hledger!

Fast, robust, user-friendly
plain text accounting
⚡️💪🏼❤️

hledger is...

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Quick start

Welcome! This plain text accounting stuff is useful and more fun than it sounds - care to give it a try ?

Install, then see Get Started, or the Examples below, or run hledger to see help and demos. Full documentation is ready when you need it, in the sidebar to the left. (If not visible, click/tap the horizontal-lines icon at top left.)

Examples

Here are three transactions in journal format, recorded in the journal file ($LEDGER_FILE or ~/.hledger.journal) by hledger add or other method. The account names and amounts are separated by at least two spaces; a positive amount means "added to this account", negative means "removed from this account". hledger will check that each transaction's amounts sum to zero; one of them may be omitted for convenience.


2023-01-01 opening balances            ; <- First transaction sets starting balances.
    assets:bank:checking        $1000  ; <- Account names can be anything.
    assets:bank:savings         $2000  ; <- Colons indicate subaccounts.
    assets:cash                  $100  ; <- 2+ spaces are required before the amount.
    liabilities:credit card      $-50  ; <- A debt; these are negative.
    equity:opening/closing     $-3050  ; <- Starting balances come from equity.
                                       ;    Equity is also usually negative.
                                       ;    (Reports can show as positive when needed.)

2023-02-01 GOODWORKS CORP              ; <- Date order is recommended but optional.
    assets:bank:checking       $1000
    income:salary                      ; <- $-1000 is inferred here to balance the txn.
                                       ;    Income amounts are negative.

2023-02-15 market
    expenses:food             $50
    assets:cash                        ; <- $-50 is inferred here.

You can run reports like so:

$ hledger bs
Balance Sheet 2023-02-15

                         || 2023-02-15 
=========================++============
 Assets                  ||            
-------------------------++------------
 assets:bank:checking    ||      $2000 
 assets:bank:savings     ||      $2000 
 assets:cash             ||        $50 
-------------------------++------------
                         ||      $4050 
=========================++============
 Liabilities             ||            
-------------------------++------------
 liabilities:credit card ||        $50 
-------------------------++------------
                         ||        $50 
=========================++============
 Net:                    ||      $4000 

$ hledger is -MTA
Income Statement 2023-01-01..2023-02-28

               || Jan    Feb    Total  Average 
===============++==============================
 Revenues      ||                              
---------------++------------------------------
 income:salary ||   0  $1000    $1000     $500 
---------------++------------------------------
               ||   0  $1000    $1000     $500 
===============++==============================
 Expenses      ||                              
---------------++------------------------------
 expenses:food ||   0    $50      $50      $25 
---------------++------------------------------
               ||   0    $50      $50      $25 
===============++==============================
 Net:          ||   0   $950     $950     $475 

$ hledger aregister checking
Transactions in assets:bank:checking and subaccounts:
2023-01-01 opening balances     as:ba:savings, as:..         $1000         $1000
2023-02-01 GOODWORKS CORP       in:salary                    $1000         $2000

Declarations

If you use other account names, it's useful to declare their account types:


account actifs                          ; type:Asset, 2+ spaces required before the ;
account actifs:banque:compte courant    ; type:Cash
account actifs:banque:compte d'épargne  ; type:Cash
account actifs:espèces                  ; type:Cash
account passifs                         ; type:Liability
account capitaux propres                ; type:Equity
account revenus                         ; type:Revenue
account dépenses                        ; type:Expense

Or declare all accounts, currencies and tags, if you want strict error checking:


account assets                   ; type:A, 2+ spaces required before the ;
account assets:bank              ; type:C
account assets:bank:checking
account assets:bank:savings
account assets:cash              ; type:C
account liabilities              ; type:L
account liabilities:credit card
account equity                   ; type:E
account equity:opening/closing
account income                   ; type:R
account income:salary
account income:gifts
account expenses                 ; type:X
account expenses:rent
account expenses:food
account expenses:gifts

commodity $1000.00

tag type

$ hledger check --strict
$

Declaring accounts also helps set their preferred display order:

$ hledger accounts -t
assets
  bank
    checking
    savings
  cash
liabilities
  credit card
equity
  opening/closing
income
  salary
  gifts
expenses
  rent
  food
  gifts

You can declare account aliases to save typing:


alias chk  = assets:bank:checking
alias cash = assets:cash
alias card = liabilities:creditcard
alias food = expenses:food

...

2023-02-15 market
    food          $50
    cash

Other UIs

Instead of using the command line, you could run hledger-ui or hledger-web. Here are the command line, terminal, and web interfaces, with more complex data:

Time tracking

hledger can also read time logs in timeclock format:


i 2023/03/27 09:00:00 projects:a
o 2023/03/27 17:00:34
i 2023/03/31 22:21:45 personal:reading:online
o 2023/04/01 02:00:34

$ hledger -f 2023.timeclock register -D
2023-03-27   projects:a                         8.01h         8.01h
2023-03-31   personal:reading:online            1.64h         9.65h
2023-04-01   personal:reading:online            2.01h        11.66h

Or in timedot format:


2023/2/1
biz:research  .... ..
fos:hledger   .... .... ....

2023/2/2
fos:ledger    0.25
fos:haskell   .5
biz:client1   .... ....

$ hledger -f 2023.timedot balance -tDTA  # tree, Daily, Total, Average
Balance changes in 2023-02-01..2023-02-02:

            || 2023-02-01  2023-02-02    Total  Average 
============++==========================================
 biz        ||       1.50        2.00     3.50     1.75 
   client1  ||          0        2.00     2.00     1.00 
   research ||       1.50           0     1.50     0.75 
 fos        ||       3.00        0.75     3.75     1.88 
   haskell  ||          0        0.50     0.50     0.25 
   hledger  ||       3.00           0     3.00     1.50 
   ledger   ||          0        0.25     0.25     0.12 
------------++------------------------------------------
            ||       4.50        2.75     7.25     3.62

CSV import

hledger can read CSV (or SSV, TSV, or other character-separated) files representing transactions:


"Date","Notes","Amount"
"2023/2/22","DEPOSIT","50.00"
"2023/2/23","TRANSFER TO SAVINGS","-10.00"


# bank.csv.rules  # this rules file tells hledger how to read bank.csv
skip 1
fields date, description, amount
currency $
account1 assets:bank:checking

if WHOLE FOODS
 account2 expenses:food

if (TO|FROM) SAVINGS
 account2 assets:bank:savings

$ hledger -f bank.csv print
2023-02-22 DEPOSIT
    assets:bank:checking          $50.00
    income:unknown               $-50.00

2023-02-23 TRANSFER TO SAVINGS
    assets:bank:checking         $-10.00
    assets:bank:savings           $10.00

The import command detects and adds just new transactions to the journal (works with most CSVs):

$ hledger import bank.csv
imported 2 new transactions from bank.csv

$ hledger import bank.csv
no new transactions found in bank.csv

$ hledger aregister checking
2023-01-01 opening balances     as:ba:savings, as:..      $1000.00      $1000.00
2023-02-01 GOODWORKS CORP       in:salary                 $1000.00      $2000.00
2023-02-22 DEPOSIT              in:unknown                  $50.00      $2050.00
2023-02-23 TRANSFER TO SAVINGS  as:ba:savings              $-10.00      $2040.00

More examples...

See also




hledger.org site tips:

  • Use the horizontal lines icon at top left to toggle the sidebar.
  • Use the paintbrush icon to change theme.
  • Use the magnifying-glass icon to search.
  • Access keys are also available:
    s toggle sidebar, t theme, / search,
    1 home page, 2 recent changes, < previous page, > next page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Welcome! This FAQ is for all hledger-related topics, for now. If you have additions or improvements, please click the "edit this page" link at the bottom, or chat with us.

Accounting

What's accounting ?

Accounting means keeping track of the flow and whereabouts of things you value, such as money or time, and using this information for insight, planning and decision-making. Here's hledger's Accounting concepts page and Accounting links.

Why might I want to do accounting ?

For clarity, control, planning, accountability, compliance, tax reporting, tax audits. It clarifies activity, priorities, obligations, opportunities.

What's double-entry accounting ?

Double-entry bookkeeping is the traditional method for keeping accounting records reliably. For every movement of value (a transaction), both the source and destination are recorded. These are labelled "Credit" and "Debit", to minimise working with negative numbers. Simple arithmetic invariants help prevent errors.

What's plain text accounting ?

You can read more about Plain Text Accounting (PTA) at https://plaintextaccounting.org. In short, it is a way of doing Double Entry Bookkeeping (DEB) and accounting on a computer, using simple text files and small flexible tools, rather than databases and big applications. Minus and plus signs are usually used instead of Credit and Debit notation, making it easier to learn than traditional DEB. The text files are human-readable and easy to convert or to manage with version-control tools.

The hledger project

What's hledger ?

One of the best tools for doing Plain Text Accounting. It's free and you can read all about it at the https://hledger.org home page.

Why was hledger created ?

  • to provide a more usable, robust, documented, cross-platform-installable version of the Ledger accounting tool for users
  • to provide a more maintainable and hackable version of Ledger for developers
  • to provide a useful library and toolbox for finance-minded haskell programmers
  • to explore the suitability of Haskell for such applications
  • to experiment with building a successful time-and-money-solvent project in a thriving ecosystem of financial software projects

What is the hledger project's current mission and plans ?

  1. Help make plain text accounting more usable and useful for all.
  2. Bring relief to people experiencing financial and financial technology stress, by providing dependable, empowering accounting tools, learning materials, and community.
  3. Help people and communities in all countries increase their financial mastery and freedom.
  4. Help grow a shared global culture of accountability and sustainability.
  5. Starting with this project and ourselves.

Here is the ROADMAP.

hledger and Plain Text Accounting

We use another system, we don't need this ?

Every tool has strengths and weaknesses. hledger is lightweight, flexible and relatively easy to glue into other systems; it might be worth exploring as a complementary tool.

How do you collaborate with accountants and the non-PTA world ?

Depending on their needs, you send them a few standard reports (balance sheet, income statement, itemized account registers or a full transaction journal)

  • as plain text (optionally spruced up with your own templates)
  • or as HTML
  • or as PDF
  • or as CSV they can import into Excel and elsewhere

Must I enter data in a text editor ??

No. A good text editor can be a very efficient way to work on your data, but there are other ways:

  • use a terminal-based data entry tool like hledger add or hledger-iadd
  • use a web-based data entry tool like hledger-web
  • use a phone-based data entry app like MoLe
  • import CSV data, avoiding manual data entry.

What account names do I use? Why isn't a default list provided ?

Any standard set of account names you're familiar with. Feel free to copy list from any other software. A default list is a good idea, but right now we don't really provide one because

  • hledger aims to be useful for many needs and in many languages, so a single list won't do
  • we are not that large and organised yet
  • no-one has stepped up and worked on it.

What can hledger do for me ?

hledger can provide clarity and insight into your personal or business finances, time logs, or other dated quantitative data, with relatively little effort on your part. You need only provide a list of transactions, as a plain text file in a simple human-readable format. (Or a CSV file plus some conversion rules.) From this hledger can generate a variety of useful reports and interactive views. See Features.

How could that help me ?

  • More clarity, transparency and accountability, for yourself or others
  • Know what you owe, or who owes you
  • Know where the money went; steer your spending
  • Know how you spent your time; easy client invoicing
  • More foresight and ability to plan; avoid overdrafts, late fees, cashflow crunches
  • Know all the numbers you need for tax reporting; know how much to save for estimated taxes
  • Less stress, fear or overwhelm
  • More satisfaction, empowerment, and prosperity!

Isn't manual data entry a pain ?

  • Not if you spend a few minutes every day.
  • Not if the benefits are worth it to you.
  • Not if you use a comfortable editor and copy/paste a lot.
  • Not if you use tools to help (editor modes, hledger add, hledger-iadd, hledger-web..)
  • Not if you use rules to generate your recurring transactions.

Isn't importing from banks a pain ?

Not once you have set up a manual or automated routine for it. The possibilities for automation vary by bank and country, but the following semi-manual workflow is almost always possible and quick:

  1. Manually download recent CSVs from your bank's website
  2. hledger import ACCT1.csv ACCT2.csv ...
  3. review/clean up the new entries in your journal.

Isn't plain text ugly and hard to use ?

No way, it's great, honest. We love it. You'll love it. It's fast. It's cheap. It's non-distracting. It keeps you focussed on the content. It's copy-pasteable. It's accessible to screen readers. It's resizable. You can pick the font and colours. You do not need "Plaintext Reader, Trial Version" to read it. you do not need "Plaintext Studio Pro" to write it. You can use your favorite editor and skills you already have. You can search in it! You can version control it. It works well over remote/slow connections. It's future-proof. It will be just as usable in 15 or 50 years. You can still read it even without the right software or (if you print it) a working computer. "Accounting data is valuable; we want to know that it will be accessible for ever - even without software. We want to know when it changes, and revision-control it. We want to search and manipulate it efficiently. So, we store it as human-readable plain text."

Isn't this too weird for my family, business partners, tax accountant to use ?

Maybe. You can ask them to enter data via hledger-web, or import from their mobile expenses app or a shared spreadsheet. You can show them the hledger-web UI, or HTML reports, or give them CSV to open in a spreadsheet.

Why are my revenue (income), liability, and equity balances negative ?

It's normal; it's because hledger and most other plain text accounting tools use negative and positive numbers instead of credit and debit terminology. Certain hledger reports (balancesheet, incomestatement, cashflow) and flags (--invert) can show them as positive when needed. See Accounting > Debits and credits.

hledger and other software

How does hledger relate to Ledger ?

hledger (begun 2006) is inspired by, and a friendly coopetitor of, John Wiegley's Ledger (begun 2003). It is an attempt to rewrite Ledger in a more expressive programming language and take it to the next level in usability and practicality. See hledger and Ledger.

What is/was ledger4 ?

hledger has its own parser for a file format close to Ledger's. In 2012 John Wiegley prototyped a more exact conversion of Ledger 3's parser to Haskell, calling it ledger4. For a while I integrated this as an alternate file format within hledger, hoping to improve our ability to read original Ledger files, but the parser needed lots more work to become useful, so later I removed it again.

How is hledger different from / interoperable with... ?

See Cookbook > Other software for notes on Ledger, Beancount, GnuCash, Quickbooks, etc. Also:

How could I import/migrate from...

How could I export/migrate to...

Using hledger

How do I set environment variables like LEDGER_FILE (persistently) ?

See hledger manual > Setting LEDGER_FILE.

Why does this entry give a "no amount" error even though I wrote an amount ?

2019-01-01
  a $1
  b

Because there's only a single space between a and 1, so this is parsed as an account named "a 1", with no amount. There must be at least two spaces between account name and amount.

Why does this journal fail strict account checking even though I declared all accounts ?

account assets:bank:checking ; my bank account
account equity               ; equity

2023-01-01
    equity
    assets:bank:checking   $1000

Because there's only a single space between assets:bank:checking and the ; comment, so the comment is parsed as part of the account name. (hledger accounts shows this.) There must be at least two spaces between an account name and anything that follows it.

Why do some directives not affect other files ? Why can't I include account aliases ?

Directives vary in their scope, ie which journal entries and which input files they affect. The differences are partly due to historical accident, and partly by design, so that reordering files, or adding another file, does not change their meaning. See journal format > Directives and multiple files. Related discussion: #217, #510, #1007.

Why am I seeing some amounts without an account name in reports ?

When an account has a multi-commodity balance, hledger's default balance, print, and register reports, like Ledger's, will show the balance on multiple lines, with each commodity on its own line, but with the account name appearing only once (either top- or bottom-aligned, depending on report). For a clearer report, try balancesheet, incomestatement or cashflow, and/or --layout=bare, or restrict the report to a single currency with cur:SYMBOL.

Another reason you might see amounts without an account name: dropping too many account name parts with --drop.

How do I control the number of decimal places displayed ?

To set that temporarily, use the -c/--commodity-style option (one for each commodity, as needed). Eg, this shows dollars with two decimal places, ADA with six, and EUR with none:

hledger -c '$1000.00' -c '1000.000000 ADA' -c 'EUR 1000.' bal

To make it permanent, use commodity directives.

How do I display a decimal mark different from the one in the input file ?

Use -c/--commodity-style options (one for each commodity) to override the display style(s). Eg hledger bal -c '$1,00' displays dollar amounts with comma decimal marks, even if they use period decimal marks in the journal.

How do I report by financial year, not calendar year ?

Use hledger 1.29+, and just specify the desired start date, eg hledger is -Y -b 2020/4/15 or hledger is -p 'yearly from 2020/4/15'. With older hledger versions, you can approximate it with -p 'every 12 months from 2020/4 or -p 'every 365 days from 2020/4/15'.

How do I report inflows and outflows separately ?

Use two register reports with an amt: query. Eg:

hledger register 'amt:<0'
hledger register 'amt:>0'

How do I show transactions where money left an account ?

You can use register with an account and amount query:

hledger register cash 'amt:<0'

If you prefer aregister, write it this way (because of aregister's special first argument):

hledger aregister cash cash 'amt:<0'

Printing the full transactions with print is difficult, since print is a transaction-based report that matches transactions with any matched postings.

You can do it in Emacs ledger-mode with C-c C-f (or M-x ledger-occur) and a regular expression. Eg, to show just the transactions where cash was decreased:

C-c C-f :cash.*- *[1-9]

For now, this seems to be the best approach at the command line too: filter the output of hledger print ACCT, keeping only transactions where ACCT and a negative (or positive) amount appear on the same line. This means using awk or some other unix tool that can treat transactions as multi-line records. (Example welcome)

How do I show transactions between one account and another account ?

Use aregister with the other account as the query:

hledger aregister checking expenses:tax

To filter by direction, add 'amt:>0' or 'amt:<0' to the above:

hledger aregister checking expenses:tax 'amt:>0'

To see full transactions, use print with a boolean query (requires hledger 1.30+):

hledger print expr:'checking AND expenses:tax'

or with hledger <1.30, emulate that with not:not::

hledger print checking not:not:expenses:tax

The above won't work with the register command because it reports postings, not transactions - each report item has only a single account. If you want a register report, combine it with print like so:

hledger print checking | hledger -f- -I register expenses:tax

How do I show an income statement restricted to just my credit card (eg) ?

First extract just the credit card transactions, then run the income statement report from those:

hledger print liabilities:mastercard | hledger -f- -I incomestatement

You might also need to exclude (or split up) transactions which mix the credit card, other assets/liabilities, and expenses/revenues.

What are some gotchas with piping hledger print into another hledger command ?

hledger print reproduces transactions, but it discards directives. The output will normally be a valid journal, but it can have a different meaning or even be unparseable due to:

  1. Loss of decimal-mark directives, which could disrupt number parsing.
  2. Loss of commodity directives declaring display precisions, which could disrupt transaction balancing.
  3. Loss of account directives declaring accounts' types, which could alter reports.
  4. Balance assertions which break because you have excluded transactions they depend on.

Workarounds:

  • Whenever you use -f - to read hledger print output, also add -I to ignore balance assertions. And write these flags separately (-If- does not work). So:

    $ hledger print ... | hledger -f- -I ...

  • Also recreate any required directives in the input stream. This is often not needed, but it depends on your data. If needed:

    • Keep those directives in their own file if possible (if directive scope rules allow it), which you can use as another input:

      $ hledger print ... | hledger -f- -I -f2023accounts.journal ...

    • Or find another way to pass the required directives along. Eg:

      $ { hledger print ...; grep '^[acd]' $LEDGER_FILE; } | hledger -I f- ...
$ { hledger print ...; grep '^[acd]' `hledger files` --no-filename; } | hledger -f- -I ...

With hledger-ui in iTerm2 on mac, why does Shift-Up/Shift-Down move the selection instead of adjusting the report period ?

iTerm2 by default doesn't recognise SHIFT-UP/SHIFT-DOWN keys correctly. (If this has changed in recent releases, please let us know.) Here's one way to fix it: iTerm2 > CMD-i > Keys > Key Mappings > Presets -> select "xterm Defaults" (not "Terminal.app Compatibility").

Customising hledger

How do I install hledger CSV rules for my financial institutions ?

git clone the main hledger repo, and look in examples/csv/ for a rules file you can copy to your financial working directory. If your financial institution is not there yet, please use these for inspiration, ask the #hledger chat for help, and send a pull request contributing your working rules to the repo.

How do I make new hledger CSV rules ?

See the Importing CSV tutorial and the hledger manual > CSV format. (After checking for a pre-existing rules file in examples/csv/ in the hledger repo.) If possible, add your new rules file to that directory and send a pull request.

How do I install more hledger scripts and add-on commands ?

git clone the hledger repo, and add the bin/ directory to your shell's PATH. See Scripts and add-ons.

How do I make new hledger scripts ?

Install the example Scripts and add-ons and find a suitable one to copy and modify. Also see Scripting. If your new script can be useful to others, consider contributing it with a pull request.

Videos, Talks

hledger-related videos:

Audio only:

See also:

Install

The current hledger release is 1.31. Release notes

Here are lots of ways to install hledger:

After downloading binaries or building from source, please check that the run requirements (PATH and locale) are satisfied.

And finally please share any feedback so we can make this process smoother!


Binary packages

Mac

hledger CI binaries
hledger-mac-x64.zip
Homebrew
brew install hledger

Windows

hledger CI binaries
hledger-windows-x64.zip
Scoop package
scoop install hledger
Chocolatey package
choco install hledger -y
Winget package
winget install simonmichael.hledger

GNU/Linux

hledger CI binaries
hledger-linux-x64.zip
Gentoo
sudo layman -a haskell && sudo emerge hledger hledger-ui hledger-web
Alpine edge
doas apk add hledger hledger-ui hledger-web
enabling the community repository
Arch
pacman -Sy hledger hledger-ui hledger-web
Void Linux x86_64
xbps-install -S hledger hledger-ui hledger-web
Debian unstable
Debian stable
Debian oldstable
Debian oldoldstable
more..
sudo apt install hledger hledger-ui hledger-web





more..
sudo apt install hledger hledger-ui hledger-web





more..
sudo dnf install hledger

Raspberry Pi

hledger CI binaries
hledger-linux-arm32v7.zip
Contributed binaries
hledger-aarch64-manjaro.gz
hledger-armhf32-debian.gz
Note: unaudited third party binaries

BSD

openbsd ports
pkg_add hledger
netbsd package
pkg_add hledger
freebsd ports
pkg install hs-hledger hs-hledger-ui hs-hledger-web

Other

Docker
more..
docker pull dastapov/hledger
Nix
nix-shell -p hledger hledger-ui hledger-web
On Linux, note #1030, #1033.
Sandstorm
HLedger Web app

Preview releases

hledger CI binaries
https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/releases
Previews of the next major release, for testers & early adopters.

Build the current release

Release source
  1. Check build requirements
  2. Use one of the build methods

Build requirements

Hardware

  • A machine where the Haskell build tools are available.
  • 4G of RAM is recommended.
  • 2G of free disk space will be needed if this is your first Haskell build.

GHC, stack, cabal

These are the Haskell build tools. If you choose the "Build with hledger-install" method below, they will be installed automatically. If you choose the "Build with stack" method, you will need to have stack installed. If you choose the "Build with cabal" method, you will need to have cabal and GHC installed.

You can probably install these tools with your local packaging system. They need not be the latest versions (but later versions are better):

  • GHC should be >=8.8. On Arch GNU/Linux, the packaged GHC is non-standard and may be troublesome.
  • cabal (ie cabal-install) should be >=3.2.
  • stack should be >=2.7. You can often upgrade an existing stack installation quickly with stack upgrade. On Windows, prefer the 64-bit version of stack.

Or, you can install them with ghcup. Since 2022, this is most reliable, platform-independent and recommended method.

  1. Install ghcup
  2. Install a recent version of ghc and stack
    ghcup install ghc
    ghcup install stack
    # or interactively: ghcup tui
  3. When ghcup asks if stack should use ghcup-managed GHC, say yes.

C libraries

On unix systems, you may need to install additional C libraries to avoid errors like "cannot find -ltinfo" when building hledger. Install them with a command like the below:

Debian, Ubuntu & co.:
sudo apt install libgmp-dev libtinfo-dev zlib1g-dev
Fedora, RHEL:
sudo dnf install gmp-devel ncurses-devel zlib-devel

(Please send updates for this list.)

UTF-8 locale

On unix systems, when building hledger the LANG environment variable must be set to a UTF-8-aware locale. See Check your locale.

Known build issues

More build tips

  • Building the hledger tools and possibly all their dependencies could take anywhere from a minute to an hour.

  • On machines with less than 4G of RAM, the build may use swap space and take much longer (overnight), or die part-way through. In such low memory situations, try adding -j1 to the stack/cabal install command, and retry a few times, or ask for more tips.

  • You could build just hledger CLI to use less time and space, by omitting hledger-ui and hledger-web from the commands below.

  • It's ok to kill a build and rerun the command later; you won't lose progress.

  • You can add --dry-run to the stack/cabal/nix install commands to see how much building remains.

  • If you have previously installed the hledger tools, they will usually be overwritten by the new version. If you have them installed in multiple places in your PATH, you may see a warning, reminding you to remove or rename the old executables.

Build methods

Use any of the following methods:

Build with hledger-install

The hledger-install.sh script builds the current release of the hledger tools, plus some add-on tools, in a relatively reliable way, requiring bash but not any Haskell build tools. It uses stack or cabal if you have them (installing stack in ~/.local/bin otherwise), and installs the hledger tools in ~/.local/bin or ~/.cabal/bin respectively. This can be a good choice if you are new to Haskell.

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/simonmichael/hledger/master/hledger-install/hledger-install.sh
less hledger-install.sh # <- good security practice: inspect downloaded scripts before running
bash hledger-install.sh

Build with stack

If you have stack installed, you can run it to install the main hledger tools in ~/.local/bin:

stack update
stack install --resolver=lts-21 hledger-lib-1.31 hledger-1.31 hledger-ui-1.31 hledger-web-1.31 --silent

On Windows, omit hledger-ui from this command (unless you are in WSL).

Build with cabal

If you have GHC and cabal, you can run cabal to install the main hledger tools in ~/.cabal/bin:

cabal update
cabal install alex happy
cabal install hledger-1.31 hledger-ui-1.31 hledger-web-1.31

On Windows, omit hledger-ui from this command (unless you are in WSL).

Build with nix

If you have nix, you can use nix-env to build hledger from source (but we try to provide a nix command that installs already-cached binaries, see above).

Build on Android

Here's how to build hledger on Android with Termux (if your phone has plenty of memory).

Build the development version

Latest source

If you want the very latest improvements, our master branch on github is suitable for daily use.

  1. Check build requirements above

  2. Get the source with git and enter the source directory:

    git clone https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger
    cd hledger

  3. Build and install executables (to ~/.local/bin) with stack:

    stack update
    stack install

    or (to ~/.cabal/bin) with cabal:

    cabal update
    cabal install alex happy
    cabal install all:exes

    or you can build in a Docker container which includes the necessary tools and dependencies:

    git clone https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger
    cd hledger/docker
    ./build.sh

    (This will build the image tagged hledger with just the latest binaries inside. If you want to keep all the build artifacts and use the resulting image for hledger development, run ./build-dev.sh instead.)

Run requirements

After installing, run the hledger tools and verify that their versions are what you just installed (and not older versions from a previous install). Eg:

$ hledger --version
hledger 1.31-g7fbe76970-20230903, mac-aarch64

$ hledger-ui --version
hledger-ui 1.31-g7fbe76970-20230903, mac-aarch64

$ hledger web --version
hledger-web 1.31-g7fbe76970-20230903, mac-aarch64

If you like, you can also run the unit tests:

$ hledger test
...
All 221 tests passed (0.10s)

or the more thorough functional tests, if you are in hledger's source directory:

$ make functest
...
Total 998 ...
functest PASSED

If things are not yet working, then:

Check your PATH

After building/installing, you may see a message about where the executables were installed. Eg:

  • with stack: $HOME/.local/bin (on Windows, %APPDATA%\local\bin)
  • with cabal: $HOME/.cabal/bin (on Windows, %APPDATA%\cabal\bin)
  • with nix: $HOME/.nix-profile/bin

Make sure that this install directory is included in your shell's $PATH (preferably near the start, to preempt any old hledger binaries you might have lying around). How to configure this depends on your platform and shell. Eg if you are using bash, this will show $PATH:

echo $PATH

and this will add the stack and cabal install dirs to it permanently:

echo "export PATH=~/.local/bin:~/.cabal/bin:$PATH" >> ~/.profile
source ~/.profile

Here's how to set environment variables on Windows.

Check your locale

On unix systems, when running hledger (and other GHC-compiled programs, like GHC, cabal & stack), the LANG environment variable must be set to a UTF-8-aware locale to avoid errors like "invalid byte sequence" or "mkTextEncoding: invalid argument" when processing non-ascii text.

Check that LANG's value mentions UTF-8, and if not, change it:

$ echo $LANG
C
$ export LANG=C.UTF-8    # or en_US.UTF-8, fr_FR.utf8, etc.
$ echo $LANG
C.UTF-8

In some cases the locale may need to be installed with your system package manager first. See hledger: Troubleshooting for more help.

If you see similar problems on Microsoft Windows, perhaps this doc can help with configuring it.

With Nix or GUIX, the procedures are different.

Next steps

Nicely done! Now see Get started, or come to the #hledger chat where we'll gladly share tips or receive your feedback.


Get Started

Starting out with hledger or Plain Text Accounting, not to mention setting up a new accounting system, can be a lot. This page aims to help! After installing hledger, reading one or more of the docs below should be helpful.

Quick starts

Quick introductions (may assume a bit of command line know-how):

Tutorials

Detailed step by step tutorials, with screenshots:

Videos

Manuals

hledger's manual is the authoritative documentation. For complete details, go straight here (or view it in the terminal with hledger help):

How-tos

Practical advice and examples for real-world tasks are collected at:

See also

  • Support, especially the #hledger chat and hledger mail list, open 24/7

How to approach hledger and accounting

Little and often

Remember that accounting is an ongoing activity, best done in regular small doses.

The more often you do it, the easier it is, because less has happened and you can remember it. Ten minutes daily can achieve a lot. (Or less, once you get a routine going.)

Small steps

Good news: you can start using hledger in very simple ways, and get immediate benefit. A good way to prioritise is to think about your most pressing needs and what kind of report would help. For example,

  • Take inventory of your debts, loans and assets; write down the names and numbers.
  • Record these as "opening balances" transactions (as in the quick start docs).
  • Make corrections until hledger shows your balances accurately.

Or:

  • Start recording changes to the cash in your wallet, starting with today's balance.
  • Then start reconciling daily (comparing the reported and actual balance, and troubleshooting any disagreements).
  • Then start tracking the balance in your checking account.
  • Then start tracking your other bank accounts.
  • Then start categorising your incomes and expenses.
  • Then find your bank transaction history and manually enter the transactions from the previous week.
  • Then manually download your bank transactions as CSV and develop CSV rules so that you can print the CSV as journal entries.
  • Then try downloading and importing this CSV into your journal daily for a while. (Only if you wish. Many people stick to manual data entry for the increased awareness it brings.)

If the task feels unclear or overwhelming, I recommend this small steps, verifiable reports approach.

If not, of course feel free to blaze away and do it all on day one. But I would still recommend establishing a frequent reconciling routine. It is surprising how quickly small events can slip through the cracks and create chaos, and it takes a little time to develop the troubleshooting skills. Reconciling often will save you time.

Imperfection

Your bookkeeping does not have to be perfect or even very accurate [1]. As you practice, you will naturally learn more about the tools and about double-entry accounting, such as how to organise your account categories, and how to write effective journal entries for various real-world events (transactions).

Later you can come back and improve your old journal entries if you wish. You can decide what level of accuracy you need.

[1] Though if you really catch the PTA bug, you may find that nothing less than perfection will do!

hledger

NAME

hledger - robust, friendly plain text accounting (CLI version)

SYNOPSIS

hledger
hledger COMMAND [OPTS] [ARGS]
hledger ADDONCMD -- [OPTS] [ARGS]

DESCRIPTION

[Quick reference links: Options, Commands, Queries, Regular expressions, Period expressions, Journal, Directives, CSV, Timeclock, Timedot, Common tasks]

hledger is a robust, user-friendly, 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), and largely interconvertible with beancount(1).

This manual is for hledger's command line interface, version 1.31. It also describes the common options, file formats and concepts used by all hledger programs. It might accidentally teach you some bookkeeping/accounting as well! You don't need to know everything in here to use hledger productively, but when you have a question about functionality, this doc should answer it. It is detailed, so do skip ahead or skim when needed. You can read it on hledger.org, or as an info manual or man page on your system. You can also get it from hledger itself with
hledger --man, hledger --info or hledger help [TOPIC].

The main function of the hledger CLI is to read plain text files describing financial transactions, crunch the numbers, and print a useful report on the terminal (or save it as HTML, CSV, JSON or SQL). Many reports are available, as subcommands. hledger will also detect other hledger-* executables as extra subcommands.

hledger usually reads from (and appends to) a journal file specified by the LEDGER_FILE environment variable (defaulting to $HOME/.hledger.journal); or you can specify files with -f options. It can also read timeclock files, timedot files, or any CSV/SSV/TSV file with a date field.

Here is a small journal file describing one transaction:

2015-10-16 bought food
  expenses:food          $10
  assets:cash

Transactions are dated movements of money (etc.) between two or more accounts: bank accounts, your wallet, revenue/expense categories, people, etc. You can choose any account names you wish, using : to indicate subaccounts. There must be at least two spaces between account name and amount. Positive amounts are inflow to that account (debit), negatives are outflow from it (credit). (Some reports show revenue, liability and equity account balances as negative numbers as a result; this is normal.)

hledger's add command can help you add transactions, or you can install other data entry UIs like hledger-web or hledger-iadd. For more extensive/efficient changes, use a text editor: Emacs + ledger-mode, VIM + vim-ledger, or VS Code + hledger-vscode are some good choices (see https://hledger.org/editors.html).

To get started, run hledger add and follow the prompts, or save some entries like the above in $HOME/.hledger.journal, then try commands like:
hledger print -x
hledger aregister assets
hledger balance
hledger balancesheet
hledger incomestatement.
Run hledger to list the commands. See also the "Starting a journal file" and "Setting opening balances" sections in PART 5: COMMON TASKS.

PART 1: USER INTERFACE

Input

hledger reads one or more data files, each time you run it. You can specify a file with -f, like so

$ hledger -f FILE print

Files are most often in hledger's journal format, with the .journal file extension (.hledger or .j also work); these files describe transactions, like an accounting general journal.

When no file is specified, hledger looks for .hledger.journal in your home directory.

But most people prefer to keep financial files in a dedicated folder, perhaps with version control. Also, starting a new journal file each year is common (it's not required, but helps keep things fast and organised). So we usually configure a different journal file, by setting the LEDGER_FILE environment variable, to something like ~/finance/2023.journal. For more about how to do that on your system, see Common tasks > Setting LEDGER_FILE.

