diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md --- a/CHANGES.md +++ b/CHANGES.md @@ -9,6 +9,35 @@ User-visible changes in the hledger command line tool and library. +# 1.22.2 2021-08-07 + +Breaking changes + +- aregister no longer hides future transactions by default. + This is a consequence of the fix for + [#1638](https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/issues/1638). + It makes aregister consistent, so we think it's a reasonable change. + So if you have future-dated transactions in your journal which you + don't want reported, you now must exclude them with `-e tomorrow` or + `date:-tomorrow` in the command, as with other reports. + (Stephen Morgan) + +Improvements + +- Timedot format's doc has been rewritten. + +Fixes + +- Make balance assignments in forecasted transactions work again + (broken in 1.22.1). + Forecast transactions are now generated early and processed + in the same way as other transactions. + ([#1638](https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/issues/1638), Stephen Morgan) + +- aregister preserves the order of same-day transactions again + (broken in 1.22.1). + ([#1642](https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/issues/1642), Stephen Morgan) + # 1.22.1 2021-08-02 Improvements @@ -23,6 +52,27 @@ - Allow megaparsec 9.1 Fixes + +- `cur:` and `amt:` queries now match the original amounts before + valuation and cost conversion, as they did before hledger 1.22. We + believe this is the more useful behaviour in practice. + (#1625, Stephen Morgan) + +- Queries now work better with `register --related`, no longer showing + duplicate postings when more than one posting in a transaction is + matched. + (#1629, Stephen Morgan) + +- Valuation now works with `register --related`. + (#1630, Stephen Morgan) + +- Auto posting rules now also see inferred amounts, + not just explicit amounts. + (#1412, Stephen Morgan) + +- The aregister command now properly ignores a `depth:` argument. + It might now also behave more correctly with valuation or `--txn-dates`. + (#1634, Stephen Morgan) - Our info manuals now have more robust directory metadata (no subdirectory path), making them more likely to be linked in your diff --git a/Hledger/Cli/CliOptions.hs b/Hledger/Cli/CliOptions.hs --- a/Hledger/Cli/CliOptions.hs +++ b/Hledger/Cli/CliOptions.hs @@ -454,7 +454,7 @@ -- Also records the terminal width, if supported. rawOptsToCliOpts :: RawOpts -> IO CliOpts rawOptsToCliOpts rawopts = do - let iopts = rawOptsToInputOpts rawopts + iopts <- rawOptsToInputOpts rawopts rspec <- rawOptsToReportSpec rawopts mcolumns <- readMay <$> getEnvSafe "COLUMNS" mtermwidth <- diff --git a/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Aregister.hs b/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Aregister.hs --- a/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Aregister.hs +++ b/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Aregister.hs @@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ -- | Print an account register report for a specified account. aregister :: CliOpts -> Journal -> IO () -aregister opts@CliOpts{rawopts_=rawopts,reportspec_=rspec} j = do +aregister opts@CliOpts{rawopts_=rawopts,inputopts_=iopts,reportspec_=rspec} j = do d <- getCurrentDay -- the first argument specifies the account, any remaining arguments are a filter query (apat,querystring) <- case listofstringopt "args" rawopts of @@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ rspec' = rspec{ rsQuery=simplifyQuery $ And [queryFromFlags ropts', argsquery] , rsOpts=ropts' } - reportq = And [rsQuery rspec', excludeforecastq (isJust $ forecast_ ropts')] + reportq = And [rsQuery rspec', excludeforecastq (isJust $ forecast_ iopts)] where -- As in RegisterScreen, why ? XXX -- Except in forecast mode, exclude future/forecast transactions. diff --git a/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Aregister.txt b/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Aregister.txt --- a/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Aregister.txt +++ b/Hledger/Cli/Commands/Aregister.txt @@ -1,37 +1,40 @@ aregister, areg -Show the transactions and running historical balance in an account, with -each line item representing one transaction. +Show the transactions and running historical balance of a single +account, with each transaction displayed as one line. _FLAGS -aregister shows the transactions affecting a particular account and its -subaccounts, with each line item representing a whole transaction - as -in bank statements, hledger-ui, hledger-web and other accounting apps. - -Note this is unlike the register command, which shows individual -postings and does not always show a single account or a historical -balance. - -A reminder, "historical" balances include any balance from transactions -before the report start date, so (if opening balances are recorded -correctly) aregister will show the real-world balances of an account, as -you would see in a bank statement. +aregister shows the overall transactions affecting a particular account +(and any subaccounts). Each report line represents one transaction in +this account. Transactions before the report start date are always +included in the running balance (--historical mode is always on). -As a quick rule of thumb, use aregister for reconciling real-world -asset/liability accounts and register for reviewing detailed -revenues/expenses. +This is a more "real world", bank-like view than the register command +(which shows individual postings, possibly from multiple accounts, not +necessarily in historical mode). As a quick rule of thumb: - use +aregister for reviewing and reconciling real-world asset/liability +accounts - use register for reviewing detailed revenues/expenses. -aregister shows the register for just one account (and its subaccounts). -This account must be specified as the first argument. You can write +aregister requires one argument: the account to report on. You can write either the full account name, or a case-insensitive regular expression which will select the alphabetically first matched account. (Eg if you have assets:aaa:checking and assets:bbb:checking accounts, hledger areg checking would select assets:aaa:checking.) +Transactions involving subaccounts of this account will also be shown. +aregister ignores depth limits, so its final total will always match a +balance report with similar arguments. + Any additional arguments form a query which will filter the transactions -shown. +shown. Note some queries will disturb the running balance, causing it to +be different from the account's real-world running balance. +An example: this shows the transactions and historical running balance +during july, in the first account whose name contains "checking": + +$ hledger areg checking date:jul + Each aregister line item shows: - the transaction's date (or the relevant posting's date if different, @@ -44,11 +47,8 @@ Transactions making a net change of zero are not shown by default; add the -E/--empty flag to show them. -aregister ignores a depth limit, so its final total will always match a -balance report with similar arguments. - This command also supports the output destination and output format -options The output formats supported are txt, csv, and json. +options. The output formats supported are txt, csv, and json. aregister and custom posting dates @@ -61,15 +61,3 @@ To filter strictly by transaction date instead, add the --txn-dates flag. If you use this flag and some of your postings have custom dates, it's probably best to assume the running balance is wrong. - -Examples: - -Show all transactions and historical running balance in the first -account whose name contains "checking": - -$ hledger areg checking - -Show transactions and historical running balance in all asset accounts -during july: - -$ hledger areg assets date:jul diff --git a/Hledger/Cli/Utils.hs b/Hledger/Cli/Utils.hs --- a/Hledger/Cli/Utils.hs +++ b/Hledger/Cli/Utils.hs @@ -15,7 +15,6 @@ writeOutput, writeOutputLazyText, journalTransform, - journalAddForecast, journalReload, journalReloadIfChanged, journalFileIsNewer, @@ -38,7 +37,7 @@ import qualified Data.Text.IO as T import qualified Data.Text.Lazy as TL import qualified Data.Text.Lazy.IO as TL -import Data.Time (UTCTime, Day, addDays) +import Data.Time (UTCTime, Day) import Safe (readMay, headMay) import System.Console.CmdArgs import System.Directory (getModificationTime, getDirectoryContents, copyFile, doesFileExist) @@ -86,13 +85,14 @@ -- - pivoting account names (--pivot) -- - anonymising (--anonymise). -- +-- This will return an error message if the query in any auto posting rule fails +-- to parse, or the generated transactions are not balanced. journalTransform :: CliOpts -> Journal -> Journal journalTransform opts = anonymiseByOpts opts -- - converting amounts to market value (--value) -- . journalApplyValue ropts . pivotByOpts opts - . journalAddForecast opts -- | Apply the pivot transformation on a journal, if option is present. pivotByOpts :: CliOpts -> Journal -> Journal @@ -107,47 +107,6 @@ if anon_ . inputopts_ $ opts then anon else id - --- | Generate periodic transactions from all periodic transaction rules in the journal. --- These transactions are added to the in-memory Journal (but not the on-disk file). --- --- When --auto is active, auto posting rules will be applied to the --- generated transactions. If the query in any auto posting rule fails --- to parse, this function will raise an error. --- --- The start & end date for generated periodic transactions are determined in --- a somewhat complicated way; see the hledger manual -> Periodic transactions. --- -journalAddForecast :: CliOpts -> Journal -> Journal -journalAddForecast CliOpts{inputopts_=iopts, reportspec_=rspec} j = - case forecast_ ropts of - Nothing -> j - Just _ -> either error id $ do -- PARTIAL: - forecasttxns <- addAutoTxns =<< mapM (balanceTransaction (balancingopts_ iopts)) - [ txnTieKnot t | pt <- jperiodictxns j - , t <- runPeriodicTransaction pt forecastspan - , spanContainsDate forecastspan (tdate t) - ] - journalBalanceTransactions (balancingopts_ iopts) j{ jtxns = concat [jtxns j, forecasttxns] } - >>= journalApplyCommodityStyles - where - today = rsToday rspec - ropts = rsOpts rspec - - -- "They can start no earlier than: the day following the latest normal transaction in the journal (or today if there are none)." - mjournalend = dbg2 "journalEndDate" $ journalEndDate False j -- ignore secondary dates - forecastbeginDefault = dbg2 "forecastbeginDefault" $ fromMaybe today mjournalend - - -- "They end on or before the specified report end date, or 180 days from today if unspecified." - mspecifiedend = dbg2 "specifieddates" $ reportPeriodLastDay rspec - forecastendDefault = dbg2 "forecastendDefault" $ fromMaybe (addDays 180 today) mspecifiedend - - forecastspan = dbg2 "forecastspan" $ - spanDefaultsFrom - (fromMaybe nulldatespan $ dbg2 "forecastspan flag" $ forecast_ ropts) - (DateSpan (Just forecastbeginDefault) (Just forecastendDefault)) - - addAutoTxns = if auto_ iopts then modifyTransactions today (jtxnmodifiers j) else return -- | Write some output to stdout or to a file selected by --output-file. -- If the file exists it will be overwritten. diff --git a/embeddedfiles/hledger-ui.1 b/embeddedfiles/hledger-ui.1 --- a/embeddedfiles/hledger-ui.1 +++ b/embeddedfiles/hledger-ui.1 @@ -1,5 +1,5 @@ -.TH "HLEDGER-UI" "1" "August 2021" "hledger-ui-1.22.1 " "hledger User Manuals" +.TH "HLEDGER-UI" "1" "August 2021" "hledger-ui-1.22.2 " "hledger User Manuals" @@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ .PP hledger-ui is a terminal interface (TUI) for the hledger accounting tool. -This manual is for hledger-ui 1.22.1. +This manual is for hledger-ui 1.22.2. .SH SYNOPSIS .PP \f[C]hledger-ui [OPTIONS] [QUERYARGS]\f[R] diff --git a/embeddedfiles/hledger-ui.info b/embeddedfiles/hledger-ui.info --- a/embeddedfiles/hledger-ui.info +++ b/embeddedfiles/hledger-ui.info @@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ ************* hledger-ui is a terminal interface (TUI) for the hledger accounting -tool. This manual is for hledger-ui 1.22.1. +tool. This manual is for hledger-ui 1.22.2. 'hledger-ui [OPTIONS] [QUERYARGS]' 'hledger ui -- [OPTIONS] [QUERYARGS]' diff --git a/embeddedfiles/hledger-ui.txt b/embeddedfiles/hledger-ui.txt --- a/embeddedfiles/hledger-ui.txt +++ b/embeddedfiles/hledger-ui.txt @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ NAME hledger-ui is a terminal interface (TUI) for the hledger accounting - tool. This manual is for hledger-ui 1.22.1. + tool. This manual is for hledger-ui 1.22.2. SYNOPSIS hledger-ui [OPTIONS] [QUERYARGS] @@ -504,4 +504,4 @@ -hledger-ui-1.22.1 August 2021 HLEDGER-UI(1) +hledger-ui-1.22.2 August 2021 HLEDGER-UI(1) diff --git a/embeddedfiles/hledger-web.1 b/embeddedfiles/hledger-web.1 --- a/embeddedfiles/hledger-web.1 +++ b/embeddedfiles/hledger-web.1 @@ -1,12 +1,12 @@ -.TH "HLEDGER-WEB" "1" "August 2021" "hledger-web-1.22.1 " "hledger User Manuals" +.TH "HLEDGER-WEB" "1" "August 2021" "hledger-web-1.22.2 " "hledger User Manuals" .SH NAME .PP hledger-web is a web interface (WUI) for the hledger accounting tool. -This manual is for hledger-web 1.22.1. +This manual is for hledger-web 1.22.2. .SH SYNOPSIS .PP \f[C]hledger-web [OPTIONS]\f[R] diff --git a/embeddedfiles/hledger-web.info b/embeddedfiles/hledger-web.info --- a/embeddedfiles/hledger-web.info +++ b/embeddedfiles/hledger-web.info @@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ ************** hledger-web is a web interface (WUI) for the hledger accounting tool. -This manual is for hledger-web 1.22.1. +This manual is for hledger-web 1.22.2. 'hledger-web [OPTIONS]' 'hledger web -- [OPTIONS]' diff --git a/embeddedfiles/hledger-web.txt b/embeddedfiles/hledger-web.txt --- a/embeddedfiles/hledger-web.txt +++ b/embeddedfiles/hledger-web.txt @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ NAME hledger-web is a web interface (WUI) for the hledger accounting tool. - This manual is for hledger-web 1.22.1. + This manual is for hledger-web 1.22.2. SYNOPSIS hledger-web [OPTIONS] @@ -556,4 +556,4 @@ -hledger-web-1.22.1 August 2021 HLEDGER-WEB(1) +hledger-web-1.22.2 August 2021 HLEDGER-WEB(1) diff --git a/embeddedfiles/hledger.1 b/embeddedfiles/hledger.1 --- a/embeddedfiles/hledger.1 +++ b/embeddedfiles/hledger.1 @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@ .\"t -.TH "HLEDGER" "1" "August 2021" "hledger-1.22.1 " "hledger User Manuals" +.TH "HLEDGER" "1" "August 2021" "hledger-1.22.2 " "hledger User Manuals" @@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ This is the command-line interface (CLI) for the hledger accounting tool. Here we also describe hledger\[aq]s concepts and file formats. -This manual is for hledger 1.22.1. +This manual is for hledger 1.22.2. .SH SYNOPSIS .PP \f[C]hledger\f[R] @@ -2511,30 +2511,23 @@ .P .PD .PP -Show the transactions and running historical balance in an account, with -each line item representing one transaction. -.PP -\f[C]aregister\f[R] shows the transactions affecting a particular -account and its subaccounts, with each line item representing a whole -transaction - as in bank statements, hledger-ui, hledger-web and other -accounting apps. -.PP -Note this is unlike the \f[C]register\f[R] command, which shows -individual postings and does not always show a single account or a -historical balance. +Show the transactions and running historical balance of a single +account, with each transaction displayed as one line. .PP -A reminder, \[dq]historical\[dq] balances include any balance from -transactions before the report start date, so (if opening balances are -recorded correctly) \f[C]aregister\f[R] will show the real-world -balances of an account, as you would see in a bank statement. +\f[C]aregister\f[R] shows the overall transactions affecting a +particular account (and any subaccounts). +Each report line represents one transaction in this account. +Transactions before the report start date are always included in the +running balance (\f[C]--historical\f[R] mode is always on). .PP -As a quick rule of thumb, use \f[C]aregister\f[R] for reconciling -real-world asset/liability accounts and \f[C]register\f[R] for reviewing -detailed revenues/expenses. +This is a more \[dq]real world\[dq], bank-like view than the +\f[C]register\f[R] command (which shows individual postings, possibly +from multiple accounts, not necessarily in historical mode). +As a quick rule of thumb: - use \f[C]aregister\f[R] for reviewing and +reconciling real-world asset/liability accounts - use \f[C]register\f[R] +for reviewing detailed revenues/expenses. .PP -\f[C]aregister\f[R] shows the register for just one account (and its -subaccounts). -This account must be specified as the first argument. +\f[C]aregister\f[R] requires one argument: the account to report on. You can write either the full account name, or a case-insensitive regular expression which will select the alphabetically first matched account. @@ -2542,9 +2535,25 @@ \f[C]assets:bbb:checking\f[R] accounts, \f[C]hledger areg checking\f[R] would select \f[C]assets:aaa:checking\f[R].) .PP +Transactions involving subaccounts of this account will also be shown. +\f[C]aregister\f[R] ignores depth limits, so its final total will always +match a balance report with similar arguments. +.PP Any additional arguments form a query which will filter the transactions shown. +Note some queries will disturb the running balance, causing it to be +different from the account\[aq]s real-world running balance. .PP +An example: this shows the transactions and historical running balance +during july, in the first account whose name contains +\[dq]checking\[dq]: +.IP +.nf +\f[C] +$ hledger areg checking date:jul +\f[R] +.fi +.PP Each \f[C]aregister\f[R] line item shows: .IP \[bu] 2 the transaction\[aq]s date (or the relevant posting\[aq]s date if @@ -2560,12 +2569,10 @@ Transactions making a net change of zero are not shown by default; add the \f[C]-E/--empty\f[R] flag to show them. .PP -\f[C]aregister\f[R] ignores a depth limit, so its final total will -always match a balance report with similar arguments. -.PP This command also supports the output destination and output format -options The output formats supported are \f[C]txt\f[R], \f[C]csv\f[R], -and \f[C]json\f[R]. +options. +The output formats supported are \f[C]txt\f[R], \f[C]csv\f[R], and +\f[C]json\f[R]. .SS aregister and custom posting dates .PP Transactions whose date is outside the report period can still be shown, @@ -2579,26 +2586,6 @@ \f[C]--txn-dates\f[R] flag. If you use this flag and some of your postings have custom dates, it\[aq]s probably best to assume the running balance is wrong. -.PP -Examples: -.PP -Show all transactions and historical running balance in the first -account whose name contains \[dq]checking\[dq]: -.IP -.nf -\f[C] -$ hledger areg checking -\f[R] -.fi -.PP -Show transactions and historical running balance in all asset accounts -during july: -.IP -.nf -\f[C] -$ hledger areg assets date:jul -\f[R] -.fi .SS balance .PP balance, bal @@ -8851,70 +8838,111 @@ ledger 2 executable renamed. .SH TIMEDOT FORMAT .PP -hledger\[aq]s human-friendly time logging format. +\f[C]timedot\f[R] format is hledger\[aq]s human-friendly time logging +format. +Compared to \f[C]timeclock\f[R] format, it is +.IP \[bu] 2 +convenient for quick, approximate, and retroactive time logging +.IP \[bu] 2 +readable: you can see at a glance where time was spent. .PP -Timedot is a plain text format for logging dated, categorised quantities -(of time, usually), supported by hledger. -It is convenient for approximate and retroactive time logging, eg when -the real-time clock-in/out required with a timeclock file is too precise -or too interruptive. -It can be formatted like a bar chart, making clear at a glance where -time was spent. +A timedot file contains a series of day entries, which might look like +this: +.IP +.nf +\f[C] +2021-08-04 +hom:errands .... .... +fos:hledger:timedot .. ; docs +per:admin:finance +\f[R] +.fi .PP -Though called \[dq]timedot\[dq], this format is read by hledger as -commodityless quantities, so it could be used to represent dated -quantities other than time. -In the docs below we\[aq]ll assume it\[aq]s time. +hledger reads this as three time transactions on this day, with each dot +representing a quarter-hour spent: +.IP +.nf +\f[C] +$ hledger -f a.timedot print # .timedot file extension activates the timedot reader +2021-08-04 * + (hom:errands) 2.00 + +2021-08-04 * + (fos:hledger:timedot) 0.50 + +2021-08-04 * + (per:admin:finance) 0 +\f[R] +.fi .PP -A timedot file contains a series of day entries. -A day entry begins with a non-indented hledger-style simple date (Y-M-D, -Y/M/D, Y.M.D..) Any additional text on the same line is used as a -transaction description for this day. +A day entry begins with a date line: +.IP \[bu] 2 +a non-indented \f[B]simple date\f[R] (Y-M-D, Y/M/D, or Y.M.D). .PP -This is followed by optionally-indented timelog items for that day, one -per line. -Each timelog item is a note, usually a hledger:style:account:name -representing a time category, followed by two or more spaces, and a -quantity. -Each timelog item generates a hledger transaction. +Optionally this can be followed on the same line by +.IP \[bu] 2 +a common \f[B]transaction description\f[R] for this day +.IP \[bu] 2 +a common \f[B]transaction comment\f[R] for this day, after a semicolon +(\f[C];\f[R]). .PP -Quantities can be written as: +After the date line are zero or more optionally-indented time +transaction lines, consisting of: .IP \[bu] 2 -dots: a sequence of dots (.) representing quarter hours. -Spaces may optionally be used for grouping. -Eg: .... -\&.. +an \f[B]account name\f[R] - any word or phrase, usually a hledger-style +account name. .IP \[bu] 2 -an integral or decimal number, representing hours. -Eg: 1.5 +\f[B]two or more spaces\f[R] - a field separator, required if there is +an amount (as in journal format). .IP \[bu] 2 -an integral or decimal number immediately followed by a unit symbol -\f[C]s\f[R], \f[C]m\f[R], \f[C]h\f[R], \f[C]d\f[R], \f[C]w\f[R], -\f[C]mo\f[R], or \f[C]y\f[R], representing seconds, minutes, hours, days -weeks, months or years respectively. -Eg: 90m. -The following equivalencies are assumed, currently: 1m = 60s, 1h = 60m, -1d = 24h, 1w = 7d, 1mo = 30d, 1y=365d. +a \f[B]timedot amount\f[R] - dots representing quarter hours, or a +number representing hours. +.IP \[bu] 2 +an optional \f[B]comment\f[R] beginning with semicolon. +This is ignored. .PP -There is some flexibility allowing notes and todo lists to be kept right -in the time log, if needed: +In more detail, timedot amounts can be: .IP \[bu] 2 -Blank lines and lines beginning with \f[C]#\f[R] or \f[C];\f[R] are +\f[B]dots\f[R]: zero or more period characters, each representing one +quarter-hour. +Spaces are ignored and can be used for grouping. +Eg: \f[C].... ..\f[R] +.IP \[bu] 2 +a \f[B]number\f[R], representing hours. +Eg: \f[C]1.5\f[R] +.IP \[bu] 2 +a \f[B]number immediately followed by a unit symbol\f[R] \f[C]s\f[R], +\f[C]m\f[R], \f[C]h\f[R], \f[C]d\f[R], \f[C]w\f[R], \f[C]mo\f[R], or +\f[C]y\f[R], representing seconds, minutes, hours, days weeks, months or +years. +Eg \f[C]1.5h\f[R] or \f[C]90m\f[R]. +The following equivalencies are assumed: +.PD 0 +.P +.PD +\f[C]60s\f[R] = \f[C]1m\f[R], \f[C]60m\f[R] = \f[C]1h\f[R], +\f[C]24h\f[R] = \f[C]1d\f[R], \f[C]7d\f[R] = \f[C]1w\f[R], \f[C]30d\f[R] += \f[C]1mo\f[R], \f[C]365d\f[R] = \f[C]1y\f[R]. +(This unit will not be visible in the generated transaction amount, +which is always in hours.) +.PP +There is some added flexibility to help with keeping time log data in +the same file as your notes, todo lists, etc.: +.IP \[bu] 2 +Lines beginning with \f[C]#\f[R] or \f[C];\f[R], and blank lines, are ignored. .IP \[bu] 2 -Lines not ending with a double-space and quantity are parsed as items -taking no time, which will not appear in balance reports by default. -(Add -E to see them.) +Lines not ending with a double-space and amount are parsed as +transactions with zero amount. +(Most hledger reports hide these by default; add -E to see them.) .IP \[bu] 2 -Org mode headlines (lines beginning with one or more \f[C]*\f[R] -followed by a space) can be used as date lines or timelog items (the -stars are ignored). -Also all org headlines before the first date line are ignored. -This means org users can manage their timelog as an org outline (eg -using org-mode/orgstruct-mode in Emacs), for organisation, faster -navigation, controlling visibility etc. +One or more stars (\f[C]*\f[R]) followed by a space, at the start of a +line, is ignored. +So date lines or time transaction lines can also be Org-mode headlines. +.IP \[bu] 2 +All Org-mode headlines before the first date line are ignored. .PP -Examples: +More examples: .IP .nf \f[C] @@ -8972,7 +9000,7 @@ .IP .nf \f[C] -$ hledger -f t.timedot print date:2016/2/2 +$ hledger -f a.timedot print date:2016/2/2 2016-02-02 * (inc:client1) 2.00 @@ -8983,7 +9011,7 @@ .IP .nf \f[C] -$ hledger -f t.timedot bal --daily --tree +$ hledger -f a.timedot bal --daily --tree Balance changes in 2016-02-01-2016-02-03: || 2016-02-01d 2016-02-02d 2016-02-03d @@ -9000,8 +9028,7 @@ \f[R] .fi .PP -I prefer to use period for separating account components. -We can make this work with an account alias: +Using period instead of colon as account name separator: .IP .nf \f[C] @@ -9013,7 +9040,7 @@ .IP .nf \f[C] -$ hledger -f t.timedot --alias /\[rs]\[rs]./=: bal date:2016/2/4 --tree +$ hledger -f a.timedot --alias /\[rs]\[rs]./=: bal --tree 4.50 fos 4.00 hledger:timedot 0.50 ledger @@ -9022,7 +9049,7 @@ \f[R] .fi .PP -Here is a sample.timedot. +A sample.timedot file. .SH COMMON TASKS .PP Here are some quick examples of how to do some basic tasks with hledger. diff --git a/embeddedfiles/hledger.info b/embeddedfiles/hledger.info --- a/embeddedfiles/hledger.info +++ b/embeddedfiles/hledger.info @@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ This is the command-line interface (CLI) for the hledger accounting tool. Here we also describe hledger's concepts and file formats. This -manual is for hledger 1.22.1. +manual is for hledger 1.22.2. 'hledger' @@ -2000,38 +2000,43 @@ aregister, areg - Show the transactions and running historical balance in an account, -with each line item representing one transaction. - - 'aregister' shows the transactions affecting a particular account and -its subaccounts, with each line item representing a whole transaction - -as in bank statements, hledger-ui, hledger-web and other accounting -apps. - - Note this is unlike the 'register' command, which shows individual -postings and does not always show a single account or a historical -balance. + Show the transactions and running historical balance of a single +account, with each transaction displayed as one line. - A reminder, "historical" balances include any balance from -transactions before the report start date, so (if opening balances are -recorded correctly) 'aregister' will show the real-world balances of an -account, as you would see in a bank statement. + 'aregister' shows the overall transactions affecting a particular +account (and any subaccounts). Each report line represents one +transaction in this account. Transactions before the report start date +are always included in the running balance ('--historical' mode is +always on). - As a quick rule of thumb, use 'aregister' for reconciling real-world -asset/liability accounts and 'register' for reviewing detailed + This is a more "real world", bank-like view than the 'register' +command (which shows individual postings, possibly from multiple +accounts, not necessarily in historical mode). As a quick rule of +thumb: - use 'aregister' for reviewing and reconciling real-world +asset/liability accounts - use 'register' for reviewing detailed revenues/expenses. - 'aregister' shows the register for just one account (and its -subaccounts). This account must be specified as the first argument. -You can write either the full account name, or a case-insensitive -regular expression which will select the alphabetically first matched -account. (Eg if you have 'assets:aaa:checking' and -'assets:bbb:checking' accounts, 'hledger areg checking' would select -'assets:aaa:checking'.) + 'aregister' requires one argument: the account to report on. You can +write either the full account name, or a case-insensitive regular +expression which will select the alphabetically first matched account. +(Eg if you have 'assets:aaa:checking' and 'assets:bbb:checking' +accounts, 'hledger areg checking' would select 'assets:aaa:checking'.) + Transactions involving subaccounts of this account will also be +shown. 'aregister' ignores depth limits, so its final total will always +match a balance report with similar arguments. + Any additional arguments form a query which will filter the -transactions shown. +transactions shown. Note some queries will disturb the running balance, +causing it to be different from the account's real-world running +balance. + An example: this shows the transactions and historical running +balance during july, in the first account whose name contains +"checking": + +$ hledger areg checking date:jul + Each 'aregister' line item shows: * the transaction's date (or the relevant posting's date if @@ -2044,11 +2049,8 @@ Transactions making a net change of zero are not shown by default; add the '-E/--empty' flag to show them. - 'aregister' ignores a depth limit, so its final total will always -match a balance report with similar arguments. - This command also supports the output destination and output format -options The output formats supported are 'txt', 'csv', and 'json'. +options. The output formats supported are 'txt', 'csv', and 'json'. * Menu: @@ -2070,18 +2072,6 @@ flag. If you use this flag and some of your postings have custom dates, it's probably best to assume the running balance is wrong. - Examples: - - Show all transactions and historical running balance in the first -account whose name contains "checking": - -$ hledger areg checking - - Show transactions and historical running balance in all asset -accounts during july: - -$ hledger areg assets date:jul -  File: hledger.info, Node: balance, Next: balancesheet, Prev: aregister, Up: COMMANDS @@ -7807,61 +7797,87 @@ 15 TIMEDOT FORMAT ***************** -hledger's human-friendly time logging format. +'timedot' format is hledger's human-friendly time logging format. +Compared to 'timeclock' format, it is - Timedot is a plain text format for logging dated, categorised -quantities (of time, usually), supported by hledger. It is convenient -for approximate and retroactive time logging, eg when the real-time -clock-in/out required with a timeclock file is too precise or too -interruptive. It can be formatted like a bar chart, making clear at a -glance where time was spent. + * convenient for quick, approximate, and retroactive time logging + * readable: you can see at a glance where time was spent. - Though called "timedot", this format is read by hledger as -commodityless quantities, so it could be used to represent dated -quantities other than time. In the docs below we'll assume it's time. + A timedot file contains a series of day entries, which might look +like this: - A timedot file contains a series of day entries. A day entry begins -with a non-indented hledger-style simple date (Y-M-D, Y/M/D, Y.M.D..) -Any additional text on the same line is used as a transaction -description for this day. +2021-08-04 +hom:errands .... .... +fos:hledger:timedot .. ; docs +per:admin:finance - This is followed by optionally-indented timelog items for that day, -one per line. Each timelog item is a note, usually a -hledger:style:account:name representing a time category, followed by two -or more spaces, and a quantity. Each timelog item generates a hledger -transaction. + hledger reads this as three time transactions on this day, with each +dot representing a quarter-hour spent: - Quantities can be written as: +$ hledger -f a.timedot print # .timedot file extension activates the timedot reader +2021-08-04 * + (hom:errands) 2.00 - * dots: a sequence of dots (.) representing quarter hours. Spaces - may optionally be used for grouping. Eg: .... .. +2021-08-04 * + (fos:hledger:timedot) 0.50 - * an integral or decimal number, representing hours. Eg: 1.5 +2021-08-04 * + (per:admin:finance) 0 - * an integral or decimal number immediately followed by a unit symbol - 's', 'm', 'h', 'd', 'w', 'mo', or 'y', representing seconds, - minutes, hours, days weeks, months or years respectively. Eg: 90m. - The following equivalencies are assumed, currently: 1m = 60s, 1h = - 60m, 1d = 24h, 1w = 7d, 1mo = 30d, 1y=365d. + A day entry begins with a date line: - There is some flexibility allowing notes and todo lists to be kept -right in the time log, if needed: + * a non-indented *simple date* (Y-M-D, Y/M/D, or Y.M.D). - * Blank lines and lines beginning with '#' or ';' are ignored. + Optionally this can be followed on the same line by - * Lines not ending with a double-space and quantity are parsed as - items taking no time, which will not appear in balance reports by - default. (Add -E to see them.) + * a common *transaction description* for this day + * a common *transaction comment* for this day, after a semicolon + (';'). - * Org mode headlines (lines beginning with one or more '*' followed - by a space) can be used as date lines or timelog items (the stars - are ignored). Also all org headlines before the first date line - are ignored. This means org users can manage their timelog as an - org outline (eg using org-mode/orgstruct-mode in Emacs), for - organisation, faster navigation, controlling visibility etc. + After the date line are zero or more optionally-indented time +transaction lines, consisting of: - Examples: + * an *account name* - any word or phrase, usually a hledger-style + account name. + * *two or more spaces* - a field separator, required if there is an + amount (as in journal format). + * a *timedot amount* - dots representing quarter hours, or a number + representing hours. + * an optional *comment* beginning with semicolon. This is ignored. + In more detail, timedot amounts can be: + + * *dots*: zero or more period characters, each representing one + quarter-hour. Spaces are ignored and can be used for grouping. + Eg: '.... ..' + + * a *number*, representing hours. Eg: '1.5' + + * a *number immediately followed by a unit symbol* 's', 'm', 'h', + 'd', 'w', 'mo', or 'y', representing seconds, minutes, hours, days + weeks, months or years. Eg '1.5h' or '90m'. The following + equivalencies are assumed: + '60s' = '1m', '60m' = '1h', '24h' = '1d', '7d' = '1w', '30d' = + '1mo', '365d' = '1y'. (This unit will not be visible in the + generated transaction amount, which is always in hours.) + + There is some added flexibility to help with keeping time log data in +the same file as your notes, todo lists, etc.: + + * Lines beginning with '#' or ';', and blank lines, are ignored. + + * Lines not ending with a double-space and amount are parsed as + transactions with zero amount. (Most hledger reports hide these by + default; add -E to see them.) + + * One or more stars ('*') followed by a space, at the start of a + line, is ignored. So date lines or time transaction lines can also + be Org-mode headlines. + + * All Org-mode headlines before the first date line are ignored. + + More examples: + # on this day, 6h was spent on client work, 1.5h on haskell FOSS work, etc. 2016/2/1 inc:client1 .... .... .... .... .... .... @@ -7900,14 +7916,14 @@ Reporting: -$ hledger -f t.timedot print date:2016/2/2 +$ hledger -f a.timedot print date:2016/2/2 2016-02-02 * (inc:client1) 2.00 2016-02-02 * (biz:research) 0.25 -$ hledger -f t.timedot bal --daily --tree +$ hledger -f a.timedot bal --daily --tree Balance changes in 2016-02-01-2016-02-03: || 2016-02-01d 2016-02-02d 2016-02-03d @@ -7922,21 +7938,20 @@ ------------++---------------------------------------- || 7.75 2.25 8.00 - I prefer to use period for separating account components. We can -make this work with an account alias: + Using period instead of colon as account name separator: 2016/2/4 fos.hledger.timedot 4 fos.ledger .. -$ hledger -f t.timedot --alias /\\./=: bal date:2016/2/4 --tree +$ hledger -f a.timedot --alias /\\./=: bal --tree 4.50 fos 4.00 hledger:timedot 0.50 ledger -------------------- 4.50 - Here is a sample.timedot. + A sample.timedot file.  File: hledger.info, Node: COMMON TASKS, Next: LIMITATIONS, Prev: TIMEDOT FORMAT, Up: Top @@ -8567,386 +8582,386 @@ Ref: #add65805 Node: aregister68598 Ref: #aregister68712 -Node: aregister and custom posting dates70910 -Ref: #aregister-and-custom-posting-dates71076 -Node: balance71897 -Ref: #balance72016 -Node: balance features72931 -Ref: #balance-features73071 -Node: Simple balance report74728 -Ref: #simple-balance-report74910 -Node: Filtered balance report76363 -Ref: #filtered-balance-report76550 -Node: List or tree mode76850 -Ref: #list-or-tree-mode77018 -Node: Depth limiting78336 -Ref: #depth-limiting78502 -Node: Multi-period balance report79263 -Ref: #multi-period-balance-report79455 -Node: Sorting by amount81707 -Ref: #sorting-by-amount81876 -Node: Percentages82342 -Ref: #percentages82498 -Node: Balance change end balance83432 -Ref: #balance-change-end-balance83623 -Node: Balance report types85051 -Ref: #balance-report-types85241 -Node: Useful balance reports89314 -Ref: #useful-balance-reports89495 -Node: Budget report90580 -Ref: #budget-report90764 -Node: Budget report start date96003 -Ref: #budget-report-start-date96172 -Node: Nested budgets97504 -Ref: #nested-budgets97653 -Node: Customising single-period balance reports101093 -Ref: #customising-single-period-balance-reports101302 -Node: balancesheet103450 -Ref: #balancesheet103588 -Node: balancesheetequity104887 -Ref: #balancesheetequity105038 -Node: cashflow106418 -Ref: #cashflow106542 -Node: check107688 -Ref: #check107793 -Node: Basic checks108427 -Ref: #basic-checks108545 -Node: Strict checks109096 -Ref: #strict-checks109237 -Node: Other checks109673 -Ref: #other-checks109813 -Node: Custom checks110170 -Ref: #custom-checks110290 -Node: close110707 -Ref: #close110811 -Node: close usage112333 -Ref: #close-usage112428 -Node: codes115241 -Ref: #codes115351 -Node: commodities116063 -Ref: #commodities116192 -Node: descriptions116274 -Ref: #descriptions116404 -Node: diff116708 -Ref: #diff116816 -Node: 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#aregister-and-custom-posting-dates71243 +Node: balance71795 +Ref: #balance71914 +Node: balance features72829 +Ref: #balance-features72969 +Node: Simple balance report74626 +Ref: #simple-balance-report74808 +Node: Filtered balance report76261 +Ref: #filtered-balance-report76448 +Node: List or tree mode76748 +Ref: #list-or-tree-mode76916 +Node: Depth limiting78234 +Ref: #depth-limiting78400 +Node: Multi-period balance report79161 +Ref: #multi-period-balance-report79353 +Node: Sorting by amount81605 +Ref: #sorting-by-amount81774 +Node: Percentages82240 +Ref: #percentages82396 +Node: Balance change end balance83330 +Ref: #balance-change-end-balance83521 +Node: Balance report types84949 +Ref: #balance-report-types85139 +Node: Useful balance reports89212 +Ref: #useful-balance-reports89393 +Node: Budget report90478 +Ref: #budget-report90662 +Node: Budget report start date95901 +Ref: #budget-report-start-date96070 +Node: Nested budgets97402 +Ref: #nested-budgets97551 +Node: Customising single-period balance reports100991 +Ref: #customising-single-period-balance-reports101200 +Node: balancesheet103348 +Ref: #balancesheet103486 +Node: balancesheetequity104785 +Ref: #balancesheetequity104936 +Node: cashflow106316 +Ref: #cashflow106440 +Node: check107586 +Ref: #check107691 +Node: Basic checks108325 +Ref: #basic-checks108443 +Node: Strict checks108994 +Ref: #strict-checks109135 +Node: Other checks109571 +Ref: #other-checks109711 +Node: Custom checks110068 +Ref: #custom-checks110188 +Node: close110605 +Ref: #close110709 +Node: close usage112231 +Ref: #close-usage112326 +Node: codes115139 +Ref: #codes115249 +Node: commodities115961 +Ref: #commodities116090 +Node: descriptions116172 +Ref: #descriptions116302 +Node: diff116606 +Ref: #diff116714 +Node: files117761 +Ref: #files117863 +Node: help118010 +Ref: #help118112 +Node: import118839 +Ref: #import118955 +Node: Deduplication119820 +Ref: #deduplication119945 +Node: Import testing121839 +Ref: #import-testing122004 +Node: Importing balance assignments122492 +Ref: #importing-balance-assignments122698 +Node: Commodity display styles123347 +Ref: #commodity-display-styles123520 +Node: incomestatement123649 +Ref: #incomestatement123784 +Node: notes125089 +Ref: #notes125204 +Node: payees125572 +Ref: #payees125680 +Node: prices126206 +Ref: #prices126314 +Node: print126655 +Ref: #print126767 +Node: print-unique132082 +Ref: #print-unique132210 +Node: register132495 +Ref: #register132624 +Node: Custom register output137070 +Ref: #custom-register-output137201 +Node: register-match138538 +Ref: #register-match138674 +Node: rewrite139025 +Ref: #rewrite139142 +Node: Re-write rules in a file141048 +Ref: #re-write-rules-in-a-file141211 +Node: Diff output format142360 +Ref: #diff-output-format142543 +Node: rewrite vs print --auto143635 +Ref: #rewrite-vs.-print---auto143795 +Node: roi144351 +Ref: #roi144451 +Node: Spaces and special characters in --inv and --pnl146137 +Ref: #spaces-and-special-characters-in---inv-and---pnl146377 +Node: Semantics of --inv and --pnl146865 +Ref: #semantics-of---inv-and---pnl147104 +Node: IRR and TWR explained148954 +Ref: #irr-and-twr-explained149114 +Node: stats152182 +Ref: #stats152283 +Node: tags153071 +Ref: #tags153171 +Node: test153690 +Ref: #test153806 +Node: About add-on commands154553 +Ref: #about-add-on-commands154690 +Node: JOURNAL FORMAT155821 +Ref: #journal-format155949 +Node: Transactions158145 +Ref: #transactions158260 +Node: Dates159274 +Ref: #dates159390 +Node: Simple dates159455 +Ref: #simple-dates159575 +Node: Secondary dates160084 +Ref: #secondary-dates160232 +Node: Posting dates161568 +Ref: #posting-dates161691 +Node: Status163063 +Ref: #status163173 +Node: Code164881 +Ref: #code164993 +Node: Description165225 +Ref: #description165353 +Node: Payee and note165673 +Ref: #payee-and-note165781 +Node: Comments166116 +Ref: #comments166238 +Node: Tags167432 +Ref: #tags-1167543 +Node: Postings168936 +Ref: #postings169060 +Node: Virtual postings170086 +Ref: #virtual-postings170197 +Node: Account names171502 +Ref: #account-names171639 +Node: Amounts172127 +Ref: #amounts172264 +Node: Decimal marks digit group marks173220 +Ref: #decimal-marks-digit-group-marks173397 +Node: Commodity174269 +Ref: #commodity174429 +Node: Commodity directives175381 +Ref: #commodity-directives175555 +Node: Commodity display style176042 +Ref: #commodity-display-style176221 +Node: Rounding178329 +Ref: #rounding178449 +Node: Transaction prices178861 +Ref: #transaction-prices179027 +Node: Lot prices lot dates181458 +Ref: #lot-prices-lot-dates181641 +Node: Balance assertions182129 +Ref: #balance-assertions182307 +Node: Assertions and ordering183340 +Ref: #assertions-and-ordering183522 +Node: Assertions and included files184222 +Ref: #assertions-and-included-files184459 +Node: Assertions and multiple -f options184792 +Ref: #assertions-and-multiple--f-options185042 +Node: Assertions and commodities185174 +Ref: #assertions-and-commodities185400 +Node: Assertions and prices186557 +Ref: #assertions-and-prices186765 +Node: Assertions and subaccounts187205 +Ref: #assertions-and-subaccounts187428 +Node: Assertions and virtual postings187752 +Ref: #assertions-and-virtual-postings187988 +Node: Assertions and precision188130 +Ref: #assertions-and-precision188317 +Node: Balance assignments188584 +Ref: #balance-assignments188754 +Node: Balance assignments and prices189918 +Ref: #balance-assignments-and-prices190084 +Node: Directives190308 +Ref: #directives190471 +Node: Directives and multiple files195825 +Ref: #directives-and-multiple-files196021 +Node: Comment blocks196685 +Ref: #comment-blocks196862 +Node: Including other files197038 +Ref: #including-other-files197212 +Node: Default year198136 +Ref: #default-year198294 +Node: Declaring payees198701 +Ref: #declaring-payees198867 +Node: Declaring commodities199113 +Ref: #declaring-commodities199294 +Node: Commodity error checking201674 +Ref: #commodity-error-checking201824 +Node: Default commodity202081 +Ref: #default-commodity202261 +Node: Declaring market prices203137 +Ref: #declaring-market-prices203326 +Node: Declaring accounts204139 +Ref: #declaring-accounts204319 +Node: Account error checking205521 +Ref: #account-error-checking205687 +Node: Account comments206866 +Ref: #account-comments207050 +Node: Account subdirectives207474 +Ref: #account-subdirectives207659 +Node: Account types207972 +Ref: #account-types208146 +Node: Declaring account types208882 +Ref: #declaring-account-types209061 +Node: Auto-detected account types209711 +Ref: #auto-detected-account-types209952 +Node: Interference from auto-detected account types210912 +Ref: #interference-from-auto-detected-account-types211189 +Node: Old account type syntax211672 +Ref: #old-account-type-syntax211869 +Node: Account display order212169 +Ref: #account-display-order212329 +Node: Rewriting accounts213480 +Ref: #rewriting-accounts213659 +Node: Basic aliases214416 +Ref: #basic-aliases214552 +Node: Regex aliases215296 +Ref: #regex-aliases215458 +Node: Combining aliases216177 +Ref: #combining-aliases216360 +Node: Aliases and multiple files217636 +Ref: #aliases-and-multiple-files217835 +Node: end aliases218414 +Ref: #end-aliases218561 +Node: Default parent account218662 +Ref: #default-parent-account218852 +Node: Periodic transactions219736 +Ref: #periodic-transactions219919 +Node: Periodic rule syntax221836 +Ref: #periodic-rule-syntax222036 +Node: Two spaces between period expression and description!222740 +Ref: #two-spaces-between-period-expression-and-description223053 +Node: Forecasting with periodic transactions223737 +Ref: #forecasting-with-periodic-transactions224036 +Node: Budgeting with periodic transactions226091 +Ref: #budgeting-with-periodic-transactions226324 +Node: Auto postings226733 +Ref: #auto-postings226869 +Node: Auto postings and multiple files229048 +Ref: #auto-postings-and-multiple-files229246 +Node: Auto postings and dates229455 +Ref: #auto-postings-and-dates229723 +Node: Auto postings and transaction balancing / inferred amounts / balance assertions229898 +Ref: #auto-postings-and-transaction-balancing-inferred-amounts-balance-assertions230243 +Node: Auto posting tags230585 +Ref: #auto-posting-tags230794 +Node: CSV FORMAT231430 +Ref: #csv-format231558 +Node: Examples234187 +Ref: #examples234290 +Node: Basic234498 +Ref: #basic234600 +Node: Bank of Ireland235142 +Ref: #bank-of-ireland235279 +Node: Amazon236741 +Ref: #amazon236861 +Node: Paypal238580 +Ref: #paypal238676 +Node: CSV rules246320 +Ref: #csv-rules246438 +Node: skip246771 +Ref: #skip246871 +Node: fields list247246 +Ref: #fields-list247385 +Node: field assignment248888 +Ref: #field-assignment249040 +Node: Field names249968 +Ref: #field-names250108 +Node: date field250488 +Ref: #date-field250608 +Node: date2 field250656 +Ref: #date2-field250799 +Node: status field250855 +Ref: #status-field251000 +Node: code field251049 +Ref: #code-field251196 +Node: description field251241 +Ref: #description-field251403 +Node: comment field251462 +Ref: #comment-field251619 +Node: account field251834 +Ref: #account-field251986 +Node: amount field252561 +Ref: #amount-field252712 +Node: currency field253957 +Ref: #currency-field254112 +Node: balance field254369 +Ref: #balance-field254503 +Node: separator254875 +Ref: #separator255007 +Node: if block255547 +Ref: #if-block255674 +Node: Matching the whole record256075 +Ref: #matching-the-whole-record256252 +Node: Matching individual fields257055 +Ref: #matching-individual-fields257261 +Node: Combining matchers257485 +Ref: #combining-matchers257683 +Node: Rules applied on successful match257996 +Ref: #rules-applied-on-successful-match258189 +Node: if table258843 +Ref: #if-table258964 +Node: end260702 +Ref: #end260816 +Node: date-format261040 +Ref: #date-format261174 +Node: decimal-mark262170 +Ref: #decimal-mark262317 +Node: newest-first262656 +Ref: #newest-first262799 +Node: include263482 +Ref: #include263615 +Node: balance-type264059 +Ref: #balance-type264181 +Node: Tips264881 +Ref: #tips264972 +Node: Rapid feedback265271 +Ref: #rapid-feedback265390 +Node: Valid CSV265850 +Ref: #valid-csv265982 +Node: File Extension266174 +Ref: #file-extension266328 +Node: Reading multiple CSV files266757 +Ref: #reading-multiple-csv-files266944 +Node: Valid transactions267185 +Ref: #valid-transactions267365 +Node: Deduplicating importing267993 +Ref: #deduplicating-importing268174 +Node: Setting amounts269207 +Ref: #setting-amounts269364 +Node: Amount signs271805 +Ref: #amount-signs271959 +Node: Setting currency/commodity272646 +Ref: #setting-currencycommodity272834 +Node: Amount decimal places274008 +Ref: #amount-decimal-places274200 +Node: Referencing other fields274512 +Ref: #referencing-other-fields274711 +Node: How CSV rules are evaluated275608 +Ref: #how-csv-rules-are-evaluated275783 +Node: TIMECLOCK FORMAT277234 +Ref: #timeclock-format277374 +Node: TIMEDOT FORMAT279435 +Ref: #timedot-format279573 +Node: COMMON TASKS284135 +Ref: #common-tasks284264 +Node: Getting help284671 +Ref: #getting-help284805 +Node: Constructing command lines285358 +Ref: #constructing-command-lines285552 +Node: Starting a journal file286249 +Ref: #starting-a-journal-file286449 +Node: Setting opening balances287637 +Ref: #setting-opening-balances287835 +Node: Recording transactions290976 +Ref: #recording-transactions291158 +Node: Reconciling291714 +Ref: #reconciling291859 +Node: Reporting294116 +Ref: #reporting294258 +Node: Migrating to a new file298257 +Ref: #migrating-to-a-new-file298407 +Node: LIMITATIONS298706 +Ref: #limitations298834 +Node: TROUBLESHOOTING299577 +Ref: #troubleshooting299692  End Tag Table diff --git a/embeddedfiles/hledger.txt b/embeddedfiles/hledger.txt --- a/embeddedfiles/hledger.txt +++ b/embeddedfiles/hledger.txt @@ -6,7050 +6,7070 @@ NAME This is the command-line interface (CLI) for the hledger accounting tool. Here we also describe hledger's concepts and file formats. This - manual is for hledger 1.22.1. - -SYNOPSIS - hledger - - hledger [-f FILE] COMMAND [OPTIONS] [ARGS] - - hledger [-f FILE] ADDONCMD -- [OPTIONS] [ARGS] - -DESCRIPTION - hledger is a reliable, cross-platform set of programs for tracking - money, time, or any other commodity, using double-entry accounting and - a simple, editable file format. hledger is inspired by and largely - compatible with ledger(1). - - The basic function of the hledger CLI is to read a plain text file - describing financial transactions (in accounting terms, a general jour- - nal) and print useful reports on standard output, or export them as - CSV. hledger can also read some other file formats such as CSV files, - translating them to journal format. Additionally, hledger lists other - hledger-* executables found in the user's $PATH and can invoke them as - subcommands. - - hledger reads data from one or more files in hledger journal, time- - clock, timedot, or CSV format specified with -f, or $LEDGER_FILE, or - $HOME/.hledger.journal (on windows, perhaps - C:/Users/USER/.hledger.journal). If using $LEDGER_FILE, note this must - be a real environment variable, not a shell variable. You can specify - standard input with -f-. - - Transactions are dated movements of money between two (or more) named - accounts, and are recorded with journal entries like this: - - 2015/10/16 bought food - expenses:food $10 - assets:cash - - Most users use a text editor to edit the journal, usually with an edi- - tor mode such as ledger-mode for added convenience. hledger's interac- - tive add command is another way to record new transactions. hledger - never changes existing transactions. - - To get started, you can either save some entries like the above in - ~/.hledger.journal, or run hledger add and follow the prompts. Then - try some commands like hledger print or hledger balance. Run hledger - with no arguments for a list of commands. - -OPTIONS - General options - To see general usage help, including general options which are sup- - ported by most hledger commands, run hledger -h. - - General help options: - - -h --help - show general or COMMAND help - - --man show general or COMMAND user manual with man - - --info show general or COMMAND user manual with info - - --version - show general or ADDONCMD version - - --debug[=N] - show debug output (levels 1-9, default: 1) - - General input options: - - -f FILE --file=FILE - use a different input file. For stdin, use - (default: - $LEDGER_FILE or $HOME/.hledger.journal) - - --rules-file=RULESFILE - Conversion rules file to use when reading CSV (default: - FILE.rules) - - --separator=CHAR - Field separator to expect when reading CSV (default: ',') - - --alias=OLD=NEW - rename accounts named OLD to NEW - - --anon anonymize accounts and payees - - --pivot FIELDNAME - use some other field or tag for the account name - - -I --ignore-assertions - disable balance assertion checks (note: does not disable balance - assignments) - - -s --strict - do extra error checking (check that all posted accounts are - declared) - - General reporting options: - - -b --begin=DATE - include postings/txns on or after this date (will be adjusted to - preceding subperiod start when using a report interval) - - -e --end=DATE - include postings/txns before this date (will be adjusted to fol- - lowing subperiod end when using a report interval) - - -D --daily - multiperiod/multicolumn report by day - - -W --weekly - multiperiod/multicolumn report by week - - -M --monthly - multiperiod/multicolumn report by month - - -Q --quarterly - multiperiod/multicolumn report by quarter - - -Y --yearly - multiperiod/multicolumn report by year - - -p --period=PERIODEXP - set start date, end date, and/or reporting interval all at once - using period expressions syntax - - --date2 - match the secondary date instead (see command help for other - effects) - - -U --unmarked - include only unmarked postings/txns (can combine with -P or -C) - - -P --pending - include only pending postings/txns - - -C --cleared - include only cleared postings/txns - - -R --real - include only non-virtual postings - - -NUM --depth=NUM - hide/aggregate accounts or postings more than NUM levels deep - - -E --empty - show items with zero amount, normally hidden (and vice-versa in - hledger-ui/hledger-web) - - -B --cost - convert amounts to their cost/selling amount at transaction time - - -V --market - convert amounts to their market value in default valuation com- - modities - - -X --exchange=COMM - convert amounts to their market value in commodity COMM - - --value - convert amounts to cost or market value, more flexibly than - -B/-V/-X - - --infer-market-prices - use transaction prices (recorded with @ or @@) as additional - market prices, as if they were P directives - - --auto apply automated posting rules to modify transactions. - - --forecast - generate future transactions from periodic transaction rules, - for the next 6 months or till report end date. In hledger-ui, - also make ordinary future transactions visible. - - --color=WHEN (or --colour=WHEN) - Should color-supporting commands use ANSI color codes in text - output. 'auto' (default): whenever stdout seems to be a color- - supporting terminal. 'always' or 'yes': always, useful eg when - piping output into 'less -R'. 'never' or 'no': never. A - NO_COLOR environment variable overrides this. - - When a reporting option appears more than once in the command line, the - last one takes precedence. - - Some reporting options can also be written as query arguments. - - Command options - To see options for a particular command, including command-specific - options, run: hledger COMMAND -h. - - Command-specific options must be written after the command name, eg: - hledger print -x. - - Additionally, if the command is an add-on, you may need to put its - options after a double-hyphen, eg: hledger ui -- --watch. Or, you can - run the add-on executable directly: hledger-ui --watch. - - Command arguments - Most hledger commands accept arguments after the command name, which - are often a query, filtering the data in some way. - - You can save a set of command line options/arguments in a file, and - then reuse them by writing @FILENAME as a command line argument. Eg: - hledger bal @foo.args. (To prevent this, eg if you have an argument - that begins with a literal @, precede it with --, eg: hledger bal -- - @ARG). - - Inside the argument file, each line should contain just one option or - argument. Avoid the use of spaces, except inside quotes (or you'll see - a confusing error). Between a flag and its argument, use = (or noth- - ing). Bad: - - assets depth:2 - -X USD - - Good: - - assets - depth:2 - -X=USD - - For special characters (see below), use one less level of quoting than - you would at the command prompt. Bad: - - -X"$" - - Good: - - -X$ - - See also: Save frequently used options. - - Special characters - Single escaping (shell metacharacters) - In shell command lines, characters significant to your shell - such as - spaces, <, >, (, ), |, $ and \ - should be "shell-escaped" if you want - hledger to see them. This is done by enclosing them in single or dou- - ble quotes, or by writing a backslash before them. Eg to match an - account name containing a space: - - $ hledger register 'credit card' - - or: - - $ hledger register credit\ card - - Windows users should keep in mind that cmd treats single quote as a - regular character, so you should be using double quotes exclusively. - PowerShell treats both single and double quotes as quotes. - - Double escaping (regular expression metacharacters) - Characters significant in regular expressions (described below) - such - as ., ^, $, [, ], (, ), |, and \ - may need to be "regex-escaped" if - you don't want them to be interpreted by hledger's regular expression - engine. This is done by writing backslashes before them, but since - backslash is typically also a shell metacharacter, both shell-escaping - and regex-escaping will be needed. Eg to match a literal $ sign while - using the bash shell: - - $ hledger balance cur:'\$' - - or: - - $ hledger balance cur:\\$ - - Triple escaping (for add-on commands) - When you use hledger to run an external add-on command (described - below), one level of shell-escaping is lost from any options or argu- - ments intended for by the add-on command, so those need an extra level - of shell-escaping. Eg to match a literal $ sign while using the bash - shell and running an add-on command (ui): - - $ hledger ui cur:'\\$' - - or: - - $ hledger ui cur:\\\\$ - - If you wondered why four backslashes, perhaps this helps: - - - unescaped: $ - escaped: \$ - double-escaped: \\$ - triple-escaped: \\\\$ - - Or, you can avoid the extra escaping by running the add-on executable - directly: - - $ hledger-ui cur:\\$ - - Less escaping - Options and arguments are sometimes used in places other than the shell - command line, where shell-escaping is not needed, so there you should - use one less level of escaping. Those places include: - - o an @argumentfile - - o hledger-ui's filter field - - o hledger-web's search form - - o GHCI's prompt (used by developers). - - Unicode characters - hledger is expected to handle non-ascii characters correctly: - - o they should be parsed correctly in input files and on the command - line, by all hledger tools (add, iadd, hledger-web's search/add/edit - forms, etc.) - - o they should be displayed correctly by all hledger tools, and on- - screen alignment should be preserved. - - This requires a well-configured environment. Here are some tips: - - o A system locale must be configured, and it must be one that can - decode the characters being used. In bash, you can set a locale like - this: export LANG=en_US.UTF-8. There are some more details in Trou- - bleshooting. This step is essential - without it, hledger will quit - on encountering a non-ascii character (as with all GHC-compiled pro- - grams). - - o your terminal software (eg Terminal.app, iTerm, CMD.exe, xterm..) - must support unicode - - o the terminal must be using a font which includes the required unicode - glyphs - - o the terminal should be configured to display wide characters as dou- - ble width (for report alignment) - - o on Windows, for best results you should run hledger in the same kind - of environment in which it was built. Eg hledger built in the stan- - dard CMD.EXE environment (like the binaries on our download page) - might show display problems when run in a cygwin or msys terminal, - and vice versa. (See eg #961). - - Regular expressions - hledger uses regular expressions in a number of places: - - o query terms, on the command line and in the hledger-web search form: - REGEX, desc:REGEX, cur:REGEX, tag:...=REGEX - - o CSV rules conditional blocks: if REGEX ... - - o account alias directives and options: alias /REGEX/ = REPLACEMENT, - --alias /REGEX/=REPLACEMENT - - hledger's regular expressions come from the regex-tdfa library. If - they're not doing what you expect, it's important to know exactly what - they support: - - 1. they are case insensitive - - 2. they are infix matching (they do not need to match the entire thing - being matched) - - 3. they are POSIX ERE (extended regular expressions) - - 4. they also support GNU word boundaries (\b, \B, \<, \>) - - 5. they do not support backreferences; if you write \1, it will match - the digit 1. Except when doing text replacement, eg in account - aliases, where backreferences can be used in the replacement string - to reference capturing groups in the search regexp. - - 6. they do not support mode modifiers ((?s)), character classes (\w, - \d), or anything else not mentioned above. - - Some things to note: - - o In the alias directive and --alias option, regular expressions must - be enclosed in forward slashes (/REGEX/). Elsewhere in hledger, - these are not required. - - o In queries, to match a regular expression metacharacter like $ as a - literal character, prepend a backslash. Eg to search for amounts - with the dollar sign in hledger-web, write cur:\$. - - o On the command line, some metacharacters like $ have a special mean- - ing to the shell and so must be escaped at least once more. See Spe- - cial characters. - -ENVIRONMENT - LEDGER_FILE The journal file path when not specified with -f. Default: - ~/.hledger.journal (on windows, perhaps C:/Users/USER/.hledger.jour- - nal). - - A typical value is ~/DIR/YYYY.journal, where DIR is a version-con- - trolled finance directory and YYYY is the current year. Or ~/DIR/cur- - rent.journal, where current.journal is a symbolic link to YYYY.journal. - - On Mac computers, you can set this and other environment variables in a - more thorough way that also affects applications started from the GUI - (say, an Emacs dock icon). Eg on MacOS Catalina I have a - ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist file containing - - { - "LEDGER_FILE" : "~/finance/current.journal" - } - - To see the effect you may need to killall Dock, or reboot. - - COLUMNS The screen width used by the register command. Default: the - full terminal width. - - NO_COLOR If this variable exists with any value, hledger will not use - ANSI color codes in terminal output. This overrides the - --color/--colour option. - -DATA FILES - hledger reads transactions from one or more data files. The default - data file is $HOME/.hledger.journal (or on Windows, something like - C:/Users/USER/.hledger.journal). - - You can override this with the $LEDGER_FILE environment variable: - - $ setenv LEDGER_FILE ~/finance/2016.journal - $ hledger stats - - or with one or more -f/--file options: - - $ hledger -f /some/file -f another_file stats - - The file name - means standard input: - - $ cat some.journal | hledger -f- - - Data formats - Usually the data file is in hledger's journal format, but it can be in - any of the supported file formats, which currently are: - - - Reader: Reads: Used for file exten- - sions: - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- - journal hledger journal files and some Ledger .journal .j .hledger - journals, for transactions .ledger - time- timeclock files, for precise time log- .timeclock - clock ging - timedot timedot files, for approximate time .timedot - logging - csv comma/semicolon/tab/other-separated .csv .ssv .tsv - values, for data import - - These formats are described in their own sections, below. - - hledger detects the format automatically based on the file extensions - shown above. If it can't recognise the file extension, it assumes - journal format. So for non-journal files, it's important to use a - recognised file extension, so as to either read successfully or to show - relevant error messages. - - You can also force a specific reader/format by prefixing the file path - with the format and a colon. Eg, to read a .dat file as csv format: - - $ hledger -f csv:/some/csv-file.dat stats - - Or to read stdin (-) as timeclock format: - - $ echo 'i 2009/13/1 08:00:00' | hledger print -ftimeclock:- - - Multiple files - You can specify multiple -f options, to read multiple files as one big - journal. There are some limitations with this: - - o most directives do not affect sibling files - - o balance assertions will not see any account balances from previous - files - - If you need either of those things, you can - - o use a single parent file which includes the others - - o or concatenate the files into one before reading, eg: cat a.journal - b.journal | hledger -f- CMD. - - Strict mode - hledger checks input files for valid data. By default, the most impor- - tant errors are detected, while still accepting easy journal files - without a lot of declarations: - - o Are the input files parseable, with valid syntax ? - - o Are all transactions balanced ? - - o Do all balance assertions pass ? - - With the -s/--strict flag, additional checks are performed: - - o Are all accounts posted to, declared with an account directive ? - (Account error checking) - - o Are all commodities declared with a commodity directive ? (Commodity - error checking) - - o Are all commodity conversions declared explicitly ? - - You can also use the check command to run these and some additional - checks. - -TIME PERIODS - Smart dates - hledger's user interfaces accept a flexible "smart date" syntax. Smart - dates allow some english words, can be relative to today's date, and - can have less-significant date parts omitted (defaulting to 1). - - Examples: - - - 2004/10/1, 2004-01-01, exact date, several separators allowed. Year - 2004.9.1 is 4+ digits, month is 1-12, day is 1-31 - 2004 start of year - 2004/10 start of month - 10/1 month and day in current year - 21 day in current month - october, oct start of month in current year - yesterday, today, tomor- -1, 0, 1 days from today - row - last/this/next -1, 0, 1 periods from the current period - day/week/month/quar- - ter/year - 20181201 8 digit YYYYMMDD with valid year month and day - 201812 6 digit YYYYMM with valid year and month - - Counterexamples - malformed digit sequences might give surprising - results: - - - 201813 6 digits with an invalid month is parsed as start of - 6-digit year - 20181301 8 digits with an invalid month is parsed as start of - 8-digit year - 20181232 8 digits with an invalid day gives an error - 201801012 9+ digits beginning with a valid YYYYMMDD gives an error - - - Report start & end date - By default, most hledger reports will show the full span of time repre- - sented by the journal data. The report start date will be the earliest - transaction or posting date, and the report end date will be the latest - transaction, posting, or market price date. - - Often you will want to see a shorter time span, such as the current - month. You can specify a start and/or end date using -b/--begin, - -e/--end, -p/--period or a date: query (described below). All of these - accept the smart date syntax. - - Some notes: - - o As in Ledger, end dates are exclusive, so you need to write the date - after the last day you want to include. - - o As noted in reporting options: among start/end dates specified with - options, the last (i.e. right-most) option takes precedence. - - o The effective report start and end dates are the intersection of the - start/end dates from options and that from date: queries. That is, - date:2019-01 date:2019 -p'2000 to 2030' yields January 2019, the - smallest common time span. - - o A report interval (see below) will adjust start/end dates, when - needed, so that they fall on subperiod boundaries. - - Examples: - - - -b 2016/3/17 begin on St. Patrick's day 2016 - -e 12/1 end at the start of december 1st of the current year - (11/30 will be the last date included) - -b thismonth all transactions on or after the 1st of the current month - -p thismonth all transactions in the current month - date:2016/3/17.. the above written as queries instead (.. can also be - replaced with -) - date:..12/1 - date:thismonth.. - date:thismonth - - Report intervals - A report interval can be specified so that commands like register, bal- - ance and activity become multi-period, showing each subperiod as a sep- - arate row or column. - - The following "standard" report intervals can be enabled by using their - corresponding flag: - - -D/--daily, -W/--weekly, -M/--monthly, -Q/--quarterly, -Y/--yearly. - - These standard intervals always start on natural interval boundaries: - eg --weekly starts on mondays, --monthly starts on the first of the - month, --yearly always starts on January 1st, etc. - - Certain more complex intervals, and more flexible boundary dates, can - be specified by -p/--period. These are described in period expres- - sions, below. - - Report intervals can only be specified by the flags above, and not by - query arguments, currently. - - Report intervals have another effect: multi-period reports are always - expanded to fill a whole number of subperiods. So if you use a report - interval (other than --daily), and you have specified a start or end - date, you may notice those dates being overridden (ie, the report - starts earlier than your requested start date, or ends later than your - requested end date). This is done to ensure "full" first and last sub- - periods, so that all subperiods' numbers are comparable. - - Period expressions - The -p/--period option accepts period expressions, a shorthand way of - expressing a start date, end date, and/or report interval all at once. - - Here's a basic period expression specifying the first quarter of 2009. - Note, hledger always treats start dates as inclusive and end dates as - exclusive: - - -p "from 2009/1/1 to 2009/4/1" - - Keywords like "from" and "to" are optional, and so are the spaces, as - long as you don't run two dates together. "to" can also be written as - ".." or "-". These are equivalent to the above: - - - -p "2009/1/1 2009/4/1" - -p2009/1/1to2009/4/1 - -p2009/1/1..2009/4/1 - - Dates are smart dates, so if the current year is 2009, the above can - also be written as: - - - -p "1/1 4/1" - - -p "january-apr" - -p "this year to 4/1" - - If you specify only one date, the missing start or end date will be the - earliest or latest transaction in your journal: - - - -p "from 2009/1/1" everything after january - 1, 2009 - -p "from 2009/1" the same - -p "from 2009" the same - -p "to 2009" everything before january - 1, 2009 - - A single date with no "from" or "to" defines both the start and end - date like so: - - - -p "2009" the year 2009; equivalent - to "2009/1/1 to 2010/1/1" - -p "2009/1" the month of jan; equiva- - lent to "2009/1/1 to - 2009/2/1" - -p "2009/1/1" just that day; equivalent - to "2009/1/1 to 2009/1/2" - - Or you can specify a single quarter like so: - - - -p "2009Q1" first quarter of 2009, - equivalent to "2009/1/1 to - 2009/4/1" - -p "q4" fourth quarter of the cur- - rent year - - The argument of -p can also begin with, or be, a report interval - expression. The basic report intervals are daily, weekly, monthly, - quarterly, or yearly, which have the same effect as the -D,-W,-M,-Q, or - -Y flags. Between report interval and start/end dates (if any), the - word in is optional. Examples: - - - -p "weekly from 2009/1/1 to 2009/4/1" - -p "monthly in 2008" - -p "quarterly" - - Note that weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly intervals will always - start on the first day on week, month, quarter or year accordingly, and - will end on the last day of same period, even if associated period - expression specifies different explicit start and end date. - - For example: - - - -p "weekly from 2009/1/1 starts on 2008/12/29, closest preceding Mon- - to 2009/4/1" day - -p "monthly in starts on 2018/11/01 - 2008/11/25" - -p "quarterly from starts on 2009/04/01, ends on 2009/06/30, - 2009-05-05 to 2009-06-01" which are first and last days of Q2 2009 - -p "yearly from starts on 2009/01/01, first day of 2009 - 2009-12-29" - - The following more complex report intervals are also supported: - biweekly, fortnightly, bimonthly, every day|week|month|quarter|year, - every N days|weeks|months|quarters|years. - - All of these will start on the first day of the requested period and - end on the last one, as described above. - - Examples: - - - -p "bimonthly from 2008" periods will have boundaries on 2008/01/01, - 2008/03/01, ... - -p "every 2 weeks" starts on closest preceding Monday - -p "every 5 month from periods will have boundaries on 2009/03/01, - 2009/03" 2009/08/01, ... - - If you want intervals that start on arbitrary day of your choosing and - span a week, month or year, you need to use any of the following: - - every Nth day of week, every WEEKDAYNAME (eg - mon|tue|wed|thu|fri|sat|sun), every Nth day [of month], every Nth WEEK- - DAYNAME [of month], every MM/DD [of year], every Nth MMM [of year], - every MMM Nth [of year]. - - Examples: - - - -p "every 2nd day of periods will go from Tue to Tue - week" - -p "every Tue" same - -p "every 15th day" period boundaries will be on 15th of each - month - -p "every 2nd Monday" period boundaries will be on second Monday of - each month - -p "every 11/05" yearly periods with boundaries on 5th of Nov - -p "every 5th Nov" same - -p "every Nov 5th" same - - Show historical balances at end of 15th each month (N is exclusive end - date): - - hledger balance -H -p "every 16th day" - - Group postings from start of wednesday to end of next tuesday (N is - start date and exclusive end date): - - hledger register checking -p "every 3rd day of week" - -DEPTH - With the --depth N option (short form: -N), commands like account, bal- - ance and register will show only the uppermost accounts in the account - tree, down to level N. Use this when you want a summary with less - detail. This flag has the same effect as a depth: query argument (so - -2, --depth=2 or depth:2 are equivalent). - -QUERIES - One of hledger's strengths is being able to quickly report on a precise - subset of your data. Most hledger commands accept optional query argu- - ments to restrict their scope. The syntax is as follows: - - o Zero or more space-separated query terms. These are most often - account name substrings: - - utilities food:groceries - - o Terms with spaces or other special characters should be enclosed in - quotes: - - "personal care" - - o Regular expressions are also supported: - - "^expenses\b" "accounts (payable|receivable)" - - o Add a query type prefix to match other parts of the data: - - date:202012- desc:amazon cur:USD amt:">100" status: - - o Add a not: prefix to negate a term: - - not:cur:USD - - Query types - Here are the types of query term available. Remember these can also be - prefixed with not: to convert them into a negative match. - - acct:REGEX, REGEX - Match account names containing this (case insensitive) regular expres- - sion. This is the default query type when there is no prefix, and reg- - ular expression syntax is typically not needed, so usually we just - write an account name substring, like expenses or food. - - amt:N, amt:N, amt:>=N - Match postings with a single-commodity amount equal to, less than, or - greater than N. (Postings with multi-commodity amounts are not tested - and will always match.) The comparison has two modes: if N is preceded - by a + or - sign (or is 0), the two signed numbers are compared. Oth- - erwise, the absolute magnitudes are compared, ignoring sign. - - code:REGEX - Match by transaction code (eg check number). - - cur:REGEX - Match postings or transactions including any amounts whose cur- - rency/commodity symbol is fully matched by REGEX. (For a partial - match, use .*REGEX.*). Note, to match special characters which are - regex-significant, you need to escape them with \. And for characters - which are significant to your shell you may need one more level of - escaping. So eg to match the dollar sign: - hledger print cur:\\$. - - desc:REGEX - Match transaction descriptions. - - date:PERIODEXPR - Match dates (or with the --date2 flag, secondary dates) within the - specified period. PERIODEXPR is a period expression with no report - interval. Examples: - date:2016, date:thismonth, date:2/1-2/15, date:2021-07-27..nextquarter. - - date2:PERIODEXPR - Match secondary dates within the specified period (independent of the - --date2 flag). - - depth:N - Match (or display, depending on command) accounts at or above this - depth. - - note:REGEX - Match transaction notes (the part of the description right of |, or the - whole description if there's no |). - - payee:REGEX - Match transaction payee/payer names (the part of the description left - of |, or the whole description if there's no |). - - real:, real:0 - Match real or virtual postings respectively. - - status:, status:!, status:* - Match unmarked, pending, or cleared transactions respectively. - - tag:REGEX[=REGEX] - Match by tag name, and optionally also by tag value. (To match only by - value, use tag:.=REGEX.) Note that postings also inherit tags from - their transaction, and transactions also acquire tags from their post- - ings, when querying. - - (inacct:ACCTNAME - A special query term used automatically in hledger-web only: tells - hledger-web to show the transaction register for an account.) - - Combining query terms - Most commands select things which match: - - o any of the description terms AND - - o any of the account terms AND - - o any of the status terms AND - - o all the other terms. - - while the print command shows transactions which: - - o match any of the description terms AND - - o have any postings matching any of the positive account terms AND - - o have no postings matching any of the negative account terms AND - - o match all the other terms. - - You can do more powerful queries (such as AND-ing two like terms) by - running a first query with print, and piping the result into a second - hledger command. Eg: how much of food expenses was paid with cash ? - - $ hledger print assets:cash | hledger f- -I balance expenses:food - - If you are interested in full boolean expressions for queries, see - #203. - - Queries and command options - Some queries can also be expressed as command-line options: depth:2 is - equivalent to --depth 2, date:2020 is equivalent to -p 2020, etc. When - you mix command options and query arguments, generally the resulting - query is their intersection. - - Queries and account aliases - When account names are rewritten with --alias or alias, acct: will - match either the old or the new account name. - - Queries and valuation - When amounts are converted to other commodities in cost or value - reports, cur: and amt: match the old commodity symbol and the old - amount quantity, not the new ones (except in hledger 1.22.0 where it's - reversed, see #1625). - - Querying with account aliases - When account names are rewritten with --alias or alias, note that acct: - will match either the old or the new account name. - - Querying with cost or value - When amounts are converted to other commodities in cost or value - reports, note that cur: matches the new commodity symbol, and not the - old one, and amt: matches the new quantity, and not the old one. Note: - this changed in hledger 1.22, previously it was the reverse, see the - discussion at #1625. - -COSTING - The -B/--cost flag converts amounts to their cost or sale amount at - transaction time, if they have a transaction price specified. If this - flag is supplied, hledger will perform cost conversion first, and will - apply any market price valuations (if requested) afterwards. - -VALUATION - Instead of reporting amounts in their original commodity, hledger can - convert them to cost/sale amount (using the conversion rate recorded in - the transaction), and/or to market value (using some market price on a - certain date). This is controlled by the --value=TYPE[,COMMODITY] - option, which will be described below. We also provide the simpler -V - and -X COMMODITY options, and often one of these is all you need: - - -V: Value - The -V/--market flag converts amounts to market value in their default - valuation commodity, using the market prices in effect on the valuation - date(s), if any. More on these in a minute. - - -X: Value in specified commodity - The -X/--exchange=COMM option is like -V, except you tell it which cur- - rency you want to convert to, and it tries to convert everything to - that. - - Valuation date - Since market prices can change from day to day, market value reports - have a valuation date (or more than one), which determines which market - prices will be used. - - For single period reports, if an explicit report end date is specified, - that will be used as the valuation date; otherwise the valuation date - is the journal's end date. - - For multiperiod reports, each column/period is valued on the last day - of the period, by default. - - Market prices - To convert a commodity A to its market value in another commodity B, - hledger looks for a suitable market price (exchange rate) as follows, - in this order of preference : - - 1. A declared market price or inferred market price: A's latest market - price in B on or before the valuation date as declared by a P direc- - tive, or (with the --infer-market-price flag) inferred from transac- - tion prices. - - 2. A reverse market price: the inverse of a declared or inferred market - price from B to A. - - 3. A forward chain of market prices: a synthetic price formed by com- - bining the shortest chain of "forward" (only 1 above) market prices, - leading from A to B. - - 4. Any chain of market prices: a chain of any market prices, including - both forward and reverse prices (1 and 2 above), leading from A to - B. - - There is a limit to the length of these price chains; if hledger - reaches that length without finding a complete chain or exhausting all - possibilities, it will give up (with a "gave up" message visible in - --debug=2 output). That limit is currently 1000. - - Amounts for which no suitable market price can be found, are not con- - verted. - - --infer-market-price: market prices from transactions - Normally, market value in hledger is fully controlled by, and requires, - P directives in your journal. Since adding and updating those can be a - chore, and since transactions usually take place at close to market - value, why not use the recorded transaction prices as additional market - prices (as Ledger does) ? We could produce value reports without need- - ing P directives at all. - - Adding the --infer-market-price flag to -V, -X or --value enables this. - So for example, hledger bs -V --infer-market-price will get market - prices both from P directives and from transactions. (And if both - occur on the same day, the P directive takes precedence). - - There is a downside: value reports can sometimes be affected in confus- - ing/undesired ways by your journal entries. If this happens to you, - read all of this Valuation section carefully, and try adding --debug or - --debug=2 to troubleshoot. - - --infer-market-price can infer market prices from: - - o multicommodity transactions with explicit prices (@/@@) - - o multicommodity transactions with implicit prices (no @, two commodi- - ties, unbalanced). (With these, the order of postings matters. - hledger print -x can be useful for troubleshooting.) - - o but not, currently, from "more correct" multicommodity transactions - (no @, multiple commodities, balanced). - - Valuation commodity - When you specify a valuation commodity (-X COMM or --value TYPE,COMM): - hledger will convert all amounts to COMM, wherever it can find a suit- - able market price (including by reversing or chaining prices). - - When you leave the valuation commodity unspecified (-V or --value - TYPE): - For each commodity A, hledger picks a default valuation commodity as - follows, in this order of preference: - - 1. The price commodity from the latest P-declared market price for A on - or before valuation date. - - 2. The price commodity from the latest P-declared market price for A on - any date. (Allows conversion to proceed when there are inferred - prices before the valuation date.) - - 3. If there are no P directives at all (any commodity or date) and the - --infer-market-price flag is used: the price commodity from the lat- - est transaction-inferred price for A on or before valuation date. - - This means: - - o If you have P directives, they determine which commodities -V will - convert, and to what. - - o If you have no P directives, and use the --infer-market-price flag, - transaction prices determine it. - - Amounts for which no valuation commodity can be found are not con- - verted. - - Simple valuation examples - Here are some quick examples of -V: - - ; one euro is worth this many dollars from nov 1 - P 2016/11/01 EUR $1.10 - - ; purchase some euros on nov 3 - 2016/11/3 - assets:euros EUR100 - assets:checking - - ; the euro is worth fewer dollars by dec 21 - P 2016/12/21 EUR $1.03 - - How many euros do I have ? - - $ hledger -f t.j bal -N euros - EUR100 assets:euros - - What are they worth at end of nov 3 ? - - $ hledger -f t.j bal -N euros -V -e 2016/11/4 - $110.00 assets:euros - - What are they worth after 2016/12/21 ? (no report end date specified, - defaults to today) - - $ hledger -f t.j bal -N euros -V - $103.00 assets:euros - - --value: Flexible valuation - -V and -X are special cases of the more general --value option: - - --value=TYPE[,COMM] TYPE is then, end, now or YYYY-MM-DD. - COMM is an optional commodity symbol. - Shows amounts converted to: - - default valuation commodity (or COMM) using market prices at posting dates - - default valuation commodity (or COMM) using market prices at period end(s) - - default valuation commodity (or COMM) using current market prices - - default valuation commodity (or COMM) using market prices at some date - - The TYPE part selects cost or value and valuation date: - - --value=then - Convert amounts to their value in the default valuation commod- - ity, using market prices on each posting's date. - - --value=end - Convert amounts to their value in the default valuation commod- - ity, using market prices on the last day of the report period - (or if unspecified, the journal's end date); or in multiperiod - reports, market prices on the last day of each subperiod. - - --value=now - Convert amounts to their value in the default valuation commod- - ity using current market prices (as of when report is gener- - ated). - - --value=YYYY-MM-DD - Convert amounts to their value in the default valuation commod- - ity using market prices on this date. - - To select a different valuation commodity, add the optional ,COMM part: - a comma, then the target commodity's symbol. Eg: --value=now,EUR. - hledger will do its best to convert amounts to this commodity, deducing - market prices as described above. - - More valuation examples - Here are some examples showing the effect of --value, as seen with - print: - - P 2000-01-01 A 1 B - P 2000-02-01 A 2 B - P 2000-03-01 A 3 B - P 2000-04-01 A 4 B - - 2000-01-01 - (a) 1 A @ 5 B - - 2000-02-01 - (a) 1 A @ 6 B - - 2000-03-01 - (a) 1 A @ 7 B - - Show the cost of each posting: - - $ hledger -f- print --cost - 2000-01-01 - (a) 5 B - - 2000-02-01 - (a) 6 B - - 2000-03-01 - (a) 7 B - - Show the value as of the last day of the report period (2000-02-29): - - $ hledger -f- print --value=end date:2000/01-2000/03 - 2000-01-01 - (a) 2 B - - 2000-02-01 - (a) 2 B - - With no report period specified, that shows the value as of the last - day of the journal (2000-03-01): - - $ hledger -f- print --value=end - 2000-01-01 - (a) 3 B - - 2000-02-01 - (a) 3 B - - 2000-03-01 - (a) 3 B - - Show the current value (the 2000-04-01 price is still in effect today): - - $ hledger -f- print --value=now - 2000-01-01 - (a) 4 B - - 2000-02-01 - (a) 4 B - - 2000-03-01 - (a) 4 B - - Show the value on 2000/01/15: - - $ hledger -f- print --value=2000-01-15 - 2000-01-01 - (a) 1 B - - 2000-02-01 - (a) 1 B - - 2000-03-01 - (a) 1 B - - You may need to explicitly set a commodity's display style, when - reverse prices are used. Eg this output might be surprising: - - P 2000-01-01 A 2B - - 2000-01-01 - a 1B - b - - $ hledger print -x -X A - 2000-01-01 - a 0 - b 0 - - Explanation: because there's no amount or commodity directive specify- - ing a display style for A, 0.5A gets the default style, which shows no - decimal digits. Because the displayed amount looks like zero, the com- - modity symbol and minus sign are not displayed either. Adding a com- - modity directive sets a more useful display style for A: - - P 2000-01-01 A 2B - commodity 0.00A - - 2000-01-01 - a 1B - b - - $ hledger print -X A - 2000-01-01 - a 0.50A - b -0.50A - - Effect of valuation on reports - Here is a reference for how valuation is supposed to affect each part - of hledger's reports (and a glossary). (It's wide, you'll have to - scroll sideways.) It may be useful when troubleshooting. If you find - problems, please report them, ideally with a reproducible example. - Related: #329, #1083. - - - Report -B, --cost -V, -X --value=then --value=end --value=DATE, - type --value=now - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - print - posting cost value at value at posting value at value at - amounts report end date report or DATE/today - or today journal end - balance unchanged unchanged unchanged unchanged unchanged - asser- - tions/assign- - ments - - register - starting bal- cost value at day valued at day value at day value at - ance (-H) before each historical before DATE/today - report or posting was made report or - journal journal - start start - posting cost value at value at posting value at value at - amounts report end date report or DATE/today - or today journal end - summary post- summarised value at sum of postings value at value at - ing amounts cost period ends in interval, val- period ends DATE/today - with report ued at interval - interval start - running sum/average sum/average sum/average of sum/average sum/average - total/average of displayed of displayed displayed values of displayed of displayed - values values values values - - - - balance (bs, - bse, cf, is) - balance sums of value at value at posting value at value at - changes costs report end date report or DATE/today of - or today of journal end sums of post- - sums of of sums of ings - postings postings - budget like balance like balance like balance like bal- like balance - amounts changes changes changes ances changes - (--budget) - grand total sum of dis- sum of dis- sum of displayed sum of dis- sum of dis- - played val- played val- valued played val- played values - ues ues ues - - balance (bs, - bse, cf, is) - with report - interval - starting bal- sums of value at sums of values of value at sums of post- - ances (-H) costs of report start postings before report start ings before - postings of sums of report start at of sums of report start - before all postings respective post- all postings - report start before ing dates before - report start report start - balance sums of same as sums of values of balance value at - changes (bal, costs of --value=end postings in change in DATE/today of - is, bs postings in period at respec- each period, sums of post- - --change, cf period tive posting valued at ings - --change) dates period ends - end balances sums of same as sums of values of period end value at - (bal -H, is costs of --value=end postings from balances, DATE/today of - --H, bs, cf) postings before period valued at sums of post- - from before start to period period ends ings - report start end at respective - to period posting dates - end - budget like balance like balance like balance like bal- like balance - amounts changes/end changes/end changes/end bal- ances changes/end - (--budget) balances balances ances balances - row totals, sums, aver- sums, aver- sums, averages of sums, aver- sums, aver- - row averages ages of dis- ages of dis- displayed values ages of dis- ages of dis- - (-T, -A) played val- played val- played val- played values - ues ues ues - column totals sums of dis- sums of dis- sums of displayed sums of dis- sums of dis- - played val- played val- values played val- played values - ues ues ues - grand total, sum, average sum, average sum, average of sum, average sum, average - grand average of column of column column totals of column of column - totals totals totals totals - - - --cumulative is omitted to save space, it works like -H but with a zero - starting balance. - - Glossary: - - cost calculated using price(s) recorded in the transaction(s). - - value market value using available market price declarations, or the - unchanged amount if no conversion rate can be found. - - report start - the first day of the report period specified with -b or -p or - date:, otherwise today. - - report or journal start - the first day of the report period specified with -b or -p or - date:, otherwise the earliest transaction date in the journal, - otherwise today. - - report end - the last day of the report period specified with -e or -p or - date:, otherwise today. - - report or journal end - the last day of the report period specified with -e or -p or - date:, otherwise the latest transaction date in the journal, - otherwise today. - - report interval - a flag (-D/-W/-M/-Q/-Y) or period expression that activates the - report's multi-period mode (whether showing one or many subperi- - ods). - -PIVOTING - Normally hledger sums amounts, and organizes them in a hierarchy, based - on account name. The --pivot FIELD option causes it to sum and orga- - nize hierarchy based on the value of some other field instead. FIELD - can be: code, description, payee, note, or the full name (case insensi- - tive) of any tag. As with account names, values containing colon:sepa- - rated:parts will be displayed hierarchically in reports. - - --pivot is a general option affecting all reports; you can think of - hledger transforming the journal before any other processing, replacing - every posting's account name with the value of the specified field on - that posting, inheriting it from the transaction or using a blank value - if it's not present. - - An example: - - 2016/02/16 Member Fee Payment - assets:bank account 2 EUR - income:member fees -2 EUR ; member: John Doe - - Normal balance report showing account names: - - $ hledger balance - 2 EUR assets:bank account - -2 EUR income:member fees - -------------------- - 0 - - Pivoted balance report, using member: tag values instead: - - $ hledger balance --pivot member - 2 EUR - -2 EUR John Doe - -------------------- - 0 - - One way to show only amounts with a member: value (using a query, - described below): - - $ hledger balance --pivot member tag:member=. - -2 EUR John Doe - -------------------- - -2 EUR - - Another way (the acct: query matches against the pivoted "account - name"): - - $ hledger balance --pivot member acct:. - -2 EUR John Doe - -------------------- - -2 EUR - -OUTPUT - Output destination - hledger commands send their output to the terminal by default. You can - of course redirect this, eg into a file, using standard shell syntax: - - $ hledger print > foo.txt - - Some commands (print, register, stats, the balance commands) also pro- - vide the -o/--output-file option, which does the same thing without - needing the shell. Eg: - - $ hledger print -o foo.txt - $ hledger print -o - # write to stdout (the default) - - hledger can optionally produce debug output (if enabled with - --debug=N); this goes to stderr, and is not affected by -o/--output- - file. If you need to capture it, use shell redirects, eg: hledger bal - --debug=3 >file 2>&1. - - Output format - Some commands (print, register, the balance commands) offer a choice of - output format. In addition to the usual plain text format (txt), there - are CSV (csv), HTML (html), JSON (json) and SQL (sql). This is con- - trolled by the -O/--output-format option: - - $ hledger print -O csv - - or, by a file extension specified with -o/--output-file: - - $ hledger balancesheet -o foo.html # write HTML to foo.html - - The -O option can be used to override the file extension if needed: - - $ hledger balancesheet -o foo.txt -O html # write HTML to foo.txt - - Some notes about JSON output: - - o This feature is marked experimental, and not yet much used; you - should expect our JSON to evolve. Real-world feedback is welcome. - - o Our JSON is rather large and verbose, as it is quite a faithful rep- - resentation of hledger's internal data types. To understand the - JSON, read the Haskell type definitions, which are mostly in - https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/blob/master/hledger- - lib/Hledger/Data/Types.hs. - - o hledger represents quantities as Decimal values storing up to 255 - significant digits, eg for repeating decimals. Such numbers can - arise in practice (from automatically-calculated transaction prices), - and would break most JSON consumers. So in JSON, we show quantities - as simple Numbers with at most 10 decimal places. We don't limit the - number of integer digits, but that part is under your control. We - hope this approach will not cause problems in practice; if you find - otherwise, please let us know. (Cf #1195) - - Notes about SQL output: - - o SQL output is also marked experimental, and much like JSON could use - real-world feedback. - - o SQL output is expected to work with sqlite, MySQL and PostgreSQL - - o SQL output is structured with the expectations that statements will - be executed in the empty database. If you already have tables cre- - ated via SQL output of hledger, you would probably want to either - clear tables of existing data (via delete or truncate SQL statements) - or drop tables completely as otherwise your postings will be duped. - -COMMANDS - hledger provides a number of commands for producing reports and manag- - ing your data. Run hledger with no arguments to list the commands - available, and hledger CMD to run a command. CMD can be the full com- - mand name, or its standard abbreviation shown in the commands list, or - any unambiguous prefix of the name. Eg: hledger bal. - - Here are the built-in commands, with the most often-used in bold: - - Data entry: - - These data entry commands are the only ones which can modify your jour- - nal file. - - o add - add transactions using guided prompts - - o import - add any new transactions from other files (eg csv) - - Data management: - - o check - check for various kinds of issue in the data - - o close (equity) - generate balance-resetting transactions - - o diff - compare account transactions in two journal files - - o rewrite - generate extra postings, similar to print --auto - - Financial statements: - - o aregister (areg) - show transactions in a particular account - - o balancesheet (bs) - show assets, liabilities and net worth - - o balancesheetequity (bse) - show assets, liabilities and equity - - o cashflow (cf) - show changes in liquid assets - - o incomestatement (is) - show revenues and expenses - - o roi - show return on investments - - Miscellaneous reports: - - o accounts - show account names - - o activity - show postings-per-interval bar charts - - o balance (bal) - show balance changes/end balances/budgets in any - accounts - - o codes - show transaction codes - - o commodities - show commodity/currency symbols - - o descriptions - show unique transaction descriptions - - o files - show input file paths - - o help - show hledger user manuals in several formats - - o notes - show unique note segments of transaction descriptions - - o payees - show unique payee segments of transaction descriptions - - o prices - show market price records - - o print - show transactions (journal entries) - - o print-unique - show only transactions with unique descriptions - - o register (reg) - show postings in one or more accounts & running - total - - o register-match - show a recent posting that best matches a descrip- - tion - - o stats - show journal statistics - - o tags - show tag names - - o test - run self tests - - Add-on commands: - - Programs or scripts named hledger-SOMETHING in your PATH are add-on - commands; these appear in the commands list with a + mark. Two of - these are maintained and released with hledger: - - o ui - an efficient terminal interface (TUI) for hledger - - o web - a simple web interface (WUI) for hledger - - And these add-ons are maintained separately: - - o iadd - a more interactive alternative for the add command - - o interest - generates interest transactions according to various - schemes - - o stockquotes - downloads market prices for your commodities from - AlphaVantage (experimental) - - Next, the detailed command docs, in alphabetical order. - - accounts - accounts - Show account names. - - This command lists account names, either declared with account direc- - tives (--declared), posted to (--used), or both (the default). With - query arguments, only matched account names and account names refer- - enced by matched postings are shown. It shows a flat list by default. - With --tree, it uses indentation to show the account hierarchy. In - flat mode you can add --drop N to omit the first few account name com- - ponents. Account names can be depth-clipped with depth:N or --depth N - or -N. - - Examples: - - $ hledger accounts - assets:bank:checking - assets:bank:saving - assets:cash - expenses:food - expenses:supplies - income:gifts - income:salary - liabilities:debts - - activity - activity - Show an ascii barchart of posting counts per interval. - - The activity command displays an ascii histogram showing transaction - counts by day, week, month or other reporting interval (by day is the - default). With query arguments, it counts only matched transactions. - - Examples: - - $ hledger activity --quarterly - 2008-01-01 ** - 2008-04-01 ******* - 2008-07-01 - 2008-10-01 ** - - add - add - Prompt for transactions and add them to the journal. Any arguments - will be used as default inputs for the first N prompts. - - Many hledger users edit their journals directly with a text editor, or - generate them from CSV. For more interactive data entry, there is the - add command, which prompts interactively on the console for new trans- - actions, and appends them to the journal file (if there are multiple -f - FILE options, the first file is used.) Existing transactions are not - changed. This is the only hledger command that writes to the journal - file. - - To use it, just run hledger add and follow the prompts. You can add as - many transactions as you like; when you are finished, enter . or press - control-d or control-c to exit. - - Features: - - o add tries to provide useful defaults, using the most similar (by - description) recent transaction (filtered by the query, if any) as a - template. - - o You can also set the initial defaults with command line arguments. - - o Readline-style edit keys can be used during data entry. - - o The tab key will auto-complete whenever possible - accounts, descrip- - tions, dates (yesterday, today, tomorrow). If the input area is - empty, it will insert the default value. - - o If the journal defines a default commodity, it will be added to any - bare numbers entered. - - o A parenthesised transaction code may be entered following a date. - - o Comments and tags may be entered following a description or amount. - - o If you make a mistake, enter < at any prompt to go one step backward. - - o Input prompts are displayed in a different colour when the terminal - supports it. - - Example (see the tutorial for a detailed explanation): - - $ hledger add - Adding transactions to journal file /src/hledger/examples/sample.journal - Any command line arguments will be used as defaults. - Use tab key to complete, readline keys to edit, enter to accept defaults. - An optional (CODE) may follow transaction dates. - An optional ; COMMENT may follow descriptions or amounts. - If you make a mistake, enter < at any prompt to go one step backward. - To end a transaction, enter . when prompted. - To quit, enter . at a date prompt or press control-d or control-c. - Date [2015/05/22]: - Description: supermarket - Account 1: expenses:food - Amount 1: $10 - Account 2: assets:checking - Amount 2 [$-10.0]: - Account 3 (or . or enter to finish this transaction): . - 2015/05/22 supermarket - expenses:food $10 - assets:checking $-10.0 - - Save this transaction to the journal ? [y]: - Saved. - Starting the next transaction (. or ctrl-D/ctrl-C to quit) - Date [2015/05/22]: $ - - On Microsoft Windows, the add command makes sure that no part of the - file path ends with a period, as that would cause problems (#1056). - - aregister - aregister, areg - - Show the transactions and running historical balance in an account, - with each line item representing one transaction. - - aregister shows the transactions affecting a particular account and its - subaccounts, with each line item representing a whole transaction - as - in bank statements, hledger-ui, hledger-web and other accounting apps. - - Note this is unlike the register command, which shows individual post- - ings and does not always show a single account or a historical balance. - - A reminder, "historical" balances include any balance from transactions - before the report start date, so (if opening balances are recorded cor- - rectly) aregister will show the real-world balances of an account, as - you would see in a bank statement. - - As a quick rule of thumb, use aregister for reconciling real-world - asset/liability accounts and register for reviewing detailed rev- - enues/expenses. - - aregister shows the register for just one account (and its subac- - counts). This account must be specified as the first argument. You - can write either the full account name, or a case-insensitive regular - expression which will select the alphabetically first matched account. - (Eg if you have assets:aaa:checking and assets:bbb:checking accounts, - hledger areg checking would select assets:aaa:checking.) - - Any additional arguments form a query which will filter the transac- - tions shown. - - Each aregister line item shows: - - o the transaction's date (or the relevant posting's date if different, - see below) - - o the names of all the other account(s) involved in this transaction - (probably abbreviated) - - o the total change to this account's balance from this transaction - - o the account's historical running balance after this transaction. - - Transactions making a net change of zero are not shown by default; add - the -E/--empty flag to show them. - - aregister ignores a depth limit, so its final total will always match a - balance report with similar arguments. - - This command also supports the output destination and output format - options The output formats supported are txt, csv, and json. - - aregister and custom posting dates - Transactions whose date is outside the report period can still be - shown, if they have a posting to this account dated inside the report - period. (And in this case it's the posting date that is shown.) This - ensures that aregister can show an accurate historical running balance, - matching the one shown by register -H with the same arguments. - - To filter strictly by transaction date instead, add the --txn-dates - flag. If you use this flag and some of your postings have custom - dates, it's probably best to assume the running balance is wrong. - - Examples: - - Show all transactions and historical running balance in the first - account whose name contains "checking": - - $ hledger areg checking - - Show transactions and historical running balance in all asset accounts - during july: - - $ hledger areg assets date:jul - - balance - balance, bal - Show accounts and their balances. - - balance is one of hledger's oldest and most versatile commands, for - listing account balances, balance changes, values, value changes and - more, during one time period or many. Generally it shows a table, with - rows representing accounts, and columns representing periods. - - Note there are some higher-level variants of the balance command with - convenient defaults, which can be simpler to use: balancesheet, bal- - ancesheetequity, cashflow and incomestatement. When you need more con- - trol, then use balance. - - balance features - Here's a quick overview of the balance command's features, followed by - more detailed descriptions and examples. Many of these work with the - higher-level commands as well. - - balance can show.. - - o accounts as a list (-l) or a tree (-t) - - o optionally depth-limited (-[1-9]) - - o sorted by declaration order and name, or by amount - - ..and their.. - - o balance changes (the default) - - o or actual and planned balance changes (--budget) - - o or value of balance changes (-V) - - o or change of balance values (--valuechange) - - ..in.. - - o one time period (the whole journal period by default) - - o or multiple periods (-D, -W, -M, -Q, -Y, -p INTERVAL) - - ..either.. - - o per period (the default) - - o or accumulated since report start date (--cumulative) - - o or accumulated since account creation (--historical/-H) - - ..possibly converted to.. - - o cost (--value=cost[,COMM]/--cost/-B) - - o or market value, as of transaction dates (--value=then[,COMM]) - - o or at period ends (--value=end[,COMM]) - - o or now (--value=now) - - o or at some other date (--value=YYYY-MM-DD) - - ..with.. - - o totals (-T), averages (-A), percentages (-%), inverted sign - (--invert) - - o rows and columns swapped (--transpose) - - o another field used as account name (--pivot) - - o custom-formatted line items (single-period reports only) (--format) - - This command supports the output destination and output format options, - with output formats txt, csv, json, and (multi-period reports only:) - html. In txt output in a colour-supporting terminal, negative amounts - are shown in red. - - Simple