I think all the non-content changes are due to newer
doc tools and harmless, including this one hopefully:
    -.B \f[C]--watch\f[R]
    +\f[B]\f[CB]--watch\f[B]\f[R]
[ci skip]
		
	
			
		
			
				
	
	
		
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			1417 lines
		
	
	
		
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| 
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| hledger_journal(5)           hledger User Manuals           hledger_journal(5)
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| 
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| 
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| 
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| NAME
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|        Journal - hledger's default file format, representing a General Journal
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| 
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| DESCRIPTION
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|        hledger's usual data source is a plain text file containing journal en-
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|        tries in hledger journal format.  This file represents a  standard  ac-
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|        counting  general  journal.   I  use file names ending in .journal, but
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|        that's not required.  The journal file contains a number of transaction
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|        entries, each describing a transfer of money (or any commodity) between
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|        two or more named accounts, in a simple format readable by both hledger
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|        and humans.
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| 
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|        hledger's  journal  format  is a compatible subset, mostly, of ledger's
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|        journal format, so hledger can  work  with  compatible  ledger  journal
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|        files  as  well.   It's  safe,  and encouraged, to run both hledger and
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|        ledger on the same journal file, eg to validate the results you're get-
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|        ting.
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| 
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|        You can use hledger without learning any more about this file; just use
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|        the add or web commands to create and update it.  Many  users,  though,
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|        also  edit  the  journal  file directly with a text editor, perhaps as-
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|        sisted by the helper modes for emacs or vim.
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| 
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|        Here's an example:
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| 
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|               ; A sample journal file. This is a comment.
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| 
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|               2008/01/01 income             ; <- transaction's first line starts in column 0, contains date and description
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|                   assets:bank:checking  $1  ; <- posting lines start with whitespace, each contains an account name
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|                   income:salary        $-1  ;    followed by at least two spaces and an amount
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| 
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|               2008/06/01 gift
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|                   assets:bank:checking  $1  ; <- at least two postings in a transaction
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|                   income:gifts         $-1  ; <- their amounts must balance to 0
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| 
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|               2008/06/02 save
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|                   assets:bank:saving    $1
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|                   assets:bank:checking      ; <- one amount may be omitted; here $-1 is inferred
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| 
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|               2008/06/03 eat & shop         ; <- description can be anything
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|                   expenses:food         $1
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|                   expenses:supplies     $1  ; <- this transaction debits two expense accounts
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|                   assets:cash               ; <- $-2 inferred
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| 
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|               2008/10/01 take a loan
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|                   assets:bank:checking  $1
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|                   liabilities:debts    $-1
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| 
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|               2008/12/31 * pay off          ; <- an optional * or ! after the date means "cleared" (or anything you want)
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|                   liabilities:debts     $1
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|                   assets:bank:checking
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| 
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| FILE FORMAT
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|    Transactions
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|        Transactions are movements of  some  quantity  of  commodities  between
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|        named accounts.  Each transaction is represented by a journal entry be-
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|        ginning with a simple date in column 0.  This can be followed by any of
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|        the following, separated by spaces:
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| 
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|        o (optional) a status character (empty, !, or *)
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| 
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|        o (optional)  a transaction code (any short number or text, enclosed in
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|          parentheses)
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| 
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|        o (optional) a transaction description (any remaining text until end of
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|          line or a semicolon)
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| 
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|        o (optional)  a  transaction  comment  (any  remaining text following a
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|          semicolon until end of line)
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| 
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|        Then comes zero or more (but usually at least 2) indented lines  repre-
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|        senting...
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| 
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|    Postings
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|        A  posting  is an addition of some amount to, or removal of some amount
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|        from, an account.  Each posting line begins with at least one space  or
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|        tab (2 or 4 spaces is common), followed by:
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| 
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|        o (optional) a status character (empty, !, or *), followed by a space
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| 
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|        o (required)  an  account  name (any text, optionally containing single
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|          spaces, until end of line or a double space)
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| 
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|        o (optional) two or more spaces or tabs followed by an amount.
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| 
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|        Positive amounts are being added to the account, negative  amounts  are
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|        being removed.
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| 
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|        The amounts within a transaction must always sum up to zero.  As a con-
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|        venience, one amount may be left blank; it will be inferred  so  as  to
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|        balance the transaction.
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| 
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|        Be  sure  to  note the unusual two-space delimiter between account name
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|        and amount.  This makes it easy to write account names containing  spa-
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|        ces.   But if you accidentally leave only one space (or tab) before the
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|        amount, the amount will be considered part of the account name.
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| 
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|    Dates
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|    Simple dates
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|        Within a journal file, transaction dates use Y/M/D (or Y-M-D or  Y.M.D)
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|        Leading  zeros are optional.  The year may be omitted, in which case it
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|        will be inferred from the context - the current  transaction,  the  de-
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|        fault  year set with a default year directive, or the current date when
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|        the command is  run.   Some  examples:  2010/01/31,  1/31,  2010-01-31,
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|        2010.1.31.
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| 
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|    Secondary dates
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|        Real-life  transactions  sometimes  involve more than one date - eg the
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|        date you write a cheque, and the date it clears in your bank.  When you
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|        want  to model this, eg for more accurate balances, you can specify in-
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|        dividual posting dates, which I recommend.  Or, you can  use  the  sec-
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|        ondary  dates  (aka  auxiliary/effective  dates) feature, supported for
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|        compatibility with Ledger.
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| 
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|        A secondary date can be written after the primary date, separated by an
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|        equals  sign.   The  primary date, on the left, is used by default; the
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|        secondary date, on the right, is used when the --date2 flag  is  speci-
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|        fied (--aux-date or --effective also work).
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| 
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|        The  meaning of secondary dates is up to you, but it's best to follow a
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|        consistent rule.  Eg write the bank's clearing  date  as  primary,  and
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|        when needed, the date the transaction was initiated as secondary.
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| 
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|        Here's an example.  Note that a secondary date will use the year of the
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|        primary date if unspecified.
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| 
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|               2010/2/23=2/19 movie ticket
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|                 expenses:cinema                   $10
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|                 assets:checking
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| 
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|               $ hledger register checking
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|               2010/02/23 movie ticket         assets:checking                $-10         $-10
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| 
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|               $ hledger register checking --date2
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|               2010/02/19 movie ticket         assets:checking                $-10         $-10
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| 
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|        Secondary dates require some effort; you must use them consistently  in
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|        your journal entries and remember whether to use or not use the --date2
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|        flag for your reports.  They are included in hledger for Ledger compat-
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|        ibility,  but  posting dates are a more powerful and less confusing al-
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|        ternative.
