path: root/hledger_journal.txt

HLEDGER_JOURNAL(5)           hledger User Manuals           HLEDGER_JOURNAL(5)



NAME
       hledger's default file format, representing a General Journal.

DESCRIPTION
       hledger's  usual  data  source  is a plain text file containing journal
       entries in hledger journal format.  This  file  represents  a  standard
       accounting  general  journal.  I use file names ending in .journal, but
       that's not required.  The journal file contains a number of transaction
       entries, each describing a transfer of money (or any commodity) between
       two or more named accounts, in a simple format readable by both hledger
       and humans.

       hledger's  journal  format  is a compatible subset, mostly, of ledger's
       journal format, so hledger can  work  with  compatible  ledger  journal
       files  as  well.   It's  safe,  and encouraged, to run both hledger and
       ledger on the same journal file, eg to validate the results you're get-
       ting.

       You can use hledger without learning any more about this file; just use
       the add or web or import commands to create and update it.

       Many users, though, edit the journal file with a text editor, and track
       changes  with a version control system such as git.  Editor addons such
       as ledger-mode or hledger-mode  for  Emacs,  vim-ledger  for  Vim,  and
       hledger-vscode for Visual Studio Code, make this easier, adding colour,
       formatting, tab completion, and useful commands.  See Editor configura-
       tion at hledger.org for the full list.

       Here's  a  description  of  each part of the file format (and hledger's
       data model).  These are mostly in the order you'll  use  them,  but  in
       some  cases related concepts have been grouped together for easy refer-
       ence, or linked before they are introduced, so feel free to  skip  over
       anything that looks unnecessary right now.

TRANSACTIONS
       Transactions  are the main unit of information in a journal file.  They
       represent events, typically a movement of some quantity of  commodities
       between two or more named accounts.

       Each  transaction is recorded as a journal entry, beginning with a sim-
       ple date in column 0.  This can be followed by  any  of  the  following
       optional fields, separated by spaces:

       o a status character (empty, !, or *)

       o a code (any short number or text, enclosed in parentheses)

       o a description (any remaining text until end of line or a semicolon)

       o a  comment  (any  remaining  text  following a semicolon until end of
         line, and any following indented lines beginning with a semicolon)

       o 0 or more indented posting lines, describing what was transferred and
         the  accounts  involved (indented comment lines are also allowed, but
         not blank lines or non-indented lines).

       Here's a simple journal file containing one transaction:

              2008/01/01 income
                assets:bank:checking   $1
                income:salary         $-1

DATES
   Simple dates
       Dates in the journal  file  use  simple  dates  format:  YYYY-MM-DD  or
       YYYY/MM/DD or YYYY.MM.DD, with leading zeros optional.  The year may be
       omitted, in which case it will be inferred from the context:  the  cur-
       rent  transaction,  the default year set with a default year directive,
       or  the  current  date  when  the  command  is  run.   Some   examples:
       2010-01-31, 2010/01/31, 2010.1.31, 1/31.

       (The  UI  also accepts simple dates, as well as the more flexible smart
       dates documented in the hledger manual.)

   Secondary dates
       Real-life transactions sometimes involve more than one date  -  eg  the
       date you write a cheque, and the date it clears in your bank.  When you
       want to model this, for more accurate daily balances, you  can  specify
       individual posting dates.

       Or,  you can use the older secondary date feature (Ledger calls it aux-
       iliary date or effective date).  Note: we support this for  compatibil-
       ity,  but  I usually recommend avoiding this feature; posting dates are
       almost always clearer and simpler.

       A secondary date is written after the primary date, following an equals
       sign.   If  the  year  is  omitted, the primary date's year is assumed.
       When running reports, the primary (left) date is used by  default,  but
       with  the  --date2  flag  (or --aux-date or --effective), the secondary
       (right) date will be used instead.

