29 KiB
COMMANDS
hledger provides a number of subcommands; hledger with
no arguments shows a list.
If you install additional hledger-* packages, or if you
put programs or scripts named hledger-NAME in your PATH,
these will also be listed as subcommands.
Run a subcommand by writing its name as first argument (eg
hledger incomestatement). You can also write any
unambiguous prefix of a command name (hledger inc), or one
of the standard short aliases displayed in the command list
(hledger is).
accounts
Show account names.
--tree- show short account names, as a tree
--flat- show full account names, as a list (default)
--drop=N- in flat mode: omit N leading account name parts
This command lists all account names that are in use (ie, all the accounts which have at least one transaction posting to them). With query arguments, only matched account names are shown.
It shows a flat list by default. With --tree, it uses
indentation to show the account hierarchy.
In flat mode you can add --drop N to omit the first few
account name components.
Examples:
col3({{ shell({{ $ hledger accounts –tree assets bank checking saving cash expenses food supplies income gifts salary liabilities debts }}) }},{{ shell({{ $ hledger accounts –drop 1 bank:checking bank:saving cash food supplies gifts salary debts }}) }},{{ shell({{ $ hledger accounts assets🏦checking assets🏦saving assets:cash expenses:food expenses:supplies income:gifts income:salary liabilities:debts }}) }})
activity
Show an ascii barchart of posting counts per interval.
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.
$ hledger activity --quarterly
2008-01-01 **
2008-04-01 *******
2008-07-01
2008-10-01 **
add
Prompt for transactions and add them to the journal.
--no-new-accounts- don’t allow creating new accounts; helps prevent typos when entering account names
Many hledger users edit their journals directly with a text editor,
or generate them from CSV. For more interactive data entry, there is the
add command, which prompts interactively on the console for
new transactions, and appends them to the journal file (existing
transactions are not changed). This is the only hledger command that
writes to the journal file.
To use it, just run hledger add and follow the prompts.
You can add as many transactions as you like; when you are finished,
enter . or press control-d or control-c to exit.
Features:
- add tries to provide useful defaults, using the most similar recent transaction (by description) as a template.
- You can also set the initial defaults with command line arguments.
- Readline-style edit keys can be used during data entry.
- The tab key will auto-complete whenever possible - accounts,
descriptions, dates (
yesterday,today,tomorrow). If the input area is empty, it will insert the default value. - If the journal defines a default commodity, it will be added to any bare numbers entered.
- A parenthesised transaction code may be entered following a date.
- Comments and tags may be entered following a description or amount.
- If you make a mistake, enter
<at any prompt to restart the transaction. - Input prompts are displayed in a different colour when the terminal supports it.
Example (see the tutorial for a detailed explanation):
shell({{ $ hledger add Adding transactions to journal file
/src/hledger/data/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 restart the transaction. 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]: $ }})
include({{commands-balance.m4.md}})
balancesheet
Show a balance sheet. Alias: bs.
--flat- show full account names, as a list (default)
--drop=N- in flat mode: omit N leading account name parts
This command displays a simple balance sheet. It
currently assumes that you have top-level accounts named
asset and liability (plural forms also
allowed.)
$ hledger balancesheet
Balance Sheet
Assets:
$-1 assets
$1 bank:saving
$-2 cash
--------------------
$-1
Liabilities:
$1 liabilities:debts
--------------------
$1
Total:
--------------------
0
cashflow
Show a cashflow statement. Alias: cf.
--flat- show full account names, as a list (default)
--drop=N- in flat mode: omit N leading account name parts
This command displays a simple cashflow
statement It shows the change in all “cash” (ie, liquid assets)
accounts for the period. It currently assumes that cash accounts are
under a top-level account named asset and do not contain
receivable or A/R (plural forms also
allowed.)
$ hledger cashflow
Cashflow Statement
Cash flows:
$-1 assets
$1 bank:saving
$-2 cash
--------------------
$-1
Total:
--------------------
$-1
help
Show one of the hledger manuals.