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| 
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|    Posting dates
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|        You can give individual postings a different  date  from  their  parent
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|        transaction,  by  adding a posting comment containing a tag (see below)
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|        like date:DATE.  This is probably the best way to control posting dates
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|        precisely.   Eg  in  this  example the expense should appear in May re-
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|        ports, and the deduction from checking should be reported  on  6/1  for
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|        easy bank reconciliation:
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| 
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|               2015/5/30
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|                   expenses:food     $10  ; food purchased on saturday 5/30
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|                   assets:checking        ; bank cleared it on monday, date:6/1
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| 
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|               $ hledger -f t.j register food
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|               2015/05/30                      expenses:food                  $10           $10
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| 
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|               $ hledger -f t.j register checking
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|               2015/06/01                      assets:checking               $-10          $-10
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| 
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|        DATE  should be a simple date; if the year is not specified it will use
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|        the year of the transaction's date.  You can  set  the  secondary  date
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|        similarly,  with  date2:DATE2.   The  date:  or date2: tags must have a
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|        valid simple date value if they are present, eg a  date:  tag  with  no
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|        value is not allowed.
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| 
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|        Ledger's earlier, more compact bracketed date syntax is also supported:
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|        [DATE], [DATE=DATE2] or [=DATE2].  hledger will attempt  to  parse  any
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|        square-bracketed sequence of the 0123456789/-.= characters in this way.
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|        With this syntax, DATE infers its year from the transaction  and  DATE2
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|        infers its year from DATE.
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| 
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|    Status
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|        Transactions,  or  individual postings within a transaction, can have a
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|        status mark, which is a single character  before  the  transaction  de-
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|        scription  or posting account name, separated from it by a space, indi-
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|        cating one of three statuses:
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| 
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|        mark     status
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|        ------------------
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|                 unmarked
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|        !        pending
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|        *        cleared
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| 
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|        When reporting, you  can  filter  by  status  with  the  -U/--unmarked,
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|        -P/--pending,  and  -C/--cleared  flags;  or the status:, status:!, and
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|        status:* queries; or the U, P, C keys in hledger-ui.
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| 
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|        Note, in Ledger and in older versions of hledger, the "unmarked"  state
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|        is  called  "uncleared".   As  of hledger 1.3 we have renamed it to un-
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|        marked for clarity.
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| 
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|        To replicate Ledger and old hledger's behaviour of also matching  pend-
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|        ing, combine -U and -P.
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| 
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|        Status  marks  are optional, but can be helpful eg for reconciling with
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|        real-world accounts.  Some editor modes provide highlighting and short-
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|        cuts  for working with status.  Eg in Emacs ledger-mode, you can toggle
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|        transaction status with C-c C-e, or posting status with C-c C-c.
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| 
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|        What "uncleared", "pending", and "cleared" actually mean is up to  you.
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|        Here's one suggestion:
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| 
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|        status       meaning
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|        --------------------------------------------------------------------------
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|        uncleared    recorded but not yet reconciled; needs review
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|        pending      tentatively reconciled (if needed, eg during a big reconcil-
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|                     iation)
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|        cleared      complete, reconciled as far as possible, and considered cor-
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|                     rect
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| 
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|        With  this scheme, you would use -PC to see the current balance at your
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|        bank, -U to see things which will probably hit your bank soon (like un-
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|        cashed  checks),  and no flags to see the most up-to-date state of your
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|        finances.
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| 
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|    Description
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|        A transaction's description is the rest of the line following the  date
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|        and  status  mark  (or  until  a comment begins).  Sometimes called the
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|        "narration" in traditional bookkeeping, it can be used for whatever you
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|        wish,  or  left blank.  Transaction descriptions can be queried, unlike
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|        comments.
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| 
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|    Payee and note
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|        You can optionally include a | (pipe) character in descriptions to sub-
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|        divide the description into separate fields for payee/payer name on the
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|        left (up to the first |) and an additional note field on the right (af-
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|        ter  the  first |).  This may be worthwhile if you need to do more pre-
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|        cise querying and pivoting by payee or by note.
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| 
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|    Account names
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|        Account names typically have several parts separated by a  full  colon,
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|        from  which hledger derives a hierarchical chart of accounts.  They can
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|        be anything you like, but in finance there are traditionally five  top-
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|        level accounts: assets, liabilities, income, expenses, and equity.
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| 
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|        Account  names  may  contain single spaces, eg: assets:accounts receiv-
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|        able.  Because of this, they must always be followed  by  two  or  more
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|        spaces (or newline).
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| 
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|        Account names can be aliased.
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| 
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|    Amounts
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|        After  the  account  name, there is usually an amount.  (Important: be-
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|        tween account name and amount, there must be two or more spaces.)
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| 
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|        hledger's amount format is flexible, supporting  several  international
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|        formats.   Here  are  some examples.  Amounts have a number (the "quan-
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|        tity"):
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| 
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|               1
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| 
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|        ..and usually a currency or commodity name (the "commodity").  This  is
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|        a  symbol,  word, or phrase, to the left or right of the quantity, with
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|        or without a separating space:
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| 
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|               $1
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|               4000 AAPL
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| 
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|        If the commodity name contains spaces, numbers, or punctuation, it must
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|        be enclosed in double quotes:
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| 
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|               3 "no. 42 green apples"
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| 
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|        Amounts can be negative.  The minus sign can be written before or after
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|        a left-side commodity symbol:
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| 
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|               -$1
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|               $-1
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| 
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|        Scientific E notation is allowed:
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| 
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|               1E-6
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|               EUR 1E3
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| 
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|        A decimal mark (decimal point) can be written with a period or a comma:
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| 
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|               1.23
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|               1,23456780000009
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| 
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|    Digit group marks
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|        In the integer part of the quantity (left of the decimal mark),  groups
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|        of  digits  can  optionally  be  separated  by a "digit group mark" - a
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|        space, comma, or period (different from the decimal mark):
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| 
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|                    $1,000,000.00
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|                 EUR 2.000.000,00
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|               INR 9,99,99,999.00
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|                     1 000 000.9455
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| 
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|        Note, a number containing a single group mark and no  decimal  mark  is
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|        ambiguous.  Are these group marks or decimal marks ?
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| 
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|               1,000
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|               1.000
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| 
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|        hledger will treat them both as decimal marks by default (cf #793).  If
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|        you use digit group marks, to prevent confusion and undetected typos we
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|        recommend  you write commodity directives at the top of the file to ex-
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|        plicitly declare the decimal mark (and optionally a digit group  mark).