balance report - With no arguments, balance shows a list of all accounts and their - change of balance - ie, the sum of posting amounts, both inflows and - outflows - during the entire period of the journal. For real-world - accounts, this should also match their end balance at the end of the - journal period (more on this below). - - Accounts are sorted by declaration order if any, and then alphabeti- - cally by account name. For instance, using examples/sample.journal: - - $ hledger bal - $1 assets:bank:saving - $-2 assets:cash - $1 expenses:food - $1 expenses:supplies - $-1 income:gifts - $-1 income:salary - $1 liabilities:debts - -------------------- - 0 - - Accounts with a zero balance (and no non-zero subaccounts, in tree mode - - see below) are hidden by default. Use -E/--empty to show them - (revealing assets:bank:checking here): - - $ hledger -f examples/sample.journal bal -E - 0 assets:bank:checking - $1 assets:bank:saving - $-2 assets:cash - $1 expenses:food - $1 expenses:supplies - $-1 income:gifts - $-1 income:salary - $1 liabilities:debts - -------------------- - 0 - - The total of the amounts displayed is shown as the last line, unless - -N/--no-total is used. - - Filtered balance report - You can show fewer accounts, a different time period, totals from - cleared transactions only, etc. by using query arguments or options to - limit the postings being matched. Eg: - - $ hledger bal --cleared assets date:200806 - $-2 assets:cash - -------------------- - $-2 - - List or tree mode - By default, or with -l/--flat, accounts are shown as a flat list with - their full names visible, as in the examples above. - - With -t/--tree, the account hierarchy is shown, with subaccounts' - "leaf" names indented below their parent: - - $ hledger balance - $-1 assets - $1 bank:saving - $-2 cash - $2 expenses - $1 food - $1 supplies - $-2 income - $-1 gifts - $-1 salary - $1 liabilities:debts - -------------------- - 0 - - Notes: - - o "Boring" accounts are combined with their subaccount for more compact - output, unless --no-elide is used. Boring accounts have no balance - of their own and just one subaccount (eg assets:bank and liabilities - above). - - o All balances shown are "inclusive", ie including the balances from - all subaccounts. Note this means some repetition in the output, - which requires explanation when sharing reports with non-plaintextac- - counting-users. A tree mode report's final total is the sum of the - top-level balances shown, not of all the balances shown. - - o Each group of sibling accounts (ie, under a common parent) is sorted - separately. - - Depth limiting - With a depth:N query, or --depth N option, or just -N, balance reports - will show accounts only to the specified depth, hiding the deeper sub- - accounts. Account balances at the depth limit always include the bal- - ances from any hidden subaccounts (even in list mode). This can be - useful for getting an overview. Eg, limiting to depth 1: - - $ hledger balance -N -1 - $-1 assets - $2 expenses - $-2 income - $1 liabilities - - You can also hide top-level account name parts, using --drop N. This - can be useful for hiding repetitive top-level account names: - - $ hledger bal expenses --drop 1 - $1 food - $1 supplies - -------------------- - $2 - - - Multi-period balance report - With a report interval (set by the -D/--daily, -W/--weekly, - -M/--monthly, -Q/--quarterly, -Y/--yearly, or -p/--period flag), bal- - ance shows a tabular report, with columns representing successive time - periods (and a title): - - $ hledger balance --quarterly income expenses -E - Balance changes in 2008: - - || 2008q1 2008q2 2008q3 2008q4 - ===================++================================= - expenses:food || 0 $1 0 0 - expenses:supplies || 0 $1 0 0 - income:gifts || 0 $-1 0 0 - income:salary || $-1 0 0 0 - -------------------++--------------------------------- - || $-1 $1 0 0 - - Notes: - - o The report's start/end dates will be expanded, if necessary, to fully - encompass the displayed subperiods (so that the first and last subpe- - riods have the same duration as the others). - - o Leading and trailing periods (columns) containing all zeroes are not - shown, unless -E/--empty is used. - - o Accounts (rows) containing all zeroes are not shown, unless - -E/--empty is used. - - o Amounts with many commodities are shown in abbreviated form, unless - --no-elide is used. (experimental) - - o Average and/or total columns can be added with the -A/--average and - -T/--row-total flags. - - o The --transpose flag can be used to exchange rows and columns. - - o The --pivot FIELD option causes a different transaction field to be - used as "account name". See PIVOTING. - - Multi-period reports with many periods can be too wide for easy viewing - in the terminal. Here are some ways to handle that: - - o Hide the totals row with -N/--no-total - - o Convert to a single currency with -V - - o Maximize the terminal window - - o Reduce the terminal's font size - - o View with a pager like less, eg: hledger bal -D --color=yes | less - -RS - - o Output as CSV and use a CSV viewer like visidata (hledger bal -D -O - csv | vd -f csv), Emacs' csv-mode (M-x csv-mode, C-c C-a), or a - spreadsheet (hledger bal -D -o a.csv && open a.csv) - - o Output as HTML and view with a browser: hledger bal -D -o a.html && - open a.html - - Sorting by amount - With -S/--sort-amount, accounts with the largest (most positive) bal- - ances are shown first. Eg: hledger bal expenses -MAS shows your big- - gest averaged monthly expenses first. - - Revenues and liability balances are typically negative, however, so -S - shows these in reverse order. To work around this, you can add - --invert to flip the signs. (Or, use one of the higher-level reports, - which flip the sign automatically. Eg: hledger incomestatement -MAS). - - - Percentages - With -%/--percent, balance reports show each account's value expressed - as a percentage of the (column) total: - - $ hledger bal expenses -Q -% - Balance changes in 2008: - - || 2008Q1 2008Q2 2008Q3 2008Q4 - ===================++================================= - expenses:food || 0 50.0 % 0 0 - expenses:supplies || 0 50.0 % 0 0 - -------------------++--------------------------------- - || 0 100.0 % 0 0 - - Note it is not useful to calculate percentages if the amounts in a col- - umn have mixed signs. In this case, make a separate report for each - sign, eg: - - $ hledger bal -% amt:`>0` - $ hledger bal -% amt:`<0` - - Similarly, if the amounts in a column have mixed commodities, convert - them to one commodity with -B, -V, -X or --value, or make a separate - report for each commodity: - - $ hledger bal -% cur:\\$ - $ hledger bal -% cur:EUR - - Balance change, end balance - It's important to be clear on the meaning of the numbers shown in bal- - ance reports. Here is some terminology we use: - - A balance change is the net amount added to, or removed from, an - account during some period. - - An end balance is the amount accumulated in an account as of some date - (and some time, but hledger doesn't store that; assume end of day in - your timezone). It is the sum of previous balance changes. - - We call it a historical end balance if it includes all balance changes - since the account was created. For a real world account, this means it - will match the "historical record", eg the balances reported in your - bank statements or bank web UI. (If they are correct!) - - In general, balance changes are what you want to see when reviewing - revenues and expenses, and historical end balances are what you want to - see when reviewing or reconciling asset, liability and equity accounts. - - balance shows balance changes by default. To see accurate historical - end balances: - - 1. Initialise account starting balances with an "opening balances" - transaction (a transfer from equity to the account), unless the - journal covers the account's full lifetime. - - 2. Include all of of the account's prior postings in the report, by not - specifying a report start date, or by using the -H/--historical - flag. (-H causes report start date to be ignored when summing post- - ings.) - - Balance report types - For more flexible reporting, there are three important option groups: - - hledger balance [CALCULATIONTYPE] [ACCUMULATIONTYPE] [VALUATIONTYPE] - ... - - The first two are the most important: calculation type selects the - basic calculation to perform for each table cell, while accumulation - type says which postings should be included in each cell's calculation. - Typically one or both of these are selected by default, so you don't - need to write them explicitly. A valuation type can be added if you - want to convert the basic report to value or cost. - - Calculation type: - The basic calculation to perform for each table cell. It is one of: - - o --sum : sum the posting amounts (default) - - o --budget : like --sum but also show a goal amount - - o --valuechange : show the change in period-end historical balance val- - ues - - Accumulation type: - Which postings should be included in each cell's calculation. It is - one of: - - o --change : postings from column start to column end, ie within the - cell's period. Typically used to see revenues/expenses. (default - for balance, incomestatement) - - o --cumulative : postings from report start to column end, eg to show - changes accumulated since the report's start date. Rarely used. - - o --historical/-H : postings from journal start to column end, ie all - postings from account creation to the end of the cell's period. Typ- - ically used to see historical end balances of assets/liabili- - ties/equity. (default for balancesheet, balancesheetequity, cash- - flow) - - Valuation type: - Which kind of valuation, valuation date(s) and optionally a target val- - uation commodity to use. It is one of: - - o no valuation, show amounts in their original commodities (default) - - o --value=cost[,COMM] : no valuation, show amounts converted to cost - - o --value=then[,COMM] : show value at transaction dates - - o --value=end[,COMM] : show value at period end date(s) (default with - --valuechange) - - o --value=now[,COMM] : show value at today's date - - o --value=YYYY-MM-DD[,COMM] : show value at another date - - or one of their aliases: --cost/-B, --market/-V or --exchange/-X. - - Most combinations of these options should produce reasonable reports, - but if you find any that seem wrong or misleading, let us know. The - following restrictions are applied: - - o --valuechange implies --value=end - - o --valuechange makes --change the default when used with the bal- - ancesheet/balancesheetequity commands - - o --cumulative or --historical disables --row-total/-T - - For reference, here is what the combinations of accumulation and valua- - tion show: - - - Valua- no valuation --value= then --value= end --value= YYYY- - tion: MM-DD /now - >Accumu- - lation: - v - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - --change change in period sum of posting- period-end DATE-value of - date market val- value of change change in - ues in period in period period - --cumu- change from sum of posting- period-end DATE-value of - lative report start to date market val- value of change change from - period end ues from report from report report start - start to period start to period to period end - end end - --his- change from sum of posting- period-end DATE-value of - torical journal start to date market val- value of change change from - /-H period end (his- ues from journal from journal journal start - torical end bal- start to period start to period to period end - ance) end end - - Useful balance reports - Some frequently used balance options/reports are: - - o bal -M revenues expenses - Show revenues/expenses in each month. Also available as the incomes- - tatement command. - - o bal -M -H assets liabilities - Show historical asset/liability balances at each month end. Also - available as the balancesheet command. - - o bal -M -H assets liabilities equity - Show historical asset/liability/equity balances at each month end. - Also available as the balancesheetequity command. - - o bal -M assets not:receivable - Show changes to liquid assets in each month. Also available as the - cashflow command. - - Also: - - o bal -M expenses -2 -SA - Show monthly expenses summarised to depth 2 and sorted by average - amount. - - o bal -M --budget expenses - Show monthly expenses and budget goals. - - o bal -M --valuechange investments - Show monthly change in market value of investment assets. - - o bal investments --valuechange -D date:lastweek amt:'>1000' -STA - [--invert] - Show top gainers [or losers] last week - - Budget report - The --budget report type activates extra columns showing any budget - goals for each account and period. The budget goals are defined by - periodic transactions. This is very useful for comparing planned and - actual income, expenses, time usage, etc. - - For example, you can take average monthly expenses in the common - expense categories to construct a minimal monthly budget: - - ;; Budget - ~ monthly - income $2000 - expenses:food $400 - expenses:bus $50 - expenses:movies $30 - assets:bank:checking - - ;; Two months worth of expenses - 2017-11-01 - income $1950 - expenses:food $396 - expenses:bus $49 - expenses:movies $30 - expenses:supplies $20 - assets:bank:checking - - 2017-12-01 - income $2100 - expenses:food $412 - expenses:bus $53 - expenses:gifts $100 - assets:bank:checking - - You can now see a monthly budget report: - - $ hledger balance -M --budget - Budget performance in 2017/11/01-2017/12/31: - - || Nov Dec - ======================++==================================================== - assets || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] - assets:bank || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] - assets:bank:checking || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] - expenses || $495 [ 103% of $480] $565 [ 118% of $480] - expenses:bus || $49 [ 98% of $50] $53 [ 106% of $50] - expenses:food || $396 [ 99% of $400] $412 [ 103% of $400] - expenses:movies || $30 [ 100% of $30] 0 [ 0% of $30] - income || $1950 [ 98% of $2000] $2100 [ 105% of $2000] - ----------------------++---------------------------------------------------- - || 0 [ 0] 0 [ 0] - - This is different from a normal balance report in several ways: - - o Only accounts with budget goals during the report period are shown, - by default. - - o In each column, in square brackets after the actual amount, budget - goal amounts are shown, and the actual/goal percentage. (Note: bud- - get goals should be in the same commodity as the actual amount.) - - o All parent accounts are always shown, even in list mode. Eg assets, - assets:bank, and expenses above. - - o Amounts always include all subaccounts, budgeted or unbudgeted, even - in list mode. - - This means that the numbers displayed will not always add up! Eg above, - the expenses actual amount includes the gifts and supplies transac- - tions, but the expenses:gifts and expenses:supplies accounts are not - shown, as they have no budget amounts declared. - - This can be confusing. When you need to make things clearer, use the - -E/--empty flag, which will reveal all accounts including unbudgeted - ones, giving the full picture. Eg: - - $ hledger balance -M --budget --empty - Budget performance in 2017/11/01-2017/12/31: - - || Nov Dec - ======================++==================================================== - assets || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] - assets:bank || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] - assets:bank:checking || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] - expenses || $495 [ 103% of $480] $565 [ 118% of $480] - expenses:bus || $49 [ 98% of $50] $53 [ 106% of $50] - expenses:food || $396 [ 99% of $400] $412 [ 103% of $400] - expenses:gifts || 0 $100 - expenses:movies || $30 [ 100% of $30] 0 [ 0% of $30] - expenses:supplies || $20 0 - income || $1950 [ 98% of $2000] $2100 [ 105% of $2000] - ----------------------++---------------------------------------------------- - || 0 [ 0] 0 [ 0] - - You can roll over unspent budgets to next period with --cumulative: - - $ hledger balance -M --budget --cumulative - Budget performance in 2017/11/01-2017/12/31: - - || Nov Dec - ======================++==================================================== - assets || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-5110 [ 103% of $-4960] - assets:bank || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-5110 [ 103% of $-4960] - assets:bank:checking || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-5110 [ 103% of $-4960] - expenses || $495 [ 103% of $480] $1060 [ 110% of $960] - expenses:bus || $49 [ 98% of $50] $102 [ 102% of $100] - expenses:food || $396 [ 99% of $400] $808 [ 101% of $800] - expenses:movies || $30 [ 100% of $30] $30 [ 50% of $60] - income || $1950 [ 98% of $2000] $4050 [ 101% of $4000] - ----------------------++---------------------------------------------------- - || 0 [ 0] 0 [ 0] - - For more examples and notes, see Budgeting. - - Budget report start date - This might be a bug, but for now: when making budget reports, it's a - good idea to explicitly set the report's start date to the first day of - a reporting period, because a periodic rule like ~ monthly generates - its transactions on the 1st of each month, and if your journal has no - regular transactions on the 1st, the default report start date could - exclude that budget goal, which can be a little surprising. Eg here - the default report period is just the day of 2020-01-15: - - ~ monthly in 2020 - (expenses:food) $500 - - 2020-01-15 - expenses:food $400 - assets:checking - - $ hledger bal expenses --budget - Budget performance in 2020-01-15: - - || 2020-01-15 - ==============++============ - || $400 - --------------++------------ - || $400 - - To avoid this, specify the budget report's period, or at least the - start date, with -b/-e/-p/date:, to ensure it includes the budget goal - transactions (periodic transactions) that you want. Eg, adding -b - 2020/1/1 to the above: - - $ hledger bal expenses --budget -b 2020/1/1 - Budget performance in 2020-01-01..2020-01-15: - - || 2020-01-01..2020-01-15 - ===============++======================== - expenses:food || $400 [80% of $500] - ---------------++------------------------ - || $400 [80% of $500] - - Nested budgets - You can add budgets to any account in your account hierarchy. If you - have budgets on both parent account and some of its children, then bud- - get(s) of the child account(s) would be added to the budget of their - parent, much like account balances behave. - - In the most simple case this means that once you add a budget to any - account, all its parents would have budget as well. - - To illustrate this, consider the following budget: - - ~ monthly from 2019/01 - expenses:personal $1,000.00 - expenses:personal:electronics $100.00 - liabilities - - With this, monthly budget for electronics is defined to be $100 and - budget for personal expenses is an additional $1000, which implicitly - means that budget for both expenses:personal and expenses is $1100. - - Transactions in expenses:personal:electronics will be counted both - towards its $100 budget and $1100 of expenses:personal , and transac- - tions in any other subaccount of expenses:personal would be counted - towards only towards the budget of expenses:personal. - - For example, let's consider these transactions: - - ~ monthly from 2019/01 - expenses:personal $1,000.00 - expenses:personal:electronics $100.00 - liabilities - - 2019/01/01 Google home hub - expenses:personal:electronics $90.00 - liabilities $-90.00 - - 2019/01/02 Phone screen protector - expenses:personal:electronics:upgrades $10.00 - liabilities - - 2019/01/02 Weekly train ticket - expenses:personal:train tickets $153.00 - liabilities - - 2019/01/03 Flowers - expenses:personal $30.00 - liabilities - - As you can see, we have transactions in expenses:personal:electron- - ics:upgrades and expenses:personal:train tickets, and since both of - these accounts are without explicitly defined budget, these transac- - tions would be counted towards budgets of expenses:personal:electronics - and expenses:personal accordingly: - - $ hledger balance --budget -M - Budget performance in 2019/01: - - || Jan - ===============================++=============================== - expenses || $283.00 [ 26% of $1100.00] - expenses:personal || $283.00 [ 26% of $1100.00] - expenses:personal:electronics || $100.00 [ 100% of $100.00] - liabilities || $-283.00 [ 26% of $-1100.00] - -------------------------------++------------------------------- - || 0 [ 0] - - And with --empty, we can get a better picture of budget allocation and - consumption: - - $ hledger balance --budget -M --empty - Budget performance in 2019/01: - - || Jan - ========================================++=============================== - expenses || $283.00 [ 26% of $1100.00] - expenses:personal || $283.00 [ 26% of $1100.00] - expenses:personal:electronics || $100.00 [ 100% of $100.00] - expenses:personal:electronics:upgrades || $10.00 - expenses:personal:train tickets || $153.00 - liabilities || $-283.00 [ 26% of $-1100.00] - ----------------------------------------++------------------------------- - || 0 [ 0] - - Customising single-period balance reports - For single-period balance reports displayed in the terminal (only), you - can use --format FMT to customise the format and content of each line. - Eg: - - $ hledger balance --format "%20(account) %12(total)" - assets $-1 - bank:saving $1 - cash $-2 - expenses $2 - food $1 - supplies $1 - income $-2 - gifts $-1 - salary $-1 - liabilities:debts $1 - --------------------------------- - 0 - - The FMT format string (plus a newline) specifies the formatting applied - to each account/balance pair. It may contain any suitable text, with - data fields interpolated like so: - - %[MIN][.MAX](FIELDNAME) - - o MIN pads with spaces to at least this width (optional) - - o MAX truncates at this width (optional) - - o FIELDNAME must be enclosed in parentheses, and can be one of: - - o depth_spacer - a number of spaces equal to the account's depth, or - if MIN is specified, MIN * depth spaces. - - o account - the account's name - - o total - the account's balance/posted total, right justified - - Also, FMT can begin with an optional prefix to control how multi-com- - modity amounts are rendered: - - o %_ - render on multiple lines, bottom-aligned (the default) - - o %^ - render on multiple lines, top-aligned - - o %, - render on one line, comma-separated - - There are some quirks. Eg in one-line mode, %(depth_spacer) has no - effect, instead %(account) has indentation built in. Experimentation - may be needed to get pleasing results. - - Some example formats: - - o %(total) - the account's total - - o %-20.20(account) - the account's name, left justified, padded to 20 - characters and clipped at 20 characters - - o %,%-50(account) %25(total) - account name padded to 50 characters, - total padded to 20 characters, with multiple commodities rendered on - one line - - o %20(total) %2(depth_spacer)%-(account) - the default format for the - single-column balance report - - balancesheet - balancesheet, bs - This command displays a balance sheet, showing historical ending bal- - ances of asset and liability accounts. (To see equity as well, use the - balancesheetequity command.) Amounts are shown with normal positive - sign, as in conventional financial statements. - - The asset and liability accounts shown are those accounts declared with - the Asset or Cash or Liability type, or otherwise all accounts under a - top-level asset or liability account (case insensitive, plurals - allowed). - - Example: - - $ hledger balancesheet - Balance Sheet - - Assets: - $-1 assets - $1 bank:saving - $-2 cash - -------------------- - $-1 - - Liabilities: - $1 liabilities:debts - -------------------- - $1 - - Total: - -------------------- - 0 - - This command is a higher-level variant of the balance command, and sup- - ports many of that command's features, such as multi-period reports. - It is similar to hledger balance -H assets liabilities, but with - smarter account detection, and liabilities displayed with their sign - flipped. - - This command also supports the output destination and output format - options The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and (experi- - mental) json. - - balancesheetequity - balancesheetequity, bse - This command displays a balance sheet, showing historical ending bal- - ances of asset, liability and equity accounts. Amounts are shown with - normal positive sign, as in conventional financial statements. - - The asset, liability and equity accounts shown are those accounts - declared with the Asset, Cash, Liability or Equity type, or otherwise - all accounts under a top-level asset, liability or equity account (case - insensitive, plurals allowed). - - Example: - - $ hledger balancesheetequity - Balance Sheet With Equity - - Assets: - $-2 assets - $1 bank:saving - $-3 cash - -------------------- - $-2 - - Liabilities: - $1 liabilities:debts - -------------------- - $1 - - Equity: - $1 equity:owner - -------------------- - $1 - - Total: - -------------------- - 0 - - This command is a higher-level variant of the balance command, and sup- - ports many of that command's features, such as multi-period reports. - It is similar to hledger balance -H assets liabilities equity, but with - smarter account detection, and liabilities/equity displayed with their - sign flipped. - - This command also supports the output destination and output format - options The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and (experi- - mental) json. - - cashflow - cashflow, cf - This command displays a cashflow statement, showing the inflows and - outflows affecting "cash" (ie, liquid) assets. Amounts are shown with - normal positive sign, as in conventional financial statements. - - The "cash" accounts shown are those accounts declared with the Cash - type, or otherwise all accounts under a top-level asset account (case - insensitive, plural allowed) which do not have fixed, investment, - receivable or A/R in their name. - - Example: - - $ hledger cashflow - Cashflow Statement - - Cash flows: - $-1 assets - $1 bank:saving - $-2 cash - -------------------- - $-1 - - Total: - -------------------- - $-1 - - This command is a higher-level variant of the balance command, and sup- - ports many of that command's features, such as multi-period reports. - It is similar to hledger balance assets not:fixed not:investment - not:receivable, but with smarter account detection. - - This command also supports the output destination and output format - options The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and (experi- - mental) json. - - check - check - Check for various kinds of errors in your data. - - hledger provides a number of built-in error checks to help prevent - problems in your data. Some of these are run automatically; or, you - can use this check command to run them on demand, with no output and a - zero exit code if all is well. Specify their names (or a prefix) as - argument(s). - - Some examples: - - hledger check # basic checks - hledger check -s # basic + strict checks - hledger check ordereddates payees # basic + two other checks - - Here are the checks currently available: - - Basic checks - These checks are always run automatically, by (almost) all hledger com- - mands, including check: - - o parseable - data files are well-formed and can be successfully parsed - - o balancedwithautoconversion - all transactions are balanced, inferring - missing amounts where necessary, and possibly converting commodities - using transaction prices or automatically-inferred transaction prices - - o assertions - all balance assertions in the journal are passing. - (This check can be disabled with -I/--ignore-assertions.) - - Strict checks - These additional checks are run when the -s/--strict (strict mode) flag - is used. Or, they can be run by giving their names as arguments to - check: - - o accounts - all account names used by transactions have been declared - - o commodities - all commodity symbols used have been declared - - o balancednoautoconversion - transactions are balanced, possibly using - explicit transaction prices but not inferred ones - - Other checks - These checks can be run only by giving their names as arguments to - check. They are more specialised and not desirable for everyone, - therefore optional: - - o ordereddates - transactions are ordered by date within each file - - o payees - all payees used by transactions have been declared - - o uniqueleafnames - all account leaf names are unique - - Custom checks - A few more checks are are available as separate add-on commands, in - https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/tree/master/bin: - - o hledger-check-tagfiles - all tag values containing / (a forward - slash) exist as file paths - - o hledger-check-fancyassertions - more complex balance assertions are - passing - - You could make similar scripts to perform your own custom checks. See: - Cookbook -> Scripting. - - close - close, equity - Prints a "closing balances" transaction and an "opening balances" - transaction that bring account balances to and from zero, respectively. - These can be added to your journal file(s), eg to bring asset/liability - balances forward into a new journal file, or to close out rev- - enues/expenses to retained earnings at the end of a period. - - You can print just one of these transactions by using the --close or - --open flag. You can customise their descriptions with the --close- - desc and --open-desc options. - - One amountless posting to "equity:opening/closing balances" is added to - balance the transactions, by default. You can customise this account - name with --close-acct and --open-acct; if you specify only one of - these, it will be used for both. - - With --x/--explicit, the equity posting's amount will be shown. And if - it involves multiple commodities, a posting for each commodity will be - shown, as with the print command. - - With --interleaved, the equity postings are shown next to the postings - they balance, which makes troubleshooting easier. - - By default, transaction prices in the journal are ignored when generat- - ing the closing/opening transactions. With --show-costs, this cost - information is preserved (balance -B reports will be unchanged after - the transition). Separate postings are generated for each cost in each - commodity. Note this can generate very large journal entries, if you - have many foreign currency or investment transactions. - - close usage - If you split your journal files by time (eg yearly), you will typically - run this command at the end of the year, and save the closing transac- - tion as last entry of the old file, and the opening transaction as the - first entry of the new file. This makes the files self contained, so - that correct balances are reported no matter which of them are loaded. - Ie, if you load just one file, the balances are initialised correctly; - or if you load several files, the redundant closing/opening transac- - tions cancel each other out. (They will show up in print or register - reports; you can exclude them with a query like not:desc:'(open- - ing|closing) balances'.) - - If you're running a business, you might also use this command to "close - the books" at the end of an accounting period, transferring income - statement account balances to retained earnings. (You may want to - change the equity account name to something like "equity:retained earn- - ings".) - - By default, the closing transaction is dated yesterday, the balances - are calculated as of end of yesterday, and the opening transaction is - dated today. To close on some other date, use: hledger close -e OPEN- - INGDATE. Eg, to close/open on the 2018/2019 boundary, use -e 2019. - You can also use -p or date:PERIOD (any starting date is ignored). - - Both transactions will include balance assertions for the - closed/reopened accounts. You probably shouldn't use status or real- - ness filters (like -C or -R or status:) with this command, or the gen- - erated balance assertions will depend on these flags. Likewise, if you - run this command with --auto, the balance assertions will probably - always require --auto. - - Examples: - - Carrying asset/liability balances into a new file for 2019: - - $ hledger close -f 2018.journal -e 2019 assets liabilities --open - # (copy/paste the output to the start of your 2019 journal file) - $ hledger close -f 2018.journal -e 2019 assets liabilities --close - # (copy/paste the output to the end of your 2018 journal file) - - Now: - - $ hledger bs -f 2019.journal # one file - balances are correct - $ hledger bs -f 2018.journal -f 2019.journal # two files - balances still correct - $ hledger bs -f 2018.journal not:desc:closing # to see year-end balances, must exclude closing txn - - Transactions spanning the closing date can complicate matters, breaking - balance assertions: - - 2018/12/30 a purchase made in 2018, clearing the following year - expenses:food 5 - assets:bank:checking -5 ; [2019/1/2] - - Here's one way to resolve that: - - ; in 2018.journal: - 2018/12/30 a purchase made in 2018, clearing the following year - expenses:food 5 - liabilities:pending - - ; in 2019.journal: - 2019/1/2 clearance of last year's pending transactions - liabilities:pending 5 = 0 - assets:checking - - codes - codes - List the codes seen in transactions, in the order parsed. - - This command prints the value of each transaction's code field, in the - order transactions were parsed. The transaction code is an optional - value written in parentheses between the date and description, often - used to store a cheque number, order number or similar. - - Transactions aren't required to have a code, and missing or empty codes - will not be shown by default. With the -E/--empty flag, they will be - printed as blank lines. - - You can add a query to select a subset of transactions. - - Examples: - - 1/1 (123) - (a) 1 - - 1/1 () - (a) 1 - - 1/1 - (a) 1 - - 1/1 (126) - (a) 1 - - $ hledger codes - 123 - 124 - 126 - - $ hledger codes -E - 123 - 124 - - - 126 - - commodities - commodities - List all commodity/currency symbols used or declared in the journal. - - descriptions - descriptions - List the unique descriptions that appear in transactions. - - This command lists the unique descriptions that appear in transactions, - in alphabetic order. You can add a query to select a subset of trans- - actions. - - Example: - - $ hledger descriptions - Store Name - Gas Station | Petrol - Person A - - diff - diff - Compares a particular account's transactions in two input files. It - shows any transactions to this account which are in one file but not in - the other. - - More precisely, for each posting affecting this account in either file, - it looks for a corresponding posting in the other file which posts the - same amount to the same account (ignoring date, description, etc.) - Since postings not transactions are compared, this also works when mul- - tiple bank transactions have been combined into a single journal entry. - - This is useful eg if you have downloaded an account's transactions from - your bank (eg as CSV data). When hledger and your bank disagree about - the account balance, you can compare the bank data with your journal to - find out the cause. - - Examples: - - $ hledger diff -f $LEDGER_FILE -f bank.csv assets:bank:giro - These transactions are in the first file only: - - 2014/01/01 Opening Balances - assets:bank:giro EUR ... - ... - equity:opening balances EUR -... - - These transactions are in the second file only: - - files - files - List all files included in the journal. With a REGEX argument, only - file names matching the regular expression (case sensitive) are shown. - - help - help - Show the hledger user manual in one of several formats, optionally - positioned at a given TOPIC (if possible). TOPIC is any heading, or - heading prefix, in the manual. Some examples: commands, print, 'auto - postings', periodic. - - This command shows the user manual built in to this hledger version. - It can be useful if the correct version of the hledger manual, or the - usual viewing tools, are not installed on your system. - - By default it uses the best viewer it can find in $PATH, in this order: - info, man, $PAGER (unless a topic is specified), less, or stdout. When - run non-interactively, it always uses stdout. Or you can select a par- - ticular viewer with the -i (info), -m (man), or -p (pager) flags. - - import - import - Read new transactions added to each FILE since last run, and add them - to the main journal file. Or with --dry-run, just print the transac- - tions that would be added. Or with --catchup, just mark all of the - FILEs' transactions as imported, without actually importing any. - - Unlike other hledger commands, with import the journal file is an out- - put file, and will be modified, though only by appending (existing data - will not be changed). The input files are specified as arguments, so - to import one or more CSV files to your main journal, you will run - hledger import bank.csv or perhaps hledger import *.csv. - - Note you can import from any file format, though CSV files are the most - common import source, and these docs focus on that case. - - Deduplication - As a convenience import does deduplication while reading transactions. - This does not mean "ignore transactions that look the same", but rather - "ignore transactions that have been seen before". This is intended for - when you are periodically importing foreign data which may contain - already-imported transactions. So eg, if every day you download bank - CSV files containing redundant data, you can safely run hledger import - bank.csv and only new transactions will be imported. (import is idem- - potent.) - - Since the items being read (CSV records, eg) often do not come with - unique identifiers, hledger detects new transactions by date, assuming - that: - - 1. new items always have the newest dates - - 2. item dates do not change across reads - - 3. and items with the same date remain in the same relative order - across reads. - - These are often true of CSV files representing transactions, or true - enough so that it works pretty well in practice. 1 is important, but - violations of 2 and 3 amongst the old transactions won't matter (and if - you import often, the new transactions will be few, so less likely to - be the ones affected). - - hledger remembers the latest date processed in each input file by sav- - ing a hidden ".latest" state file in the same directory. Eg when read- - ing finance/bank.csv, it will look for and update the finance/.lat- - est.bank.csv state file. The format is simple: one or more lines con- - taining the same ISO-format date (YYYY-MM-DD), meaning "I have pro- - cessed transactions up to this date, and this many of them on that - date." Normally you won't see or manipulate these state files yourself. - But if needed, you can delete them to reset the state (making all - transactions "new"), or you can construct them to "catch up" to a cer- - tain date. - - Note deduplication (and updating of state files) can also be done by - print --new, but this is less often used. - - Import testing - With --dry-run, the transactions that will be imported are printed to - the terminal, without updating your journal or state files. The output - is valid journal format, like the print command, so you can re-parse - it. Eg, to see any importable transactions which CSV rules have not - categorised: - - $ hledger import --dry bank.csv | hledger -f- -I print unknown - - or (live updating): - - $ ls bank.csv* | entr bash -c 'echo ====; hledger import --dry bank.csv | hledger -f- -I print unknown' - - Importing balance assignments - Entries added by import will have their posting amounts made explicit - (like hledger print -x). This means that any balance assignments in - imported files must be evaluated; but, imported files don't get to see - the main file's account balances. As a result, importing entries with - balance assignments (eg from an institution that provides only balances - and not posting amounts) will probably generate incorrect posting - amounts. To avoid this problem, use print instead of import: - - $ hledger print IMPORTFILE [--new] >> $LEDGER_FILE - - (If you think import should leave amounts implicit like print does, - please test it and send a pull request.) - - Commodity display styles - Imported amounts will be formatted according to the canonical commodity - styles (declared or inferred) in the main journal file. - - incomestatement - incomestatement, is - - This command displays an income statement, showing revenues and - expenses during one or more periods. Amounts are shown with normal - positive sign, as in conventional financial statements. - - The revenue and expense accounts shown are those accounts declared with - the Revenue or Expense type, or otherwise all accounts under a top- - level revenue or income or expense account (case insensitive, plurals - allowed). - - Example: - - $ hledger incomestatement - Income Statement - - Revenues: - $-2 income - $-1 gifts - $-1 salary - -------------------- - $-2 - - Expenses: - $2 expenses - $1 food - $1 supplies - -------------------- - $2 - - Total: - -------------------- - 0 - - This command is a higher-level variant of the balance command, and sup- - ports many of that command's features, such as multi-period reports. - It is similar to hledger balance '(revenues|income)' expenses, but with - smarter account detection, and revenues/income displayed with their - sign flipped. - - This command also supports the output destination and output format - options The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and (experi- - mental) json. - - notes - notes - List the unique notes that appear in transactions. - - This command lists the unique notes that appear in transactions, in - alphabetic order. You can add a query to select a subset of transac- - tions. The note is the part of the transaction description after a | - character (or if there is no |, the whole description). - - Example: - - $ hledger notes - Petrol - Snacks - - payees - payees - List the unique payee/payer names that appear in transactions. - - This command lists unique payee/payer names which have been declared - with payee directives (--declared), used in transaction descriptions - (--used), or both (the default). - - The payee/payer is the part of the transaction description before a | - character (or if there is no |, the whole description). - - You can add query arguments to select a subset of transactions. This - implies --used. - - Example: - - $ hledger payees - Store Name - Gas Station - Person A - - prices - prices - Print market price directives from the journal. With --costs, also - print synthetic market prices based on transaction prices. With - --inverted-costs, also print inverse prices based on transaction - prices. Prices (and postings providing prices) can be filtered by a - query. Price amounts are always displayed with their full precision. - - print - print - Show transaction journal entries, sorted by date. - - The print command displays full journal entries (transactions) from the - journal file, sorted by date (or with --date2, by secondary date). - - Amounts are shown mostly normalised to commodity display style, eg the - placement of commodity symbols will be consistent. All of their deci- - mal places are shown, as in the original journal entry (with one alter- - ation: in some cases trailing zeroes are added.) - - Amounts are shown right-aligned within each transaction (but not across - all transactions). - - Directives and inter-transaction comments are not shown, currently. - This means the print command is somewhat lossy, and if you are using it - to reformat your journal you should take care to also copy over the - directives and file-level comments. - - Eg: - - $ hledger print - 2008/01/01 income - assets:bank:checking $1 - income:salary $-1 - - 2008/06/01 gift - assets:bank:checking $1 - income:gifts $-1 - - 2008/06/02 save - assets:bank:saving $1 - assets:bank:checking $-1 - - 2008/06/03 * eat & shop - expenses:food $1 - expenses:supplies $1 - assets:cash $-2 - - 2008/12/31 * pay off - liabilities:debts $1 - assets:bank:checking $-1 - - print's output is usually a valid hledger journal, and you can process - it again with a second hledger command. This can be useful for certain - kinds of search, eg: - - # Show running total of food expenses paid from cash. - # -f- reads from stdin. -I/--ignore-assertions is sometimes needed. - $ hledger print assets:cash | hledger -f- -I reg expenses:food - - There are some situations where print's output can become unparseable: - - o Valuation affects posting amounts but not balance assertion or bal- - ance assignment amounts, potentially causing those to fail. - - o Auto postings can generate postings with too many missing amounts. - - Normally, the journal entry's explicit or implicit amount style is pre- - served. For example, when an amount is omitted in the journal, it will - not appear in the output. Similarly, when a transaction price is - implied but not written, it will not appear in the output. You can use - the -x/--explicit flag to make all amounts and transaction prices - explicit, which can be useful for troubleshooting or for making your - journal more readable and robust against data entry errors. -x is also - implied by using any of -B,-V,-X,--value. - - Note, -x/--explicit will cause postings with a multi-commodity amount - (these can arise when a multi-commodity transaction has an implicit - amount) to be split into multiple single-commodity postings, keeping - the output parseable. - - With -B/--cost, amounts with transaction prices are converted to cost - using that price. This can be used for troubleshooting. - - With -m/--match and a STR argument, print will show at most one trans- - action: the one one whose description is most similar to STR, and is - most recent. STR should contain at least two characters. If there is - no similar-enough match, no transaction will be shown. - - With --new, hledger prints only transactions it has not seen on a pre- - vious run. This uses the same deduplication system as the import com- - mand. (See import's docs for details.) - - This command also supports the output destination and output format - options The output formats supported are txt, csv, and (experimental) - json and sql. - - Here's an example of print's CSV output: - - $ hledger print -Ocsv - "txnidx","date","date2","status","code","description","comment","account","amount","commodity","credit","debit","posting-status","posting-comment" - "1","2008/01/01","","","","income","","assets:bank:checking","1","$","","1","","" - "1","2008/01/01","","","","income","","income:salary","-1","$","1","","","" - "2","2008/06/01","","","","gift","","assets:bank:checking","1","$","","1","","" - "2","2008/06/01","","","","gift","","income:gifts","-1","$","1","","","" - "3","2008/06/02","","","","save","","assets:bank:saving","1","$","","1","","" - "3","2008/06/02","","","","save","","assets:bank:checking","-1","$","1","","","" - "4","2008/06/03","","*","","eat & shop","","expenses:food","1","$","","1","","" - "4","2008/06/03","","*","","eat & shop","","expenses:supplies","1","$","","1","","" - "4","2008/06/03","","*","","eat & shop","","assets:cash","-2","$","2","","","" - "5","2008/12/31","","*","","pay off","","liabilities:debts","1","$","","1","","" - "5","2008/12/31","","*","","pay off","","assets:bank:checking","-1","$","1","","","" - - o There is one CSV record per posting, with the parent transaction's - fields repeated. - - o The "txnidx" (transaction index) field shows which postings belong to - the same transaction. (This number might change if transactions are - reordered within the file, files are parsed/included in a different - order, etc.) - - o The amount is separated into "commodity" (the symbol) and "amount" - (numeric quantity) fields. - - o The numeric amount is repeated in either the "credit" or "debit" col- - umn, for convenience. (Those names are not accurate in the account- - ing sense; it just puts negative amounts under credit and zero or - greater amounts under debit.) - - print-unique - print-unique - Print transactions which do not reuse an already-seen description. - - Example: - - $ cat unique.journal - 1/1 test - (acct:one) 1 - 2/2 test - (acct:two) 2 - $ LEDGER_FILE=unique.journal hledger print-unique - (-f option not supported) - 2015/01/01 test - (acct:one) 1 - - register - register, reg - Show postings and their running total. - - The register command displays matched postings, across all accounts, in - date order, with their running total or running historical balance. - (See also the aregister command, which shows matched transactions in a - specific account.) - - register normally shows line per posting, but note that multi-commodity - amounts will occupy multiple lines (one line per commodity). - - It is typically used with a query selecting a particular account, to - see that account's activity: - - $ hledger register checking - 2008/01/01 income assets:bank:checking $1 $1 - 2008/06/01 gift assets:bank:checking $1 $2 - 2008/06/02 save assets:bank:checking $-1 $1 - 2008/12/31 pay off assets:bank:checking $-1 0 - - With --date2, it shows and sorts by secondary date instead. - - The --historical/-H flag adds the balance from any undisplayed prior - postings to the running total. This is useful when you want to see - only recent activity, with a historically accurate running balance: - - $ hledger register checking -b 2008/6 --historical - 2008/06/01 gift assets:bank:checking $1 $2 - 2008/06/02 save assets:bank:checking $-1 $1 - 2008/12/31 pay off assets:bank:checking $-1 0 - - The --depth option limits the amount of sub-account detail displayed. - - The --average/-A flag shows the running average posting amount instead - of the running total (so, the final number displayed is the average for - the whole report period). This flag implies --empty (see below). It - is affected by --historical. It works best when showing just one - account and one commodity. - - The --related/-r flag shows the other postings in the transactions of - the postings which would normally be shown. - - The --invert flag negates all amounts. For example, it can be used on - an income account where amounts are normally displayed as negative num- - bers. It's also useful to show postings on the checking account - together with the related account: - - $ hledger register --related --invert assets:checking - - With a reporting interval, register shows summary postings, one per - interval, aggregating the postings to each account: - - $ hledger register --monthly income - 2008/01 income:salary $-1 $-1 - 2008/06 income:gifts $-1 $-2 - - Periods with no activity, and summary postings with a zero amount, are - not shown by default; use the --empty/-E flag to see them: - - $ hledger register --monthly income -E - 2008/01 income:salary $-1 $-1 - 2008/02 0 $-1 - 2008/03 0 $-1 - 2008/04 0 $-1 - 2008/05 0 $-1 - 2008/06 income:gifts $-1 $-2 - 2008/07 0 $-2 - 2008/08 0 $-2 - 2008/09 0 $-2 - 2008/10 0 $-2 - 2008/11 0 $-2 - 2008/12 0 $-2 - - Often, you'll want to see just one line per interval. The --depth - option helps with this, causing subaccounts to be aggregated: - - $ hledger register --monthly assets --depth 1h - 2008/01 assets $1 $1 - 2008/06 assets $-1 0 - 2008/12 assets $-1 $-1 - - Note when using report intervals, if you specify start/end dates these - will be adjusted outward if necessary to contain a whole number of - intervals. This ensures that the first and last intervals are full - length and comparable to the others in the report. - - Custom register output - register uses the full terminal width by default, except on windows. - You can override this by setting the COLUMNS environment variable (not - a bash shell variable) or by using the --width/-w option. - - The description and account columns normally share the space equally - (about half of (width - 40) each). You can adjust this by adding a - description width as part of --width's argument, comma-separated: - --width W,D . Here's a diagram (won't display correctly in --help): - - <--------------------------------- width (W) ----------------------------------> - date (10) description (D) account (W-41-D) amount (12) balance (12) - DDDDDDDDDD dddddddddddddddddddd aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa AAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAA - - and some examples: - - $ hledger reg # use terminal width (or 80 on windows) - $ hledger reg -w 100 # use width 100 - $ COLUMNS=100 hledger reg # set with one-time environment variable - $ export COLUMNS=100; hledger reg # set till session end (or window resize) - $ hledger reg -w 100,40 # set overall width 100, description width 40 - $ hledger reg -w $COLUMNS,40 # use terminal width, & description width 40 - - This command also supports the output destination and output format - options The output formats supported are txt, csv, and (experimental) - json. - - register-match - register-match - Print the one posting whose transaction description is closest to DESC, - in the style of the register command. If there are multiple equally - good matches, it shows the most recent. Query options (options, not - arguments) can be used to restrict the search space. Helps ledger- - autosync detect already-seen transactions when importing. - - rewrite - rewrite - Print all transactions, rewriting the postings of matched transactions. - For now the only rewrite available is adding new postings, like print - --auto. - - This is a start at a generic rewriter of transaction entries. It reads - the default journal and prints the transactions, like print, but adds - one or more specified postings to any transactions matching QUERY. The - posting amounts can be fixed, or a multiplier of the existing transac- - tion's first posting amount. - - Examples: - - $ hledger-rewrite.hs ^income --add-posting '(liabilities:tax) *.33 ; income tax' --add-posting '(reserve:gifts) $100' - $ hledger-rewrite.hs expenses:gifts --add-posting '(reserve:gifts) *-1"' - $ hledger-rewrite.hs -f rewrites.hledger - - rewrites.hledger may consist of entries like: - - = ^income amt:<0 date:2017 - (liabilities:tax) *0.33 ; tax on income - (reserve:grocery) *0.25 ; reserve 25% for grocery - (reserve:) *0.25 ; reserve 25% for grocery - - Note the single quotes to protect the dollar sign from bash, and the - two spaces between account and amount. - - More: - - $ hledger rewrite -- [QUERY] --add-posting "ACCT AMTEXPR" ... - $ hledger rewrite -- ^income --add-posting '(liabilities:tax) *.33' - $ hledger rewrite -- expenses:gifts --add-posting '(budget:gifts) *-1"' - $ hledger rewrite -- ^income --add-posting '(budget:foreign currency) *0.25 JPY; diversify' - - Argument for --add-posting option is a usual posting of transaction - with an exception for amount specification. More precisely, you can - use '*' (star symbol) before the amount to indicate that that this is a - factor for an amount of original matched posting. If the amount - includes a commodity name, the new posting amount will be in the new - commodity; otherwise, it will be in the matched posting amount's com- - modity. - - Re-write rules in a file - During the run this tool will execute so called "Automated Transac- - tions" found in any journal it process. I.e instead of specifying this - operations in command line you can put them in a journal file. - - $ rewrite-rules.journal - - Make contents look like this: - - = ^income - (liabilities:tax) *.33 - - = expenses:gifts - budget:gifts *-1 - assets:budget *1 - - Note that '=' (equality symbol) that is used instead of date in trans- - actions you usually write. It indicates the query by which you want to - match the posting to add new ones. - - $ hledger rewrite -- -f input.journal -f rewrite-rules.journal > rewritten-tidy-output.journal - - This is something similar to the commands pipeline: - - $ hledger rewrite -- -f input.journal '^income' --add-posting '(liabilities:tax) *.33' \ - | hledger rewrite -- -f - expenses:gifts --add-posting 'budget:gifts *-1' \ - --add-posting 'assets:budget *1' \ - > rewritten-tidy-output.journal - - It is important to understand that relative order of such entries in - journal is important. You can re-use result of previously added post- - ings. - - Diff output format - To use this tool for batch modification of your journal files you may - find useful output in form of unified diff. - - $ hledger rewrite -- --diff -f examples/sample.journal '^income' --add-posting '(liabilities:tax) *.33' - - Output might look like: - - --- /tmp/examples/sample.journal - +++ /tmp/examples/sample.journal - @@ -18,3 +18,4 @@ - 2008/01/01 income - - assets:bank:checking $1 - + assets:bank:checking $1 - income:salary - + (liabilities:tax) 0 - @@ -22,3 +23,4 @@ - 2008/06/01 gift - - assets:bank:checking $1 - + assets:bank:checking $1 - income:gifts - + (liabilities:tax) 0 - - If you'll pass this through patch tool you'll get transactions contain- - ing the posting that matches your query be updated. Note that multiple - files might be update according to list of input files specified via - --file options and include directives inside of these files. - - Be careful. Whole transaction being re-formatted in a style of output - from hledger print. - - See also: - - https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/issues/99 - - rewrite vs. print --auto - This command predates print --auto, and currently does much the same - thing, but with these differences: - - o with multiple files, rewrite lets rules in any file affect all other - files. print --auto uses standard directive scoping; rules affect - only child files. - - o rewrite's query limits which transactions can be rewritten; all are - printed. print --auto's query limits which transactions are printed. - - o rewrite applies rules specified on command line or in the journal. - print --auto applies rules specified in the journal. - - roi - roi - Shows the time-weighted (TWR) and money-weighted (IRR) rate of return - on your investments. - - At a minimum, you need to supply a query (which could be just an - account name) to select your investment(s) with --inv, and another - query to identify your profit and loss transactions with --pnl. - - If you do not record changes in the value of your investment manually, - or do not require computation of time-weighted return (TWR), --pnl - could be an empty query (--pnl "" or --pnl STR where STR does not match - any of your accounts). - - This command will compute and display the internalized rate of return - (IRR) and time-weighted rate of return (TWR) for your investments for - the time period requested. Both rates of return are annualized before - display, regardless of the length of reporting interval. - - Price directives will be taken into account if you supply appropriate - --cost or --value flags (see VALUATION). - - Note, in some cases this report can fail, for these reasons: - - o Error (NotBracketed): No solution for Internal Rate of Return (IRR). - Possible causes: IRR is huge (>1000000%), balance of investment - becomes negative at some point in time. - - o Error (SearchFailed): Failed to find solution for Internal Rate of - Return (IRR). Either search does not converge to a solution, or con- - verges too slowly. - - Examples: - - o Using roi to compute total return of investment in stocks: - https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/blob/master/examples/roi- - unrealised.ledger - - o Cookbook -> Return on Investment - - Spaces and special characters in --inv and --pnl - Note that --inv and --pnl's argument is a query, and queries could have - several space-separated terms (see QUERIES). - - To indicate that all search terms form single command-line argument, - you will need to put them in quotes (see Special characters): - - $ hledger roi --inv 'term1 term2 term3 ...' - - If any query terms contain spaces themselves, you will need an extra - level of nested quoting, eg: - - $ hledger roi --inv="'Assets:Test 1'" --pnl="'Equity:Unrealized Profit and Loss'" - - Semantics of --inv and --pnl - Query supplied to --inv has to match all transactions that are related - to your investment. Transactions not matching --inv will be ignored. - - In these transactions, ROI will conside postings that match --inv to be - "investment postings" and other postings (not matching --inv) will be - sorted into two categories: "cash flow" and "profit and loss", as ROI - needs to know which part of the investment value is your contributions - and which is due to the return on investment. - - o "Cash flow" is depositing or withdrawing money, buying or selling - assets, or otherwise converting between your investment commodity and - any other commodity. Example: - - 2019-01-01 Investing in Snake Oil - assets:cash -$100 - investment:snake oil - - 2020-01-01 Selling my Snake Oil - assets:cash $10 - investment:snake oil = 0 - - o "Profit and loss" is change in the value of your investment: - - 2019-06-01 Snake Oil falls in value - investment:snake oil = $57 - equity:unrealized profit or loss - - All non-investment postings are assumed to be "cash flow", unless they - match --pnl query. Changes in value of your investment due to "profit - and loss" postings will be considered as part of your investment - return. - - Example: if you use --inv snake --pnl equity:unrealized, then postings - in the example below would be classifed as: - - 2019-01-01 Snake Oil #1 - assets:cash -$100 ; cash flow posting - investment:snake oil ; investment posting - - 2019-03-01 Snake Oil #2 - equity:unrealized pnl -$100 ; profit and loss posting - snake oil ; investment posting - - 2019-07-01 Snake Oil #3 - equity:unrealized pnl ; profit and loss posting - cash -$100 ; cash flow posting - snake oil $50 ; investment posting - - IRR and TWR explained - "ROI" stands for "return on investment". Traditionally this was com- - puted as a difference between current value of investment and its ini- - tial value, expressed in percentage of the initial value. - - However, this approach is only practical in simple cases, where invest- - ments receives no in-flows or out-flows of money, and where rate of - growth is fixed over time. For more complex scenarios you need differ- - ent ways to compute rate of return, and this command implements two of - them: IRR and TWR. - - Internal rate of return, or "IRR" (also called "money-weighted rate of - return") takes into account effects of in-flows and out-flows. - Naively, if you are withdrawing from your investment, your future gains - would be smaller (in absolute numbers), and will be a smaller percent- - age of your initial investment, and if you are adding to your invest- - ment, you will receive bigger absolute gains (but probably at the same - rate of return). IRR is a way to compute rate of return for each - period between in-flow or out-flow of money, and then combine them in a - way that gives you a compound annual rate of return that investment is - expected to generate. - - As mentioned before, in-flows and out-flows would be any cash that you - personally put in or withdraw, and for the "roi" command, these are the - postings that match the query in the--inv argument and NOT match the - query in the--pnl argument. - - If you manually record changes in the value of your investment as - transactions that balance them against "profit and loss" (or "unreal- - ized gains") account or use price directives, then in order for IRR to - compute the precise effect of your in-flows and out-flows on the rate - of return, you will need to record the value of your investement on or - close to the days when in- or out-flows occur. - - In technical terms, IRR uses the same approach as computation of net - present value, and tries to find a discount rate that makes net present - value of all the cash flows of your investment to add up to zero. This - could be hard to wrap your head around, especially if you haven't done - discounted cash flow analysis before. Implementation of IRR in hledger - should produce results that match the XIRR formula in Excel. - - Second way to compute rate of return that roi command implements is - called "time-weighted rate of return" or "TWR". Like IRR, it will also - break the history of your investment into periods between in-flows, - out-flows and value changes, to compute rate of return per each period - and then a compound rate of return. However, internal workings of TWR - are quite different. - - TWR represents your investment as an imaginary "unit fund" where in- - flows/ out-flows lead to buying or selling "units" of your investment - and changes in its value change the value of "investment unit". Change - in "unit price" over the reporting period gives you rate of return of - your investment. - - References: * Explanation of rate of return * Explanation of IRR * - Explanation of TWR * Examples of computing IRR and TWR and discussion - of the limitations of both metrics - - stats - stats - Show some journal statistics. - - The stats command displays summary information for the whole journal, - or a matched part of it. With a reporting interval, it shows a report - for each report period. - - Example: - - $ hledger stats - Main journal file : /src/hledger/examples/sample.journal - Included journal files : - Transactions span : 2008-01-01 to 2009-01-01 (366 days) - Last transaction : 2008-12-31 (2333 days ago) - Transactions : 5 (0.0 per day) - Transactions last 30 days: 0 (0.0 per day) - Transactions last 7 days : 0 (0.0 per day) - Payees/descriptions : 5 - Accounts : 8 (depth 3) - Commodities : 1 ($) - Market prices : 12 ($) - - This command also supports output destination and output format selec- - tion. - - tags - tags - List the unique tag names used in the journal. With a TAGREGEX argu- - ment, only tag names matching the regular expression (case insensitive) - are shown. With QUERY arguments, only transactions matching the query - are considered. - - With the --values flag, the tags' unique values are listed instead. - - With --parsed flag, all tags or values are shown in the order they are - parsed from the input data, including duplicates. - - With -E/--empty, any blank/empty values will also be shown, otherwise - they are omitted. - - test - test - Run built-in unit tests. - - This command runs the unit tests built in to hledger and hledger-lib, - printing the results on stdout. If any test fails, the exit code will - be non-zero. - - This is mainly used by hledger developers, but you can also use it to - sanity-check the installed hledger executable on your platform. All - tests are expected to pass - if you ever see a failure, please report - as a bug! - - This command also accepts tasty test runner options, written after a -- - (double hyphen). Eg to run only the tests in Hledger.Data.Amount, with - ANSI colour codes disabled: - - $ hledger test -- -pData.Amount --color=never - - For help on these, see https://github.com/feuerbach/tasty#options (-- - --help currently doesn't show them). - - About add-on commands - Add-on commands are programs or scripts in your PATH - - o whose name starts with hledger- - - o whose name ends with a recognised file extension: .bat,.com,.exe, - .hs,.lhs,.pl,.py,.rb,.rkt,.sh or none - - o and (on unix, mac) which are executable by the current user. - - Add-ons are a relatively easy way to add local features or experiment - with new ideas. They can be written in any language, but haskell - scripts have a big advantage: they can use the same hledger library - functions that built-in commands use for command-line options, parsing - and reporting. Some experimental/example add-on scripts can be found - in the hledger repo's bin/ directory. - - Note in a hledger command line, add-on command flags must have a double - dash (--) preceding them. Eg you must write: - - $ hledger web -- --serve - - and not: - - $ hledger web --serve - - (because the --serve flag belongs to hledger-web, not hledger). - - The -h/--help and --version flags don't require --. - - If you have any trouble with this, remember you can always run the add- - on program directly, eg: - - $ hledger-web --serve - -JOURNAL FORMAT - hledger's default file format, representing a General Journal. - - 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. - - Code - After the status mark, but before the description, you can optionally - write a transaction "code", enclosed in parentheses. This is a good - place to record a check number, or some other important transaction id - or reference number. - - 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, revenue, 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 symbol or commodity name (more on this below), - to the left or right of the quantity, with or without a separating - space: - - $1 - 4000 AAPL - 3 "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 - - Decimal marks, digit group marks - A decimal mark can be written as a period or a comma: - - 1.23 - 1,23456780000009 - - 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 digit group mark and no decimal mark - is ambiguous. Are these digit group marks or decimal marks ? - - 1,000 - 1.000 - - If you don't tell it otherwise, hledger will assume both of the above - are decimal marks, parsing both numbers as 1. To prevent confusion and - undetected typos, we recommend adding commodity directives at the top - of your journal file to explicitly declare the decimal mark (and - optionally a digit group mark) for each commodity. Read on for more - about this. - - Commodity - Amounts in hledger have both a "quantity", which is a signed decimal - number, and a "commodity", which is a currency symbol, stock ticker, or - any word or phrase describing something you are tracking. - - If the commodity name contains non-letters (spaces, numbers, or punctu- - ation), you must always write it inside double quotes ("green apples", - "ABC123"). - - If you write just a bare number, that too will have a commodity, with - name ""; we call that the "no-symbol commodity". - - Actually, hledger combines these single-commodity amounts into more - powerful multi-commodity amounts, which are what it works with most of - the time. A multi-commodity amount could be, eg: 1 USD, 2 EUR, 3.456 - TSLA. In practice, you will only see multi-commodity amounts in - hledger's output; you can't write them directly in the journal file. - - (If you are writing scripts or working with hledger's internals, these - are the Amount and MixedAmount types.) - - Commodity directives - You can add commodity directives to the journal, preferably at the top, - to declare your commodities and help with number parsing (see above) - and display (see below). These are optional, but recommended. They - are described in more detail in JOURNAL FORMAT -> Declaring commodi- - ties. Here's a quick example: - - # number format and display style for $, EUR, INR and the no-symbol commodity: - 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 the amounts in each commodity, hledger chooses a consistent display - style to use in most reports. (Exceptions: price amounts, and all - amounts displayed by the print command, are displayed with all of their - decimal digits visible.) - - A commodity's display style is inferred as follows. - - First, if a default commodity is declared with D, this commodity and - its style is applied to any no-symbol amounts in the journal. - - Then each commodity's style is inferred from one of the following, in - order of preference: - - o The commodity directive for that commodity (including the no-symbol - commodity), if any. - - o The amounts in that commodity seen in the journal's transactions. - (Posting amounts only; prices and periodic or auto rules are ignored, - currently.) - - o The built-in fallback style, which looks like this: $1000.00. (Sym- - bol on the left, period decimal mark, two decimal places.) - - A style is inferred from journal amounts 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. - - To summarise: each commodity's amounts will be normalised to (a) the - style declared by a commodity directive, or (b) the style of the first - posting amount in the journal, with the first-seen digit group style - and the maximum-seen number of decimal places. So if your reports are - showing amounts in a way you don't like, eg with too many decimal - places, use a commodity directive. Some examples: - - # declare euro, dollar, bitcoin and no-symbol commodities and set their - # input number formats and output display styles: - commodity EUR 1.000, - commodity $1000.00 - commodity 1000.00000000 BTC - commodity 1 000. - - 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. - - - 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 until end of cur- - rent file; display - 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 - payee declare a payee name following entries - until end of cur- - rent file - 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 payees - The payee directive can be used to declare a limited set of payees - which may appear in transaction descriptions. The "payees" check will - report an error if any transaction refers to a payee that has not been - declared. Eg: - - payee Whole Foods - - Declaring commodities - You can use commodity directives to declare your commodities. In fact - the commodity directive performs several functions at once: - - 1. It declares commodities which may be used in the journal. This can - optionally be enforced, providing useful error checking. (Cf Com- - modity error checking) - - 2. It declares which decimal mark character (period or comma), to - expect when parsing input - useful to disambiguate international - number formats in your data. Without this, hledger will parse both - 1,000 and 1.000 as 1. (Cf Amounts) - - 3. It declares how to render the commodity's amounts when displaying - output - the decimal mark, any digit group marks, the number of dec- - imal places, symbol placement and so on. (Cf Commodity display - style) - - You will run into one of the problems solved by commodity directives - sooner or later, so we recommend using them, for robust and predictable - parsing and display. - - Generally you should put them at the top of your journal file (since - for function 2, they affect only following amounts, cf #793). - - A commodity directive is just the word commodity followed by a sample - amount, like this: - - ;commodity SAMPLEAMOUNT - - commodity $1000.00 - commodity 1,000.0000 AAAA ; optional same-line comment - - It may also be written on multiple lines, and use the format subdirec- - tive, as in Ledger. Note in this case the commodity symbol appears - twice; it must be the same in both places: - - ;commodity SYMBOL - ; format SAMPLEAMOUNT - - ; display indian rupees with currency name on the left, - ; thousands, lakhs and crores comma-separated, - ; period as decimal point, and two decimal places. - commodity INR - format INR 1,00,00,000.00 - - Remember that if the commodity symbol contains spaces, numbers, or - punctuation, it must be enclosed in double quotes (cf Commodity). - - The amount's quantity does not matter; only the format is significant. - It must include a decimal mark - either a period or a comma - followed - by 0 or more decimal digits. - - A few more examples: - - # number formats for $, EUR, INR and the no-symbol commodity: - commodity $1,000.00 - commodity EUR 1.000,00 - commodity INR 9,99,99,999.0 - commodity 1 000 000. - - 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 any subsequent - commodityless amounts (ie, plain numbers) seen while parsing the jour- - nal. This effect lasts until the next D directive, or the end of the - journal. - - For compatibility/historical reasons, D also acts like a commodity - directive (setting the commodity's decimal mark for parsing and display - style for output). - - As with commodity, the amount must include a decimal mark (either - period or comma). If both commodity and D directives are used for the - same commodity, the commodity 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. - - The format is: - - P DATE COMMODITY1SYMBOL COMMODITY2AMOUNT - - DATE is a simple date, COMMODITY1SYMBOL is the symbol of the commodity - being priced, and COMMODITY2AMOUNT is the amount (symbol and quantity) - of commodity 2 that one unit of commodity 1 is worth on this date. - Examples: - - # one euro was worth $1.35 from 2009-01-01 onward: - P 2009-01-01 EUR $1.35 - - # and $1.40 from 2010-01-01 onward: - P 2010-01-01 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 account's name matches this regular expression: | its type is: - ------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------ - ^assets?(:|$) | - and does not contain regexp (investment|receivable|:A/R|:fixed) | Cash - otherwise | Asset - ^(debts?|liabilit(y|ies))(:|$) | Liability - ^equity(:|$) | Equity - ^(income|revenue)s?(:|$) | Revenue - ^expenses?(:|$) | Expense - - 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 (but note: not sibling or parent 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". - -CSV FORMAT - How hledger reads CSV data, and the CSV rules file format. - - hledger can read CSV files (Character Separated Value - usually comma, - semicolon, or tab) containing dated records as if they were journal - files, automatically converting each CSV record into a transaction. - - (To learn about writing CSV, see CSV output.) - - We describe each CSV file's format with a corresponding rules file. By - default this is named like the CSV file with a .rules extension added. - Eg when reading FILE.csv, hledger also looks for FILE.csv.rules in the - same directory as FILE.csv. You can specify a different rules file - with the --rules-file option. If a rules file is not found, hledger - will create a sample rules file, which you'll need to adjust. - - This file contains rules describing the CSV data (header line, fields - layout, date format etc.), and how to construct hledger journal entries - (transactions) from it. Often there will also be a list of conditional - rules for categorising transactions based on their descriptions. - Here's an overview of the CSV rules; these are described more fully - below, after the examples: - - - skip skip one or more header lines or matched CSV - records - - - fields list name CSV fields, assign them to hledger - fields - field assignment assign a value to one hledger field, with - interpolation - Field names hledger field names, used in the fields list - and field assignments - separator a custom field separator - if block apply some rules to CSV records matched by - patterns - if table apply some rules to CSV records matched by - patterns, alternate syntax - end skip the remaining CSV records - date-format how to parse dates in CSV records - decimal-mark the decimal mark used in CSV amounts, if - ambiguous - newest-first disambiguate record order when there's only - one date - include inline another CSV rules file - balance-type choose which type of balance assignments to - use - - Note, for best error messages when reading CSV files, use a .csv, .tsv - or .ssv file extension or file prefix - see File Extension below. - - There's an introductory Convert CSV files tutorial on hledger.org. - - Examples - Here are some sample hledger CSV rules files. See also the full col- - lection at: - https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/tree/master/examples/csv - - Basic - At minimum, the rules file must identify the date and amount fields, - and often it also specifies the date format and how many header lines - there are. Here's a simple CSV file and a rules file for it: - - Date, Description, Id, Amount - 12/11/2019, Foo, 123, 10.23 - - # basic.csv.rules - skip 1 - fields date, description, _, amount - date-format %d/%m/%Y - - $ hledger print -f basic.csv - 2019-11-12 Foo - expenses:unknown 10.23 - income:unknown -10.23 - - Default account names are chosen, since we didn't set them. - - Bank of Ireland - Here's a CSV with two amount fields (Debit and Credit), and a balance - field, which we can use to add balance assertions, which is not neces- - sary but provides extra error checking: - - Date,Details,Debit,Credit,Balance - 07/12/2012,LODGMENT 529898,,10.0,131.21 - 07/12/2012,PAYMENT,5,,126 - - # bankofireland-checking.csv.rules - - # skip the header line - skip - - # name the csv fields, and assign some of them as journal entry fields - fields date, description, amount-out, amount-in, balance - - # We generate balance assertions by assigning to "balance" - # above, but you may sometimes need to remove these because: - # - # - the CSV balance differs from the true balance, - # by up to 0.0000000000005 in my experience - # - # - it is sometimes calculated based on non-chronological ordering, - # eg when multiple transactions clear on the same day - - # date is in UK/Ireland format - date-format %d/%m/%Y - - # set the currency - currency EUR - - # set the base account for all txns - account1 assets:bank:boi:checking - - $ hledger -f bankofireland-checking.csv print - 2012-12-07 LODGMENT 529898 - assets:bank:boi:checking EUR10.0 = EUR131.2 - income:unknown EUR-10.0 - - 2012-12-07 PAYMENT - assets:bank:boi:checking EUR-5.0 = EUR126.0 - expenses:unknown EUR5.0 - - The balance assertions don't raise an error above, because we're read- - ing directly from CSV, but they will be checked if these entries are - imported into a journal file. - - Amazon - Here we convert amazon.com order history, and use an if block to gener- - ate a third posting if there's a fee. (In practice you'd probably get - this data from your bank instead, but it's an example.) - - "Date","Type","To/From","Name","Status","Amount","Fees","Transaction ID" - "Jul 29, 2012","Payment","To","Foo.","Completed","$20.00","$0.00","16000000000000DGLNJPI1P9B8DKPVHL" - "Jul 30, 2012","Payment","To","Adapteva, Inc.","Completed","$25.00","$1.00","17LA58JSKRD4HDGLNJPI1P9B8DKPVHL" - - # amazon-orders.csv.rules - - # skip one header line - skip 1 - - # name the csv fields, and assign the transaction's date, amount and code. - # Avoided the "status" and "amount" hledger field names to prevent confusion. - fields date, _, toorfrom, name, amzstatus, amzamount, fees, code - - # how to parse the date - date-format %b %-d, %Y - - # combine two fields to make the description - description %toorfrom %name - - # save the status as a tag - comment status:%amzstatus - - # set the base account for all transactions - account1 assets:amazon - # leave amount1 blank so it can balance the other(s). - # I'm assuming amzamount excludes the fees, don't remember - - # set a generic account2 - account2 expenses:misc - amount2 %amzamount - # and maybe refine it further: - #include categorisation.rules - - # add a third posting for fees, but only if they are non-zero. - if %fees [1-9] - account3 expenses:fees - amount3 %fees - - $ hledger -f amazon-orders.csv print - 2012-07-29 (16000000000000DGLNJPI1P9B8DKPVHL) To Foo. ; status:Completed - assets:amazon - expenses:misc $20.00 - - 2012-07-30 (17LA58JSKRD4HDGLNJPI1P9B8DKPVHL) To Adapteva, Inc. ; status:Completed - assets:amazon - expenses:misc $25.00 - expenses:fees $1.00 - - Paypal - Here's a real-world rules file for (customised) Paypal CSV, with some - Paypal-specific rules, and a second rules file included: - - "Date","Time","TimeZone","Name","Type","Status","Currency","Gross","Fee","Net","From Email Address","To Email Address","Transaction ID","Item Title","Item ID","Reference Txn ID","Receipt ID","Balance","Note" - "10/01/2019","03:46:20","PDT","Calm Radio","Subscription Payment","Completed","USD","-6.99","0.00","-6.99","simon@joyful.com","memberships@calmradio.com","60P57143A8206782E","MONTHLY - $1 for the first 2 Months: Me - Order 99309. Item total: $1.00 USD first 2 months, then $6.99 / Month","","I-R8YLY094FJYR","","-6.99","" - "10/01/2019","03:46:20","PDT","","Bank Deposit to PP Account ","Pending","USD","6.99","0.00","6.99","","simon@joyful.com","0TU1544T080463733","","","60P57143A8206782E","","0.00","" - "10/01/2019","08:57:01","PDT","Patreon","PreApproved Payment Bill User Payment","Completed","USD","-7.00","0.00","-7.00","simon@joyful.com","support@patreon.com","2722394R5F586712G","Patreon* Membership","","B-0PG93074E7M86381M","","-7.00","" - "10/01/2019","08:57:01","PDT","","Bank Deposit to PP Account ","Pending","USD","7.00","0.00","7.00","","simon@joyful.com","71854087RG994194F","Patreon* Membership","","2722394R5F586712G","","0.00","" - "10/19/2019","03:02:12","PDT","Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.","Subscription Payment","Completed","USD","-2.00","0.00","-2.00","simon@joyful.com","tle@wikimedia.org","K9U43044RY432050M","Monthly donation to the Wikimedia Foundation","","I-R5C3YUS3285L","","-2.00","" - "10/19/2019","03:02:12","PDT","","Bank Deposit to PP Account ","Pending","USD","2.00","0.00","2.00","","simon@joyful.com","3XJ107139A851061F","","","K9U43044RY432050M","","0.00","" - "10/22/2019","05:07:06","PDT","Noble Benefactor","Subscription Payment","Completed","USD","10.00","-0.59","9.41","noble@bene.fac.tor","simon@joyful.com","6L8L1662YP1334033","Joyful Systems","","I-KC9VBGY2GWDB","","9.41","" - - # paypal-custom.csv.rules - - # Tips: - # Export from Activity -> Statements -> Custom -> Activity download - # Suggested transaction type: "Balance affecting" - # Paypal's default fields in 2018 were: - # "Date","Time","TimeZone","Name","Type","Status","Currency","Gross","Fee","Net","From Email Address","To Email Address","Transaction ID","Shipping Address","Address Status","Item Title","Item ID","Shipping and Handling Amount","Insurance Amount","Sales Tax","Option 1 Name","Option 1 Value","Option 2 Name","Option 2 Value","Reference Txn ID","Invoice Number","Custom Number","Quantity","Receipt ID","Balance","Address Line 1","Address Line 2/District/Neighborhood","Town/City","State/Province/Region/County/Territory/Prefecture/Republic","Zip/Postal Code","Country","Contact Phone Number","Subject","Note","Country Code","Balance Impact" - # This rules file assumes the following more detailed fields, configured in "Customize report fields": - # "Date","Time","TimeZone","Name","Type","Status","Currency","Gross","Fee","Net","From Email Address","To Email Address","Transaction ID","Item Title","Item ID","Reference Txn ID","Receipt ID","Balance","Note" - - fields date, time, timezone, description_, type, status_, currency, grossamount, feeamount, netamount, fromemail, toemail, code, itemtitle, itemid, referencetxnid, receiptid, balance, note - - skip 1 - - date-format %-m/%-d/%Y - - # ignore some paypal events - if - In Progress - Temporary Hold - Update to - skip - - # add more fields to the description - description %description_ %itemtitle - - # save some other fields as tags - comment itemid:%itemid, fromemail:%fromemail, toemail:%toemail, time:%time, type:%type, status:%status_ - - # convert to short currency symbols - if %currency USD - currency $ - if %currency EUR - currency E - if %currency GBP - currency P - - # generate postings - - # the first posting will be the money leaving/entering my paypal account - # (negative means leaving my account, in all amount fields) - account1 assets:online:paypal - amount1 %netamount - - # the second posting will be money sent to/received from other party - # (account2 is set below) - amount2 -%grossamount - - # if there's a fee, add a third posting for the money taken by paypal. - if %feeamount [1-9] - account3 expenses:banking:paypal - amount3 -%feeamount - comment3 business: - - # choose an account for the second posting - - # override the default account names: - # if the amount is positive, it's income (a debit) - if %grossamount ^[^-] - account2 income:unknown - # if negative, it's an expense (a credit) - if %grossamount ^- - account2 expenses:unknown - - # apply common rules for setting account2 & other tweaks - include common.rules - - # apply some overrides specific to this csv - - # Transfers from/to bank. These are usually marked Pending, - # which can be disregarded in this case. - if - Bank Account - Bank Deposit to PP Account - description %type for %referencetxnid %itemtitle - account2 assets:bank:wf:pchecking - account1 assets:online:paypal - - # Currency conversions - if Currency Conversion - account2 equity:currency conversion - - # common.rules - - if - darcs - noble benefactor - account2 revenues:foss donations:darcshub - comment2 business: - - if - Calm Radio - account2 expenses:online:apps - - if - electronic frontier foundation - Patreon - wikimedia - Advent of Code - account2 expenses:dues - - if Google - account2 expenses:online:apps - description google | music - - $ hledger -f paypal-custom.csv print - 2019-10-01 (60P57143A8206782E) Calm Radio MONTHLY - $1 for the first 2 Months: Me - Order 99309. Item total: $1.00 USD first 2 months, then $6.99 / Month ; itemid:, fromemail:simon@joyful.com, toemail:memberships@calmradio.com, time:03:46:20, type:Subscription Payment, status:Completed - assets:online:paypal $-6.99 = $-6.99 - expenses:online:apps $6.99 - - 2019-10-01 (0TU1544T080463733) Bank Deposit to PP Account for 60P57143A8206782E ; itemid:, fromemail:, toemail:simon@joyful.com, time:03:46:20, type:Bank Deposit to PP Account, status:Pending - assets:online:paypal $6.99 = $0.00 - assets:bank:wf:pchecking $-6.99 - - 2019-10-01 (2722394R5F586712G) Patreon Patreon* Membership ; itemid:, fromemail:simon@joyful.com, toemail:support@patreon.com, time:08:57:01, type:PreApproved Payment Bill User Payment, status:Completed - assets:online:paypal $-7.00 = $-7.00 - expenses:dues $7.00 - - 2019-10-01 (71854087RG994194F) Bank Deposit to PP Account for 2722394R5F586712G Patreon* Membership ; itemid:, fromemail:, toemail:simon@joyful.com, time:08:57:01, type:Bank Deposit to PP Account, status:Pending - assets:online:paypal $7.00 = $0.00 - assets:bank:wf:pchecking $-7.00 - - 2019-10-19 (K9U43044RY432050M) Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Monthly donation to the Wikimedia Foundation ; itemid:, fromemail:simon@joyful.com, toemail:tle@wikimedia.org, time:03:02:12, type:Subscription Payment, status:Completed - assets:online:paypal $-2.00 = $-2.00 - expenses:dues $2.00 - expenses:banking:paypal ; business: - - 2019-10-19 (3XJ107139A851061F) Bank Deposit to PP Account for K9U43044RY432050M ; itemid:, fromemail:, toemail:simon@joyful.com, time:03:02:12, type:Bank Deposit to PP Account, status:Pending - assets:online:paypal $2.00 = $0.00 - assets:bank:wf:pchecking $-2.00 - - 2019-10-22 (6L8L1662YP1334033) Noble Benefactor Joyful Systems ; itemid:, fromemail:noble@bene.fac.tor, toemail:simon@joyful.com, time:05:07:06, type:Subscription Payment, status:Completed - assets:online:paypal $9.41 = $9.41 - revenues:foss donations:darcshub $-10.00 ; business: - expenses:banking:paypal $0.59 ; business: - - CSV rules - The following kinds of rule can appear in the rules file, in any order. - Blank lines and lines beginning with # or ; are ignored. - - skip - skip N - - The word "skip" followed by a number (or no number, meaning 1) tells - hledger to ignore this many non-empty lines preceding the CSV data. - (Empty/blank lines are skipped automatically.) You'll need this when- - ever your CSV data contains header lines. - - It also has a second purpose: it can be used inside if blocks to ignore - certain CSV records (described below). - - fields list - fields FIELDNAME1, FIELDNAME2, ... - - A fields list (the word "fields" followed by comma-separated field - names) is the quick way to assign CSV field values to hledger fields. - (The other way is field assignments, see below.) A fields list does - does two things: - - 1. It names the CSV fields. This is optional, but can be convenient - later for interpolating them. - - 2. Whenever you use a standard hledger field name (defined below), the - CSV value is assigned to that part of the hledger transaction. - - Here's an example that says "use the 1st, 2nd and 4th fields as the - transaction's date, description and amount; name the last two fields - for later reference; and ignore the others": - - fields date, description, , amount, , , somefield, anotherfield - - Tips: - - o The fields list always use commas, even if your CSV data uses another - separator character. - - o Currently there must be least two items in the list (at least one - comma). - - o Field names may not contain spaces. Spaces before/after field names - are optional. - - o If the CSV contains column headings, it's a good idea to use these, - suitably modified, as the basis for your field names (eg lower-cased, - with underscores instead of spaces). - - o If some heading names match standard hledger fields, but you don't - want to set the hledger fields directly, alter those names, eg by - appending an underscore. - - o Fields you don't care about can be given a dummy name (eg: _ ), or no - name. - - field assignment - HLEDGERFIELDNAME FIELDVALUE - - Field assignments are the more flexible way to assign CSV values to - hledger fields. They can be used instead of or in addition to a fields - list (see above). - - To assign a value to a hledger field, write the field name (any of the - standard hledger field/pseudo-field names, defined below), a space, - followed by a text value on the same line. This text value may inter- - polate CSV fields, referenced by their 1-based position in the CSV - record (%N), or by the name they were given in the fields list (%CSV- - FIELDNAME). - - Some examples: - - # set the amount to the 4th CSV field, with " USD" appended - amount %4 USD - - # combine three fields to make a comment, containing note: and date: tags - comment note: %somefield - %anotherfield, date: %1 - - Tips: - - o Interpolation strips outer whitespace (so a CSV value like " 1 " - becomes 1 when interpolated) (#1051). - - o See also Tips below. - - Field names - Here are the standard hledger field (and pseudo-field) names, which you - can use in a fields list and in field assignments. For more about the - transaction parts they refer to, see Transactions. - - date field - Assigning to date sets the transaction date. - - date2 field - date2 sets the transaction's secondary date, if any. - - status field - status sets the transaction's status, if any. - - code field - code sets the transaction's code, if any. - - description field - description sets the transaction's description, if any. - - comment field - comment sets the transaction's comment, if any. - - commentN, where N is a number, sets the Nth posting's comment. - - Tips: - Only single-line comments can be assigned. - Comments can con- - tain tags, as usual. - - account field - Assigning to accountN, where N is 1 to 99, sets the account name of the - Nth posting, and causes that posting to be generated. - - Most often there are two postings, so you'll want to set account1 and - account2. Typically account1 is associated with the CSV file, and is - set once with a top-level assignment, while account2 is set based on - each transaction's description, and in conditional blocks. - - If a posting's account name is left unset but its amount is set (see - below), a default account name will be chosen (like "expenses:unknown" - or "income:unknown"). - - amount field - amountN sets the amount of the Nth posting, and causes that posting to - be generated. By assigning to amount1, amount2, ... etc. you can - generate up to 99 postings. - - amountN-in and amountN-out can be used instead, if the CSV uses sepa- - rate fields for debits and credits (inflows and outflows). hledger - assumes both of these CSV fields are unsigned, and will automatically - negate the "-out" value. If they are signed, see "Setting amounts" - below. - - amount, or amount-in and amount-out are a legacy mode, to keep pre- - hledger-1.17 CSV rules files working (and for occasional convenience). - They are suitable only for two-posting transactions; they set both - posting 1's and posting 2's amount. Posting 2's amount will be - negated, and also converted to cost if there's a transaction price. - - If you have an existing rules file using the unnumbered form, you might - want to use the numbered form in certain conditional blocks, without - having to update and retest all the old rules. To facilitate this, - posting 1 ignores amount/amount-in/amount-out if any of - amount1/amount1-in/amount1-out are assigned, and posting 2 ignores them - if any of amount2/amount2-in/amount2-out are assigned, avoiding con- - flicts. - - currency field - currency sets a currency symbol, to be prepended to all postings' - amounts. You can use this if the CSV amounts do not have a currency - symbol, eg if it is in a separate column. - - currencyN prepends a currency symbol to just the Nth posting's amount. - - balance field - balanceN sets a balance assertion amount (or if the posting amount is - left empty, a balance assignment) on posting N. - - balance is a compatibility spelling for hledger <1.17; it is equivalent - to balance1. - - You can adjust the type of assertion/assignment with the balance-type - rule (see below). - - See Tips below for more about setting amounts and currency. - - separator - You can use the separator rule to read other kinds of character-sepa- - rated data. The argument is any single separator character, or the - words tab or space (case insensitive). Eg, for comma-separated values - (CSV): - - separator , - - or for semicolon-separated values (SSV): - - separator ; - - or for tab-separated values (TSV): - - separator TAB - - If the input file has a .csv, .ssv or .tsv file extension (or a csv:, - ssv:, tsv: prefix), the appropriate separator will be inferred automat- - ically, and you won't need this rule. - - if block - if MATCHER - RULE - - if - MATCHER - MATCHER - MATCHER - RULE - RULE - - Conditional blocks ("if blocks") are a block of rules that are applied - only to CSV records which match certain patterns. They are often used - for customising account names based on transaction descriptions. - - Matching the whole record - Each MATCHER can be a record matcher, which looks like this: - - REGEX - - REGEX is a case-insensitive regular expression that tries to match any- - where within the CSV record. It is a POSIX ERE (extended regular - expression) that also supports GNU word boundaries (\b, \B, \<, \>), - and nothing else. If you have trouble, be sure to check our doc: - https://hledger.org/hledger.html#regular-expressions - - Important note: the record that is matched is not the original record, - but a synthetic one, with any enclosing double quotes (but not enclos- - ing whitespace) removed, and always comma-separated (which means that a - field containing a comma will appear like two fields). Eg, if the - original record is 2020-01-01; "Acme, Inc."; 1,000, the REGEX will - actually see 2020-01-01,Acme, Inc., 1,000). - - Matching individual fields - Or, MATCHER can be a field matcher, like this: - - %CSVFIELD REGEX - - which matches just the content of a particular CSV field. CSVFIELD is - a percent sign followed by the field's name or column number, like - %date or %1. - - Combining matchers - A single matcher can be written on the same line as the "if"; or multi- - ple matchers can be written on the following lines, non-indented. Mul- - tiple matchers are OR'd (any one of them can match), unless one begins - with an & symbol, in which case it is AND'ed with the previous matcher. - - if - MATCHER - & MATCHER - RULE - - Rules applied on successful match - After the patterns there should be one or more rules to apply, all - indented by at least one space. Three kinds of rule are allowed in - conditional blocks: - - o field assignments (to set a hledger field) - - o skip (to skip the matched CSV record) - - o end (to skip all remaining CSV records). - - Examples: - - # if the CSV record contains "groceries", set account2 to "expenses:groceries" - if groceries - account2 expenses:groceries - - # if the CSV record contains any of these patterns, set account2 and comment as shown - if - monthly service fee - atm transaction fee - banking thru software - account2 expenses:business:banking - comment XXX deductible ? check it - - if table - if,CSVFIELDNAME1,CSVFIELDNAME2,...,CSVFIELDNAMEn - MATCHER1,VALUE11,VALUE12,...,VALUE1n - MATCHER2,VALUE21,VALUE22,...,VALUE2n - MATCHER3,VALUE31,VALUE32,...,VALUE3n - - - Conditional tables ("if tables") are a different syntax to specify - field assignments that will be applied only to CSV records which match - certain patterns. - - MATCHER could be either field or record matcher, as described above. - When MATCHER matches, values from that row would be assigned to the CSV - fields named on the if line, in the same order. - - Therefore if table is exactly equivalent to a sequence of of if blocks: - - if MATCHER1 - CSVFIELDNAME1 VALUE11 - CSVFIELDNAME2 VALUE12 - ... - CSVFIELDNAMEn VALUE1n - - if MATCHER2 - CSVFIELDNAME1 VALUE21 - CSVFIELDNAME2 VALUE22 - ... - CSVFIELDNAMEn VALUE2n - - if MATCHER3 - CSVFIELDNAME1 VALUE31 - CSVFIELDNAME2 VALUE32 - ... - CSVFIELDNAMEn VALUE3n - - Each line starting with MATCHER should contain enough (possibly empty) - values for all the listed fields. - - Rules would be checked and applied in the order they are listed in the - table and, like with if blocks, later rules (in the same or another ta- - ble) or if blocks could override the effect of any rule. - - Instead of ',' you can use a variety of other non-alphanumeric charac- - ters as a separator. First character after if is taken to be the sepa- - rator for the rest of the table. It is the responsibility of the user - to ensure that separator does not occur inside MATCHERs and values - - there is no way to escape separator. - - Example: - - if,account2,comment - atm transaction fee,expenses:business:banking,deductible? check it - %description groceries,expenses:groceries, - 2020/01/12.