       The meaning of secondary dates is up to you, but it's best to follow  a
       consistent  rule.   Eg "primary = the bank's clearing date, secondary =
       date the transaction was initiated, if different", as shown here:

              2010/2/23=2/19 movie ticket
                expenses:cinema                   $10
                assets:checking

              $ hledger register checking
              2010-02-23 movie ticket         assets:checking                $-10         $-10

              $ hledger register checking --date2
              2010-02-19 movie ticket         assets:checking                $-10         $-10

   Posting dates
       You can give individual postings a different  date  from  their  parent
       transaction,  by  adding a posting comment containing a tag (see below)
       like date:DATE.  This is probably the best way to control posting dates
       precisely.   Eg  in  this  example  the  expense  should  appear in May
       reports, and the deduction from checking should be reported on 6/1  for
       easy bank reconciliation:

              2015/5/30
                  expenses:food     $10  ; food purchased on saturday 5/30
                  assets:checking        ; bank cleared it on monday, date:6/1

              $ hledger -f t.j register food
              2015-05-30                      expenses:food                  $10           $10

              $ hledger -f t.j register checking
              2015-06-01                      assets:checking               $-10          $-10

       DATE  should be a simple date; if the year is not specified it will use
       the year of the transaction's date.  You can  set  the  secondary  date
       similarly,  with  date2:DATE2.   The  date:  or date2: tags must have a
       valid simple date value if they are present, eg a  date:  tag  with  no
       value is not allowed.

       Ledger's earlier, more compact bracketed date syntax is also supported:
       [DATE], [DATE=DATE2] or [=DATE2].  hledger will attempt  to  parse  any
       square-bracketed sequence of the 0123456789/-.= characters in this way.
       With this syntax, DATE infers its year from the transaction  and  DATE2
       infers its year from DATE.

STATUS
       Transactions,  or  individual postings within a transaction, can have a
       status mark,  which  is  a  single  character  before  the  transaction
       description  or  posting  account  name,  separated from it by a space,
       indicating one of three statuses:


       mark     status
       ------------------
                unmarked
       !        pending
       *        cleared

       When reporting, you  can  filter  by  status  with  the  -U/--unmarked,
       -P/--pending,  and  -C/--cleared  flags;  or the status:, status:!, and
       status:* queries; or the U, P, C keys in hledger-ui.

       Note, in Ledger and in older versions of hledger, the "unmarked"  state
       is  called  "uncleared".   As  of  hledger  1.3  we  have renamed it to
       unmarked for clarity.

       To replicate Ledger and old hledger's behaviour of also matching  pend-
       ing, combine -U and -P.

       Status  marks  are optional, but can be helpful eg for reconciling with
       real-world accounts.  Some editor modes provide highlighting and short-
       cuts  for working with status.  Eg in Emacs ledger-mode, you can toggle
       transaction status with C-c C-e, or posting status with C-c C-c.

       What "uncleared", "pending", and "cleared" actually mean is up to  you.
       Here's one suggestion:


       status       meaning
       --------------------------------------------------------------------------
       uncleared    recorded but not yet reconciled; needs review
       pending      tentatively reconciled (if needed, eg during a big reconcil-
                    iation)
       cleared      complete, reconciled as far as possible, and considered cor-
                    rect

       With  this scheme, you would use -PC to see the current balance at your
       bank, -U to see things which will probably hit  your  bank  soon  (like
       uncashed checks), and no flags to see the most up-to-date state of your
       finances.

DESCRIPTION
       A transaction's description is the rest of the line following the  date
       and  status  mark  (or  until  a comment begins).  Sometimes called the
       "narration" in traditional bookkeeping, it can be used for whatever you
       wish,  or  left blank.  Transaction descriptions can be queried, unlike
       comments.

   Payee and note
       You can optionally include a | (pipe) character in descriptions to sub-
       divide the description into separate fields for payee/payer name on the
       left (up to the first |) and an additional  note  field  on  the  right
       (after  the  first  |).   This may be worthwhile if you need to do more
       precise querying and pivoting by payee or by note.

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
       description and/or indented on the following lines  (before  the  post-
       ings).   Similarly, you can attach comments to an individual posting by
       writing them after the amount and/or indented on the  following  lines.
       Transaction and posting comments must begin with a semicolon (;).

       Some examples:

              # a file comment
              ; another file comment
              * also a file comment, useful in org/orgstruct mode

              comment
              A multiline file comment, which continues
              until a line containing just "end comment"
              (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.

POSTINGS
       A  posting  is an addition of some amount to, or removal of some amount
       from, an account.  Each posting line begins with at least one space  or
       tab (2 or 4 spaces is common), followed by:

       o (optional) a status character (empty, !, or *), followed by a space

       o (required)  an  account  name (any text, optionally containing single
         spaces, until end of line or a double space)

       o (optional) two or more spaces or tabs followed by an amount.