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|        Note,  these  formats ("amount styles") are specific to each commodity,
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|        so if your data uses multiple formats, hledger can handle it:
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| 
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|               commodity $1,000.00
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|               commodity EUR 1.000,00
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|               commodity INR 9,99,99,999.00
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|               commodity       1 000 000.9455
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| 
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|    Amount display format
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|        For each commodity, hledger chooses a consistent  format  to  use  when
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|        displaying  amounts.  (Except price amounts, which are always displayed
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|        as written).  The display format is chosen as follows:
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| 
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|        o If there is a commodity directive for the commodity, that  format  is
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|          used (see examples above).
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| 
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|        o Otherwise  the  format  of the first posting amount in that commodity
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|          seen in the journal is used.  But the number of decimal places ("pre-
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|          cision")  will  be the maximum from all posting amounts in that comm-
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|          modity.
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| 
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|        o Or if there are no such amounts in the journal, a default  format  is
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|          used (like $1000.00).
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| 
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|        Price amounts, and amounts in D directives don't affect the amount dis-
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|        play format directly, but occasionally they can do so indirectly.   (Eg
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|        when  D's  default  commodity is applied to a commodity-less amount, or
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|        when an amountless posting is balanced using a  price's  commodity,  or
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|        when  -V  is  used.) If you find this causing problems, use a commodity
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|        directive to set the display format.
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| 
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|    Virtual Postings
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|        When you parenthesise the account name in a posting,  we  call  that  a
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|        virtual posting, which means:
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| 
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|        o it is ignored when checking that the transaction is balanced
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| 
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|        o it  is  excluded from reports when the --real/-R flag is used, or the
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|          real:1 query.
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| 
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|        You could use this, eg, to set an  account's  opening  balance  without
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|        needing to use the equity:opening balances account:
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| 
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|               1/1 special unbalanced posting to set initial balance
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|                 (assets:checking)   $1000
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| 
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|        When the account name is bracketed, we call it a balanced virtual post-
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|        ing.  This is like an ordinary virtual posting except the balanced vir-
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|        tual  postings  in a transaction must balance to 0, like the real post-
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|        ings (but separately from them).  Balanced virtual  postings  are  also
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|        excluded by --real/-R or real:1.
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| 
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|               1/1 buy food with cash, and update some budget-tracking subaccounts elsewhere
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|                 expenses:food                   $10
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|                 assets:cash                    $-10
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|                 [assets:checking:available]     $10
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|                 [assets:checking:budget:food]  $-10
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| 
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|        Virtual postings have some legitimate uses, but those are few.  You can
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|        usually find an equivalent journal entry using real postings, which  is
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|        more correct and provides better error checking.
 | |
| 
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|    Balance Assertions
 | |
|        hledger  supports  Ledger-style  balance  assertions  in journal files.
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|        These look like, for example, = EXPECTEDBALANCE following  a  posting's
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|        amount.   Eg  here  we assert the expected dollar balance in accounts a
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|        and b after each posting:
 | |
| 
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|               2013/1/1
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|                 a   $1  =$1
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|                 b       =$-1
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| 
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|               2013/1/2
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|                 a   $1  =$2
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|                 b  $-1  =$-2
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| 
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|        After reading a journal file, hledger will check all balance assertions
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|        and  report  an error if any of them fail.  Balance assertions can pro-
 | |
|        tect you from, eg, inadvertently disrupting reconciled  balances  while
 | |
|        cleaning  up  old  entries.   You can disable them temporarily with the
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|        -I/--ignore-assertions flag, which can be useful for troubleshooting or
 | |
|        for  reading Ledger files.  (Note: this flag currently does not disable
 | |
|        balance assignments, below).
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Assertions and ordering
 | |
|        hledger sorts an account's postings and assertions first  by  date  and
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|        then  (for postings on the same day) by parse order.  Note this is dif-
 | |
|        ferent from Ledger, which sorts assertions only by parse order.  (Also,
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|        Ledger  assertions  do not see the accumulated effect of repeated post-
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|        ings to the same account within a transaction.)
 | |
| 
 | |
|        So, hledger balance assertions keep working if you reorder differently-
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|        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.
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Assertions and included files
 | |
|        With  included  files, things are a little more complicated.  Including
 | |
|        preserves the ordering of postings and assertions.  If you have  multi-
 | |
|        ple  postings  to  an  account  on the same day, split across different
 | |
|        files, and you also want to assert the account's balance  on  the  same
 | |
|        day, you'll have to put the assertion in the right file.
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Assertions and multiple -f options
 | |
|        Balance assertions don't work well across files specified with multiple
 | |
|        -f options.  Use include or concatenate the files instead.
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Assertions and commodities
 | |
|        The asserted balance must be a simple single-commodity amount,  and  in
 | |
|        fact  the  assertion  checks  only  this commodity's balance within the
 | |
|        (possibly multi-commodity) account balance.
 | |
|        This is how assertions work in Ledger also.  We could call this a "par-
 | |
|        tial" balance assertion.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        To assert the balance of more than one commodity in an account, you can
 | |
|        write multiple postings, each asserting one commodity's balance.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        You can make a stronger "total" balance assertion by writing  a  double
 | |
|        equals sign (== EXPECTEDBALANCE).  This asserts that there are no other
 | |
|        unasserted commodities in the account (or, that their balance is 0).
 | |
| 
 | |
|               2013/1/1
 | |
|                 a   $1
 | |
|                 a    1EUR
 | |
|                 b  $-1
 | |
|                 c   -1EUR
 | |
| 
 | |
|               2013/1/2  ; These assertions succeed
 | |
|                 a    0  =  $1
 | |
|                 a    0  =   1EUR
 | |
|                 b    0 == $-1
 | |
|                 c    0 ==  -1EUR
 | |
| 
 | |
|               2013/1/3  ; This assertion fails as 'a' also contains 1EUR
 | |
|                 a    0 ==  $1
 | |
| 
 | |
|        It'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:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               2013/1/1
 | |
|                 a:usd   $1
 | |
|                 a:euro   1EUR
 | |
|                 b
 | |
| 
 | |
|               2013/1/2
 | |
|                 a        0 ==  0
 | |
|                 a:usd    0 == $1
 | |
|                 a:euro   0 ==  1EUR
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Assertions and prices
 | |
|        Balance assertions ignore transaction prices, and  should  normally  be
 | |
|        written without one:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               2019/1/1
 | |
|                 (a)     $1 @ EUR1 = $1
 | |
| 
 | |
|        We  do allow prices to be written there, however, and print shows them,
 | |
|        even though they don't affect whether the assertion  passes  or  fails.
 | |
|        This  is  for  backward  compatibility (hledger's close command used to
 | |
|        generate balance assertions with prices), and because  balance  assign-
 | |
|        ments do use them (see below).