The help command displays any of the main hledger man pages. (Unlike
hledger --help, which displays only the hledger man page.)
Run it with no arguments to list available topics (their names are
shortened for easier typing), and run hledger help TOPIC to
select one. The output is similar to a man page, but fixed width. It may
be long, so you may wish to pipe it into a pager. See also info and man.
shell({{ $ hledger help Choose a topic, eg: hledger help cli cli, ui, web, api, journal, csv, timeclock, timedot }})
shell({{ $ hledger help cli | less
hledger(1) hledger User Manuals hledger(1)
NAME hledger - a command-line accounting tool
SYNOPSIS hledger [-f FILE] COMMAND [OPTIONS] [CMDARGS] hledger [-f FILE] ADDONCMD – [OPTIONS] [CMDARGS] : }})
incomestatement
Show an income statement. Alias: is.
--flat- show full account names, as a list (default)
--drop=N- in flat mode: omit N leading account name parts
This command displays a simple income
statement. It currently assumes that you have top-level accounts
named income (or revenue) and
expense (plural forms also allowed.)
$ hledger incomestatement
Income Statement
Revenues:
$-2 income
$-1 gifts
$-1 salary
--------------------
$-2
Expenses:
$2 expenses
$1 food
$1 supplies
--------------------
$2
Total:
--------------------
0
info
Show one of the hledger manuals using info.
The info command displays any of the hledger reference manuals using the info hypertextual
documentation viewer. This can be a very efficient way to browse large
manuals. It requires the “info” program to be available in your
PATH.
As with help, run it with no arguments to list available topics (manuals).
man
Show one of the hledger manuals using man.
The man command displays any of the hledger reference manuals using man, the standard
documentation viewer on unix systems. This will fit the text to your
terminal width, and probably invoke a pager automatically. It requires
the “man” program to be available in your PATH.
As with help, run it with no arguments to list available topics (manuals).
Show transactions from the journal.
-m STR --match=STR- show the transaction whose description is most similar to STR, and is most recent
-o FILE[.FMT] --output-file=FILE[.FMT]- write output to FILE instead of stdout. A recognised FMT suffix influences the format.
-O FMT --output-format=FMT- select the output format. Supported formats: txt, csv.
$ 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
The print command displays full transactions from the journal file, tidily formatted and showing all amounts explicitly. The output of print is always a valid hledger journal, but it does always not preserve all original content exactly (eg directives).
hledger’s print command also shows all unit prices in effect, or (with -B/–cost) shows cost amounts.
The print command also supports output destination and CSV output.
register
Show postings and their running total. Alias: reg.
-H --historical- include prior postings in the running total
-A --average- show a running average instead of the running total (implies –empty)
-r --related- show postings’ siblings instead
-w N --width=N- set output width (default: terminal width or COLUMNS. -wN,M sets description width as well)
-o FILE[.FMT] --output-file=FILE[.FMT]- write output to FILE instead of stdout. A recognised FMT suffix influences the format.
-O FMT --output-format=FMT- select the output format. Supported formats: txt, csv.
The register command displays postings, one per line, and their running total. This is typically used with a query selecting a particular account, to see that account’s activity:
$ 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
The --historical/-H 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:
$ 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
The --depth option limits the amount of sub-account
detail displayed.
The --average/-A 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 --empty (see below). It works best when showing
just one account and one commodity.
The --related/-r flag shows the
other postings in the transactions of the postings which would
normally be shown.
With a reporting interval, register shows summary postings, one per interval, aggregating the postings to each account:
$ hledger register --monthly income
2008/01 income:salary $-1 $-1
2008/06 income:gifts $-1 $-2
Periods with no activity, and summary postings with a zero amount,
are not shown by default; use the --empty/-E
flag to see them:
$ 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
Often, you’ll want to see just one line per interval. The
--depth option helps with this, causing subaccounts to be
aggregated:
$ hledger register --monthly assets --depth 1h
2008/01 assets $1 $1
2008/06 assets $-1 0
2008/12 assets $-1 $-1
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.