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 extensions:
journalhledger journal files and some Ledger journals, for transactions.journal .j .hledger .ledger
timeclocktimeclock files, for precise time logging.timeclock
timedottimedot files, for approximate time logging.timedot
csvCSV/SSV/TSV/character-separated values, for data import.csv .ssv .tsv .csv.rules .ssv.rules .tsv.rules

These formats are described in more detail 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

Standard input

The file name - means standard input:

$ cat FILE | hledger -f- print

If reading non-journal data in this way, you'll need to add a file format prefix, like:

$ echo 'i 2009/13/1 08:00:00' | hledger print -f timeclock:-

Multiple files

You can specify multiple -f options, to read multiple files as one big journal. When doing this, note that certain features (described below) will be affected:

  • Balance assertions will not see the effect of transactions in previous files. (Usually this doesn't matter as each file will set the corresponding opening balances.)
  • Some directives will not affect previous or subsequent files.

If needed, you can work around these by using a single parent file which includes the others, or concatenating the files into one, eg: cat a.journal b.journal | hledger -f- CMD.

Strict mode

hledger checks input files for valid data. By default, the most important errors are detected, while still accepting easy journal files without a lot of declarations:

  • Are the input files parseable, with valid syntax ?
  • Are all transactions balanced ?
  • Do all balance assertions pass ?

With the -s/--strict flag, additional checks are performed:

You can use the check command to run individual checks -- the ones listed above and some more.

Commands

hledger provides various subcommands for getting things done. Most of these commands do not change the journal file; they just read it and output a report. A few commands assist with adding data and file management.

To show the commands list, run hledger with no arguments. The commands are described in detail in PART 4: COMMANDS, below.

To use a particular command, run hledger CMD [CMDOPTS] [CMDARGS],

  • CMD is the full command name, or its standard abbreviation shown in the commands list, or any unambiguous prefix of the name.

  • CMDOPTS are command-specific options, if any. Command-specific options must be written after the command name. Eg: hledger print -x.

  • CMDARGS are additional arguments to the command, if any. Most hledger commands accept arguments representing a query, to limit the data in some way. Eg: hledger reg assets:checking.

To list a command's options, arguments, and documentation in the terminal, run hledger CMD -h. Eg: hledger bal -h.

Add-on commands

In addition to the built-in commands, you can install add-on commands: programs or scripts named "hledger-SOMETHING", which will also appear in hledger's commands list. If you used the hledger-install script, you will have several add-ons installed already. Some more can be found in hledger's bin/ directory, documented at https://hledger.org/scripts.html.

More precisely, add-on commands are programs or scripts in your shell's PATH, whose name starts with "hledger-" and ends with no extension or a recognised extension (".bat", ".com", ".exe", ".hs", ".js", ".lhs", ".lua", ".php", ".pl", ".py", ".rb", ".rkt", or ".sh"), and (on unix and mac) which has executable permission for the current user.

You can run add-on commands using hledger, much like built-in commands: hledger ADDONCMD [-- ADDONCMDOPTS] [ADDONCMDARGS]. But note the double hyphen argument, required before add-on-specific options. Eg: hledger ui -- --watch or hledger web -- --serve. If this causes difficulty, you can always run the add-on directly, without using hledger: hledger-ui --watch or hledger-web --serve.

Options

Run hledger -h to see general command line help, and general options which are common to most hledger commands. These options can be written anywhere on the command line. They can be grouped into help, input, and reporting options:

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 following 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)

--today=DATE : override today's date (affects relative smart dates, for tests/examples)

-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 commodities

-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-equity : infer conversion equity postings from costs

--infer-costs : infer costs from conversion equity postings

--infer-market-prices : use costs as additional market prices, as if they were P directives

--forecast : generate transactions from periodic rules, : between the latest recorded txn and 6 months from today, : or during the specified PERIOD (= is required). : Auto posting rules will be applied to these transactions as well. : Also, in hledger-ui make future-dated transactions visible.

--auto : generate extra postings by applying auto posting rules to all txns (not just forecast txns)

--verbose-tags : add visible tags indicating transactions or postings which have been generated/modified

--commodity-style : Override the commodity style in the output for the specified commodity. For example 'EUR1.000,00'.

--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.

--pretty[=WHEN] : Show prettier output, e.g. using unicode box-drawing characters. : Accepts 'yes' (the default) or 'no' ('y', 'n', 'always', 'never' also work). : If you provide an argument you must use '=', e.g. '--pretty=yes'.

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 line tips

Here are some details useful to know about for hledger command lines (and elsewhere). Feel free to skip this section until you need it.

Option repetition

If options are repeated in a command line, hledger will generally use the last (right-most) occurence.

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 double 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 arguments 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:

  • an @argumentfile
  • hledger-ui's filter field
  • hledger-web's search form
  • GHCI's prompt (used by developers).

Unicode characters

hledger is expected to handle non-ascii characters correctly:

  • 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.)

  • 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:

  • 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 Troubleshooting. This step is essential - without it, hledger will quit on encountering a non-ascii character (as with all GHC-compiled programs).

  • your terminal software (eg Terminal.app, iTerm, CMD.exe, xterm..) must support unicode

  • the terminal must be using a font which includes the required unicode glyphs

  • the terminal should be configured to display wide characters as double width (for report alignment)

  • 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 standard 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:

  • query terms, on the command line and in the hledger-web search form: REGEX, desc:REGEX, cur:REGEX, tag:...=REGEX
  • CSV rules conditional blocks: if REGEX ...
  • account alias directive and --alias option: 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:

  • In the alias directive and --alias option, regular expressions must be enclosed in forward slashes (/REGEX/). Elsewhere in hledger, these are not required.

  • 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:\$.

  • On the command line, some metacharacters like $ have a special meaning to the shell and so must be escaped at least once more. See Special characters.

Argument files

You can save a set of command line options and arguments in a file, and then reuse them by writing @FILENAME as a command line argument. Eg: hledger bal @foo.args.

Inside the argument file, each line should contain just one option or argument. Don't use spaces except inside quotes (or you'll see a confusing error); write = (or nothing) between a flag and its argument. For the special characters mentioned above, use one less level of quoting than you would at the command prompt.

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 provide 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)

Output format

Some commands offer other kinds of output, not just text on the terminal. Here are those commands and the formats currently supported:

-txtcsvhtmljsonsql
aregisterYYYY
balanceY 1Y 1Y 1,2Y
balancesheetY 1Y 1Y 1Y
balancesheetequityY 1Y 1Y 1Y
cashflowY 1Y 1Y 1Y
incomestatementY 1Y 1Y 1Y
printYYYY
registerYYY
  • 1 Also affected by the balance commands' --layout option.
  • 2 balance does not support html output without a report interval or with --budget.

The output format is selected by the -O/--output-format=FMT option:

$ hledger print -O csv    # print CSV on stdout

or by the filename extension of an output file specified with the -o/--output-file=FILE.FMT option:

$ hledger balancesheet -o foo.csv    # write CSV to foo.csv

The -O option can be combined with -o to override the file extension, if needed:

$ hledger balancesheet -o foo.txt -O csv    # write CSV to foo.txt

Some notes about the various output formats:

CSV output

  • In CSV output, digit group marks (such as thousands separators) are disabled automatically.

HTML output

  • HTML output can be styled by an optional hledger.css file in the same directory.

JSON output

  • 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)

SQL output

  • This is not yet much used; real-world feedback is welcome.

  • SQL output is expected to work at least with SQLite, MySQL and Postgres.

  • For SQLite, it will be more useful if you modify the generated id field to be a PRIMARY KEY. Eg:

    $ hledger print -O sql | sed 's/id serial/id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT NOT NULL/g' | ...

  • SQL output is structured with the expectations that statements will be executed in the empty database. If you already have tables created 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.

Commodity styles

When displaying amounts, hledger infers a standard display style for each commodity/currency, as described below in Commodity display style.

If needed, this can be overridden by a -c/--commodity-style option (except for cost amounts and amounts displayed by the print command, which are always displayed with all decimal digits). For example, the following will force dollar amounts to be displayed as shown:

$ hledger print -c '$1.000,0'

This option can repeated to set the display style for multiple commodities/currencies. Its argument is as described in the commodity directive.

Colour

In terminal output, some commands can produce colour when the terminal supports it:

  • if the --color/--colour option is given a value of yes or always (or no or never), colour will (or will not) be used;
  • otherwise, if the NO_COLOR environment variable is set, colour will not be used;
  • otherwise, colour will be used if the output (terminal or file) supports it.

Box-drawing

In terminal output, you can enable unicode box-drawing characters to render prettier tables:

  • if the --pretty option is given a value of yes or always (or no or never), unicode characters will (or will not) be used;
  • otherwise, unicode characters will not be used.

Paging

When showing long output in the terminal, hledger will try to use the pager specified by the PAGER environment variable, or less, or more. (A pager is a helper program that shows one page at a time rather than scrolling everything off screen). Currently it does this only for help output, not for reports; specifically,

  • when listing commands, with hledger
  • when showing help with hledger [CMD] --help,
  • when viewing manuals with hledger help or hledger --man.

Note the pager is expected to handle ANSI codes, which hledger uses eg for bold emphasis. For the common pager less (and its more compatibility mode), we add R to the LESS and MORE environment variables to make this work. If you use a different pager, you might need to configure it similarly, to avoid seeing junk on screen (let us know). Otherwise, you can set the NO_COLOR environment variable to 1 to disable all ANSI output (see Colour).

Debug output

We intend hledger to be relatively easy to troubleshoot, introspect and develop. You can add --debug[=N] to any hledger command line to see additional debug output. N ranges from 1 (least output, the default) to 9 (maximum output). Typically you would start with 1 and increase until you are seeing enough. Debug output goes to stderr, and is not affected by -o/--output-file (unless you redirect stderr to stdout, eg: 2>&1). It will be interleaved with normal output, which can help reveal when parts of the code are evaluated. To capture debug output in a log file instead, you can usually redirect stderr, eg:

hledger bal --debug=3 2>hledger.log

Environment

These environment variables affect hledger:

COLUMNS This is normally set by your terminal; some hledger commands (register) will format their output to this width. If not set, they will try to use the available terminal width.

LEDGER_FILE The main journal file to use when not specified with -f/--file. Default: $HOME/.hledger.journal.

NO_COLOR If this environment variable is set (with any value), hledger will not use ANSI color codes in terminal output, unless overridden by an explicit --color/--colour option.

PART 2: DATA FORMATS

Journal

hledger's default file format, representing a General Journal. Here's a cheatsheet/mini-tutorial, or you can skip ahead to About journal format.

Journal cheatsheet

# Here is the main syntax of hledger's journal format
# (omitting extra Ledger compatibility syntax).
# hledger journals contain comments, directives, and transactions, in any order:

###############################################################################
# 1. Comment lines are for notes or temporarily disabling things.
# They begin with #, ;, or a line containing the word "comment".

# hash comment line
; semicolon comment line
comment
These lines
are commented.
end comment

# Some but not all hledger entries can have same-line comments attached to them,
# from ; (semicolon) to end of line.

###############################################################################
# 2. Directives modify parsing or reports in some way.
# They begin with a word or letter (or symbol).

account actifs     ; type:A, declare an account that is an Asset. 2+ spaces before ;.
account passifs    ; type:L, declare an account that is a Liability, and so on.. (ALERX)
alias chkg = assets:checking
commodity $0.00
decimal-mark .
include /dev/null
payee Whole Foods
P 2022-01-01 AAAA $1.40
~ monthly    budget goals  ; <- 2+ spaces between period expression and description
    expenses:food       $400
    expenses:home      $1000
    budgeted

###############################################################################
# 3. Transactions are what it's all about; they are dated events,
# usually describing movements of money.
# They begin with a date.

# DATE DESCRIPTION           ; This is a transaction comment.
#   ACCOUNT NAME 1  AMOUNT1  ; <- posting 1. This is a posting comment.
#   ACCOUNT NAME 2  AMOUNT2  ; <- posting 2. Postings must be indented.
#               ; ^^ At least 2 spaces between account and amount.
#   ...  ; Any number of postings is allowed. The amounts must balance (sum to 0).

2022-01-01 opening balances are declared this way
    assets:checking          $1000  ; Account names can be anything. lower case is easy to type.
    assets:savings           $1000  ; assets, liabilities, equity, revenues, expenses are common.
    assets:cash:wallet        $100  ; : indicates subaccounts.
    liabilities:credit card  $-200  ; liabilities, equity, revenues balances are usually negative.
    equity                          ; One amount can be left blank; $-1900 is inferred here.

2022-04-15 * (#12345) pay taxes
    ; There can be a ! or * after the date meaning "pending" or "cleared".
    ; There can be a transaction code (text in parentheses) after the date/status.
    ; Amounts' sign represents direction of flow, or credit/debit:
    assets:checking          $-500  ; minus means removed from this account (credit)
    expenses:tax:us:2021      $500  ; plus  means added to this account (debit)
                                    ; revenue/expense categories are also "accounts"

2022-01-01                          ; The description is optional.
    ; Any currency/commodity symbols are allowed, on either side.
    assets:cash:wallet     GBP -10
    expenses:clothing       GBP 10
    assets:gringotts           -10 gold
    assets:pouch                10 gold
    revenues:gifts              -2 "Liquorice Wands"  ; Complex symbols
    assets:bag                   2 "Liquorice Wands"  ; must be double-quoted.

2022-01-01 Cost in another commodity can be noted with @ or @@
    assets:investments           2.0 AAAA @ $1.50  ; @  means per-unit cost
    assets:investments           3.0 AAAA @@ $4    ; @@ means total cost
    assets:checking            $-7.00

2022-01-02 assert balances
    ; Balances can be asserted for extra error checking, in any transaction.
    assets:investments           0 AAAA = 5.0 AAAA
    assets:pouch                 0 gold = 10 gold
    assets:savings              $0      = $1000

1999-12-31 Ordering transactions by date is recommended but not required.
    ; Postings are not required.

2022.01.01 These date
2022/1/1   formats are
12/31      also allowed (but consistent YYYY-MM-DD is recommended).

About journal format

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 compatible with most of Ledger's journal format, but not all of it. The differences and interoperation tips are described at hledger and Ledger. With some care, and by avoiding incompatible features, you can keep your hledger journal readable by Ledger and vice versa. This can useful eg for comparing the behaviour of one app against the other.

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 configuration at hledger.org for the full list.

Here's a description of each part of the file format (and hledger's data model).

A hledger journal file can contain three kinds of thing: file comments, transactions, and/or directives (counting periodic transaction rules and auto posting rules as directives).

Comments

Lines in the journal will be ignored if they begin with a hash (#) or a semicolon (;). (See also Other syntax.) hledger will also ignore regions beginning with a comment line and ending with an end comment line (or file end). Here's a suggestion for choosing between them:

  • # for top-level notes
  • ; for commenting out things temporarily
  • comment for quickly commenting large regions (remember it's there, or you might get confused)

Eg:

# a comment line
; another commentline
comment
A multi-line comment block,
continuing until "end comment" directive
or the end of the current file.
end comment

Some hledger entries can have same-line comments attached to them, from ; (semicolon) to end of line. See Transaction comments, Posting comments, and Account comments below.

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 simple date in column 0. This can be followed by any of the following optional fields, separated by spaces:

  • a status character (empty, !, or *)
  • a code (any short number or text, enclosed in parentheses)
  • a description (any remaining text until end of line or a semicolon)
  • a comment (any remaining text following a semicolon until end of line, and any following indented lines beginning with a semicolon)
  • 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 current transaction, the default year set with a Y 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.)

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.
The date: tag must have a valid simple date value if it is present, eg a date: tag with no value is not allowed.

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 pending, 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 shortcuts 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:

statusmeaning
unclearedrecorded but not yet reconciled; needs review
pendingtentatively reconciled (if needed, eg during a big reconciliation)
clearedcomplete, reconciled as far as possible, and considered correct

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 subdivide 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.

Transaction comments

Text following ;, after a transaction description, and/or on indented lines immediately below it, form comments for that transaction. They are reproduced by print but otherwise ignored, except they may contain tags, which are not ignored.

2012-01-01 something  ; a transaction comment
    ; a second line of transaction comment
    expenses   1
    assets

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:

  • (optional) a status character (empty, !, or *), followed by a space
  • (required) an account name (any text, optionally containing single spaces, until end of line or a double space)
  • (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 convenience, 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 spaces. But if you accidentally leave only one space (or tab) before the amount, the amount will be considered part of the account name.

Account names

Accounts are the main way of categorising things in hledger. As in Double Entry Bookkeeping, they can represent real world accounts (such as a bank account), or more abstract categories such as "money borrowed from Frank" or "money spent on electricity".

You can use any account names you like, but we usually start with the traditional accounting categories, which in english are assets, liabilities, equity, revenues, expenses. (You might see these referred to as A, L, E, R, X for short.)

For more precise reporting, we usually divide the top level accounts into more detailed subaccounts, by writing a full colon between account name parts. For example, from the account names assets:bank:checking and expenses:food, hledger will infer this hierarchy of five accounts:

assets
assets:bank
assets:bank:checking
expenses
expenses:food

Shown as an outline, the hierarchical tree structure is more clear:

assets
 bank
  checking
expenses
 food

hledger reports can summarise the account tree to any depth, so you can go as deep as you like with subcategories, but keeping your account names relatively simple may be best when starting out.

Account names may be capitalised or not; they may contain letters, numbers, symbols, or single spaces. Note, when an account name and an amount are written on the same line, they must be separated by two or more spaces (or tabs).

Parentheses or brackets enclosing the full account name indicate virtual postings, described below. Parentheses or brackets internal to the account name have no special meaning.

Account names can be altered temporarily or permanently by account aliases.

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 "quantity"):

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 commodity 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 confusing parsing mistakes and undetected typos, especially if your data contains digit group marks (eg, thousands separators), we recommend explicitly declaring the decimal mark character in each journal file, using a directive at the top of the file. The decimal-mark directive is best, otherwise commodity directives will also work. These are described below.

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 punctuation), 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.)

Directives influencing number parsing and display

You can add decimal-mark and commodity directives to the journal, to declare and control these things more explicitly and precisely. These are described below, but here's a quick example:

# the decimal mark character used by all amounts in this file (all commodities)
decimal-mark .

# display styles for the $, EUR, INR and no-symbol commodities:
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:

  • The commodity directive for that commodity (including the no-symbol commodity), if any.
  • The amounts in that commodity seen in the journal's transactions. (Posting amounts only; prices and periodic or auto rules are ignored, currently.)
  • The built-in fallback style, which looks like this: $1000.00. (Symbol on the left, period decimal mark, two decimal places.)

A style is inferred from journal amounts as follows:

  • Use the general style (decimal mark, symbol placement) of the first amount
  • Use the first-seen digit group style (digit group mark, digit group sizes), if any
  • Use the maximum number of decimal places of all.

Cost amounts don't affect the commodity display style directly, but occasionally they can do so indirectly (eg when a posting's amount is inferred using a cost). 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.

The inferred commodity style can be overridden by supplying a command line option.

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").

Costs

After a posting amount, you can note its cost (when buying) or selling price (when selling) in another commodity, by writing either @ UNITPRICE or @@ TOTALPRICE after it. This indicates a conversion transaction, where one commodity is exchanged for another.

(You might also see this called "transaction price" in hledger docs, discussions, or code; that term was directionally neutral and reminded that it is a price specific to a transaction, but we now just call it "cost", with the understanding that the transaction could be a purchase or a sale.)

Costs are usually written explicitly with @ or @@, but can also be inferred automatically for simple multi-commodity transactions. Note, if costs are inferred, the order of postings is significant; the first posting will have a cost attached, in the commodity of the second.

As an example, here are several ways to record purchases of a foreign currency in hledger, using the cost notation either explicitly or implicitly:

  1. Write the price per unit, as @ UNITPRICE after the amount:

    2009/1/1
  assets:euros     €100 @ $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     €100 @@ $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. Note the effect of posting order: the price is added to first posting, making it €100 @@ $135, as in example 2:

    2009/1/1
  assets:euros     €100          ; one hundred euros purchased
  assets:dollars  $-135          ; for $135

Amounts can be converted to cost at report time using the -B/--cost flag; this is discussed more in the Cost reporting section.

Note that the cost normally should be a positive amount, though it's not required to be. This can be a little confusing, see discussion at --infer-market-prices: market prices from transactions.

Other cost/lot notations

A slight digression for Ledger and Beancount users. Ledger has a number of cost/lot-related notations:

  • @ UNITCOST and @@ TOTALCOST
    • expresses a conversion rate, as in hledger
    • when buying, also creates a lot than can be selected at selling time
  • (@) UNITCOST and (@@) TOTALCOST (virtual cost)
    • like the above, but also means "this cost was exceptional, don't use it when inferring market prices".

Currently, hledger treats the above like @ and @@; the parentheses are ignored.

  • {=FIXEDUNITCOST} and {{=FIXEDTOTALCOST}} (fixed price)
    • when buying, means "this cost is also the fixed price, don't let it fluctuate in value reports"
  • {UNITCOST} and {{TOTALCOST}} (lot price)
    • can be used identically to @ UNITCOST and @@ TOTALCOST, also creates a lot
    • when selling, combined with @ ..., specifies an investment lot by its cost basis; does not check if that lot is present
  • and related: [YYYY/MM/DD] (lot date)
    • when buying, attaches this acquisition date to the lot
    • when selling, selects a lot by its acquisition date
  • (SOME TEXT) (lot note)
    • when buying, attaches this note to the lot
    • when selling, selects a lot by its note

Currently, hledger accepts any or all of the above in any order after the posting amount, but ignores them. (This can break transaction balancing.)

For Beancount users, the notation and behaviour is different:

  • @ UNITCOST and @@ TOTALCOST
    • expresses a cost without creating a lot, as in hledger
    • when buying (augmenting) or selling (reducing) a lot, combined with {...}: documents the cost/selling price (not used for transaction balancing)
  • {UNITCOST} and {{TOTALCOST}}
    • when buying (augmenting), expresses the cost for transaction balancing, and also creates a lot with this cost basis attached
    • when selling (reducing),
      • selects a lot by its cost basis
      • raises an error if that lot is not present or can not be selected unambiguously (depending on booking method configured)
      • expresses the selling price for transaction balancing

Currently, hledger accepts the {UNITCOST}/{{TOTALCOST}} notation but ignores it.

  • variations: {}, {YYYY-MM-DD}, {"LABEL"}, {UNITCOST, "LABEL"}, {UNITCOST, YYYY-MM-DD, "LABEL"} etc.

Currently, hledger rejects these.

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 protect 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, described 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 different from Ledger, which sorts assertions only by parse order. (Also, Ledger assertions do not see the accumulated effect of repeated postings 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 multiple included files

Multiple files included with the include directive are processed as if concatenated into one file, preserving their order and the posting order within each file. It means that balance assertions in later files will see balance from earlier files.

And if you have multiple postings to an account on the same day, split across multiple files, and you want to assert the account's balance on that day, you'll need to put the assertion in the right file - the last one in the sequence, probably.

Assertions and multiple -f files

Unlike include, when multiple files are specified on the command line with multiple -f/--file options, balance assertions will not see balance from earlier files. This can be useful when you do not want problems in earlier files to disrupt valid assertions in later files.

If you do want assertions to see balance from earlier files, use include, or concatenate the files temporarily.

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 commodities in the account besides the asserted one (or at least, that their balance is 0).

2013/1/1
  a   $1
  a    1€
  b  $-1
  c   -1€

2013/1/2  ; These assertions succeed
  a    0  =  $1
  a    0  =   1€
  b    0 == $-1
  c    0 ==  -1€

2013/1/3  ; This assertion fails as 'a' also contains 1€
  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   1€
  b

2013/1/2
  a        0 ==  0
  a:usd    0 == $1
  a:euro   0 ==  1€

Assertions and prices

Balance assertions ignore costs, and should normally be written without one:

2019/1/1
  (a)     $1 @ €1 = $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 assignments 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 always consider both real and virtual postings; they are not affected by the --real/-R flag or real: query.

Assertions and auto postings

Balance assertions are affected by the --auto flag, which generates auto postings, which can alter account balances. Because auto postings are optional in hledger, accounts affected by them effectively have two balances. But balance assertions can only test one or the other of these. So to avoid making fragile assertions, either:

  • assert the balance calculated with --auto, and always use --auto with that file
  • or assert the balance calculated without --auto, and never use --auto with that file
  • or avoid balance assertions on accounts affected by auto postings (or avoid auto postings entirely).

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 assertions. Balance assertion failure messages show exact amounts.

Posting comments

Text following ;, at the end of a posting line, and/or on indented lines immediately below it, form comments for that posting. They are reproduced by print but otherwise ignored, except they may contain tags, which are not ignored.

2012-01-01
    expenses   1  ; a comment for posting 1
    assets
    ; a comment for posting 2
    ; a second comment line for posting 2

Tags

Tags are a way to add extra labels or labelled data to transactions, postings, or accounts, which you can then search or pivot on.

They are written as a word (optionally hyphenated) immediately followed by a full colon, in a transaction or posting or account directive's comment. (This is an exception to the usual rule that things in comments are ignored.) Eg, here four different tags are recorded: one on the checking account, two on the transaction, and one on the expenses posting:

account assets:checking         ; accounttag:

2017/1/16 bought groceries      ; transactiontag-1:
    ; transactiontag-2:
    assets:checking        $-1
    expenses:food           $1  ; postingtag:

Postings also inherit tags from their transaction and their account. And transactions also acquire tags from their postings (and postings' accounts). So in the example above, the expenses posting effectively has all four tags (by inheriting from account and transaction), and the transaction also has all four tags (by acquiring from the expenses posting).

You can list tag names with hledger tags [NAMEREGEX], or match by tag name with a tag:NAMEREGEX query.

Tag values

Tags can have a value, which is any text after the colon up until a comma or end of line (with surrounding whitespace removed). Note this means that hledger tag values can not contain commas. Eg in the following posting, the three tags' values are "value 1", "value 2", and "" (empty) respectively:

    expenses:food   $10    ; foo, tag1: value 1 , tag2:value 2, bar tag3: , baz

Note that tags can be repeated, and are additive rather than overriding: when the same tag name is seen again with a new value, the new name:value pair is added to the tags. (It is not possible to override a tag's value or remove a tag.)

You can list a tag's values with hledger tags TAGNAME --values, or match by tag value with a tag:NAMEREGEX=VALUEREGEX query.

Directives

Besides transactions, there is something else you can put in a journal file: directives. These are declarations, beginning with a keyword, that modify hledger's behaviour. Some directives can have more specific subdirectives, indented below them. hledger's directives are similar to Ledger's in many cases, but there are also many differences. Directives are not required, but can be useful. Here are the main directives:

purposedirective
READING DATA:
Rewrite account namesalias
Comment out sections of the filecomment
Declare file's decimal mark, to help parse amounts accuratelydecimal-mark
Include other data filesinclude
GENERATING DATA:
Generate recurring transactions or budget goals~
Generate extra postings on existing transactions=
CHECKING FOR ERRORS:
Define valid entities to provide more error checkingaccount, commodity, payee, tag
REPORTING:
Declare accounts' type and display orderaccount
Declare commodity display stylescommodity
Declare market pricesP

Directives and multiple files

Directives vary in their scope, ie which journal entries and which input files they affect. Most often, a directive will affect the following entries and included files if any, until the end of the current file - and no further. You might find this inconvenient! For example, alias directives do not affect parent or sibling files. But there are usually workarounds; for example, put alias directives in your top-most file, before including other files.

The restriction, though it may be annoying at first, is in a good cause; it allows reports to be stable and deterministic, independent of the order of input. Without it, reports could show different numbers depending on the order of -f options, or the positions of include directives in your files.

Directive effects

Here are all hledger's directives, with their effects and scope summarised - nine main directives, plus four others which we consider non-essential:

directivewhat it doesends at file end?
accountDeclares an account, for checking all entries in all files;
and its display order and type.
Subdirectives: any text, ignored.		N
aliasRewrites account names, in following entries until end of current file or end aliases.
Command line equivalent: --alias		Y
commentIgnores part of the journal file, until end of current file or end comment.Y
commodityDeclares up to four things:
1. a commodity symbol, for checking all amounts in all files
2. the decimal mark for parsing amounts of this commodity, in the following entries until end of current file (if there is no decimal-mark directive)
3. and the display style for amounts of this commodity
4. which is also the precision to use for balanced-transaction checking in this commodity.
Takes precedence over D.
Subdirectives: format (Ledger-compatible syntax).
Command line equivalent: -c/--commodity-style		N,
Y,
N,
N
decimal-markDeclares the decimal mark, for parsing amounts of all commodities in following entries until next decimal-mark or end of current file. Included files can override. Takes precedence over commodity and D.Y
includeIncludes entries and directives from another file, as if they were written inline.
Command line alternative: multiple -f/--file		N
payeeDeclares a payee name, for checking all entries in all files.N
PDeclares the market price of a commodity on some date, for value reports.N
~ (tilde)Declares a periodic transaction rule that generates future transactions with --forecast and budget goals with balance --budget.N
Other syntax:
apply accountPrepends a common parent account to all account names, in following entries until end of current file or end apply account.Y
DSets a default commodity to use for no-symbol amounts;
and, if there is no commodity directive for this commodity: its decimal mark, balancing precision, and display style, as above.		Y,
Y,
N,
N
YSets a default year to use for any yearless dates, in following entries until end of current file.Y
= (equals)Declares an auto posting rule that generates extra postings on matched transactions with --auto, in current, parent, and child files (but not sibling files, see #1212).partly
Other Ledger directivesOther directives from Ledger's file format are accepted but ignored.

account directive

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

  • They can document your intended chart of accounts, providing a reference.
  • In strict mode, they restrict which accounts may be posted to by transactions, which helps detect typos.
  • They control account display order in reports, allowing non-alphabetic sorting (eg Revenues to appear above Expenses).
  • They help with account name completion (in hledger add, hledger-web, hledger-iadd, ledger-mode, etc.)
  • They can store additional account information as comments, or as tags which can be used to filter or pivot reports.
  • They can help hledger know your accounts' types (asset, liability, equity, revenue, expense), affecting reports like balancesheet and incomestatement.

They are written as the word account followed by a hledger-style account name, eg:

account assets:bank:checking

Note, however, that accounts declared in account directives are not allowed to have surrounding brackets and parentheses, unlike accounts used in postings. So the following journal will not parse:

account (assets:bank:checking)

Account comments

Text following two or more spaces and ; at the end of an account directive line, and/or following ; on indented lines immediately below it, form comments for that account. They are ignored except they may contain tags, which are not ignored.

The two-space requirement for same-line account comments is because ; is allowed in account names.

account assets:bank:checking    ; same-line comment, at least 2 spaces before the semicolon
  ; next-line comment
  ; some tags - type:A, acctnum:12345

Account subdirectives

Ledger-style indented subdirectives are also accepted, but currently ignored:

account assets:bank:checking
  format subdirective is ignored

Account error checking

By default, accounts need not be declared; they come into existence when a posting references them. 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 that error later, as an extra account in balance reports, or an incorrect 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:

  • The declaration is case-sensitive; transactions must use the correct account name capitalisation.
  • The account directive's scope is "whole file and below" (see directives). 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.
  • Accounts can only be declared in journal files, but will affect included files of all types.
  • It's currently not possible to declare "all possible subaccounts" with a wildcard; every account posted to must be declared.

Account display order

The order in which account directives are written influences the order in which accounts appear in reports, hledger-ui, hledger-web etc. By default accounts appear in alphabetical order, but if you add these account directives to the journal file:

account assets
account liabilities
account equity
account revenues
account expenses

those accounts will be displayed in declaration order:

$ hledger accounts -1
assets
liabilities
equity
revenues
expenses

Any undeclared accounts are displayed last, in alphabetical order.

Sorting is done at each level of the account tree, within each group of sibling accounts under the same parent. And currently, this directive:

account other:zoo

would influence the position of zoo among other's subaccounts, but not the position of other among the top-level accounts. This means:

  • you will sometimes declare parent accounts (eg account other above) that you don't intend to post to, just to customize their display order
  • sibling accounts stay together (you couldn't display x:y in between a:b and a:c).

Account types

hledger knows that accounts come in several types: assets, liabilities, expenses and so on. This enables easy reports like balancesheet and incomestatement, and filtering by account type with the type: query.

As a convenience, hledger will detect these account types automatically if you are using common english-language top-level account names (described below). But generally we recommend you declare types explicitly, by adding a type: tag to your top-level account directives. Subaccounts will inherit the type of their parent. The tag's value should be one of the five main account types:

  • A or Asset (things you own)
  • L or Liability (things you owe)
  • E or Equity (investment/ownership; balanced counterpart of assets & liabilities)
  • R or Revenue (what you received money from, AKA income; technically part of Equity)
  • X or Expense (what you spend money on; technically part of Equity)

or, it can be (these are used less often):

Here is a typical set of account type declarations:

account assets             ; type: A
account liabilities        ; type: L
account equity             ; type: E
account revenues           ; type: R
account expenses           ; type: X

account assets:bank        ; type: C
account assets:cash        ; type: C

account equity:conversion  ; type: V

Here are some tips for working with account types.

  • The rules for inferring types from account names are as follows. These are just a convenience that sometimes help new users get going; if they don't work for you, just ignore them and declare your account types. See also Regular expressions.

    If account's name contains this (CI) regular expression:            | its type is:
--------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------
^assets?(:.+)?:(cash|bank|che(ck|que?)(ing)?|savings?|current)(:|$) | Cash
^assets?(:|$)                                                       | Asset
^(debts?|liabilit(y|ies))(:|$)                                      | Liability
^equity:(trad(e|ing)|conversion)s?(:|$)                             | Conversion
^equity(:|$)                                                        | Equity
^(income|revenue)s?(:|$)                                            | Revenue
^expenses?(:|$)                                                     | Expense

  • If you declare any account types, it's a good idea to declare an account for all of the account types, because a mixture of declared and name-inferred types can disrupt certain reports.

  • Certain uses of account aliases can disrupt account types. See Rewriting accounts > Aliases and account types.

  • As mentioned above, subaccounts will inherit a type from their parent account. More precisely, an account's type is decided by the first of these that exists:

    1. A type: declaration for this account.
    2. A type: declaration in the parent accounts above it, preferring the nearest.
    3. An account type inferred from this account's name.
    4. An account type inferred from a parent account's name, preferring the nearest parent.
    5. Otherwise, it will have no type.

  • For troubleshooting, you can list accounts and their types with:

    $ hledger accounts --types [ACCTPAT] [-DEPTH] [type:TYPECODES]

alias directive

You can define account alias rules which rewrite your account names, or parts of them, before generating reports. This can be useful for:

  • expanding shorthand account names to their full form, allowing easier data entry and a less verbose journal
  • adapting old journals to your current chart of accounts
  • experimenting with new account organisations, like a new hierarchy
  • combining two accounts into one, eg to see their sum or difference on one line
  • 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.

Account aliases are very powerful. They are generally easy to use correctly, but you can also generate invalid account names with them; more on this below.

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. Subaccounts 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 wrapping the pattern in forward slashes. (This is the only place where hledger requires forward slashes around a regular expression.)

Eg:

alias /REGEX/ = REPLACEMENT

or:

$ hledger --alias '/REGEX/=REPLACEMENT' ...

Any part of an account name matched by REGEX will be replaced by REPLACEMENT. REGEX is case-insensitive as usual.

If you need to match a forward slash, escape it with a backslash, eg /\/=:.