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Assertions and subaccounts
 | |
|        The  balance  assertions above (= and ==) do not count the balance from
 | |
|        subaccounts; they check the account's exclusive balance only.  You  can
 | |
|        assert the balance including subaccounts by writing =* or ==*, eg:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               2019/1/1
 | |
|                 equity:opening balances
 | |
|                 checking:a       5
 | |
|                 checking:b       5
 | |
|                 checking         1  ==* 11
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Assertions and virtual postings
 | |
|        Balance assertions are checked against all postings, both real and vir-
 | |
|        tual.  They are not affected by the --real/-R flag or real: query.
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Assertions and precision
 | |
|        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  asser-
 | |
|        tions.  Balance assertion failure messages show exact amounts.
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Balance Assignments
 | |
|        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:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               ; 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
 | |
| 
 | |
|        or when adjusting a balance to reality:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               ; no cash left; update balance, record any untracked spending as a generic expense
 | |
|               2016/1/15
 | |
|                 assets:cash    = $0
 | |
|                 expenses:misc
 | |
| 
 | |
|        The calculated amount depends on the account'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 assign-
 | |
|        ment).  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.
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Balance assignments and prices
 | |
|        A transaction price in a balance assignment will cause  the  calculated
 | |
|        amount to have that price attached:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               2019/1/1
 | |
|                 (a)             = $1 @ EUR2
 | |
| 
 | |
|               $ hledger print --explicit
 | |
|               2019/01/01
 | |
|                   (a)         $1 @ EUR2 = $1 @ EUR2
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Transaction prices
 | |
|        Within a transaction, you can note an amount's price in another commod-
 | |
|        ity.  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 cer-
 | |
|        tain date.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        There are several ways to record a transaction price:
 | |
| 
 | |
|        1. Write the price per unit, as @ UNITPRICE after the amount:
 | |
| 
 | |
|                   2009/1/1
 | |
|                     assets:euros     EUR100 @ $1.35  ; one hundred euros purchased at $1.35 each
 | |
|                     assets:dollars                 ; balancing amount is -$135.00
 | |
| 
 | |
|        2. Write the total price, as @@ TOTALPRICE after the amount:
 | |
| 
 | |
|                   2009/1/1
 | |
|                     assets:euros     EUR100 @@ $135  ; one hundred euros purchased at $135 for the lot
 | |
|                     assets:dollars
 | |
| 
 | |
|        3. Specify amounts for all postings, using exactly two commodities, and
 | |
|           let hledger infer the price that balances the transaction:
 | |
| 
 | |
|                   2009/1/1
 | |
|                     assets:euros     EUR100          ; one hundred euros purchased
 | |
|                     assets:dollars  $-135          ; for $135
 | |
| 
 | |
|        (Ledger users: Ledger uses a different syntax for fixed prices, {=UNIT-
 | |
|        PRICE}, which hledger currently ignores).
 | |
| 
 | |
|        Use  the -B/--cost flag to convert amounts to their transaction price's
 | |
|        commodity, if any.  (mnemonic: "B" is from "cost Basis", as in Ledger).
 | |
|        Eg here is how -B affects the balance report for the example above:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               $ hledger bal -N --flat
 | |
|                              $-135  assets:dollars
 | |
|                               EUR100  assets:euros
 | |
|               $ hledger bal -N --flat -B
 | |
|                              $-135  assets:dollars
 | |
|                               $135  assets:euros    # <- the euros' cost
 | |
| 
 | |
|        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's postings are reversed, while the transaction
 | |
|        is equivalent, -B shows something different:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               2009/1/1
 | |
|                 assets:dollars  $-135              ; 135 dollars sold
 | |
|                 assets:euros     EUR100              ; for 100 euros
 | |
| 
 | |
|               $ hledger bal -N --flat -B
 | |
|                              EUR-100  assets:dollars  # <- the dollars' selling price
 | |
|                               EUR100  assets:euros
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Comments
 | |
|        Lines in the journal beginning with a semicolon (;) or hash (#) or star
 | |
|        (*)  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.)
 | |
| 
 | |
|        You  can attach comments to a transaction by writing them after the de-
 | |
|        scription 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.  Transac-
 | |
|        tion and posting comments must begin with a semicolon (;).
 | |
| 
 | |
|        Some examples:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               # a file comment
 | |
| 
 | |
|               ; also a file comment
 | |
| 
 | |
|               comment
 | |
|               This is a multiline file comment,
 | |
|               which continues until a line
 | |
|               where the "end comment" string
 | |
|               appears on its own (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)
 | |
| 
 | |
|        You  can  also  comment  larger regions of a file using comment and end
 | |
|        comment directives.
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Tags
 | |
|        Tags are a way to add extra labels or labelled  data  to  postings  and
 | |
|        transactions, which you can then search or pivot on.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        A  simple  tag is a word (which may contain hyphens) followed by a full
 | |
|        colon, written inside a transaction or posting comment line:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               2017/1/16 bought groceries  ; sometag:
 | |
| 
 | |
|        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:
 | |
| 
 | |
|                   expenses:food    $10 ; a-posting-tag: the tag value
 | |
| 
 | |
|        Note  this  means  hledger's  tag values can not contain commas or new-
 | |
|        lines.  Ending at commas means you can write multiple short tags on one
 | |
|        line, comma separated:
 | |
| 
 | |
|                   assets:checking  ; a comment containing tag1:, tag2: some value ...
 | |
| 
 | |
|        Here,
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o "a comment containing" is just comment text, not a tag
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o "tag1" is a tag with no value
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o "tag2" is another tag, whose value is "some value ..."
 | |
| 
 | |
|        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 (A, TAG2, third-
 | |
|        tag) and the posting has four (those plus posting-tag):
 | |
| 
 | |
|               1/1 a transaction  ; A:, TAG2:
 | |
|                   ; third-tag: a third transaction tag, <- with a value
 | |
|                   (a)  $1  ; posting-tag:
 | |
| 
 | |
|        Tags are like Ledger's metadata feature, except  hledger's  tag  values
 | |
|        are simple strings.
