bu] 2
any of the status terms AND
.IP \[bu] 2
all the other terms.
.PP
while the print command shows transactions which:
.IP \[bu] 2
match any of the description terms AND
.IP \[bu] 2
have any postings matching any of the positive account terms AND
.IP \[bu] 2
have no postings matching any of the negative account terms AND
.IP \[bu] 2
match all the other terms.
.PP
You can do more powerful queries (such as AND-ing two like terms) by
running a first query with \f[C]print\f[R], and piping the result into a
second hledger command.
Eg: how much of food expenses was paid with cash ?
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger print assets:cash | hledger -f- -I balance expenses:food
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
If you are interested in full boolean expressions for queries, see #203.
.SS Queries and command options
.PP
Some queries can also be expressed as command-line options:
\f[C]depth:2\f[R] is equivalent to \f[C]--depth 2\f[R],
\f[C]date:2020\f[R] is equivalent to \f[C]-p 2020\f[R], etc.
When you mix command options and query arguments, generally the
resulting query is their intersection.
.SS Queries and account aliases
.PP
When account names are rewritten with \f[C]--alias\f[R] or
\f[C]alias\f[R], \f[C]acct:\f[R] will match either the old or the new
account name.
.SS Queries and valuation
.PP
When amounts are converted to other commodities in cost or value
reports, \f[C]cur:\f[R] and \f[C]amt:\f[R] match the old commodity
symbol and the old amount quantity, not the new ones (except in hledger
1.22.0 where it\[aq]s reversed, see #1625).
.SS Querying with account aliases
.PP
When account names are rewritten with \f[C]--alias\f[R] or
\f[C]alias\f[R], note that \f[C]acct:\f[R] will match either the old or
the new account name.
.SS Querying with cost or value
.PP
When amounts are converted to other commodities in cost or value
reports, note that \f[C]cur:\f[R] matches the new commodity symbol, and
not the old one, and \f[C]amt:\f[R] matches the new quantity, and not
the old one.
Note: this changed in hledger 1.22, previously it was the reverse, see
the discussion at #1625.
.SH COSTING
.PP
The \f[C]-B/--cost\f[R] flag converts amounts to their cost or sale
amount at transaction time, if they have a transaction price specified.
If this flag is supplied, hledger will perform cost conversion first,
and will apply any market price valuations (if requested) afterwards.
.SH VALUATION
.PP
Instead of reporting amounts in their original commodity, hledger can
convert them to cost/sale amount (using the conversion rate recorded in
the transaction), and/or to market value (using some market price on a
certain date).
This is controlled by the \f[C]--value=TYPE[,COMMODITY]\f[R] option,
which will be described below.
We also provide the simpler \f[C]-V\f[R] and \f[C]-X COMMODITY\f[R]
options, and often one of these is all you need:
.SS -V: Value
.PP
The \f[C]-V/--market\f[R] flag converts amounts to market value in their
default \f[I]valuation commodity\f[R], using the market prices in effect
on the \f[I]valuation date(s)\f[R], if any.
More on these in a minute.
.SS -X: Value in specified commodity
.PP
The \f[C]-X/--exchange=COMM\f[R] option is like \f[C]-V\f[R], except you
tell it which currency you want to convert to, and it tries to convert
everything to that.
.SS Valuation date
.PP
Since market prices can change from day to day, market value reports
have a valuation date (or more than one), which determines which market
prices will be used.
.PP
For single period reports, if an explicit report end date is specified,
that will be used as the valuation date; otherwise the valuation date is
the journal\[aq]s end date.
.PP
For multiperiod reports, each column/period is valued on the last day of
the period, by default.
.SS Market prices
.PP
To convert a commodity A to its market value in another commodity B,
hledger looks for a suitable market price (exchange rate) as follows, in
this order of preference :
.IP "1." 3
A \f[I]declared market price\f[R] or \f[I]inferred market price\f[R]:
A\[aq]s latest market price in B on or before the valuation date as
declared by a P directive, or (with the \f[C]--infer-market-prices\f[R]
flag) inferred from transaction prices.
.IP "2." 3
A \f[I]reverse market price\f[R]: the inverse of a declared or inferred
market price from B to A.
.IP "3." 3
A \f[I]forward chain of market prices\f[R]: a synthetic price formed by
combining the shortest chain of \[dq]forward\[dq] (only 1 above) market
prices, leading from A to B.
.IP "4." 3
\f[I]Any chain of market prices\f[R]: a chain of any market prices,
including both forward and reverse prices (1 and 2 above), leading from
A to B.
.PP
There is a limit to the length of these price chains; if hledger reaches
that length without finding a complete chain or exhausting all
possibilities, it will give up (with a \[dq]gave up\[dq] message visible
in \f[C]--debug=2\f[R] output).
That limit is currently 1000.
.PP
Amounts for which no suitable market price can be found, are not
converted.
.SS --infer-market-prices: market prices from transactions
.PP
Normally, market value in hledger is fully controlled by, and requires,
P directives in your journal.
Since adding and updating those can be a chore, and since transactions
usually take place at close to market value, why not use the recorded
transaction prices as additional market prices (as Ledger does) ?
We could produce value reports without needing P directives at all.
.PP
Adding the \f[C]--infer-market-prices\f[R] flag to \f[C]-V\f[R],
\f[C]-X\f[R] or \f[C]--value\f[R] enables this.
So for example, \f[C]hledger bs -V --infer-market-prices\f[R] will get
market prices both from P directives and from transactions.
(And if both occur on the same day, the P directive takes precedence).
.PP
There is a downside: value reports can sometimes be affected in
confusing/undesired ways by your journal entries.
If this happens to you, read all of this Valuation section carefully,
and try adding \f[C]--debug\f[R] or \f[C]--debug=2\f[R] to troubleshoot.
.PP
\f[C]--infer-market-prices\f[R] can infer market prices from:
.IP \[bu] 2
multicommodity transactions with explicit prices
(\f[C]\[at]\f[R]/\f[C]\[at]\[at]\f[R])
.IP \[bu] 2
multicommodity transactions with implicit prices (no \f[C]\[at]\f[R],
two commodities, unbalanced).
(With these, the order of postings matters.
\f[C]hledger print -x\f[R] can be useful for troubleshooting.)
.IP \[bu] 2
but not, currently, from \[dq]more correct\[dq] multicommodity
transactions (no \f[C]\[at]\f[R], multiple commodities, balanced).
.SS Valuation commodity
.PP
\f[B]When you specify a valuation commodity (\f[CB]-X COMM\f[B] or
\f[CB]--value TYPE,COMM\f[B]):\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
hledger will convert all amounts to COMM, wherever it can find a
suitable market price (including by reversing or chaining prices).
.PP
\f[B]When you leave the valuation commodity unspecified (\f[CB]-V\f[B]
or \f[CB]--value TYPE\f[B]):\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
For each commodity A, hledger picks a default valuation commodity as
follows, in this order of preference:
.IP "1." 3
The price commodity from the latest P-declared market price for A on or
before valuation date.
.IP "2." 3
The price commodity from the latest P-declared market price for A on any
date.
(Allows conversion to proceed when there are inferred prices before the
valuation date.)
.IP "3." 3
If there are no P directives at all (any commodity or date) and the
\f[C]--infer-market-prices\f[R] flag is used: the price commodity from
the latest transaction-inferred price for A on or before valuation date.
.PP
This means:
.IP \[bu] 2
If you have P directives, they determine which commodities \f[C]-V\f[R]
will convert, and to what.
.IP \[bu] 2
If you have no P directives, and use the \f[C]--infer-market-prices\f[R]
flag, transaction prices determine it.
.PP
Amounts for which no valuation commodity can be found are not converted.
.SS Simple valuation examples
.PP
Here are some quick examples of \f[C]-V\f[R]:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
; one euro is worth this many dollars from nov 1
P 2016/11/01 \[Eu] $1.10
; purchase some euros on nov 3
2016/11/3
assets:euros \[Eu]100
assets:checking
; the euro is worth fewer dollars by dec 21
P 2016/12/21 \[Eu] $1.03
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
How many euros do I have ?
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f t.j bal -N euros
\[Eu]100 assets:euros
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
What are they worth at end of nov 3 ?
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f t.j bal -N euros -V -e 2016/11/4
$110.00 assets:euros
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
What are they worth after 2016/12/21 ?
(no report end date specified, defaults to today)
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f t.j bal -N euros -V
$103.00 assets:euros
\f[R]
.fi
.SS --value: Flexible valuation
.PP
\f[C]-V\f[R] and \f[C]-X\f[R] are special cases of the more general
\f[C]--value\f[R] option:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
--value=TYPE[,COMM] TYPE is then, end, now or YYYY-MM-DD.
COMM is an optional commodity symbol.
Shows amounts converted to:
- default valuation commodity (or COMM) using market prices at posting dates
- default valuation commodity (or COMM) using market prices at period end(s)
- default valuation commodity (or COMM) using current market prices
- default valuation commodity (or COMM) using market prices at some date
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
The TYPE part selects cost or value and valuation date:
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]--value=then\f[B]\f[R]
Convert amounts to their value in the default valuation commodity, using
market prices on each posting\[aq]s date.
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]--value=end\f[B]\f[R]
Convert amounts to their value in the default valuation commodity, using
market prices on the last day of the report period (or if unspecified,
the journal\[aq]s end date); or in multiperiod reports, market prices on
the last day of each subperiod.
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]--value=now\f[B]\f[R]
Convert amounts to their value in the default valuation commodity using
current market prices (as of when report is generated).
.TP
\f[B]\f[CB]--value=YYYY-MM-DD\f[B]\f[R]
Convert amounts to their value in the default valuation commodity using
market prices on this date.
.PP
To select a different valuation commodity, add the optional
\f[C],COMM\f[R] part: a comma, then the target commodity\[aq]s symbol.
Eg: \f[B]\f[CB]--value=now,EUR\f[B]\f[R].
hledger will do its best to convert amounts to this commodity, deducing
market prices as described above.
.SS More valuation examples
.PP
Here are some examples showing the effect of \f[C]--value\f[R], as seen
with \f[C]print\f[R]:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
P 2000-01-01 A 1 B
P 2000-02-01 A 2 B
P 2000-03-01 A 3 B
P 2000-04-01 A 4 B
2000-01-01
(a) 1 A \[at] 5 B
2000-02-01
(a) 1 A \[at] 6 B
2000-03-01
(a) 1 A \[at] 7 B
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Show the cost of each posting:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f- print --cost
2000-01-01
(a) 5 B
2000-02-01
(a) 6 B
2000-03-01
(a) 7 B
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Show the value as of the last day of the report period (2000-02-29):
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f- print --value=end date:2000/01-2000/03
2000-01-01
(a) 2 B
2000-02-01
(a) 2 B
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
With no report period specified, that shows the value as of the last day
of the journal (2000-03-01):
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f- print --value=end
2000-01-01
(a) 3 B
2000-02-01
(a) 3 B
2000-03-01
(a) 3 B
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Show the current value (the 2000-04-01 price is still in effect today):
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f- print --value=now
2000-01-01
(a) 4 B
2000-02-01
(a) 4 B
2000-03-01
(a) 4 B
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Show the value on 2000/01/15:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f- print --value=2000-01-15
2000-01-01
(a) 1 B
2000-02-01
(a) 1 B
2000-03-01
(a) 1 B
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
You may need to explicitly set a commodity\[aq]s display style, when
reverse prices are used.
Eg this output might be surprising:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
P 2000-01-01 A 2B
2000-01-01
a 1B
b
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger print -x -X A
2000-01-01
a 0
b 0
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Explanation: because there\[aq]s no amount or commodity directive
specifying a display style for A, 0.5A gets the default style, which
shows no decimal digits.
Because the displayed amount looks like zero, the commodity symbol and
minus sign are not displayed either.
Adding a commodity directive sets a more useful display style for A:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
P 2000-01-01 A 2B
commodity 0.00A
2000-01-01
a 1B
b
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger print -X A
2000-01-01
a 0.50A
b -0.50A
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Interaction of valuation and queries
.PP
When matching postings based on queries in the presence of valuation,
the following happens.
.IP "1." 3
The query is separated into two parts:
.RS 4
.IP "1." 3
the currency (\f[C]cur:\f[R]) or amount (\f[C]amt:\f[R]).
.IP "2." 3
all other parts.
.RE
.IP "2." 3
The postings are matched to the currency and amount queries based on
pre-valued amounts.
.IP "3." 3
Valuation is applied to the postings.
.IP "4." 3
The postings are matched to the other parts of the query based on
post-valued amounts.
.PP
See: 1625
.SS Effect of valuation on reports
.PP
Here is a reference for how valuation is supposed to affect each part of
hledger\[aq]s reports (and a glossary).
(It\[aq]s wide, you\[aq]ll have to scroll sideways.) It may be useful
when troubleshooting.
If you find problems, please report them, ideally with a reproducible
example.
Related: #329, #1083.
.PP
.TS
tab(@);
lw(9.5n) lw(11.8n) lw(12.0n) lw(17.2n) lw(12.0n) lw(7.4n).
T{
Report type
T}@T{
\f[C]-B\f[R], \f[C]--cost\f[R]
T}@T{
\f[C]-V\f[R], \f[C]-X\f[R]
T}@T{
\f[C]--value=then\f[R]
T}@T{
\f[C]--value=end\f[R]
T}@T{
\f[C]--value=DATE\f[R], \f[C]--value=now\f[R]
T}
_
T{
\f[B]print\f[R]
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}
T{
posting amounts
T}@T{
cost
T}@T{
value at report end or today
T}@T{
value at posting date
T}@T{
value at report or journal end
T}@T{
value at DATE/today
T}
T{
balance assertions/assignments
T}@T{
unchanged
T}@T{
unchanged
T}@T{
unchanged
T}@T{
unchanged
T}@T{
unchanged
T}
T{
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}
T{
\f[B]register\f[R]
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}
T{
starting balance (-H)
T}@T{
cost
T}@T{
value at report or journal end
T}@T{
valued at day each historical posting was made
T}@T{
value at report or journal end
T}@T{
value at DATE/today
T}
T{
starting balance (-H) with report interval
T}@T{
cost
T}@T{
value at day before report or journal start
T}@T{
valued at day each historical posting was made
T}@T{
value at day before report or journal start
T}@T{
value at DATE/today
T}
T{
posting amounts
T}@T{
cost
T}@T{
value at report or journal end
T}@T{
value at posting date
T}@T{
value at report or journal end
T}@T{
value at DATE/today
T}
T{
summary posting amounts with report interval
T}@T{
summarised cost
T}@T{
value at period ends
T}@T{
sum of postings in interval, valued at interval start
T}@T{
value at period ends
T}@T{
value at DATE/today
T}
T{
running total/average
T}@T{
sum/average of displayed values
T}@T{
sum/average of displayed values
T}@T{
sum/average of displayed values
T}@T{
sum/average of displayed values
T}@T{
sum/average of displayed values
T}
T{
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}
T{
\f[B]balance (bs, bse, cf, is)\f[R]
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}
T{
balance changes
T}@T{
sums of costs
T}@T{
value at report end or today of sums of postings
T}@T{
value at posting date
T}@T{
value at report or journal end of sums of postings
T}@T{
value at DATE/today of sums of postings
T}
T{
budget amounts (--budget)
T}@T{
like balance changes
T}@T{
like balance changes
T}@T{
like balance changes
T}@T{
like balances
T}@T{
like balance changes
T}
T{
grand total
T}@T{
sum of displayed values
T}@T{
sum of displayed values
T}@T{
sum of displayed valued
T}@T{
sum of displayed values
T}@T{
sum of displayed values
T}
T{
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}
T{
\f[B]balance (bs, bse, cf, is) with report interval\f[R]
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}
T{
starting balances (-H)
T}@T{
sums of costs of postings before report start
T}@T{
value at report start of sums of all postings before report start
T}@T{
sums of values of postings before report start at respective posting
dates
T}@T{
value at report start of sums of all postings before report start
T}@T{
sums of postings before report start
T}
T{
balance changes (bal, is, bs --change, cf --change)
T}@T{
sums of costs of postings in period
T}@T{
same as --value=end
T}@T{
sums of values of postings in period at respective posting dates
T}@T{
balance change in each period, valued at period ends
T}@T{
value at DATE/today of sums of postings
T}
T{
end balances (bal -H, is --H, bs, cf)
T}@T{
sums of costs of postings from before report start to period end
T}@T{
same as --value=end
T}@T{
sums of values of postings from before period start to period end at
respective posting dates
T}@T{
period end balances, valued at period ends
T}@T{
value at DATE/today of sums of postings
T}
T{
budget amounts (--budget)
T}@T{
like balance changes/end balances
T}@T{
like balance changes/end balances
T}@T{
like balance changes/end balances
T}@T{
like balances
T}@T{
like balance changes/end balances
T}
T{
row totals, row averages (-T, -A)
T}@T{
sums, averages of displayed values
T}@T{
sums, averages of displayed values
T}@T{
sums, averages of displayed values
T}@T{
sums, averages of displayed values
T}@T{
sums, averages of displayed values
T}
T{
column totals
T}@T{
sums of displayed values
T}@T{
sums of displayed values
T}@T{
sums of displayed values
T}@T{
sums of displayed values
T}@T{
sums of displayed values
T}
T{
grand total, grand average
T}@T{
sum, average of column totals
T}@T{
sum, average of column totals
T}@T{
sum, average of column totals
T}@T{
sum, average of column totals
T}@T{
sum, average of column totals
T}
T{
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}
.TE
.PP
\f[C]--cumulative\f[R] is omitted to save space, it works like
\f[C]-H\f[R] but with a zero starting balance.
.PP
\f[B]Glossary:\f[R]
.TP
\f[I]cost\f[R]
calculated using price(s) recorded in the transaction(s).
.TP
\f[I]value\f[R]
market value using available market price declarations, or the unchanged
amount if no conversion rate can be found.
.TP
\f[I]report start\f[R]
the first day of the report period specified with -b or -p or date:,
otherwise today.
.TP
\f[I]report or journal start\f[R]
the first day of the report period specified with -b or -p or date:,
otherwise the earliest transaction date in the journal, otherwise today.
.TP
\f[I]report end\f[R]
the last day of the report period specified with -e or -p or date:,
otherwise today.
.TP
\f[I]report or journal end\f[R]
the last day of the report period specified with -e or -p or date:,
otherwise the latest transaction date in the journal, otherwise today.
.TP
\f[I]report interval\f[R]
a flag (-D/-W/-M/-Q/-Y) or period expression that activates the
report\[aq]s multi-period mode (whether showing one or many subperiods).
.SH PIVOTING
.PP
Normally hledger sums amounts, and organizes them in a hierarchy, based
on account name.
The \f[C]--pivot FIELD\f[R] option causes it to sum and organize
hierarchy based on the value of some other field instead.
FIELD can be: \f[C]code\f[R], \f[C]description\f[R], \f[C]payee\f[R],
\f[C]note\f[R], or the full name (case insensitive) of any tag.
As with account names, values containing \f[C]colon:separated:parts\f[R]
will be displayed hierarchically in reports.
.PP
\f[C]--pivot\f[R] is a general option affecting all reports; you can
think of hledger transforming the journal before any other processing,
replacing every posting\[aq]s account name with the value of the
specified field on that posting, inheriting it from the transaction or
using a blank value if it\[aq]s not present.
.PP
An example:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2016/02/16 Member Fee Payment
assets:bank account 2 EUR
income:member fees -2 EUR ; member: John Doe
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Normal balance report showing account names:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger balance
2 EUR assets:bank account
-2 EUR income:member fees
--------------------
0
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Pivoted balance report, using member: tag values instead:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger balance --pivot member
2 EUR
-2 EUR John Doe
--------------------
0
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
One way to show only amounts with a member: value (using a query,
described below):
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger balance --pivot member tag:member=.
-2 EUR John Doe
--------------------
-2 EUR
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Another way (the acct: query matches against the pivoted \[dq]account
name\[dq]):
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger balance --pivot member acct:.
-2 EUR John Doe
--------------------
-2 EUR
\f[R]
.fi
.SH OUTPUT
.SS Output destination
.PP
hledger commands send their output to the terminal by default.
You can of course redirect this, eg into a file, using standard shell
syntax:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger print > foo.txt
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Some commands (print, register, stats, the balance commands) also
provide the \f[C]-o/--output-file\f[R] option, which does the same thing
without needing the shell.
Eg:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger print -o foo.txt
$ hledger print -o - # write to stdout (the default)
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
hledger can optionally produce debug output (if enabled with
\f[C]--debug=N\f[R]); this goes to stderr, and is not affected by
\f[C]-o/--output-file\f[R].
If you need to capture it, use shell redirects, eg:
\f[C]hledger bal --debug=3 >file 2>&1\f[R].
.SS Output styling
.PP
hledger commands can produce colour output when the terminal supports
it.
This is controlled by the \f[C]--color/--colour\f[R] option: - if the
\f[C]--color/--colour\f[R] option is given a value of \f[C]yes\f[R] or
\f[C]always\f[R] (or \f[C]no\f[R] or \f[C]never\f[R]), colour will (or
will not) be used; - otherwise, if the \f[C]NO_COLOR\f[R] environment
variable is set, colour will not be used; - otherwise, colour will be
used if the output (terminal or file) supports it.
.PP
hledger commands can also use unicode box-drawing characters to produce
prettier tables and output.
This is controlled by the \f[C]--pretty\f[R] option: - if the
\f[C]--pretty\f[R] option is given a value of \f[C]yes\f[R] or
\f[C]always\f[R] (or \f[C]no\f[R] or \f[C]never\f[R]), unicode
characters will (or will not) be used; - otherwise, unicode characters
will not be used.
.SS Output format
.PP
Some commands (print, register, the balance commands) offer a choice of
output format.
In addition to the usual plain text format (\f[C]txt\f[R]), there are
CSV (\f[C]csv\f[R]), HTML (\f[C]html\f[R]), JSON (\f[C]json\f[R]) and
SQL (\f[C]sql\f[R]).
This is controlled by the \f[C]-O/--output-format\f[R] option:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger print -O csv
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
or, by a file extension specified with \f[C]-o/--output-file\f[R]:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger balancesheet -o foo.html # write HTML to foo.html
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
The \f[C]-O\f[R] option can be used to override the file extension if
needed:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger balancesheet -o foo.txt -O html # write HTML to foo.txt
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Some notes about JSON output:
.IP \[bu] 2
This feature is marked experimental, and not yet much used; you should
expect our JSON to evolve.
Real-world feedback is welcome.
.IP \[bu] 2
Our JSON is rather large and verbose, as it is quite a faithful
representation of hledger\[aq]s internal data types.
To understand the JSON, read the Haskell type definitions, which are
mostly in
https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/blob/master/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Types.hs.
.IP \[bu] 2
hledger represents quantities as Decimal values storing up to 255
significant digits, eg for repeating decimals.
Such numbers can arise in practice (from automatically-calculated
transaction prices), and would break most JSON consumers.
So in JSON, we show quantities as simple Numbers with at most 10 decimal
places.
We don\[aq]t limit the number of integer digits, but that part is under
your control.
We hope this approach will not cause problems in practice; if you find
otherwise, please let us know.
(Cf #1195)
.PP
Notes about SQL output:
.IP \[bu] 2
SQL output is also marked experimental, and much like JSON could use
real-world feedback.
.IP \[bu] 2
SQL output is expected to work with sqlite, MySQL and PostgreSQL
.IP \[bu] 2
SQL output is structured with the expectations that statements will be
executed in the empty database.
If you already have tables created via SQL output of hledger, you would
probably want to either clear tables of existing data (via
\f[C]delete\f[R] or \f[C]truncate\f[R] SQL statements) or drop tables
completely as otherwise your postings will be duped.
.SS Commodity styles
.PP
The display style of a commodity/currency is inferred according to the
rules described in Commodity display style.
The inferred display style can be overridden by an optional
\f[C]-c/--commodity-style\f[R] option (Exceptions: as is the case for
inferred styles, price amounts, and all amounts displayed by the
\f[C]print\f[R] command, will be displayed with all of their decimal
digits visible, regardless of the specified precision).
For example, the following will override the display style for dollars.
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger print -c \[aq]$1.000,0\[aq]
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
The format specification of the style is identical to the commodity
display style specification for the commodity directive.
The command line option can be supplied repeatedly to override the
display style for multiple commodity/currency symbols.
.SH COMMANDS
.PP
hledger provides a number of commands for producing reports and managing
your data.
Run \f[C]hledger\f[R] with no arguments to list the commands available,
and \f[C]hledger CMD\f[R] to run a command.
CMD can be the full command name, or its standard abbreviation shown in
the commands list, or any unambiguous prefix of the name.
Eg: \f[C]hledger bal\f[R].
.PP
Here are the built-in commands, with the most often-used in bold:
.PP
\f[B]Data entry:\f[R]
.PP
These data entry commands are the only ones which can modify your
journal file.
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[B]add\f[R] - add transactions using guided prompts
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[B]import\f[R] - add any new transactions from other files (eg csv)
.PP
\f[B]Data management:\f[R]
.IP \[bu] 2
check - check for various kinds of issue in the data
.IP \[bu] 2
close (equity) - generate balance-resetting transactions
.IP \[bu] 2
diff - compare account transactions in two journal files
.IP \[bu] 2
rewrite - generate extra postings, similar to print --auto
.PP
\f[B]Financial statements:\f[R]
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[B]aregister (areg)\f[R] - show transactions in a particular account
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[B]balancesheet (bs)\f[R] - show assets, liabilities and net worth
.IP \[bu] 2
balancesheetequity (bse) - show assets, liabilities and equity
.IP \[bu] 2
cashflow (cf) - show changes in liquid assets
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[B]incomestatement (is)\f[R] - show revenues and expenses
.IP \[bu] 2
roi - show return on investments
.PP
\f[B]Miscellaneous reports:\f[R]
.IP \[bu] 2
accounts - show account names
.IP \[bu] 2
activity - show postings-per-interval bar charts
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[B]balance (bal)\f[R] - show balance changes/end balances/budgets in
any accounts
.IP \[bu] 2
codes - show transaction codes
.IP \[bu] 2
commodities - show commodity/currency symbols
.IP \[bu] 2
descriptions - show unique transaction descriptions
.IP \[bu] 2
files - show input file paths
.IP \[bu] 2
help - show hledger user manuals in several formats
.IP \[bu] 2
notes - show unique note segments of transaction descriptions
.IP \[bu] 2
payees - show unique payee segments of transaction descriptions
.IP \[bu] 2
prices - show market price records
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[B]print\f[R] - show transactions (journal entries)
.IP \[bu] 2
print-unique - show only transactions with unique descriptions
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[B]register (reg)\f[R] - show postings in one or more accounts &
running total
.IP \[bu] 2
register-match - show a recent posting that best matches a description
.IP \[bu] 2
stats - show journal statistics
.IP \[bu] 2
tags - show tag names
.IP \[bu] 2
test - run self tests
.PP
\f[B]Add-on commands:\f[R]
.PP
Programs or scripts named \f[C]hledger-SOMETHING\f[R] in your PATH are
add-on commands; these appear in the commands list with a \f[C]+\f[R]
mark.
Two of these are maintained and released with hledger:
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[B]ui\f[R] - an efficient terminal interface (TUI) for hledger
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[B]web\f[R] - a simple web interface (WUI) for hledger
.PP
And these add-ons are maintained separately:
.IP \[bu] 2
iadd - a more interactive alternative for the add command
.IP \[bu] 2
interest - generates interest transactions according to various schemes
.IP \[bu] 2
stockquotes - downloads market prices for your commodities from
AlphaVantage \f[I](experimental)\f[R]
.PP
Next, the detailed command docs, in alphabetical order.
.SS accounts
.PP
accounts
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Show account names.
.PP
This command lists account names, either declared with account
directives (--declared), posted to (--used), or both (the default).
With query arguments, only matched account names and account names
referenced by matched postings are shown.
It shows a flat list by default.
With \f[C]--tree\f[R], it uses indentation to show the account
hierarchy.
In flat mode you can add \f[C]--drop N\f[R] to omit the first few
account name components.
Account names can be depth-clipped with \f[C]depth:N\f[R] or
\f[C]--depth N\f[R] or \f[C]-N\f[R].
.PP
Examples:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger accounts
assets:bank:checking
assets:bank:saving
assets:cash
expenses:food
expenses:supplies
income:gifts
income:salary
liabilities:debts
\f[R]
.fi
.SS activity
.PP
activity
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Show an ascii barchart of posting counts per interval.
.PP
The activity command displays an ascii histogram showing transaction
counts by day, week, month or other reporting interval (by day is the
default).
With query arguments, it counts only matched transactions.
.PP
Examples:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger activity --quarterly
2008-01-01 **
2008-04-01 *******
2008-07-01
2008-10-01 **
\f[R]
.fi
.SS add
.PP
add
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Prompt for transactions and add them to the journal.
Any arguments will be used as default inputs for the first N prompts.
.PP
Many hledger users edit their journals directly with a text editor, or
generate them from CSV.
For more interactive data entry, there is the \f[C]add\f[R] command,
which prompts interactively on the console for new transactions, and
appends them to the journal file (if there are multiple
\f[C]-f FILE\f[R] options, the first file is used.) Existing
transactions are not changed.
This is the only hledger command that writes to the journal file.
.PP
To use it, just run \f[C]hledger add\f[R] and follow the prompts.
You can add as many transactions as you like; when you are finished,
enter \f[C].\f[R] or press control-d or control-c to exit.
.PP
Features:
.IP \[bu] 2
add tries to provide useful defaults, using the most similar (by
description) recent transaction (filtered by the query, if any) as a
template.
.IP \[bu] 2
You can also set the initial defaults with command line arguments.
.IP \[bu] 2
Readline-style edit keys can be used during data entry.
.IP \[bu] 2
The tab key will auto-complete whenever possible - accounts,
descriptions, dates (\f[C]yesterday\f[R], \f[C]today\f[R],
\f[C]tomorrow\f[R]).
If the input area is empty, it will insert the default value.
.IP \[bu] 2
If the journal defines a default commodity, it will be added to any bare
numbers entered.
.IP \[bu] 2
A parenthesised transaction code may be entered following a date.
.IP \[bu] 2
Comments and tags may be entered following a description or amount.
.IP \[bu] 2
If you make a mistake, enter \f[C]<\f[R] at any prompt to go one step
backward.
.IP \[bu] 2
Input prompts are displayed in a different colour when the terminal
supports it.
.PP
Example (see the tutorial for a detailed explanation):
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger add
Adding transactions to journal file /src/hledger/examples/sample.journal
Any command line arguments will be used as defaults.
Use tab key to complete, readline keys to edit, enter to accept defaults.
An optional (CODE) may follow transaction dates.
An optional ; COMMENT may follow descriptions or amounts.
If you make a mistake, enter < at any prompt to go one step backward.
To end a transaction, enter . when prompted.
To quit, enter . at a date prompt or press control-d or control-c.
Date [2015/05/22]:
Description: supermarket
Account 1: expenses:food
Amount 1: $10
Account 2: assets:checking
Amount 2 [$-10.0]:
Account 3 (or . or enter to finish this transaction): .
2015/05/22 supermarket
expenses:food $10
assets:checking $-10.0
Save this transaction to the journal ? [y]:
Saved.
Starting the next transaction (. or ctrl-D/ctrl-C to quit)
Date [2015/05/22]: <CTRL-D> $
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
On Microsoft Windows, the add command makes sure that no part of the
file path ends with a period, as that would cause problems (#1056).
.SS aregister
.PP
aregister, areg
.PD 0
.P
.PD
.PP
Show the transactions and running historical balance of a single
account, with each transaction displayed as one line.
.PP
\f[C]aregister\f[R] shows the overall transactions affecting a
particular account (and any subaccounts).
Each report line represents one transaction in this account.
Transactions before the report start date are always included in the
running balance (\f[C]--historical\f[R] mode is always on).