       Positive amounts are being added to the account, negative  amounts  are
       being removed.

       The amounts within a transaction must always sum up to zero.  As a con-
       venience, one amount may be left blank; it will be inferred  so  as  to
       balance the transaction.

       Be  sure  to  note the unusual two-space delimiter between account name
       and amount.  This makes it easy to write account names containing  spa-
       ces.   But if you accidentally leave only one space (or tab) before the
       amount, the amount will be considered part of the account name.

   Virtual postings
       A posting with a parenthesised account name is called a virtual posting
       or  unbalanced  posting,  which  means it is exempt from the usual rule
       that a transaction's postings must balance add up to zero.

       This is not part of double entry accounting, so  you  might  choose  to
       avoid  this  feature.   Or you can use it sparingly for certain special
       cases where it can be convenient.  Eg, you could set  opening  balances
       without using a balancing equity account:

              1/1 opening balances
                (assets:checking)   $1000
                (assets:savings)    $2000

       A  posting  with  a bracketed account name is called a balanced virtual
       posting.  The balanced virtual postings in a transaction must add up to
       zero (separately from other postings).  Eg:

              1/1 buy food with cash, update budget envelope subaccounts, & something else
                assets:cash                    $-10 ; <- these balance
                expenses:food                    $7 ; <-
                expenses:food                    $3 ; <-
                [assets:checking:budget:food]  $-10    ; <- and these balance
                [assets:checking:available]     $10    ; <-
                (something:else)                 $5       ; <- not required to balance

       Ordinary  non-parenthesised,  non-bracketed  postings  are  called real
       postings.  You can exclude  virtual  postings  from  reports  with  the
       -R/--real flag or real:1 query.

ACCOUNT NAMES
       Account  names  typically have several parts separated by a full colon,
       from which hledger derives a hierarchical chart of accounts.  They  can
       be  anything you like, but in finance there are traditionally five top-
       level accounts: assets, liabilities, income, expenses, and equity.

       Account names may contain single spaces,  eg:  assets:accounts  receiv-
       able.   Because  of  this,  they must always be followed by two or more
       spaces (or newline).

       Account names can be aliased.

AMOUNTS
       After the account  name,  there  is  usually  an  amount.   (Important:
       between account name and amount, there must be two or more spaces.)

       hledger's  amount  format is flexible, supporting several international
       formats.  Here are some examples.  Amounts have a  number  (the  "quan-
       tity"):

              1

       ..and  usually a currency or commodity name (the "commodity").  This is
       a symbol, word, or phrase, to the left or right of the  quantity,  with
       or without a separating space:

              $1
              4000 AAPL

       If the commodity name contains spaces, numbers, or punctuation, it must
       be enclosed in double quotes:

              3 "no. 42 green apples"

       Amounts can be preceded by a minus sign (or a plus sign, though plus is
       the  default), The sign can be written before or after a left-side com-
       modity symbol:

              -$1
              $-1

       One or more spaces between the sign and the number are acceptable  when
       parsing (but they won't be displayed in output):

              + $1
              $-      1

       Scientific E notation is allowed:

              1E-6
              EUR 1E3

       A decimal mark can be written as a period or a comma:

              1.23
              1,23456780000009

   Digit group marks
       In  the integer part of the quantity (left of the decimal mark), groups
       of digits can optionally be separated by  a  "digit  group  mark"  -  a
       space, comma, or period (different from the decimal mark):

                   $1,000,000.00
                EUR 2.000.000,00
              INR 9,99,99,999.00
                    1 000 000.9455

       Note,  a  number  containing a single group mark and no decimal mark is
       ambiguous.  Are these group marks or decimal marks ?

              1,000
              1.000

       hledger will treat them both as decimal marks by default (cf #793).  If
       you use digit group marks, to prevent confusion and undetected typos we
       recommend you write commodity directives at the  top  of  the  file  to
       explicitly  declare  the  decimal  mark  (and  optionally a digit group
       mark).  Note, these formats ("amount styles") are specific to each com-
       modity, so if your data uses multiple formats, hledger can handle it:

              commodity $1,000.00
              commodity EUR 1.000,00
              commodity INR 9,99,99,999.00
              commodity       1 000 000.9455


   Commodity display style
       For each commodity, hledger chooses a consistent style to use when dis-
       playing amounts.  (Except price amounts, which are always displayed  as
       written).  The display style is chosen as follows:

       o If  there  is  a commodity directive (or default commodity directive)
         for the commodity, its style is used (see examples above).

       o Otherwise the style is inferred from the amounts  in  that  commodity
         seen in the journal.

       o Or  if  there  are no such amounts in the journal, a default style is
         used (like $1000.00).