*Plumbing LLC,expenses:house:upkeep,emergency plumbing call-out - - end - This rule can be used inside if blocks (only), to make hledger stop - reading this CSV file and move on to the next input file, or to command - execution. Eg: - - # ignore everything following the first empty record - if ,,,, - end - - date-format - date-format DATEFMT - - This is a helper for the date (and date2) fields. If your CSV dates - are not formatted like YYYY-MM-DD, YYYY/MM/DD or YYYY.MM.DD, you'll - need to add a date-format rule describing them with a strptime date - parsing pattern, which must parse the CSV date value completely. Some - examples: - - # MM/DD/YY - date-format %m/%d/%y - - # D/M/YYYY - # The - makes leading zeros optional. - date-format %-d/%-m/%Y - - # YYYY-Mmm-DD - date-format %Y-%h-%d - - # M/D/YYYY HH:MM AM some other junk - # Note the time and junk must be fully parsed, though only the date is used. - date-format %-m/%-d/%Y %l:%M %p some other junk - - For the supported strptime syntax, see: - https://hackage.haskell.org/package/time/docs/Data-Time-For- - mat.html#v:formatTime - - Note that although you can parse date-times which include a time zone, - that time zone is ignored; it will not change the date that is parsed. - This means when reading CSV data with times not in your local time - zone, dates can be "off by one". - - decimal-mark - decimal-mark . - - or: - - decimal-mark , - - hledger automatically accepts either period or comma as a decimal mark - when parsing numbers (cf Amounts). However if any numbers in the CSV - contain digit group marks, such as thousand-separating commas, you - should declare the decimal mark explicitly with this rule, to avoid - misparsed numbers. - - newest-first - hledger always sorts the generated transactions by date. Transactions - on the same date should appear in the same order as their CSV records, - as hledger can usually auto-detect whether the CSV's normal order is - oldest first or newest first. But if all of the following are true: - - o the CSV might sometimes contain just one day of data (all records - having the same date) - - o the CSV records are normally in reverse chronological order (newest - at the top) - - o and you care about preserving the order of same-day transactions - - then, you should add the newest-first rule as a hint. Eg: - - # tell hledger explicitly that the CSV is normally newest first - newest-first - - include - include RULESFILE - - This includes the contents of another CSV rules file at this point. - RULESFILE is an absolute file path or a path relative to the current - file's directory. This can be useful for sharing common rules between - several rules files, eg: - - # someaccount.csv.rules - - ## someaccount-specific rules - fields date,description,amount - account1 assets:someaccount - account2 expenses:misc - - ## common rules - include categorisation.rules - - balance-type - Balance assertions generated by assigning to balanceN are of the simple - = type by default, which is a single-commodity, subaccount-excluding - assertion. You may find the subaccount-including variants more useful, - eg if you have created some virtual subaccounts of checking to help - with budgeting. You can select a different type of assertion with the - balance-type rule: - - # balance assertions will consider all commodities and all subaccounts - balance-type ==* - - Here are the balance assertion types for quick reference: - - = single commodity, exclude subaccounts - =* single commodity, include subaccounts - == multi commodity, exclude subaccounts - ==* multi commodity, include subaccounts - - Tips - Rapid feedback - It's a good idea to get rapid feedback while creating/troubleshooting - CSV rules. Here's a good way, using entr from http://eradman.com/entr- - project : - - $ ls foo.csv* | entr bash -c 'echo ----; hledger -f foo.csv print desc:SOMEDESC' - - A desc: query (eg) is used to select just one, or a few, transactions - of interest. "bash -c" is used to run multiple commands, so we can - echo a separator each time the command re-runs, making it easier to - read the output. - - Valid CSV - hledger accepts CSV conforming to RFC 4180. When CSV values are - enclosed in quotes, note: - - o they must be double quotes (not single quotes) - - o spaces outside the quotes are not allowed - - File Extension - To help hledger identify the format and show the right error messages, - CSV/SSV/TSV files should normally be named with a .csv, .ssv or .tsv - filename extension. Or, the file path should be prefixed with csv:, - ssv: or tsv:. Eg: - - $ hledger -f foo.ssv print - - or: - - $ cat foo | hledger -f ssv:- foo - - You can override the file extension with a separator rule if needed. - See also: Input files in the hledger manual. - - Reading multiple CSV files - If you use multiple -f options to read multiple CSV files at once, - hledger will look for a correspondingly-named rules file for each CSV - file. But if you use the --rules-file option, that rules file will be - used for all the CSV files. - - Valid transactions - After reading a CSV file, hledger post-processes and validates the gen- - erated journal entries as it would for a journal file - balancing them, - applying balance assignments, and canonicalising amount styles. Any - errors at this stage will be reported in the usual way, displaying the - problem entry. - - There is one exception: balance assertions, if you have generated them, - will not be checked, since normally these will work only when the CSV - data is part of the main journal. If you do need to check balance - assertions generated from CSV right away, pipe into another hledger: - - $ hledger -f file.csv print | hledger -f- print - - Deduplicating, importing - When you download a CSV file periodically, eg to get your latest bank - transactions, the new file may overlap with the old one, containing - some of the same records. - - The import command will (a) detect the new transactions, and (b) append - just those transactions to your main journal. It is idempotent, so you - don't have to remember how many times you ran it or with which version - of the CSV. (It keeps state in a hidden .latest.FILE.csv file.) This - is the easiest way to import CSV data. Eg: - - # download the latest CSV files, then run this command. - # Note, no -f flags needed here. - $ hledger import *.csv [--dry] - - This method works for most CSV files. (Where records have a stable - chronological order, and new records appear only at the new end.) - - A number of other tools and workflows, hledger-specific and otherwise, - exist for converting, deduplicating, classifying and managing CSV data. - See: - - o https://hledger.org -> sidebar -> real world setups - - o https://plaintextaccounting.org -> data import/conversion - - Setting amounts - Some tips on using the amount-setting rules discussed above. - - Here are the ways to set a posting's amount: - - 1. If the CSV has a single amount field: - Assign (via a fields list or a field assignment) to amountN. This sets - the Nth posting's amount. N is usually 1 or 2 but can go up to 99. - - 2. If the CSV has separate amount fields for debit & credit (in & out): - - a. If both fields are unsigned: - Assign to amountN-in and amountN-out. This sets posting N's amount - to whichever of these has a non-zero value, and negates the "-out" - value. - - b. If either field is signed (can contain a minus sign): - Use a conditional rule to flip the sign (of non-empty values). - Since hledger always negates amountN-out, if it was already nega- - tive, we must undo that by negating once more (but only if the - field is non-empty): - - fields date, description, amount1-in, amount1-out - if %amount1-out [1-9] - amount1-out -%amount1-out - - c. If both fields, or neither field, can contain a non-zero value: - hledger normally expects exactly one of the fields to have a non- - zero value. Eg, the amountN-in/amountN-out rules would reject - value pairs like these: - - "", "" - "0", "0" - "1", "none" - - So, use smarter conditional rules to set the amount from the appro- - priate field. Eg, these rules would make it use only the value - containing non-zero digits, handling the above: - - fields date, description, in, out - if %in [1-9] - amount1 %in - if %out [1-9] - amount1 %out - - 3. If you are stuck with hledger <1.17, or you want posting 2's amount - converted to cost: - Assign to amount (or to amount-in and amount-out). (The old numberless - syntax, which sets amount1 and amount2.) - - 4. If the CSV has the balance instead of the transaction amount: - Assign to balanceN, which sets posting N's amount indirectly via a bal- - ance assignment. (Old syntax: balance, equivalent to balance1.) - - o If hledger guesses the wrong default account name: - When setting the amount via balance assertion, hledger may guess - the wrong default account name. So, set the account name explic- - itly, eg: - - fields date, description, balance1 - account1 assets:checking - - Amount signs - There is some special handling for amount signs, to simplify parsing - and sign-flipping: - - o If an amount value begins with a plus sign: - that will be removed: +AMT becomes AMT - - o If an amount value is parenthesised: - it will be de-parenthesised and sign-flipped: (AMT) becomes -AMT - - o If an amount value has two minus signs (or two sets of parentheses, - or a minus sign and parentheses): - they cancel out and will be removed: --AMT or -(AMT) becomes AMT - - o If an amount value contains just a sign (or just a set of parenthe- - ses): - that is removed, making it an empty value. "+" or "-" or "()" becomes - "". - - Setting currency/commodity - If the currency/commodity symbol is included in the CSV's amount - field(s): - - 2020-01-01,foo,$123.00 - - you don't have to do anything special for the commodity symbol, it will - be assigned as part of the amount. Eg: - - fields date,description,amount - - 2020-01-01 foo - expenses:unknown $123.00 - income:unknown $-123.00 - - If the currency is provided as a separate CSV field: - - 2020-01-01,foo,USD,123.00 - - You can assign that to the currency pseudo-field, which has the special - effect of prepending itself to every amount in the transaction (on the - left, with no separating space): - - fields date,description,currency,amount - - 2020-01-01 foo - expenses:unknown USD123.00 - income:unknown USD-123.00 - - Or, you can use a field assignment to construct the amount yourself, - with more control. Eg to put the symbol on the right, and separated by - a space: - - fields date,description,cur,amt - amount %amt %cur - - 2020-01-01 foo - expenses:unknown 123.00 USD - income:unknown -123.00 USD - - Note we used a temporary field name (cur) that is not currency - that - would trigger the prepending effect, which we don't want here. - - Amount decimal places - Like amounts in a journal file, the amounts generated by CSV rules like - amount1 influence commodity display styles, such as the number of deci- - mal places displayed in reports. - - The original amounts as written in the CSV file do not affect display - style (because we don't yet reliably know their commodity). - - Referencing other fields - In field assignments, you can interpolate only CSV fields, not hledger - fields. In the example below, there's both a CSV field and a hledger - field named amount1, but %amount1 always means the CSV field, not the - hledger field: - - # Name the third CSV field "amount1" - fields date,description,amount1 - - # Set hledger's amount1 to the CSV amount1 field followed by USD - amount1 %amount1 USD - - # Set comment to the CSV amount1 (not the amount1 assigned above) - comment %amount1 - - Here, since there's no CSV amount1 field, %amount1 will produce a lit- - eral "amount1": - - fields date,description,csvamount - amount1 %csvamount USD - # Can't interpolate amount1 here - comment %amount1 - - When there are multiple field assignments to the same hledger field, - only the last one takes effect. Here, comment's value will be be B, or - C if "something" is matched, but never A: - - comment A - comment B - if something - comment C - - How CSV rules are evaluated - Here's how to think of CSV rules being evaluated (if you really need - to). First, - - o include - all includes are inlined, from top to bottom, depth first. - (At each include point the file is inlined and scanned for further - includes, recursively, before proceeding.) - - Then "global" rules are evaluated, top to bottom. If a rule is - repeated, the last one wins: - - o skip (at top level) - - o date-format - - o newest-first - - o fields - names the CSV fields, optionally sets up initial assignments - to hledger fields - - Then for each CSV record in turn: - - o test all if blocks. If any of them contain a end rule, skip all - remaining CSV records. Otherwise if any of them contain a skip rule, - skip that many CSV records. If there are multiple matched skip - rules, the first one wins. - - o collect all field assignments at top level and in matched if blocks. - When there are multiple assignments for a field, keep only the last - one. - - o compute a value for each hledger field - either the one that was - assigned to it (and interpolate the %CSVFIELDNAME references), or a - default - - o generate a synthetic hledger transaction from these values. - - This is all part of the CSV reader, one of several readers hledger can - use to parse input files. When all files have been read successfully, - the transactions are passed as input to whichever hledger command the - user specified. - -TIMECLOCK FORMAT - The time logging format of timeclock.el, as read by hledger. - - hledger can read time logs in timeclock format. As with Ledger, these - are (a subset of) timeclock.el's format, containing clock-in and clock- - out entries as in the example below. The date is a simple date. The - time format is HH:MM[:SS][+-ZZZZ]. Seconds and timezone are optional. - The timezone, if present, must be four digits and is ignored (currently - the time is always interpreted as a local time). - - i 2015/03/30 09:00:00 some:account name optional description after two spaces - o 2015/03/30 09:20:00 - i 2015/03/31 22:21:45 another account - o 2015/04/01 02:00:34 - - hledger treats each clock-in/clock-out pair as a transaction posting - some number of hours to an account. Or if the session spans more than - one day, it is split into several transactions, one for each day. For - the above time log, hledger print generates these journal entries: - - $ hledger -f t.timeclock print - 2015-03-30 * optional description after two spaces - (some:account name) 0.33h - - 2015-03-31 * 22:21-23:59 - (another account) 1.64h - - 2015-04-01 * 00:00-02:00 - (another account) 2.01h - - Here is a sample.timeclock to download and some queries to try: - - $ hledger -f sample.timeclock balance # current time balances - $ hledger -f sample.timeclock register -p 2009/3 # sessions in march 2009 - $ hledger -f sample.timeclock register -p weekly --depth 1 --empty # time summary by week - - To generate time logs, ie to clock in and clock out, you could: - - o use emacs and the built-in timeclock.el, or the extended timeclock- - x.el and perhaps the extras in ledgerutils.el - - o at the command line, use these bash aliases: shell alias ti="echo - i `date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'` \$* >>$TIMELOG" alias to="echo o - `date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'` >>$TIMELOG" - - o or use the old ti and to scripts in the ledger 2.x repository. These - rely on a "timeclock" executable which I think is just the ledger 2 - executable renamed. - -TIMEDOT FORMAT - hledger's human-friendly time logging format. - - Timedot is a plain text format for logging dated, categorised quanti- - ties (of time, usually), supported by hledger. It is convenient for - approximate and retroactive time logging, eg when the real-time clock- - in/out required with a timeclock file is too precise or too interrup- - tive. It can be formatted like a bar chart, making clear at a glance - where time was spent. - - Though called "timedot", this format is read by hledger as commodity- - less quantities, so it could be used to represent dated quantities - other than time. In the docs below we'll assume it's time. - - A timedot file contains a series of day entries. A day entry begins - with a non-indented hledger-style simple date (Y-M-D, Y/M/D, Y.M.D..) - Any additional text on the same line is used as a transaction descrip- - tion for this day. - - This is followed by optionally-indented timelog items for that day, one - per line. Each timelog item is a note, usually a - hledger:style:account:name representing a time category, followed by - two or more spaces, and a quantity. Each timelog item generates a - hledger transaction. - - Quantities can be written as: - - o dots: a sequence of dots (.) representing quarter hours. Spaces may - optionally be used for grouping. Eg: .... .. - - o an integral or decimal number, representing hours. Eg: 1.5 - - o an integral or decimal number immediately followed by a unit symbol - s, m, h, d, w, mo, or y, representing seconds, minutes, hours, days - weeks, months or years respectively. Eg: 90m. The following equiva- - lencies are assumed, currently: 1m = 60s, 1h = 60m, 1d = 24h, 1w = - 7d, 1mo = 30d, 1y=365d. - - There is some flexibility allowing notes and todo lists to be kept - right in the time log, if needed: - - o Blank lines and lines beginning with # or ; are ignored. - - o Lines not ending with a double-space and quantity are parsed as items - taking no time, which will not appear in balance reports by default. - (Add -E to see them.) - - o Org mode headlines (lines beginning with one or more * followed by a - space) can be used as date lines or timelog items (the stars are - ignored). Also all org headlines before the first date line are - ignored. This means org users can manage their timelog as an org - outline (eg using org-mode/orgstruct-mode in Emacs), for organisa- - tion, faster navigation, controlling visibility etc. - - Examples: - - # on this day, 6h was spent on client work, 1.5h on haskell FOSS work, etc. - 2016/2/1 - inc:client1 .... .... .... .... .... .... - fos:haskell .... .. - biz:research . - - 2016/2/2 - inc:client1 .... .... - biz:research . - - 2016/2/3 - inc:client1 4 - fos:hledger 3 - biz:research 1 - - * Time log - ** 2020-01-01 - *** adm:time . - *** adm:finance . - - * 2020 Work Diary - ** Q1 - *** 2020-02-29 - **** DONE - 0700 yoga - **** UNPLANNED - **** BEGUN - hom:chores - cleaning ... - water plants - outdoor - one full watering can - indoor - light watering - **** TODO - adm:planning: trip - *** LATER - - Reporting: - - $ hledger -f t.timedot print date:2016/2/2 - 2016-02-02 * - (inc:client1) 2.00 - - 2016-02-02 * - (biz:research) 0.25 - - $ hledger -f t.timedot bal --daily --tree - Balance changes in 2016-02-01-2016-02-03: - - || 2016-02-01d 2016-02-02d 2016-02-03d - ============++======================================== - biz || 0.25 0.25 1.00 - research || 0.25 0.25 1.00 - fos || 1.50 0 3.00 - haskell || 1.50 0 0 - hledger || 0 0 3.00 - inc || 6.00 2.00 4.00 - client1 || 6.00 2.00 4.00 - ------------++---------------------------------------- - || 7.75 2.25 8.00 - - I prefer to use period for separating account components. We can make - this work with an account alias: - - 2016/2/4 - fos.hledger.timedot 4 - fos.ledger .. - - $ hledger -f t.timedot --alias /\\./=: bal date:2016/2/4 --tree - 4.50 fos - 4.00 hledger:timedot - 0.50 ledger - -------------------- - 4.50 - - Here is a sample.timedot. - -COMMON TASKS - Here are some quick examples of how to do some basic tasks with - hledger. For more details, see the reference section below, the - hledger_journal(5) manual, or the more extensive docs at - https://hledger.org. - - Getting help - $ hledger # show available commands - $ hledger --help # show common options - $ hledger CMD --help # show common and command options, and command help - $ hledger help # show available manuals/topics - $ hledger help hledger # show hledger manual as info/man/text (auto-chosen) - $ hledger help journal --man # show the journal manual as a man page - $ hledger help --help # show more detailed help for the help command - - Find more docs, chat, mail list, reddit, issue tracker: - https://hledger.org#help-feedback - - Constructing command lines - hledger has an extensive and powerful command line interface. We - strive to keep it simple and ergonomic, but you may run into one of the - confusing real world details described in OPTIONS, below. If that hap- - pens, here are some tips that may help: - - o command-specific options must go after the command (it's fine to put - all options there) (hledger CMD OPTS ARGS) - - o running add-on executables directly simplifies command line parsing - (hledger-ui OPTS ARGS) - - o enclose "problematic" args in single quotes - - o if needed, also add a backslash to hide regular expression metachar- - acters from the shell - - o to see how a misbehaving command is being parsed, add --debug=2. - - Starting a journal file - hledger looks for your accounting data in a journal file, - $HOME/.hledger.journal by default: - - $ hledger stats - The hledger journal file "/Users/simon/.hledger.journal" was not found. - Please create it first, eg with "hledger add" or a text editor. - Or, specify an existing journal file with -f or LEDGER_FILE. - - You can override this by setting the LEDGER_FILE environment variable. - It's a good practice to keep this important file under version control, - and to start a new file each year. So you could do something like - this: - - $ mkdir ~/finance - $ cd ~/finance - $ git init - Initialized empty Git repository in /Users/simon/finance/.git/ - $ touch 2020.journal - $ echo "export LEDGER_FILE=$HOME/finance/2020.journal" >> ~/.bashrc - $ source ~/.bashrc - $ hledger stats - Main file : /Users/simon/finance/2020.journal - Included files : - Transactions span : to (0 days) - Last transaction : none - Transactions : 0 (0.0 per day) - Transactions last 30 days: 0 (0.0 per day) - Transactions last 7 days : 0 (0.0 per day) - Payees/descriptions : 0 - Accounts : 0 (depth 0) - Commodities : 0 () - Market prices : 0 () - - Setting opening balances - Pick a starting date for which you can look up the balances of some - real-world assets (bank accounts, wallet..) and liabilities (credit - cards..). - - To avoid a lot of data entry, you may want to start with just one or - two accounts, like your checking account or cash wallet; and pick a - recent starting date, like today or the start of the week. You can - always come back later and add more accounts and older transactions, eg - going back to january 1st. - - Add an opening balances transaction to the journal, declaring the bal- - ances on this date. Here are two ways to do it: - - o The first way: open the journal in any text editor and save an entry - like this: - - 2020-01-01 * opening balances - assets:bank:checking $1000 = $1000 - assets:bank:savings $2000 = $2000 - assets:cash $100 = $100 - liabilities:creditcard $-50 = $-50 - equity:opening/closing balances - - These are start-of-day balances, ie whatever was in the account at - the end of the previous day. - - The * after the date is an optional status flag. Here it means - "cleared & confirmed". - - The currency symbols are optional, but usually a good idea as you'll - be dealing with multiple currencies sooner or later. - - The = amounts are optional balance assertions, providing extra error - checking. - - o The second way: run hledger add and follow the prompts to record a - similar transaction: - - $ hledger add - Adding transactions to journal file /Users/simon/finance/2020.journal - Any command line arguments will be used as defaults. - Use tab key to complete, readline keys to edit, enter to accept defaults. - An optional (CODE) may follow transaction dates. - An optional ; COMMENT may follow descriptions or amounts. - If you make a mistake, enter < at any prompt to go one step backward. - To end a transaction, enter . when prompted. - To quit, enter . at a date prompt or press control-d or control-c. - Date [2020-02-07]: 2020-01-01 - Description: * opening balances - Account 1: assets:bank:checking - Amount 1: $1000 - Account 2: assets:bank:savings - Amount 2 [$-1000]: $2000 - Account 3: assets:cash - Amount 3 [$-3000]: $100 - Account 4: liabilities:creditcard - Amount 4 [$-3100]: $-50 - Account 5: equity:opening/closing balances - Amount 5 [$-3050]: - Account 6 (or . or enter to finish this transaction): . - 2020-01-01 * opening balances - assets:bank:checking $1000 - assets:bank:savings $2000 - assets:cash $100 - liabilities:creditcard $-50 - equity:opening/closing balances $-3050 - - Save this transaction to the journal ? [y]: - Saved. - Starting the next transaction (. or ctrl-D/ctrl-C to quit) - Date [2020-01-01]: . - - If you're using version control, this could be a good time to commit - the journal. Eg: - - $ git commit -m 'initial balances' 2020.journal - - Recording transactions - As you spend or receive money, you can record these transactions using - one of the methods above (text editor, hledger add) or by using the - hledger-iadd or hledger-web add-ons, or by using the import command to - convert CSV data downloaded from your bank. - - Here are some simple transactions, see the hledger_journal(5) manual - and hledger.org for more ideas: - - 2020/1/10 * gift received - assets:cash $20 - income:gifts - - 2020.1.12 * farmers market - expenses:food $13 - assets:cash - - 2020-01-15 paycheck - income:salary - assets:bank:checking $1000 - - Reconciling - Periodically you should reconcile - compare your hledger-reported bal- - ances against external sources of truth, like bank statements or your - bank's website - to be sure that your ledger accurately represents the - real-world balances (and, that the real-world institutions have not - made a mistake!). This gets easy and fast with (1) practice and (2) - frequency. If you do it daily, it can take 2-10 minutes. If you let - it pile up, expect it to take longer as you hunt down errors and dis- - crepancies. - - A typical workflow: - - 1. Reconcile cash. Count what's in your wallet. Compare with what - hledger reports (hledger bal cash). If they are different, try to - remember the missing transaction, or look for the error in the - already-recorded transactions. A register report can be helpful - (hledger reg cash). If you can't find the error, add an adjustment - transaction. Eg if you have $105 after the above, and can't explain - the missing $2, it could be: - - 2020-01-16 * adjust cash - assets:cash $-2 = $105 - expenses:misc - - 2. Reconcile checking. Log in to your bank's website. Compare today's - (cleared) balance with hledger's cleared balance (hledger bal check- - ing -C). If they are different, track down the error or record the - missing transaction(s) or add an adjustment transaction, similar to - the above. Unlike the cash case, you can usually compare the trans- - action history and running balance from your bank with the one - reported by hledger reg checking -C. This will be easier if you - generally record transaction dates quite similar to your bank's - clearing dates. - - 3. Repeat for other asset/liability accounts. - - Tip: instead of the register command, use hledger-ui to see a live- - updating register while you edit the journal: hledger-ui --watch --reg- - ister checking -C - - After reconciling, it could be a good time to mark the reconciled - transactions' status as "cleared and confirmed", if you want to track - that, by adding the * marker. Eg in the paycheck transaction above, - insert * between 2020-01-15 and paycheck - - If you're using version control, this can be another good time to com- - mit: - - $ git commit -m 'txns' 2020.journal - - Reporting - Here are some basic reports. - - Show all transactions: - - $ hledger print - 2020-01-01 * opening balances - assets:bank:checking $1000 - assets:bank:savings $2000 - assets:cash $100 - liabilities:creditcard $-50 - equity:opening/closing balances $-3050 - - 2020-01-10 * gift received - assets:cash $20 - income:gifts - - 2020-01-12 * farmers market - expenses:food $13 - assets:cash - - 2020-01-15 * paycheck - income:salary - assets:bank:checking $1000 - - 2020-01-16 * adjust cash - assets:cash $-2 = $105 - expenses:misc - - Show account names, and their hierarchy: - - $ hledger accounts --tree - assets - bank - checking - savings - cash - equity - opening/closing balances - expenses - food - misc - income - gifts - salary - liabilities - creditcard - - Show all account totals: - - $ hledger balance - $4105 assets - $4000 bank - $2000 checking - $2000 savings - $105 cash - $-3050 equity:opening/closing balances - $15 expenses - $13 food - $2 misc - $-1020 income - $-20 gifts - $-1000 salary - $-50 liabilities:creditcard - -------------------- - 0 - - Show only asset and liability balances, as a flat list, limited to - depth 2: - - $ hledger bal assets liabilities --flat -2 - $4000 assets:bank - $105 assets:cash - $-50 liabilities:creditcard - -------------------- - $4055 - - Show the same thing without negative numbers, formatted as a simple - balance sheet: - - $ hledger bs --flat -2 - Balance Sheet 2020-01-16 - - || 2020-01-16 - ========================++============ - Assets || - ------------------------++------------ - assets:bank || $4000 - assets:cash || $105 - ------------------------++------------ - || $4105 - ========================++============ - Liabilities || - ------------------------++------------ - liabilities:creditcard || $50 - ------------------------++------------ - || $50 - ========================++============ - Net: || $4055 - - The final total is your "net worth" on the end date. (Or use bse for a - full balance sheet with equity.) - - Show income and expense totals, formatted as an income statement: - - hledger is - Income Statement 2020-01-01-2020-01-16 - - || 2020-01-01-2020-01-16 - ===============++======================= - Revenues || - ---------------++----------------------- - income:gifts || $20 - income:salary || $1000 - ---------------++----------------------- - || $1020 - ===============++======================= - Expenses || - ---------------++----------------------- - expenses:food || $13 - expenses:misc || $2 - ---------------++----------------------- - || $15 - ===============++======================= - Net: || $1005 - - The final total is your net income during this period. - - Show transactions affecting your wallet, with running total: - - $ hledger register cash - 2020-01-01 opening balances assets:cash $100 $100 - 2020-01-10 gift received assets:cash $20 $120 - 2020-01-12 farmers market assets:cash $-13 $107 - 2020-01-16 adjust cash assets:cash $-2 $105 - - Show weekly posting counts as a bar chart: - - $ hledger activity -W - 2019-12-30 ***** - 2020-01-06 **** - 2020-01-13 **** - - Migrating to a new file - At the end of the year, you may want to continue your journal in a new - file, so that old transactions don't slow down or clutter your reports, - and to help ensure the integrity of your accounting history. See the - close command. - - If using version control, don't forget to git add the new file. - -LIMITATIONS - The need to precede add-on command options with -- when invoked from - hledger is awkward. - - When input data contains non-ascii characters, a suitable system locale - must be configured (or there will be an unhelpful error). Eg on POSIX, - set LANG to something other than C. - - In a Microsoft Windows CMD window, non-ascii characters and colours are - not supported. - - On Windows, non-ascii characters may not display correctly when running - a hledger built in CMD in MSYS/CYGWIN, or vice-versa. - - In a Cygwin/MSYS/Mintty window, the tab key is not supported in hledger - add. - - Not all of Ledger's journal file syntax is supported. See file format - differences. - - On large data files, hledger is slower and uses more memory than - Ledger. - -TROUBLESHOOTING - Here are some issues you might encounter when you run hledger (and - remember you can also seek help from the IRC channel, mail list or bug - tracker): - - Successfully installed, but "No command 'hledger' found" - stack and cabal install binaries into a special directory, which should - be added to your PATH environment variable. Eg on unix-like systems, - that is ~/.local/bin and ~/.cabal/bin respectively. - - I set a custom LEDGER_FILE, but hledger is still using the default file - LEDGER_FILE should be a real environment variable, not just a shell - variable. The command env | grep LEDGER_FILE should show it. You may - need to use export. Here's an explanation. - - Getting errors like "Illegal byte sequence" or "Invalid or incomplete - multibyte or wide character" or "commitAndReleaseBuffer: invalid argu- - ment (invalid character)" - Programs compiled with GHC (hledger, haskell build tools, etc.) need to - have a UTF-8-aware locale configured in the environment, otherwise they - will fail with these kinds of errors when they encounter non-ascii - characters. - - To fix it, set the LANG environment variable to some locale which sup- - ports UTF-8. The locale you choose must be installed on your system. - - Here's an example of setting LANG temporarily, on Ubuntu GNU/Linux: - - $ file my.journal - my.journal: UTF-8 Unicode text # the file is UTF8-encoded - $ echo $LANG - C # LANG is set to the default locale, which does not support UTF8 - $ locale -a # which locales are installed ? - C - en_US.utf8 # here's a UTF8-aware one we can use - POSIX - $ LANG=en_US.utf8 hledger -f my.journal print # ensure it is used for this command - - If available, C.UTF-8 will also work. If your preferred locale isn't - listed by locale -a, you might need to install it. Eg on - Ubuntu/Debian: - - $ apt-get install language-pack-fr - $ locale -a - C - en_US.utf8 - fr_BE.utf8 - fr_CA.utf8 - fr_CH.utf8 - fr_FR.utf8 - fr_LU.utf8 - POSIX - $ LANG=fr_FR.utf8 hledger -f my.journal print - - Here's how you could set it permanently, if you use a bash shell: - - $ echo "export LANG=en_US.utf8" >>~/.bash_profile - $ bash --login - - Exact spelling and capitalisation may be important. Note the differ- - ence on MacOS (UTF-8, not utf8). Some platforms (eg ubuntu) allow - variant spellings, but others (eg macos) require it to be exact: - - $ locale -a | grep -iE en_us.*utf - en_US.UTF-8 - $ LANG=en_US.UTF-8 hledger -f my.journal print - - - -REPORTING BUGS - Report bugs at http://bugs.hledger.org (or on the #hledger IRC channel - or hledger mail list) - - -AUTHORS - Simon Michael 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-1.22.1 August 2021 HLEDGER(1) + manual is for hledger 1.22.2. + +SYNOPSIS + hledger + + hledger [-f FILE] COMMAND [OPTIONS] [ARGS] + + hledger [-f FILE] ADDONCMD -- [OPTIONS] [ARGS] + +DESCRIPTION + hledger is a reliable, cross-platform set of programs for tracking + money, time, or any other commodity, using double-entry accounting and + a simple, editable file format. hledger is inspired by and largely + compatible with ledger(1). + + The basic function of the hledger CLI is to read a plain text file + describing financial transactions (in accounting terms, a general jour- + nal) and print useful reports on standard output, or export them as + CSV. hledger can also read some other file formats such as CSV files, + translating them to journal format. Additionally, hledger lists other + hledger-* executables found in the user's $PATH and can invoke them as + subcommands. + + hledger reads data from one or more files in hledger journal, time- + clock, timedot, or CSV format specified with -f, or $LEDGER_FILE, or + $HOME/.hledger.journal (on windows, perhaps + C:/Users/USER/.hledger.journal). If using $LEDGER_FILE, note this must + be a real environment variable, not a shell variable. You can specify + standard input with -f-. + + Transactions are dated movements of money between two (or more) named + accounts, and are recorded with journal entries like this: + + 2015/10/16 bought food + expenses:food $10 + assets:cash + + Most users use a text editor to edit the journal, usually with an edi- + tor mode such as ledger-mode for added convenience. hledger's interac- + tive add command is another way to record new transactions. hledger + never changes existing transactions. + + To get started, you can either save some entries like the above in + ~/.hledger.journal, or run hledger add and follow the prompts. Then + try some commands like hledger print or hledger balance. Run hledger + with no arguments for a list of commands. + +OPTIONS + General options + To see general usage help, including general options which are sup- + ported by most hledger commands, run hledger -h. + + General help options: + + -h --help + show general or COMMAND help + + --man show general or COMMAND user manual with man + + --info show general or COMMAND user manual with info + + --version + show general or ADDONCMD version + + --debug[=N] + show debug output (levels 1-9, default: 1) + + General input options: + + -f FILE --file=FILE + use a different input file. For stdin, use - (default: + $LEDGER_FILE or $HOME/.hledger.journal) + + --rules-file=RULESFILE + Conversion rules file to use when reading CSV (default: + FILE.rules) + + --separator=CHAR + Field separator to expect when reading CSV (default: ',') + + --alias=OLD=NEW + rename accounts named OLD to NEW + + --anon anonymize accounts and payees + + --pivot FIELDNAME + use some other field or tag for the account name + + -I --ignore-assertions + disable balance assertion checks (note: does not disable balance + assignments) + + -s --strict + do extra error checking (check that all posted accounts are + declared) + + General reporting options: + + -b --begin=DATE + include postings/txns on or after this date (will be adjusted to + preceding subperiod start when using a report interval) + + -e --end=DATE + include postings/txns before this date (will be adjusted to fol- + lowing subperiod end when using a report interval) + + -D --daily + multiperiod/multicolumn report by day + + -W --weekly + multiperiod/multicolumn report by week + + -M --monthly + multiperiod/multicolumn report by month + + -Q --quarterly + multiperiod/multicolumn report by quarter + + -Y --yearly + multiperiod/multicolumn report by year + + -p --period=PERIODEXP + set start date, end date, and/or reporting interval all at once + using period expressions syntax + + --date2 + match the secondary date instead (see command help for other + effects) + + -U --unmarked + include only unmarked postings/txns (can combine with -P or -C) + + -P --pending + include only pending postings/txns + + -C --cleared + include only cleared postings/txns + + -R --real + include only non-virtual postings + + -NUM --depth=NUM + hide/aggregate accounts or postings more than NUM levels deep + + -E --empty + show items with zero amount, normally hidden (and vice-versa in + hledger-ui/hledger-web) + + -B --cost + convert amounts to their cost/selling amount at transaction time + + -V --market + convert amounts to their market value in default valuation com- + modities + + -X --exchange=COMM + convert amounts to their market value in commodity COMM + + --value + convert amounts to cost or market value, more flexibly than + -B/-V/-X + + --infer-market-prices + use transaction prices (recorded with @ or @@) as additional + market prices, as if they were P directives + + --auto apply automated posting rules to modify transactions. + + --forecast + generate future transactions from periodic transaction rules, + for the next 6 months or till report end date. In hledger-ui, + also make ordinary future transactions visible. + + --color=WHEN (or --colour=WHEN) + Should color-supporting commands use ANSI color codes in text + output. 'auto' (default): whenever stdout seems to be a color- + supporting terminal. 'always' or 'yes': always, useful eg when + piping output into 'less -R'. 'never' or 'no': never. A + NO_COLOR environment variable overrides this. + + When a reporting option appears more than once in the command line, the + last one takes precedence. + + Some reporting options can also be written as query arguments. + + Command options + To see options for a particular command, including command-specific + options, run: hledger COMMAND -h. + + Command-specific options must be written after the command name, eg: + hledger print -x. + + Additionally, if the command is an add-on, you may need to put its + options after a double-hyphen, eg: hledger ui -- --watch. Or, you can + run the add-on executable directly: hledger-ui --watch. + + Command arguments + Most hledger commands accept arguments after the command name, which + are often a query, filtering the data in some way. + + You can save a set of command line options/arguments in a file, and + then reuse them by writing @FILENAME as a command line argument. Eg: + hledger bal @foo.args. (To prevent this, eg if you have an argument + that begins with a literal @, precede it with --, eg: hledger bal -- + @ARG). + + Inside the argument file, each line should contain just one option or + argument. Avoid the use of spaces, except inside quotes (or you'll see + a confusing error). Between a flag and its argument, use = (or noth- + ing). Bad: + + assets depth:2 + -X USD + + Good: + + assets + depth:2 + -X=USD + + For special characters (see below), use one less level of quoting than + you would at the command prompt. Bad: + + -X"$" + + Good: + + -X$ + + See also: Save frequently used options. + + Special characters + Single escaping (shell metacharacters) + In shell command lines, characters significant to your shell - such as + spaces, <, >, (, ), |, $ and \ - should be "shell-escaped" if you want + hledger to see them. This is done by enclosing them in single or dou- + ble quotes, or by writing a backslash before them. Eg to match an + account name containing a space: + + $ hledger register 'credit card' + + or: + + $ hledger register credit\ card + + Windows users should keep in mind that cmd treats single quote as a + regular character, so you should be using double quotes exclusively. + PowerShell treats both single and double quotes as quotes. + + Double escaping (regular expression metacharacters) + Characters significant in regular expressions (described below) - such + as ., ^, $, [, ], (, ), |, and \ - may need to be "regex-escaped" if + you don't want them to be interpreted by hledger's regular expression + engine. This is done by writing backslashes before them, but since + backslash is typically also a shell metacharacter, both shell-escaping + and regex-escaping will be needed. Eg to match a literal $ sign while + using the bash shell: + + $ hledger balance cur:'\$' + + or: + + $ hledger balance cur:\\$ + + Triple escaping (for add-on commands) + When you use hledger to run an external add-on command (described + below), one level of shell-escaping is lost from any options or argu- + ments intended for by the add-on command, so those need an extra level + of shell-escaping. Eg to match a literal $ sign while using the bash + shell and running an add-on command (ui): + + $ hledger ui cur:'\\$' + + or: + + $ hledger ui cur:\\\\$ + + If you wondered why four backslashes, perhaps this helps: + + + unescaped: $ + escaped: \$ + double-escaped: \\$ + triple-escaped: \\\\$ + + Or, you can avoid the extra escaping by running the add-on executable + directly: + + $ hledger-ui cur:\\$ + + Less escaping + Options and arguments are sometimes used in places other than the shell + command line, where shell-escaping is not needed, so there you should + use one less level of escaping. Those places include: + + o an @argumentfile + + o hledger-ui's filter field + + o hledger-web's search form + + o GHCI's prompt (used by developers). + + Unicode characters + hledger is expected to handle non-ascii characters correctly: + + o they should be parsed correctly in input files and on the command + line, by all hledger tools (add, iadd, hledger-web's search/add/edit + forms, etc.) + + o they should be displayed correctly by all hledger tools, and on- + screen alignment should be preserved. + + This requires a well-configured environment. Here are some tips: + + o A system locale must be configured, and it must be one that can + decode the characters being used. In bash, you can set a locale like + this: export LANG=en_US.UTF-8. There are some more details in Trou- + bleshooting. This step is essential - without it, hledger will quit + on encountering a non-ascii character (as with all GHC-compiled pro- + grams). + + o your terminal software (eg Terminal.app, iTerm, CMD.exe, xterm..) + must support unicode + + o the terminal must be using a font which includes the required unicode + glyphs + + o the terminal should be configured to display wide characters as dou- + ble width (for report alignment) + + o on Windows, for best results you should run hledger in the same kind + of environment in which it was built. Eg hledger built in the stan- + dard CMD.EXE environment (like the binaries on our download page) + might show display problems when run in a cygwin or msys terminal, + and vice versa. (See eg #961). + + Regular expressions + hledger uses regular expressions in a number of places: + + o query terms, on the command line and in the hledger-web search form: + REGEX, desc:REGEX, cur:REGEX, tag:...=REGEX + + o CSV rules conditional blocks: if REGEX ... + + o account alias directives and options: alias /REGEX/ = REPLACEMENT, + --alias /REGEX/=REPLACEMENT + + hledger's regular expressions come from the regex-tdfa library. If + they're not doing what you expect, it's important to know exactly what + they support: + + 1. they are case insensitive + + 2. they are infix matching (they do not need to match the entire thing + being matched) + + 3. they are POSIX ERE (extended regular expressions) + + 4. they also support GNU word boundaries (\b, \B, \<, \>) + + 5. they do not support backreferences; if you write \1, it will match + the digit 1. Except when doing text replacement, eg in account + aliases, where backreferences can be used in the replacement string + to reference capturing groups in the search regexp. + + 6. they do not support mode modifiers ((?s)), character classes (\w, + \d), or anything else not mentioned above. + + Some things to note: + + o In the alias directive and --alias option, regular expressions must + be enclosed in forward slashes (/REGEX/). Elsewhere in hledger, + these are not required. + + o In queries, to match a regular expression metacharacter like $ as a + literal character, prepend a backslash. Eg to search for amounts + with the dollar sign in hledger-web, write cur:\$. + + o On the command line, some metacharacters like $ have a special mean- + ing to the shell and so must be escaped at least once more. See Spe- + cial characters. + +ENVIRONMENT + LEDGER_FILE The journal file path when not specified with -f. Default: + ~/.hledger.journal (on windows, perhaps C:/Users/USER/.hledger.jour- + nal). + + A typical value is ~/DIR/YYYY.journal, where DIR is a version-con- + trolled finance directory and YYYY is the current year. Or ~/DIR/cur- + rent.journal, where current.journal is a symbolic link to YYYY.journal. + + On Mac computers, you can set this and other environment variables in a + more thorough way that also affects applications started from the GUI + (say, an Emacs dock icon). Eg on MacOS Catalina I have a + ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist file containing + + { + "LEDGER_FILE" : "~/finance/current.journal" + } + + To see the effect you may need to killall Dock, or reboot. + + COLUMNS The screen width used by the register command. Default: the + full terminal width. + + NO_COLOR If this variable exists with any value, hledger will not use + ANSI color codes in terminal output. This overrides the + --color/--colour option. + +DATA FILES + hledger reads transactions from one or more data files. The default + data file is $HOME/.hledger.journal (or on Windows, something like + C:/Users/USER/.hledger.journal). + + You can override this with the $LEDGER_FILE environment variable: + + $ setenv LEDGER_FILE ~/finance/2016.journal + $ hledger stats + + or with one or more -f/--file options: + + $ hledger -f /some/file -f another_file stats + + The file name - means standard input: + + $ cat some.journal | hledger -f- + + Data formats + Usually the data file is in hledger's journal format, but it can be in + any of the supported file formats, which currently are: + + + Reader: Reads: Used for file exten- + sions: + ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + journal hledger journal files and some Ledger .journal .j .hledger + journals, for transactions .ledger + time- timeclock files, for precise time log- .timeclock + clock ging + timedot timedot files, for approximate time .timedot + logging + csv comma/semicolon/tab/other-separated .csv .ssv .tsv + values, for data import + + These formats are described in their own sections, below. + + hledger detects the format automatically based on the file extensions + shown above. If it can't recognise the file extension, it assumes + journal format. So for non-journal files, it's important to use a + recognised file extension, so as to either read successfully or to show + relevant error messages. + + You can also force a specific reader/format by prefixing the file path + with the format and a colon. Eg, to read a .dat file as csv format: + + $ hledger -f csv:/some/csv-file.dat stats + + Or to read stdin (-) as timeclock format: + + $ echo 'i 2009/13/1 08:00:00' | hledger print -ftimeclock:- + + Multiple files + You can specify multiple -f options, to read multiple files as one big + journal. There are some limitations with this: + + o most directives do not affect sibling files + + o balance assertions will not see any account balances from previous + files + + If you need either of those things, you can + + o use a single parent file which includes the others + + o or concatenate the files into one before reading, eg: cat a.journal + b.journal | hledger -f- CMD. + + Strict mode + hledger checks input files for valid data. By default, the most impor- + tant errors are detected, while still accepting easy journal files + without a lot of declarations: + + o Are the input files parseable, with valid syntax ? + + o Are all transactions balanced ? + + o Do all balance assertions pass ? + + With the -s/--strict flag, additional checks are performed: + + o Are all accounts posted to, declared with an account directive ? + (Account error checking) + + o Are all commodities declared with a commodity directive ? (Commodity + error checking) + + o Are all commodity conversions declared explicitly ? + + You can also use the check command to run these and some additional + checks. + +TIME PERIODS + Smart dates + hledger's user interfaces accept a flexible "smart date" syntax. Smart + dates allow some english words, can be relative to today's date, and + can have less-significant date parts omitted (defaulting to 1). + + Examples: + + + 2004/10/1, 2004-01-01, exact date, several separators allowed. Year + 2004.9.1 is 4+ digits, month is 1-12, day is 1-31 + 2004 start of year + 2004/10 start of month + 10/1 month and day in current year + 21 day in current month + october, oct start of month in current year + yesterday, today, tomor- -1, 0, 1 days from today + row + last/this/next -1, 0, 1 periods from the current period + day/week/month/quar- + ter/year + 20181201 8 digit YYYYMMDD with valid year month and day + 201812 6 digit YYYYMM with valid year and month + + Counterexamples - malformed digit sequences might give surprising + results: + + + 201813 6 digits with an invalid month is parsed as start of + 6-digit year + 20181301 8 digits with an invalid month is parsed as start of + 8-digit year + 20181232 8 digits with an invalid day gives an error + 201801012 9+ digits beginning with a valid YYYYMMDD gives an error + + + Report start & end date + By default, most hledger reports will show the full span of time repre- + sented by the journal data. The report start date will be the earliest + transaction or posting date, and the report end date will be the latest + transaction, posting, or market price date. + + Often you will want to see a shorter time span, such as the current + month. You can specify a start and/or end date using -b/--begin, + -e/--end, -p/--period or a date: query (described below). All of these + accept the smart date syntax. + + Some notes: + + o As in Ledger, end dates are exclusive, so you need to write the date + after the last day you want to include. + + o As noted in reporting options: among start/end dates specified with + options, the last (i.e. right-most) option takes precedence. + + o The effective report start and end dates are the intersection of the + start/end dates from options and that from date: queries. That is, + date:2019-01 date:2019 -p'2000 to 2030' yields January 2019, the + smallest common time span. + + o A report interval (see below) will adjust start/end dates, when + needed, so that they fall on subperiod boundaries. + + Examples: + + + -b 2016/3/17 begin on St. Patrick's day 2016 + -e 12/1 end at the start of december 1st of the current year + (11/30 will be the last date included) + -b thismonth all transactions on or after the 1st of the current month + -p thismonth all transactions in the current month + date:2016/3/17.. the above written as queries instead (.. can also be + replaced with -) + date:..12/1 + date:thismonth.. + date:thismonth + + Report intervals + A report interval can be specified so that commands like register, bal- + ance and activity become multi-period, showing each subperiod as a sep- + arate row or column. + + The following "standard" report intervals can be enabled by using their + corresponding flag: + + -D/--daily, -W/--weekly, -M/--monthly, -Q/--quarterly, -Y/--yearly. + + These standard intervals always start on natural interval boundaries: + eg --weekly starts on mondays, --monthly starts on the first of the + month, --yearly always starts on January 1st, etc. + + Certain more complex intervals, and more flexible boundary dates, can + be specified by -p/--period. These are described in period expres- + sions, below. + + Report intervals can only be specified by the flags above, and not by + query arguments, currently. + + Report intervals have another effect: multi-period reports are always + expanded to fill a whole number of subperiods. So if you use a report + interval (other than --daily), and you have specified a start or end + date, you may notice those dates being overridden (ie, the report + starts earlier than your requested start date, or ends later than your + requested end date). This is done to ensure "full" first and last sub- + periods, so that all subperiods' numbers are comparable. + + Period expressions + The -p/--period option accepts period expressions, a shorthand way of + expressing a start date, end date, and/or report interval all at once. + + Here's a basic period expression specifying the first quarter of 2009. + Note, hledger always treats start dates as inclusive and end dates as + exclusive: + + -p "from 2009/1/1 to 2009/4/1" + + Keywords like "from" and "to" are optional, and so are the spaces, as + long as you don't run two dates together. "to" can also be written as + ".." or "-". These are equivalent to the above: + + + -p "2009/1/1 2009/4/1" + -p2009/1/1to2009/4/1 + -p2009/1/1..2009/4/1 + + Dates are smart dates, so if the current year is 2009, the above can + also be written as: + + + -p "1/1 4/1" + + -p "january-apr" + -p "this year to 4/1" + + If you specify only one date, the missing start or end date will be the + earliest or latest transaction in your journal: + + + -p "from 2009/1/1" everything after january + 1, 2009 + -p "from 2009/1" the same + -p "from 2009" the same + -p "to 2009" everything before january + 1, 2009 + + A single date with no "from" or "to" defines both the start and end + date like so: + + + -p "2009" the year 2009; equivalent + to "2009/1/1 to 2010/1/1" + -p "2009/1" the month of jan; equiva- + lent to "2009/1/1 to + 2009/2/1" + -p "2009/1/1" just that day; equivalent + to "2009/1/1 to 2009/1/2" + + Or you can specify a single quarter like so: + + + -p "2009Q1" first quarter of 2009, + equivalent to "2009/1/1 to + 2009/4/1" + -p "q4" fourth quarter of the cur- + rent year + + The argument of -p can also begin with, or be, a report interval + expression. The basic report intervals are daily, weekly, monthly, + quarterly, or yearly, which have the same effect as the -D,-W,-M,-Q, or + -Y flags. Between report interval and start/end dates (if any), the + word in is optional. Examples: + + + -p "weekly from 2009/1/1 to 2009/4/1" + -p "monthly in 2008" + -p "quarterly" + + Note that weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly intervals will always + start on the first day on week, month, quarter or year accordingly, and + will end on the last day of same period, even if associated period + expression specifies different explicit start and end date. + + For example: + + + -p "weekly from 2009/1/1 starts on 2008/12/29, closest preceding Mon- + to 2009/4/1" day + -p "monthly in starts on 2018/11/01 + 2008/11/25" + -p "quarterly from starts on 2009/04/01, ends on 2009/06/30, + 2009-05-05 to 2009-06-01" which are first and last days of Q2 2009 + -p "yearly from starts on 2009/01/01, first day of 2009 + 2009-12-29" + + The following more complex report intervals are also supported: + biweekly, fortnightly, bimonthly, every day|week|month|quarter|year, + every N days|weeks|months|quarters|years. + + All of these will start on the first day of the requested period and + end on the last one, as described above. + + Examples: + + + -p "bimonthly from 2008" periods will have boundaries on 2008/01/01, + 2008/03/01, ... + -p "every 2 weeks" starts on closest preceding Monday + -p "every 5 month from periods will have boundaries on 2009/03/01, + 2009/03" 2009/08/01, ... + + If you want intervals that start on arbitrary day of your choosing and + span a week, month or year, you need to use any of the following: + + every Nth day of week, every WEEKDAYNAME (eg + mon|tue|wed|thu|fri|sat|sun), every Nth day [of month], every Nth WEEK- + DAYNAME [of month], every MM/DD [of year], every Nth MMM [of year], + every MMM Nth [of year]. + + Examples: + + + -p "every 2nd day of periods will go from Tue to Tue + week" + -p "every Tue" same + -p "every 15th day" period boundaries will be on 15th of each + month + -p "every 2nd Monday" period boundaries will be on second Monday of + each month + -p "every 11/05" yearly periods with boundaries on 5th of Nov + -p "every 5th Nov" same + -p "every Nov 5th" same + + Show historical balances at end of 15th each month (N is exclusive end + date): + + hledger balance -H -p "every 16th day" + + Group postings from start of wednesday to end of next tuesday (N is + start date and exclusive end date): + + hledger register checking -p "every 3rd day of week" + +DEPTH + With the --depth N option (short form: -N), commands like account, bal- + ance and register will show only the uppermost accounts in the account + tree, down to level N. Use this when you want a summary with less + detail. This flag has the same effect as a depth: query argument (so + -2, --depth=2 or depth:2 are equivalent). + +QUERIES + One of hledger's strengths is being able to quickly report on a precise + subset of your data. Most hledger commands accept optional query argu- + ments to restrict their scope. The syntax is as follows: + + o Zero or more space-separated query terms. These are most often + account name substrings: + + utilities food:groceries + + o Terms with spaces or other special characters should be enclosed in + quotes: + + "personal care" + + o Regular expressions are also supported: + + "^expenses\b" "accounts (payable|receivable)" + + o Add a query type prefix to match other parts of the data: + + date:202012- desc:amazon cur:USD amt:">100" status: + + o Add a not: prefix to negate a term: + + not:cur:USD + + Query types + Here are the types of query term available. Remember these can also be + prefixed with not: to convert them into a negative match. + + acct:REGEX, REGEX + Match account names containing this (case insensitive) regular expres- + sion. This is the default query type when there is no prefix, and reg- + ular expression syntax is typically not needed, so usually we just + write an account name substring, like expenses or food. + + amt:N, amt:N, amt:>=N + Match postings with a single-commodity amount equal to, less than, or + greater than N. (Postings with multi-commodity amounts are not tested + and will always match.) The comparison has two modes: if N is preceded + by a + or - sign (or is 0), the two signed numbers are compared. Oth- + erwise, the absolute magnitudes are compared, ignoring sign. + + code:REGEX + Match by transaction code (eg check number). + + cur:REGEX + Match postings or transactions including any amounts whose cur- + rency/commodity symbol is fully matched by REGEX. (For a partial + match, use .*REGEX.*). Note, to match special characters which are + regex-significant, you need to escape them with \. And for characters + which are significant to your shell you may need one more level of + escaping. So eg to match the dollar sign: + hledger print cur:\\$. + + desc:REGEX + Match transaction descriptions. + + date:PERIODEXPR + Match dates (or with the --date2 flag, secondary dates) within the + specified period. PERIODEXPR is a period expression with no report + interval. Examples: + date:2016, date:thismonth, date:2/1-2/15, date:2021-07-27..nextquarter. + + date2:PERIODEXPR + Match secondary dates within the specified period (independent of the + --date2 flag). + + depth:N + Match (or display, depending on command) accounts at or above this + depth. + + note:REGEX + Match transaction notes (the part of the description right of |, or the + whole description if there's no |). + + payee:REGEX + Match transaction payee/payer names (the part of the description left + of |, or the whole description if there's no |). + + real:, real:0 + Match real or virtual postings respectively. + + status:, status:!, status:* + Match unmarked, pending, or cleared transactions respectively. + + tag:REGEX[=REGEX] + Match by tag name, and optionally also by tag value. (To match only by + value, use tag:.=REGEX.) Note that postings also inherit tags from + their transaction, and transactions also acquire tags from their post- + ings, when querying. + + (inacct:ACCTNAME + A special query term used automatically in hledger-web only: tells + hledger-web to show the transaction register for an account.) + + Combining query terms + Most commands select things which match: + + o any of the description terms AND + + o any of the account terms AND + + o any of the status terms AND + + o all the other terms. + + while the print command shows transactions which: + + o match any of the description terms AND + + o have any postings matching any of the positive account terms AND + + o have no postings matching any of the negative account terms AND + + o match all the other terms. + + You can do more powerful queries (such as AND-ing two like terms) by + running a first query with print, and piping the result into a second + hledger command. Eg: how much of food expenses was paid with cash ? + + $ hledger print assets:cash | hledger f- -I balance expenses:food + + If you are interested in full boolean expressions for queries, see + #203. + + Queries and command options + Some queries can also be expressed as command-line options: depth:2 is + equivalent to --depth 2, date:2020 is equivalent to -p 2020, etc. When + you mix command options and query arguments, generally the resulting + query is their intersection. + + Queries and account aliases + When account names are rewritten with --alias or alias, acct: will + match either the old or the new account name. + + Queries and valuation + When amounts are converted to other commodities in cost or value + reports, cur: and amt: match the old commodity symbol and the old + amount quantity, not the new ones (except in hledger 1.22.0 where it's + reversed, see #1625). + + Querying with account aliases + When account names are rewritten with --alias or alias, note that acct: + will match either the old or the new account name. + + Querying with cost or value + When amounts are converted to other commodities in cost or value + reports, note that cur: matches the new commodity symbol, and not the + old one, and amt: matches the new quantity, and not the old one. Note: + this changed in hledger 1.22, previously it was the reverse, see the + discussion at #1625. + +COSTING + The -B/--cost flag converts amounts to their cost or sale amount at + transaction time, if they have a transaction price specified. If this + flag is supplied, hledger will perform cost conversion first, and will + apply any market price valuations (if requested) afterwards. + +VALUATION + Instead of reporting amounts in their original commodity, hledger can + convert them to cost/sale amount (using the conversion rate recorded in + the transaction), and/or to market value (using some market price on a + certain date). This is controlled by the --value=TYPE[,COMMODITY] + option, which will be described below. We also provide the simpler -V + and -X COMMODITY options, and often one of these is all you need: + + -V: Value + The -V/--market flag converts amounts to market value in their default + valuation commodity, using the market prices in effect on the valuation + date(s), if any. More on these in a minute. + + -X: Value in specified commodity + The -X/--exchange=COMM option is like -V, except you tell it which cur- + rency you want to convert to, and it tries to convert everything to + that. + + Valuation date + Since market prices can change from day to day, market value reports + have a valuation date (or more than one), which determines which market + prices will be used. + + For single period reports, if an explicit report end date is specified, + that will be used as the valuation date; otherwise the valuation date + is the journal's end date. + + For multiperiod reports, each column/period is valued on the last day + of the period, by default. + + Market prices + To convert a commodity A to its market value in another commodity B, + hledger looks for a suitable market price (exchange rate) as follows, + in this order of preference : + + 1. A declared market price or inferred market price: A's latest market + price in B on or before the valuation date as declared by a P direc- + tive, or (with the --infer-market-price flag) inferred from transac- + tion prices. + + 2. A reverse market price: the inverse of a declared or inferred market + price from B to A. + + 3. A forward chain of market prices: a synthetic price formed by com- + bining the shortest chain of "forward" (only 1 above) market prices, + leading from A to B. + + 4. Any chain of market prices: a chain of any market prices, including + both forward and reverse prices (1 and 2 above), leading from A to + B. + + There is a limit to the length of these price chains; if hledger + reaches that length without finding a complete chain or exhausting all + possibilities, it will give up (with a "gave up" message visible in + --debug=2 output). That limit is currently 1000. + + Amounts for which no suitable market price can be found, are not con- + verted. + + --infer-market-price: market prices from transactions + Normally, market value in hledger is fully controlled by, and requires, + P directives in your journal. Since adding and updating those can be a + chore, and since transactions usually take place at close to market + value, why not use the recorded transaction prices as additional market + prices (as Ledger does) ? We could produce value reports without need- + ing P directives at all. + + Adding the --infer-market-price flag to -V, -X or --value enables this. + So for example, hledger bs -V --infer-market-price will get market + prices both from P directives and from transactions. (And if both + occur on the same day, the P directive takes precedence). + + There is a downside: value reports can sometimes be affected in confus- + ing/undesired ways by your journal entries. If this happens to you, + read all of this Valuation section carefully, and try adding --debug or + --debug=2 to troubleshoot. + + --infer-market-price can infer market prices from: + + o multicommodity transactions with explicit prices (@/@@) + + o multicommodity transactions with implicit prices (no @, two commodi- + ties, unbalanced). (With these, the order of postings matters. + hledger print -x can be useful for troubleshooting.) + + o but not, currently, from "more correct" multicommodity transactions + (no @, multiple commodities, balanced). + + Valuation commodity + When you specify a valuation commodity (-X COMM or --value TYPE,COMM): + hledger will convert all amounts to COMM, wherever it can find a suit- + able market price (including by reversing or chaining prices). + + When you leave the valuation commodity unspecified (-V or --value + TYPE): + For each commodity A, hledger picks a default valuation commodity as + follows, in this order of preference: + + 1. The price commodity from the latest P-declared market price for A on + or before valuation date. + + 2. The price commodity from the latest P-declared market price for A on + any date. (Allows conversion to proceed when there are inferred + prices before the valuation date.) + + 3. If there are no P directives at all (any commodity or date) and the + --infer-market-price flag is used: the price commodity from the lat- + est transaction-inferred price for A on or before valuation date. + + This means: + + o If you have P directives, they determine which commodities -V will + convert, and to what. + + o If you have no P directives, and use the --infer-market-price flag, + transaction prices determine it. + + Amounts for which no valuation commodity can be found are not con- + verted. + + Simple valuation examples + Here are some quick examples of -V: + + ; one euro is worth this many dollars from nov 1 + P 2016/11/01 EUR $1.10 + + ; purchase some euros on nov 3 + 2016/11/3 + assets:euros EUR100 + assets:checking + + ; the euro is worth fewer dollars by dec 21 + P 2016/12/21 EUR $1.03 + + How many euros do I have ? + + $ hledger -f t.j bal -N euros + EUR100 assets:euros + + What are they worth at end of nov 3 ? + + $ hledger -f t.j bal -N euros -V -e 2016/11/4 + $110.00 assets:euros + + What are they worth after 2016/12/21 ? (no report end date specified, + defaults to today) + + $ hledger -f t.j bal -N euros -V + $103.00 assets:euros + + --value: Flexible valuation + -V and -X are special cases of the more general --value option: + + --value=TYPE[,COMM] TYPE is then, end, now or YYYY-MM-DD. + COMM is an optional commodity symbol. + Shows amounts converted to: + - default valuation commodity (or COMM) using market prices at posting dates + - default valuation commodity (or COMM) using market prices at period end(s) + - default valuation commodity (or COMM) using current market prices + - default valuation commodity (or COMM) using market prices at some date + + The TYPE part selects cost or value and valuation date: + + --value=then + Convert amounts to their value in the default valuation commod- + ity, using market prices on each posting's date. + + --value=end + Convert amounts to their value in the default valuation commod- + ity, using market prices on the last day of the report period + (or if unspecified, the journal's end date); or in multiperiod + reports, market prices on the last day of each subperiod. + + --value=now + Convert amounts to their value in the default valuation commod- + ity using current market prices (as of when report is gener- + ated). + + --value=YYYY-MM-DD + Convert amounts to their value in the default valuation commod- + ity using market prices on this date. + + To select a different valuation commodity, add the optional ,COMM part: + a comma, then the target commodity's symbol. Eg: --value=now,EUR. + hledger will do its best to convert amounts to this commodity, deducing + market prices as described above. + + More valuation examples + Here are some examples showing the effect of --value, as seen with + print: + + P 2000-01-01 A 1 B + P 2000-02-01 A 2 B + P 2000-03-01 A 3 B + P 2000-04-01 A 4 B + + 2000-01-01 + (a) 1 A @ 5 B + + 2000-02-01 + (a) 1 A @ 6 B + + 2000-03-01 + (a) 1 A @ 7 B + + Show the cost of each posting: + + $ hledger -f- print --cost + 2000-01-01 + (a) 5 B + + 2000-02-01 + (a) 6 B + + 2000-03-01 + (a) 7 B + + Show the value as of the last day of the report period (2000-02-29): + + $ hledger -f- print --value=end date:2000/01-2000/03 + 2000-01-01 + (a) 2 B + + 2000-02-01 + (a) 2 B + + With no report period specified, that shows the value as of the last + day of the journal (2000-03-01): + + $ hledger -f- print --value=end + 2000-01-01 + (a) 3 B + + 2000-02-01 + (a) 3 B + + 2000-03-01 + (a) 3 B + + Show the current value (the 2000-04-01 price is still in effect today): + + $ hledger -f- print --value=now + 2000-01-01 + (a) 4 B + + 2000-02-01 + (a) 4 B + + 2000-03-01 + (a) 4 B + + Show the value on 2000/01/15: + + $ hledger -f- print --value=2000-01-15 + 2000-01-01 + (a) 1 B + + 2000-02-01 + (a) 1 B + + 2000-03-01 + (a) 1 B + + You may need to explicitly set a commodity's display style, when + reverse prices are used. Eg this output might be surprising: + + P 2000-01-01 A 2B + + 2000-01-01 + a 1B + b + + $ hledger print -x -X A + 2000-01-01 + a 0 + b 0 + + Explanation: because there's no amount or commodity directive specify- + ing a display style for A, 0.5A gets the default style, which shows no + decimal digits. Because the displayed amount looks like zero, the com- + modity symbol and minus sign are not displayed either. Adding a com- + modity directive sets a more useful display style for A: + + P 2000-01-01 A 2B + commodity 0.00A + + 2000-01-01 + a 1B + b + + $ hledger print -X A + 2000-01-01 + a 0.50A + b -0.50A + + Effect of valuation on reports + Here is a reference for how valuation is supposed to affect each part + of hledger's reports (and a glossary). (It's wide, you'll have to + scroll sideways.) It may be useful when troubleshooting. If you find + problems, please report them, ideally with a reproducible example. + Related: #329, #1083. + + + Report -B, --cost -V, -X --value=then --value=end --value=DATE, + type --value=now + ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + print + posting cost value at value at posting value at value at + amounts report end date report or DATE/today + or today journal end + balance unchanged unchanged unchanged unchanged unchanged + asser- + tions/assign- + ments + + register + starting bal- cost value at day valued at day value at day value at + ance (-H) before each historical before DATE/today + report or posting was made report or + journal journal + start start + posting cost value at value at posting value at value at + amounts report end date report or DATE/today + or today journal end + summary post- summarised value at sum of postings value at value at + ing amounts cost period ends in interval, val- period ends DATE/today + with report ued at interval + interval start + running sum/average sum/average sum/average of sum/average sum/average + total/average of displayed of displayed displayed values of displayed of displayed + values values values values + + + + balance (bs, + bse, cf, is) + balance sums of value at value at posting value at value at + changes costs report end date report or DATE/today of + or today of journal end sums of post- + sums of of sums of ings + postings postings + budget like balance like balance like balance like bal- like balance + amounts changes changes changes ances changes + (--budget) + grand total sum of dis- sum of dis- sum of displayed sum of dis- sum of dis- + played val- played val- valued played val- played values + ues ues ues + + balance (bs, + bse, cf, is) + with report + interval + starting bal- sums of value at sums of values of value at sums of post- + ances (-H) costs of report start postings before report start ings before + postings of sums of report start at of sums of report start + before all postings respective post- all postings + report start before ing dates before + report start report start + balance sums of same as sums of values of balance value at + changes (bal, costs of --value=end postings in change in DATE/today of + is, bs postings in period at respec- each period, sums of post- + --change, cf period tive posting valued at ings + --change) dates period ends + end balances sums of same as sums of values of period end value at + (bal -H, is costs of --value=end postings from balances, DATE/today of + --H, bs, cf) postings before period valued at sums of post- + from before start to period period ends ings + report start end at respective + to period posting dates + end + budget like balance like balance like balance like bal- like balance + amounts changes/end changes/end changes/end bal- ances changes/end + (--budget) balances balances ances balances + row totals, sums, aver- sums, aver- sums, averages of sums, aver- sums, aver- + row averages ages of dis- ages of dis- displayed values ages of dis- ages of dis- + (-T, -A) played val- played val- played val- played values + ues ues ues + column totals sums of dis- sums of dis- sums of displayed sums of dis- sums of dis- + played val- played val- values played val- played values + ues ues ues + grand total, sum, average sum, average sum, average of sum, average sum, average + grand average of column of column column totals of column of column + totals totals totals totals + + + --cumulative is omitted to save space, it works like -H but with a zero + starting balance. + + Glossary: + + cost calculated using price(s) recorded in the transaction(s). + + value market value using available market price declarations, or the + unchanged amount if no conversion rate can be found. + + report start + the first day of the report period specified with -b or -p or + date:, otherwise today. + + report or journal start + the first day of the report period specified with -b or -p or + date:, otherwise the earliest transaction date in the journal, + otherwise today. + + report end + the last day of the report period specified with -e or -p or + date:, otherwise today. + + report or journal end + the last day of the report period specified with -e or -p or + date:, otherwise the latest transaction date in the journal, + otherwise today. + + report interval + a flag (-D/-W/-M/-Q/-Y) or period expression that activates the + report's multi-period mode (whether showing one or many subperi- + ods). + +PIVOTING + Normally hledger sums amounts, and organizes them in a hierarchy, based + on account name. The --pivot FIELD option causes it to sum and orga- + nize hierarchy based on the value of some other field instead. FIELD + can be: code, description, payee, note, or the full name (case insensi- + tive) of any tag. As with account names, values containing colon:sepa- + rated:parts will be displayed hierarchically in reports. + + --pivot is a general option affecting all reports; you can think of + hledger transforming the journal before any other processing, replacing + every posting's account name with the value of the specified field on + that posting, inheriting it from the transaction or using a blank value + if it's not present. + + An example: + + 2016/02/16 Member Fee Payment + assets:bank account 2 EUR + income:member fees -2 EUR ; member: John Doe + + Normal balance report showing account names: + + $ hledger balance + 2 EUR assets:bank account + -2 EUR income:member fees + -------------------- + 0 + + Pivoted balance report, using member: tag values instead: + + $ hledger balance --pivot member + 2 EUR + -2 EUR John Doe + -------------------- + 0 + + One way to show only amounts with a member: value (using a query, + described below): + + $ hledger balance --pivot member tag:member=. + -2 EUR John Doe + -------------------- + -2 EUR + + Another way (the acct: query matches against the pivoted "account + name"): + + $ hledger balance --pivot member acct:. + -2 EUR John Doe + -------------------- + -2 EUR + +OUTPUT + Output destination + hledger commands send their output to the terminal by default. You can + of course redirect this, eg into a file, using standard shell syntax: + + $ hledger print > foo.txt + + Some commands (print, register, stats, the balance commands) also pro- + vide the -o/--output-file option, which does the same thing without + needing the shell. Eg: + + $ hledger print -o foo.txt + $ hledger print -o - # write to stdout (the default) + + hledger can optionally produce debug output (if enabled with + --debug=N); this goes to stderr, and is not affected by -o/--output- + file. If you need to capture it, use shell redirects, eg: hledger bal + --debug=3 >file 2>&1. + + Output format + Some commands (print, register, the balance commands) offer a choice of + output format. In addition to the usual plain text format (txt), there + are CSV (csv), HTML (html), JSON (json) and SQL (sql). This is con- + trolled by the -O/--output-format option: + + $ hledger print -O csv + + or, by a file extension specified with -o/--output-file: + + $ hledger balancesheet -o foo.html # write HTML to foo.html + + The -O option can be used to override the file extension if needed: + + $ hledger balancesheet -o foo.txt -O html # write HTML to foo.txt + + Some notes about JSON output: + + o This feature is marked experimental, and not yet much used; you + should expect our JSON to evolve. Real-world feedback is welcome. + + o Our JSON is rather large and verbose, as it is quite a faithful rep- + resentation of hledger's internal data types. To understand the + JSON, read the Haskell type definitions, which are mostly in + https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/blob/master/hledger- + lib/Hledger/Data/Types.hs. + + o hledger represents quantities as Decimal values storing up to 255 + significant digits, eg for repeating decimals. Such numbers can + arise in practice (from automatically-calculated transaction prices), + and would break most JSON consumers. So in JSON, we show quantities + as simple Numbers with at most 10 decimal places. We don't limit the + number of integer digits, but that part is under your control. We + hope this approach will not cause problems in practice; if you find + otherwise, please let us know. (Cf #1195) + + Notes about SQL output: + + o SQL output is also marked experimental, and much like JSON could use + real-world feedback. + + o SQL output is expected to work with sqlite, MySQL and PostgreSQL + + o SQL output is structured with the expectations that statements will + be executed in the empty database. If you already have tables cre- + ated via SQL output of hledger, you would probably want to either + clear tables of existing data (via delete or truncate SQL statements) + or drop tables completely as otherwise your postings will be duped. + +COMMANDS + hledger provides a number of commands for producing reports and manag- + ing your data. Run hledger with no arguments to list the commands + available, and hledger CMD to run a command. CMD can be the full com- + mand name, or its standard abbreviation shown in the commands list, or + any unambiguous prefix of the name. Eg: hledger bal. + + Here are the built-in commands, with the most often-used in bold: + + Data entry: + + These data entry commands are the only ones which can modify your jour- + nal file. + + o add - add transactions using guided prompts + + o import - add any new transactions from other files (eg csv) + + Data management: + + o check - check for various kinds of issue in the data + + o close (equity) - generate balance-resetting transactions + + o diff - compare account transactions in two journal files + + o rewrite - generate extra postings, similar to print --auto + + Financial statements: + + o aregister (areg) - show transactions in a particular account + + o balancesheet (bs) - show assets, liabilities and net worth + + o balancesheetequity (bse) - show assets, liabilities and equity + + o cashflow (cf) - show changes in liquid assets + + o incomestatement (is) - show revenues and expenses + + o roi - show return on investments + + Miscellaneous reports: + + o accounts - show account names + + o activity - show postings-per-interval bar charts + + o balance (bal) - show balance changes/end balances/budgets in any + accounts + + o codes - show transaction codes + + o commodities - show commodity/currency symbols + + o descriptions - show unique transaction descriptions + + o files - show input file paths + + o help - show hledger user manuals in several formats + + o notes - show unique note segments of transaction descriptions + + o payees - show unique payee segments of transaction descriptions + + o prices - show market price records + + o print - show transactions (journal entries) + + o print-unique - show only transactions with unique descriptions + + o register (reg) - show postings in one or more accounts & running + total + + o register-match - show a recent posting that best matches a descrip- + tion + + o stats - show journal statistics + + o tags - show tag names + + o test - run self tests + + Add-on commands: + + Programs or scripts named hledger-SOMETHING in your PATH are add-on + commands; these appear in the commands list with a + mark. Two of + these are maintained and released with hledger: + + o ui - an efficient terminal interface (TUI) for hledger + + o web - a simple web interface (WUI) for hledger + + And these add-ons are maintained separately: + + o iadd - a more interactive alternative for the add command + + o interest - generates interest transactions according to various + schemes + + o stockquotes - downloads market prices for your commodities from + AlphaVantage (experimental) + + Next, the detailed command docs, in alphabetical order. + + accounts + accounts + Show account names. + + This command lists account names, either declared with account direc- + tives (--declared), posted to (--used), or both (the default). With + query arguments, only matched account names and account names refer- + enced by matched postings are shown. It shows a flat list by default. + With --tree, it uses indentation to show the account hierarchy. In + flat mode you can add --drop N to omit the first few account name com- + ponents. Account names can be depth-clipped with depth:N or --depth N + or -N. + + Examples: + + $ hledger accounts + assets:bank:checking + assets:bank:saving + assets:cash + expenses:food + expenses:supplies + income:gifts + income:salary + liabilities:debts + + activity + activity + Show an ascii barchart of posting counts per interval. + + The activity command displays an ascii histogram showing transaction + counts by day, week, month or other reporting interval (by day is the + default). With query arguments, it counts only matched transactions. + + Examples: + + $ hledger activity --quarterly + 2008-01-01 ** + 2008-04-01 ******* + 2008-07-01 + 2008-10-01 ** + + add + add + Prompt for transactions and add them to the journal. Any arguments + will be used as default inputs for the first N prompts. + + Many hledger users edit their journals directly with a text editor, or + generate them from CSV. For more interactive data entry, there is the + add command, which prompts interactively on the console for new trans- + actions, and appends them to the journal file (if there are multiple -f + FILE options, the first file is used.) Existing transactions are not + changed. This is the only hledger command that writes to the journal + file. + + To use it, just run hledger add and follow the prompts. You can add as + many transactions as you like; when you are finished, enter . or press + control-d or control-c to exit. + + Features: + + o add tries to provide useful defaults, using the most similar (by + description) recent transaction (filtered by the query, if any) as a + template. + + o You can also set the initial defaults with command line arguments. + + o Readline-style edit keys can be used during data entry. + + o The tab key will auto-complete whenever possible - accounts, descrip- + tions, dates (yesterday, today, tomorrow). If the input area is + empty, it will insert the default value. + + o If the journal defines a default commodity, it will be added to any + bare numbers entered. + + o A parenthesised transaction code may be entered following a date. + + o Comments and tags may be entered following a description or amount. + + o If you make a mistake, enter < at any prompt to go one step backward. + + o Input prompts are displayed in a different colour when the terminal + supports it. + + Example (see the tutorial for a detailed explanation): + + $ hledger add + Adding transactions to journal file /src/hledger/examples/sample.journal + Any command line arguments will be used as defaults. + Use tab key to complete, readline keys to edit, enter to accept defaults. + An optional (CODE) may follow transaction dates. + An optional ; COMMENT may follow descriptions or amounts. + If you make a mistake, enter < at any prompt to go one step backward. + To end a transaction, enter . when prompted. + To quit, enter . at a date prompt or press control-d or control-c. + Date [2015/05/22]: + Description: supermarket + Account 1: expenses:food + Amount 1: $10 + Account 2: assets:checking + Amount 2 [$-10.0]: + Account 3 (or . or enter to finish this transaction): . + 2015/05/22 supermarket + expenses:food $10 + assets:checking $-10.0 + + Save this transaction to the journal ? [y]: + Saved. + Starting the next transaction (. or ctrl-D/ctrl-C to quit) + Date [2015/05/22]: $ + + On Microsoft Windows, the add command makes sure that no part of the + file path ends with a period, as that would cause problems (#1056). + + aregister + aregister, areg + + Show the transactions and running historical balance of a single + account, with each transaction displayed as one line. + + aregister shows the overall transactions affecting a particular account + (and any subaccounts). Each report line represents one transaction in + this account. Transactions before the report start date are always + included in the running balance (--historical mode is always on). + + This is a more "real world", bank-like view than the register command + (which shows individual postings, possibly from multiple accounts, not + necessarily in historical mode). As a quick rule of thumb: - use areg- + ister for reviewing and reconciling real-world asset/liability accounts + - use register for reviewing detailed revenues/expenses. + + aregister requires one argument: the account to report on. You can + write either the full account name, or a case-insensitive regular + expression which will select the alphabetically first matched account. + (Eg if you have assets:aaa:checking and assets:bbb:checking accounts, + hledger areg checking would select assets:aaa:checking.) + + Transactions involving subaccounts of this account will also be shown. + aregister ignores depth limits, so its final total will always match a + balance report with similar arguments. + + Any additional arguments form a query which will filter the transac- + tions shown. Note some queries will disturb the running balance, caus- + ing it to be different from the account's real-world running balance. + + An example: this shows the transactions and historical running balance + during july, in the first account whose name contains "checking": + + $ hledger areg checking date:jul + + Each aregister line item shows: + + o the transaction's date (or the relevant posting's date if different, + see below) + + o the names of all the other account(s) involved in this transaction + (probably abbreviated) + + o the total change to this account's balance from this transaction + + o the account's historical running balance after this transaction. + + Transactions making a net change of zero are not shown by default; add + the -E/--empty flag to show them. + + This command also supports the output destination and output format + options. The output formats supported are txt, csv, and json. + + aregister and custom posting dates + Transactions whose date is outside the report period can still be + shown, if they have a posting to this account dated inside the report + period. (And in this case it's the posting date that is shown.) This + ensures that aregister can show an accurate historical running balance, + matching the one shown by register -H with the same arguments. + + To filter strictly by transaction date instead, add the --txn-dates + flag. If you use this flag and some of your postings have custom + dates, it's probably best to assume the running balance is wrong. + + balance + balance, bal + Show accounts and their balances. + + balance is one of hledger's oldest and most versatile commands, for + listing account balances, balance changes, values, value changes and + more, during one time period or many. Generally it shows a table, with + rows representing accounts, and columns representing periods. + + Note there are some higher-level variants of the balance command with + convenient defaults, which can be simpler to use: balancesheet, bal- + ancesheetequity, cashflow and incomestatement. When you need more con- + trol, then use balance. + + balance features + Here's a quick overview of the balance command's features, followed by + more detailed descriptions and examples. Many of these work with the + higher-level commands as well. + + balance can show.. + + o accounts as a list (-l) or a tree (-t) + + o optionally depth-limited (-[1-9]) + + o sorted by declaration order and name, or by amount + + ..and their.. + + o balance changes (the default) + + o or actual and planned balance changes (--budget) + + o or value of balance changes (-V) + + o or change of balance values (--valuechange) + + ..in.. + + o one time period (the whole journal period by default) + + o or multiple periods (-D, -W, -M, -Q, -Y, -p INTERVAL) + + ..either.. + + o per period (the default) + + o or accumulated since report start date (--cumulative) + + o or accumulated since account creation (--historical/-H) + + ..possibly converted to.. + + o cost (--value=cost[,COMM]/--cost/-B) + + o or market value, as of transaction dates (--value=then[,COMM]) + + o or at period ends (--value=end[,COMM]) + + o or now (--value=now) + + o or at some other date (--value=YYYY-MM-DD) + + ..with.. + + o totals (-T), averages (-A), percentages (-%), inverted sign + (--invert) + + o rows and columns swapped (--transpose) + + o another field used as account name (--pivot) + + o custom-formatted line items (single-period reports only) (--format) + + This command supports the output destination and output format options, + with output formats txt, csv, json, and (multi-period reports only:) + html. In txt output in a colour-supporting terminal, negative amounts + are shown in red. + + Simple balance report + With no arguments, balance shows a list of all accounts and their + change of balance - ie, the sum of posting amounts, both inflows and + outflows - during the entire period of the journal. For real-world + accounts, this should also match their end balance at the end of the + journal period (more on this below). + + Accounts are sorted by declaration order if any, and then alphabeti- + cally by account name. For instance, using examples/sample.journal: + + $ hledger bal + $1 assets:bank:saving + $-2 assets:cash + $1 expenses:food + $1 expenses:supplies + $-1 income:gifts + $-1 income:salary + $1 liabilities:debts + -------------------- + 0 + + Accounts with a zero balance (and no non-zero subaccounts, in tree mode + - see below) are hidden by default. Use -E/--empty to show them + (revealing assets:bank:checking here): + + $ hledger -f examples/sample.journal bal -E + 0 assets:bank:checking + $1 assets:bank:saving + $-2 assets:cash + $1 expenses:food + $1 expenses:supplies + $-1 income:gifts + $-1 income:salary + $1 liabilities:debts + -------------------- + 0 + + The total of the amounts displayed is shown as the last line, unless + -N/--no-total is used. + + Filtered balance report + You can show fewer accounts, a different time period, totals from + cleared transactions only, etc. by using query arguments or options to + limit the postings being matched. Eg: + + $ hledger bal --cleared assets date:200806 + $-2 assets:cash + -------------------- + $-2 + + List or tree mode + By default, or with -l/--flat, accounts are shown as a flat list with + their full names visible, as in the examples above. + + With -t/--tree, the account hierarchy is shown, with subaccounts' + "leaf" names indented below their parent: + + $ hledger balance + $-1 assets + $1 bank:saving + $-2 cash + $2 expenses + $1 food + $1 supplies + $-2 income + $-1 gifts + $-1 salary + $1 liabilities:debts + -------------------- + 0 + + Notes: + + o "Boring" accounts are combined with their subaccount for more compact + output, unless --no-elide is used. Boring accounts have no balance + of their own and just one subaccount (eg assets:bank and liabilities + above). + + o All balances shown are "inclusive", ie including the balances from + all subaccounts. Note this means some repetition in the output, + which requires explanation when sharing reports with non-plaintextac- + counting-users. A tree mode report's final total is the sum of the + top-level balances shown, not of all the balances shown. + + o Each group of sibling accounts (ie, under a common parent) is sorted + separately. + + Depth limiting + With a depth:N query, or --depth N option, or just -N, balance reports + will show accounts only to the specified depth, hiding the deeper sub- + accounts. Account balances at the depth limit always include the bal- + ances from any hidden subaccounts (even in list mode). This can be + useful for getting an overview. Eg, limiting to depth 1: + + $ hledger balance -N -1 + $-1 assets + $2 expenses + $-2 income + $1 liabilities + + You can also hide top-level account name parts, using --drop N. This + can be useful for hiding repetitive top-level account names: + + $ hledger bal expenses --drop 1 + $1 food + $1 supplies + -------------------- + $2 + + + Multi-period balance report + With a report interval (set by the -D/--daily, -W/--weekly, + -M/--monthly, -Q/--quarterly, -Y/--yearly, or -p/--period flag), bal- + ance shows a tabular report, with columns representing successive time + periods (and a title): + + $ hledger balance --quarterly income expenses -E + Balance changes in 2008: + + || 2008q1 2008q2 2008q3 2008q4 + ===================++================================= + expenses:food || 0 $1 0 0 + expenses:supplies || 0 $1 0 0 + income:gifts || 0 $-1 0 0 + income:salary || $-1 0 0 0 + -------------------++--------------------------------- + || $-1 $1 0 0 + + Notes: + + o The report's start/end dates will be expanded, if necessary, to fully + encompass the displayed subperiods (so that the first and last subpe- + riods have the same duration as the others). + + o Leading and trailing periods (columns) containing all zeroes are not + shown, unless -E/--empty is used. + + o Accounts (rows) containing all zeroes are not shown, unless + -E/--empty is used. + + o Amounts with many commodities are shown in abbreviated form, unless + --no-elide is used. (experimental) + + o Average and/or total columns can be added with the -A/--average and + -T/--row-total flags. + + o The --transpose flag can be used to exchange rows and columns. + + o The --pivot FIELD option causes a different transaction field to be + used as "account name". See PIVOTING. + + Multi-period reports with many periods can be too wide for easy viewing + in the terminal. Here are some ways to handle that: + + o Hide the totals row with -N/--no-total + + o Convert to a single currency with -V + + o Maximize the terminal window + + o Reduce the terminal's font size + + o View with a pager like less, eg: hledger bal -D --color=yes | less + -RS + + o Output as CSV and use a CSV viewer like visidata (hledger bal -D -O + csv | vd -f csv), Emacs' csv-mode (M-x csv-mode, C-c C-a), or a + spreadsheet (hledger bal -D -o a.csv && open a.csv) + + o Output as HTML and view with a browser: hledger bal -D -o a.html && + open a.html + + Sorting by amount + With -S/--sort-amount, accounts with the largest (most positive) bal- + ances are shown first. Eg: hledger bal expenses -MAS shows your big- + gest averaged monthly expenses first. + + Revenues and liability balances are typically negative, however, so -S + shows these in reverse order. To work around this, you can add + --invert to flip the signs. (Or, use one of the higher-level reports, + which flip the sign automatically. Eg: hledger incomestatement -MAS). + + + Percentages + With -%/--percent, balance reports show each account's value expressed + as a percentage of the (column) total: + + $ hledger bal expenses -Q -% + Balance changes in 2008: + + || 2008Q1 2008Q2 2008Q3 2008Q4 + ===================++================================= + expenses:food || 0 50.0 % 0 0 + expenses:supplies || 0 50.0 % 0 0 + -------------------++--------------------------------- + || 0 100.0 % 0 0 + + Note it is not useful to calculate percentages if the amounts in a col- + umn have mixed signs. In this case, make a separate report for each + sign, eg: + + $ hledger bal -% amt:`>0` + $ hledger bal -% amt:`<0` + + Similarly, if the amounts in a column have mixed commodities, convert + them to one commodity with -B, -V, -X or --value, or make a separate + report for each commodity: + + $ hledger bal -% cur:\\$ + $ hledger bal -% cur:EUR + + Balance change, end balance + It's important to be clear on the meaning of the numbers shown in bal- + ance reports. Here is some terminology we use: + + A balance change is the net amount added to, or removed from, an + account during some period. + + An end balance is the amount accumulated in an account as of some date + (and some time, but hledger doesn't store that; assume end of day in + your timezone). It is the sum of previous balance changes. + + We call it a historical end balance if it includes all balance changes + since the account was created. For a real world account, this means it + will match the "historical record", eg the balances reported in your + bank statements or bank web UI. (If they are correct!) + + In general, balance changes are what you want to see when reviewing + revenues and expenses, and historical end balances are what you want to + see when reviewing or reconciling asset, liability and equity accounts. + + balance shows balance changes by default. To see accurate historical + end balances: + + 1. Initialise account starting balances with an "opening balances" + transaction (a transfer from equity to the account), unless the + journal covers the account's full lifetime. + + 2. Include all of of the account's prior postings in the report, by not + specifying a report start date, or by using the -H/--historical + flag. (-H causes report start date to be ignored when summing post- + ings.) + + Balance report types + For more flexible reporting, there are three important option groups: + + hledger balance [CALCULATIONTYPE] [ACCUMULATIONTYPE] [VALUATIONTYPE] + ... + + The first two are the most important: calculation type selects the + basic calculation to perform for each table cell, while accumulation + type says which postings should be included in each cell's calculation. + Typically one or both of these are selected by default, so you don't + need to write them explicitly. A valuation type can be added if you + want to convert the basic report to value or cost. + + Calculation type: + The basic calculation to perform for each table cell. It is one of: + + o --sum : sum the posting amounts (default) + + o --budget : like --sum but also show a goal amount + + o --valuechange : show the change in period-end historical balance val- + ues + + Accumulation type: + Which postings should be included in each cell's calculation. It is + one of: + + o --change : postings from column start to column end, ie within the + cell's period. Typically used to see revenues/expenses. (default + for balance, incomestatement) + + o --cumulative : postings from report start to column end, eg to show + changes accumulated since the report's start date. Rarely used. + + o --historical/-H : postings from journal start to column end, ie all + postings from account creation to the end of the cell's period. Typ- + ically used to see historical end balances of assets/liabili- + ties/equity. (default for balancesheet, balancesheetequity, cash- + flow) + + Valuation type: + Which kind of valuation, valuation date(s) and optionally a target val- + uation commodity to use. It is one of: + + o no valuation, show amounts in their original commodities (default) + + o --value=cost[,COMM] : no valuation, show amounts converted to cost + + o --value=then[,COMM] : show value at transaction dates + + o --value=end[,COMM] : show value at period end date(s) (default with + --valuechange) + + o --value=now[,COMM] : show value at today's date + + o --value=YYYY-MM-DD[,COMM] : show value at another date + + or one of their aliases: --cost/-B, --market/-V or --exchange/-X. + + Most combinations of these options should produce reasonable reports, + but if you find any that seem wrong or misleading, let us know. The + following restrictions are applied: + + o --valuechange implies --value=end + + o --valuechange makes --change the default when used with the bal- + ancesheet/balancesheetequity commands + + o --cumulative or --historical disables --row-total/-T + + For reference, here is what the combinations of accumulation and valua- + tion show: + + + Valua- no valuation --value= then --value= end --value= YYYY- + tion: MM-DD /now + >Accumu- + lation: + v + ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + --change change in period sum of posting- period-end DATE-value of + date market val- value of change change in + ues in period in period period + --cumu- change from sum of posting- period-end DATE-value of + lative report start to date market val- value of change change from + period end ues from report from report report start + start to period start to period to period end + end end + --his- change from sum of posting- period-end DATE-value of + torical journal start to date market val- value of change change from + /-H period end (his- ues from journal from journal journal start + torical end bal- start to period start to period to period end + ance) end end + + Useful balance reports + Some frequently used balance options/reports are: + + o bal -M revenues expenses + Show revenues/expenses in each month. Also available as the incomes- + tatement command. + + o bal -M -H assets liabilities + Show historical asset/liability balances at each month end. Also + available as the balancesheet command. + + o bal -M -H assets liabilities equity + Show historical asset/liability/equity balances at each month end. + Also available as the balancesheetequity command. + + o bal -M assets not:receivable + Show changes to liquid assets in each month. Also available as the + cashflow command. + + Also: + + o bal -M expenses -2 -SA + Show monthly expenses summarised to depth 2 and sorted by average + amount. + + o bal -M --budget expenses + Show monthly expenses and budget goals. + + o bal -M --valuechange investments + Show monthly change in market value of investment assets. + + o bal investments --valuechange -D date:lastweek amt:'>1000' -STA + [--invert] + Show top gainers [or losers] last week + + Budget report + The --budget report type activates extra columns showing any budget + goals for each account and period. The budget goals are defined by + periodic transactions. This is very useful for comparing planned and + actual income, expenses, time usage, etc. + + For example, you can take average monthly expenses in the common + expense categories to construct a minimal monthly budget: + + ;; Budget + ~ monthly + income $2000 + expenses:food $400 + expenses:bus $50 + expenses:movies $30 + assets:bank:checking + + ;; Two months worth of expenses + 2017-11-01 + income $1950 + expenses:food $396 + expenses:bus $49 + expenses:movies $30 + expenses:supplies $20 + assets:bank:checking + + 2017-12-01 + income $2100 + expenses:food $412 + expenses:bus $53 + expenses:gifts $100 + assets:bank:checking + + You can now see a monthly budget report: + + $ hledger balance -M --budget + Budget performance in 2017/11/01-2017/12/31: + + || Nov Dec + ======================++==================================================== + assets || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] + assets:bank || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] + assets:bank:checking || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] + expenses || $495 [ 103% of $480] $565 [ 118% of $480] + expenses:bus || $49 [ 98% of $50] $53 [ 106% of $50] + expenses:food || $396 [ 99% of $400] $412 [ 103% of $400] + expenses:movies || $30 [ 100% of $30] 0 [ 0% of $30] + income || $1950 [ 98% of $2000] $2100 [ 105% of $2000] + ----------------------++---------------------------------------------------- + || 0 [ 0] 0 [ 0] + + This is different from a normal balance report in several ways: + + o Only accounts with budget goals during the report period are shown, + by default. + + o In each column, in square brackets after the actual amount, budget + goal amounts are shown, and the actual/goal percentage. (Note: bud- + get goals should be in the same commodity as the actual amount.) + + o All parent accounts are always shown, even in list mode. Eg assets, + assets:bank, and expenses above. + + o Amounts always include all subaccounts, budgeted or unbudgeted, even + in list mode. + + This means that the numbers displayed will not always add up! Eg above, + the expenses actual amount includes the gifts and supplies transac- + tions, but the expenses:gifts and expenses:supplies accounts are not + shown, as they have no budget amounts declared. + + This can be confusing. When you need to make things clearer, use the + -E/--empty flag, which will reveal all accounts including unbudgeted + ones, giving the full picture. Eg: + + $ hledger balance -M --budget --empty + Budget performance in 2017/11/01-2017/12/31: + + || Nov Dec + ======================++==================================================== + assets || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] + assets:bank || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] + assets:bank:checking || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] + expenses || $495 [ 103% of $480] $565 [ 118% of $480] + expenses:bus || $49 [ 98% of $50] $53 [ 106% of $50] + expenses:food || $396 [ 99% of $400] $412 [ 103% of $400] + expenses:gifts || 0 $100 + expenses:movies || $30 [ 100% of $30] 0 [ 0% of $30] + expenses:supplies || $20 0 + income || $1950 [ 98% of $2000] $2100 [ 105% of $2000] + ----------------------++---------------------------------------------------- + || 0 [ 0] 0 [ 0] + + You can roll over unspent budgets to next period with --cumulative: + + $ hledger balance -M --budget --cumulative + Budget performance in 2017/11/01-2017/12/31: + + || Nov Dec + ======================++==================================================== + assets || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-5110 [ 103% of $-4960] + assets:bank || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-5110 [ 103% of $-4960] + assets:bank:checking || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-5110 [ 103% of $-4960] + expenses || $495 [ 103% of $480] $1060 [ 110% of $960] + expenses:bus || $49 [ 98% of $50] $102 [ 102% of $100] + expenses:food || $396 [ 99% of $400] $808 [ 101% of $800] + expenses:movies || $30 [ 100% of $30] $30 [ 50% of $60] + income || $1950 [ 98% of $2000] $4050 [ 101% of $4000] + ----------------------++---------------------------------------------------- + || 0 [ 0] 0 [ 0] + + For more examples and notes, see Budgeting. + + Budget report start date + This might be a bug, but for now: when making budget reports, it's a + good idea to explicitly set the report's start date to the first day of + a reporting period, because a periodic rule like ~ monthly generates + its transactions on the 1st of each month, and if your journal has no + regular transactions on the 1st, the default report start date could + exclude that budget goal, which can be a little surprising. Eg here + the default report period is just the day of 2020-01-15: + + ~ monthly in 2020 + (expenses:food) $500 + + 2020-01-15 + expenses:food $400 + assets:checking + + $ hledger bal expenses --budget + Budget performance in 2020-01-15: + + || 2020-01-15 + ==============++============ + || $400 + --------------++------------ + || $400 + + To avoid this, specify the budget report's period, or at least the + start date, with -b/-e/-p/date:, to ensure it includes the budget goal + transactions (periodic transactions) that you want. Eg, adding -b + 2020/1/1 to the above: + + $ hledger bal expenses --budget -b 2020/1/1 + Budget performance in 2020-01-01..2020-01-15: + + || 2020-01-01..2020-01-15 + ===============++======================== + expenses:food || $400 [80% of $500] + ---------------++------------------------ + || $400 [80% of $500] + + Nested budgets + You can add budgets to any account in your account hierarchy. If you + have budgets on both parent account and some of its children, then bud- + get(s) of the child account(s) would be added to the budget of their + parent, much like account balances behave. + + In the most simple case this means that once you add a budget to any + account, all its parents would have budget as well. + + To illustrate this, consider the following budget: + + ~ monthly from 2019/01 + expenses:personal $1,000.00 + expenses:personal:electronics $100.00 + liabilities + + With this, monthly budget for electronics is defined to be $100 and + budget for personal expenses is an additional $1000, which implicitly + means that budget for both expenses:personal and expenses is $1100. + + Transactions in expenses:personal:electronics will be counted both + towards its $100 budget and $1100 of expenses:personal , and transac- + tions in any other subaccount of expenses:personal would be counted + towards only towards the budget of expenses:personal. + + For example, let's consider these transactions: + + ~ monthly from 2019/01 + expenses:personal $1,000.00 + expenses:personal:electronics $100.00 + liabilities + + 2019/01/01 Google home hub + expenses:personal:electronics $90.00 + liabilities $-90.00 + + 2019/01/02 Phone screen protector + expenses:personal:electronics:upgrades $10.00 + liabilities + + 2019/01/02 Weekly train ticket + expenses:personal:train tickets $153.00 + liabilities + + 2019/01/03 Flowers + expenses:personal $30.00 + liabilities + + As you can see, we have transactions in expenses:personal:electron- + ics:upgrades and expenses:personal:train tickets, and since both of + these accounts are without explicitly defined budget, these transac- + tions would be counted towards budgets of expenses:personal:electronics + and expenses:personal accordingly: + + $ hledger balance --budget -M + Budget performance in 2019/01: + + || Jan + ===============================++=============================== + expenses || $283.00 [ 26% of $1100.00] + expenses:personal || $283.00 [ 26% of $1100.00] + expenses:personal:electronics || $100.00 [ 100% of $100.00] + liabilities || $-283.00 [ 26% of $-1100.00] + -------------------------------++------------------------------- + || 0 [ 0] + + And with --empty, we can get a better picture of budget allocation and + consumption: + + $ hledger balance --budget -M --empty + Budget performance in 2019/01: + + || Jan + ========================================++=============================== + expenses || $283.00 [ 26% of $1100.00] + expenses:personal || $283.00 [ 26% of $1100.00] + expenses:personal:electronics || $100.00 [ 100% of $100.00] + expenses:personal:electronics:upgrades || $10.00 + expenses:personal:train tickets || $153.00 + liabilities || $-283.00 [ 26% of $-1100.00] + ----------------------------------------++------------------------------- + || 0 [ 0] + + Customising single-period balance reports + For single-period balance reports displayed in the terminal (only), you + can use --format FMT to customise the format and content of each line. + Eg: + + $ hledger balance --format "%20(account) %12(total)" + assets $-1 + bank:saving $1 + cash $-2 + expenses $2 + food $1 + supplies $1 + income $-2 + gifts $-1 + salary $-1 + liabilities:debts $1 + --------------------------------- + 0 + + The FMT format string (plus a newline) specifies the formatting applied + to each account/balance pair. It may contain any suitable text, with + data fields interpolated like so: + + %[MIN][.MAX](FIELDNAME) + + o MIN pads with spaces to at least this width (optional) + + o MAX truncates at this width (optional) + + o FIELDNAME must be enclosed in parentheses, and can be one of: + + o depth_spacer - a number of spaces equal to the account's depth, or + if MIN is specified, MIN * depth spaces. + + o account - the account's name + + o total - the account's balance/posted total, right justified + + Also, FMT can begin with an optional prefix to control how multi-com- + modity amounts are rendered: + + o %_ - render on multiple lines, bottom-aligned (the default) + + o %^ - render on multiple lines, top-aligned + + o %, - render on one line, comma-separated + + There are some quirks. Eg in one-line mode, %(depth_spacer) has no + effect, instead %(account) has indentation built in. Experimentation + may be needed to get pleasing results. + + Some example formats: + + o %(total) - the account's total + + o %-20.20(account) - the account's name, left justified, padded to 20 + characters and clipped at 20 characters + + o %,%-50(account) %25(total) - account name padded to 50 characters, + total padded to 20 characters, with multiple commodities rendered on + one line + + o %20(total) %2(depth_spacer)%-(account) - the default format for the + single-column balance report + + balancesheet + balancesheet, bs + This command displays a balance sheet, showing historical ending bal- + ances of asset and liability accounts. (To see equity as well, use the + balancesheetequity command.) Amounts are shown with normal positive + sign, as in conventional financial statements. + + The asset and liability accounts shown are those accounts declared with + the Asset or Cash or Liability type, or otherwise all accounts under a + top-level asset or liability account (case insensitive, plurals + allowed). + + Example: + + $ hledger balancesheet + Balance Sheet + + Assets: + $-1 assets + $1 bank:saving + $-2 cash + -------------------- + $-1 + + Liabilities: + $1 liabilities:debts + -------------------- + $1 + + Total: + -------------------- + 0 + + This command is a higher-level variant of the balance command, and sup- + ports many of that command's features, such as multi-period reports. + It is similar to hledger balance -H assets liabilities, but with + smarter account detection, and liabilities displayed with their sign + flipped. + + This command also supports the output destination and output format + options The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and (experi- + mental) json. + + balancesheetequity + balancesheetequity, bse + This command displays a balance sheet, showing historical ending bal- + ances of asset, liability and equity accounts. Amounts are shown with + normal positive sign, as in conventional financial statements. + + The asset, liability and equity accounts shown are those accounts + declared with the Asset, Cash, Liability or Equity type, or otherwise + all accounts under a top-level asset, liability or equity account (case + insensitive, plurals allowed). + + Example: + + $ hledger balancesheetequity + Balance Sheet With Equity + + Assets: + $-2 assets + $1 bank:saving + $-3 cash + -------------------- + $-2 + + Liabilities: + $1 liabilities:debts + -------------------- + $1 + + Equity: + $1 equity:owner + -------------------- + $1 + + Total: + -------------------- + 0 + + This command is a higher-level variant of the balance command, and sup- + ports many of that command's features, such as multi-period reports. + It is similar to hledger balance -H assets liabilities equity, but with + smarter account detection, and liabilities/equity displayed with their + sign flipped. + + This command also supports the output destination and output format + options The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and (experi- + mental) json. + + cashflow + cashflow, cf + This command displays a cashflow statement, showing the inflows and + outflows affecting "cash" (ie, liquid) assets. Amounts are shown with + normal positive sign, as in conventional financial statements. + + The "cash" accounts shown are those accounts declared with the Cash + type, or otherwise all accounts under a top-level asset account (case + insensitive, plural allowed) which do not have fixed, investment, + receivable or A/R in their name. + + Example: + + $ hledger cashflow + Cashflow Statement + + Cash flows: + $-1 assets + $1 bank:saving + $-2 cash + -------------------- + $-1 + + Total: + -------------------- + $-1 + + This command is a higher-level variant of the balance command, and sup- + ports many of that command's features, such as multi-period reports. + It is similar to hledger balance assets not:fixed not:investment + not:receivable, but with smarter account detection. + + This command also supports the output destination and output format + options The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and (experi- + mental) json. + + check + check + Check for various kinds of errors in your data. + + hledger provides a number of built-in error checks to help prevent + problems in your data. Some of these are run automatically; or, you + can use this check command to run them on demand, with no output and a + zero exit code if all is well. Specify their names (or a prefix) as + argument(s). + + Some examples: + + hledger check # basic checks + hledger check -s # basic + strict checks + hledger check ordereddates payees # basic + two other checks + + Here are the checks currently available: + + Basic checks + These checks are always run automatically, by (almost) all hledger com- + mands, including check: + + o parseable - data files are well-formed and can be successfully parsed + + o balancedwithautoconversion - all transactions are balanced, inferring + missing amounts where necessary, and possibly converting commodities + using transaction prices or automatically-inferred transaction prices + + o assertions - all balance assertions in the journal are passing. + (This check can be disabled with -I/--ignore-assertions.) + + Strict checks + These additional checks are run when the -s/--strict (strict mode) flag + is used. Or, they can be run by giving their names as arguments to + check: + + o accounts - all account names used by transactions have been declared + + o commodities - all commodity symbols used have been declared + + o balancednoautoconversion - transactions are balanced, possibly using + explicit transaction prices but not inferred ones + + Other checks + These checks can be run only by giving their names as arguments to + check. They are more specialised and not desirable for everyone, + therefore optional: + + o ordereddates - transactions are ordered by date within each file + + o payees - all payees used by transactions have been declared + + o uniqueleafnames - all account leaf names are unique + + Custom checks + A few more checks are are available as separate add-on commands, in + https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/tree/master/bin: + + o hledger-check-tagfiles - all tag values containing / (a forward + slash) exist as file paths + + o hledger-check-fancyassertions - more complex balance assertions are + passing + + You could make similar scripts to perform your own custom checks. See: + Cookbook -> Scripting. + + close + close, equity + Prints a "closing balances" transaction and an "opening balances" + transaction that bring account balances to and from zero, respectively. + These can be added to your journal file(s), eg to bring asset/liability + balances forward into a new journal file, or to close out rev- + enues/expenses to retained earnings at the end of a period. + + You can print just one of these transactions by using the --close or + --open flag. You can customise their descriptions with the --close- + desc and --open-desc options. + + One amountless posting to "equity:opening/closing balances" is added to + balance the transactions, by default. You can customise this account + name with --close-acct and --open-acct; if you specify only one of + these, it will be used for both. + + With --x/--explicit, the equity posting's amount will be shown. And if + it involves multiple commodities, a posting for each commodity will be + shown, as with the print command. + + With --interleaved, the equity postings are shown next to the postings + they balance, which makes troubleshooting easier. + + By default, transaction prices in the journal are ignored when generat- + ing the closing/opening transactions. With --show-costs, this cost + information is preserved (balance -B reports will be unchanged after + the transition). Separate postings are generated for each cost in each + commodity. Note this can generate very large journal entries, if you + have many foreign currency or investment transactions. + + close usage + If you split your journal files by time (eg yearly), you will typically + run this command at the end of the year, and save the closing transac- + tion as last entry of the old file, and the opening transaction as the + first entry of the new file. This makes the files self contained, so + that correct balances are reported no matter which of them are loaded. + Ie, if you load just one file, the balances are initialised correctly; + or if you load several files, the redundant closing/opening transac- + tions cancel each other out. (They will show up in print or register + reports; you can exclude them with a query like not:desc:'(open- + ing|closing) balances'.) + + If you're running a business, you might also use this command to "close + the books" at the end of an accounting period, transferring income + statement account balances to retained earnings. (You may want to + change the equity account name to something like "equity:retained earn- + ings".) + + By default, the closing transaction is dated yesterday, the balances + are calculated as of end of yesterday, and the opening transaction is + dated today. To close on some other date, use: hledger close -e OPEN- + INGDATE. Eg, to close/open on the 2018/2019 boundary, use -e 2019. + You can also use -p or date:PERIOD (any starting date is ignored). + + Both transactions will include balance assertions for the + closed/reopened accounts. You probably shouldn't use status or real- + ness filters (like -C or -R or status:) with this command, or the gen- + erated balance assertions will depend on these flags. Likewise, if you + run this command with --auto, the balance assertions will probably + always require --auto. + + Examples: + + Carrying asset/liability balances into a new file for 2019: + + $ hledger close -f 2018.journal -e 2019 assets liabilities --open + # (copy/paste the output to the start of your 2019 journal file) + $ hledger close -f 2018.journal -e 2019 assets liabilities --close + # (copy/paste the output to the end of your 2018 journal file) + + Now: + + $ hledger bs -f 2019.journal # one file - balances are correct + $ hledger bs -f 2018.journal -f 2019.journal # two files - balances still correct + $ hledger bs -f 2018.journal not:desc:closing # to see year-end balances, must exclude closing txn + + Transactions spanning the closing date can complicate matters, breaking + balance assertions: + + 2018/12/30 a purchase made in 2018, clearing the following year + expenses:food 5 + assets:bank:checking -5 ; [2019/1/2] + + Here's one way to resolve that: + + ; in 2018.journal: + 2018/12/30 a purchase made in 2018, clearing the following year + expenses:food 5 + liabilities:pending + + ; in 2019.journal: + 2019/1/2 clearance of last year's pending transactions + liabilities:pending 5 = 0 + assets:checking + + codes + codes + List the codes seen in transactions, in the order parsed. + + This command prints the value of each transaction's code field, in the + order transactions were parsed. The transaction code is an optional + value written in parentheses between the date and description, often + used to store a cheque number, order number or similar. + + Transactions aren't required to have a code, and missing or empty codes + will not be shown by default. With the -E/--empty flag, they will be + printed as blank lines. + + You can add a query to select a subset of transactions. + + Examples: + + 1/1 (123) + (a) 1 + + 1/1 () + (a) 1 + + 1/1 + (a) 1 + + 1/1 (126) + (a) 1 + + $ hledger codes + 123 + 124 + 126 + + $ hledger codes -E + 123 + 124 + + + 126 + + commodities + commodities + List all commodity/currency symbols used or declared in the journal. + + descriptions + descriptions + List the unique descriptions that appear in transactions. + + This command lists the unique descriptions that appear in transactions, + in alphabetic order. You can add a query to select a subset of trans- + actions. + + Example: + + $ hledger descriptions + Store Name + Gas Station | Petrol + Person A + + diff + diff + Compares a particular account's transactions in two input files. It + shows any transactions to this account which are in one file but not in + the other. + + More precisely, for each posting affecting this account in either file, + it looks for a corresponding posting in the other file which posts the + same amount to the same account (ignoring date, description, etc.) + Since postings not transactions are compared, this also works when mul- + tiple bank transactions have been combined into a single journal entry. + + This is useful eg if you have downloaded an account's transactions from + your bank (eg as CSV data). When hledger and your bank disagree about + the account balance, you can compare the bank data with your journal to + find out the cause. + + Examples: + + $ hledger diff -f $LEDGER_FILE -f bank.csv assets:bank:giro + These transactions are in the first file only: + + 2014/01/01 Opening Balances + assets:bank:giro EUR ... + ... + equity:opening balances EUR -... + + These transactions are in the second file only: + + files + files + List all files included in the journal. With a REGEX argument, only + file names matching the regular expression (case sensitive) are shown. + + help + help + Show the hledger user manual in one of several formats, optionally + positioned at a given TOPIC (if possible). TOPIC is any heading, or + heading prefix, in the manual. Some examples: commands, print, 'auto + postings', periodic. + + This command shows the user manual built in to this hledger version. + It can be useful if the correct version of the hledger manual, or the + usual viewing tools, are not installed on your system. + + By default it uses the best viewer it can find in $PATH, in this order: + info, man, $PAGER (unless a topic is specified), less, or stdout. When + run non-interactively, it always uses stdout. Or you can select a par- + ticular viewer with the -i (info), -m (man), or -p (pager) flags. + + import + import + Read new transactions added to each FILE since last run, and add them + to the main journal file. Or with --dry-run, just print the transac- + tions that would be added. Or with --catchup, just mark all of the + FILEs' transactions as imported, without actually importing any. + + Unlike other hledger commands, with import the journal file is an out- + put file, and will be modified, though only by appending (existing data + will not be changed). The input files are specified as arguments, so + to import one or more CSV files to your main journal, you will run + hledger import bank.csv or perhaps hledger import *.csv. + + Note you can import from any file format, though CSV files are the most + common import source, and these docs focus on that case. + + Deduplication + As a convenience import does deduplication while reading transactions. + This does not mean "ignore transactions that look the same", but rather + "ignore transactions that have been seen before". This is intended for + when you are periodically importing foreign data which may contain + already-imported transactions. So eg, if every day you download bank + CSV files containing redundant data, you can safely run hledger import + bank.csv and only new transactions will be imported. (import is idem- + potent.) + + Since the items being read (CSV records, eg) often do not come with + unique identifiers, hledger detects new transactions by date, assuming + that: + + 1. new items always have the newest dates + + 2. item dates do not change across reads + + 3. and items with the same date remain in the same relative order + across reads. + + These are often true of CSV files representing transactions, or true + enough so that it works pretty well in practice. 