.PP
This is a more \[dq]real world\[dq], bank-like view than the
\f[C]register\f[R] command (which shows individual postings, possibly
from multiple accounts, not necessarily in historical mode).
As a quick rule of thumb: - use \f[C]aregister\f[R] for reviewing and
reconciling real-world asset/liability accounts - use \f[C]register\f[R]
for reviewing detailed revenues/expenses.
.PP
\f[C]aregister\f[R] requires one argument: the account to report on.
You can write either the full account name, or a case-insensitive
regular expression which will select the alphabetically first matched
account.
(Eg if you have \f[C]assets:aaa:checking\f[R] and
\f[C]assets:bbb:checking\f[R] accounts, \f[C]hledger areg checking\f[R]
would select \f[C]assets:aaa:checking\f[R].)
.PP
Transactions involving subaccounts of this account will also be shown.
\f[C]aregister\f[R] ignores depth limits, so its final total will always
match a balance report with similar arguments.
.PP
Any additional arguments form a query which will filter the transactions
shown.
Note some queries will disturb the running balance, causing it to be
different from the account\[aq]s real-world running balance.
.PP
An example: this shows the transactions and historical running balance
during july, in the first account whose name contains
\[dq]checking\[dq]:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger areg checking date:jul
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Each \f[C]aregister\f[R] line item shows:
.IP \[bu] 2
the transaction\[aq]s date (or the relevant posting\[aq]s date if
different, see below)
.IP \[bu] 2
the names of all the other account(s) involved in this transaction
(probably abbreviated)
.IP \[bu] 2
the total change to this account\[aq]s balance from this transaction
.IP \[bu] 2
the account\[aq]s historical running balance after this transaction.
.PP
Transactions making a net change of zero are not shown by default; add
the \f[C]-E/--empty\f[R] flag to show them.
.PP
This command also supports the output destination and output format
options.
The output formats supported are \f[C]txt\f[R], \f[C]csv\f[R], and
\f[C]json\f[R].
.SS aregister and custom posting dates
.PP
Transactions whose date is outside the report period can still be shown,
if they have a posting to this account dated inside the report period.
(And in this case it\[aq]s the posting date that is shown.) This ensures
that \f[C]aregister\f[R] can show an accurate historical running
balance, matching the one shown by \f[C]register -H\f[R] with the same
arguments.
.PP
To filter strictly by transaction date instead, add the
\f[C]--txn-dates\f[R] flag.
If you use this flag and some of your postings have custom dates,
it\[aq]s probably best to assume the running balance is wrong.
.SS balance
.PP
balance, bal
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Show accounts and their balances.
.PP
\f[C]balance\f[R] is one of hledger\[aq]s oldest and most versatile
commands, for listing account balances, balance changes, values, value
changes and more, during one time period or many.
Generally it shows a table, with rows representing accounts, and columns
representing periods.
.PP
Note there are some higher-level variants of the \f[C]balance\f[R]
command with convenient defaults, which can be simpler to use:
\f[C]balancesheet\f[R], \f[C]balancesheetequity\f[R], \f[C]cashflow\f[R]
and \f[C]incomestatement\f[R].
When you need more control, then use \f[C]balance\f[R].
.SS balance features
.PP
Here\[aq]s a quick overview of the \f[C]balance\f[R] command\[aq]s
features, followed by more detailed descriptions and examples.
Many of these work with the higher-level commands as well.
.PP
\f[C]balance\f[R] can show..
.IP \[bu] 2
accounts as a list (\f[C]-l\f[R]) or a tree (\f[C]-t\f[R])
.IP \[bu] 2
optionally depth-limited (\f[C]-[1-9]\f[R])
.IP \[bu] 2
sorted by declaration order and name, or by amount
.PP
\&..and their..
.IP \[bu] 2
balance changes (the default)
.IP \[bu] 2
or actual and planned balance changes (\f[C]--budget\f[R])
.IP \[bu] 2
or value of balance changes (\f[C]-V\f[R])
.IP \[bu] 2
or change of balance values (\f[C]--valuechange\f[R])
.IP \[bu] 2
or unrealised capital gain/loss (\f[C]--gain\f[R])
.PP
\&..in..
.IP \[bu] 2
one time period (the whole journal period by default)
.IP \[bu] 2
or multiple periods (\f[C]-D\f[R], \f[C]-W\f[R], \f[C]-M\f[R],
\f[C]-Q\f[R], \f[C]-Y\f[R], \f[C]-p INTERVAL\f[R])
.PP
\&..either..
.IP \[bu] 2
per period (the default)
.IP \[bu] 2
or accumulated since report start date (\f[C]--cumulative\f[R])
.IP \[bu] 2
or accumulated since account creation (\f[C]--historical/-H\f[R])
.PP
\&..possibly converted to..
.IP \[bu] 2
cost (\f[C]--value=cost[,COMM]\f[R]/\f[C]--cost\f[R]/\f[C]-B\f[R])
.IP \[bu] 2
or market value, as of transaction dates (\f[C]--value=then[,COMM]\f[R])
.IP \[bu] 2
or at period ends (\f[C]--value=end[,COMM]\f[R])
.IP \[bu] 2
or now (\f[C]--value=now\f[R])
.IP \[bu] 2
or at some other date (\f[C]--value=YYYY-MM-DD\f[R])
.PP
\&..with..
.IP \[bu] 2
totals (\f[C]-T\f[R]), averages (\f[C]-A\f[R]), percentages
(\f[C]-%\f[R]), inverted sign (\f[C]--invert\f[R])
.IP \[bu] 2
rows and columns swapped (\f[C]--transpose\f[R])
.IP \[bu] 2
another field used as account name (\f[C]--pivot\f[R])
.IP \[bu] 2
custom-formatted line items (single-period reports only)
(\f[C]--format\f[R])
.IP \[bu] 2
commodities displayed on the same line or multiple lines
(\f[C]--layout\f[R])
.PP
This command supports the output destination and output format options,
with output formats \f[C]txt\f[R], \f[C]csv\f[R], \f[C]json\f[R], and
(multi-period reports only:) \f[C]html\f[R].
In \f[C]txt\f[R] output in a colour-supporting terminal, negative
amounts are shown in red.
.PP
The \f[C]--related\f[R]/\f[C]-r\f[R] flag shows the balance of the
\f[I]other\f[R] postings in the transactions of the postings which would
normally be shown.
.SS Simple balance report
.PP
With no arguments, \f[C]balance\f[R] shows a list of all accounts and
their change of balance - ie, the sum of posting amounts, both inflows
and outflows - during the entire period of the journal.
For real-world accounts, this should also match their end balance at the
end of the journal period (more on this below).
.PP
Accounts are sorted by declaration order if any, and then alphabetically
by account name.
For instance (using examples/sample.journal):
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal bal
$1 assets:bank:saving
$-2 assets:cash
$1 expenses:food
$1 expenses:supplies
$-1 income:gifts
$-1 income:salary
$1 liabilities:debts
--------------------
0
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Accounts with a zero balance (and no non-zero subaccounts, in tree mode
- see below) are hidden by default.
Use \f[C]-E/--empty\f[R] to show them (revealing
\f[C]assets:bank:checking\f[R] here):
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal bal -E
0 assets:bank:checking
$1 assets:bank:saving
$-2 assets:cash
$1 expenses:food
$1 expenses:supplies
$-1 income:gifts
$-1 income:salary
$1 liabilities:debts
--------------------
0
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
The total of the amounts displayed is shown as the last line, unless
\f[C]-N\f[R]/\f[C]--no-total\f[R] is used.
.SS Filtered balance report
.PP
You can show fewer accounts, a different time period, totals from
cleared transactions only, etc.
by using query arguments or options to limit the postings being matched.
Eg:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal bal --cleared assets date:200806
$-2 assets:cash
--------------------
$-2
\f[R]
.fi
.SS List or tree mode
.PP
By default, or with \f[C]-l/--flat\f[R], accounts are shown as a flat
list with their full names visible, as in the examples above.
.PP
With \f[C]-t/--tree\f[R], the account hierarchy is shown, with
subaccounts\[aq] \[dq]leaf\[dq] names indented below their parent:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal balance
$-1 assets
$1 bank:saving
$-2 cash
$2 expenses
$1 food
$1 supplies
$-2 income
$-1 gifts
$-1 salary
$1 liabilities:debts
--------------------
0
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Notes:
.IP \[bu] 2
\[dq]Boring\[dq] accounts are combined with their subaccount for more
compact output, unless \f[C]--no-elide\f[R] is used.
Boring accounts have no balance of their own and just one subaccount (eg
\f[C]assets:bank\f[R] and \f[C]liabilities\f[R] above).
.IP \[bu] 2
All balances shown are \[dq]inclusive\[dq], ie including the balances
from all subaccounts.
Note this means some repetition in the output, which requires
explanation when sharing reports with non-plaintextaccounting-users.
A tree mode report\[aq]s final total is the sum of the top-level
balances shown, not of all the balances shown.
.IP \[bu] 2
Each group of sibling accounts (ie, under a common parent) is sorted
separately.
.SS Depth limiting
.PP
With a \f[C]depth:NUM\f[R] query, or \f[C]--depth NUM\f[R] option, or
just \f[C]-NUM\f[R] (eg: \f[C]-3\f[R]) balance reports will show
accounts only to the specified depth, hiding the deeper subaccounts.
This can be useful for getting an overview without too much detail.
.PP
Account balances at the depth limit always include the balances from any
deeper subaccounts (even in list mode).
Eg, limiting to depth 1:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal balance -1
$-1 assets
$2 expenses
$-2 income
$1 liabilities
--------------------
0
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Dropping top-level accounts
.PP
You can also hide one or more top-level account name parts, using
\f[C]--drop NUM\f[R].
This can be useful for hiding repetitive top-level account names:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal bal expenses --drop 1
$1 food
$1 supplies
--------------------
$2
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
.SS Multi-period balance report
.PP
With a report interval (set by the \f[C]-D/--daily\f[R],
\f[C]-W/--weekly\f[R], \f[C]-M/--monthly\f[R], \f[C]-Q/--quarterly\f[R],
\f[C]-Y/--yearly\f[R], or \f[C]-p/--period\f[R] flag), \f[C]balance\f[R]
shows a tabular report, with columns representing successive time
periods (and a title):
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal bal --quarterly income expenses -E
Balance changes in 2008:
|| 2008q1 2008q2 2008q3 2008q4
===================++=================================
expenses:food || 0 $1 0 0
expenses:supplies || 0 $1 0 0
income:gifts || 0 $-1 0 0
income:salary || $-1 0 0 0
-------------------++---------------------------------
|| $-1 $1 0 0
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Notes:
.IP \[bu] 2
The report\[aq]s start/end dates will be expanded, if necessary, to
fully encompass the displayed subperiods (so that the first and last
subperiods have the same duration as the others).
.IP \[bu] 2
Leading and trailing periods (columns) containing all zeroes are not
shown, unless \f[C]-E/--empty\f[R] is used.
.IP \[bu] 2
Accounts (rows) containing all zeroes are not shown, unless
\f[C]-E/--empty\f[R] is used.
.IP \[bu] 2
Amounts with many commodities are shown in abbreviated form, unless
\f[C]--no-elide\f[R] is used.
\f[I](experimental)\f[R]
.IP \[bu] 2
Average and/or total columns can be added with the
\f[C]-A/--average\f[R] and \f[C]-T/--row-total\f[R] flags.
.IP \[bu] 2
The \f[C]--transpose\f[R] flag can be used to exchange rows and columns.
.IP \[bu] 2
The \f[C]--pivot FIELD\f[R] option causes a different transaction field
to be used as \[dq]account name\[dq].
See PIVOTING.
.PP
Multi-period reports with many periods can be too wide for easy viewing
in the terminal.
Here are some ways to handle that:
.IP \[bu] 2
Hide the totals row with \f[C]-N/--no-total\f[R]
.IP \[bu] 2
Convert to a single currency with \f[C]-V\f[R]
.IP \[bu] 2
Maximize the terminal window
.IP \[bu] 2
Reduce the terminal\[aq]s font size
.IP \[bu] 2
View with a pager like less, eg:
\f[C]hledger bal -D --color=yes | less -RS\f[R]
.IP \[bu] 2
Output as CSV and use a CSV viewer like visidata
(\f[C]hledger bal -D -O csv | vd -f csv\f[R]), Emacs\[aq] csv-mode
(\f[C]M-x csv-mode, C-c C-a\f[R]), or a spreadsheet
(\f[C]hledger bal -D -o a.csv && open a.csv\f[R])
.IP \[bu] 2
Output as HTML and view with a browser:
\f[C]hledger bal -D -o a.html && open a.html\f[R]
.SS Showing declared accounts
.PP
With \f[C]--declared\f[R], accounts which have been declared with an
account directive will be included in the balance report, even if they
have no transactions.
(Since they will have a zero balance, you will also need
\f[C]-E/--empty\f[R] to see them.)
.PP
More precisely, \f[I]leaf\f[R] declared accounts (with no subaccounts)
will be included, since those are usually the more useful in reports.
.PP
The idea of this is to be able to see a useful \[dq]complete\[dq]
balance report, even when you don\[aq]t have transactions in all of your
declared accounts yet.
.SS Commodity layout
.PP
With \f[C]--layout\f[R], you can control how amounts with more than one
commodity are displayed:
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]--layout=wide[,WIDTH]\f[R]: on a single line, possibly elided to
the specified width
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]--layout=tall\f[R]: each commodity is displayed on a separate line
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]--layout=bare\f[R]: commodity symbols are displayed in a separate
column, and amounts are displayed as bare numbers
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f examples/bcexample.hledger bal assets:us:etrade -3 -T -Y --layout=wide
Balance changes in 2012-01-01..2014-12-31:
|| 2012 2013 2014 Total
==================++====================================================================================================================================================================================================================
Assets:US:ETrade || 10.00 ITOT, 337.18 USD, 12.00 VEA, 106.00 VHT 70.00 GLD, 18.00 ITOT, -98.12 USD, 10.00 VEA, 18.00 VHT -11.00 ITOT, 4881.44 USD, 14.00 VEA, 170.00 VHT 70.00 GLD, 17.00 ITOT, 5120.50 USD, 36.00 VEA, 294.00 VHT
------------------++--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|| 10.00 ITOT, 337.18 USD, 12.00 VEA, 106.00 VHT 70.00 GLD, 18.00 ITOT, -98.12 USD, 10.00 VEA, 18.00 VHT -11.00 ITOT, 4881.44 USD, 14.00 VEA, 170.00 VHT 70.00 GLD, 17.00 ITOT, 5120.50 USD, 36.00 VEA, 294.00 VHT
$ hledger -f examples/bcexample.hledger bal assets:us:etrade -3 -T -Y --layout=wide,32
Balance changes in 2012-01-01..2014-12-31:
|| 2012 2013 2014 Total
==================++===========================================================================================================================
Assets:US:ETrade || 10.00 ITOT, 337.18 USD, 2 more.. 70.00 GLD, 18.00 ITOT, 3 more.. -11.00 ITOT, 3 more.. 70.00 GLD, 17.00 ITOT, 3 more..
------------------++---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|| 10.00 ITOT, 337.18 USD, 2 more.. 70.00 GLD, 18.00 ITOT, 3 more.. -11.00 ITOT, 3 more.. 70.00 GLD, 17.00 ITOT, 3 more..
$ hledger -f examples/bcexample.hledger bal assets:us:etrade -3 -T -Y --layout=tall
Balance changes in 2012-01-01..2014-12-31:
|| 2012 2013 2014 Total
==================++==================================================
Assets:US:ETrade || 10.00 ITOT 70.00 GLD -11.00 ITOT 70.00 GLD
Assets:US:ETrade || 337.18 USD 18.00 ITOT 4881.44 USD 17.00 ITOT
Assets:US:ETrade || 12.00 VEA -98.12 USD 14.00 VEA 5120.50 USD
Assets:US:ETrade || 106.00 VHT 10.00 VEA 170.00 VHT 36.00 VEA
Assets:US:ETrade || 18.00 VHT 294.00 VHT
------------------++--------------------------------------------------
|| 10.00 ITOT 70.00 GLD -11.00 ITOT 70.00 GLD
|| 337.18 USD 18.00 ITOT 4881.44 USD 17.00 ITOT
|| 12.00 VEA -98.12 USD 14.00 VEA 5120.50 USD
|| 106.00 VHT 10.00 VEA 170.00 VHT 36.00 VEA
|| 18.00 VHT 294.00 VHT
$ hledger -f examples/bcexample.hledger bal assets:us:etrade -3 -T -Y --layout=bare
Balance changes in 2012-01-01..2014-12-31:
|| Commodity 2012 2013 2014 Total
==================++=============================================
Assets:US:ETrade || GLD 0 70.00 0 70.00
Assets:US:ETrade || ITOT 10.00 18.00 -11.00 17.00
Assets:US:ETrade || USD 337.18 -98.12 4881.44 5120.50
Assets:US:ETrade || VEA 12.00 10.00 14.00 36.00
Assets:US:ETrade || VHT 106.00 18.00 170.00 294.00
------------------++---------------------------------------------
|| GLD 0 70.00 0 70.00
|| ITOT 10.00 18.00 -11.00 17.00
|| USD 337.18 -98.12 4881.44 5120.50
|| VEA 12.00 10.00 14.00 36.00
|| VHT 106.00 18.00 170.00 294.00
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
The option \f[C]--layout=bare\f[R] also affects CSV output, which is
useful for producing data that is easier to consume, eg when making
charts:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f examples/bcexample.hledger bal assets:us:etrade -3 -O csv
\[dq]account\[dq],\[dq]balance\[dq]
\[dq]Assets:US:ETrade\[dq],\[dq]70.00 GLD, 17.00 ITOT, 5120.50 USD, 36.00 VEA, 294.00 VHT\[dq]
\[dq]total\[dq],\[dq]70.00 GLD, 17.00 ITOT, 5120.50 USD, 36.00 VEA, 294.00 VHT\[dq]
$ hledger -f examples/bcexample.hledger bal assets:us:etrade -3 -O csv --layout=bare
\[dq]account\[dq],\[dq]commodity\[dq],\[dq]balance\[dq]
\[dq]Assets:US:ETrade\[dq],\[dq]GLD\[dq],\[dq]70.00\[dq]
\[dq]Assets:US:ETrade\[dq],\[dq]ITOT\[dq],\[dq]17.00\[dq]
\[dq]Assets:US:ETrade\[dq],\[dq]USD\[dq],\[dq]5120.50\[dq]
\[dq]Assets:US:ETrade\[dq],\[dq]VEA\[dq],\[dq]36.00\[dq]
\[dq]Assets:US:ETrade\[dq],\[dq]VHT\[dq],\[dq]294.00\[dq]
\[dq]total\[dq],\[dq]GLD\[dq],\[dq]70.00\[dq]
\[dq]total\[dq],\[dq]ITOT\[dq],\[dq]17.00\[dq]
\[dq]total\[dq],\[dq]USD\[dq],\[dq]5120.50\[dq]
\[dq]total\[dq],\[dq]VEA\[dq],\[dq]36.00\[dq]
\[dq]total\[dq],\[dq]VHT\[dq],\[dq]294.00\[dq]
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Sorting by amount
.PP
With \f[C]-S/--sort-amount\f[R], accounts with the largest (most
positive) balances are shown first.
Eg: \f[C]hledger bal expenses -MAS\f[R] shows your biggest averaged
monthly expenses first.
When more than one commodity is present, they will be sorted by the
alphabetically earliest commodity first, and then by subsequent
commodities (if an amount is missing a commodity, it is treated as 0).
.PP
Revenues and liability balances are typically negative, however, so
\f[C]-S\f[R] shows these in reverse order.
To work around this, you can add \f[C]--invert\f[R] to flip the signs.
(Or, use one of the higher-level reports, which flip the sign
automatically.
Eg: \f[C]hledger incomestatement -MAS\f[R]).
.PP
.SS Percentages
.PP
With \f[C]-%/--percent\f[R], balance reports show each account\[aq]s
value expressed as a percentage of the (column) total:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal bal expenses -Q -%
Balance changes in 2008:
|| 2008Q1 2008Q2 2008Q3 2008Q4
===================++=================================
expenses:food || 0 50.0 % 0 0
expenses:supplies || 0 50.0 % 0 0
-------------------++---------------------------------
|| 0 100.0 % 0 0
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Note it is not useful to calculate percentages if the amounts in a
column have mixed signs.
In this case, make a separate report for each sign, eg:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger bal -% amt:\[ga]>0\[ga]
$ hledger bal -% amt:\[ga]<0\[ga]
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Similarly, if the amounts in a column have mixed commodities, convert
them to one commodity with \f[C]-B\f[R], \f[C]-V\f[R], \f[C]-X\f[R] or
\f[C]--value\f[R], or make a separate report for each commodity:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger bal -% cur:\[rs]\[rs]$
$ hledger bal -% cur:\[Eu]
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Balance change, end balance
.PP
It\[aq]s important to be clear on the meaning of the numbers shown in
balance reports.
Here is some terminology we use:
.PP
A \f[B]\f[BI]balance change\f[B]\f[R] is the net amount added to, or
removed from, an account during some period.
.PP
An \f[B]\f[BI]end balance\f[B]\f[R] is the amount accumulated in an
account as of some date (and some time, but hledger doesn\[aq]t store
that; assume end of day in your timezone).
It is the sum of previous balance changes.
.PP
We call it a \f[B]\f[BI]historical end balance\f[B]\f[R] if it includes
all balance changes since the account was created.
For a real world account, this means it will match the \[dq]historical
record\[dq], eg the balances reported in your bank statements or bank
web UI.
(If they are correct!)
.PP
In general, balance changes are what you want to see when reviewing
revenues and expenses, and historical end balances are what you want to
see when reviewing or reconciling asset, liability and equity accounts.
.PP
\f[C]balance\f[R] shows balance changes by default.
To see accurate historical end balances:
.IP "1." 3
Initialise account starting balances with an \[dq]opening balances\[dq]
transaction (a transfer from equity to the account), unless the journal
covers the account\[aq]s full lifetime.
.IP "2." 3
Include all of of the account\[aq]s prior postings in the report, by not
specifying a report start date, or by using the
\f[C]-H/--historical\f[R] flag.
(\f[C]-H\f[R] causes report start date to be ignored when summing
postings.)
.SS Balance report types
.PP
For more flexible reporting, there are three important option groups:
.PP
\f[C]hledger balance [CALCULATIONTYPE] [ACCUMULATIONTYPE] [VALUATIONTYPE] ...\f[R]
.PP
The first two are the most important: calculation type selects the basic
calculation to perform for each table cell, while accumulation type says
which postings should be included in each cell\[aq]s calculation.
Typically one or both of these are selected by default, so you don\[aq]t
need to write them explicitly.
A valuation type can be added if you want to convert the basic report to
value or cost.
.PP
\f[B]Calculation type:\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
The basic calculation to perform for each table cell.
It is one of:
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]--sum\f[R] : sum the posting amounts (\f[B]default\f[R])
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]--budget\f[R] : like --sum but also show a goal amount
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]--valuechange\f[R] : show the change in period-end historical
balance values (caused by deposits, withdrawals, and/or market price
fluctuations)
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]--gain\f[R] : show the unrealised capital gain/loss, (the current
valued balance minus each amount\[aq]s original cost)
.PP
\f[B]Accumulation type:\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Which postings should be included in each cell\[aq]s calculation.
It is one of:
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]--change\f[R] : postings from column start to column end, ie within
the cell\[aq]s period.
Typically used to see revenues/expenses.
(\f[B]default for balance, incomestatement\f[R])
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]--cumulative\f[R] : postings from report start to column end, eg to
show changes accumulated since the report\[aq]s start date.
Rarely used.
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]--historical/-H\f[R] : postings from journal start to column end,
ie all postings from account creation to the end of the cell\[aq]s
period.
Typically used to see historical end balances of
assets/liabilities/equity.
(\f[B]default for balancesheet, balancesheetequity, cashflow\f[R])
.PP
\f[B]Valuation type:\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Which kind of valuation, valuation date(s) and optionally a target
valuation commodity to use.
It is one of:
.IP \[bu] 2
no valuation, show amounts in their original commodities
(\f[B]default\f[R])
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]--value=cost[,COMM]\f[R] : no valuation, show amounts converted to
cost
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]--value=then[,COMM]\f[R] : show value at transaction dates
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]--value=end[,COMM]\f[R] : show value at period end date(s)
(\f[B]default with \f[CB]--valuechange\f[B], \f[CB]--gain\f[B]\f[R])
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]--value=now[,COMM]\f[R] : show value at today\[aq]s date
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]--value=YYYY-MM-DD[,COMM]\f[R] : show value at another date
.PP
or one of their aliases: \f[C]--cost/-B\f[R], \f[C]--market/-V\f[R] or
\f[C]--exchange/-X\f[R].
.PP
Most combinations of these options should produce reasonable reports,
but if you find any that seem wrong or misleading, let us know.
The following restrictions are applied:
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]--valuechange\f[R] implies \f[C]--value=end\f[R]
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]--valuechange\f[R] makes \f[C]--change\f[R] the default when used
with the \f[C]balancesheet\f[R]/\f[C]balancesheetequity\f[R] commands
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]--cumulative\f[R] or \f[C]--historical\f[R] disables
\f[C]--row-total/-T\f[R]
.PP
For reference, here is what the combinations of accumulation and
valuation show:
.PP
.TS
tab(@);
lw(8.2n) lw(16.3n) lw(16.8n) lw(15.1n) lw(13.6n).
T{
Valuation: >Accumulation: v
T}@T{
no valuation
T}@T{
\f[C]--value= then\f[R]
T}@T{
\f[C]--value= end\f[R]
T}@T{
\f[C]--value= YYYY-MM-DD /now\f[R]
T}
_
T{
\f[C]--change\f[R]
T}@T{
change in period
T}@T{
sum of posting-date market values in period
T}@T{
period-end value of change in period
T}@T{
DATE-value of change in period
T}
T{
\f[C]--cumulative\f[R]
T}@T{
change from report start to period end
T}@T{
sum of posting-date market values from report start to period end
T}@T{
period-end value of change from report start to period end
T}@T{
DATE-value of change from report start to period end
T}
T{
\f[C]--historical /-H\f[R]
T}@T{
change from journal start to period end (historical end balance)
T}@T{
sum of posting-date market values from journal start to period end
T}@T{
period-end value of change from journal start to period end
T}@T{
DATE-value of change from journal start to period end
T}
.TE
.SS Useful balance reports
.PP
Some frequently used \f[C]balance\f[R] options/reports are:
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]bal -M revenues expenses\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Show revenues/expenses in each month.
Also available as the \f[C]incomestatement\f[R] command.
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]bal -M -H assets liabilities\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Show historical asset/liability balances at each month end.
Also available as the \f[C]balancesheet\f[R] command.
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]bal -M -H assets liabilities equity\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Show historical asset/liability/equity balances at each month end.
Also available as the \f[C]balancesheetequity\f[R] command.
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]bal -M assets not:receivable\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Show changes to liquid assets in each month.
Also available as the \f[C]cashflow\f[R] command.
.PP
Also:
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]bal -M expenses -2 -SA\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Show monthly expenses summarised to depth 2 and sorted by average
amount.
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]bal -M --budget expenses\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Show monthly expenses and budget goals.
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]bal -M --valuechange investments\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Show monthly change in market value of investment assets.
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]bal investments --valuechange -D date:lastweek amt:\[aq]>1000\[aq] -STA [--invert]\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Show top gainers [or losers] last week
.SS Budget report
.PP
The \f[C]--budget\f[R] report type activates extra columns showing any
budget goals for each account and period.
The budget goals are defined by periodic transactions.
This is very useful for comparing planned and actual income, expenses,
time usage, etc.
.PP
For example, you can take average monthly expenses in the common expense
categories to construct a minimal monthly budget:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
;; Budget
\[ti] monthly
income $2000
expenses:food $400
expenses:bus $50
expenses:movies $30
assets:bank:checking
;; Two months worth of expenses
2017-11-01
income $1950
expenses:food $396
expenses:bus $49
expenses:movies $30
expenses:supplies $20
assets:bank:checking
2017-12-01
income $2100
expenses:food $412
expenses:bus $53
expenses:gifts $100
assets:bank:checking
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
You can now see a monthly budget report:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger balance -M --budget
Budget performance in 2017/11/01-2017/12/31:
|| Nov Dec
======================++====================================================
assets || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480]
assets:bank || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480]
assets:bank:checking || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480]
expenses || $495 [ 103% of $480] $565 [ 118% of $480]
expenses:bus || $49 [ 98% of $50] $53 [ 106% of $50]
expenses:food || $396 [ 99% of $400] $412 [ 103% of $400]
expenses:movies || $30 [ 100% of $30] 0 [ 0% of $30]
income || $1950 [ 98% of $2000] $2100 [ 105% of $2000]
----------------------++----------------------------------------------------
|| 0 [ 0] 0 [ 0]
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
This is different from a normal balance report in several ways:
.IP \[bu] 2
Only accounts with budget goals during the report period are shown, by
default.
.IP \[bu] 2
In each column, in square brackets after the actual amount, budget goal
amounts are shown, and the actual/goal percentage.
(Note: budget goals should be in the same commodity as the actual
amount.)
.IP \[bu] 2
All parent accounts are always shown, even in list mode.
Eg assets, assets:bank, and expenses above.
.IP \[bu] 2
Amounts always include all subaccounts, budgeted or unbudgeted, even in
list mode.
.PP
This means that the numbers displayed will not always add up! Eg above,
the \f[C]expenses\f[R] actual amount includes the gifts and supplies
transactions, but the \f[C]expenses:gifts\f[R] and
\f[C]expenses:supplies\f[R] accounts are not shown, as they have no
budget amounts declared.
.PP
This can be confusing.
When you need to make things clearer, use the \f[C]-E/--empty\f[R] flag,
which will reveal all accounts including unbudgeted ones, giving the
full picture.
Eg:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger balance -M --budget --empty
Budget performance in 2017/11/01-2017/12/31:
|| Nov Dec
======================++====================================================
assets || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480]
assets:bank || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480]
assets:bank:checking || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480]
expenses || $495 [ 103% of $480] $565 [ 118% of $480]
expenses:bus || $49 [ 98% of $50] $53 [ 106% of $50]
expenses:food || $396 [ 99% of $400] $412 [ 103% of $400]
expenses:gifts || 0 $100
expenses:movies || $30 [ 100% of $30] 0 [ 0% of $30]
expenses:supplies || $20 0
income || $1950 [ 98% of $2000] $2100 [ 105% of $2000]
----------------------++----------------------------------------------------
|| 0 [ 0] 0 [ 0]
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
You can roll over unspent budgets to next period with
\f[C]--cumulative\f[R]:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger balance -M --budget --cumulative
Budget performance in 2017/11/01-2017/12/31:
|| Nov Dec
======================++====================================================
assets || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-5110 [ 103% of $-4960]
assets:bank || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-5110 [ 103% of $-4960]
assets:bank:checking || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-5110 [ 103% of $-4960]
expenses || $495 [ 103% of $480] $1060 [ 110% of $960]
expenses:bus || $49 [ 98% of $50] $102 [ 102% of $100]
expenses:food || $396 [ 99% of $400] $808 [ 101% of $800]
expenses:movies || $30 [ 100% of $30] $30 [ 50% of $60]
income || $1950 [ 98% of $2000] $4050 [ 101% of $4000]
----------------------++----------------------------------------------------
|| 0 [ 0] 0 [ 0]
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
For more examples and notes, see Budgeting.
.SS Budget report start date
.PP
This might be a bug, but for now: when making budget reports, it\[aq]s a
good idea to explicitly set the report\[aq]s start date to the first day
of a reporting period, because a periodic rule like
\f[C]\[ti] monthly\f[R] generates its transactions on the 1st of each
month, and if your journal has no regular transactions on the 1st, the
default report start date could exclude that budget goal, which can be a
little surprising.