       A style is inferred from the journal amounts in a commodity as follows:

       o Use  the  general style (decimal mark, symbol placement) of the first
         amount

       o Use the first-seen digit group style (digit group mark,  digit  group
         sizes), if any

       o Use the maximum number of decimal places of all.

       Transaction  price  amounts  don't  affect  the commodity display style
       directly, but occasionally they can do so indirectly (eg when  a  post-
       ing's  amount is inferred using a transaction price).  If you find this
       causing problems, use a commodity directive to fix the display style.

       In summary, each commodity's amounts will be normalised to

       o the style declared by a commodity directive

       o or, the style of the first posting amount in the  journal,  with  the
         first-seen  digit  group style and the maximum-seen number of decimal
         places.

       If reports are showing amounts in a way you don't like  (eg,  with  too
       many  decimal  places), use a commodity directive to set your preferred
       style.

   Rounding
       Amounts are stored internally as decimal numbers with up to 255 decimal
       places,  and  displayed  with the number of decimal places specified by
       the commodity display style.  Note, hledger uses banker's rounding:  it
       rounds  to  the nearest even number, eg 0.5 displayed with zero decimal
       places is "0").  (Guaranteed since hledger 1.17.1;  in  older  versions
       this could vary if hledger was built with Decimal < 0.5.1.)

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

       4. Like 1, but the @ is parenthesised, i.e.  (@); this is for  compati-
          bility  with Ledger journals (Virtual posting costs), and is equiva-
          lent to 1 in hledger.

       5. Like 2, but as in 4 the @@ is parenthesised, i.e.  (@@); in hledger,
          this is equivalent to 2.

       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

LOT PRICES, LOT DATES
       Ledger allows another kind of price, lot price (four  variants:  {UNIT-
       PRICE},   {{TOTALPRICE}},   {=FIXEDUNITPRICE},   {{=FIXEDTOTALPRICE}}),
       and/or a lot date ([DATE]) to be specified.  These are normally used to
       select  a  lot when selling investments.  hledger will parse these, for
       compatibility with Ledger journals,  but  currently  ignores  them.   A
       transaction  price,  lot price and/or lot date may appear in any order,
       after the posting amount and before the balance assertion if any.

BALANCE ASSERTIONS
       hledger supports Ledger-style  balance  assertions  in  journal  files.
       These  look  like, for example, = EXPECTEDBALANCE following a posting's
       amount.  Eg here we assert the expected dollar balance  in  accounts  a
       and b after each posting:

              2013/1/1
                a   $1  =$1
                b       =$-1

              2013/1/2
                a   $1  =$2
                b  $-1  =$-2

       After reading a journal file, hledger will check all balance assertions
       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
       -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
       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,
       Ledger assertions do not see the accumulated effect of  repeated  post-
       ings to the same account within a transaction.)

       So, hledger balance assertions keep working if you reorder differently-
       dated transactions within the journal.  But if you  reorder  same-dated
       transactions  or postings, assertions might break and require updating.
       This order dependence does bring an advantage: precise control over the
       order of postings and assertions within a day, so you can assert intra-
       day balances.

   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 "partial" 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

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.  Note part of this table  is  hidden  when
       viewed in a web browser - scroll it sideways to see more.


       direc-     end         subdi-    purpose                        can affect  (as  of
       tive       directive   rec-                                     2018/06)
                              tives
       ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
       account                any       document   account    names,   all entries in  all
                              text      declare account types & dis-   files,   before  or
                                        play order                     after
       alias      end                   rewrite account names          following   entries
                  aliases                                              until end  of  cur-
                                                                       rent  file  or  end
                                                                       directive
       apply      end apply             prepend a common  parent  to   following   entries
       account    account               account names                  until end  of  cur-
                                                                       rent  file  or  end
                                                                       directive
       comment    end  com-             ignore part of journal         following   entries
                  ment                                                 until end  of  cur-
                                                                       rent  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  to be   default  commodity:
                                        used    for    commodityless   following   commod-
                                        amounts,   and   its  number   ityless     entries
                                        notation & display style       until  end  of cur-
                                                                       rent  file;  number
                                                                       notation: following
                                                                       entries   in   that
                                                                       commodity until end
                                                                       of  current   file;
                                                                       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
                                                                       reports, when -V is
                                                                       used
       Y                                declare a year for  yearless   following   entries
                                        dates                          until end  of  cur-
                                                                       rent file
       =                                declare   an   auto  posting   all entries in par-
                                        rule,  adding  postings   to   ent/current/child
                                        other transactions             files (but not sib-
                                                                       ling   files,   see
                                                                       #1212)