Custom register output
register uses the full terminal width by default, except on windows.
You can override this by setting the COLUMNS environment
variable (not a bash shell variable) or by using the
--width/-w option.
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’s argument, comma-separated:
--width W,D . Here’s a diagram:
<--------------------------------- width (W) ---------------------------------->
date (10) description (D) account (W-41-D) amount (12) balance (12)
DDDDDDDDDD dddddddddddddddddddd aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa AAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAA
and some examples:
$ 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, and set description width
The register command also supports the -o/--output-file
and -O/--output-format options for controlling output destination and CSV output.
stats
Show some journal statistics.
-o FILE[.FMT] --output-file=FILE[.FMT]- write output to FILE instead of stdout. A recognised FMT suffix influences the format.
$ hledger stats
Main journal file : /src/hledger/data/sample.journal
Included journal files :
Transactions span : 2008-01-01 to 2009-01-01 (366 days)
Last transaction : 2008-12-31 (2333 days ago)
Transactions : 5 (0.0 per day)
Transactions last 30 days: 0 (0.0 per day)
Transactions last 7 days : 0 (0.0 per day)
Payees/descriptions : 5
Accounts : 8 (depth 3)
Commodities : 1 ($)
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.
The stats command also supports -o/--output-file for
controlling output destination.
test
Run built-in unit tests.
$ hledger test
Cases: 74 Tried: 74 Errors: 0 Failures: 0
This command runs hledger’s built-in unit tests and displays a quick report. With a regular expression argument, it selects only tests with matching names. It’s mainly used in development, but it’s also nice to be able to check your hledger executable for smoke at any time.
ADD-ON COMMANDS
Add-on commands are executables in your PATH whose name starts with
hledger- and ends with any of these file extensions: none,
.hs,.lhs,.pl,.py,.rb,.rkt,.sh,.bat,.com,.exe.
Also, an add-on’s name may not be the same as any built-in command or
alias.
hledger will detect these and include them in the command list and
let you invoke them with hledger ADDONCMD. However there
are some limitations:
- Options appearing before ADDONCMD will be visible only to hledger
and will not be passed to the add-on. Eg:
hledger -h webshows hledger’s usage,hledger web -hshows hledger-web’s usage. - Options understood only by the add-on must go after a
--argument to hide them from hledger, which would otherwise reject them. Eg:hledger web -- --server.
Sometimes it may be more convenient to just run the add-on directly,
eg: hledger-web --server.
Add-ons which are written in haskell can take advantage of the hledger-lib library for journal parsing, reporting, command-line options, etc.
Here are some hledger add-ons available from Hackage, the extra directory in the hledger source, or elsewhere:
api
Web API server, see hledger-api.
autosync
Download OFX bank data and/or convert OFX to hledger journal format.
$ hledger autosync --help
usage: hledger-autosync [-h] [-m MAX] [-r] [-a ACCOUNT] [-l LEDGER] [-i INDENT]
[--initial] [--fid FID] [--assertions] [-d] [--hledger]
[--slow] [--which]
[PATH]
Synchronize ledger.
positional arguments:
PATH do not sync; import from OFX file
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-m MAX, --max MAX maximum number of days to process
-r, --resync do not stop until max days reached
-a ACCOUNT, --account ACCOUNT
set account name for import
-l LEDGER, --ledger LEDGER
specify ledger file to READ for syncing
-i INDENT, --indent INDENT
number of spaces to use for indentation
--initial create initial balance entries
--fid FID pass in fid value for OFX files that do not supply it
--assertions create balance assertion entries
-d, --debug enable debug logging
--hledger force use of hledger (on by default if invoked as hledger-
autosync)
--slow use slow, but possibly more robust, method of calling ledger
(no subprocess)
--which display which version of ledger/hledger/ledger-python will
be used by ledger-autosync to check for previous
transactions
$ head acct1.ofx
OFXHEADER:100
DATA:OFXSGML
VERSION:102
SECURITY:NONE
ENCODING:USASCII
CHARSET:1252
COMPRESSION:NONE
OLDFILEUID:NONE
NEWFILEUIDe:8509488b59d1bb45
$ hledger autosync acct1.ofx
2013/08/30 MONTHLY SERVICE FEE
; ofxid: 3000.4303001832.201308301
WF:4303001832 -$6.00
[assets:business:bank:wf:bchecking:banking] $6.00
ledger-autosync,
which includes a hledger-autosync alias, downloads
transactions from your bank(s) via OFX, and prints just the new ones as
journal entries which you can add to your journal. It can also operate
on .OFX files which you’ve downloaded manually. It can be a nice
alternative to hledger’s built-in CSV reader, especially if your bank
supports OFX download.