Eg here the default report period is just the day of 2020-01-15:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
\[ti] monthly in 2020
(expenses:food) $500
2020-01-15
expenses:food $400
assets:checking
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger bal expenses --budget
Budget performance in 2020-01-15:
|| 2020-01-15
==============++============
<unbudgeted> || $400
--------------++------------
|| $400
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
To avoid this, specify the budget report\[aq]s period, or at least the
start date, with \f[C]-b\f[R]/\f[C]-e\f[R]/\f[C]-p\f[R]/\f[C]date:\f[R],
to ensure it includes the budget goal transactions (periodic
transactions) that you want.
Eg, adding \f[C]-b 2020/1/1\f[R] to the above:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger bal expenses --budget -b 2020/1/1
Budget performance in 2020-01-01..2020-01-15:
|| 2020-01-01..2020-01-15
===============++========================
expenses:food || $400 [80% of $500]
---------------++------------------------
|| $400 [80% of $500]
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Budgets and subaccounts
.PP
You can add budgets to any account in your account hierarchy.
If you have budgets on both parent account and some of its children,
then budget(s) of the child account(s) would be added to the budget of
their parent, much like account balances behave.
.PP
In the most simple case this means that once you add a budget to any
account, all its parents would have budget as well.
.PP
To illustrate this, consider the following budget:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
\[ti] monthly from 2019/01
expenses:personal $1,000.00
expenses:personal:electronics $100.00
liabilities
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
With this, monthly budget for electronics is defined to be $100 and
budget for personal expenses is an additional $1000, which implicitly
means that budget for both \f[C]expenses:personal\f[R] and
\f[C]expenses\f[R] is $1100.
.PP
Transactions in \f[C]expenses:personal:electronics\f[R] will be counted
both towards its $100 budget and $1100 of \f[C]expenses:personal\f[R] ,
and transactions in any other subaccount of \f[C]expenses:personal\f[R]
would be counted towards only towards the budget of
\f[C]expenses:personal\f[R].
.PP
For example, let\[aq]s consider these transactions:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
\[ti] monthly from 2019/01
expenses:personal $1,000.00
expenses:personal:electronics $100.00
liabilities
2019/01/01 Google home hub
expenses:personal:electronics $90.00
liabilities $-90.00
2019/01/02 Phone screen protector
expenses:personal:electronics:upgrades $10.00
liabilities
2019/01/02 Weekly train ticket
expenses:personal:train tickets $153.00
liabilities
2019/01/03 Flowers
expenses:personal $30.00
liabilities
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
As you can see, we have transactions in
\f[C]expenses:personal:electronics:upgrades\f[R] and
\f[C]expenses:personal:train tickets\f[R], and since both of these
accounts are without explicitly defined budget, these transactions would
be counted towards budgets of \f[C]expenses:personal:electronics\f[R]
and \f[C]expenses:personal\f[R] accordingly:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger balance --budget -M
Budget performance in 2019/01:
|| Jan
===============================++===============================
expenses || $283.00 [ 26% of $1100.00]
expenses:personal || $283.00 [ 26% of $1100.00]
expenses:personal:electronics || $100.00 [ 100% of $100.00]
liabilities || $-283.00 [ 26% of $-1100.00]
-------------------------------++-------------------------------
|| 0 [ 0]
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
And with \f[C]--empty\f[R], we can get a better picture of budget
allocation and consumption:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger balance --budget -M --empty
Budget performance in 2019/01:
|| Jan
========================================++===============================
expenses || $283.00 [ 26% of $1100.00]
expenses:personal || $283.00 [ 26% of $1100.00]
expenses:personal:electronics || $100.00 [ 100% of $100.00]
expenses:personal:electronics:upgrades || $10.00
expenses:personal:train tickets || $153.00
liabilities || $-283.00 [ 26% of $-1100.00]
----------------------------------------++-------------------------------
|| 0 [ 0]
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Selecting budget goals
.PP
The budget report evaluates periodic transaction rules to generate
special \[dq]goal transactions\[dq], which generate the goal amounts for
each account in each report subperiod.
When troubleshooting, you can use the print command to show these as
forecasted transactions:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger print --forecast=BUDGETREPORTPERIOD tag:generated
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
By default, the budget report uses all available periodic transaction
rules to generate goals.
This includes rules with a different report interval from your report.
Eg if you have daily, weekly and monthly periodic rules, all of these
will contribute to the goals in a monthly budget report.
.PP
You can select a subset of periodic rules by providing an argument to
the \f[C]--budget\f[R] flag.
\f[C]--budget=DESCPAT\f[R] will match all periodic rules whose
description contains DESCPAT, a case-insensitive substring (not a
regular expression or query).
This means you can give your periodic rules descriptions (remember that
two spaces are needed), and then select from multiple budgets defined in
your journal.
.SS Customising single-period balance reports
.PP
For single-period balance reports displayed in the terminal (only), you
can use \f[C]--format FMT\f[R] to customise the format and content of
each line.
Eg:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal balance --format \[dq]%20(account) %12(total)\[dq]
assets $-1
bank:saving $1
cash $-2
expenses $2
food $1
supplies $1
income $-2
gifts $-1
salary $-1
liabilities:debts $1
---------------------------------
0
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
The FMT format string (plus a newline) specifies the formatting applied
to each account/balance pair.
It may contain any suitable text, with data fields interpolated like so:
.PP
\f[C]%[MIN][.MAX](FIELDNAME)\f[R]
.IP \[bu] 2
MIN pads with spaces to at least this width (optional)
.IP \[bu] 2
MAX truncates at this width (optional)
.IP \[bu] 2
FIELDNAME must be enclosed in parentheses, and can be one of:
.RS 2
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]depth_spacer\f[R] - a number of spaces equal to the account\[aq]s
depth, or if MIN is specified, MIN * depth spaces.
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]account\f[R] - the account\[aq]s name
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]total\f[R] - the account\[aq]s balance/posted total, right
justified
.RE
.PP
Also, FMT can begin with an optional prefix to control how
multi-commodity amounts are rendered:
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]%_\f[R] - render on multiple lines, bottom-aligned (the default)
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]%\[ha]\f[R] - render on multiple lines, top-aligned
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]%,\f[R] - render on one line, comma-separated
.PP
There are some quirks.
Eg in one-line mode, \f[C]%(depth_spacer)\f[R] has no effect, instead
\f[C]%(account)\f[R] has indentation built in.
Experimentation may be needed to get pleasing results.
.PP
Some example formats:
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]%(total)\f[R] - the account\[aq]s total
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]%-20.20(account)\f[R] - the account\[aq]s name, left justified,
padded to 20 characters and clipped at 20 characters
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]%,%-50(account) %25(total)\f[R] - account name padded to 50
characters, total padded to 20 characters, with multiple commodities
rendered on one line
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]%20(total) %2(depth_spacer)%-(account)\f[R] - the default format
for the single-column balance report
.SS balancesheet
.PP
balancesheet, bs
.PD 0
.P
.PD
This command displays a balance sheet, showing historical ending
balances of asset and liability accounts.
(To see equity as well, use the balancesheetequity command.) Amounts are
shown with normal positive sign, as in conventional financial
statements.
.PP
The asset and liability accounts shown are those accounts declared with
the \f[C]Asset\f[R] or \f[C]Cash\f[R] or \f[C]Liability\f[R] type, or
otherwise all accounts under a top-level \f[C]asset\f[R] or
\f[C]liability\f[R] account (case insensitive, plurals allowed).
.PP
Example:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger balancesheet
Balance Sheet
Assets:
$-1 assets
$1 bank:saving
$-2 cash
--------------------
$-1
Liabilities:
$1 liabilities:debts
--------------------
$1
Total:
--------------------
0
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
This command is a higher-level variant of the \f[C]balance\f[R] command,
and supports many of that command\[aq]s features, such as multi-period
reports.
It is similar to \f[C]hledger balance -H assets liabilities\f[R], but
with smarter account detection, and liabilities displayed with their
sign flipped.
.PP
This command also supports the output destination and output format
options The output formats supported are \f[C]txt\f[R], \f[C]csv\f[R],
\f[C]html\f[R], and (experimental) \f[C]json\f[R].
.SS balancesheetequity
.PP
balancesheetequity, bse
.PD 0
.P
.PD
This command displays a balance sheet, showing historical ending
balances of asset, liability and equity accounts.
Amounts are shown with normal positive sign, as in conventional
financial statements.
.PP
The asset, liability and equity accounts shown are those accounts
declared with the \f[C]Asset\f[R], \f[C]Cash\f[R], \f[C]Liability\f[R]
or \f[C]Equity\f[R] type, or otherwise all accounts under a top-level
\f[C]asset\f[R], \f[C]liability\f[R] or \f[C]equity\f[R] account (case
insensitive, plurals allowed).
.PP
Example:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger balancesheetequity
Balance Sheet With Equity
Assets:
$-2 assets
$1 bank:saving
$-3 cash
--------------------
$-2
Liabilities:
$1 liabilities:debts
--------------------
$1
Equity:
$1 equity:owner
--------------------
$1
Total:
--------------------
0
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
This command is a higher-level variant of the \f[C]balance\f[R] command,
and supports many of that command\[aq]s features, such as multi-period
reports.
It is similar to \f[C]hledger balance -H assets liabilities equity\f[R],
but with smarter account detection, and liabilities/equity displayed
with their sign flipped.
.PP
This command also supports the output destination and output format
options The output formats supported are \f[C]txt\f[R], \f[C]csv\f[R],
\f[C]html\f[R], and (experimental) \f[C]json\f[R].
.SS cashflow
.PP
cashflow, cf
.PD 0
.P
.PD
This command displays a cashflow statement, showing the inflows and
outflows affecting \[dq]cash\[dq] (ie, liquid) assets.
Amounts are shown with normal positive sign, as in conventional
financial statements.
.PP
The \[dq]cash\[dq] accounts shown are those accounts declared with the
\f[C]Cash\f[R] type, or otherwise all accounts under a top-level
\f[C]asset\f[R] account (case insensitive, plural allowed) which do not
have \f[C]fixed\f[R], \f[C]investment\f[R], \f[C]receivable\f[R] or
\f[C]A/R\f[R] in their name.
.PP
Example:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger cashflow
Cashflow Statement
Cash flows:
$-1 assets
$1 bank:saving
$-2 cash
--------------------
$-1
Total:
--------------------
$-1
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
This command is a higher-level variant of the \f[C]balance\f[R] command,
and supports many of that command\[aq]s features, such as multi-period
reports.
It is similar to
\f[C]hledger balance assets not:fixed not:investment not:receivable\f[R],
but with smarter account detection.
.PP
This command also supports the output destination and output format
options The output formats supported are \f[C]txt\f[R], \f[C]csv\f[R],
\f[C]html\f[R], and (experimental) \f[C]json\f[R].
.SS check
.PP
check
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Check for various kinds of errors in your data.
.PP
hledger provides a number of built-in error checks to help prevent
problems in your data.
Some of these are run automatically; or, you can use this
\f[C]check\f[R] command to run them on demand, with no output and a zero
exit code if all is well.
Specify their names (or a prefix) as argument(s).
.PP
Some examples:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
hledger check # basic checks
hledger check -s # basic + strict checks
hledger check ordereddates payees # basic + two other checks
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Here are the checks currently available:
.SS Basic checks
.PP
These checks are always run automatically, by (almost) all hledger
commands, including \f[C]check\f[R]:
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[B]parseable\f[R] - data files are well-formed and can be successfully
parsed
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[B]balancedwithautoconversion\f[R] - all transactions are balanced,
inferring missing amounts where necessary, and possibly converting
commodities using transaction prices or automatically-inferred
transaction prices
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[B]assertions\f[R] - all balance assertions in the journal are
passing.
(This check can be disabled with
\f[C]-I\f[R]/\f[C]--ignore-assertions\f[R].)
.SS Strict checks
.PP
These additional checks are run when the \f[C]-s\f[R]/\f[C]--strict\f[R]
(strict mode) flag is used.
Or, they can be run by giving their names as arguments to
\f[C]check\f[R]:
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[B]accounts\f[R] - all account names used by transactions have been
declared
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[B]commodities\f[R] - all commodity symbols used have been declared
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[B]balancednoautoconversion\f[R] - transactions are balanced, possibly
using explicit transaction prices but not inferred ones
.SS Other checks
.PP
These checks can be run only by giving their names as arguments to
\f[C]check\f[R].
They are more specialised and not desirable for everyone, therefore
optional:
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[B]ordereddates\f[R] - transactions are ordered by date within each
file
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[B]payees\f[R] - all payees used by transactions have been declared
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[B]uniqueleafnames\f[R] - all account leaf names are unique
.SS Custom checks
.PP
A few more checks are are available as separate add-on commands, in
https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/tree/master/bin:
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[B]hledger-check-tagfiles\f[R] - all tag values containing / (a
forward slash) exist as file paths
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[B]hledger-check-fancyassertions\f[R] - more complex balance
assertions are passing
.PP
You could make similar scripts to perform your own custom checks.
See: Cookbook -> Scripting.
.SS close
.PP
close, equity
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Prints a sample \[dq]closing\[dq] transaction bringing specified account
balances to zero, and an inverse \[dq]opening\[dq] transaction restoring
the same account balances.
.PP
If like most people you split your journal files by time, eg by year: at
the end of the year you can use this command to \[dq]close out\[dq] your
asset and liability (and perhaps equity) balances in the old file, and
reinitialise them in the new file.
This helps ensure that report balances remain correct whether you are
including old files or not.
(Because all closing/opening transactions except the very first will
cancel out - see example below.)
.PP
Some people also use this command to close out revenue and expense
balances at the end of an accounting period.
This properly records the period\[aq]s profit/loss as \[dq]retained
earnings\[dq] (part of equity), and allows the accounting equation
(A-L=E) to balance, which you could then check by the bse report\[aq]s
zero total.
.PP
You can print just the closing transaction by using the
\f[C]--close\f[R] flag, or just the opening transaction with the
\f[C]--open\f[R] flag.
.PP
Their descriptions are \f[C]closing balances\f[R] and
\f[C]opening balances\f[R] by default; you can customise these with the
\f[C]--close-desc\f[R] and \f[C]--open-desc\f[R] options.
.PP
Just one balancing equity posting is used by default, with the amount
left implicit.
The default account name is \f[C]equity:opening/closing balances\f[R].
You can customise the account name(s) with \f[C]--close-acct\f[R] and
\f[C]--open-acct\f[R].
(If you specify only one of these, it will be used for both.)
.PP
With \f[C]--x/--explicit\f[R], the equity posting\[aq]s amount will be
shown explicitly, and if it involves multiple commodities, there will be
a separate equity posting for each commodity (as in the print command).
.PP
With \f[C]--interleaved\f[R], each equity posting is shown next to the
posting it balances (good for troubleshooting).
.SS close and prices
.PP
Transaction prices are ignored (and discarded) by closing/opening
transactions, by default.
With \f[C]--show-costs\f[R], they are preserved; there will be a
separate equity posting for each cost in each commodity.
This means \f[C]balance -B\f[R] reports will look the same after the
transition.
Note if you have many foreign currency or investment transactions, this
will generate very large journal entries.
.SS close date
.PP
The default closing date is yesterday, or the journal\[aq]s end date,
whichever is later.
.PP
Unless you are running \f[C]close\f[R] on exactly the first day of the
new period, you\[aq]ll want to override the closing date.
This is done by specifying a report end date, where \[dq]last day of the
report period\[dq] will be the closing date.
The opening date is always the following day.
So to close on (end of) 2020-12-31 and open on (start of) 2021-01-01,
any of these will work:
.PP
.TS
tab(@);
l l.
T{
end date argument
T}@T{
explanation
T}
_
T{
\f[C]-e 2021-01-01\f[R]
T}@T{
end dates are exclusive
T}
T{
\f[C]-e 2021\f[R]
T}@T{
equivalent, per smart dates
T}
T{
\f[C]-p 2020\f[R]
T}@T{
equivalent, the period\[aq]s begin date is ignored
T}
T{
\f[C]date:2020\f[R]
T}@T{
equivalent query
T}
.TE
.SS Example: close asset/liability accounts for file transition
.PP
Carrying asset/liability balances from 2020.journal into a new file for
2021:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger close -f 2020.journal -p 2020 assets liabilities
# copy/paste the closing transaction to the end of 2020.journal
# copy/paste the opening transaction to the start of 2021.journal
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Or:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger close -f 2020.journal -p 2020 assets liabilities --open >> 2021.journal # add 2021\[aq]s first transaction
$ hledger close -f 2020.journal -p 2020 assets liabilities --close >> 2020.journal # add 2020\[aq]s last transaction
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Now,
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger bs -f 2021.journal # just new file - balances correct
$ hledger bs -f 2020.journal -f 2021.journal # old and new files - balances correct
$ hledger bs -f 2020.journal # just old files - balances are zero ?
# (exclude final closing txn, see below)
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Hiding opening/closing transactions
.PP
Although the closing/opening transactions cancel out, they will be
visible in reports like \f[C]print\f[R] and \f[C]register\f[R], creating
some visual clutter.
You can exclude them all with a query, like:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger print not:desc:\[aq]opening|closing\[aq] # less typing
$ hledger print not:\[aq]equity:opening/closing balances\[aq] # more precise
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
But when reporting on multiple files, this can get a bit tricky; you may
need to keep the earliest opening balances, for a historical register
report; or you may need to suppress a closing transaction, to see
year-end balances.
If you find yourself needing more precise queries, here\[aq]s one
solution: add more easily-matched tags to opening/closing transactions,
like this:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
; 2019.journal
2019-01-01 opening balances ; earliest opening txn, no tag here
\&...
2019-12-31 closing balances ; clopen:2020
\&...
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
; 2020.journal
2020-01-01 opening balances ; clopen:2020
\&...
2020-12-31 closing balances ; clopen:2021
\&...
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
; 2021.journal
2021-01-01 opening balances ; clopen:2021
\&...
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Now with
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
; all.journal
include 2019.journal
include 2020.journal
include 2021.journal
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
you could do eg:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f all.journal reg -H checking not:tag:clopen
# all years checking register, hiding non-essential opening/closing txns
$ hledger -f all.journal bs -p 2020 not:tag:clopen=2020
# 2020 year end balances, suppressing 2020 closing txn
\f[R]
.fi
.SS close and balance assertions
.PP
The closing and opening transactions will include balance assertions,
verifying that the accounts have first been reset to zero and then
restored to their previous balance.
These provide valuable error checking, alerting you when things get out
of line, but you can ignore them temporarily with \f[C]-I\f[R] or just
remove them if you prefer.
.PP
You probably shouldn\[aq]t use status or realness filters (like -C or -R
or \f[C]status:\f[R]) with \f[C]close\f[R], or the generated balance
assertions will depend on these flags.
Likewise, if you run this command with \f[C]--auto\f[R], the balance
assertions would probably always require \f[C]--auto\f[R].
.PP
Multi-day transactions (where some postings have a different date) break
the balance assertions, because the money is temporarily
\[dq]invisible\[dq] while in transit:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2020/12/30 a purchase made in december, cleared in the next year
expenses:food 5
assets:bank:checking -5 ; date: 2021/1/2
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
To fix the assertions, you can add a temporary account to track such
in-transit money (splitting the multi-day transaction into two
single-day transactions):
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
; in 2020.journal:
2020/12/30 a purchase made in december, cleared in the next year
expenses:food 5
liabilities:pending
; in 2021.journal:
2021/1/2 clearance of last year\[aq]s pending transactions
liabilities:pending 5 = 0
assets:bank:checking
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Example: close revenue/expense accounts to retained earnings
.PP
For this, use \f[C]--close\f[R] to suppress the opening transaction, as
it\[aq]s not needed.
Also you\[aq]ll want to change the equity account name to your
equivalent of \[dq]equity:retained earnings\[dq].
.PP
Closing 2021\[aq]s first quarter revenues/expenses:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger close -f 2021.journal --close revenues expenses -p 2021Q1 \[rs]
--close-acct=\[aq]equity:retained earnings\[aq] >> 2021.journal
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
The same, using the default journal and current year:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger close --close revenues expenses -p Q1 \[rs]
--close-acct=\[aq]equity:retained earnings\[aq] >> $LEDGER_FILE
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Now, the first quarter\[aq]s balance sheet should show a zero (unless
you are using \[at]/\[at]\[at] notation without equity postings):
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger bse -p Q1
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
And we must suppress the closing transaction to see the first
quarter\[aq]s income statement (using the description;
\f[C]not:\[aq]retained earnings\[aq]\f[R] won\[aq]t work here):
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger is -p Q1 not:desc:\[aq]closing balances\[aq]
\f[R]
.fi
.SS codes
.PP
codes
.PD 0
.P
.PD
List the codes seen in transactions, in the order parsed.
.PP
This command prints the value of each transaction\[aq]s code field, in
the order transactions were parsed.
The transaction code is an optional value written in parentheses between
the date and description, often used to store a cheque number, order
number or similar.
.PP
Transactions aren\[aq]t required to have a code, and missing or empty
codes will not be shown by default.
With the \f[C]-E\f[R]/\f[C]--empty\f[R] flag, they will be printed as
blank lines.
.PP
You can add a query to select a subset of transactions.
.PP
Examples:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
1/1 (123)
(a) 1
1/1 ()
(a) 1
1/1
(a) 1
1/1 (126)
(a) 1
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger codes
123
124
126
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger codes -E
123
124
126
\f[R]
.fi
.SS commodities
.PP
commodities
.PD 0
.P
.PD
List all commodity/currency symbols used or declared in the journal.
.SS descriptions
.PP
descriptions
.PD 0
.P
.PD
List the unique descriptions that appear in transactions.
.PP
This command lists the unique descriptions that appear in transactions,
in alphabetic order.
You can add a query to select a subset of transactions.
.PP
Example:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger descriptions
Store Name
Gas Station | Petrol
Person A
\f[R]
.fi
.SS diff
.PP
diff
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Compares a particular account\[aq]s transactions in two input files.
It shows any transactions to this account which are in one file but not
in the other.
.PP
More precisely, for each posting affecting this account in either file,
it looks for a corresponding posting in the other file which posts the
same amount to the same account (ignoring date, description, etc.) Since
postings not transactions are compared, this also works when multiple
bank transactions have been combined into a single journal entry.
.PP
This is useful eg if you have downloaded an account\[aq]s transactions
from your bank (eg as CSV data).
When hledger and your bank disagree about the account balance, you can
compare the bank data with your journal to find out the cause.
.PP
Examples:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger diff -f $LEDGER_FILE -f bank.csv assets:bank:giro
These transactions are in the first file only:
2014/01/01 Opening Balances
assets:bank:giro EUR ...
...
equity:opening balances EUR -...
These transactions are in the second file only:
\f[R]
.fi
.SS files
.PP
files
.PD 0
.P
.PD
List all files included in the journal.
With a REGEX argument, only file names matching the regular expression
(case sensitive) are shown.
.SS help
.PP
help
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Show the hledger user manual in one of several formats, optionally
positioned at a given TOPIC (if possible).
.PP
TOPIC is any heading in the manual, or the start of any heading (but not
the middle).
It is case insensitive.
.PP
Some examples: \f[C]commands\f[R], \f[C]print\f[R], \f[C]forecast\f[R],
\f[C]\[dq]auto postings\[dq]\f[R], \f[C]\[dq]commodity column\[dq]\f[R].
.PP
This command shows the user manual built in to this hledger version.
It can be useful if the correct version of the hledger manual, or the
usual viewing tools, are not installed on your system.
.PP
By default it uses the best viewer it can find in $PATH, in this order:
\f[C]info\f[R], \f[C]man\f[R], $PAGER (unless a topic is specified),
\f[C]less\f[R], or stdout.
When run non-interactively, it always uses stdout.
Or you can select a particular viewer with the \f[C]-i\f[R] (info),
\f[C]-m\f[R] (man), or \f[C]-p\f[R] (pager) flags.
.SS import
.PP
import
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Read new transactions added to each FILE since last run, and add them to
the main journal file.
Or with --dry-run, just print the transactions that would be added.
Or with --catchup, just mark all of the FILEs\[aq] transactions as
imported, without actually importing any.
.PP
Unlike other hledger commands, with \f[C]import\f[R] the journal file is
an output file, and will be modified, though only by appending (existing
data will not be changed).
The input files are specified as arguments, so to import one or more CSV
files to your main journal, you will run
\f[C]hledger import bank.csv\f[R] or perhaps
\f[C]hledger import *.csv\f[R].
.PP
Note you can import from any file format, though CSV files are the most
common import source, and these docs focus on that case.
.SS Deduplication
.PP
As a convenience \f[C]import\f[R] does \f[I]deduplication\f[R] while
reading transactions.
This does not mean \[dq]ignore transactions that look the same\[dq], but
rather \[dq]ignore transactions that have been seen before\[dq].
This is intended for when you are periodically importing foreign data
which may contain already-imported transactions.
So eg, if every day you download bank CSV files containing redundant
data, you can safely run \f[C]hledger import bank.csv\f[R] and only new
transactions will be imported.
(\f[C]import\f[R] is idempotent.)
.PP
Since the items being read (CSV records, eg) often do not come with
unique identifiers, hledger detects new transactions by date, assuming
that:
.IP "1." 3
new items always have the newest dates
.IP "2." 3
item dates do not change across reads
.IP "3." 3
and items with the same date remain in the same relative order across
reads.
.PP
These are often true of CSV files representing transactions, or true
enough so that it works pretty well in practice.
1 is important, but violations of 2 and 3 amongst the old transactions
won\[aq]t matter (and if you import often, the new transactions will be
few, so less likely to be the ones affected).
.PP
hledger remembers the latest date processed in each input file by saving
a hidden \[dq].latest\[dq] state file in the same directory.
Eg when reading \f[C]finance/bank.csv\f[R], it will look for and update
the \f[C]finance/.latest.bank.csv\f[R] state file.
The format is simple: one or more lines containing the same ISO-format
date (YYYY-MM-DD), meaning \[dq]I have processed transactions up to this
date, and this many of them on that date.\[dq] Normally you won\[aq]t
see or manipulate these state files yourself.
But if needed, you can delete them to reset the state (making all
transactions \[dq]new\[dq]), or you can construct them to \[dq]catch
up\[dq] to a certain date.
.PP
Note deduplication (and updating of state files) can also be done by
\f[C]print --new\f[R], but this is less often used.
.SS Import testing
.PP
With \f[C]--dry-run\f[R], the transactions that will be imported are
printed to the terminal, without updating your journal or state files.
The output is valid journal format, like the print command, so you can
re-parse it.
Eg, to see any importable transactions which CSV rules have not
categorised:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger import --dry bank.csv | hledger -f- -I print unknown
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
or (live updating):
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ ls bank.csv* | entr bash -c \[aq]echo ====; hledger import --dry bank.csv | hledger -f- -I print unknown\[aq]
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Importing balance assignments
.PP
Entries added by import will have their posting amounts made explicit
(like \f[C]hledger print -x\f[R]).
This means that any balance assignments in imported files must be
evaluated; but, imported files don\[aq]t get to see the main file\[aq]s
account balances.
As a result, importing entries with balance assignments (eg from an
institution that provides only balances and not posting amounts) will
probably generate incorrect posting amounts.
To avoid this problem, use print instead of import:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger print IMPORTFILE [--new] >> $LEDGER_FILE
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
(If you think import should leave amounts implicit like print does,
please test it and send a pull request.)
.SS Commodity display styles
.PP
Imported amounts will be formatted according to the canonical commodity
styles (declared or inferred) in the main journal file.
.SS incomestatement
.PP
incomestatement, is
.PD 0
.P
.PD
.PP
This command displays an income statement, showing revenues and expenses
during one or more periods.
Amounts are shown with normal positive sign, as in conventional
financial statements.
.PP
The revenue and expense accounts shown are those accounts declared with
the \f[C]Revenue\f[R] or \f[C]Expense\f[R] type, or otherwise all
accounts under a top-level \f[C]revenue\f[R] or \f[C]income\f[R] or
\f[C]expense\f[R] account (case insensitive, plurals allowed).
.PP
Example:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger incomestatement
Income Statement
Revenues:
$-2 income
$-1 gifts
$-1 salary
--------------------
$-2
Expenses:
$2 expenses
$1 food
$1 supplies
--------------------
$2
Total:
--------------------
0
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
This command is a higher-level variant of the \f[C]balance\f[R] command,
and supports many of that command\[aq]s features, such as multi-period
reports.
It is similar to
\f[C]hledger balance \[aq](revenues|income)\[aq] expenses\f[R], but with
smarter account detection, and revenues/income displayed with their sign
flipped.
.PP
This command also supports the output destination and output format
options The output formats supported are \f[C]txt\f[R], \f[C]csv\f[R],
\f[C]html\f[R], and (experimental) \f[C]json\f[R].
.SS notes
.PP
notes
.PD 0
.P
.PD
List the unique notes that appear in transactions.
.PP
This command lists the unique notes that appear in transactions, in
alphabetic order.
You can add a query to select a subset of transactions.
The note is the part of the transaction description after a | character
(or if there is no |, the whole description).
.PP
Example:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger notes
Petrol
Snacks
\f[R]
.fi
.SS payees
.PP
payees
.PD 0
.P
.PD
List the unique payee/payer names that appear in transactions.
.PP
This command lists unique payee/payer names which have been declared
with payee directives (--declared), used in transaction descriptions
(--used), or both (the default).
.PP
The payee/payer is the part of the transaction description before a |
character (or if there is no |, the whole description).
.PP
You can add query arguments to select a subset of transactions.
This implies --used.
.PP
Example:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger payees
Store Name
Gas Station
Person A
\f[R]
.fi
.SS prices
.PP
prices
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Print market price directives from the journal.
With --infer-market-prices, generate additional market prices from
transaction prices.
With --infer-reverse-prices, also generate market prices by inverting
transaction prices.
Prices (and postings providing transaction prices) can be filtered by a
query.
Price amounts are displayed with their full precision.
.SS print
.PP
print
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Show transaction journal entries, sorted by date.
.PP
The print command displays full journal entries (transactions) from the
journal file, sorted by date (or with \f[C]--date2\f[R], by secondary
date).
.PP
Amounts are shown mostly normalised to commodity display style, eg the
placement of commodity symbols will be consistent.
All of their decimal places are shown, as in the original journal entry
(with one alteration: in some cases trailing zeroes are added.)
.PP
Amounts are shown right-aligned within each transaction (but not across
all transactions).
.PP
Directives and inter-transaction comments are not shown, currently.
This means the print command is somewhat lossy, and if you are using it
to reformat your journal you should take care to also copy over the
directives and file-level comments.
.PP
Eg:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger print
2008/01/01 income
assets:bank:checking $1
income:salary $-1
2008/06/01 gift
assets:bank:checking $1
income:gifts $-1
2008/06/02 save
assets:bank:saving $1
assets:bank:checking $-1
2008/06/03 * eat & shop
expenses:food $1
expenses:supplies $1
assets:cash $-2
2008/12/31 * pay off
liabilities:debts $1
assets:bank:checking $-1
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
print\[aq]s output is usually a valid hledger journal, and you can
process it again with a second hledger command.
This can be useful for certain kinds of search, eg:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
# Show running total of food expenses paid from cash.
# -f- reads from stdin. -I/--ignore-assertions is sometimes needed.
$ hledger print assets:cash | hledger -f- -I reg expenses:food
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
There are some situations where print\[aq]s output can become
unparseable:
.IP \[bu] 2
Valuation affects posting amounts but not balance assertion or balance
assignment amounts, potentially causing those to fail.
.IP \[bu] 2
Auto postings can generate postings with too many missing amounts.
.PP
Normally, the journal entry\[aq]s explicit or implicit amount style is
preserved.