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Directives
 | |
|        A  directive is a line in the journal beginning with a special keyword,
 | |
|        that influences how the journal is processed.  hledger's directives are
 | |
|        based on a subset of Ledger's, but there are many differences (and also
 | |
|        some differences between hledger versions).
 | |
| 
 | |
|        Directives' behaviour and interactions can get a little bit complex, so
 | |
|        here  is  a  table  summarising  the directives and their effects, with
 | |
|        links to more detailed docs.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        direc-     end   di-   subdi-    purpose                        can affect  (as  of
 | |
|        tive       rective     rec-                                     2018/06)
 | |
|                               tives
 | |
|        ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 | |
|        account                any       document account names,  de-   all entries in  all
 | |
|                               text      clare  account  types & dis-   files,   before  or
 | |
|                                         play order                     after
 | |
|        alias      end                   rewrite account names          following       in-
 | |
|                   aliases                                              line/included   en-
 | |
|                                                                        tries  until end of
 | |
|                                                                        current file or end
 | |
|                                                                        directive
 | |
|        apply      end apply             prepend  a  common parent to   following       in-
 | |
|        account    account               account names                  line/included   en-
 | |
|                                                                        tries until end  of
 | |
|                                                                        current file or end
 | |
|                                                                        directive
 | |
|        comment    end  com-             ignore part of journal         following       in-
 | |
|                   ment                                                 line/included   en-
 | |
|                                                                        tries  until end of
 | |
|                                                                        current file or end
 | |
|                                                                        directive
 | |
|        commod-                format    declare a commodity and  its   number    notation:
 | |
|        ity                              number  notation  &  display   following   entries
 | |
|                                         style                          in  that  commodity
 | |
|                                                                        in  all files; dis-
 | |
|                                                                        play style: amounts
 | |
|                                                                        of  that  commodity
 | |
|                                                                        in reports
 | |
|        D                                declare a commodity,  number   commodity: all com-
 | |
|                                         notation & display style for   modityless  entries
 | |
|                                         commodityless amounts          in all files;  num-
 | |
|                                                                        ber  notation: fol-
 | |
|                                                                        lowing   commodity-
 | |
|                                                                        less   entries  and
 | |
|                                                                        entries   in   that
 | |
|                                                                        commodity   in  all
 | |
|                                                                        files;      display
 | |
|                                                                        style:  amounts  of
 | |
|                                                                        that  commodity  in
 | |
|                                                                        reports
 | |
|        include                          include   entries/directives   what  the  included
 | |
|                                         from another file              directives affect
 | |
|        P                                declare a market price for a   amounts   of   that
 | |
|                                         commodity                      commodity   in  re-
 | |
|                                                                        ports, when  -V  is
 | |
|                                                                        used
 | |
|        Y                                declare  a year for yearless   following       in-
 | |
|                                         dates                          line/included   en-
 | |
|                                                                        tries until end  of
 | |
|                                                                        current file
 | |
| 
 | |
|        And some definitions:
 | |
| 
 | |
|        subdirec-   optional indented directive line immediately following a par-
 | |
|        tive        ent directive
 | |
|        number      how to interpret numbers when parsing  journal  entries  (the
 | |
|        notation    identity  of  the  decimal  separator character).  (Currently
 | |
|                    each commodity can have its own notation, even  in  the  same
 | |
|                    file.)
 | |
|        display     how to display amounts of a commodity in reports (symbol side
 | |
|        style       and spacing, digit groups, decimal separator, decimal places)
 | |
|        directive   which entries and (when there are multiple files) which files
 | |
|        scope       are affected by a directive
 | |
| 
 | |
|        As you can see, directives vary in which journal entries and files they
 | |
|        affect, and whether they are focussed on input (parsing) or output (re-
 | |
|        ports).  Some directives have multiple effects.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        If  you  have  a journal made up of multiple files, or pass multiple -f
 | |
|        options on the command line, note that directives  which  affect  input
 | |
|        typically  last  only  until the end of their defining file.  This pro-
 | |
|        vides more simplicity and predictability, eg reports are not changed by
 | |
|        writing  file  options  in  a different order.  It can be surprising at
 | |
|        times though.
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Comment blocks
 | |
|        A line containing just comment starts a commented region of  the  file,
 | |
|        and a line containing just end comment (or the end of the current file)
 | |
|        ends it.  See also comments.
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Including other files
 | |
|        You can pull in the content of additional files by writing  an  include
 | |
|        directive, like this:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               include path/to/file.journal
 | |
| 
 | |
|        If  the path does not begin with a slash, it is relative to the current
 | |
|        file.  The include file path may contain  common  glob  patterns  (e.g.
 | |
|        *).
 | |
| 
 | |
|        The  include  directive  can only be used in journal files.  It can in-
 | |
|        clude journal, timeclock or timedot files, but not CSV files.
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Default year
 | |
|        You can set a default year to be used for subsequent dates which  don't
 | |
|        specify  a year.  This is a line beginning with Y followed by the year.
 | |
|        Eg:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               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
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Declaring commodities
 | |
|        The commodity directive has several functions:
 | |
| 
 | |
|        1. It declares commodities which may be used in the journal.   This  is
 | |
|           currently not enforced, but can serve as documentation.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        2. It declares what decimal mark character to expect when parsing input
 | |
|           - useful to disambiguate international number formats in your  data.
 | |
|           (Without this, hledger will parse both 1,000 and 1.000 as 1).
 | |
| 
 | |
|        3. It declares the amount display format to use in output - decimal and
 | |
|           digit group marks, number of decimal places, symbol placement etc.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        You are likely to run into one of the problems solved by commodity  di-
 | |
|        rectives,  sooner or later, so it's a good idea to just always use them
 | |
|        to declare your commodities.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        A commodity directive is just the word commodity followed by an amount.
 | |
|        It may be written on a single line, like this:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               ; commodity EXAMPLEAMOUNT
 | |
| 
 | |
|               ; display AAAA amounts with the symbol on the right, space-separated,
 | |
|               ; using period as decimal point, with four decimal places, and
 | |
|               ; separating thousands with comma.
 | |
|               commodity 1,000.0000 AAAA
 | |
| 
 | |
|        or  on  multiple lines, using the "format" subdirective.  (In this case
 | |
|        the commodity symbol appears twice and  should  be  the  same  in  both
 | |
|        places.):
 | |
| 
 | |
|               ; commodity SYMBOL
 | |
|               ;   format EXAMPLEAMOUNT
 | |
| 
 | |
|               ; 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
 | |
| 
 | |
|        The quantity of the amount does not matter; only the format is signifi-
 | |
|        cant.  The number must include a decimal mark: either  a  period  or  a
 | |
|        comma, followed by 0 or more decimal digits.
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Default commodity
 | |
|        The  D  directive  sets a default commodity (and display format), to be
 | |
|        used for amounts without a commodity symbol (ie, plain numbers).  (Note
 | |
|        this  differs from Ledger's default commodity directive.) The commodity
 | |
|        and display format will be applied  to  all  subsequent  commodity-less
 | |
|        amounts, or until the next D directive.
 | |
| 
 | |
|               ; commodity-less amounts should be treated as dollars
 | |
|               ; (and displayed with symbol on the left, thousands separators and two decimal places)
 | |
|               D $1,000.00
 | |
| 
 | |
|               1/1
 | |
|                 a     5  ; <- commodity-less amount, becomes $1
 | |
|                 b
 | |
| 
 | |
|        As with the commodity directive, the amount must always be written with
 | |
|        a decimal point.