diff
Show transactions present in one journal file but not another
$ hledger diff --help
Usage: hledger-diff account:name left.journal right.journal
$ cat a.journal
1/1
(acct:one) 1
$ cat b.journal
1/1
(acct:one) 1
2/2
(acct:two) 2
$ hledger diff acct:two a.journal b.journal
Unmatched transactions in the first journal:
Unmatched transactions in the second journal:
2015/02/02
(acct:two) $2
hledger-diff compares two journal files. Given an account name, it prints out the transactions affecting that account which are in one journal file but not in the other. This can be useful for reconciling existing journals with bank statements.
equity
Print a journal entry that resets account balances to zero.
$ hledger balance --flat -E assets liabilities
0 assets:bank:checking
$1 assets:bank:saving
$-2 assets:cash
$1 liabilities:debts
--------------------
0
$ hledger equity assets liabilities
2015/05/23
assets:bank:saving $-1
assets:cash $2
liabilities:debts $-1
equity:closing balances 0
2015/05/23
assets:bank:saving $1
assets:cash $-2
liabilities:debts $1
equity:opening balances 0
This prints a journal entry which zeroes out the specified accounts (or all accounts) with a transfer to/from “equity:closing balances” (like Ledger’s equity command). Also, it prints an similar entry with opposite sign for restoring the balances from “equity:opening balances”.
These can be useful for ending one journal file and starting a new one, respectively. By zeroing your asset and liability accounts at the end of a file and restoring them at the start of the next one, you will see correct asset/liability balances whether you run hledger on just one file, or on several files concatenated with include.
interest
Generate interest transactions.
$ hledger interest --help
Usage: hledger-interest [OPTION...] ACCOUNT
-h --help print this message and exit
-V --version show version number and exit
-v --verbose echo input ledger to stdout (default)
-q --quiet don't echo input ledger to stdout
--today compute interest up until today
-f FILE --file=FILE input ledger file (pass '-' for stdin)
-s ACCOUNT --source=ACCOUNT interest source account
-t ACCOUNT --target=ACCOUNT interest target account
--act use 'act' day counting convention
--30-360 use '30/360' day counting convention
--30E-360 use '30E/360' day counting convention
--30E-360isda use '30E/360isda' day counting convention
--constant=RATE constant interest rate
--annual=RATE annual interest rate
--bgb288 compute interest according to German BGB288
--ing-diba compute interest according for Ing-Diba Tagesgeld account
$ cat interest.journal
2008/09/26 Loan
Assets:Bank EUR 10000.00
Liabilities:Bank
2008/11/27 Payment
Assets:Bank EUR -3771.12
Liabilities:Bank
2009/05/03 Payment
Assets:Bank EUR -1200.00
Liabilities:Bank
2010/12/10 Payment
Assets:Bank EUR -3700.00
Liabilities:Bank
$ hledger interest -- -f interest.journal --source=Expenses:Interest \
--target=Liabilities:Bank --30-360 --annual=0.05 Liabilities:Bank
2008/09/26 Loan
Assets:Bank EUR 10000.00
Liabilities:Bank EUR -10000.00
2008/11/27 0.05% interest for EUR -10000.00 over 61 days
Liabilities:Bank EUR -84.72
Expenses:Interest EUR 84.72
2008/11/27 Payment
Assets:Bank EUR -3771.12
Liabilities:Bank EUR 3771.12
2008/12/31 0.05% interest for EUR -6313.60 over 34 days
Liabilities:Bank EUR -29.81
Expenses:Interest EUR 29.81