For example, when an amount is omitted in the journal, it will not
appear in the output.
Similarly, when a transaction price is implied but not written, it will
not appear in the output.
You can use the \f[C]-x\f[R]/\f[C]--explicit\f[R] flag to make all
amounts and transaction prices explicit, which can be useful for
troubleshooting or for making your journal more readable and robust
against data entry errors.
\f[C]-x\f[R] is also implied by using any of
\f[C]-B\f[R],\f[C]-V\f[R],\f[C]-X\f[R],\f[C]--value\f[R].
.PP
Note, \f[C]-x\f[R]/\f[C]--explicit\f[R] will cause postings with a
multi-commodity amount (these can arise when a multi-commodity
transaction has an implicit amount) to be split into multiple
single-commodity postings, keeping the output parseable.
.PP
With \f[C]-B\f[R]/\f[C]--cost\f[R], amounts with transaction prices are
converted to cost using that price.
This can be used for troubleshooting.
.PP
With \f[C]-m\f[R]/\f[C]--match\f[R] and a STR argument, print will show
at most one transaction: the one one whose description is most similar
to STR, and is most recent.
STR should contain at least two characters.
If there is no similar-enough match, no transaction will be shown.
.PP
With \f[C]--new\f[R], hledger prints only transactions it has not seen
on a previous run.
This uses the same deduplication system as the \f[C]import\f[R] command.
(See import\[aq]s docs for details.)
.PP
This command also supports the output destination and output format
options The output formats supported are \f[C]txt\f[R], \f[C]csv\f[R],
and (experimental) \f[C]json\f[R] and \f[C]sql\f[R].
.PP
Here\[aq]s an example of print\[aq]s CSV output:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger print -Ocsv
\[dq]txnidx\[dq],\[dq]date\[dq],\[dq]date2\[dq],\[dq]status\[dq],\[dq]code\[dq],\[dq]description\[dq],\[dq]comment\[dq],\[dq]account\[dq],\[dq]amount\[dq],\[dq]commodity\[dq],\[dq]credit\[dq],\[dq]debit\[dq],\[dq]posting-status\[dq],\[dq]posting-comment\[dq]
\[dq]1\[dq],\[dq]2008/01/01\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]income\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]assets:bank:checking\[dq],\[dq]1\[dq],\[dq]$\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]1\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]\[dq]
\[dq]1\[dq],\[dq]2008/01/01\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]income\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]income:salary\[dq],\[dq]-1\[dq],\[dq]$\[dq],\[dq]1\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]\[dq]
\[dq]2\[dq],\[dq]2008/06/01\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]gift\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]assets:bank:checking\[dq],\[dq]1\[dq],\[dq]$\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]1\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]\[dq]
\[dq]2\[dq],\[dq]2008/06/01\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]gift\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]income:gifts\[dq],\[dq]-1\[dq],\[dq]$\[dq],\[dq]1\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]\[dq]
\[dq]3\[dq],\[dq]2008/06/02\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]save\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]assets:bank:saving\[dq],\[dq]1\[dq],\[dq]$\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]1\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]\[dq]
\[dq]3\[dq],\[dq]2008/06/02\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]save\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]assets:bank:checking\[dq],\[dq]-1\[dq],\[dq]$\[dq],\[dq]1\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]\[dq]
\[dq]4\[dq],\[dq]2008/06/03\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]*\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]eat & shop\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]expenses:food\[dq],\[dq]1\[dq],\[dq]$\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]1\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]\[dq]
\[dq]4\[dq],\[dq]2008/06/03\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]*\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]eat & shop\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]expenses:supplies\[dq],\[dq]1\[dq],\[dq]$\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]1\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]\[dq]
\[dq]4\[dq],\[dq]2008/06/03\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]*\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]eat & shop\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]assets:cash\[dq],\[dq]-2\[dq],\[dq]$\[dq],\[dq]2\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]\[dq]
\[dq]5\[dq],\[dq]2008/12/31\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]*\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]pay off\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]liabilities:debts\[dq],\[dq]1\[dq],\[dq]$\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]1\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]\[dq]
\[dq]5\[dq],\[dq]2008/12/31\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]*\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]pay off\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]assets:bank:checking\[dq],\[dq]-1\[dq],\[dq]$\[dq],\[dq]1\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]\[dq]
\f[R]
.fi
.IP \[bu] 2
There is one CSV record per posting, with the parent transaction\[aq]s
fields repeated.
.IP \[bu] 2
The \[dq]txnidx\[dq] (transaction index) field shows which postings
belong to the same transaction.
(This number might change if transactions are reordered within the file,
files are parsed/included in a different order, etc.)
.IP \[bu] 2
The amount is separated into \[dq]commodity\[dq] (the symbol) and
\[dq]amount\[dq] (numeric quantity) fields.
.IP \[bu] 2
The numeric amount is repeated in either the \[dq]credit\[dq] or
\[dq]debit\[dq] column, for convenience.
(Those names are not accurate in the accounting sense; it just puts
negative amounts under credit and zero or greater amounts under debit.)
.SS print-unique
.PP
print-unique
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Print transactions which do not reuse an already-seen description.
.PP
Example:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ cat unique.journal
1/1 test
(acct:one) 1
2/2 test
(acct:two) 2
$ LEDGER_FILE=unique.journal hledger print-unique
(-f option not supported)
2015/01/01 test
(acct:one) 1
\f[R]
.fi
.SS register
.PP
register, reg
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Show postings and their running total.
.PP
The register command displays matched postings, across all accounts, in
date order, with their running total or running historical balance.
(See also the \f[C]aregister\f[R] command, which shows matched
transactions in a specific account.)
.PP
register normally shows line per posting, but note that multi-commodity
amounts will occupy multiple lines (one line per commodity).
.PP
It is typically used with a query selecting a particular account, to see
that account\[aq]s activity:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger register checking
2008/01/01 income assets:bank:checking $1 $1
2008/06/01 gift assets:bank:checking $1 $2
2008/06/02 save assets:bank:checking $-1 $1
2008/12/31 pay off assets:bank:checking $-1 0
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
With --date2, it shows and sorts by secondary date instead.
.PP
The \f[C]--historical\f[R]/\f[C]-H\f[R] flag adds the balance from any
undisplayed prior postings to the running total.
This is useful when you want to see only recent activity, with a
historically accurate running balance:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger register checking -b 2008/6 --historical
2008/06/01 gift assets:bank:checking $1 $2
2008/06/02 save assets:bank:checking $-1 $1
2008/12/31 pay off assets:bank:checking $-1 0
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
The \f[C]--depth\f[R] option limits the amount of sub-account detail
displayed.
.PP
The \f[C]--average\f[R]/\f[C]-A\f[R] flag shows the running average
posting amount instead of the running total (so, the final number
displayed is the average for the whole report period).
This flag implies \f[C]--empty\f[R] (see below).
It is affected by \f[C]--historical\f[R].
It works best when showing just one account and one commodity.
.PP
The \f[C]--related\f[R]/\f[C]-r\f[R] flag shows the \f[I]other\f[R]
postings in the transactions of the postings which would normally be
shown.
.PP
The \f[C]--invert\f[R] flag negates all amounts.
For example, it can be used on an income account where amounts are
normally displayed as negative numbers.
It\[aq]s also useful to show postings on the checking account together
with the related account:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger register --related --invert assets:checking
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
With a reporting interval, register shows summary postings, one per
interval, aggregating the postings to each account:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger register --monthly income
2008/01 income:salary $-1 $-1
2008/06 income:gifts $-1 $-2
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Periods with no activity, and summary postings with a zero amount, are
not shown by default; use the \f[C]--empty\f[R]/\f[C]-E\f[R] flag to see
them:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger register --monthly income -E
2008/01 income:salary $-1 $-1
2008/02 0 $-1
2008/03 0 $-1
2008/04 0 $-1
2008/05 0 $-1
2008/06 income:gifts $-1 $-2
2008/07 0 $-2
2008/08 0 $-2
2008/09 0 $-2
2008/10 0 $-2
2008/11 0 $-2
2008/12 0 $-2
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Often, you\[aq]ll want to see just one line per interval.
The \f[C]--depth\f[R] option helps with this, causing subaccounts to be
aggregated:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger register --monthly assets --depth 1h
2008/01 assets $1 $1
2008/06 assets $-1 0
2008/12 assets $-1 $-1
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Note when using report intervals, if you specify start/end dates these
will be adjusted outward if necessary to contain a whole number of
intervals.
This ensures that the first and last intervals are full length and
comparable to the others in the report.
.SS Custom register output
.PP
register uses the full terminal width by default, except on windows.
You can override this by setting the \f[C]COLUMNS\f[R] environment
variable (not a bash shell variable) or by using the
\f[C]--width\f[R]/\f[C]-w\f[R] option.
.PP
The description and account columns normally share the space equally
(about half of (width - 40) each).
You can adjust this by adding a description width as part of
--width\[aq]s argument, comma-separated: \f[C]--width W,D\f[R] .
Here\[aq]s a diagram (won\[aq]t display correctly in --help):
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
<--------------------------------- width (W) ---------------------------------->
date (10) description (D) account (W-41-D) amount (12) balance (12)
DDDDDDDDDD dddddddddddddddddddd aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa AAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAA
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
and some examples:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger reg # use terminal width (or 80 on windows)
$ hledger reg -w 100 # use width 100
$ COLUMNS=100 hledger reg # set with one-time environment variable
$ export COLUMNS=100; hledger reg # set till session end (or window resize)
$ hledger reg -w 100,40 # set overall width 100, description width 40
$ hledger reg -w $COLUMNS,40 # use terminal width, & description width 40
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
This command also supports the output destination and output format
options The output formats supported are \f[C]txt\f[R], \f[C]csv\f[R],
and (experimental) \f[C]json\f[R].
.SS register-match
.PP
register-match
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Print the one posting whose transaction description is closest to DESC,
in the style of the register command.
If there are multiple equally good matches, it shows the most recent.
Query options (options, not arguments) can be used to restrict the
search space.
Helps ledger-autosync detect already-seen transactions when importing.
.SS rewrite
.PP
rewrite
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Print all transactions, rewriting the postings of matched transactions.
For now the only rewrite available is adding new postings, like print
--auto.
.PP
This is a start at a generic rewriter of transaction entries.
It reads the default journal and prints the transactions, like print,
but adds one or more specified postings to any transactions matching
QUERY.
The posting amounts can be fixed, or a multiplier of the existing
transaction\[aq]s first posting amount.
.PP
Examples:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger-rewrite.hs \[ha]income --add-posting \[aq](liabilities:tax) *.33 ; income tax\[aq] --add-posting \[aq](reserve:gifts) $100\[aq]
$ hledger-rewrite.hs expenses:gifts --add-posting \[aq](reserve:gifts) *-1\[dq]\[aq]
$ hledger-rewrite.hs -f rewrites.hledger
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
rewrites.hledger may consist of entries like:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
= \[ha]income amt:<0 date:2017
(liabilities:tax) *0.33 ; tax on income
(reserve:grocery) *0.25 ; reserve 25% for grocery
(reserve:) *0.25 ; reserve 25% for grocery
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Note the single quotes to protect the dollar sign from bash, and the two
spaces between account and amount.
.PP
More:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger rewrite -- [QUERY] --add-posting \[dq]ACCT AMTEXPR\[dq] ...
$ hledger rewrite -- \[ha]income --add-posting \[aq](liabilities:tax) *.33\[aq]
$ hledger rewrite -- expenses:gifts --add-posting \[aq](budget:gifts) *-1\[dq]\[aq]
$ hledger rewrite -- \[ha]income --add-posting \[aq](budget:foreign currency) *0.25 JPY; diversify\[aq]
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Argument for \f[C]--add-posting\f[R] option is a usual posting of
transaction with an exception for amount specification.
More precisely, you can use \f[C]\[aq]*\[aq]\f[R] (star symbol) before
the amount to indicate that that this is a factor for an amount of
original matched posting.
If the amount includes a commodity name, the new posting amount will be
in the new commodity; otherwise, it will be in the matched posting
amount\[aq]s commodity.
.SS Re-write rules in a file
.PP
During the run this tool will execute so called \[dq]Automated
Transactions\[dq] found in any journal it process.
I.e instead of specifying this operations in command line you can put
them in a journal file.
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ rewrite-rules.journal
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Make contents look like this:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
= \[ha]income
(liabilities:tax) *.33
= expenses:gifts
budget:gifts *-1
assets:budget *1
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Note that \f[C]\[aq]=\[aq]\f[R] (equality symbol) that is used instead
of date in transactions you usually write.
It indicates the query by which you want to match the posting to add new
ones.
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger rewrite -- -f input.journal -f rewrite-rules.journal > rewritten-tidy-output.journal
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
This is something similar to the commands pipeline:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger rewrite -- -f input.journal \[aq]\[ha]income\[aq] --add-posting \[aq](liabilities:tax) *.33\[aq] \[rs]
| hledger rewrite -- -f - expenses:gifts --add-posting \[aq]budget:gifts *-1\[aq] \[rs]
--add-posting \[aq]assets:budget *1\[aq] \[rs]
> rewritten-tidy-output.journal
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
It is important to understand that relative order of such entries in
journal is important.
You can re-use result of previously added postings.
.SS Diff output format
.PP
To use this tool for batch modification of your journal files you may
find useful output in form of unified diff.
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger rewrite -- --diff -f examples/sample.journal \[aq]\[ha]income\[aq] --add-posting \[aq](liabilities:tax) *.33\[aq]
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Output might look like:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
--- /tmp/examples/sample.journal
+++ /tmp/examples/sample.journal
\[at]\[at] -18,3 +18,4 \[at]\[at]
2008/01/01 income
- assets:bank:checking $1
+ assets:bank:checking $1
income:salary
+ (liabilities:tax) 0
\[at]\[at] -22,3 +23,4 \[at]\[at]
2008/06/01 gift
- assets:bank:checking $1
+ assets:bank:checking $1
income:gifts
+ (liabilities:tax) 0
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
If you\[aq]ll pass this through \f[C]patch\f[R] tool you\[aq]ll get
transactions containing the posting that matches your query be updated.
Note that multiple files might be update according to list of input
files specified via \f[C]--file\f[R] options and \f[C]include\f[R]
directives inside of these files.
.PP
Be careful.
Whole transaction being re-formatted in a style of output from
\f[C]hledger print\f[R].
.PP
See also:
.PP
https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/issues/99
.SS rewrite vs. print --auto
.PP
This command predates print --auto, and currently does much the same
thing, but with these differences:
.IP \[bu] 2
with multiple files, rewrite lets rules in any file affect all other
files.
print --auto uses standard directive scoping; rules affect only child
files.
.IP \[bu] 2
rewrite\[aq]s query limits which transactions can be rewritten; all are
printed.
print --auto\[aq]s query limits which transactions are printed.
.IP \[bu] 2
rewrite applies rules specified on command line or in the journal.
print --auto applies rules specified in the journal.
.SS roi
.PP
roi
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Shows the time-weighted (TWR) and money-weighted (IRR) rate of return on
your investments.
.PP
At a minimum, you need to supply a query (which could be just an account
name) to select your investment(s) with \f[C]--inv\f[R], and another
query to identify your profit and loss transactions with
\f[C]--pnl\f[R].
.PP
If you do not record changes in the value of your investment manually,
or do not require computation of time-weighted return (TWR),
\f[C]--pnl\f[R] could be an empty query (\f[C]--pnl \[dq]\[dq]\f[R] or
\f[C]--pnl STR\f[R] where \f[C]STR\f[R] does not match any of your
accounts).
.PP
This command will compute and display the internalized rate of return
(IRR) and time-weighted rate of return (TWR) for your investments for
the time period requested.
Both rates of return are annualized before display, regardless of the
length of reporting interval.
.PP
Price directives will be taken into account if you supply appropriate
\f[C]--cost\f[R] or \f[C]--value\f[R] flags (see VALUATION).
.PP
Note, in some cases this report can fail, for these reasons:
.IP \[bu] 2
Error (NotBracketed): No solution for Internal Rate of Return (IRR).
Possible causes: IRR is huge (>1000000%), balance of investment becomes
negative at some point in time.
.IP \[bu] 2
Error (SearchFailed): Failed to find solution for Internal Rate of
Return (IRR).
Either search does not converge to a solution, or converges too slowly.
.PP
Examples:
.IP \[bu] 2
Using roi to compute total return of investment in stocks:
https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/blob/master/examples/roi-unrealised.ledger
.IP \[bu] 2
Cookbook -> Return on Investment
.SS Spaces and special characters in \f[C]--inv\f[R] and \f[C]--pnl\f[R]
.PP
Note that \f[C]--inv\f[R] and \f[C]--pnl\f[R]\[aq]s argument is a query,
and queries could have several space-separated terms (see QUERIES).
.PP
To indicate that all search terms form single command-line argument, you
will need to put them in quotes (see Special characters):
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger roi --inv \[aq]term1 term2 term3 ...\[aq]
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
If any query terms contain spaces themselves, you will need an extra
level of nested quoting, eg:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger roi --inv=\[dq]\[aq]Assets:Test 1\[aq]\[dq] --pnl=\[dq]\[aq]Equity:Unrealized Profit and Loss\[aq]\[dq]
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Semantics of \f[C]--inv\f[R] and \f[C]--pnl\f[R]
.PP
Query supplied to \f[C]--inv\f[R] has to match all transactions that are
related to your investment.
Transactions not matching \f[C]--inv\f[R] will be ignored.
.PP
In these transactions, ROI will conside postings that match
\f[C]--inv\f[R] to be \[dq]investment postings\[dq] and other postings
(not matching \f[C]--inv\f[R]) will be sorted into two categories:
\[dq]cash flow\[dq] and \[dq]profit and loss\[dq], as ROI needs to know
which part of the investment value is your contributions and which is
due to the return on investment.
.IP \[bu] 2
\[dq]Cash flow\[dq] is depositing or withdrawing money, buying or
selling assets, or otherwise converting between your investment
commodity and any other commodity.
Example:
.RS 2
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2019-01-01 Investing in Snake Oil
assets:cash -$100
investment:snake oil
2020-01-01 Selling my Snake Oil
assets:cash $10
investment:snake oil = 0
\f[R]
.fi
.RE
.IP \[bu] 2
\[dq]Profit and loss\[dq] is change in the value of your investment:
.RS 2
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2019-06-01 Snake Oil falls in value
investment:snake oil = $57
equity:unrealized profit or loss
\f[R]
.fi
.RE
.PP
All non-investment postings are assumed to be \[dq]cash flow\[dq],
unless they match \f[C]--pnl\f[R] query.
Changes in value of your investment due to \[dq]profit and loss\[dq]
postings will be considered as part of your investment return.
.PP
Example: if you use \f[C]--inv snake --pnl equity:unrealized\f[R], then
postings in the example below would be classifed as:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2019-01-01 Snake Oil #1
assets:cash -$100 ; cash flow posting
investment:snake oil ; investment posting
2019-03-01 Snake Oil #2
equity:unrealized pnl -$100 ; profit and loss posting
snake oil ; investment posting
2019-07-01 Snake Oil #3
equity:unrealized pnl ; profit and loss posting
cash -$100 ; cash flow posting
snake oil $50 ; investment posting
\f[R]
.fi
.SS IRR and TWR explained
.PP
\[dq]ROI\[dq] stands for \[dq]return on investment\[dq].
Traditionally this was computed as a difference between current value of
investment and its initial value, expressed in percentage of the initial
value.
.PP
However, this approach is only practical in simple cases, where
investments receives no in-flows or out-flows of money, and where rate
of growth is fixed over time.
For more complex scenarios you need different ways to compute rate of
return, and this command implements two of them: IRR and TWR.
.PP
Internal rate of return, or \[dq]IRR\[dq] (also called
\[dq]money-weighted rate of return\[dq]) takes into account effects of
in-flows and out-flows.
Naively, if you are withdrawing from your investment, your future gains
would be smaller (in absolute numbers), and will be a smaller percentage
of your initial investment, and if you are adding to your investment,
you will receive bigger absolute gains (but probably at the same rate of
return).
IRR is a way to compute rate of return for each period between in-flow
or out-flow of money, and then combine them in a way that gives you a
compound annual rate of return that investment is expected to generate.
.PP
As mentioned before, in-flows and out-flows would be any cash that you
personally put in or withdraw, and for the \[dq]roi\[dq] command, these
are the postings that match the query in the\f[C]--inv\f[R] argument and
NOT match the query in the\f[C]--pnl\f[R] argument.
.PP
If you manually record changes in the value of your investment as
transactions that balance them against \[dq]profit and loss\[dq] (or
\[dq]unrealized gains\[dq]) account or use price directives, then in
order for IRR to compute the precise effect of your in-flows and
out-flows on the rate of return, you will need to record the value of
your investement on or close to the days when in- or out-flows occur.
.PP
In technical terms, IRR uses the same approach as computation of net
present value, and tries to find a discount rate that makes net present
value of all the cash flows of your investment to add up to zero.
This could be hard to wrap your head around, especially if you
haven\[aq]t done discounted cash flow analysis before.
Implementation of IRR in hledger should produce results that match the
\f[C]XIRR\f[R] formula in Excel.
.PP
Second way to compute rate of return that \f[C]roi\f[R] command
implements is called \[dq]time-weighted rate of return\[dq] or
\[dq]TWR\[dq].
Like IRR, it will also break the history of your investment into periods
between in-flows, out-flows and value changes, to compute rate of return
per each period and then a compound rate of return.
However, internal workings of TWR are quite different.
.PP
TWR represents your investment as an imaginary \[dq]unit fund\[dq] where
in-flows/ out-flows lead to buying or selling \[dq]units\[dq] of your
investment and changes in its value change the value of \[dq]investment
unit\[dq].
Change in \[dq]unit price\[dq] over the reporting period gives you rate
of return of your investment.
.PP
References: * Explanation of rate of return * Explanation of IRR *
Explanation of TWR * Examples of computing IRR and TWR and discussion of
the limitations of both metrics
.SS stats
.PP
stats
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Show journal and performance statistics.
.PP
The stats command displays summary information for the whole journal, or
a matched part of it.
With a reporting interval, it shows a report for each report period.
.PP
At the end, it shows (in the terminal) the overall run time and number
of transactions processed per second.
Note these are approximate and will vary based on machine, current load,
data size, hledger version, haskell lib versions, GHC version..
but they may be of interest.
The \f[C]stats\f[R] command\[aq]s run time is similar to that of a
single-column balance report.
.PP
Example:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger stats -f examples/1000x1000x10.journal
Main file : /Users/simon/src/hledger/examples/1000x1000x10.journal
Included files :
Transactions span : 2000-01-01 to 2002-09-27 (1000 days)
Last transaction : 2002-09-26 (6995 days ago)
Transactions : 1000 (1.0 per day)
Transactions last 30 days: 0 (0.0 per day)
Transactions last 7 days : 0 (0.0 per day)
Payees/descriptions : 1000
Accounts : 1000 (depth 10)
Commodities : 26 (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z)
Market prices : 1000 (A)
Run time : 0.12 s
Throughput : 8342 txns/s
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
This command also supports output destination and output format
selection.
.SS tags
.PP
tags
.PD 0
.P
.PD
List the unique tag names used in the journal.
With a TAGREGEX argument, only tag names matching the regular expression
(case insensitive) are shown.
With QUERY arguments, only transactions matching the query are
considered.
.PP
With the --values flag, the tags\[aq] unique values are listed instead.
.PP
With --parsed flag, all tags or values are shown in the order they are
parsed from the input data, including duplicates.
.PP
With -E/--empty, any blank/empty values will also be shown, otherwise
they are omitted.
.SS test
.PP
test
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Run built-in unit tests.
.PP
This command runs the unit tests built in to hledger and hledger-lib,
printing the results on stdout.
If any test fails, the exit code will be non-zero.
.PP
This is mainly used by hledger developers, but you can also use it to
sanity-check the installed hledger executable on your platform.
All tests are expected to pass - if you ever see a failure, please
report as a bug!
.PP
This command also accepts tasty test runner options, written after a --
(double hyphen).
Eg to run only the tests in Hledger.Data.Amount, with ANSI colour codes
disabled:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger test -- -pData.Amount --color=never
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
For help on these, see https://github.com/feuerbach/tasty#options
(\f[C]-- --help\f[R] currently doesn\[aq]t show them).
.SS About add-on commands
.PP
Add-on commands are programs or scripts in your PATH
.IP \[bu] 2
whose name starts with \f[C]hledger-\f[R]
.IP \[bu] 2
whose name ends with a recognised file extension:
\f[C].bat\f[R],\f[C].com\f[R],\f[C].exe\f[R],
\f[C].hs\f[R],\f[C].lhs\f[R],\f[C].pl\f[R],\f[C].py\f[R],\f[C].rb\f[R],\f[C].rkt\f[R],\f[C].sh\f[R]
or none
.IP \[bu] 2
and (on unix, mac) which are executable by the current user.
.PP
Add-ons are a relatively easy way to add local features or experiment
with new ideas.
They can be written in any language, but haskell scripts have a big
advantage: they can use the same hledger library functions that built-in
commands use for command-line options, parsing and reporting.
Some experimental/example add-on scripts can be found in the hledger
repo\[aq]s bin/ directory.
.PP
Note in a hledger command line, add-on command flags must have a double
dash (\f[C]--\f[R]) preceding them.
Eg you must write:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger web -- --serve
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
and not:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger web --serve
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
(because the \f[C]--serve\f[R] flag belongs to \f[C]hledger-web\f[R],
not \f[C]hledger\f[R]).
.PP
The \f[C]-h/--help\f[R] and \f[C]--version\f[R] flags don\[aq]t require
\f[C]--\f[R].
.PP
If you have any trouble with this, remember you can always run the
add-on program directly, eg:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger-web --serve
\f[R]
.fi
.SH JOURNAL FORMAT
.PP
hledger\[aq]s default file format, representing a General Journal.
.PP
hledger\[aq]s usual data source is a plain text file containing journal
entries in hledger journal format.
This file represents a standard accounting general journal.
I use file names ending in \f[C].journal\f[R], but that\[aq]s not
required.
The journal file contains a number of transaction entries, each
describing a transfer of money (or any commodity) between two or more
named accounts, in a simple format readable by both hledger and humans.
.PP
hledger\[aq]s journal format is a compatible subset, mostly, of
ledger\[aq]s journal format, so hledger can work with compatible ledger
journal files as well.
It\[aq]s safe, and encouraged, to run both hledger and ledger on the
same journal file, eg to validate the results you\[aq]re getting.
.PP
You can use hledger without learning any more about this file; just use
the add or web or import commands to create and update it.
.PP
Many users, though, edit the journal file with a text editor, and track
changes with a version control system such as git.
Editor addons such as ledger-mode or hledger-mode for Emacs, vim-ledger
for Vim, and hledger-vscode for Visual Studio Code, make this easier,
adding colour, formatting, tab completion, and useful commands.
See Editor configuration at hledger.org for the full list.
.PP
Here\[aq]s a description of each part of the file format (and
hledger\[aq]s data model).
These are mostly in the order you\[aq]ll use them, but in some cases
related concepts have been grouped together for easy reference, or
linked before they are introduced, so feel free to skip over anything
that looks unnecessary right now.
.SS Transactions
.PP
Transactions are the main unit of information in a journal file.
They represent events, typically a movement of some quantity of
commodities between two or more named accounts.
.PP
Each transaction is recorded as a journal entry, beginning with a simple
date in column 0.
This can be followed by any of the following optional fields, separated
by spaces:
.IP \[bu] 2
a status character (empty, \f[C]!\f[R], or \f[C]*\f[R])
.IP \[bu] 2
a code (any short number or text, enclosed in parentheses)
.IP \[bu] 2
a description (any remaining text until end of line or a semicolon)
.IP \[bu] 2
a comment (any remaining text following a semicolon until end of line,
and any following indented lines beginning with a semicolon)
.IP \[bu] 2
0 or more indented \f[I]posting\f[R] lines, describing what was
transferred and the accounts involved (indented comment lines are also
allowed, but not blank lines or non-indented lines).
.PP
Here\[aq]s a simple journal file containing one transaction:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2008/01/01 income
assets:bank:checking $1
income:salary $-1
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Dates
.SS Simple dates
.PP
Dates in the journal file use \f[I]simple dates\f[R] format:
\f[C]YYYY-MM-DD\f[R] or \f[C]YYYY/MM/DD\f[R] or \f[C]YYYY.MM.DD\f[R],
with leading zeros optional.
The year may be omitted, in which case it will be inferred from the
context: the current transaction, the default year set with a default
year directive, or the current date when the command is run.
Some examples: \f[C]2010-01-31\f[R], \f[C]2010/01/31\f[R],
\f[C]2010.1.31\f[R], \f[C]1/31\f[R].
.PP
(The UI also accepts simple dates, as well as the more flexible smart
dates documented in the hledger manual.)
.SS Secondary dates
.PP
Real-life transactions sometimes involve more than one date - eg the
date you write a cheque, and the date it clears in your bank.
When you want to model this, for more accurate daily balances, you can
specify individual posting dates.
.PP
Or, you can use the older \f[I]secondary date\f[R] feature (Ledger calls
it auxiliary date or effective date).
Note: we support this for compatibility, but I usually recommend
avoiding this feature; posting dates are almost always clearer and
simpler.
.PP
A secondary date is written after the primary date, following an equals
sign.
If the year is omitted, the primary date\[aq]s year is assumed.
When running reports, the primary (left) date is used by default, but
with the \f[C]--date2\f[R] flag (or \f[C]--aux-date\f[R] or
\f[C]--effective\f[R]), the secondary (right) date will be used instead.
.PP
The meaning of secondary dates is up to you, but it\[aq]s best to follow
a consistent rule.
Eg \[dq]primary = the bank\[aq]s clearing date, secondary = date the
transaction was initiated, if different\[dq], as shown here:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2010/2/23=2/19 movie ticket
expenses:cinema $10
assets:checking
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger register checking
2010-02-23 movie ticket assets:checking $-10 $-10
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger register checking --date2
2010-02-19 movie ticket assets:checking $-10 $-10
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Posting dates
.PP
You can give individual postings a different date from their parent
transaction, by adding a posting comment containing a tag (see below)
like \f[C]date:DATE\f[R].
This is probably the best way to control posting dates precisely.
Eg in this example the expense should appear in May reports, and the
deduction from checking should be reported on 6/1 for easy bank
reconciliation:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2015/5/30
expenses:food $10 ; food purchased on saturday 5/30
assets:checking ; bank cleared it on monday, date:6/1
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f t.j register food
2015-05-30 expenses:food $10 $10
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f t.j register checking
2015-06-01 assets:checking $-10 $-10
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
DATE should be a simple date; if the year is not specified it will use
the year of the transaction\[aq]s date.
You can set the secondary date similarly, with \f[C]date2:DATE2\f[R].
The \f[C]date:\f[R] or \f[C]date2:\f[R] tags must have a valid simple
date value if they are present, eg a \f[C]date:\f[R] tag with no value
is not allowed.
.PP
Ledger\[aq]s earlier, more compact bracketed date syntax is also
supported: \f[C][DATE]\f[R], \f[C][DATE=DATE2]\f[R] or
\f[C][=DATE2]\f[R].
hledger will attempt to parse any square-bracketed sequence of the
\f[C]0123456789/-.=\f[R] characters in this way.
With this syntax, DATE infers its year from the transaction and DATE2
infers its year from DATE.
.SS Status
.PP
Transactions, or individual postings within a transaction, can have a
status mark, which is a single character before the transaction
description or posting account name, separated from it by a space,
indicating one of three statuses:
.PP
.TS
tab(@);
l l.