       And some definitions:


       subdi-   optional  indented directive line immediately following a parent
       rec-     directive
       tive
       number   how to interpret numbers when parsing journal entries (the iden-
       nota-    tity  of the decimal separator character).  (Currently each com-
       tion     modity can have its own notation, even in the same file.)
       dis-     how to display amounts of a commodity in  reports  (symbol  side
       play     and spacing, digit groups, decimal separator, decimal places)
       style
       direc-   which  entries  and  (when there are multiple files) which files
       tive     are affected by a directive
       scope

       As you can see, directives vary in which journal entries and files they
       affect,  and  whether  they  are  focussed on input (parsing) or output
       (reports).  Some directives have multiple effects.

   Directives and multiple files
       If you use  multiple  -f/--file  options,  or  the  include  directive,
       hledger  will  process  multiple input files.  But note that directives
       which affect input (see above) typically last only until the end of the
       file in which they occur.

       This may seem inconvenient, but it's intentional; it makes reports sta-
       ble and deterministic, independent of the order  of  input.   Otherwise
       you  could see different numbers if you happened to write -f options in
       a different order, or if you moved includes around  while  cleaning  up
       your files.

       It  can  be  surprising though; for example, it means that alias direc-
       tives do not affect parent or sibling files (see below).

   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 FILEPATH

       Only  journal files can include, and only journal, timeclock or timedot
       files can be included (not CSV files, currently).

       If the file path does not begin with a slash, it  is  relative  to  the
       current file's folder.

       A tilde means home directory, eg: include ~/main.journal.

       The path may contain glob patterns to match multiple files, eg: include
       *.journal.

       There is limited support for recursive wildcards:  **/  (the  slash  is
       required)  matches 0 or more subdirectories.  It's not super convenient
       since you have to avoid include cycles and including  directories,  but
       this can be done, eg: include */**/*.journal.

       The path may also be prefixed to force a specific file format, overrid-
       ing the file extension (as described  in  hledger.1  ->  Input  files):
       include timedot:~/notes/2020*.md.

   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 (period or comma) 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  a  commodity's  display  style 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
       directives,  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.

       Note  hledger  normally  uses  banker's rounding, so 0.5 displayed with
       zero decimal digits is "0".  (More at Commodity display style.)

   Commodity error checking
       In strict mode, enabled with the -s/--strict flag, hledger will  report
       an  error if a commodity symbol is used that has not been declared by a
       commodity directive.  This works similarly to account  error  checking,
       see the notes there for more details.

   Default commodity
       The  D directive sets a default commodity, to be used for amounts with-
       out a commodity symbol (ie, plain numbers).   This  commodity  will  be
       applied  to  all subsequent commodity-less amounts, or until the next D
       directive.  (Note, this is different from Ledger's D.)

       For compatibility/historical reasons, D  also  acts  like  a  commodity
       directive, setting the commodity's display style (for output) and deci-
       mal mark (for parsing input).   As  with  commodity,  the  amount  must
       always  be  written  with  a  decimal  mark (period or comma).  If both
       directives are used, commodity's style takes precedence.

       The syntax is D AMOUNT.  Eg:

              ; commodity-less amounts should be treated as dollars
              ; (and displayed with the dollar sign on the left, thousands separators and two decimal places)
              D $1,000.00

              1/1
                a     5  ; <- commodity-less amount, parsed as $5 and displayed as $5.00
                b

   Declaring market prices
       The P directive declares a market price,  which  is  an  exchange  rate
       between 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,  -X  and  --value flags use these market prices to show amount
       values in another commodity.  See Valuation.

   Declaring accounts
       account directives can be used to declare accounts (ie, the places that
       amounts  are transferred from and to).  Though not required, these dec-
       larations can provide several benefits:

       o They can document your intended chart of accounts, providing a refer-
         ence.