If REGEX contains parenthesised match groups, these can be referenced by the usual backslash and number in REPLACEMENT:

alias /^(.+):bank:([^:]+):(.*)/ = \1:\2 \3
; rewrites "assets:bank:wells fargo:checking" to  "assets:wells fargo checking"

REPLACEMENT continues to the end of line (or on command line, to end of option argument), so it can contain trailing whitespace.

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:

  • the nearest alias declaration before/above the entry is applied first
  • the next alias before/above that will be be applied next, and so on
  • aliases defined after/below the entry do not affect it.

This gives nearby aliases precedence over distant ones, and helps provide semantic stability - aliases will keep working the same way independent 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

2023-01-01  ; 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

2023-01-01  ; affected by aliases above
  foo  1
  bar

include c.journal  ; also affected

end aliases directive

You can clear (forget) all currently defined aliases (seen in the journal so far, or defined on the command line) with this directive:

end aliases

Aliases can generate bad account names

Be aware that account aliases can produce malformed account names, which could cause confusing reports or invalid print output. For example, you could erase all account names:

2021-01-01
  a:aa     1
  b

$ hledger print --alias '/.*/='
2021-01-01
                   1

The above print output is not a valid journal. Or you could insert an illegal double space, causing print output that would give a different journal when reparsed:

2021-01-01
  old    1
  other

$ hledger print --alias old="new  USD" | hledger -f- print
2021-01-01
    new             USD 1
    other

Aliases and account types

If an account with a type declaration (see Declaring accounts > Account types) is renamed by an alias, normally the account type remains in effect.

However, renaming in a way that reshapes the account tree (eg renaming parent accounts but not their children, or vice versa) could prevent child accounts from inheriting the account type of their parents.

Secondly, if an account's type is being inferred from its name, renaming it by an alias could prevent or alter that.

If you are using account aliases and the type: query is not matching accounts as you expect, try troubleshooting with the accounts command, eg something like:

$ hledger accounts --alias assets=bassetts type:a

commodity directive

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 Commodity 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 decimal 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 subdirective, 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

Other indented subdirectives are currently ignored.

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.)

Even in the presence of commodity directives, the commodity display style can still be overridden by supplying a command line option.

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.

Note, this disallows amounts without a commodity symbol, because currently it's not possible (?) to declare the "no-symbol" commodity with a directive. This is one exception for convenience: zero amounts are always allowed to have no commodity symbol.

decimal-mark directive

You can use a decimal-mark directive - usually one per file, at the top of the file - to declare which character represents a decimal mark when parsing amounts in this file. It can look like

decimal-mark .

or

decimal-mark ,

This prevents any ambiguity when parsing numbers in the file, so we recommend it, especially if the file contains digit group marks (eg thousands separators).

include directive

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, overriding the file extension (as described in Data formats): include timedot:~/notes/2023*.md.

P directive

The P directive declares a market price, which is a conversion rate between two commodities on a certain date. This allows value reports to convert amounts of one commodity to their value in another, on or after that date. These prices are often obtained from a stock exchange, cryptocurrency exchange, the or 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 € $1.35

# and $1.40 from 2010-01-01 onward:
P 2010-01-01 € $1.40

The -V, -X and --value flags use these market prices to show amount values in another commodity. See Value reporting.

payee directive

payee PAYEE NAME

This 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

Any indented subdirectives are currently ignored.

tag directive

tag TAGNAME

This directive can be used to declare a limited set of tag names allowed in tags. TAGNAME should be a valid tag name (no spaces). Eg:

tag  item-id

Any indented subdirectives are currently ignored.

The "tags" check will report an error if any undeclared tag name is used. It is quite easy to accidentally create a tag through normal use of colons in comments(#comments]; if you want to prevent this, you can declare and check your tags .

Periodic transactions

The ~ directive declares recurring transactions. Such directives allow hledger to generate temporary future transactions (visible in reports, not in the journal file) to help with forecasting or budgeting.

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-forecasted 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 2023/01, which is equivalent to
    ~ every 10th day of month from 2023/01/01, will be adjusted to start on 2019/12/10.

Periodic rule syntax

A periodic transaction rule looks like a normal journal entry, with the date replaced by a tilde (~) followed by a period expression (mnemonic: ~ looks like a recurring sine wave.):

# every first of month
~ monthly
    expenses:rent          $2000
    assets:bank:checking

# every 15th of month in 2023's first quarter:
~ monthly from 2023-04-15 to 2023-06-16
    expenses:utilities          $400
    assets:bank:checking

The period expression is the same syntax used for specifying multi-period reports, just interpreted differently; there, it specifies report periods; here it specifies recurrence dates (the periods' start dates).

Periodic rules and relative dates

Partial or relative dates (like 12/31, 25, tomorrow, last week, next quarter) are usually not recommended in periodic rules, since the results will change as time passes. If used, they will be interpreted relative to, in order of preference:

  1. the first day of the default year specified by a recent Y directive
  2. or the date specified with --today
  3. or the date on which you are running the report.

They will not be affected at all by report period or forecast period dates.

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 accidentally alter their meaning, as in this example:

; 2 or more spaces needed here, so the period is not understood as "every 2 months in 2023"
;               ||
;               vv
~ every 2 months  in 2023, we will review
    assets:bank:checking   $1500
    income:acme inc

So,

  • Do write two spaces between your period expression and your transaction description, if any.
  • Don't accidentally write two spaces in the middle of your period expression.

Auto postings

The = directive declares a rule for generating temporary extra postings on transactions. Wherever the rule matches an existing posting, it can add one or more companion postings below that one, optionally influenced by the matched posting's amount. This can be useful for generating tax postings with a standard percentage, for example.

Note that depending on generated data is not ideal for financial records (it's less portable, less future-proof, less auditable by others, and less robust, since other features like balance assertions will depend on using or not using --auto).

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 matching), followed by a query (which matches existing postings), and each "posting" line describes a posting to be generated, and the posting amounts can be:

  • a normal amount with a commodity symbol, eg $2. This will be used as-is.
  • a number, eg 2. The commodity symbol (if any) from the matched posting will be added to this.
  • 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.
  • 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 assertions

Currently, auto postings are added:

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.

This also means that you cannot have more than one auto-posting with a missing amount applied to a given transaction, as it will be unable to infer amounts.

Auto posting tags

Automated postings will have some extra tags:

  • generated-posting:= QUERY - shows this was generated by an auto posting rule, and the query
  • _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:

  • modified: - this transaction was modified
  • _modified: - a hidden tag not appearing in the comment; this transaction was modified "just now".
Auto postings on forecast transactions only

Tip: you can can make auto postings that will apply to forecast transactions but not recorded transactions, by adding tag:_generated-transaction to their QUERY. This can be useful when generating new journal entries to be saved in the journal.

Other syntax

hledger journal format supports quite a few other features, mainly to make interoperating with or converting from Ledger easier. Note some of the features below are powerful and can be useful in special cases, but in general, features in this section are considered less important or even not recommended for most users. Downsides are mentioned to help you decide if you want to use them.

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 assignment).

Downsides: using balance assignments makes your journal less explicit; to know the exact amount posted, you have to run hledger or do the calculations yourself, instead of just reading it. Also balance assignments' forcing of balances can hide errors. These things make your financial data less portable, less future-proof, and less trustworthy in an audit.

Balance assignments and prices

A cost in a balance assignment will cause the calculated amount to have that price attached:

2019/1/1
  (a)             = $1 @ €2

$ hledger print --explicit
2019-01-01
    (a)         $1 @ €2 = $1 @ €2
Balance assignments and multiple files

Balance assignments handle multiple files like balance assertions. They see balance from other files previously included from the current file, but not from previous sibling or parent files.

Bracketed posting dates

For setting posting dates and secondary posting dates, Ledger's bracketed date syntax is also supported: [DATE], [DATE=DATE2] or [=DATE2] in posting comments. 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.

Downsides: another syntax to learn, redundant with hledger's date:/date2: tags, and confusingly similar to Ledger's lot date syntax.

D directive

D AMOUNT

This directive sets a default commodity, to be used for any subsequent commodityless amounts (ie, plain numbers) seen while parsing the journal. 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). So its argument is not just a commodity symbol, but a full amount demonstrating the style. The amount must include a decimal mark (either period or comma). 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

Interactions with other directives:

For setting a commodity's display style, a commodity directive has highest priority, then a D directive.

For detecting a commodity's decimal mark during parsing, decimal-mark has highest priority, then commodity, then D.

For checking commodity symbols with the check command, a commodity directive is required (hledger check commodities ignores D directives).

Downsides: omitting commodity symbols makes your financial data less explicit, less portable, and less trustworthy in an audit. It is usually an unsustainable shortcut; sooner or later you will want to track multiple commodities. D is overloaded with functions redundant with commodity and decimal-mark. And it works differently from Ledger's D.

apply account directive

This directive sets a default parent account, which will be prepended to all accounts in following entries, until an end apply account directive or end of current file. Eg:

apply account home

2010/1/1
    food    $10
    cash

end apply account

is equivalent to:

2010/01/01
    home:food           $10
    home:cash          $-10

account directives are also affected, and so is any included content.

Account names entered via hledger add or hledger-web are not affected.

Account aliases, if any, are applied after the parent account is prepended.

Downsides: this can make your financial data less explicit, less portable, and less trustworthy in an audit.

Y directive

Y YEAR

or (deprecated backward-compatible forms):

year YEAR apply year YEAR

The space is optional. This sets a default year to be used for subsequent dates which don't specify a year. Eg:

Y2009  ; set default year to 2009

12/15  ; equivalent to 2009/12/15
  expenses  1
  assets

year 2010  ; 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

Downsides: omitting the year (from primary transaction dates, at least) makes your financial data less explicit, less portable, and less trustworthy in an audit. Such dates can get separated from their corresponding Y directive, eg when evaluating a region of the journal in your editor. A missing Y directive makes reports dependent on today's date.

Secondary dates

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".

Downsides: makes your financial data more complicated, less portable, and less trustworthy in an audit. Keeping the meaning of the two dates consistent requires discipline, and you have to remember which reporting mode is appropriate for a given report. Posting dates are simpler and better.

Star comments

Lines beginning with * (star/asterisk) are also comment lines. This feature allows Emacs users to insert org headings in their journal, allowing them to fold/unfold/navigate it like an outline when viewed with org mode.

Downsides: another, unconventional comment syntax to learn. Decreases your journal's portability. And switching to Emacs org mode just for folding/unfolding meant losing the benefits of ledger mode; nowadays you can add outshine mode to ledger mode to get folding without losing ledger mode's features.

Valuation expressions

Ledger allows a valuation function or value to be written in double parentheses after an amount. hledger ignores these.

Virtual postings

A posting with parentheses around the account name ((some:account)) is called a unbalanced virtual posting. Such postings do not participate in transaction balancing. (And if you write them without an amount, a zero amount is always inferred.) These can occasionally be convenient for special circumstances, but they violate double entry bookkeeping and make your data less portable across applications, so many people avoid using them at all.

A posting with brackets around the account name ([some:account]) is called a balanced virtual posting. The balanced virtual postings in a transaction must add up to zero, just like ordinary postings, but separately from them. These are not part of double entry bookkeeping either, but they are at least balanced. An example:

2022-01-01 buy food with cash, update budget envelope subaccounts, & something else
  assets:cash                    $-10  ; <- these balance each other
  expenses:food                    $7  ; <-
  expenses:food                    $3  ; <-
  [assets:checking:budget:food]  $-10  ;   <- and these balance each other
  [assets:checking:available]     $10  ;   <-
  (something:else)                 $5  ;     <- this is not required to balance

Ordinary postings, whose account names are neither parenthesised nor bracketed, are called real postings. You can exclude virtual postings from reports with the -R/--real flag or a real:1 query.

Other Ledger directives

These other Ledger directives are currently accepted but ignored. This allows hledger to read more Ledger files, but be aware that hledger's reports may differ from Ledger's if you use these.

apply fixed COMM AMT
apply tag   TAG
assert      EXPR
bucket / A  ACCT
capture     ACCT REGEX
check       EXPR
define      VAR=EXPR
end apply fixed
end apply tag
end apply year
end tag
eval / expr EXPR
python
  PYTHONCODE
tag         NAME
value       EXPR
--command-line-flags

See also https://hledger.org/ledger.html for a detailed hledger/Ledger syntax comparison.

CSV

hledger can read CSV files (Character Separated Value - usually comma, semicolon, or tab) containing dated records, automatically converting each record into a transaction.

(To learn about writing CSV, see CSV output.)

For best error messages when reading CSV/TSV/SSV files, make sure they have a corresponding .csv, .tsv or .ssv file extension or use a hledger file prefix (see File Extension below).

Each CSV file must be described by a corresponding rules file.
This contains rules describing the CSV data (header line, fields layout, date format etc.), how to construct hledger transactions from it, and how to categorise transactions based on description or other attributes.

By default hledger looks for a rules file named like the CSV file with an extra .rules extension, in the same directory. Eg when asked to read foo/FILE.csv, hledger looks for foo/FILE.csv.rules. You can specify a different rules file with the --rules-file option. If no rules file is found, hledger will create a sample rules file, which you'll need to adjust.

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

There's an introductory Importing CSV data tutorial on hledger.org, and more CSV rules examples below, and a larger collection at https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/tree/master/examples/csv.

CSV rules cheatsheet

The following kinds of rule can appear in the rules file, in any order. (Blank lines and lines beginning with # or ; or * are ignored.)
sourceoptionally declare which file to read data from
separatordeclare the field separator, instead of relying on file extension
skipskip one or more header lines at start of file
date-formatdeclare how to parse CSV dates/date-times
timezonedeclare the time zone of ambiguous CSV date-times
newest-firstimprove txn order when: there are multiple records, newest first, all with the same date
intra-day-reversedimprove txn order when: same-day txns are in opposite order to the overall file
decimal-markdeclare the decimal mark used in CSV amounts, when ambiguous
fields listname CSV fields for easy reference, and optionally assign their values to hledger fields
Field assignmentassign a CSV value or interpolated text value to a hledger field
if blockconditionally assign values to hledger fields, or skip a record or end (skip rest of file)
if tableconditionally assign values to hledger fields, using compact syntax
balance-typeselect which type of balance assertions/assignments to generate
includeinline another CSV rules file

Working with CSV tips can be found below, including How CSV rules are evaluated.

source

If you tell hledger to read a csv file with -f foo.csv, it will look for rules in foo.csv.rules. Or, you can tell it to read the rules file, with -f foo.csv.rules, and it will look for data in foo.csv (since 1.30).

These are mostly equivalent, but the second method provides some extra features. For one, the data file can be missing, without causing an error; it is just considered empty. And, you can specify a different data file by adding a "source" rule:

source ./Checking1.csv

If you specify just a file name with no path, hledger will look for it in your system's downloads directory (~/Downloads, currently):

source Checking1.csv

And if you specify a glob pattern, hledger will read the most recent of the matched files (useful with repeated downloads):

source Checking1*.csv

See also "Working with CSV > Reading files specified by rule".

separator

You can use the separator rule to read other kinds of character-separated 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 automatically, and you won't need this rule.

skip

skip N

The word skip followed by a number (or no number, meaning 1) tells hledger to ignore this many non-empty lines at the start of the input data. You'll need this whenever your CSV data contains header lines. Note, empty and blank lines are skipped automatically, so you don't need to count those.

skip has a second meaning: it can be used inside if blocks (described below), to skip one or more records whenever the condition is true. Records skipped in this way are ignored, except they are still required to be valid CSV.

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-style date parsing pattern - see https://hackage.haskell.org/package/time/docs/Data-Time-Format.html#v:formatTime. The pattern 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

timezone

timezone TIMEZONE

When CSV contains date-times that are implicitly in some time zone other than yours, but containing no explicit time zone information, you can use this rule to declare the CSV's native time zone, which helps prevent off-by-one dates.

When the CSV date-times do contain time zone information, you don't need this rule; instead, use %Z in date-format (or %z, %EZ, %Ez; see the formatTime link above).

In either of these cases, hledger will do a time-zone-aware conversion, localising the CSV date-times to your current system time zone. If you prefer to localise to some other time zone, eg for reproducibility, you can (on unix at least) set the output timezone with the TZ environment variable, eg:

$ TZ=-1000 hledger print -f foo.csv  # or TZ=-1000 hledger import foo.csv

timezone currently does not understand timezone names, except "UTC", "GMT", "EST", "EDT", "CST", "CDT", "MST", "MDT", "PST", or "PDT". For others, use numeric format: +HHMM or -HHMM.

newest-first

hledger tries to ensure that the generated transactions will be ordered chronologically, including same-day transactions. Usually it can auto-detect how the CSV records are ordered. But if it encounters CSV where all records are on the same date, it assumes that the records are oldest first. If in fact the CSV's records are normally newest first, like:

2022-10-01, txn 3...
2022-10-01, txn 2...
2022-10-01, txn 1...

you can add the newest-first rule to help hledger generate the transactions in correct order.

# same-day CSV records are newest first
newest-first

intra-day-reversed

If CSV records within a single day are ordered opposite to the overall record order, you can add the intra-day-reversed rule to improve the order of journal entries. Eg, here the overall record order is newest first, but same-day records are oldest first:

2022-10-02, txn 3...
2022-10-02, txn 4...
2022-10-01, txn 1...
2022-10-01, txn 2...

# transactions within each day are reversed with respect to the overall date order
intra-day-reversed

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.

fields list

fields FIELDNAME1, FIELDNAME2, ...

A fields list (the word fields followed by comma-separated field names) is optional, but convenient. It does two things:

  1. It names the CSV field in each column. This can be convenient if you are referencing them in other rules, so you can say %SomeField instead of remembering %13.

  2. Whenever you use one of the special hledger field names (described below), it assigns the CSV value in this position to that hledger field. This is the quickest way to populate hledger's fields and build a 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

In a fields list, the separator is always comma; it is unrelated to the CSV file's separator. Also:

  • There must be least two items in the list (at least one comma).
  • Field names may not contain spaces. Spaces before/after field names are optional.
  • Field names may contain _ (underscore) or - (hyphen).
  • Fields you don't care about can be given a dummy name or an empty name.

If the CSV contains column headings, it's convenient to use these for your field names, suitably modified (eg lower-cased with spaces replaced by underscores).

Sometimes you may want to alter a CSV field name to avoid assigning to a hledger field with the same name. Eg you could call the CSV's "balance" field balance_ to avoid directly setting hledger's balance field (and generating a balance assertion).

Field assignment

HLEDGERFIELD 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 interpolate CSV fields, referenced by their 1-based position in the CSV record (%N), or by the name they were given in the fields list (%CSVFIELD).

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:

  • Interpolation strips outer whitespace (so a CSV value like " 1 " becomes 1 when interpolated) (#1051).
  • Interpolations always refer to a CSV field - you can't interpolate a hledger field. (See Referencing other fields below).

Field names

Note the two kinds of field names mentioned here, and used only in hledger CSV rules files:

  1. CSV field names (CSVFIELD in these docs): you can optionally name the CSV columns for easy reference (since hledger doesn't yet automatically recognise column headings in a CSV file), by writing arbitrary names in a fields list, eg:

    fields When, What, Some_Id, Net, Total, Foo, Bar

  2. Special hledger field names (HLEDGERFIELD in these docs): you must set at least some of these to generate the hledger transaction from a CSV record, by writing them as the left hand side of a field assignment, eg:

    date        %When
code        %Some_Id
description %What
comment     %Foo %Bar
amount1     $ %Total

    or directly in a fields list:

    fields date, description, code, , amount1, Foo, Bar
currency $
comment  %Foo %Bar

Here are all the special hledger field names available, and what happens when you assign values to them:

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.

You can assign multi-line comments by writing literal \n in the code. A comment starting with \n will begin on a new line.

Comments can contain 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, in conditional rules.

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

There are several ways to set posting amounts from CSV, useful in different situations.

  1. amount is the oldest and simplest. Assigning to this sets the amount of the first and second postings. In the second posting, the amount will be negated; also, if it has a cost attached, it will be converted to cost.

  2. amount-in and amount-out work exactly like the above, but should be used when the CSV has two amount fields (such as "Debit" and "Credit", or "Inflow" and "Outflow"). Whichever field has a non-zero value will be used as the amount of the first and second postings. Here are some tips to avoid confusion:

    • It's not "amount-in for posting 1 and amount-out for posting 2", it is "extract a single amount from the amount-in or amount-out field, and use that for posting 1 and (negated) for posting 2".
    • Don't use both amount and amount-in/amount-out in the same rules file; choose based on whether the amount is in a single CSV field or spread across two fields.
    • In each record, at most one of the two CSV fields should contain a non-zero amount; the other field must contain a zero or nothing.
    • hledger assumes both CSV fields contain unsigned numbers, and it automatically negates the amount-out values.
    • If the data doesn't fit these requirements, you'll probably need an if rule (see below).

  3. amountN (where N is a number from 1 to 99) sets the amount of only a single posting: the Nth posting in the transaction. You'll usually need at least two such assignments to make a balanced transaction. You can also generate more than two postings, to represent more complex transactions. The posting numbers don't have to be consecutive; with if rules, higher posting numbers can be useful to ensure a certain order of postings.

  4. amountN-in and amountN-out work exactly like the above, but should be used when the CSV has two amount fields. This is analogous to amount-in and amount-out, and those tips also apply here.

  5. Remember that a fields list can also do assignments. So in a fields list if you name a CSV field "amount", that counts as assigning to amount. (If you don't want that, call it something else in the fields list, like "amount_".)

  6. The above don't handle every situation; if you need more flexibility, use an if rule to set amounts conditionally. See "Working with CSV > Setting amounts" below for more on this and on amount-setting generally.

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.

if block

Rules can be applied conditionally, depending on patterns in the CSV data. This allows flexibility; in particular, it is how you can categorise transactions, selecting an appropriate account name based on their description (for example). There are two ways to write conditional rules: "if blocks", described here, and "if tables", described below.

An if block is the word if and one or more "matcher" expressions (can be a word or phrase), one per line, starting either on the same or next line; followed by one or more indented rules. Eg,

if MATCHER
 RULE

or

if
MATCHER
MATCHER
MATCHER
 RULE
 RULE

If any of the matchers succeeds, all of the indented rules will be applied. They are usually field assignments, but the following special rules may also be used within an if block:

  • skip - skips the matched CSV record (generating no transaction from it)
  • end - skips the rest of the current CSV file.

Some examples:

# if the record contains "groceries", set account2 to "expenses:groceries"
if groceries
 account2 expenses:groceries

# if the record contains any of these phrases, set account2 and a transaction comment as shown
if
monthly service fee
atm transaction fee
banking thru software
 account2 expenses:business:banking
 comment  XXX deductible ? check it

# if an empty record is seen (assuming five fields), ignore the rest of the CSV file
if ,,,,
 end

Matchers

There are two kinds:

  1. A record matcher is a word or single-line text fragment or regular expression (REGEX), which hledger will try to match case-insensitively anywhere within the CSV record.
    Eg: whole foods

  2. A field matcher is preceded with a percent sign and CSV field name (%CSVFIELD REGEX). hledger will try to match these just within the named CSV field.
    Eg: %date 2023

The regular expression is (as usual in hledger) a POSIX extended regular expression, that also supports GNU word boundaries (\b, \B, \<, \>), and nothing else. If you have trouble, see "Regular expressions" in the hledger manual (https://hledger.org/hledger.html#regular-expressions).

With record matchers, it's important to know that the record matched is not the original CSV record, but a modified one: separators will be converted to commas, and enclosing double quotes (but not enclosing whitespace) are removed. So for example, when reading an SSV file, if the original record was:

2023-01-01; "Acme, Inc.";  1,000

the regex would see, and try to match, this modified record text:

2023-01-01,Acme, Inc.,  1,000

When an if block has multiple matchers, they are combined as follows:

  • By default they are OR'd (any one of them can match)
  • When a matcher is preceded by ampersand (&) it will be AND'ed with the previous matcher (both of them must match).

There's not yet an easy syntax to negate a matcher.

if table

"if tables" are an alternative to if blocks; they can express many matchers and field assignments in a more compact tabular format, like this:

if,HLEDGERFIELD1,HLEDGERFIELD2,...
MATCHERA,VALUE1,VALUE2,...
MATCHERB,VALUE1,VALUE2,...
MATCHERC,VALUE1,VALUE2,...
<empty line>

The first character after if is taken to be the separator for the rest of the table. It should be a non-alphanumeric character like , or | that does not appear anywhere else in the table. (Note: it is unrelated to the CSV file's separator.) Whitespace can be used in the matcher lines for readability, but not in the if line currently. The table must be terminated by an empty line (or end of file). Each line must contain the same number of separators; empty values are allowed.

The above means: try all of the matchers; whenever a matcher succeeds, assign all of the values on that line to the corresponding hledger fields; later lines can overrider earlier ones. It is equivalent to this sequence of if blocks:

if MATCHERA
  HLEDGERFIELD1 VALUE1
  HLEDGERFIELD2 VALUE2
  ...

if MATCHERB
  HLEDGERFIELD1 VALUE1
  HLEDGERFIELD2 VALUE2
  ...

if MATCHERC
  HLEDGERFIELD1 VALUE1
  HLEDGERFIELD2 VALUE2
  ...

Example:

if,account2,comment
atm transaction fee,expenses:business:banking,deductible? check it
%description groceries,expenses:groceries,
2023/01/12.*Plumbing LLC,expenses:house:upkeep,emergency plumbing call-out

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

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

Working with CSV

Some 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 eradman.com/entrproject:

$ 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

Note that hledger will only accept valid CSV conforming to RFC 4180, and equivalent SSV and TSV formats (like RFC 4180 but with semicolon or tab as separators). This means, eg:

  • Values may be enclosed in double quotes, or not. Enclosing in single quotes is not allowed. (Eg 'A','B' is rejected.)
  • When values are enclosed in double quotes, spaces outside the quotes are not allowed. (Eg "A", "B" is rejected.)
  • When values are not enclosed in quotes, they may not contain double quotes. (Eg A"A, B is rejected.)

If your CSV/SSV/TSV is not valid in this sense, you'll need to transform it before reading with hledger. Try using sed, or a more permissive CSV parser like python's csv lib.

File Extension

To help hledger choose the CSV file reader and show the right error messages (and choose the right field separator character by default), it's best if CSV/SSV/TSV files are named with a .csv, .ssv or .tsv filename extension. (More about this at Data formats.)

When reading files with the "wrong" extension, you can ensure the CSV reader (and the default field separator) by prefixing the file path with csv:, ssv: or tsv:: Eg:

$ hledger -f ssv:foo.dat print

You can also override the default field separator with a separator rule if needed.

Reading CSV from standard input

You'll need the file format prefix when reading CSV from stdin also, since hledger assumes journal format by default. Eg:

$ cat foo.dat | hledger -f ssv:- print

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.

Reading files specified by rule

Instead of specifying a CSV file in the command line, you can specify a rules file, as in hledger -f foo.csv.rules CMD. By default this will read data from foo.csv in the same directory, but you can add a source rule to specify a different data file, perhaps located in your web browser's download directory.

This feature was added in hledger 1.30, so you won't see it in most CSV rules examples. But it helps remove some of the busywork of managing CSV downloads. Most of your financial institutions's default CSV filenames are different and can be recognised by a glob pattern. So you can put a rule like source Checking1*.csv in foo-checking.csv.rules, and then periodically follow a workflow like:

  1. Download CSV from Foo's website, using your browser's defaults
  2. Run hledger import foo-checking.csv.rules to import any new transactions

After import, you can: discard the CSV, or leave it where it is for a while, or move it into your archives, as you prefer. If you do nothing, next time your browser will save something like Checking1-2.csv, and hledger will use that because of the * wild card and because it is the most recent.

Valid transactions

After reading a CSV file, hledger post-processes and validates the generated 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:

Setting amounts

Continuing from amount field above, here are more tips for amount-setting:

  1. If the amount is in a single CSV field:

    a. If its sign indicates direction of flow:
    Assign it to amountN, to set the Nth posting's amount. N is usually 1 or 2 but can go up to 99.

    b. If another field indicates direction of flow:
    Use one or more conditional rules to set the appropriate amount sign. Eg:

    # assume a withdrawal unless Type contains "deposit":
amount1  -%Amount
if %Type deposit
  amount1  %Amount

  2. If the amount is in two CSV fields (such as Debit and Credit, or In and Out):

    a. If both fields are unsigned:
    Assign one field to amountN-in and the other to amountN-out. hledger will automatically negate the "out" field, and will use whichever field value is non-zero as posting N's amount.

    b. If either field is signed:
    You will probably need to override hledger's sign for one or the other field, as in the following example:

    # Negate the -out value, but only if it is not empty:
fields date, description, amount1-in, amount1-out
if %amount1-out [1-9]
 amount1-out -%amount1-out

    c. If both fields can contain a non-zero value (or both can be empty):
    The -in/-out rules normally choose the value which is non-zero/non-empty. Some value pairs can be ambiguous, such as 1 and none. For such cases, use conditional rules to help select the amount. Eg, to handle the above you could select the value containing non-zero digits:

    fields date, description, in, out
if %in [1-9]
 amount1 %in
if %out [1-9]
 amount1 %out

  3. If you want posting 2's amount converted to cost:
    Use the unnumbered amount (or amount-in and amount-out) syntax.

  4. If the CSV has only balance amounts, not transaction amounts:
    Assign to balanceN, to set a balance assignment on the Nth posting, causing the posting's amount to be calculated automatically. balance with no number is equivalent to balance1. In this situation hledger is more likely to guess the wrong default account name, so you may need to set that explicitly.

Amount signs

There is some special handling making it easier to parse and to reverse amount signs. (This only works for whole amounts, not for cost amounts such as COST in amount1 AMT @ COST):

  • If an amount value begins with a plus sign:
    that will be removed: +AMT becomes AMT

  • If an amount value is parenthesised:
    it will be de-parenthesised and sign-flipped: (AMT) becomes -AMT

  • 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

  • If an amount value contains just a sign (or just a set of parentheses):
    that is removed, making it an empty value. "+" or "-" or "()" becomes "".

It's not possible (without preprocessing the CSV) to set an amount to its absolute value, ie discard its sign.

Setting currency/commodity

If the currency/commodity symbol is included in the CSV's amount field(s):

2023-01-01,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

2023-01-01 foo
    expenses:unknown         $123.00
    income:unknown          $-123.00

If the currency is provided as a separate CSV field:

2023-01-01,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

2023-01-01 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

2023-01-01 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 decimal 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 literal "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,

  • 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:

  • skip (at top level)
  • date-format
  • newest-first
  • fields - names the CSV fields, optionally sets up initial assignments to hledger fields

Then for each CSV record in turn:

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • compute a value for each hledger field - either the one that was assigned to it (and interpolate the %CSVFIELD references), or a default
  • generate a hledger transaction (journal entry) 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.

Well factored rules

Some things than can help reduce duplication and complexity in rules files:

  • Extracting common rules usable with multiple CSV files into a common.rules, and adding include common.rules to each CSV's rules file.

  • Splitting if blocks into smaller if blocks, extracting the frequently used parts.

CSV rules examples

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 necessary 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 reading directly from CSV, but they will be checked if these entries are imported into a journal file.

Coinbase

A simple example with some CSV from Coinbase. The spot price is recorded using cost notation. The legacy amount field name conveniently sets amount 2 (posting 2's amount) to the total cost.

# Timestamp,Transaction Type,Asset,Quantity Transacted,Spot Price Currency,Spot Price at Transaction,Subtotal,Total (inclusive of fees and/or spread),Fees and/or Spread,Notes
# 2021-12-30T06:57:59Z,Receive,USDC,100,GBP,0.740000,"","","","Received 100.00 USDC from an external account"

# coinbase.csv.rules
skip         1
fields       Timestamp,Transaction_Type,Asset,Quantity_Transacted,Spot_Price_Currency,Spot_Price_at_Transaction,Subtotal,Total,Fees_Spread,Notes
date         %Timestamp
date-format  %Y-%m-%dT%T%Z
description  %Notes
account1     assets:coinbase:cc
amount       %Quantity_Transacted %Asset @ %Spot_Price_at_Transaction %Spot_Price_Currency

$ hledger print -f coinbase.csv
2021-12-30 Received 100.00 USDC from an external account
    assets:coinbase:cc    100 USDC @ 0.740000 GBP
    income:unknown                 -74.000000 GBP

Amazon

Here we convert amazon.com order history, and use an if block to generate 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","[email protected]","[email protected]","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","","[email protected]","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","[email protected]","[email protected]","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","","[email protected]","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","[email protected]","[email protected]","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","","[email protected]","3XJ107139A851061F","","","K9U43044RY432050M","","0.00",""
"10/22/2019","05:07:06","PDT","Noble Benefactor","Subscription Payment","Completed","USD","10.00","-0.59","9.41","[email protected]","[email protected]","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:[email protected], toemail:[email protected], 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:[email protected], 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:[email protected], toemail:[email protected], 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:[email protected], 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:[email protected], toemail:[email protected], 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:[email protected], 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:[email protected], toemail:[email protected], 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:

Timeclock

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). Lines beginning with # or ; or *, and blank lines, are ignored.

i 2015/03/30 09:00:00 some account  optional description after 2 spaces ; optional comment, tags:
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 2 spaces   ; optional comment, tags:
    (some account)           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:

  • use emacs and the built-in timeclock.el, or the extended timeclock-x.el and perhaps the extras in ledgerutils.el

  • 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"

  • 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

timedot format is hledger's human-friendly time logging format. Compared to timeclock format, it is

  • convenient for quick, approximate, and retroactive time logging
  • 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:

2023-05-01
hom:errands          .... ....  ; two hours
fos:hledger:timedot  ..         ; half an hour
per:admin:finance

hledger reads this as a transaction on this day with three (unbalanced) postings, where each dot represents "0.25". No commodity is assumed, but normally we interpret it as hours, with each dot representing a quarter-hour. It's convenient, though not required, to group the dots in fours for easy reading.

$ hledger -f a.timedot print   # .timedot file extension (or timedot: prefix) is required
2023-05-01 *
    (hom:errands)                    2.00  ; two hours
    (fos:hledger:timedot)            0.50  ; half an hour
    (per:admin:finance)                 0

A transaction begins with a non-indented simple date (Y-M-D, Y/M/D, or Y.M.D). It can optionally be preceded by one or more stars and a space, for Emacs org mode compatibility. It can optionally be followed on the same line by a transaction description, and/or a transaction comment following a semicolon.

After the date line are zero or more time postings, consisting of:

  • an account name - any hledger-style account name, optionally hierarchical, optionally indented.
  • two or more spaces - a field separator, required if there is an amount (as in journal format).
  • an optional timedot amount - dots representing quarter hours, or a number representing hours, optionally with a unit suffix.
  • an optional posting comment following a semicolon.

Timedot amounts can be:

  • dots: zero or more period characters (.), each representing 0.25. Spaces are ignored and can be used for grouping. Eg: .... ..

  • or a number. Eg: 1.5

  • or a number immediately followed by a unit symbol s, m, h, d, w, mo, or y. These are interpreted as seconds, minutes, hours, days weeks, months or years, and converted to hours, assuming:
    60s = 1m, 60m = 1h, 24h = 1d, 7d = 1w, 30d = 1mo, 365d = 1y. Eg 90m is parsed as 1.5.

There is some added flexibility to help with keeping time log data in the same file as your notes, todo lists, etc.:

  • Blank lines and lines beginning with # or ; are ignored.

