A default journal file

hledger reads transactions from, and appends new transactions to, a journal file. This is named after the General Journal in bookkeeping.

The file can be specified with -f FILE on the command line. But it's good to configure a default file, so that you don't have to write -f FILE in every command.

hledger setup or hledger files will show if a default file is configured:

PS C:\Users\Simon> hledger files
hledger.exe: Error: data file "C:\Users\Simon\.hledger.journal" was not found.
Please create it first, eg with "hledger add" or a text editor.
Or, specify an existing data file with -f or $LEDGER_FILE.

If you know how to configure the LEDGER_FILE environment variable on your system, feel free to do that. This lets you keep the file wherever you choose, such as a version-controlled directory like ~/finance (eg: LEDGER_FILE=~/finance/2025.journal).

Otherwise, stick with the default location for simplicity: .hledger.journal in your home directory. You can always move it later, if needed.

You can create this file yourself, but there's a reliable and portable way that we'll use here: just record a transaction with hledger add. We'll do that next.

(Part of hledger by example.)