       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 can store extra information  about  accounts  (account  numbers,
         notes, etc.)

       o They  help  with account name completion in the add command, hledger-
         iadd, hledger-web, ledger-mode etc.

       o In strict mode, they restrict which accounts  may  be  posted  to  by
         transactions, which helps detect typos.

       The  simplest form is just the word account followed by a hledger-style
       account name, eg this account directive declares the assets:bank:check-
       ing account:

              account assets:bank:checking

   Account error checking
       By  default, accounts come into existence when a transaction references
       them by name.  This is convenient, but it means hledger can't warn  you
       when you mis-spell an account name in the journal.  Usually you'll find
       the error later, as an extra account in balance reports, or  an  incor-
       rect balance when reconciling.

       In  strict mode, enabled with the -s/--strict flag, hledger will report
       an error if any transaction uses an account  name  that  has  not  been
       declared by an account directive.  Some notes:

       o The  declaration is case-sensitive; transactions must use the correct
         account name capitalisation.

       o The account directive's scope is "whole file and below"  (see  direc-
         tives).  This means it affects all of the current file, and any files
         it includes, but not  parent  or  sibling  files.   The  position  of
         account directives within the file does not matter, though it's usual
         to put them at the top.

       o Accounts can only be declared  in  journal  files  (but  will  affect
         included files in other formats).

       o It's  currently  not  possible  to declare "all possible subaccounts"
         with a wildcard; every account posted to must be declared.

   Account comments
       Comments, beginning with a semicolon, can be added:

       o on the same line, after two or more spaces (because ; is  allowed  in
         account names)

       o on the next lines, indented

       An example of both:

              account assets:bank:checking  ; same-line comment, note 2+ spaces before ;
                ; next-line comment
                ; another with tag, acctno:12345 (not used yet)

       Same-line comments are not supported by Ledger, or hledger <1.13.

   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 main types of  account,  corresponding  to  the
       account classes in the accounting equation:

       Asset, Liability, Equity, Revenue, Expense.

       These account types are important for controlling which accounts appear
       in the balancesheet, balancesheetequity, incomestatement  reports  (and
       probably for other things in future).

       Additionally,  we  recognise the Cash type, which is also an Asset, and
       which causes accounts to appear in the cashflow report.   ("Cash"  here
       means  liquid assets, eg bank balances but typically not investments or
       receivables.)

   Declaring account types
       Generally, to make these reports work you should declare your top-level
       accounts and their types, using account directives with type: tags.

       The  tag's  value  should be one of: Asset, Liability, Equity, Revenue,
       Expense, Cash, A, L, E, R, X, C (all case insensitive).   The  type  is
       inherited  by  all subaccounts except where they override it.  Here's a
       complete example:

              account assets       ; type: Asset
              account assets:bank  ; type: Cash
              account assets:cash  ; type: Cash
              account liabilities  ; type: Liability
              account equity       ; type: Equity
              account revenues     ; type: Revenue
              account expenses     ; type: Expense

   Auto-detected account types
       If you happen to use common english top-level account  names,  you  may
       not  need  to declare account types, as they will be detected automati-
       cally using the following rules:


       If  name  matches  regular   account type is:
       expression:
       ----------------------------------------------
       ^assets?(:|$)                Asset
       ^(debts?|lia-                Liability
       bilit(y|ies))(:|$)
       ^equity(:|$)                 Equity
       ^(income|revenue)s?(:|$)     Revenue
       ^expenses?(:|$)              Expense


       If account type is Asset and name does not contain  regu-   account  type
       lar expression:                                             is:
       --------------------------------------------------------------------------
       (investment|receivable|:A/R|:fixed)                         Cash

       Even so, explicit declarations may be a good idea, for clarity and pre-
       dictability.

   Interference from auto-detected account types
       If you assign any account type, it's a good idea to assign all of them,
       to prevent any confusion from mixing declared and auto-detected  types.
       Although  it's unlikely to happen in real life, here's an example: with
       the following journal, balancesheetequity shows "liabilities"  in  both
       Liabilities   and   Equity  sections.   Declaring  another  account  as
       type:Liability would fix it:

              account liabilities  ; type:Equity

              2020-01-01
                assets        1
                liabilities   1
                equity       -2

   Old account type syntax
       In some hledger journals you might instead see  this  old  syntax  (the
       letters  ALERX, separated from the account name by two or more spaces);
       this is deprecated and may be removed soon:

              account assets       A
              account liabilities  L
              account equity       E
              account revenues     R
              account expenses     X

   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:

       o you will sometimes declare parent accounts (eg account  other  above)
         that  you  don't  intend  to post to, just to customize their display
         order

       o 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
       replace  any occurrence of the old account name with the new one.  Sub-
       accounts 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.

