1.4 KiB
This is hledger’s command-line interface (there are also curses and web interfaces). Its basic function 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 CSV files, converting them semi-automatically to journal format. Additionally, hledger lists other hledger-* executables found in the user’s $PATH and can invoke them as subcommands.
The journal file is ~/.hledger.journal by default, or
another file path specified by $LEDGER_FILE. (This should
be a real environment variable, not a shell variable.) You can also
specify a file with -f FILE, or standard input with
-f-.
Transactions are dated movements of money between two (or more) named accounts, and are recorded with journal entries like this:
journal({{ 2015/10/16 bought food expenses:food $10 assets:cash }})
For more about the format, see hledger_journal(5).
Most users use a text editor to edit the journal, usually with an editor mode such as ledger-mode for added convenience. hledger’s interactive add command is another way to record new transactions. hledger never changes existing transactions.
To get started, you can either save some entries like the above in
~/.hledger.journal, or run hledger add and
follow the prompts. Then try some commands like
hledger print or hledger balance. See COMMANDS
and EXAMPLES below.