  • Before the first date line, lines beginning with * are ignored.

  • From the first date line onward, one or more *'s followed by a space at beginning of lines (ie, the headline prefix used by Emacs Org mode) is ignored. This means the time log can be kept under an Org headline, and date lines or time transaction lines can be Org headlines.

  • Lines not ending with a double-space and amount are parsed as postings with zero amount. Note hledger's register reports hide these by default (add -E to see them).

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
** 2023-01-01
*** adm:time  .
*** adm:finance  .

* 2023 Work Diary
** Q1
*** 2023-02-29
**** 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.

PART 3: REPORTING CONCEPTS

Time periods

Report start & end date

By default, most hledger reports will show the full span of time represented by the journal. 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 (below).

Some notes:

  • End dates are exclusive, as in Ledger, so you should write the date after the last day you want to see in the report.
  • As noted in reporting options: among start/end dates specified with options, the last (i.e. right-most) option takes precedence.
  • 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.
  • In some cases a report interval will adjust start/end dates to fall on interval boundaries (see below).

Examples:
-b 2016/3/17begin on St. Patrick's day 2016
-e 12/1end at the start of december 1st of the current year (11/30 will be the last date included)
-b thismonthall transactions on or after the 1st of the current month
-p thismonthall 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

Smart dates

hledger's user interfaces accept a "smart date" syntax for added convenience. Smart dates optionally can be relative to today's date, be written with english words, and have less-significant parts omitted (missing parts are inferred as 1). Some examples:
2004/10/1, 2004-01-01, 2004.9.1exact date, several separators allowed. Year is 4+ digits, month is 1-12, day is 1-31
2004start of year
2004/10start of month
10/1month and day in current year
21day in current month
october, octstart of month in current year
yesterday, today, tomorrow-1, 0, 1 days from today
last/this/next day/week/month/quarter/year-1, 0, 1 periods from the current period
in n days/weeks/months/quarters/yearsn periods from the current period
n days/weeks/months/quarters/years aheadn periods from the current period
n days/weeks/months/quarters/years ago-n periods from the current period
201812018 digit YYYYMMDD with valid year month and day
2018126 digit YYYYMM with valid year and month

Some counterexamples - malformed digit sequences might give surprising results:
2018136 digits with an invalid month is parsed as start of 6-digit year
201813018 digits with an invalid month is parsed as start of 8-digit year
201812328 digits with an invalid day gives an error
2018010129+ digits beginning with a valid YYYYMMDD gives an error

"Today's date" can be overridden with the --today option, in case it's needed for testing or for recreating old reports. (Except for periodic transaction rules, which are not affected by --today.)

Report intervals

A report interval can be specified so that reports like register, balance or activity become multi-period, showing each subperiod as a separate row or column.

The following standard intervals can be enabled with command-line flags:

  • -D/--daily
  • -W/--weekly
  • -M/--monthly
  • -Q/--quarterly
  • -Y/--yearly

More complex intervals can be specified using -p/--period, described below.

Date adjustment

When there is a report interval (other than daily), report start/end dates which have been inferred, eg from the journal, are automatically adjusted to natural period boundaries. This is convenient for producing simple periodic reports. More precisely:

  • an inferred start date will be adjusted earlier if needed to fall on a natural period boundary

  • an inferred end date will be adjusted later if needed to make the last period the same length as the others.

By contrast, start/end dates which have been specified explicitly, with -b, -e, -p or date:, will not be adjusted (since hledger 1.29). This makes it possible to specify non-standard report periods, but it also means that if you are specifying a start date, you should pick one that's on a period boundary if you want to see simple report period headings.

Period expressions

The -p/--period option specifies a period expression, which is a compact way of expressing a start date, end date, and/or report interval.

Here's a period expression with a start and end date (specifying the first quarter of 2009):
-p "from 2009/1/1 to 2009/4/1"

Several keywords like "from" and "to" are supported for readability; these are optional. "to" can also be written as ".." or "-". The spaces are also optional, as long as you don't run two dates together. So the following 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, these are also equivalent to the above:
-p "1/1 4/1"
-p "jan-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 date in the journal:
-p "from 2009/1/1"everything after january 1, 2009
-p "since 2009/1"the same, since is a synonym
-p "from 2009"the same
-p "to 2009"everything before january 1, 2009

You can also specify a period by writing a single partial or full date:
-p "2009"the year 2009; equivalent to "2009/1/1 to 2010/1/1"
-p "2009/1"the month of january 2009; equivalent to "2009/1/1 to 2009/2/1"
-p "2009/1/1"the first day of 2009; equivalent to "2009/1/1 to 2009/1/2"

or by using the "Q" quarter-year syntax (case insensitive):
-p "2009Q1"first quarter of 2009, equivalent to "2009/1/1 to 2009/4/1"
-p "q4"fourth quarter of the current year

Period expressions with a report interval

A period expression can also begin with a report interval, separated from the start/end dates (if any) by a space or the word in:
-p "weekly from 2009/1/1 to 2009/4/1"
-p "monthly in 2008"
-p "quarterly"

More complex report intervals

Some more complex intervals can be specified within period expressions, such as:

  • biweekly (every two weeks)
  • fortnightly
  • bimonthly (every two months)
  • every day|week|month|quarter|year
  • every N days|weeks|months|quarters|years

Weekly on a custom day:

  • every Nth day of week (th, nd, rd, or st are all accepted after the number)
  • every WEEKDAYNAME (full or three-letter english weekday name, case insensitive)

Monthly on a custom day:

  • every Nth day [of month]
  • every Nth WEEKDAYNAME [of month]

Yearly on a custom day:

  • every MM/DD [of year] (month number and day of month number)
  • every MONTHNAME DDth [of year] (full or three-letter english month name, case insensitive, and day of month number)
  • every DDth MONTHNAME [of year] (equivalent to the above)

Examples:
-p "bimonthly from 2008"
-p "every 2 weeks"
-p "every 5 months from 2009/03"
-p "every 2nd day of week"periods will go from Tue to Tue
-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 November
-p "every 5th November"same
-p "every Nov 5th"same

Show historical balances at end of the 15th day of each month (N is an end date, exclusive as always):

$ hledger balance -H -p "every 16th day"

Group postings from the start of wednesday to end of the following tuesday (N is both (inclusive) start date and (exclusive) end date):

$ hledger register checking -p "every 3rd day of week"

Multiple weekday intervals

This special form is also supported:

  • every WEEKDAYNAME,WEEKDAYNAME,... (full or three-letter english weekday names, case insensitive)

Also, weekday and weekendday are shorthand for mon,tue,wed,thu,fri and sat,sun.

This is mainly intended for use with --forecast, to generate periodic transactions on arbitrary days of the week. It may be less useful with -p, since it divides each week into subperiods of unequal length, which is unusual. (Related: #1632)

Examples:
-p "every mon,wed,fri"dates will be Mon, Wed, Fri;
periods will be Mon-Tue, Wed-Thu, Fri-Sun
-p "every weekday"dates will be Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri;
periods will be Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri-Sun
-p "every weekendday"dates will be Sat, Sun;
periods will be Sat, Sun-Fri

Depth

With the --depth NUM option (short form: -NUM), reports will show accounts only to the specified depth, hiding deeper subaccounts. Use this when you want a summary with less detail. This flag has the same effect as a depth: query argument: depth:2, --depth=2 or -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 arguments to restrict their scope. The syntax is as follows:

  • Zero or more space-separated query terms. These are most often account name substrings:

    utilities food:groceries

  • Terms with spaces or other special characters should be enclosed in quotes:

    "personal care"

  • Regular expressions are also supported:

    "^expenses\b"
    "accounts (payable|receivable)"

  • Add a query type prefix to match other parts of the data:

    date:202312-
    status:
    desc:amazon
    cur:USD
    "amt:>0"

  • Add a not: prefix to negate:

    not:cur:USD

  • Multiple unlike terms are AND-ed, multiple like terms are OR-ed

    date:2022 desc:amazon desc:amzn
    (all transactions with "amazon" or "amzn" in description during 2022)

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 expression. This is the default query type when there is no prefix, and regular 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, 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. Otherwise, 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 currency/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.

expr:"TERM AND NOT (TERM OR TERM)" (eg)
Match with a boolean combination of queries (which must be enclosed in quotes). See Combining query terms below.

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.

type:TYPECODES
Match by account type (see Declaring accounts > Account types). TYPECODES is one or more of the single-letter account type codes ALERXCV, case insensitive. Note type:A and type:E will also match their respective subtypes C (Cash) and V (Conversion). Certain kinds of account alias can disrupt account types, see Rewriting accounts > Aliases and account types.

tag:REGEX[=REGEX]
Match by tag name, and optionally also by tag value. (To match only by value, use tag:.=REGEX.)

When querying by tag, note that:

  • Accounts also inherit the tags of their parent accounts
  • Postings also inherit the tags of their account and their transaction
  • Transactions also acquire the tags of their postings.

(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

When given multiple space-separated query terms, most commands select things which match:

  • any of the description terms AND
  • any of the account terms AND
  • any of the status terms AND
  • all the other terms.

The print command is a little different, showing transactions which:

  • match any of the description terms AND
  • have any postings matching any of the positive account terms AND
  • have no postings matching any of the negative account terms AND
  • match all the other terms.

We also support more complex boolean queries with the 'expr:' prefix. This allows one to combine queries using one of three operators: AND, OR, and NOT, where NOT is different syntax for 'not:'.

Examples of such queries are:

  • Match transactions with 'cool' in the description AND with the 'A' tag

    expr:"desc:cool AND tag:A"

  • Match transactions NOT to the 'expenses:food' account OR with the 'A' tag

    expr:"NOT expenses:food OR tag:A"

  • Match transactions NOT involving the 'expenses:food' account OR with the 'A' tag AND involving the 'expenses:drink' account. (the AND is implicitly added by space-separation, following the rules above)

    expr:"expenses:food OR (tag:A expenses:drink)"

Queries and command options

Some queries can also be expressed as command-line options: depth:2 is equivalent to --depth 2, date:2023 is equivalent to -p 2023, etc. When you mix command options and query arguments, generally the resulting query is their intersection.

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.

Pivoting

Normally, hledger groups and sums amounts within each account. The --pivot FIELD option substitutes some other transaction field for account names, causing amounts to be grouped and summed by that field's value instead. FIELD can be any of the transaction fields acct, status, code, desc, payee, note, or a tag name. When pivoting on a tag and a posting has multiple values of that tag, only the first value is displayed. Values containing colon:separated:parts will be displayed hierarchically, like account names. Multiple, colon-delimited fields can be pivoted simultaneously, generating a hierarchical account name.

Some examples:

2016/02/16 Yearly Dues Payment
    assets:bank account                 2 EUR
    income:dues                        -2 EUR  ; member: John Doe, kind: Lifetime

Normal balance report showing account names:

$ hledger balance
               2 EUR  assets:bank account
              -2 EUR  income:dues
--------------------
                   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):

$ 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

Hierarchical reports can be generated with multiple pivots:

$ hledger balance Income:Dues --pivot kind:member
              -2 EUR  Lifetime:John Doe
--------------------
              -2 EUR

Generating data

hledger has several features for generating data, such as:

  • Periodic transaction rules can generate single or repeating transactions following a template. These are usually dated in the future, eg to help with forecasting. They are activated by the --forecast option.

  • The balance command's --budget option uses these same periodic rules to generate goals for the budget report.

  • Auto posting rules can generate extra postings on certain matched transactions. They are always applied to forecast transactions; with the --auto flag they are applied to transactions recorded in the journal as well.

  • The --infer-equity flag infers missing conversion equity postings from @/@@ costs. And the inverse --infer-costs flag infers missing @/@@ costs from conversion equity postings.

Generated data of this kind is temporary, existing only at report time. But you can see it in the output of hledger print, and you can save that to your journal, in effect converting it from temporary generated data to permanent recorded data. This could be useful as a data entry aid.

If you are wondering what data is being generated and why, add the --verbose-tags flag. In hledger print output you will see extra tags like generated-transaction, generated-posting, and modified on generated/modified data. Also, even without --verbose-tags, generated data always has equivalen hidden tags (with an underscore prefix), so eg you could match generated transactions with tag:_generated-transaction.

Forecasting

Forecasting, or speculative future reporting, can be useful for estimating future balances, or for exploring different future scenarios.

The simplest and most flexible way to do it with hledger is to manually record a bunch of future-dated transactions. You could keep these in a separate future.journal and include that with -f only when you want to see them.

--forecast

There is another way: with the --forecast option, hledger can generate temporary "forecast transactions" for reporting purposes, according to periodic transaction rules defined in the journal. Each rule can generate multiple recurring transactions, so by changing one rule you can change many forecasted transactions. (These same rules can also generate budget goals, described in Budgeting.)

Forecast transactions usually start after ordinary transactions end. By default, they begin after your latest-dated ordinary transaction, or today, whichever is later, and they end six months from today. (The exact rules are a little more complicated, and are given below.)

This is the "forecast period", which need not be the same as the report period. You can override it - eg to forecast farther into the future, or to force forecast transactions to overlap your ordinary transactions - by giving the --forecast option a period expression argument, like --forecast=..2099 or --forecast=2023-02-15... Note that the = is required.

Inspecting forecast transactions

print is the best command for inspecting and troubleshooting forecast transactions. Eg:

~ monthly from 2022-12-20    rent
    assets:bank:checking
    expenses:rent           $1000

$ hledger print --forecast --today=2023/4/21
2023-05-20 rent
    ; generated-transaction: ~ monthly from 2022-12-20
    assets:bank:checking
    expenses:rent                  $1000

2023-06-20 rent
    ; generated-transaction: ~ monthly from 2022-12-20
    assets:bank:checking
    expenses:rent                  $1000

2023-07-20 rent
    ; generated-transaction: ~ monthly from 2022-12-20
    assets:bank:checking
    expenses:rent                  $1000

2023-08-20 rent
    ; generated-transaction: ~ monthly from 2022-12-20
    assets:bank:checking
    expenses:rent                  $1000

2023-09-20 rent
    ; generated-transaction: ~ monthly from 2022-12-20
    assets:bank:checking
    expenses:rent                  $1000

Here there are no ordinary transactions, so the forecasted transactions begin on the first occurence after today's date. (You won't normally use --today; it's just to make these examples reproducible.)

Forecast reports

Forecast transactions affect all reports, as you would expect. Eg:

$ hledger areg rent --forecast --today=2023/4/21
Transactions in expenses:rent and subaccounts:
2023-05-20 rent                 as:ba:checking               $1000         $1000
2023-06-20 rent                 as:ba:checking               $1000         $2000
2023-07-20 rent                 as:ba:checking               $1000         $3000
2023-08-20 rent                 as:ba:checking               $1000         $4000
2023-09-20 rent                 as:ba:checking               $1000         $5000

$ hledger bal -M expenses --forecast --today=2023/4/21
Balance changes in 2023-05-01..2023-09-30:

               ||   May    Jun    Jul    Aug    Sep 
===============++===================================
 expenses:rent || $1000  $1000  $1000  $1000  $1000 
---------------++-----------------------------------
               || $1000  $1000  $1000  $1000  $1000

Forecast tags

Forecast transactions generated by --forecast have a hidden tag, _generated-transaction. So if you ever need to match forecast transactions, you could use tag:_generated-transaction (or just tag:generated) in a query.

For troubleshooting, you can add the --verbose-tags flag. Then, visible generated-transaction tags will be added also, so you can view them with the print command. Their value indicates which periodic rule was responsible.

Forecast period, in detail

Forecast start/end dates are chosen so as to do something useful by default in almost all situations, while also being flexible. Here are (with luck) the exact rules, to help with troubleshooting:

The forecast period starts on:

  • the later of
    • the start date in the periodic transaction rule
    • the start date in --forecast's argument
  • otherwise (if those are not available): the later of
    • the report start date specified with -b/-p/date:
    • the day after the latest ordinary transaction in the journal
  • otherwise (if none of these are available): today.

The forecast period ends on:

  • the earlier of
    • the end date in the periodic transaction rule
    • the end date in --forecast's argument
  • otherwise: the report end date specified with -e/-p/date:
  • otherwise: 180 days (~6 months) from today.

Forecast troubleshooting

When --forecast is not doing what you expect, one of these tips should help:

  • Remember to use the --forecast option.
  • Remember to have at least one periodic transaction rule in your journal.
  • Test with print --forecast.
  • Check for typos or too-restrictive start/end dates in your periodic transaction rule.
  • Leave at least 2 spaces between the rule's period expression and description fields.
  • Check for future-dated ordinary transactions suppressing forecasted transactions.
  • Try setting explicit report start and/or end dates with -b, -e, -p or date:
  • Try adding the -E flag to encourage display of empty periods/zero transactions.
  • Try setting explicit forecast start and/or end dates with --forecast=START..END
  • Consult Forecast period, in detail, above.
  • Check inside the engine: add --debug=2 (eg).

Budgeting

With the balance command's --budget report, each periodic transaction rule generates recurring budget goals in specified accounts, and goals and actual performance can be compared. See the balance command's doc below.

You can generate budget goals and forecast transactions at the same time, from the same or different periodic transaction rules: hledger bal -M --budget --forecast ...

See also: Budgeting and Forecasting.

Cost reporting

In some transactions - for example a currency conversion, or a purchase or sale of stock - one commodity is exchanged for another. In these transactions there is a conversion rate, also called the cost (when buying) or selling price (when selling). In hledger docs we just say "cost", for convenience; feel free to mentally translate to "conversion rate" or "selling price" if helpful.

Recording costs

We'll explore several ways of recording transactions involving costs. These are also summarised at hledger Cookbook > Cost notation.

Costs can be recorded explicitly in the journal, using the @ UNITCOST or @@ TOTALCOST notation described in Journal > Costs:

Variant 1

2022-01-01
  assets:dollars    $-135
  assets:euros       €100 @ $1.35   ; $1.35 per euro (unit cost)

Variant 2

2022-01-01
  assets:dollars    $-135
  assets:euros       €100 @@ $135   ; $135 total cost

Typically, writing the unit cost (variant 1) is preferable; it can be more effort, requiring more attention to decimal digits; but it reveals the per-unit cost basis, and makes stock sales easier.

Costs can also be left implicit, and hledger will infer the cost that is consistent with a balanced transaction:

Variant 3

2022-01-01
  assets:dollars    $-135
  assets:euros       €100

Here, hledger will attach a @@ €100 cost to the first amount (you can see it with hledger print -x). This form looks convenient, but there are downsides:

  • It sacrifices some error checking. For example, if you accidentally wrote €10 instead of €100, hledger would not be able to detect the mistake.

  • It is sensitive to the order of postings - if they were reversed, a different entry would be inferred and reports would be different.

  • The per-unit cost basis is not easy to read.

So generally this kind of entry is not recommended. You can make sure you have none of these by using -s (strict mode), or by running hledger check balanced.

Reporting at cost

Now when you add the -B/--cost flag to reports ("B" is from Ledger's -B/--basis/--cost flag), any amounts which have been annotated with costs will be converted to their cost's commodity (in the report output). Ie they will be displayed "at cost" or "at sale price".

Some things to note:

  • Costs are attached to specific posting amounts in specific transactions, and once recorded they do not change. This contrasts with market prices, which are ambient and fluctuating.

  • Conversion to cost is performed before conversion to market value (described below).

Equity conversion postings

There is a problem with the entries above - they are not conventional Double Entry Bookkeeping (DEB) notation, and because of the "magical" transformation of one commodity into another, they cause an imbalance in the Accounting Equation. This shows up as a non-zero grand total in balance reports like hledger bse.

For most hledger users, this doesn't matter in practice and can safely be ignored ! But if you'd like to learn more, keep reading.

Conventional DEB uses an extra pair of equity postings to balance the transaction. Of course you can do this in hledger as well:

Variant 4

2022-01-01
    assets:dollars      $-135
    assets:euros         €100
    equity:conversion    $135
    equity:conversion   €-100

Now the transaction is perfectly balanced according to standard DEB, and hledger bse's total will not be disrupted.

And, hledger can still infer the cost for cost reporting, but it's not done by default - you must add the --infer-costs flag like so:

$ hledger print --infer-costs
2022-01-01 one hundred euros purchased at $1.35 each
    assets:dollars       $-135 @@ €100
    assets:euros                  €100
    equity:conversion             $135
    equity:conversion            €-100

$ hledger bal --infer-costs -B
               €-100  assets:dollars                                                                                                                                              
                €100  assets:euros                                                                                                                                                
--------------------                                                                                                                                                              
                   0

Here are some downsides of this kind of entry:

  • The per-unit cost basis is not easy to read.

  • Instead of -B you must remember to type -B --infer-costs.

  • --infer-costs works only where hledger can identify the two equity:conversion postings and match them up with the two non-equity postings. So writing the journal entry in a particular format becomes more important. More on this below.

Inferring equity conversion postings

Can we go in the other direction ? Yes, if you have transactions written with the @/@@ cost notation, hledger can infer the missing equity postings, if you add the --infer-equity flag. Eg:

2022-01-01
  assets:dollars  -$135
  assets:euros     €100 @ $1.35

$ hledger print --infer-equity
2022-01-01
    assets:dollars                    $-135
    assets:euros               €100 @ $1.35
    equity:conversion:$-€:€           €-100
    equity:conversion:$-€:$         $135.00

The equity account names will be "equity:conversion:A-B:A" and "equity:conversion:A-B:B" where A is the alphabetically first commodity symbol. You can customise the "equity:conversion" part by declaring an account with the V/Conversion account type.

Combining costs and equity conversion postings

Finally, you can use both the @/@@ cost notation and equity postings at the same time. This in theory gives the best of all worlds - preserving the accounting equation, revealing the per-unit cost basis, and providing more flexibility in how you write the entry:

Variant 5

2022-01-01 one hundred euros purchased at $1.35 each
    assets:dollars      $-135
    equity:conversion    $135
    equity:conversion   €-100
    assets:euros         €100 @ $1.35

All the other variants above can (usually) be rewritten to this final form with:

$ hledger print -x --infer-costs --infer-equity

Downsides:

  • This was added in hledger-1.29 and is still somewhat experimental.

  • The precise format of the journal entry becomes more important. If hledger can't detect and match up the cost and equity postings, it will give a transaction balancing error.

  • The add command does not yet accept this kind of entry (#2056).

  • This is the most verbose form.

Requirements for detecting equity conversion postings

--infer-costs has certain requirements (unlike --infer-equity, which always works). It will infer costs only in transactions with:

  • Two non-equity postings, in different commodities. Their order is significant: the cost will be added to the first of them.

  • Two postings to equity conversion accounts, next to one another, which balance the two non-equity postings. This balancing is checked to the same precision (number of decimal places) used in the conversion posting's amount. Equity conversion accounts are:

    • any accounts declared with account type V/Conversion, or their subaccounts
    • otherwise, accounts named equity:conversion, equity:trade, or equity:trading, or their subaccounts.

And multiple such four-posting groups can coexist within a single transaction. When --infer-costs fails, it does not infer a cost in that transaction, and does not raise an error (ie, it infers costs where it can).

Reading variant 5 journal entries, combining cost notation and equity postings, has all the same requirements. When reading such an entry fails, hledger raises an "unbalanced transaction" error.

Infer cost and equity by default ?

Should --infer-costs and --infer-equity be enabled by default ? Try using them always, eg with a shell alias:

alias h="hledger --infer-equity --infer-costs"

and let us know what problems you find.

Value reporting

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 currency 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.

Finding market price

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 directive, or (with the --infer-market-prices flag) inferred from costs.

  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 combining 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 converted.

--infer-market-prices: 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 costs as additional market prices (as Ledger does) ? Adding the --infer-market-prices flag to -V, -X or --value enables this.

So for example, hledger bs -V --infer-market-prices will get market prices both from P directives and from transactions. If both occur on the same day, the P directive takes precedence.

There is a downside: value reports can sometimes be affected in confusing/undesired ways by your journal entries. If this happens to you, read all of this Value reporting section carefully, and try adding --debug or --debug=2 to troubleshoot.

--infer-market-prices can infer market prices from:

  • multicommodity transactions with explicit prices (@/@@)

  • multicommodity transactions with implicit prices (no @, two commodities, unbalanced). (With these, the order of postings matters. hledger print -x can be useful for troubleshooting.)

  • multicommodity transactions with equity postings, if cost is inferred with --infer-costs.

There is a limitation (bug) currently: when a valuation commodity is not specified, prices inferred with --infer-market-prices do not help select a default valuation commodity, as P prices would. So conversion might not happen because no valuation commodity was detected (--debug=2 will show this). To be safe, specify the valuation commmodity, eg:

  • -X EUR --infer-market-prices, not -V --infer-market-prices
  • --value=then,EUR --infer-market-prices, not --value=then --infer-market-prices

Signed costs and market prices can be confusing. For reference, here is the current behaviour, since hledger 1.25. (If you think it should work differently, see #1870.)

2022-01-01 Positive Unit prices
    a        A 1
    b        B -1 @ A 1

2022-01-01 Positive Total prices
    a        A 1
    b        B -1 @@ A 1


2022-01-02 Negative unit prices
    a        A 1
    b        B 1 @ A -1

2022-01-02 Negative total prices
    a        A 1
    b        B 1 @@ A -1


2022-01-03 Double Negative unit prices
    a        A -1
    b        B -1 @ A -1

2022-01-03 Double Negative total prices
    a        A -1
    b        B -1 @@ A -1

All of the transactions above are considered balanced (and on each day, the two transactions are considered equivalent). Here are the market prices inferred for B:

$ hledger -f- --infer-market-prices prices
P 2022-01-01 B A 1
P 2022-01-01 B A 1.0
P 2022-01-02 B A -1
P 2022-01-02 B A -1.0
P 2022-01-03 B A -1
P 2022-01-03 B A -1.0

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 suitable 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-prices flag is used: the price commodity from the latest transaction-inferred price for A on or before valuation date.

This means:

  • If you have P directives, they determine which commodities -V will convert, and to what.

  • If you have no P directives, and use the --infer-market-prices flag, costs determine it.

Amounts for which no valuation commodity can be found are not converted.

Simple valuation examples

Here are some quick examples of -V:

; one euro is worth this many dollars from nov 1
P 2016/11/01 € $1.10

; purchase some euros on nov 3
2016/11/3
    assets:euros        €100
    assets:checking

; the euro is worth fewer dollars by dec 21
P 2016/12/21 € $1.03

How many euros do I have ?

$ hledger -f t.j bal -N euros
                €100  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 commodity, using market prices on each posting's date.

--value=end : Convert amounts to their value in the default valuation commodity, 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 commodity using current market prices (as of when report is generated).

--value=YYYY-MM-DD : Convert amounts to their value in the default valuation commodity 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 specifying a display style for A, 0.5A gets the default style, which shows no decimal digits. Because the displayed amount looks like zero, the commodity symbol and minus sign are not displayed either. Adding a commodity 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

Interaction of valuation and queries

When matching postings based on queries in the presence of valuation, the following happens.

  1. The query is separated into two parts:
    1. the currency (cur:) or amount (amt:).
    2. all other parts.
  2. The postings are matched to the currency and amount queries based on pre-valued amounts.
  3. Valuation is applied to the postings.
  4. The postings are matched to the other parts of the query based on post-valued amounts.

See: 1625

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 type-B, --cost-V, -X--value=then--value=end--value=DATE, --value=now
print
posting amountscostvalue at report end or todayvalue at posting datevalue at report or journal endvalue at DATE/today
balance assertions/assignmentsunchangedunchangedunchangedunchangedunchanged

register
starting balance (-H)costvalue at report or journal endvalued at day each historical posting was madevalue at report or journal endvalue at DATE/today
starting balance (-H) with report intervalcostvalue at day before report or journal startvalued at day each historical posting was madevalue at day before report or journal startvalue at DATE/today
posting amountscostvalue at report or journal endvalue at posting datevalue at report or journal endvalue at DATE/today
summary posting amounts with report intervalsummarised costvalue at period endssum of postings in interval, valued at interval startvalue at period endsvalue at DATE/today
running total/averagesum/average of displayed valuessum/average of displayed valuessum/average of displayed valuessum/average of displayed valuessum/average of displayed values

balance (bs, bse, cf, is)
balance changessums of costsvalue at report end or today of sums of postingsvalue at posting datevalue at report or journal end of sums of postingsvalue at DATE/today of sums of postings
budget amounts (--budget)like balance changeslike balance changeslike balance changeslike balanceslike balance changes
grand totalsum of displayed valuessum of displayed valuessum of displayed valuedsum of displayed valuessum of displayed values

balance (bs, bse, cf, is) with report interval
starting balances (-H)sums of costs of postings before report startvalue at report start of sums of all postings before report startsums of values of postings before report start at respective posting datesvalue at report start of sums of all postings before report startsums of postings before report start
balance changes (bal, is, bs --change, cf --change)sums of costs of postings in periodsame as --value=endsums of values of postings in period at respective posting datesbalance change in each period, valued at period endsvalue at DATE/today of sums of postings
end balances (bal -H, is --H, bs, cf)sums of costs of postings from before report start to period endsame as --value=endsums of values of postings from before period start to period end at respective posting datesperiod end balances, valued at period endsvalue at DATE/today of sums of postings
budget amounts (--budget)like balance changes/end balanceslike balance changes/end balanceslike balance changes/end balanceslike balanceslike balance changes/end balances
row totals, row averages (-T, -A)sums, averages of displayed valuessums, averages of displayed valuessums, averages of displayed valuessums, averages of displayed valuessums, averages of displayed values
column totalssums of displayed valuessums of displayed valuessums of displayed valuessums of displayed valuessums of displayed values
grand total, grand averagesum, average of column totalssum, average of column totalssum, average of column totalssum, average of column totalssum, average of column 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 subperiods).

PART 4: COMMANDS

Commands overview

Here are the built-in commands:

DATA ENTRY

These data entry commands are the only ones which can modify your journal file.

  • add - add transactions using terminal prompts
  • import - add new transactions from other files, eg CSV files

DATA CREATION

  • close - generate balance-zeroing/restoring transactions
  • rewrite - generate auto postings, like print --auto

DATA MANAGEMENT

  • check - check for various kinds of error in the data
  • diff - compare account transactions in two journal files

REPORTS, FINANCIAL

REPORTS, VERSATILE

  • balance (bal) - show balance changes, end balances, budgets, gains..
  • print - show transactions or export journal data
  • register (reg) - show postings in one or more accounts & running total
  • roi - show return on investments

REPORTS, BASIC

  • accounts - show account names
  • activity - show bar charts of posting counts per period
  • codes - show transaction codes
  • commodities - show commodity/currency symbols
  • descriptions - show transaction descriptions
  • files - show input file paths
  • notes - show note parts of transaction descriptions
  • payees - show payee parts of transaction descriptions
  • prices - show market prices
  • stats - show journal statistics
  • tags - show tag names
  • test - run self tests

HELP

  • help - show the hledger manual with info/man/pager
  • demo - show small hledger demos in the terminal

ADD-ONS

And here are some typical add-on commands. Some of these are installed by the hledger-install script. If installed, they will appear in hledger's commands list:

  • ui - run hledger's terminal UI
  • web - run hledger's web UI
  • iadd - add transactions using a TUI (currently hard to build)
  • interest - generate interest transactions
  • stockquotes - download market prices from AlphaVantage
  • Scripts and add-ons - check-fancyassertions, edit, fifo, git, move, pijul, plot, and more..

Next, each command is described in detail, in alphabetical order.

accounts

Show account names.

This command lists account names. By default it shows all known accounts, either used in transactions or declared with account directives.

With query arguments, only matched account names and account names referenced by matched postings are shown.

Or it can show just the used accounts (--used/-u), the declared accounts (--declared/-d), the accounts declared but not used (--unused), the accounts used but not declared (--undeclared), or the first account matched by an account name pattern, if any (--find).

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 components. Account names can be depth-clipped with depth:N or --depth N or -N.

With --types, it also shows each account's type, if it's known. (See Declaring accounts > Account types.)

With --positions, it also shows the file and line number of each account's declaration, if any, and the account's overall declaration order; these may be useful when troubleshooting account display order.

With --directives, it adds the account keyword, showing valid account directives which can be pasted into a journal file. This is useful together with --undeclared when updating your account declarations to satisfy hledger check accounts.

The --find flag can be used to look up a single account name, in the same way that the aregister command does. It returns the alphanumerically-first matched account name, or if none can be found, it fails with a non-zero exit code.

Examples:

$ hledger accounts
assets:bank:checking
assets:bank:saving
assets:cash
expenses:food
expenses:supplies
income:gifts
income:salary
liabilities:debts

$ hledger accounts --undeclared --directives >> $LEDGER_FILE
$ hledger check accounts

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

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 transactions, and appends them to the main journal file (which should be in journal format). Existing transactions are not changed. This is one of the few hledger commands that writes to the journal file (see also import).

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:

  • add tries to provide useful defaults, using the most similar (by description) recent transaction (filtered by the query, if any) as a template.
  • You can also set the initial defaults with command line arguments.
  • Readline-style edit keys can be used during data entry.
  • The tab key will auto-complete whenever possible - accounts, payees/descriptions, dates (yesterday, today, tomorrow). If the input area is empty, it will insert the default value.
  • If the journal defines a default commodity, it will be added to any bare numbers entered.
  • A parenthesised transaction code may be entered following a date.
  • Comments and tags may be entered following a description or amount.
  • If you make a mistake, enter < at any prompt to go one step backward.
  • Input prompts are displayed in a different colour when the terminal supports it.

Example (see https://hledger.org/add.html for a detailed tutorial):

$ 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]: <CTRL-D> $

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

(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 aregister 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.

When there are multiple matches, the alphabetically-first choice can be surprising; eg if you have assets:per:checking 1 and assets:biz:checking 2 accounts, hledger areg checking would select assets:biz:checking 2. It's just a convenience to save typing, so if in doubt, write the full account name, or a distinctive substring that matches uniquely.

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. 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, see below)
  • the names of all the other account(s) involved in this transaction (probably abbreviated)
  • the total change to this account's balance from this transaction
  • 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.

For performance reasons, column widths are chosen based on the first 1000 lines; this means unusually wide values in later lines can cause visual discontinuities as column widths are adjusted. If you want to ensure perfect alignment, at the cost of more time and memory, use the --align-all flag.

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

(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, balancesheetequity, cashflow and incomestatement. When you need more control, 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..

..and their..

  • balance changes (the default)
  • or actual and planned balance changes (--budget)
  • or value of balance changes (-V)
  • or change of balance values (--valuechange)
  • or unrealised capital gain/loss (--gain)
  • or postings count (--count)

..in..

..either..

  • per period (the default)
  • or accumulated since report start date (--cumulative)
  • or accumulated since account creation (--historical/-H)

..possibly converted to..

..with..

  • totals (-T), averages (-A), percentages (-%), inverted sign (--invert)
  • rows and columns swapped (--transpose)
  • another field used as account name (--pivot)
  • custom-formatted line items (single-period reports only) (--format)
  • commodities displayed on the same line or multiple lines (--layout)

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.

The --related/-r flag shows the balance of the other postings in the transactions of the postings which would normally be shown.

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. ("Simple" here means just one column of numbers, covering a single period. You can also have multi-period reports, described later.)

For real-world accounts, these numbers will normally be their end balance at the end of the journal period; more on this below.