   Aliases and multiple files
       As  explained at Directives and multiple files, alias directives do not
       affect parent or sibling files.  Eg in this command,

              hledger -f a.aliases -f b.journal

       account  aliases  defined  in  a.aliases  will  not  affect  b.journal.
       Including the aliases doesn't work either:

              include a.aliases

              2020-01-01  ; not affected by a.aliases
                foo  1
                bar

       This means that account aliases should usually be declared at the start
       of your top-most file, like this:

              alias foo=Foo
              alias bar=Bar

              2020-01-01  ; affected by aliases above
                foo  1
                bar

              include c.journal  ; also affected

   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
       accounts 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
       allow  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.

       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
          improvement, 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 transaction rules also have a second meaning: they are used to
       define budget goals, shown in budget reports.

   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
         expression.

   Forecasting with periodic transactions
       The  --forecast  flag  activates  any periodic transaction rules in the
       journal.  They will generate temporary  recurring  transactions,  which
       are  not  saved  in  the  journal,  but  will appear in all reports (eg
       print).  This can be useful for estimating balances into the future, or
       experimenting  with  different scenarios.  Or, it can be used as a data
       entry aid: describe recurring transactions, and every so often copy the
       output of print --forecast into the journal.

       These  transactions  will  have  an extra tag indicating which periodic
       rule generated them: generated-transaction:~ PERIODICEXPR.  And a simi-
       lar,  hidden  tag  (beginning  with  an underscore) which, because it's
       never displayed by print, can be used to match  transactions  generated
       "just now": _generated-transaction:~ PERIODICEXPR.

       Periodic  transactions  are  generated within some forecast period.  By
       default, this

       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 6
         months (180 days) from today.

       This means that periodic transactions will begin only after the  latest
       recorded  transaction.   And a recorded transaction dated in the future
       can prevent generation of periodic transactions.  (You can  avoid  that
       by writing the future transaction as a one-time periodic rule instead -
       put tilde before the date, eg ~ YYYY-MM-DD ...).

       Or, you can set your own arbitrary "forecast period", which can overlap
       recorded  transactions,  and need not be in the future, by providing an
       option argument, like --forecast=PERIODEXPR.  Note the equals  sign  is
       required, a space won't work.  PERIODEXPR is a period expression, which
       can specify the start date, end date, or both, like in a  date:  query.
       (See  also  hledger.1  ->  Report  start  &  end date).  Some examples:
       --forecast=202001-202004, --forecast=jan-, --forecast=2020.

   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.

       See also: Budgeting and Forecasting.


AUTO POSTINGS
       "Automated  postings"  or  "auto postings" are extra postings which get
       added  automatically  to  transactions  which  match  certain  queries,
       defined by "auto posting rules", when you use the --auto flag.

       An auto posting rule looks a bit like a transaction:

              = QUERY
                  ACCOUNT  AMOUNT
                  ...
                  ACCOUNT  [AMOUNT]

       except  the  first  line is an equals sign (mnemonic: = suggests match-
       ing), followed by a query (which matches existing postings),  and  each
       "posting"  line  describes  a  posting to be generated, and the posting
       amounts 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.

       Any query term containing spaces must be enclosed in single  or  double
       quotes,  as on the command line.  Eg, note the quotes around the second
       query term below:

              = expenses:groceries 'expenses:dining out'
                  (budget:funds:dining out)                 *-1

       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 multiple files
       An auto posting rule can affect any transaction in the current file, or
       in  any  parent file or child file.  Note, currently it will not affect
       sibling files (when multiple -f/--file are used - see #1212).

   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, 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
       Automated postings 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 auto posting 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".



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) 2007-2020 Simon Michael.
       Released under GNU GPL v3 or later.


SEE ALSO
       hledger(1), hledger-ui(1), hledger-web(1), ledger(1)

       hledger_journal(5), hledger_csv(5), hledger_timeclock(5), hledger_time-
       dot(5)



hledger-lib-1.20.4               December 2020              HLEDGER_JOURNAL(5)