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Market prices
 | |
|        The P directive declares a market price, which is an exchange rate  be-
 | |
|        tween  two  commodities on a certain date.  (In Ledger, they are called
 | |
|        "historical prices".) These are often obtained from a  stock  exchange,
 | |
|        cryptocurrency exchange, or the foreign exchange market.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        Here is the format:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               P DATE COMMODITYA COMMODITYBAMOUNT
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o DATE is a simple date
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o COMMODITYA is the symbol of the commodity being priced
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o COMMODITYBAMOUNT  is an amount (symbol and quantity) in a second com-
 | |
|          modity, giving the price in commodity B of one unit of commodity A.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        These two market price directives say that one euro was worth  1.35  US
 | |
|        dollars during 2009, and $1.40 from 2010 onward:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               P 2009/1/1 EUR $1.35
 | |
|               P 2010/1/1 EUR $1.40
 | |
| 
 | |
|        The  -V/--value flag can be used to convert reported amounts to another
 | |
|        commodity using these prices.
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Declaring accounts
 | |
|        account directives can be used to pre-declare accounts.  Though not re-
 | |
|        quired, they can provide several benefits:
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o They can document your intended chart of accounts, providing a refer-
 | |
|          ence.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o They can store extra information  about  accounts  (account  numbers,
 | |
|          notes, etc.)
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o They  can  help  hledger know your accounts' types (asset, liability,
 | |
|          equity, revenue, expense), useful for reports like  balancesheet  and
 | |
|          incomestatement.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o They  control  account  display order in reports, allowing non-alpha-
 | |
|          betic sorting (eg Revenues to appear above Expenses).
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o They help with account name completion in the add  command,  hledger-
 | |
|          iadd, hledger-web, ledger-mode etc.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        The  simplest form is just the word account followed by a hledger-style
 | |
|        account name, eg:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               account assets:bank:checking
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Account comments
 | |
|        Comments, beginning with a semicolon, optionally including tags, can be
 | |
|        written after the account name, and/or on following lines.  Eg:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               account assets:bank:checking  ; a comment
 | |
|                 ; another comment
 | |
|                 ; acctno:12345, a tag
 | |
| 
 | |
|        Tip: comments on the same line require hledger 1.12+.  If you need your
 | |
|        journal to be compatible with older hledger versions, write comments on
 | |
|        the next line instead.
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Account subdirectives
 | |
|        We  also  allow  (and ignore) Ledger-style indented subdirectives, just
 | |
|        for compatibility.:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               account assets:bank:checking
 | |
|                 format blah blah  ; <- subdirective, ignored
 | |
| 
 | |
|        Here is the full syntax of account directives:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               account ACCTNAME  [ACCTTYPE] [;COMMENT]
 | |
|                 [;COMMENTS]
 | |
|                 [LEDGER-STYLE SUBDIRECTIVES, IGNORED]
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Account types
 | |
|        hledger recognises five types (or classes) of account:  Asset,  Liabil-
 | |
|        ity,  Equity, Revenue, Expense.  This is used by a few accounting-aware
 | |
|        reports such as balancesheet, incomestatement and cashflow.
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Auto-detected account types
 | |
|        If you name your top-level accounts with some variation of assets, lia-
 | |
|        bilities/debts,  equity,  revenues/income, or expenses, their types are
 | |
|        detected automatically.
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Account types declared with tags
 | |
|        More generally, you can declare an account's type with an  account  di-
 | |
|        rective,  by  writing  a type: tag in a comment, followed by one of the
 | |
|        words Asset, Liability, Equity, Revenue, Expense, or one of the letters
 | |
|        ALERX (case insensitive):
 | |
| 
 | |
|               account assets       ; type:Asset
 | |
|               account liabilities  ; type:Liability
 | |
|               account equity       ; type:Equity
 | |
|               account revenues     ; type:Revenue
 | |
|               account expenses     ; type:Expenses
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Account types declared with account type codes
 | |
|        Or,  you can write one of those letters separated from the account name
 | |
|        by two or more spaces, but this should probably  be  considered  depre-
 | |
|        cated as of hledger 1.13:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               account assets       A
 | |
|               account liabilities  L
 | |
|               account equity       E
 | |
|               account revenues     R
 | |
|               account expenses     X
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Overriding auto-detected types
 | |
|        If  you  ever override the types of those auto-detected english account
 | |
|        names mentioned above, you might need to help the reports a bit.  Eg:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               ; make "liabilities" not have the liability type - who knows why
 | |
|               account liabilities  ; type:E
 | |
| 
 | |
|               ; we need to ensure some other account has the liability type,
 | |
|               ; otherwise balancesheet would still show "liabilities" under Liabilities
 | |
|               account -            ; type:L
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Account display order
 | |
|        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:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               account assets
 | |
|               account liabilities
 | |
|               account equity
 | |
|               account revenues
 | |
|               account expenses
 | |
| 
 | |
|        you'll see those accounts displayed in declaration order, not alphabet-
 | |
|        ically:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               $ hledger accounts -1
 | |
|               assets
 | |
|               liabilities
 | |
|               equity
 | |
|               revenues
 | |
|               expenses
 | |
| 
 | |
|        Undeclared accounts, if any, are displayed last, in alphabetical order.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        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:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               account other:zoo
 | |
| 
 | |
|        would influence the position of zoo among other's subaccounts, but  not
 | |
|        the  position of other among the top-level accounts.  This means: - you
 | |
|        will sometimes declare parent accounts (eg account  other  above)  that
 | |
|        you  don't  intend  to post to, just to customize their display order -
 | |
|        sibling accounts stay together (you couldn't display x:y in between a:b
 | |
|        and a:c).
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Rewriting accounts
 | |
|        You can define account alias rules which rewrite your account names, or
 | |
|        parts of them, before generating reports.  This can be useful for:
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o expanding shorthand account names to their full form, allowing easier
 | |
|          data entry and a less verbose journal
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o adapting old journals to your current chart of accounts
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o experimenting with new account organisations, like a new hierarchy or
 | |
|          combining two accounts into one
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o customising reports
 | |
| 
 | |
|        Account aliases also rewrite account names in account directives.  They
 | |
|        do  not  affect account names being entered via hledger add or hledger-
 | |
|        web.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        See also Rewrite account names.