Accounts are sorted by declaration order if any, and then alphabetically by account name. For instance (using examples/sample.journal):

$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal 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.

Balance report line format

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 -f examples/sample.journal 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 specifies the formatting applied to each account/balance pair. It may contain any suitable text, with data fields interpolated like so:

%[MIN][.MAX](FIELDNAME)

  • MIN pads with spaces to at least this width (optional)

  • MAX truncates at this width (optional)

  • FIELDNAME must be enclosed in parentheses, and can be one of:

    • depth_spacer - a number of spaces equal to the account's depth, or if MIN is specified, MIN * depth spaces.
    • account - the account's name
    • total - the account's balance/posted total, right justified

Also, FMT can begin with an optional prefix to control how multi-commodity amounts are rendered:

  • %_ - render on multiple lines, bottom-aligned (the default)
  • %^ - render on multiple lines, top-aligned
  • %, - 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:

  • %(total) - the account's total
  • %-20.20(account) - the account's name, left justified, padded to 20 characters and clipped at 20 characters
  • %,%-50(account) %25(total) - account name padded to 50 characters, total padded to 20 characters, with multiple commodities rendered on one line
  • %20(total) %2(depth_spacer)%-(account) - the default format for the single-column balance report

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 -f examples/sample.journal 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 -f examples/sample.journal 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:

  • "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).

  • 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-plaintextaccounting-users. A tree mode report's final total is the sum of the top-level balances shown, not of all the balances shown.

  • Each group of sibling accounts (ie, under a common parent) is sorted separately.

Depth limiting

With a depth:NUM query, or --depth NUM option, or just -NUM (eg: -3) balance reports will show accounts only to the specified depth, hiding the deeper subaccounts. This can be useful for getting an overview without too much detail.

Account balances at the depth limit always include the balances from any deeper subaccounts (even in list mode). Eg, limiting to depth 1:

$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal balance -1
                 $-1  assets
                  $2  expenses
                 $-2  income
                  $1  liabilities
--------------------
                   0

Dropping top-level accounts

You can also hide one or more top-level account name parts, using --drop NUM. This can be useful for hiding repetitive top-level account names:

$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal bal expenses --drop 1
                  $1  food
                  $1  supplies
--------------------
                  $2

Showing declared accounts

With --declared, accounts which have been declared with an account directive will be included in the balance report, even if they have no transactions. (Since they will have a zero balance, you will also need -E/--empty to see them.)

More precisely, leaf declared accounts (with no subaccounts) will be included, since those are usually the more useful in reports.

The idea of this is to be able to see a useful "complete" balance report, even when you don't have transactions in all of your declared accounts yet.

Sorting by amount

With -S/--sort-amount, accounts with the largest (most positive) balances are shown first. Eg: hledger bal expenses -MAS shows your biggest averaged monthly expenses first. When more than one commodity is present, they will be sorted by the alphabetically earliest commodity first, and then by subsequent commodities (if an amount is missing a commodity, it is treated as 0).

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.

Note it is not useful to calculate percentages if the amounts in a column 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:€

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), balance shows a tabular report, with columns representing successive time periods (and a title):

$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal bal --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:

  • The report's start/end dates will be expanded, if necessary, to fully encompass the displayed subperiods (so that the first and last subperiods have the same duration as the others).
  • Leading and trailing periods (columns) containing all zeroes are not shown, unless -E/--empty is used.
  • Accounts (rows) containing all zeroes are not shown, unless -E/--empty is used.
  • Amounts with many commodities are shown in abbreviated form, unless --no-elide is used. (experimental)
  • Average and/or total columns can be added with the -A/--average and -T/--row-total flags.
  • The --transpose flag can be used to exchange rows and columns.
  • 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:

  • Hide the totals row with -N/--no-total
  • Convert to a single currency with -V
  • Maximize the terminal window
  • Reduce the terminal's font size
  • View with a pager like less, eg: hledger bal -D --color=yes | less -RS
  • 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)
  • Output as HTML and view with a browser: hledger bal -D -o a.html && open a.html

Balance change, end balance

It's important to be clear on the meaning of the numbers shown in balance 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 postings.)

Balance report types

The balance command is quite flexible; here is the full detail on how to control what it reports. If the following seems complicated, don't worry - this is for advanced reporting, and it does take time and experimentation to get familiar with all the report modes.

There are three important option groups:

hledger balance [CALCULATIONTYPE] [ACCUMULATIONTYPE] [VALUATIONTYPE] ...

Calculation type

The basic calculation to perform for each table cell. It is one of:

  • --sum : sum the posting amounts (default)
  • --budget : sum the amounts, but also show the budget goal amount (for each account/period)
  • --valuechange : show the change in period-end historical balance values (caused by deposits, withdrawals, and/or market price fluctuations)
  • --gain : show the unrealised capital gain/loss, (the current valued balance minus each amount's original cost)
  • --count : show the count of postings
Accumulation type

How amounts should accumulate across report periods. Another way to say it: which time period's postings should contribute to each cell's calculation. It is one of:

  • --change : calculate with postings from column start to column end, ie "just this column". Typically used to see revenues/expenses. (default for balance, incomestatement)

  • --cumulative : calculate with postings from report start to column end, ie "previous columns plus this column". Typically used to show changes accumulated since the report's start date. Not often used.

  • --historical/-H : calculate with postings from journal start to column end, ie "all postings from before report start date until this column's end". Typically used to see historical end balances of assets/liabilities/equity. (default for balancesheet, balancesheetequity, cashflow)

Valuation type

Which kind of value or cost conversion should be applied, if any, before displaying the report. It is one of:

  • no valuation type : don't convert to cost or value (default)
  • --value=cost[,COMM] : convert amounts to cost (then optionally to some other commodity)
  • --value=then[,COMM] : convert amounts to market value on transaction dates
  • --value=end[,COMM] : convert amounts to market value on period end date(s)
    (default with --valuechange, --gain)
  • --value=now[,COMM] : convert amounts to market value on today's date
  • --value=YYYY-MM-DD[,COMM] : convert amounts to market value on another date

or one of the equivalent simpler flags:

  • -B/--cost : like --value=cost (though, note --cost and --value are independent options which can both be used at once)
  • -V/--market : like --value=end
  • -X COMM/--exchange COMM : like --value=end,COMM

See Cost reporting and Value reporting for more about these.

Combining balance report types

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:

  • --valuechange implies --value=end
  • --valuechange makes --change the default when used with the balancesheet/balancesheetequity commands
  • --cumulative or --historical disables --row-total/-T

For reference, here is what the combinations of accumulation and valuation show:

Valuation:>
Accumulation:v		no valuation--value= then--value= end--value= YYYY-MM-DD /now
--changechange in periodsum of posting-date market values in periodperiod-end value of change in periodDATE-value of change in period
--cumulativechange from report start to period endsum of posting-date market values from report start to period endperiod-end value of change from report start to period endDATE-value of change from report start to period end
--historical /-Hchange from journal start to period end (historical end balance)sum of posting-date market values from journal start to period endperiod-end value of change from journal start to period endDATE-value of change from journal start to period end

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 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. Currently:

  • Accounts with budget goals during the report period, and their parents, are shown.
  • Their subaccounts are not shown (regardless of the depth setting).
  • Accounts without budget goals, if any, are aggregated and shown as "<unbudgeted>".
  • Amounts are always inclusive (subaccount-including), even in list mode.
  • After each actual amount, the corresponding goal amount and percentage of goal reached are also shown, in square brackets.

This means that the numbers displayed will not always add up! Eg above, the expenses actual amount includes the gifts and supplies transactions, 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]

It's common to limit budgets/budget reports to just expenses

hledger bal -M --budget expenses

or just revenues and expenses (eg, using account types):

hledger bal -M --budget type:rx

It's also common to limit or convert them to a single currency (cur:COMM or -X COMM [--infer-market-prices]). If showing multiple currencies, --layout bare or --layout tall can help.

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 
==============++============
 <unbudgeted> ||       $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]
Budgets and subaccounts

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 budget(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 transactions 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:electronics:upgrades and expenses:personal:train tickets, and since both of these accounts are without explicitly defined budget, these transactions 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]
Selecting budget goals

The budget report evaluates periodic transaction rules to generate special "goal transactions", which generate the goal amounts for each account in each report subperiod. When troubleshooting, you can use print --forecast to show these as forecasted transactions:

$ hledger print --forecast=BUDGETREPORTPERIOD tag:generated

By default, the budget report uses all available periodic transaction rules to generate goals. This includes rules with a different report interval from your report. Eg if you have daily, weekly and monthly periodic rules, all of these will contribute to the goals in a monthly budget report.

You can select a subset of periodic rules by providing an argument to the --budget flag. --budget=DESCPAT will match all periodic rules whose description contains DESCPAT, a case-insensitive substring (not a regular expression or query). This means you can give your periodic rules descriptions (remember that two spaces are needed), and then select from multiple budgets defined in your journal.

Budget vs forecast

hledger --forecast ... and hledger balance --budget ... are separate features, though both of them use the periodic transaction rules defined in the journal, and both of them generate temporary transactions for reporting purposes ("forecast transactions" and "budget goal transactions", respectively). You can use both features at the same time if you want. Here are some differences between them, as of hledger 1.29:

CLI:

  • --forecast is a general hledger option, usable with any command
  • --budget is a balance command option, usable only with that command.

Visibility of generated transactions:

  • forecast transactions are visible in any report, like ordinary transactions
  • budget goal transactions are invisible except for the goal amounts they produce in --budget reports.

Periodic transaction rules:

  • --forecast uses all available periodic transaction rules
  • --budget uses all periodic rules (--budget) or a selected subset (--budget=DESCPAT)

Period of generated transactions:

  • --forecast generates forecast transactions
    • from after the last regular transaction to the end of the report period (--forecast)
    • or, during a specified period (--forecast=PERIODEXPR)
    • possibly further restricted by a period specified in the periodic transaction rule
    • and always restricted within the bounds of the report period
  • --budget generates budget goal transactions
    • throughout the report period
    • possibly restricted by a period specified in the periodic transaction rule.

Balance report layout

The --layout option affects how balance reports show multi-commodity amounts and commodity symbols, which can improve readability. It can also normalise the data for easy consumption by other programs. It has four possible values:

  • --layout=wide[,WIDTH]: commodities are shown on a single line, optionally elided to WIDTH
  • --layout=tall: each commodity is shown on a separate line
  • --layout=bare: commodity symbols are in their own column, amounts are bare numbers
  • --layout=tidy: data is normalised to easily-consumed "tidy" form, with one row per data value

Here are the --layout modes supported by each output format; note only CSV output supports all of them:

-txtcsvhtmljsonsql
wideYYY
tallYYY
bareYYY
tidyY

Examples:

  • Wide layout. With many commodities, reports can be very wide:

    $ hledger -f examples/bcexample.hledger bal assets:us:etrade -3 -T -Y --layout=wide
Balance changes in 2012-01-01..2014-12-31:

                  ||                                          2012                                                     2013                                             2014                                                      Total 
==================++====================================================================================================================================================================================================================
 Assets:US:ETrade || 10.00 ITOT, 337.18 USD, 12.00 VEA, 106.00 VHT  70.00 GLD, 18.00 ITOT, -98.12 USD, 10.00 VEA, 18.00 VHT  -11.00 ITOT, 4881.44 USD, 14.00 VEA, 170.00 VHT  70.00 GLD, 17.00 ITOT, 5120.50 USD, 36.00 VEA, 294.00 VHT 
------------------++--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  || 10.00 ITOT, 337.18 USD, 12.00 VEA, 106.00 VHT  70.00 GLD, 18.00 ITOT, -98.12 USD, 10.00 VEA, 18.00 VHT  -11.00 ITOT, 4881.44 USD, 14.00 VEA, 170.00 VHT  70.00 GLD, 17.00 ITOT, 5120.50 USD, 36.00 VEA, 294.00 VHT

  • Limited wide layout. A width limit reduces the width, but some commodities will be hidden:

    $ hledger -f examples/bcexample.hledger bal assets:us:etrade -3 -T -Y --layout=wide,32
Balance changes in 2012-01-01..2014-12-31:

                  ||                             2012                             2013                   2014                            Total 
==================++===========================================================================================================================
 Assets:US:ETrade || 10.00 ITOT, 337.18 USD, 2 more..  70.00 GLD, 18.00 ITOT, 3 more..  -11.00 ITOT, 3 more..  70.00 GLD, 17.00 ITOT, 3 more.. 
------------------++---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  || 10.00 ITOT, 337.18 USD, 2 more..  70.00 GLD, 18.00 ITOT, 3 more..  -11.00 ITOT, 3 more..  70.00 GLD, 17.00 ITOT, 3 more..

  • Tall layout. Each commodity gets a new line (may be different in each column), and account names are repeated:

    $ hledger -f examples/bcexample.hledger bal assets:us:etrade -3 -T -Y --layout=tall
Balance changes in 2012-01-01..2014-12-31:

                  ||       2012        2013         2014        Total 
==================++==================================================
 Assets:US:ETrade || 10.00 ITOT   70.00 GLD  -11.00 ITOT    70.00 GLD 
 Assets:US:ETrade || 337.18 USD  18.00 ITOT  4881.44 USD   17.00 ITOT 
 Assets:US:ETrade ||  12.00 VEA  -98.12 USD    14.00 VEA  5120.50 USD 
 Assets:US:ETrade || 106.00 VHT   10.00 VEA   170.00 VHT    36.00 VEA 
 Assets:US:ETrade ||              18.00 VHT                294.00 VHT 
------------------++--------------------------------------------------
                  || 10.00 ITOT   70.00 GLD  -11.00 ITOT    70.00 GLD 
                  || 337.18 USD  18.00 ITOT  4881.44 USD   17.00 ITOT 
                  ||  12.00 VEA  -98.12 USD    14.00 VEA  5120.50 USD 
                  || 106.00 VHT   10.00 VEA   170.00 VHT    36.00 VEA 
                  ||              18.00 VHT                294.00 VHT

  • Bare layout. Commodity symbols are kept in one column, each commodity gets its own report row, account names are repeated:

    $ hledger -f examples/bcexample.hledger bal assets:us:etrade -3 -T -Y --layout=bare
Balance changes in 2012-01-01..2014-12-31:

                  || Commodity    2012    2013     2014    Total 
==================++=============================================
 Assets:US:ETrade || GLD             0   70.00        0    70.00 
 Assets:US:ETrade || ITOT        10.00   18.00   -11.00    17.00 
 Assets:US:ETrade || USD        337.18  -98.12  4881.44  5120.50 
 Assets:US:ETrade || VEA         12.00   10.00    14.00    36.00 
 Assets:US:ETrade || VHT        106.00   18.00   170.00   294.00 
------------------++---------------------------------------------
                  || GLD             0   70.00        0    70.00 
                  || ITOT        10.00   18.00   -11.00    17.00 
                  || USD        337.18  -98.12  4881.44  5120.50 
                  || VEA         12.00   10.00    14.00    36.00 
                  || VHT        106.00   18.00   170.00   294.00

  • Bare layout also affects CSV output, which is useful for producing data that is easier to consume, eg for making charts:

    $ hledger -f examples/bcexample.hledger bal assets:us:etrade -3 -O csv --layout=bare
"account","commodity","balance"
"Assets:US:ETrade","GLD","70.00"
"Assets:US:ETrade","ITOT","17.00"
"Assets:US:ETrade","USD","5120.50"
"Assets:US:ETrade","VEA","36.00"
"Assets:US:ETrade","VHT","294.00"
"total","GLD","70.00"
"total","ITOT","17.00"
"total","USD","5120.50"
"total","VEA","36.00"
"total","VHT","294.00"

  • Note: bare layout will sometimes display an extra row for the no-symbol commodity, because of zero amounts (hledger treats zeroes as commodity-less, usually). This can break hledger-bar confusingly (workaround: add a cur: query to exclude the no-symbol row).

  • Tidy layout produces normalised "tidy data", where every variable has its own column and each row represents a single data point. See https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/tidyr/vignettes/tidy-data.html for more. This is the easiest kind of data for other software to consume. Here's how it looks:

    $ hledger -f examples/bcexample.hledger bal assets:us:etrade -3 -Y -O csv --layout=tidy
"account","period","start_date","end_date","commodity","value"
"Assets:US:ETrade","2012","2012-01-01","2012-12-31","GLD","0"
"Assets:US:ETrade","2012","2012-01-01","2012-12-31","ITOT","10.00"
"Assets:US:ETrade","2012","2012-01-01","2012-12-31","USD","337.18"
"Assets:US:ETrade","2012","2012-01-01","2012-12-31","VEA","12.00"
"Assets:US:ETrade","2012","2012-01-01","2012-12-31","VHT","106.00"
"Assets:US:ETrade","2013","2013-01-01","2013-12-31","GLD","70.00"
"Assets:US:ETrade","2013","2013-01-01","2013-12-31","ITOT","18.00"
"Assets:US:ETrade","2013","2013-01-01","2013-12-31","USD","-98.12"
"Assets:US:ETrade","2013","2013-01-01","2013-12-31","VEA","10.00"
"Assets:US:ETrade","2013","2013-01-01","2013-12-31","VHT","18.00"
"Assets:US:ETrade","2014","2014-01-01","2014-12-31","GLD","0"
"Assets:US:ETrade","2014","2014-01-01","2014-12-31","ITOT","-11.00"
"Assets:US:ETrade","2014","2014-01-01","2014-12-31","USD","4881.44"
"Assets:US:ETrade","2014","2014-01-01","2014-12-31","VEA","14.00"
"Assets:US:ETrade","2014","2014-01-01","2014-12-31","VHT","170.00"

Useful balance reports

Some frequently used balance options/reports are:

  • bal -M revenues expenses
    Show revenues/expenses in each month. Also available as the incomestatement command.

  • bal -M -H assets liabilities
    Show historical asset/liability balances at each month end. Also available as the balancesheet command.

  • bal -M -H assets liabilities equity
    Show historical asset/liability/equity balances at each month end. Also available as the balancesheetequity command.

  • bal -M assets not:receivable
    Show changes to liquid assets in each month. Also available as the cashflow command.

Also:

  • bal -M expenses -2 -SA
    Show monthly expenses summarised to depth 2 and sorted by average amount.

  • bal -M --budget expenses
    Show monthly expenses and budget goals.

  • bal -M --valuechange investments
    Show monthly change in market value of investment assets.

  • bal investments --valuechange -D date:lastweek amt:'>1000' -STA [--invert]
    Show top gainers [or losers] last week

balancesheet

(bs)

This command displays a balance sheet, showing historical ending balances 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.

This report shows accounts declared with the Asset, Cash or Liability type (see account types). Or if no such accounts are declared, it shows top-level accounts named asset or liability (case insensitive, plurals allowed) and their subaccounts.

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 supports 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 (experimental) json.

balancesheetequity

(bse)

This command displays a balance sheet, showing historical ending balances of asset, liability and equity accounts. Amounts are shown with normal positive sign, as in conventional financial statements.

This report shows accounts declared with the Asset, Cash, Liability or Equity type (see account types). Or if no such accounts are declared, it shows top-level accounts named asset, liability or equity (case insensitive, plurals allowed) and their subaccounts.

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 supports 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 (experimental) json.

cashflow

(cf)

This command displays a cashflow statement, showing the inflows and outflows affecting "cash" (ie, liquid, easily convertible) assets. Amounts are shown with normal positive sign, as in conventional financial statements.

This report shows accounts declared with the Cash type (see account types). Or if no such accounts are declared, it shows accounts

  • under a top-level account named asset (case insensitive, plural allowed)
  • whose name contains some variation of cash, bank, checking or saving.

More precisely: all accounts matching this case insensitive regular expression:

^assets?(:.+)?:(cash|bank|che(ck|que?)(ing)?|savings?|currentcash)(:|$)

and their subaccounts.

An example cashflow report:

$ 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 supports 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 (experimental) json.

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

If you are an Emacs user, you can also configure flycheck-hledger to run these checks, providing instant feedback as you edit the journal.

Here are the checks currently available:

Default checks

These checks are run automatically by (almost) all hledger commands:

  • parseable - data files are in a supported format, with no syntax errors and no invalid include directives.

  • autobalanced - all transactions are balanced, after converting to cost. Missing amounts and missing costs are inferred automatically where possible.

  • 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:

  • balanced - all transactions are balanced after converting to cost, without inferring missing costs. If conversion costs are required, they must be explicit.

  • accounts - all account names used by transactions have been declared

  • commodities - all commodity symbols used have been declared

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:

  • ordereddates - transactions are ordered by date within each file

  • payees - all payees used by transactions have been declared

  • recentassertions - all accounts with balance assertions have a balance assertion within 7 days of their latest posting

  • tags - all tags used by transactions have been declared

  • 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:

  • hledger-check-tagfiles - all tag values containing / (a forward slash) exist as file paths

  • hledger-check-fancyassertions - more complex balance assertions are passing

You could make similar scripts to perform your own custom checks. See: Cookbook -> Scripting.

More about specific checks

hledger check recentassertions will complain if any balance-asserted account has postings more than 7 days after its latest balance assertion. This aims to prevent the situation where you are regularly updating your journal, but forgetting to check your balances against the real world, then one day must dig back through months of data to find an error. It assumes that adding a balance assertion requires/reminds you to check the real-world balance. (That may not be true if you auto-generate balance assertions from bank data; in that case, I recommend to import transactions uncleared, and when you manually review and clear them, also check the latest assertion against the real-world balance.)

close

(equity)

Generate transactions which transfer account balances to and/or from another account (typically equity). This can be useful for migrating balances to a new journal file, or for merging earnings into equity at end of accounting period.

By default, it prints a transaction that zeroes out ALE accounts (asset, liability, equity accounts; this requires account types to be configured); or if ACCTQUERY is provided, the accounts matched by that.

(experimental)

This command has four main modes, corresponding to the most common use cases:

  1. With --close (default), it prints a "closing balances" transaction that zeroes out ALE (asset, liability, equity) accounts by default (this requires account types to be inferred or declared); or, the accounts matched by the provided ACCTQUERY arguments.

  2. With --open, it prints an opposite "opening balances" transaction that restores those balances from zero. This is similar to Ledger's equity command.

  3. With --migrate, it prints both the closing and opening transactions. This is the preferred way to migrate balances to a new file: run hledger close --migrate, add the closing transaction at the end of the old file, and add the opening transaction at the start of the new file. The matching closing/opening transactions cancel each other out, preserving correct balances during multi-file reporting.

  4. With --retain, it prints a "retain earnings" transaction that transfers RX (revenue and expense) balances to equity:retained earnings. Businesses traditionally do this at the end of each accounting period; it is less necessary with computer-based accounting, but it could still be useful if you want to see the accounting equation (A=L+E) satisfied.

In all modes, the defaults can be overridden:

  • the transaction descriptions can be changed with --close-desc=DESC and --open-desc=DESC
  • the account to transfer to/from can be changed with --close-acct=ACCT and --open-acct=ACCT
  • the accounts to be closed/opened can be changed with ACCTQUERY (account query arguments).
  • the closing/opening dates can be changed with -e DATE (a report end date)

By default just one destination/source posting will be used, with its amount left implicit. With --x/--explicit, the amount will be shown explicitly, and if it involves multiple commodities, a separate posting will be generated for each of them (similar to print -x).

With --show-costs, any amount costs are shown, with separate postings for each cost. This is currently the best way to view investment lots. If you have many currency conversion or investment transactions, it can generate very large journal entries.

With --interleaved, each individual transfer is shown with source and destination postings next to each other. This could be useful for troubleshooting.

The default closing date is yesterday, or the journal's end date, whichever is later. You can change this by specifying a report end date with -e. The last day of the report period will be the closing date, eg -e 2024 means "close on 2023-12-31". The opening date is always the day after the closing date.

close and balance assertions

Balance assertions will be generated, verifying that the accounts have been reset to zero (and then restored to their previous balances, if there is an opening transaction).

These provide useful error checking, but you can ignore them temporarily with -I, or remove them if you prefer.

You probably should avoid filtering transactions by status or realness (-C, -R, status:), or generating postings (--auto), with this command, since the balance assertions would depend on these.

Note custom posting dates spanning the file boundary will disrupt the balance assertions:

2023-12-30 a purchase made in december, cleared in january
    expenses:food          5
    assets:bank:checking  -5  ; date: 2023-01-02

To solve that you can transfer the money to and from a temporary account, in effect splitting the multi-day transaction into two single-day transactions:

; in 2022.journal:
2022-12-30 a purchase made in december, cleared in january
    expenses:food          5
    equity:pending        -5

; in 2023.journal:
2023-01-02 last year's transaction cleared
    equity:pending         5 = 0
    assets:bank:checking  -5

Example: retain earnings

Record 2022's revenues/expenses as retained earnings on 2022-12-31, appending the generated transaction to the journal:

$ hledger close --retain -f 2022.journal -p 2022 >> 2022.journal

Note 2022's income statement will now show only zeroes, because revenues and expenses have been moved entirely to equity. To see them again, you could exclude the retain transaction:

$ hledger -f 2022.journal is not:desc:'retain earnings'

Example: migrate balances to a new file

Close assets/liabilities/equity on 2022-12-31 and re-open them on 2023-01-01:

$ hledger close --migrate -f 2022.journal -p 2022
# copy/paste the closing transaction to the end of 2022.journal
# copy/paste the opening transaction to the start of 2023.journal

Now 2022's balance sheet will show only zeroes, indicating a balanced accounting equation. (Unless you are using @/@@ notation - in that case, try adding --infer-equity.) To see the end-of-year balances again, you could exclude the closing transaction:

$ hledger -f 2022.journal bs not:desc:'closing balances'

Example: excluding closing/opening transactions

When combining many files for multi-year reports, the closing/opening transactions cause some noise in transaction-oriented reports like print and register. You can exclude them as shown above, but not:desc:... is not ideal as it depends on consistent descriptions; also you will want to avoid excluding the very first opening transaction, which could be awkward. Here is one alternative, using tags:

Add clopen: tags to all opening/closing balances transactions except the first, like this:

; 2021.journal
2021-06-01 first opening balances
...
2021-12-31 closing balances  ; clopen:2022
...

; 2022.journal
2022-01-01 opening balances  ; clopen:2022
...
2022-12-31 closing balances  ; clopen:2023
...

; 2023.journal
2023-01-01 opening balances  ; clopen:2023
...

Now, assuming a combined journal like:

; all.journal
include 2021.journal
include 2022.journal
include 2023.journal

The clopen: tag can exclude all but the first opening transaction. To show a clean multi-year checking register:

$ hledger -f all.journal areg checking not:tag:clopen

And the year values allow more precision. To show 2022's year-end balance sheet:

$ hledger -f all.journal bs -e2023 not:tag:clopen=2023

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:

2022/1/1 (123) Supermarket   
 Food       $5.00
 Checking    

2022/1/2 (124) Post Office
 Postage    $8.32
 Checking

2022/1/3 Supermarket
 Food      $11.23
 Checking 

2022/1/4 (126) Post Office
 Postage    $3.21
 Checking

$ hledger codes
123
124
126

$ hledger codes -E
123
124

126

commodities

List all commodity/currency symbols used or declared in the journal.

demo

Play demos of hledger usage in the terminal, if asciinema is installed.

Run this command with no argument to list the demos. To play a demo, write its number or a prefix or substring of its title. Tips:

Make your terminal window large enough to see the demo clearly.

Use the -s/--speed SPEED option to set your preferred playback speed, eg -s4 to play at 4x original speed or -s.5 to play at half speed. The default speed is 2x.

Other asciinema options can be added following a double dash, eg -- -i.1 to limit pauses or -- -h to list asciinema's other options.

During playback, several keys are available: SPACE to pause/unpause, . to step forward (while paused), CTRL-c quit.

Examples:

$ hledger demo               # list available demos
$ hledger demo 1             # play the first demo at default speed (2x)
$ hledger demo install -s4   # play the "install" demo at 4x speed

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 transactions.

Example:

$ hledger descriptions
Store Name
Gas Station | Petrol
Person A

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 multiple 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

List all files included in the journal. With a REGEX argument, only file names matching the regular expression (case sensitive) are shown.

help

Show the hledger user manual in the terminal, with info, man, or a pager. With a TOPIC argument, open it at that topic if possible. TOPIC can be any heading in the manual, or a heading prefix, case insensitive. Eg: commands, print, forecast, journal, amount, "auto postings".

This command shows the hledger manual built in to your hledger version. It can be useful when offline, or when you prefer the terminal to a web browser, or when the appropriate hledger manual or viewing tools are not installed on your system.

By default it chooses the best viewer found in $PATH, trying (in this order): info, man, $PAGER, less, more. You can force the use of info, man, or a pager with the -i, -m, or -p flags, If no viewer can be found, or the command is run non-interactively, it just prints the manual to stdout.

If using info, note that version 6 or greater is needed for TOPIC lookup. If you are on mac you will likely have info 4.8, and should consider installing a newer version, eg with brew install texinfo (#1770).

Examples

$ hledger help --help      # show how the help command works
$ hledger help             # show the hledger manual with info, man or $PAGER
$ hledger help journal     # show the journal topic in the hledger manual
$ hledger help -m journal  # show it with man, even if info is installed

import

Read new transactions added to each FILE since last run, and add them to the journal. Or with --dry-run, just print the transactions that would be added. Or with --catchup, just mark all of the FILEs' transactions as imported, without actually importing any.

This command may append new transactions to the main journal file (which should be in journal format). Existing transactions are not changed. This is one of the few hledger commands that writes to the journal file (see also add).

Unlike other hledger commands, with import the journal file is an output 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 idempotent.)

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 saving a hidden ".latest" state file in the same directory. Eg when reading finance/bank.csv, it will look for and update the finance/.latest.bank.csv state file. The format is simple: one or more lines containing the same ISO-format date (YYYY-MM-DD), meaning "I have processed 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 certain date.

Note deduplication (and updating of state files) can also be done by print --new, but this is less often used.

Related: CSV > Working with CSV > Deduplicating, importing.

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'

Note: when importing from multiple files at once, it's currently possible for some .latest files to be updated successfully, while the actual import fails because of a problem in one of the files, leaving them out of sync (and causing some transactions to be missed). To prevent this, do a --dry-run first and fix any problems before the real import.

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

(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.

This report shows accounts declared with the Revenue or Expense type (see account types). Or if no such accounts are declared, it shows top-level accounts named revenue or income or expense (case insensitive, plurals allowed) and their subaccounts.

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 supports 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 (experimental) json.

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 transactions. 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

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

Print market price directives from the journal. With --infer-market-prices, generate additional market prices from costs. With --infer-reverse-prices, also generate market prices by inverting known prices. Prices can be filtered by a query. Price amounts are displayed with their full precision.

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 decimal places are shown, as in the original journal entry (with one alteration: 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:

Normally, the journal entry's explicit or implicit amount style is preserved. For example, when an amount is omitted in the journal, it will not appear in the output. Similarly, when a cost is implied but not written, it will not appear in the output. You can use the -x/--explicit flag to make all amounts and costs 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 costs are converted to cost using that price. This can be used for troubleshooting.

With -m DESC/--match=DESC, print does a fuzzy search for one recent transaction whose description is most similar to DESC. DESC should contain at least two characters. If there is no similar-enough match, no transaction will be shown and the program exit code will be non-zero.

With --new, hledger prints only transactions it has not seen on a previous run. This uses the same deduplication system as the import command. (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","","",""
  • There is one CSV record per posting, with the parent transaction's fields repeated.
  • 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.)
  • The amount is separated into "commodity" (the symbol) and "amount" (numeric quantity) fields.
  • The numeric amount is repeated in either the "credit" or "debit" column, for convenience. (Those names are not accurate in the accounting sense; it just puts negative amounts under credit and zero or greater amounts under debit.)

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.

For performance reasons, column widths are chosen based on the first 1000 lines; this means unusually wide values in later lines can cause visual discontinuities as column widths are adjusted. If you want to ensure perfect alignment, at the cost of more time and memory, use the --align-all flag.

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 numbers. 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.

With -m DESC/--match=DESC, register does a fuzzy search for one recent posting whose description is most similar to DESC. DESC should contain at least two characters. If there is no similar-enough match, no posting will be shown and the program exit code will be non-zero.

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.

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 transaction'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 commodity.

Re-write rules in a file

During the run this tool will execute so called "Automated Transactions" 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 transactions 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 postings.

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 containing 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:

  • with multiple files, rewrite lets rules in any file affect all other files. print --auto uses standard directive scoping; rules affect only child files.

  • rewrite's query limits which transactions can be rewritten; all are printed. print --auto's query limits which transactions are printed.

  • rewrite applies rules specified on command line or in the journal. print --auto applies rules specified in the journal.

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, also known as money-weighted rate of return) and time-weighted rate of return (TWR) for your investments for the time period requested. IRR is always annualized due to the way it is computed, but TWR is reported both as a rate over the chosen reporting period and as an annual rate.

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:

  • 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.
  • Error (SearchFailed): Failed to find solution for Internal Rate of Return (IRR). Either search does not converge to a solution, or converges too slowly.

Examples:

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.

  • "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

  • "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 computed as a difference between current value of investment and its initial value, expressed in percentage of the initial value.

However, this approach is only practical in simple cases, where investments receives no in-flows or out-flows of money, and where rate of growth is fixed over time. For more complex scenarios you need different 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, and the time between them. Investment at a particular fixed interest rate is going to give you more interest than the same amount invested at the same interest rate, but made later in time. If you are withdrawing from your investment, your future gains would be smaller (in absolute numbers), and will be a smaller percentage of your initial investment, so your IRR will be smaller. And if you are adding to your investment, you will receive bigger absolute gains, which will be a bigger percentage of your initial investment, so your IRR will be larger.

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 "unrealized 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 account for the effect of your in-flows and out-flows, but unlike IRR it will try to compute the true rate of return of the underlying asset, compensating for the effect that deposits and withdrawas have on the apparent rate of growth of your investment.

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, and make TWR less sensitive than IRR to the effects of cash in-flows and out-flows.

References:

stats

Show journal and performance 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.

At the end, it shows (in the terminal) the overall run time and number of transactions processed per second. Note these are approximate and will vary based on machine, current load, data size, hledger version, haskell lib versions, GHC version.. but they may be of interest. The stats command's run time is similar to that of a single-column balance report.

Example:

$ hledger stats -f examples/1000x1000x10.journal
Main file                : /Users/simon/src/hledger/examples/1000x1000x10.journal
Included files           : 
Transactions span        : 2000-01-01 to 2002-09-27 (1000 days)
Last transaction         : 2002-09-26 (6995 days ago)
Transactions             : 1000 (1.0 per day)
Transactions last 30 days: 0 (0.0 per day)
Transactions last 7 days : 0 (0.0 per day)
Payees/descriptions      : 1000
Accounts                 : 1000 (depth 10)
Commodities              : 26 (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z)
Market prices            : 1000 (A)

Run time                 : 0.12 s
Throughput               : 8342 txns/s

This command supports the -o/--output-file option (but not -O/--output-format selection).

tags

List the tags used in the journal, or their values.

This command lists the tag names used in the journal, whether on transactions, postings, or account declarations.

With a TAGREGEX argument, only tag names matching this regular expression (case insensitive, infix matched) are shown.

With QUERY arguments, only transactions and accounts matching this query are considered. If the query involves transaction fields (date:, desc:, amt:, ...), the search is restricted to the matched transactions and their accounts.