1 is important, but + violations of 2 and 3 amongst the old transactions won't matter (and if + you import often, the new transactions will be few, so less likely to + be the ones affected). + + hledger remembers the latest date processed in each input file by sav- + ing a hidden ".latest" state file in the same directory. Eg when read- + ing finance/bank.csv, it will look for and update the finance/.lat- + est.bank.csv state file. The format is simple: one or more lines con- + taining the same ISO-format date (YYYY-MM-DD), meaning "I have pro- + cessed transactions up to this date, and this many of them on that + date." Normally you won't see or manipulate these state files yourself. + But if needed, you can delete them to reset the state (making all + transactions "new"), or you can construct them to "catch up" to a cer- + tain date. + + Note deduplication (and updating of state files) can also be done by + print --new, but this is less often used. + + Import testing + With --dry-run, the transactions that will be imported are printed to + the terminal, without updating your journal or state files. The output + is valid journal format, like the print command, so you can re-parse + it. Eg, to see any importable transactions which CSV rules have not + categorised: + + $ hledger import --dry bank.csv | hledger -f- -I print unknown + + or (live updating): + + $ ls bank.csv* | entr bash -c 'echo ====; hledger import --dry bank.csv | hledger -f- -I print unknown' + + Importing balance assignments + Entries added by import will have their posting amounts made explicit + (like hledger print -x). This means that any balance assignments in + imported files must be evaluated; but, imported files don't get to see + the main file's account balances. As a result, importing entries with + balance assignments (eg from an institution that provides only balances + and not posting amounts) will probably generate incorrect posting + amounts. To avoid this problem, use print instead of import: + + $ hledger print IMPORTFILE [--new] >> $LEDGER_FILE + + (If you think import should leave amounts implicit like print does, + please test it and send a pull request.) + + Commodity display styles + Imported amounts will be formatted according to the canonical commodity + styles (declared or inferred) in the main journal file. + + incomestatement + incomestatement, is + + This command displays an income statement, showing revenues and + expenses during one or more periods. Amounts are shown with normal + positive sign, as in conventional financial statements. + + The revenue and expense accounts shown are those accounts declared with + the Revenue or Expense type, or otherwise all accounts under a top- + level revenue or income or expense account (case insensitive, plurals + allowed). + + Example: + + $ hledger incomestatement + Income Statement + + Revenues: + $-2 income + $-1 gifts + $-1 salary + -------------------- + $-2 + + Expenses: + $2 expenses + $1 food + $1 supplies + -------------------- + $2 + + Total: + -------------------- + 0 + + This command is a higher-level variant of the balance command, and sup- + ports many of that command's features, such as multi-period reports. + It is similar to hledger balance '(revenues|income)' expenses, but with + smarter account detection, and revenues/income displayed with their + sign flipped. + + This command also supports the output destination and output format + options The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and (experi- + mental) json. + + notes + notes + List the unique notes that appear in transactions. + + This command lists the unique notes that appear in transactions, in + alphabetic order. You can add a query to select a subset of transac- + tions. The note is the part of the transaction description after a | + character (or if there is no |, the whole description). + + Example: + + $ hledger notes + Petrol + Snacks + + payees + payees + List the unique payee/payer names that appear in transactions. + + This command lists unique payee/payer names which have been declared + with payee directives (--declared), used in transaction descriptions + (--used), or both (the default). + + The payee/payer is the part of the transaction description before a | + character (or if there is no |, the whole description). + + You can add query arguments to select a subset of transactions. This + implies --used. + + Example: + + $ hledger payees + Store Name + Gas Station + Person A + + prices + prices + Print market price directives from the journal. With --costs, also + print synthetic market prices based on transaction prices. With + --inverted-costs, also print inverse prices based on transaction + prices. Prices (and postings providing prices) can be filtered by a + query. Price amounts are always displayed with their full precision. + + print + print + Show transaction journal entries, sorted by date. + + The print command displays full journal entries (transactions) from the + journal file, sorted by date (or with --date2, by secondary date). + + Amounts are shown mostly normalised to commodity display style, eg the + placement of commodity symbols will be consistent. All of their deci- + mal places are shown, as in the original journal entry (with one alter- + ation: in some cases trailing zeroes are added.) + + Amounts are shown right-aligned within each transaction (but not across + all transactions). + + Directives and inter-transaction comments are not shown, currently. + This means the print command is somewhat lossy, and if you are using it + to reformat your journal you should take care to also copy over the + directives and file-level comments. + + Eg: + + $ hledger print + 2008/01/01 income + assets:bank:checking $1 + income:salary $-1 + + 2008/06/01 gift + assets:bank:checking $1 + income:gifts $-1 + + 2008/06/02 save + assets:bank:saving $1 + assets:bank:checking $-1 + + 2008/06/03 * eat & shop + expenses:food $1 + expenses:supplies $1 + assets:cash $-2 + + 2008/12/31 * pay off + liabilities:debts $1 + assets:bank:checking $-1 + + print's output is usually a valid hledger journal, and you can process + it again with a second hledger command. This can be useful for certain + kinds of search, eg: + + # Show running total of food expenses paid from cash. + # -f- reads from stdin. -I/--ignore-assertions is sometimes needed. + $ hledger print assets:cash | hledger -f- -I reg expenses:food + + There are some situations where print's output can become unparseable: + + o Valuation affects posting amounts but not balance assertion or bal- + ance assignment amounts, potentially causing those to fail. + + o Auto postings can generate postings with too many missing amounts. + + Normally, the journal entry's explicit or implicit amount style is pre- + served. For example, when an amount is omitted in the journal, it will + not appear in the output. Similarly, when a transaction price is + implied but not written, it will not appear in the output. You can use + the -x/--explicit flag to make all amounts and transaction prices + explicit, which can be useful for troubleshooting or for making your + journal more readable and robust against data entry errors. -x is also + implied by using any of -B,-V,-X,--value. + + Note, -x/--explicit will cause postings with a multi-commodity amount + (these can arise when a multi-commodity transaction has an implicit + amount) to be split into multiple single-commodity postings, keeping + the output parseable. + + With -B/--cost, amounts with transaction prices are converted to cost + using that price. This can be used for troubleshooting. + + With -m/--match and a STR argument, print will show at most one trans- + action: the one one whose description is most similar to STR, and is + most recent. STR should contain at least two characters. If there is + no similar-enough match, no transaction will be shown. + + With --new, hledger prints only transactions it has not seen on a pre- + vious run. This uses the same deduplication system as the import com- + mand. (See import's docs for details.) + + This command also supports the output destination and output format + options The output formats supported are txt, csv, and (experimental) + json and sql. + + Here's an example of print's CSV output: + + $ hledger print -Ocsv + "txnidx","date","date2","status","code","description","comment","account","amount","commodity","credit","debit","posting-status","posting-comment" + "1","2008/01/01","","","","income","","assets:bank:checking","1","$","","1","","" + "1","2008/01/01","","","","income","","income:salary","-1","$","1","","","" + "2","2008/06/01","","","","gift","","assets:bank:checking","1","$","","1","","" + "2","2008/06/01","","","","gift","","income:gifts","-1","$","1","","","" + "3","2008/06/02","","","","save","","assets:bank:saving","1","$","","1","","" + "3","2008/06/02","","","","save","","assets:bank:checking","-1","$","1","","","" + "4","2008/06/03","","*","","eat & shop","","expenses:food","1","$","","1","","" + "4","2008/06/03","","*","","eat & shop","","expenses:supplies","1","$","","1","","" + "4","2008/06/03","","*","","eat & shop","","assets:cash","-2","$","2","","","" + "5","2008/12/31","","*","","pay off","","liabilities:debts","1","$","","1","","" + "5","2008/12/31","","*","","pay off","","assets:bank:checking","-1","$","1","","","" + + o There is one CSV record per posting, with the parent transaction's + fields repeated. + + o The "txnidx" (transaction index) field shows which postings belong to + the same transaction. (This number might change if transactions are + reordered within the file, files are parsed/included in a different + order, etc.) + + o The amount is separated into "commodity" (the symbol) and "amount" + (numeric quantity) fields. + + o The numeric amount is repeated in either the "credit" or "debit" col- + umn, for convenience. (Those names are not accurate in the account- + ing sense; it just puts negative amounts under credit and zero or + greater amounts under debit.) + + print-unique + print-unique + Print transactions which do not reuse an already-seen description. + + Example: + + $ cat unique.journal + 1/1 test + (acct:one) 1 + 2/2 test + (acct:two) 2 + $ LEDGER_FILE=unique.journal hledger print-unique + (-f option not supported) + 2015/01/01 test + (acct:one) 1 + + register + register, reg + Show postings and their running total. + + The register command displays matched postings, across all accounts, in + date order, with their running total or running historical balance. + (See also the aregister command, which shows matched transactions in a + specific account.) + + register normally shows line per posting, but note that multi-commodity + amounts will occupy multiple lines (one line per commodity). + + It is typically used with a query selecting a particular account, to + see that account's activity: + + $ hledger register checking + 2008/01/01 income assets:bank:checking $1 $1 + 2008/06/01 gift assets:bank:checking $1 $2 + 2008/06/02 save assets:bank:checking $-1 $1 + 2008/12/31 pay off assets:bank:checking $-1 0 + + With --date2, it shows and sorts by secondary date instead. + + The --historical/-H flag adds the balance from any undisplayed prior + postings to the running total. This is useful when you want to see + only recent activity, with a historically accurate running balance: + + $ hledger register checking -b 2008/6 --historical + 2008/06/01 gift assets:bank:checking $1 $2 + 2008/06/02 save assets:bank:checking $-1 $1 + 2008/12/31 pay off assets:bank:checking $-1 0 + + The --depth option limits the amount of sub-account detail displayed. + + The --average/-A flag shows the running average posting amount instead + of the running total (so, the final number displayed is the average for + the whole report period). This flag implies --empty (see below). It + is affected by --historical. It works best when showing just one + account and one commodity. + + The --related/-r flag shows the other postings in the transactions of + the postings which would normally be shown. + + The --invert flag negates all amounts. For example, it can be used on + an income account where amounts are normally displayed as negative num- + bers. It's also useful to show postings on the checking account + together with the related account: + + $ hledger register --related --invert assets:checking + + With a reporting interval, register shows summary postings, one per + interval, aggregating the postings to each account: + + $ hledger register --monthly income + 2008/01 income:salary $-1 $-1 + 2008/06 income:gifts $-1 $-2 + + Periods with no activity, and summary postings with a zero amount, are + not shown by default; use the --empty/-E flag to see them: + + $ hledger register --monthly income -E + 2008/01 income:salary $-1 $-1 + 2008/02 0 $-1 + 2008/03 0 $-1 + 2008/04 0 $-1 + 2008/05 0 $-1 + 2008/06 income:gifts $-1 $-2 + 2008/07 0 $-2 + 2008/08 0 $-2 + 2008/09 0 $-2 + 2008/10 0 $-2 + 2008/11 0 $-2 + 2008/12 0 $-2 + + Often, you'll want to see just one line per interval. The --depth + option helps with this, causing subaccounts to be aggregated: + + $ hledger register --monthly assets --depth 1h + 2008/01 assets $1 $1 + 2008/06 assets $-1 0 + 2008/12 assets $-1 $-1 + + Note when using report intervals, if you specify start/end dates these + will be adjusted outward if necessary to contain a whole number of + intervals. This ensures that the first and last intervals are full + length and comparable to the others in the report. + + Custom register output + register uses the full terminal width by default, except on windows. + You can override this by setting the COLUMNS environment variable (not + a bash shell variable) or by using the --width/-w option. + + The description and account columns normally share the space equally + (about half of (width - 40) each). You can adjust this by adding a + description width as part of --width's argument, comma-separated: + --width W,D . Here's a diagram (won't display correctly in --help): + + <--------------------------------- width (W) ----------------------------------> + date (10) description (D) account (W-41-D) amount (12) balance (12) + DDDDDDDDDD dddddddddddddddddddd aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa AAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAA + + and some examples: + + $ hledger reg # use terminal width (or 80 on windows) + $ hledger reg -w 100 # use width 100 + $ COLUMNS=100 hledger reg # set with one-time environment variable + $ export COLUMNS=100; hledger reg # set till session end (or window resize) + $ hledger reg -w 100,40 # set overall width 100, description width 40 + $ hledger reg -w $COLUMNS,40 # use terminal width, & description width 40 + + This command also supports the output destination and output format + options The output formats supported are txt, csv, and (experimental) + json. + + register-match + register-match + Print the one posting whose transaction description is closest to DESC, + in the style of the register command. If there are multiple equally + good matches, it shows the most recent. Query options (options, not + arguments) can be used to restrict the search space. Helps ledger- + autosync detect already-seen transactions when importing. + + rewrite + rewrite + Print all transactions, rewriting the postings of matched transactions. + For now the only rewrite available is adding new postings, like print + --auto. + + This is a start at a generic rewriter of transaction entries. It reads + the default journal and prints the transactions, like print, but adds + one or more specified postings to any transactions matching QUERY. The + posting amounts can be fixed, or a multiplier of the existing transac- + tion's first posting amount. + + Examples: + + $ hledger-rewrite.hs ^income --add-posting '(liabilities:tax) *.33 ; income tax' --add-posting '(reserve:gifts) $100' + $ hledger-rewrite.hs expenses:gifts --add-posting '(reserve:gifts) *-1"' + $ hledger-rewrite.hs -f rewrites.hledger + + rewrites.hledger may consist of entries like: + + = ^income amt:<0 date:2017 + (liabilities:tax) *0.33 ; tax on income + (reserve:grocery) *0.25 ; reserve 25% for grocery + (reserve:) *0.25 ; reserve 25% for grocery + + Note the single quotes to protect the dollar sign from bash, and the + two spaces between account and amount. + + More: + + $ hledger rewrite -- [QUERY] --add-posting "ACCT AMTEXPR" ... + $ hledger rewrite -- ^income --add-posting '(liabilities:tax) *.33' + $ hledger rewrite -- expenses:gifts --add-posting '(budget:gifts) *-1"' + $ hledger rewrite -- ^income --add-posting '(budget:foreign currency) *0.25 JPY; diversify' + + Argument for --add-posting option is a usual posting of transaction + with an exception for amount specification. More precisely, you can + use '*' (star symbol) before the amount to indicate that that this is a + factor for an amount of original matched posting. If the amount + includes a commodity name, the new posting amount will be in the new + commodity; otherwise, it will be in the matched posting amount's com- + modity. + + Re-write rules in a file + During the run this tool will execute so called "Automated Transac- + tions" found in any journal it process. I.e instead of specifying this + operations in command line you can put them in a journal file. + + $ rewrite-rules.journal + + Make contents look like this: + + = ^income + (liabilities:tax) *.33 + + = expenses:gifts + budget:gifts *-1 + assets:budget *1 + + Note that '=' (equality symbol) that is used instead of date in trans- + actions you usually write. It indicates the query by which you want to + match the posting to add new ones. + + $ hledger rewrite -- -f input.journal -f rewrite-rules.journal > rewritten-tidy-output.journal + + This is something similar to the commands pipeline: + + $ hledger rewrite -- -f input.journal '^income' --add-posting '(liabilities:tax) *.33' \ + | hledger rewrite -- -f - expenses:gifts --add-posting 'budget:gifts *-1' \ + --add-posting 'assets:budget *1' \ + > rewritten-tidy-output.journal + + It is important to understand that relative order of such entries in + journal is important. You can re-use result of previously added post- + ings. + + Diff output format + To use this tool for batch modification of your journal files you may + find useful output in form of unified diff. + + $ hledger rewrite -- --diff -f examples/sample.journal '^income' --add-posting '(liabilities:tax) *.33' + + Output might look like: + + --- /tmp/examples/sample.journal + +++ /tmp/examples/sample.journal + @@ -18,3 +18,4 @@ + 2008/01/01 income + - assets:bank:checking $1 + + assets:bank:checking $1 + income:salary + + (liabilities:tax) 0 + @@ -22,3 +23,4 @@ + 2008/06/01 gift + - assets:bank:checking $1 + + assets:bank:checking $1 + income:gifts + + (liabilities:tax) 0 + + If you'll pass this through patch tool you'll get transactions contain- + ing the posting that matches your query be updated. Note that multiple + files might be update according to list of input files specified via + --file options and include directives inside of these files. + + Be careful. Whole transaction being re-formatted in a style of output + from hledger print. + + See also: + + https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/issues/99 + + rewrite vs. print --auto + This command predates print --auto, and currently does much the same + thing, but with these differences: + + o with multiple files, rewrite lets rules in any file affect all other + files. print --auto uses standard directive scoping; rules affect + only child files. + + o rewrite's query limits which transactions can be rewritten; all are + printed. print --auto's query limits which transactions are printed. + + o rewrite applies rules specified on command line or in the journal. + print --auto applies rules specified in the journal. + + roi + roi + Shows the time-weighted (TWR) and money-weighted (IRR) rate of return + on your investments. + + At a minimum, you need to supply a query (which could be just an + account name) to select your investment(s) with --inv, and another + query to identify your profit and loss transactions with --pnl. + + If you do not record changes in the value of your investment manually, + or do not require computation of time-weighted return (TWR), --pnl + could be an empty query (--pnl "" or --pnl STR where STR does not match + any of your accounts). + + This command will compute and display the internalized rate of return + (IRR) and time-weighted rate of return (TWR) for your investments for + the time period requested. Both rates of return are annualized before + display, regardless of the length of reporting interval. + + Price directives will be taken into account if you supply appropriate + --cost or --value flags (see VALUATION). + + Note, in some cases this report can fail, for these reasons: + + o Error (NotBracketed): No solution for Internal Rate of Return (IRR). + Possible causes: IRR is huge (>1000000%), balance of investment + becomes negative at some point in time. + + o Error (SearchFailed): Failed to find solution for Internal Rate of + Return (IRR). Either search does not converge to a solution, or con- + verges too slowly. + + Examples: + + o Using roi to compute total return of investment in stocks: + https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/blob/master/examples/roi- + unrealised.ledger + + o Cookbook -> Return on Investment + + Spaces and special characters in --inv and --pnl + Note that --inv and --pnl's argument is a query, and queries could have + several space-separated terms (see QUERIES). + + To indicate that all search terms form single command-line argument, + you will need to put them in quotes (see Special characters): + + $ hledger roi --inv 'term1 term2 term3 ...' + + If any query terms contain spaces themselves, you will need an extra + level of nested quoting, eg: + + $ hledger roi --inv="'Assets:Test 1'" --pnl="'Equity:Unrealized Profit and Loss'" + + Semantics of --inv and --pnl + Query supplied to --inv has to match all transactions that are related + to your investment. Transactions not matching --inv will be ignored. + + In these transactions, ROI will conside postings that match --inv to be + "investment postings" and other postings (not matching --inv) will be + sorted into two categories: "cash flow" and "profit and loss", as ROI + needs to know which part of the investment value is your contributions + and which is due to the return on investment. + + o "Cash flow" is depositing or withdrawing money, buying or selling + assets, or otherwise converting between your investment commodity and + any other commodity. Example: + + 2019-01-01 Investing in Snake Oil + assets:cash -$100 + investment:snake oil + + 2020-01-01 Selling my Snake Oil + assets:cash $10 + investment:snake oil = 0 + + o "Profit and loss" is change in the value of your investment: + + 2019-06-01 Snake Oil falls in value + investment:snake oil = $57 + equity:unrealized profit or loss + + All non-investment postings are assumed to be "cash flow", unless they + match --pnl query. Changes in value of your investment due to "profit + and loss" postings will be considered as part of your investment + return. + + Example: if you use --inv snake --pnl equity:unrealized, then postings + in the example below would be classifed as: + + 2019-01-01 Snake Oil #1 + assets:cash -$100 ; cash flow posting + investment:snake oil ; investment posting + + 2019-03-01 Snake Oil #2 + equity:unrealized pnl -$100 ; profit and loss posting + snake oil ; investment posting + + 2019-07-01 Snake Oil #3 + equity:unrealized pnl ; profit and loss posting + cash -$100 ; cash flow posting + snake oil $50 ; investment posting + + IRR and TWR explained + "ROI" stands for "return on investment". Traditionally this was com- + puted as a difference between current value of investment and its ini- + tial value, expressed in percentage of the initial value. + + However, this approach is only practical in simple cases, where invest- + ments receives no in-flows or out-flows of money, and where rate of + growth is fixed over time. For more complex scenarios you need differ- + ent ways to compute rate of return, and this command implements two of + them: IRR and TWR. + + Internal rate of return, or "IRR" (also called "money-weighted rate of + return") takes into account effects of in-flows and out-flows. + Naively, if you are withdrawing from your investment, your future gains + would be smaller (in absolute numbers), and will be a smaller percent- + age of your initial investment, and if you are adding to your invest- + ment, you will receive bigger absolute gains (but probably at the same + rate of return). IRR is a way to compute rate of return for each + period between in-flow or out-flow of money, and then combine them in a + way that gives you a compound annual rate of return that investment is + expected to generate. + + As mentioned before, in-flows and out-flows would be any cash that you + personally put in or withdraw, and for the "roi" command, these are the + postings that match the query in the--inv argument and NOT match the + query in the--pnl argument. + + If you manually record changes in the value of your investment as + transactions that balance them against "profit and loss" (or "unreal- + ized gains") account or use price directives, then in order for IRR to + compute the precise effect of your in-flows and out-flows on the rate + of return, you will need to record the value of your investement on or + close to the days when in- or out-flows occur. + + In technical terms, IRR uses the same approach as computation of net + present value, and tries to find a discount rate that makes net present + value of all the cash flows of your investment to add up to zero. This + could be hard to wrap your head around, especially if you haven't done + discounted cash flow analysis before. Implementation of IRR in hledger + should produce results that match the XIRR formula in Excel. + + Second way to compute rate of return that roi command implements is + called "time-weighted rate of return" or "TWR". Like IRR, it will also + break the history of your investment into periods between in-flows, + out-flows and value changes, to compute rate of return per each period + and then a compound rate of return. However, internal workings of TWR + are quite different. + + TWR represents your investment as an imaginary "unit fund" where in- + flows/ out-flows lead to buying or selling "units" of your investment + and changes in its value change the value of "investment unit". Change + in "unit price" over the reporting period gives you rate of return of + your investment. + + References: * Explanation of rate of return * Explanation of IRR * + Explanation of TWR * Examples of computing IRR and TWR and discussion + of the limitations of both metrics + + stats + stats + Show some journal statistics. + + The stats command displays summary information for the whole journal, + or a matched part of it. With a reporting interval, it shows a report + for each report period. + + Example: + + $ hledger stats + Main journal file : /src/hledger/examples/sample.journal + Included journal files : + Transactions span : 2008-01-01 to 2009-01-01 (366 days) + Last transaction : 2008-12-31 (2333 days ago) + Transactions : 5 (0.0 per day) + Transactions last 30 days: 0 (0.0 per day) + Transactions last 7 days : 0 (0.0 per day) + Payees/descriptions : 5 + Accounts : 8 (depth 3) + Commodities : 1 ($) + Market prices : 12 ($) + + This command also supports output destination and output format selec- + tion. + + tags + tags + List the unique tag names used in the journal. With a TAGREGEX argu- + ment, only tag names matching the regular expression (case insensitive) + are shown. With QUERY arguments, only transactions matching the query + are considered. + + With the --values flag, the tags' unique values are listed instead. + + With --parsed flag, all tags or values are shown in the order they are + parsed from the input data, including duplicates. + + With -E/--empty, any blank/empty values will also be shown, otherwise + they are omitted. + + test + test + Run built-in unit tests. + + This command runs the unit tests built in to hledger and hledger-lib, + printing the results on stdout. If any test fails, the exit code will + be non-zero. + + This is mainly used by hledger developers, but you can also use it to + sanity-check the installed hledger executable on your platform. All + tests are expected to pass - if you ever see a failure, please report + as a bug! + + This command also accepts tasty test runner options, written after a -- + (double hyphen). Eg to run only the tests in Hledger.Data.Amount, with + ANSI colour codes disabled: + + $ hledger test -- -pData.Amount --color=never + + For help on these, see https://github.com/feuerbach/tasty#options (-- + --help currently doesn't show them). + + About add-on commands + Add-on commands are programs or scripts in your PATH + + o whose name starts with hledger- + + o whose name ends with a recognised file extension: .bat,.com,.exe, + .hs,.lhs,.pl,.py,.rb,.rkt,.sh or none + + o and (on unix, mac) which are executable by the current user. + + Add-ons are a relatively easy way to add local features or experiment + with new ideas. They can be written in any language, but haskell + scripts have a big advantage: they can use the same hledger library + functions that built-in commands use for command-line options, parsing + and reporting. Some experimental/example add-on scripts can be found + in the hledger repo's bin/ directory. + + Note in a hledger command line, add-on command flags must have a double + dash (--) preceding them. Eg you must write: + + $ hledger web -- --serve + + and not: + + $ hledger web --serve + + (because the --serve flag belongs to hledger-web, not hledger). + + The -h/--help and --version flags don't require --. + + If you have any trouble with this, remember you can always run the add- + on program directly, eg: + + $ hledger-web --serve + +JOURNAL FORMAT + hledger's default file format, representing a General Journal. + + 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. + + Code + After the status mark, but before the description, you can optionally + write a transaction "code", enclosed in parentheses. This is a good + place to record a check number, or some other important transaction id + or reference number. + + 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, revenue, 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 symbol or commodity name (more on this below), + to the left or right of the quantity, with or without a separating + space: + + $1 + 4000 AAPL + 3 "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 + + Decimal marks, digit group marks + A decimal mark can be written as a period or a comma: + + 1.23 + 1,23456780000009 + + 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 digit group mark and no decimal mark + is ambiguous. Are these digit group marks or decimal marks ? + + 1,000 + 1.000 + + If you don't tell it otherwise, hledger will assume both of the above + are decimal marks, parsing both numbers as 1. To prevent confusion and + undetected typos, we recommend adding commodity directives at the top + of your journal file to explicitly declare the decimal mark (and + optionally a digit group mark) for each commodity. Read on for more + about this. + + Commodity + Amounts in hledger have both a "quantity", which is a signed decimal + number, and a "commodity", which is a currency symbol, stock ticker, or + any word or phrase describing something you are tracking. + + If the commodity name contains non-letters (spaces, numbers, or punctu- + ation), you must always write it inside double quotes ("green apples", + "ABC123"). + + If you write just a bare number, that too will have a commodity, with + name ""; we call that the "no-symbol commodity". + + Actually, hledger combines these single-commodity amounts into more + powerful multi-commodity amounts, which are what it works with most of + the time. A multi-commodity amount could be, eg: 1 USD, 2 EUR, 3.456 + TSLA. In practice, you will only see multi-commodity amounts in + hledger's output; you can't write them directly in the journal file. + + (If you are writing scripts or working with hledger's internals, these + are the Amount and MixedAmount types.) + + Commodity directives + You can add commodity directives to the journal, preferably at the top, + to declare your commodities and help with number parsing (see above) + and display (see below). These are optional, but recommended. They + are described in more detail in JOURNAL FORMAT -> Declaring commodi- + ties. Here's a quick example: + + # number format and display style for $, EUR, INR and the no-symbol commodity: + 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 the amounts in each commodity, hledger chooses a consistent display + style to use in most reports. (Exceptions: price amounts, and all + amounts displayed by the print command, are displayed with all of their + decimal digits visible.) + + A commodity's display style is inferred as follows. + + First, if a default commodity is declared with D, this commodity and + its style is applied to any no-symbol amounts in the journal. + + Then each commodity's style is inferred from one of the following, in + order of preference: + + o The commodity directive for that commodity (including the no-symbol + commodity), if any. + + o The amounts in that commodity seen in the journal's transactions. + (Posting amounts only; prices and periodic or auto rules are ignored, + currently.) + + o The built-in fallback style, which looks like this: $1000.00. (Sym- + bol on the left, period decimal mark, two decimal places.) + + A style is inferred from journal amounts 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. + + To summarise: each commodity's amounts will be normalised to (a) the + style declared by a commodity directive, or (b) the style of the first + posting amount in the journal, with the first-seen digit group style + and the maximum-seen number of decimal places. So if your reports are + showing amounts in a way you don't like, eg with too many decimal + places, use a commodity directive. Some examples: + + # declare euro, dollar, bitcoin and no-symbol commodities and set their + # input number formats and output display styles: + commodity EUR 1.000, + commodity $1000.00 + commodity 1000.00000000 BTC + commodity 1 000. + + 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. + + + 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 until end of cur- + rent file; display + 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 + payee declare a payee name following entries + until end of cur- + rent file + 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 payees + The payee directive can be used to declare a limited set of payees + which may appear in transaction descriptions. The "payees" check will + report an error if any transaction refers to a payee that has not been + declared. Eg: + + payee Whole Foods + + Declaring commodities + You can use commodity directives to declare your commodities. In fact + the commodity directive performs several functions at once: + + 1. It declares commodities which may be used in the journal. This can + optionally be enforced, providing useful error checking. (Cf Com- + modity error checking) + + 2. It declares which decimal mark character (period or comma), to + expect when parsing input - useful to disambiguate international + number formats in your data. Without this, hledger will parse both + 1,000 and 1.000 as 1. (Cf Amounts) + + 3. It declares how to render the commodity's amounts when displaying + output - the decimal mark, any digit group marks, the number of dec- + imal places, symbol placement and so on. (Cf Commodity display + style) + + You will run into one of the problems solved by commodity directives + sooner or later, so we recommend using them, for robust and predictable + parsing and display. + + Generally you should put them at the top of your journal file (since + for function 2, they affect only following amounts, cf #793). + + A commodity directive is just the word commodity followed by a sample + amount, like this: + + ;commodity SAMPLEAMOUNT + + commodity $1000.00 + commodity 1,000.0000 AAAA ; optional same-line comment + + It may also be written on multiple lines, and use the format subdirec- + tive, as in Ledger. Note in this case the commodity symbol appears + twice; it must be the same in both places: + + ;commodity SYMBOL + ; format SAMPLEAMOUNT + + ; display indian rupees with currency name on the left, + ; thousands, lakhs and crores comma-separated, + ; period as decimal point, and two decimal places. + commodity INR + format INR 1,00,00,000.00 + + Remember that if the commodity symbol contains spaces, numbers, or + punctuation, it must be enclosed in double quotes (cf Commodity). + + The amount's quantity does not matter; only the format is significant. + It must include a decimal mark - either a period or a comma - followed + by 0 or more decimal digits. + + A few more examples: + + # number formats for $, EUR, INR and the no-symbol commodity: + commodity $1,000.00 + commodity EUR 1.000,00 + commodity INR 9,99,99,999.0 + commodity 1 000 000. + + 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 any subsequent + commodityless amounts (ie, plain numbers) seen while parsing the jour- + nal. This effect lasts until the next D directive, or the end of the + journal. + + For compatibility/historical reasons, D also acts like a commodity + directive (setting the commodity's decimal mark for parsing and display + style for output). + + As with commodity, the amount must include a decimal mark (either + period or comma). If both commodity and D directives are used for the + same commodity, the commodity 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. + + The format is: + + P DATE COMMODITY1SYMBOL COMMODITY2AMOUNT + + DATE is a simple date, COMMODITY1SYMBOL is the symbol of the commodity + being priced, and COMMODITY2AMOUNT is the amount (symbol and quantity) + of commodity 2 that one unit of commodity 1 is worth on this date. + Examples: + + # one euro was worth $1.35 from 2009-01-01 onward: + P 2009-01-01 EUR $1.35 + + # and $1.40 from 2010-01-01 onward: + P 2010-01-01 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 account's name matches this regular expression: | its type is: + ------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------ + ^assets?(:|$) | + and does not contain regexp (investment|receivable|:A/R|:fixed) | Cash + otherwise | Asset + ^(debts?|liabilit(y|ies))(:|$) | Liability + ^equity(:|$) | Equity + ^(income|revenue)s?(:|$) | Revenue + ^expenses?(:|$) | Expense + + 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 (but note: not sibling or parent 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". + +CSV FORMAT + How hledger reads CSV data, and the CSV rules file format. + + hledger can read CSV files (Character Separated Value - usually comma, + semicolon, or tab) containing dated records as if they were journal + files, automatically converting each CSV record into a transaction. + + (To learn about writing CSV, see CSV output.) + + We describe each CSV file's format with a corresponding rules file. By + default this is named like the CSV file with a .rules extension added. + Eg when reading FILE.csv, hledger also looks for FILE.csv.rules in the + same directory as FILE.csv. You can specify a different rules file + with the --rules-file option. If a rules file is not found, hledger + will create a sample rules file, which you'll need to adjust. + + This file contains rules describing the CSV data (header line, fields + layout, date format etc.), and how to construct hledger journal entries + (transactions) from it. Often there will also be a list of conditional + rules for categorising transactions based on their descriptions. + Here's an overview of the CSV rules; these are described more fully + below, after the examples: + + + skip skip one or more header lines or matched CSV + records + fields list name CSV fields, assign them to hledger + fields + field assignment assign a value to one hledger field, with + interpolation + Field names hledger field names, used in the fields list + and field assignments + separator a custom field separator + + if block apply some rules to CSV records matched by + patterns + if table apply some rules to CSV records matched by + patterns, alternate syntax + end skip the remaining CSV records + date-format how to parse dates in CSV records + decimal-mark the decimal mark used in CSV amounts, if + ambiguous + newest-first disambiguate record order when there's only + one date + include inline another CSV rules file + balance-type choose which type of balance assignments to + use + + Note, for best error messages when reading CSV files, use a .csv, .tsv + or .ssv file extension or file prefix - see File Extension below. + + There's an introductory Convert CSV files tutorial on hledger.org. + + Examples + Here are some sample hledger CSV rules files. See also the full col- + lection at: + https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/tree/master/examples/csv + + Basic + At minimum, the rules file must identify the date and amount fields, + and often it also specifies the date format and how many header lines + there are. Here's a simple CSV file and a rules file for it: + + Date, Description, Id, Amount + 12/11/2019, Foo, 123, 10.23 + + # basic.csv.rules + skip 1 + fields date, description, _, amount + date-format %d/%m/%Y + + $ hledger print -f basic.csv + 2019-11-12 Foo + expenses:unknown 10.23 + income:unknown -10.23 + + Default account names are chosen, since we didn't set them. + + Bank of Ireland + Here's a CSV with two amount fields (Debit and Credit), and a balance + field, which we can use to add balance assertions, which is not neces- + sary but provides extra error checking: + + Date,Details,Debit,Credit,Balance + 07/12/2012,LODGMENT 529898,,10.0,131.21 + 07/12/2012,PAYMENT,5,,126 + + # bankofireland-checking.csv.rules + + # skip the header line + skip + + # name the csv fields, and assign some of them as journal entry fields + fields date, description, amount-out, amount-in, balance + + # We generate balance assertions by assigning to "balance" + # above, but you may sometimes need to remove these because: + # + # - the CSV balance differs from the true balance, + # by up to 0.0000000000005 in my experience + # + # - it is sometimes calculated based on non-chronological ordering, + # eg when multiple transactions clear on the same day + + # date is in UK/Ireland format + date-format %d/%m/%Y + + # set the currency + currency EUR + + # set the base account for all txns + account1 assets:bank:boi:checking + + $ hledger -f bankofireland-checking.csv print + 2012-12-07 LODGMENT 529898 + assets:bank:boi:checking EUR10.0 = EUR131.2 + income:unknown EUR-10.0 + + 2012-12-07 PAYMENT + assets:bank:boi:checking EUR-5.0 = EUR126.0 + expenses:unknown EUR5.0 + + The balance assertions don't raise an error above, because we're read- + ing directly from CSV, but they will be checked if these entries are + imported into a journal file. + + Amazon + Here we convert amazon.com order history, and use an if block to gener- + ate a third posting if there's a fee. (In practice you'd probably get + this data from your bank instead, but it's an example.) + + "Date","Type","To/From","Name","Status","Amount","Fees","Transaction ID" + "Jul 29, 2012","Payment","To","Foo.","Completed","$20.00","$0.00","16000000000000DGLNJPI1P9B8DKPVHL" + "Jul 30, 2012","Payment","To","Adapteva, Inc.","Completed","$25.00","$1.00","17LA58JSKRD4HDGLNJPI1P9B8DKPVHL" + + # amazon-orders.csv.rules + + # skip one header line + skip 1 + + # name the csv fields, and assign the transaction's date, amount and code. + # Avoided the "status" and "amount" hledger field names to prevent confusion. + fields date, _, toorfrom, name, amzstatus, amzamount, fees, code + + # how to parse the date + date-format %b %-d, %Y + + # combine two fields to make the description + description %toorfrom %name + + # save the status as a tag + comment status:%amzstatus + + # set the base account for all transactions + account1 assets:amazon + # leave amount1 blank so it can balance the other(s). + # I'm assuming amzamount excludes the fees, don't remember + + # set a generic account2 + account2 expenses:misc + amount2 %amzamount + # and maybe refine it further: + #include categorisation.rules + + # add a third posting for fees, but only if they are non-zero. + if %fees [1-9] + account3 expenses:fees + amount3 %fees + + $ hledger -f amazon-orders.csv print + 2012-07-29 (16000000000000DGLNJPI1P9B8DKPVHL) To Foo. ; status:Completed + assets:amazon + expenses:misc $20.00 + + 2012-07-30 (17LA58JSKRD4HDGLNJPI1P9B8DKPVHL) To Adapteva, Inc. ; status:Completed + assets:amazon + expenses:misc $25.00 + expenses:fees $1.00 + + Paypal + Here's a real-world rules file for (customised) Paypal CSV, with some + Paypal-specific rules, and a second rules file included: + + "Date","Time","TimeZone","Name","Type","Status","Currency","Gross","Fee","Net","From Email Address","To Email Address","Transaction ID","Item Title","Item ID","Reference Txn ID","Receipt ID","Balance","Note" + "10/01/2019","03:46:20","PDT","Calm Radio","Subscription Payment","Completed","USD","-6.99","0.00","-6.99","simon@joyful.com","memberships@calmradio.com","60P57143A8206782E","MONTHLY - $1 for the first 2 Months: Me - Order 99309. Item total: $1.00 USD first 2 months, then $6.99 / Month","","I-R8YLY094FJYR","","-6.99","" + "10/01/2019","03:46:20","PDT","","Bank Deposit to PP Account ","Pending","USD","6.99","0.00","6.99","","simon@joyful.com","0TU1544T080463733","","","60P57143A8206782E","","0.00","" + "10/01/2019","08:57:01","PDT","Patreon","PreApproved Payment Bill User Payment","Completed","USD","-7.00","0.00","-7.00","simon@joyful.com","support@patreon.com","2722394R5F586712G","Patreon* Membership","","B-0PG93074E7M86381M","","-7.00","" + "10/01/2019","08:57:01","PDT","","Bank Deposit to PP Account ","Pending","USD","7.00","0.00","7.00","","simon@joyful.com","71854087RG994194F","Patreon* Membership","","2722394R5F586712G","","0.00","" + "10/19/2019","03:02:12","PDT","Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.","Subscription Payment","Completed","USD","-2.00","0.00","-2.00","simon@joyful.com","tle@wikimedia.org","K9U43044RY432050M","Monthly donation to the Wikimedia Foundation","","I-R5C3YUS3285L","","-2.00","" + "10/19/2019","03:02:12","PDT","","Bank Deposit to PP Account ","Pending","USD","2.00","0.00","2.00","","simon@joyful.com","3XJ107139A851061F","","","K9U43044RY432050M","","0.00","" + "10/22/2019","05:07:06","PDT","Noble Benefactor","Subscription Payment","Completed","USD","10.00","-0.59","9.41","noble@bene.fac.tor","simon@joyful.com","6L8L1662YP1334033","Joyful Systems","","I-KC9VBGY2GWDB","","9.41","" + + # paypal-custom.csv.rules + + # Tips: + # Export from Activity -> Statements -> Custom -> Activity download + # Suggested transaction type: "Balance affecting" + # Paypal's default fields in 2018 were: + # "Date","Time","TimeZone","Name","Type","Status","Currency","Gross","Fee","Net","From Email Address","To Email Address","Transaction ID","Shipping Address","Address Status","Item Title","Item ID","Shipping and Handling Amount","Insurance Amount","Sales Tax","Option 1 Name","Option 1 Value","Option 2 Name","Option 2 Value","Reference Txn ID","Invoice Number","Custom Number","Quantity","Receipt ID","Balance","Address Line 1","Address Line 2/District/Neighborhood","Town/City","State/Province/Region/County/Territory/Prefecture/Republic","Zip/Postal Code","Country","Contact Phone Number","Subject","Note","Country Code","Balance Impact" + # This rules file assumes the following more detailed fields, configured in "Customize report fields": + # "Date","Time","TimeZone","Name","Type","Status","Currency","Gross","Fee","Net","From Email Address","To Email Address","Transaction ID","Item Title","Item ID","Reference Txn ID","Receipt ID","Balance","Note" + + fields date, time, timezone, description_, type, status_, currency, grossamount, feeamount, netamount, fromemail, toemail, code, itemtitle, itemid, referencetxnid, receiptid, balance, note + + skip 1 + + date-format %-m/%-d/%Y + + # ignore some paypal events + if + In Progress + Temporary Hold + Update to + skip + + # add more fields to the description + description %description_ %itemtitle + + # save some other fields as tags + comment itemid:%itemid, fromemail:%fromemail, toemail:%toemail, time:%time, type:%type, status:%status_ + + # convert to short currency symbols + if %currency USD + currency $ + if %currency EUR + currency E + if %currency GBP + currency P + + # generate postings + + # the first posting will be the money leaving/entering my paypal account + # (negative means leaving my account, in all amount fields) + account1 assets:online:paypal + amount1 %netamount + + # the second posting will be money sent to/received from other party + # (account2 is set below) + amount2 -%grossamount + + # if there's a fee, add a third posting for the money taken by paypal. + if %feeamount [1-9] + account3 expenses:banking:paypal + amount3 -%feeamount + comment3 business: + + # choose an account for the second posting + + # override the default account names: + # if the amount is positive, it's income (a debit) + if %grossamount ^[^-] + account2 income:unknown + # if negative, it's an expense (a credit) + if %grossamount ^- + account2 expenses:unknown + + # apply common rules for setting account2 & other tweaks + include common.rules + + # apply some overrides specific to this csv + + # Transfers from/to bank. These are usually marked Pending, + # which can be disregarded in this case. + if + Bank Account + Bank Deposit to PP Account + description %type for %referencetxnid %itemtitle + account2 assets:bank:wf:pchecking + account1 assets:online:paypal + + # Currency conversions + if Currency Conversion + account2 equity:currency conversion + + # common.rules + + if + darcs + noble benefactor + account2 revenues:foss donations:darcshub + comment2 business: + + if + Calm Radio + account2 expenses:online:apps + + if + electronic frontier foundation + Patreon + wikimedia + Advent of Code + account2 expenses:dues + + if Google + account2 expenses:online:apps + description google | music + + $ hledger -f paypal-custom.csv print + 2019-10-01 (60P57143A8206782E) Calm Radio MONTHLY - $1 for the first 2 Months: Me - Order 99309. Item total: $1.00 USD first 2 months, then $6.99 / Month ; itemid:, fromemail:simon@joyful.com, toemail:memberships@calmradio.com, time:03:46:20, type:Subscription Payment, status:Completed + assets:online:paypal $-6.99 = $-6.99 + expenses:online:apps $6.99 + + 2019-10-01 (0TU1544T080463733) Bank Deposit to PP Account for 60P57143A8206782E ; itemid:, fromemail:, toemail:simon@joyful.com, time:03:46:20, type:Bank Deposit to PP Account, status:Pending + assets:online:paypal $6.99 = $0.00 + assets:bank:wf:pchecking $-6.99 + + 2019-10-01 (2722394R5F586712G) Patreon Patreon* Membership ; itemid:, fromemail:simon@joyful.com, toemail:support@patreon.com, time:08:57:01, type:PreApproved Payment Bill User Payment, status:Completed + assets:online:paypal $-7.00 = $-7.00 + expenses:dues $7.00 + + 2019-10-01 (71854087RG994194F) Bank Deposit to PP Account for 2722394R5F586712G Patreon* Membership ; itemid:, fromemail:, toemail:simon@joyful.com, time:08:57:01, type:Bank Deposit to PP Account, status:Pending + assets:online:paypal $7.00 = $0.00 + assets:bank:wf:pchecking $-7.00 + + 2019-10-19 (K9U43044RY432050M) Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Monthly donation to the Wikimedia Foundation ; itemid:, fromemail:simon@joyful.com, toemail:tle@wikimedia.org, time:03:02:12, type:Subscription Payment, status:Completed + assets:online:paypal $-2.00 = $-2.00 + expenses:dues $2.00 + expenses:banking:paypal ; business: + + 2019-10-19 (3XJ107139A851061F) Bank Deposit to PP Account for K9U43044RY432050M ; itemid:, fromemail:, toemail:simon@joyful.com, time:03:02:12, type:Bank Deposit to PP Account, status:Pending + assets:online:paypal $2.00 = $0.00 + assets:bank:wf:pchecking $-2.00 + + 2019-10-22 (6L8L1662YP1334033) Noble Benefactor Joyful Systems ; itemid:, fromemail:noble@bene.fac.tor, toemail:simon@joyful.com, time:05:07:06, type:Subscription Payment, status:Completed + assets:online:paypal $9.41 = $9.41 + revenues:foss donations:darcshub $-10.00 ; business: + expenses:banking:paypal $0.59 ; business: + + CSV rules + The following kinds of rule can appear in the rules file, in any order. + Blank lines and lines beginning with # or ; are ignored. + + skip + skip N + + The word "skip" followed by a number (or no number, meaning 1) tells + hledger to ignore this many non-empty lines preceding the CSV data. + (Empty/blank lines are skipped automatically.) You'll need this when- + ever your CSV data contains header lines. + + It also has a second purpose: it can be used inside if blocks to ignore + certain CSV records (described below). + + fields list + fields FIELDNAME1, FIELDNAME2, ... + + A fields list (the word "fields" followed by comma-separated field + names) is the quick way to assign CSV field values to hledger fields. + (The other way is field assignments, see below.) A fields list does + does two things: + + 1. It names the CSV fields. This is optional, but can be convenient + later for interpolating them. + + 2. Whenever you use a standard hledger field name (defined below), the + CSV value is assigned to that part of the hledger transaction. + + Here's an example that says "use the 1st, 2nd and 4th fields as the + transaction's date, description and amount; name the last two fields + for later reference; and ignore the others": + + fields date, description, , amount, , , somefield, anotherfield + + Tips: + + o The fields list always use commas, even if your CSV data uses another + separator character. + + o Currently there must be least two items in the list (at least one + comma). + + o Field names may not contain spaces. Spaces before/after field names + are optional. + + o If the CSV contains column headings, it's a good idea to use these, + suitably modified, as the basis for your field names (eg lower-cased, + with underscores instead of spaces). + + o If some heading names match standard hledger fields, but you don't + want to set the hledger fields directly, alter those names, eg by + appending an underscore. + + o Fields you don't care about can be given a dummy name (eg: _ ), or no + name. + + field assignment + HLEDGERFIELDNAME FIELDVALUE + + Field assignments are the more flexible way to assign CSV values to + hledger fields. They can be used instead of or in addition to a fields + list (see above). + + To assign a value to a hledger field, write the field name (any of the + standard hledger field/pseudo-field names, defined below), a space, + followed by a text value on the same line. This text value may inter- + polate CSV fields, referenced by their 1-based position in the CSV + record (%N), or by the name they were given in the fields list (%CSV- + FIELDNAME). + + Some examples: + + # set the amount to the 4th CSV field, with " USD" appended + amount %4 USD + + # combine three fields to make a comment, containing note: and date: tags + comment note: %somefield - %anotherfield, date: %1 + + Tips: + + o Interpolation strips outer whitespace (so a CSV value like " 1 " + becomes 1 when interpolated) (#1051). + + o See also Tips below. + + Field names + Here are the standard hledger field (and pseudo-field) names, which you + can use in a fields list and in field assignments. For more about the + transaction parts they refer to, see Transactions. + + date field + Assigning to date sets the transaction date. + + date2 field + date2 sets the transaction's secondary date, if any. + + status field + status sets the transaction's status, if any. + + code field + code sets the transaction's code, if any. + + description field + description sets the transaction's description, if any. + + comment field + comment sets the transaction's comment, if any. + + commentN, where N is a number, sets the Nth posting's comment. + + Tips: - Only single-line comments can be assigned. - Comments can con- + tain tags, as usual. + + account field + Assigning to accountN, where N is 1 to 99, sets the account name of the + Nth posting, and causes that posting to be generated. + + Most often there are two postings, so you'll want to set account1 and + account2. Typically account1 is associated with the CSV file, and is + set once with a top-level assignment, while account2 is set based on + each transaction's description, and in conditional blocks. + + If a posting's account name is left unset but its amount is set (see + below), a default account name will be chosen (like "expenses:unknown" + or "income:unknown"). + + amount field + amountN sets the amount of the Nth posting, and causes that posting to + be generated. By assigning to amount1, amount2, ... etc. you can + generate up to 99 postings. + + amountN-in and amountN-out can be used instead, if the CSV uses sepa- + rate fields for debits and credits (inflows and outflows). hledger + assumes both of these CSV fields are unsigned, and will automatically + negate the "-out" value. If they are signed, see "Setting amounts" + below. + + amount, or amount-in and amount-out are a legacy mode, to keep pre- + hledger-1.17 CSV rules files working (and for occasional convenience). + They are suitable only for two-posting transactions; they set both + posting 1's and posting 2's amount. Posting 2's amount will be + negated, and also converted to cost if there's a transaction price. + + If you have an existing rules file using the unnumbered form, you might + want to use the numbered form in certain conditional blocks, without + having to update and retest all the old rules. To facilitate this, + posting 1 ignores amount/amount-in/amount-out if any of + amount1/amount1-in/amount1-out are assigned, and posting 2 ignores them + if any of amount2/amount2-in/amount2-out are assigned, avoiding con- + flicts. + + currency field + currency sets a currency symbol, to be prepended to all postings' + amounts. You can use this if the CSV amounts do not have a currency + symbol, eg if it is in a separate column. + + currencyN prepends a currency symbol to just the Nth posting's amount. + + balance field + balanceN sets a balance assertion amount (or if the posting amount is + left empty, a balance assignment) on posting N. + + balance is a compatibility spelling for hledger <1.17; it is equivalent + to balance1. + + You can adjust the type of assertion/assignment with the balance-type + rule (see below). + + See Tips below for more about setting amounts and currency. + + separator + You can use the separator rule to read other kinds of character-sepa- + rated data. The argument is any single separator character, or the + words tab or space (case insensitive). Eg, for comma-separated values + (CSV): + + separator , + + or for semicolon-separated values (SSV): + + separator ; + + or for tab-separated values (TSV): + + separator TAB + + If the input file has a .csv, .ssv or .tsv file extension (or a csv:, + ssv:, tsv: prefix), the appropriate separator will be inferred automat- + ically, and you won't need this rule. + + if block + if MATCHER + RULE + + if + MATCHER + MATCHER + MATCHER + RULE + RULE + + Conditional blocks ("if blocks") are a block of rules that are applied + only to CSV records which match certain patterns. They are often used + for customising account names based on transaction descriptions. + + Matching the whole record + Each MATCHER can be a record matcher, which looks like this: + + REGEX + + REGEX is a case-insensitive regular expression that tries to match any- + where within the CSV record. It is a POSIX ERE (extended regular + expression) that also supports GNU word boundaries (\b, \B, \<, \>), + and nothing else. If you have trouble, be sure to check our doc: + https://hledger.org/hledger.html#regular-expressions + + Important note: the record that is matched is not the original record, + but a synthetic one, with any enclosing double quotes (but not enclos- + ing whitespace) removed, and always comma-separated (which means that a + field containing a comma will appear like two fields). Eg, if the + original record is 2020-01-01; "Acme, Inc."; 1,000, the REGEX will + actually see 2020-01-01,Acme, Inc., 1,000). + + Matching individual fields + Or, MATCHER can be a field matcher, like this: + + %CSVFIELD REGEX + + which matches just the content of a particular CSV field. CSVFIELD is + a percent sign followed by the field's name or column number, like + %date or %1. + + Combining matchers + A single matcher can be written on the same line as the "if"; or multi- + ple matchers can be written on the following lines, non-indented. Mul- + tiple matchers are OR'd (any one of them can match), unless one begins + with an & symbol, in which case it is AND'ed with the previous matcher. + + if + MATCHER + & MATCHER + RULE + + Rules applied on successful match + After the patterns there should be one or more rules to apply, all + indented by at least one space. Three kinds of rule are allowed in + conditional blocks: + + o field assignments (to set a hledger field) + + o skip (to skip the matched CSV record) + + o end (to skip all remaining CSV records). + + Examples: + + # if the CSV record contains "groceries", set account2 to "expenses:groceries" + if groceries + account2 expenses:groceries + + # if the CSV record contains any of these patterns, set account2 and comment as shown + if + monthly service fee + atm transaction fee + banking thru software + account2 expenses:business:banking + comment XXX deductible ? check it + + if table + if,CSVFIELDNAME1,CSVFIELDNAME2,...,CSVFIELDNAMEn + MATCHER1,VALUE11,VALUE12,...,VALUE1n + MATCHER2,VALUE21,VALUE22,...,VALUE2n + MATCHER3,VALUE31,VALUE32,...,VALUE3n + + + Conditional tables ("if tables") are a different syntax to specify + field assignments that will be applied only to CSV records which match + certain patterns. + + MATCHER could be either field or record matcher, as described above. + When MATCHER matches, values from that row would be assigned to the CSV + fields named on the if line, in the same order. + + Therefore if table is exactly equivalent to a sequence of of if blocks: + + if MATCHER1 + CSVFIELDNAME1 VALUE11 + CSVFIELDNAME2 VALUE12 + ... + CSVFIELDNAMEn VALUE1n + + if MATCHER2 + CSVFIELDNAME1 VALUE21 + CSVFIELDNAME2 VALUE22 + ... + CSVFIELDNAMEn VALUE2n + + if MATCHER3 + CSVFIELDNAME1 VALUE31 + CSVFIELDNAME2 VALUE32 + ... + CSVFIELDNAMEn VALUE3n + + Each line starting with MATCHER should contain enough (possibly empty) + values for all the listed fields. + + Rules would be checked and applied in the order they are listed in the + table and, like with if blocks, later rules (in the same or another ta- + ble) or if blocks could override the effect of any rule. + + Instead of ',' you can use a variety of other non-alphanumeric charac- + ters as a separator. First character after if is taken to be the sepa- + rator for the rest of the table. It is the responsibility of the user + to ensure that separator does not occur inside MATCHERs and values - + there is no way to escape separator. + + Example: + + if,account2,comment + atm transaction fee,expenses:business:banking,deductible? check it + %description groceries,expenses:groceries, + 2020/01/12.*Plumbing LLC,expenses:house:upkeep,emergency plumbing call-out + + end + This rule can be used inside if blocks (only), to make hledger stop + reading this CSV file and move on to the next input file, or to command + execution. Eg: + + # ignore everything following the first empty record + if ,,,, + end + + date-format + date-format DATEFMT + + This is a helper for the date (and date2) fields. If your CSV dates + are not formatted like YYYY-MM-DD, YYYY/MM/DD or YYYY.MM.DD, you'll + need to add a date-format rule describing them with a strptime date + parsing pattern, which must parse the CSV date value completely. Some + examples: + + # MM/DD/YY + date-format %m/%d/%y + + # D/M/YYYY + # The - makes leading zeros optional. + date-format %-d/%-m/%Y + + # YYYY-Mmm-DD + date-format %Y-%h-%d + + # M/D/YYYY HH:MM AM some other junk + # Note the time and junk must be fully parsed, though only the date is used. + date-format %-m/%-d/%Y %l:%M %p some other junk + + For the supported strptime syntax, see: + https://hackage.haskell.org/package/time/docs/Data-Time-For- + mat.html#v:formatTime + + Note that although you can parse date-times which include a time zone, + that time zone is ignored; it will not change the date that is parsed. + This means when reading CSV data with times not in your local time + zone, dates can be "off by one". + + decimal-mark + decimal-mark . + + or: + + decimal-mark , + + hledger automatically accepts either period or comma as a decimal mark + when parsing numbers (cf Amounts). However if any numbers in the CSV + contain digit group marks, such as thousand-separating commas, you + should declare the decimal mark explicitly with this rule, to avoid + misparsed numbers. + + newest-first + hledger always sorts the generated transactions by date. Transactions + on the same date should appear in the same order as their CSV records, + as hledger can usually auto-detect whether the CSV's normal order is + oldest first or newest first. But if all of the following are true: + + o the CSV might sometimes contain just one day of data (all records + having the same date) + + o the CSV records are normally in reverse chronological order (newest + at the top) + + o and you care about preserving the order of same-day transactions + + then, you should add the newest-first rule as a hint. Eg: + + # tell hledger explicitly that the CSV is normally newest first + newest-first + + include + include RULESFILE + + This includes the contents of another CSV rules file at this point. + RULESFILE is an absolute file path or a path relative to the current + file's directory. This can be useful for sharing common rules between + several rules files, eg: + + # someaccount.csv.rules + + ## someaccount-specific rules + fields date,description,amount + account1 assets:someaccount + account2 expenses:misc + + ## common rules + include categorisation.rules + + balance-type + Balance assertions generated by assigning to balanceN are of the simple + = type by default, which is a single-commodity, subaccount-excluding + assertion. You may find the subaccount-including variants more useful, + eg if you have created some virtual subaccounts of checking to help + with budgeting. You can select a different type of assertion with the + balance-type rule: + + # balance assertions will consider all commodities and all subaccounts + balance-type ==* + + Here are the balance assertion types for quick reference: + + = single commodity, exclude subaccounts + =* single commodity, include subaccounts + == multi commodity, exclude subaccounts + ==* multi commodity, include subaccounts + + Tips + Rapid feedback + It's a good idea to get rapid feedback while creating/troubleshooting + CSV rules. Here's a good way, using entr from http://eradman.com/entr- + project : + + $ ls foo.csv* | entr bash -c 'echo ----; hledger -f foo.csv print desc:SOMEDESC' + + A desc: query (eg) is used to select just one, or a few, transactions + of interest. "bash -c" is used to run multiple commands, so we can + echo a separator each time the command re-runs, making it easier to + read the output. + + Valid CSV + hledger accepts CSV conforming to RFC 4180. When CSV values are + enclosed in quotes, note: + + o they must be double quotes (not single quotes) + + o spaces outside the quotes are not allowed + + File Extension + To help hledger identify the format and show the right error messages, + CSV/SSV/TSV files should normally be named with a .csv, .ssv or .tsv + filename extension. Or, the file path should be prefixed with csv:, + ssv: or tsv:. Eg: + + $ hledger -f foo.ssv print + + or: + + $ cat foo | hledger -f ssv:- foo + + You can override the file extension with a separator rule if needed. + See also: Input files in the hledger manual. + + Reading multiple CSV files + If you use multiple -f options to read multiple CSV files at once, + hledger will look for a correspondingly-named rules file for each CSV + file. But if you use the --rules-file option, that rules file will be + used for all the CSV files. + + Valid transactions + After reading a CSV file, hledger post-processes and validates the gen- + erated journal entries as it would for a journal file - balancing them, + applying balance assignments, and canonicalising amount styles. Any + errors at this stage will be reported in the usual way, displaying the + problem entry. + + There is one exception: balance assertions, if you have generated them, + will not be checked, since normally these will work only when the CSV + data is part of the main journal. If you do need to check balance + assertions generated from CSV right away, pipe into another hledger: + + $ hledger -f file.csv print | hledger -f- print + + Deduplicating, importing + When you download a CSV file periodically, eg to get your latest bank + transactions, the new file may overlap with the old one, containing + some of the same records. + + The import command will (a) detect the new transactions, and (b) append + just those transactions to your main journal. It is idempotent, so you + don't have to remember how many times you ran it or with which version + of the CSV. (It keeps state in a hidden .latest.FILE.csv file.) This + is the easiest way to import CSV data. Eg: + + # download the latest CSV files, then run this command. + # Note, no -f flags needed here. + $ hledger import *.csv [--dry] + + This method works for most CSV files. (Where records have a stable + chronological order, and new records appear only at the new end.) + + A number of other tools and workflows, hledger-specific and otherwise, + exist for converting, deduplicating, classifying and managing CSV data. + See: + + o https://hledger.org -> sidebar -> real world setups + + o https://plaintextaccounting.org -> data import/conversion + + Setting amounts + Some tips on using the amount-setting rules discussed above. + + Here are the ways to set a posting's amount: + + 1. If the CSV has a single amount field: + Assign (via a fields list or a field assignment) to amountN. This sets + the Nth posting's amount. N is usually 1 or 2 but can go up to 99. + + 2. If the CSV has separate amount fields for debit & credit (in & out): + + a. If both fields are unsigned: + Assign to amountN-in and amountN-out. This sets posting N's amount + to whichever of these has a non-zero value, and negates the "-out" + value. + + b. If either field is signed (can contain a minus sign): + Use a conditional rule to flip the sign (of non-empty values). + Since hledger always negates amountN-out, if it was already nega- + tive, we must undo that by negating once more (but only if the + field is non-empty): + + fields date, description, amount1-in, amount1-out + if %amount1-out [1-9] + amount1-out -%amount1-out + + c. If both fields, or neither field, can contain a non-zero value: + hledger normally expects exactly one of the fields to have a non- + zero value. Eg, the amountN-in/amountN-out rules would reject + value pairs like these: + + "", "" + "0", "0" + "1", "none" + + So, use smarter conditional rules to set the amount from the appro- + priate field. Eg, these rules would make it use only the value + containing non-zero digits, handling the above: + + fields date, description, in, out + if %in [1-9] + amount1 %in + if %out [1-9] + amount1 %out + + 3. If you are stuck with hledger <1.17, or you want posting 2's amount + converted to cost: + Assign to amount (or to amount-in and amount-out). (The old numberless + syntax, which sets amount1 and amount2.) + + 4. If the CSV has the balance instead of the transaction amount: + Assign to balanceN, which sets posting N's amount indirectly via a bal- + ance assignment. (Old syntax: balance, equivalent to balance1.) + + o If hledger guesses the wrong default account name: + When setting the amount via balance assertion, hledger may guess + the wrong default account name. So, set the account name explic- + itly, eg: + + fields date, description, balance1 + account1 assets:checking + + Amount signs + There is some special handling for amount signs, to simplify parsing + and sign-flipping: + + o If an amount value begins with a plus sign: + that will be removed: +AMT becomes AMT + + o If an amount value is parenthesised: + it will be de-parenthesised and sign-flipped: (AMT) becomes -AMT + + o If an amount value has two minus signs (or two sets of parentheses, + or a minus sign and parentheses): + they cancel out and will be removed: --AMT or -(AMT) becomes AMT + + o If an amount value contains just a sign (or just a set of parenthe- + ses): + that is removed, making it an empty value. "+" or "-" or "()" becomes + "". + + Setting currency/commodity + If the currency/commodity symbol is included in the CSV's amount + field(s): + + 2020-01-01,foo,$123.00 + + you don't have to do anything special for the commodity symbol, it will + be assigned as part of the amount. Eg: + + fields date,description,amount + + 2020-01-01 foo + expenses:unknown $123.00 + income:unknown $-123.00 + + If the currency is provided as a separate CSV field: + + 2020-01-01,foo,USD,123.00 + + You can assign that to the currency pseudo-field, which has the special + effect of prepending itself to every amount in the transaction (on the + left, with no separating space): + + fields date,description,currency,amount + + 2020-01-01 foo + expenses:unknown USD123.00 + income:unknown USD-123.00 + + Or, you can use a field assignment to construct the amount yourself, + with more control. Eg to put the symbol on the right, and separated by + a space: + + fields date,description,cur,amt + amount %amt %cur + + 2020-01-01 foo + expenses:unknown 123.00 USD + income:unknown -123.00 USD + + Note we used a temporary field name (cur) that is not currency - that + would trigger the prepending effect, which we don't want here. + + Amount decimal places + Like amounts in a journal file, the amounts generated by CSV rules like + amount1 influence commodity display styles, such as the number of deci- + mal places displayed in reports. + + The original amounts as written in the CSV file do not affect display + style (because we don't yet reliably know their commodity). + + Referencing other fields + In field assignments, you can interpolate only CSV fields, not hledger + fields. In the example below, there's both a CSV field and a hledger + field named amount1, but %amount1 always means the CSV field, not the + hledger field: + + # Name the third CSV field "amount1" + fields date,description,amount1 + + # Set hledger's amount1 to the CSV amount1 field followed by USD + amount1 %amount1 USD + + # Set comment to the CSV amount1 (not the amount1 assigned above) + comment %amount1 + + Here, since there's no CSV amount1 field, %amount1 will produce a lit- + eral "amount1": + + fields date,description,csvamount + amount1 %csvamount USD + # Can't interpolate amount1 here + comment %amount1 + + When there are multiple field assignments to the same hledger field, + only the last one takes effect. Here, comment's value will be be B, or + C if "something" is matched, but never A: + + comment A + comment B + if something + comment C + + How CSV rules are evaluated + Here's how to think of CSV rules being evaluated (if you really need + to). First, + + o include - all includes are inlined, from top to bottom, depth first. + (At each include point the file is inlined and scanned for further + includes, recursively, before proceeding.) + + Then "global" rules are evaluated, top to bottom. If a rule is + repeated, the last one wins: + + o skip (at top level) + + o date-format + + o newest-first + + o fields - names the CSV fields, optionally sets up initial assignments + to hledger fields + + Then for each CSV record in turn: + + o test all if blocks. If any of them contain a end rule, skip all + remaining CSV records. Otherwise if any of them contain a skip rule, + skip that many CSV records. If there are multiple matched skip + rules, the first one wins. + + o collect all field assignments at top level and in matched if blocks. + When there are multiple assignments for a field, keep only the last + one. + + o compute a value for each hledger field - either the one that was + assigned to it (and interpolate the %CSVFIELDNAME references), or a + default + + o generate a synthetic hledger transaction from these values. + + This is all part of the CSV reader, one of several readers hledger can + use to parse input files. When all files have been read successfully, + the transactions are passed as input to whichever hledger command the + user specified. + +TIMECLOCK FORMAT + The time logging format of timeclock.el, as read by hledger. + + hledger can read time logs in timeclock format. As with Ledger, these + are (a subset of) timeclock.el's format, containing clock-in and clock- + out entries as in the example below. The date is a simple date. The + time format is HH:MM[:SS][+-ZZZZ]. Seconds and timezone are optional. + The timezone, if present, must be four digits and is ignored (currently + the time is always interpreted as a local time). + + i 2015/03/30 09:00:00 some:account name optional description after two spaces + o 2015/03/30 09:20:00 + i 2015/03/31 22:21:45 another account + o 2015/04/01 02:00:34 + + hledger treats each clock-in/clock-out pair as a transaction posting + some number of hours to an account. Or if the session spans more than + one day, it is split into several transactions, one for each day. For + the above time log, hledger print generates these journal entries: + + $ hledger -f t.timeclock print + 2015-03-30 * optional description after two spaces + (some:account name) 0.33h + + 2015-03-31 * 22:21-23:59 + (another account) 1.64h + + 2015-04-01 * 00:00-02:00 + (another account) 2.01h + + Here is a sample.timeclock to download and some queries to try: + + $ hledger -f sample.timeclock balance # current time balances + $ hledger -f sample.timeclock register -p 2009/3 # sessions in march 2009 + $ hledger -f sample.timeclock register -p weekly --depth 1 --empty # time summary by week + + To generate time logs, ie to clock in and clock out, you could: + + o use emacs and the built-in timeclock.el, or the extended timeclock- + x.el and perhaps the extras in ledgerutils.el + + o at the command line, use these bash aliases: shell alias ti="echo + i `date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'` \$* >>$TIMELOG" alias to="echo o + `date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'` >>$TIMELOG" + + o or use the old ti and to scripts in the ledger 2.x repository. These + rely on a "timeclock" executable which I think is just the ledger 2 + executable renamed. + +TIMEDOT FORMAT + timedot format is hledger's human-friendly time logging format. Com- + pared to timeclock format, it is + + o convenient for quick, approximate, and retroactive time logging + + o readable: you can see at a glance where time was spent. + + A timedot file contains a series of day entries, which might look like + this: + + 2021-08-04 + hom:errands .... .... + fos:hledger:timedot .. ; docs + per:admin:finance + + hledger reads this as three time transactions on this day, with each + dot representing a quarter-hour spent: + + $ hledger -f a.timedot print # .timedot file extension activates the timedot reader + 2021-08-04 * + (hom:errands) 2.00 + + 2021-08-04 * + (fos:hledger:timedot) 0.50 + + 2021-08-04 * + (per:admin:finance) 0 + + A day entry begins with a date line: + + o a non-indented simple date (Y-M-D, Y/M/D, or Y.M.D). + + Optionally this can be followed on the same line by + + o a common transaction description for this day + + o a common transaction comment for this day, after a semicolon (;). + + After the date line are zero or more optionally-indented time transac- + tion lines, consisting of: + + o an account name - any word or phrase, usually a hledger-style account + name. + + o two or more spaces - a field separator, required if there is an + amount (as in journal format). + + o a timedot amount - dots representing quarter hours, or a number rep- + resenting hours. + + o an optional comment beginning with semicolon. This is ignored. + + In more detail, timedot amounts can be: + + o dots: zero or more period characters, each representing one quarter- + hour. Spaces are ignored and can be used for grouping. Eg: .... .. + + o a number, representing hours. Eg: 1.5 + + o a number immediately followed by a unit symbol s, m, h, d, w, mo, or + y, representing seconds, minutes, hours, days weeks, months or years. + Eg 1.5h or 90m. The following equivalencies are assumed: + 60s = 1m, 60m = 1h, 24h = 1d, 7d = 1w, 30d = 1mo, 365d = 1y. (This + unit will not be visible in the generated transaction amount, which is + always in hours.) + + There is some added flexibility to help with keeping time log data in + the same file as your notes, todo lists, etc.: + + o Lines beginning with # or ;, and blank lines, are ignored. + + o Lines not ending with a double-space and amount are parsed as trans- + actions with zero amount. (Most hledger reports hide these by + default; add -E to see them.) + + o One or more stars (*) followed by a space, at the start of a line, is + ignored. So date lines or time transaction lines can also be Org- + mode headlines. + + o All Org-mode headlines before the first date line are ignored. + + More examples: + + # on this day, 6h was spent on client work, 1.5h on haskell FOSS work, etc. + 2016/2/1 + inc:client1 .... .... .... .... .... .... + fos:haskell .... .. + biz:research . + + 2016/2/2 + inc:client1 .... .... + biz:research . + + 2016/2/3 + inc:client1 4 + fos:hledger 3 + biz:research 1 + + * Time log + ** 2020-01-01 + *** adm:time . + *** adm:finance . + + * 2020 Work Diary + ** Q1 + *** 2020-02-29 + **** DONE + 0700 yoga + **** UNPLANNED + **** BEGUN + hom:chores + cleaning ... + water plants + outdoor - one full watering can + indoor - light watering + **** TODO + adm:planning: trip + *** LATER + + Reporting: + + $ hledger -f a.timedot print date:2016/2/2 + 2016-02-02 * + (inc:client1) 2.00 + + 2016-02-02 * + (biz:research) 0.25 + + $ hledger -f a.timedot bal --daily --tree + Balance changes in 2016-02-01-2016-02-03: + + || 2016-02-01d 2016-02-02d 2016-02-03d + ============++======================================== + biz || 0.25 0.25 1.00 + research || 0.25 0.25 1.00 + fos || 1.50 0 3.00 + haskell || 1.50 0 0 + hledger || 0 0 3.00 + inc || 6.00 2.00 4.00 + client1 || 6.00 2.00 4.00 + ------------++---------------------------------------- + || 7.75 2.25 8.00 + + Using period instead of colon as account name separator: + + 2016/2/4 + fos.hledger.timedot 4 + fos.ledger .. + + $ hledger -f a.timedot --alias /\\./=: bal --tree + 4.50 fos + 4.00 hledger:timedot + 0.50 ledger + -------------------- + 4.50 + + A sample.timedot file. + +COMMON TASKS + Here are some quick examples of how to do some basic tasks with + hledger. For more details, see the reference section below, the + hledger_journal(5) manual, or the more extensive docs at + https://hledger.org. + + Getting help + $ hledger # show available commands + $ hledger --help # show common options + $ hledger CMD --help # show common and command options, and command help + $ hledger help # show available manuals/topics + $ hledger help hledger # show hledger manual as info/man/text (auto-chosen) + $ hledger help journal --man # show the journal manual as a man page + $ hledger help --help # show more detailed help for the help command + + Find more docs, chat, mail list, reddit, issue tracker: + https://hledger.org#help-feedback + + Constructing command lines + hledger has an extensive and powerful command line interface. We + strive to keep it simple and ergonomic, but you may run into one of the + confusing real world details described in OPTIONS, below. If that hap- + pens, here are some tips that may help: + + o command-specific options must go after the command (it's fine to put + all options there) (hledger CMD OPTS ARGS) + + o running add-on executables directly simplifies command line parsing + (hledger-ui OPTS ARGS) + + o enclose "problematic" args in single quotes + + o if needed, also add a backslash to hide regular expression metachar- + acters from the shell + + o to see how a misbehaving command is being parsed, add --debug=2. + + Starting a journal file + hledger looks for your accounting data in a journal file, + $HOME/.hledger.journal by default: + + $ hledger stats + The hledger journal file "/Users/simon/.hledger.journal" was not found. + Please create it first, eg with "hledger add" or a text editor. + Or, specify an existing journal file with -f or LEDGER_FILE. + + You can override this by setting the LEDGER_FILE environment variable. + It's a good practice to keep this important file under version control, + and to start a new file each year. So you could do something like + this: + + $ mkdir ~/finance + $ cd ~/finance + $ git init + Initialized empty Git repository in /Users/simon/finance/.git/ + $ touch 2020.journal + $ echo "export LEDGER_FILE=$HOME/finance/2020.journal" >> ~/.bashrc + $ source ~/.bashrc + $ hledger stats + Main file : /Users/simon/finance/2020.journal + Included files : + Transactions span : to (0 days) + Last transaction : none + Transactions : 0 (0.0 per day) + Transactions last 30 days: 0 (0.0 per day) + Transactions last 7 days : 0 (0.0 per day) + Payees/descriptions : 0 + Accounts : 0 (depth 0) + Commodities : 0 () + Market prices : 0 () + + Setting opening balances + Pick a starting date for which you can look up the balances of some + real-world assets (bank accounts, wallet..) and liabilities (credit + cards..). + + To avoid a lot of data entry, you may want to start with just one or + two accounts, like your checking account or cash wallet; and pick a + recent starting date, like today or the start of the week. You can + always come back later and add more accounts and older transactions, eg + going back to january 1st. + + Add an opening balances transaction to the journal, declaring the bal- + ances on this date. Here are two ways to do it: + + o The first way: open the journal in any text editor and save an entry + like this: + + 2020-01-01 * opening balances + assets:bank:checking $1000 = $1000 + assets:bank:savings $2000 = $2000 + assets:cash $100 = $100 + liabilities:creditcard $-50 = $-50 + equity:opening/closing balances + + These are start-of-day balances, ie whatever was in the account at + the end of the previous day. + + The * after the date is an optional status flag. Here it means + "cleared & confirmed". + + The currency symbols are optional, but usually a good idea as you'll + be dealing with multiple currencies sooner or later. + + The = amounts are optional balance assertions, providing extra error + checking. + + o The second way: run hledger add and follow the prompts to record a + similar transaction: + + $ hledger add + Adding transactions to journal file /Users/simon/finance/2020.journal + Any command line arguments will be used as defaults. + Use tab key to complete, readline keys to edit, enter to accept defaults. + An optional (CODE) may follow transaction dates. + An optional ; COMMENT may follow descriptions or amounts. + If you make a mistake, enter < at any prompt to go one step backward. + To end a transaction, enter . when prompted. + To quit, enter . at a date prompt or press control-d or control-c. + Date [2020-02-07]: 2020-01-01 + Description: * opening balances + Account 1: assets:bank:checking + Amount 1: $1000 + Account 2: assets:bank:savings + Amount 2 [$-1000]: $2000 + Account 3: assets:cash + Amount 3 [$-3000]: $100 + Account 4: liabilities:creditcard + Amount 4 [$-3100]: $-50 + Account 5: equity:opening/closing balances + Amount 5 [$-3050]: + Account 6 (or . or enter to finish this transaction): . + 2020-01-01 * opening balances + assets:bank:checking $1000 + assets:bank:savings $2000 + assets:cash $100 + liabilities:creditcard $-50 + equity:opening/closing balances $-3050 + + Save this transaction to the journal ? [y]: + Saved. + Starting the next transaction (. or ctrl-D/ctrl-C to quit) + Date [2020-01-01]: . + + If you're using version control, this could be a good time to commit + the journal. Eg: + + $ git commit -m 'initial balances' 2020.journal + + Recording transactions + As you spend or receive money, you can record these transactions using + one of the methods above (text editor, hledger add) or by using the + hledger-iadd or hledger-web add-ons, or by using the import command to + convert CSV data downloaded from your bank. + + Here are some simple transactions, see the hledger_journal(5) manual + and hledger.org for more ideas: + + 2020/1/10 * gift received + assets:cash $20 + income:gifts + + 2020.1.12 * farmers market + expenses:food $13 + assets:cash + + 2020-01-15 paycheck + income:salary + assets:bank:checking $1000 + + Reconciling + Periodically you should reconcile - compare your hledger-reported bal- + ances against external sources of truth, like bank statements or your + bank's website - to be sure that your ledger accurately represents the + real-world balances (and, that the real-world institutions have not + made a mistake!). This gets easy and fast with (1) practice and (2) + frequency. If you do it daily, it can take 2-10 minutes. If you let + it pile up, expect it to take longer as you hunt down errors and dis- + crepancies. + + A typical workflow: + + 1. Reconcile cash. Count what's in your wallet. Compare with what + hledger reports (hledger bal cash). If they are different, try to + remember the missing transaction, or look for the error in the + already-recorded transactions. A register report can be helpful + (hledger reg cash). If you can't find the error, add an adjustment + transaction. Eg if you have $105 after the above, and can't explain + the missing $2, it could be: + + 2020-01-16 * adjust cash + assets:cash $-2 = $105 + expenses:misc + + 2. Reconcile checking. Log in to your bank's website. Compare today's + (cleared) balance with hledger's cleared balance (hledger bal check- + ing -C). If they are different, track down the error or record the + missing transaction(s) or add an adjustment transaction, similar to + the above. Unlike the cash case, you can usually compare the trans- + action history and running balance from your bank with the one + reported by hledger reg checking -C. This will be easier if you + generally record transaction dates quite similar to your bank's + clearing dates. + + 3. Repeat for other asset/liability accounts. + + Tip: instead of the register command, use hledger-ui to see a live- + updating register while you edit the journal: hledger-ui --watch --reg- + ister checking -C + + After reconciling, it could be a good time to mark the reconciled + transactions' status as "cleared and confirmed", if you want to track + that, by adding the * marker. Eg in the paycheck transaction above, + insert * between 2020-01-15 and paycheck + + If you're using version control, this can be another good time to com- + mit: + + $ git commit -m 'txns' 2020.journal + + Reporting + Here are some basic reports. + + Show all transactions: + + $ hledger print + 2020-01-01 * opening balances + assets:bank:checking $1000 + assets:bank:savings $2000 + assets:cash $100 + liabilities:creditcard $-50 + equity:opening/closing balances $-3050 + + 2020-01-10 * gift received + assets:cash $20 + income:gifts + + 2020-01-12 * farmers market + expenses:food $13 + assets:cash + + 2020-01-15 * paycheck + income:salary + assets:bank:checking $1000 + + 2020-01-16 * adjust cash + assets:cash $-2 = $105 + expenses:misc + + Show account names, and their hierarchy: + + $ hledger accounts --tree + assets + bank + checking + savings + cash + equity + opening/closing balances + expenses + food + misc + income + gifts + salary + liabilities + creditcard + + Show all account totals: + + $ hledger balance + $4105 assets + $4000 bank + $2000 checking + $2000 savings + $105 cash + $-3050 equity:opening/closing balances + $15 expenses + $13 food + $2 misc + $-1020 income + $-20 gifts + $-1000 salary + $-50 liabilities:creditcard + -------------------- + 0 + + Show only asset and liability balances, as a flat list, limited to + depth 2: + + $ hledger bal assets liabilities --flat -2 + $4000 assets:bank + $105 assets:cash + $-50 liabilities:creditcard + -------------------- + $4055 + + Show the same thing without negative numbers, formatted as a simple + balance sheet: + + $ hledger bs --flat -2 + Balance Sheet 2020-01-16 + + || 2020-01-16 + ========================++============ + Assets || + ------------------------++------------ + assets:bank || $4000 + assets:cash || $105 + ------------------------++------------ + || $4105 + ========================++============ + Liabilities || + ------------------------++------------ + liabilities:creditcard || $50 + ------------------------++------------ + || $50 + ========================++============ + Net: || $4055 + + The final total is your "net worth" on the end date. (Or use bse for a + full balance sheet with equity.) + + Show income and expense totals, formatted as an income statement: + + hledger is + Income Statement 2020-01-01-2020-01-16 + + || 2020-01-01-2020-01-16 + ===============++======================= + Revenues || + ---------------++----------------------- + income:gifts || $20 + income:salary || $1000 + ---------------++----------------------- + || $1020 + ===============++======================= + Expenses || + ---------------++----------------------- + expenses:food || $13 + expenses:misc || $2 + ---------------++----------------------- + || $15 + ===============++======================= + Net: || $1005 + + The final total is your net income during this period. + + Show transactions affecting your wallet, with running total: + + $ hledger register cash + 2020-01-01 opening balances assets:cash $100 $100 + 2020-01-10 gift received assets:cash $20 $120 + 2020-01-12 farmers market assets:cash $-13 $107 + 2020-01-16 adjust cash assets:cash $-2 $105 + + Show weekly posting counts as a bar chart: + + $ hledger activity -W + 2019-12-30 ***** + 2020-01-06 **** + 2020-01-13 **** + + Migrating to a new file + At the end of the year, you may want to continue your journal in a new + file, so that old transactions don't slow down or clutter your reports, + and to help ensure the integrity of your accounting history. See the + close command. + + If using version control, don't forget to git add the new file. + +LIMITATIONS + The need to precede add-on command options with -- when invoked from + hledger is awkward. + + When input data contains non-ascii characters, a suitable system locale + must be configured (or there will be an unhelpful error). Eg on POSIX, + set LANG to something other than C. + + In a Microsoft Windows CMD window, non-ascii characters and colours are + not supported. + + On Windows, non-ascii characters may not display correctly when running + a hledger built in CMD in MSYS/CYGWIN, or vice-versa. + + In a Cygwin/MSYS/Mintty window, the tab key is not supported in hledger + add. + + Not all of Ledger's journal file syntax is supported. See file format + differences. + + On large data files, hledger is slower and uses more memory than + Ledger. + +TROUBLESHOOTING + Here are some issues you might encounter when you run hledger (and + remember you can also seek help from the IRC channel, mail list or bug + tracker): + + Successfully installed, but "No command 'hledger' found" + stack and cabal install binaries into a special directory, which should + be added to your PATH environment variable. Eg on unix-like systems, + that is ~/.local/bin and ~/.cabal/bin respectively. + + I set a custom LEDGER_FILE, but hledger is still using the default file + LEDGER_FILE should be a real environment variable, not just a shell + variable. The command env | grep LEDGER_FILE should show it. You may + need to use export. Here's an explanation. + + Getting errors like "Illegal byte sequence" or "Invalid or incomplete + multibyte or wide character" or "commitAndReleaseBuffer: invalid argu- + ment (invalid character)" + Programs compiled with GHC (hledger, haskell build tools, etc.) need to + have a UTF-8-aware locale configured in the environment, otherwise they + will fail with these kinds of errors when they encounter non-ascii + characters. + + To fix it, set the LANG environment variable to some locale which sup- + ports UTF-8. The locale you choose must be installed on your system. + + Here's an example of setting LANG temporarily, on Ubuntu GNU/Linux: + + $ file my.journal + my.journal: UTF-8 Unicode text # the file is UTF8-encoded + $ echo $LANG + C # LANG is set to the default locale, which does not support UTF8 + $ locale -a # which locales are installed ? + C + en_US.utf8 # here's a UTF8-aware one we can use + POSIX + $ LANG=en_US.utf8 hledger -f my.journal print # ensure it is used for this command + + If available, C.UTF-8 will also work. If your preferred locale isn't + listed by locale -a, you might need to install it. Eg on + Ubuntu/Debian: + + $ apt-get install language-pack-fr + $ locale -a + C + en_US.utf8 + fr_BE.utf8 + fr_CA.utf8 + fr_CH.utf8 + fr_FR.utf8 + fr_LU.utf8 + POSIX + $ LANG=fr_FR.utf8 hledger -f my.journal print + + Here's how you could set it permanently, if you use a bash shell: + + $ echo "export LANG=en_US.utf8" >>~/.bash_profile + $ bash --login + + Exact spelling and capitalisation may be important. Note the differ- + ence on MacOS (UTF-8, not utf8). Some platforms (eg ubuntu) allow + variant spellings, but others (eg macos) require it to be exact: + + $ locale -a | grep -iE en_us.