T{
mark \
T}@T{
status
T}
_
T{
\
T}@T{
unmarked
T}
T{
\f[C]!\f[R]
T}@T{
pending
T}
T{
\f[C]*\f[R]
T}@T{
cleared
T}
.TE
.PP
When reporting, you can filter by status with the
\f[C]-U/--unmarked\f[R], \f[C]-P/--pending\f[R], and
\f[C]-C/--cleared\f[R] flags; or the \f[C]status:\f[R],
\f[C]status:!\f[R], and \f[C]status:*\f[R] queries; or the U, P, C keys
in hledger-ui.
.PP
Note, in Ledger and in older versions of hledger, the \[dq]unmarked\[dq]
state is called \[dq]uncleared\[dq].
As of hledger 1.3 we have renamed it to unmarked for clarity.
.PP
To replicate Ledger and old hledger\[aq]s behaviour of also matching
pending, combine -U and -P.
.PP
Status marks are optional, but can be helpful eg for reconciling with
real-world accounts.
Some editor modes provide highlighting and shortcuts for working with
status.
Eg in Emacs ledger-mode, you can toggle transaction status with C-c C-e,
or posting status with C-c C-c.
.PP
What \[dq]uncleared\[dq], \[dq]pending\[dq], and \[dq]cleared\[dq]
actually mean is up to you.
Here\[aq]s one suggestion:
.PP
.TS
tab(@);
lw(9.7n) lw(60.3n).
T{
status
T}@T{
meaning
T}
_
T{
uncleared
T}@T{
recorded but not yet reconciled; needs review
T}
T{
pending
T}@T{
tentatively reconciled (if needed, eg during a big reconciliation)
T}
T{
cleared
T}@T{
complete, reconciled as far as possible, and considered correct
T}
.TE
.PP
With this scheme, you would use \f[C]-PC\f[R] to see the current balance
at your bank, \f[C]-U\f[R] to see things which will probably hit your
bank soon (like uncashed checks), and no flags to see the most
up-to-date state of your finances.
.SS Code
.PP
After the status mark, but before the description, you can optionally
write a transaction \[dq]code\[dq], enclosed in parentheses.
This is a good place to record a check number, or some other important
transaction id or reference number.
.SS Description
.PP
A transaction\[aq]s description is the rest of the line following the
date and status mark (or until a comment begins).
Sometimes called the \[dq]narration\[dq] in traditional bookkeeping, it
can be used for whatever you wish, or left blank.
Transaction descriptions can be queried, unlike comments.
.SS Payee and note
.PP
You can optionally include a \f[C]|\f[R] (pipe) character in
descriptions to subdivide the description into separate fields for
payee/payer name on the left (up to the first \f[C]|\f[R]) and an
additional note field on the right (after the first \f[C]|\f[R]).
This may be worthwhile if you need to do more precise querying and
pivoting by payee or by note.
.SS Comments
.PP
Lines in the journal beginning with a semicolon (\f[C];\f[R]) or hash
(\f[C]#\f[R]) or star (\f[C]*\f[R]) are comments, and will be ignored.
(Star comments cause org-mode nodes to be ignored, allowing emacs users
to fold and navigate their journals with org-mode or orgstruct-mode.)
.PP
You can attach comments to a transaction by writing them after the
description and/or indented on the following lines (before the
postings).
Similarly, you can attach comments to an individual posting by writing
them after the amount and/or indented on the following lines.
Transaction and posting comments must begin with a semicolon
(\f[C];\f[R]).
.PP
Some examples:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
# a file comment
; another file comment
* also a file comment, useful in org/orgstruct mode
comment
A multiline file comment, which continues
until a line containing just \[dq]end comment\[dq]
(or end of file).
end comment
2012/5/14 something ; a transaction comment
; the transaction comment, continued
posting1 1 ; a comment for posting 1
posting2
; a comment for posting 2
; another comment line for posting 2
; a file comment (because not indented)
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
You can also comment larger regions of a file using \f[C]comment\f[R]
and \f[C]end comment\f[R] directives.
.SS Tags
.PP
Tags are a way to add extra labels or labelled data to postings and
transactions, which you can then search or pivot on.
.PP
A simple tag is a word (which may contain hyphens) followed by a full
colon, written inside a transaction or posting comment line:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2017/1/16 bought groceries ; sometag:
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Tags can have a value, which is the text after the colon, up to the next
comma or end of line, with leading/trailing whitespace removed:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
expenses:food $10 ; a-posting-tag: the tag value
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Note this means hledger\[aq]s tag values can not contain commas or
newlines.
Ending at commas means you can write multiple short tags on one line,
comma separated:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
assets:checking ; a comment containing tag1:, tag2: some value ...
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Here,
.IP \[bu] 2
\[dq]\f[C]a comment containing\f[R]\[dq] is just comment text, not a tag
.IP \[bu] 2
\[dq]\f[C]tag1\f[R]\[dq] is a tag with no value
.IP \[bu] 2
\[dq]\f[C]tag2\f[R]\[dq] is another tag, whose value is
\[dq]\f[C]some value ...\f[R]\[dq]
.PP
Tags in a transaction comment affect the transaction and all of its
postings, while tags in a posting comment affect only that posting.
For example, the following transaction has three tags (\f[C]A\f[R],
\f[C]TAG2\f[R], \f[C]third-tag\f[R]) and the posting has four (those
plus \f[C]posting-tag\f[R]):
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
1/1 a transaction ; A:, TAG2:
; third-tag: a third transaction tag, <- with a value
(a) $1 ; posting-tag:
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Tags are like Ledger\[aq]s metadata feature, except hledger\[aq]s tag
values are simple strings.
.SS Postings
.PP
A posting is an addition of some amount to, or removal of some amount
from, an account.
Each posting line begins with at least one space or tab (2 or 4 spaces
is common), followed by:
.IP \[bu] 2
(optional) a status character (empty, \f[C]!\f[R], or \f[C]*\f[R]),
followed by a space
.IP \[bu] 2
(required) an account name (any text, optionally containing \f[B]single
spaces\f[R], until end of line or a double space)
.IP \[bu] 2
(optional) \f[B]two or more spaces\f[R] or tabs followed by an amount.
.PP
Positive amounts are being added to the account, negative amounts are
being removed.
.PP
The amounts within a transaction must always sum up to zero.
As a convenience, one amount may be left blank; it will be inferred so
as to balance the transaction.
.PP
Be sure to note the unusual two-space delimiter between account name and
amount.
This makes it easy to write account names containing spaces.
But if you accidentally leave only one space (or tab) before the amount,
the amount will be considered part of the account name.
.SS Virtual postings
.PP
A posting with a parenthesised account name is called a \f[I]virtual
posting\f[R] or \f[I]unbalanced posting\f[R], which means it is exempt
from the usual rule that a transaction\[aq]s postings must balance add
up to zero.
.PP
This is not part of double entry accounting, so you might choose to
avoid this feature.
Or you can use it sparingly for certain special cases where it can be
convenient.
Eg, you could set opening balances without using a balancing equity
account:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
1/1 opening balances
(assets:checking) $1000
(assets:savings) $2000
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
A posting with a bracketed account name is called a \f[I]balanced
virtual posting\f[R].
The balanced virtual postings in a transaction must add up to zero
(separately from other postings).
Eg:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
1/1 buy food with cash, update budget envelope subaccounts, & something else
assets:cash $-10 ; <- these balance
expenses:food $7 ; <-
expenses:food $3 ; <-
[assets:checking:budget:food] $-10 ; <- and these balance
[assets:checking:available] $10 ; <-
(something:else) $5 ; <- not required to balance
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Ordinary non-parenthesised, non-bracketed postings are called \f[I]real
postings\f[R].
You can exclude virtual postings from reports with the
\f[C]-R/--real\f[R] flag or \f[C]real:1\f[R] query.
.SS Account names
.PP
Account names typically have several parts separated by a full colon,
from which hledger derives a hierarchical chart of accounts.
They can be anything you like, but in finance there are traditionally
five top-level accounts: \f[C]assets\f[R], \f[C]liabilities\f[R],
\f[C]revenue\f[R], \f[C]expenses\f[R], and \f[C]equity\f[R].
.PP
Account names may contain single spaces, eg:
\f[C]assets:accounts receivable\f[R].
Because of this, they must always be followed by \f[B]two or more
spaces\f[R] (or newline).
.PP
Account names can be aliased.
.SS Amounts
.PP
After the account name, there is usually an amount.
(Important: between account name and amount, there must be \f[B]two or
more spaces\f[R].)
.PP
hledger\[aq]s amount format is flexible, supporting several
international formats.
Here are some examples.
Amounts have a number (the \[dq]quantity\[dq]):
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
1
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
\&..and usually a currency symbol or commodity name (more on this
below), to the left or right of the quantity, with or without a
separating space:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$1
4000 AAPL
3 \[dq]green apples\[dq]
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Amounts can be preceded by a minus sign (or a plus sign, though plus is
the default), The sign can be written before or after a left-side
commodity symbol:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
-$1
$-1
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
One or more spaces between the sign and the number are acceptable when
parsing (but they won\[aq]t be displayed in output):
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
+ $1
$- 1
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Scientific E notation is allowed:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
1E-6
EUR 1E3
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Decimal marks, digit group marks
.PP
A \f[I]decimal mark\f[R] can be written as a period or a comma:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
1.23
1,23456780000009
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
In the integer part of the quantity (left of the decimal mark), groups
of digits can optionally be separated by a \f[I]digit group mark\f[R] -
a space, comma, or period (different from the decimal mark):
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$1,000,000.00
EUR 2.000.000,00
INR 9,99,99,999.00
1 000 000.9455
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Note, a number containing a single digit group mark and no decimal mark
is ambiguous.
Are these digit group marks or decimal marks ?
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
1,000
1.000
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
If you don\[aq]t tell it otherwise, hledger will assume both of the
above are decimal marks, parsing both numbers as 1.
.PP
To prevent confusing parsing mistakes and undetected typos, especially
if your data contains digit group marks (eg, thousands separators), we
recommend explicitly declaring the decimal mark character in each
journal file, using a directive at the top of the file.
The \f[C]decimal-mark\f[R] directive is best, otherwise
\f[C]commodity\f[R] directives will also work.
These are described detail below.
.SS Commodity
.PP
Amounts in hledger have both a \[dq]quantity\[dq], which is a signed
decimal number, and a \[dq]commodity\[dq], which is a currency symbol,
stock ticker, or any word or phrase describing something you are
tracking.
.PP
If the commodity name contains non-letters (spaces, numbers, or
punctuation), you must always write it inside double quotes
(\f[C]\[dq]green apples\[dq]\f[R], \f[C]\[dq]ABC123\[dq]\f[R]).
.PP
If you write just a bare number, that too will have a commodity, with
name \f[C]\[dq]\[dq]\f[R]; we call that the \[dq]no-symbol
commodity\[dq].
.PP
Actually, hledger combines these single-commodity amounts into more
powerful multi-commodity amounts, which are what it works with most of
the time.
A multi-commodity amount could be, eg:
\f[C]1 USD, 2 EUR, 3.456 TSLA\f[R].
In practice, you will only see multi-commodity amounts in hledger\[aq]s
output; you can\[aq]t write them directly in the journal file.
.PP
(If you are writing scripts or working with hledger\[aq]s internals,
these are the \f[C]Amount\f[R] and \f[C]MixedAmount\f[R] types.)
.SS Directives influencing number parsing and display
.PP
You can add \f[C]decimal-mark\f[R] and \f[C]commodity\f[R] directives to
the journal, to declare and control these things more explicitly and
precisely.
These are described below, in JOURNAL FORMAT -> Declaring commodities.
Here\[aq]s a quick example:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
# the decimal mark character used by all amounts in this file (all commodities)
decimal-mark .
# display styles for the $, EUR, INR and no-symbol commodities:
commodity $1,000.00
commodity EUR 1.000,00
commodity INR 9,99,99,999.00
commodity 1 000 000.9455
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
.SS Commodity display style
.PP
For the amounts in each commodity, hledger chooses a consistent display
style to use in most reports.
(Exceptions: price amounts, and all amounts displayed by the
\f[C]print\f[R] command, are displayed with all of their decimal digits
visible.)
.PP
A commodity\[aq]s display style is inferred as follows.
.PP
First, if a default commodity is declared with \f[C]D\f[R], this
commodity and its style is applied to any no-symbol amounts in the
journal.
.PP
Then each commodity\[aq]s style is inferred from one of the following,
in order of preference:
.IP \[bu] 2
The commodity directive for that commodity (including the no-symbol
commodity), if any.
.IP \[bu] 2
The amounts in that commodity seen in the journal\[aq]s transactions.
(Posting amounts only; prices and periodic or auto rules are ignored,
currently.)
.IP \[bu] 2
The built-in fallback style, which looks like this: \f[C]$1000.00\f[R].
(Symbol on the left, period decimal mark, two decimal places.)
.PP
A style is inferred from journal amounts as follows:
.IP \[bu] 2
Use the general style (decimal mark, symbol placement) of the first
amount
.IP \[bu] 2
Use the first-seen digit group style (digit group mark, digit group
sizes), if any
.IP \[bu] 2
Use the maximum number of decimal places of all.
.PP
Transaction price amounts don\[aq]t affect the commodity display style
directly, but occasionally they can do so indirectly (eg when a
posting\[aq]s amount is inferred using a transaction price).
If you find this causing problems, use a commodity directive to fix the
display style.
.PP
To summarise: each commodity\[aq]s amounts will be normalised to (a) the
style declared by a \f[C]commodity\f[R] directive, or (b) the style of
the first posting amount in the journal, with the first-seen digit group
style and the maximum-seen number of decimal places.
So if your reports are showing amounts in a way you don\[aq]t like, eg
with too many decimal places, use a commodity directive.
Some examples:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
# declare euro, dollar, bitcoin and no-symbol commodities and set their
# input number formats and output display styles:
commodity EUR 1.000,
commodity $1000.00
commodity 1000.00000000 BTC
commodity 1 000.
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
The inferred commodity style can be overridden by supplying a command
line option.
.SS Rounding
.PP
Amounts are stored internally as decimal numbers with up to 255 decimal
places, and displayed with the number of decimal places specified by the
commodity display style.
Note, hledger uses banker\[aq]s rounding: it rounds to the nearest even
number, eg 0.5 displayed with zero decimal places is \[dq]0\[dq]).
(Guaranteed since hledger 1.17.1; in older versions this could vary if
hledger was built with Decimal < 0.5.1.)
.SS Transaction prices
.PP
Within a transaction, you can note an amount\[aq]s price in another
commodity.
This can be used to document the cost (in a purchase) or selling price
(in a sale).
For example, transaction prices are useful to record purchases of a
foreign currency.
Note transaction prices are fixed at the time of the transaction, and do
not change over time.
See also market prices, which represent prevailing exchange rates on a
certain date.
.PP
There are several ways to record a transaction price:
.IP "1." 3
Write the price per unit, as \f[C]\[at] UNITPRICE\f[R] after the amount:
.RS 4
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2009/1/1
assets:euros \[Eu]100 \[at] $1.35 ; one hundred euros purchased at $1.35 each
assets:dollars ; balancing amount is -$135.00
\f[R]
.fi
.RE
.IP "2." 3
Write the total price, as \f[C]\[at]\[at] TOTALPRICE\f[R] after the
amount:
.RS 4
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2009/1/1
assets:euros \[Eu]100 \[at]\[at] $135 ; one hundred euros purchased at $135 for the lot
assets:dollars
\f[R]
.fi
.RE
.IP "3." 3
Specify amounts for all postings, using exactly two commodities, and let
hledger infer the price that balances the transaction:
.RS 4
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2009/1/1
assets:euros \[Eu]100 ; one hundred euros purchased
assets:dollars $-135 ; for $135
\f[R]
.fi
.RE
.IP "4." 3
Like 1, but the \f[C]\[at]\f[R] is parenthesised, i.e.
\f[C](\[at])\f[R]; this is for compatibility with Ledger journals
(Virtual posting costs), and is equivalent to 1 in hledger.
.IP "5." 3
Like 2, but as in 4 the \f[C]\[at]\[at]\f[R] is parenthesised, i.e.
\f[C](\[at]\[at])\f[R]; in hledger, this is equivalent to 2.
.PP
Use the \f[C]-B/--cost\f[R] flag to convert amounts to their transaction
price\[aq]s commodity, if any.
(mnemonic: \[dq]B\[dq] is from \[dq]cost Basis\[dq], as in Ledger).
Eg here is how -B affects the balance report for the example above:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger bal -N --flat
$-135 assets:dollars
\[Eu]100 assets:euros
$ hledger bal -N --flat -B
$-135 assets:dollars
$135 assets:euros # <- the euros\[aq] cost
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Note -B is sensitive to the order of postings when a transaction price
is inferred: the inferred price will be in the commodity of the last
amount.
So if example 3\[aq]s postings are reversed, while the transaction is
equivalent, -B shows something different:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2009/1/1
assets:dollars $-135 ; 135 dollars sold
assets:euros \[Eu]100 ; for 100 euros
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger bal -N --flat -B
\[Eu]-100 assets:dollars # <- the dollars\[aq] selling price
\[Eu]100 assets:euros
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Lot prices, lot dates
.PP
Ledger allows another kind of price, lot price (four variants:
\f[C]{UNITPRICE}\f[R], \f[C]{{TOTALPRICE}}\f[R],
\f[C]{=FIXEDUNITPRICE}\f[R], \f[C]{{=FIXEDTOTALPRICE}}\f[R]), and/or a
lot date (\f[C][DATE]\f[R]) to be specified.
These are normally used to select a lot when selling investments.
hledger will parse these, for compatibility with Ledger journals, but
currently ignores them.
A transaction price, lot price and/or lot date may appear in any order,
after the posting amount and before the balance assertion if any.
.SS Balance assertions
.PP
hledger supports Ledger-style balance assertions in journal files.
These look like, for example, \f[C]= EXPECTEDBALANCE\f[R] following a
posting\[aq]s amount.
Eg here we assert the expected dollar balance in accounts a and b after
each posting:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2013/1/1
a $1 =$1
b =$-1
2013/1/2
a $1 =$2
b $-1 =$-2
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
After reading a journal file, hledger will check all balance assertions
and report an error if any of them fail.
Balance assertions can protect you from, eg, inadvertently disrupting
reconciled balances while cleaning up old entries.
You can disable them temporarily with the
\f[C]-I/--ignore-assertions\f[R] flag, which can be useful for
troubleshooting or for reading Ledger files.
(Note: this flag currently does not disable balance assignments, below).
.SS Assertions and ordering
.PP
hledger sorts an account\[aq]s postings and assertions first by date and
then (for postings on the same day) by parse order.
Note this is different from Ledger, which sorts assertions only by parse
order.
(Also, Ledger assertions do not see the accumulated effect of repeated
postings to the same account within a transaction.)
.PP
So, hledger balance assertions keep working if you reorder
differently-dated transactions within the journal.
But if you reorder same-dated transactions or postings, assertions might
break and require updating.
This order dependence does bring an advantage: precise control over the
order of postings and assertions within a day, so you can assert
intra-day balances.
.SS Assertions and included files
.PP
With included files, things are a little more complicated.
Including preserves the ordering of postings and assertions.
If you have multiple postings to an account on the same day, split
across different files, and you also want to assert the account\[aq]s
balance on the same day, you\[aq]ll have to put the assertion in the
right file.
.SS Assertions and multiple -f options
.PP
Balance assertions don\[aq]t work well across files specified with
multiple -f options.
Use include or concatenate the files instead.
.SS Assertions and commodities
.PP
The asserted balance must be a simple single-commodity amount, and in
fact the assertion checks only this commodity\[aq]s balance within the
(possibly multi-commodity) account balance.
This is how assertions work in Ledger also.
We could call this a \[dq]partial\[dq] balance assertion.
.PP
To assert the balance of more than one commodity in an account, you can
write multiple postings, each asserting one commodity\[aq]s balance.
.PP
You can make a stronger \[dq]total\[dq] balance assertion by writing a
double equals sign (\f[C]== EXPECTEDBALANCE\f[R]).
This asserts that there are no other unasserted commodities in the
account (or, that their balance is 0).
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2013/1/1
a $1
a 1\[Eu]
b $-1
c -1\[Eu]
2013/1/2 ; These assertions succeed
a 0 = $1
a 0 = 1\[Eu]
b 0 == $-1
c 0 == -1\[Eu]
2013/1/3 ; This assertion fails as \[aq]a\[aq] also contains 1\[Eu]
a 0 == $1
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
It\[aq]s not yet possible to make a complete assertion about a balance
that has multiple commodities.
One workaround is to isolate each commodity into its own subaccount:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2013/1/1
a:usd $1
a:euro 1\[Eu]
b
2013/1/2
a 0 == 0
a:usd 0 == $1
a:euro 0 == 1\[Eu]
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Assertions and prices
.PP
Balance assertions ignore transaction prices, and should normally be
written without one:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2019/1/1
(a) $1 \[at] \[Eu]1 = $1
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
We do allow prices to be written there, however, and print shows them,
even though they don\[aq]t affect whether the assertion passes or fails.
This is for backward compatibility (hledger\[aq]s close command used to
generate balance assertions with prices), and because balance
\f[I]assignments\f[R] do use them (see below).
.SS Assertions and subaccounts
.PP
The balance assertions above (\f[C]=\f[R] and \f[C]==\f[R]) do not count
the balance from subaccounts; they check the account\[aq]s exclusive
balance only.
You can assert the balance including subaccounts by writing \f[C]=*\f[R]
or \f[C]==*\f[R], eg:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2019/1/1
equity:opening balances
checking:a 5
checking:b 5
checking 1 ==* 11
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Assertions and virtual postings
.PP
Balance assertions are checked against all postings, both real and
virtual.
They are not affected by the \f[C]--real/-R\f[R] flag or \f[C]real:\f[R]
query.
.SS Assertions and precision
.PP
Balance assertions compare the exactly calculated amounts, which are not
always what is shown by reports.
Eg a commodity directive may limit the display precision, but this will
not affect balance assertions.
Balance assertion failure messages show exact amounts.
.SS Balance assignments
.PP
Ledger-style balance assignments are also supported.
These are like balance assertions, but with no posting amount on the
left side of the equals sign; instead it is calculated automatically so
as to satisfy the assertion.
This can be a convenience during data entry, eg when setting opening
balances:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
; starting a new journal, set asset account balances
2016/1/1 opening balances
assets:checking = $409.32
assets:savings = $735.24
assets:cash = $42
equity:opening balances
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
or when adjusting a balance to reality:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
; no cash left; update balance, record any untracked spending as a generic expense
2016/1/15
assets:cash = $0
expenses:misc
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
The calculated amount depends on the account\[aq]s balance in the
commodity at that point (which depends on the previously-dated postings
of the commodity to that account since the last balance assertion or
assignment).
Note that using balance assignments makes your journal a little less
explicit; to know the exact amount posted, you have to run hledger or do
the calculations yourself, instead of just reading it.
.SS Balance assignments and prices
.PP
A transaction price in a balance assignment will cause the calculated
amount to have that price attached:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2019/1/1
(a) = $1 \[at] \[Eu]2
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger print --explicit
2019-01-01
(a) $1 \[at] \[Eu]2 = $1 \[at] \[Eu]2
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Directives
.PP
A directive is a line in the journal beginning with a special keyword,
that influences how the journal is processed, how things are displayed,
and so on.
hledger\[aq]s directives are based on (a subset of) Ledger\[aq]s, but
there are many differences, and also some differences between hledger
versions.
Here are some more definitions:
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[I]subdirective\f[R] - Some directives support subdirectives, written
indented below the parent directive.
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[I]decimal mark\f[R] - The character to interpret as a decimal mark
(period or comma) when parsing amounts of a commodity.
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[I]display style\f[R] - How to display amounts of a commodity in
output: symbol side and spacing, digit groups, decimal mark, and number
of decimal places.
.PP
Directives are not required when starting out with hledger, but you will
probably add some as your needs grow.
Here is an overview of directives by purpose:
.PP
.TS
tab(@);
lw(30.6n) lw(22.0n) lw(17.4n).
T{
purpose
T}@T{
directives
T}@T{
command line options with similar effect
T}
_
T{
\f[B]READING/GENERATING DATA:\f[R]
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}
T{
Declare a commodity\[aq]s or file\[aq]s decimal mark to help parse
amounts accurately
T}@T{
\f[C]commodity\f[R], \f[C]D\f[R], \f[C]decimal-mark\f[R]
T}@T{
T}
T{
Apply changes to the data while parsing
T}@T{
\f[C]alias\f[R], \f[C]apply account\f[R], \f[C]comment\f[R],
\f[C]D\f[R], \f[C]Y\f[R]
T}@T{
\f[C]--alias\f[R]
T}
T{
Inline extra data files
T}@T{
\f[C]include\f[R]
T}@T{
multiple \f[C]-f/--file\f[R]\[aq]s
T}
T{
Generate extra transactions or budget goals
T}@T{
\f[C]\[ti]\f[R]
T}@T{
T}
T{
Generate extra postings
T}@T{
\f[C]=\f[R]
T}@T{
T}
T{
\f[B]CHECKING FOR ERRORS:\f[R]
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}
T{
Define valid entities to allow stricter error checking
T}@T{
\f[C]account\f[R], \f[C]commodity\f[R], \f[C]payee\f[R]
T}@T{
T}
T{
\f[B]DISPLAYING REPORTS:\f[R]
T}@T{
T}@T{
T}
T{
Declare accounts\[aq] display order and accounting type
T}@T{
\f[C]account\f[R]
T}@T{
T}
T{
Declare commodity display styles
T}@T{
\f[C]commodity\f[R], \f[C]D\f[R]
T}@T{
\f[C]-c/--commodity-style\f[R]
T}
.TE
.PP
And here are all the directives and their precise effects:
.PP
.TS
tab(@);
lw(4.9n) lw(61.1n) lw(4.0n).
T{
directive
T}@T{
effects
T}@T{
ends at file end?
T}
_
T{
\f[B]\f[CB]account\f[B]\f[R]
T}@T{
Declares an account, for checking all entries in all files; and its
display order and type, for reports.
Subdirectives: any text, ignored.
T}@T{
T}
T{
\f[B]\f[CB]alias\f[B]\f[R]
T}@T{
Rewrites account names, in following entries until end of current file
or \f[C]end aliases\f[R].
T}@T{
Y
T}
T{
\f[B]\f[CB]apply account\f[B]\f[R]
T}@T{
Prepends a common parent account to all account names, in following
entries until end of current file or \f[C]end apply account\f[R].
T}@T{
Y
T}
T{
\f[B]\f[CB]comment\f[B]\f[R]
T}@T{
Ignores part of the journal file, until end of current file or
\f[C]end comment\f[R].
T}@T{
Y
T}
T{
\f[B]\f[CB]commodity\f[B]\f[R]
T}@T{
Declares a commodity, for checking all entries in all files; the decimal
mark for parsing amounts of this commodity, for following entries until
end of current file; and its display style, for reports.
Takes precedence over \f[C]D\f[R].
Subdirectives: \f[C]format\f[R] (alternate syntax).
T}@T{
N, Y
T}
T{
\f[B]\f[CB]D\f[B]\f[R]
T}@T{
Sets a default commodity to use for no-symbol amounts, and its decimal
mark for parsing amounts of this commodity in following entries until
end of current file; and its display style, for reports.
T}@T{
Y
T}
T{
\f[B]\f[CB]decimal-mark\f[B]\f[R]
T}@T{
Declares the decimal mark, for parsing amounts of all commodities in
following entries until next \f[C]decimal-mark\f[R] or end of current
file.
Included files can override.
Takes precedence over \f[C]commodity\f[R] and \f[C]D\f[R].
T}@T{
Y
T}
T{
\f[B]\f[CB]include\f[B]\f[R]
T}@T{
Includes entries and directives from another file, as if they were
written inline.
T}@T{
T}
T{
\f[B]\f[CB]payee\f[B]\f[R]
T}@T{
Declares a payee name, for checking all entries in all files.
T}@T{
T}
T{
\f[B]\f[CB]P\f[B]\f[R]
T}@T{
Declares a market price for a commodity on some date, for valuation
reports.
T}@T{
T}
T{
\f[B]\f[CB]Y\f[B]\f[R]
T}@T{
Declares a year for yearless dates, for following entries until end of
current file.
T}@T{
Y
T}
T{
\f[B]\f[CB]\[ti]\f[B]\f[R] (tilde)
T}@T{
Declares a periodic transaction rule that generates future transactions
with \f[C]--forecast\f[R] and budget goals with
\f[C]balance --budget\f[R].
T}@T{
T}
T{
\f[B]\f[CB]=\f[B]\f[R] (equals)
T}@T{
Declares an auto posting rule that generates extra postings on matched
transactions with \f[C]--auto\f[R], in current, parent, and child files
(but not sibling files, see #1212).
T}@T{
partly
T}
.TE
.SS Directives and multiple files
.PP
If you use multiple \f[C]-f\f[R]/\f[C]--file\f[R] options, or the
\f[C]include\f[R] directive, hledger will process multiple input files.
But directives which affect input typically have effect only until the
end of the file in which they occur (and on any included files in that
region).
.PP
This may seem inconvenient, but it\[aq]s intentional; it makes reports
stable and deterministic, independent of the order of input.
Otherwise you could see different numbers if you happened to write -f
options in a different order, or if you moved includes around while
cleaning up your files.
.PP
It can be surprising though; for example, it means that \f[C]alias\f[R]
directives do not affect parent or sibling files (see below).
.SS Comment blocks
.PP
A line containing just \f[C]comment\f[R] starts a commented region of
the file, and a line containing just \f[C]end comment\f[R] (or the end
of the current file) ends it.
See also comments.
.SS Including other files
.PP
You can pull in the content of additional files by writing an include
directive, like this:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
include FILEPATH
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Only journal files can include, and only journal, timeclock or timedot
files can be included (not CSV files, currently).
.PP
If the file path does not begin with a slash, it is relative to the
current file\[aq]s folder.
.PP
A tilde means home directory, eg: \f[C]include \[ti]/main.journal\f[R].
.PP
The path may contain glob patterns to match multiple files, eg:
\f[C]include *.journal\f[R].
.PP
There is limited support for recursive wildcards: \f[C]**/\f[R] (the
slash is required) matches 0 or more subdirectories.
It\[aq]s not super convenient since you have to avoid include cycles and
including directories, but this can be done, eg:
\f[C]include */**/*.journal\f[R].
.PP
The path may also be prefixed to force a specific file format,
overriding the file extension (as described in hledger.1 -> Input
files): \f[C]include timedot:\[ti]/notes/2020*.md\f[R].
.SS Default year
.PP
You can set a default year to be used for subsequent dates which
don\[aq]t specify a year.
This is a line beginning with \f[C]Y\f[R] followed by the year.
Eg:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
Y2009 ; set default year to 2009
12/15 ; equivalent to 2009/12/15
expenses 1
assets
Y2010 ; change default year to 2010
2009/1/30 ; specifies the year, not affected
expenses 1
assets
1/31 ; equivalent to 2010/1/31
expenses 1
assets
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Declaring payees
.PP
The \f[C]payee\f[R] directive can be used to declare a limited set of
payees which may appear in transaction descriptions.
The \[dq]payees\[dq] check will report an error if any transaction
refers to a payee that has not been declared.
Eg:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
payee Whole Foods
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Declaring the decimal mark
.PP
You can use a \f[C]decimal-mark\f[R] directive - usually one per file,
at the top of the file - to declare which character represents a decimal
mark when parsing amounts in this file.
It can look like
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
decimal-mark .
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
or
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
decimal-mark ,
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
This prevents any ambiguity when parsing numbers in the file, so we
recommend it, especially if the file contains digit group marks (eg
thousands separators).
.SS Declaring commodities
.PP
You can use \f[C]commodity\f[R] directives to declare your commodities.
In fact the \f[C]commodity\f[R] directive performs several functions at
once:
.IP "1." 3
It declares commodities which may be used in the journal.
This can optionally be enforced, providing useful error checking.