2009/05/03 0.05% interest for EUR -6343.42 over 123 days
Liabilities:Bank EUR -108.37
Expenses:Interest EUR 108.37
2009/05/03 Payment
Assets:Bank EUR -1200.00
Liabilities:Bank EUR 1200.00
2009/12/31 0.05% interest for EUR -5251.78 over 238 days
Liabilities:Bank EUR -173.60
Expenses:Interest EUR 173.60
2010/12/10 0.05% interest for EUR -5425.38 over 340 days
Liabilities:Bank EUR -256.20
Expenses:Interest EUR 256.20
2010/12/10 Payment
Assets:Bank EUR -3700.00
Liabilities:Bank EUR 3700.00
hledger-interest computes interests for a given account. Using command line flags, the program can be configured to use various schemes for day-counting, such as act/act, 30/360, 30E/360, and 30/360isda. Furthermore, it supports a (small) number of interest schemes, i.e. annual interest with a fixed rate and the scheme mandated by the German BGB288 (Basiszins für Verbrauchergeschäfte). See the package page for more.
irr
Calculate internal rate of return.
$ hledger irr --help
Usage: hledger-irr [OPTION...]
-h --help print this message and exit
-V --version show version number and exit
-c --cashflow also show all revant transactions
-f FILE --file=FILE input ledger file (pass '-' for stdin)
-i ACCOUNT --investment-account=ACCOUNT investment account
-t ACCOUNT --interest-account=ACCOUNT interest/gain/fees/losses account
-b DATE --begin=DATE calculate interest from this date
-e DATE --end=DATE calculate interest until this date
-D --daily calculate interest for each day
-W --weekly calculate interest for each week
-M --monthly calculate interest for each month
-Y --yearly calculate interest for each year
$ cat irr.journal
2011-01-01 Some wild speculation – I wonder if it pays off
Speculation €100.00
Cash
2011-02-01 More speculation (and adjustment of value)
Cash -€10.00
Rate Gain -€1.00
Speculation
2011-03-01 Lets pull out some money (and adjustment of value)
Cash €30.00
Rate Gain -€3.00
Speculation
2011-04-01 More speculation (and it lost some money!)
Cash -€50.00
Rate Gain € 5.00
Speculation
2011-05-01 Getting some money out (and adjustment of value)
Speculation -€44.00
Rate Gain -€ 3.00
Cash
2011-06-01 Emptying the account (after adjusting the value)
Speculation -€85.00
Cash €90.00
Rate Gain -€ 5.00
$ hledger-irr -f irr.journal -t "Rate Gain" -i Speculation --monthly
2011/01/01 - 2011/02/01: 12.49%
2011/02/01 - 2011/03/01: 41.55%
2011/03/01 - 2011/04/01: -51.44%
2011/04/01 - 2011/05/01: 32.24%
2011/05/01 - 2011/06/01: 95.92%
hledger-irr computes the internal rate of return, also known as the effective interest rate, of a given investment. After specifying what account holds the investment, and what account stores the gains (or losses, or fees, or cost), it calculates the hypothetical annual rate of fixed rate investment that would have provided the exact same cash flow. See the package page for more.
print-unique
Print only only journal entries which have a unique description.
$ 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
rewrite
Prints all journal entries, adding specified custom postings to matched entries.
$ hledger rewrite -- [QUERY] --add-posting "ACCT AMTEXPR" ...
$ hledger rewrite -- ^income --add-posting '(liabilities:tax) *.33'
$ hledger rewrite -- expenses:gifts --add-posting '(budget:gifts) *-1"'
ui
Curses-style interface, see hledger-ui.
web
Web interface, see hledger-web.