*utf + en_US.UTF-8 + $ LANG=en_US.UTF-8 hledger -f my.journal print + + + +REPORTING BUGS + Report bugs at http://bugs.hledger.org (or on the #hledger IRC channel + or hledger mail list) + + +AUTHORS + Simon Michael 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-1.22.2 August 2021 HLEDGER(1) diff --git a/hledger.1 b/hledger.1 --- a/hledger.1 +++ b/hledger.1 @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@ .\"t -.TH "HLEDGER" "1" "August 2021" "hledger-1.22.1 " "hledger User Manuals" +.TH "HLEDGER" "1" "August 2021" "hledger-1.22.2 " "hledger User Manuals" @@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ This is the command-line interface (CLI) for the hledger accounting tool. Here we also describe hledger\[aq]s concepts and file formats. -This manual is for hledger 1.22.1. +This manual is for hledger 1.22.2. .SH SYNOPSIS .PP \f[C]hledger\f[R] @@ -2511,30 +2511,23 @@ .P .PD .PP -Show the transactions and running historical balance in an account, with -each line item representing one transaction. -.PP -\f[C]aregister\f[R] shows the transactions affecting a particular -account and its subaccounts, with each line item representing a whole -transaction - as in bank statements, hledger-ui, hledger-web and other -accounting apps. -.PP -Note this is unlike the \f[C]register\f[R] command, which shows -individual postings and does not always show a single account or a -historical balance. +Show the transactions and running historical balance of a single +account, with each transaction displayed as one line. .PP -A reminder, \[dq]historical\[dq] balances include any balance from -transactions before the report start date, so (if opening balances are -recorded correctly) \f[C]aregister\f[R] will show the real-world -balances of an account, as you would see in a bank statement. +\f[C]aregister\f[R] shows the overall transactions affecting a +particular account (and any subaccounts). +Each report line represents one transaction in this account. +Transactions before the report start date are always included in the +running balance (\f[C]--historical\f[R] mode is always on). .PP -As a quick rule of thumb, use \f[C]aregister\f[R] for reconciling -real-world asset/liability accounts and \f[C]register\f[R] for reviewing -detailed revenues/expenses. +This is a more \[dq]real world\[dq], bank-like view than the +\f[C]register\f[R] command (which shows individual postings, possibly +from multiple accounts, not necessarily in historical mode). +As a quick rule of thumb: - use \f[C]aregister\f[R] for reviewing and +reconciling real-world asset/liability accounts - use \f[C]register\f[R] +for reviewing detailed revenues/expenses. .PP -\f[C]aregister\f[R] shows the register for just one account (and its -subaccounts). -This account must be specified as the first argument. +\f[C]aregister\f[R] requires one argument: the account to report on. You can write either the full account name, or a case-insensitive regular expression which will select the alphabetically first matched account. @@ -2542,9 +2535,25 @@ \f[C]assets:bbb:checking\f[R] accounts, \f[C]hledger areg checking\f[R] would select \f[C]assets:aaa:checking\f[R].) .PP +Transactions involving subaccounts of this account will also be shown. +\f[C]aregister\f[R] ignores depth limits, so its final total will always +match a balance report with similar arguments. +.PP Any additional arguments form a query which will filter the transactions shown. +Note some queries will disturb the running balance, causing it to be +different from the account\[aq]s real-world running balance. .PP +An example: this shows the transactions and historical running balance +during july, in the first account whose name contains +\[dq]checking\[dq]: +.IP +.nf +\f[C] +$ hledger areg checking date:jul +\f[R] +.fi +.PP Each \f[C]aregister\f[R] line item shows: .IP \[bu] 2 the transaction\[aq]s date (or the relevant posting\[aq]s date if @@ -2560,12 +2569,10 @@ Transactions making a net change of zero are not shown by default; add the \f[C]-E/--empty\f[R] flag to show them. .PP -\f[C]aregister\f[R] ignores a depth limit, so its final total will -always match a balance report with similar arguments. -.PP This command also supports the output destination and output format -options The output formats supported are \f[C]txt\f[R], \f[C]csv\f[R], -and \f[C]json\f[R]. +options. +The output formats supported are \f[C]txt\f[R], \f[C]csv\f[R], and +\f[C]json\f[R]. .SS aregister and custom posting dates .PP Transactions whose date is outside the report period can still be shown, @@ -2579,26 +2586,6 @@ \f[C]--txn-dates\f[R] flag. If you use this flag and some of your postings have custom dates, it\[aq]s probably best to assume the running balance is wrong. -.PP -Examples: -.PP -Show all transactions and historical running balance in the first -account whose name contains \[dq]checking\[dq]: -.IP -.nf -\f[C] -$ hledger areg checking -\f[R] -.fi -.PP -Show transactions and historical running balance in all asset accounts -during july: -.IP -.nf -\f[C] -$ hledger areg assets date:jul -\f[R] -.fi .SS balance .PP balance, bal @@ -8851,70 +8838,111 @@ ledger 2 executable renamed. .SH TIMEDOT FORMAT .PP -hledger\[aq]s human-friendly time logging format. +\f[C]timedot\f[R] format is hledger\[aq]s human-friendly time logging +format. +Compared to \f[C]timeclock\f[R] format, it is +.IP \[bu] 2 +convenient for quick, approximate, and retroactive time logging +.IP \[bu] 2 +readable: you can see at a glance where time was spent. .PP -Timedot is a plain text format for logging dated, categorised quantities -(of time, usually), supported by hledger. -It is convenient for approximate and retroactive time logging, eg when -the real-time clock-in/out required with a timeclock file is too precise -or too interruptive. -It can be formatted like a bar chart, making clear at a glance where -time was spent. +A timedot file contains a series of day entries, which might look like +this: +.IP +.nf +\f[C] +2021-08-04 +hom:errands .... .... +fos:hledger:timedot .. ; docs +per:admin:finance +\f[R] +.fi .PP -Though called \[dq]timedot\[dq], this format is read by hledger as -commodityless quantities, so it could be used to represent dated -quantities other than time. -In the docs below we\[aq]ll assume it\[aq]s time. +hledger reads this as three time transactions on this day, with each dot +representing a quarter-hour spent: +.IP +.nf +\f[C] +$ hledger -f a.timedot print # .timedot file extension activates the timedot reader +2021-08-04 * + (hom:errands) 2.00 + +2021-08-04 * + (fos:hledger:timedot) 0.50 + +2021-08-04 * + (per:admin:finance) 0 +\f[R] +.fi .PP -A timedot file contains a series of day entries. -A day entry begins with a non-indented hledger-style simple date (Y-M-D, -Y/M/D, Y.M.D..) Any additional text on the same line is used as a -transaction description for this day. +A day entry begins with a date line: +.IP \[bu] 2 +a non-indented \f[B]simple date\f[R] (Y-M-D, Y/M/D, or Y.M.D). .PP -This is followed by optionally-indented timelog items for that day, one -per line. -Each timelog item is a note, usually a hledger:style:account:name -representing a time category, followed by two or more spaces, and a -quantity. -Each timelog item generates a hledger transaction. +Optionally this can be followed on the same line by +.IP \[bu] 2 +a common \f[B]transaction description\f[R] for this day +.IP \[bu] 2 +a common \f[B]transaction comment\f[R] for this day, after a semicolon +(\f[C];\f[R]). .PP -Quantities can be written as: +After the date line are zero or more optionally-indented time +transaction lines, consisting of: .IP \[bu] 2 -dots: a sequence of dots (.) representing quarter hours. -Spaces may optionally be used for grouping. -Eg: .... -\&.. +an \f[B]account name\f[R] - any word or phrase, usually a hledger-style +account name. .IP \[bu] 2 -an integral or decimal number, representing hours. -Eg: 1.5 +\f[B]two or more spaces\f[R] - a field separator, required if there is +an amount (as in journal format). .IP \[bu] 2 -an integral or decimal number immediately followed by a unit symbol -\f[C]s\f[R], \f[C]m\f[R], \f[C]h\f[R], \f[C]d\f[R], \f[C]w\f[R], -\f[C]mo\f[R], or \f[C]y\f[R], representing seconds, minutes, hours, days -weeks, months or years respectively. -Eg: 90m. -The following equivalencies are assumed, currently: 1m = 60s, 1h = 60m, -1d = 24h, 1w = 7d, 1mo = 30d, 1y=365d. +a \f[B]timedot amount\f[R] - dots representing quarter hours, or a +number representing hours. +.IP \[bu] 2 +an optional \f[B]comment\f[R] beginning with semicolon. +This is ignored. .PP -There is some flexibility allowing notes and todo lists to be kept right -in the time log, if needed: +In more detail, timedot amounts can be: .IP \[bu] 2 -Blank lines and lines beginning with \f[C]#\f[R] or \f[C];\f[R] are +\f[B]dots\f[R]: zero or more period characters, each representing one +quarter-hour. +Spaces are ignored and can be used for grouping. +Eg: \f[C].... ..\f[R] +.IP \[bu] 2 +a \f[B]number\f[R], representing hours. +Eg: \f[C]1.5\f[R] +.IP \[bu] 2 +a \f[B]number immediately followed by a unit symbol\f[R] \f[C]s\f[R], +\f[C]m\f[R], \f[C]h\f[R], \f[C]d\f[R], \f[C]w\f[R], \f[C]mo\f[R], or +\f[C]y\f[R], representing seconds, minutes, hours, days weeks, months or +years. +Eg \f[C]1.5h\f[R] or \f[C]90m\f[R]. +The following equivalencies are assumed: +.PD 0 +.P +.PD +\f[C]60s\f[R] = \f[C]1m\f[R], \f[C]60m\f[R] = \f[C]1h\f[R], +\f[C]24h\f[R] = \f[C]1d\f[R], \f[C]7d\f[R] = \f[C]1w\f[R], \f[C]30d\f[R] += \f[C]1mo\f[R], \f[C]365d\f[R] = \f[C]1y\f[R]. +(This unit will not be visible in the generated transaction amount, +which is always in hours.) +.PP +There is some added flexibility to help with keeping time log data in +the same file as your notes, todo lists, etc.: +.IP \[bu] 2 +Lines beginning with \f[C]#\f[R] or \f[C];\f[R], and blank lines, are ignored. .IP \[bu] 2 -Lines not ending with a double-space and quantity are parsed as items -taking no time, which will not appear in balance reports by default. -(Add -E to see them.) +Lines not ending with a double-space and amount are parsed as +transactions with zero amount. +(Most hledger reports hide these by default; add -E to see them.) .IP \[bu] 2 -Org mode headlines (lines beginning with one or more \f[C]*\f[R] -followed by a space) can be used as date lines or timelog items (the -stars are ignored). -Also all org headlines before the first date line are ignored. -This means org users can manage their timelog as an org outline (eg -using org-mode/orgstruct-mode in Emacs), for organisation, faster -navigation, controlling visibility etc. +One or more stars (\f[C]*\f[R]) followed by a space, at the start of a +line, is ignored. +So date lines or time transaction lines can also be Org-mode headlines. +.IP \[bu] 2 +All Org-mode headlines before the first date line are ignored. .PP -Examples: +More examples: .IP .nf \f[C] @@ -8972,7 +9000,7 @@ .IP .nf \f[C] -$ hledger -f t.timedot print date:2016/2/2 +$ hledger -f a.timedot print date:2016/2/2 2016-02-02 * (inc:client1) 2.00 @@ -8983,7 +9011,7 @@ .IP .nf \f[C] -$ hledger -f t.timedot bal --daily --tree +$ hledger -f a.timedot bal --daily --tree Balance changes in 2016-02-01-2016-02-03: || 2016-02-01d 2016-02-02d 2016-02-03d @@ -9000,8 +9028,7 @@ \f[R] .fi .PP -I prefer to use period for separating account components. -We can make this work with an account alias: +Using period instead of colon as account name separator: .IP .nf \f[C] @@ -9013,7 +9040,7 @@ .IP .nf \f[C] -$ hledger -f t.timedot --alias /\[rs]\[rs]./=: bal date:2016/2/4 --tree +$ hledger -f a.timedot --alias /\[rs]\[rs]./=: bal --tree 4.50 fos 4.00 hledger:timedot 0.50 ledger @@ -9022,7 +9049,7 @@ \f[R] .fi .PP -Here is a sample.timedot. +A sample.timedot file. .SH COMMON TASKS .PP Here are some quick examples of how to do some basic tasks with hledger. diff --git a/hledger.cabal b/hledger.cabal --- a/hledger.cabal +++ b/hledger.cabal @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ -- see: https://github.com/sol/hpack name: hledger -version: 1.22.1 +version: 1.22.2 synopsis: Command-line interface for the hledger accounting system description: The command-line interface for the hledger accounting system. Its basic function is to read a plain text file describing @@ -136,7 +136,7 @@ other-modules: Paths_hledger ghc-options: -Wall -fno-warn-unused-do-bind -fno-warn-name-shadowing -fno-warn-missing-signatures -fno-warn-type-defaults -fno-warn-orphans -optP-Wno-nonportable-include-path - cpp-options: -DVERSION="1.22.1" + cpp-options: -DVERSION="1.22.2" build-depends: Decimal >=0.5.1 , Diff @@ -154,7 +154,7 @@ , githash >=0.1.2 , hashable >=1.2.4 , haskeline >=0.6 - , hledger-lib >=1.22.1 && <1.23 + , hledger-lib >=1.22.2 && <1.23 , lucid , math-functions >=0.3.3.0 , megaparsec >=7.0.0 && <9.2 @@ -188,7 +188,7 @@ hs-source-dirs: app ghc-options: -Wall -fno-warn-unused-do-bind -fno-warn-name-shadowing -fno-warn-missing-signatures -fno-warn-type-defaults -fno-warn-orphans -optP-Wno-nonportable-include-path - cpp-options: -DVERSION="1.22.1" + cpp-options: -DVERSION="1.22.2" build-depends: Decimal >=0.5.1 , aeson >=1 @@ -205,7 +205,7 @@ , githash >=0.1.2 , haskeline >=0.6 , hledger - , hledger-lib >=1.22.1 && <1.23 + , hledger-lib >=1.22.2 && <1.23 , math-functions >=0.3.3.0 , megaparsec >=7.0.0 && <9.2 , mtl >=2.2.1 @@ -239,7 +239,7 @@ hs-source-dirs: test ghc-options: -Wall -fno-warn-unused-do-bind -fno-warn-name-shadowing -fno-warn-missing-signatures -fno-warn-type-defaults -fno-warn-orphans -optP-Wno-nonportable-include-path - cpp-options: -DVERSION="1.22.1" + cpp-options: -DVERSION="1.22.2" build-depends: Decimal >=0.5.1 , aeson >=1 @@ -256,7 +256,7 @@ , githash >=0.1.2 , haskeline >=0.6 , hledger - , hledger-lib >=1.22.1 && <1.23 + , hledger-lib >=1.22.2 && <1.23 , math-functions >=0.3.3.0 , megaparsec >=7.0.0 && <9.2 , mtl >=2.2.1 @@ -305,7 +305,7 @@ , githash >=0.1.2 , haskeline >=0.6 , hledger - , hledger-lib >=1.22.1 && <1.23 + , hledger-lib >=1.22.2 && <1.23 , html , math-functions >=0.3.3.0 , megaparsec >=7.0.0 && <9.2 diff --git a/hledger.info b/hledger.info --- a/hledger.info +++ b/hledger.info @@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ This is the command-line interface (CLI) for the hledger accounting tool. Here we also describe hledger's concepts and file formats. This -manual is for hledger 1.22.1. +manual is for hledger 1.22.2. 'hledger' @@ -2000,38 +2000,43 @@ aregister, areg - Show the transactions and running historical balance in an account, -with each line item representing one transaction. - - 'aregister' shows the transactions affecting a particular account and -its subaccounts, with each line item representing a whole transaction - -as in bank statements, hledger-ui, hledger-web and other accounting -apps. - - Note this is unlike the 'register' command, which shows individual -postings and does not always show a single account or a historical -balance. + Show the transactions and running historical balance of a single +account, with each transaction displayed as one line. - A reminder, "historical" balances include any balance from -transactions before the report start date, so (if opening balances are -recorded correctly) 'aregister' will show the real-world balances of an -account, as you would see in a bank statement. + 'aregister' shows the overall transactions affecting a particular +account (and any subaccounts). Each report line represents one +transaction in this account. Transactions before the report start date +are always included in the running balance ('--historical' mode is +always on). - As a quick rule of thumb, use 'aregister' for reconciling real-world -asset/liability accounts and 'register' for reviewing detailed + This is a more "real world", bank-like view than the 'register' +command (which shows individual postings, possibly from multiple +accounts, not necessarily in historical mode). As a quick rule of +thumb: - use 'aregister' for reviewing and reconciling real-world +asset/liability accounts - use 'register' for reviewing detailed revenues/expenses. - 'aregister' shows the register for just one account (and its -subaccounts). This account must be specified as the first argument. -You can write either the full account name, or a case-insensitive -regular expression which will select the alphabetically first matched -account. (Eg if you have 'assets:aaa:checking' and -'assets:bbb:checking' accounts, 'hledger areg checking' would select -'assets:aaa:checking'.) + 'aregister' requires one argument: the account to report on. You can +write either the full account name, or a case-insensitive regular +expression which will select the alphabetically first matched account. +(Eg if you have 'assets:aaa:checking' and 'assets:bbb:checking' +accounts, 'hledger areg checking' would select 'assets:aaa:checking'.) + Transactions involving subaccounts of this account will also be +shown. 'aregister' ignores depth limits, so its final total will always +match a balance report with similar arguments. + Any additional arguments form a query which will filter the -transactions shown. +transactions shown. Note some queries will disturb the running balance, +causing it to be different from the account's real-world running +balance. + An example: this shows the transactions and historical running +balance during july, in the first account whose name contains +"checking": + +$ hledger areg checking date:jul + Each 'aregister' line item shows: * the transaction's date (or the relevant posting's date if @@ -2044,11 +2049,8 @@ Transactions making a net change of zero are not shown by default; add the '-E/--empty' flag to show them. - 'aregister' ignores a depth limit, so its final total will always -match a balance report with similar arguments. - This command also supports the output destination and output format -options The output formats supported are 'txt', 'csv', and 'json'. +options. The output formats supported are 'txt', 'csv', and 'json'. * Menu: @@ -2070,18 +2072,6 @@ flag. If you use this flag and some of your postings have custom dates, it's probably best to assume the running balance is wrong. - Examples: - - Show all transactions and historical running balance in the first -account whose name contains "checking": - -$ hledger areg checking - - Show transactions and historical running balance in all asset -accounts during july: - -$ hledger areg assets date:jul -  File: hledger.info, Node: balance, Next: balancesheet, Prev: aregister, Up: COMMANDS @@ -7807,61 +7797,87 @@ 15 TIMEDOT FORMAT ***************** -hledger's human-friendly time logging format. +'timedot' format is hledger's human-friendly time logging format. +Compared to 'timeclock' format, it is - Timedot is a plain text format for logging dated, categorised -quantities (of time, usually), supported by hledger. It is convenient -for approximate and retroactive time logging, eg when the real-time -clock-in/out required with a timeclock file is too precise or too -interruptive. It can be formatted like a bar chart, making clear at a -glance where time was spent. + * convenient for quick, approximate, and retroactive time logging + * readable: you can see at a glance where time was spent. - Though called "timedot", this format is read by hledger as -commodityless quantities, so it could be used to represent dated -quantities other than time. In the docs below we'll assume it's time. + A timedot file contains a series of day entries, which might look +like this: - A timedot file contains a series of day entries. A day entry begins -with a non-indented hledger-style simple date (Y-M-D, Y/M/D, Y.M.D..) -Any additional text on the same line is used as a transaction -description for this day. +2021-08-04 +hom:errands .... .... +fos:hledger:timedot .. ; docs +per:admin:finance - This is followed by optionally-indented timelog items for that day, -one per line. Each timelog item is a note, usually a -hledger:style:account:name representing a time category, followed by two -or more spaces, and a quantity. Each timelog item generates a hledger -transaction. + hledger reads this as three time transactions on this day, with each +dot representing a quarter-hour spent: - Quantities can be written as: +$ hledger -f a.timedot print # .timedot file extension activates the timedot reader +2021-08-04 * + (hom:errands) 2.00 - * dots: a sequence of dots (.) representing quarter hours. Spaces - may optionally be used for grouping. Eg: .... .. +2021-08-04 * + (fos:hledger:timedot) 0.50 - * an integral or decimal number, representing hours. Eg: 1.5 +2021-08-04 * + (per:admin:finance) 0 - * an integral or decimal number immediately followed by a unit symbol - 's', 'm', 'h', 'd', 'w', 'mo', or 'y', representing seconds, - minutes, hours, days weeks, months or years respectively. Eg: 90m. - The following equivalencies are assumed, currently: 1m = 60s, 1h = - 60m, 1d = 24h, 1w = 7d, 1mo = 30d, 1y=365d. + A day entry begins with a date line: - There is some flexibility allowing notes and todo lists to be kept -right in the time log, if needed: + * a non-indented *simple date* (Y-M-D, Y/M/D, or Y.M.D). - * Blank lines and lines beginning with '#' or ';' are ignored. + Optionally this can be followed on the same line by - * Lines not ending with a double-space and quantity are parsed as - items taking no time, which will not appear in balance reports by - default. (Add -E to see them.) + * a common *transaction description* for this day + * a common *transaction comment* for this day, after a semicolon + (';'). - * Org mode headlines (lines beginning with one or more '*' followed - by a space) can be used as date lines or timelog items (the stars - are ignored). Also all org headlines before the first date line - are ignored. This means org users can manage their timelog as an - org outline (eg using org-mode/orgstruct-mode in Emacs), for - organisation, faster navigation, controlling visibility etc. + After the date line are zero or more optionally-indented time +transaction lines, consisting of: - Examples: + * an *account name* - any word or phrase, usually a hledger-style + account name. + * *two or more spaces* - a field separator, required if there is an + amount (as in journal format). + * a *timedot amount* - dots representing quarter hours, or a number + representing hours. + * an optional *comment* beginning with semicolon. This is ignored. + In more detail, timedot amounts can be: + + * *dots*: zero or more period characters, each representing one + quarter-hour. Spaces are ignored and can be used for grouping. + Eg: '.... ..' + + * a *number*, representing hours. Eg: '1.5' + + * a *number immediately followed by a unit symbol* 's', 'm', 'h', + 'd', 'w', 'mo', or 'y', representing seconds, minutes, hours, days + weeks, months or years. Eg '1.5h' or '90m'. The following + equivalencies are assumed: + '60s' = '1m', '60m' = '1h', '24h' = '1d', '7d' = '1w', '30d' = + '1mo', '365d' = '1y'. (This unit will not be visible in the + generated transaction amount, which is always in hours.) + + There is some added flexibility to help with keeping time log data in +the same file as your notes, todo lists, etc.: + + * Lines beginning with '#' or ';', and blank lines, are ignored. + + * Lines not ending with a double-space and amount are parsed as + transactions with zero amount. (Most hledger reports hide these by + default; add -E to see them.) + + * One or more stars ('*') followed by a space, at the start of a + line, is ignored. So date lines or time transaction lines can also + be Org-mode headlines. + + * All Org-mode headlines before the first date line are ignored. + + More examples: + # on this day, 6h was spent on client work, 1.5h on haskell FOSS work, etc. 2016/2/1 inc:client1 .... .... .... .... .... .... @@ -7900,14 +7916,14 @@ Reporting: -$ hledger -f t.timedot print date:2016/2/2 +$ hledger -f a.timedot print date:2016/2/2 2016-02-02 * (inc:client1) 2.00 2016-02-02 * (biz:research) 0.25 -$ hledger -f t.timedot bal --daily --tree +$ hledger -f a.timedot bal --daily --tree Balance changes in 2016-02-01-2016-02-03: || 2016-02-01d 2016-02-02d 2016-02-03d @@ -7922,21 +7938,20 @@ ------------++---------------------------------------- || 7.75 2.25 8.00 - I prefer to use period for separating account components. We can -make this work with an account alias: + Using period instead of colon as account name separator: 2016/2/4 fos.hledger.timedot 4 fos.ledger .. -$ hledger -f t.timedot --alias /\\./=: bal date:2016/2/4 --tree +$ hledger -f a.timedot --alias /\\./=: bal --tree 4.50 fos 4.00 hledger:timedot 0.50 ledger -------------------- 4.50 - Here is a sample.timedot. + A sample.timedot file.  File: hledger.info, Node: COMMON TASKS, Next: LIMITATIONS, Prev: TIMEDOT FORMAT, Up: Top @@ -8567,386 +8582,386 @@ Ref: #add65805 Node: aregister68598 Ref: #aregister68712 -Node: aregister and custom posting dates70910 -Ref: #aregister-and-custom-posting-dates71076 -Node: balance71897 -Ref: #balance72016 -Node: balance features72931 -Ref: #balance-features73071 -Node: Simple balance report74728 -Ref: #simple-balance-report74910 -Node: Filtered balance report76363 -Ref: #filtered-balance-report76550 -Node: List or tree mode76850 -Ref: #list-or-tree-mode77018 -Node: Depth limiting78336 -Ref: #depth-limiting78502 -Node: Multi-period balance report79263 -Ref: #multi-period-balance-report79455 -Node: Sorting by amount81707 -Ref: #sorting-by-amount81876 -Node: Percentages82342 -Ref: #percentages82498 -Node: Balance change end balance83432 -Ref: #balance-change-end-balance83623 -Node: Balance report types85051 -Ref: #balance-report-types85241 -Node: Useful balance reports89314 -Ref: #useful-balance-reports89495 -Node: Budget report90580 -Ref: #budget-report90764 -Node: Budget report start date96003 -Ref: #budget-report-start-date96172 -Node: Nested budgets97504 -Ref: #nested-budgets97653 -Node: Customising single-period balance reports101093 -Ref: #customising-single-period-balance-reports101302 -Node: balancesheet103450 -Ref: #balancesheet103588 -Node: balancesheetequity104887 -Ref: #balancesheetequity105038 -Node: cashflow106418 -Ref: #cashflow106542 -Node: check107688 -Ref: #check107793 -Node: Basic checks108427 -Ref: #basic-checks108545 -Node: Strict checks109096 -Ref: #strict-checks109237 -Node: Other checks109673 -Ref: #other-checks109813 -Node: Custom checks110170 -Ref: #custom-checks110290 -Node: close110707 -Ref: #close110811 -Node: close usage112333 -Ref: #close-usage112428 -Node: codes115241 -Ref: #codes115351 -Node: commodities116063 -Ref: #commodities116192 -Node: descriptions116274 -Ref: #descriptions116404 -Node: diff116708 -Ref: #diff116816 -Node: files117863 -Ref: #files117965 -Node: help118112 -Ref: #help118214 -Node: import118941 -Ref: #import119057 -Node: Deduplication119922 -Ref: #deduplication120047 -Node: Import testing121941 -Ref: #import-testing122106 -Node: Importing balance assignments122594 -Ref: #importing-balance-assignments122800 -Node: Commodity display styles123449 -Ref: #commodity-display-styles123622 -Node: incomestatement123751 -Ref: #incomestatement123886 -Node: notes125191 -Ref: #notes125306 -Node: payees125674 -Ref: #payees125782 -Node: prices126308 -Ref: #prices126416 -Node: print126757 -Ref: #print126869 -Node: print-unique132184 -Ref: #print-unique132312 -Node: register132597 -Ref: #register132726 -Node: Custom register output137172 -Ref: #custom-register-output137303 -Node: register-match138640 -Ref: #register-match138776 -Node: rewrite139127 -Ref: #rewrite139244 -Node: Re-write rules in a file141150 -Ref: #re-write-rules-in-a-file141313 -Node: Diff output format142462 -Ref: #diff-output-format142645 -Node: rewrite vs print --auto143737 -Ref: #rewrite-vs.-print---auto143897 -Node: roi144453 -Ref: #roi144553 -Node: Spaces and special characters in --inv and --pnl146239 -Ref: #spaces-and-special-characters-in---inv-and---pnl146479 -Node: Semantics of --inv and --pnl146967 -Ref: #semantics-of---inv-and---pnl147206 -Node: IRR and TWR explained149056 -Ref: #irr-and-twr-explained149216 -Node: stats152284 -Ref: #stats152385 -Node: tags153173 -Ref: #tags153273 -Node: test153792 -Ref: #test153908 -Node: About add-on commands154655 -Ref: #about-add-on-commands154792 -Node: JOURNAL FORMAT155923 -Ref: #journal-format156051 -Node: Transactions158247 -Ref: #transactions158362 -Node: Dates159376 -Ref: #dates159492 -Node: Simple dates159557 -Ref: #simple-dates159677 -Node: Secondary dates160186 -Ref: #secondary-dates160334 -Node: Posting dates161670 -Ref: #posting-dates161793 -Node: Status163165 -Ref: #status163275 -Node: Code164983 -Ref: #code165095 -Node: Description165327 -Ref: #description165455 -Node: Payee and note165775 -Ref: #payee-and-note165883 -Node: Comments166218 -Ref: #comments166340 -Node: Tags167534 -Ref: #tags-1167645 -Node: Postings169038 -Ref: #postings169162 -Node: Virtual postings170188 -Ref: #virtual-postings170299 -Node: Account names171604 -Ref: #account-names171741 -Node: Amounts172229 -Ref: #amounts172366 -Node: Decimal marks digit group marks173322 -Ref: #decimal-marks-digit-group-marks173499 -Node: Commodity174371 -Ref: #commodity174531 -Node: Commodity directives175483 -Ref: #commodity-directives175657 -Node: Commodity display style176144 -Ref: #commodity-display-style176323 -Node: Rounding178431 -Ref: #rounding178551 -Node: Transaction prices178963 -Ref: #transaction-prices179129 -Node: Lot prices lot dates181560 -Ref: #lot-prices-lot-dates181743 -Node: Balance assertions182231 -Ref: #balance-assertions182409 -Node: Assertions and ordering183442 -Ref: #assertions-and-ordering183624 -Node: Assertions and included files184324 -Ref: #assertions-and-included-files184561 -Node: Assertions and multiple -f options184894 -Ref: #assertions-and-multiple--f-options185144 -Node: Assertions and commodities185276 -Ref: #assertions-and-commodities185502 -Node: Assertions and prices186659 -Ref: #assertions-and-prices186867 -Node: Assertions and subaccounts187307 -Ref: #assertions-and-subaccounts187530 -Node: Assertions and virtual postings187854 -Ref: #assertions-and-virtual-postings188090 -Node: Assertions and precision188232 -Ref: #assertions-and-precision188419 -Node: Balance assignments188686 -Ref: #balance-assignments188856 -Node: Balance assignments and prices190020 -Ref: #balance-assignments-and-prices190186 -Node: Directives190410 -Ref: #directives190573 -Node: Directives and multiple files195927 -Ref: #directives-and-multiple-files196123 -Node: Comment blocks196787 -Ref: #comment-blocks196964 -Node: Including other files197140 -Ref: #including-other-files197314 -Node: Default year198238 -Ref: #default-year198396 -Node: Declaring payees198803 -Ref: #declaring-payees198969 -Node: Declaring commodities199215 -Ref: #declaring-commodities199396 -Node: Commodity error checking201776 -Ref: #commodity-error-checking201926 -Node: Default commodity202183 -Ref: #default-commodity202363 -Node: Declaring market prices203239 -Ref: #declaring-market-prices203428 -Node: Declaring accounts204241 -Ref: #declaring-accounts204421 -Node: Account error checking205623 -Ref: #account-error-checking205789 -Node: Account comments206968 -Ref: #account-comments207152 -Node: Account subdirectives207576 -Ref: #account-subdirectives207761 -Node: Account types208074 -Ref: #account-types208248 -Node: Declaring account types208984 -Ref: #declaring-account-types209163 -Node: Auto-detected account types209813 -Ref: #auto-detected-account-types210054 -Node: Interference from auto-detected account types211014 -Ref: #interference-from-auto-detected-account-types211291 -Node: Old account type syntax211774 -Ref: #old-account-type-syntax211971 -Node: Account display order212271 -Ref: #account-display-order212431 -Node: Rewriting accounts213582 -Ref: #rewriting-accounts213761 -Node: Basic aliases214518 -Ref: #basic-aliases214654 -Node: Regex aliases215398 -Ref: #regex-aliases215560 -Node: Combining aliases216279 -Ref: #combining-aliases216462 -Node: Aliases and multiple files217738 -Ref: #aliases-and-multiple-files217937 -Node: end aliases218516 -Ref: #end-aliases218663 -Node: Default parent account218764 -Ref: #default-parent-account218954 -Node: Periodic transactions219838 -Ref: #periodic-transactions220021 -Node: Periodic rule syntax221938 -Ref: #periodic-rule-syntax222138 -Node: Two spaces between period expression and description!222842 -Ref: #two-spaces-between-period-expression-and-description223155 -Node: Forecasting with periodic transactions223839 -Ref: #forecasting-with-periodic-transactions224138 -Node: Budgeting with periodic transactions226193 -Ref: #budgeting-with-periodic-transactions226426 -Node: Auto postings226835 -Ref: #auto-postings226971 -Node: Auto postings and multiple files229150 -Ref: #auto-postings-and-multiple-files229348 -Node: Auto postings and dates229557 -Ref: #auto-postings-and-dates229825 -Node: Auto postings and transaction balancing / inferred amounts / balance assertions230000 -Ref: #auto-postings-and-transaction-balancing-inferred-amounts-balance-assertions230345 -Node: Auto posting tags230687 -Ref: #auto-posting-tags230896 -Node: CSV FORMAT231532 -Ref: #csv-format231660 -Node: Examples234289 -Ref: #examples234392 -Node: Basic234600 -Ref: #basic234702 -Node: Bank of Ireland235244 -Ref: #bank-of-ireland235381 -Node: Amazon236843 -Ref: #amazon236963 -Node: Paypal238682 -Ref: #paypal238778 -Node: CSV rules246422 -Ref: #csv-rules246540 -Node: skip246873 -Ref: #skip246973 -Node: fields list247348 -Ref: #fields-list247487 -Node: field assignment248990 -Ref: #field-assignment249142 -Node: Field names250070 -Ref: #field-names250210 -Node: date field250590 -Ref: #date-field250710 -Node: date2 field250758 -Ref: #date2-field250901 -Node: status field250957 -Ref: #status-field251102 -Node: code field251151 -Ref: #code-field251298 -Node: description field251343 -Ref: #description-field251505 -Node: comment field251564 -Ref: #comment-field251721 -Node: account field251936 -Ref: #account-field252088 -Node: amount field252663 -Ref: #amount-field252814 -Node: currency field254059 -Ref: #currency-field254214 -Node: balance field254471 -Ref: #balance-field254605 -Node: separator254977 -Ref: #separator255109 -Node: if block255649 -Ref: #if-block255776 -Node: Matching the whole record256177 -Ref: #matching-the-whole-record256354 -Node: Matching individual fields257157 -Ref: #matching-individual-fields257363 -Node: Combining matchers257587 -Ref: #combining-matchers257785 -Node: Rules applied on successful match258098 -Ref: #rules-applied-on-successful-match258291 -Node: if table258945 -Ref: #if-table259066 -Node: end260804 -Ref: #end260918 -Node: date-format261142 -Ref: #date-format261276 -Node: decimal-mark262272 -Ref: #decimal-mark262419 -Node: newest-first262758 -Ref: #newest-first262901 -Node: include263584 -Ref: #include263717 -Node: balance-type264161 -Ref: #balance-type264283 -Node: Tips264983 -Ref: #tips265074 -Node: Rapid feedback265373 -Ref: #rapid-feedback265492 -Node: Valid CSV265952 -Ref: #valid-csv266084 -Node: File Extension266276 -Ref: #file-extension266430 -Node: Reading multiple CSV files266859 -Ref: #reading-multiple-csv-files267046 -Node: Valid transactions267287 -Ref: #valid-transactions267467 -Node: Deduplicating importing268095 -Ref: #deduplicating-importing268276 -Node: Setting amounts269309 -Ref: #setting-amounts269466 -Node: Amount signs271907 -Ref: #amount-signs272061 -Node: Setting currency/commodity272748 -Ref: #setting-currencycommodity272936 -Node: Amount decimal places274110 -Ref: #amount-decimal-places274302 -Node: Referencing other fields274614 -Ref: #referencing-other-fields274813 -Node: How CSV rules are evaluated275710 -Ref: #how-csv-rules-are-evaluated275885 -Node: TIMECLOCK FORMAT277336 -Ref: #timeclock-format277476 -Node: TIMEDOT FORMAT279537 -Ref: #timedot-format279675 -Node: COMMON TASKS283951 -Ref: #common-tasks284080 -Node: Getting help284487 -Ref: #getting-help284621 -Node: Constructing command lines285174 -Ref: #constructing-command-lines285368 -Node: Starting a journal file286065 -Ref: #starting-a-journal-file286265 -Node: Setting opening balances287453 -Ref: #setting-opening-balances287651 -Node: Recording transactions290792 -Ref: #recording-transactions290974 -Node: Reconciling291530 -Ref: #reconciling291675 -Node: Reporting293932 -Ref: #reporting294074 -Node: Migrating to a new file298073 -Ref: #migrating-to-a-new-file298223 -Node: LIMITATIONS298522 -Ref: #limitations298650 -Node: TROUBLESHOOTING299393 -Ref: #troubleshooting299508 +Node: aregister and custom posting dates71077 +Ref: #aregister-and-custom-posting-dates71243 +Node: balance71795 +Ref: #balance71914 +Node: balance features72829 +Ref: #balance-features72969 +Node: Simple balance report74626 +Ref: #simple-balance-report74808 +Node: Filtered balance report76261 +Ref: #filtered-balance-report76448 +Node: List or tree mode76748 +Ref: #list-or-tree-mode76916 +Node: Depth limiting78234 +Ref: #depth-limiting78400 +Node: Multi-period balance report79161 +Ref: #multi-period-balance-report79353 +Node: Sorting by amount81605 +Ref: #sorting-by-amount81774 +Node: Percentages82240 +Ref: #percentages82396 +Node: Balance change end balance83330 +Ref: #balance-change-end-balance83521 +Node: Balance report types84949 +Ref: #balance-report-types85139 +Node: Useful balance reports89212 +Ref: #useful-balance-reports89393 +Node: Budget report90478 +Ref: #budget-report90662 +Node: Budget report start date95901 +Ref: #budget-report-start-date96070 +Node: Nested budgets97402 +Ref: #nested-budgets97551 +Node: Customising single-period balance reports100991 +Ref: #customising-single-period-balance-reports101200 +Node: balancesheet103348 +Ref: #balancesheet103486 +Node: balancesheetequity104785 +Ref: #balancesheetequity104936 +Node: cashflow106316 +Ref: #cashflow106440 +Node: check107586 +Ref: #check107691 +Node: Basic checks108325 +Ref: #basic-checks108443 +Node: Strict checks108994 +Ref: #strict-checks109135 +Node: Other checks109571 +Ref: #other-checks109711 +Node: Custom checks110068 +Ref: #custom-checks110188 +Node: close110605 +Ref: #close110709 +Node: close usage112231 +Ref: #close-usage112326 +Node: codes115139 +Ref: #codes115249 +Node: commodities115961 +Ref: #commodities116090 +Node: descriptions116172 +Ref: #descriptions116302 +Node: diff116606 +Ref: #diff116714 +Node: files117761 +Ref: #files117863 +Node: help118010 +Ref: #help118112 +Node: import118839 +Ref: #import118955 +Node: Deduplication119820 +Ref: #deduplication119945 +Node: Import testing121839 +Ref: #import-testing122004 +Node: Importing balance assignments122492 +Ref: #importing-balance-assignments122698 +Node: Commodity display styles123347 +Ref: #commodity-display-styles123520 +Node: incomestatement123649 +Ref: #incomestatement123784 +Node: notes125089 +Ref: #notes125204 +Node: payees125572 +Ref: #payees125680 +Node: prices126206 +Ref: #prices126314 +Node: print126655 +Ref: #print126767 +Node: print-unique132082 +Ref: #print-unique132210 +Node: register132495 +Ref: #register132624 +Node: Custom register output137070 +Ref: #custom-register-output137201 +Node: register-match138538 +Ref: #register-match138674 +Node: rewrite139025 +Ref: #rewrite139142 +Node: Re-write rules in a file141048 +Ref: #re-write-rules-in-a-file141211 +Node: Diff output format142360 +Ref: #diff-output-format142543 +Node: rewrite vs print --auto143635 +Ref: #rewrite-vs.-print---auto143795 +Node: roi144351 +Ref: #roi144451 +Node: Spaces and special characters in --inv and --pnl146137 +Ref: #spaces-and-special-characters-in---inv-and---pnl146377 +Node: Semantics of --inv and --pnl146865 +Ref: #semantics-of---inv-and---pnl147104 +Node: IRR and TWR explained148954 +Ref: #irr-and-twr-explained149114 +Node: stats152182 +Ref: #stats152283 +Node: tags153071 +Ref: #tags153171 +Node: test153690 +Ref: #test153806 +Node: About add-on commands154553 +Ref: #about-add-on-commands154690 +Node: JOURNAL FORMAT155821 +Ref: #journal-format155949 +Node: Transactions158145 +Ref: #transactions158260 +Node: Dates159274 +Ref: #dates159390 +Node: Simple dates159455 +Ref: #simple-dates159575 +Node: Secondary dates160084 +Ref: #secondary-dates160232 +Node: Posting dates161568 +Ref: #posting-dates161691 +Node: Status163063 +Ref: #status163173 +Node: Code164881 +Ref: #code164993 +Node: Description165225 +Ref: #description165353 +Node: Payee and note165673 +Ref: #payee-and-note165781 +Node: Comments166116 +Ref: #comments166238 +Node: Tags167432 +Ref: #tags-1167543 +Node: Postings168936 +Ref: #postings169060 +Node: Virtual postings170086 +Ref: #virtual-postings170197 +Node: Account names171502 +Ref: #account-names171639 +Node: Amounts172127 +Ref: #amounts172264 +Node: Decimal marks digit group marks173220 +Ref: #decimal-marks-digit-group-marks173397 +Node: Commodity174269 +Ref: #commodity174429 +Node: Commodity directives175381 +Ref: #commodity-directives175555 +Node: Commodity display style176042 +Ref: #commodity-display-style176221 +Node: Rounding178329 +Ref: #rounding178449 +Node: Transaction prices178861 +Ref: #transaction-prices179027 +Node: Lot prices lot dates181458 +Ref: #lot-prices-lot-dates181641 +Node: Balance assertions182129 +Ref: #balance-assertions182307 +Node: Assertions and ordering183340 +Ref: #assertions-and-ordering183522 +Node: Assertions and included files184222 +Ref: #assertions-and-included-files184459 +Node: Assertions and multiple -f options184792 +Ref: #assertions-and-multiple--f-options185042 +Node: Assertions and commodities185174 +Ref: #assertions-and-commodities185400 +Node: Assertions and prices186557 +Ref: #assertions-and-prices186765 +Node: Assertions and subaccounts187205 +Ref: #assertions-and-subaccounts187428 +Node: Assertions and virtual postings187752 +Ref: #assertions-and-virtual-postings187988 +Node: Assertions and precision188130 +Ref: #assertions-and-precision188317 +Node: Balance assignments188584 +Ref: #balance-assignments188754 +Node: Balance assignments and prices189918 +Ref: #balance-assignments-and-prices190084 +Node: Directives190308 +Ref: #directives190471 +Node: Directives and multiple files195825 +Ref: #directives-and-multiple-files196021 +Node: Comment blocks196685 +Ref: #comment-blocks196862 +Node: Including other files197038 +Ref: #including-other-files197212 +Node: Default year198136 +Ref: #default-year198294 +Node: Declaring payees198701 +Ref: #declaring-payees198867 +Node: Declaring commodities199113 +Ref: #declaring-commodities199294 +Node: Commodity error checking201674 +Ref: #commodity-error-checking201824 +Node: Default commodity202081 +Ref: #default-commodity202261 +Node: Declaring market prices203137 +Ref: #declaring-market-prices203326 +Node: Declaring accounts204139 +Ref: #declaring-accounts204319 +Node: Account error checking205521 +Ref: #account-error-checking205687 +Node: Account comments206866 +Ref: #account-comments207050 +Node: Account subdirectives207474 +Ref: #account-subdirectives207659 +Node: Account types207972 +Ref: #account-types208146 +Node: Declaring account types208882 +Ref: #declaring-account-types209061 +Node: Auto-detected account types209711 +Ref: #auto-detected-account-types209952 +Node: Interference from auto-detected account types210912 +Ref: #interference-from-auto-detected-account-types211189 +Node: Old account type syntax211672 +Ref: #old-account-type-syntax211869 +Node: Account display order212169 +Ref: #account-display-order212329 +Node: Rewriting accounts213480 +Ref: #rewriting-accounts213659 +Node: Basic aliases214416 +Ref: #basic-aliases214552 +Node: Regex aliases215296 +Ref: #regex-aliases215458 +Node: Combining aliases216177 +Ref: #combining-aliases216360 +Node: Aliases and multiple files217636 +Ref: #aliases-and-multiple-files217835 +Node: end aliases218414 +Ref: #end-aliases218561 +Node: Default parent account218662 +Ref: #default-parent-account218852 +Node: Periodic transactions219736 +Ref: #periodic-transactions219919 +Node: Periodic rule syntax221836 +Ref: #periodic-rule-syntax222036 +Node: Two spaces between period expression and description!222740 +Ref: #two-spaces-between-period-expression-and-description223053 +Node: Forecasting with periodic transactions223737 +Ref: #forecasting-with-periodic-transactions224036 +Node: Budgeting with periodic transactions226091 +Ref: #budgeting-with-periodic-transactions226324 +Node: Auto postings226733 +Ref: #auto-postings226869 +Node: Auto postings and multiple files229048 +Ref: #auto-postings-and-multiple-files229246 +Node: Auto postings and dates229455 +Ref: #auto-postings-and-dates229723 +Node: Auto postings and transaction balancing / inferred amounts / balance assertions229898 +Ref: #auto-postings-and-transaction-balancing-inferred-amounts-balance-assertions230243 +Node: Auto posting tags230585 +Ref: #auto-posting-tags230794 +Node: CSV FORMAT231430 +Ref: #csv-format231558 +Node: Examples234187 +Ref: #examples234290 +Node: Basic234498 +Ref: #basic234600 +Node: Bank of Ireland235142 +Ref: #bank-of-ireland235279 +Node: Amazon236741 +Ref: #amazon236861 +Node: Paypal238580 +Ref: #paypal238676 +Node: CSV rules246320 +Ref: #csv-rules246438 +Node: skip246771 +Ref: #skip246871 +Node: fields list247246 +Ref: #fields-list247385 +Node: field assignment248888 +Ref: #field-assignment249040 +Node: Field names249968 +Ref: #field-names250108 +Node: date field250488 +Ref: #date-field250608 +Node: date2 field250656 +Ref: #date2-field250799 +Node: status field250855 +Ref: #status-field251000 +Node: code field251049 +Ref: #code-field251196 +Node: description field251241 +Ref: #description-field251403 +Node: comment field251462 +Ref: #comment-field251619 +Node: account field251834 +Ref: #account-field251986 +Node: amount field252561 +Ref: #amount-field252712 +Node: currency field253957 +Ref: #currency-field254112 +Node: balance field254369 +Ref: #balance-field254503 +Node: separator254875 +Ref: #separator255007 +Node: if block255547 +Ref: #if-block255674 +Node: Matching the whole record256075 +Ref: #matching-the-whole-record256252 +Node: Matching individual fields257055 +Ref: #matching-individual-fields257261 +Node: Combining matchers257485 +Ref: #combining-matchers257683 +Node: Rules applied on successful match257996 +Ref: #rules-applied-on-successful-match258189 +Node: if table258843 +Ref: #if-table258964 +Node: end260702 +Ref: #end260816 +Node: date-format261040 +Ref: #date-format261174 +Node: decimal-mark262170 +Ref: #decimal-mark262317 +Node: newest-first262656 +Ref: #newest-first262799 +Node: include263482 +Ref: #include263615 +Node: balance-type264059 +Ref: #balance-type264181 +Node: Tips264881 +Ref: #tips264972 +Node: Rapid feedback265271 +Ref: #rapid-feedback265390 +Node: Valid CSV265850 +Ref: #valid-csv265982 +Node: File Extension266174 +Ref: #file-extension266328 +Node: Reading multiple CSV files266757 +Ref: #reading-multiple-csv-files266944 +Node: Valid transactions267185 +Ref: #valid-transactions267365 +Node: Deduplicating importing267993 +Ref: #deduplicating-importing268174 +Node: Setting amounts269207 +Ref: #setting-amounts269364 +Node: Amount signs271805 +Ref: #amount-signs271959 +Node: Setting currency/commodity272646 +Ref: #setting-currencycommodity272834 +Node: Amount decimal places274008 +Ref: #amount-decimal-places274200 +Node: Referencing other fields274512 +Ref: #referencing-other-fields274711 +Node: How CSV rules are evaluated275608 +Ref: #how-csv-rules-are-evaluated275783 +Node: TIMECLOCK FORMAT277234 +Ref: #timeclock-format277374 +Node: TIMEDOT FORMAT279435 +Ref: #timedot-format279573 +Node: COMMON TASKS284135 +Ref: #common-tasks284264 +Node: Getting help284671 +Ref: #getting-help284805 +Node: Constructing command lines285358 +Ref: #constructing-command-lines285552 +Node: Starting a journal file286249 +Ref: #starting-a-journal-file286449 +Node: Setting opening balances287637 +Ref: #setting-opening-balances287835 +Node: Recording transactions290976 +Ref: #recording-transactions291158 +Node: Reconciling291714 +Ref: #reconciling291859 +Node: Reporting294116 +Ref: #reporting294258 +Node: Migrating to a new file298257 +Ref: #migrating-to-a-new-file298407 +Node: LIMITATIONS298706 +Ref: #limitations298834 +Node: TROUBLESHOOTING299577 +Ref: #troubleshooting299692  End Tag Table diff --git a/hledger.txt b/hledger.txt --- a/hledger.txt +++ b/hledger.txt @@ -6,7050 +6,7070 @@ NAME This is the command-line interface (CLI) for the hledger accounting tool. Here we also describe hledger's concepts and file formats. This - manual is for hledger 1.22.1. - -SYNOPSIS - hledger - - hledger [-f FILE] COMMAND [OPTIONS] [ARGS] - - hledger [-f FILE] ADDONCMD -- [OPTIONS] [ARGS] - -DESCRIPTION - hledger is a reliable, cross-platform set of programs for tracking - money, time, or any other commodity, using double-entry accounting and - a simple, editable file format. hledger is inspired by and largely - compatible with ledger(1). - - The basic function of the hledger CLI is to read a plain text file - describing financial transactions (in accounting terms, a general jour- - nal) and print useful reports on standard output, or export them as - CSV. hledger can also read some other file formats such as CSV files, - translating them to journal format. Additionally, hledger lists other - hledger-* executables found in the user's $PATH and can invoke them as - subcommands. - - hledger reads data from one or more files in hledger journal, time- - clock, timedot, or CSV format specified with -f, or $LEDGER_FILE, or - $HOME/.hledger.journal (on windows, perhaps - C:/Users/USER/.hledger.journal). If using $LEDGER_FILE, note this must - be a real environment variable, not a shell variable. You can specify - standard input with -f-. - - Transactions are dated movements of money between two (or more) named - accounts, and are recorded with journal entries like this: - - 2015/10/16 bought food - expenses:food $10 - assets:cash - - Most users use a text editor to edit the journal, usually with an edi- - tor mode such as ledger-mode for added convenience. hledger's interac- - tive add command is another way to record new transactions. hledger - never changes existing transactions. - - To get started, you can either save some entries like the above in - ~/.hledger.journal, or run hledger add and follow the prompts. Then - try some commands like hledger print or hledger balance. Run hledger - with no arguments for a list of commands. - -OPTIONS - General options - To see general usage help, including general options which are sup- - ported by most hledger commands, run hledger -h. - - General help options: - - -h --help - show general or COMMAND help - - --man show general or COMMAND user manual with man - - --info show general or COMMAND user manual with info - - --version - show general or ADDONCMD version - - --debug[=N] - show debug output (levels 1-9, default: 1) - - General input options: - - -f FILE --file=FILE - use a different input file. For stdin, use - (default: - $LEDGER_FILE or $HOME/.hledger.journal) - - --rules-file=RULESFILE - Conversion rules file to use when reading CSV (default: - FILE.rules) - - --separator=CHAR - Field separator to expect when reading CSV (default: ',') - - --alias=OLD=NEW - rename accounts named OLD to NEW - - --anon anonymize accounts and payees - - --pivot FIELDNAME - use some other field or tag for the account name - - -I --ignore-assertions - disable balance assertion checks (note: does not disable balance - assignments) - - -s --strict - do extra error checking (check that all posted accounts are - declared) - - General reporting options: - - -b --begin=DATE - include postings/txns on or after this date (will be adjusted to - preceding subperiod start when using a report interval) - - -e --end=DATE - include postings/txns before this date (will be adjusted to fol- - lowing subperiod end when using a report interval) - - -D --daily - multiperiod/multicolumn report by day - - -W --weekly - multiperiod/multicolumn report by week - - -M --monthly - multiperiod/multicolumn report by month - - -Q --quarterly - multiperiod/multicolumn report by quarter - - -Y --yearly - multiperiod/multicolumn report by year - - -p --period=PERIODEXP - set start date, end date, and/or reporting interval all at once - using period expressions syntax - - --date2 - match the secondary date instead (see command help for other - effects) - - -U --unmarked - include only unmarked postings/txns (can combine with -P or -C) - - -P --pending - include only pending postings/txns - - -C --cleared - include only cleared postings/txns - - -R --real - include only non-virtual postings - - -NUM --depth=NUM - hide/aggregate accounts or postings more than NUM levels deep - - -E --empty - show items with zero amount, normally hidden (and vice-versa in - hledger-ui/hledger-web) - - -B --cost - convert amounts to their cost/selling amount at transaction time - - -V --market - convert amounts to their market value in default valuation com- - modities - - -X --exchange=COMM - convert amounts to their market value in commodity COMM - - --value - convert amounts to cost or market value, more flexibly than - -B/-V/-X - - --infer-market-prices - use transaction prices (recorded with @ or @@) as additional - market prices, as if they were P directives - - --auto apply automated posting rules to modify transactions. - - --forecast - generate future transactions from periodic transaction rules, - for the next 6 months or till report end date. In hledger-ui, - also make ordinary future transactions visible. - - --color=WHEN (or --colour=WHEN) - Should color-supporting commands use ANSI color codes in text - output. 'auto' (default): whenever stdout seems to be a color- - supporting terminal. 'always' or 'yes': always, useful eg when - piping output into 'less -R'. 'never' or 'no': never. A - NO_COLOR environment variable overrides this. - - When a reporting option appears more than once in the command line, the - last one takes precedence. - - Some reporting options can also be written as query arguments. - - Command options - To see options for a particular command, including command-specific - options, run: hledger COMMAND -h. - - Command-specific options must be written after the command name, eg: - hledger print -x. - - Additionally, if the command is an add-on, you may need to put its - options after a double-hyphen, eg: hledger ui -- --watch. Or, you can - run the add-on executable directly: hledger-ui --watch. - - Command arguments - Most hledger commands accept arguments after the command name, which - are often a query, filtering the data in some way. - - You can save a set of command line options/arguments in a file, and - then reuse them by writing @FILENAME as a command line argument. Eg: - hledger bal @foo.args. (To prevent this, eg if you have an argument - that begins with a literal @, precede it with --, eg: hledger bal -- - @ARG). - - Inside the argument file, each line should contain just one option or - argument. Avoid the use of spaces, except inside quotes (or you'll see - a confusing error). Between a flag and its argument, use = (or noth- - ing). Bad: - - assets depth:2 - -X USD - - Good: - - assets - depth:2 - -X=USD - - For special characters (see below), use one less level of quoting than - you would at the command prompt. Bad: - - -X"$" - - Good: - - -X$ - - See also: Save frequently used options. - - Special characters - Single escaping (shell metacharacters) - In shell command lines, characters significant to your shell - such as - spaces, <, >, (, ), |, $ and \ - should be "shell-escaped" if you want - hledger to see them. This is done by enclosing them in single or dou- - ble quotes, or by writing a backslash before them. Eg to match an - account name containing a space: - - $ hledger register 'credit card' - - or: - - $ hledger register credit\ card - - Windows users should keep in mind that cmd treats single quote as a - regular character, so you should be using double quotes exclusively. - PowerShell treats both single and double quotes as quotes. - - Double escaping (regular expression metacharacters) - Characters significant in regular expressions (described below) - such - as ., ^, $, [, ], (, ), |, and \ - may need to be "regex-escaped" if - you don't want them to be interpreted by hledger's regular expression - engine. This is done by writing backslashes before them, but since - backslash is typically also a shell metacharacter, both shell-escaping - and regex-escaping will be needed. Eg to match a literal $ sign while - using the bash shell: - - $ hledger balance cur:'\$' - - or: - - $ hledger balance cur:\\$ - - Triple escaping (for add-on commands) - When you use hledger to run an external add-on command (described - below), one level of shell-escaping is lost from any options or argu- - ments intended for by the add-on command, so those need an extra level - of shell-escaping. Eg to match a literal $ sign while using the bash - shell and running an add-on command (ui): - - $ hledger ui cur:'\\$' - - or: - - $ hledger ui cur:\\\\$ - - If you wondered why four backslashes, perhaps this helps: - - - unescaped: $ - escaped: \$ - double-escaped: \\$ - triple-escaped: \\\\$ - - Or, you can avoid the extra escaping by running the add-on executable - directly: - - $ hledger-ui cur:\\$ - - Less escaping - Options and arguments are sometimes used in places other than the shell - command line, where shell-escaping is not needed, so there you should - use one less level of escaping. Those places include: - - o an @argumentfile - - o hledger-ui's filter field - - o hledger-web's search form - - o GHCI's prompt (used by developers). - - Unicode characters - hledger is expected to handle non-ascii characters correctly: - - o they should be parsed correctly in input files and on the command - line, by all hledger tools (add, iadd, hledger-web's search/add/edit - forms, etc.) - - o they should be displayed correctly by all hledger tools, and on- - screen alignment should be preserved. - - This requires a well-configured environment. Here are some tips: - - o A system locale must be configured, and it must be one that can - decode the characters being used. In bash, you can set a locale like - this: export LANG=en_US.UTF-8. There are some more details in Trou- - bleshooting. This step is essential - without it, hledger will quit - on encountering a non-ascii character (as with all GHC-compiled pro- - grams). - - o your terminal software (eg Terminal.app, iTerm, CMD.exe, xterm..) - must support unicode - - o the terminal must be using a font which includes the required unicode - glyphs - - o the terminal should be configured to display wide characters as dou- - ble width (for report alignment) - - o on Windows, for best results you should run hledger in the same kind - of environment in which it was built. Eg hledger built in the stan- - dard CMD.EXE environment (like the binaries on our download page) - might show display problems when run in a cygwin or msys terminal, - and vice versa. (See eg #961). - - Regular expressions - hledger uses regular expressions in a number of places: - - o query terms, on the command line and in the hledger-web search form: - REGEX, desc:REGEX, cur:REGEX, tag:...=REGEX - - o CSV rules conditional blocks: if REGEX ... - - o account alias directives and options: alias /REGEX/ = REPLACEMENT, - --alias /REGEX/=REPLACEMENT - - hledger's regular expressions come from the regex-tdfa library. If - they're not doing what you expect, it's important to know exactly what - they support: - - 1. they are case insensitive - - 2. they are infix matching (they do not need to match the entire thing - being matched) - - 3. they are POSIX ERE (extended regular expressions) - - 4. they also support GNU word boundaries (\b, \B, \<, \>) - - 5. they do not support backreferences; if you write \1, it will match - the digit 1. Except when doing text replacement, eg in account - aliases, where backreferences can be used in the replacement string - to reference capturing groups in the search regexp. - - 6. they do not support mode modifiers ((?s)), character classes (\w, - \d), or anything else not mentioned above. - - Some things to note: - - o In the alias directive and --alias option, regular expressions must - be enclosed in forward slashes (/REGEX/). Elsewhere in hledger, - these are not required. - - o In queries, to match a regular expression metacharacter like $ as a - literal character, prepend a backslash. Eg to search for amounts - with the dollar sign in hledger-web, write cur:\$. - - o On the command line, some metacharacters like $ have a special mean- - ing to the shell and so must be escaped at least once more. See Spe- - cial characters. - -ENVIRONMENT - LEDGER_FILE The journal file path when not specified with -f. Default: - ~/.hledger.journal (on windows, perhaps C:/Users/USER/.hledger.jour- - nal). - - A typical value is ~/DIR/YYYY.journal, where DIR is a version-con- - trolled finance directory and YYYY is the current year. Or ~/DIR/cur- - rent.journal, where current.journal is a symbolic link to YYYY.journal. - - On Mac computers, you can set this and other environment variables in a - more thorough way that also affects applications started from the GUI - (say, an Emacs dock icon). Eg on MacOS Catalina I have a - ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist file containing - - { - "LEDGER_FILE" : "~/finance/current.journal" - } - - To see the effect you may need to killall Dock, or reboot. - - COLUMNS The screen width used by the register command. Default: the - full terminal width. - - NO_COLOR If this variable exists with any value, hledger will not use - ANSI color codes in terminal output. This overrides the - --color/--colour option. - -DATA FILES - hledger reads transactions from one or more data files. The default - data file is $HOME/.hledger.journal (or on Windows, something like - C:/Users/USER/.hledger.journal). - - You can override this with the $LEDGER_FILE environment variable: - - $ setenv LEDGER_FILE ~/finance/2016.journal - $ hledger stats - - or with one or more -f/--file options: - - $ hledger -f /some/file -f another_file stats - - The file name - means standard input: - - $ cat some.journal | hledger -f- - - Data formats - Usually the data file is in hledger's journal format, but it can be in - any of the supported file formats, which currently are: - - - Reader: Reads: Used for file exten- - sions: - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- - journal hledger journal files and some Ledger .journal .j .hledger - journals, for transactions .ledger - time- timeclock files, for precise time log- .timeclock - clock ging - timedot timedot files, for approximate time .timedot - logging - csv comma/semicolon/tab/other-separated .csv .ssv .tsv - values, for data import - - These formats are described in their own sections, below. - - hledger detects the format automatically based on the file extensions - shown above. If it can't recognise the file extension, it assumes - journal format. So for non-journal files, it's important to use a - recognised file extension, so as to either read successfully or to show - relevant error messages. - - You can also force a specific reader/format by prefixing the file path - with the format and a colon. Eg, to read a .dat file as csv format: - - $ hledger -f csv:/some/csv-file.dat stats - - Or to read stdin (-) as timeclock format: - - $ echo 'i 2009/13/1 08:00:00' | hledger print -ftimeclock:- - - Multiple files - You can specify multiple -f options, to read multiple files as one big - journal. There are some limitations with this: - - o most directives do not affect sibling files - - o balance assertions will not see any account balances from previous - files - - If you need either of those things, you can - - o use a single parent file which includes the others - - o or concatenate the files into one before reading, eg: cat a.journal - b.journal | hledger -f- CMD. - - Strict mode - hledger checks input files for valid data. By default, the most impor- - tant errors are detected, while still accepting easy journal files - without a lot of declarations: - - o Are the input files parseable, with valid syntax ? - - o Are all transactions balanced ? - - o Do all balance assertions pass ? - - With the -s/--strict flag, additional checks are performed: - - o Are all accounts posted to, declared with an account directive ? - (Account error checking) - - o Are all commodities declared with a commodity directive ? (Commodity - error checking) - - o Are all commodity conversions declared explicitly ? - - You can also use the check command to run these and some additional - checks. - -TIME PERIODS - Smart dates - hledger's user interfaces accept a flexible "smart date" syntax. Smart - dates allow some english words, can be relative to today's date, and - can have less-significant date parts omitted (defaulting to 1). - - Examples: - - - 2004/10/1, 2004-01-01, exact date, several separators allowed. Year - 2004.9.1 is 4+ digits, month is 1-12, day is 1-31 - 2004 start of year - 2004/10 start of month - 10/1 month and day in current year - 21 day in current month - october, oct start of month in current year - yesterday, today, tomor- -1, 0, 1 days from today - row - last/this/next -1, 0, 1 periods from the current period - day/week/month/quar- - ter/year - 20181201 8 digit YYYYMMDD with valid year month and day - 201812 6 digit YYYYMM with valid year and month - - Counterexamples - malformed digit sequences might give surprising - results: - - - 201813 6 digits with an invalid month is parsed as start of - 6-digit year - 20181301 8 digits with an invalid month is parsed as start of - 8-digit year - 20181232 8 digits with an invalid day gives an error - 201801012 9+ digits beginning with a valid YYYYMMDD gives an error - - - Report start & end date - By default, most hledger reports will show the full span of time repre- - sented by the journal data. The report start date will be the earliest - transaction or posting date, and the report end date will be the latest - transaction, posting, or market price date. - - Often you will want to see a shorter time span, such as the current - month. You can specify a start and/or end date using -b/--begin, - -e/--end, -p/--period or a date: query (described below). All of these - accept the smart date syntax. - - Some notes: - - o As in Ledger, end dates are exclusive, so you need to write the date - after the last day you want to include. - - o As noted in reporting options: among start/end dates specified with - options, the last (i.e. right-most) option takes precedence. - - o The effective report start and end dates are the intersection of the - start/end dates from options and that from date: queries. That is, - date:2019-01 date:2019 -p'2000 to 2030' yields January 2019, the - smallest common time span. - - o A report interval (see below) will adjust start/end dates, when - needed, so that they fall on subperiod boundaries. - - Examples: - - - -b 2016/3/17 begin on St. Patrick's day 2016 - -e 12/1 end at the start of december 1st of the current year - (11/30 will be the last date included) - -b thismonth all transactions on or after the 1st of the current month - -p thismonth all transactions in the current month - date:2016/3/17.. the above written as queries instead (.. can also be - replaced with -) - date:..12/1 - date:thismonth.. - date:thismonth - - Report intervals - A report interval can be specified so that commands like register, bal- - ance and activity become multi-period, showing each subperiod as a sep- - arate row or column. - - The following "standard" report intervals can be enabled by using their - corresponding flag: - - -D/--daily, -W/--weekly, -M/--monthly, -Q/--quarterly, -Y/--yearly. - - These standard intervals always start on natural interval boundaries: - eg --weekly starts on mondays, --monthly starts on the first of the - month, --yearly always starts on January 1st, etc. - - Certain more complex intervals, and more flexible boundary dates, can - be specified by -p/--period. These are described in period expres- - sions, below. - - Report intervals can only be specified by the flags above, and not by - query arguments, currently. - - Report intervals have another effect: multi-period reports are always - expanded to fill a whole number of subperiods. So if you use a report - interval (other than --daily), and you have specified a start or end - date, you may notice those dates being overridden (ie, the report - starts earlier than your requested start date, or ends later than your - requested end date). This is done to ensure "full" first and last sub- - periods, so that all subperiods' numbers are comparable. - - Period expressions - The -p/--period option accepts period expressions, a shorthand way of - expressing a start date, end date, and/or report interval all at once. - - Here's a basic period expression specifying the first quarter of 2009. - Note, hledger always treats start dates as inclusive and end dates as - exclusive: - - -p "from 2009/1/1 to 2009/4/1" - - Keywords like "from" and "to" are optional, and so are the spaces, as - long as you don't run two dates together. "to" can also be written as - ".." or "-". These are equivalent to the above: - - - -p "2009/1/1 2009/4/1" - -p2009/1/1to2009/4/1 - -p2009/1/1..2009/4/1 - - Dates are smart dates, so if the current year is 2009, the above can - also be written as: - - - -p "1/1 4/1" - - -p "january-apr" - -p "this year to 4/1" - - If you specify only one date, the missing start or end date will be the - earliest or latest transaction in your journal: - - - -p "from 2009/1/1" everything after january - 1, 2009 - -p "from 2009/1" the same - -p "from 2009" the same - -p "to 2009" everything before january - 1, 2009 - - A single date with no "from" or "to" defines both the start and end - date like so: - - - -p "2009" the year 2009; equivalent - to "2009/1/1 to 2010/1/1" - -p "2009/1" the month of jan; equiva- - lent to "2009/1/1 to - 2009/2/1" - -p "2009/1/1" just that day; equivalent - to "2009/1/1 to 2009/1/2" - - Or you can specify a single quarter like so: - - - -p "2009Q1" first quarter of 2009, - equivalent to "2009/1/1 to - 2009/4/1" - -p "q4" fourth quarter of the cur- - rent year - - The argument of -p can also begin with, or be, a report interval - expression. The basic report intervals are daily, weekly, monthly, - quarterly, or yearly, which have the same effect as the -D,-W,-M,-Q, or - -Y flags. Between report interval and start/end dates (if any), the - word in is optional. Examples: - - - -p "weekly from 2009/1/1 to 2009/4/1" - -p "monthly in 2008" - -p "quarterly" - - Note that weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly intervals will always - start on the first day on week, month, quarter or year accordingly, and - will end on the last day of same period, even if associated period - expression specifies different explicit start and end date. - - For example: - - - -p "weekly from 2009/1/1 starts on 2008/12/29, closest preceding Mon- - to 2009/4/1" day - -p "monthly in starts on 2018/11/01 - 2008/11/25" - -p "quarterly from starts on 2009/04/01, ends on 2009/06/30, - 2009-05-05 to 2009-06-01" which are first and last days of Q2 2009 - -p "yearly from starts on 2009/01/01, first day of 2009 - 2009-12-29" - - The following more complex report intervals are also supported: - biweekly, fortnightly, bimonthly, every day|week|month|quarter|year, - every N days|weeks|months|quarters|years. - - All of these will start on the first day of the requested period and - end on the last one, as described above. - - Examples: - - - -p "bimonthly from 2008" periods will have boundaries on 2008/01/01, - 2008/03/01, ... - -p "every 2 weeks" starts on closest preceding Monday - -p "every 5 month from periods will have boundaries on 2009/03/01, - 2009/03" 2009/08/01, ... - - If you want intervals that start on arbitrary day of your choosing and - span a week, month or year, you need to use any of the following: - - every Nth day of week, every WEEKDAYNAME (eg - mon|tue|wed|thu|fri|sat|sun), every Nth day [of month], every Nth WEEK- - DAYNAME [of month], every MM/DD [of year], every Nth MMM [of year], - every MMM Nth [of year]. - - Examples: - - - -p "every 2nd day of periods will go from Tue to Tue - week" - -p "every Tue" same - -p "every 15th day" period boundaries will be on 15th of each - month - -p "every 2nd Monday" period boundaries will be on second Monday of - each month - -p "every 11/05" yearly periods with boundaries on 5th of Nov - -p "every 5th Nov" same - -p "every Nov 5th" same - - Show historical balances at end of 15th each month (N is exclusive end - date): - - hledger balance -H -p "every 16th day" - - Group postings from start of wednesday to end of next tuesday (N is - start date and exclusive end date): - - hledger register checking -p "every 3rd day of week" - -DEPTH - With the --depth N option (short form: -N), commands like account, bal- - ance and register will show only the uppermost accounts in the account - tree, down to level N. Use this when you want a summary with less - detail. This flag has the same effect as a depth: query argument (so - -2, --depth=2 or depth:2 are equivalent). - -QUERIES - One of hledger's strengths is being able to quickly report on a precise - subset of your data. Most hledger commands accept optional query argu- - ments to restrict their scope. The syntax is as follows: - - o Zero or more space-separated query terms. These are most often - account name substrings: - - utilities food:groceries - - o Terms with spaces or other special characters should be enclosed in - quotes: - - "personal care" - - o Regular expressions are also supported: - - "^expenses\b" "accounts (payable|receivable)" - - o Add a query type prefix to match other parts of the data: - - date:202012- desc:amazon cur:USD amt:">100" status: - - o Add a not: prefix to negate a term: - - not:cur:USD - - Query types - Here are the types of query term available. Remember these can also be - prefixed with not: to convert them into a negative match. - - acct:REGEX, REGEX - Match account names containing this (case insensitive) regular expres- - sion. This is the default query type when there is no prefix, and reg- - ular expression syntax is typically not needed, so usually we just - write an account name substring, like expenses or food. - - amt:N, amt:N, amt:>=N - Match postings with a single-commodity amount equal to, less than, or - greater than N. (Postings with multi-commodity amounts are not tested - and will always match.) The comparison has two modes: if N is preceded - by a + or - sign (or is 0), the two signed numbers are compared. Oth- - erwise, the absolute magnitudes are compared, ignoring sign. - - code:REGEX - Match by transaction code (eg check number). - - cur:REGEX - Match postings or transactions including any amounts whose cur- - rency/commodity symbol is fully matched by REGEX. (For a partial - match, use .*REGEX.*). Note, to match special characters which are - regex-significant, you need to escape them with \. And for characters - which are significant to your shell you may need one more level of - escaping. So eg to match the dollar sign: - hledger print cur:\\$. - - desc:REGEX - Match transaction descriptions. - - date:PERIODEXPR - Match dates (or with the --date2 flag, secondary dates) within the - specified period. PERIODEXPR is a period expression with no report - interval. Examples: - date:2016, date:thismonth, date:2/1-2/15, date:2021-07-27..nextquarter. - - date2:PERIODEXPR - Match secondary dates within the specified period (independent of the - --date2 flag). - - depth:N - Match (or display, depending on command) accounts at or above this - depth. - - note:REGEX - Match transaction notes (the part of the description right of |, or the - whole description if there's no |). - - payee:REGEX - Match transaction payee/payer names (the part of the description left - of |, or the whole description if there's no |). - - real:, real:0 - Match real or virtual postings respectively. - - status:, status:!, status:* - Match unmarked, pending, or cleared transactions respectively. - - tag:REGEX[=REGEX] - Match by tag name, and optionally also by tag value. (To match only by - value, use tag:.=REGEX.) Note that postings also inherit tags from - their transaction, and transactions also acquire tags from their post- - ings, when querying. - - (inacct:ACCTNAME - A special query term used automatically in hledger-web only: tells - hledger-web to show the transaction register for an account.) - - Combining query terms - Most commands select things which match: - - o any of the description terms AND - - o any of the account terms AND - - o any of the status terms AND - - o all the other terms. - - while the print command shows transactions which: - - o match any of the description terms AND - - o have any postings matching any of the positive account terms AND - - o have no postings matching any of the negative account terms AND - - o match all the other terms. - - You can do more powerful queries (such as AND-ing two like terms) by - running a first query with print, and piping the result into a second - hledger command. Eg: how much of food expenses was paid with cash ? - - $ hledger print assets:cash | hledger f- -I balance expenses:food - - If you are interested in full boolean expressions for queries, see - #203. - - Queries and command options - Some queries can also be expressed as command-line options: depth:2 is - equivalent to --depth 2, date:2020 is equivalent to -p 2020, etc. When - you mix command options and query arguments, generally the resulting - query is their intersection. - - Queries and account aliases - When account names are rewritten with --alias or alias, acct: will - match either the old or the new account name. - - Queries and valuation - When amounts are converted to other commodities in cost or value - reports, cur: and amt: match the old commodity symbol and the old - amount quantity, not the new ones (except in hledger 1.22.0 where it's - reversed, see #1625). - - Querying with account aliases - When account names are rewritten with --alias or alias, note that acct: - will match either the old or the new account name. - - Querying with cost or value - When amounts are converted to other commodities in cost or value - reports, note that cur: matches the new commodity symbol, and not the - old one, and amt: matches the new quantity, and not the old one. Note: - this changed in hledger 1.22, previously it was the reverse, see the - discussion at #1625. - -COSTING - The -B/--cost flag converts amounts to their cost or sale amount at - transaction time, if they have a transaction price specified. If this - flag is supplied, hledger will perform cost conversion first, and will - apply any market price valuations (if requested) afterwards. - -VALUATION - Instead of reporting amounts in their original commodity, hledger can - convert them to cost/sale amount (using the conversion rate recorded in - the transaction), and/or to market value (using some market price on a - certain date). This is controlled by the --value=TYPE[,COMMODITY] - option, which will be described below. We also provide the simpler -V - and -X COMMODITY options, and often one of these is all you need: - - -V: Value - The -V/--market flag converts amounts to market value in their default - valuation commodity, using the market prices in effect on the valuation - date(s), if any. More on these in a minute. - - -X: Value in specified commodity - The -X/--exchange=COMM option is like -V, except you tell it which cur- - rency you want to convert to, and it tries to convert everything to - that. - - Valuation date - Since market prices can change from day to day, market value reports - have a valuation date (or more than one), which determines which market - prices will be used. - - For single period reports, if an explicit report end date is specified, - that will be used as the valuation date; otherwise the valuation date - is the journal's end date. - - For multiperiod reports, each column/period is valued on the last day - of the period, by default. - - Market prices - To convert a commodity A to its market value in another commodity B, - hledger looks for a suitable market price (exchange rate) as follows, - in this order of preference : - - 1. A declared market price or inferred market price: A's latest market - price in B on or before the valuation date as declared by a P direc- - tive, or (with the --infer-market-price flag) inferred from transac- - tion prices. - - 2. A reverse market price: the inverse of a declared or inferred market - price from B to A. - - 3. A forward chain of market prices: a synthetic price formed by com- - bining the shortest chain of "forward" (only 1 above) market prices, - leading from A to B. - - 4. Any chain of market prices: a chain of any market prices, including - both forward and reverse prices (1 and 2 above), leading from A to - B. - - There is a limit to the length of these price chains; if hledger - reaches that length without finding a complete chain or exhausting all - possibilities, it will give up (with a "gave up" message visible in - --debug=2 output). That limit is currently 1000. - - Amounts for which no suitable market price can be found, are not con- - verted. - - --infer-market-price: market prices from transactions - Normally, market value in hledger is fully controlled by, and requires, - P directives in your journal. Since adding and updating those can be a - chore, and since transactions usually take place at close to market - value, why not use the recorded transaction prices as additional market - prices (as Ledger does) ? We could produce value reports without need- - ing P directives at all. - - Adding the --infer-market-price flag to -V, -X or --value enables this. - So for example, hledger bs -V --infer-market-price will get market - prices both from P directives and from transactions. (And if both - occur on the same day, the P directive takes precedence). - - There is a downside: value reports can sometimes be affected in confus- - ing/undesired ways by your journal entries. If this happens to you, - read all of this Valuation section carefully, and try adding --debug or - --debug=2 to troubleshoot. - - --infer-market-price can infer market prices from: - - o multicommodity transactions with explicit prices (@/@@) - - o multicommodity transactions with implicit prices (no @, two commodi- - ties, unbalanced). (With these, the order of postings matters. - hledger print -x can be useful for troubleshooting.) - - o but not, currently, from "more correct" multicommodity transactions - (no @, multiple commodities, balanced). - - Valuation commodity - When you specify a valuation commodity (-X COMM or --value TYPE,COMM): - hledger will convert all amounts to COMM, wherever it can find a suit- - able market price (including by reversing or chaining prices). - - When you leave the valuation commodity unspecified (-V or --value - TYPE): - For each commodity A, hledger picks a default valuation commodity as - follows, in this order of preference: - - 1. The price commodity from the latest P-declared market price for A on - or before valuation date. - - 2. The price commodity from the latest P-declared market price for A on - any date. (Allows conversion to proceed when there are inferred - prices before the valuation date.) - - 3. If there are no P directives at all (any commodity or date) and the - --infer-market-price flag is used: the price commodity from the lat- - est transaction-inferred price for A on or before valuation date. - - This means: - - o If you have P directives, they determine which commodities -V will - convert, and to what. - - o If you have no P directives, and use the --infer-market-price flag, - transaction prices determine it. - - Amounts for which no valuation commodity can be found are not con- - verted. - - Simple valuation examples - Here are some quick examples of -V: - - ; one euro is worth this many dollars from nov 1 - P 2016/11/01 EUR $1.10 - - ; purchase some euros on nov 3 - 2016/11/3 - assets:euros EUR100 - assets:checking - - ; the euro is worth fewer dollars by dec 21 - P 2016/12/21 EUR $1.03 - - How many euros do I have ? - - $ hledger -f t.j bal -N euros - EUR100 assets:euros - - What are they worth at end of nov 3 ? - - $ hledger -f t.j bal -N euros -V -e 2016/11/4 - $110.00 assets:euros - - What are they worth after 2016/12/21 ? (no report end date specified, - defaults to today) - - $ hledger -f t.j bal -N euros -V - $103.00 assets:euros - - --value: Flexible valuation - -V and -X are special cases of the more general --value option: - - --value=TYPE[,COMM] TYPE is then, end, now or YYYY-MM-DD. - COMM is an optional commodity symbol. - Shows amounts converted to: - - default valuation commodity (or COMM) using market prices at posting dates - - default valuation commodity (or COMM) using market prices at period end(s) - - default valuation commodity (or COMM) using current market prices - - default valuation commodity (or COMM) using market prices at some date - - The TYPE part selects cost or value and valuation date: - - --value=then - Convert amounts to their value in the default valuation commod- - ity, using market prices on each posting's date. - - --value=end - Convert amounts to their value in the default valuation commod- - ity, using market prices on the last day of the report period - (or if unspecified, the journal's end date); or in multiperiod - reports, market prices on the last day of each subperiod. - - --value=now - Convert amounts to their value in the default valuation commod- - ity using current market prices (as of when report is gener- - ated). - - --value=YYYY-MM-DD - Convert amounts to their value in the default valuation commod- - ity using market prices on this date. - - To select a different valuation commodity, add the optional ,COMM part: - a comma, then the target commodity's symbol. Eg: --value=now,EUR. - hledger will do its best to convert amounts to this commodity, deducing - market prices as described above. - - More valuation examples - Here are some examples showing the effect of --value, as seen with - print: - - P 2000-01-01 A 1 B - P 2000-02-01 A 2 B - P 2000-03-01 A 3 B - P 2000-04-01 A 4 B - - 2000-01-01 - (a) 1 A @ 5 B - - 2000-02-01 - (a) 1 A @ 6 B - - 2000-03-01 - (a) 1 A @ 7 B - - Show the cost of each posting: - - $ hledger -f- print --cost - 2000-01-01 - (a) 5 B - - 2000-02-01 - (a) 6 B - - 2000-03-01 - (a) 7 B - - Show the value as of the last day of the report period (2000-02-29): - - $ hledger -f- print --value=end date:2000/01-2000/03 - 2000-01-01 - (a) 2 B - - 2000-02-01 - (a) 2 B - - With no report period specified, that shows the value as of the last - day of the journal (2000-03-01): - - $ hledger -f- print --value=end - 2000-01-01 - (a) 3 B - - 2000-02-01 - (a) 3 B - - 2000-03-01 - (a) 3 B - - Show the current value (the 2000-04-01 price is still in effect today): - - $ hledger -f- print --value=now - 2000-01-01 - (a) 4 B - - 2000-02-01 - (a) 4 B - - 2000-03-01 - (a) 4 B - - Show the value on 2000/01/15: - - $ hledger -f- print --value=2000-01-15 - 2000-01-01 - (a) 1 B - - 2000-02-01 - (a) 1 B - - 2000-03-01 - (a) 1 B - - You may need to explicitly set a commodity's display style, when - reverse prices are used. Eg this output might be surprising: - - P 2000-01-01 A 2B - - 2000-01-01 - a 1B - b - - $ hledger print -x -X A - 2000-01-01 - a 0 - b 0 - - Explanation: because there's no amount or commodity directive specify- - ing a display style for A, 0.5A gets the default style, which shows no - decimal digits. Because the displayed amount looks like zero, the com- - modity symbol and minus sign are not displayed either. Adding a com- - modity directive sets a more useful display style for A: - - P 2000-01-01 A 2B - commodity 0.00A - - 2000-01-01 - a 1B - b - - $ hledger print -X A - 2000-01-01 - a 0.50A - b -0.50A - - Effect of valuation on reports - Here is a reference for how valuation is supposed to affect each part - of hledger's reports (and a glossary). (It's wide, you'll have to - scroll sideways.) It may be useful when troubleshooting. If you find - problems, please report them, ideally with a reproducible example. - Related: #329, #1083. - - - Report -B, --cost -V, -X --value=then --value=end --value=DATE, - type --value=now - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - print - posting cost value at value at posting value at value at - amounts report end date report or DATE/today - or today journal end - balance unchanged unchanged unchanged unchanged unchanged - asser- - tions/assign- - ments - - register - starting bal- cost value at day valued at day value at day value at - ance (-H) before each historical before DATE/today - report or posting was made report or - journal journal - start start - posting cost value at value at posting value at value at - amounts report end date report or DATE/today - or today journal end - summary post- summarised value at sum of postings value at value at - ing amounts cost period ends in interval, val- period ends DATE/today - with report ued at interval - interval start - running sum/average sum/average sum/average of sum/average sum/average - total/average of displayed of displayed displayed values of displayed of displayed - values values values values - - - - balance (bs, - bse, cf, is) - balance sums of value at value at posting value at value at - changes costs report end date report or DATE/today of - or today of journal end sums of post- - sums of of sums of ings - postings postings - budget like balance like balance like balance like bal- like balance - amounts changes changes changes ances changes - (--budget) - grand total sum of dis- sum of dis- sum of displayed sum of dis- sum of dis- - played val- played val- valued played val- played values - ues ues ues - - balance (bs, - bse, cf, is) - with report - interval - starting bal- sums of value at sums of values of value at sums of post- - ances (-H) costs of report start postings before report start ings before - postings of sums of report start at of sums of report start - before all postings respective post- all postings - report start before ing dates before - report start report start - balance sums of same as sums of values of balance value at - changes (bal, costs of --value=end postings in change in DATE/today of - is, bs postings in period at respec- each period, sums of post- - --change, cf period tive posting valued at ings - --change) dates period ends - end balances sums of same as sums of values of period end value at - (bal -H, is costs of --value=end postings from balances, DATE/today of - --H, bs, cf) postings before period valued at sums of post- - from before start to period period ends ings - report start end at respective - to period posting dates - end - budget like balance like balance like balance like bal- like balance - amounts changes/end changes/end changes/end bal- ances changes/end - (--budget) balances balances ances balances - row totals, sums, aver- sums, aver- sums, averages of sums, aver- sums, aver- - row averages ages of dis- ages of dis- displayed values ages of dis- ages of dis- - (-T, -A) played val- played val- played val- played values - ues ues ues - column totals sums of dis- sums of dis- sums of displayed sums of dis- sums of dis- - played val- played val- values played val- played values - ues ues ues - grand total, sum, average sum, average sum, average of sum, average sum, average - grand average of column of column column totals of column of column - totals totals totals totals - - - --cumulative is omitted to save space, it works like -H but with a zero - starting balance. - - Glossary: - - cost calculated using price(s) recorded in the transaction(s). - - value market value using available market price declarations, or the - unchanged amount if no conversion rate can be found. - - report start - the first day of the report period specified with -b or -p or - date:, otherwise today. - - report or journal start - the first day of the report period specified with -b or -p or - date:, otherwise the earliest transaction date in the journal, - otherwise today. - - report end - the last day of the report period specified with -e or -p or - date:, otherwise today. - - report or journal end - the last day of the report period specified with -e or -p or - date:, otherwise the latest transaction date in the journal, - otherwise today. - - report interval - a flag (-D/-W/-M/-Q/-Y) or period expression that activates the - report's multi-period mode (whether showing one or many subperi- - ods). - -PIVOTING - Normally hledger sums amounts, and organizes them in a hierarchy, based - on account name. The --pivot FIELD option causes it to sum and orga- - nize hierarchy based on the value of some other field instead. FIELD - can be: code, description, payee, note, or the full name (case insensi- - tive) of any tag. As with account names, values containing colon:sepa- - rated:parts will be displayed hierarchically in reports. - - --pivot is a general option affecting all reports; you can think of - hledger transforming the journal before any other processing, replacing - every posting's account name with the value of the specified field on - that posting, inheriting it from the transaction or using a blank value - if it's not present. - - An example: - - 2016/02/16 Member Fee Payment - assets:bank account 2 EUR - income:member fees -2 EUR ; member: John Doe - - Normal balance report showing account names: - - $ hledger balance - 2 EUR assets:bank account - -2 EUR income:member fees - -------------------- - 0 - - Pivoted balance report, using member: tag values instead: - - $ hledger balance --pivot member - 2 EUR - -2 EUR John Doe - -------------------- - 0 - - One way to show only amounts with a member: value (using a query, - described below): - - $ hledger balance --pivot member tag:member=. - -2 EUR John Doe - -------------------- - -2 EUR - - Another way (the acct: query matches against the pivoted "account - name"): - - $ hledger balance --pivot member acct:. - -2 EUR John Doe - -------------------- - -2 EUR - -OUTPUT - Output destination - hledger commands send their output to the terminal by default. You can - of course redirect this, eg into a file, using standard shell syntax: - - $ hledger print > foo.txt - - Some commands (print, register, stats, the balance commands) also pro- - vide the -o/--output-file option, which does the same thing without - needing the shell. Eg: - - $ hledger print -o foo.txt - $ hledger print -o - # write to stdout (the default) - - hledger can optionally produce debug output (if enabled with - --debug=N); this goes to stderr, and is not affected by -o/--output- - file. If you need to capture it, use shell redirects, eg: hledger bal - --debug=3 >file 2>&1. - - Output format - Some commands (print, register, the balance commands) offer a choice of - output format. In addition to the usual plain text format (txt), there - are CSV (csv), HTML (html), JSON (json) and SQL (sql). This is con- - trolled by the -O/--output-format option: - - $ hledger print -O csv - - or, by a file extension specified with -o/--output-file: - - $ hledger balancesheet -o foo.html # write HTML to foo.html - - The -O option can be used to override the file extension if needed: - - $ hledger balancesheet -o foo.txt -O html # write HTML to foo.txt - - Some notes about JSON output: - - o This feature is marked experimental, and not yet much used; you - should expect our JSON to evolve. Real-world feedback is welcome. - - o Our JSON is rather large and verbose, as it is quite a faithful rep- - resentation of hledger's internal data types. To understand the - JSON, read the Haskell type definitions, which are mostly in - https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/blob/master/hledger- - lib/Hledger/Data/Types.hs. - - o hledger represents quantities as Decimal values storing up to 255 - significant digits, eg for repeating decimals. Such numbers can - arise in practice (from automatically-calculated transaction prices), - and would break most JSON consumers. So in JSON, we show quantities - as simple Numbers with at most 10 decimal places. We don't limit the - number of integer digits, but that part is under your control. We - hope this approach will not cause problems in practice; if you find - otherwise, please let us know. (Cf #1195) - - Notes about SQL output: - - o SQL output is also marked experimental, and much like JSON could use - real-world feedback. - - o SQL output is expected to work with sqlite, MySQL and PostgreSQL - - o SQL output is structured with the expectations that statements will - be executed in the empty database. If you already have tables cre- - ated via SQL output of hledger, you would probably want to either - clear tables of existing data (via delete or truncate SQL statements) - or drop tables completely as otherwise your postings will be duped. - -COMMANDS - hledger provides a number of commands for producing reports and manag- - ing your data. Run hledger with no arguments to list the commands - available, and hledger CMD to run a command. CMD can be the full com- - mand name, or its standard abbreviation shown in the commands list, or - any unambiguous prefix of the name. Eg: hledger bal. - - Here are the built-in commands, with the most often-used in bold: - - Data entry: - - These data entry commands are the only ones which can modify your jour- - nal file. - - o add - add transactions using guided prompts - - o import - add any new transactions from other files (eg csv) - - Data management: - - o check - check for various kinds of issue in the data - - o close (equity) - generate balance-resetting transactions - - o diff - compare account transactions in two journal files - - o rewrite - generate extra postings, similar to print --auto - - Financial statements: - - o aregister (areg) - show transactions in a particular account - - o balancesheet (bs) - show assets, liabilities and net worth - - o balancesheetequity (bse) - show assets, liabilities and equity - - o cashflow (cf) - show changes in liquid assets - - o incomestatement (is) - show revenues and expenses - - o roi - show return on investments - - Miscellaneous reports: - - o accounts - show account names - - o activity - show postings-per-interval bar charts - - o balance (bal) - show balance changes/end balances/budgets in any - accounts - - o codes - show transaction codes - - o commodities - show commodity/currency symbols - - o descriptions - show unique transaction descriptions - - o files - show input file paths - - o help - show hledger user manuals in several formats - - o notes - show unique note segments of transaction descriptions - - o payees - show unique payee segments of transaction descriptions - - o prices - show market price records - - o print - show transactions (journal entries) - - o print-unique - show only transactions with unique descriptions - - o register (reg) - show postings in one or more accounts & running - total - - o register-match - show a recent posting that best matches a descrip- - tion - - o stats - show journal statistics - - o tags - show tag names - - o test - run self tests - - Add-on commands: - - Programs or scripts named hledger-SOMETHING in your PATH are add-on - commands; these appear in the commands list with a + mark. Two of - these are maintained and released with hledger: - - o ui - an efficient terminal interface (TUI) for hledger - - o web - a simple web interface (WUI) for hledger - - And these add-ons are maintained separately: - - o iadd - a more interactive alternative for the add command - - o interest - generates interest transactions according to various - schemes - - o stockquotes - downloads market prices for your commodities from - AlphaVantage (experimental) - - Next, the detailed command docs, in alphabetical order. - - accounts - accounts - Show account names. - - This command lists account names, either declared with account direc- - tives (--declared), posted to (--used), or both (the default). With - query arguments, only matched account names and account names refer- - enced by matched postings are shown. It shows a flat list by default. - With --tree, it uses indentation to show the account hierarchy. In - flat mode you can add --drop N to omit the first few account name com- - ponents. Account names can be depth-clipped with depth:N or --depth N - or -N. - - Examples: - - $ hledger accounts - assets:bank:checking - assets:bank:saving - assets:cash - expenses:food - expenses:supplies - income:gifts - income:salary - liabilities:debts - - activity - activity - Show an ascii barchart of posting counts per interval. - - The activity command displays an ascii histogram showing transaction - counts by day, week, month or other reporting interval (by day is the - default). With query arguments, it counts only matched transactions. - - Examples: - - $ hledger activity --quarterly - 2008-01-01 ** - 2008-04-01 ******* - 2008-07-01 - 2008-10-01 ** - - add - add - Prompt for transactions and add them to the journal. Any arguments - will be used as default inputs for the first N prompts. - - Many hledger users edit their journals directly with a text editor, or - generate them from CSV. For more interactive data entry, there is the - add command, which prompts interactively on the console for new trans- - actions, and appends them to the journal file (if there are multiple -f - FILE options, the first file is used.) Existing transactions are not - changed. This is the only hledger command that writes to the journal - file. - - To use it, just run hledger add and follow the prompts. You can add as - many transactions as you like; when you are finished, enter . or press - control-d or control-c to exit. - - Features: - - o add tries to provide useful defaults, using the most similar (by - description) recent transaction (filtered by the query, if any) as a - template. - - o You can also set the initial defaults with command line arguments. - - o Readline-style edit keys can be used during data entry. - - o The tab key will auto-complete whenever possible - accounts, descrip- - tions, dates (yesterday, today, tomorrow). If the input area is - empty, it will insert the default value. - - o If the journal defines a default commodity, it will be added to any - bare numbers entered. - - o A parenthesised transaction code may be entered following a date. - - o Comments and tags may be entered following a description or amount. - - o If you make a mistake, enter < at any prompt to go one step backward. - - o Input prompts are displayed in a different colour when the terminal - supports it. - - Example (see the tutorial for a detailed explanation): - - $ hledger add - Adding transactions to journal file /src/hledger/examples/sample.journal - Any command line arguments will be used as defaults. - Use tab key to complete, readline keys to edit, enter to accept defaults. - An optional (CODE) may follow transaction dates. - An optional ; COMMENT may follow descriptions or amounts. - If you make a mistake, enter < at any prompt to go one step backward. - To end a transaction, enter . when prompted. - To quit, enter . at a date prompt or press control-d or control-c. - Date [2015/05/22]: - Description: supermarket - Account 1: expenses:food - Amount 1: $10 - Account 2: assets:checking - Amount 2 [$-10.0]: - Account 3 (or . or enter to finish this transaction): . - 2015/05/22 supermarket - expenses:food $10 - assets:checking $-10.0 - - Save this transaction to the journal ? [y]: - Saved. - Starting the next transaction (. or ctrl-D/ctrl-C to quit) - Date [2015/05/22]: $ - - On Microsoft Windows, the add command makes sure that no part of the - file path ends with a period, as that would cause problems (#1056). - - aregister - aregister, areg - - Show the transactions and running historical balance in an account, - with each line item representing one transaction. - - aregister shows the transactions affecting a particular account and its - subaccounts, with each line item representing a whole transaction - as - in bank statements, hledger-ui, hledger-web and other accounting apps. - - Note this is unlike the register command, which shows individual post- - ings and does not always show a single account or a historical balance. - - A reminder, "historical" balances include any balance from transactions - before the report start date, so (if opening balances are recorded cor- - rectly) aregister will show the real-world balances of an account, as - you would see in a bank statement. - - As a quick rule of thumb, use aregister for reconciling real-world - asset/liability accounts and register for reviewing detailed rev- - enues/expenses. - - aregister shows the register for just one account (and its subac- - counts). This account must be specified as the first argument. You - can write either the full account name, or a case-insensitive regular - expression which will select the alphabetically first matched account. - (Eg if you have assets:aaa:checking and assets:bbb:checking accounts, - hledger areg checking would select assets:aaa:checking.) - - Any additional arguments form a query which will filter the transac- - tions shown. - - Each aregister line item shows: - - o the transaction's date (or the relevant posting's date if different, - see below) - - o the names of all the other account(s) involved in this transaction - (probably abbreviated) - - o the total change to this account's balance from this transaction - - o the account's historical running balance after this transaction. - - Transactions making a net change of zero are not shown by default; add - the -E/--empty flag to show them. - - aregister ignores a depth limit, so its final total will always match a - balance report with similar arguments. - - This command also supports the output destination and output format - options The output formats supported are txt, csv, and json. - - aregister and custom posting dates - Transactions whose date is outside the report period can still be - shown, if they have a posting to this account dated inside the report - period. (And in this case it's the posting date that is shown.) This - ensures that aregister can show an accurate historical running balance, - matching the one shown by register -H with the same arguments. - - To filter strictly by transaction date instead, add the --txn-dates - flag. If you use this flag and some of your postings have custom - dates, it's probably best to assume the running balance is wrong. - - Examples: - - Show all transactions and historical running balance in the first - account whose name contains "checking": - - $ hledger areg checking - - Show transactions and historical running balance in all asset accounts - during july: - - $ hledger areg assets date:jul - - balance - balance, bal - Show accounts and their balances. - - balance is one of hledger's oldest and most versatile commands, for - listing account balances, balance changes, values, value changes and - more, during one time period or many. Generally it shows a table, with - rows representing accounts, and columns representing periods. - - Note there are some higher-level variants of the balance command with - convenient defaults, which can be simpler to use: balancesheet, bal- - ancesheetequity, cashflow and incomestatement. When you need more con- - trol, then use balance. - - balance features - Here's a quick overview of the balance command's features, followed by - more detailed descriptions and examples. Many of these work with the - higher-level commands as well. - - balance can show.. - - o accounts as a list (-l) or a tree (-t) - - o optionally depth-limited (-[1-9]) - - o sorted by declaration order and name, or by amount - - ..and their.. - - o balance changes (the default) - - o or actual and planned balance changes (--budget) - - o or value of balance changes (-V) - - o or change of balance values (--valuechange) - - ..in.. - - o one time period (the whole journal period by default) - - o or multiple periods (-D, -W, -M, -Q, -Y, -p INTERVAL) - - ..either.. - - o per period (the default) - - o or accumulated since report start date (--cumulative) - - o or accumulated since account creation (--historical/-H) - - ..possibly converted to.. - - o cost (--value=cost[,COMM]/--cost/-B) - - o or market value, as of transaction dates (--value=then[,COMM]) - - o or at period ends (--value=end[,COMM]) - - o or now (--value=now) - - o or at some other date (--value=YYYY-MM-DD) - - ..with.. - - o totals (-T), averages (-A), percentages (-%), inverted sign - (--invert) - - o rows and columns swapped (--transpose) - - o another field used as account name (--pivot) - - o custom-formatted line items (single-period reports only) (--format) - - This command supports the output destination and output format options, - with output formats txt, csv, json, and (multi-period reports only:) - html. In txt output in a colour-supporting terminal, negative amounts - are shown in red. - - Simple balance report - With no arguments, balance shows a list of all accounts and their - change of balance - ie, the sum of posting amounts, both inflows and - outflows - during the entire period of the journal. For real-world - accounts, this should also match their end balance at the end of the - journal period (more on this below). - - Accounts are sorted by declaration order if any, and then alphabeti- - cally by account name. For instance, using examples/sample.journal: - - $ hledger bal - $1 assets:bank:saving - $-2 assets:cash - $1 expenses:food - $1 expenses:supplies - $-1 income:gifts - $-1 income:salary - $1 liabilities:debts - -------------------- - 0 - - Accounts with a zero balance (and no non-zero subaccounts, in tree mode - - see below) are hidden by default. Use -E/--empty to show them - (revealing assets:bank:checking here): - - $ hledger -f examples/sample.journal bal -E - 0 assets:bank:checking - $1 assets:bank:saving - $-2 assets:cash - $1 expenses:food - $1 expenses:supplies - $-1 income:gifts - $-1 income:salary - $1 liabilities:debts - -------------------- - 0 - - The total of the amounts displayed is shown as the last line, unless - -N/--no-total is used. - - Filtered