(Cf Commodity error checking)
.IP "2." 3
It declares which decimal mark character (period or comma), to expect
when parsing input - useful to disambiguate international number formats
in your data.
Without this, hledger will parse both \f[C]1,000\f[R] and
\f[C]1.000\f[R] as 1.
(Cf Amounts)
.IP "3." 3
It declares how to render the commodity\[aq]s amounts when displaying
output - the decimal mark, any digit group marks, the number of decimal
places, symbol placement and so on.
(Cf Commodity display style)
.PP
You will run into one of the problems solved by commodity directives
sooner or later, so we recommend using them, for robust and predictable
parsing and display.
.PP
Generally you should put them at the top of your journal file (since for
function 2, they affect only following amounts, cf #793).
.PP
A commodity directive is just the word \f[C]commodity\f[R] followed by a
sample amount, like this:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
;commodity SAMPLEAMOUNT
commodity $1000.00
commodity 1,000.0000 AAAA ; optional same-line comment
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
It may also be written on multiple lines, and use the \f[C]format\f[R]
subdirective, as in Ledger.
Note in this case the commodity symbol appears twice; it must be the
same in both places:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
;commodity SYMBOL
; format SAMPLEAMOUNT
; display indian rupees with currency name on the left,
; thousands, lakhs and crores comma-separated,
; period as decimal point, and two decimal places.
commodity INR
format INR 1,00,00,000.00
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Remember that if the commodity symbol contains spaces, numbers, or
punctuation, it must be enclosed in double quotes (cf Commodity).
.PP
The amount\[aq]s quantity does not matter; only the format is
significant.
It must include a decimal mark - either a period or a comma - followed
by 0 or more decimal digits.
.PP
A few more examples:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
# number formats for $, EUR, INR and the no-symbol commodity:
commodity $1,000.00
commodity EUR 1.000,00
commodity INR 9,99,99,999.0
commodity 1 000 000.
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Note hledger normally uses banker\[aq]s rounding, so 0.5 displayed with
zero decimal digits is \[dq]0\[dq].
(More at Commodity display style.)
.PP
Even in the presence of commodity directives, the commodity display
style can still be overridden by supplying a command line option.
.SS Commodity error checking
.PP
In strict mode, enabled with the \f[C]-s\f[R]/\f[C]--strict\f[R] flag,
hledger will report an error if a commodity symbol is used that has not
been declared by a \f[C]commodity\f[R] directive.
This works similarly to account error checking, see the notes there for
more details.
.SS Default commodity
.PP
The \f[C]D\f[R] directive sets a default commodity, to be used for any
subsequent commodityless amounts (ie, plain numbers) seen while parsing
the journal.
This effect lasts until the next \f[C]D\f[R] directive, or the end of
the journal.
.PP
For compatibility/historical reasons, \f[C]D\f[R] also acts like a
\f[C]commodity\f[R] directive (setting the commodity\[aq]s decimal mark
for parsing and display style for output).
.PP
The syntax is \f[C]D AMOUNT\f[R].
As with \f[C]commodity\f[R], the amount must include a decimal mark
(either period or comma).
Eg:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
; commodity-less amounts should be treated as dollars
; (and displayed with the dollar sign on the left, thousands separators and two decimal places)
D $1,000.00
1/1
a 5 ; <- commodity-less amount, parsed as $5 and displayed as $5.00
b
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
If both \f[C]commodity\f[R] and \f[C]D\f[R] directives are found for a
commodity, \f[C]commodity\f[R] takes precedence for setting decimal mark
and display style.
.PP
If you are using \f[C]D\f[R] and also checking commodities, you will
need to add a \f[C]commodity\f[R] directive similar to the \f[C]D\f[R].
(The \f[C]hledger check commodities\f[R] command expects
\f[C]commodity\f[R] directives, and ignores \f[C]D\f[R]).
.SS Declaring market prices
.PP
The \f[C]P\f[R] directive declares a market price, which is an exchange
rate between two commodities on a certain date.
(In Ledger, they are called \[dq]historical prices\[dq].) These are
often obtained from a stock exchange, cryptocurrency exchange, or the
foreign exchange market.
.PP
The format is:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
P DATE COMMODITY1SYMBOL COMMODITY2AMOUNT
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
DATE is a simple date, COMMODITY1SYMBOL is the symbol of the commodity
being priced, and COMMODITY2AMOUNT is the amount (symbol and quantity)
of commodity 2 that one unit of commodity 1 is worth on this date.
Examples:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
# one euro was worth $1.35 from 2009-01-01 onward:
P 2009-01-01 \[Eu] $1.35
# and $1.40 from 2010-01-01 onward:
P 2010-01-01 \[Eu] $1.40
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
The \f[C]-V\f[R], \f[C]-X\f[R] and \f[C]--value\f[R] flags use these
market prices to show amount values in another commodity.
See Valuation.
.SS Declaring accounts
.PP
\f[C]account\f[R] directives can be used to declare accounts (ie, the
places that amounts are transferred from and to).
Though not required, these declarations can provide several benefits:
.IP \[bu] 2
They can document your intended chart of accounts, providing a
reference.
.IP \[bu] 2
They can help hledger know your accounts\[aq] types (asset, liability,
equity, revenue, expense), useful for reports like balancesheet and
incomestatement.
.IP \[bu] 2
They control account display order in reports, allowing non-alphabetic
sorting (eg Revenues to appear above Expenses).
.IP \[bu] 2
They can store extra information about accounts (account numbers, notes,
etc.)
.IP \[bu] 2
They help with account name completion in the add command, hledger-iadd,
hledger-web, ledger-mode etc.
.IP \[bu] 2
In strict mode, they restrict which accounts may be posted to by
transactions, which helps detect typos.
.PP
The simplest form is just the word \f[C]account\f[R] followed by a
hledger-style account name, eg this account directive declares the
\f[C]assets:bank:checking\f[R] account:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
account assets:bank:checking
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Account error checking
.PP
By default, accounts come into existence when a transaction references
them by name.
This is convenient, but it means hledger can\[aq]t warn you when you
mis-spell an account name in the journal.
Usually you\[aq]ll find the error later, as an extra account in balance
reports, or an incorrect balance when reconciling.
.PP
In strict mode, enabled with the \f[C]-s\f[R]/\f[C]--strict\f[R] flag,
hledger will report an error if any transaction uses an account name
that has not been declared by an account directive.
Some notes:
.IP \[bu] 2
The declaration is case-sensitive; transactions must use the correct
account name capitalisation.
.IP \[bu] 2
The account directive\[aq]s scope is \[dq]whole file and below\[dq] (see
directives).
This means it affects all of the current file, and any files it
includes, but not parent or sibling files.
The position of account directives within the file does not matter,
though it\[aq]s usual to put them at the top.
.IP \[bu] 2
Accounts can only be declared in \f[C]journal\f[R] files (but will
affect included files in other formats).
.IP \[bu] 2
It\[aq]s currently not possible to declare \[dq]all possible
subaccounts\[dq] with a wildcard; every account posted to must be
declared.
.SS Account comments
.PP
Comments, beginning with a semicolon, can be added:
.IP \[bu] 2
on the same line, \f[B]after two or more spaces\f[R] (because ; is
allowed in account names)
.IP \[bu] 2
on the next lines, indented
.PP
An example of both:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
account assets:bank:checking ; same-line comment, note 2+ spaces before ;
; next-line comment
; another with tag, acctno:12345 (not used yet)
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Same-line comments are not supported by Ledger, or hledger <1.13.
.SS Account subdirectives
.PP
We also allow (and ignore) Ledger-style indented subdirectives, just for
compatibility.:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
account assets:bank:checking
format blah blah ; <- subdirective, ignored
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Here is the full syntax of account directives:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
account ACCTNAME [ACCTTYPE] [;COMMENT]
[;COMMENTS]
[LEDGER-STYLE SUBDIRECTIVES, IGNORED]
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Account types
.PP
By adding a \f[C]type\f[R] tag to the account directive, with value
\f[C]A\f[R], \f[C]L\f[R], \f[C]E\f[R], \f[C]R\f[R], \f[C]X\f[R],
\f[C]C\f[R] (or if you prefer: \f[C]Asset\f[R], \f[C]Liability\f[R],
\f[C]Equity\f[R], \f[C]Revenue\f[R], \f[C]Expense\f[R], \f[C]Cash\f[R]),
you can declare hledger accounts to be of a certain type:
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[B]asset\f[R], \f[B]liability\f[R], \f[B]equity\f[R],
\f[B]revenue\f[R], \f[B]expense\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
the standard types in accounting, or
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[B]cash\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
a subtype of asset, used for liquid assets.
.PP
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.
.PP
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):
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
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
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
It\[aq]s not necessary to declare the type of subaccounts.
(You can, if they are different from the parent, but this is not
common.)
.SS Auto-detected account types
.PP
More about \[dq]guessing\[dq] 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, it tries to
auto-detect some accounts by name, using the regular expressions below.
Note: if you declare any account\[aq]s type, it\[aq]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.
.PP
The auto-detection rules are:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
If account\[aq]s name matches this case insensitive regular expression:| its type is:
------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------
\[ha]assets?(:|$) |
and does not contain regexp (investment|receivable|:A/R|:fixed) | Cash
otherwise | Asset
\[ha](debts?|liabilit(y|ies))(:|$) | Liability
\[ha]equity(:|$) | Equity
\[ha](income|revenue)s?(:|$) | Revenue
\[ha]expenses?(:|$) | Expense
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Account display order
.PP
Account directives also set the order in which accounts are displayed,
eg in reports, the hledger-ui accounts screen, and the hledger-web
sidebar.
By default accounts are listed in alphabetical order.
But if you have these account directives in the journal:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
account assets
account liabilities
account equity
account revenues
account expenses
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
you\[aq]ll see those accounts displayed in declaration order, not
alphabetically:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger accounts -1
assets
liabilities
equity
revenues
expenses
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Undeclared accounts, if any, are displayed last, in alphabetical order.
.PP
Note that sorting is done at each level of the account tree (within each
group of sibling accounts under the same parent).
And currently, this directive:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
account other:zoo
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
would influence the position of \f[C]zoo\f[R] among
\f[C]other\f[R]\[aq]s subaccounts, but not the position of
\f[C]other\f[R] among the top-level accounts.
This means:
.IP \[bu] 2
you will sometimes declare parent accounts (eg \f[C]account other\f[R]
above) that you don\[aq]t intend to post to, just to customize their
display order
.IP \[bu] 2
sibling accounts stay together (you couldn\[aq]t display \f[C]x:y\f[R]
in between \f[C]a:b\f[R] and \f[C]a:c\f[R]).
.SS Rewriting accounts
.PP
You can define account alias rules which rewrite your account names, or
parts of them, before generating reports.
This can be useful for:
.IP \[bu] 2
expanding shorthand account names to their full form, allowing easier
data entry and a less verbose journal
.IP \[bu] 2
adapting old journals to your current chart of accounts
.IP \[bu] 2
experimenting with new account organisations, like a new hierarchy or
combining two accounts into one
.IP \[bu] 2
customising reports
.PP
Account aliases also rewrite account names in account directives.
They do not affect account names being entered via hledger add or
hledger-web.
.PP
See also Rewrite account names.
.SS Basic aliases
.PP
To set an account alias, use the \f[C]alias\f[R] directive in your
journal file.
This affects all subsequent journal entries in the current file or its
included files (but note: not sibling or parent files).
The spaces around the = are optional:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
alias OLD = NEW
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Or, you can use the \f[C]--alias \[aq]OLD=NEW\[aq]\f[R] option on the
command line.
This affects all entries.
It\[aq]s useful for trying out aliases interactively.
.PP
OLD and NEW are case sensitive full account names.
hledger will replace any occurrence of the old account name with the new
one.
Subaccounts are also affected.
Eg:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
alias checking = assets:bank:wells fargo:checking
; rewrites \[dq]checking\[dq] to \[dq]assets:bank:wells fargo:checking\[dq], or \[dq]checking:a\[dq] to \[dq]assets:bank:wells fargo:checking:a\[dq]
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Regex aliases
.PP
There is also a more powerful variant that uses a regular expression,
indicated by the forward slashes:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
alias /REGEX/ = REPLACEMENT
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
or \f[C]--alias \[aq]/REGEX/=REPLACEMENT\[aq]\f[R].
.PP
REGEX is a case-insensitive regular expression.
Anywhere it matches inside an account name, the matched part will be
replaced by REPLACEMENT.
If REGEX contains parenthesised match groups, these can be referenced by
the usual numeric backreferences in REPLACEMENT.
Eg:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
alias /\[ha](.+):bank:([\[ha]:]+):(.*)/ = \[rs]1:\[rs]2 \[rs]3
; rewrites \[dq]assets:bank:wells fargo:checking\[dq] to \[dq]assets:wells fargo checking\[dq]
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Also note that REPLACEMENT continues to the end of line (or on command
line, to end of option argument), so it can contain trailing whitespace.
.SS Combining aliases
.PP
You can define as many aliases as you like, using journal directives
and/or command line options.
.PP
Recursive aliases - where an account name is rewritten by one alias,
then by another alias, and so on - are allowed.
Each alias sees the effect of previously applied aliases.
.PP
In such cases it can be important to understand which aliases will be
applied and in which order.
For (each account name in) each journal entry, we apply:
.IP "1." 3
\f[C]alias\f[R] directives preceding the journal entry, most recently
parsed first (ie, reading upward from the journal entry, bottom to top)
.IP "2." 3
\f[C]--alias\f[R] options, in the order they appeared on the command
line (left to right).
.PP
In other words, for (an account name in) a given journal entry:
.IP \[bu] 2
the nearest alias declaration before/above the entry is applied first
.IP \[bu] 2
the next alias before/above that will be be applied next, and so on
.IP \[bu] 2
aliases defined after/below the entry do not affect it.
.PP
This gives nearby aliases precedence over distant ones, and helps
provide semantic stability - aliases will keep working the same way
independent of which files are being read and in which order.
.PP
In case of trouble, adding \f[C]--debug=6\f[R] to the command line will
show which aliases are being applied when.
.SS Aliases and multiple files
.PP
As explained at Directives and multiple files, \f[C]alias\f[R]
directives do not affect parent or sibling files.
Eg in this command,
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
hledger -f a.aliases -f b.journal
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
account aliases defined in a.aliases will not affect b.journal.
Including the aliases doesn\[aq]t work either:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
include a.aliases
2020-01-01 ; not affected by a.aliases
foo 1
bar
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
This means that account aliases should usually be declared at the start
of your top-most file, like this:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
alias foo=Foo
alias bar=Bar
2020-01-01 ; affected by aliases above
foo 1
bar
include c.journal ; also affected
\f[R]
.fi
.SS \f[C]end aliases\f[R]
.PP
You can clear (forget) all currently defined aliases (seen in the
journal so far, or defined on the command line) with this directive:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
end aliases
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Default parent account
.PP
You can specify a parent account which will be prepended to all accounts
within a section of the journal.
Use the \f[C]apply account\f[R] and \f[C]end apply account\f[R]
directives like so:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
apply account home
2010/1/1
food $10
cash
end apply account
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
which is equivalent to:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2010/01/01
home:food $10
home:cash $-10
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
If \f[C]end apply account\f[R] is omitted, the effect lasts to the end
of the file.
Included files are also affected, eg:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
apply account business
include biz.journal
end apply account
apply account personal
include personal.journal
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Prior to hledger 1.0, legacy \f[C]account\f[R] and \f[C]end\f[R]
spellings were also supported.
.PP
A default parent account also affects account directives.
It does not affect account names being entered via hledger add or
hledger-web.
If account aliases are present, they are applied after the default
parent account.
.SS Periodic transactions
.PP
Periodic transaction rules describe transactions that recur.
They allow hledger to generate temporary future transactions to help
with forecasting, so you don\[aq]t have to write out each one in the
journal, and it\[aq]s easy to try out different forecasts.
.PP
Periodic transactions can be a little tricky, so before you use them,
read this whole section - or at least these tips:
.IP "1." 3
Two spaces accidentally added or omitted will cause you trouble - read
about this below.
.IP "2." 3
For troubleshooting, show the generated transactions with
\f[C]hledger print --forecast tag:generated\f[R] or
\f[C]hledger register --forecast tag:generated\f[R].
.IP "3." 3
Forecasted transactions will begin only after the last non-forecasted
transaction\[aq]s date.
.IP "4." 3
Forecasted transactions will end 6 months from today, by default.
See below for the exact start/end rules.
.IP "5." 3
period expressions can be tricky.
Their documentation needs improvement, but is worth studying.
.IP "6." 3
Some period expressions with a repeating interval must begin on a
natural boundary of that interval.
Eg in \f[C]weekly from DATE\f[R], DATE must be a monday.
\f[C]\[ti] weekly from 2019/10/1\f[R] (a tuesday) will give an error.
.IP "7." 3
Other period expressions with an interval are automatically expanded to
cover a whole number of that interval.
(This is done to improve reports, but it also affects periodic
transactions.
Yes, it\[aq]s a bit inconsistent with the above.) Eg:
\f[C]\[ti] every 10th day of month from 2020/01\f[R], which is
equivalent to \f[C]\[ti] every 10th day of month from 2020/01/01\f[R],
will be adjusted to start on 2019/12/10.
.PP
Periodic transaction rules also have a second meaning: they are used to
define budget goals, shown in budget reports.
.SS Periodic rule syntax
.PP
A periodic transaction rule looks like a normal journal entry, with the
date replaced by a tilde (\f[C]\[ti]\f[R]) followed by a period
expression (mnemonic: \f[C]\[ti]\f[R] looks like a recurring sine
wave.):
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
\[ti] monthly
expenses:rent $2000
assets:bank:checking
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
There is an additional constraint on the period expression: the start
date must fall on a natural boundary of the interval.
Eg \f[C]monthly from 2018/1/1\f[R] is valid, but
\f[C]monthly from 2018/1/15\f[R] is not.
.PP
Partial or relative dates (M/D, D, tomorrow, last week) in the period
expression can work (useful or not).
They will be relative to today\[aq]s date, unless a Y default year
directive is in effect, in which case they will be relative to Y/1/1.
.SS Two spaces between period expression and description!
.PP
If the period expression is followed by a transaction description, these
must be separated by \f[B]two or more spaces\f[R].
This helps hledger know where the period expression ends, so that
descriptions can not accidentally alter their meaning, as in this
example:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
; 2 or more spaces needed here, so the period is not understood as \[dq]every 2 months in 2020\[dq]
; ||
; vv
\[ti] every 2 months in 2020, we will review
assets:bank:checking $1500
income:acme inc
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
So,
.IP \[bu] 2
Do write two spaces between your period expression and your transaction
description, if any.
.IP \[bu] 2
Don\[aq]t accidentally write two spaces in the middle of your period
expression.
.SS Forecasting with periodic transactions
.PP
The \f[C]--forecast\f[R] flag activates any periodic transaction rules
in the journal.
These will generate temporary additional transactions, usually recurring
and in the future, which will appear in all reports.
\f[C]hledger print --forecast\f[R] is a good way to see them.
.PP
This can be useful for estimating balances into the future, perhaps
experimenting with different scenarios.
.PP
It could also be useful for scripted data entry: you could describe
recurring transactions, and every so often copy the output of
\f[C]print --forecast\f[R] into the journal.
.PP
The generated transactions will have an extra tag, like
\f[C]generated-transaction:\[ti] PERIODICEXPR\f[R], indicating which
periodic rule generated them.
There is also a similar, hidden tag, named
\f[C]_generated-transaction:\f[R], which you can use to reliably match
transactions generated \[dq]just now\[dq] (rather than \f[C]print\f[R]ed
in the past).
.PP
The forecast transactions are generated within a \f[I]forecast
period\f[R], which is independent of the report period.
(Forecast period sets the bounds for generated transactions, report
period controls which transactions are reported.) The forecast period
begins on:
.IP \[bu] 2
the start date provided within \f[C]--forecast\f[R]\[aq]s argument, if
any
.IP \[bu] 2
otherwise, the later of
.RS 2
.IP \[bu] 2
the report start date, if specified (with
\f[C]-b\f[R]/\f[C]-p\f[R]/\f[C]date:\f[R])
.IP \[bu] 2
the day after the latest ordinary transaction in the journal, if any
.RE
.IP \[bu] 2
otherwise today.
.PP
It ends on:
.IP \[bu] 2
the end date provided within \f[C]--forecast\f[R]\[aq]s argument, if any
.IP \[bu] 2
otherwise, the report end date, if specified (with
\f[C]-e\f[R]/\f[C]-p\f[R]/\f[C]date:\f[R])
.IP \[bu] 2
otherwise 180 days (6 months) from today.
.PP
Note, this means that ordinary transactions will suppress periodic
transactions, by default; the periodic transactions will not start until
after the last ordinary transaction.
This is usually convenient, but you can get around it in two ways:
.IP \[bu] 2
If you need to record some transactions in the future, make them
periodic transactions (with a single occurrence, eg:
\f[C]\[ti] YYYY-MM-DD\f[R]) rather than ordinary transactions.
That way they won\[aq]t suppress other periodic transactions.
.IP \[bu] 2
Or give \f[C]--forecast\f[R] a period expression argument.
A forecast period specified this way can overlap ordinary transactions,
and need not be in the future.
Some things to note:
.RS 2
.IP \[bu] 2
You must use \f[C]=\f[R] between flag and argument; a space won\[aq]t
work.
.IP \[bu] 2
The period expression can specify the forecast period\[aq]s start date,
end date, or both.
See also Report start & end date.
.IP \[bu] 2
The period expression should not specify a report interval.
(Each periodic transaction rule specifies its own interval.)
.RE
.PP
Some examples: \f[C]--forecast=202001-202004\f[R],
\f[C]--forecast=jan-\f[R], \f[C]--forecast=2021\f[R].
.SS Budgeting with periodic transactions
.PP
With the \f[C]--budget\f[R] flag, currently supported by the balance
command, each periodic transaction rule declares recurring budget goals
for the specified accounts.
Eg the first example above declares a goal of spending $2000 on rent
(and also, a goal of depositing $2000 into checking) every month.
Goals and actual performance can then be compared in budget reports.
.PP
See also: Budgeting and Forecasting.
.PP
.SS Auto postings
.PP
\[dq]Automated postings\[dq] or \[dq]auto postings\[dq] are extra
postings which get added automatically to transactions which match
certain queries, defined by \[dq]auto posting rules\[dq], when you use
the \f[C]--auto\f[R] flag.
.PP
An auto posting rule looks a bit like a transaction:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
= QUERY
ACCOUNT AMOUNT
...
ACCOUNT [AMOUNT]
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
except the first line is an equals sign (mnemonic: \f[C]=\f[R] suggests
matching), followed by a query (which matches existing postings), and
each \[dq]posting\[dq] line describes a posting to be generated, and the
posting amounts can be:
.IP \[bu] 2
a normal amount with a commodity symbol, eg \f[C]$2\f[R].
This will be used as-is.
.IP \[bu] 2
a number, eg \f[C]2\f[R].
The commodity symbol (if any) from the matched posting will be added to
this.
.IP \[bu] 2
a numeric multiplier, eg \f[C]*2\f[R] (a star followed by a number N).
The matched posting\[aq]s amount (and total price, if any) will be
multiplied by N.
.IP \[bu] 2
a multiplier with a commodity symbol, eg \f[C]*$2\f[R] (a star, number
N, and symbol S).
The matched posting\[aq]s amount will be multiplied by N, and its
commodity symbol will be replaced with S.
.PP
Any query term containing spaces must be enclosed in single or double
quotes, as on the command line.
Eg, note the quotes around the second query term below:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
= expenses:groceries \[aq]expenses:dining out\[aq]
(budget:funds:dining out) *-1
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Some examples:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
; every time I buy food, schedule a dollar donation
= expenses:food
(liabilities:charity) $-1
; when I buy a gift, also deduct that amount from a budget envelope subaccount
= expenses:gifts
assets:checking:gifts *-1
assets:checking *1
2017/12/1
expenses:food $10
assets:checking
2017/12/14
expenses:gifts $20
assets:checking
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger print --auto
2017-12-01
expenses:food $10
assets:checking
(liabilities:charity) $-1
2017-12-14
expenses:gifts $20
assets:checking
assets:checking:gifts -$20
assets:checking $20
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Auto postings and multiple files
.PP
An auto posting rule can affect any transaction in the current file, or
in any parent file or child file.
Note, currently it will not affect sibling files (when multiple
\f[C]-f\f[R]/\f[C]--file\f[R] are used - see #1212).
.SS Auto postings and dates
.PP
A posting date (or secondary date) in the matched posting, or (taking
precedence) a posting date in the auto posting rule itself, will also be
used in the generated posting.
.SS Auto postings and transaction balancing / inferred amounts / balance assertions
.PP
Currently, auto postings are added:
.IP \[bu] 2
after missing amounts are inferred, and transactions are checked for
balancedness,
.IP \[bu] 2
but before balance assertions are checked.
.PP
Note this means that journal entries must be balanced both before and
after auto postings are added.
This changed in hledger 1.12+; see #893 for background.
.PP
This also means that you cannot have more than one auto-posting with a
missing amount applied to a given transaction, as it will be unable to
infer amounts.
.SS Auto posting tags
.PP
Automated postings will have some extra tags:
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]generated-posting:= QUERY\f[R] - shows this was generated by an
auto posting rule, and the query
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]_generated-posting:= QUERY\f[R] - a hidden tag, which does not
appear in hledger\[aq]s output.
This can be used to match postings generated \[dq]just now\[dq], rather
than generated in the past and saved to the journal.
.PP
Also, any transaction that has been changed by auto posting rules will
have these tags added:
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]modified:\f[R] - this transaction was modified
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]_modified:\f[R] - a hidden tag not appearing in the comment; this
transaction was modified \[dq]just now\[dq].
.SH CSV FORMAT
.PP
How hledger reads CSV data, and the CSV rules file format.
.PP
hledger can read CSV files (Character Separated Value - usually comma,
semicolon, or tab) containing dated records as if they were journal
files, automatically converting each CSV record into a transaction.
.PP
(To learn about \f[I]writing\f[R] CSV, see CSV output.)
.PP
We describe each CSV file\[aq]s format with a corresponding \f[I]rules
file\f[R].
By default this is named like the CSV file with a \f[C].rules\f[R]
extension added.
Eg when reading \f[C]FILE.csv\f[R], hledger also looks for
\f[C]FILE.csv.rules\f[R] in the same directory as \f[C]FILE.csv\f[R].
You can specify a different rules file with the \f[C]--rules-file\f[R]
option.
If a rules file is not found, hledger will create a sample rules file,
which you\[aq]ll need to adjust.
.PP
This file contains rules describing the CSV data (header line, fields
layout, date format etc.), and how to construct hledger journal entries
(transactions) from it.
Often there will also be a list of conditional rules for categorising
transactions based on their descriptions.
Here\[aq]s an overview of the CSV rules; these are described more fully
below, after the examples:
.PP
.TS
tab(@);
lw(26.4n) lw(43.6n).
T{
\f[B]\f[CB]skip\f[B]\f[R]
T}@T{
skip one or more header lines or matched CSV records
T}
T{
\f[B]\f[CB]fields\f[B] list\f[R]
T}@T{
name CSV fields, assign them to hledger fields
T}
T{
\f[B]field assignment\f[R]
T}@T{
assign a value to one hledger field, with interpolation
T}
T{
\f[B]Field names\f[R]
T}@T{
hledger field names, used in the fields list and field assignments
T}
T{
\f[B]\f[CB]separator\f[B]\f[R]
T}@T{
a custom field separator
T}
T{
\f[B]\f[CB]if\f[B] block\f[R]
T}@T{
apply some rules to CSV records matched by patterns
T}
T{
\f[B]\f[CB]if\f[B] table\f[R]
T}@T{
apply some rules to CSV records matched by patterns, alternate syntax
T}
T{
\f[B]\f[CB]end\f[B]\f[R]
T}@T{
skip the remaining CSV records
T}
T{
\f[B]\f[CB]date-format\f[B]\f[R]
T}@T{
how to parse dates in CSV records
T}
T{
\f[B]\f[CB]decimal-mark\f[B]\f[R]
T}@T{
the decimal mark used in CSV amounts, if ambiguous
T}
T{
\f[B]\f[CB]newest-first\f[B]\f[R]
T}@T{
disambiguate record order when there\[aq]s only one date
T}
T{
\f[B]\f[CB]include\f[B]\f[R]
T}@T{
inline another CSV rules file
T}
T{
\f[B]\f[CB]balance-type\f[B]\f[R]
T}@T{
choose which type of balance assignments to use
T}
.TE
.PP
Note, for best error messages when reading CSV files, use a
\f[C].csv\f[R], \f[C].tsv\f[R] or \f[C].ssv\f[R] file extension or file
prefix - see File Extension below.
.PP
There\[aq]s an introductory Convert CSV files tutorial on hledger.org.
.SS Examples
.PP
Here are some sample hledger CSV rules files.
See also the full collection at:
.PD 0
.P
.PD
https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/tree/master/examples/csv
.SS Basic
.PP
At minimum, the rules file must identify the date and amount fields, and
often it also specifies the date format and how many header lines there
are.
Here\[aq]s a simple CSV file and a rules file for it:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
Date, Description, Id, Amount
12/11/2019, Foo, 123, 10.23
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
# basic.csv.rules
skip 1
fields date, description, _, amount
date-format %d/%m/%Y
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger print -f basic.csv
2019-11-12 Foo
expenses:unknown 10.23
income:unknown -10.23
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Default account names are chosen, since we didn\[aq]t set them.
.SS Bank of Ireland
.PP
Here\[aq]s a CSV with two amount fields (Debit and Credit), and a
balance field, which we can use to add balance assertions, which is not
necessary but provides extra error checking:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
Date,Details,Debit,Credit,Balance
07/12/2012,LODGMENT 529898,,10.0,131.21
07/12/2012,PAYMENT,5,,126
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
# bankofireland-checking.csv.rules
# skip the header line
skip
# name the csv fields, and assign some of them as journal entry fields
fields date, description, amount-out, amount-in, balance
# We generate balance assertions by assigning to \[dq]balance\[dq]
# above, but you may sometimes need to remove these because:
#
# - the CSV balance differs from the true balance,
# by up to 0.0000000000005 in my experience
#
# - it is sometimes calculated based on non-chronological ordering,
# eg when multiple transactions clear on the same day
# date is in UK/Ireland format
date-format %d/%m/%Y
# set the currency
currency EUR
# set the base account for all txns
account1 assets:bank:boi:checking
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f bankofireland-checking.csv print
2012-12-07 LODGMENT 529898
assets:bank:boi:checking EUR10.0 = EUR131.2
income:unknown EUR-10.0
2012-12-07 PAYMENT
assets:bank:boi:checking EUR-5.0 = EUR126.0
expenses:unknown EUR5.0
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
The balance assertions don\[aq]t raise an error above, because we\[aq]re
reading directly from CSV, but they will be checked if these entries are
imported into a journal file.
.SS Amazon
.PP
Here we convert amazon.com order history, and use an if block to
generate a third posting if there\[aq]s a fee.
(In practice you\[aq]d probably get this data from your bank instead,
but it\[aq]s an example.)