With the --values flag, the tags' unique non-empty values are listed instead. With -E/--empty, blank/empty values are also shown.

With --parsed, tags or values are shown in the order they were parsed, with duplicates included. (Except, tags from account declarations are always shown first.)

Tip: remember, accounts also acquire tags from their parents, postings also acquire tags from their account and transaction, transactions also acquire tags from their postings.

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).

PART 5: COMMON TASKS

Here are some quick examples of how to do some basic tasks with hledger.

Getting help

Here's how to list commands and view options and command docs:

$ hledger                # show available commands
$ hledger --help         # show common options
$ hledger CMD --help     # show CMD's options, common options and CMD's documentation

You can also view your hledger version's manual in several formats by using the help command. Eg:

$ hledger help           # show the hledger manual with info, man or $PAGER (best available)
$ hledger help journal   # show the journal topic in the hledger manual
$ hledger help --help    # find out more about the help command

To view manuals and introductory docs on the web, visit https://hledger.org. Chat and mail list support and discussion archives can be found at https://hledger.org/support.

Constructing command lines

hledger has a flexible command line interface. We strive to keep it simple and ergonomic, but if you run into one of the sharp edges described in OPTIONS, here are some tips that might help:

  • command-specific options must go after the command (it's fine to put common options there too: hledger CMD OPTS ARGS)
  • running add-on executables directly simplifies command line parsing (hledger-ui OPTS ARGS)
  • enclose "problematic" args in single quotes
  • if needed, also add a backslash to hide regular expression metacharacters from the shell
  • to see how a misbehaving command line 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 (see below). 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 2023.journal
$ echo "export LEDGER_FILE=$HOME/finance/2023.journal" >> ~/.profile
$ source ~/.profile
$ hledger stats
Main file                : /Users/simon/finance/2023.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 LEDGER_FILE

How to set LEDGER_FILE permanently depends on your setup:

On unix and mac, running these commands in the terminal will work for many people; adapt as needed:

$ echo 'export LEDGER_FILE=~/finance/2023.journal` >> ~/.profile
$ source ~/.profile

When correctly configured, in a new terminal window env | grep LEDGER_FILE will show your file, and so will hledger files.

On mac, this additional step might be helpful for GUI applications (like Emacs started from the dock): add an entry to ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist like

{
  "LEDGER_FILE" : "~/finance/2023.journal"
}

and then run killall Dock in a terminal window (or restart the machine).

On Windows, see https://www.java.com/en/download/help/path.html, or try running these commands in a powershell window (let us know if it persists across a reboot, and if you need to be an Administrator):

> CD
> MKDIR finance
> SETX LEDGER_FILE "C:\Users\USERNAME\finance\2023.journal"

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 balances on this date. Here are two ways to do it:

  • The first way: open the journal in any text editor and save an entry like this:

    2023-01-01 * 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.

  • 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/2023.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 [2023-02-07]: 2023-01-01
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): .
2023-01-01 * 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 [2023-01-01]: .

If you're using version control, this could be a good time to commit the journal. Eg:

$ git commit -m 'initial balances' 2023.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:

2023/1/10 * gift received
  assets:cash   $20
  income:gifts

2023.1.12 * farmers market
  expenses:food    $13
  assets:cash

2023-01-15 paycheck
  income:salary
  assets:bank:checking    $1000

Reconciling

Periodically you should reconcile - compare your hledger-reported balances 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 discrepancies.

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:

    2023-01-16 * 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 checking -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 transaction 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 --register 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 2023-01-15 and paycheck

If you're using version control, this can be another good time to commit:

$ git commit -m 'txns' 2023.journal

Reporting

Here are some basic reports.

Show all transactions:

$ hledger print
2023-01-01 * opening balances
    assets:bank:checking                      $1000
    assets:bank:savings                       $2000
    assets:cash                                $100
    liabilities:creditcard                     $-50
    equity:opening/closing balances          $-3050

2023-01-10 * gift received
    assets:cash              $20
    income:gifts

2023-01-12 * farmers market
    expenses:food             $13
    assets:cash

2023-01-15 * paycheck
    income:salary
    assets:bank:checking           $1000

2023-01-16 * 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 -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 -2
Balance Sheet 2023-01-16

                        || 2023-01-16 
========================++============
 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 2023-01-01-2023-01-16

               || 2023-01-01-2023-01-16 
===============++=======================
 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
2023-01-01 opening balances     assets:cash                   $100          $100
2023-01-10 gift received        assets:cash                    $20          $120
2023-01-12 farmers market       assets:cash                   $-13          $107
2023-01-16 adjust cash          assets:cash                    $-2          $105

Show weekly posting counts as a bar chart:

$ hledger activity -W
2019-12-30 *****
2023-01-06 ****
2023-01-13 ****

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.

BUGS

We welcome bug reports in the hledger issue tracker (shortcut: http://bugs.hledger.org), or on the #hledger chat or hledger mail list (https://hledger.org/support).

Some known issues and limitations:

The need to precede add-on command options with -- when invoked from hledger is awkward. (See Command options, Constructing command lines.)

A UTF-8-aware system locale must be configured to work with non-ascii data. (See Unicode characters, Troubleshooting.)

On Microsoft Windows, depending whether you are running in a CMD window or a Cygwin/MSYS/Mintty window and how you installed hledger, non-ascii characters and colours may not be supported, and the tab key may not be supported by hledger add. (Running in a WSL window should resolve these.)

When processing large data files, hledger uses more memory than Ledger.

Troubleshooting

Here are some common issues you might encounter when you run hledger, and how to resolve them (and remember also you can usually get quick Support):

PATH issues: I get an error like "No command 'hledger' found"
Depending how you installed hledger, the executables may not be in your shell's PATH. Eg on unix systems, stack installs hledger in ~/.local/bin and cabal installs it in ~/.cabal/bin. You may need to add one of these directories to your shell's PATH, and/or open a new terminal window.

LEDGER_FILE issues: I configured LEDGER_FILE but hledger is not using it

  • LEDGER_FILE should be a real environment variable, not just a shell variable. Eg on unix, the command env | grep LEDGER_FILE should show it. You may need to use export (see https://stackoverflow.com/a/7411509).
  • You may need to force your shell to see the new configuration. A simple way is to close your terminal window and open a new one.

LANG issues: I get errors like "Illegal byte sequence" or "Invalid or incomplete multibyte or wide character" or "commitAndReleaseBuffer: invalid argument (invalid character)"
Programs compiled with GHC (hledger, haskell build tools, etc.) need the system locale to be UTF-8-aware, or they will fail when they encounter non-ascii characters. To fix it, set the LANG environment variable to a locale which supports UTF-8 and which is installed on your system.

On unix, locale -a lists the installed locales. Look for one which mentions utf8, UTF-8 or similar. Some examples: C.UTF-8, en_US.utf-8, fr_FR.utf8. If necessary, use your system package manager to install one. Then select it by setting the LANG environment variable. Note, exact spelling and capitalisation of the locale name may be important: Here's one common way to configure this permanently for your shell:

$ echo "export LANG=en_US.utf8" >>~/.profile
# close and re-open terminal window

COMPATIBILITY ISSUES: hledger gives an error with my Ledger file
Not all of Ledger's journal file syntax or feature set is supported. See hledger and Ledger for full details.

hledger-ui

NAME

hledger-ui - robust, friendly plain text accounting (TUI version)

SYNOPSIS

hledger-ui [OPTS] [QUERYARGS]
hledger ui -- [OPTS] [QUERYARGS]

DESCRIPTION

This manual is for hledger's terminal interface, version 1.31. See also the hledger manual for common concepts and file formats.

hledger is a robust, user-friendly, 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), and largely interconvertible with beancount(1).

hledger-ui is hledger's terminal interface, providing an efficient full-window text UI for viewing accounts and transactions, and some limited data entry capability. It is easier than hledger's command-line interface, and sometimes quicker and more convenient than the web interface.

Like hledger, it reads from (and appends to) a journal file specified by the LEDGER_FILE environment variable (defaulting to $HOME/.hledger.journal); or you can specify files with -f options. It can also read timeclock files, timedot files, or any CSV/SSV/TSV file with a date field. (See hledger(1) -> Input for details.)

Unlike hledger, hledger-ui hides all future-dated transactions by default. They can be revealed, along with any rule-generated periodic transactions, by pressing the F key (or starting with --forecast) to enable "forecast mode".

OPTIONS

Any QUERYARGS are interpreted as a hledger search query which filters the data.

hledger-ui provides the following options:

-w --watch : watch for data and date changes and reload automatically

--theme=default|terminal|greenterm : use this custom display theme

--menu : start in the menu screen

--cash : start in the cash accounts screen

--bs : start in the balance sheet accounts screen

--is : start in the income statement accounts screen

--all : start in the all accounts screen

--register=ACCTREGEX : start in the (first) matched account's register screen

--change : show period balances (changes) at startup instead of historical balances

-l --flat : show accounts as a flat list (default)

-t --tree : show accounts as a tree

hledger-ui also supports many of hledger's general options (and the hledger manual's command line tips also apply here):

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 following 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)

--today=DATE : override today's date (affects relative smart dates, for tests/examples)

-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 commodities

-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-equity : infer conversion equity postings from costs

--infer-costs : infer costs from conversion equity postings

--infer-market-prices : use costs as additional market prices, as if they were P directives

--forecast : generate transactions from periodic rules, : between the latest recorded txn and 6 months from today, : or during the specified PERIOD (= is required). : Auto posting rules will be applied to these transactions as well. : Also, in hledger-ui make future-dated transactions visible.

--auto : generate extra postings by applying auto posting rules to all txns (not just forecast txns)

--verbose-tags : add visible tags indicating transactions or postings which have been generated/modified

--commodity-style : Override the commodity style in the output for the specified commodity. For example 'EUR1.000,00'.

--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.

--pretty[=WHEN] : Show prettier output, e.g. using unicode box-drawing characters. : Accepts 'yes' (the default) or 'no' ('y', 'n', 'always', 'never' also work). : If you provide an argument you must use '=', e.g. '--pretty=yes'.

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.

MOUSE

In most modern terminals, you can navigate through the screens with a mouse or touchpad:

  • Use mouse wheel or trackpad to scroll up and down
  • Click on list items to go deeper
  • Click on the left margin (column 0) to go back.

KEYS

Keyboard gives more control.

? shows a help dialog listing all keys. (Some of these also appear in the quick help at the bottom of each screen.) Press ? again (or ESCAPE, or LEFT, or q) to close it. The following keys work on most screens:

The cursor keys navigate: RIGHT or ENTER goes deeper, LEFT returns to the previous screen, UP/DOWN/PGUP/PGDN/HOME/END move up and down through lists. Emacs-style (CTRL-p/CTRL-n/CTRL-f/CTRL-b) and VI-style (k,j,l,h) movement keys are also supported. A tip: movement speed is limited by your keyboard repeat rate, to move faster you may want to adjust it. (If you're on a mac, the karabiner app is one way to do that.)

With shift pressed, the cursor keys adjust the report period, limiting the transactions to be shown (by default, all are shown). SHIFT-DOWN/UP steps downward and upward through these standard report period durations: year, quarter, month, week, day. Then, SHIFT-LEFT/RIGHT moves to the previous/next period. T sets the report period to today. With the -w/--watch option, when viewing a "current" period (the current day, week, month, quarter, or year), the period will move automatically to track the current date. To set a non-standard period, you can use / and a date: query.

(Mac users: SHIFT-DOWN/UP keys do not work by default in Terminal, as of MacOS Monterey. You can configure them as follows: open Terminal, press CMD-comma to open preferences, click Profiles, select your current terminal profile on the left, click Keyboard on the right, click + and add this for Shift-Down: \033[1;2B, click + and add this for Shift-Up: \033[1;2A. Press the Escape key to enter the \033 part, you can't type it directly.)

/ lets you set a general filter query limiting the data shown, using the same query terms as in hledger and hledger-web. While editing the query, you can use CTRL-a/e/d/k, BS, cursor keys; press ENTER to set it, or ESCAPEto cancel. There are also keys for quickly adjusting some common filters like account depth and transaction status (see below). BACKSPACE or DELETE removes all filters, showing all transactions.

As mentioned above, by default hledger-ui hides future transactions - both ordinary transactions recorded in the journal, and periodic transactions generated by rule. F toggles forecast mode, in which future/forecasted transactions are shown.

ESCAPE resets the UI state and jumps back to the top screen, restoring the app's initial state at startup. Or, it cancels minibuffer data entry or the help dialog.

CTRL-l redraws the screen and centers the selection if possible (selections near the top won't be centered, since we don't scroll above the top).

g reloads from the data file(s) and updates the current screen and any previous screens. (With large files, this could cause a noticeable pause.)

I toggles balance assertion checking. Disabling balance assertions temporarily can be useful for troubleshooting.

a runs command-line hledger's add command, and reloads the updated file. This allows some basic data entry.

A is like a, but runs the hledger-iadd tool, which provides a terminal interface. This key will be available if hledger-iadd is installed in $path.

E runs $HLEDGER_UI_EDITOR, or $EDITOR, or a default (emacsclient -a "" -nw) on the journal file. With some editors (emacs, vi), the cursor will be positioned at the current transaction when invoked from the register and transaction screens, and at the error location (if possible) when invoked from the error screen.

B toggles cost mode, showing amounts in their cost's commodity (like toggling the -B/--cost flag).

V toggles value mode, showing amounts' current market value in their default valuation commodity (like toggling the -V/--market flag). Note, "current market value" means the value on the report end date if specified, otherwise today. To see the value on another date, you can temporarily set that as the report end date. Eg: to see a transaction as it was valued on july 30, go to the accounts or register screen, press /, and add date:-7/30 to the query.

At most one of cost or value mode can be active at once.

There's not yet any visual reminder when cost or value mode is active; for now pressing b b v should reliably reset to normal mode.

q quits the application.

Additional screen-specific keys are described below.

SCREENS

At startup, hledger-ui shows a menu screen by default. From here you can navigate to other screens using the cursor keys: UP/DOWN to select, RIGHT to move to the selected screen, LEFT to return to the previous screen. Or you can use ESC to return directly to the top menu screen.

You can also use a command line flag to specific a different startup screen (--cs, --bs, --is, --all, or --register=ACCT).

This is the top-most screen. From here you can navigate to several screens listing accounts of various types. Note some of these may not show anything until you have configured account types.

Cash accounts

This screen shows "cash" (ie, liquid asset) accounts (like hledger balancesheet type:c). It always shows balances (historical ending balances on the date shown in the title line).

Balance sheet accounts

This screen shows asset, liability and equity accounts (like hledger balancesheetequity). It always shows balances.

Income statement accounts

This screen shows revenue and expense accounts (like hledger incomestatement). It always shows changes (balance changes in the period shown in the title line).

All accounts

This screen shows all accounts in your journal (unless filtered by a query; like hledger balance). It shows balances by default; you can toggle showing changes with the H key.

Register

This screen shows the transactions affecting a particular account. Each line represents one transaction, and shows:

  • the other account(s) involved, in abbreviated form. (If there are both real and virtual postings, it shows only the accounts affected by real postings.)

  • the overall change to the current account's balance; positive for an inflow to this account, negative for an outflow.

  • the running total after the transaction. With the H key you can toggle between

    • the period total, which is from just the transactions displayed
    • or the historical total, which includes any undisplayed transactions before the start of the report period (and matching the filter query if any). This will be the running historical balance (what you would see on a bank's website, eg) if not disturbed by a query.

Transactions affecting this account's subaccounts will be included in the register if the accounts screen is in tree mode, or if it's in list mode but this account has subaccounts which are not shown due to a depth limit. In other words, the register always shows the transactions contributing to the balance shown on the accounts screen. Tree mode/list mode can be toggled with t here also.

U toggles filtering by unmarked status, showing or hiding unmarked transactions. Similarly, P toggles pending transactions, and C toggles cleared transactions. (By default, transactions with all statuses are shown; if you activate one or two status filters, only those transactions are shown; and if you activate all three, the filter is removed.)

R toggles real mode, in which virtual postings are ignored.

z toggles nonzero mode, in which only transactions posting a nonzero change are shown (hledger-ui shows zero items by default, unlike command-line hledger).

Press RIGHT to view the selected transaction in detail.

Transaction

This screen shows a single transaction, as a general journal entry, similar to hledger's print command and journal format (hledger_journal(5)).

The transaction's date(s) and any cleared flag, transaction code, description, comments, along with all of its account postings are shown. Simple transactions have two postings, but there can be more (or in certain cases, fewer).

UP and DOWN will step through all transactions listed in the previous account register screen. In the title bar, the numbers in parentheses show your position within that account register. They will vary depending on which account register you came from (remember most transactions appear in multiple account registers). The #N number preceding them is the transaction's position within the complete unfiltered journal, which is a more stable id (at least until the next reload).

On this screen (and the register screen), the E key will open your text editor with the cursor positioned at the current transaction if possible.

This screen has a limitation with showing file updates: it will not show them until you exit and re-enter it. So eg to see the effect of using the E key, currently you must: - press E, edit and save the file, then exit the editor, returning to hledger-ui - press g to reload the file (or use -w/--watch mode) - press LEFT then RIGHT to exit and re-enter the transaction screen.

Error

This screen will appear if there is a problem, such as a parse error, when you press g to reload. Once you have fixed the problem, press g again to reload and resume normal operation. (Or, you can press escape to cancel the reload attempt.)

TIPS

Watch mode

One of hledger-ui's best features is the auto-reloading -w/--watch mode. With this flag, it will update the display automatically whenever changes are saved to the data files.

This is very useful when reconciling. A good workflow is to have your bank's online register open in a browser window, for reference; the journal file open in an editor window; and hledger-ui in watch mode in a terminal window, eg:

$ hledger-ui --watch --register checking -C

As you mark things cleared in the editor, you can see the effect immediately without having to context switch. This leaves more mental bandwidth for your accounting. Of course you can still interact with hledger-ui when needed, eg to toggle cleared mode, or to explore the history.

There are currently some limitations with --watch:

It may not work correctly for you, depending on platform or system configuration. (Eg #836.)

At least on mac, there can be a slow build-up of CPU usage over time, until the program is restarted (or, suspending and restarting with CTRL-z fg may be enough).

It will not detect file changes made by certain editors, such as Jetbrains IDEs or gedit, or on certain less common filesystems. (To work around, press g to reload manually, or try #1617's fs.inotify.max_user_watches workaround and let us know.)

If you are viewing files mounted from another machine, the system clocks on both machines should be roughly in agreement.

Debug output

You can add --debug[=N] to the command line to log debug output. This will be logged to the file hledger-ui.log in the current directory. N ranges from 1 (least output, the default) to 9 (maximum output).

ENVIRONMENT

COLUMNS The screen width to use. Default: the full terminal width.

LEDGER_FILE The main journal file to use when not specified with -f/--file. Default: $HOME/.hledger.journal.

BUGS

We welcome bug reports in the hledger issue tracker (shortcut: http://bugs.hledger.org), or on the #hledger chat or hledger mail list (https://hledger.org/support).

Some known issues:

-f- doesn't work (hledger-ui can't read from stdin).

If you press g with large files, there could be a noticeable pause.

The Transaction screen does not update from file changes until you exit and re-endter it (see SCREENS > Transaction above).

--watch is not yet fully robust on all platforms (see Watch mode above).

hledger-web

NAME

hledger-web - robust, friendly plain text accounting (Web version)

SYNOPSIS

hledger-web [--serve|--serve-api] [OPTS] [ARGS]
hledger web -- [--serve|--serve-api] [OPTS] [ARGS]

DESCRIPTION

This manual is for hledger's web interface, version 1.31. See also the hledger manual for common concepts and file formats.

hledger is a robust, user-friendly, 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), and largely interconvertible with beancount(1).

hledger-web is a simple web application for browsing and adding transactions. It provides a more user-friendly UI than the hledger CLI or hledger-ui TUI, showing more at once (accounts, the current account register, balance charts) and allowing history-aware data entry, interactive searching, and bookmarking.

hledger-web also lets you share a journal with multiple users, or even the public web. There is no access control, so if you need that you should put it behind a suitable web proxy. As a small protection against data loss when running an unprotected instance, it writes a numbered backup of the main journal file (only) on every edit.

Like hledger, it reads from (and appends to) a journal file specified by the LEDGER_FILE environment variable (defaulting to $HOME/.hledger.journal); or you can specify files with -f options. It can also read timeclock files, timedot files, or any CSV/SSV/TSV file with a date field. (See hledger(1) -> Input for details.)

hledger-web can be run in three modes:

  • Transient mode (the default): your default web browser will be opened to show the app if possible, and the app exits automatically after two minutes of inactivity (no requests received and no open browser windows viewing it).

  • With --serve: the app runs without stopping, and without opening a browser.

  • With --serve-api: only the JSON API is served.

In all cases hledger-web runs as a foreground process, logging requests to stdout.

OPTIONS

Command-line options and arguments may be used to set an initial filter on the data. These filter options are not shown in the web UI, but it will be applied in addition to any search query entered there.

hledger-web provides the following options:

--serve : serve and log requests, don't browse or auto-exit after timeout

--serve-api : like --serve, but serve only the JSON web API, without the server-side web UI

--host=IPADDR : listen on this IP address (default: 127.0.0.1)

--port=PORT : listen on this TCP port (default: 5000)

--socket=SOCKETFILE : use a unix domain socket file to listen for requests instead of a TCP socket. Implies --serve. It can only be used if the operating system can provide this type of socket.

--base-url=URL : set the base url (default: http://IPADDR:PORT). Note: affects url generation but not route parsing. Can be useful if running behind a reverse web proxy that does path rewriting.

--file-url=URL : set the static files url (default: BASEURL/static). hledger-web normally serves static files itself, but if you wanted to serve them from another server for efficiency, you would set the url with this.

--capabilities=CAP[,CAP..] : enable the view, add, and/or manage capabilities (default: view,add)

--capabilities-header=HTTPHEADER : read capabilities to enable from a HTTP header, like X-Sandstorm-Permissions (default: disabled)

--test : run hledger-web's tests and exit. hspec test runner args may follow a --, eg: hledger-web --test -- --help

By default the server listens on IP address 127.0.0.1, accessible only to local requests. You can use --host to change this, eg --host 0.0.0.0 to listen on all configured addresses.

Similarly, use --port to set a TCP port other than 5000, eg if you are running multiple hledger-web instances.

Both of these options are ignored when --socket is used. In this case, it creates an AF_UNIX socket file at the supplied path and uses that for communication. This is an alternative way of running multiple hledger-web instances behind a reverse proxy that handles authentication for different users. The path can be derived in a predictable way, eg by using the username within the path. As an example, nginx as reverse proxy can use the variable $remote_user to derive a path from the username used in a HTTP basic authentication. The following proxy_pass directive allows access to all hledger-web instances that created a socket in /tmp/hledger/:

  proxy_pass http://unix:/tmp/hledger/${remote_user}.socket;

You can use --base-url to change the protocol, hostname, port and path that appear in hyperlinks, useful eg for integrating hledger-web within a larger website. The default is http://HOST:PORT/ using the server's configured host address and TCP port (or http://HOST if PORT is 80).

With --file-url you can set a different base url for static files, eg for better caching or cookie-less serving on high performance websites.

hledger-web also supports many of hledger's general options (and the hledger manual's command line tips also apply here):

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 following 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)

--today=DATE : override today's date (affects relative smart dates, for tests/examples)

-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 commodities

-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-equity : infer conversion equity postings from costs

--infer-costs : infer costs from conversion equity postings

--infer-market-prices : use costs as additional market prices, as if they were P directives

--forecast : generate transactions from periodic rules, : between the latest recorded txn and 6 months from today, : or during the specified PERIOD (= is required). : Auto posting rules will be applied to these transactions as well. : Also, in hledger-ui make future-dated transactions visible.

--auto : generate extra postings by applying auto posting rules to all txns (not just forecast txns)

--verbose-tags : add visible tags indicating transactions or postings which have been generated/modified

--commodity-style : Override the commodity style in the output for the specified commodity. For example 'EUR1.000,00'.

--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.

--pretty[=WHEN] : Show prettier output, e.g. using unicode box-drawing characters. : Accepts 'yes' (the default) or 'no' ('y', 'n', 'always', 'never' also work). : If you provide an argument you must use '=', e.g. '--pretty=yes'.

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.

PERMISSIONS

By default, hledger-web allows anyone who can reach it to view the journal and to add new transactions, but not to change existing data.

You can restrict who can reach it by

  • setting the IP address it listens on (see --host above). By default it listens on 127.0.0.1, accessible to all users on the local machine.
  • putting it behind an authenticating proxy, using eg apache or nginx
  • custom firewall rules

You can restrict what the users who reach it can do, by

  • using the --capabilities=CAP[,CAP..] flag when you start it, enabling one or more of the following capabilities. The default value is view,add:
    • view - allows viewing the journal file and all included files
    • add - allows adding new transactions to the main journal file
    • manage - allows editing, uploading or downloading the main or included files
  • using the --capabilities-header=HTTPHEADER flag to specify a HTTP header from which it will read capabilities to enable. hledger-web on Sandstorm uses the X-Sandstorm-Permissions header to integrate with Sandstorm's permissions. This is disabled by default.

EDITING, UPLOADING, DOWNLOADING

If you enable the manage capability mentioned above, you'll see a new "spanner" button to the right of the search form. Clicking this will let you edit, upload, or download the journal file or any files it includes.

Note, unlike any other hledger command, in this mode you (or any visitor) can alter or wipe the data files.

Normally whenever a file is changed in this way, hledger-web saves a numbered backup (assuming file permissions allow it, the disk is not full, etc.) hledger-web is not aware of version control systems, currently; if you use one, you'll have to arrange to commit the changes yourself (eg with a cron job or a file watcher like entr).

Changes which would leave the journal file(s) unparseable or non-valid (eg with failing balance assertions) are prevented. (Probably. This needs re-testing.)

RELOADING

hledger-web detects changes made to the files by other means (eg if you edit it directly, outside of hledger-web), and it will show the new data when you reload the page or navigate to a new page. If a change makes a file unparseable, hledger-web will display an error message until the file has been fixed.

(Note: if you are viewing files mounted from another machine, make sure that both machine clocks are roughly in step.)

JSON API

In addition to the web UI, hledger-web also serves a JSON API that can be used to get data or add new transactions. If you want the JSON API only, you can use the --serve-api flag. Eg:

$ hledger-web -f examples/sample.journal --serve-api
...

You can get JSON data from these routes:

/version
/accountnames
/transactions
/prices
/commodities
/accounts
/accounttransactions/ACCOUNTNAME

Eg, all account names in the journal (similar to the accounts command). (hledger-web's JSON does not include newlines, here we use python to prettify it):

$ curl -s http://127.0.0.1:5000/accountnames | python -m json.tool
[
    "assets",
    "assets:bank",
    "assets:bank:checking",
    "assets:bank:saving",
    "assets:cash",
    "expenses",
    "expenses:food",
    "expenses:supplies",
    "income",
    "income:gifts",
    "income:salary",
    "liabilities",
    "liabilities:debts"
]

Or all transactions:

$ curl -s http://127.0.0.1:5000/transactions | python -m json.tool
[
    {
        "tcode": "",
        "tcomment": "",
        "tdate": "2008-01-01",
        "tdate2": null,
        "tdescription": "income",
        "tindex": 1,
        "tpostings": [
            {
                "paccount": "assets:bank:checking",
                "pamount": [
                    {
                        "acommodity": "$",
                        "aismultiplier": false,
                        "aprice": null,
...

Most of the JSON corresponds to hledger's data types; for details of what the fields mean, see the Hledger.Data.Json haddock docs and click on the various data types, eg Transaction. And for a higher level understanding, see the journal docs.

In some cases there is outer JSON corresponding to a "Report" type. To understand that, go to the Hledger.Web.Handler.MiscR haddock and look at the source for the appropriate handler to see what it returns. Eg for /accounttransactions it's getAccounttransactionsR, returning a "accountTransactionsReport ...". Looking up the haddock for that we can see that /accounttransactions returns an AccountTransactionsReport, which consists of a report title and a list of AccountTransactionsReportItem (etc).

You can add a new transaction to the journal with a PUT request to /add, if hledger-web was started with the add capability (enabled by default). The payload must be the full, exact JSON representation of a hledger transaction (partial data won't do). You can get sample JSON from hledger-web's /transactions or /accounttransactions, or you can export it with hledger-lib, eg like so:

.../hledger$ stack ghci hledger-lib
>>> writeJsonFile "txn.json" (head $ jtxns samplejournal)
>>> :q

Here's how it looks as of hledger-1.17 (remember, this JSON corresponds to hledger's Transaction and related data types):

{
    "tcomment": "",
    "tpostings": [
        {
            "pbalanceassertion": null,
            "pstatus": "Unmarked",
            "pamount": [
                {
                    "aprice": null,
                    "acommodity": "$",
                    "aquantity": {
                        "floatingPoint": 1,
                        "decimalPlaces": 10,
                        "decimalMantissa": 10000000000
                    },
                    "aismultiplier": false,
                    "astyle": {
                        "ascommodityside": "L",
                        "asdigitgroups": null,
                        "ascommodityspaced": false,
                        "asprecision": 2,
                        "asdecimalpoint": "."
                    }
                }
            ],
            "ptransaction_": "1",
            "paccount": "assets:bank:checking",
            "pdate": null,
            "ptype": "RegularPosting",
            "pcomment": "",
            "pdate2": null,
            "ptags": [],
            "poriginal": null
        },
        {
            "pbalanceassertion": null,
            "pstatus": "Unmarked",
            "pamount": [
                {
                    "aprice": null,
                    "acommodity": "$",
                    "aquantity": {
                        "floatingPoint": -1,
                        "decimalPlaces": 10,
                        "decimalMantissa": -10000000000
                    },
                    "aismultiplier": false,
                    "astyle": {
                        "ascommodityside": "L",
                        "asdigitgroups": null,
                        "ascommodityspaced": false,
                        "asprecision": 2,
                        "asdecimalpoint": "."
                    }
                }
            ],
            "ptransaction_": "1",
            "paccount": "income:salary",
            "pdate": null,
            "ptype": "RegularPosting",
            "pcomment": "",
            "pdate2": null,
            "ptags": [],
            "poriginal": null
        }
    ],
    "ttags": [],
    "tsourcepos": {
        "tag": "JournalSourcePos",
        "contents": [
            "",
            [
                1,
                1
            ]
        ]
    },
    "tdate": "2008-01-01",
    "tcode": "",
    "tindex": 1,
    "tprecedingcomment": "",
    "tdate2": null,
    "tdescription": "income",
    "tstatus": "Unmarked"
}

And here's how to test adding it with curl. This should add a new entry to your journal:

$ curl http://127.0.0.1:5000/add -X PUT -H 'Content-Type: application/json' --data-binary @txn.json

DEBUG OUTPUT

Debug output

You can add --debug[=N] to the command line to log debug output. N ranges from 1 (least output, the default) to 9 (maximum output). Typically you would start with 1 and increase until you are seeing enough. Debug output goes to stderr, interleaved with the requests logged on stdout. To capture debug output in a log file instead, you can usually redirect stderr, eg:
hledger-web --debug=3 2>hledger-web.log.

ENVIRONMENT

LEDGER_FILE The main journal file to use when not specified with -f/--file. Default: $HOME/.hledger.journal.

BUGS

We welcome bug reports in the hledger issue tracker (shortcut: http://bugs.hledger.org), or on the #hledger chat or hledger mail list (https://hledger.org/support).

Some known issues:

Does not work well on small screens, or in text-mode browsers.

Scripts and add-ons

This document is the README in the hledger repo's bin directory, and is also published as Scripts and add-ons on hledger.org.

Add-on commands are executable script files or compiled programs named hledger-*, which show up in hledger's commands list. Some notable add-ons are listed in the hledger manual.

The rest of this page lists smaller scripts and add-ons which are collected in bin/, grouped by how closely they work with hledger:

To be clear: you don't need any of these when starting out with hledger. hledger comes with many built-in commands, and you may want to get familiar with those first.

These scripts don't use hledger directly, but are complementary and might be useful to hledger users. (plaintextaccounting.org has a longer list of PTA tools.)

paypaljson

paypaljson downloads the last 30 days of Paypal transactions (requires a free developer account & API key).

paypaljson2csv

paypaljson2csv (python) converts paypaljson's output to CSV, with format similar to Paypal's manually-downloaded CSV.

HLEDGER-RUNNING

These scripts run hledger via its CLI, eg to help you produce a particular report without needing to remember a complicated command line. They might also consume its text or CSV or JSON output. They can be small shell aliases or functions (typically defined in shell startup files like ~/.bashrc) or individual script files written in shell or another language (typically kept in ~/bin/ or elsewhere in $PATH).

bashrc

bashrc contains many example bash aliases and functions. After installing the bin scripts: as a bash user,

# customise FINDIR and LEDGER_FILE at the top of bin/bashrc
$ . bin/bashrc
$ fin        # list the scripts available

ft

ft is a way to organise your finance-related reports and scripts using standard bash. (See also justfile below.)

$ alias f=~/src/hledger/bin/ft
$ f
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------"; }
ft - finance tool: run financial reports and finance-related scripts
Usage: ft [COMMAND [ARGS]]
Commands:
help           show this help
get-csv        download auto-downloadable CSVs (paypal)
import-dry     import new downloaded transactions to the journal, dry run
import         import new downloaded transactions to the journal, logging and not printing errors
get-prices     [PRICEHISTFETCHOPTS] - download prices for main commodities (default: today's)
bs             show balance sheet
is             show income statement
a              show assets
r              show revenues
x              show expenses
ab             show assets bar chart
rb             show revenues bar chart
xb             show expenses bar chart
al             show assets line chart
rl             show revenues line chart
xl             show expenses line chart
forecast       print transactions predicted by forecast rules from last week on
household      show a draft month-end household adjustment transaction for last month
consulting     show consulting revenue
bin            [PAT]  show all scripts in $DIR/bin/[bashrc] (default: ~/finance/)
OTHERCMD               [ARGS] run other hledger commands on the default journal

Add hledger options to customise reports.

tt

tt is a similar bash multi-script for time reports.

$ alias t=~/src/hledger/bin/tt
$ t
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
tt - time tool: run time reports and time-related scripts
Usage: tt [COMMAND [ARGS]]
Commands:
help            show this help
dash            show time dashboard, redisplaying when timelog files change
status          show current time status
what            what happened ? Show largest balances first, today and depth 1 by default
dots            print line of N dots, grouped in 4s (suitable for timedot)
x               horizontal time summary this year, monthly by default
y               vertical time summary this year, monthly by default
rweeks          recent weeks' time budgets
weeks           this and last week's time budgets
hours           show a bar chart of daily hours
accunused       show unused / undeclared accounts
accunusedcat    show unused / undeclared accounts by category
accadd          add declarations for all undeclared accounts
budgets         show monthly time budget performance this year
budgetsy        show monthly time budget performance this year, vertically
budgetsw        show weekly time budget performance this year
budgetswx       show weekly time budget performance this year, horizontally
OTHERCMD        [ARGS] run other hledger commands on $TIMELOG

Add hledger options to customise reports.

justfile

https://github.com/casey/just is like make, but easier and more suitable for running commands. It is a nice tool for organising financial reports and scripts! More on hledger and just.