balance report - You can show fewer accounts, a different time period, totals from - cleared transactions only, etc. by using query arguments or options to - limit the postings being matched. Eg: - - $ hledger bal --cleared assets date:200806 - $-2 assets:cash - -------------------- - $-2 - - List or tree mode - By default, or with -l/--flat, accounts are shown as a flat list with - their full names visible, as in the examples above. - - With -t/--tree, the account hierarchy is shown, with subaccounts' - "leaf" names indented below their parent: - - $ hledger balance - $-1 assets - $1 bank:saving - $-2 cash - $2 expenses - $1 food - $1 supplies - $-2 income - $-1 gifts - $-1 salary - $1 liabilities:debts - -------------------- - 0 - - Notes: - - o "Boring" accounts are combined with their subaccount for more compact - output, unless --no-elide is used. Boring accounts have no balance - of their own and just one subaccount (eg assets:bank and liabilities - above). - - o All balances shown are "inclusive", ie including the balances from - all subaccounts. Note this means some repetition in the output, - which requires explanation when sharing reports with non-plaintextac- - counting-users. A tree mode report's final total is the sum of the - top-level balances shown, not of all the balances shown. - - o Each group of sibling accounts (ie, under a common parent) is sorted - separately. - - Depth limiting - With a depth:N query, or --depth N option, or just -N, balance reports - will show accounts only to the specified depth, hiding the deeper sub- - accounts. Account balances at the depth limit always include the bal- - ances from any hidden subaccounts (even in list mode). This can be - useful for getting an overview. Eg, limiting to depth 1: - - $ hledger balance -N -1 - $-1 assets - $2 expenses - $-2 income - $1 liabilities - - You can also hide top-level account name parts, using --drop N. This - can be useful for hiding repetitive top-level account names: - - $ hledger bal expenses --drop 1 - $1 food - $1 supplies - -------------------- - $2 - - - Multi-period balance report - With a report interval (set by the -D/--daily, -W/--weekly, - -M/--monthly, -Q/--quarterly, -Y/--yearly, or -p/--period flag), bal- - ance shows a tabular report, with columns representing successive time - periods (and a title): - - $ hledger balance --quarterly income expenses -E - Balance changes in 2008: - - || 2008q1 2008q2 2008q3 2008q4 - ===================++================================= - expenses:food || 0 $1 0 0 - expenses:supplies || 0 $1 0 0 - income:gifts || 0 $-1 0 0 - income:salary || $-1 0 0 0 - -------------------++--------------------------------- - || $-1 $1 0 0 - - Notes: - - o The report's start/end dates will be expanded, if necessary, to fully - encompass the displayed subperiods (so that the first and last subpe- - riods have the same duration as the others). - - o Leading and trailing periods (columns) containing all zeroes are not - shown, unless -E/--empty is used. - - o Accounts (rows) containing all zeroes are not shown, unless - -E/--empty is used. - - o Amounts with many commodities are shown in abbreviated form, unless - --no-elide is used. (experimental) - - o Average and/or total columns can be added with the -A/--average and - -T/--row-total flags. - - o The --transpose flag can be used to exchange rows and columns. - - o The --pivot FIELD option causes a different transaction field to be - used as "account name". See PIVOTING. - - Multi-period reports with many periods can be too wide for easy viewing - in the terminal. Here are some ways to handle that: - - o Hide the totals row with -N/--no-total - - o Convert to a single currency with -V - - o Maximize the terminal window - - o Reduce the terminal's font size - - o View with a pager like less, eg: hledger bal -D --color=yes | less - -RS - - o Output as CSV and use a CSV viewer like visidata (hledger bal -D -O - csv | vd -f csv), Emacs' csv-mode (M-x csv-mode, C-c C-a), or a - spreadsheet (hledger bal -D -o a.csv && open a.csv) - - o Output as HTML and view with a browser: hledger bal -D -o a.html && - open a.html - - Sorting by amount - With -S/--sort-amount, accounts with the largest (most positive) bal- - ances are shown first. Eg: hledger bal expenses -MAS shows your big- - gest averaged monthly expenses first. - - Revenues and liability balances are typically negative, however, so -S - shows these in reverse order. To work around this, you can add - --invert to flip the signs. (Or, use one of the higher-level reports, - which flip the sign automatically. Eg: hledger incomestatement -MAS). - - - Percentages - With -%/--percent, balance reports show each account's value expressed - as a percentage of the (column) total: - - $ hledger bal expenses -Q -% - Balance changes in 2008: - - || 2008Q1 2008Q2 2008Q3 2008Q4 - ===================++================================= - expenses:food || 0 50.0 % 0 0 - expenses:supplies || 0 50.0 % 0 0 - -------------------++--------------------------------- - || 0 100.0 % 0 0 - - Note it is not useful to calculate percentages if the amounts in a col- - umn have mixed signs. In this case, make a separate report for each - sign, eg: - - $ hledger bal -% amt:`>0` - $ hledger bal -% amt:`<0` - - Similarly, if the amounts in a column have mixed commodities, convert - them to one commodity with -B, -V, -X or --value, or make a separate - report for each commodity: - - $ hledger bal -% cur:\\$ - $ hledger bal -% cur:EUR - - Balance change, end balance - It's important to be clear on the meaning of the numbers shown in bal- - ance reports. Here is some terminology we use: - - A balance change is the net amount added to, or removed from, an - account during some period. - - An end balance is the amount accumulated in an account as of some date - (and some time, but hledger doesn't store that; assume end of day in - your timezone). It is the sum of previous balance changes. - - We call it a historical end balance if it includes all balance changes - since the account was created. For a real world account, this means it - will match the "historical record", eg the balances reported in your - bank statements or bank web UI. (If they are correct!) - - In general, balance changes are what you want to see when reviewing - revenues and expenses, and historical end balances are what you want to - see when reviewing or reconciling asset, liability and equity accounts. - - balance shows balance changes by default. To see accurate historical - end balances: - - 1. Initialise account starting balances with an "opening balances" - transaction (a transfer from equity to the account), unless the - journal covers the account's full lifetime. - - 2. Include all of of the account's prior postings in the report, by not - specifying a report start date, or by using the -H/--historical - flag. (-H causes report start date to be ignored when summing post- - ings.) - - Balance report types - For more flexible reporting, there are three important option groups: - - hledger balance [CALCULATIONTYPE] [ACCUMULATIONTYPE] [VALUATIONTYPE] - ... - - The first two are the most important: calculation type selects the - basic calculation to perform for each table cell, while accumulation - type says which postings should be included in each cell's calculation. - Typically one or both of these are selected by default, so you don't - need to write them explicitly. A valuation type can be added if you - want to convert the basic report to value or cost. - - Calculation type: - The basic calculation to perform for each table cell. It is one of: - - o --sum : sum the posting amounts (default) - - o --budget : like --sum but also show a goal amount - - o --valuechange : show the change in period-end historical balance val- - ues - - Accumulation type: - Which postings should be included in each cell's calculation. It is - one of: - - o --change : postings from column start to column end, ie within the - cell's period. Typically used to see revenues/expenses. (default - for balance, incomestatement) - - o --cumulative : postings from report start to column end, eg to show - changes accumulated since the report's start date. Rarely used. - - o --historical/-H : postings from journal start to column end, ie all - postings from account creation to the end of the cell's period. Typ- - ically used to see historical end balances of assets/liabili- - ties/equity. (default for balancesheet, balancesheetequity, cash- - flow) - - Valuation type: - Which kind of valuation, valuation date(s) and optionally a target val- - uation commodity to use. It is one of: - - o no valuation, show amounts in their original commodities (default) - - o --value=cost[,COMM] : no valuation, show amounts converted to cost - - o --value=then[,COMM] : show value at transaction dates - - o --value=end[,COMM] : show value at period end date(s) (default with - --valuechange) - - o --value=now[,COMM] : show value at today's date - - o --value=YYYY-MM-DD[,COMM] : show value at another date - - or one of their aliases: --cost/-B, --market/-V or --exchange/-X. - - Most combinations of these options should produce reasonable reports, - but if you find any that seem wrong or misleading, let us know. The - following restrictions are applied: - - o --valuechange implies --value=end - - o --valuechange makes --change the default when used with the bal- - ancesheet/balancesheetequity commands - - o --cumulative or --historical disables --row-total/-T - - For reference, here is what the combinations of accumulation and valua- - tion show: - - - Valua- no valuation --value= then --value= end --value= YYYY- - tion: MM-DD /now - >Accumu- - lation: - v - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - --change change in period sum of posting- period-end DATE-value of - date market val- value of change change in - ues in period in period period - --cumu- change from sum of posting- period-end DATE-value of - lative report start to date market val- value of change change from - period end ues from report from report report start - start to period start to period to period end - end end - --his- change from sum of posting- period-end DATE-value of - torical journal start to date market val- value of change change from - /-H period end (his- ues from journal from journal journal start - torical end bal- start to period start to period to period end - ance) end end - - Useful balance reports - Some frequently used balance options/reports are: - - o bal -M revenues expenses - Show revenues/expenses in each month. Also available as the incomes- - tatement command. - - o bal -M -H assets liabilities - Show historical asset/liability balances at each month end. Also - available as the balancesheet command. - - o bal -M -H assets liabilities equity - Show historical asset/liability/equity balances at each month end. - Also available as the balancesheetequity command. - - o bal -M assets not:receivable - Show changes to liquid assets in each month. Also available as the - cashflow command. - - Also: - - o bal -M expenses -2 -SA - Show monthly expenses summarised to depth 2 and sorted by average - amount. - - o bal -M --budget expenses - Show monthly expenses and budget goals. - - o bal -M --valuechange investments - Show monthly change in market value of investment assets. - - o bal investments --valuechange -D date:lastweek amt:'>1000' -STA - [--invert] - Show top gainers [or losers] last week - - Budget report - The --budget report type activates extra columns showing any budget - goals for each account and period. The budget goals are defined by - periodic transactions. This is very useful for comparing planned and - actual income, expenses, time usage, etc. - - For example, you can take average monthly expenses in the common - expense categories to construct a minimal monthly budget: - - ;; Budget - ~ monthly - income $2000 - expenses:food $400 - expenses:bus $50 - expenses:movies $30 - assets:bank:checking - - ;; Two months worth of expenses - 2017-11-01 - income $1950 - expenses:food $396 - expenses:bus $49 - expenses:movies $30 - expenses:supplies $20 - assets:bank:checking - - 2017-12-01 - income $2100 - expenses:food $412 - expenses:bus $53 - expenses:gifts $100 - assets:bank:checking - - You can now see a monthly budget report: - - $ hledger balance -M --budget - Budget performance in 2017/11/01-2017/12/31: - - || Nov Dec - ======================++==================================================== - assets || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] - assets:bank || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] - assets:bank:checking || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] - expenses || $495 [ 103% of $480] $565 [ 118% of $480] - expenses:bus || $49 [ 98% of $50] $53 [ 106% of $50] - expenses:food || $396 [ 99% of $400] $412 [ 103% of $400] - expenses:movies || $30 [ 100% of $30] 0 [ 0% of $30] - income || $1950 [ 98% of $2000] $2100 [ 105% of $2000] - ----------------------++---------------------------------------------------- - || 0 [ 0] 0 [ 0] - - This is different from a normal balance report in several ways: - - o Only accounts with budget goals during the report period are shown, - by default. - - o In each column, in square brackets after the actual amount, budget - goal amounts are shown, and the actual/goal percentage. (Note: bud- - get goals should be in the same commodity as the actual amount.) - - o All parent accounts are always shown, even in list mode. Eg assets, - assets:bank, and expenses above. - - o Amounts always include all subaccounts, budgeted or unbudgeted, even - in list mode. - - This means that the numbers displayed will not always add up! Eg above, - the expenses actual amount includes the gifts and supplies transac- - tions, but the expenses:gifts and expenses:supplies accounts are not - shown, as they have no budget amounts declared. - - This can be confusing. When you need to make things clearer, use the - -E/--empty flag, which will reveal all accounts including unbudgeted - ones, giving the full picture. Eg: - - $ hledger balance -M --budget --empty - Budget performance in 2017/11/01-2017/12/31: - - || Nov Dec - ======================++==================================================== - assets || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] - assets:bank || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] - assets:bank:checking || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] - expenses || $495 [ 103% of $480] $565 [ 118% of $480] - expenses:bus || $49 [ 98% of $50] $53 [ 106% of $50] - expenses:food || $396 [ 99% of $400] $412 [ 103% of $400] - expenses:gifts || 0 $100 - expenses:movies || $30 [ 100% of $30] 0 [ 0% of $30] - expenses:supplies || $20 0 - income || $1950 [ 98% of $2000] $2100 [ 105% of $2000] - ----------------------++---------------------------------------------------- - || 0 [ 0] 0 [ 0] - - You can roll over unspent budgets to next period with --cumulative: - - $ hledger balance -M --budget --cumulative - Budget performance in 2017/11/01-2017/12/31: - - || Nov Dec - ======================++==================================================== - assets || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-5110 [ 103% of $-4960] - assets:bank || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-5110 [ 103% of $-4960] - assets:bank:checking || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-5110 [ 103% of $-4960] - expenses || $495 [ 103% of $480] $1060 [ 110% of $960] - expenses:bus || $49 [ 98% of $50] $102 [ 102% of $100] - expenses:food || $396 [ 99% of $400] $808 [ 101% of $800] - expenses:movies || $30 [ 100% of $30] $30 [ 50% of $60] - income || $1950 [ 98% of $2000] $4050 [ 101% of $4000] - ----------------------++---------------------------------------------------- - || 0 [ 0] 0 [ 0] - - For more examples and notes, see Budgeting. - - Budget report start date - This might be a bug, but for now: when making budget reports, it's a - good idea to explicitly set the report's start date to the first day of - a reporting period, because a periodic rule like ~ monthly generates - its transactions on the 1st of each month, and if your journal has no - regular transactions on the 1st, the default report start date could - exclude that budget goal, which can be a little surprising. Eg here - the default report period is just the day of 2020-01-15: - - ~ monthly in 2020 - (expenses:food) $500 - - 2020-01-15 - expenses:food $400 - assets:checking - - $ hledger bal expenses --budget - Budget performance in 2020-01-15: - - || 2020-01-15 - ==============++============ - || $400 - --------------++------------ - || $400 - - To avoid this, specify the budget report's period, or at least the - start date, with -b/-e/-p/date:, to ensure it includes the budget goal - transactions (periodic transactions) that you want. Eg, adding -b - 2020/1/1 to the above: - - $ hledger bal expenses --budget -b 2020/1/1 - Budget performance in 2020-01-01..2020-01-15: - - || 2020-01-01..2020-01-15 - ===============++======================== - expenses:food || $400 [80% of $500] - ---------------++------------------------ - || $400 [80% of $500] - - Nested budgets - You can add budgets to any account in your account hierarchy. If you - have budgets on both parent account and some of its children, then bud- - get(s) of the child account(s) would be added to the budget of their - parent, much like account balances behave. - - In the most simple case this means that once you add a budget to any - account, all its parents would have budget as well. - - To illustrate this, consider the following budget: - - ~ monthly from 2019/01 - expenses:personal $1,000.00 - expenses:personal:electronics $100.00 - liabilities - - With this, monthly budget for electronics is defined to be $100 and - budget for personal expenses is an additional $1000, which implicitly - means that budget for both expenses:personal and expenses is $1100. - - Transactions in expenses:personal:electronics will be counted both - towards its $100 budget and $1100 of expenses:personal , and transac- - tions in any other subaccount of expenses:personal would be counted - towards only towards the budget of expenses:personal. - - For example, let's consider these transactions: - - ~ monthly from 2019/01 - expenses:personal $1,000.00 - expenses:personal:electronics $100.00 - liabilities - - 2019/01/01 Google home hub - expenses:personal:electronics $90.00 - liabilities $-90.00 - - 2019/01/02 Phone screen protector - expenses:personal:electronics:upgrades $10.00 - liabilities - - 2019/01/02 Weekly train ticket - expenses:personal:train tickets $153.00 - liabilities - - 2019/01/03 Flowers - expenses:personal $30.00 - liabilities - - As you can see, we have transactions in expenses:personal:electron- - ics:upgrades and expenses:personal:train tickets, and since both of - these accounts are without explicitly defined budget, these transac- - tions would be counted towards budgets of expenses:personal:electronics - and expenses:personal accordingly: - - $ hledger balance --budget -M - Budget performance in 2019/01: - - || Jan - ===============================++=============================== - expenses || $283.00 [ 26% of $1100.00] - expenses:personal || $283.00 [ 26% of $1100.00] - expenses:personal:electronics || $100.00 [ 100% of $100.00] - liabilities || $-283.00 [ 26% of $-1100.00] - -------------------------------++------------------------------- - || 0 [ 0] - - And with --empty, we can get a better picture of budget allocation and - consumption: - - $ hledger balance --budget -M --empty - Budget performance in 2019/01: - - || Jan - ========================================++=============================== - expenses || $283.00 [ 26% of $1100.00] - expenses:personal || $283.00 [ 26% of $1100.00] - expenses:personal:electronics || $100.00 [ 100% of $100.00] - expenses:personal:electronics:upgrades || $10.00 - expenses:personal:train tickets || $153.00 - liabilities || $-283.00 [ 26% of $-1100.00] - ----------------------------------------++------------------------------- - || 0 [ 0] - - Customising single-period balance reports - For single-period balance reports displayed in the terminal (only), you - can use --format FMT to customise the format and content of each line. - Eg: - - $ hledger balance --format "%20(account) %12(total)" - assets $-1 - bank:saving $1 - cash $-2 - expenses $2 - food $1 - supplies $1 - income $-2 - gifts $-1 - salary $-1 - liabilities:debts $1 - --------------------------------- - 0 - - The FMT format string (plus a newline) specifies the formatting applied - to each account/balance pair. It may contain any suitable text, with - data fields interpolated like so: - - %[MIN][.MAX](FIELDNAME) - - o MIN pads with spaces to at least this width (optional) - - o MAX truncates at this width (optional) - - o FIELDNAME must be enclosed in parentheses, and can be one of: - - o depth_spacer - a number of spaces equal to the account's depth, or - if MIN is specified, MIN * depth spaces. - - o account - the account's name - - o total - the account's balance/posted total, right justified - - Also, FMT can begin with an optional prefix to control how multi-com- - modity amounts are rendered: - - o %_ - render on multiple lines, bottom-aligned (the default) - - o %^ - render on multiple lines, top-aligned - - o %, - render on one line, comma-separated - - There are some quirks. Eg in one-line mode, %(depth_spacer) has no - effect, instead %(account) has indentation built in. Experimentation - may be needed to get pleasing results. - - Some example formats: - - o %(total) - the account's total - - o %-20.20(account) - the account's name, left justified, padded to 20 - characters and clipped at 20 characters - - o %,%-50(account) %25(total) - account name padded to 50 characters, - total padded to 20 characters, with multiple commodities rendered on - one line - - o %20(total) %2(depth_spacer)%-(account) - the default format for the - single-column balance report - - balancesheet - balancesheet, bs - This command displays a balance sheet, showing historical ending bal- - ances of asset and liability accounts. (To see equity as well, use the - balancesheetequity command.) Amounts are shown with normal positive - sign, as in conventional financial statements. - - The asset and liability accounts shown are those accounts declared with - the Asset or Cash or Liability type, or otherwise all accounts under a - top-level asset or liability account (case insensitive, plurals - allowed). - - Example: - - $ hledger balancesheet - Balance Sheet - - Assets: - $-1 assets - $1 bank:saving - $-2 cash - -------------------- - $-1 - - Liabilities: - $1 liabilities:debts - -------------------- - $1 - - Total: - -------------------- - 0 - - This command is a higher-level variant of the balance command, and sup- - ports many of that command's features, such as multi-period reports. - It is similar to hledger balance -H assets liabilities, but with - smarter account detection, and liabilities displayed with their sign - flipped. - - This command also supports the output destination and output format - options The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and (experi- - mental) json. - - balancesheetequity - balancesheetequity, bse - This command displays a balance sheet, showing historical ending bal- - ances of asset, liability and equity accounts. Amounts are shown with - normal positive sign, as in conventional financial statements. - - The asset, liability and equity accounts shown are those accounts - declared with the Asset, Cash, Liability or Equity type, or otherwise - all accounts under a top-level asset, liability or equity account (case - insensitive, plurals allowed). - - Example: - - $ hledger balancesheetequity - Balance Sheet With Equity - - Assets: - $-2 assets - $1 bank:saving - $-3 cash - -------------------- - $-2 - - Liabilities: - $1 liabilities:debts - -------------------- - $1 - - Equity: - $1 equity:owner - -------------------- - $1 - - Total: - -------------------- - 0 - - This command is a higher-level variant of the balance command, and sup- - ports many of that command's features, such as multi-period reports. - It is similar to hledger balance -H assets liabilities equity, but with - smarter account detection, and liabilities/equity displayed with their - sign flipped. - - This command also supports the output destination and output format - options The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and (experi- - mental) json. - - cashflow - cashflow, cf - This command displays a cashflow statement, showing the inflows and - outflows affecting "cash" (ie, liquid) assets. Amounts are shown with - normal positive sign, as in conventional financial statements. - - The "cash" accounts shown are those accounts declared with the Cash - type, or otherwise all accounts under a top-level asset account (case - insensitive, plural allowed) which do not have fixed, investment, - receivable or A/R in their name. - - Example: - - $ hledger cashflow - Cashflow Statement - - Cash flows: - $-1 assets - $1 bank:saving - $-2 cash - -------------------- - $-1 - - Total: - -------------------- - $-1 - - This command is a higher-level variant of the balance command, and sup- - ports many of that command's features, such as multi-period reports. - It is similar to hledger balance assets not:fixed not:investment - not:receivable, but with smarter account detection. - - This command also supports the output destination and output format - options The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and (experi- - mental) json. - - check - check - Check for various kinds of errors in your data. - - hledger provides a number of built-in error checks to help prevent - problems in your data. Some of these are run automatically; or, you - can use this check command to run them on demand, with no output and a - zero exit code if all is well. Specify their names (or a prefix) as - argument(s). - - Some examples: - - hledger check # basic checks - hledger check -s # basic + strict checks - hledger check ordereddates payees # basic + two other checks - - Here are the checks currently available: - - Basic checks - These checks are always run automatically, by (almost) all hledger com- - mands, including check: - - o parseable - data files are well-formed and can be successfully parsed - - o balancedwithautoconversion - all transactions are balanced, inferring - missing amounts where necessary, and possibly converting commodities - using transaction prices or automatically-inferred transaction prices - - o assertions - all balance assertions in the journal are passing. - (This check can be disabled with -I/--ignore-assertions.) - - Strict checks - These additional checks are run when the -s/--strict (strict mode) flag - is used. Or, they can be run by giving their names as arguments to - check: - - o accounts - all account names used by transactions have been declared - - o commodities - all commodity symbols used have been declared - - o balancednoautoconversion - transactions are balanced, possibly using - explicit transaction prices but not inferred ones - - Other checks - These checks can be run only by giving their names as arguments to - check. They are more specialised and not desirable for everyone, - therefore optional: - - o ordereddates - transactions are ordered by date within each file - - o payees - all payees used by transactions have been declared - - o uniqueleafnames - all account leaf names are unique - - Custom checks - A few more checks are are available as separate add-on commands, in - https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/tree/master/bin: - - o hledger-check-tagfiles - all tag values containing / (a forward - slash) exist as file paths - - o hledger-check-fancyassertions - more complex balance assertions are - passing - - You could make similar scripts to perform your own custom checks. See: - Cookbook -> Scripting. - - close - close, equity - Prints a "closing balances" transaction and an "opening balances" - transaction that bring account balances to and from zero, respectively. - These can be added to your journal file(s), eg to bring asset/liability - balances forward into a new journal file, or to close out rev- - enues/expenses to retained earnings at the end of a period. - - You can print just one of these transactions by using the --close or - --open flag. You can customise their descriptions with the --close- - desc and --open-desc options. - - One amountless posting to "equity:opening/closing balances" is added to - balance the transactions, by default. You can customise this account - name with --close-acct and --open-acct; if you specify only one of - these, it will be used for both. - - With --x/--explicit, the equity posting's amount will be shown. And if - it involves multiple commodities, a posting for each commodity will be - shown, as with the print command. - - With --interleaved, the equity postings are shown next to the postings - they balance, which makes troubleshooting easier. - - By default, transaction prices in the journal are ignored when generat- - ing the closing/opening transactions. With --show-costs, this cost - information is preserved (balance -B reports will be unchanged after - the transition). Separate postings are generated for each cost in each - commodity. Note this can generate very large journal entries, if you - have many foreign currency or investment transactions. - - close usage - If you split your journal files by time (eg yearly), you will typically - run this command at the end of the year, and save the closing transac- - tion as last entry of the old file, and the opening transaction as the - first entry of the new file. This makes the files self contained, so - that correct balances are reported no matter which of them are loaded. - Ie, if you load just one file, the balances are initialised correctly; - or if you load several files, the redundant closing/opening transac- - tions cancel each other out. (They will show up in print or register - reports; you can exclude them with a query like not:desc:'(open- - ing|closing) balances'.) - - If you're running a business, you might also use this command to "close - the books" at the end of an accounting period, transferring income - statement account balances to retained earnings. (You may want to - change the equity account name to something like "equity:retained earn- - ings".) - - By default, the closing transaction is dated yesterday, the balances - are calculated as of end of yesterday, and the opening transaction is - dated today. To close on some other date, use: hledger close -e OPEN- - INGDATE. Eg, to close/open on the 2018/2019 boundary, use -e 2019. - You can also use -p or date:PERIOD (any starting date is ignored). - - Both transactions will include balance assertions for the - closed/reopened accounts. You probably shouldn't use status or real- - ness filters (like -C or -R or status:) with this command, or the gen- - erated balance assertions will depend on these flags. Likewise, if you - run this command with --auto, the balance assertions will probably - always require --auto. - - Examples: - - Carrying asset/liability balances into a new file for 2019: - - $ hledger close -f 2018.journal -e 2019 assets liabilities --open - # (copy/paste the output to the start of your 2019 journal file) - $ hledger close -f 2018.journal -e 2019 assets liabilities --close - # (copy/paste the output to the end of your 2018 journal file) - - Now: - - $ hledger bs -f 2019.journal # one file - balances are correct - $ hledger bs -f 2018.journal -f 2019.journal # two files - balances still correct - $ hledger bs -f 2018.journal not:desc:closing # to see year-end balances, must exclude closing txn - - Transactions spanning the closing date can complicate matters, breaking - balance assertions: - - 2018/12/30 a purchase made in 2018, clearing the following year - expenses:food 5 - assets:bank:checking -5 ; [2019/1/2] - - Here's one way to resolve that: - - ; in 2018.journal: - 2018/12/30 a purchase made in 2018, clearing the following year - expenses:food 5 - liabilities:pending - - ; in 2019.journal: - 2019/1/2 clearance of last year's pending transactions - liabilities:pending 5 = 0 - assets:checking - - codes - codes - List the codes seen in transactions, in the order parsed. - - This command prints the value of each transaction's code field, in the - order transactions were parsed. The transaction code is an optional - value written in parentheses between the date and description, often - used to store a cheque number, order number or similar. - - Transactions aren't required to have a code, and missing or empty codes - will not be shown by default. With the -E/--empty flag, they will be - printed as blank lines. - - You can add a query to select a subset of transactions. - - Examples: - - 1/1 (123) - (a) 1 - - 1/1 () - (a) 1 - - 1/1 - (a) 1 - - 1/1 (126) - (a) 1 - - $ hledger codes - 123 - 124 - 126 - - $ hledger codes -E - 123 - 124 - - - 126 - - commodities - commodities - List all commodity/currency symbols used or declared in the journal. - - descriptions - descriptions - List the unique descriptions that appear in transactions. - - This command lists the unique descriptions that appear in transactions, - in alphabetic order. You can add a query to select a subset of trans- - actions. - - Example: - - $ hledger descriptions - Store Name - Gas Station | Petrol - Person A - - diff - diff - Compares a particular account's transactions in two input files. It - shows any transactions to this account which are in one file but not in - the other. - - More precisely, for each posting affecting this account in either file, - it looks for a corresponding posting in the other file which posts the - same amount to the same account (ignoring date, description, etc.) - Since postings not transactions are compared, this also works when mul- - tiple bank transactions have been combined into a single journal entry. - - This is useful eg if you have downloaded an account's transactions from - your bank (eg as CSV data). When hledger and your bank disagree about - the account balance, you can compare the bank data with your journal to - find out the cause. - - Examples: - - $ hledger diff -f $LEDGER_FILE -f bank.csv assets:bank:giro - These transactions are in the first file only: - - 2014/01/01 Opening Balances - assets:bank:giro EUR ... - ... - equity:opening balances EUR -... - - These transactions are in the second file only: - - files - files - List all files included in the journal. With a REGEX argument, only - file names matching the regular expression (case sensitive) are shown. - - help - help - Show the hledger user manual in one of several formats, optionally - positioned at a given TOPIC (if possible). TOPIC is any heading, or - heading prefix, in the manual. Some examples: commands, print, 'auto - postings', periodic. - - This command shows the user manual built in to this hledger version. - It can be useful if the correct version of the hledger manual, or the - usual viewing tools, are not installed on your system. - - By default it uses the best viewer it can find in $PATH, in this order: - info, man, $PAGER (unless a topic is specified), less, or stdout. When - run non-interactively, it always uses stdout. Or you can select a par- - ticular viewer with the -i (info), -m (man), or -p (pager) flags. - - import - import - Read new transactions added to each FILE since last run, and add them - to the main journal file. Or with --dry-run, just print the transac- - tions that would be added. Or with --catchup, just mark all of the - FILEs' transactions as imported, without actually importing any. - - Unlike other hledger commands, with import the journal file is an out- - put file, and will be modified, though only by appending (existing data - will not be changed). The input files are specified as arguments, so - to import one or more CSV files to your main journal, you will run - hledger import bank.csv or perhaps hledger import *.csv. - - Note you can import from any file format, though CSV files are the most - common import source, and these docs focus on that case. - - Deduplication - As a convenience import does deduplication while reading transactions. - This does not mean "ignore transactions that look the same", but rather - "ignore transactions that have been seen before". This is intended for - when you are periodically importing foreign data which may contain - already-imported transactions. So eg, if every day you download bank - CSV files containing redundant data, you can safely run hledger import - bank.csv and only new transactions will be imported. (import is idem- - potent.) - - Since the items being read (CSV records, eg) often do not come with - unique identifiers, hledger detects new transactions by date, assuming - that: - - 1. new items always have the newest dates - - 2. item dates do not change across reads - - 3. and items with the same date remain in the same relative order - across reads. - - These are often true of CSV files representing transactions, or true - enough so that it works pretty well in practice. 1 is important, but - violations of 2 and 3 amongst the old transactions won't matter (and if - you import often, the new transactions will be few, so less likely to - be the ones affected). - - hledger remembers the latest date processed in each input file by sav- - ing a hidden ".latest" state file in the same directory. Eg when read- - ing finance/bank.csv, it will look for and update the finance/.lat- - est.bank.csv state file. The format is simple: one or more lines con- - taining the same ISO-format date (YYYY-MM-DD), meaning "I have pro- - cessed transactions up to this date, and this many of them on that - date." Normally you won't see or manipulate these state files yourself. - But if needed, you can delete them to reset the state (making all - transactions "new"), or you can construct them to "catch up" to a cer- - tain date. - - Note deduplication (and updating of state files) can also be done by - print --new, but this is less often used. - - Import testing - With --dry-run, the transactions that will be imported are printed to - the terminal, without updating your journal or state files. The output - is valid journal format, like the print command, so you can re-parse - it. Eg, to see any importable transactions which CSV rules have not - categorised: - - $ hledger import --dry bank.csv | hledger -f- -I print unknown - - or (live updating): - - $ ls bank.csv* | entr bash -c 'echo ====; hledger import --dry bank.csv | hledger -f- -I print unknown' - - Importing balance assignments - Entries added by import will have their posting amounts made explicit - (like hledger print -x). This means that any balance assignments in - imported files must be evaluated; but, imported files don't get to see - the main file's account balances. As a result, importing entries with - balance assignments (eg from an institution that provides only balances - and not posting amounts) will probably generate incorrect posting - amounts. To avoid this problem, use print instead of import: - - $ hledger print IMPORTFILE [--new] >> $LEDGER_FILE - - (If you think import should leave amounts implicit like print does, - please test it and send a pull request.) - - Commodity display styles - Imported amounts will be formatted according to the canonical commodity - styles (declared or inferred) in the main journal file. - - incomestatement - incomestatement, is - - This command displays an income statement, showing revenues and - expenses during one or more periods. Amounts are shown with normal - positive sign, as in conventional financial statements. - - The revenue and expense accounts shown are those accounts declared with - the Revenue or Expense type, or otherwise all accounts under a top- - level revenue or income or expense account (case insensitive, plurals - allowed). - - Example: - - $ hledger incomestatement - Income Statement - - Revenues: - $-2 income - $-1 gifts - $-1 salary - -------------------- - $-2 - - Expenses: - $2 expenses - $1 food - $1 supplies - -------------------- - $2 - - Total: - -------------------- - 0 - - This command is a higher-level variant of the balance command, and sup- - ports many of that command's features, such as multi-period reports. - It is similar to hledger balance '(revenues|income)' expenses, but with - smarter account detection, and revenues/income displayed with their - sign flipped. - - This command also supports the output destination and output format - options The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and (experi- - mental) json. - - notes - notes - List the unique notes that appear in transactions. - - This command lists the unique notes that appear in transactions, in - alphabetic order. You can add a query to select a subset of transac- - tions. The note is the part of the transaction description after a | - character (or if there is no |, the whole description). - - Example: - - $ hledger notes - Petrol - Snacks - - payees - payees - List the unique payee/payer names that appear in transactions. - - This command lists unique payee/payer names which have been declared - with payee directives (--declared), used in transaction descriptions - (--used), or both (the default). - - The payee/payer is the part of the transaction description before a | - character (or if there is no |, the whole description). - - You can add query arguments to select a subset of transactions. This - implies --used. - - Example: - - $ hledger payees - Store Name - Gas Station - Person A - - prices - prices - Print market price directives from the journal. With --costs, also - print synthetic market prices based on transaction prices. With - --inverted-costs, also print inverse prices based on transaction - prices. Prices (and postings providing prices) can be filtered by a - query. Price amounts are always displayed with their full precision. - - print - print - Show transaction journal entries, sorted by date. - - The print command displays full journal entries (transactions) from the - journal file, sorted by date (or with --date2, by secondary date). - - Amounts are shown mostly normalised to commodity display style, eg the - placement of commodity symbols will be consistent. All of their deci- - mal places are shown, as in the original journal entry (with one alter- - ation: in some cases trailing zeroes are added.) - - Amounts are shown right-aligned within each transaction (but not across - all transactions). - - Directives and inter-transaction comments are not shown, currently. - This means the print command is somewhat lossy, and if you are using it - to reformat your journal you should take care to also copy over the - directives and file-level comments. - - Eg: - - $ hledger print - 2008/01/01 income - assets:bank:checking $1 - income:salary $-1 - - 2008/06/01 gift - assets:bank:checking $1 - income:gifts $-1 - - 2008/06/02 save - assets:bank:saving $1 - assets:bank:checking $-1 - - 2008/06/03 * eat & shop - expenses:food $1 - expenses:supplies $1 - assets:cash $-2 - - 2008/12/31 * pay off - liabilities:debts $1 - assets:bank:checking $-1 - - print's output is usually a valid hledger journal, and you can process - it again with a second hledger command. This can be useful for certain - kinds of search, eg: - - # Show running total of food expenses paid from cash. - # -f- reads from stdin. -I/--ignore-assertions is sometimes needed. - $ hledger print assets:cash | hledger -f- -I reg expenses:food - - There are some situations where print's output can become unparseable: - - o Valuation affects posting amounts but not balance assertion or bal- - ance assignment amounts, potentially causing those to fail. - - o Auto postings can generate postings with too many missing amounts. - - Normally, the journal entry's explicit or implicit amount style is pre- - served. For example, when an amount is omitted in the journal, it will - not appear in the output. Similarly, when a transaction price is - implied but not written, it will not appear in the output. You can use - the -x/--explicit flag to make all amounts and transaction prices - explicit, which can be useful for troubleshooting or for making your - journal more readable and robust against data entry errors. -x is also - implied by using any of -B,-V,-X,--value. - - Note, -x/--explicit will cause postings with a multi-commodity amount - (these can arise when a multi-commodity transaction has an implicit - amount) to be split into multiple single-commodity postings, keeping - the output parseable. - - With -B/--cost, amounts with transaction prices are converted to cost - using that price. This can be used for troubleshooting. - - With -m/--match and a STR argument, print will show at most one trans- - action: the one one whose description is most similar to STR, and is - most recent. STR should contain at least two characters. If there is - no similar-enough match, no transaction will be shown. - - With --new, hledger prints only transactions it has not seen on a pre- - vious run. This uses the same deduplication system as the import com- - mand. (See import's docs for details.) - - This command also supports the output destination and output format - options The output formats supported are txt, csv, and (experimental) - json and sql. - - Here's an example of print's CSV output: - - $ hledger print -Ocsv - "txnidx","date","date2","status","code","description","comment","account","amount","commodity","credit","debit","posting-status","posting-comment" - "1","2008/01/01","","","","income","","assets:bank:checking","1","$","","1","","" - "1","2008/01/01","","","","income","","income:salary","-1","$","1","","","" - "2","2008/06/01","","","","gift","","assets:bank:checking","1","$","","1","","" - "2","2008/06/01","","","","gift","","income:gifts","-1","$","1","","","" - "3","2008/06/02","","","","save","","assets:bank:saving","1","$","","1","","" - "3","2008/06/02","","","","save","","assets:bank:checking","-1","$","1","","","" - "4","2008/06/03","","*","","eat & shop","","expenses:food","1","$","","1","","" - "4","2008/06/03","","*","","eat & shop","","expenses:supplies","1","$","","1","","" - "4","2008/06/03","","*","","eat & shop","","assets:cash","-2","$","2","","","" - "5","2008/12/31","","*","","pay off","","liabilities:debts","1","$","","1","","" - "5","2008/12/31","","*","","pay off","","assets:bank:checking","-1","$","1","","","" - - o There is one CSV record per posting, with the parent transaction's - fields repeated. - - o The "txnidx" (transaction index) field shows which postings belong to - the same transaction. (This number might change if transactions are - reordered within the file, files are parsed/included in a different - order, etc.) - - o The amount is separated into "commodity" (the symbol) and "amount" - (numeric quantity) fields. - - o The numeric amount is repeated in either the "credit" or "debit" col- - umn, for convenience. (Those names are not accurate in the account- - ing sense; it just puts negative amounts under credit and zero or - greater amounts under debit.) - - print-unique - print-unique - Print transactions which do not reuse an already-seen description. - - Example: - - $ cat unique.journal - 1/1 test - (acct:one) 1 - 2/2 test - (acct:two) 2 - $ LEDGER_FILE=unique.journal hledger print-unique - (-f option not supported) - 2015/01/01 test - (acct:one) 1 - - register - register, reg - Show postings and their running total. - - The register command displays matched postings, across all accounts, in - date order, with their running total or running historical balance. - (See also the aregister command, which shows matched transactions in a - specific account.) - - register normally shows line per posting, but note that multi-commodity - amounts will occupy multiple lines (one line per commodity). - - It is typically used with a query selecting a particular account, to - see that account's activity: - - $ hledger register checking - 2008/01/01 income assets:bank:checking $1 $1 - 2008/06/01 gift assets:bank:checking $1 $2 - 2008/06/02 save assets:bank:checking $-1 $1 - 2008/12/31 pay off assets:bank:checking $-1 0 - - With --date2, it shows and sorts by secondary date instead. - - The --historical/-H flag adds the balance from any undisplayed prior - postings to the running total. This is useful when you want to see - only recent activity, with a historically accurate running balance: - - $ hledger register checking -b 2008/6 --historical - 2008/06/01 gift assets:bank:checking $1 $2 - 2008/06/02 save assets:bank:checking $-1 $1 - 2008/12/31 pay off assets:bank:checking $-1 0 - - The --depth option limits the amount of sub-account detail displayed. - - The --average/-A flag shows the running average posting amount instead - of the running total (so, the final number displayed is the average for - the whole report period). This flag implies --empty (see below). It - is affected by --historical. It works best when showing just one - account and one commodity. - - The --related/-r flag shows the other postings in the transactions of - the postings which would normally be shown. - - The --invert flag negates all amounts. For example, it can be used on - an income account where amounts are normally displayed as negative num- - bers. It's also useful to show postings on the checking account - together with the related account: - - $ hledger register --related --invert assets:checking - - With a reporting interval, register shows summary postings, one per - interval, aggregating the postings to each account: - - $ hledger register --monthly income - 2008/01 income:salary $-1 $-1 - 2008/06 income:gifts $-1 $-2 - - Periods with no activity, and summary postings with a zero amount, are - not shown by default; use the --empty/-E flag to see them: - - $ hledger register --monthly income -E - 2008/01 income:salary $-1 $-1 - 2008/02 0 $-1 - 2008/03 0 $-1 - 2008/04 0 $-1 - 2008/05 0 $-1 - 2008/06 income:gifts $-1 $-2 - 2008/07 0 $-2 - 2008/08 0 $-2 - 2008/09 0 $-2 - 2008/10 0 $-2 - 2008/11 0 $-2 - 2008/12 0 $-2 - - Often, you'll want to see just one line per interval. The --depth - option helps with this, causing subaccounts to be aggregated: - - $ hledger register --monthly assets --depth 1h - 2008/01 assets $1 $1 - 2008/06 assets $-1 0 - 2008/12 assets $-1 $-1 - - Note when using report intervals, if you specify start/end dates these - will be adjusted outward if necessary to contain a whole number of - intervals. This ensures that the first and last intervals are full - length and comparable to the others in the report. - - Custom register output - register uses the full terminal width by default, except on windows. - You can override this by setting the COLUMNS environment variable (not - a bash shell variable) or by using the --width/-w option. - - The description and account columns normally share the space equally - (about half of (width - 40) each). You can adjust this by adding a - description width as part of --width's argument, comma-separated: - --width W,D . Here's a diagram (won't display correctly in --help): - - <--------------------------------- width (W) ----------------------------------> - date (10) description (D) account (W-41-D) amount (12) balance (12) - DDDDDDDDDD dddddddddddddddddddd aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa AAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAA - - and some examples: - - $ hledger reg # use terminal width (or 80 on windows) - $ hledger reg -w 100 # use width 100 - $ COLUMNS=100 hledger reg # set with one-time environment variable - $ export COLUMNS=100; hledger reg # set till session end (or window resize) - $ hledger reg -w 100,40 # set overall width 100, description width 40 - $ hledger reg -w $COLUMNS,40 # use terminal width, & description width 40 - - This command also supports the output destination and output format - options The output formats supported are txt, csv, and (experimental) - json. - - register-match - register-match - Print the one posting whose transaction description is closest to DESC, - in the style of the register command. If there are multiple equally - good matches, it shows the most recent. Query options (options, not - arguments) can be used to restrict the search space. Helps ledger- - autosync detect already-seen transactions when importing. - - rewrite - rewrite - Print all transactions, rewriting the postings of matched transactions. - For now the only rewrite available is adding new postings, like print - --auto. - - This is a start at a generic rewriter of transaction entries. It reads - the default journal and prints the transactions, like print, but adds - one or more specified postings to any transactions matching QUERY. The - posting amounts can be fixed, or a multiplier of the existing transac- - tion's first posting amount. - - Examples: - - $ hledger-rewrite.hs ^income --add-posting '(liabilities:tax) *.33 ; income tax' --add-posting '(reserve:gifts) $100' - $ hledger-rewrite.hs expenses:gifts --add-posting '(reserve:gifts) *-1"' - $ hledger-rewrite.hs -f rewrites.hledger - - rewrites.hledger may consist of entries like: - - = ^income amt:<0 date:2017 - (liabilities:tax) *0.33 ; tax on income - (reserve:grocery) *0.25 ; reserve 25% for grocery - (reserve:) *0.25 ; reserve 25% for grocery - - Note the single quotes to protect the dollar sign from bash, and the - two spaces between account and amount. - - More: - - $ hledger rewrite -- [QUERY] --add-posting "ACCT AMTEXPR" ... - $ hledger rewrite -- ^income --add-posting '(liabilities:tax) *.33' - $ hledger rewrite -- expenses:gifts --add-posting '(budget:gifts) *-1"' - $ hledger rewrite -- ^income --add-posting '(budget:foreign currency) *0.25 JPY; diversify' - - Argument for --add-posting option is a usual posting of transaction - with an exception for amount specification. More precisely, you can - use '*' (star symbol) before the amount to indicate that that this is a - factor for an amount of original matched posting. If the amount - includes a commodity name, the new posting amount will be in the new - commodity; otherwise, it will be in the matched posting amount's com- - modity. - - Re-write rules in a file - During the run this tool will execute so called "Automated Transac- - tions" found in any journal it process. I.e instead of specifying this - operations in command line you can put them in a journal file. - - $ rewrite-rules.journal - - Make contents look like this: - - = ^income - (liabilities:tax) *.33 - - = expenses:gifts - budget:gifts *-1 - assets:budget *1 - - Note that '=' (equality symbol) that is used instead of date in trans- - actions you usually write. It indicates the query by which you want to - match the posting to add new ones. - - $ hledger rewrite -- -f input.journal -f rewrite-rules.journal > rewritten-tidy-output.journal - - This is something similar to the commands pipeline: - - $ hledger rewrite -- -f input.journal '^income' --add-posting '(liabilities:tax) *.33' \ - | hledger rewrite -- -f - expenses:gifts --add-posting 'budget:gifts *-1' \ - --add-posting 'assets:budget *1' \ - > rewritten-tidy-output.journal - - It is important to understand that relative order of such entries in - journal is important. You can re-use result of previously added post- - ings. - - Diff output format - To use this tool for batch modification of your journal files you may - find useful output in form of unified diff. - - $ hledger rewrite -- --diff -f examples/sample.journal '^income' --add-posting '(liabilities:tax) *.33' - - Output might look like: - - --- /tmp/examples/sample.journal - +++ /tmp/examples/sample.journal - @@ -18,3 +18,4 @@ - 2008/01/01 income - - assets:bank:checking $1 - + assets:bank:checking $1 - income:salary - + (liabilities:tax) 0 - @@ -22,3 +23,4 @@ - 2008/06/01 gift - - assets:bank:checking $1 - + assets:bank:checking $1 - income:gifts - + (liabilities:tax) 0 - - If you'll pass this through patch tool you'll get transactions contain- - ing the posting that matches your query be updated. Note that multiple - files might be update according to list of input files specified via - --file options and include directives inside of these files. - - Be careful. Whole transaction being re-formatted in a style of output - from hledger print. - - See also: - - https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/issues/99 - - rewrite vs. print --auto - This command predates print --auto, and currently does much the same - thing, but with these differences: - - o with multiple files, rewrite lets rules in any file affect all other - files. print --auto uses standard directive scoping; rules affect - only child files. - - o rewrite's query limits which transactions can be rewritten; all are - printed. print --auto's query limits which transactions are printed. - - o rewrite applies rules specified on command line or in the journal. - print --auto applies rules specified in the journal. - - roi - roi - Shows the time-weighted (TWR) and money-weighted (IRR) rate of return - on your investments. - - At a minimum, you need to supply a query (which could be just an - account name) to select your investment(s) with --inv, and another - query to identify your profit and loss transactions with --pnl. - - If you do not record changes in the value of your investment manually, - or do not require computation of time-weighted return (TWR), --pnl - could be an empty query (--pnl "" or --pnl STR where STR does not match - any of your accounts). - - This command will compute and display the internalized rate of return - (IRR) and time-weighted rate of return (TWR) for your investments for - the time period requested. Both rates of return are annualized before - display, regardless of the length of reporting interval. - - Price directives will be taken into account if you supply appropriate - --cost or --value flags (see VALUATION). - - Note, in some cases this report can fail, for these reasons: - - o Error (NotBracketed): No solution for Internal Rate of Return (IRR). - Possible causes: IRR is huge (>1000000%), balance of investment - becomes negative at some point in time. - - o Error (SearchFailed): Failed to find solution for Internal Rate of - Return (IRR). Either search does not converge to a solution, or con- - verges too slowly. - - Examples: - - o Using roi to compute total return of investment in stocks: - https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/blob/master/examples/roi- - unrealised.ledger - - o Cookbook -> Return on Investment - - Spaces and special characters in --inv and --pnl - Note that --inv and --pnl's argument is a query, and queries could have - several space-separated terms (see QUERIES). - - To indicate that all search terms form single command-line argument, - you will need to put them in quotes (see Special characters): - - $ hledger roi --inv 'term1 term2 term3 ...' - - If any query terms contain spaces themselves, you will need an extra - level of nested quoting, eg: - - $ hledger roi --inv="'Assets:Test 1'" --pnl="'Equity:Unrealized Profit and Loss'" - - Semantics of --inv and --pnl - Query supplied to --inv has to match all transactions that are related - to your investment. Transactions not matching --inv will be ignored. - - In these transactions, ROI will conside postings that match --inv to be - "investment postings" and other postings (not matching --inv) will be - sorted into two categories: "cash flow" and "profit and loss", as ROI - needs to know which part of the investment value is your contributions - and which is due to the return on investment. - - o "Cash flow" is depositing or withdrawing money, buying or selling - assets, or otherwise converting between your investment commodity and - any other commodity. Example: - - 2019-01-01 Investing in Snake Oil - assets:cash -$100 - investment:snake oil - - 2020-01-01 Selling my Snake Oil - assets:cash $10 - investment:snake oil = 0 - - o "Profit and loss" is change in the value of your investment: - - 2019-06-01 Snake Oil falls in value - investment:snake oil = $57 - equity:unrealized profit or loss - - All non-investment postings are assumed to be "cash flow", unless they - match --pnl query. Changes in value of your investment due to "profit - and loss" postings will be considered as part of your investment - return. - - Example: if you use --inv snake --pnl equity:unrealized, then postings - in the example below would be classifed as: - - 2019-01-01 Snake Oil #1 - assets:cash -$100 ; cash flow posting - investment:snake oil ; investment posting - - 2019-03-01 Snake Oil #2 - equity:unrealized pnl -$100 ; profit and loss posting - snake oil ; investment posting - - 2019-07-01 Snake Oil #3 - equity:unrealized pnl ; profit and loss posting - cash -$100 ; cash flow posting - snake oil $50 ; investment posting - - IRR and TWR explained - "ROI" stands for "return on investment". Traditionally this was com- - puted as a difference between current value of investment and its ini- - tial value, expressed in percentage of the initial value. - - However, this approach is only practical in simple cases, where invest- - ments receives no in-flows or out-flows of money, and where rate of - growth is fixed over time. For more complex scenarios you need differ- - ent ways to compute rate of return, and this command implements two of - them: IRR and TWR. - - Internal rate of return, or "IRR" (also called "money-weighted rate of - return") takes into account effects of in-flows and out-flows. - Naively, if you are withdrawing from your investment, your future gains - would be smaller (in absolute numbers), and will be a smaller percent- - age of your initial investment, and if you are adding to your invest- - ment, you will receive bigger absolute gains (but probably at the same - rate of return). IRR is a way to compute rate of return for each - period between in-flow or out-flow of money, and then combine them in a - way that gives you a compound annual rate of return that investment is - expected to generate. - - As mentioned before, in-flows and out-flows would be any cash that you - personally put in or withdraw, and for the "roi" command, these are the - postings that match the query in the--inv argument and NOT match the - query in the--pnl argument. - - If you manually record changes in the value of your investment as - transactions that balance them against "profit and loss" (or "unreal- - ized gains") account or use price directives, then in order for IRR to - compute the precise effect of your in-flows and out-flows on the rate - of return, you will need to record the value of your investement on or - close to the days when in- or out-flows occur. - - In technical terms, IRR uses the same approach as computation of net - present value, and tries to find a discount rate that makes net present - value of all the cash flows of your investment to add up to zero. This - could be hard to wrap your head around, especially if you haven't done - discounted cash flow analysis before. Implementation of IRR in hledger - should produce results that match the XIRR formula in Excel. - - Second way to compute rate of return that roi command implements is - called "time-weighted rate of return" or "TWR". Like IRR, it will also - break the history of your investment into periods between in-flows, - out-flows and value changes, to compute rate of return per each period - and then a compound rate of return. However, internal workings of TWR - are quite different. - - TWR represents your investment as an imaginary "unit fund" where in- - flows/ out-flows lead to buying or selling "units" of your investment - and changes in its value change the value of "investment unit". Change - in "unit price" over the reporting period gives you rate of return of - your investment. - - References: * Explanation of rate of return * Explanation of IRR * - Explanation of TWR * Examples of computing IRR and TWR and discussion - of the limitations of both metrics - - stats - stats - Show some journal statistics. - - The stats command displays summary information for the whole journal, - or a matched part of it. With a reporting interval, it shows a report - for each report period. - - Example: - - $ hledger stats - Main journal file : /src/hledger/examples/sample.journal - Included journal files : - Transactions span : 2008-01-01 to 2009-01-01 (366 days) - Last transaction : 2008-12-31 (2333 days ago) - Transactions : 5 (0.0 per day) - Transactions last 30 days: 0 (0.0 per day) - Transactions last 7 days : 0 (0.0 per day) - Payees/descriptions : 5 - Accounts : 8 (depth 3) - Commodities : 1 ($) - Market prices : 12 ($) - - This command also supports output destination and output format selec- - tion. - - tags - tags - List the unique tag names used in the journal. With a TAGREGEX argu- - ment, only tag names matching the regular expression (case insensitive) - are shown. With QUERY arguments, only transactions matching the query - are considered. - - With the --values flag, the tags' unique values are listed instead. - - With --parsed flag, all tags or values are shown in the order they are - parsed from the input data, including duplicates. - - With -E/--empty, any blank/empty values will also be shown, otherwise - they are omitted. - - test - test - Run built-in unit tests. - - This command runs the unit tests built in to hledger and hledger-lib, - printing the results on stdout. If any test fails, the exit code will - be non-zero. - - This is mainly used by hledger developers, but you can also use it to - sanity-check the installed hledger executable on your platform. All - tests are expected to pass - if you ever see a failure, please report - as a bug! - - This command also accepts tasty test runner options, written after a -- - (double hyphen). Eg to run only the tests in Hledger.Data.Amount, with - ANSI colour codes disabled: - - $ hledger test -- -pData.Amount --color=never - - For help on these, see https://github.com/feuerbach/tasty#options (-- - --help currently doesn't show them). - - About add-on commands - Add-on commands are programs or scripts in your PATH - - o whose name starts with hledger- - - o whose name ends with a recognised file extension: .bat,.com,.exe, - .hs,.lhs,.pl,.py,.rb,.rkt,.sh or none - - o and (on unix, mac) which are executable by the current user. - - Add-ons are a relatively easy way to add local features or experiment - with new ideas. They can be written in any language, but haskell - scripts have a big advantage: they can use the same hledger library - functions that built-in commands use for command-line options, parsing - and reporting. Some experimental/example add-on scripts can be found - in the hledger repo's bin/ directory. - - Note in a hledger command line, add-on command flags must have a double - dash (--) preceding them. Eg you must write: - - $ hledger web -- --serve - - and not: - - $ hledger web --serve - - (because the --serve flag belongs to hledger-web, not hledger). - - The -h/--help and --version flags don't require --. - - If you have any trouble with this, remember you can always run the add- - on program directly, eg: - - $ hledger-web --serve - -JOURNAL FORMAT - hledger's default file format, representing a General Journal. - - 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. - - Code - After the status mark, but before the description, you can optionally - write a transaction "code", enclosed in parentheses. This is a good - place to record a check number, or some other important transaction id - or reference number. - - 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, revenue, 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 symbol or commodity name (more on this below), - to the left or right of the quantity, with or without a separating - space: - - $1 - 4000 AAPL - 3 "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 - - Decimal marks, digit group marks - A decimal mark can be written as a period or a comma: - - 1.23 - 1,23456780000009 - - 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 digit group mark and no decimal mark - is ambiguous. Are these digit group marks or decimal marks ? - - 1,000 - 1.000 - - If you don't tell it otherwise, hledger will assume both of the above - are decimal marks, parsing both numbers as 1. To prevent confusion and - undetected typos, we recommend adding commodity directives at the top - of your journal file to explicitly declare the decimal mark (and - optionally a digit group mark) for each commodity. Read on for more - about this. - - Commodity - Amounts in hledger have both a "quantity", which is a signed decimal - number, and a "commodity", which is a currency symbol, stock ticker, or - any word or phrase describing something you are tracking. - - If the commodity name contains non-letters (spaces, numbers, or punctu- - ation), you must always write it inside double quotes ("green apples", - "ABC123"). - - If you write just a bare number, that too will have a commodity, with - name ""; we call that the "no-symbol commodity". - - Actually, hledger combines these single-commodity amounts into more - powerful multi-commodity amounts, which are what it works with most of - the time. A multi-commodity amount could be, eg: 1 USD, 2 EUR, 3.456 - TSLA. In practice, you will only see multi-commodity amounts in - hledger's output; you can't write them directly in the journal file. - - (If you are writing scripts or working with hledger's internals, these - are the Amount and MixedAmount types.) - - Commodity directives - You can add commodity directives to the journal, preferably at the top, - to declare your commodities and help with number parsing (see above) - and display (see below). These are optional, but recommended. They - are described in more detail in JOURNAL FORMAT -> Declaring commodi- - ties. Here's a quick example: - - # number format and display style for $, EUR, INR and the no-symbol commodity: - 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 the amounts in each commodity, hledger chooses a consistent display - style to use in most reports. (Exceptions: price amounts, and all - amounts displayed by the print command, are displayed with all of their - decimal digits visible.) - - A commodity's display style is inferred as follows. - - First, if a default commodity is declared with D, this commodity and - its style is applied to any no-symbol amounts in the journal. - - Then each commodity's style is inferred from one of the following, in - order of preference: - - o The commodity directive for that commodity (including the no-symbol - commodity), if any. - - o The amounts in that commodity seen in the journal's transactions. - (Posting amounts only; prices and periodic or auto rules are ignored, - currently.) - - o The built-in fallback style, which looks like this: $1000.00. (Sym- - bol on the left, period decimal mark, two decimal places.) - - A style is inferred from journal amounts 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. - - To summarise: each commodity's amounts will be normalised to (a) the - style declared by a commodity directive, or (b) the style of the first - posting amount in the journal, with the first-seen digit group style - and the maximum-seen number of decimal places. So if your reports are - showing amounts in a way you don't like, eg with too many decimal - places, use a commodity directive. Some examples: - - # declare euro, dollar, bitcoin and no-symbol commodities and set their - # input number formats and output display styles: - commodity EUR 1.000, - commodity $1000.00 - commodity 1000.00000000 BTC - commodity 1 000. - - 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. - - - 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 until end of cur- - rent file; display - 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 - payee declare a payee name following entries - until end of cur- - rent file - 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 payees - The payee directive can be used to declare a limited set of payees - which may appear in transaction descriptions. The "payees" check will - report an error if any transaction refers to a payee that has not been - declared. Eg: - - payee Whole Foods - - Declaring commodities - You can use commodity directives to declare your commodities. In fact - the commodity directive performs several functions at once: - - 1. It declares commodities which may be used in the journal. This can - optionally be enforced, providing useful error checking. (Cf Com- - modity error checking) - - 2. It declares which decimal mark character (period or comma), to - expect when parsing input - useful to disambiguate international - number formats in your data. Without this, hledger will parse both - 1,000 and 1.000 as 1. (Cf Amounts) - - 3. It declares how to render the commodity's amounts when displaying - output - the decimal mark, any digit group marks, the number of dec- - imal places, symbol placement and so on. (Cf Commodity display - style) - - You will run into one of the problems solved by commodity directives - sooner or later, so we recommend using them, for robust and predictable - parsing and display. - - Generally you should put them at the top of your journal file (since - for function 2, they affect only following amounts, cf #793). - - A commodity directive is just the word commodity followed by a sample - amount, like this: - - ;commodity SAMPLEAMOUNT - - commodity $1000.00 - commodity 1,000.0000 AAAA ; optional same-line comment - - It may also be written on multiple lines, and use the format subdirec- - tive, as in Ledger. Note in this case the commodity symbol appears - twice; it must be the same in both places: - - ;commodity SYMBOL - ; format SAMPLEAMOUNT - - ; display indian rupees with currency name on the left, - ; thousands, lakhs and crores comma-separated, - ; period as decimal point, and two decimal places. - commodity INR - format INR 1,00,00,000.00 - - Remember that if the commodity symbol contains spaces, numbers, or - punctuation, it must be enclosed in double quotes (cf Commodity). - - The amount's quantity does not matter; only the format is significant. - It must include a decimal mark - either a period or a comma - followed - by 0 or more decimal digits. - - A few more examples: - - # number formats for $, EUR, INR and the no-symbol commodity: - commodity $1,000.00 - commodity EUR 1.000,00 - commodity INR 9,99,99,999.0 - commodity 1 000 000. - - 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 any subsequent - commodityless amounts (ie, plain numbers) seen while parsing the jour- - nal. This effect lasts until the next D directive, or the end of the - journal. - - For compatibility/historical reasons, D also acts like a commodity - directive (setting the commodity's decimal mark for parsing and display - style for output). - - As with commodity, the amount must include a decimal mark (either - period or comma). If both commodity and D directives are used for the - same commodity, the commodity 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. - - The format is: - - P DATE COMMODITY1SYMBOL COMMODITY2AMOUNT - - DATE is a simple date, COMMODITY1SYMBOL is the symbol of the commodity - being priced, and COMMODITY2AMOUNT is the amount (symbol and quantity) - of commodity 2 that one unit of commodity 1 is worth on this date. - Examples: - - # one euro was worth $1.35 from 2009-01-01 onward: - P 2009-01-01 EUR $1.35 - - # and $1.40 from 2010-01-01 onward: - P 2010-01-01 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 account's name matches this regular expression: | its type is: - ------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------ - ^assets?(:|$) | - and does not contain regexp (investment|receivable|:A/R|:fixed) | Cash - otherwise | Asset - ^(debts?|liabilit(y|ies))(:|$) | Liability - ^equity(:|$) | Equity - ^(income|revenue)s?(:|$) | Revenue - ^expenses?(:|$) | Expense - - 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 (but note: not sibling or parent 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". - -CSV FORMAT - How hledger reads CSV data, and the CSV rules file format. - - hledger can read CSV files (Character Separated Value - usually comma, - semicolon, or tab) containing dated records as if they were journal - files, automatically converting each CSV record into a transaction. - - (To learn about writing CSV, see CSV output.) - - We describe each CSV file's format with a corresponding rules file. By - default this is named like the CSV file with a .rules extension added. - Eg when reading FILE.csv, hledger also looks for FILE.csv.rules in the - same directory as FILE.csv. You can specify a different rules file - with the --rules-file option. If a rules file is not found, hledger - will create a sample rules file, which you'll need to adjust. - - This file contains rules describing the CSV data (header line, fields - layout, date format etc.), and how to construct hledger journal entries - (transactions) from it. Often there will also be a list of conditional - rules for categorising transactions based on their descriptions. - Here's an overview of the CSV rules; these are described more fully - below, after the examples: - - - skip skip one or more header lines or matched CSV - records - - - fields list name CSV fields, assign them to hledger - fields - field assignment assign a value to one hledger field, with - interpolation - Field names hledger field names, used in the fields list - and field assignments - separator a custom field separator - if block apply some rules to CSV records matched by - patterns - if table apply some rules to CSV records matched by - patterns, alternate syntax - end skip the remaining CSV records - date-format how to parse dates in CSV records - decimal-mark the decimal mark used in CSV amounts, if - ambiguous - newest-first disambiguate record order when there's only - one date - include inline another CSV rules file - balance-type choose which type of balance assignments to - use - - Note, for best error messages when reading CSV files, use a .csv, .tsv - or .ssv file extension or file prefix - see File Extension below. - - There's an introductory Convert CSV files tutorial on hledger.org. - - Examples - Here are some sample hledger CSV rules files. See also the full col- - lection at: - https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/tree/master/examples/csv - - Basic - At minimum, the rules file must identify the date and amount fields, - and often it also specifies the date format and how many header lines - there are. Here's a simple CSV file and a rules file for it: - - Date, Description, Id, Amount - 12/11/2019, Foo, 123, 10.23 - - # basic.csv.rules - skip 1 - fields date, description, _, amount - date-format %d/%m/%Y - - $ hledger print -f basic.csv - 2019-11-12 Foo - expenses:unknown 10.23 - income:unknown -10.23 - - Default account names are chosen, since we didn't set them. - - Bank of Ireland - Here's a CSV with two amount fields (Debit and Credit), and a balance - field, which we can use to add balance assertions, which is not neces- - sary but provides extra error checking: - - Date,Details,Debit,Credit,Balance - 07/12/2012,LODGMENT 529898,,10.0,131.21 - 07/12/2012,PAYMENT,5,,126 - - # bankofireland-checking.csv.rules - - # skip the header line - skip - - # name the csv fields, and assign some of them as journal entry fields - fields date, description, amount-out, amount-in, balance - - # We generate balance assertions by assigning to "balance" - # above, but you may sometimes need to remove these because: - # - # - the CSV balance differs from the true balance, - # by up to 0.0000000000005 in my experience - # - # - it is sometimes calculated based on non-chronological ordering, - # eg when multiple transactions clear on the same day - - # date is in UK/Ireland format - date-format %d/%m/%Y - - # set the currency - currency EUR - - # set the base account for all txns - account1 assets:bank:boi:checking - - $ hledger -f bankofireland-checking.csv print - 2012-12-07 LODGMENT 529898 - assets:bank:boi:checking EUR10.0 = EUR131.2 - income:unknown EUR-10.0 - - 2012-12-07 PAYMENT - assets:bank:boi:checking EUR-5.0 = EUR126.0 - expenses:unknown EUR5.0 - - The balance assertions don't raise an error above, because we're read- - ing directly from CSV, but they will be checked if these entries are - imported into a journal file. - - Amazon - Here we convert amazon.com order history, and use an if block to gener- - ate a third posting if there's a fee. (In practice you'd probably get - this data from your bank instead, but it's an example.) - - "Date","Type","To/From","Name","Status","Amount","Fees","Transaction ID" - "Jul 29, 2012","Payment","To","Foo.","Completed","$20.00","$0.00","16000000000000DGLNJPI1P9B8DKPVHL" - "Jul 30, 2012","Payment","To","Adapteva, Inc.","Completed","$25.00","$1.00","17LA58JSKRD4HDGLNJPI1P9B8DKPVHL" - - # amazon-orders.csv.rules - - # skip one header line - skip 1 - - # name the csv fields, and assign the transaction's date, amount and code. - # Avoided the "status" and "amount" hledger field names to prevent confusion. - fields date, _, toorfrom, name, amzstatus, amzamount, fees, code - - # how to parse the date - date-format %b %-d, %Y - - # combine two fields to make the description - description %toorfrom %name - - # save the status as a tag - comment status:%amzstatus - - # set the base account for all transactions - account1 assets:amazon - # leave amount1 blank so it can balance the other(s). - # I'm assuming amzamount excludes the fees, don't remember - - # set a generic account2 - account2 expenses:misc - amount2 %amzamount - # and maybe refine it further: - #include categorisation.rules - - # add a third posting for fees, but only if they are non-zero. - if %fees [1-9] - account3 expenses:fees - amount3 %fees - - $ hledger -f amazon-orders.csv print - 2012-07-29 (16000000000000DGLNJPI1P9B8DKPVHL) To Foo. ; status:Completed - assets:amazon - expenses:misc $20.00 - - 2012-07-30 (17LA58JSKRD4HDGLNJPI1P9B8DKPVHL) To Adapteva, Inc. ; status:Completed - assets:amazon - expenses:misc $25.00 - expenses:fees $1.00 - - Paypal - Here's a real-world rules file for (customised) Paypal CSV, with some - Paypal-specific rules, and a second rules file included: - - "Date","Time","TimeZone","Name","Type","Status","Currency","Gross","Fee","Net","From Email Address","To Email Address","Transaction ID","Item Title","Item ID","Reference Txn ID","Receipt ID","Balance","Note" - "10/01/2019","03:46:20","PDT","Calm Radio","Subscription Payment","Completed","USD","-6.99","0.00","-6.99","simon@joyful.com","memberships@calmradio.com","60P57143A8206782E","MONTHLY - $1 for the first 2 Months: Me - Order 99309. Item total: $1.00 USD first 2 months, then $6.99 / Month","","I-R8YLY094FJYR","","-6.99","" - "10/01/2019","03:46:20","PDT","","Bank Deposit to PP Account ","Pending","USD","6.99","0.00","6.99","","simon@joyful.com","0TU1544T080463733","","","60P57143A8206782E","","0.00","" - "10/01/2019","08:57:01","PDT","Patreon","PreApproved Payment Bill User Payment","Completed","USD","-7.00","0.00","-7.00","simon@joyful.com","support@patreon.com","2722394R5F586712G","Patreon* Membership","","B-0PG93074E7M86381M","","-7.00","" - "10/01/2019","08:57:01","PDT","","Bank Deposit to PP Account ","Pending","USD","7.00","0.00","7.00","","simon@joyful.com","71854087RG994194F","Patreon* Membership","","2722394R5F586712G","","0.00","" - "10/19/2019","03:02:12","PDT","Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.","Subscription Payment","Completed","USD","-2.00","0.00","-2.00","simon@joyful.com","tle@wikimedia.org","K9U43044RY432050M","Monthly donation to the Wikimedia Foundation","","I-R5C3YUS3285L","","-2.00","" - "10/19/2019","03:02:12","PDT","","Bank Deposit to PP Account ","Pending","USD","2.00","0.00","2.00","","simon@joyful.com","3XJ107139A851061F","","","K9U43044RY432050M","","0.00","" - "10/22/2019","05:07:06","PDT","Noble Benefactor","Subscription Payment","Completed","USD","10.00","-0.59","9.41","noble@bene.fac.tor","simon@joyful.com","6L8L1662YP1334033","Joyful Systems","","I-KC9VBGY2GWDB","","9.41","" - - # paypal-custom.csv.rules - - # Tips: - # Export from Activity -> Statements -> Custom -> Activity download - # Suggested transaction type: "Balance affecting" - # Paypal's default fields in 2018 were: - # "Date","Time","TimeZone","Name","Type","Status","Currency","Gross","Fee","Net","From Email Address","To Email Address","Transaction ID","Shipping Address","Address Status","Item Title","Item ID","Shipping and Handling Amount","Insurance Amount","Sales Tax","Option 1 Name","Option 1 Value","Option 2 Name","Option 2 Value","Reference Txn ID","Invoice Number","Custom Number","Quantity","Receipt ID","Balance","Address Line 1","Address Line 2/District/Neighborhood","Town/City","State/Province/Region/County/Territory/Prefecture/Republic","Zip/Postal Code","Country","Contact Phone Number","Subject","Note","Country Code","Balance Impact" - # This rules file assumes the following more detailed fields, configured in "Customize report fields": - # "Date","Time","TimeZone","Name","Type","Status","Currency","Gross","Fee","Net","From Email Address","To Email Address","Transaction ID","Item Title","Item ID","Reference Txn ID","Receipt ID","Balance","Note" - - fields date, time, timezone, description_, type, status_, currency, grossamount, feeamount, netamount, fromemail, toemail, code, itemtitle, itemid, referencetxnid, receiptid, balance, note - - skip 1 - - date-format %-m/%-d/%Y - - # ignore some paypal events - if - In Progress - Temporary Hold - Update to - skip - - # add more fields to the description - description %description_ %itemtitle - - # save some other fields as tags - comment itemid:%itemid, fromemail:%fromemail, toemail:%toemail, time:%time, type:%type, status:%status_ - - # convert to short currency symbols - if %currency USD - currency $ - if %currency EUR - currency E - if %currency GBP - currency P - - # generate postings - - # the first posting will be the money leaving/entering my paypal account - # (negative means leaving my account, in all amount fields) - account1 assets:online:paypal - amount1 %netamount - - # the second posting will be money sent to/received from other party - # (account2 is set below) - amount2 -%grossamount - - # if there's a fee, add a third posting for the money taken by paypal. - if %feeamount [1-9] - account3 expenses:banking:paypal - amount3 -%feeamount - comment3 business: - - # choose an account for the second posting - - # override the default account names: - # if the amount is positive, it's income (a debit) - if %grossamount ^[^-] - account2 income:unknown - # if negative, it's an expense (a credit) - if %grossamount ^- - account2 expenses:unknown - - # apply common rules for setting account2 & other tweaks - include common.rules - - # apply some overrides specific to this csv - - # Transfers from/to bank. These are usually marked Pending, - # which can be disregarded in this case. - if - Bank Account - Bank Deposit to PP Account - description %type for %referencetxnid %itemtitle - account2 assets:bank:wf:pchecking - account1 assets:online:paypal - - # Currency conversions - if Currency Conversion - account2 equity:currency conversion - - # common.rules - - if - darcs - noble benefactor - account2 revenues:foss donations:darcshub - comment2 business: - - if - Calm Radio - account2 expenses:online:apps - - if - electronic frontier foundation - Patreon - wikimedia - Advent of Code - account2 expenses:dues - - if Google - account2 expenses:online:apps - description google | music - - $ hledger -f paypal-custom.csv print - 2019-10-01 (60P57143A8206782E) Calm Radio MONTHLY - $1 for the first 2 Months: Me - Order 99309. Item total: $1.00 USD first 2 months, then $6.99 / Month ; itemid:, fromemail:simon@joyful.com, toemail:memberships@calmradio.com, time:03:46:20, type:Subscription Payment, status:Completed - assets:online:paypal $-6.99 = $-6.99 - expenses:online:apps $6.99 - - 2019-10-01 (0TU1544T080463733) Bank Deposit to PP Account for 60P57143A8206782E ; itemid:, fromemail:, toemail:simon@joyful.com, time:03:46:20, type:Bank Deposit to PP Account, status:Pending - assets:online:paypal $6.99 = $0.00 - assets:bank:wf:pchecking $-6.99 - - 2019-10-01 (2722394R5F586712G) Patreon Patreon* Membership ; itemid:, fromemail:simon@joyful.com, toemail:support@patreon.com, time:08:57:01, type:PreApproved Payment Bill User Payment, status:Completed - assets:online:paypal $-7.00 = $-7.00 - expenses:dues $7.00 - - 2019-10-01 (71854087RG994194F) Bank Deposit to PP Account for 2722394R5F586712G Patreon* Membership ; itemid:, fromemail:, toemail:simon@joyful.com, time:08:57:01, type:Bank Deposit to PP Account, status:Pending - assets:online:paypal $7.00 = $0.00 - assets:bank:wf:pchecking $-7.00 - - 2019-10-19 (K9U43044RY432050M) Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Monthly donation to the Wikimedia Foundation ; itemid:, fromemail:simon@joyful.com, toemail:tle@wikimedia.org, time:03:02:12, type:Subscription Payment, status:Completed - assets:online:paypal $-2.00 = $-2.00 - expenses:dues $2.00 - expenses:banking:paypal ; business: - - 2019-10-19 (3XJ107139A851061F) Bank Deposit to PP Account for K9U43044RY432050M ; itemid:, fromemail:, toemail:simon@joyful.com, time:03:02:12, type:Bank Deposit to PP Account, status:Pending - assets:online:paypal $2.00 = $0.00 - assets:bank:wf:pchecking $-2.00 - - 2019-10-22 (6L8L1662YP1334033) Noble Benefactor Joyful Systems ; itemid:, fromemail:noble@bene.fac.tor, toemail:simon@joyful.com, time:05:07:06, type:Subscription Payment, status:Completed - assets:online:paypal $9.41 = $9.41 - revenues:foss donations:darcshub $-10.00 ; business: - expenses:banking:paypal $0.59 ; business: - - CSV rules - The following kinds of rule can appear in the rules file, in any order. - Blank lines and lines beginning with # or ; are ignored. - - skip - skip N - - The word "skip" followed by a number (or no number, meaning 1) tells - hledger to ignore this many non-empty lines preceding the CSV data. - (Empty/blank lines are skipped automatically.) You'll need this when- - ever your CSV data contains header lines. - - It also has a second purpose: it can be used inside if blocks to ignore - certain CSV records (described below). - - fields list - fields FIELDNAME1, FIELDNAME2, ... - - A fields list (the word "fields" followed by comma-separated field - names) is the quick way to assign CSV field values to hledger fields. - (The other way is field assignments, see below.) A fields list does - does two things: - - 1. It names the CSV fields. This is optional, but can be convenient - later for interpolating them. - - 2. Whenever you use a standard hledger field name (defined below), the - CSV value is assigned to that part of the hledger transaction. - - Here's an example that says "use the 1st, 2nd and 4th fields as the - transaction's date, description and amount; name the last two fields - for later reference; and ignore the others": - - fields date, description, , amount, , , somefield, anotherfield - - Tips: - - o The fields list always use commas, even if your CSV data uses another - separator character. - - o Currently there must be least two items in the list (at least one - comma). - - o Field names may not contain spaces. Spaces before/after field names - are optional. - - o If the CSV contains column headings, it's a good idea to use these, - suitably modified, as the basis for your field names (eg lower-cased, - with underscores instead of spaces). - - o If some heading names match standard hledger fields, but you don't - want to set the hledger fields directly, alter those names, eg by - appending an underscore. - - o Fields you don't care about can be given a dummy name (eg: _ ), or no - name. - - field assignment - HLEDGERFIELDNAME FIELDVALUE - - Field assignments are the more flexible way to assign CSV values to - hledger fields. They can be used instead of or in addition to a fields - list (see above). - - To assign a value to a hledger field, write the field name (any of the - standard hledger field/pseudo-field names, defined below), a space, - followed by a text value on the same line. This text value may inter- - polate CSV fields, referenced by their 1-based position in the CSV - record (%N), or by the name they were given in the fields list (%CSV- - FIELDNAME). - - Some examples: - - # set the amount to the 4th CSV field, with " USD" appended - amount %4 USD - - # combine three fields to make a comment, containing note: and date: tags - comment note: %somefield - %anotherfield, date: %1 - - Tips: - - o Interpolation strips outer whitespace (so a CSV value like " 1 " - becomes 1 when interpolated) (#1051). - - o See also Tips below. - - Field names - Here are the standard hledger field (and pseudo-field) names, which you - can use in a fields list and in field assignments. For more about the - transaction parts they refer to, see Transactions. - - date field - Assigning to date sets the transaction date. - - date2 field - date2 sets the transaction's secondary date, if any. - - status field - status sets the transaction's status, if any. - - code field - code sets the transaction's code, if any. - - description field - description sets the transaction's description, if any. - - comment field - comment sets the transaction's comment, if any. - - commentN, where N is a number, sets the Nth posting's comment. - - Tips: - Only single-line comments can be assigned. - Comments can con- - tain tags, as usual. - - account field - Assigning to accountN, where N is 1 to 99, sets the account name of the - Nth posting, and causes that posting to be generated. - - Most often there are two postings, so you'll want to set account1 and - account2. Typically account1 is associated with the CSV file, and is - set once with a top-level assignment, while account2 is set based on - each transaction's description, and in conditional blocks. - - If a posting's account name is left unset but its amount is set (see - below), a default account name will be chosen (like "expenses:unknown" - or "income:unknown"). - - amount field - amountN sets the amount of the Nth posting, and causes that posting to - be generated. By assigning to amount1, amount2, ... etc. you can - generate up to 99 postings. - - amountN-in and amountN-out can be used instead, if the CSV uses sepa- - rate fields for debits and credits (inflows and outflows). hledger - assumes both of these CSV fields are unsigned, and will automatically - negate the "-out" value. If they are signed, see "Setting amounts" - below. - - amount, or amount-in and amount-out are a legacy mode, to keep pre- - hledger-1.17 CSV rules files working (and for occasional convenience). - They are suitable only for two-posting transactions; they set both - posting 1's and posting 2's amount. Posting 2's amount will be - negated, and also converted to cost if there's a transaction price. - - If you have an existing rules file using the unnumbered form, you might - want to use the numbered form in certain conditional blocks, without - having to update and retest all the old rules. To facilitate this, - posting 1 ignores amount/amount-in/amount-out if any of - amount1/amount1-in/amount1-out are assigned, and posting 2 ignores them - if any of amount2/amount2-in/amount2-out are assigned, avoiding con- - flicts. - - currency field - currency sets a currency symbol, to be prepended to all postings' - amounts. You can use this if the CSV amounts do not have a currency - symbol, eg if it is in a separate column. - - currencyN prepends a currency symbol to just the Nth posting's amount. - - balance field - balanceN sets a balance assertion amount (or if the posting amount is - left empty, a balance assignment) on posting N. - - balance is a compatibility spelling for hledger <1.17; it is equivalent - to balance1. - - You can adjust the type of assertion/assignment with the balance-type - rule (see below). - - See Tips below for more about setting amounts and currency. - - separator - You can use the separator rule to read other kinds of character-sepa- - rated data. The argument is any single separator character, or the - words tab or space (case insensitive). Eg, for comma-separated values - (CSV): - - separator , - - or for semicolon-separated values (SSV): - - separator ; - - or for tab-separated values (TSV): - - separator TAB - - If the input file has a .csv, .ssv or .tsv file extension (or a csv:, - ssv:, tsv: prefix), the appropriate separator will be inferred automat- - ically, and you won't need this rule. - - if block - if MATCHER - RULE - - if - MATCHER - MATCHER - MATCHER - RULE - RULE - - Conditional blocks ("if blocks") are a block of rules that are applied - only to CSV records which match certain patterns. They are often used - for customising account names based on transaction descriptions. - - Matching the whole record - Each MATCHER can be a record matcher, which looks like this: - - REGEX - - REGEX is a case-insensitive regular expression that tries to match any- - where within the CSV record. It is a POSIX ERE (extended regular - expression) that also supports GNU word boundaries (\b, \B, \<, \>), - and nothing else. If you have trouble, be sure to check our doc: - https://hledger.org/hledger.html#regular-expressions - - Important note: the record that is matched is not the original record, - but a synthetic one, with any enclosing double quotes (but not enclos- - ing whitespace) removed, and always comma-separated (which means that a - field containing a comma will appear like two fields). Eg, if the - original record is 2020-01-01; "Acme, Inc."; 1,000, the REGEX will - actually see 2020-01-01,Acme, Inc., 1,000). - - Matching individual fields - Or, MATCHER can be a field matcher, like this: - - %CSVFIELD REGEX - - which matches just the content of a particular CSV field. CSVFIELD is - a percent sign followed by the field's name or column number, like - %date or %1. - - Combining matchers - A single matcher can be written on the same line as the "if"; or multi- - ple matchers can be written on the following lines, non-indented. Mul- - tiple matchers are OR'd (any one of them can match), unless one begins - with an & symbol, in which case it is AND'ed with the previous matcher. - - if - MATCHER - & MATCHER - RULE - - Rules applied on successful match - After the patterns there should be one or more rules to apply, all - indented by at least one space. Three kinds of rule are allowed in - conditional blocks: - - o field assignments (to set a hledger field) - - o skip (to skip the matched CSV record) - - o end (to skip all remaining CSV records). - - Examples: - - # if the CSV record contains "groceries", set account2 to "expenses:groceries" - if groceries - account2 expenses:groceries - - # if the CSV record contains any of these patterns, set account2 and comment as shown - if - monthly service fee - atm transaction fee - banking thru software - account2 expenses:business:banking - comment XXX deductible ? check it - - if table - if,CSVFIELDNAME1,CSVFIELDNAME2,...,CSVFIELDNAMEn - MATCHER1,VALUE11,VALUE12,...,VALUE1n - MATCHER2,VALUE21,VALUE22,...,VALUE2n - MATCHER3,VALUE31,VALUE32,...,VALUE3n - - - Conditional tables ("if tables") are a different syntax to specify - field assignments that will be applied only to CSV records which match - certain patterns. - - MATCHER could be either field or record matcher, as described above. - When MATCHER matches, values from that row would be assigned to the CSV - fields named on the if line, in the same order. - - Therefore if table is exactly equivalent to a sequence of of if blocks: - - if MATCHER1 - CSVFIELDNAME1 VALUE11 - CSVFIELDNAME2 VALUE12 - ... - CSVFIELDNAMEn VALUE1n - - if MATCHER2 - CSVFIELDNAME1 VALUE21 - CSVFIELDNAME2 VALUE22 - ... - CSVFIELDNAMEn VALUE2n - - if MATCHER3 - CSVFIELDNAME1 VALUE31 - CSVFIELDNAME2 VALUE32 - ... - CSVFIELDNAMEn VALUE3n - - Each line starting with MATCHER should contain enough (possibly empty) - values for all the listed fields. - - Rules would be checked and applied in the order they are listed in the - table and, like with if blocks, later rules (in the same or another ta- - ble) or if blocks could override the effect of any rule. - - Instead of ',' you can use a variety of other non-alphanumeric charac- - ters as a separator. First character after if is taken to be the sepa- - rator for the rest of the table. It is the responsibility of the user - to ensure that separator does not occur inside MATCHERs and values - - there is no way to escape separator. - - Example: - - if,account2,comment - atm transaction fee,expenses:business:banking,deductible? check it - %description groceries,expenses:groceries, - 2020/01/12.