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
\[dq]Date\[dq],\[dq]Type\[dq],\[dq]To/From\[dq],\[dq]Name\[dq],\[dq]Status\[dq],\[dq]Amount\[dq],\[dq]Fees\[dq],\[dq]Transaction ID\[dq]
\[dq]Jul 29, 2012\[dq],\[dq]Payment\[dq],\[dq]To\[dq],\[dq]Foo.\[dq],\[dq]Completed\[dq],\[dq]$20.00\[dq],\[dq]$0.00\[dq],\[dq]16000000000000DGLNJPI1P9B8DKPVHL\[dq]
\[dq]Jul 30, 2012\[dq],\[dq]Payment\[dq],\[dq]To\[dq],\[dq]Adapteva, Inc.\[dq],\[dq]Completed\[dq],\[dq]$25.00\[dq],\[dq]$1.00\[dq],\[dq]17LA58JSKRD4HDGLNJPI1P9B8DKPVHL\[dq]
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
# amazon-orders.csv.rules
# skip one header line
skip 1
# name the csv fields, and assign the transaction\[aq]s date, amount and code.
# Avoided the \[dq]status\[dq] and \[dq]amount\[dq] hledger field names to prevent confusion.
fields date, _, toorfrom, name, amzstatus, amzamount, fees, code
# how to parse the date
date-format %b %-d, %Y
# combine two fields to make the description
description %toorfrom %name
# save the status as a tag
comment status:%amzstatus
# set the base account for all transactions
account1 assets:amazon
# leave amount1 blank so it can balance the other(s).
# I\[aq]m assuming amzamount excludes the fees, don\[aq]t remember
# set a generic account2
account2 expenses:misc
amount2 %amzamount
# and maybe refine it further:
#include categorisation.rules
# add a third posting for fees, but only if they are non-zero.
if %fees [1-9]
account3 expenses:fees
amount3 %fees
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f amazon-orders.csv print
2012-07-29 (16000000000000DGLNJPI1P9B8DKPVHL) To Foo. ; status:Completed
assets:amazon
expenses:misc $20.00
2012-07-30 (17LA58JSKRD4HDGLNJPI1P9B8DKPVHL) To Adapteva, Inc. ; status:Completed
assets:amazon
expenses:misc $25.00
expenses:fees $1.00
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Paypal
.PP
Here\[aq]s a real-world rules file for (customised) Paypal CSV, with
some Paypal-specific rules, and a second rules file included:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
\[dq]Date\[dq],\[dq]Time\[dq],\[dq]TimeZone\[dq],\[dq]Name\[dq],\[dq]Type\[dq],\[dq]Status\[dq],\[dq]Currency\[dq],\[dq]Gross\[dq],\[dq]Fee\[dq],\[dq]Net\[dq],\[dq]From Email Address\[dq],\[dq]To Email Address\[dq],\[dq]Transaction ID\[dq],\[dq]Item Title\[dq],\[dq]Item ID\[dq],\[dq]Reference Txn ID\[dq],\[dq]Receipt ID\[dq],\[dq]Balance\[dq],\[dq]Note\[dq]
\[dq]10/01/2019\[dq],\[dq]03:46:20\[dq],\[dq]PDT\[dq],\[dq]Calm Radio\[dq],\[dq]Subscription Payment\[dq],\[dq]Completed\[dq],\[dq]USD\[dq],\[dq]-6.99\[dq],\[dq]0.00\[dq],\[dq]-6.99\[dq],\[dq]simon\[at]joyful.com\[dq],\[dq]memberships\[at]calmradio.com\[dq],\[dq]60P57143A8206782E\[dq],\[dq]MONTHLY - $1 for the first 2 Months: Me - Order 99309. Item total: $1.00 USD first 2 months, then $6.99 / Month\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]I-R8YLY094FJYR\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]-6.99\[dq],\[dq]\[dq]
\[dq]10/01/2019\[dq],\[dq]03:46:20\[dq],\[dq]PDT\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]Bank Deposit to PP Account \[dq],\[dq]Pending\[dq],\[dq]USD\[dq],\[dq]6.99\[dq],\[dq]0.00\[dq],\[dq]6.99\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]simon\[at]joyful.com\[dq],\[dq]0TU1544T080463733\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]60P57143A8206782E\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]0.00\[dq],\[dq]\[dq]
\[dq]10/01/2019\[dq],\[dq]08:57:01\[dq],\[dq]PDT\[dq],\[dq]Patreon\[dq],\[dq]PreApproved Payment Bill User Payment\[dq],\[dq]Completed\[dq],\[dq]USD\[dq],\[dq]-7.00\[dq],\[dq]0.00\[dq],\[dq]-7.00\[dq],\[dq]simon\[at]joyful.com\[dq],\[dq]support\[at]patreon.com\[dq],\[dq]2722394R5F586712G\[dq],\[dq]Patreon* Membership\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]B-0PG93074E7M86381M\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]-7.00\[dq],\[dq]\[dq]
\[dq]10/01/2019\[dq],\[dq]08:57:01\[dq],\[dq]PDT\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]Bank Deposit to PP Account \[dq],\[dq]Pending\[dq],\[dq]USD\[dq],\[dq]7.00\[dq],\[dq]0.00\[dq],\[dq]7.00\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]simon\[at]joyful.com\[dq],\[dq]71854087RG994194F\[dq],\[dq]Patreon* Membership\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]2722394R5F586712G\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]0.00\[dq],\[dq]\[dq]
\[dq]10/19/2019\[dq],\[dq]03:02:12\[dq],\[dq]PDT\[dq],\[dq]Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.\[dq],\[dq]Subscription Payment\[dq],\[dq]Completed\[dq],\[dq]USD\[dq],\[dq]-2.00\[dq],\[dq]0.00\[dq],\[dq]-2.00\[dq],\[dq]simon\[at]joyful.com\[dq],\[dq]tle\[at]wikimedia.org\[dq],\[dq]K9U43044RY432050M\[dq],\[dq]Monthly donation to the Wikimedia Foundation\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]I-R5C3YUS3285L\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]-2.00\[dq],\[dq]\[dq]
\[dq]10/19/2019\[dq],\[dq]03:02:12\[dq],\[dq]PDT\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]Bank Deposit to PP Account \[dq],\[dq]Pending\[dq],\[dq]USD\[dq],\[dq]2.00\[dq],\[dq]0.00\[dq],\[dq]2.00\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]simon\[at]joyful.com\[dq],\[dq]3XJ107139A851061F\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]K9U43044RY432050M\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]0.00\[dq],\[dq]\[dq]
\[dq]10/22/2019\[dq],\[dq]05:07:06\[dq],\[dq]PDT\[dq],\[dq]Noble Benefactor\[dq],\[dq]Subscription Payment\[dq],\[dq]Completed\[dq],\[dq]USD\[dq],\[dq]10.00\[dq],\[dq]-0.59\[dq],\[dq]9.41\[dq],\[dq]noble\[at]bene.fac.tor\[dq],\[dq]simon\[at]joyful.com\[dq],\[dq]6L8L1662YP1334033\[dq],\[dq]Joyful Systems\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]I-KC9VBGY2GWDB\[dq],\[dq]\[dq],\[dq]9.41\[dq],\[dq]\[dq]
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
# paypal-custom.csv.rules
# Tips:
# Export from Activity -> Statements -> Custom -> Activity download
# Suggested transaction type: \[dq]Balance affecting\[dq]
# Paypal\[aq]s default fields in 2018 were:
# \[dq]Date\[dq],\[dq]Time\[dq],\[dq]TimeZone\[dq],\[dq]Name\[dq],\[dq]Type\[dq],\[dq]Status\[dq],\[dq]Currency\[dq],\[dq]Gross\[dq],\[dq]Fee\[dq],\[dq]Net\[dq],\[dq]From Email Address\[dq],\[dq]To Email Address\[dq],\[dq]Transaction ID\[dq],\[dq]Shipping Address\[dq],\[dq]Address Status\[dq],\[dq]Item Title\[dq],\[dq]Item ID\[dq],\[dq]Shipping and Handling Amount\[dq],\[dq]Insurance Amount\[dq],\[dq]Sales Tax\[dq],\[dq]Option 1 Name\[dq],\[dq]Option 1 Value\[dq],\[dq]Option 2 Name\[dq],\[dq]Option 2 Value\[dq],\[dq]Reference Txn ID\[dq],\[dq]Invoice Number\[dq],\[dq]Custom Number\[dq],\[dq]Quantity\[dq],\[dq]Receipt ID\[dq],\[dq]Balance\[dq],\[dq]Address Line 1\[dq],\[dq]Address Line 2/District/Neighborhood\[dq],\[dq]Town/City\[dq],\[dq]State/Province/Region/County/Territory/Prefecture/Republic\[dq],\[dq]Zip/Postal Code\[dq],\[dq]Country\[dq],\[dq]Contact Phone Number\[dq],\[dq]Subject\[dq],\[dq]Note\[dq],\[dq]Country Code\[dq],\[dq]Balance Impact\[dq]
# This rules file assumes the following more detailed fields, configured in \[dq]Customize report fields\[dq]:
# \[dq]Date\[dq],\[dq]Time\[dq],\[dq]TimeZone\[dq],\[dq]Name\[dq],\[dq]Type\[dq],\[dq]Status\[dq],\[dq]Currency\[dq],\[dq]Gross\[dq],\[dq]Fee\[dq],\[dq]Net\[dq],\[dq]From Email Address\[dq],\[dq]To Email Address\[dq],\[dq]Transaction ID\[dq],\[dq]Item Title\[dq],\[dq]Item ID\[dq],\[dq]Reference Txn ID\[dq],\[dq]Receipt ID\[dq],\[dq]Balance\[dq],\[dq]Note\[dq]
fields date, time, timezone, description_, type, status_, currency, grossamount, feeamount, netamount, fromemail, toemail, code, itemtitle, itemid, referencetxnid, receiptid, balance, note
skip 1
date-format %-m/%-d/%Y
# ignore some paypal events
if
In Progress
Temporary Hold
Update to
skip
# add more fields to the description
description %description_ %itemtitle
# save some other fields as tags
comment itemid:%itemid, fromemail:%fromemail, toemail:%toemail, time:%time, type:%type, status:%status_
# convert to short currency symbols
if %currency USD
currency $
if %currency EUR
currency E
if %currency GBP
currency P
# generate postings
# the first posting will be the money leaving/entering my paypal account
# (negative means leaving my account, in all amount fields)
account1 assets:online:paypal
amount1 %netamount
# the second posting will be money sent to/received from other party
# (account2 is set below)
amount2 -%grossamount
# if there\[aq]s a fee, add a third posting for the money taken by paypal.
if %feeamount [1-9]
account3 expenses:banking:paypal
amount3 -%feeamount
comment3 business:
# choose an account for the second posting
# override the default account names:
# if the amount is positive, it\[aq]s income (a debit)
if %grossamount \[ha][\[ha]-]
account2 income:unknown
# if negative, it\[aq]s an expense (a credit)
if %grossamount \[ha]-
account2 expenses:unknown
# apply common rules for setting account2 & other tweaks
include common.rules
# apply some overrides specific to this csv
# Transfers from/to bank. These are usually marked Pending,
# which can be disregarded in this case.
if
Bank Account
Bank Deposit to PP Account
description %type for %referencetxnid %itemtitle
account2 assets:bank:wf:pchecking
account1 assets:online:paypal
# Currency conversions
if Currency Conversion
account2 equity:currency conversion
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
# common.rules
if
darcs
noble benefactor
account2 revenues:foss donations:darcshub
comment2 business:
if
Calm Radio
account2 expenses:online:apps
if
electronic frontier foundation
Patreon
wikimedia
Advent of Code
account2 expenses:dues
if Google
account2 expenses:online:apps
description google | music
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f paypal-custom.csv print
2019-10-01 (60P57143A8206782E) Calm Radio MONTHLY - $1 for the first 2 Months: Me - Order 99309. Item total: $1.00 USD first 2 months, then $6.99 / Month ; itemid:, fromemail:simon\[at]joyful.com, toemail:memberships\[at]calmradio.com, time:03:46:20, type:Subscription Payment, status:Completed
assets:online:paypal $-6.99 = $-6.99
expenses:online:apps $6.99
2019-10-01 (0TU1544T080463733) Bank Deposit to PP Account for 60P57143A8206782E ; itemid:, fromemail:, toemail:simon\[at]joyful.com, time:03:46:20, type:Bank Deposit to PP Account, status:Pending
assets:online:paypal $6.99 = $0.00
assets:bank:wf:pchecking $-6.99
2019-10-01 (2722394R5F586712G) Patreon Patreon* Membership ; itemid:, fromemail:simon\[at]joyful.com, toemail:support\[at]patreon.com, time:08:57:01, type:PreApproved Payment Bill User Payment, status:Completed
assets:online:paypal $-7.00 = $-7.00
expenses:dues $7.00
2019-10-01 (71854087RG994194F) Bank Deposit to PP Account for 2722394R5F586712G Patreon* Membership ; itemid:, fromemail:, toemail:simon\[at]joyful.com, time:08:57:01, type:Bank Deposit to PP Account, status:Pending
assets:online:paypal $7.00 = $0.00
assets:bank:wf:pchecking $-7.00
2019-10-19 (K9U43044RY432050M) Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Monthly donation to the Wikimedia Foundation ; itemid:, fromemail:simon\[at]joyful.com, toemail:tle\[at]wikimedia.org, time:03:02:12, type:Subscription Payment, status:Completed
assets:online:paypal $-2.00 = $-2.00
expenses:dues $2.00
expenses:banking:paypal ; business:
2019-10-19 (3XJ107139A851061F) Bank Deposit to PP Account for K9U43044RY432050M ; itemid:, fromemail:, toemail:simon\[at]joyful.com, time:03:02:12, type:Bank Deposit to PP Account, status:Pending
assets:online:paypal $2.00 = $0.00
assets:bank:wf:pchecking $-2.00
2019-10-22 (6L8L1662YP1334033) Noble Benefactor Joyful Systems ; itemid:, fromemail:noble\[at]bene.fac.tor, toemail:simon\[at]joyful.com, time:05:07:06, type:Subscription Payment, status:Completed
assets:online:paypal $9.41 = $9.41
revenues:foss donations:darcshub $-10.00 ; business:
expenses:banking:paypal $0.59 ; business:
\f[R]
.fi
.SS CSV rules
.PP
The following kinds of rule can appear in the rules file, in any order.
Blank lines and lines beginning with \f[C]#\f[R] or \f[C];\f[R] are
ignored.
.SS \f[C]skip\f[R]
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
skip N
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
The word \[dq]skip\[dq] followed by a number (or no number, meaning 1)
tells hledger to ignore this many non-empty lines preceding the CSV
data.
(Empty/blank lines are skipped automatically.) You\[aq]ll need this
whenever your CSV data contains header lines.
.PP
It also has a second purpose: it can be used inside if blocks to ignore
certain CSV records (described below).
.SS \f[C]fields\f[R] list
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
fields FIELDNAME1, FIELDNAME2, ...
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
A fields list (the word \[dq]fields\[dq] followed by comma-separated
field names) is the quick way to assign CSV field values to hledger
fields.
(The other way is field assignments, see below.) A fields list does does
two things:
.IP "1." 3
It names the CSV fields.
This is optional, but can be convenient later for interpolating them.
.IP "2." 3
Whenever you use a standard hledger field name (defined below), the CSV
value is assigned to that part of the hledger transaction.
.PP
Here\[aq]s an example that says \[dq]use the 1st, 2nd and 4th fields as
the transaction\[aq]s date, description and amount; name the last two
fields for later reference; and ignore the others\[dq]:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
fields date, description, , amount, , , somefield, anotherfield
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Tips:
.IP \[bu] 2
The fields list always use commas, even if your CSV data uses another
separator character.
.IP \[bu] 2
Currently there must be least two items in the list (at least one
comma).
.IP \[bu] 2
Field names may not contain spaces.
Spaces before/after field names are optional.
.IP \[bu] 2
If the CSV contains column headings, it\[aq]s a good idea to use these,
suitably modified, as the basis for your field names (eg lower-cased,
with underscores instead of spaces).
.IP \[bu] 2
If some heading names match standard hledger fields, but you don\[aq]t
want to set the hledger fields directly, alter those names, eg by
appending an underscore.
.IP \[bu] 2
Fields you don\[aq]t care about can be given a dummy name (eg:
\f[C]_\f[R] ), or no name.
.SS field assignment
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
HLEDGERFIELDNAME FIELDVALUE
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Field assignments are the more flexible way to assign CSV values to
hledger fields.
They can be used instead of or in addition to a fields list (see above).
.PP
To assign a value to a hledger field, write the field name (any of the
standard hledger field/pseudo-field names, defined below), a space,
followed by a text value on the same line.
This text value may interpolate CSV fields, referenced by their 1-based
position in the CSV record (\f[C]%N\f[R]), or by the name they were
given in the fields list (\f[C]%CSVFIELDNAME\f[R]).
.PP
Some examples:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
# set the amount to the 4th CSV field, with \[dq] USD\[dq] appended
amount %4 USD
# combine three fields to make a comment, containing note: and date: tags
comment note: %somefield - %anotherfield, date: %1
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Tips:
.IP \[bu] 2
Interpolation strips outer whitespace (so a CSV value like
\f[C]\[dq] 1 \[dq]\f[R] becomes \f[C]1\f[R] when interpolated) (#1051).
.IP \[bu] 2
Interpolations always refer to a CSV field - you can\[aq]t interpolate a
hledger field.
(See Referencing other fields below).
.SS Field names
.PP
Here are the standard hledger field (and pseudo-field) names, which you
can use in a fields list and in field assignments.
For more about the transaction parts they refer to, see Transactions.
.SS date field
.PP
Assigning to \f[C]date\f[R] sets the transaction date.
.SS date2 field
.PP
\f[C]date2\f[R] sets the transaction\[aq]s secondary date, if any.
.SS status field
.PP
\f[C]status\f[R] sets the transaction\[aq]s status, if any.
.SS code field
.PP
\f[C]code\f[R] sets the transaction\[aq]s code, if any.
.SS description field
.PP
\f[C]description\f[R] sets the transaction\[aq]s description, if any.
.SS comment field
.PP
\f[C]comment\f[R] sets the transaction\[aq]s comment, if any.
.PP
\f[C]commentN\f[R], where N is a number, sets the Nth posting\[aq]s
comment.
.PP
Tips: - You can assign multi-line comments by writing literal
\f[C]\[rs]n\f[R] in the code.
A comment starting with \f[C]\[rs]n\f[R] will begin on a new line.
- Comments can contain tags, as usual.
.SS account field
.PP
Assigning to \f[C]accountN\f[R], where N is 1 to 99, sets the account
name of the Nth posting, and causes that posting to be generated.
.PP
Most often there are two postings, so you\[aq]ll want to set
\f[C]account1\f[R] and \f[C]account2\f[R].
Typically \f[C]account1\f[R] is associated with the CSV file, and is set
once with a top-level assignment, while \f[C]account2\f[R] is set based
on each transaction\[aq]s description, and in conditional blocks.
.PP
If a posting\[aq]s account name is left unset but its amount is set (see
below), a default account name will be chosen (like
\[dq]expenses:unknown\[dq] or \[dq]income:unknown\[dq]).
.SS amount field
.PP
\f[C]amountN\f[R] sets the amount of the Nth posting, and causes that
posting to be generated.
By assigning to \f[C]amount1\f[R], \f[C]amount2\f[R], ...
etc.
you can generate up to 99 postings.
.PP
\f[C]amountN-in\f[R] and \f[C]amountN-out\f[R] can be used instead, if
the CSV uses separate fields for debits and credits (inflows and
outflows).
hledger assumes both of these CSV fields are unsigned, and will
automatically negate the \[dq]-out\[dq] value.
If they are signed, see \[dq]Setting amounts\[dq] below.
.PP
\f[C]amount\f[R], or \f[C]amount-in\f[R] and \f[C]amount-out\f[R] are a
legacy mode, to keep pre-hledger-1.17 CSV rules files working (and for
occasional convenience).
They are suitable only for two-posting transactions; they set both
posting 1\[aq]s and posting 2\[aq]s amount.
Posting 2\[aq]s amount will be negated, and also converted to cost if
there\[aq]s a transaction price.
.PP
If you have an existing rules file using the unnumbered form, you might
want to use the numbered form in certain conditional blocks, without
having to update and retest all the old rules.
To facilitate this, posting 1 ignores
\f[C]amount\f[R]/\f[C]amount-in\f[R]/\f[C]amount-out\f[R] if any of
\f[C]amount1\f[R]/\f[C]amount1-in\f[R]/\f[C]amount1-out\f[R] are
assigned, and posting 2 ignores them if any of
\f[C]amount2\f[R]/\f[C]amount2-in\f[R]/\f[C]amount2-out\f[R] are
assigned, avoiding conflicts.
.SS currency field
.PP
\f[C]currency\f[R] sets a currency symbol, to be prepended to all
postings\[aq] amounts.
You can use this if the CSV amounts do not have a currency symbol, eg if
it is in a separate column.
.PP
\f[C]currencyN\f[R] prepends a currency symbol to just the Nth
posting\[aq]s amount.
.SS balance field
.PP
\f[C]balanceN\f[R] sets a balance assertion amount (or if the posting
amount is left empty, a balance assignment) on posting N.
.PP
\f[C]balance\f[R] is a compatibility spelling for hledger <1.17; it is
equivalent to \f[C]balance1\f[R].
.PP
You can adjust the type of assertion/assignment with the
\f[C]balance-type\f[R] rule (see below).
.PP
See Tips below for more about setting amounts and currency.
.SS \f[C]separator\f[R]
.PP
You can use the \f[C]separator\f[R] rule to read other kinds of
character-separated data.
The argument is any single separator character, or the words
\f[C]tab\f[R] or \f[C]space\f[R] (case insensitive).
Eg, for comma-separated values (CSV):
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
separator ,
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
or for semicolon-separated values (SSV):
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
separator ;
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
or for tab-separated values (TSV):
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
separator TAB
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
If the input file has a \f[C].csv\f[R], \f[C].ssv\f[R] or \f[C].tsv\f[R]
file extension (or a \f[C]csv:\f[R], \f[C]ssv:\f[R], \f[C]tsv:\f[R]
prefix), the appropriate separator will be inferred automatically, and
you won\[aq]t need this rule.
.SS \f[C]if\f[R] block
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
if MATCHER
RULE
if
MATCHER
MATCHER
MATCHER
RULE
RULE
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Conditional blocks (\[dq]if blocks\[dq]) are a block of rules that are
applied only to CSV records which match certain patterns.
They are often used for customising account names based on transaction
descriptions.
.SS Matching the whole record
.PP
Each MATCHER can be a record matcher, which looks like this:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
REGEX
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
REGEX is a case-insensitive regular expression that tries to match
anywhere within the CSV record.
It is a POSIX ERE (extended regular expression) that also supports GNU
word boundaries (\f[C]\[rs]b\f[R], \f[C]\[rs]B\f[R], \f[C]\[rs]<\f[R],
\f[C]\[rs]>\f[R]), and nothing else.
If you have trouble, be sure to check our doc:
https://hledger.org/hledger.html#regular-expressions
.PP
Important note: the record that is matched is not the original record,
but a synthetic one, with any enclosing double quotes (but not enclosing
whitespace) removed, and always comma-separated (which means that a
field containing a comma will appear like two fields).
Eg, if the original record is
\f[C]2020-01-01; \[dq]Acme, Inc.\[dq]; 1,000\f[R], the REGEX will
actually see \f[C]2020-01-01,Acme, Inc., 1,000\f[R]).
.SS Matching individual fields
.PP
Or, MATCHER can be a field matcher, like this:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
%CSVFIELD REGEX
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
which matches just the content of a particular CSV field.
CSVFIELD is a percent sign followed by the field\[aq]s name or column
number, like \f[C]%date\f[R] or \f[C]%1\f[R].
.SS Combining matchers
.PP
A single matcher can be written on the same line as the \[dq]if\[dq]; or
multiple matchers can be written on the following lines, non-indented.
Multiple matchers are OR\[aq]d (any one of them can match), unless one
begins with an \f[C]&\f[R] symbol, in which case it is AND\[aq]ed with
the previous matcher.
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
if
MATCHER
& MATCHER
RULE
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Rules applied on successful match
.PP
After the patterns there should be one or more rules to apply, all
indented by at least one space.
Three kinds of rule are allowed in conditional blocks:
.IP \[bu] 2
field assignments (to set a hledger field)
.IP \[bu] 2
skip (to skip the matched CSV record)
.IP \[bu] 2
end (to skip all remaining CSV records).
.PP
Examples:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
# if the CSV record contains \[dq]groceries\[dq], set account2 to \[dq]expenses:groceries\[dq]
if groceries
account2 expenses:groceries
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
# if the CSV record contains any of these patterns, set account2 and comment as shown
if
monthly service fee
atm transaction fee
banking thru software
account2 expenses:business:banking
comment XXX deductible ? check it
\f[R]
.fi
.SS \f[C]if\f[R] table
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
if,CSVFIELDNAME1,CSVFIELDNAME2,...,CSVFIELDNAMEn
MATCHER1,VALUE11,VALUE12,...,VALUE1n
MATCHER2,VALUE21,VALUE22,...,VALUE2n
MATCHER3,VALUE31,VALUE32,...,VALUE3n
<empty line>
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Conditional tables (\[dq]if tables\[dq]) are a different syntax to
specify field assignments that will be applied only to CSV records which
match certain patterns.
.PP
MATCHER could be either field or record matcher, as described above.
When MATCHER matches, values from that row would be assigned to the CSV
fields named on the \f[C]if\f[R] line, in the same order.
.PP
Therefore \f[C]if\f[R] table is exactly equivalent to a sequence of of
\f[C]if\f[R] blocks:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
if MATCHER1
CSVFIELDNAME1 VALUE11
CSVFIELDNAME2 VALUE12
...
CSVFIELDNAMEn VALUE1n
if MATCHER2
CSVFIELDNAME1 VALUE21
CSVFIELDNAME2 VALUE22
...
CSVFIELDNAMEn VALUE2n
if MATCHER3
CSVFIELDNAME1 VALUE31
CSVFIELDNAME2 VALUE32
...
CSVFIELDNAMEn VALUE3n
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Each line starting with MATCHER should contain enough (possibly empty)
values for all the listed fields.
.PP
Rules would be checked and applied in the order they are listed in the
table and, like with \f[C]if\f[R] blocks, later rules (in the same or
another table) or \f[C]if\f[R] blocks could override the effect of any
rule.
.PP
Instead of \[aq],\[aq] you can use a variety of other non-alphanumeric
characters as a separator.
First character after \f[C]if\f[R] is taken to be the separator for the
rest of the table.
It is the responsibility of the user to ensure that separator does not
occur inside MATCHERs and values - there is no way to escape separator.
.PP
Example:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
if,account2,comment
atm transaction fee,expenses:business:banking,deductible? check it
%description groceries,expenses:groceries,
2020/01/12.*Plumbing LLC,expenses:house:upkeep,emergency plumbing call-out
\f[R]
.fi
.SS \f[C]end\f[R]
.PP
This rule can be used inside if blocks (only), to make hledger stop
reading this CSV file and move on to the next input file, or to command
execution.
Eg:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
# ignore everything following the first empty record
if ,,,,
end
\f[R]
.fi
.SS \f[C]date-format\f[R]
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
date-format DATEFMT
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
This is a helper for the \f[C]date\f[R] (and \f[C]date2\f[R]) fields.
If your CSV dates are not formatted like \f[C]YYYY-MM-DD\f[R],
\f[C]YYYY/MM/DD\f[R] or \f[C]YYYY.MM.DD\f[R], you\[aq]ll need to add a
date-format rule describing them with a strptime date parsing pattern,
which must parse the CSV date value completely.
Some examples:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
# MM/DD/YY
date-format %m/%d/%y
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
# D/M/YYYY
# The - makes leading zeros optional.
date-format %-d/%-m/%Y
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
# YYYY-Mmm-DD
date-format %Y-%h-%d
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
# M/D/YYYY HH:MM AM some other junk
# Note the time and junk must be fully parsed, though only the date is used.
date-format %-m/%-d/%Y %l:%M %p some other junk
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
For the supported strptime syntax, see:
.PD 0
.P
.PD
https://hackage.haskell.org/package/time/docs/Data-Time-Format.html#v:formatTime
.PP
Note that although you can parse date-times which include a time zone,
that time zone is ignored; it will not change the date that is parsed.
This means when reading CSV data with times not in your local time zone,
dates can be \[dq]off by one\[dq].
.SS \f[C]decimal-mark\f[R]
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
decimal-mark .
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
or:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
decimal-mark ,
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
hledger automatically accepts either period or comma as a decimal mark
when parsing numbers (cf Amounts).
However if any numbers in the CSV contain digit group marks, such as
thousand-separating commas, you should declare the decimal mark
explicitly with this rule, to avoid misparsed numbers.
.SS \f[C]newest-first\f[R]
.PP
hledger always sorts the generated transactions by date.
Transactions on the same date should appear in the same order as their
CSV records, as hledger can usually auto-detect whether the CSV\[aq]s
normal order is oldest first or newest first.
But if all of the following are true:
.IP \[bu] 2
the CSV might sometimes contain just one day of data (all records having
the same date)
.IP \[bu] 2
the CSV records are normally in reverse chronological order (newest at
the top)
.IP \[bu] 2
and you care about preserving the order of same-day transactions
.PP
then, you should add the \f[C]newest-first\f[R] rule as a hint.
Eg:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
# tell hledger explicitly that the CSV is normally newest first
newest-first
\f[R]
.fi
.SS \f[C]include\f[R]
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
include RULESFILE
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
This includes the contents of another CSV rules file at this point.
\f[C]RULESFILE\f[R] is an absolute file path or a path relative to the
current file\[aq]s directory.
This can be useful for sharing common rules between several rules files,
eg:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
# someaccount.csv.rules
## someaccount-specific rules
fields date,description,amount
account1 assets:someaccount
account2 expenses:misc
## common rules
include categorisation.rules
\f[R]
.fi
.SS \f[C]balance-type\f[R]
.PP
Balance assertions generated by assigning to balanceN are of the simple
\f[C]=\f[R] type by default, which is a single-commodity,
subaccount-excluding assertion.
You may find the subaccount-including variants more useful, eg if you
have created some virtual subaccounts of checking to help with
budgeting.
You can select a different type of assertion with the
\f[C]balance-type\f[R] rule:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
# balance assertions will consider all commodities and all subaccounts
balance-type ==*
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Here are the balance assertion types for quick reference:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
= single commodity, exclude subaccounts
=* single commodity, include subaccounts
== multi commodity, exclude subaccounts
==* multi commodity, include subaccounts
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Tips
.SS Rapid feedback
.PP
It\[aq]s a good idea to get rapid feedback while
creating/troubleshooting CSV rules.
Here\[aq]s a good way, using entr from eradman.com/entrproject:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ ls foo.csv* | entr bash -c \[aq]echo ----; hledger -f foo.csv print desc:SOMEDESC\[aq]
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
A desc: query (eg) is used to select just one, or a few, transactions of
interest.
\[dq]bash -c\[dq] is used to run multiple commands, so we can echo a
separator each time the command re-runs, making it easier to read the
output.
.SS Valid CSV
.PP
hledger accepts CSV conforming to RFC 4180.
When CSV values are enclosed in quotes, note:
.IP \[bu] 2
they must be double quotes (not single quotes)
.IP \[bu] 2
spaces outside the quotes are not allowed
.SS File Extension
.PP
To help hledger identify the format and show the right error messages,
CSV/SSV/TSV files should normally be named with a \f[C].csv\f[R],
\f[C].ssv\f[R] or \f[C].tsv\f[R] filename extension.
Or, the file path should be prefixed with \f[C]csv:\f[R], \f[C]ssv:\f[R]
or \f[C]tsv:\f[R].
Eg:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f foo.ssv print
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
or:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ cat foo | hledger -f ssv:- foo
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
You can override the file extension with a separator rule if needed.
See also: Input files in the hledger manual.
.SS Reading multiple CSV files
.PP
If you use multiple \f[C]-f\f[R] options to read multiple CSV files at
once, hledger will look for a correspondingly-named rules file for each
CSV file.
But if you use the \f[C]--rules-file\f[R] option, that rules file will
be used for all the CSV files.
.SS Valid transactions
.PP
After reading a CSV file, hledger post-processes and validates the
generated journal entries as it would for a journal file - balancing
them, applying balance assignments, and canonicalising amount styles.