Here is a justfile reimplementing the ft and tt scripts more simply:

$ brew install just  # eg
$ alias j=just
$ cd ~/finance
$ cp ~/src/hledger/bin/justfile .  # or start from scratch: just --init
$ j
justfile commands:
    watch CMD                      # rerun the given command with watchexec whenever local files change
    get-csv                        # download auto-downloadable CSVs (paypal)
    import-dry                     # import new downloaded transactions to the main journal, dry run
    import                         # import new downloaded transactions to the journal, logging and not printing errors
    get-prices *PRICEHISTFETCHOPTS # show prices for main commodities (default: today's)
    bs *HLEDGERARGS                # show balance sheet
    is *HLEDGERARGS                # show income statement
    a *HLEDGERARGS                 # show assets
    r *HLEDGERARGS                 # show revenues
    x *HLEDGERARGS                 # show expenses
    ab *HLEDGERARGS                # show assets bar chart
    rb *HLEDGERARGS                # show revenues bar chart
    xb *HLEDGERARGS                # show expenses bar chart
    al *HLEDGERARGS                # show assets line chart
    rl *HLEDGERARGS                # show revenues line chart
    xl *HLEDGERARGS                # show expenses line chart
    forecast *HLEDGERARGS          # print transactions predicted by forecast rules from last week on
    household *HLEDGERARGS         # show a draft month-end household adjustment transaction for last month
    consulting *HLEDGERARGS        # show consulting revenue
    tdash *HLEDGERARGS             # show time dashboard, redisplaying when timelog files change
    tstatus *HLEDGERARGS           # show current time status
    twhat *HLEDGERARGS             # what happened ? Show largest time balances first, today and depth 1 by default
    tdots N                        # print line of N dots, grouped in 4s (suitable for timedot)
    tx *HLEDGERARGS                # horizontal time summary this year, monthly by default
    ty *HLEDGERARGS                # vertical time summary this year, monthly by default
    tweeks *HLEDGERARGS            # this and last week's time budgets
    tweekspast *HLEDGERARGS        # recent past weeks' time budgets
    thours *HLEDGERARGS            # show a bar chart of daily hours
    taccunused *HLEDGERARGS        # show unused / undeclared time accounts
    taccunusedcat *HLEDGERARGS     # show unused / undeclared time accounts by category
    taccadd *HLEDGERARGS           # add declarations for all undeclared time accounts
    tbudgets *HLEDGERARGS          # show monthly time budget performance this year
    tbudgetsy *HLEDGERARGS         # show monthly time budget performance this year, vertically
    tbudgetsw *HLEDGERARGS         # show weekly time budget performance this year
    tbudgetswx *HLEDGERARGS        # show weekly time budget performance this year, horizontally

watchaccounts

watchaccounts shows hledger account names, updating on file change under the current directory. Arguments are passed to the hledger accounts command. Useful when cleaning up accounts.

$ watchaccounts expenses -2
$ watchaccounts -f time.journal client1 date:thismonth -l

sortandmergepostings

sortandmergepostings can be used to cleanup and normalize postings. It will sort postings so that positive ones are first, negative ones last. Inside of that it sorts postings by account name alphabetically. Lastly it facilitates merging postings on transactions with more than one posting in the same direction on the same account. This works by removing the duplicates and cleaning the amount field for at-most one account per run Piping the output to hledger print can recalculate the missing amounts. Subsequent runs can cleanup further duplicates.

$ sortandmergepostings input.journal | hledger -f - print -x

hledger-simplebal

hledger-simplebal shows how to reliably report a single machine-readable number with hledger. This and the other "hledger-" scripts are add-on commands.

$ hledger simplebal

hledger-bar

hledger-bar prints quick bar charts in the terminal.

$ hledger bar reimbursement
2023-01	++++++
2023-02	++
2023-03	++
2023-04	-------

$ hledger bar                                        # show help
$ hledger bar food                                   # monthly food expenses
$ hledger bar -- 1 --count food                      # monthly food posting counts
$ hledger bar -- type:c not:tag:clopen cur:\\\\$ -W  # weekly cashflow, $ only
$ hledger bar -- type:al not:tag:clopen cur:\\\\$    # monthly net worth change ($)
$ hledger bar -- type:rx --invert cur:\\\\$          # monthly profit/loss ($)
$ hledger bar -- -v 1 -f $TIMELOG -D                 # daily hours, with numbers

hledger-git

hledger-git provides easy version control for your journal files, using git. Run it with no arguments for help.

$ hledger git log
$ hledger git status
$ hledger git record [MSG]

hledger-pijul

hledger-pijul provides the same thing using the pijul version control system..

$ hledger pijul log
$ hledger pijul status
$ hledger pijul record [MSG]

hledger-edit

The hledger-utils python package provides a hledger-edit command to edit the queried transactions in your $EDITOR no matter what file they reside in.

Install or upgrade:

$ pip install -U hledger-utils    # might be slightly different on your system

Examples:

# Opens your $EDITOR or $VISUAL with only costs in Florida 
# (if you named and tagged them like that)
# edit the transactions, save and exit your editor, 
# then the changes are distributed to the original files
$ hledger edit Cost tag:location=Florida

# Automate changes by setting `$EDITOR` to a script
# (here all food we had on that one day in Florida was Fast Food 🌭 and we initially forgot to write that) 
EDITOR='perl -pi -e "s|Cost:Food|Cost:Food:Fast Food|g"' hledger edit tag:location=Florida date:2022-12-20

asciicast

hledger-plot

The hledger-utils python package provides a hledger-plot command for generating charts with matplotlib.

Install or upgrade:

$ pip install -U hledger-utils    # might be slightly different on your system

Examples:

$ hledger-plot -h
$ hledger plot -- bal -DH ^Assets -2

hledger-lots

hledger-lots shows a lots report, or generates a lot sale transaction, using FIFO strategy (and without needing subaccounts for lots).

Install or upgrade:

$ pip install -U hledger-lots

Examples:

$ hledger lots
$ hledger lots view
$ hledger lots list

HLEDGER-INTEGRATED

These Haskell scripts use the hledger-lib API for maximum power and robustness; they can do anything hledger's built-in commands can do.

hledger-script-example

hledger-script-example.hs is a template for writing your own hledger-integrated add-on command. It has the same structure as most of the add-ons here:

  • a stack script for robustness
  • providing command line help
  • accepting common hledger options

hledger-print-location

hledger-print-location.hs is a variant of hledger's print command that adds the file and line number to every transaction, as a tag:

$ hledger print-location -f hledger/examples/sample.journal desc:eat
2008/06/03 * eat & shop
  ; location: /Users/simon/src/hledger/examples/sample.journal:30
  expenses:food                  $1
  expenses:supplies              $1
  assets:cash

hledger-swap-dates

hledger-swap-dates.hs prints transactions with their date and date2 fields swapped.

hledger-check-tagfiles

hledger-check-tagfiles.hs interprets all tag values containing a / (forward slash) as file paths, and checks that those files exist. hledger-check-tagfiles.cabal.hs is the same command implemented as a cabal script rather than a stack script.

hledger-register-max

hledger-register-max.hs runs a register report and prints the posting with largest historical balance.

$ hledger-register-max -f examples/bcexample.hledger checking
2013-01-03 Hoogle | Payroll  Assets:US:BofA:Checking      1350.60 USD  8799.22 USD
$ hledger register-max -- -f examples/bcexample.hledger checking
2013-01-03 Hoogle | Payroll  Assets:US:BofA:Checking      1350.60 USD  8799.22 USD

hledger-check-postable

hledger-check-postable.hs check that no postings are made to accounts declared with a postable:n or postable:no tag. This can be used as a workaround when you must declare a parent account to control display order, but you don't want to allow postings to it. Eg, to allow postings to assets:cash but not assets (remember that account tags are inherited):

account assets         ; postable:n
account assets:cash    ; postable:

hledger-check-fancyassertions

hledger-check-fancyassertions.hs checks account balances over time in more complex ways than hledger's built-in balance assertions.

hledger-combine-balances

hledger-combine-balances.hs shows balance reports for two different periods side by side.

hledger-balance-as-budget

hledger-balance-as-budget.hs uses one balance report to set budget goals for another balance report.

hledger-smooth

hledger-smooth.hs is an incomplete attempt at automatically splitting infrequent/irregular transactions.

hledger-move

hledger-move.hs helps make subaccount/cost-preserving transfers.

HOW TO

Install scripts

To use these bin scripts you must ensure they are in your $PATH and runnable:

  • Shell scripts: you may need bash, or to adapt the scripts for your shell.
  • Python scripts: you'll need python 3 and pip.
  • Haskell scripts: you'll need stack (https://www.haskell.org/get-started). Or if you know how, you can make them cabal scripts, or install their dependencies manually and use runghc/ghc.

Here's a suggested install procedure:

# Go to wherever you keep financial files:
$ cd ~/finance

# Get the hledger repo
# the fast way, without version control:
$ curl -LOJ https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/archive/refs/heads/master.zip && unzip hledger-master.zip && mv hledger-master hledger
# or the slow way, with version control for easy diffing/updating/contributing
# git clone https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger

# Make a more convenient symlink to the bin directory:
$ ln -s hledger/bin

# Add the bin directory to your PATH. Eg as a bash user:
$ echo "export PATH=$PATH:$PWD/bin" >>~/.bash_profile"
$ export PATH=$PATH:$PWD/bin

# Optionally, compile all haskell scripts for faster startup:
$ cd hledger; bin/compile.sh

# Optionally, install the python scripts:
$ pip install -U hledger-utils
$ pip install -U hledger-lots

# Check that hledger's command list now includes the bin scripts.
# Eg "check-fancyassertions" and "swap-dates" should be listed:
$ hledger

Create a new script

To create a new hledger-integrated script, copy hledger-script-example.hs. On unix, the new script should be marked executable. This should do it:

$ cd bin
$ cp hledger-script-example.hs hledger-cmd.hs   # replace cmd with your command name
# edit hledger-cmd.hs, updating at least the command name and help
$ stack install safe text     # ensure the script's dependencies are installed
$ hledger-cmd.hs --help
cmd [OPTIONS]
  My new cmd command.
  ...
$ stack ghc hledger-cmd.hs  # optionally compile for faster startup/durability
$ hledger cmd -- --help
cmd [OPTIONS]
  My new cmd command.
  ...

Run ghcid on a script

$ stack exec --package 'safe text' -- ghcid hledger-cmd.hs 
...
Ok, one module loaded.
All good (1 module, at 10:50:48)

Run ghci on a script

$ stack ghci --package 'safe text' hledger-cmd.hs 
...
Ok, one module loaded.
...
ghci>

Learn more about scripting hledger

See Scripting hledger.

User Cookbook

Here you'll find task-oriented advice and additional user notes that didn't fit in the manual. Unlike the manual, these docs vary in age and quality.

General usage

Data entry

Preserving your data

Checking for errors

Reporting techniques

Making charts

Customising

Setups and workflows

Other user interfaces

Scripts and add-ons

Other software

Accounting tasks

Learning accounting and bookkeeping

Borrowing and lending

Budgeting

Eco accounting

Forecasting

Inventory tracking

Investing and trading

Invoicing

Multiple currencies

Non-profit accounting

Taxes

Time tracking

Trip expenses

Shared expenses

See also

https://plaintextaccounting.org and https://wiki.plaintextaccounting.org collect similar but more generic advice for any and all PTA tools.

Discussion / Support

Chat: The #hledger chat room is the best place for quick help and feedback. Join Matrix and the #hledger:matrix.org room in your web browser, the Element client, or another matrix client. This gives a persistent chat log and the richest experience, especially with Element.

Or (same chat room, older technology): join the #hledger Libera IRC channel in your web browser or an IRC client. You may need to register to speak.

There is also a general #plaintextaccounting chat: #plaintextaccounting:matrix.org or #plaintextaccounting on Libera.

Mail list: Archives: list.hledger.org
Send: [email protected]
Subscribe: [email protected]
Low traffic mail list with ~200 subscribers.
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Tags: #hledger, #plaintextaccounting, #ledgercli, #beancount
Twitter: #hledger and #plaintextaccounting
@LedgerTips (2014-2018)
Reddit: /r/plaintextaccounting
Stack Exchange: [hledger] on money.stackexchange.com
Hacker News: stories and comments
LibHunt: reviews and mentions
Issues: bugs.hledger.org (bugs only)
issues.hledger.org (all issues)
open issues by category
website issues
Maintainer email: [email protected]
PTA site: plaintextaccounting.org
Website and wiki covering plain text accounting in general.

Climate impact

Most human endeavours should maintain and publish an environmental cost/benefit report. "Cost" means some environmental impact such as resources used (energy, water, land..)
or undesirable waste generated (carbon dioxide, toxins, heat, noise, harm..) --https://ecoaccounting.org

Here is the beginnings of one for the hledger project, with a catchier name.

Development

Costs related to developing hledger come from:

  • developer machine activity
    • recompiling, linking, building docs, browsing, running IDEs etc.
  • test machine activity
    • CI workers recompiling on push, on PR updates etc.
  • source code hosting
    • VCS operations, file and artifact hosting, rich web UIs, issue tracking, forks, notifications (github etc.)
  • public websites and services
    • hledger.org doc hosting, updating
    • demo.hledger.org hosting
    • discussions (matrix, irc, reddit, hacker news..)
    • media (youtube..)
    • project analysis (libhunt..)

Benefits:

  • providing effective accounting tools to people and organisations who would be less effective/less empowered by other tools, potentially unlocking further eco accounting activity and successes
  • potentially help advance best practices and community know-how by sharing useful techniques, tools, processes, architecture, patterns

Delivery

Costs related to packaging and shipping hledger to end-users. Related to development, but broken out separately here. This includes:

  • Github artifact building / additional testing beyond standard dev tests
  • Hackage hosting/maintenance
  • Stackage hosting/maintenance
  • Hosting/maintenance in all the other packaging systems and distributions on the Install page
  • Download/install/cloning/build work done by user machines

Benefits:

  • Roughly speaking, more work done on packaging and delivery means more users able to try out and benefit from the software, magnifying the Development benefits above

Your hledger usage

Costs from your individual/organisational usage of hledger, other than Delivery costs above, may include:

  • Machine usage every time you run hledger
  • Hardware upgrade/purchase pressure to satisfy memory/disk space requirements
  • Personal and online machine usage and human time while learning, discussing, configuring and maintaining hledger and PTA

Benefits:

  • Hopefully, more effective accounting and eco accounting, reducing waste and increasing personal/organisational solvency, success, empowerment and positive impact

Stats

Some useful statistics to guestimate:

  • Yearly cost
  • Yearly cost trend
  • Cumulative cost
  • Predicted lifetime cost
  • Comparison with alternate solutions

Contributor Quick Start

New contributors are always welcome in the hledger project. Jump in! Browse the ideas below, or say hello in the chat and we'll help find you a job.

First steps

Ideas for contributing as a ...

Visitor

  • Give feedback on the site and your impressions of the project

New user

  • Give feedback on your new user experience

Developer

Developer using the hledger libraries

  • Give feedback on your experience using the hledger packages
  • Suggest API improvements

Packager

  • Improve hledger's packaging on one or more platforms

Communicator

Marketing and market understanding is vital.

  • clarify project goals, value proposition, brand, mission, story
  • monitor product-market fit
  • identify new opportunities
  • influence developer priorities
  • spread the word!

Funder

Become a financial backer to sustain and grow this project, increase your influence, express gratitude, build prosperity consciousness, and help transform world finance!

  • Use the donate links on the home page
  • Configure a recurring donation
  • Contribute or pledge bounties on issues you care about
  • Ask your organization to contribute
  • Work on project sustainability, accountability, fundraising

Tester

  • Test installation on platforms you have access to
  • Test examples, advice, and links in the docs
  • Run the latest release or developer build in daily use
  • Run tests
  • Run benchmarks
  • Report packaging, documentation, UX, functional, performance issues
  • Report and help analyse problems via irc/mail list/bug tracker

When reporting bugs, don't forget to search the tracker for a similar bug report. Otherwise, open a new bug by clicking "New issue", or http://bugs.hledger.org/new.

Enhancement requests are sometimes added to the tracker,but for these consider using the IRC channel and mail list (see Getting help). Both are archived and linkable, so the idea won't be lost. There is also a collection of wishes at the old trello board.

Bug wrangler

Tech support provider

Technical Writer

  • get familiar with the website and documentation online, review and test
  • get familiar with the site/doc source files (see Shake.hs)
  • get the latest hledger source
  • send patches with names prefixed with "doc: " (or "site: ")

Graphics Designer

  • more/better logos & graphics
  • illustrations and diagrams
  • web design mockups for home page, site, hledger-web UI

Maintainer

Help with issue management

  • watch tracker activity, report status
  • apply/update labels where needed
  • follow up on dormant issues
  • facilitate a consistently good bug-reporting & PR-contributing experience

Help with packaging

  • package hledger for linux distros, macports, etc.
  • develop mac/windows installers
  • find and assist distro packagers/installer developers

Help with project management

  • clarify/update goals and principles
  • monitor, report on project progress and performance
  • research, compare and report on successful projects, related projects
  • identify collaboration opportunities
  • marketing, communication, outreach
  • release management, roadmap planning

Developer Links

Quick access to developer/maintainer/packager resources.
Chat, mail list, social networks..https://hledger.org/discuss
hledger-web demohttps://demo.hledger.org
Githubhttp://code.hledger.org, http://site.hledger.org, http://finance.hledger.org
commits, COMMITS!
http://ci.hledger.org
http://bugs.hledger.org, http://wishes.hledger.org, unknown issues, http://prs.hledger.org, http://draftprs.hledger.org, http://readyprs.hledger.org, all issues
issues with bounty tag, bountysource bounties, codemill bounties, codefund bounties
projects.hledger.org
stars.hledger.org: our rank among starred haskell projects:
2016: #71, 2017: #54, 2018: #53, 2020: #36, 2022: #34
Hackagepackages: hledger-lib, hledger, hledger-ui, hledger-web, hledger-diff, hledger-iadd, hledger-interest, hledger-irr, *hledger*
diffs: hledger-lib, hledger, hledger-ui, hledger-web
build status: hledger-lib, hledger, hledger-ui, hledger-web
reverse deps: hledger-lib, hledger, hledger-ui, hledger-web
on hackage
... ...
... ...
Stackagebuild-constraints.yaml
open hledger-related issues
packages: hledger-lib, hledger, hledger-ui, hledger-web
versions: hledger-lib, hledger, hledger-ui, hledger-web
...
Repologyquick hledger packaging status, detailed hledger packaging status, all *hledger* packages
Debiansource packages: haskell-hledger-lib, bugs, haskell-hledger, bugs, haskell-hledger-ui, bugs, haskell-hledger-web, bugs
stable: hledger, bugs, hledger-ui, bugs, hledger-web, bugs
testing: hledger, bugs, hledger-ui, bugs, hledger-web, bugs
unstable: hledger, bugs, hledger-ui, bugs, hledger-web, bugs
all: *hledger*
popcon sampled install stats: haskell-hledger, hledger, hledger-ui, hledger-web
Ubuntusource packages: haskell-hledger-lib, bugs, haskell-hledger, bugs, haskell-hledger-ui, bugs, haskell-hledger-web, bugs
binary packages: *hledger*
Gentoohledger, hledger-web, *hledger*
Fedorahledger, *hledger*, hledger (package db), Haskell SIG
Void Linuxpackage search -> hledger
Nix*hledger*
Homebrewhledger
our 1-year homebrew rank:
2020: #1520 of 10000 on mac, #762 of 8288 on linux
Sandstormhledger web app & reviews, issues
Referencefosskers GHC compatibility chart
Old trello planning boardhttps://trello.hledger.org

Developer docs

Contributor, developer, and project maintenance docs. These aim to describe and communicate the structure, processes and workflows of the hledger project - "the machine that makes the machine". Mostly they are UPPERCASE files kept in the main hledger repo, and symlinked into the site repo to make them appear as web pages.

Things to know

Things to do

How to do things

CREDITS

hledger is brought to you by the

  • Issue wranglers,
  • Bug hunters,
  • Design dreamers,
  • Code slingers,
  • Doc poets,
  • Package marshals,
  • Helping hands,
  • Good news preachers,
  • Bank rollers,
  • Broom pushers,

by the pioneering John Wiegley, who opened up this territory with Ledger,

and by the innumerable other benefactors making it all possible.

Commit authors

https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/graphs/contributors

11231 commits in 16 years by 155 people as of 2022-12-21:

CommitsAuthorNotes (chat me with updates!)
9749Simon Michaelfounder, project leader, lead developer
460Stephen Morganperformance, code cleanup, runtime error removal, cli/ui output, periodic transactions, parsing, deps, valuation, --gain report, hlint, lensification
161Dmitry Astapovroi, files commands; --transpose; merge/improve --budget; generalise --forecast/--auto; docker packaging; improved CSV parsing, balancing, periodic transactions, close, parsing, docs, tests
81Vladimir Zhelezovnew bash shell completions
72Alex Chenparsing improvements, code cleanups, better error messages; dep updates
52Mykola Orliukhledger-budget, hledger-prices addons; scientific number notation; print, hledger-equity, hledger-rewrite, --pivot, space, parsing improvements; code updates; GHC 8.0 support
51Jakob Schöttlbash completions; register --invert; timeclock parsing improvements; code cleanups
40Everett Hildenbrandtdoc toolchain updates, switch from hakyll to pandoc; csv parser improvement
31Jakub Zárybnickýhledger-web, hledger-ui improvements
29Marko Kocićbuild, hlint fixes; hledger-web improvement
26Justin Lebs/cf/is improvements
26Dominik Süßhledger-web layout improvements
24Thomas R. Kollhledger-web improvements
17Peter Simonsbuild, dep fixes
17Joseph Westonparsing improvements; test, dep updates
16Aleksandar DimitrovCSV separator rule
15Nolan DarilekSandstorm app
14Brian Wignalloutput dates in YYYY-MM-DD format
12Tim Dockerparsing improvements; proper date support; P directive (first code contributor, 2008-11
12Lawrence--commodity-column; multi-day-of-week period expressions
11Trygve Laugstølhledger-web improvements; --format; CSV --rules-file, stdin support, separate in/out fields, interpolated description; test updates
11Jesse Rosenthalparsing improvementss
10Nick Ingoliainclude directive, account directive; parsing improvements (second code contributor, 2008-12
10Caleb Maclennanpayees/notes/descriptions commands; print improvement; doc, code, test updates
10Julien Moutinhoprint CSV output; hledger-equity, hledger-rewrite, hledger-web, parsing improvements; hledger-check-dates addon
10Henning Thielemannhledger-web improvements, quarter periods, code cleanup
9Ryan Desfosseswarnings, docs, hledger-web fixes
9Eli Flanaganhledger-web date picker; build, doc updates
8Imulisupport multiple input files
8Felix Yandep updates; doc updates
8Nicholas Nirobalancesheetequity command; balance tests, fix
8Moritz Kiefer--pretty-tables; dep updates; switch to megaparsec; cabal.project file; space leak fixes
7Jacob WeiszSandstorm app improvements
7Hans-Peter Deifeldep updates; csv rules parsing fix; command line parsing improvements
6Clint AdamsCSV account2 setting; dep updates; cabal test suites
6Roman Cheplyakachart command; hledger add improvements; --no-new-accounts
6Gaith Hallakundo (<) in hledger add; command line parsing improvement
6Samuel Maymulticommodity balance assertions
5Martin Michlmayrdoc updates
5Jacek Generowiczcommand line parsing fix
5Eric Mertens--pretty-tables improvements; CSV whitespace fix
5Xinruo Sunhledger-web --static-root; hledger-web autocomplete improvements; hledger print tag filtering
4Damien Cassoupayee directive, check improvements, info manual directory entries
4Michael Snoymanhledger-web improvements
4Sergey Astaninunicode support
3Michael Sanders& (AND) operator in CSV if rules
3Christian G. Wardencashflow tweaks; hledger-rewrite (auto postings) commodity substitution
3Eric Kowhledger add improvements
3toonnPR template improvements
3Carlos Lopez-Cameyhledger-web add form improvements
3Johannes Gererbalance assignments; generalise parser types
3Malte Brandy--pivot, newline in CSV rule-generated comments
2Pavlo Keresteyquoting fixes
2Alejandro García Montorohledger-web --cors
2Gergely Riskocomment directive
2aragaerfix commodity checking fix; fix --drop with csv
2Stefano Rodighierohledger-dupes addon
2Arsen Arsenovićhledger-web XSS fix
2crocketimprove hledger-ui editor support
2Arnout Engelenhledger-web register chart improvements
2gwernwhitespace, Haskell98 cleanups
2Arjen Langebaerd-c/--commodity-style option
2jungle-boogietutorial updates
2Max Bolingbrokeunicode-aware regexes; csv date-format rule
2Matthias Kauerinvestment doc improvements
2Elijah Cainegit/nix tweaks
2Judah Jacobsonreadline editing, tab completion in hledger add
2Ben Creasydoc updates
2Christoph Nicolaidoc updates
2Sergei Trofimovichbounds, build updates
2Sam Jeevesbalance assertion line number reporting
2Alex Hirzeldoc updates
2Pranesh Prakashdoc updates
1flip111
1jeevcat
1legrostdg
1max thomas
1trevorriles
1zieone
1Aerex
1ˌbodʲɪˈɡrʲim
1Aiken Cairncross
1Alan Young
1Alvaro Fernando García
1Amarandus
1Amitai Burstein
1Andreas Pauley
1Andrew Jones
1Andriy Mykhaylyk
1Ben Boeckel
1Boyd Kelly
1Brian Scott
1Bryan Richter
1Carel Fellinger
1Carl Richard Theodor Schneider
1Charlotte Van Petegem
1Colin Woodbury
1Daniel Gröber
1David D Lowe
1David Reaver
1David Zhang
1Doug Goldstein
1Evilham
1Felix Van der Jeugt
1Fun Ilrys (Nissar Chababy)
1Gabriel Ebner
1Garret McGraw
1Jan Zerebecki
1Jeff Richards
1Joachim Breitner
1Joaquin "Florius" Azcarate
1Joe Horsnell
1Johann Klähn
1John Wiegley
1Joshua Chia
1Joshua Kehn
1Kyle Marek-Spartz
1Lawrence Wu
1Luca Molteni
1Léo Gaspard
1M Parker
1Mark Hansen
1Mateus Furquim
1Michael Kainer
1Michael Walker
1Mick Dekkers
1Mitchell Rosen
1Nadrieril
1Nicolas Wavrant
1Nikhil Jha
1Nissar Chababy
1Oliver Braun
1Omari Norman
1Patrick Fiaux
1Patrik Keller
1Pavan Rikhi
1Pia Mancini
1Rick Lupton
1Rui Chen
1Sam Doshi
1ShrykeWindgrace
1Shubham Lagwankar
1Simon Hengel
1SpicyCat
1Steven R. Baker
1TANIGUCHI Kohei
1Timofey ZAKREVSKIY
1Vladimir Sorokin
1Wad
1afarrow
1agander
1awjchen
1azure-pipelines[bot]
1charukiewicz

Sponsoring hledger

Building and supporting good software and documentation is very costly; hledger comes from many thousands of skilled person-hours, sustained over 15+ years. Your support is invaluable and greatly appreciated! Is it the right time for you to help ? Consider:

  • Has this project been helpful to you or your organisation ?

  • Have you achieved enough financial success to be able to donate a little (or a lot) ?

  • Would you like to cultivate the psychological and spiritual benefits of giving back / paying forward ?

  • Would you like hledger to be around for a long time ? To remain actively supported ? To improve faster ?

  • Would you like to support our core mission ? Which is:

    To help more people achieve financial literacy, discipline and freedom, and to help grow a shared global culture of accountability and sustainability.
    (See also: FAQ)

How to sponsor

It's easy, even if not yet as efficient as we'd like. Neither hledger project nor our fiscal host is a registered charity, so your donations may not be tax-deductible, and the CFO (Simon) pays US and state income tax on all donations, in addition to the fees below.

Our fiscal host on Open Collective is The Open Source Collective, "a non-profit umbrella organisation providing financial and legal infrastructure for thousands of open source projects". So their fee is at least a sort of donation to support free/open-source software.

These donations are private and help support Simon. You can also support by offering me bounties or consulting gigs.

  • github (Fees: 0%)
  • liberapay (Fees: ~3%)
  • paypal (Fees: ~3%)
  • You can find their names at CREDITS, check their website/Github profile, and offer donations, bounties or paid work.

These donations are public and reported with hledger. They are deployed by the CFO (Simon), with input from the hledger team and community. So far, project funds have been used for project expenses, regression bounties, and one social good donation.

  • liberapay (Fees: ~3%)
  • opencollective (Fees: ~3% payment processor + 10% fiscal host)
  • issue bounty (simplest)
    • post a bounty pledge on an open issue
    • when resolved, pay the claimant directly (honour system).
  • bountysource bounty
    • search for the issue you want to sponsor
    • add some bounty to it
    • post a comment on the issue announcing the bounty
    • when resolved, pay through Bountysource.
  • opencollective bounty

Sponsors

We thank the following generous sponsors for their support:

Organisational sponsors

Individual sponsors

If your logo/avatar needs to be added, let me know!

Financial reports are in the hledger_finance repo, see http://finance.hledger.org.

Finance

https://hledger.org/finance this page https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger_finance finance repo

Old:

Funding

My vision for the hledger project has always been for it to be "accountable" and "self-sustaining", possibly through new forms of incentivisation. Classic non-monetary FOSS communities are a beautiful and precious thing. Adding money can change their dynamic. Yet, we would enjoy having a lot more issues resolved, and a faster rate of progress. So we experiment, gently.

Currently we use bounties as a way to encourage resolution of issues. There are a few ways to do this:

  1. You or your organisation can offer a bounty simply by saying so on the issue.

  2. You can use Bountysource. A few hledger bounties have been completed there.

  3. You can use the new Open Collective process below.

Issues with bounties of any kind are marked with the bounty label. The Bounty Manager is @simonmichael.

New bounty process

It currently looks like this, and will evolve:

  • Issues are marked as bounties by @simonmichael. Feel free to suggest additional issues which should receive the bounty label.

  • Bounties are paid from the hledger project's public Open Collective fund. By contributing to the fund as an individual or organisation, you enable more bounties.

  • These OC bounties (unlike 1 and 2 above) have standard amounts. These may be adjusted over time, depending eg on the state of our funds. Our current bounty amounts are

    • level 1: 10 USD
    • level 2: 25 USD
    • level 3: 50 USD

  • When you complete a bounty, submit an expense to Open Collective, for whichever of the above bounty amounts you think appropriate, based eg on time or expertise spent, how much you need it, how much remains in our fund for other bounties, etc. This will be reviewed by OC and (maybe ?) @simonmichael. Successful claims, like donations, will appear in our public OC ledger.

Our bounty amounts are small, and nothing like professional rates in most countries, but they still establish a principle of sustainability, and help us to experiment. You are encouraged to claim your bounties, though you can also choose to transfer them to a new issue of your choice.

Tutorial: Accounting basics and further study

Here we'll give a quick hledger-oriented intro to some useful accounting concepts, using the journal file created in Tutorial: hledger add. Also we'll discuss account hierarchy in hledger. At the end, there's a collection of useful links to learn more.

Debits and Credits

Double-entry bookkeeping traditionally names movements of money as "debits" or "credits". As an error-checking mechanism, the debits must exactly balance the credits, both within each individual transaction and over all transactions.

Signed numbers

hledger and most other plain text accounting tools use positive and negative sign instead of the debit and credit labels. This is essentially the same system, but most people find it easier to learn than the debit/credit terminology. Positive numbers are debits, negative numbers are credits, and within each transaction (and over all transactions) the sum of amounts must be zero.

As a consequence in hledger and similar PTA tools, it's common for reports to show equity, liability, and revenue (income) balances as negative numbers. (Some hledger reports/options can show them as positive for readability.)

Here is Ledger's discussion of this.

Assets, Liabilities and Equity

Accounting describes the status of a business, person or other entity at any point in time in terms of three amounts:

  • Assets - Things owned
  • Liabilities - Things owed
  • Equity - The amount invested by owners/shareholders

The foundation of double-entry accounting is the accounting equation, which says Equity is always equal to Assets minus Liabilities (or, Net Assets).

This is also written as: Assets = Liabilities + Equity. Another way to say it: what the entity owns is funded either by debt or by the capital provided by its owners.

These three are called the Balance Sheet accounts. Their balances summarise the overall financial status at some point in time.

Revenue and Expenses

Two more amounts are used to describe changes in the above during a given period:

  • Revenue - Money flowing in
  • Expenses - Money flowing out

You may be accustomed to using the word Income instead Revenue. That's fine, just remember that Income is sometimes used to mean Net Income, which is Revenue - Expenses.

These two are called the Income Statement accounts. The balances they accumulate during some period of time indicate the inflows and outflows during that period (which will affect the Assets and Liabilities balances).

Chart of Accounts

Five numbers do not give a lot of detail. If you want to know what portion of expenses went to buy food, you could add up just the transactions with (say) "supermarket" in their description. You know how to do this with hledger:

$ hledger register desc:supermarket expenses
2015/05/25 trip to the super..  expenses                       $10           $10

But descriptions are irregular, and as you can see we missed the $5 purchase on the following day.

Instead, the major "top-level" accounts above are subdivided into subaccounts which can be used in transactions, thereby categorising them in a more structured way. If needed, these subaccounts can be subdivided further. This tree of accounts is called the Chart of Accounts. Here's a simple example where assets, revenue and expenses each have a few subaccounts:

assets
  checking
  cash
liabilities
equity
revenue
  business income
  gifts received
expenses
  food
  rent
  supplies

In some organisations and accounting systems (eg, QuickBooks), the tree structure is de-emphasised, so the above is represented more like:

 Account name      Account type
 ------------------------------- 
 checking          ASSET
 cash              ASSET
 business income   REVENUE
 gifts received    REVENUE
 food              EXPENSE
 rent              EXPENSE
 supplies          EXPENSE

In others, the tree structure is encoded as decimal account numbers, something like this:

1000 assets
1100   checking
1200   cash
2000 liabilities
3000 equity
4000 revenue
4100   business income
4200   gifts received
5000 expenses
5100   food
5200   rent
5300   supplies

A digression: subaccounts in hledger

With hledger, tree structure is implied by writing account names like ACCOUNT:SUBACCOUNT. Try it: edit your journal file and change the account names like so:

$ cat ~/.hledger.journal

2015/05/25 trip to the supermarket
    expenses:supplies           $10
    assets:checking            $-10

2015/05/26 forgot the bread
    expenses:food            $5
    assets:cash

hledger will infer the chart of accounts from these names. The accounts command will list all accounts posted to:

$ hledger accounts
assets:cash
assets:checking
expenses:food
expenses:supplies

and accounts --tree will show the tree structure, indenting subaccounts below their parents (and eliding the common part of their names):

assets
  cash
  checking
expenses
  food
  supplies

Conversely, the balance command shows the tree structure by default:

$ hledger balance
                $-15  assets
                 $-5    cash
                $-10    checking
                 $15  expenses
                  $5    food
                 $10    supplies
--------------------
                   0

As you can see, the balance reported for parent accounts includes the balances of any subaccounts (it would also include any postings to the parent account itself.)