*Plumbing LLC,expenses:house:upkeep,emergency plumbing call-out - - end - This rule can be used inside if blocks (only), to make hledger stop - reading this CSV file and move on to the next input file, or to command - execution. Eg: - - # ignore everything following the first empty record - if ,,,, - end - - date-format - date-format DATEFMT - - This is a helper for the date (and date2) fields. If your CSV dates - are not formatted like YYYY-MM-DD, YYYY/MM/DD or YYYY.MM.DD, you'll - need to add a date-format rule describing them with a strptime date - parsing pattern, which must parse the CSV date value completely. Some - examples: - - # MM/DD/YY - date-format %m/%d/%y - - # D/M/YYYY - # The - makes leading zeros optional. - date-format %-d/%-m/%Y - - # YYYY-Mmm-DD - date-format %Y-%h-%d - - # M/D/YYYY HH:MM AM some other junk - # Note the time and junk must be fully parsed, though only the date is used. - date-format %-m/%-d/%Y %l:%M %p some other junk - - For the supported strptime syntax, see: - https://hackage.haskell.org/package/time/docs/Data-Time-For- - mat.html#v:formatTime - - Note that although you can parse date-times which include a time zone, - that time zone is ignored; it will not change the date that is parsed. - This means when reading CSV data with times not in your local time - zone, dates can be "off by one". - - decimal-mark - decimal-mark . - - or: - - decimal-mark , - - hledger automatically accepts either period or comma as a decimal mark - when parsing numbers (cf Amounts). However if any numbers in the CSV - contain digit group marks, such as thousand-separating commas, you - should declare the decimal mark explicitly with this rule, to avoid - misparsed numbers. - - newest-first - hledger always sorts the generated transactions by date. Transactions - on the same date should appear in the same order as their CSV records, - as hledger can usually auto-detect whether the CSV's normal order is - oldest first or newest first. But if all of the following are true: - - o the CSV might sometimes contain just one day of data (all records - having the same date) - - o the CSV records are normally in reverse chronological order (newest - at the top) - - o and you care about preserving the order of same-day transactions - - then, you should add the newest-first rule as a hint. Eg: - - # tell hledger explicitly that the CSV is normally newest first - newest-first - - include - include RULESFILE - - This includes the contents of another CSV rules file at this point. - RULESFILE is an absolute file path or a path relative to the current - file's directory. This can be useful for sharing common rules between - several rules files, eg: - - # someaccount.csv.rules - - ## someaccount-specific rules - fields date,description,amount - account1 assets:someaccount - account2 expenses:misc - - ## common rules - include categorisation.rules - - balance-type - Balance assertions generated by assigning to balanceN are of the simple - = type by default, which is a single-commodity, subaccount-excluding - assertion. You may find the subaccount-including variants more useful, - eg if you have created some virtual subaccounts of checking to help - with budgeting. You can select a different type of assertion with the - balance-type rule: - - # balance assertions will consider all commodities and all subaccounts - balance-type ==* - - Here are the balance assertion types for quick reference: - - = single commodity, exclude subaccounts - =* single commodity, include subaccounts - == multi commodity, exclude subaccounts - ==* multi commodity, include subaccounts - - Tips - Rapid feedback - It's a good idea to get rapid feedback while creating/troubleshooting - CSV rules. Here's a good way, using entr from http://eradman.com/entr- - project : - - $ ls foo.csv* | entr bash -c 'echo ----; hledger -f foo.csv print desc:SOMEDESC' - - A desc: query (eg) is used to select just one, or a few, transactions - of interest. "bash -c" is used to run multiple commands, so we can - echo a separator each time the command re-runs, making it easier to - read the output. - - Valid CSV - hledger accepts CSV conforming to RFC 4180. When CSV values are - enclosed in quotes, note: - - o they must be double quotes (not single quotes) - - o spaces outside the quotes are not allowed - - File Extension - To help hledger identify the format and show the right error messages, - CSV/SSV/TSV files should normally be named with a .csv, .ssv or .tsv - filename extension. Or, the file path should be prefixed with csv:, - ssv: or tsv:. Eg: - - $ hledger -f foo.ssv print - - or: - - $ cat foo | hledger -f ssv:- foo - - You can override the file extension with a separator rule if needed. - See also: Input files in the hledger manual. - - Reading multiple CSV files - If you use multiple -f options to read multiple CSV files at once, - hledger will look for a correspondingly-named rules file for each CSV - file. But if you use the --rules-file option, that rules file will be - used for all the CSV files. - - Valid transactions - After reading a CSV file, hledger post-processes and validates the gen- - erated journal entries as it would for a journal file - balancing them, - applying balance assignments, and canonicalising amount styles. Any - errors at this stage will be reported in the usual way, displaying the - problem entry. - - There is one exception: balance assertions, if you have generated them, - will not be checked, since normally these will work only when the CSV - data is part of the main journal. If you do need to check balance - assertions generated from CSV right away, pipe into another hledger: - - $ hledger -f file.csv print | hledger -f- print - - Deduplicating, importing - When you download a CSV file periodically, eg to get your latest bank - transactions, the new file may overlap with the old one, containing - some of the same records. - - The import command will (a) detect the new transactions, and (b) append - just those transactions to your main journal. It is idempotent, so you - don't have to remember how many times you ran it or with which version - of the CSV. (It keeps state in a hidden .latest.FILE.csv file.) This - is the easiest way to import CSV data. Eg: - - # download the latest CSV files, then run this command. - # Note, no -f flags needed here. - $ hledger import *.csv [--dry] - - This method works for most CSV files. (Where records have a stable - chronological order, and new records appear only at the new end.) - - A number of other tools and workflows, hledger-specific and otherwise, - exist for converting, deduplicating, classifying and managing CSV data. - See: - - o https://hledger.org -> sidebar -> real world setups - - o https://plaintextaccounting.org -> data import/conversion - - Setting amounts - Some tips on using the amount-setting rules discussed above. - - Here are the ways to set a posting's amount: - - 1. If the CSV has a single amount field: - Assign (via a fields list or a field assignment) to amountN. This sets - the Nth posting's amount. N is usually 1 or 2 but can go up to 99. - - 2. If the CSV has separate amount fields for debit & credit (in & out): - - a. If both fields are unsigned: - Assign to amountN-in and amountN-out. This sets posting N's amount - to whichever of these has a non-zero value, and negates the "-out" - value. - - b. If either field is signed (can contain a minus sign): - Use a conditional rule to flip the sign (of non-empty values). - Since hledger always negates amountN-out, if it was already nega- - tive, we must undo that by negating once more (but only if the - field is non-empty): - - fields date, description, amount1-in, amount1-out - if %amount1-out [1-9] - amount1-out -%amount1-out - - c. If both fields, or neither field, can contain a non-zero value: - hledger normally expects exactly one of the fields to have a non- - zero value. Eg, the amountN-in/amountN-out rules would reject - value pairs like these: - - "", "" - "0", "0" - "1", "none" - - So, use smarter conditional rules to set the amount from the appro- - priate field. Eg, these rules would make it use only the value - containing non-zero digits, handling the above: - - fields date, description, in, out - if %in [1-9] - amount1 %in - if %out [1-9] - amount1 %out - - 3. If you are stuck with hledger <1.17, or you want posting 2's amount - converted to cost: - Assign to amount (or to amount-in and amount-out). (The old numberless - syntax, which sets amount1 and amount2.) - - 4. If the CSV has the balance instead of the transaction amount: - Assign to balanceN, which sets posting N's amount indirectly via a bal- - ance assignment. (Old syntax: balance, equivalent to balance1.) - - o If hledger guesses the wrong default account name: - When setting the amount via balance assertion, hledger may guess - the wrong default account name. So, set the account name explic- - itly, eg: - - fields date, description, balance1 - account1 assets:checking - - Amount signs - There is some special handling for amount signs, to simplify parsing - and sign-flipping: - - o If an amount value begins with a plus sign: - that will be removed: +AMT becomes AMT - - o If an amount value is parenthesised: - it will be de-parenthesised and sign-flipped: (AMT) becomes -AMT - - o If an amount value has two minus signs (or two sets of parentheses, - or a minus sign and parentheses): - they cancel out and will be removed: --AMT or -(AMT) becomes AMT - - o If an amount value contains just a sign (or just a set of parenthe- - ses): - that is removed, making it an empty value. "+" or "-" or "()" becomes - "". - - Setting currency/commodity - If the currency/commodity symbol is included in the CSV's amount - field(s): - - 2020-01-01,foo,$123.00 - - you don't have to do anything special for the commodity symbol, it will - be assigned as part of the amount. Eg: - - fields date,description,amount - - 2020-01-01 foo - expenses:unknown $123.00 - income:unknown $-123.00 - - If the currency is provided as a separate CSV field: - - 2020-01-01,foo,USD,123.00 - - You can assign that to the currency pseudo-field, which has the special - effect of prepending itself to every amount in the transaction (on the - left, with no separating space): - - fields date,description,currency,amount - - 2020-01-01 foo - expenses:unknown USD123.00 - income:unknown USD-123.00 - - Or, you can use a field assignment to construct the amount yourself, - with more control. Eg to put the symbol on the right, and separated by - a space: - - fields date,description,cur,amt - amount %amt %cur - - 2020-01-01 foo - expenses:unknown 123.00 USD - income:unknown -123.00 USD - - Note we used a temporary field name (cur) that is not currency - that - would trigger the prepending effect, which we don't want here. - - Amount decimal places - Like amounts in a journal file, the amounts generated by CSV rules like - amount1 influence commodity display styles, such as the number of deci- - mal places displayed in reports. - - The original amounts as written in the CSV file do not affect display - style (because we don't yet reliably know their commodity). - - Referencing other fields - In field assignments, you can interpolate only CSV fields, not hledger - fields. In the example below, there's both a CSV field and a hledger - field named amount1, but %amount1 always means the CSV field, not the - hledger field: - - # Name the third CSV field "amount1" - fields date,description,amount1 - - # Set hledger's amount1 to the CSV amount1 field followed by USD - amount1 %amount1 USD - - # Set comment to the CSV amount1 (not the amount1 assigned above) - comment %amount1 - - Here, since there's no CSV amount1 field, %amount1 will produce a lit- - eral "amount1": - - fields date,description,csvamount - amount1 %csvamount USD - # Can't interpolate amount1 here - comment %amount1 - - When there are multiple field assignments to the same hledger field, - only the last one takes effect. Here, comment's value will be be B, or - C if "something" is matched, but never A: - - comment A - comment B - if something - comment C - - How CSV rules are evaluated - Here's how to think of CSV rules being evaluated (if you really need - to). First, - - o include - all includes are inlined, from top to bottom, depth first. - (At each include point the file is inlined and scanned for further - includes, recursively, before proceeding.) - - Then "global" rules are evaluated, top to bottom. If a rule is - repeated, the last one wins: - - o skip (at top level) - - o date-format - - o newest-first - - o fields - names the CSV fields, optionally sets up initial assignments - to hledger fields - - Then for each CSV record in turn: - - o test all if blocks. If any of them contain a end rule, skip all - remaining CSV records. Otherwise if any of them contain a skip rule, - skip that many CSV records. If there are multiple matched skip - rules, the first one wins. - - o collect all field assignments at top level and in matched if blocks. - When there are multiple assignments for a field, keep only the last - one. - - o compute a value for each hledger field - either the one that was - assigned to it (and interpolate the %CSVFIELDNAME references), or a - default - - o generate a synthetic hledger transaction from these values. - - This is all part of the CSV reader, one of several readers hledger can - use to parse input files. When all files have been read successfully, - the transactions are passed as input to whichever hledger command the - user specified. - -TIMECLOCK FORMAT - The time logging format of timeclock.el, as read by hledger. - - hledger can read time logs in timeclock format. As with Ledger, these - are (a subset of) timeclock.el's format, containing clock-in and clock- - out entries as in the example below. The date is a simple date. The - time format is HH:MM[:SS][+-ZZZZ]. Seconds and timezone are optional. - The timezone, if present, must be four digits and is ignored (currently - the time is always interpreted as a local time). - - i 2015/03/30 09:00:00 some:account name optional description after two spaces - o 2015/03/30 09:20:00 - i 2015/03/31 22:21:45 another account - o 2015/04/01 02:00:34 - - hledger treats each clock-in/clock-out pair as a transaction posting - some number of hours to an account. Or if the session spans more than - one day, it is split into several transactions, one for each day. For - the above time log, hledger print generates these journal entries: - - $ hledger -f t.timeclock print - 2015-03-30 * optional description after two spaces - (some:account name) 0.33h - - 2015-03-31 * 22:21-23:59 - (another account) 1.64h - - 2015-04-01 * 00:00-02:00 - (another account) 2.01h - - Here is a sample.timeclock to download and some queries to try: - - $ hledger -f sample.timeclock balance # current time balances - $ hledger -f sample.timeclock register -p 2009/3 # sessions in march 2009 - $ hledger -f sample.timeclock register -p weekly --depth 1 --empty # time summary by week - - To generate time logs, ie to clock in and clock out, you could: - - o use emacs and the built-in timeclock.el, or the extended timeclock- - x.el and perhaps the extras in ledgerutils.el - - o at the command line, use these bash aliases: shell alias ti="echo - i `date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'` \$* >>$TIMELOG" alias to="echo o - `date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'` >>$TIMELOG" - - o or use the old ti and to scripts in the ledger 2.x repository. These - rely on a "timeclock" executable which I think is just the ledger 2 - executable renamed. - -TIMEDOT FORMAT - hledger's human-friendly time logging format. - - Timedot is a plain text format for logging dated, categorised quanti- - ties (of time, usually), supported by hledger. It is convenient for - approximate and retroactive time logging, eg when the real-time clock- - in/out required with a timeclock file is too precise or too interrup- - tive. It can be formatted like a bar chart, making clear at a glance - where time was spent. - - Though called "timedot", this format is read by hledger as commodity- - less quantities, so it could be used to represent dated quantities - other than time. In the docs below we'll assume it's time. - - A timedot file contains a series of day entries. A day entry begins - with a non-indented hledger-style simple date (Y-M-D, Y/M/D, Y.M.D..) - Any additional text on the same line is used as a transaction descrip- - tion for this day. - - This is followed by optionally-indented timelog items for that day, one - per line. Each timelog item is a note, usually a - hledger:style:account:name representing a time category, followed by - two or more spaces, and a quantity. Each timelog item generates a - hledger transaction. - - Quantities can be written as: - - o dots: a sequence of dots (.) representing quarter hours. Spaces may - optionally be used for grouping. Eg: .... .. - - o an integral or decimal number, representing hours. Eg: 1.5 - - o an integral or decimal number immediately followed by a unit symbol - s, m, h, d, w, mo, or y, representing seconds, minutes, hours, days - weeks, months or years respectively. Eg: 90m. The following equiva- - lencies are assumed, currently: 1m = 60s, 1h = 60m, 1d = 24h, 1w = - 7d, 1mo = 30d, 1y=365d. - - There is some flexibility allowing notes and todo lists to be kept - right in the time log, if needed: - - o Blank lines and lines beginning with # or ; are ignored. - - o Lines not ending with a double-space and quantity are parsed as items - taking no time, which will not appear in balance reports by default. - (Add -E to see them.) - - o Org mode headlines (lines beginning with one or more * followed by a - space) can be used as date lines or timelog items (the stars are - ignored). Also all org headlines before the first date line are - ignored. This means org users can manage their timelog as an org - outline (eg using org-mode/orgstruct-mode in Emacs), for organisa- - tion, faster navigation, controlling visibility etc. - - Examples: - - # on this day, 6h was spent on client work, 1.5h on haskell FOSS work, etc. - 2016/2/1 - inc:client1 .... .... .... .... .... .... - fos:haskell .... .. - biz:research . - - 2016/2/2 - inc:client1 .... .... - biz:research . - - 2016/2/3 - inc:client1 4 - fos:hledger 3 - biz:research 1 - - * Time log - ** 2020-01-01 - *** adm:time . - *** adm:finance . - - * 2020 Work Diary - ** Q1 - *** 2020-02-29 - **** DONE - 0700 yoga - **** UNPLANNED - **** BEGUN - hom:chores - cleaning ... - water plants - outdoor - one full watering can - indoor - light watering - **** TODO - adm:planning: trip - *** LATER - - Reporting: - - $ hledger -f t.timedot print date:2016/2/2 - 2016-02-02 * - (inc:client1) 2.00 - - 2016-02-02 * - (biz:research) 0.25 - - $ hledger -f t.timedot bal --daily --tree - Balance changes in 2016-02-01-2016-02-03: - - || 2016-02-01d 2016-02-02d 2016-02-03d - ============++======================================== - biz || 0.25 0.25 1.00 - research || 0.25 0.25 1.00 - fos || 1.50 0 3.00 - haskell || 1.50 0 0 - hledger || 0 0 3.00 - inc || 6.00 2.00 4.00 - client1 || 6.00 2.00 4.00 - ------------++---------------------------------------- - || 7.75 2.25 8.00 - - I prefer to use period for separating account components. We can make - this work with an account alias: - - 2016/2/4 - fos.hledger.timedot 4 - fos.ledger .. - - $ hledger -f t.timedot --alias /\\./=: bal date:2016/2/4 --tree - 4.50 fos - 4.00 hledger:timedot - 0.50 ledger - -------------------- - 4.50 - - Here is a sample.timedot. - -COMMON TASKS - Here are some quick examples of how to do some basic tasks with - hledger. For more details, see the reference section below, the - hledger_journal(5) manual, or the more extensive docs at - https://hledger.org. - - Getting help - $ hledger # show available commands - $ hledger --help # show common options - $ hledger CMD --help # show common and command options, and command help - $ hledger help # show available manuals/topics - $ hledger help hledger # show hledger manual as info/man/text (auto-chosen) - $ hledger help journal --man # show the journal manual as a man page - $ hledger help --help # show more detailed help for the help command - - Find more docs, chat, mail list, reddit, issue tracker: - https://hledger.org#help-feedback - - Constructing command lines - hledger has an extensive and powerful command line interface. We - strive to keep it simple and ergonomic, but you may run into one of the - confusing real world details described in OPTIONS, below. If that hap- - pens, here are some tips that may help: - - o command-specific options must go after the command (it's fine to put - all options there) (hledger CMD OPTS ARGS) - - o running add-on executables directly simplifies command line parsing - (hledger-ui OPTS ARGS) - - o enclose "problematic" args in single quotes - - o if needed, also add a backslash to hide regular expression metachar- - acters from the shell - - o to see how a misbehaving command is being parsed, add --debug=2. - - Starting a journal file - hledger looks for your accounting data in a journal file, - $HOME/.hledger.journal by default: - - $ hledger stats - The hledger journal file "/Users/simon/.hledger.journal" was not found. - Please create it first, eg with "hledger add" or a text editor. - Or, specify an existing journal file with -f or LEDGER_FILE. - - You can override this by setting the LEDGER_FILE environment variable. - It's a good practice to keep this important file under version control, - and to start a new file each year. So you could do something like - this: - - $ mkdir ~/finance - $ cd ~/finance - $ git init - Initialized empty Git repository in /Users/simon/finance/.git/ - $ touch 2020.journal - $ echo "export LEDGER_FILE=$HOME/finance/2020.journal" >> ~/.bashrc - $ source ~/.bashrc - $ hledger stats - Main file : /Users/simon/finance/2020.journal - Included files : - Transactions span : to (0 days) - Last transaction : none - Transactions : 0 (0.0 per day) - Transactions last 30 days: 0 (0.0 per day) - Transactions last 7 days : 0 (0.0 per day) - Payees/descriptions : 0 - Accounts : 0 (depth 0) - Commodities : 0 () - Market prices : 0 () - - Setting opening balances - Pick a starting date for which you can look up the balances of some - real-world assets (bank accounts, wallet..) and liabilities (credit - cards..). - - To avoid a lot of data entry, you may want to start with just one or - two accounts, like your checking account or cash wallet; and pick a - recent starting date, like today or the start of the week. You can - always come back later and add more accounts and older transactions, eg - going back to january 1st. - - Add an opening balances transaction to the journal, declaring the bal- - ances on this date. Here are two ways to do it: - - o The first way: open the journal in any text editor and save an entry - like this: - - 2020-01-01 * opening balances - assets:bank:checking $1000 = $1000 - assets:bank:savings $2000 = $2000 - assets:cash $100 = $100 - liabilities:creditcard $-50 = $-50 - equity:opening/closing balances - - These are start-of-day balances, ie whatever was in the account at - the end of the previous day. - - The * after the date is an optional status flag. Here it means - "cleared & confirmed". - - The currency symbols are optional, but usually a good idea as you'll - be dealing with multiple currencies sooner or later. - - The = amounts are optional balance assertions, providing extra error - checking. - - o The second way: run hledger add and follow the prompts to record a - similar transaction: - - $ hledger add - Adding transactions to journal file /Users/simon/finance/2020.journal - Any command line arguments will be used as defaults. - Use tab key to complete, readline keys to edit, enter to accept defaults. - An optional (CODE) may follow transaction dates. - An optional ; COMMENT may follow descriptions or amounts. - If you make a mistake, enter < at any prompt to go one step backward. - To end a transaction, enter . when prompted. - To quit, enter . at a date prompt or press control-d or control-c. - Date [2020-02-07]: 2020-01-01 - Description: * opening balances - Account 1: assets:bank:checking - Amount 1: $1000 - Account 2: assets:bank:savings - Amount 2 [$-1000]: $2000 - Account 3: assets:cash - Amount 3 [$-3000]: $100 - Account 4: liabilities:creditcard - Amount 4 [$-3100]: $-50 - Account 5: equity:opening/closing balances - Amount 5 [$-3050]: - Account 6 (or . or enter to finish this transaction): . - 2020-01-01 * opening balances - assets:bank:checking $1000 - assets:bank:savings $2000 - assets:cash $100 - liabilities:creditcard $-50 - equity:opening/closing balances $-3050 - - Save this transaction to the journal ? [y]: - Saved. - Starting the next transaction (. or ctrl-D/ctrl-C to quit) - Date [2020-01-01]: . - - If you're using version control, this could be a good time to commit - the journal. Eg: - - $ git commit -m 'initial balances' 2020.journal - - Recording transactions - As you spend or receive money, you can record these transactions using - one of the methods above (text editor, hledger add) or by using the - hledger-iadd or hledger-web add-ons, or by using the import command to - convert CSV data downloaded from your bank. - - Here are some simple transactions, see the hledger_journal(5) manual - and hledger.org for more ideas: - - 2020/1/10 * gift received - assets:cash $20 - income:gifts - - 2020.1.12 * farmers market - expenses:food $13 - assets:cash - - 2020-01-15 paycheck - income:salary - assets:bank:checking $1000 - - Reconciling - Periodically you should reconcile - compare your hledger-reported bal- - ances against external sources of truth, like bank statements or your - bank's website - to be sure that your ledger accurately represents the - real-world balances (and, that the real-world institutions have not - made a mistake!). This gets easy and fast with (1) practice and (2) - frequency. If you do it daily, it can take 2-10 minutes. If you let - it pile up, expect it to take longer as you hunt down errors and dis- - crepancies. - - A typical workflow: - - 1. Reconcile cash. Count what's in your wallet. Compare with what - hledger reports (hledger bal cash). If they are different, try to - remember the missing transaction, or look for the error in the - already-recorded transactions. A register report can be helpful - (hledger reg cash). If you can't find the error, add an adjustment - transaction. Eg if you have $105 after the above, and can't explain - the missing $2, it could be: - - 2020-01-16 * adjust cash - assets:cash $-2 = $105 - expenses:misc - - 2. Reconcile checking. Log in to your bank's website. Compare today's - (cleared) balance with hledger's cleared balance (hledger bal check- - ing -C). If they are different, track down the error or record the - missing transaction(s) or add an adjustment transaction, similar to - the above. Unlike the cash case, you can usually compare the trans- - action history and running balance from your bank with the one - reported by hledger reg checking -C. This will be easier if you - generally record transaction dates quite similar to your bank's - clearing dates. - - 3. Repeat for other asset/liability accounts. - - Tip: instead of the register command, use hledger-ui to see a live- - updating register while you edit the journal: hledger-ui --watch --reg- - ister checking -C - - After reconciling, it could be a good time to mark the reconciled - transactions' status as "cleared and confirmed", if you want to track - that, by adding the * marker. Eg in the paycheck transaction above, - insert * between 2020-01-15 and paycheck - - If you're using version control, this can be another good time to com- - mit: - - $ git commit -m 'txns' 2020.journal - - Reporting - Here are some basic reports. - - Show all transactions: - - $ hledger print - 2020-01-01 * opening balances - assets:bank:checking $1000 - assets:bank:savings $2000 - assets:cash $100 - liabilities:creditcard $-50 - equity:opening/closing balances $-3050 - - 2020-01-10 * gift received - assets:cash $20 - income:gifts - - 2020-01-12 * farmers market - expenses:food $13 - assets:cash - - 2020-01-15 * paycheck - income:salary - assets:bank:checking $1000 - - 2020-01-16 * adjust cash - assets:cash $-2 = $105 - expenses:misc - - Show account names, and their hierarchy: - - $ hledger accounts --tree - assets - bank - checking - savings - cash - equity - opening/closing balances - expenses - food - misc - income - gifts - salary - liabilities - creditcard - - Show all account totals: - - $ hledger balance - $4105 assets - $4000 bank - $2000 checking - $2000 savings - $105 cash - $-3050 equity:opening/closing balances - $15 expenses - $13 food - $2 misc - $-1020 income - $-20 gifts - $-1000 salary - $-50 liabilities:creditcard - -------------------- - 0 - - Show only asset and liability balances, as a flat list, limited to - depth 2: - - $ hledger bal assets liabilities --flat -2 - $4000 assets:bank - $105 assets:cash - $-50 liabilities:creditcard - -------------------- - $4055 - - Show the same thing without negative numbers, formatted as a simple - balance sheet: - - $ hledger bs --flat -2 - Balance Sheet 2020-01-16 - - || 2020-01-16 - ========================++============ - Assets || - ------------------------++------------ - assets:bank || $4000 - assets:cash || $105 - ------------------------++------------ - || $4105 - ========================++============ - Liabilities || - ------------------------++------------ - liabilities:creditcard || $50 - ------------------------++------------ - || $50 - ========================++============ - Net: || $4055 - - The final total is your "net worth" on the end date. (Or use bse for a - full balance sheet with equity.) - - Show income and expense totals, formatted as an income statement: - - hledger is - Income Statement 2020-01-01-2020-01-16 - - || 2020-01-01-2020-01-16 - ===============++======================= - Revenues || - ---------------++----------------------- - income:gifts || $20 - income:salary || $1000 - ---------------++----------------------- - || $1020 - ===============++======================= - Expenses || - ---------------++----------------------- - expenses:food || $13 - expenses:misc || $2 - ---------------++----------------------- - || $15 - ===============++======================= - Net: || $1005 - - The final total is your net income during this period. - - Show transactions affecting your wallet, with running total: - - $ hledger register cash - 2020-01-01 opening balances assets:cash $100 $100 - 2020-01-10 gift received assets:cash $20 $120 - 2020-01-12 farmers market assets:cash $-13 $107 - 2020-01-16 adjust cash assets:cash $-2 $105 - - Show weekly posting counts as a bar chart: - - $ hledger activity -W - 2019-12-30 ***** - 2020-01-06 **** - 2020-01-13 **** - - Migrating to a new file - At the end of the year, you may want to continue your journal in a new - file, so that old transactions don't slow down or clutter your reports, - and to help ensure the integrity of your accounting history. See the - close command. - - If using version control, don't forget to git add the new file. - -LIMITATIONS - The need to precede add-on command options with -- when invoked from - hledger is awkward. - - When input data contains non-ascii characters, a suitable system locale - must be configured (or there will be an unhelpful error). Eg on POSIX, - set LANG to something other than C. - - In a Microsoft Windows CMD window, non-ascii characters and colours are - not supported. - - On Windows, non-ascii characters may not display correctly when running - a hledger built in CMD in MSYS/CYGWIN, or vice-versa. - - In a Cygwin/MSYS/Mintty window, the tab key is not supported in hledger - add. - - Not all of Ledger's journal file syntax is supported. See file format - differences. - - On large data files, hledger is slower and uses more memory than - Ledger. - -TROUBLESHOOTING - Here are some issues you might encounter when you run hledger (and - remember you can also seek help from the IRC channel, mail list or bug - tracker): - - Successfully installed, but "No command 'hledger' found" - stack and cabal install binaries into a special directory, which should - be added to your PATH environment variable. Eg on unix-like systems, - that is ~/.local/bin and ~/.cabal/bin respectively. - - I set a custom LEDGER_FILE, but hledger is still using the default file - LEDGER_FILE should be a real environment variable, not just a shell - variable. The command env | grep LEDGER_FILE should show it. You may - need to use export. Here's an explanation. - - Getting errors like "Illegal byte sequence" or "Invalid or incomplete - multibyte or wide character" or "commitAndReleaseBuffer: invalid argu- - ment (invalid character)" - Programs compiled with GHC (hledger, haskell build tools, etc.) need to - have a UTF-8-aware locale configured in the environment, otherwise they - will fail with these kinds of errors when they encounter non-ascii - characters. - - To fix it, set the LANG environment variable to some locale which sup- - ports UTF-8. The locale you choose must be installed on your system. - - Here's an example of setting LANG temporarily, on Ubuntu GNU/Linux: - - $ file my.journal - my.journal: UTF-8 Unicode text # the file is UTF8-encoded - $ echo $LANG - C # LANG is set to the default locale, which does not support UTF8 - $ locale -a # which locales are installed ? - C - en_US.utf8 # here's a UTF8-aware one we can use - POSIX - $ LANG=en_US.utf8 hledger -f my.journal print # ensure it is used for this command - - If available, C.UTF-8 will also work. If your preferred locale isn't - listed by locale -a, you might need to install it. Eg on - Ubuntu/Debian: - - $ apt-get install language-pack-fr - $ locale -a - C - en_US.utf8 - fr_BE.utf8 - fr_CA.utf8 - fr_CH.utf8 - fr_FR.utf8 - fr_LU.utf8 - POSIX - $ LANG=fr_FR.utf8 hledger -f my.journal print - - Here's how you could set it permanently, if you use a bash shell: - - $ echo "export LANG=en_US.utf8" >>~/.bash_profile - $ bash --login - - Exact spelling and capitalisation may be important. Note the differ- - ence on MacOS (UTF-8, not utf8). Some platforms (eg ubuntu) allow - variant spellings, but others (eg macos) require it to be exact: - - $ locale -a | grep -iE en_us.*utf - en_US.UTF-8 - $ LANG=en_US.UTF-8 hledger -f my.journal print - - - -REPORTING BUGS - Report bugs at http://bugs.hledger.org (or on the #hledger IRC channel - or hledger mail list) - - -AUTHORS - Simon Michael 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-1.22.1 August 2021 HLEDGER(1) + manual is for hledger 1.22.2. + +SYNOPSIS + hledger + + hledger [-f FILE] COMMAND [OPTIONS] [ARGS] + + hledger [-f FILE] ADDONCMD -- [OPTIONS] [ARGS] + +DESCRIPTION + hledger is a reliable, cross-platform set of programs for tracking + money, time, or any other commodity, using double-entry accounting and + a simple, editable file format. hledger is inspired by and largely + compatible with ledger(1). + + The basic function of the hledger CLI is to read a plain text file + describing financial transactions (in accounting terms, a general jour- + nal) and print useful reports on standard output, or export them as + CSV. hledger can also read some other file formats such as CSV files, + translating them to journal format. Additionally, hledger lists other + hledger-* executables found in the user's $PATH and can invoke them as + subcommands. + + hledger reads data from one or more files in hledger journal, time- + clock, timedot, or CSV format specified with -f, or $LEDGER_FILE, or + $HOME/.hledger.journal (on windows, perhaps + C:/Users/USER/.hledger.journal). If using $LEDGER_FILE, note this must + be a real environment variable, not a shell variable. You can specify + standard input with -f-. + + Transactions are dated movements of money between two (or more) named + accounts, and are recorded with journal entries like this: + + 2015/10/16 bought food + expenses:food $10 + assets:cash + + Most users use a text editor to edit the journal, usually with an edi- + tor mode such as ledger-mode for added convenience. hledger's interac- + tive add command is another way to record new transactions. hledger + never changes existing transactions. + + To get started, you can either save some entries like the above in + ~/.hledger.journal, or run hledger add and follow the prompts. Then + try some commands like hledger print or hledger balance. Run hledger + with no arguments for a list of commands. + +OPTIONS + General options + To see general usage help, including general options which are sup- + ported by most hledger commands, run hledger -h. + + General help options: + + -h --help + show general or COMMAND help + + --man show general or COMMAND user manual with man + + --info show general or COMMAND user manual with info + + --version + show general or ADDONCMD version + + --debug[=N] + show debug output (levels 1-9, default: 1) + + General input options: + + -f FILE --file=FILE + use a different input file. For stdin, use - (default: + $LEDGER_FILE or $HOME/.hledger.journal) + + --rules-file=RULESFILE + Conversion rules file to use when reading CSV (default: + FILE.rules) + + --separator=CHAR + Field separator to expect when reading CSV (default: ',') + + --alias=OLD=NEW + rename accounts named OLD to NEW + + --anon anonymize accounts and payees + + --pivot FIELDNAME + use some other field or tag for the account name + + -I --ignore-assertions + disable balance assertion checks (note: does not disable balance + assignments) + + -s --strict + do extra error checking (check that all posted accounts are + declared) + + General reporting options: + + -b --begin=DATE + include postings/txns on or after this date (will be adjusted to + preceding subperiod start when using a report interval) + + -e --end=DATE + include postings/txns before this date (will be adjusted to fol- + lowing subperiod end when using a report interval) + + -D --daily + multiperiod/multicolumn report by day + + -W --weekly + multiperiod/multicolumn report by week + + -M --monthly + multiperiod/multicolumn report by month + + -Q --quarterly + multiperiod/multicolumn report by quarter + + -Y --yearly + multiperiod/multicolumn report by year + + -p --period=PERIODEXP + set start date, end date, and/or reporting interval all at once + using period expressions syntax + + --date2 + match the secondary date instead (see command help for other + effects) + + -U --unmarked + include only unmarked postings/txns (can combine with -P or -C) + + -P --pending + include only pending postings/txns + + -C --cleared + include only cleared postings/txns + + -R --real + include only non-virtual postings + + -NUM --depth=NUM + hide/aggregate accounts or postings more than NUM levels deep + + -E --empty + show items with zero amount, normally hidden (and vice-versa in + hledger-ui/hledger-web) + + -B --cost + convert amounts to their cost/selling amount at transaction time + + -V --market + convert amounts to their market value in default valuation com- + modities + + -X --exchange=COMM + convert amounts to their market value in commodity COMM + + --value + convert amounts to cost or market value, more flexibly than + -B/-V/-X + + --infer-market-prices + use transaction prices (recorded with @ or @@) as additional + market prices, as if they were P directives + + --auto apply automated posting rules to modify transactions. + + --forecast + generate future transactions from periodic transaction rules, + for the next 6 months or till report end date. In hledger-ui, + also make ordinary future transactions visible. + + --color=WHEN (or --colour=WHEN) + Should color-supporting commands use ANSI color codes in text + output. 'auto' (default): whenever stdout seems to be a color- + supporting terminal. 'always' or 'yes': always, useful eg when + piping output into 'less -R'. 'never' or 'no': never. A + NO_COLOR environment variable overrides this. + + When a reporting option appears more than once in the command line, the + last one takes precedence. + + Some reporting options can also be written as query arguments. + + Command options + To see options for a particular command, including command-specific + options, run: hledger COMMAND -h. + + Command-specific options must be written after the command name, eg: + hledger print -x. + + Additionally, if the command is an add-on, you may need to put its + options after a double-hyphen, eg: hledger ui -- --watch. Or, you can + run the add-on executable directly: hledger-ui --watch. + + Command arguments + Most hledger commands accept arguments after the command name, which + are often a query, filtering the data in some way. + + You can save a set of command line options/arguments in a file, and + then reuse them by writing @FILENAME as a command line argument. Eg: + hledger bal @foo.args. (To prevent this, eg if you have an argument + that begins with a literal @, precede it with --, eg: hledger bal -- + @ARG). + + Inside the argument file, each line should contain just one option or + argument. Avoid the use of spaces, except inside quotes (or you'll see + a confusing error). Between a flag and its argument, use = (or noth- + ing). Bad: + + assets depth:2 + -X USD + + Good: + + assets + depth:2 + -X=USD + + For special characters (see below), use one less level of quoting than + you would at the command prompt. Bad: + + -X"$" + + Good: + + -X$ + + See also: Save frequently used options. + + Special characters + Single escaping (shell metacharacters) + In shell command lines, characters significant to your shell - such as + spaces, <, >, (, ), |, $ and \ - should be "shell-escaped" if you want + hledger to see them. This is done by enclosing them in single or dou- + ble quotes, or by writing a backslash before them. Eg to match an + account name containing a space: + + $ hledger register 'credit card' + + or: + + $ hledger register credit\ card + + Windows users should keep in mind that cmd treats single quote as a + regular character, so you should be using double quotes exclusively. + PowerShell treats both single and double quotes as quotes. + + Double escaping (regular expression metacharacters) + Characters significant in regular expressions (described below) - such + as ., ^, $, [, ], (, ), |, and \ - may need to be "regex-escaped" if + you don't want them to be interpreted by hledger's regular expression + engine. This is done by writing backslashes before them, but since + backslash is typically also a shell metacharacter, both shell-escaping + and regex-escaping will be needed. Eg to match a literal $ sign while + using the bash shell: + + $ hledger balance cur:'\$' + + or: + + $ hledger balance cur:\\$ + + Triple escaping (for add-on commands) + When you use hledger to run an external add-on command (described + below), one level of shell-escaping is lost from any options or argu- + ments intended for by the add-on command, so those need an extra level + of shell-escaping. Eg to match a literal $ sign while using the bash + shell and running an add-on command (ui): + + $ hledger ui cur:'\\$' + + or: + + $ hledger ui cur:\\\\$ + + If you wondered why four backslashes, perhaps this helps: + + + unescaped: $ + escaped: \$ + double-escaped: \\$ + triple-escaped: \\\\$ + + Or, you can avoid the extra escaping by running the add-on executable + directly: + + $ hledger-ui cur:\\$ + + Less escaping + Options and arguments are sometimes used in places other than the shell + command line, where shell-escaping is not needed, so there you should + use one less level of escaping. Those places include: + + o an @argumentfile + + o hledger-ui's filter field + + o hledger-web's search form + + o GHCI's prompt (used by developers). + + Unicode characters + hledger is expected to handle non-ascii characters correctly: + + o they should be parsed correctly in input files and on the command + line, by all hledger tools (add, iadd, hledger-web's search/add/edit + forms, etc.) + + o they should be displayed correctly by all hledger tools, and on- + screen alignment should be preserved. + + This requires a well-configured environment. Here are some tips: + + o A system locale must be configured, and it must be one that can + decode the characters being used. In bash, you can set a locale like + this: export LANG=en_US.UTF-8. There are some more details in Trou- + bleshooting. This step is essential - without it, hledger will quit + on encountering a non-ascii character (as with all GHC-compiled pro- + grams). + + o your terminal software (eg Terminal.app, iTerm, CMD.exe, xterm..) + must support unicode + + o the terminal must be using a font which includes the required unicode + glyphs + + o the terminal should be configured to display wide characters as dou- + ble width (for report alignment) + + o on Windows, for best results you should run hledger in the same kind + of environment in which it was built. Eg hledger built in the stan- + dard CMD.EXE environment (like the binaries on our download page) + might show display problems when run in a cygwin or msys terminal, + and vice versa. (See eg #961). + + Regular expressions + hledger uses regular expressions in a number of places: + + o query terms, on the command line and in the hledger-web search form: + REGEX, desc:REGEX, cur:REGEX, tag:...=REGEX + + o CSV rules conditional blocks: if REGEX ... + + o account alias directives and options: alias /REGEX/ = REPLACEMENT, + --alias /REGEX/=REPLACEMENT + + hledger's regular expressions come from the regex-tdfa library. If + they're not doing what you expect, it's important to know exactly what + they support: + + 1. they are case insensitive + + 2. they are infix matching (they do not need to match the entire thing + being matched) + + 3. they are POSIX ERE (extended regular expressions) + + 4. they also support GNU word boundaries (\b, \B, \<, \>) + + 5. they do not support backreferences; if you write \1, it will match + the digit 1. Except when doing text replacement, eg in account + aliases, where backreferences can be used in the replacement string + to reference capturing groups in the search regexp. + + 6. they do not support mode modifiers ((?s)), character classes (\w, + \d), or anything else not mentioned above. + + Some things to note: + + o In the alias directive and --alias option, regular expressions must + be enclosed in forward slashes (/REGEX/). Elsewhere in hledger, + these are not required. + + o In queries, to match a regular expression metacharacter like $ as a + literal character, prepend a backslash. Eg to search for amounts + with the dollar sign in hledger-web, write cur:\$. + + o On the command line, some metacharacters like $ have a special mean- + ing to the shell and so must be escaped at least once more. See Spe- + cial characters. + +ENVIRONMENT + LEDGER_FILE The journal file path when not specified with -f. Default: + ~/.hledger.journal (on windows, perhaps C:/Users/USER/.hledger.jour- + nal). + + A typical value is ~/DIR/YYYY.journal, where DIR is a version-con- + trolled finance directory and YYYY is the current year. Or ~/DIR/cur- + rent.journal, where current.journal is a symbolic link to YYYY.journal. + + On Mac computers, you can set this and other environment variables in a + more thorough way that also affects applications started from the GUI + (say, an Emacs dock icon). Eg on MacOS Catalina I have a + ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist file containing + + { + "LEDGER_FILE" : "~/finance/current.journal" + } + + To see the effect you may need to killall Dock, or reboot. + + COLUMNS The screen width used by the register command. Default: the + full terminal width. + + NO_COLOR If this variable exists with any value, hledger will not use + ANSI color codes in terminal output. This overrides the + --color/--colour option. + +DATA FILES + hledger reads transactions from one or more data files. The default + data file is $HOME/.hledger.journal (or on Windows, something like + C:/Users/USER/.hledger.journal). + + You can override this with the $LEDGER_FILE environment variable: + + $ setenv LEDGER_FILE ~/finance/2016.journal + $ hledger stats + + or with one or more -f/--file options: + + $ hledger -f /some/file -f another_file stats + + The file name - means standard input: + + $ cat some.journal | hledger -f- + + Data formats + Usually the data file is in hledger's journal format, but it can be in + any of the supported file formats, which currently are: + + + Reader: Reads: Used for file exten- + sions: + ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + journal hledger journal files and some Ledger .journal .j .hledger + journals, for transactions .ledger + time- timeclock files, for precise time log- .timeclock + clock ging + timedot timedot files, for approximate time .timedot + logging + csv comma/semicolon/tab/other-separated .csv .ssv .tsv + values, for data import + + These formats are described in their own sections, below. + + hledger detects the format automatically based on the file extensions + shown above. If it can't recognise the file extension, it assumes + journal format. So for non-journal files, it's important to use a + recognised file extension, so as to either read successfully or to show + relevant error messages. + + You can also force a specific reader/format by prefixing the file path + with the format and a colon. Eg, to read a .dat file as csv format: + + $ hledger -f csv:/some/csv-file.dat stats + + Or to read stdin (-) as timeclock format: + + $ echo 'i 2009/13/1 08:00:00' | hledger print -ftimeclock:- + + Multiple files + You can specify multiple -f options, to read multiple files as one big + journal. There are some limitations with this: + + o most directives do not affect sibling files + + o balance assertions will not see any account balances from previous + files + + If you need either of those things, you can + + o use a single parent file which includes the others + + o or concatenate the files into one before reading, eg: cat a.journal + b.journal | hledger -f- CMD. + + Strict mode + hledger checks input files for valid data. By default, the most impor- + tant errors are detected, while still accepting easy journal files + without a lot of declarations: + + o Are the input files parseable, with valid syntax ? + + o Are all transactions balanced ? + + o Do all balance assertions pass ? + + With the -s/--strict flag, additional checks are performed: + + o Are all accounts posted to, declared with an account directive ? + (Account error checking) + + o Are all commodities declared with a commodity directive ? (Commodity + error checking) + + o Are all commodity conversions declared explicitly ? + + You can also use the check command to run these and some additional + checks. + +TIME PERIODS + Smart dates + hledger's user interfaces accept a flexible "smart date" syntax. Smart + dates allow some english words, can be relative to today's date, and + can have less-significant date parts omitted (defaulting to 1). + + Examples: + + + 2004/10/1, 2004-01-01, exact date, several separators allowed. Year + 2004.9.1 is 4+ digits, month is 1-12, day is 1-31 + 2004 start of year + 2004/10 start of month + 10/1 month and day in current year + 21 day in current month + october, oct start of month in current year + yesterday, today, tomor- -1, 0, 1 days from today + row + last/this/next -1, 0, 1 periods from the current period + day/week/month/quar- + ter/year + 20181201 8 digit YYYYMMDD with valid year month and day + 201812 6 digit YYYYMM with valid year and month + + Counterexamples - malformed digit sequences might give surprising + results: + + + 201813 6 digits with an invalid month is parsed as start of + 6-digit year + 20181301 8 digits with an invalid month is parsed as start of + 8-digit year + 20181232 8 digits with an invalid day gives an error + 201801012 9+ digits beginning with a valid YYYYMMDD gives an error + + + Report start & end date + By default, most hledger reports will show the full span of time repre- + sented by the journal data. The report start date will be the earliest + transaction or posting date, and the report end date will be the latest + transaction, posting, or market price date. + + Often you will want to see a shorter time span, such as the current + month. You can specify a start and/or end date using -b/--begin, + -e/--end, -p/--period or a date: query (described below). All of these + accept the smart date syntax. + + Some notes: + + o As in Ledger, end dates are exclusive, so you need to write the date + after the last day you want to include. + + o As noted in reporting options: among start/end dates specified with + options, the last (i.e. right-most) option takes precedence. + + o The effective report start and end dates are the intersection of the + start/end dates from options and that from date: queries. That is, + date:2019-01 date:2019 -p'2000 to 2030' yields January 2019, the + smallest common time span. + + o A report interval (see below) will adjust start/end dates, when + needed, so that they fall on subperiod boundaries. + + Examples: + + + -b 2016/3/17 begin on St. Patrick's day 2016 + -e 12/1 end at the start of december 1st of the current year + (11/30 will be the last date included) + -b thismonth all transactions on or after the 1st of the current month + -p thismonth all transactions in the current month + date:2016/3/17.. the above written as queries instead (.. can also be + replaced with -) + date:..12/1 + date:thismonth.. + date:thismonth + + Report intervals + A report interval can be specified so that commands like register, bal- + ance and activity become multi-period, showing each subperiod as a sep- + arate row or column. + + The following "standard" report intervals can be enabled by using their + corresponding flag: + + -D/--daily, -W/--weekly, -M/--monthly, -Q/--quarterly, -Y/--yearly. + + These standard intervals always start on natural interval boundaries: + eg --weekly starts on mondays, --monthly starts on the first of the + month, --yearly always starts on January 1st, etc. + + Certain more complex intervals, and more flexible boundary dates, can + be specified by -p/--period. These are described in period expres- + sions, below. + + Report intervals can only be specified by the flags above, and not by + query arguments, currently. + + Report intervals have another effect: multi-period reports are always + expanded to fill a whole number of subperiods. So if you use a report + interval (other than --daily), and you have specified a start or end + date, you may notice those dates being overridden (ie, the report + starts earlier than your requested start date, or ends later than your + requested end date). This is done to ensure "full" first and last sub- + periods, so that all subperiods' numbers are comparable. + + Period expressions + The -p/--period option accepts period expressions, a shorthand way of + expressing a start date, end date, and/or report interval all at once. + + Here's a basic period expression specifying the first quarter of 2009. + Note, hledger always treats start dates as inclusive and end dates as + exclusive: + + -p "from 2009/1/1 to 2009/4/1" + + Keywords like "from" and "to" are optional, and so are the spaces, as + long as you don't run two dates together. "to" can also be written as + ".." or "-". These are equivalent to the above: + + + -p "2009/1/1 2009/4/1" + -p2009/1/1to2009/4/1 + -p2009/1/1..2009/4/1 + + Dates are smart dates, so if the current year is 2009, the above can + also be written as: + + + -p "1/1 4/1" + + -p "january-apr" + -p "this year to 4/1" + + If you specify only one date, the missing start or end date will be the + earliest or latest transaction in your journal: + + + -p "from 2009/1/1" everything after january + 1, 2009 + -p "from 2009/1" the same + -p "from 2009" the same + -p "to 2009" everything before january + 1, 2009 + + A single date with no "from" or "to" defines both the start and end + date like so: + + + -p "2009" the year 2009; equivalent + to "2009/1/1 to 2010/1/1" + -p "2009/1" the month of jan; equiva- + lent to "2009/1/1 to + 2009/2/1" + -p "2009/1/1" just that day; equivalent + to "2009/1/1 to 2009/1/2" + + Or you can specify a single quarter like so: + + + -p "2009Q1" first quarter of 2009, + equivalent to "2009/1/1 to + 2009/4/1" + -p "q4" fourth quarter of the cur- + rent year + + The argument of -p can also begin with, or be, a report interval + expression. The basic report intervals are daily, weekly, monthly, + quarterly, or yearly, which have the same effect as the -D,-W,-M,-Q, or + -Y flags. Between report interval and start/end dates (if any), the + word in is optional. Examples: + + + -p "weekly from 2009/1/1 to 2009/4/1" + -p "monthly in 2008" + -p "quarterly" + + Note that weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly intervals will always + start on the first day on week, month, quarter or year accordingly, and + will end on the last day of same period, even if associated period + expression specifies different explicit start and end date. + + For example: + + + -p "weekly from 2009/1/1 starts on 2008/12/29, closest preceding Mon- + to 2009/4/1" day + -p "monthly in starts on 2018/11/01 + 2008/11/25" + -p "quarterly from starts on 2009/04/01, ends on 2009/06/30, + 2009-05-05 to 2009-06-01" which are first and last days of Q2 2009 + -p "yearly from starts on 2009/01/01, first day of 2009 + 2009-12-29" + + The following more complex report intervals are also supported: + biweekly, fortnightly, bimonthly, every day|week|month|quarter|year, + every N days|weeks|months|quarters|years. + + All of these will start on the first day of the requested period and + end on the last one, as described above. + + Examples: + + + -p "bimonthly from 2008" periods will have boundaries on 2008/01/01, + 2008/03/01, ... + -p "every 2 weeks" starts on closest preceding Monday + -p "every 5 month from periods will have boundaries on 2009/03/01, + 2009/03" 2009/08/01, ... + + If you want intervals that start on arbitrary day of your choosing and + span a week, month or year, you need to use any of the following: + + every Nth day of week, every WEEKDAYNAME (eg + mon|tue|wed|thu|fri|sat|sun), every Nth day [of month], every Nth WEEK- + DAYNAME [of month], every MM/DD [of year], every Nth MMM [of year], + every MMM Nth [of year]. + + Examples: + + + -p "every 2nd day of periods will go from Tue to Tue + week" + -p "every Tue" same + -p "every 15th day" period boundaries will be on 15th of each + month + -p "every 2nd Monday" period boundaries will be on second Monday of + each month + -p "every 11/05" yearly periods with boundaries on 5th of Nov + -p "every 5th Nov" same + -p "every Nov 5th" same + + Show historical balances at end of 15th each month (N is exclusive end + date): + + hledger balance -H -p "every 16th day" + + Group postings from start of wednesday to end of next tuesday (N is + start date and exclusive end date): + + hledger register checking -p "every 3rd day of week" + +DEPTH + With the --depth N option (short form: -N), commands like account, bal- + ance and register will show only the uppermost accounts in the account + tree, down to level N. Use this when you want a summary with less + detail. This flag has the same effect as a depth: query argument (so + -2, --depth=2 or depth:2 are equivalent). + +QUERIES + One of hledger's strengths is being able to quickly report on a precise + subset of your data. Most hledger commands accept optional query argu- + ments to restrict their scope. The syntax is as follows: + + o Zero or more space-separated query terms. These are most often + account name substrings: + + utilities food:groceries + + o Terms with spaces or other special characters should be enclosed in + quotes: + + "personal care" + + o Regular expressions are also supported: + + "^expenses\b" "accounts (payable|receivable)" + + o Add a query type prefix to match other parts of the data: + + date:202012- desc:amazon cur:USD amt:">100" status: + + o Add a not: prefix to negate a term: + + not:cur:USD + + Query types + Here are the types of query term available. Remember these can also be + prefixed with not: to convert them into a negative match. + + acct:REGEX, REGEX + Match account names containing this (case insensitive) regular expres- + sion. This is the default query type when there is no prefix, and reg- + ular expression syntax is typically not needed, so usually we just + write an account name substring, like expenses or food. + + amt:N, amt:N, amt:>=N + Match postings with a single-commodity amount equal to, less than, or + greater than N. (Postings with multi-commodity amounts are not tested + and will always match.) The comparison has two modes: if N is preceded + by a + or - sign (or is 0), the two signed numbers are compared. Oth- + erwise, the absolute magnitudes are compared, ignoring sign. + + code:REGEX + Match by transaction code (eg check number). + + cur:REGEX + Match postings or transactions including any amounts whose cur- + rency/commodity symbol is fully matched by REGEX. (For a partial + match, use .*REGEX.*). Note, to match special characters which are + regex-significant, you need to escape them with \. And for characters + which are significant to your shell you may need one more level of + escaping. So eg to match the dollar sign: + hledger print cur:\\$. + + desc:REGEX + Match transaction descriptions. + + date:PERIODEXPR + Match dates (or with the --date2 flag, secondary dates) within the + specified period. PERIODEXPR is a period expression with no report + interval. Examples: + date:2016, date:thismonth, date:2/1-2/15, date:2021-07-27..nextquarter. + + date2:PERIODEXPR + Match secondary dates within the specified period (independent of the + --date2 flag). + + depth:N + Match (or display, depending on command) accounts at or above this + depth. + + note:REGEX + Match transaction notes (the part of the description right of |, or the + whole description if there's no |). + + payee:REGEX + Match transaction payee/payer names (the part of the description left + of |, or the whole description if there's no |). + + real:, real:0 + Match real or virtual postings respectively. + + status:, status:!, status:* + Match unmarked, pending, or cleared transactions respectively. + + tag:REGEX[=REGEX] + Match by tag name, and optionally also by tag value. (To match only by + value, use tag:.=REGEX.) Note that postings also inherit tags from + their transaction, and transactions also acquire tags from their post- + ings, when querying. + + (inacct:ACCTNAME + A special query term used automatically in hledger-web only: tells + hledger-web to show the transaction register for an account.) + + Combining query terms + Most commands select things which match: + + o any of the description terms AND + + o any of the account terms AND + + o any of the status terms AND + + o all the other terms. + + while the print command shows transactions which: + + o match any of the description terms AND + + o have any postings matching any of the positive account terms AND + + o have no postings matching any of the negative account terms AND + + o match all the other terms. + + You can do more powerful queries (such as AND-ing two like terms) by + running a first query with print, and piping the result into a second + hledger command. Eg: how much of food expenses was paid with cash ? + + $ hledger print assets:cash | hledger f- -I balance expenses:food + + If you are interested in full boolean expressions for queries, see + #203. + + Queries and command options + Some queries can also be expressed as command-line options: depth:2 is + equivalent to --depth 2, date:2020 is equivalent to -p 2020, etc. When + you mix command options and query arguments, generally the resulting + query is their intersection. + + Queries and account aliases + When account names are rewritten with --alias or alias, acct: will + match either the old or the new account name. + + Queries and valuation + When amounts are converted to other commodities in cost or value + reports, cur: and amt: match the old commodity symbol and the old + amount quantity, not the new ones (except in hledger 1.22.0 where it's + reversed, see #1625). + + Querying with account aliases + When account names are rewritten with --alias or alias, note that acct: + will match either the old or the new account name. + + Querying with cost or value + When amounts are converted to other commodities in cost or value + reports, note that cur: matches the new commodity symbol, and not the + old one, and amt: matches the new quantity, and not the old one. Note: + this changed in hledger 1.22, previously it was the reverse, see the + discussion at #1625. + +COSTING + The -B/--cost flag converts amounts to their cost or sale amount at + transaction time, if they have a transaction price specified. If this + flag is supplied, hledger will perform cost conversion first, and will + apply any market price valuations (if requested) afterwards. + +VALUATION + Instead of reporting amounts in their original commodity, hledger can + convert them to cost/sale amount (using the conversion rate recorded in + the transaction), and/or to market value (using some market price on a + certain date). This is controlled by the --value=TYPE[,COMMODITY] + option, which will be described below. We also provide the simpler -V + and -X COMMODITY options, and often one of these is all you need: + + -V: Value + The -V/--market flag converts amounts to market value in their default + valuation commodity, using the market prices in effect on the valuation + date(s), if any. More on these in a minute. + + -X: Value in specified commodity + The -X/--exchange=COMM option is like -V, except you tell it which cur- + rency you want to convert to, and it tries to convert everything to + that. + + Valuation date + Since market prices can change from day to day, market value reports + have a valuation date (or more than one), which determines which market + prices will be used. + + For single period reports, if an explicit report end date is specified, + that will be used as the valuation date; otherwise the valuation date + is the journal's end date. + + For multiperiod reports, each column/period is valued on the last day + of the period, by default. + + Market prices + To convert a commodity A to its market value in another commodity B, + hledger looks for a suitable market price (exchange rate) as follows, + in this order of preference : + + 1. A declared market price or inferred market price: A's latest market + price in B on or before the valuation date as declared by a P direc- + tive, or (with the --infer-market-price flag) inferred from transac- + tion prices. + + 2. A reverse market price: the inverse of a declared or inferred market + price from B to A. + + 3. A forward chain of market prices: a synthetic price formed by com- + bining the shortest chain of "forward" (only 1 above) market prices, + leading from A to B. + + 4. Any chain of market prices: a chain of any market prices, including + both forward and reverse prices (1 and 2 above), leading from A to + B. + + There is a limit to the length of these price chains; if hledger + reaches that length without finding a complete chain or exhausting all + possibilities, it will give up (with a "gave up" message visible in + --debug=2 output). That limit is currently 1000. + + Amounts for which no suitable market price can be found, are not con- + verted. + + --infer-market-price: market prices from transactions + Normally, market value in hledger is fully controlled by, and requires, + P directives in your journal. Since adding and updating those can be a + chore, and since transactions usually take place at close to market + value, why not use the recorded transaction prices as additional market + prices (as Ledger does) ? We could produce value reports without need- + ing P directives at all. + + Adding the --infer-market-price flag to -V, -X or --value enables this. + So for example, hledger bs -V --infer-market-price will get market + prices both from P directives and from transactions. (And if both + occur on the same day, the P directive takes precedence). + + There is a downside: value reports can sometimes be affected in confus- + ing/undesired ways by your journal entries. If this happens to you, + read all of this Valuation section carefully, and try adding --debug or + --debug=2 to troubleshoot. + + --infer-market-price can infer market prices from: + + o multicommodity transactions with explicit prices (@/@@) + + o multicommodity transactions with implicit prices (no @, two commodi- + ties, unbalanced). (With these, the order of postings matters. + hledger print -x can be useful for troubleshooting.) + + o but not, currently, from "more correct" multicommodity transactions + (no @, multiple commodities, balanced). + + Valuation commodity + When you specify a valuation commodity (-X COMM or --value TYPE,COMM): + hledger will convert all amounts to COMM, wherever it can find a suit- + able market price (including by reversing or chaining prices). + + When you leave the valuation commodity unspecified (-V or --value + TYPE): + For each commodity A, hledger picks a default valuation commodity as + follows, in this order of preference: + + 1. The price commodity from the latest P-declared market price for A on + or before valuation date. + + 2. The price commodity from the latest P-declared market price for A on + any date. (Allows conversion to proceed when there are inferred + prices before the valuation date.) + + 3. If there are no P directives at all (any commodity or date) and the + --infer-market-price flag is used: the price commodity from the lat- + est transaction-inferred price for A on or before valuation date. + + This means: + + o If you have P directives, they determine which commodities -V will + convert, and to what. + + o If you have no P directives, and use the --infer-market-price flag, + transaction prices determine it. + + Amounts for which no valuation commodity can be found are not con- + verted. + + Simple valuation examples + Here are some quick examples of -V: + + ; one euro is worth this many dollars from nov 1 + P 2016/11/01 EUR $1.10 + + ; purchase some euros on nov 3 + 2016/11/3 + assets:euros EUR100 + assets:checking + + ; the euro is worth fewer dollars by dec 21 + P 2016/12/21 EUR $1.03 + + How many euros do I have ? + + $ hledger -f t.j bal -N euros + EUR100 assets:euros + + What are they worth at end of nov 3 ? + + $ hledger -f t.j bal -N euros -V -e 2016/11/4 + $110.00 assets:euros + + What are they worth after 2016/12/21 ? (no report end date specified, + defaults to today) + + $ hledger -f t.j bal -N euros -V + $103.00 assets:euros + + --value: Flexible valuation + -V and -X are special cases of the more general --value option: + + --value=TYPE[,COMM] TYPE is then, end, now or YYYY-MM-DD. + COMM is an optional commodity symbol. + Shows amounts converted to: + - default valuation commodity (or COMM) using market prices at posting dates + - default valuation commodity (or COMM) using market prices at period end(s) + - default valuation commodity (or COMM) using current market prices + - default valuation commodity (or COMM) using market prices at some date + + The TYPE part selects cost or value and valuation date: + + --value=then + Convert amounts to their value in the default valuation commod- + ity, using market prices on each posting's date. + + --value=end + Convert amounts to their value in the default valuation commod- + ity, using market prices on the last day of the report period + (or if unspecified, the journal's end date); or in multiperiod + reports, market prices on the last day of each subperiod. + + --value=now + Convert amounts to their value in the default valuation commod- + ity using current market prices (as of when report is gener- + ated). + + --value=YYYY-MM-DD + Convert amounts to their value in the default valuation commod- + ity using market prices on this date. + + To select a different valuation commodity, add the optional ,COMM part: + a comma, then the target commodity's symbol. Eg: --value=now,EUR. + hledger will do its best to convert amounts to this commodity, deducing + market prices as described above. + + More valuation examples + Here are some examples showing the effect of --value, as seen with + print: + + P 2000-01-01 A 1 B + P 2000-02-01 A 2 B + P 2000-03-01 A 3 B + P 2000-04-01 A 4 B + + 2000-01-01 + (a) 1 A @ 5 B + + 2000-02-01 + (a) 1 A @ 6 B + + 2000-03-01 + (a) 1 A @ 7 B + + Show the cost of each posting: + + $ hledger -f- print --cost + 2000-01-01 + (a) 5 B + + 2000-02-01 + (a) 6 B + + 2000-03-01 + (a) 7 B + + Show the value as of the last day of the report period (2000-02-29): + + $ hledger -f- print --value=end date:2000/01-2000/03 + 2000-01-01 + (a) 2 B + + 2000-02-01 + (a) 2 B + + With no report period specified, that shows the value as of the last + day of the journal (2000-03-01): + + $ hledger -f- print --value=end + 2000-01-01 + (a) 3 B + + 2000-02-01 + (a) 3 B + + 2000-03-01 + (a) 3 B + + Show the current value (the 2000-04-01 price is still in effect today): + + $ hledger -f- print --value=now + 2000-01-01 + (a) 4 B + + 2000-02-01 + (a) 4 B + + 2000-03-01 + (a) 4 B + + Show the value on 2000/01/15: + + $ hledger -f- print --value=2000-01-15 + 2000-01-01 + (a) 1 B + + 2000-02-01 + (a) 1 B + + 2000-03-01 + (a) 1 B + + You may need to explicitly set a commodity's display style, when + reverse prices are used. Eg this output might be surprising: + + P 2000-01-01 A 2B + + 2000-01-01 + a 1B + b + + $ hledger print -x -X A + 2000-01-01 + a 0 + b 0 + + Explanation: because there's no amount or commodity directive specify- + ing a display style for A, 0.5A gets the default style, which shows no + decimal digits. Because the displayed amount looks like zero, the com- + modity symbol and minus sign are not displayed either. Adding a com- + modity directive sets a more useful display style for A: + + P 2000-01-01 A 2B + commodity 0.00A + + 2000-01-01 + a 1B + b + + $ hledger print -X A + 2000-01-01 + a 0.50A + b -0.50A + + Effect of valuation on reports + Here is a reference for how valuation is supposed to affect each part + of hledger's reports (and a glossary). (It's wide, you'll have to + scroll sideways.) It may be useful when troubleshooting. If you find + problems, please report them, ideally with a reproducible example. + Related: #329, #1083. + + + Report -B, --cost -V, -X --value=then --value=end --value=DATE, + type --value=now + ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + print + posting cost value at value at posting value at value at + amounts report end date report or DATE/today + or today journal end + balance unchanged unchanged unchanged unchanged unchanged + asser- + tions/assign- + ments + + register + starting bal- cost value at day valued at day value at day value at + ance (-H) before each historical before DATE/today + report or posting was made report or + journal journal + start start + posting cost value at value at posting value at value at + amounts report end date report or DATE/today + or today journal end + summary post- summarised value at sum of postings value at value at + ing amounts cost period ends in interval, val- period ends DATE/today + with report ued at interval + interval start + running sum/average sum/average sum/average of sum/average sum/average + total/average of displayed of displayed displayed values of displayed of displayed + values values values values + + + + balance (bs, + bse, cf, is) + balance sums of value at value at posting value at value at + changes costs report end date report or DATE/today of + or today of journal end sums of post- + sums of of sums of ings + postings postings + budget like balance like balance like balance like bal- like balance + amounts changes changes changes ances changes + (--budget) + grand total sum of dis- sum of dis- sum of displayed sum of dis- sum of dis- + played val- played val- valued played val- played values + ues ues ues + + balance (bs, + bse, cf, is) + with report + interval + starting bal- sums of value at sums of values of value at sums of post- + ances (-H) costs of report start postings before report start ings before + postings of sums of report start at of sums of report start + before all postings respective post- all postings + report start before ing dates before + report start report start + balance sums of same as sums of values of balance value at + changes (bal, costs of --value=end postings in change in DATE/today of + is, bs postings in period at respec- each period, sums of post- + --change, cf period tive posting valued at ings + --change) dates period ends + end balances sums of same as sums of values of period end value at + (bal -H, is costs of --value=end postings from balances, DATE/today of + --H, bs, cf) postings before period valued at sums of post- + from before start to period period ends ings + report start end at respective + to period posting dates + end + budget like balance like balance like balance like bal- like balance + amounts changes/end changes/end changes/end bal- ances changes/end + (--budget) balances balances ances balances + row totals, sums, aver- sums, aver- sums, averages of sums, aver- sums, aver- + row averages ages of dis- ages of dis- displayed values ages of dis- ages of dis- + (-T, -A) played val- played val- played val- played values + ues ues ues + column totals sums of dis- sums of dis- sums of displayed sums of dis- sums of dis- + played val- played val- values played val- played values + ues ues ues + grand total, sum, average sum, average sum, average of sum, average sum, average + grand average of column of column column totals of column of column + totals totals totals totals + + + --cumulative is omitted to save space, it works like -H but with a zero + starting balance. + + Glossary: + + cost calculated using price(s) recorded in the transaction(s). + + value market value using available market price declarations, or the + unchanged amount if no conversion rate can be found. + + report start + the first day of the report period specified with -b or -p or + date:, otherwise today. + + report or journal start + the first day of the report period specified with -b or -p or + date:, otherwise the earliest transaction date in the journal, + otherwise today. + + report end + the last day of the report period specified with -e or -p or + date:, otherwise today. + + report or journal end + the last day of the report period specified with -e or -p or + date:, otherwise the latest transaction date in the journal, + otherwise today. + + report interval + a flag (-D/-W/-M/-Q/-Y) or period expression that activates the + report's multi-period mode (whether showing one or many subperi- + ods). + +PIVOTING + Normally hledger sums amounts, and organizes them in a hierarchy, based + on account name. The --pivot FIELD option causes it to sum and orga- + nize hierarchy based on the value of some other field instead. FIELD + can be: code, description, payee, note, or the full name (case insensi- + tive) of any tag. As with account names, values containing colon:sepa- + rated:parts will be displayed hierarchically in reports. + + --pivot is a general option affecting all reports; you can think of + hledger transforming the journal before any other processing, replacing + every posting's account name with the value of the specified field on + that posting, inheriting it from the transaction or using a blank value + if it's not present. + + An example: + + 2016/02/16 Member Fee Payment + assets:bank account 2 EUR + income:member fees -2 EUR ; member: John Doe + + Normal balance report showing account names: + + $ hledger balance + 2 EUR assets:bank account + -2 EUR income:member fees + -------------------- + 0 + + Pivoted balance report, using member: tag values instead: + + $ hledger balance --pivot member + 2 EUR + -2 EUR John Doe + -------------------- + 0 + + One way to show only amounts with a member: value (using a query, + described below): + + $ hledger balance --pivot member tag:member=. + -2 EUR John Doe + -------------------- + -2 EUR + + Another way (the acct: query matches against the pivoted "account + name"): + + $ hledger balance --pivot member acct:. + -2 EUR John Doe + -------------------- + -2 EUR + +OUTPUT + Output destination + hledger commands send their output to the terminal by default. You can + of course redirect this, eg into a file, using standard shell syntax: + + $ hledger print > foo.txt + + Some commands (print, register, stats, the balance commands) also pro- + vide the -o/--output-file option, which does the same thing without + needing the shell. Eg: + + $ hledger print -o foo.txt + $ hledger print -o - # write to stdout (the default) + + hledger can optionally produce debug output (if enabled with + --debug=N); this goes to stderr, and is not affected by -o/--output- + file. If you need to capture it, use shell redirects, eg: hledger bal + --debug=3 >file 2>&1. + + Output format + Some commands (print, register, the balance commands) offer a choice of + output format. In addition to the usual plain text format (txt), there + are CSV (csv), HTML (html), JSON (json) and SQL (sql). This is con- + trolled by the -O/--output-format option: + + $ hledger print -O csv + + or, by a file extension specified with -o/--output-file: + + $ hledger balancesheet -o foo.html # write HTML to foo.html + + The -O option can be used to override the file extension if needed: + + $ hledger balancesheet -o foo.txt -O html # write HTML to foo.txt + + Some notes about JSON output: + + o This feature is marked experimental, and not yet much used; you + should expect our JSON to evolve. Real-world feedback is welcome. + + o Our JSON is rather large and verbose, as it is quite a faithful rep- + resentation of hledger's internal data types. To understand the + JSON, read the Haskell type definitions, which are mostly in + https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/blob/master/hledger- + lib/Hledger/Data/Types.hs. + + o hledger represents quantities as Decimal values storing up to 255 + significant digits, eg for repeating decimals. Such numbers can + arise in practice (from automatically-calculated transaction prices), + and would break most JSON consumers. So in JSON, we show quantities + as simple Numbers with at most 10 decimal places. We don't limit the + number of integer digits, but that part is under your control. We + hope this approach will not cause problems in practice; if you find + otherwise, please let us know. (Cf #1195) + + Notes about SQL output: + + o SQL output is also marked experimental, and much like JSON could use + real-world feedback. + + o SQL output is expected to work with sqlite, MySQL and PostgreSQL + + o SQL output is structured with the expectations that statements will + be executed in the empty database. If you already have tables cre- + ated via SQL output of hledger, you would probably want to either + clear tables of existing data (via delete or truncate SQL statements) + or drop tables completely as otherwise your postings will be duped. + +COMMANDS + hledger provides a number of commands for producing reports and manag- + ing your data. Run hledger with no arguments to list the commands + available, and hledger CMD to run a command. CMD can be the full com- + mand name, or its standard abbreviation shown in the commands list, or + any unambiguous prefix of the name. Eg: hledger bal. + + Here are the built-in commands, with the most often-used in bold: + + Data entry: + + These data entry commands are the only ones which can modify your jour- + nal file. + + o add - add transactions using guided prompts + + o import - add any new transactions from other files (eg csv) + + Data management: + + o check - check for various kinds of issue in the data + + o close (equity) - generate balance-resetting transactions + + o diff - compare account transactions in two journal files + + o rewrite - generate extra postings, similar to print --auto + + Financial statements: + + o aregister (areg) - show transactions in a particular account + + o balancesheet (bs) - show assets, liabilities and net worth + + o balancesheetequity (bse) - show assets, liabilities and equity + + o cashflow (cf) - show changes in liquid assets + + o incomestatement (is) - show revenues and expenses + + o roi - show return on investments + + Miscellaneous reports: + + o accounts - show account names + + o activity - show postings-per-interval bar charts + + o balance (bal) - show balance changes/end balances/budgets in any + accounts + + o codes - show transaction codes + + o commodities - show commodity/currency symbols + + o descriptions - show unique transaction descriptions + + o files - show input file paths + + o help - show hledger user manuals in several formats + + o notes - show unique note segments of transaction descriptions + + o payees - show unique payee segments of transaction descriptions + + o prices - show market price records + + o print - show transactions (journal entries) + + o print-unique - show only transactions with unique descriptions + + o register (reg) - show postings in one or more accounts & running + total + + o register-match - show a recent posting that best matches a descrip- + tion + + o stats - show journal statistics + + o tags - show tag names + + o test - run self tests + + Add-on commands: + + Programs or scripts named hledger-SOMETHING in your PATH are add-on + commands; these appear in the commands list with a + mark. Two of + these are maintained and released with hledger: + + o ui - an efficient terminal interface (TUI) for hledger + + o web - a simple web interface (WUI) for hledger + + And these add-ons are maintained separately: + + o iadd - a more interactive alternative for the add command + + o interest - generates interest transactions according to various + schemes + + o stockquotes - downloads market prices for your commodities from + AlphaVantage (experimental) + + Next, the detailed command docs, in alphabetical order. + + accounts + accounts + Show account names. + + This command lists account names, either declared with account direc- + tives (--declared), posted to (--used), or both (the default). With + query arguments, only matched account names and account names refer- + enced by matched postings are shown. It shows a flat list by default. + With --tree, it uses indentation to show the account hierarchy. In + flat mode you can add --drop N to omit the first few account name com- + ponents. Account names can be depth-clipped with depth:N or --depth N + or -N. + + Examples: + + $ hledger accounts + assets:bank:checking + assets:bank:saving + assets:cash + expenses:food + expenses:supplies + income:gifts + income:salary + liabilities:debts + + activity + activity + Show an ascii barchart of posting counts per interval. + + The activity command displays an ascii histogram showing transaction + counts by day, week, month or other reporting interval (by day is the + default). With query arguments, it counts only matched transactions. + + Examples: + + $ hledger activity --quarterly + 2008-01-01 ** + 2008-04-01 ******* + 2008-07-01 + 2008-10-01 ** + + add + add + Prompt for transactions and add them to the journal. Any arguments + will be used as default inputs for the first N prompts. + + Many hledger users edit their journals directly with a text editor, or + generate them from CSV. For more interactive data entry, there is the + add command, which prompts interactively on the console for new trans- + actions, and appends them to the journal file (if there are multiple -f + FILE options, the first file is used.) Existing transactions are not + changed. This is the only hledger command that writes to the journal + file. + + To use it, just run hledger add and follow the prompts. You can add as + many transactions as you like; when you are finished, enter . or press + control-d or control-c to exit. + + Features: + + o add tries to provide useful defaults, using the most similar (by + description) recent transaction (filtered by the query, if any) as a + template. + + o You can also set the initial defaults with command line arguments. + + o Readline-style edit keys can be used during data entry. + + o The tab key will auto-complete whenever possible - accounts, descrip- + tions, dates (yesterday, today, tomorrow). If the input area is + empty, it will insert the default value. + + o If the journal defines a default commodity, it will be added to any + bare numbers entered. + + o A parenthesised transaction code may be entered following a date. + + o Comments and tags may be entered following a description or amount. + + o If you make a mistake, enter < at any prompt to go one step backward. + + o Input prompts are displayed in a different colour when the terminal + supports it. + + Example (see the tutorial for a detailed explanation): + + $ hledger add + Adding transactions to journal file /src/hledger/examples/sample.journal + Any command line arguments will be used as defaults. + Use tab key to complete, readline keys to edit, enter to accept defaults. + An optional (CODE) may follow transaction dates. + An optional ; COMMENT may follow descriptions or amounts. + If you make a mistake, enter < at any prompt to go one step backward. + To end a transaction, enter . when prompted. + To quit, enter . at a date prompt or press control-d or control-c. + Date [2015/05/22]: + Description: supermarket + Account 1: expenses:food + Amount 1: $10 + Account 2: assets:checking + Amount 2 [$-10.0]: + Account 3 (or . or enter to finish this transaction): . + 2015/05/22 supermarket + expenses:food $10 + assets:checking $-10.0 + + Save this transaction to the journal ? [y]: + Saved. + Starting the next transaction (. or ctrl-D/ctrl-C to quit) + Date [2015/05/22]: $ + + On Microsoft Windows, the add command makes sure that no part of the + file path ends with a period, as that would cause problems (#1056). + + aregister + aregister, areg + + Show the transactions and running historical balance of a single + account, with each transaction displayed as one line. + + aregister shows the overall transactions affecting a particular account + (and any subaccounts). Each report line represents one transaction in + this account. Transactions before the report start date are always + included in the running balance (--historical mode is always on). + + This is a more "real world", bank-like view than the register command + (which shows individual postings, possibly from multiple accounts, not + necessarily in historical mode). As a quick rule of thumb: - use areg- + ister for reviewing and reconciling real-world asset/liability accounts + - use register for reviewing detailed revenues/expenses. + + aregister requires one argument: the account to report on. You can + write either the full account name, or a case-insensitive regular + expression which will select the alphabetically first matched account. + (Eg if you have assets:aaa:checking and assets:bbb:checking accounts, + hledger areg checking would select assets:aaa:checking.) + + Transactions involving subaccounts of this account will also be shown. + aregister ignores depth limits, so its final total will always match a + balance report with similar arguments. + + Any additional arguments form a query which will filter the transac- + tions shown. Note some queries will disturb the running balance, caus- + ing it to be different from the account's real-world running balance. + + An example: this shows the transactions and historical running balance + during july, in the first account whose name contains "checking": + + $ hledger areg checking date:jul + + Each aregister line item shows: + + o the transaction's date (or the relevant posting's date if different, + see below) + + o the names of all the other account(s) involved in this transaction + (probably abbreviated) + + o the total change to this account's balance from this transaction + + o the account's historical running balance after this transaction. + + Transactions making a net change of zero are not shown by default; add + the -E/--empty flag to show them. + + This command also supports the output destination and output format + options. The output formats supported are txt, csv, and json. + + aregister and custom posting dates + Transactions whose date is outside the report period can still be + shown, if they have a posting to this account dated inside the report + period. (And in this case it's the posting date that is shown.) This + ensures that aregister can show an accurate historical running balance, + matching the one shown by register -H with the same arguments. + + To filter strictly by transaction date instead, add the --txn-dates + flag. If you use this flag and some of your postings have custom + dates, it's probably best to assume the running balance is wrong. + + balance + balance, bal + Show accounts and their balances. + + balance is one of hledger's oldest and most versatile commands, for + listing account balances, balance changes, values, value changes and + more, during one time period or many. Generally it shows a table, with + rows representing accounts, and columns representing periods. + + Note there are some higher-level variants of the balance command with + convenient defaults, which can be simpler to use: balancesheet, bal- + ancesheetequity, cashflow and incomestatement. When you need more con- + trol, then use balance. + + balance features + Here's a quick overview of the balance command's features, followed by + more detailed descriptions and examples. Many of these work with the + higher-level commands as well. + + balance can show.. + + o accounts as a list (-l) or a tree (-t) + + o optionally depth-limited (-[1-9]) + + o sorted by declaration order and name, or by amount + + ..and their.. + + o balance changes (the default) + + o or actual and planned balance changes (--budget) + + o or value of balance changes (-V) + + o or change of balance values (--valuechange) + + ..in.. + + o one time period (the whole journal period by default) + + o or multiple periods (-D, -W, -M, -Q, -Y, -p INTERVAL) + + ..either.. + + o per period (the default) + + o or accumulated since report start date (--cumulative) + + o or accumulated since account creation (--historical/-H) + + ..possibly converted to.. + + o cost (--value=cost[,COMM]/--cost/-B) + + o or market value, as of transaction dates (--value=then[,COMM]) + + o or at period ends (--value=end[,COMM]) + + o or now (--value=now) + + o or at some other date (--value=YYYY-MM-DD) + + ..with.. + + o totals (-T), averages (-A), percentages (-%), inverted sign + (--invert) + + o rows and columns swapped (--transpose) + + o another field used as account name (--pivot) + + o custom-formatted line items (single-period reports only) (--format) + + This command supports the output destination and output format options, + with output formats txt, csv, json, and (multi-period reports only:) + html. In txt output in a colour-supporting terminal, negative amounts + are shown in red. + + Simple balance report + With no arguments, balance shows a list of all accounts and their + change of balance - ie, the sum of posting amounts, both inflows and + outflows - during the entire period of the journal. For real-world + accounts, this should also match their end balance at the end of the + journal period (more on this below). + + Accounts are sorted by declaration order if any, and then alphabeti- + cally by account name. For instance, using examples/sample.journal: + + $ hledger bal + $1 assets:bank:saving + $-2 assets:cash + $1 expenses:food + $1 expenses:supplies + $-1 income:gifts + $-1 income:salary + $1 liabilities:debts + -------------------- + 0 + + Accounts with a zero balance (and no non-zero subaccounts, in tree mode + - see below) are hidden by default. Use -E/--empty to show them + (revealing assets:bank:checking here): + + $ hledger -f examples/sample.journal bal -E + 0 assets:bank:checking + $1 assets:bank:saving + $-2 assets:cash + $1 expenses:food + $1 expenses:supplies + $-1 income:gifts + $-1 income:salary + $1 liabilities:debts + -------------------- + 0 + + The total of the amounts displayed is shown as the last line, unless + -N/--no-total is used. + + Filtered balance report + You can show fewer accounts, a different time period, totals from + cleared transactions only, etc. by using query arguments or options to + limit the postings being matched. Eg: + + $ hledger bal --cleared assets date:200806 + $-2 assets:cash + -------------------- + $-2 + + List or tree mode + By default, or with -l/--flat, accounts are shown as a flat list with + their full names visible, as in the examples above. + + With -t/--tree, the account hierarchy is shown, with subaccounts' + "leaf" names indented below their parent: + + $ hledger balance + $-1 assets + $1 bank:saving + $-2 cash + $2 expenses + $1 food + $1 supplies + $-2 income + $-1 gifts + $-1 salary + $1 liabilities:debts + -------------------- + 0 + + Notes: + + o "Boring" accounts are combined with their subaccount for more compact + output, unless --no-elide is used. Boring accounts have no balance + of their own and just one subaccount (eg assets:bank and liabilities + above). + + o All balances shown are "inclusive", ie including the balances from + all subaccounts. Note this means some repetition in the output, + which requires explanation when sharing reports with non-plaintextac- + counting-users. A tree mode report's final total is the sum of the + top-level balances shown, not of all the balances shown. + + o Each group of sibling accounts (ie, under a common parent) is sorted + separately. + + Depth limiting + With a depth:N query, or --depth N option, or just -N, balance reports + will show accounts only to the specified depth, hiding the deeper sub- + accounts. Account balances at the depth limit always include the bal- + ances from any hidden subaccounts (even in list mode). This can be + useful for getting an overview. Eg, limiting to depth 1: + + $ hledger balance -N -1 + $-1 assets + $2 expenses + $-2 income + $1 liabilities + + You can also hide top-level account name parts, using --drop N. This + can be useful for hiding repetitive top-level account names: + + $ hledger bal expenses --drop 1 + $1 food + $1 supplies + -------------------- + $2 + + + Multi-period balance report + With a report interval (set by the -D/--daily, -W/--weekly, + -M/--monthly, -Q/--quarterly, -Y/--yearly, or -p/--period flag), bal- + ance shows a tabular report, with columns representing successive time + periods (and a title): + + $ hledger balance --quarterly income expenses -E + Balance changes in 2008: + + || 2008q1 2008q2 2008q3 2008q4 + ===================++================================= + expenses:food || 0 $1 0 0 + expenses:supplies || 0 $1 0 0 + income:gifts || 0 $-1 0 0 + income:salary || $-1 0 0 0 + -------------------++--------------------------------- + || $-1 $1 0 0 + + Notes: + + o The report's start/end dates will be expanded, if necessary, to fully + encompass the displayed subperiods (so that the first and last subpe- + riods have the same duration as the others). + + o Leading and trailing periods (columns) containing all zeroes are not + shown, unless -E/--empty is used. + + o Accounts (rows) containing all zeroes are not shown, unless + -E/--empty is used. + + o Amounts with many commodities are shown in abbreviated form, unless + --no-elide is used. (experimental) + + o Average and/or total columns can be added with the -A/--average and + -T/--row-total flags. + + o The --transpose flag can be used to exchange rows and columns. + + o The --pivot FIELD option causes a different transaction field to be + used as "account name". See PIVOTING. + + Multi-period reports with many periods can be too wide for easy viewing + in the terminal. Here are some ways to handle that: + + o Hide the totals row with -N/--no-total + + o Convert to a single currency with -V + + o Maximize the terminal window + + o Reduce the terminal's font size + + o View with a pager like less, eg: hledger bal -D --color=yes | less + -RS + + o Output as CSV and use a CSV viewer like visidata (hledger bal -D -O + csv | vd -f csv), Emacs' csv-mode (M-x csv-mode, C-c C-a), or a + spreadsheet (hledger bal -D -o a.csv && open a.csv) + + o Output as HTML and view with a browser: hledger bal -D -o a.html && + open a.html + + Sorting by amount + With -S/--sort-amount, accounts with the largest (most positive) bal- + ances are shown first. Eg: hledger bal expenses -MAS shows your big- + gest averaged monthly expenses first. + + Revenues and liability balances are typically negative, however, so -S + shows these in reverse order. To work around this, you can add + --invert to flip the signs. (Or, use one of the higher-level reports, + which flip the sign automatically. Eg: hledger incomestatement -MAS). + + + Percentages + With -%/--percent, balance reports show each account's value expressed + as a percentage of the (column) total: + + $ hledger bal expenses -Q -% + Balance changes in 2008: + + || 2008Q1 2008Q2 2008Q3 2008Q4 + ===================++================================= + expenses:food || 0 50.0 % 0 0 + expenses:supplies || 0 50.0 % 0 0 + -------------------++--------------------------------- + || 0 100.0 % 0 0 + + Note it is not useful to calculate percentages if the amounts in a col- + umn have mixed signs. In this case, make a separate report for each + sign, eg: + + $ hledger bal -% amt:`>0` + $ hledger bal -% amt:`<0` + + Similarly, if the amounts in a column have mixed commodities, convert + them to one commodity with -B, -V, -X or --value, or make a separate + report for each commodity: + + $ hledger bal -% cur:\\$ + $ hledger bal -% cur:EUR + + Balance change, end balance + It's important to be clear on the meaning of the numbers shown in bal- + ance reports. Here is some terminology we use: + + A balance change is the net amount added to, or removed from, an + account during some period. + + An end balance is the amount accumulated in an account as of some date + (and some time, but hledger doesn't store that; assume end of day in + your timezone). It is the sum of previous balance changes. + + We call it a historical end balance if it includes all balance changes + since the account was created. For a real world account, this means it + will match the "historical record", eg the balances reported in your + bank statements or bank web UI. (If they are correct!) + + In general, balance changes are what you want to see when reviewing + revenues and expenses, and historical end balances are what you want to + see when reviewing or reconciling asset, liability and equity accounts. + + balance shows balance changes by default. To see accurate historical + end balances: + + 1. Initialise account starting balances with an "opening balances" + transaction (a transfer from equity to the account), unless the + journal covers the account's full lifetime. + + 2. Include all of of the account's prior postings in the report, by not + specifying a report start date, or by using the -H/--historical + flag. (-H causes report start date to be ignored when summing post- + ings.) + + Balance report types + For more flexible reporting, there are three important option groups: + + hledger balance [CALCULATIONTYPE] [ACCUMULATIONTYPE] [VALUATIONTYPE] + ... + + The first two are the most important: calculation type selects the + basic calculation to perform for each table cell, while accumulation + type says which postings should be included in each cell's calculation. + Typically one or both of these are selected by default, so you don't + need to write them explicitly. A valuation type can be added if you + want to convert the basic report to value or cost. + + Calculation type: + The basic calculation to perform for each table cell. It is one of: + + o --sum : sum the posting amounts (default) + + o --budget : like --sum but also show a goal amount + + o --valuechange : show the change in period-end historical balance val- + ues + + Accumulation type: + Which postings should be included in each cell's calculation. It is + one of: + + o --change : postings from column start to column end, ie within the + cell's period. Typically used to see revenues/expenses. (default + for balance, incomestatement) + + o --cumulative : postings from report start to column end, eg to show + changes accumulated since the report's start date. Rarely used. + + o --historical/-H : postings from journal start to column end, ie all + postings from account creation to the end of the cell's period. Typ- + ically used to see historical end balances of assets/liabili- + ties/equity. (default for balancesheet, balancesheetequity, cash- + flow) + + Valuation type: + Which kind of valuation, valuation date(s) and optionally a target val- + uation commodity to use. It is one of: + + o no valuation, show amounts in their original commodities (default) + + o --value=cost[,COMM] : no valuation, show amounts converted to cost + + o --value=then[,COMM] : show value at transaction dates + + o --value=end[,COMM] : show value at period end date(s) (default with + --valuechange) + + o --value=now[,COMM] : show value at today's date + + o --value=YYYY-MM-DD[,COMM] : show value at another date + + or one of their aliases: --cost/-B, --market/-V or --exchange/-X. + + Most combinations of these options should produce reasonable reports, + but if you find any that seem wrong or misleading, let us know. The + following restrictions are applied: + + o --valuechange implies --value=end + + o --valuechange makes --change the default when used with the bal- + ancesheet/balancesheetequity commands + + o --cumulative or --historical disables --row-total/-T + + For reference, here is what the combinations of accumulation and valua- + tion show: + + + Valua- no valuation --value= then --value= end --value= YYYY- + tion: MM-DD /now + >Accumu- + lation: + v + ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + --change change in period sum of posting- period-end DATE-value of + date market val- value of change change in + ues in period in period period + --cumu- change from sum of posting- period-end DATE-value of + lative report start to date market val- value of change change from + period end ues from report from report report start + start to period start to period to period end + end end + --his- change from sum of posting- period-end DATE-value of + torical journal start to date market val- value of change change from + /-H period end (his- ues from journal from journal journal start + torical end bal- start to period start to period to period end + ance) end end + + Useful balance reports + Some frequently used balance options/reports are: + + o bal -M revenues expenses + Show revenues/expenses in each month. Also available as the incomes- + tatement command. + + o bal -M -H assets liabilities + Show historical asset/liability balances at each month end. Also + available as the balancesheet command. + + o bal -M -H assets liabilities equity + Show historical asset/liability/equity balances at each month end. + Also available as the balancesheetequity command. + + o bal -M assets not:receivable + Show changes to liquid assets in each month. Also available as the + cashflow command. + + Also: + + o bal -M expenses -2 -SA + Show monthly expenses summarised to depth 2 and sorted by average + amount. + + o bal -M --budget expenses + Show monthly expenses and budget goals. + + o bal -M --valuechange investments + Show monthly change in market value of investment assets. + + o bal investments --valuechange -D date:lastweek amt:'>1000' -STA + [--invert] + Show top gainers [or losers] last week + + Budget report + The --budget report type activates extra columns showing any budget + goals for each account and period. The budget goals are defined by + periodic transactions. This is very useful for comparing planned and + actual income, expenses, time usage, etc. + + For example, you can take average monthly expenses in the common + expense categories to construct a minimal monthly budget: + + ;; Budget + ~ monthly + income $2000 + expenses:food $400 + expenses:bus $50 + expenses:movies $30 + assets:bank:checking + + ;; Two months worth of expenses + 2017-11-01 + income $1950 + expenses:food $396 + expenses:bus $49 + expenses:movies $30 + expenses:supplies $20 + assets:bank:checking + + 2017-12-01 + income $2100 + expenses:food $412 + expenses:bus $53 + expenses:gifts $100 + assets:bank:checking + + You can now see a monthly budget report: + + $ hledger balance -M --budget + Budget performance in 2017/11/01-2017/12/31: + + || Nov Dec + ======================++==================================================== + assets || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] + assets:bank || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] + assets:bank:checking || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] + expenses || $495 [ 103% of $480] $565 [ 118% of $480] + expenses:bus || $49 [ 98% of $50] $53 [ 106% of $50] + expenses:food || $396 [ 99% of $400] $412 [ 103% of $400] + expenses:movies || $30 [ 100% of $30] 0 [ 0% of $30] + income || $1950 [ 98% of $2000] $2100 [ 105% of $2000] + ----------------------++---------------------------------------------------- + || 0 [ 0] 0 [ 0] + + This is different from a normal balance report in several ways: + + o Only accounts with budget goals during the report period are shown, + by default. + + o In each column, in square brackets after the actual amount, budget + goal amounts are shown, and the actual/goal percentage. (Note: bud- + get goals should be in the same commodity as the actual amount.) + + o All parent accounts are always shown, even in list mode. Eg assets, + assets:bank, and expenses above. + + o Amounts always include all subaccounts, budgeted or unbudgeted, even + in list mode. + + This means that the numbers displayed will not always add up! Eg above, + the expenses actual amount includes the gifts and supplies transac- + tions, but the expenses:gifts and expenses:supplies accounts are not + shown, as they have no budget amounts declared. + + This can be confusing. When you need to make things clearer, use the + -E/--empty flag, which will reveal all accounts including unbudgeted + ones, giving the full picture. Eg: + + $ hledger balance -M --budget --empty + Budget performance in 2017/11/01-2017/12/31: + + || Nov Dec + ======================++==================================================== + assets || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] + assets:bank || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] + assets:bank:checking || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] + expenses || $495 [ 103% of $480] $565 [ 118% of $480] + expenses:bus || $49 [ 98% of $50] $53 [ 106% of $50] + expenses:food || $396 [ 99% of $400] $412 [ 103% of $400] + expenses:gifts || 0 $100 + expenses:movies || $30 [ 100% of $30] 0 [ 0% of $30] + expenses:supplies || $20 0 + income || $1950 [ 98% of $2000] $2100 [ 105% of $2000] + ----------------------++---------------------------------------------------- + || 0 [ 0] 0 [ 0] + + You can roll over unspent budgets to next period with --cumulative: + + $ hledger balance -M --budget --cumulative + Budget performance in 2017/11/01-2017/12/31: + + || Nov Dec + ======================++==================================================== + assets || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-5110 [ 103% of $-4960] + assets:bank || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-5110 [ 103% of $-4960] + assets:bank:checking || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-5110 [ 103% of $-4960] + expenses || $495 [ 103% of $480] $1060 [ 110% of $960] + expenses:bus || $49 [ 98% of $50] $102 [ 102% of $100] + expenses:food || $396 [ 99% of $400] $808 [ 101% of $800] + expenses:movies || $30 [ 100% of $30] $30 [ 50% of $60] + income || $1950 [ 98% of $2000] $4050 [ 101% of $4000] + ----------------------++---------------------------------------------------- + || 0 [ 0] 0 [ 0] + + For more examples and notes, see Budgeting. + + Budget report start date + This might be a bug, but for now: when making budget reports, it's a + good idea to explicitly set the report's start date to the first day of + a reporting period, because a periodic rule like ~ monthly generates + its transactions on the 1st of each month, and if your journal has no + regular transactions on the 1st, the default report start date could + exclude that budget goal, which can be a little surprising. Eg here + the default report period is just the day of 2020-01-15: + + ~ monthly in 2020 + (expenses:food) $500 + + 2020-01-15 + expenses:food $400 + assets:checking + + $ hledger bal expenses --budget + Budget performance in 2020-01-15: + + || 2020-01-15 + ==============++============ + || $400 + --------------++------------ + || $400 + + To avoid this, specify the budget report's period, or at least the + start date, with -b/-e/-p/date:, to ensure it includes the budget goal + transactions (periodic transactions) that you want. Eg, adding -b + 2020/1/1 to the above: + + $ hledger bal expenses --budget -b 2020/1/1 + Budget performance in 2020-01-01..2020-01-15: + + || 2020-01-01..2020-01-15 + ===============++======================== + expenses:food || $400 [80% of $500] + ---------------++------------------------ + || $400 [80% of $500] + + Nested budgets + You can add budgets to any account in your account hierarchy. If you + have budgets on both parent account and some of its children, then bud- + get(s) of the child account(s) would be added to the budget of their + parent, much like account balances behave. + + In the most simple case this means that once you add a budget to any + account, all its parents would have budget as well. + + To illustrate this, consider the following budget: + + ~ monthly from 2019/01 + expenses:personal $1,000.00 + expenses:personal:electronics $100.00 + liabilities + + With this, monthly budget for electronics is defined to be $100 and + budget for personal expenses is an additional $1000, which implicitly + means that budget for both expenses:personal and expenses is $1100. + + Transactions in expenses:personal:electronics will be counted both + towards its $100 budget and $1100 of expenses:personal , and transac- + tions in any other subaccount of expenses:personal would be counted + towards only towards the budget of expenses:personal. + + For example, let's consider these transactions: + + ~ monthly from 2019/01 + expenses:personal $1,000.00 + expenses:personal:electronics $100.00 + liabilities + + 2019/01/01 Google home hub + expenses:personal:electronics $90.00 + liabilities $-90.00 + + 2019/01/02 Phone screen protector + expenses:personal:electronics:upgrades $10.00 + liabilities + + 2019/01/02 Weekly train ticket + expenses:personal:train tickets $153.00 + liabilities + + 2019/01/03 Flowers + expenses:personal $30.00 + liabilities + + As you can see, we have transactions in expenses:personal:electron- + ics:upgrades and expenses:personal:train tickets, and since both of + these accounts are without explicitly defined budget, these transac- + tions would be counted towards budgets of expenses:personal:electronics + and expenses:personal accordingly: + + $ hledger balance --budget -M + Budget performance in 2019/01: + + || Jan + ===============================++=============================== + expenses || $283.00 [ 26% of $1100.00] + expenses:personal || $283.00 [ 26% of $1100.00] + expenses:personal:electronics || $100.00 [ 100% of $100.00] + liabilities || $-283.00 [ 26% of $-1100.00] + -------------------------------++------------------------------- + || 0 [ 0] + + And with --empty, we can get a better picture of budget allocation and + consumption: + + $ hledger balance --budget -M --empty + Budget performance in 2019/01: + + || Jan + ========================================++=============================== + expenses || $283.00 [ 26% of $1100.00] + expenses:personal || $283.00 [ 26% of $1100.00] + expenses:personal:electronics || $100.00 [ 100% of $100.00] + expenses:personal:electronics:upgrades || $10.00 + expenses:personal:train tickets || $153.00 + liabilities || $-283.00 [ 26% of $-1100.00] + ----------------------------------------++------------------------------- + || 0 [ 0] + + Customising single-period balance reports + For single-period balance reports displayed in the terminal (only), you + can use --format FMT to customise the format and content of each line. + Eg: + + $ hledger balance --format "%20(account) %12(total)" + assets $-1 + bank:saving $1 + cash $-2 + expenses $2 + food $1 + supplies $1 + income $-2 + gifts $-1 + salary $-1 + liabilities:debts $1 + --------------------------------- + 0 + + The FMT format string (plus a newline) specifies the formatting applied + to each account/balance pair. It may contain any suitable text, with + data fields interpolated like so: + + %[MIN][.MAX](FIELDNAME) + + o MIN pads with spaces to at least this width (optional) + + o MAX truncates at this width (optional) + + o FIELDNAME must be enclosed in parentheses, and can be one of: + + o depth_spacer - a number of spaces equal to the account's depth, or + if MIN is specified, MIN * depth spaces. + + o account - the account's name + + o total - the account's balance/posted total, right justified + + Also, FMT can begin with an optional prefix to control how multi-com- + modity amounts are rendered: + + o %_ - render on multiple lines, bottom-aligned (the default) + + o %^ - render on multiple lines, top-aligned + + o %, - render on one line, comma-separated + + There are some quirks. Eg in one-line mode, %(depth_spacer) has no + effect, instead %(account) has indentation built in. Experimentation + may be needed to get pleasing results. + + Some example formats: + + o %(total) - the account's total + + o %-20.20(account) - the account's name, left justified, padded to 20 + characters and clipped at 20 characters + + o %,%-50(account) %25(total) - account name padded to 50 characters, + total padded to 20 characters, with multiple commodities rendered on + one line + + o %20(total) %2(depth_spacer)%-(account) - the default format for the + single-column balance report + + balancesheet + balancesheet, bs + This command displays a balance sheet, showing historical ending bal- + ances of asset and liability accounts. (To see equity as well, use the + balancesheetequity command.) Amounts are shown with normal positive + sign, as in conventional financial statements. + + The asset and liability accounts shown are those accounts declared with + the Asset or Cash or Liability type, or otherwise all accounts under a + top-level asset or liability account (case insensitive, plurals + allowed). + + Example: + + $ hledger balancesheet + Balance Sheet + + Assets: + $-1 assets + $1 bank:saving + $-2 cash + -------------------- + $-1 + + Liabilities: + $1 liabilities:debts + -------------------- + $1 + + Total: + -------------------- + 0 + + This command is a higher-level variant of the balance command, and sup- + ports many of that command's features, such as multi-period reports. + It is similar to hledger balance -H assets liabilities, but with + smarter account detection, and liabilities displayed with their sign + flipped. + + This command also supports the output destination and output format + options The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and (experi- + mental) json. + + balancesheetequity + balancesheetequity, bse + This command displays a balance sheet, showing historical ending bal- + ances of asset, liability and equity accounts. Amounts are shown with + normal positive sign, as in conventional financial statements. + + The asset, liability and equity accounts shown are those accounts + declared with the Asset, Cash, Liability or Equity type, or otherwise + all accounts under a top-level asset, liability or equity account (case + insensitive, plurals allowed). + + Example: + + $ hledger balancesheetequity + Balance Sheet With Equity + + Assets: + $-2 assets + $1 bank:saving + $-3 cash + -------------------- + $-2 + + Liabilities: + $1 liabilities:debts + -------------------- + $1 + + Equity: + $1 equity:owner + -------------------- + $1 + + Total: + -------------------- + 0 + + This command is a higher-level variant of the balance command, and sup- + ports many of that command's features, such as multi-period reports. + It is similar to hledger balance -H assets liabilities equity, but with + smarter account detection, and liabilities/equity displayed with their + sign flipped. + + This command also supports the output destination and output format + options The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and (experi- + mental) json. + + cashflow + cashflow, cf + This command displays a cashflow statement, showing the inflows and + outflows affecting "cash" (ie, liquid) assets. Amounts are shown with + normal positive sign, as in conventional financial statements. + + The "cash" accounts shown are those accounts declared with the Cash + type, or otherwise all accounts under a top-level asset account (case + insensitive, plural allowed) which do not have fixed, investment, + receivable or A/R in their name. + + Example: + + $ hledger cashflow + Cashflow Statement + + Cash flows: + $-1 assets + $1 bank:saving + $-2 cash + -------------------- + $-1 + + Total: + -------------------- + $-1 + + This command is a higher-level variant of the balance command, and sup- + ports many of that command's features, such as multi-period reports. + It is similar to hledger balance assets not:fixed not:investment + not:receivable, but with smarter account detection. + + This command also supports the output destination and output format + options The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and (experi- + mental) json. + + check + check + Check for various kinds of errors in your data. + + hledger provides a number of built-in error checks to help prevent + problems in your data. Some of these are run automatically; or, you + can use this check command to run them on demand, with no output and a + zero exit code if all is well. Specify their names (or a prefix) as + argument(s). + + Some examples: + + hledger check # basic checks + hledger check -s # basic + strict checks + hledger check ordereddates payees # basic + two other checks + + Here are the checks currently available: + + Basic checks + These checks are always run automatically, by (almost) all hledger com- + mands, including check: + + o parseable - data files are well-formed and can be successfully parsed + + o balancedwithautoconversion - all transactions are balanced, inferring + missing amounts where necessary, and possibly converting commodities + using transaction prices or automatically-inferred transaction prices + + o assertions - all balance assertions in the journal are passing. + (This check can be disabled with -I/--ignore-assertions.) + + Strict checks + These additional checks are run when the -s/--strict (strict mode) flag + is used. Or, they can be run by giving their names as arguments to + check: + + o accounts - all account names used by transactions have been declared + + o commodities - all commodity symbols used have been declared + + o balancednoautoconversion - transactions are balanced, possibly using + explicit transaction prices but not inferred ones + + Other checks + These checks can be run only by giving their names as arguments to + check. They are more specialised and not desirable for everyone, + therefore optional: + + o ordereddates - transactions are ordered by date within each file + + o payees - all payees used by transactions have been declared + + o uniqueleafnames - all account leaf names are unique + + Custom checks + A few more checks are are available as separate add-on commands, in + https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/tree/master/bin: + + o hledger-check-tagfiles - all tag values containing / (a forward + slash) exist as file paths + + o hledger-check-fancyassertions - more complex balance assertions are + passing + + You could make similar scripts to perform your own custom checks. See: + Cookbook -> Scripting. + + close + close, equity + Prints a "closing balances" transaction and an "opening balances" + transaction that bring account balances to and from zero, respectively. + These can be added to your journal file(s), eg to bring asset/liability + balances forward into a new journal file, or to close out rev- + enues/expenses to retained earnings at the end of a period. + + You can print just one of these transactions by using the --close or + --open flag. You can customise their descriptions with the --close- + desc and --open-desc options. + + One amountless posting to "equity:opening/closing balances" is added to + balance the transactions, by default. You can customise this account + name with --close-acct and --open-acct; if you specify only one of + these, it will be used for both. + + With --x/--explicit, the equity posting's amount will be shown. And if + it involves multiple commodities, a posting for each commodity will be + shown, as with the print command. + + With --interleaved, the equity postings are shown next to the postings + they balance, which makes troubleshooting easier. + + By default, transaction prices in the journal are ignored when generat- + ing the closing/opening transactions. With --show-costs, this cost + information is preserved (balance -B reports will be unchanged after + the transition). Separate postings are generated for each cost in each + commodity. Note this can generate very large journal entries, if you + have many foreign currency or investment transactions. + + close usage + If you split your journal files by time (eg yearly), you will typically + run this command at the end of the year, and save the closing transac- + tion as last entry of the old file, and the opening transaction as the + first entry of the new file. This makes the files self contained, so + that correct balances are reported no matter which of them are loaded. + Ie, if you load just one file, the balances are initialised correctly; + or if you load several files, the redundant closing/opening transac- + tions cancel each other out. (They will show up in print or register + reports; you can exclude them with a query like not:desc:'(open- + ing|closing) balances'.) + + If you're running a business, you might also use this command to "close + the books" at the end of an accounting period, transferring income + statement account balances to retained earnings. (You may want to + change the equity account name to something like "equity:retained earn- + ings".) + + By default, the closing transaction is dated yesterday, the balances + are calculated as of end of yesterday, and the opening transaction is + dated today. To close on some other date, use: hledger close -e OPEN- + INGDATE. Eg, to close/open on the 2018/2019 boundary, use -e 2019. + You can also use -p or date:PERIOD (any starting date is ignored). + + Both transactions will include balance assertions for the + closed/reopened accounts. You probably shouldn't use status or real- + ness filters (like -C or -R or status:) with this command, or the gen- + erated balance assertions will depend on these flags. Likewise, if you + run this command with --auto, the balance assertions will probably + always require --auto. + + Examples: + + Carrying asset/liability balances into a new file for 2019: + + $ hledger close -f 2018.journal -e 2019 assets liabilities --open + # (copy/paste the output to the start of your 2019 journal file) + $ hledger close -f 2018.journal -e 2019 assets liabilities --close + # (copy/paste the output to the end of your 2018 journal file) + + Now: + + $ hledger bs -f 2019.journal # one file - balances are correct + $ hledger bs -f 2018.journal -f 2019.journal # two files - balances still correct + $ hledger bs -f 2018.journal not:desc:closing # to see year-end balances, must exclude closing txn + + Transactions spanning the closing date can complicate matters, breaking + balance assertions: + + 2018/12/30 a purchase made in 2018, clearing the following year + expenses:food 5 + assets:bank:checking -5 ; [2019/1/2] + + Here's one way to resolve that: + + ; in 2018.journal: + 2018/12/30 a purchase made in 2018, clearing the following year + expenses:food 5 + liabilities:pending + + ; in 2019.journal: + 2019/1/2 clearance of last year's pending transactions + liabilities:pending 5 = 0 + assets:checking + + codes + codes + List the codes seen in transactions, in the order parsed. + + This command prints the value of each transaction's code field, in the + order transactions were parsed. The transaction code is an optional + value written in parentheses between the date and description, often + used to store a cheque number, order number or similar. + + Transactions aren't required to have a code, and missing or empty codes + will not be shown by default. With the -E/--empty flag, they will be + printed as blank lines. + + You can add a query to select a subset of transactions. + + Examples: + + 1/1 (123) + (a) 1 + + 1/1 () + (a) 1 + + 1/1 + (a) 1 + + 1/1 (126) + (a) 1 + + $ hledger codes + 123 + 124 + 126 + + $ hledger codes -E + 123 + 124 + + + 126 + + commodities + commodities + List all commodity/currency symbols used or declared in the journal. + + descriptions + descriptions + List the unique descriptions that appear in transactions. + + This command lists the unique descriptions that appear in transactions, + in alphabetic order. You can add a query to select a subset of trans- + actions. + + Example: + + $ hledger descriptions + Store Name + Gas Station | Petrol + Person A + + diff + diff + Compares a particular account's transactions in two input files. It + shows any transactions to this account which are in one file but not in + the other. + + More precisely, for each posting affecting this account in either file, + it looks for a corresponding posting in the other file which posts the + same amount to the same account (ignoring date, description, etc.) + Since postings not transactions are compared, this also works when mul- + tiple bank transactions have been combined into a single journal entry. + + This is useful eg if you have downloaded an account's transactions from + your bank (eg as CSV data). When hledger and your bank disagree about + the account balance, you can compare the bank data with your journal to + find out the cause. + + Examples: + + $ hledger diff -f $LEDGER_FILE -f bank.csv assets:bank:giro + These transactions are in the first file only: + + 2014/01/01 Opening Balances + assets:bank:giro EUR ... + ... + equity:opening balances EUR -... + + These transactions are in the second file only: + + files + files + List all files included in the journal. With a REGEX argument, only + file names matching the regular expression (case sensitive) are shown. + + help + help + Show the hledger user manual in one of several formats, optionally + positioned at a given TOPIC (if possible). TOPIC is any heading, or + heading prefix, in the manual. Some examples: commands, print, 'auto + postings', periodic. + + This command shows the user manual built in to this hledger version. + It can be useful if the correct version of the hledger manual, or the + usual viewing tools, are not installed on your system. + + By default it uses the best viewer it can find in $PATH, in this order: + info, man, $PAGER (unless a topic is specified), less, or stdout. When + run non-interactively, it always uses stdout. Or you can select a par- + ticular viewer with the -i (info), -m (man), or -p (pager) flags. + + import + import + Read new transactions added to each FILE since last run, and add them + to the main journal file. Or with --dry-run, just print the transac- + tions that would be added. Or with --catchup, just mark all of the + FILEs' transactions as imported, without actually importing any. + + Unlike other hledger commands, with import the journal file is an out- + put file, and will be modified, though only by appending (existing data + will not be changed). The input files are specified as arguments, so + to import one or more CSV files to your main journal, you will run + hledger import bank.csv or perhaps hledger import *.csv. + + Note you can import from any file format, though CSV files are the most + common import source, and these docs focus on that case. + + Deduplication + As a convenience import does deduplication while reading transactions. + This does not mean "ignore transactions that look the same", but rather + "ignore transactions that have been seen before". This is intended for + when you are periodically importing foreign data which may contain + already-imported transactions. So eg, if every day you download bank + CSV files containing redundant data, you can safely run hledger import + bank.csv and only new transactions will be imported. (import is idem- + potent.) + + Since the items being read (CSV records, eg) often do not come with + unique identifiers, hledger detects new transactions by date, assuming + that: + + 1. new items always have the newest dates + + 2. item dates do not change across reads + + 3. and items with the same date remain in the same relative order + across reads. + + These are often true of CSV files representing transactions, or true + enough so that it works pretty well in practice. 