Any errors at this stage will be reported in the usual way, displaying
the problem entry.
.PP
There is one exception: balance assertions, if you have generated them,
will not be checked, since normally these will work only when the CSV
data is part of the main journal.
If you do need to check balance assertions generated from CSV right
away, pipe into another hledger:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f file.csv print | hledger -f- print
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Deduplicating, importing
.PP
When you download a CSV file periodically, eg to get your latest bank
transactions, the new file may overlap with the old one, containing some
of the same records.
.PP
The import command will (a) detect the new transactions, and (b) append
just those transactions to your main journal.
It is idempotent, so you don\[aq]t have to remember how many times you
ran it or with which version of the CSV.
(It keeps state in a hidden \f[C].latest.FILE.csv\f[R] file.) This is
the easiest way to import CSV data.
Eg:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
# download the latest CSV files, then run this command.
# Note, no -f flags needed here.
$ hledger import *.csv [--dry]
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
This method works for most CSV files.
(Where records have a stable chronological order, and new records appear
only at the new end.)
.PP
A number of other tools and workflows, hledger-specific and otherwise,
exist for converting, deduplicating, classifying and managing CSV data.
See:
.IP \[bu] 2
https://hledger.org -> sidebar -> real world setups
.IP \[bu] 2
https://plaintextaccounting.org -> data import/conversion
.SS Setting amounts
.PP
Some tips on using the amount-setting rules discussed above.
.PP
Here are the ways to set a posting\[aq]s amount:
.IP "1." 3
\f[B]If the CSV has a single amount field:\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Assign (via a fields list or a field assignment) to \f[C]amountN\f[R].
This sets the Nth posting\[aq]s amount.
N is usually 1 or 2 but can go up to 99.
.IP "2." 3
\f[B]If the CSV has separate amount fields for debit & credit (in &
out):\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
.RS 4
.IP "a." 3
\f[B]If both fields are unsigned:\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Assign to \f[C]amountN-in\f[R] and \f[C]amountN-out\f[R].
This sets posting N\[aq]s amount to whichever of these has a non-zero
value, and negates the \[dq]-out\[dq] value.
.IP "b." 3
\f[B]If either field is signed (can contain a minus sign):\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Use a conditional rule to flip the sign (of non-empty values).
Since hledger always negates amountN-out, if it was already negative, we
must undo that by negating once more (but only if the field is
non-empty):
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
fields date, description, amount1-in, amount1-out
if %amount1-out [1-9]
amount1-out -%amount1-out
\f[R]
.fi
.IP "c." 3
\f[B]If both fields, or neither field, can contain a non-zero
value:\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
hledger normally expects exactly one of the fields to have a non-zero
value.
Eg, the \f[C]amountN-in\f[R]/\f[C]amountN-out\f[R] rules would reject
value pairs like these:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
\[dq]\[dq], \[dq]\[dq]
\[dq]0\[dq], \[dq]0\[dq]
\[dq]1\[dq], \[dq]none\[dq]
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
So, use smarter conditional rules to set the amount from the appropriate
field.
Eg, these rules would make it use only the value containing non-zero
digits, handling the above:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
fields date, description, in, out
if %in [1-9]
amount1 %in
if %out [1-9]
amount1 %out
\f[R]
.fi
.RE
.IP "3." 3
\f[B]If you are stuck with hledger <1.17, or you want posting 2\[aq]s
amount converted to cost:\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Assign to \f[C]amount\f[R] (or to \f[C]amount-in\f[R] and
\f[C]amount-out\f[R]).
(The old numberless syntax, which sets amount1 and amount2.)
.IP "4." 3
\f[B]If the CSV has the balance instead of the transaction amount:\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Assign to \f[C]balanceN\f[R], which sets posting N\[aq]s amount
indirectly via a balance assignment.
(Old syntax: \f[C]balance\f[R], equivalent to \f[C]balance1\f[R].)
.RS 4
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[B]If hledger guesses the wrong default account name:\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
When setting the amount via balance assertion, hledger may guess the
wrong default account name.
So, set the account name explicitly, eg:
.RS 2
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
fields date, description, balance1
account1 assets:checking
\f[R]
.fi
.RE
.RE
.SS Amount signs
.PP
There is some special handling for amount signs, to simplify parsing and
sign-flipping:
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[B]If an amount value begins with a plus sign:\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
that will be removed: \f[C]+AMT\f[R] becomes \f[C]AMT\f[R]
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[B]If an amount value is parenthesised:\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
it will be de-parenthesised and sign-flipped: \f[C](AMT)\f[R] becomes
\f[C]-AMT\f[R]
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[B]If an amount value has two minus signs (or two sets of parentheses,
or a minus sign and parentheses):\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
they cancel out and will be removed: \f[C]--AMT\f[R] or \f[C]-(AMT)\f[R]
becomes \f[C]AMT\f[R]
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[B]If an amount value contains just a sign (or just a set of
parentheses):\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
that is removed, making it an empty value.
\f[C]\[dq]+\[dq]\f[R] or \f[C]\[dq]-\[dq]\f[R] or \f[C]\[dq]()\[dq]\f[R]
becomes \f[C]\[dq]\[dq]\f[R].
.SS Setting currency/commodity
.PP
If the currency/commodity symbol is included in the CSV\[aq]s amount
field(s):
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2020-01-01,foo,$123.00
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
you don\[aq]t have to do anything special for the commodity symbol, it
will be assigned as part of the amount.
Eg:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
fields date,description,amount
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2020-01-01 foo
expenses:unknown $123.00
income:unknown $-123.00
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
If the currency is provided as a separate CSV field:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2020-01-01,foo,USD,123.00
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
You can assign that to the \f[C]currency\f[R] pseudo-field, which has
the special effect of prepending itself to every amount in the
transaction (on the left, with no separating space):
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
fields date,description,currency,amount
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2020-01-01 foo
expenses:unknown USD123.00
income:unknown USD-123.00
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Or, you can use a field assignment to construct the amount yourself,
with more control.
Eg to put the symbol on the right, and separated by a space:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
fields date,description,cur,amt
amount %amt %cur
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2020-01-01 foo
expenses:unknown 123.00 USD
income:unknown -123.00 USD
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Note we used a temporary field name (\f[C]cur\f[R]) that is not
\f[C]currency\f[R] - that would trigger the prepending effect, which we
don\[aq]t want here.
.SS Amount decimal places
.PP
Like amounts in a journal file, the amounts generated by CSV rules like
\f[C]amount1\f[R] influence commodity display styles, such as the number
of decimal places displayed in reports.
.PP
The original amounts as written in the CSV file do not affect display
style (because we don\[aq]t yet reliably know their commodity).
.SS Referencing other fields
.PP
In field assignments, you can interpolate only CSV fields, not hledger
fields.
In the example below, there\[aq]s both a CSV field and a hledger field
named amount1, but %amount1 always means the CSV field, not the hledger
field:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
# Name the third CSV field \[dq]amount1\[dq]
fields date,description,amount1
# Set hledger\[aq]s amount1 to the CSV amount1 field followed by USD
amount1 %amount1 USD
# Set comment to the CSV amount1 (not the amount1 assigned above)
comment %amount1
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Here, since there\[aq]s no CSV amount1 field, %amount1 will produce a
literal \[dq]amount1\[dq]:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
fields date,description,csvamount
amount1 %csvamount USD
# Can\[aq]t interpolate amount1 here
comment %amount1
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
When there are multiple field assignments to the same hledger field,
only the last one takes effect.
Here, comment\[aq]s value will be be B, or C if \[dq]something\[dq] is
matched, but never A:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
comment A
comment B
if something
comment C
\f[R]
.fi
.SS How CSV rules are evaluated
.PP
Here\[aq]s how to think of CSV rules being evaluated (if you really need
to).
First,
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]include\f[R] - all includes are inlined, from top to bottom, depth
first.
(At each include point the file is inlined and scanned for further
includes, recursively, before proceeding.)
.PP
Then \[dq]global\[dq] rules are evaluated, top to bottom.
If a rule is repeated, the last one wins:
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]skip\f[R] (at top level)
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]date-format\f[R]
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]newest-first\f[R]
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]fields\f[R] - names the CSV fields, optionally sets up initial
assignments to hledger fields
.PP
Then for each CSV record in turn:
.IP \[bu] 2
test all \f[C]if\f[R] blocks.
If any of them contain a \f[C]end\f[R] rule, skip all remaining CSV
records.
Otherwise if any of them contain a \f[C]skip\f[R] rule, skip that many
CSV records.
If there are multiple matched \f[C]skip\f[R] rules, the first one wins.
.IP \[bu] 2
collect all field assignments at top level and in matched \f[C]if\f[R]
blocks.
When there are multiple assignments for a field, keep only the last one.
.IP \[bu] 2
compute a value for each hledger field - either the one that was
assigned to it (and interpolate the %CSVFIELDNAME references), or a
default
.IP \[bu] 2
generate a synthetic hledger transaction from these values.
.PP
This is all part of the CSV reader, one of several readers hledger can
use to parse input files.
When all files have been read successfully, the transactions are passed
as input to whichever hledger command the user specified.
.SH TIMECLOCK FORMAT
.PP
The time logging format of timeclock.el, as read by hledger.
.PP
hledger can read time logs in timeclock format.
As with Ledger, these are (a subset of) timeclock.el\[aq]s format,
containing clock-in and clock-out entries as in the example below.
The date is a simple date.
The time format is HH:MM[:SS][+-ZZZZ].
Seconds and timezone are optional.
The timezone, if present, must be four digits and is ignored (currently
the time is always interpreted as a local time).
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
i 2015/03/30 09:00:00 some:account name optional description after two spaces
o 2015/03/30 09:20:00
i 2015/03/31 22:21:45 another account
o 2015/04/01 02:00:34
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
hledger treats each clock-in/clock-out pair as a transaction posting
some number of hours to an account.
Or if the session spans more than one day, it is split into several
transactions, one for each day.
For the above time log, \f[C]hledger print\f[R] generates these journal
entries:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f t.timeclock print
2015-03-30 * optional description after two spaces
(some:account name) 0.33h
2015-03-31 * 22:21-23:59
(another account) 1.64h
2015-04-01 * 00:00-02:00
(another account) 2.01h
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Here is a sample.timeclock to download and some queries to try:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f sample.timeclock balance # current time balances
$ hledger -f sample.timeclock register -p 2009/3 # sessions in march 2009
$ hledger -f sample.timeclock register -p weekly --depth 1 --empty # time summary by week
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
To generate time logs, ie to clock in and clock out, you could:
.IP \[bu] 2
use emacs and the built-in timeclock.el, or the extended timeclock-x.el
and perhaps the extras in ledgerutils.el
.IP \[bu] 2
at the command line, use these bash aliases:
\f[C]shell alias ti=\[dq]echo i \[ga]date \[aq]+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S\[aq]\[ga] \[rs]$* >>$TIMELOG\[dq] alias to=\[dq]echo o \[ga]date \[aq]+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S\[aq]\[ga] >>$TIMELOG\[dq]\f[R]
.IP \[bu] 2
or use the old \f[C]ti\f[R] and \f[C]to\f[R] scripts in the ledger 2.x
repository.
These rely on a \[dq]timeclock\[dq] executable which I think is just the
ledger 2 executable renamed.
.SH TIMEDOT FORMAT
.PP
\f[C]timedot\f[R] format is hledger\[aq]s human-friendly time logging
format.
Compared to \f[C]timeclock\f[R] format, it is
.IP \[bu] 2
convenient for quick, approximate, and retroactive time logging
.IP \[bu] 2
readable: you can see at a glance where time was spent.
.PP
A timedot file contains a series of day entries, which might look like
this:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2021-08-04
hom:errands .... ....
fos:hledger:timedot .. ; docs
per:admin:finance
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
hledger reads this as three time transactions on this day, with each dot
representing a quarter-hour spent:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f a.timedot print # .timedot file extension activates the timedot reader
2021-08-04 *
(hom:errands) 2.00
2021-08-04 *
(fos:hledger:timedot) 0.50
2021-08-04 *
(per:admin:finance) 0
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
A day entry begins with a date line:
.IP \[bu] 2
a non-indented \f[B]simple date\f[R] (Y-M-D, Y/M/D, or Y.M.D).
.PP
Optionally this can be followed on the same line by
.IP \[bu] 2
a common \f[B]transaction description\f[R] for this day
.IP \[bu] 2
a common \f[B]transaction comment\f[R] for this day, after a semicolon
(\f[C];\f[R]).
.PP
After the date line are zero or more optionally-indented time
transaction lines, consisting of:
.IP \[bu] 2
an \f[B]account name\f[R] - any word or phrase, usually a hledger-style
account name.
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[B]two or more spaces\f[R] - a field separator, required if there is
an amount (as in journal format).
.IP \[bu] 2
a \f[B]timedot amount\f[R] - dots representing quarter hours, or a
number representing hours.
.IP \[bu] 2
an optional \f[B]comment\f[R] beginning with semicolon.
This is ignored.
.PP
In more detail, timedot amounts can be:
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[B]dots\f[R]: zero or more period characters, each representing one
quarter-hour.
Spaces are ignored and can be used for grouping.
Eg: \f[C].... ..\f[R]
.IP \[bu] 2
a \f[B]number\f[R], representing hours.
Eg: \f[C]1.5\f[R]
.IP \[bu] 2
a \f[B]number immediately followed by a unit symbol\f[R] \f[C]s\f[R],
\f[C]m\f[R], \f[C]h\f[R], \f[C]d\f[R], \f[C]w\f[R], \f[C]mo\f[R], or
\f[C]y\f[R], representing seconds, minutes, hours, days weeks, months or
years.
Eg \f[C]1.5h\f[R] or \f[C]90m\f[R].
The following equivalencies are assumed:
.PD 0
.P
.PD
\f[C]60s\f[R] = \f[C]1m\f[R], \f[C]60m\f[R] = \f[C]1h\f[R],
\f[C]24h\f[R] = \f[C]1d\f[R], \f[C]7d\f[R] = \f[C]1w\f[R], \f[C]30d\f[R]
= \f[C]1mo\f[R], \f[C]365d\f[R] = \f[C]1y\f[R].
(This unit will not be visible in the generated transaction amount,
which is always in hours.)
.PP
There is some added flexibility to help with keeping time log data in
the same file as your notes, todo lists, etc.:
.IP \[bu] 2
Lines beginning with \f[C]#\f[R] or \f[C];\f[R], and blank lines, are
ignored.
.IP \[bu] 2
Lines not ending with a double-space and amount are parsed as
transactions with zero amount.
(Most hledger reports hide these by default; add -E to see them.)
.IP \[bu] 2
One or more stars (\f[C]*\f[R]) followed by a space, at the start of a
line, is ignored.
So date lines or time transaction lines can also be Org-mode headlines.
.IP \[bu] 2
All Org-mode headlines before the first date line are ignored.
.PP
More examples:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
# on this day, 6h was spent on client work, 1.5h on haskell FOSS work, etc.
2016/2/1
inc:client1 .... .... .... .... .... ....
fos:haskell .... ..
biz:research .
2016/2/2
inc:client1 .... ....
biz:research .
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2016/2/3
inc:client1 4
fos:hledger 3
biz:research 1
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
* Time log
** 2020-01-01
*** adm:time .
*** adm:finance .
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
* 2020 Work Diary
** Q1
*** 2020-02-29
**** DONE
0700 yoga
**** UNPLANNED
**** BEGUN
hom:chores
cleaning ...
water plants
outdoor - one full watering can
indoor - light watering
**** TODO
adm:planning: trip
*** LATER
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Reporting:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f a.timedot print date:2016/2/2
2016-02-02 *
(inc:client1) 2.00
2016-02-02 *
(biz:research) 0.25
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f a.timedot bal --daily --tree
Balance changes in 2016-02-01-2016-02-03:
|| 2016-02-01d 2016-02-02d 2016-02-03d
============++========================================
biz || 0.25 0.25 1.00
research || 0.25 0.25 1.00
fos || 1.50 0 3.00
haskell || 1.50 0 0
hledger || 0 0 3.00
inc || 6.00 2.00 4.00
client1 || 6.00 2.00 4.00
------------++----------------------------------------
|| 7.75 2.25 8.00
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Using period instead of colon as account name separator:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2016/2/4
fos.hledger.timedot 4
fos.ledger ..
\f[R]
.fi
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger -f a.timedot --alias /\[rs]\[rs]./=: bal --tree
4.50 fos
4.00 hledger:timedot
0.50 ledger
--------------------
4.50
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
A sample.timedot file.
.SH COMMON TASKS
.PP
Here are some quick examples of how to do some basic tasks with hledger.
For more details, see the reference section below, the
hledger_journal(5) manual, or the more extensive docs at
https://hledger.org.
.SS Getting help
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger # show available commands
$ hledger --help # show common options
$ hledger CMD --help # show common and command options, and command help
$ hledger help # show available manuals/topics
$ hledger help hledger # show hledger manual as info/man/text (auto-chosen)
$ hledger help journal --man # show the journal manual as a man page
$ hledger help --help # show more detailed help for the help command
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Find more docs, chat, mail list, reddit, issue tracker:
https://hledger.org#help-feedback
.SS Constructing command lines
.PP
hledger has an extensive and powerful command line interface.
We strive to keep it simple and ergonomic, but you may run into one of
the confusing real world details described in OPTIONS, below.
If that happens, here are some tips that may help:
.IP \[bu] 2
command-specific options must go after the command (it\[aq]s fine to put
all options there) (\f[C]hledger CMD OPTS ARGS\f[R])
.IP \[bu] 2
running add-on executables directly simplifies command line parsing
(\f[C]hledger-ui OPTS ARGS\f[R])
.IP \[bu] 2
enclose \[dq]problematic\[dq] args in single quotes
.IP \[bu] 2
if needed, also add a backslash to hide regular expression
metacharacters from the shell
.IP \[bu] 2
to see how a misbehaving command is being parsed, add
\f[C]--debug=2\f[R].
.SS Starting a journal file
.PP
hledger looks for your accounting data in a journal file,
\f[C]$HOME/.hledger.journal\f[R] by default:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger stats
The hledger journal file \[dq]/Users/simon/.hledger.journal\[dq] was not found.
Please create it first, eg with \[dq]hledger add\[dq] or a text editor.
Or, specify an existing journal file with -f or LEDGER_FILE.
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
You can override this by setting the \f[C]LEDGER_FILE\f[R] environment
variable.
It\[aq]s a good practice to keep this important file under version
control, and to start a new file each year.
So you could do something like this:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ mkdir \[ti]/finance
$ cd \[ti]/finance
$ git init
Initialized empty Git repository in /Users/simon/finance/.git/
$ touch 2020.journal
$ echo \[dq]export LEDGER_FILE=$HOME/finance/2020.journal\[dq] >> \[ti]/.bashrc
$ source \[ti]/.bashrc
$ hledger stats
Main file : /Users/simon/finance/2020.journal
Included files :
Transactions span : to (0 days)
Last transaction : none
Transactions : 0 (0.0 per day)
Transactions last 30 days: 0 (0.0 per day)
Transactions last 7 days : 0 (0.0 per day)
Payees/descriptions : 0
Accounts : 0 (depth 0)
Commodities : 0 ()
Market prices : 0 ()
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Setting opening balances
.PP
Pick a starting date for which you can look up the balances of some
real-world assets (bank accounts, wallet..) and liabilities (credit
cards..).
.PP
To avoid a lot of data entry, you may want to start with just one or two
accounts, like your checking account or cash wallet; and pick a recent
starting date, like today or the start of the week.
You can always come back later and add more accounts and older
transactions, eg going back to january 1st.
.PP
Add an opening balances transaction to the journal, declaring the
balances on this date.
Here are two ways to do it:
.IP \[bu] 2
The first way: open the journal in any text editor and save an entry
like this:
.RS 2
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2020-01-01 * opening balances
assets:bank:checking $1000 = $1000
assets:bank:savings $2000 = $2000
assets:cash $100 = $100
liabilities:creditcard $-50 = $-50
equity:opening/closing balances
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
These are start-of-day balances, ie whatever was in the account at the
end of the previous day.
.PP
The * after the date is an optional status flag.
Here it means \[dq]cleared & confirmed\[dq].
.PP
The currency symbols are optional, but usually a good idea as you\[aq]ll
be dealing with multiple currencies sooner or later.
.PP
The = amounts are optional balance assertions, providing extra error
checking.
.RE
.IP \[bu] 2
The second way: run \f[C]hledger add\f[R] and follow the prompts to
record a similar transaction:
.RS 2
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger add
Adding transactions to journal file /Users/simon/finance/2020.journal
Any command line arguments will be used as defaults.
Use tab key to complete, readline keys to edit, enter to accept defaults.
An optional (CODE) may follow transaction dates.
An optional ; COMMENT may follow descriptions or amounts.
If you make a mistake, enter < at any prompt to go one step backward.
To end a transaction, enter . when prompted.
To quit, enter . at a date prompt or press control-d or control-c.
Date [2020-02-07]: 2020-01-01
Description: * opening balances
Account 1: assets:bank:checking
Amount 1: $1000
Account 2: assets:bank:savings
Amount 2 [$-1000]: $2000
Account 3: assets:cash
Amount 3 [$-3000]: $100
Account 4: liabilities:creditcard
Amount 4 [$-3100]: $-50
Account 5: equity:opening/closing balances
Amount 5 [$-3050]:
Account 6 (or . or enter to finish this transaction): .
2020-01-01 * opening balances
assets:bank:checking $1000
assets:bank:savings $2000
assets:cash $100
liabilities:creditcard $-50
equity:opening/closing balances $-3050
Save this transaction to the journal ? [y]:
Saved.
Starting the next transaction (. or ctrl-D/ctrl-C to quit)
Date [2020-01-01]: .
\f[R]
.fi
.RE
.PP
If you\[aq]re using version control, this could be a good time to commit
the journal.
Eg:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ git commit -m \[aq]initial balances\[aq] 2020.journal
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Recording transactions
.PP
As you spend or receive money, you can record these transactions using
one of the methods above (text editor, hledger add) or by using the
hledger-iadd or hledger-web add-ons, or by using the import command to
convert CSV data downloaded from your bank.
.PP
Here are some simple transactions, see the hledger_journal(5) manual and
hledger.org for more ideas:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2020/1/10 * gift received
assets:cash $20
income:gifts
2020.1.12 * farmers market
expenses:food $13
assets:cash
2020-01-15 paycheck
income:salary
assets:bank:checking $1000
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Reconciling
.PP
Periodically you should reconcile - compare your hledger-reported
balances against external sources of truth, like bank statements or your
bank\[aq]s website - to be sure that your ledger accurately represents
the real-world balances (and, that the real-world institutions have not
made a mistake!).
This gets easy and fast with (1) practice and (2) frequency.
If you do it daily, it can take 2-10 minutes.
If you let it pile up, expect it to take longer as you hunt down errors
and discrepancies.
.PP
A typical workflow:
.IP "1." 3
Reconcile cash.
Count what\[aq]s in your wallet.
Compare with what hledger reports (\f[C]hledger bal cash\f[R]).
If they are different, try to remember the missing transaction, or look
for the error in the already-recorded transactions.
A register report can be helpful (\f[C]hledger reg cash\f[R]).
If you can\[aq]t find the error, add an adjustment transaction.
Eg if you have $105 after the above, and can\[aq]t explain the missing
$2, it could be:
.RS 4
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
2020-01-16 * adjust cash
assets:cash $-2 = $105
expenses:misc
\f[R]
.fi
.RE
.IP "2." 3
Reconcile checking.
Log in to your bank\[aq]s website.
Compare today\[aq]s (cleared) balance with hledger\[aq]s cleared balance
(\f[C]hledger bal checking -C\f[R]).
If they are different, track down the error or record the missing
transaction(s) or add an adjustment transaction, similar to the above.
Unlike the cash case, you can usually compare the transaction history
and running balance from your bank with the one reported by
\f[C]hledger reg checking -C\f[R].
This will be easier if you generally record transaction dates quite
similar to your bank\[aq]s clearing dates.
.IP "3." 3
Repeat for other asset/liability accounts.
.PP
Tip: instead of the register command, use hledger-ui to see a
live-updating register while you edit the journal:
\f[C]hledger-ui --watch --register checking -C\f[R]
.PP
After reconciling, it could be a good time to mark the reconciled
transactions\[aq] status as \[dq]cleared and confirmed\[dq], if you want
to track that, by adding the \f[C]*\f[R] marker.
Eg in the paycheck transaction above, insert \f[C]*\f[R] between
\f[C]2020-01-15\f[R] and \f[C]paycheck\f[R]
.PP
If you\[aq]re using version control, this can be another good time to
commit:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ git commit -m \[aq]txns\[aq] 2020.journal
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Reporting
.PP
Here are some basic reports.
.PP
Show all transactions:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger print
2020-01-01 * opening balances
assets:bank:checking $1000
assets:bank:savings $2000
assets:cash $100
liabilities:creditcard $-50
equity:opening/closing balances $-3050
2020-01-10 * gift received
assets:cash $20
income:gifts
2020-01-12 * farmers market
expenses:food $13
assets:cash
2020-01-15 * paycheck
income:salary
assets:bank:checking $1000
2020-01-16 * adjust cash
assets:cash $-2 = $105
expenses:misc
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Show account names, and their hierarchy:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger accounts --tree
assets
bank
checking
savings
cash
equity
opening/closing balances
expenses
food
misc
income
gifts
salary
liabilities
creditcard
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Show all account totals:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger balance
$4105 assets
$4000 bank
$2000 checking
$2000 savings
$105 cash
$-3050 equity:opening/closing balances
$15 expenses
$13 food
$2 misc
$-1020 income
$-20 gifts
$-1000 salary
$-50 liabilities:creditcard
--------------------
0
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Show only asset and liability balances, as a flat list, limited to depth
2:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger bal assets liabilities --flat -2
$4000 assets:bank
$105 assets:cash
$-50 liabilities:creditcard
--------------------
$4055
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Show the same thing without negative numbers, formatted as a simple
balance sheet:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger bs --flat -2
Balance Sheet 2020-01-16
|| 2020-01-16
========================++============
Assets ||
------------------------++------------
assets:bank || $4000
assets:cash || $105
------------------------++------------
|| $4105
========================++============
Liabilities ||
------------------------++------------
liabilities:creditcard || $50
------------------------++------------
|| $50
========================++============
Net: || $4055
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
The final total is your \[dq]net worth\[dq] on the end date.
(Or use \f[C]bse\f[R] for a full balance sheet with equity.)
.PP
Show income and expense totals, formatted as an income statement:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
hledger is
Income Statement 2020-01-01-2020-01-16
|| 2020-01-01-2020-01-16
===============++=======================
Revenues ||
---------------++-----------------------
income:gifts || $20
income:salary || $1000
---------------++-----------------------
|| $1020
===============++=======================
Expenses ||
---------------++-----------------------
expenses:food || $13
expenses:misc || $2
---------------++-----------------------
|| $15
===============++=======================
Net: || $1005
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
The final total is your net income during this period.
.PP
Show transactions affecting your wallet, with running total:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger register cash
2020-01-01 opening balances assets:cash $100 $100
2020-01-10 gift received assets:cash $20 $120
2020-01-12 farmers market assets:cash $-13 $107
2020-01-16 adjust cash assets:cash $-2 $105
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Show weekly posting counts as a bar chart:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ hledger activity -W
2019-12-30 *****
2020-01-06 ****
2020-01-13 ****
\f[R]
.fi
.SS Migrating to a new file
.PP
At the end of the year, you may want to continue your journal in a new
file, so that old transactions don\[aq]t slow down or clutter your
reports, and to help ensure the integrity of your accounting history.
See the close command.
.PP
If using version control, don\[aq]t forget to \f[C]git add\f[R] the new
file.
.SH LIMITATIONS
.PP
The need to precede add-on command options with \f[C]--\f[R] when
invoked from hledger is awkward.
.PP
When input data contains non-ascii characters, a suitable system locale
must be configured (or there will be an unhelpful error).
Eg on POSIX, set LANG to something other than C.
.PP
In a Microsoft Windows CMD window, non-ascii characters and colours are
not supported.
.PP
On Windows, non-ascii characters may not display correctly when running
a hledger built in CMD in MSYS/CYGWIN, or vice-versa.
.PP
In a Cygwin/MSYS/Mintty window, the tab key is not supported in hledger
add.
.PP
Not all of Ledger\[aq]s journal file syntax is supported.
See file format differences.
.PP
On large data files, hledger is slower and uses more memory than Ledger.
.SH TROUBLESHOOTING
.PP
Here are some issues you might encounter when you run hledger (and
remember you can also seek help from the IRC channel, mail list or bug
tracker):
.PP
\f[B]Successfully installed, but \[dq]No command \[aq]hledger\[aq]
found\[dq]\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
stack and cabal install binaries into a special directory, which should
be added to your PATH environment variable.
Eg on unix-like systems, that is \[ti]/.local/bin and \[ti]/.cabal/bin
respectively.
.PP
\f[B]I set a custom LEDGER_FILE, but hledger is still using the default
file\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
\f[C]LEDGER_FILE\f[R] should be a real environment variable, not just a
shell variable.
The command \f[C]env | grep LEDGER_FILE\f[R] should show it.
You may need to use \f[C]export\f[R].
Here\[aq]s an explanation.
.PP
\f[B]Getting errors like \[dq]Illegal byte sequence\[dq] or \[dq]Invalid
or incomplete multibyte or wide character\[dq] or
\[dq]commitAndReleaseBuffer: invalid argument (invalid
character)\[dq]\f[R]
.PD 0
.P
.PD
Programs compiled with GHC (hledger, haskell build tools, etc.) need to
have a UTF-8-aware locale configured in the environment, otherwise they
will fail with these kinds of errors when they encounter non-ascii
characters.
.PP
To fix it, set the LANG environment variable to some locale which
supports UTF-8.
The locale you choose must be installed on your system.
.PP
Here\[aq]s an example of setting LANG temporarily, on Ubuntu GNU/Linux:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ file my.journal
my.journal: UTF-8 Unicode text # the file is UTF8-encoded
$ echo $LANG
C # LANG is set to the default locale, which does not support UTF8
$ locale -a # which locales are installed ?
C
en_US.utf8 # here\[aq]s a UTF8-aware one we can use
POSIX
$ LANG=en_US.utf8 hledger -f my.journal print # ensure it is used for this command
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
If available, \f[C]C.UTF-8\f[R] will also work.
If your preferred locale isn\[aq]t listed by \f[C]locale -a\f[R], you
might need to install it.
Eg on Ubuntu/Debian:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ apt-get install language-pack-fr
$ locale -a
C
en_US.utf8
fr_BE.utf8
fr_CA.utf8
fr_CH.utf8
fr_FR.utf8
fr_LU.utf8
POSIX
$ LANG=fr_FR.utf8 hledger -f my.journal print
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Here\[aq]s how you could set it permanently, if you use a bash shell:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ echo \[dq]export LANG=en_US.utf8\[dq] >>\[ti]/.bash_profile
$ bash --login
\f[R]
.fi
.PP
Exact spelling and capitalisation may be important.
Note the difference on MacOS (\f[C]UTF-8\f[R], not \f[C]utf8\f[R]).
Some platforms (eg ubuntu) allow variant spellings, but others (eg
macos) require it to be exact:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$ locale -a | grep -iE en_us.*utf
en_US.UTF-8
$ LANG=en_US.UTF-8 hledger -f my.journal print
\f[R]
.fi
.SH "REPORTING BUGS"
Report bugs at http://bugs.hledger.org
(or on the #hledger IRC channel or hledger mail list)
.SH AUTHORS
Simon Michael <simon@joyful.com> and contributors
.SH COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2007-2020 Simon Michael.
.br
Released under GNU GPL v3 or later.
.SH SEE ALSO
hledger(1), hledger\-ui(1), hledger\-web(1), ledger(1)
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