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Basic aliases
 | |
|        To set an account alias, use the alias directive in your journal  file.
 | |
|        This  affects all subsequent journal entries in the current file or its
 | |
|        included files.  The spaces around the = are optional:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               alias OLD = NEW
 | |
| 
 | |
|        Or, you can use the --alias 'OLD=NEW' option on the command line.  This
 | |
|        affects all entries.  It's useful for trying out aliases interactively.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        OLD  and  NEW  are case sensitive full account names.  hledger will re-
 | |
|        place any occurrence of the old account name with the new one.   Subac-
 | |
|        counts are also affected.  Eg:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               alias checking = assets:bank:wells fargo:checking
 | |
|               ; rewrites "checking" to "assets:bank:wells fargo:checking", or "checking:a" to "assets:bank:wells fargo:checking:a"
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Regex aliases
 | |
|        There  is  also a more powerful variant that uses a regular expression,
 | |
|        indicated by the forward slashes:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               alias /REGEX/ = REPLACEMENT
 | |
| 
 | |
|        or --alias '/REGEX/=REPLACEMENT'.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        REGEX is a case-insensitive regular expression.   Anywhere  it  matches
 | |
|        inside  an  account name, the matched part will be replaced by REPLACE-
 | |
|        MENT.  If REGEX contains parenthesised match groups, these can be  ref-
 | |
|        erenced by the usual numeric backreferences in REPLACEMENT.  Eg:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               alias /^(.+):bank:([^:]+)(.*)/ = \1:\2 \3
 | |
|               ; rewrites "assets:bank:wells fargo:checking" to  "assets:wells fargo checking"
 | |
| 
 | |
|        Also  note that REPLACEMENT continues to the end of line (or on command
 | |
|        line, to end of option argument), so it  can  contain  trailing  white-
 | |
|        space.
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Combining aliases
 | |
|        You  can  define  as many aliases as you like, using journal directives
 | |
|        and/or command line options.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        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.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        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:
 | |
| 
 | |
|        1. alias directives preceding the journal entry, most  recently  parsed
 | |
|           first (ie, reading upward from the journal entry, bottom to top)
 | |
| 
 | |
|        2. --alias  options,  in  the  order  they appeared on the command line
 | |
|           (left to right).
 | |
| 
 | |
|        In other words, for (an account name in) a given journal entry:
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o the nearest alias declaration before/above the entry is applied first
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o the next alias before/above that will be be applied next, and so on
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o aliases defined after/below the entry do not affect it.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        This gives nearby aliases precedence over distant ones, and helps  pro-
 | |
|        vide  semantic stability - aliases will keep working the same way inde-
 | |
|        pendent of which files are being read and in which order.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        In case of trouble, adding --debug=6 to  the  command  line  will  show
 | |
|        which aliases are being applied when.
 | |
| 
 | |
|    end aliases
 | |
|        You  can  clear  (forget)  all  currently  defined aliases with the end
 | |
|        aliases directive:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               end aliases
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Default parent account
 | |
|        You can specify a parent account which will be  prepended  to  all  ac-
 | |
|        counts  within a section of the journal.  Use the apply account and end
 | |
|        apply account directives like so:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               apply account home
 | |
| 
 | |
|               2010/1/1
 | |
|                   food    $10
 | |
|                   cash
 | |
| 
 | |
|               end apply account
 | |
| 
 | |
|        which is equivalent to:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               2010/01/01
 | |
|                   home:food           $10
 | |
|                   home:cash          $-10
 | |
| 
 | |
|        If end apply account is omitted, the effect lasts to  the  end  of  the
 | |
|        file.  Included files are also affected, eg:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               apply account business
 | |
|               include biz.journal
 | |
|               end apply account
 | |
|               apply account personal
 | |
|               include personal.journal
 | |
| 
 | |
|        Prior  to  hledger 1.0, legacy account and end spellings were also sup-
 | |
|        ported.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        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.
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Periodic transactions
 | |
|        Periodic  transaction rules describe transactions that recur.  They al-
 | |
|        low hledger to generate temporary  future  transactions  to  help  with
 | |
|        forecasting,  so  you  don't have to write out each one in the journal,
 | |
|        and it's easy to try out different forecasts.  Secondly, they are  also
 | |
|        used to define the budgets shown in budget reports.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        Periodic  transactions  can be a little tricky, so before you use them,
 | |
|        read this whole section - or at least these tips:
 | |
| 
 | |
|        1. Two spaces accidentally added or omitted will cause  you  trouble  -
 | |
|           read about this below.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        2. For  troubleshooting,  show  the generated transactions with hledger
 | |
|           print  --forecast  tag:generated  or  hledger  register   --forecast
 | |
|           tag:generated.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        3. Forecasted  transactions  will  begin  only after the last non-fore-
 | |
|           casted transaction's date.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        4. Forecasted transactions will end 6 months from  today,  by  default.
 | |
|           See below for the exact start/end rules.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        5. period  expressions  can  be  tricky.  Their documentation needs im-
 | |
|           provement, but is worth studying.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        6. Some period expressions with a repeating interval must  begin  on  a
 | |
|           natural  boundary  of  that  interval.  Eg in weekly from DATE, DATE
 | |
|           must be a monday.  ~ weekly from 2019/10/1 (a tuesday) will give  an
 | |
|           error.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        7. 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's a bit
 | |
|           inconsistent with the above.) Eg: ~ every 10th  day  of  month  from
 | |
|           2020/01,  which  is  equivalent  to  ~  every 10th day of month from
 | |
|           2020/01/01, will be adjusted to start on 2019/12/10.
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Periodic rule syntax
 | |
|        A periodic transaction rule looks like a normal journal entry, with the
 | |
|        date replaced by a tilde (~) followed by a period expression (mnemonic:
 | |
|        ~ looks like a recurring sine wave.):
 | |
| 
 | |
|               ~ monthly
 | |
|                   expenses:rent          $2000
 | |
|                   assets:bank:checking
 | |
| 
 | |
|        There is an additional constraint on the period expression:  the  start
 | |
|        date  must fall on a natural boundary of the interval.  Eg monthly from
 | |
|        2018/1/1 is valid, but monthly from 2018/1/15 is not.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        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's
 | |
|        date, unless a Y default year directive is in  effect,  in  which  case
 | |
|        they will be relative to Y/1/1.
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Two spaces between period expression and description!
 | |
|        If  the  period  expression  is  followed by a transaction description,
 | |
|        these must be separated by two or more spaces.  This helps hledger know
 | |
|        where the period expression ends, so that descriptions can not acciden-
 | |
|        tally alter their meaning, as in this example:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               ; 2 or more spaces needed here, so the period is not understood as "every 2 months in 2020"
 | |
|               ;               ||
 | |
|               ;               vv
 | |
|               ~ every 2 months  in 2020, we will review
 | |
|                   assets:bank:checking   $1500
 | |
|                   income:acme inc
 | |
| 
 | |
|        So,
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o Do write two spaces between your period expression and your  transac-
 | |
|          tion description, if any.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o Don't  accidentally write two spaces in the middle of your period ex-
 | |
|          pression.