1 is important, but + violations of 2 and 3 amongst the old transactions won't matter (and if + you import often, the new transactions will be few, so less likely to + be the ones affected). + + hledger remembers the latest date processed in each input file by sav- + ing a hidden ".latest" state file in the same directory. Eg when read- + ing finance/bank.csv, it will look for and update the finance/.lat- + est.bank.csv state file. The format is simple: one or more lines con- + taining the same ISO-format date (YYYY-MM-DD), meaning "I have pro- + cessed transactions up to this date, and this many of them on that + date." Normally you won't see or manipulate these state files yourself. + But if needed, you can delete them to reset the state (making all + transactions "new"), or you can construct them to "catch up" to a cer- + tain date. + + Note deduplication (and updating of state files) can also be done by + print --new, but this is less often used. + + Import testing + With --dry-run, the transactions that will be imported are printed to + the terminal, without updating your journal or state files. The output + is valid journal format, like the print command, so you can re-parse + it. Eg, to see any importable transactions which CSV rules have not + categorised: + + $ hledger import --dry bank.csv | hledger -f- -I print unknown + + or (live updating): + + $ ls bank.csv* | entr bash -c 'echo ====; hledger import --dry bank.csv | hledger -f- -I print unknown' + + Importing balance assignments + Entries added by import will have their posting amounts made explicit + (like hledger print -x). This means that any balance assignments in + imported files must be evaluated; but, imported files don't get to see + the main file's account balances. As a result, importing entries with + balance assignments (eg from an institution that provides only balances + and not posting amounts) will probably generate incorrect posting + amounts. To avoid this problem, use print instead of import: + + $ hledger print IMPORTFILE [--new] >> $LEDGER_FILE + + (If you think import should leave amounts implicit like print does, + please test it and send a pull request.) + + Commodity display styles + Imported amounts will be formatted according to the canonical commodity + styles (declared or inferred) in the main journal file. + + incomestatement + incomestatement, is + + This command displays an income statement, showing revenues and + expenses during one or more periods. Amounts are shown with normal + positive sign, as in conventional financial statements. + + The revenue and expense accounts shown are those accounts declared with + the Revenue or Expense type, or otherwise all accounts under a top- + level revenue or income or expense account (case insensitive, plurals + allowed). + + Example: + + $ hledger incomestatement + Income Statement + + Revenues: + $-2 income + $-1 gifts + $-1 salary + -------------------- + $-2 + + Expenses: + $2 expenses + $1 food + $1 supplies + -------------------- + $2 + + Total: + -------------------- + 0 + + This command is a higher-level variant of the balance command, and sup- + ports many of that command's features, such as multi-period reports. + It is similar to hledger balance '(revenues|income)' expenses, but with + smarter account detection, and revenues/income displayed with their + sign flipped. + + This command also supports the output destination and output format + options The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and (experi- + mental) json. + + notes + notes + List the unique notes that appear in transactions. + + This command lists the unique notes that appear in transactions, in + alphabetic order. You can add a query to select a subset of transac- + tions. The note is the part of the transaction description after a | + character (or if there is no |, the whole description). + + Example: + + $ hledger notes + Petrol + Snacks + + payees + payees + List the unique payee/payer names that appear in transactions. + + This command lists unique payee/payer names which have been declared + with payee directives (--declared), used in transaction descriptions + (--used), or both (the default). + + The payee/payer is the part of the transaction description before a | + character (or if there is no |, the whole description). + + You can add query arguments to select a subset of transactions. This + implies --used. + + Example: + + $ hledger payees + Store Name + Gas Station + Person A + + prices + prices + Print market price directives from the journal. With --costs, also + print synthetic market prices based on transaction prices. With + --inverted-costs, also print inverse prices based on transaction + prices. Prices (and postings providing prices) can be filtered by a + query. Price amounts are always displayed with their full precision. + + print + print + Show transaction journal entries, sorted by date. + + The print command displays full journal entries (transactions) from the + journal file, sorted by date (or with --date2, by secondary date). + + Amounts are shown mostly normalised to commodity display style, eg the + placement of commodity symbols will be consistent. All of their deci- + mal places are shown, as in the original journal entry (with one alter- + ation: in some cases trailing zeroes are added.) + + Amounts are shown right-aligned within each transaction (but not across + all transactions). + + Directives and inter-transaction comments are not shown, currently. + This means the print command is somewhat lossy, and if you are using it + to reformat your journal you should take care to also copy over the + directives and file-level comments. + + Eg: + + $ hledger print + 2008/01/01 income + assets:bank:checking $1 + income:salary $-1 + + 2008/06/01 gift + assets:bank:checking $1 + income:gifts $-1 + + 2008/06/02 save + assets:bank:saving $1 + assets:bank:checking $-1 + + 2008/06/03 * eat & shop + expenses:food $1 + expenses:supplies $1 + assets:cash $-2 + + 2008/12/31 * pay off + liabilities:debts $1 + assets:bank:checking $-1 + + print's output is usually a valid hledger journal, and you can process + it again with a second hledger command. This can be useful for certain + kinds of search, eg: + + # Show running total of food expenses paid from cash. + # -f- reads from stdin. -I/--ignore-assertions is sometimes needed. + $ hledger print assets:cash | hledger -f- -I reg expenses:food + + There are some situations where print's output can become unparseable: + + o Valuation affects posting amounts but not balance assertion or bal- + ance assignment amounts, potentially causing those to fail. + + o Auto postings can generate postings with too many missing amounts. + + Normally, the journal entry's explicit or implicit amount style is pre- + served. For example, when an amount is omitted in the journal, it will + not appear in the output. Similarly, when a transaction price is + implied but not written, it will not appear in the output. You can use + the -x/--explicit flag to make all amounts and transaction prices + explicit, which can be useful for troubleshooting or for making your + journal more readable and robust against data entry errors. -x is also + implied by using any of -B,-V,-X,--value. + + Note, -x/--explicit will cause postings with a multi-commodity amount + (these can arise when a multi-commodity transaction has an implicit + amount) to be split into multiple single-commodity postings, keeping + the output parseable. + + With -B/--cost, amounts with transaction prices are converted to cost + using that price. This can be used for troubleshooting. + + With -m/--match and a STR argument, print will show at most one trans- + action: the one one whose description is most similar to STR, and is + most recent. STR should contain at least two characters. If there is + no similar-enough match, no transaction will be shown. + + With --new, hledger prints only transactions it has not seen on a pre- + vious run. This uses the same deduplication system as the import com- + mand. (See import's docs for details.) + + This command also supports the output destination and output format + options The output formats supported are txt, csv, and (experimental) + json and sql. + + Here's an example of print's CSV output: + + $ hledger print -Ocsv + "txnidx","date","date2","status","code","description","comment","account","amount","commodity","credit","debit","posting-status","posting-comment" + "1","2008/01/01","","","","income","","assets:bank:checking","1","$","","1","","" + "1","2008/01/01","","","","income","","income:salary","-1","$","1","","","" + "2","2008/06/01","","","","gift","","assets:bank:checking","1","$","","1","","" + "2","2008/06/01","","","","gift","","income:gifts","-1","$","1","","","" + "3","2008/06/02","","","","save","","assets:bank:saving","1","$","","1","","" + "3","2008/06/02","","","","save","","assets:bank:checking","-1","$","1","","","" + "4","2008/06/03","","*","","eat & shop","","expenses:food","1","$","","1","","" + "4","2008/06/03","","*","","eat & shop","","expenses:supplies","1","$","","1","","" + "4","2008/06/03","","*","","eat & shop","","assets:cash","-2","$","2","","","" + "5","2008/12/31","","*","","pay off","","liabilities:debts","1","$","","1","","" + "5","2008/12/31","","*","","pay off","","assets:bank:checking","-1","$","1","","","" + + o There is one CSV record per posting, with the parent transaction's + fields repeated. + + o The "txnidx" (transaction index) field shows which postings belong to + the same transaction. (This number might change if transactions are + reordered within the file, files are parsed/included in a different + order, etc.) + + o The amount is separated into "commodity" (the symbol) and "amount" + (numeric quantity) fields. + + o The numeric amount is repeated in either the "credit" or "debit" col- + umn, for convenience. (Those names are not accurate in the account- + ing sense; it just puts negative amounts under credit and zero or + greater amounts under debit.) + + print-unique + print-unique + Print transactions which do not reuse an already-seen description. + + Example: + + $ cat unique.journal + 1/1 test + (acct:one) 1 + 2/2 test + (acct:two) 2 + $ LEDGER_FILE=unique.journal hledger print-unique + (-f option not supported) + 2015/01/01 test + (acct:one) 1 + + register + register, reg + Show postings and their running total. + + The register command displays matched postings, across all accounts, in + date order, with their running total or running historical balance. + (See also the aregister command, which shows matched transactions in a + specific account.) + + register normally shows line per posting, but note that multi-commodity + amounts will occupy multiple lines (one line per commodity). + + It is typically used with a query selecting a particular account, to + see that account's activity: + + $ hledger register checking + 2008/01/01 income assets:bank:checking $1 $1 + 2008/06/01 gift assets:bank:checking $1 $2 + 2008/06/02 save assets:bank:checking $-1 $1 + 2008/12/31 pay off assets:bank:checking $-1 0 + + With --date2, it shows and sorts by secondary date instead. + + The --historical/-H flag adds the balance from any undisplayed prior + postings to the running total. This is useful when you want to see + only recent activity, with a historically accurate running balance: + + $ hledger register checking -b 2008/6 --historical + 2008/06/01 gift assets:bank:checking $1 $2 + 2008/06/02 save assets:bank:checking $-1 $1 + 2008/12/31 pay off assets:bank:checking $-1 0 + + The --depth option limits the amount of sub-account detail displayed. + + The --average/-A flag shows the running average posting amount instead + of the running total (so, the final number displayed is the average for + the whole report period). This flag implies --empty (see below). It + is affected by --historical. It works best when showing just one + account and one commodity. + + The --related/-r flag shows the other postings in the transactions of + the postings which would normally be shown. + + The --invert flag negates all amounts. For example, it can be used on + an income account where amounts are normally displayed as negative num- + bers. It's also useful to show postings on the checking account + together with the related account: + + $ hledger register --related --invert assets:checking + + With a reporting interval, register shows summary postings, one per + interval, aggregating the postings to each account: + + $ hledger register --monthly income + 2008/01 income:salary $-1 $-1 + 2008/06 income:gifts $-1 $-2 + + Periods with no activity, and summary postings with a zero amount, are + not shown by default; use the --empty/-E flag to see them: + + $ hledger register --monthly income -E + 2008/01 income:salary $-1 $-1 + 2008/02 0 $-1 + 2008/03 0 $-1 + 2008/04 0 $-1 + 2008/05 0 $-1 + 2008/06 income:gifts $-1 $-2 + 2008/07 0 $-2 + 2008/08 0 $-2 + 2008/09 0 $-2 + 2008/10 0 $-2 + 2008/11 0 $-2 + 2008/12 0 $-2 + + Often, you'll want to see just one line per interval. The --depth + option helps with this, causing subaccounts to be aggregated: + + $ hledger register --monthly assets --depth 1h + 2008/01 assets $1 $1 + 2008/06 assets $-1 0 + 2008/12 assets $-1 $-1 + + Note when using report intervals, if you specify start/end dates these + will be adjusted outward if necessary to contain a whole number of + intervals. This ensures that the first and last intervals are full + length and comparable to the others in the report. + + Custom register output + register uses the full terminal width by default, except on windows. + You can override this by setting the COLUMNS environment variable (not + a bash shell variable) or by using the --width/-w option. + + The description and account columns normally share the space equally + (about half of (width - 40) each). You can adjust this by adding a + description width as part of --width's argument, comma-separated: + --width W,D . Here's a diagram (won't display correctly in --help): + + <--------------------------------- width (W) ----------------------------------> + date (10) description (D) account (W-41-D) amount (12) balance (12) + DDDDDDDDDD dddddddddddddddddddd aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa AAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAA + + and some examples: + + $ hledger reg # use terminal width (or 80 on windows) + $ hledger reg -w 100 # use width 100 + $ COLUMNS=100 hledger reg # set with one-time environment variable + $ export COLUMNS=100; hledger reg # set till session end (or window resize) + $ hledger reg -w 100,40 # set overall width 100, description width 40 + $ hledger reg -w $COLUMNS,40 # use terminal width, & description width 40 + + This command also supports the output destination and output format + options The output formats supported are txt, csv, and (experimental) + json. + + register-match + register-match + Print the one posting whose transaction description is closest to DESC, + in the style of the register command. If there are multiple equally + good matches, it shows the most recent. Query options (options, not + arguments) can be used to restrict the search space. Helps ledger- + autosync detect already-seen transactions when importing. + + rewrite + rewrite + Print all transactions, rewriting the postings of matched transactions. + For now the only rewrite available is adding new postings, like print + --auto. + + This is a start at a generic rewriter of transaction entries. It reads + the default journal and prints the transactions, like print, but adds + one or more specified postings to any transactions matching QUERY. The + posting amounts can be fixed, or a multiplier of the existing transac- + tion's first posting amount. + + Examples: + + $ hledger-rewrite.hs ^income --add-posting '(liabilities:tax) *.33 ; income tax' --add-posting '(reserve:gifts) $100' + $ hledger-rewrite.hs expenses:gifts --add-posting '(reserve:gifts) *-1"' + $ hledger-rewrite.hs -f rewrites.hledger + + rewrites.hledger may consist of entries like: + + = ^income amt:<0 date:2017 + (liabilities:tax) *0.33 ; tax on income + (reserve:grocery) *0.25 ; reserve 25% for grocery + (reserve:) *0.25 ; reserve 25% for grocery + + Note the single quotes to protect the dollar sign from bash, and the + two spaces between account and amount. + + More: + + $ hledger rewrite -- [QUERY] --add-posting "ACCT AMTEXPR" ... + $ hledger rewrite -- ^income --add-posting '(liabilities:tax) *.33' + $ hledger rewrite -- expenses:gifts --add-posting '(budget:gifts) *-1"' + $ hledger rewrite -- ^income --add-posting '(budget:foreign currency) *0.25 JPY; diversify' + + Argument for --add-posting option is a usual posting of transaction + with an exception for amount specification. More precisely, you can + use '*' (star symbol) before the amount to indicate that that this is a + factor for an amount of original matched posting. If the amount + includes a commodity name, the new posting amount will be in the new + commodity; otherwise, it will be in the matched posting amount's com- + modity. + + Re-write rules in a file + During the run this tool will execute so called "Automated Transac- + tions" found in any journal it process. I.e instead of specifying this + operations in command line you can put them in a journal file. + + $ rewrite-rules.journal + + Make contents look like this: + + = ^income + (liabilities:tax) *.33 + + = expenses:gifts + budget:gifts *-1 + assets:budget *1 + + Note that '=' (equality symbol) that is used instead of date in trans- + actions you usually write. It indicates the query by which you want to + match the posting to add new ones. + + $ hledger rewrite -- -f input.journal -f rewrite-rules.journal > rewritten-tidy-output.journal + + This is something similar to the commands pipeline: + + $ hledger rewrite -- -f input.journal '^income' --add-posting '(liabilities:tax) *.33' \ + | hledger rewrite -- -f - expenses:gifts --add-posting 'budget:gifts *-1' \ + --add-posting 'assets:budget *1' \ + > rewritten-tidy-output.journal + + It is important to understand that relative order of such entries in + journal is important. You can re-use result of previously added post- + ings. + + Diff output format + To use this tool for batch modification of your journal files you may + find useful output in form of unified diff. + + $ hledger rewrite -- --diff -f examples/sample.journal '^income' --add-posting '(liabilities:tax) *.33' + + Output might look like: + + --- /tmp/examples/sample.journal + +++ /tmp/examples/sample.journal + @@ -18,3 +18,4 @@ + 2008/01/01 income + - assets:bank:checking $1 + + assets:bank:checking $1 + income:salary + + (liabilities:tax) 0 + @@ -22,3 +23,4 @@ + 2008/06/01 gift + - assets:bank:checking $1 + + assets:bank:checking $1 + income:gifts + + (liabilities:tax) 0 + + If you'll pass this through patch tool you'll get transactions contain- + ing the posting that matches your query be updated. Note that multiple + files might be update according to list of input files specified via + --file options and include directives inside of these files. + + Be careful. Whole transaction being re-formatted in a style of output + from hledger print. + + See also: + + https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/issues/99 + + rewrite vs. print --auto + This command predates print --auto, and currently does much the same + thing, but with these differences: + + o with multiple files, rewrite lets rules in any file affect all other + files. print --auto uses standard directive scoping; rules affect + only child files. + + o rewrite's query limits which transactions can be rewritten; all are + printed. print --auto's query limits which transactions are printed. + + o rewrite applies rules specified on command line or in the journal. + print --auto applies rules specified in the journal. + + roi + roi + Shows the time-weighted (TWR) and money-weighted (IRR) rate of return + on your investments. + + At a minimum, you need to supply a query (which could be just an + account name) to select your investment(s) with --inv, and another + query to identify your profit and loss transactions with --pnl. + + If you do not record changes in the value of your investment manually, + or do not require computation of time-weighted return (TWR), --pnl + could be an empty query (--pnl "" or --pnl STR where STR does not match + any of your accounts). + + This command will compute and display the internalized rate of return + (IRR) and time-weighted rate of return (TWR) for your investments for + the time period requested. Both rates of return are annualized before + display, regardless of the length of reporting interval. + + Price directives will be taken into account if you supply appropriate + --cost or --value flags (see VALUATION). + + Note, in some cases this report can fail, for these reasons: + + o Error (NotBracketed): No solution for Internal Rate of Return (IRR). + Possible causes: IRR is huge (>1000000%), balance of investment + becomes negative at some point in time. + + o Error (SearchFailed): Failed to find solution for Internal Rate of + Return (IRR). Either search does not converge to a solution, or con- + verges too slowly. + + Examples: + + o Using roi to compute total return of investment in stocks: + https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/blob/master/examples/roi- + unrealised.ledger + + o Cookbook -> Return on Investment + + Spaces and special characters in --inv and --pnl + Note that --inv and --pnl's argument is a query, and queries could have + several space-separated terms (see QUERIES). + + To indicate that all search terms form single command-line argument, + you will need to put them in quotes (see Special characters): + + $ hledger roi --inv 'term1 term2 term3 ...' + + If any query terms contain spaces themselves, you will need an extra + level of nested quoting, eg: + + $ hledger roi --inv="'Assets:Test 1'" --pnl="'Equity:Unrealized Profit and Loss'" + + Semantics of --inv and --pnl + Query supplied to --inv has to match all transactions that are related + to your investment. Transactions not matching --inv will be ignored. + + In these transactions, ROI will conside postings that match --inv to be + "investment postings" and other postings (not matching --inv) will be + sorted into two categories: "cash flow" and "profit and loss", as ROI + needs to know which part of the investment value is your contributions + and which is due to the return on investment. + + o "Cash flow" is depositing or withdrawing money, buying or selling + assets, or otherwise converting between your investment commodity and + any other commodity. Example: + + 2019-01-01 Investing in Snake Oil + assets:cash -$100 + investment:snake oil + + 2020-01-01 Selling my Snake Oil + assets:cash $10 + investment:snake oil = 0 + + o "Profit and loss" is change in the value of your investment: + + 2019-06-01 Snake Oil falls in value + investment:snake oil = $57 + equity:unrealized profit or loss + + All non-investment postings are assumed to be "cash flow", unless they + match --pnl query. Changes in value of your investment due to "profit + and loss" postings will be considered as part of your investment + return. + + Example: if you use --inv snake --pnl equity:unrealized, then postings + in the example below would be classifed as: + + 2019-01-01 Snake Oil #1 + assets:cash -$100 ; cash flow posting + investment:snake oil ; investment posting + + 2019-03-01 Snake Oil #2 + equity:unrealized pnl -$100 ; profit and loss posting + snake oil ; investment posting + + 2019-07-01 Snake Oil #3 + equity:unrealized pnl ; profit and loss posting + cash -$100 ; cash flow posting + snake oil $50 ; investment posting + + IRR and TWR explained + "ROI" stands for "return on investment". Traditionally this was com- + puted as a difference between current value of investment and its ini- + tial value, expressed in percentage of the initial value. + + However, this approach is only practical in simple cases, where invest- + ments receives no in-flows or out-flows of money, and where rate of + growth is fixed over time. For more complex scenarios you need differ- + ent ways to compute rate of return, and this command implements two of + them: IRR and TWR. + + Internal rate of return, or "IRR" (also called "money-weighted rate of + return") takes into account effects of in-flows and out-flows. + Naively, if you are withdrawing from your investment, your future gains + would be smaller (in absolute numbers), and will be a smaller percent- + age of your initial investment, and if you are adding to your invest- + ment, you will receive bigger absolute gains (but probably at the same + rate of return). IRR is a way to compute rate of return for each + period between in-flow or out-flow of money, and then combine them in a + way that gives you a compound annual rate of return that investment is + expected to generate. + + As mentioned before, in-flows and out-flows would be any cash that you + personally put in or withdraw, and for the "roi" command, these are the + postings that match the query in the--inv argument and NOT match the + query in the--pnl argument. + + If you manually record changes in the value of your investment as + transactions that balance them against "profit and loss" (or "unreal- + ized gains") account or use price directives, then in order for IRR to + compute the precise effect of your in-flows and out-flows on the rate + of return, you will need to record the value of your investement on or + close to the days when in- or out-flows occur. + + In technical terms, IRR uses the same approach as computation of net + present value, and tries to find a discount rate that makes net present + value of all the cash flows of your investment to add up to zero. This + could be hard to wrap your head around, especially if you haven't done + discounted cash flow analysis before. Implementation of IRR in hledger + should produce results that match the XIRR formula in Excel. + + Second way to compute rate of return that roi command implements is + called "time-weighted rate of return" or "TWR". Like IRR, it will also + break the history of your investment into periods between in-flows, + out-flows and value changes, to compute rate of return per each period + and then a compound rate of return. However, internal workings of TWR + are quite different. + + TWR represents your investment as an imaginary "unit fund" where in- + flows/ out-flows lead to buying or selling "units" of your investment + and changes in its value change the value of "investment unit". Change + in "unit price" over the reporting period gives you rate of return of + your investment. + + References: * Explanation of rate of return * Explanation of IRR * + Explanation of TWR * Examples of computing IRR and TWR and discussion + of the limitations of both metrics + + stats + stats + Show some journal statistics. + + The stats command displays summary information for the whole journal, + or a matched part of it. With a reporting interval, it shows a report + for each report period. + + Example: + + $ hledger stats + Main journal file : /src/hledger/examples/sample.journal + Included journal files : + Transactions span : 2008-01-01 to 2009-01-01 (366 days) + Last transaction : 2008-12-31 (2333 days ago) + Transactions : 5 (0.0 per day) + Transactions last 30 days: 0 (0.0 per day) + Transactions last 7 days : 0 (0.0 per day) + Payees/descriptions : 5 + Accounts : 8 (depth 3) + Commodities : 1 ($) + Market prices : 12 ($) + + This command also supports output destination and output format selec- + tion. + + tags + tags + List the unique tag names used in the journal. With a TAGREGEX argu- + ment, only tag names matching the regular expression (case insensitive) + are shown. With QUERY arguments, only transactions matching the query + are considered. + + With the --values flag, the tags' unique values are listed instead. + + With --parsed flag, all tags or values are shown in the order they are + parsed from the input data, including duplicates. + + With -E/--empty, any blank/empty values will also be shown, otherwise + they are omitted. + + test + test + Run built-in unit tests. + + This command runs the unit tests built in to hledger and hledger-lib, + printing the results on stdout. If any test fails, the exit code will + be non-zero. + + This is mainly used by hledger developers, but you can also use it to + sanity-check the installed hledger executable on your platform. All + tests are expected to pass - if you ever see a failure, please report + as a bug! + + This command also accepts tasty test runner options, written after a -- + (double hyphen). Eg to run only the tests in Hledger.Data.Amount, with + ANSI colour codes disabled: + + $ hledger test -- -pData.Amount --color=never + + For help on these, see https://github.com/feuerbach/tasty#options (-- + --help currently doesn't show them). + + About add-on commands + Add-on commands are programs or scripts in your PATH + + o whose name starts with hledger- + + o whose name ends with a recognised file extension: .bat,.com,.exe, + .hs,.lhs,.pl,.py,.rb,.rkt,.sh or none + + o and (on unix, mac) which are executable by the current user. + + Add-ons are a relatively easy way to add local features or experiment + with new ideas. They can be written in any language, but haskell + scripts have a big advantage: they can use the same hledger library + functions that built-in commands use for command-line options, parsing + and reporting. Some experimental/example add-on scripts can be found + in the hledger repo's bin/ directory. + + Note in a hledger command line, add-on command flags must have a double + dash (--) preceding them. Eg you must write: + + $ hledger web -- --serve + + and not: + + $ hledger web --serve + + (because the --serve flag belongs to hledger-web, not hledger). + + The -h/--help and --version flags don't require --. + + If you have any trouble with this, remember you can always run the add- + on program directly, eg: + + $ hledger-web --serve + +JOURNAL FORMAT + hledger's default file format, representing a General Journal. + + 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. + + Code + After the status mark, but before the description, you can optionally + write a transaction "code", enclosed in parentheses. This is a good + place to record a check number, or some other important transaction id + or reference number. + + 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, revenue, 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 symbol or commodity name (more on this below), + to the left or right of the quantity, with or without a separating + space: + + $1 + 4000 AAPL + 3 "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 + + Decimal marks, digit group marks + A decimal mark can be written as a period or a comma: + + 1.23 + 1,23456780000009 + + 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 digit group mark and no decimal mark + is ambiguous. Are these digit group marks or decimal marks ? + + 1,000 + 1.000 + + If you don't tell it otherwise, hledger will assume both of the above + are decimal marks, parsing both numbers as 1. To prevent confusion and + undetected typos, we recommend adding commodity directives at the top + of your journal file to explicitly declare the decimal mark (and + optionally a digit group mark) for each commodity. Read on for more + about this. + + Commodity + Amounts in hledger have both a "quantity", which is a signed decimal + number, and a "commodity", which is a currency symbol, stock ticker, or + any word or phrase describing something you are tracking. + + If the commodity name contains non-letters (spaces, numbers, or punctu- + ation), you must always write it inside double quotes ("green apples", + "ABC123"). + + If you write just a bare number, that too will have a commodity, with + name ""; we call that the "no-symbol commodity". + + Actually, hledger combines these single-commodity amounts into more + powerful multi-commodity amounts, which are what it works with most of + the time. A multi-commodity amount could be, eg: 1 USD, 2 EUR, 3.456 + TSLA. In practice, you will only see multi-commodity amounts in + hledger's output; you can't write them directly in the journal file. + + (If you are writing scripts or working with hledger's internals, these + are the Amount and MixedAmount types.) + + Commodity directives + You can add commodity directives to the journal, preferably at the top, + to declare your commodities and help with number parsing (see above) + and display (see below). These are optional, but recommended. They + are described in more detail in JOURNAL FORMAT -> Declaring commodi- + ties. Here's a quick example: + + # number format and display style for $, EUR, INR and the no-symbol commodity: + 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 the amounts in each commodity, hledger chooses a consistent display + style to use in most reports. (Exceptions: price amounts, and all + amounts displayed by the print command, are displayed with all of their + decimal digits visible.) + + A commodity's display style is inferred as follows. + + First, if a default commodity is declared with D, this commodity and + its style is applied to any no-symbol amounts in the journal. + + Then each commodity's style is inferred from one of the following, in + order of preference: + + o The commodity directive for that commodity (including the no-symbol + commodity), if any. + + o The amounts in that commodity seen in the journal's transactions. + (Posting amounts only; prices and periodic or auto rules are ignored, + currently.) + + o The built-in fallback style, which looks like this: $1000.00. (Sym- + bol on the left, period decimal mark, two decimal places.) + + A style is inferred from journal amounts 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. + + To summarise: each commodity's amounts will be normalised to (a) the + style declared by a commodity directive, or (b) the style of the first + posting amount in the journal, with the first-seen digit group style + and the maximum-seen number of decimal places. So if your reports are + showing amounts in a way you don't like, eg with too many decimal + places, use a commodity directive. Some examples: + + # declare euro, dollar, bitcoin and no-symbol commodities and set their + # input number formats and output display styles: + commodity EUR 1.000, + commodity $1000.00 + commodity 1000.00000000 BTC + commodity 1 000. + + 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. + + + 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 until end of cur- + rent file; display + 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 + payee declare a payee name following entries + until end of cur- + rent file + 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 payees + The payee directive can be used to declare a limited set of payees + which may appear in transaction descriptions. The "payees" check will + report an error if any transaction refers to a payee that has not been + declared. Eg: + + payee Whole Foods + + Declaring commodities + You can use commodity directives to declare your commodities. In fact + the commodity directive performs several functions at once: + + 1. It declares commodities which may be used in the journal. This can + optionally be enforced, providing useful error checking. (Cf Com- + modity error checking) + + 2. It declares which decimal mark character (period or comma), to + expect when parsing input - useful to disambiguate international + number formats in your data. Without this, hledger will parse both + 1,000 and 1.000 as 1. (Cf Amounts) + + 3. It declares how to render the commodity's amounts when displaying + output - the decimal mark, any digit group marks, the number of dec- + imal places, symbol placement and so on. (Cf Commodity display + style) + + You will run into one of the problems solved by commodity directives + sooner or later, so we recommend using them, for robust and predictable + parsing and display. + + Generally you should put them at the top of your journal file (since + for function 2, they affect only following amounts, cf #793). + + A commodity directive is just the word commodity followed by a sample + amount, like this: + + ;commodity SAMPLEAMOUNT + + commodity $1000.00 + commodity 1,000.0000 AAAA ; optional same-line comment + + It may also be written on multiple lines, and use the format subdirec- + tive, as in Ledger. Note in this case the commodity symbol appears + twice; it must be the same in both places: + + ;commodity SYMBOL + ; format SAMPLEAMOUNT + + ; display indian rupees with currency name on the left, + ; thousands, lakhs and crores comma-separated, + ; period as decimal point, and two decimal places. + commodity INR + format INR 1,00,00,000.00 + + Remember that if the commodity symbol contains spaces, numbers, or + punctuation, it must be enclosed in double quotes (cf Commodity). + + The amount's quantity does not matter; only the format is significant. + It must include a decimal mark - either a period or a comma - followed + by 0 or more decimal digits. + + A few more examples: + + # number formats for $, EUR, INR and the no-symbol commodity: + commodity $1,000.00 + commodity EUR 1.000,00 + commodity INR 9,99,99,999.0 + commodity 1 000 000. + + 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 any subsequent + commodityless amounts (ie, plain numbers) seen while parsing the jour- + nal. This effect lasts until the next D directive, or the end of the + journal. + + For compatibility/historical reasons, D also acts like a commodity + directive (setting the commodity's decimal mark for parsing and display + style for output). + + As with commodity, the amount must include a decimal mark (either + period or comma). If both commodity and D directives are used for the + same commodity, the commodity 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. + + The format is: + + P DATE COMMODITY1SYMBOL COMMODITY2AMOUNT + + DATE is a simple date, COMMODITY1SYMBOL is the symbol of the commodity + being priced, and COMMODITY2AMOUNT is the amount (symbol and quantity) + of commodity 2 that one unit of commodity 1 is worth on this date. + Examples: + + # one euro was worth $1.35 from 2009-01-01 onward: + P 2009-01-01 EUR $1.35 + + # and $1.40 from 2010-01-01 onward: + P 2010-01-01 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 account's name matches this regular expression: | its type is: + ------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------ + ^assets?(:|$) | + and does not contain regexp (investment|receivable|:A/R|:fixed) | Cash + otherwise | Asset + ^(debts?|liabilit(y|ies))(:|$) | Liability + ^equity(:|$) | Equity + ^(income|revenue)s?(:|$) | Revenue + ^expenses?(:|$) | Expense + + 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 (but note: not sibling or parent 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". + +CSV FORMAT + How hledger reads CSV data, and the CSV rules file format. + + hledger can read CSV files (Character Separated Value - usually comma, + semicolon, or tab) containing dated records as if they were journal + files, automatically converting each CSV record into a transaction. + + (To learn about writing CSV, see CSV output.) + + We describe each CSV file's format with a corresponding rules file. By + default this is named like the CSV file with a .rules extension added. + Eg when reading FILE.csv, hledger also looks for FILE.csv.rules in the + same directory as FILE.csv. You can specify a different rules file + with the --rules-file option. If a rules file is not found, hledger + will create a sample rules file, which you'll need to adjust. + + This file contains rules describing the CSV data (header line, fields + layout, date format etc.), and how to construct hledger journal entries + (transactions) from it. Often there will also be a list of conditional + rules for categorising transactions based on their descriptions. + Here's an overview of the CSV rules; these are described more fully + below, after the examples: + + + skip skip one or more header lines or matched CSV + records + fields list name CSV fields, assign them to hledger + fields + field assignment assign a value to one hledger field, with + interpolation + Field names hledger field names, used in the fields list + and field assignments + separator a custom field separator + + if block apply some rules to CSV records matched by + patterns + if table apply some rules to CSV records matched by + patterns, alternate syntax + end skip the remaining CSV records + date-format how to parse dates in CSV records + decimal-mark the decimal mark used in CSV amounts, if + ambiguous + newest-first disambiguate record order when there's only + one date + include inline another CSV rules file + balance-type choose which type of balance assignments to + use + + Note, for best error messages when reading CSV files, use a .csv, .tsv + or .ssv file extension or file prefix - see File Extension below. + + There's an introductory Convert CSV files tutorial on hledger.org. + + Examples + Here are some sample hledger CSV rules files. See also the full col- + lection at: + https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/tree/master/examples/csv + + Basic + At minimum, the rules file must identify the date and amount fields, + and often it also specifies the date format and how many header lines + there are. Here's a simple CSV file and a rules file for it: + + Date, Description, Id, Amount + 12/11/2019, Foo, 123, 10.23 + + # basic.csv.rules + skip 1 + fields date, description, _, amount + date-format %d/%m/%Y + + $ hledger print -f basic.csv + 2019-11-12 Foo + expenses:unknown 10.23 + income:unknown -10.23 + + Default account names are chosen, since we didn't set them. + + Bank of Ireland + Here's a CSV with two amount fields (Debit and Credit), and a balance + field, which we can use to add balance assertions, which is not neces- + sary but provides extra error checking: + + Date,Details,Debit,Credit,Balance + 07/12/2012,LODGMENT 529898,,10.0,131.21 + 07/12/2012,PAYMENT,5,,126 + + # bankofireland-checking.csv.rules + + # skip the header line + skip + + # name the csv fields, and assign some of them as journal entry fields + fields date, description, amount-out, amount-in, balance + + # We generate balance assertions by assigning to "balance" + # above, but you may sometimes need to remove these because: + # + # - the CSV balance differs from the true balance, + # by up to 0.0000000000005 in my experience + # + # - it is sometimes calculated based on non-chronological ordering, + # eg when multiple transactions clear on the same day + + # date is in UK/Ireland format + date-format %d/%m/%Y + + # set the currency + currency EUR + + # set the base account for all txns + account1 assets:bank:boi:checking + + $ hledger -f bankofireland-checking.csv print + 2012-12-07 LODGMENT 529898 + assets:bank:boi:checking EUR10.0 = EUR131.2 + income:unknown EUR-10.0 + + 2012-12-07 PAYMENT + assets:bank:boi:checking EUR-5.0 = EUR126.0 + expenses:unknown EUR5.0 + + The balance assertions don't raise an error above, because we're read- + ing directly from CSV, but they will be checked if these entries are + imported into a journal file. + + Amazon + Here we convert amazon.com order history, and use an if block to gener- + ate a third posting if there's a fee. (In practice you'd probably get + this data from your bank instead, but it's an example.) + + "Date","Type","To/From","Name","Status","Amount","Fees","Transaction ID" + "Jul 29, 2012","Payment","To","Foo.","Completed","$20.00","$0.00","16000000000000DGLNJPI1P9B8DKPVHL" + "Jul 30, 2012","Payment","To","Adapteva, Inc.","Completed","$25.00","$1.00","17LA58JSKRD4HDGLNJPI1P9B8DKPVHL" + + # amazon-orders.csv.rules + + # skip one header line + skip 1 + + # name the csv fields, and assign the transaction's date, amount and code. + # Avoided the "status" and "amount" hledger field names to prevent confusion. + fields date, _, toorfrom, name, amzstatus, amzamount, fees, code + + # how to parse the date + date-format %b %-d, %Y + + # combine two fields to make the description + description %toorfrom %name + + # save the status as a tag + comment status:%amzstatus + + # set the base account for all transactions + account1 assets:amazon + # leave amount1 blank so it can balance the other(s). + # I'm assuming amzamount excludes the fees, don't remember + + # set a generic account2 + account2 expenses:misc + amount2 %amzamount + # and maybe refine it further: + #include categorisation.rules + + # add a third posting for fees, but only if they are non-zero. + if %fees [1-9] + account3 expenses:fees + amount3 %fees + + $ hledger -f amazon-orders.csv print + 2012-07-29 (16000000000000DGLNJPI1P9B8DKPVHL) To Foo. ; status:Completed + assets:amazon + expenses:misc $20.00 + + 2012-07-30 (17LA58JSKRD4HDGLNJPI1P9B8DKPVHL) To Adapteva, Inc. ; status:Completed + assets:amazon + expenses:misc $25.00 + expenses:fees $1.00 + + Paypal + Here's a real-world rules file for (customised) Paypal CSV, with some + Paypal-specific rules, and a second rules file included: + + "Date","Time","TimeZone","Name","Type","Status","Currency","Gross","Fee","Net","From Email Address","To Email Address","Transaction ID","Item Title","Item ID","Reference Txn ID","Receipt ID","Balance","Note" + "10/01/2019","03:46:20","PDT","Calm Radio","Subscription Payment","Completed","USD","-6.99","0.00","-6.99","simon@joyful.com","memberships@calmradio.com","60P57143A8206782E","MONTHLY - $1 for the first 2 Months: Me - Order 99309. Item total: $1.00 USD first 2 months, then $6.99 / Month","","I-R8YLY094FJYR","","-6.99","" + "10/01/2019","03:46:20","PDT","","Bank Deposit to PP Account ","Pending","USD","6.99","0.00","6.99","","simon@joyful.com","0TU1544T080463733","","","60P57143A8206782E","","0.00","" + "10/01/2019","08:57:01","PDT","Patreon","PreApproved Payment Bill User Payment","Completed","USD","-7.00","0.00","-7.00","simon@joyful.com","support@patreon.com","2722394R5F586712G","Patreon* Membership","","B-0PG93074E7M86381M","","-7.00","" + "10/01/2019","08:57:01","PDT","","Bank Deposit to PP Account ","Pending","USD","7.00","0.00","7.00","","simon@joyful.com","71854087RG994194F","Patreon* Membership","","2722394R5F586712G","","0.00","" + "10/19/2019","03:02:12","PDT","Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.","Subscription Payment","Completed","USD","-2.00","0.00","-2.00","simon@joyful.com","tle@wikimedia.org","K9U43044RY432050M","Monthly donation to the Wikimedia Foundation","","I-R5C3YUS3285L","","-2.00","" + "10/19/2019","03:02:12","PDT","","Bank Deposit to PP Account ","Pending","USD","2.00","0.00","2.00","","simon@joyful.com","3XJ107139A851061F","","","K9U43044RY432050M","","0.00","" + "10/22/2019","05:07:06","PDT","Noble Benefactor","Subscription Payment","Completed","USD","10.00","-0.59","9.41","noble@bene.fac.tor","simon@joyful.com","6L8L1662YP1334033","Joyful Systems","","I-KC9VBGY2GWDB","","9.41","" + + # paypal-custom.csv.rules + + # Tips: + # Export from Activity -> Statements -> Custom -> Activity download + # Suggested transaction type: "Balance affecting" + # Paypal's default fields in 2018 were: + # "Date","Time","TimeZone","Name","Type","Status","Currency","Gross","Fee","Net","From Email Address","To Email Address","Transaction ID","Shipping Address","Address Status","Item Title","Item ID","Shipping and Handling Amount","Insurance Amount","Sales Tax","Option 1 Name","Option 1 Value","Option 2 Name","Option 2 Value","Reference Txn ID","Invoice Number","Custom Number","Quantity","Receipt ID","Balance","Address Line 1","Address Line 2/District/Neighborhood","Town/City","State/Province/Region/County/Territory/Prefecture/Republic","Zip/Postal Code","Country","Contact Phone Number","Subject","Note","Country Code","Balance Impact" + # This rules file assumes the following more detailed fields, configured in "Customize report fields": + # "Date","Time","TimeZone","Name","Type","Status","Currency","Gross","Fee","Net","From Email Address","To Email Address","Transaction ID","Item Title","Item ID","Reference Txn ID","Receipt ID","Balance","Note" + + fields date, time, timezone, description_, type, status_, currency, grossamount, feeamount, netamount, fromemail, toemail, code, itemtitle, itemid, referencetxnid, receiptid, balance, note + + skip 1 + + date-format %-m/%-d/%Y + + # ignore some paypal events + if + In Progress + Temporary Hold + Update to + skip + + # add more fields to the description + description %description_ %itemtitle + + # save some other fields as tags + comment itemid:%itemid, fromemail:%fromemail, toemail:%toemail, time:%time, type:%type, status:%status_ + + # convert to short currency symbols + if %currency USD + currency $ + if %currency EUR + currency E + if %currency GBP + currency P + + # generate postings + + # the first posting will be the money leaving/entering my paypal account + # (negative means leaving my account, in all amount fields) + account1 assets:online:paypal + amount1 %netamount + + # the second posting will be money sent to/received from other party + # (account2 is set below) + amount2 -%grossamount + + # if there's a fee, add a third posting for the money taken by paypal. + if %feeamount [1-9] + account3 expenses:banking:paypal + amount3 -%feeamount + comment3 business: + + # choose an account for the second posting + + # override the default account names: + # if the amount is positive, it's income (a debit) + if %grossamount ^[^-] + account2 income:unknown + # if negative, it's an expense (a credit) + if %grossamount ^- + account2 expenses:unknown + + # apply common rules for setting account2 & other tweaks + include common.rules + + # apply some overrides specific to this csv + + # Transfers from/to bank. These are usually marked Pending, + # which can be disregarded in this case. + if + Bank Account + Bank Deposit to PP Account + description %type for %referencetxnid %itemtitle + account2 assets:bank:wf:pchecking + account1 assets:online:paypal + + # Currency conversions + if Currency Conversion + account2 equity:currency conversion + + # common.rules + + if + darcs + noble benefactor + account2 revenues:foss donations:darcshub + comment2 business: + + if + Calm Radio + account2 expenses:online:apps + + if + electronic frontier foundation + Patreon + wikimedia + Advent of Code + account2 expenses:dues + + if Google + account2 expenses:online:apps + description google | music + + $ hledger -f paypal-custom.csv print + 2019-10-01 (60P57143A8206782E) Calm Radio MONTHLY - $1 for the first 2 Months: Me - Order 99309. Item total: $1.00 USD first 2 months, then $6.99 / Month ; itemid:, fromemail:simon@joyful.com, toemail:memberships@calmradio.com, time:03:46:20, type:Subscription Payment, status:Completed + assets:online:paypal $-6.99 = $-6.99 + expenses:online:apps $6.99 + + 2019-10-01 (0TU1544T080463733) Bank Deposit to PP Account for 60P57143A8206782E ; itemid:, fromemail:, toemail:simon@joyful.com, time:03:46:20, type:Bank Deposit to PP Account, status:Pending + assets:online:paypal $6.99 = $0.00 + assets:bank:wf:pchecking $-6.99 + + 2019-10-01 (2722394R5F586712G) Patreon Patreon* Membership ; itemid:, fromemail:simon@joyful.com, toemail:support@patreon.com, time:08:57:01, type:PreApproved Payment Bill User Payment, status:Completed + assets:online:paypal $-7.00 = $-7.00 + expenses:dues $7.00 + + 2019-10-01 (71854087RG994194F) Bank Deposit to PP Account for 2722394R5F586712G Patreon* Membership ; itemid:, fromemail:, toemail:simon@joyful.com, time:08:57:01, type:Bank Deposit to PP Account, status:Pending + assets:online:paypal $7.00 = $0.00 + assets:bank:wf:pchecking $-7.00 + + 2019-10-19 (K9U43044RY432050M) Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Monthly donation to the Wikimedia Foundation ; itemid:, fromemail:simon@joyful.com, toemail:tle@wikimedia.org, time:03:02:12, type:Subscription Payment, status:Completed + assets:online:paypal $-2.00 = $-2.00 + expenses:dues $2.00 + expenses:banking:paypal ; business: + + 2019-10-19 (3XJ107139A851061F) Bank Deposit to PP Account for K9U43044RY432050M ; itemid:, fromemail:, toemail:simon@joyful.com, time:03:02:12, type:Bank Deposit to PP Account, status:Pending + assets:online:paypal $2.00 = $0.00 + assets:bank:wf:pchecking $-2.00 + + 2019-10-22 (6L8L1662YP1334033) Noble Benefactor Joyful Systems ; itemid:, fromemail:noble@bene.fac.tor, toemail:simon@joyful.com, time:05:07:06, type:Subscription Payment, status:Completed + assets:online:paypal $9.41 = $9.41 + revenues:foss donations:darcshub $-10.00 ; business: + expenses:banking:paypal $0.59 ; business: + + CSV rules + The following kinds of rule can appear in the rules file, in any order. + Blank lines and lines beginning with # or ; are ignored. + + skip + skip N + + The word "skip" followed by a number (or no number, meaning 1) tells + hledger to ignore this many non-empty lines preceding the CSV data. + (Empty/blank lines are skipped automatically.) You'll need this when- + ever your CSV data contains header lines. + + It also has a second purpose: it can be used inside if blocks to ignore + certain CSV records (described below). + + fields list + fields FIELDNAME1, FIELDNAME2, ... + + A fields list (the word "fields" followed by comma-separated field + names) is the quick way to assign CSV field values to hledger fields. + (The other way is field assignments, see below.) A fields list does + does two things: + + 1. It names the CSV fields. This is optional, but can be convenient + later for interpolating them. + + 2. Whenever you use a standard hledger field name (defined below), the + CSV value is assigned to that part of the hledger transaction. + + Here's an example that says "use the 1st, 2nd and 4th fields as the + transaction's date, description and amount; name the last two fields + for later reference; and ignore the others": + + fields date, description, , amount, , , somefield, anotherfield + + Tips: + + o The fields list always use commas, even if your CSV data uses another + separator character. + + o Currently there must be least two items in the list (at least one + comma). + + o Field names may not contain spaces. Spaces before/after field names + are optional. + + o If the CSV contains column headings, it's a good idea to use these, + suitably modified, as the basis for your field names (eg lower-cased, + with underscores instead of spaces). + + o If some heading names match standard hledger fields, but you don't + want to set the hledger fields directly, alter those names, eg by + appending an underscore. + + o Fields you don't care about can be given a dummy name (eg: _ ), or no + name. + + field assignment + HLEDGERFIELDNAME FIELDVALUE + + Field assignments are the more flexible way to assign CSV values to + hledger fields. They can be used instead of or in addition to a fields + list (see above). + + To assign a value to a hledger field, write the field name (any of the + standard hledger field/pseudo-field names, defined below), a space, + followed by a text value on the same line. This text value may inter- + polate CSV fields, referenced by their 1-based position in the CSV + record (%N), or by the name they were given in the fields list (%CSV- + FIELDNAME). + + Some examples: + + # set the amount to the 4th CSV field, with " USD" appended + amount %4 USD + + # combine three fields to make a comment, containing note: and date: tags + comment note: %somefield - %anotherfield, date: %1 + + Tips: + + o Interpolation strips outer whitespace (so a CSV value like " 1 " + becomes 1 when interpolated) (#1051). + + o See also Tips below. + + Field names + Here are the standard hledger field (and pseudo-field) names, which you + can use in a fields list and in field assignments. For more about the + transaction parts they refer to, see Transactions. + + date field + Assigning to date sets the transaction date. + + date2 field + date2 sets the transaction's secondary date, if any. + + status field + status sets the transaction's status, if any. + + code field + code sets the transaction's code, if any. + + description field + description sets the transaction's description, if any. + + comment field + comment sets the transaction's comment, if any. + + commentN, where N is a number, sets the Nth posting's comment. + + Tips: - Only single-line comments can be assigned. - Comments can con- + tain tags, as usual. + + account field + Assigning to accountN, where N is 1 to 99, sets the account name of the + Nth posting, and causes that posting to be generated. + + Most often there are two postings, so you'll want to set account1 and + account2. Typically account1 is associated with the CSV file, and is + set once with a top-level assignment, while account2 is set based on + each transaction's description, and in conditional blocks. + + If a posting's account name is left unset but its amount is set (see + below), a default account name will be chosen (like "expenses:unknown" + or "income:unknown"). + + amount field + amountN sets the amount of the Nth posting, and causes that posting to + be generated. By assigning to amount1, amount2, ... etc. you can + generate up to 99 postings. + + amountN-in and amountN-out can be used instead, if the CSV uses sepa- + rate fields for debits and credits (inflows and outflows). hledger + assumes both of these CSV fields are unsigned, and will automatically + negate the "-out" value. If they are signed, see "Setting amounts" + below. + + amount, or amount-in and amount-out are a legacy mode, to keep pre- + hledger-1.17 CSV rules files working (and for occasional convenience). + They are suitable only for two-posting transactions; they set both + posting 1's and posting 2's amount. Posting 2's amount will be + negated, and also converted to cost if there's a transaction price. + + If you have an existing rules file using the unnumbered form, you might + want to use the numbered form in certain conditional blocks, without + having to update and retest all the old rules. To facilitate this, + posting 1 ignores amount/amount-in/amount-out if any of + amount1/amount1-in/amount1-out are assigned, and posting 2 ignores them + if any of amount2/amount2-in/amount2-out are assigned, avoiding con- + flicts. + + currency field + currency sets a currency symbol, to be prepended to all postings' + amounts. You can use this if the CSV amounts do not have a currency + symbol, eg if it is in a separate column. + + currencyN prepends a currency symbol to just the Nth posting's amount. + + balance field + balanceN sets a balance assertion amount (or if the posting amount is + left empty, a balance assignment) on posting N. + + balance is a compatibility spelling for hledger <1.17; it is equivalent + to balance1. + + You can adjust the type of assertion/assignment with the balance-type + rule (see below). + + See Tips below for more about setting amounts and currency. + + separator + You can use the separator rule to read other kinds of character-sepa- + rated data. The argument is any single separator character, or the + words tab or space (case insensitive). Eg, for comma-separated values + (CSV): + + separator , + + or for semicolon-separated values (SSV): + + separator ; + + or for tab-separated values (TSV): + + separator TAB + + If the input file has a .csv, .ssv or .tsv file extension (or a csv:, + ssv:, tsv: prefix), the appropriate separator will be inferred automat- + ically, and you won't need this rule. + + if block + if MATCHER + RULE + + if + MATCHER + MATCHER + MATCHER + RULE + RULE + + Conditional blocks ("if blocks") are a block of rules that are applied + only to CSV records which match certain patterns. They are often used + for customising account names based on transaction descriptions. + + Matching the whole record + Each MATCHER can be a record matcher, which looks like this: + + REGEX + + REGEX is a case-insensitive regular expression that tries to match any- + where within the CSV record. It is a POSIX ERE (extended regular + expression) that also supports GNU word boundaries (\b, \B, \<, \>), + and nothing else. If you have trouble, be sure to check our doc: + https://hledger.org/hledger.html#regular-expressions + + Important note: the record that is matched is not the original record, + but a synthetic one, with any enclosing double quotes (but not enclos- + ing whitespace) removed, and always comma-separated (which means that a + field containing a comma will appear like two fields). Eg, if the + original record is 2020-01-01; "Acme, Inc."; 1,000, the REGEX will + actually see 2020-01-01,Acme, Inc., 1,000). + + Matching individual fields + Or, MATCHER can be a field matcher, like this: + + %CSVFIELD REGEX + + which matches just the content of a particular CSV field. CSVFIELD is + a percent sign followed by the field's name or column number, like + %date or %1. + + Combining matchers + A single matcher can be written on the same line as the "if"; or multi- + ple matchers can be written on the following lines, non-indented. Mul- + tiple matchers are OR'd (any one of them can match), unless one begins + with an & symbol, in which case it is AND'ed with the previous matcher. + + if + MATCHER + & MATCHER + RULE + + Rules applied on successful match + After the patterns there should be one or more rules to apply, all + indented by at least one space. Three kinds of rule are allowed in + conditional blocks: + + o field assignments (to set a hledger field) + + o skip (to skip the matched CSV record) + + o end (to skip all remaining CSV records). + + Examples: + + # if the CSV record contains "groceries", set account2 to "expenses:groceries" + if groceries + account2 expenses:groceries + + # if the CSV record contains any of these patterns, set account2 and comment as shown + if + monthly service fee + atm transaction fee + banking thru software + account2 expenses:business:banking + comment XXX deductible ? check it + + if table + if,CSVFIELDNAME1,CSVFIELDNAME2,...,CSVFIELDNAMEn + MATCHER1,VALUE11,VALUE12,...,VALUE1n + MATCHER2,VALUE21,VALUE22,...,VALUE2n + MATCHER3,VALUE31,VALUE32,...,VALUE3n + + + Conditional tables ("if tables") are a different syntax to specify + field assignments that will be applied only to CSV records which match + certain patterns. + + MATCHER could be either field or record matcher, as described above. + When MATCHER matches, values from that row would be assigned to the CSV + fields named on the if line, in the same order. + + Therefore if table is exactly equivalent to a sequence of of if blocks: + + if MATCHER1 + CSVFIELDNAME1 VALUE11 + CSVFIELDNAME2 VALUE12 + ... + CSVFIELDNAMEn VALUE1n + + if MATCHER2 + CSVFIELDNAME1 VALUE21 + CSVFIELDNAME2 VALUE22 + ... + CSVFIELDNAMEn VALUE2n + + if MATCHER3 + CSVFIELDNAME1 VALUE31 + CSVFIELDNAME2 VALUE32 + ... + CSVFIELDNAMEn VALUE3n + + Each line starting with MATCHER should contain enough (possibly empty) + values for all the listed fields. + + Rules would be checked and applied in the order they are listed in the + table and, like with if blocks, later rules (in the same or another ta- + ble) or if blocks could override the effect of any rule. + + Instead of ',' you can use a variety of other non-alphanumeric charac- + ters as a separator. First character after if is taken to be the sepa- + rator for the rest of the table. It is the responsibility of the user + to ensure that separator does not occur inside MATCHERs and values - + there is no way to escape separator. + + Example: + + if,account2,comment + atm transaction fee,expenses:business:banking,deductible? check it + %description groceries,expenses:groceries, + 2020/01/12.*Plumbing LLC,expenses:house:upkeep,emergency plumbing call-out + + end + This rule can be used inside if blocks (only), to make hledger stop + reading this CSV file and move on to the next input file, or to command + execution. Eg: + + # ignore everything following the first empty record + if ,,,, + end + + date-format + date-format DATEFMT + + This is a helper for the date (and date2) fields. If your CSV dates + are not formatted like YYYY-MM-DD, YYYY/MM/DD or YYYY.MM.DD, you'll + need to add a date-format rule describing them with a strptime date + parsing pattern, which must parse the CSV date value completely. Some + examples: + + # MM/DD/YY + date-format %m/%d/%y + + # D/M/YYYY + # The - makes leading zeros optional. + date-format %-d/%-m/%Y + + # YYYY-Mmm-DD + date-format %Y-%h-%d + + # M/D/YYYY HH:MM AM some other junk + # Note the time and junk must be fully parsed, though only the date is used. + date-format %-m/%-d/%Y %l:%M %p some other junk + + For the supported strptime syntax, see: + https://hackage.haskell.org/package/time/docs/Data-Time-For- + mat.html#v:formatTime + + Note that although you can parse date-times which include a time zone, + that time zone is ignored; it will not change the date that is parsed. + This means when reading CSV data with times not in your local time + zone, dates can be "off by one". + + decimal-mark + decimal-mark . + + or: + + decimal-mark , + + hledger automatically accepts either period or comma as a decimal mark + when parsing numbers (cf Amounts). However if any numbers in the CSV + contain digit group marks, such as thousand-separating commas, you + should declare the decimal mark explicitly with this rule, to avoid + misparsed numbers. + + newest-first + hledger always sorts the generated transactions by date. Transactions + on the same date should appear in the same order as their CSV records, + as hledger can usually auto-detect whether the CSV's normal order is + oldest first or newest first. But if all of the following are true: + + o the CSV might sometimes contain just one day of data (all records + having the same date) + + o the CSV records are normally in reverse chronological order (newest + at the top) + + o and you care about preserving the order of same-day transactions + + then, you should add the newest-first rule as a hint. Eg: + + # tell hledger explicitly that the CSV is normally newest first + newest-first + + include + include RULESFILE + + This includes the contents of another CSV rules file at this point. + RULESFILE is an absolute file path or a path relative to the current + file's directory. This can be useful for sharing common rules between + several rules files, eg: + + # someaccount.csv.rules + + ## someaccount-specific rules + fields date,description,amount + account1 assets:someaccount + account2 expenses:misc + + ## common rules + include categorisation.rules + + balance-type + Balance assertions generated by assigning to balanceN are of the simple + = type by default, which is a single-commodity, subaccount-excluding + assertion. You may find the subaccount-including variants more useful, + eg if you have created some virtual subaccounts of checking to help + with budgeting. You can select a different type of assertion with the + balance-type rule: + + # balance assertions will consider all commodities and all subaccounts + balance-type ==* + + Here are the balance assertion types for quick reference: + + = single commodity, exclude subaccounts + =* single commodity, include subaccounts + == multi commodity, exclude subaccounts + ==* multi commodity, include subaccounts + + Tips + Rapid feedback + It's a good idea to get rapid feedback while creating/troubleshooting + CSV rules. Here's a good way, using entr from http://eradman.com/entr- + project : + + $ ls foo.csv* | entr bash -c 'echo ----; hledger -f foo.csv print desc:SOMEDESC' + + A desc: query (eg) is used to select just one, or a few, transactions + of interest. "bash -c" is used to run multiple commands, so we can + echo a separator each time the command re-runs, making it easier to + read the output. + + Valid CSV + hledger accepts CSV conforming to RFC 4180. When CSV values are + enclosed in quotes, note: + + o they must be double quotes (not single quotes) + + o spaces outside the quotes are not allowed + + File Extension + To help hledger identify the format and show the right error messages, + CSV/SSV/TSV files should normally be named with a .csv, .ssv or .tsv + filename extension. Or, the file path should be prefixed with csv:, + ssv: or tsv:. Eg: + + $ hledger -f foo.ssv print + + or: + + $ cat foo | hledger -f ssv:- foo + + You can override the file extension with a separator rule if needed. + See also: Input files in the hledger manual. + + Reading multiple CSV files + If you use multiple -f options to read multiple CSV files at once, + hledger will look for a correspondingly-named rules file for each CSV + file. But if you use the --rules-file option, that rules file will be + used for all the CSV files. + + Valid transactions + After reading a CSV file, hledger post-processes and validates the gen- + erated journal entries as it would for a journal file - balancing them, + applying balance assignments, and canonicalising amount styles. Any + errors at this stage will be reported in the usual way, displaying the + problem entry. + + There is one exception: balance assertions, if you have generated them, + will not be checked, since normally these will work only when the CSV + data is part of the main journal. If you do need to check balance + assertions generated from CSV right away, pipe into another hledger: + + $ hledger -f file.csv print | hledger -f- print + + Deduplicating, importing + When you download a CSV file periodically, eg to get your latest bank + transactions, the new file may overlap with the old one, containing + some of the same records. + + The import command will (a) detect the new transactions, and (b) append + just those transactions to your main journal. It is idempotent, so you + don't have to remember how many times you ran it or with which version + of the CSV. (It keeps state in a hidden .latest.FILE.csv file.) This + is the easiest way to import CSV data. Eg: + + # download the latest CSV files, then run this command. + # Note, no -f flags needed here. + $ hledger import *.csv [--dry] + + This method works for most CSV files. (Where records have a stable + chronological order, and new records appear only at the new end.) + + A number of other tools and workflows, hledger-specific and otherwise, + exist for converting, deduplicating, classifying and managing CSV data. + See: + + o https://hledger.org -> sidebar -> real world setups + + o https://plaintextaccounting.org -> data import/conversion + + Setting amounts + Some tips on using the amount-setting rules discussed above. + + Here are the ways to set a posting's amount: + + 1. If the CSV has a single amount field: + Assign (via a fields list or a field assignment) to amountN. This sets + the Nth posting's amount. N is usually 1 or 2 but can go up to 99. + + 2. If the CSV has separate amount fields for debit & credit (in & out): + + a. If both fields are unsigned: + Assign to amountN-in and amountN-out. This sets posting N's amount + to whichever of these has a non-zero value, and negates the "-out" + value. + + b. If either field is signed (can contain a minus sign): + Use a conditional rule to flip the sign (of non-empty values). + Since hledger always negates amountN-out, if it was already nega- + tive, we must undo that by negating once more (but only if the + field is non-empty): + + fields date, description, amount1-in, amount1-out + if %amount1-out [1-9] + amount1-out -%amount1-out + + c. If both fields, or neither field, can contain a non-zero value: + hledger normally expects exactly one of the fields to have a non- + zero value. Eg, the amountN-in/amountN-out rules would reject + value pairs like these: + + "", "" + "0", "0" + "1", "none" + + So, use smarter conditional rules to set the amount from the appro- + priate field. Eg, these rules would make it use only the value + containing non-zero digits, handling the above: + + fields date, description, in, out + if %in [1-9] + amount1 %in + if %out [1-9] + amount1 %out + + 3. If you are stuck with hledger <1.17, or you want posting 2's amount + converted to cost: + Assign to amount (or to amount-in and amount-out). (The old numberless + syntax, which sets amount1 and amount2.) + + 4. If the CSV has the balance instead of the transaction amount: + Assign to balanceN, which sets posting N's amount indirectly via a bal- + ance assignment. (Old syntax: balance, equivalent to balance1.) + + o If hledger guesses the wrong default account name: + When setting the amount via balance assertion, hledger may guess + the wrong default account name. So, set the account name explic- + itly, eg: + + fields date, description, balance1 + account1 assets:checking + + Amount signs + There is some special handling for amount signs, to simplify parsing + and sign-flipping: + + o If an amount value begins with a plus sign: + that will be removed: +AMT becomes AMT + + o If an amount value is parenthesised: + it will be de-parenthesised and sign-flipped: (AMT) becomes -AMT + + o If an amount value has two minus signs (or two sets of parentheses, + or a minus sign and parentheses): + they cancel out and will be removed: --AMT or -(AMT) becomes AMT + + o If an amount value contains just a sign (or just a set of parenthe- + ses): + that is removed, making it an empty value. "+" or "-" or "()" becomes + "". + + Setting currency/commodity + If the currency/commodity symbol is included in the CSV's amount + field(s): + + 2020-01-01,foo,$123.00 + + you don't have to do anything special for the commodity symbol, it will + be assigned as part of the amount. Eg: + + fields date,description,amount + + 2020-01-01 foo + expenses:unknown $123.00 + income:unknown $-123.00 + + If the currency is provided as a separate CSV field: + + 2020-01-01,foo,USD,123.00 + + You can assign that to the currency pseudo-field, which has the special + effect of prepending itself to every amount in the transaction (on the + left, with no separating space): + + fields date,description,currency,amount + + 2020-01-01 foo + expenses:unknown USD123.00 + income:unknown USD-123.00 + + Or, you can use a field assignment to construct the amount yourself, + with more control. Eg to put the symbol on the right, and separated by + a space: + + fields date,description,cur,amt + amount %amt %cur + + 2020-01-01 foo + expenses:unknown 123.00 USD + income:unknown -123.00 USD + + Note we used a temporary field name (cur) that is not currency - that + would trigger the prepending effect, which we don't want here. + + Amount decimal places + Like amounts in a journal file, the amounts generated by CSV rules like + amount1 influence commodity display styles, such as the number of deci- + mal places displayed in reports. + + The original amounts as written in the CSV file do not affect display + style (because we don't yet reliably know their commodity). + + Referencing other fields + In field assignments, you can interpolate only CSV fields, not hledger + fields. In the example below, there's both a CSV field and a hledger + field named amount1, but %amount1 always means the CSV field, not the + hledger field: + + # Name the third CSV field "amount1" + fields date,description,amount1 + + # Set hledger's amount1 to the CSV amount1 field followed by USD + amount1 %amount1 USD + + # Set comment to the CSV amount1 (not the amount1 assigned above) + comment %amount1 + + Here, since there's no CSV amount1 field, %amount1 will produce a lit- + eral "amount1": + + fields date,description,csvamount + amount1 %csvamount USD + # Can't interpolate amount1 here + comment %amount1 + + When there are multiple field assignments to the same hledger field, + only the last one takes effect. Here, comment's value will be be B, or + C if "something" is matched, but never A: + + comment A + comment B + if something + comment C + + How CSV rules are evaluated + Here's how to think of CSV rules being evaluated (if you really need + to). First, + + o include - all includes are inlined, from top to bottom, depth first. + (At each include point the file is inlined and scanned for further + includes, recursively, before proceeding.) + + Then "global" rules are evaluated, top to bottom. If a rule is + repeated, the last one wins: + + o skip (at top level) + + o date-format + + o newest-first + + o fields - names the CSV fields, optionally sets up initial assignments + to hledger fields + + Then for each CSV record in turn: + + o test all if blocks. If any of them contain a end rule, skip all + remaining CSV records. Otherwise if any of them contain a skip rule, + skip that many CSV records. If there are multiple matched skip + rules, the first one wins. + + o collect all field assignments at top level and in matched if blocks. + When there are multiple assignments for a field, keep only the last + one. + + o compute a value for each hledger field - either the one that was + assigned to it (and interpolate the %CSVFIELDNAME references), or a + default + + o generate a synthetic hledger transaction from these values. + + This is all part of the CSV reader, one of several readers hledger can + use to parse input files. When all files have been read successfully, + the transactions are passed as input to whichever hledger command the + user specified. + +TIMECLOCK FORMAT + The time logging format of timeclock.el, as read by hledger. + + hledger can read time logs in timeclock format. As with Ledger, these + are (a subset of) timeclock.el's format, containing clock-in and clock- + out entries as in the example below. The date is a simple date. The + time format is HH:MM[:SS][+-ZZZZ]. Seconds and timezone are optional. + The timezone, if present, must be four digits and is ignored (currently + the time is always interpreted as a local time). + + i 2015/03/30 09:00:00 some:account name optional description after two spaces + o 2015/03/30 09:20:00 + i 2015/03/31 22:21:45 another account + o 2015/04/01 02:00:34 + + hledger treats each clock-in/clock-out pair as a transaction posting + some number of hours to an account. Or if the session spans more than + one day, it is split into several transactions, one for each day. For + the above time log, hledger print generates these journal entries: + + $ hledger -f t.timeclock print + 2015-03-30 * optional description after two spaces + (some:account name) 0.33h + + 2015-03-31 * 22:21-23:59 + (another account) 1.64h + + 2015-04-01 * 00:00-02:00 + (another account) 2.01h + + Here is a sample.timeclock to download and some queries to try: + + $ hledger -f sample.timeclock balance # current time balances + $ hledger -f sample.timeclock register -p 2009/3 # sessions in march 2009 + $ hledger -f sample.timeclock register -p weekly --depth 1 --empty # time summary by week + + To generate time logs, ie to clock in and clock out, you could: + + o use emacs and the built-in timeclock.el, or the extended timeclock- + x.el and perhaps the extras in ledgerutils.el + + o at the command line, use these bash aliases: shell alias ti="echo + i `date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'` \$* >>$TIMELOG" alias to="echo o + `date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'` >>$TIMELOG" + + o or use the old ti and to scripts in the ledger 2.x repository. These + rely on a "timeclock" executable which I think is just the ledger 2 + executable renamed. + +TIMEDOT FORMAT + timedot format is hledger's human-friendly time logging format. Com- + pared to timeclock format, it is + + o convenient for quick, approximate, and retroactive time logging + + o readable: you can see at a glance where time was spent. + + A timedot file contains a series of day entries, which might look like + this: + + 2021-08-04 + hom:errands .... .... + fos:hledger:timedot .. ; docs + per:admin:finance + + hledger reads this as three time transactions on this day, with each + dot representing a quarter-hour spent: + + $ hledger -f a.timedot print # .timedot file extension activates the timedot reader + 2021-08-04 * + (hom:errands) 2.00 + + 2021-08-04 * + (fos:hledger:timedot) 0.50 + + 2021-08-04 * + (per:admin:finance) 0 + + A day entry begins with a date line: + + o a non-indented simple date (Y-M-D, Y/M/D, or Y.M.D). + + Optionally this can be followed on the same line by + + o a common transaction description for this day + + o a common transaction comment for this day, after a semicolon (;). + + After the date line are zero or more optionally-indented time transac- + tion lines, consisting of: + + o an account name - any word or phrase, usually a hledger-style account + name. + + o two or more spaces - a field separator, required if there is an + amount (as in journal format). + + o a timedot amount - dots representing quarter hours, or a number rep- + resenting hours. + + o an optional comment beginning with semicolon. This is ignored. + + In more detail, timedot amounts can be: + + o dots: zero or more period characters, each representing one quarter- + hour. Spaces are ignored and can be used for grouping. Eg: .... .. + + o a number, representing hours. Eg: 1.5 + + o a number immediately followed by a unit symbol s, m, h, d, w, mo, or + y, representing seconds, minutes, hours, days weeks, months or years. + Eg 1.5h or 90m. The following equivalencies are assumed: + 60s = 1m, 60m = 1h, 24h = 1d, 7d = 1w, 30d = 1mo, 365d = 1y. (This + unit will not be visible in the generated transaction amount, which is + always in hours.) + + There is some added flexibility to help with keeping time log data in + the same file as your notes, todo lists, etc.: + + o Lines beginning with # or ;, and blank lines, are ignored. + + o Lines not ending with a double-space and amount are parsed as trans- + actions with zero amount. (Most hledger reports hide these by + default; add -E to see them.) + + o One or more stars (*) followed by a space, at the start of a line, is + ignored. So date lines or time transaction lines can also be Org- + mode headlines. + + o All Org-mode headlines before the first date line are ignored. + + More examples: + + # on this day, 6h was spent on client work, 1.5h on haskell FOSS work, etc. + 2016/2/1 + inc:client1 .... .... .... .... .... .... + fos:haskell .... .. + biz:research . + + 2016/2/2 + inc:client1 .... .... + biz:research . + + 2016/2/3 + inc:client1 4 + fos:hledger 3 + biz:research 1 + + * Time log + ** 2020-01-01 + *** adm:time . + *** adm:finance . + + * 2020 Work Diary + ** Q1 + *** 2020-02-29 + **** DONE + 0700 yoga + **** UNPLANNED + **** BEGUN + hom:chores + cleaning ... + water plants + outdoor - one full watering can + indoor - light watering + **** TODO + adm:planning: trip + *** LATER + + Reporting: + + $ hledger -f a.timedot print date:2016/2/2 + 2016-02-02 * + (inc:client1) 2.00 + + 2016-02-02 * + (biz:research) 0.25 + + $ hledger -f a.timedot bal --daily --tree + Balance changes in 2016-02-01-2016-02-03: + + || 2016-02-01d 2016-02-02d 2016-02-03d + ============++======================================== + biz || 0.25 0.25 1.00 + research || 0.25 0.25 1.00 + fos || 1.50 0 3.00 + haskell || 1.50 0 0 + hledger || 0 0 3.00 + inc || 6.00 2.00 4.00 + client1 || 6.00 2.00 4.00 + ------------++---------------------------------------- + || 7.75 2.25 8.00 + + Using period instead of colon as account name separator: + + 2016/2/4 + fos.hledger.timedot 4 + fos.ledger .. + + $ hledger -f a.timedot --alias /\\./=: bal --tree + 4.50 fos + 4.00 hledger:timedot + 0.50 ledger + -------------------- + 4.50 + + A sample.timedot file. + +COMMON TASKS + Here are some quick examples of how to do some basic tasks with + hledger. For more details, see the reference section below, the + hledger_journal(5) manual, or the more extensive docs at + https://hledger.org. + + Getting help + $ hledger # show available commands + $ hledger --help # show common options + $ hledger CMD --help # show common and command options, and command help + $ hledger help # show available manuals/topics + $ hledger help hledger # show hledger manual as info/man/text (auto-chosen) + $ hledger help journal --man # show the journal manual as a man page + $ hledger help --help # show more detailed help for the help command + + Find more docs, chat, mail list, reddit, issue tracker: + https://hledger.org#help-feedback + + Constructing command lines + hledger has an extensive and powerful command line interface. We + strive to keep it simple and ergonomic, but you may run into one of the + confusing real world details described in OPTIONS, below. If that hap- + pens, here are some tips that may help: + + o command-specific options must go after the command (it's fine to put + all options there) (hledger CMD OPTS ARGS) + + o running add-on executables directly simplifies command line parsing + (hledger-ui OPTS ARGS) + + o enclose "problematic" args in single quotes + + o if needed, also add a backslash to hide regular expression metachar- + acters from the shell + + o to see how a misbehaving command is being parsed, add --debug=2. + + Starting a journal file + hledger looks for your accounting data in a journal file, + $HOME/.hledger.journal by default: + + $ hledger stats + The hledger journal file "/Users/simon/.hledger.journal" was not found. + Please create it first, eg with "hledger add" or a text editor. + Or, specify an existing journal file with -f or LEDGER_FILE. + + You can override this by setting the LEDGER_FILE environment variable. + It's a good practice to keep this important file under version control, + and to start a new file each year. So you could do something like + this: + + $ mkdir ~/finance + $ cd ~/finance + $ git init + Initialized empty Git repository in /Users/simon/finance/.git/ + $ touch 2020.journal + $ echo "export LEDGER_FILE=$HOME/finance/2020.journal" >> ~/.bashrc + $ source ~/.bashrc + $ hledger stats + Main file : /Users/simon/finance/2020.journal + Included files : + Transactions span : to (0 days) + Last transaction : none + Transactions : 0 (0.0 per day) + Transactions last 30 days: 0 (0.0 per day) + Transactions last 7 days : 0 (0.0 per day) + Payees/descriptions : 0 + Accounts : 0 (depth 0) + Commodities : 0 () + Market prices : 0 () + + Setting opening balances + Pick a starting date for which you can look up the balances of some + real-world assets (bank accounts, wallet..) and liabilities (credit + cards..). + + To avoid a lot of data entry, you may want to start with just one or + two accounts, like your checking account or cash wallet; and pick a + recent starting date, like today or the start of the week. You can + always come back later and add more accounts and older transactions, eg + going back to january 1st. + + Add an opening balances transaction to the journal, declaring the bal- + ances on this date. Here are two ways to do it: + + o The first way: open the journal in any text editor and save an entry + like this: + + 2020-01-01 * opening balances + assets:bank:checking $1000 = $1000 + assets:bank:savings $2000 = $2000 + assets:cash $100 = $100 + liabilities:creditcard $-50 = $-50 + equity:opening/closing balances + + These are start-of-day balances, ie whatever was in the account at + the end of the previous day. + + The * after the date is an optional status flag. Here it means + "cleared & confirmed". + + The currency symbols are optional, but usually a good idea as you'll + be dealing with multiple currencies sooner or later. + + The = amounts are optional balance assertions, providing extra error + checking. + + o The second way: run hledger add and follow the prompts to record a + similar transaction: + + $ hledger add + Adding transactions to journal file /Users/simon/finance/2020.journal + Any command line arguments will be used as defaults. + Use tab key to complete, readline keys to edit, enter to accept defaults. + An optional (CODE) may follow transaction dates. + An optional ; COMMENT may follow descriptions or amounts. + If you make a mistake, enter < at any prompt to go one step backward. + To end a transaction, enter . when prompted. + To quit, enter . at a date prompt or press control-d or control-c. + Date [2020-02-07]: 2020-01-01 + Description: * opening balances + Account 1: assets:bank:checking + Amount 1: $1000 + Account 2: assets:bank:savings + Amount 2 [$-1000]: $2000 + Account 3: assets:cash + Amount 3 [$-3000]: $100 + Account 4: liabilities:creditcard + Amount 4 [$-3100]: $-50 + Account 5: equity:opening/closing balances + Amount 5 [$-3050]: + Account 6 (or . or enter to finish this transaction): . + 2020-01-01 * opening balances + assets:bank:checking $1000 + assets:bank:savings $2000 + assets:cash $100 + liabilities:creditcard $-50 + equity:opening/closing balances $-3050 + + Save this transaction to the journal ? [y]: + Saved. + Starting the next transaction (. or ctrl-D/ctrl-C to quit) + Date [2020-01-01]: . + + If you're using version control, this could be a good time to commit + the journal. Eg: + + $ git commit -m 'initial balances' 2020.journal + + Recording transactions + As you spend or receive money, you can record these transactions using + one of the methods above (text editor, hledger add) or by using the + hledger-iadd or hledger-web add-ons, or by using the import command to + convert CSV data downloaded from your bank. + + Here are some simple transactions, see the hledger_journal(5) manual + and hledger.org for more ideas: + + 2020/1/10 * gift received + assets:cash $20 + income:gifts + + 2020.1.12 * farmers market + expenses:food $13 + assets:cash + + 2020-01-15 paycheck + income:salary + assets:bank:checking $1000 + + Reconciling + Periodically you should reconcile - compare your hledger-reported bal- + ances against external sources of truth, like bank statements or your + bank's website - to be sure that your ledger accurately represents the + real-world balances (and, that the real-world institutions have not + made a mistake!). This gets easy and fast with (1) practice and (2) + frequency. If you do it daily, it can take 2-10 minutes. If you let + it pile up, expect it to take longer as you hunt down errors and dis- + crepancies. + + A typical workflow: + + 1. Reconcile cash. Count what's in your wallet. Compare with what + hledger reports (hledger bal cash). If they are different, try to + remember the missing transaction, or look for the error in the + already-recorded transactions. A register report can be helpful + (hledger reg cash). If you can't find the error, add an adjustment + transaction. Eg if you have $105 after the above, and can't explain + the missing $2, it could be: + + 2020-01-16 * adjust cash + assets:cash $-2 = $105 + expenses:misc + + 2. Reconcile checking. Log in to your bank's website. Compare today's + (cleared) balance with hledger's cleared balance (hledger bal check- + ing -C). If they are different, track down the error or record the + missing transaction(s) or add an adjustment transaction, similar to + the above. Unlike the cash case, you can usually compare the trans- + action history and running balance from your bank with the one + reported by hledger reg checking -C. This will be easier if you + generally record transaction dates quite similar to your bank's + clearing dates. + + 3. Repeat for other asset/liability accounts. + + Tip: instead of the register command, use hledger-ui to see a live- + updating register while you edit the journal: hledger-ui --watch --reg- + ister checking -C + + After reconciling, it could be a good time to mark the reconciled + transactions' status as "cleared and confirmed", if you want to track + that, by adding the * marker. Eg in the paycheck transaction above, + insert * between 2020-01-15 and paycheck + + If you're using version control, this can be another good time to com- + mit: + + $ git commit -m 'txns' 2020.journal + + Reporting + Here are some basic reports. + + Show all transactions: + + $ hledger print + 2020-01-01 * opening balances + assets:bank:checking $1000 + assets:bank:savings $2000 + assets:cash $100 + liabilities:creditcard $-50 + equity:opening/closing balances $-3050 + + 2020-01-10 * gift received + assets:cash $20 + income:gifts + + 2020-01-12 * farmers market + expenses:food $13 + assets:cash + + 2020-01-15 * paycheck + income:salary + assets:bank:checking $1000 + + 2020-01-16 * adjust cash + assets:cash $-2 = $105 + expenses:misc + + Show account names, and their hierarchy: + + $ hledger accounts --tree + assets + bank + checking + savings + cash + equity + opening/closing balances + expenses + food + misc + income + gifts + salary + liabilities + creditcard + + Show all account totals: + + $ hledger balance + $4105 assets + $4000 bank + $2000 checking + $2000 savings + $105 cash + $-3050 equity:opening/closing balances + $15 expenses + $13 food + $2 misc + $-1020 income + $-20 gifts + $-1000 salary + $-50 liabilities:creditcard + -------------------- + 0 + + Show only asset and liability balances, as a flat list, limited to + depth 2: + + $ hledger bal assets liabilities --flat -2 + $4000 assets:bank + $105 assets:cash + $-50 liabilities:creditcard + -------------------- + $4055 + + Show the same thing without negative numbers, formatted as a simple + balance sheet: + + $ hledger bs --flat -2 + Balance Sheet 2020-01-16 + + || 2020-01-16 + ========================++============ + Assets || + ------------------------++------------ + assets:bank || $4000 + assets:cash || $105 + ------------------------++------------ + || $4105 + ========================++============ + Liabilities || + ------------------------++------------ + liabilities:creditcard || $50 + ------------------------++------------ + || $50 + ========================++============ + Net: || $4055 + + The final total is your "net worth" on the end date. (Or use bse for a + full balance sheet with equity.) + + Show income and expense totals, formatted as an income statement: + + hledger is + Income Statement 2020-01-01-2020-01-16 + + || 2020-01-01-2020-01-16 + ===============++======================= + Revenues || + ---------------++----------------------- + income:gifts || $20 + income:salary || $1000 + ---------------++----------------------- + || $1020 + ===============++======================= + Expenses || + ---------------++----------------------- + expenses:food || $13 + expenses:misc || $2 + ---------------++----------------------- + || $15 + ===============++======================= + Net: || $1005 + + The final total is your net income during this period. + + Show transactions affecting your wallet, with running total: + + $ hledger register cash + 2020-01-01 opening balances assets:cash $100 $100 + 2020-01-10 gift received assets:cash $20 $120 + 2020-01-12 farmers market assets:cash $-13 $107 + 2020-01-16 adjust cash assets:cash $-2 $105 + + Show weekly posting counts as a bar chart: + + $ hledger activity -W + 2019-12-30 ***** + 2020-01-06 **** + 2020-01-13 **** + + Migrating to a new file + At the end of the year, you may want to continue your journal in a new + file, so that old transactions don't slow down or clutter your reports, + and to help ensure the integrity of your accounting history. See the + close command. + + If using version control, don't forget to git add the new file. + +LIMITATIONS + The need to precede add-on command options with -- when invoked from + hledger is awkward. + + When input data contains non-ascii characters, a suitable system locale + must be configured (or there will be an unhelpful error). Eg on POSIX, + set LANG to something other than C. + + In a Microsoft Windows CMD window, non-ascii characters and colours are + not supported. + + On Windows, non-ascii characters may not display correctly when running + a hledger built in CMD in MSYS/CYGWIN, or vice-versa. + + In a Cygwin/MSYS/Mintty window, the tab key is not supported in hledger + add. + + Not all of Ledger's journal file syntax is supported. See file format + differences. + + On large data files, hledger is slower and uses more memory than + Ledger. + +TROUBLESHOOTING + Here are some issues you might encounter when you run hledger (and + remember you can also seek help from the IRC channel, mail list or bug + tracker): + + Successfully installed, but "No command 'hledger' found" + stack and cabal install binaries into a special directory, which should + be added to your PATH environment variable. Eg on unix-like systems, + that is ~/.local/bin and ~/.cabal/bin respectively. + + I set a custom LEDGER_FILE, but hledger is still using the default file + LEDGER_FILE should be a real environment variable, not just a shell + variable. The command env | grep LEDGER_FILE should show it. You may + need to use export. Here's an explanation. + + Getting errors like "Illegal byte sequence" or "Invalid or incomplete + multibyte or wide character" or "commitAndReleaseBuffer: invalid argu- + ment (invalid character)" + Programs compiled with GHC (hledger, haskell build tools, etc.) need to + have a UTF-8-aware locale configured in the environment, otherwise they + will fail with these kinds of errors when they encounter non-ascii + characters. + + To fix it, set the LANG environment variable to some locale which sup- + ports UTF-8. The locale you choose must be installed on your system. + + Here's an example of setting LANG temporarily, on Ubuntu GNU/Linux: + + $ file my.journal + my.journal: UTF-8 Unicode text # the file is UTF8-encoded + $ echo $LANG + C # LANG is set to the default locale, which does not support UTF8 + $ locale -a # which locales are installed ? + C + en_US.utf8 # here's a UTF8-aware one we can use + POSIX + $ LANG=en_US.utf8 hledger -f my.journal print # ensure it is used for this command + + If available, C.UTF-8 will also work. If your preferred locale isn't + listed by locale -a, you might need to install it. Eg on + Ubuntu/Debian: + + $ apt-get install language-pack-fr + $ locale -a + C + en_US.utf8 + fr_BE.utf8 + fr_CA.utf8 + fr_CH.utf8 + fr_FR.utf8 + fr_LU.utf8 + POSIX + $ LANG=fr_FR.utf8 hledger -f my.journal print + + Here's how you could set it permanently, if you use a bash shell: + + $ echo "export LANG=en_US.utf8" >>~/.bash_profile + $ bash --login + + Exact spelling and capitalisation may be important. Note the differ- + ence on MacOS (UTF-8, not utf8). Some platforms (eg ubuntu) allow + variant spellings, but others (eg macos) require it to be exact: + + $ locale -a | grep -iE en_us.*utf + en_US.UTF-8 + $ LANG=en_US.UTF-8 hledger -f my.journal print + + + +REPORTING BUGS + Report bugs at http://bugs.hledger.org (or on the #hledger IRC channel + or hledger mail list) + + +AUTHORS + Simon Michael 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-1.22.2 August 2021 HLEDGER(1)