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Forecasting with periodic transactions
 | |
|        With the --forecast flag, each periodic transaction rule generates  fu-
 | |
|        ture  transactions  recurring at the specified interval.  These are not
 | |
|        saved in the journal, but appear in all reports.  They will  look  like
 | |
|        normal transactions, but with an extra tag:
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o generated-transaction:~  PERIODICEXPR - shows that this was generated
 | |
|          by a periodic transaction rule, and the period
 | |
| 
 | |
|        There is also a hidden tag, with an underscore prefix, which  does  not
 | |
|        appear in hledger's output:
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o _generated-transaction:~ PERIODICEXPR
 | |
| 
 | |
|        This  can  be  used  to match transactions generated "just now", rather
 | |
|        than generated in the past and saved to the journal.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        Forecast transactions start on the first occurrence,  and  end  on  the
 | |
|        last  occurrence,  of  their  interval within the forecast period.  The
 | |
|        forecast period:
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o begins on the later of
 | |
| 
 | |
|          o the report start date if specified with -b/-p/date:
 | |
| 
 | |
|          o the day after the latest normal (non-periodic) transaction  in  the
 | |
|            journal, or today if there are no normal transactions.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o ends  on  the  report  end date if specified with -e/-p/date:, or 180
 | |
|          days from today.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        where "today" means the current date at report time.   The  "later  of"
 | |
|        rule  ensures that forecast transactions do not overlap normal transac-
 | |
|        tions in time; they will begin only after normal transactions end.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        Forecasting can be useful for estimating balances into the future,  and
 | |
|        experimenting  with  different  scenarios.   Note  the start date logic
 | |
|        means that forecasted transactions are automatically replaced by normal
 | |
|        transactions as you add those.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        Forecasting can also help with data entry: describe most of your trans-
 | |
|        actions with periodic rules, and every so  often  copy  the  output  of
 | |
|        print --forecast to the journal.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        You can generate one-time transactions too: just write a period expres-
 | |
|        sion specifying a date with no report interval.  (You could also  write
 | |
|        a  normal  transaction  with  a future date, but remember this disables
 | |
|        forecast transactions on previous dates.)
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Budgeting with periodic transactions
 | |
|        With the --budget 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  com-
 | |
|        pared in budget reports.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        For  more  details, see: balance: Budget report and Budgeting and Fore-
 | |
|        casting.
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Auto postings / transaction modifiers
 | |
|        Transaction modifier rules, AKA auto posting rules, describe changes to
 | |
|        be  applied  automatically  to certain matched transactions.  Currently
 | |
|        just one kind of change is possible - adding extra postings,  which  we
 | |
|        call  "automated postings" or just "auto postings".  These rules become
 | |
|        active when you use the --auto flag.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        A transaction modifier rule looks much like a normal transaction except
 | |
|        the  first line is an equals sign followed by a query that matches cer-
 | |
|        tain postings (mnemonic: = suggests matching).  And each  "posting"  is
 | |
|        actually a posting-generating rule:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               = QUERY
 | |
|                   ACCT  AMT
 | |
|                   ACCT  [AMT]
 | |
|                   ...
 | |
| 
 | |
|        These  posting-generating  rules  look like normal postings, except the
 | |
|        amount can be:
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o a normal amount with a commodity symbol, eg $2.  This  will  be  used
 | |
|          as-is.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o a number, eg 2.  The commodity symbol (if any) from the matched post-
 | |
|          ing will be added to this.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o a numeric multiplier, eg *2 (a star followed by  a  number  N).   The
 | |
|          matched posting's amount (and total price, if any) will be multiplied
 | |
|          by N.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o a multiplier with a commodity symbol, eg *$2 (a star, number  N,  and
 | |
|          symbol S).  The matched posting's amount will be multiplied by N, and
 | |
|          its commodity symbol will be replaced with S.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        These rules have global effect - a rule appearing anywhere in your data
 | |
|        can potentially affect any transaction, including transactions recorded
 | |
|        above it or in another file.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        Some examples:
 | |
| 
 | |
|               ; 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
 | |
| 
 | |
|               $ 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
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Auto postings and dates
 | |
|        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.
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Auto postings and transaction balancing / inferred amounts / balance asser-
 | |
|        tions
 | |
|        Currently, transaction modifiers are applied / auto postings are added:
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o after  missing amounts are inferred, and transactions are checked for
 | |
|          balancedness,
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o but before balance assertions are checked.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        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.
 | |
| 
 | |
|    Auto posting tags
 | |
|        Postings added by transaction modifiers will have some extra tags:
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o generated-posting:= QUERY - shows this was generated by an auto post-
 | |
|          ing rule, and the query
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o _generated-posting:=  QUERY  - a hidden tag, which does not appear in
 | |
|          hledger's output.  This can be used to match postings generated "just
 | |
|          now", rather than generated in the past and saved to the journal.
 | |
| 
 | |
|        Also,  any  transaction  that  has been changed by transaction modifier
 | |
|        rules will have these tags added:
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o modified: - this transaction was modified
 | |
| 
 | |
|        o _modified: - a hidden tag not appearing in the comment; this transac-
 | |
|          tion was modified "just now".
 | |
| 
 | |
| EDITOR SUPPORT
 | |
|        Helper  modes  exist  for popular text editors, which make working with
 | |
|        journal files easier.  They add colour, formatting, tab completion, and
 | |
|        helpful  commands,  and  are quite recommended if you edit your journal
 | |
|        with a text editor.   They  include  ledger-mode  or  hledger-mode  for
 | |
|        Emacs,  vim-ledger  for Vim, hledger-vscode for Visual Studio Code, and
 | |
|        others.  See the Editor configuration at hledger.org for the latest in-
 | |
|        formation.
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| REPORTING BUGS
 | |
|        Report  bugs at http://bugs.hledger.org (or on the #hledger IRC channel
 | |
|        or hledger mail list)
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| AUTHORS
 | |
|        Simon Michael <simon@joyful.com> and contributors
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| COPYRIGHT
 | |
|        Copyright (C) 2007-2019 Simon Michael.
 | |
|        Released under GNU GPL v3 or later.
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| SEE ALSO
 | |
|        hledger(1),     hledger-ui(1),     hledger-web(1),      hledger-api(1),
 | |
|        hledger_csv(5), hledger_journal(5), hledger_timeclock(5), hledger_time-
 | |
|        dot(5), ledger(1)
 | |
| 
 | |
|        http://hledger.org
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| 
 | |
| hledger 1.16.1                   December 2019              hledger_journal(5)
 |