To see full account names in a flat list, use --flat:

$ hledger balance --flat
                 $-5  assets:cash
                $-10  assets:checking
                  $5  expenses:food
                 $10  expenses:supplies
--------------------
                   0

hledger accepts whatever account names you choose, so you can use as much or as little account hierarchy as you need. Most users have at least two levels of accounts. You can limit the amount of detail in a balance report by hiding accounts below a certain depth:

$ hledger balance --depth 1
                $-15  assets
                 $15  expenses
--------------------
                   0

General

Video

Theory

History

Balancing the accounting equation

The Accounting Equation states that Assets and Liabilities always match Equity. Eg: A - L = E.

This suggests that a balance report showing all Asset, Liability and Equity account balances should show a zero grand total. With hledger you can check this with a balance report like:

$ hledger balance ^assets ^liabilities ^equity

or more easily with the balancesheetequity command, which is designed for this:

$ hledger bse

Note, checking the accounting equation is different from checking a trial balance. A trial balance just checks that the total inflows and outflows over all accounts are equal, which can be seen by a zero grand total for hledger balance. Normally this is ensured by hledger's requirement that each individual transaction is balanced, but some of the same problems noted below apply to this also.

Common problems

In practice, you will find quite a number of things in real-life journals can disrupt the accounting equation and cause a non-zero total. Note, this does not interfere with most day-to-day reporting, and many PTA users won't notice it as a problem. But, seeing the correct zero total gives added confidence in your bookkeeping, for yourself and others you might be sharing reports with.

Here are some things that disturb the accounting equation, and their solutions:

1. Unclosed revenue/expenses

Revenues (income) and expenses are technically part of equity. In traditional accounting, they should be transferred to an account like equity:retained earnings at the end of each reporting period.

You could record such transfers in your journal, either manually or using the close command. Most PTA users don't bother with this.

More conveniently, you can use an account alias to convert revenue/expense accounts to equity temporarily. Eg:
--alias '/^(revenues|income|expenses)\b/=equity'

2. Unbalanced conversions with cost notation (@/@@)

Currency/commodity conversions using @/@@ notation and no equity conversion postings are unbalanced. You can rewrite them in balanced form, eg combining costs and equity conversion postings.

Or, use --infer-equity to do this temporarily at report time.

Or, converting amounts to cost may be another solution - try adding -B.

3. Rounding error with unit costs (@) and --infer-equity

--infer-equity is convenient but it tends to expose inaccuracies in the recorded @ prices, causing small non-zero values in the total. You can ignore this, or try to fix it by making @ prices more accurate, or replace your uses of @ with @@ (?) or equity postings.

4. Posting dates

Postings dates different from their transaction's date (; date:DATE or ; [DATE] notation) cause an imbalance in the accounting equation between the transaction date and posting date. Usually these unbalanced periods are short and do not cross a file boundary, so you can just avoid them when testing the accounting equation.

If they do cross a file boundary, or are inconveniently long, you can fix that by splitting the transaction into two transactions which use a pending account, as in close and balance assertions.

5. Unbalanced postings

Unbalanced virtual postings (with parenthesised account names) create an imbalance by definition; just exclude them from the report with -R/--real. This also excludes balanced virtual postings (with bracketed account names), but that will probably be harmless.

6. Partial reports

Many kinds of report query exclude some data, which can disturb the accounting equation. So, it's best to avoid queries when checking the accounting equation. If you specify a report start date, be sure to include balances from previous transactions by adding -H/--historical. (Or use the bse command, which does this automatically.)

An improved accounting equation report

Combining these, here is a more robust command for checking the accounting equation:

$ hledger bse -R --infer-equity --alias '/^(revenues|income|expenses)\b/=equity' not:desc:'closing balances' --layout tall -f YYYY.journal
  • -R - (--real) excludes any unbalanced virtual postings
  • --infer-equity - adds equity postings where needed to balance transactions using @/@@ cost notation
  • --alias ... - recategorises all revenues/expenses as equity
  • not:desc:... - excludes any final closing balance transactions that would hide ending balances (suitable for checking a single journal file)
  • --layout tall - improves readability when there are many commodities
  • -f ... - optional, specifies a file other than the default $LEDGER_FILE.

Borrowing and Lending

Lending, calculating interest manually

0.41% interest per month (roughly equivalent to 5% APR), calculated manually:

2020-01-01 opening balances
  assets:bank:checking   1000
  equity:opening/closing balances

2020-01-01 lend to Trusty Tara
  assets:bank:checking
  assets:receivable:tt    100
  
2020-02-01 charge 5% interest
  assets:receivable:tt      0.41   ; 100 x 0.41
  revenues:interest:tt

2020-02-15 Tara payment
  assets:receivable:tt    -50
  assets:bank:checking

2020-03-01 charge 5% interest
  assets:receivable:tt      0.21   ; 50.41 x 0.41, rounded
  revenues:interest:tt

2020-03-15 Tara payment
  assets:receivable:tt    -50
  assets:bank:checking

Monthly balance sheet:

$ hledger bs -M
Balance Sheet 2020-01-31,,2020-03-31

                      || 2020-01-31  2020-02-29  2020-03-31 
======================++====================================
 Assets               ||                                    
----------------------++------------------------------------
 assets:bank:checking ||     900.00      950.00     1000.00 
 assets:receivable:tt ||     100.00       50.41        0.62 
----------------------++------------------------------------
                      ||    1000.00     1000.41     1000.62 
======================++====================================
 Liabilities          ||                                    
----------------------++------------------------------------
----------------------++------------------------------------
                      ||                                    
======================++====================================
 Net:                 ||    1000.00     1000.41     1000.62

Lending, calculating interest with hledger-interest

Loan and payment transactions are in the main journal:

2020-01-01 opening balances
  assets:bank:checking   1000.00
  equity:opening/closing balances

2020-01-01 lend to Trusty Tara
  assets:bank:checking
  assets:receivable:tt    100 = 100
  
2020-02-15 Tara payment
  assets:receivable:tt    -50
  assets:bank:checking

2020-03-15 Tara payment
  assets:receivable:tt    -50
  assets:bank:checking

We use hledger-interest to add interest transactions, here 5% per year:

$ hledger-interest assets:receivable:tt --act --annual=0.05 -s revenues:interest:tt -t assets:receivable:tt 
2020-01-01 lend to Trusty Tara
    assets:bank:checking         -100.00
    assets:receivable:tt          100.00 = 100.00

2020-02-15 5% interest for 100.00 over 46 days
    assets:receivable:tt            0.63
    revenues:interest:tt           -0.63

2020-02-15 Tara payment
    assets:receivable:tt          -50.00
    assets:bank:checking           50.00

2020-03-15 5% interest for 50.63 over 29 days
    assets:receivable:tt            0.20
    revenues:interest:tt           -0.20

2020-03-15 Tara payment
    assets:receivable:tt          -50.00
    assets:bank:checking           50.00

It doesn't print the opening balance transaction for some reason. So we'll print that too, then get a monthly balance sheet:

$ (hledger print desc:opening; hledger-interest assets:receivable:tt --act --annual=0.05 -s revenues:interest:tt -t assets:receivable:tt) | hledger -f- bs -M
Balance Sheet 2020-01-31,,2020-03-31

                      || 2020-01-31  2020-02-29  2020-03-31 
======================++====================================
 Assets               ||                                    
----------------------++------------------------------------
 assets:bank:checking ||     900.00      950.00     1000.00 
 assets:receivable:tt ||     100.00       50.63        0.83 
----------------------++------------------------------------
                      ||    1000.00     1000.63     1000.83 
======================++====================================
 Liabilities          ||                                    
----------------------++------------------------------------
----------------------++------------------------------------
                      ||                                    
======================++====================================
 Net:                 ||    1000.00     1000.63     1000.83

Budgeting and forecasting (2018)

This is an old but still useful intro to budgeting with hledger. For more about budgeting, see also:

Budgeting and forecasting allows you to keep better track of your expenses and future financial situation. If you write down your expectations of what your income/expenses/investment yields/etc should be, you can use them to:

  • check how far off are your expectations from reality (budgeting)
  • project your future account activity or balances (forecasting)

(This section uses examples/bcexample.hledger from hledger source repository).

Goal-based budgeting

To start budgeting, you need to know what your average yearly or weekly expenditures are. Hledger could help you with that. Usually the interval for which you compute budget figures will be the same as the interval between your paychecks -- monthly or weekly.

Lets create monthly (-M) report for years 2013-2014 (-b 2013) of all top-level expense categories (--depth 2 Expenses), looking for average figures (-A), limiting ourselves to USD transactions only, to save screen space:

$ hledger balance -f bcexample.hledger -MA -b 2013 --depth 2 Expenses cur:USD
Balance changes in 2013/01/01-2014/10/31:

                    ||     2013/01      2013/02      2013/03  ...      2014/07      2014/08      2014/09      2014/10      Average 
====================++========================================...==================================================================
 Expenses:Financial ||    4.00 USD    12.95 USD    39.80 USD  ...    30.85 USD    21.90 USD    12.95 USD     4.00 USD    17.83 USD 
 Expenses:Food      ||  396.46 USD   481.48 USD   603.32 USD  ...   871.20 USD   768.23 USD   466.72 USD    83.00 USD   562.10 USD 
 Expenses:Health    ||  290.70 USD   193.80 USD   193.80 USD  ...   290.70 USD   193.80 USD   193.80 USD    96.90 USD   207.01 USD 
 Expenses:Home      || 2544.98 USD  2545.02 USD  2544.97 USD  ...  2545.12 USD  2545.01 USD  2545.10 USD            0  2429.33 USD 
 Expenses:Taxes     || 5976.60 USD  3984.40 USD  4901.83 USD  ...  5976.60 USD  3984.40 USD  3984.40 USD  1992.20 USD  4322.27 USD 
 Expenses:Transport ||  120.00 USD   120.00 USD   120.00 USD  ...            0   120.00 USD   120.00 USD   120.00 USD   109.09 USD 
--------------------++----------------------------------------...------------------------------------------------------------------
                    || 9332.74 USD  7337.65 USD  8403.72 USD  ...  9714.47 USD  7633.34 USD  7322.97 USD  2296.10 USD  7647.64 USD

This report is rather wide and portion of it had been cut out for brevity. Most interesting column is the last one, it shows average monthly expenses for each category. Expenses in Food, Health, Home and Transport categories seem to roughly similar month to month, so lets create a budget for them.

Budgets are described with periodic (ie, recurring) transaction rules. Periodic transaction has ~ instead of date and period expression instead of description. In this case we want to create a monthly budget that will come into effect starting from January 2013, which will include income of 10000 USD that is partially spent on Food, Health, Home and Transport and the rest becomes our Assets:

~ monthly from 2013/01
  Expenses:Food    500 USD
  Expenses:Health  200 USD
  Expenses:Home    2545 USD
  Expenses:Transport   120 USD
  Income:US        -10700 USD ;; Taken as monthy average of Income account group
  Assets:US

This transaction could be put into separate file (budget.journal) or could be kept in the main journal. Normally hledger will ignore it and will not include it in any computations or reports.

To put it into action, you need to add --budget switch to your balance invocation. If you do that, you would be able to see how your past expenses aligned with the budget that you just created. This time, lets not limit accounts in any way:

$ hledger balance -f bcexample.hledger -f budget.journal -MB -b 2013 --budget cur:USD
Balance changes in 2013/01/01-2014/10/31:

                          ||                            2013/01                            2013/02                             2013/03 
==========================++===========================================================================================================
 <unbudgeted>:Expenses    ||                        5980.60 USD                        3997.35 USD                         4941.63 USD 
 <unbudgeted>:Liabilities ||                         293.09 USD                        -147.51 USD                          -66.01 USD 
 Assets:US                ||      1893.32 USD [26% of 7335 USD]      2929.77 USD [40% of 7335 USD]     -3898.89 USD [-53% of 7335 USD] 
 Expenses:Food            ||        396.46 USD [79% of 500 USD]        481.48 USD [96% of 500 USD]        603.32 USD [121% of 500 USD] 
 Expenses:Health          ||       290.70 USD [145% of 200 USD]        193.80 USD [97% of 200 USD]         193.80 USD [97% of 200 USD] 
 Expenses:Home            ||     2544.98 USD [100% of 2545 USD]     2545.02 USD [100% of 2545 USD]      2544.97 USD [100% of 2545 USD] 
 Expenses:Transport       ||       120.00 USD [100% of 120 USD]       120.00 USD [100% of 120 USD]        120.00 USD [100% of 120 USD] 
 Income:US                || -15119.10 USD [141% of -10700 USD]  -10331.21 USD [97% of -10700 USD]  -11079.40 USD [104% of -10700 USD] 
--------------------------++-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                          ||                       -3599.95 USD                        -211.30 USD                        -6640.58 USD

Numbers in square brackets give you your budget estimate and percentage of it used by your real expenses. Numbers below 100% mean that you have some of your budget left, numbers over 100% mean that you went over your budget.

You can notice that actual numbers for Assets:US seem to be well below computed budget of 7335 USD. Why? Answer to this is in the first row of the report: we have quite a lot of unbudgeted Expenses!

Notice that even though we have not limited accounts in any way, report includes just those mentioned in the budget. This is on purpose, assumption is that when you are checking your budgets you probably do not want unbudgeted accounts getting in your way. Another thing to note is that budget numbers have been allocated to top-level expense subcategories (like Expenses:Food). Journal has subaccounts under Food, but to compute budget report they have all been rolled up into a nearest parent with budget number associated with it. Accounts that do not have such parent went into <unbudgeted> row.

Allright, it seems that for Jan 2013 we have ~3000 USD of budgeted expenses and almost twice as much unbudgeted. Lets figure out what they are. We can see more details if we add -E/--empty switch:

$ hledger balance -f bcexample.hledger -f budget.journal -M -b 2013-01 -e 2013-02 --budget cur:USD -E
Balance changes in 2013/01:

                                  ||                            2013/01 
==================================++====================================
 Assets:US                        ||      1893.32 USD [26% of 7335 USD] 
 Expenses:Financial:Fees          ||                           4.00 USD 
 Expenses:Food                    ||        396.46 USD [79% of 500 USD] 
 Expenses:Health                  ||       290.70 USD [145% of 200 USD] 
 Expenses:Home                    ||     2544.98 USD [100% of 2545 USD] 
 Expenses:Taxes:Y2013:US:CityNYC  ||                         524.76 USD 
 Expenses:Taxes:Y2013:US:Federal  ||                        3188.76 USD 
 Expenses:Taxes:Y2013:US:Medicare ||                         319.86 USD 
 Expenses:Taxes:Y2013:US:SDI      ||                           3.36 USD 
 Expenses:Taxes:Y2013:US:SocSec   ||                         844.62 USD 
 Expenses:Taxes:Y2013:US:State    ||                        1095.24 USD 
 Expenses:Transport               ||       120.00 USD [100% of 120 USD] 
 Income:US                        || -15119.10 USD [141% of -10700 USD] 
 Liabilities:US:Chase:Slate       ||                         293.09 USD 
----------------------------------++------------------------------------
                                  ||                       -3599.95 USD

All the accounts that were rolled up into <unbudgeted> category are now shown with their original name, but budgeted accounts are still rolled up. It is easy to see now that we forgot taxes. Lets add them to our budget:

~ monthly from 2013/01
  Expenses:Food    500 USD
  Expenses:Health  200 USD
  Expenses:Home    2545 USD
  Expenses:Transport   120 USD
  Expenses:Taxes   4300 USD ;; Taken from monthly average report
  Income:US        -10700 USD
  Assets:US

Lets try again for a couple of month with this updated budget:

$ hledger balance -f bcexample.hledger -f budget.journal -M -b 2013-01 -e 2013-04 --budget cur:USD 
Balance changes in 2013q1:

                          ||                            2013/01                            2013/02                             2013/03 
==========================++===========================================================================================================
 <unbudgeted>:Expenses    ||                           4.00 USD                          12.95 USD                           39.80 USD 
 <unbudgeted>:Liabilities ||                         293.09 USD                        -147.51 USD                          -66.01 USD 
 Assets:US                ||      1893.32 USD [62% of 3035 USD]      2929.77 USD [97% of 3035 USD]    -3898.89 USD [-128% of 3035 USD] 
 Expenses:Food            ||        396.46 USD [79% of 500 USD]        481.48 USD [96% of 500 USD]        603.32 USD [121% of 500 USD] 
 Expenses:Health          ||       290.70 USD [145% of 200 USD]        193.80 USD [97% of 200 USD]         193.80 USD [97% of 200 USD] 
 Expenses:Home            ||     2544.98 USD [100% of 2545 USD]     2545.02 USD [100% of 2545 USD]      2544.97 USD [100% of 2545 USD] 
 Expenses:Taxes           ||     5976.60 USD [139% of 4300 USD]      3984.40 USD [93% of 4300 USD]      4901.83 USD [114% of 4300 USD] 
 Expenses:Transport       ||       120.00 USD [100% of 120 USD]       120.00 USD [100% of 120 USD]        120.00 USD [100% of 120 USD] 
 Income:US                || -15119.10 USD [141% of -10700 USD]  -10331.21 USD [97% of -10700 USD]  -11079.40 USD [104% of -10700 USD] 
--------------------------++-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                          ||                       -3599.95 USD                        -211.30 USD                        -6640.58 USD

Now unbudgeted amounts are much smaller and some of them could be dismissed as noise, and we can see that budget created is actually close enough to the real numbers, meaning that they are usually close to average that we put in our budget.

Budget report that we have used so far assumes that any unused budget amount for a given (monthly) period will not contribute to the budget of the next period. Alternative popular "envelope budget" strategy assumes that you put a certain amount of money into an envelope each month, and any unused amount stays there for future expenses. This is easy to simulate by adding --cumulative switch. Lets redo the last report with it:

$ hledger balance -f bcexample.hledger -f budget.journal -M -b 2013-01 -e 2013-04 --cumulative --budget cur:USD
Ending balances (cumulative) in 2013q1:

                          ||                         2013/01/31                          2013/02/28                          2013/03/31 
==========================++============================================================================================================
 <unbudgeted>:Expenses    ||                           4.00 USD                           16.95 USD                           56.75 USD 
 <unbudgeted>:Liabilities ||                         293.09 USD                          145.58 USD                           79.57 USD 
 Assets:US                ||      1893.32 USD [62% of 3035 USD]       4823.09 USD [79% of 6070 USD]        924.20 USD [10% of 9105 USD] 
 Expenses:Food            ||        396.46 USD [79% of 500 USD]        877.94 USD [88% of 1000 USD]       1481.26 USD [99% of 1500 USD] 
 Expenses:Health          ||       290.70 USD [145% of 200 USD]        484.50 USD [121% of 400 USD]        678.30 USD [113% of 600 USD] 
 Expenses:Home            ||     2544.98 USD [100% of 2545 USD]      5090.00 USD [100% of 5090 USD]      7634.97 USD [100% of 7635 USD] 
 Expenses:Taxes           ||     5976.60 USD [139% of 4300 USD]      9961.00 USD [116% of 8600 USD]    14862.83 USD [115% of 12900 USD] 
 Expenses:Transport       ||       120.00 USD [100% of 120 USD]        240.00 USD [100% of 240 USD]        360.00 USD [100% of 360 USD] 
 Income:US                || -15119.10 USD [141% of -10700 USD]  -25450.31 USD [119% of -21400 USD]  -36529.71 USD [114% of -32100 USD] 
--------------------------++------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                          ||                       -3599.95 USD                        -3811.25 USD                       -10451.83 USD

If you look at Expenses:Food category, you will see that every month budget is increased by 500 USD, and by March total amount budgeted is 1500 USD, of which 1481.26 USD is spent. If you look back at the previous non-cumulative monthly budget report, you will see that in March food expenses were 121% of the budgeted amount, but cumulative report shows that taking into account budget carry-over from Jan and Feb we are well within planned numbers.

Envelope budgeting

Real envelope budgeting involves actually setting aside money for each category and spending only from there. In physical envelope budgeting, there are actual envelopes of cash. When doing envelope budgeting with hledger, the envelopes are represented by subaccounts, into which you transfer money and from which you spend it.

Note with this style of budgeting, you don't use periodic transactions or the --budget report - just regular transfers and regular balance reports. At the end of each period you can decide to remove or reallocate any surpluses, or let them roll over.b

A good place to keep the envelope accounts is under your regular checking or cash account, since it keeps the overall balance correct. Eg assets:checking:rent, assets:checking:food etc. Some people use virtual (imaginary) accounts instead.

The advantage of envelope budgeting is that it models your available funds precisely, which can be important in tight cashflow situations. hledger doesn't prevent overspending from your budget envelopes - you should watch their balances and make sure they never go negative. (The hledger-check-fancyassertions script could help, https://hledger.org/scripts.html.)

The downside is that it requires more bookkeeping work from you. Some people use auto posting rules to try to reduce that, but this can add complexity.

For more about envelope budgeting, see the links at wiki.plaintextaccounting.org/budgeting.

Forecasting

Budget transaction that was created could be used to predict what would be our financial situation in the future. If you add --forecast switch, you will see how budgeted income and expense affects you past the last transaction in the journal. Since journal ends in Oct 2014, lets see next two month:

$ hledger balance -f bcexample.hledger -f budget.journal -M -b 2014-10 -e 2015 --forecast cur:USD
Balance changes in 2014q4:

                                    ||      2014/10     2014/11     2014/12 
====================================++======================================
 Assets:US                          ||            0    3035 USD    3035 USD 
 Assets:US:BofA:Checking            || -2453.40 USD           0           0 
 Assets:US:ETrade:Cash              ||  5000.00 USD           0           0 
 Expenses:Financial:Fees            ||     4.00 USD           0           0 
 Expenses:Food                      ||            0     500 USD     500 USD 
 Expenses:Food:Restaurant           ||    83.00 USD           0           0 
 Expenses:Health                    ||            0     200 USD     200 USD 
 Expenses:Health:Dental:Insurance   ||     2.90 USD           0           0 
 Expenses:Health:Life:GroupTermLife ||    24.32 USD           0           0 
 Expenses:Health:Medical:Insurance  ||    27.38 USD           0           0 
 Expenses:Health:Vision:Insurance   ||    42.30 USD           0           0 
 Expenses:Home                      ||            0    2545 USD    2545 USD 
 Expenses:Taxes                     ||            0    4300 USD    4300 USD 
 Expenses:Taxes:Y2014:US:CityNYC    ||   174.92 USD           0           0 
 Expenses:Taxes:Y2014:US:Federal    ||  1062.92 USD           0           0 
 Expenses:Taxes:Y2014:US:Medicare   ||   106.62 USD           0           0 
 Expenses:Taxes:Y2014:US:SDI        ||     1.12 USD           0           0 
 Expenses:Taxes:Y2014:US:SocSec     ||   281.54 USD           0           0 
 Expenses:Taxes:Y2014:US:State      ||   365.08 USD           0           0 
 Expenses:Transport                 ||            0     120 USD     120 USD 
 Expenses:Transport:Tram            ||   120.00 USD           0           0 
 Income:US                          ||            0  -10700 USD  -10700 USD 
 Income:US:Hoogle:GroupTermLife     ||   -24.32 USD           0           0 
 Income:US:Hoogle:Salary            || -4615.38 USD           0           0 
 Liabilities:US:Chase:Slate         ||  -203.00 USD           0           0 
------------------------------------++--------------------------------------
                                    ||            0           0           0

Note that this time there is no roll-up of accounts. Unlike --budget, which could be used with balance command only, --forecast could be used with any report. Forecast transactions would be added to your real journal and would appear in the report you requested as if you have entered them on the scheduled dates.

Since quite a lot of accounts do not have any budgeted transactions, lets limit the depth of the report to avoid seeing lots of zeroes:

$ hledger balance -f bcexample.hledger -f budget.journal -M -b 2014-10 -e 2015 --forecast cur:USD --depth 2
Balance changes in 2014q4:

                    ||      2014/10     2014/11     2014/12 
====================++======================================
 Assets:US          ||  2546.60 USD    3035 USD    3035 USD 
 Expenses:Financial ||     4.00 USD           0           0 
 Expenses:Food      ||    83.00 USD     500 USD     500 USD 
 Expenses:Health    ||    96.90 USD     200 USD     200 USD 
 Expenses:Home      ||            0    2545 USD    2545 USD 
 Expenses:Taxes     ||  1992.20 USD    4300 USD    4300 USD 
 Expenses:Transport ||   120.00 USD     120 USD     120 USD 
 Income:US          || -4639.70 USD  -10700 USD  -10700 USD 
 Liabilities:US     ||  -203.00 USD           0           0 
--------------------++--------------------------------------
                    ||            0           0           0

As you can see, we should expect 3035 USD to be added into Assets:US each month. It is quite easy to see how overal amount of Assets will change with time if you use --cumulative switch:

$ hledger balance -f bcexample.hledger -f budget.journal -M -b 2014-10 -e 2015 --forecast cur:USD --depth 2 --cumulative
Ending balances (cumulative) in 2014q4:

                    ||   2014/10/31     2014/11/30     2014/12/31 
====================++============================================
 Assets:US          ||  2546.60 USD    5581.60 USD    8616.60 USD 
 Expenses:Financial ||     4.00 USD       4.00 USD       4.00 USD 
 Expenses:Food      ||    83.00 USD     583.00 USD    1083.00 USD 
 Expenses:Health    ||    96.90 USD     296.90 USD     496.90 USD 
 Expenses:Home      ||            0       2545 USD       5090 USD 
 Expenses:Taxes     ||  1992.20 USD    6292.20 USD   10592.20 USD 
 Expenses:Transport ||   120.00 USD     240.00 USD     360.00 USD 
 Income:US          || -4639.70 USD  -15339.70 USD  -26039.70 USD 
 Liabilities:US     ||  -203.00 USD    -203.00 USD    -203.00 USD 
--------------------++--------------------------------------------
                    ||            0              0              0

According to forecast, assets are expected to grow to 8600+ USD by the end of 2014. However, our forecast does not include a couple of big one-off year end expenses. First, we plan to buy prize turkey for the Christmas table every year from 2014, spending up to 500 USD on it. And on 17th Nov 2014 we would celebrate birthday of significant other, spending up to 6000 USD in a fancy restaurant:

~ every 20th Dec from 2014
  Expenses:Food   500 USD ; Prize turkey, the biggest of the big
  Assets:US

~ 2014/11/17
  Assets:US
  Expenses:Food   6000 USD ; Birthday, lots of guests

Note that turkey transaction is not entered as "yearly from 2014/12/20", since yearly/quarterly/monthy/weekly periodic expressions always generate entries at the first day of the calendar year/quarter/month/week. Thus "monthly from 2014/12" will occur on 2014/12/01, 2015/01/01, ..., whereas "every 20th of month from 2014/12" will happen on 2014/12/20, 2015/12/20, etc.

With latest additions forecast now looks like this:

hledger balance -f bcexample.hledger -f budget.journal -M -b 2014-10 -e 2015 --forecast cur:USD --depth 2 --cumulative
Ending balances (cumulative) in 2014q4:

                    ||   2014/10/31     2014/11/30     2014/12/31 
====================++============================================
 Assets:US          ||  2546.60 USD    -418.40 USD    2116.60 USD 
 Expenses:Financial ||     4.00 USD       4.00 USD       4.00 USD 
 Expenses:Food      ||    83.00 USD    6583.00 USD    7583.00 USD 
 Expenses:Health    ||    96.90 USD     296.90 USD     496.90 USD 
 Expenses:Home      ||            0       2545 USD       5090 USD 
 Expenses:Taxes     ||  1992.20 USD    6292.20 USD   10592.20 USD 
 Expenses:Transport ||   120.00 USD     240.00 USD     360.00 USD 
 Income:US          || -4639.70 USD  -15339.70 USD  -26039.70 USD 
 Liabilities:US     ||  -203.00 USD    -203.00 USD    -203.00 USD 
--------------------++--------------------------------------------
                    ||            0              0              0

It is easy to see that in Nov 2014 we will run out of Assets. Using register we can figure out when or why it would happen:

$ hledger register -f bcexample.hledger -f budget.journal -b 2014-10 -e 2014-12 --forecast cur:USD Assets
2014/10/04 "BANK FEES" | "Monthly bank fee"         Assets:US:BofA:Checking                      -4.00 USD     -4.00 USD
2014/10/09 "Hoogle" | "Payroll"                     Assets:US:BofA:Checking                    2550.60 USD   2546.60 USD
2014/10/10 "Transfering accumulated savings to o..  Assets:US:BofA:Checking                   -5000.00 USD  -2453.40 USD
                                                    Assets:US:ETrade:Cash                      5000.00 USD   2546.60 USD
2014/11/01 Forecast transaction                     Assets:US                                     3035 USD   5581.60 USD
2014/11/17 Forecast transaction                     Assets:US                                    -6000 USD   -418.40 USD

It is 6000 USD planned for birthday! Something will have to be done about the birthday plans.

Budgeting

Notes

 <sm> two commands that are roughly equivalent: ledger budget --add-budget expenses, hledger balance --budget -E expenses
 <sm> they show both budgeted and unbudgeted accounts            

--budget has no effect on single-column reports, it requires a reporting interval
--budget INTERVAL enables all periodic transactions with that interval; these can be date-limited
--budget hides all non-budgeted subaccounts; can be depth-limited more

<sm> there's different ways to do budgeting                     [16:46]
<sm> let me try to count them                                   [16:50]
<sm> "envelope budgeting" is analogous to having a set of envelopes containing cash for different purposes. 
You can model the "envelopes" with 
a. real-world accounts (eg your bank lets you create arbitrary savings accounts), 
b. virtual (imaginary) subaccounts of a real-world account (eg your checking account), 
c. virtual accounts "off to the side" (budget:*)
<sm> also you can do the transfers to and from these manually, or generate them with automated posting rules
<sm> "goal budgeting" (best name I can come up with) involves setting some inflow/outflow goals per account per period, 
and then measuring how the actual flows compare with the goals. balance --budget provides this report
<sm> I think that's 7 ways

From https://www.reddit.com/r/plaintextaccounting/comments/doq9p5/new_to_ledger_budgeting_question:

Also search for budgeting links at http://plaintextaccounting.org . You'll see two main approaches discussed:

  1. "envelope budgeting" - sounds more like what you've been doing. Based around explicitly allocating money for each purpose. Good for managing > cashflow. Requires more journal entries. Can be done entirely manually (1a) but many docs advise using automatic posting rules to assist (1b). Many > different ways to handle the details. Requires more thinking.

  2. the other kind ("report-based budgeting" ?). Based around a special budget report provided by Ledger/hledger, which uses periodic transaction > rules to set budget goals. Automatic posting rules might be useful here too, I'm not sure. Provides less enforcement, requires less work. Fewer ways > to do it, perhaps provides simpler/clearer reports.

I often find "budgeting" covers/touches on quite a lot of topics:

  • setting earning/spending goals,
  • reviewing performance against those goals,
  • controlling earning/spending based on the goals,
  • allocating funds for short term expenses,
  • allocating funds towards savings goals,
  • updating allocated funds as transactions occur,
  • reallocating funds/balancing the budget,
  • end of period actions (roll over ? reset ?),
  • forecasting cash balances and managing cashflow,
  • forecasting income/expenses...

Calculate return on investment

A tutorial for the roi (Return On Investment) command.

Cash-only investments

Let's consider the easy case first, where your assets and your investment is the same single commodity (in this case, USD), and whenever value of your investment changes, you record the change manually, balancing it against equity:unrealized gains.

Lets say that we found an investment in Snake Oil that is promising to give us 10% annually:

2019-01-01 Investing in Snake Oil
  assets:cash  -$100
  investment:snake oil

2019-12-24 Recording the growth of Snake Oil
  investment:snake oil   = $110
  equity:unrealized gains

For now, basic computation of the rate of return, as well as IRR and TWR, gives us the expected 10%:

$ hledger roi -Y --inv investment --pnl "unrealized"
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-----++--------++------------+----------+
|   ||      Begin |        End || Value (begin) | Cashflow | Value (end) | PnL ||    IRR || TWR/period | TWR/year |
+===++============+============++===============+==========+=============+=====++========++============+==========+
| 1 || 2019-01-01 | 2019-12-31 ||             0 |     $100 |        $110 | $10 || 10.00% ||     10.00% |   10.00% |
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-----++--------++------------+----------+

However, lets say that shorty after investing in the Snake Oil we started to have second thoughts, so we prompty withdrew $90, leaving only $10 in. Before Christmas, though, we started to get the "fear of missing out", so we put the $90 back in. So for most of the year, our investment was just $10 dollars, and it gave us just $1 in return:

2019-01-01 Investing in Snake Oil
  assets:cash  -$100
  investment:snake oil

2019-01-02 Buyers remorse
  assets:cash  $90
  investment:snake oil
       
2019-12-30 Fear of missing out
  assets:cash  -$90
  investment:snake oil

2019-12-31 Recording the growth of Snake Oil
  investment:snake oil   = $101
  equity:unrealized gains

Now IRR and TWR are drastically different:

$ hledger roi -Y --inv investment --pnl "unrealized"
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-----++-------++------------+----------+
|   ||      Begin |        End || Value (begin) | Cashflow | Value (end) | PnL ||   IRR || TWR/period | TWR/year |
+===++============+============++===============+==========+=============+=====++=======++============+==========+
| 1 || 2019-01-01 | 2019-12-31 ||             0 |     $100 |        $101 |  $1 || 9.32% ||      1.00% |    1.00% |
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-----++-------++------------+----------+

Here, IRR tells us that we made close to 10% on the $10 dollars that we had in the account most of the time. And TWR is ... just 1%? Why?

Based on the transactions in our journal, TWR "thinks" that we are buying back $90 worth of Snake Oil at the same price that it had at the beginning of the year, and then after that our $100 investment gets $1 increase in value, or 1% of $100. Let's take a closer look at what is happening here by asking for quarterly reports instead of annual:

$ hledger roi -Q --inv investment --pnl "unrealized"
+-------++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-----++--------++------------+----------+
|       ||      Begin |        End || Value (begin) | Cashflow | Value (end) | PnL ||    IRR || TWR/period | TWR/year |
+=======++============+============++===============+==========+=============+=====++========++============+==========+
|     1 || 2019-01-01 | 2019-03-31 ||             0 |      $10 |         $10 |   0 ||  0.00% ||      0.00% |    0.00% |
|     2 || 2019-04-01 | 2019-06-30 ||           $10 |        0 |         $10 |   0 ||  0.00% ||      0.00% |    0.00% |
|     3 || 2019-07-01 | 2019-09-30 ||           $10 |        0 |         $10 |   0 ||  0.00% ||      0.00% |    0.00% |
|     4 || 2019-10-01 | 2019-12-31 ||           $10 |      $90 |        $101 |  $1 || 37.80% ||      1.00% |    4.03% |
+-------++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-----++--------++------------+----------+
| Total || 2019-01-01 | 2019-12-31 ||             0 |     $100 |        $101 |  $1 ||  9.32% ||      1.00% |    1.00% |
+-------++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-----++--------++------------+----------+

Now both IRR and TWR are thrown off by the fact that all of the growth for our investment happens in Q4 2019. Reported rates are annualized, that is IRR computation is still yielding 9.32% and TWR is still 1%, but these rates are computed over three month period instead of twelve, so in order to get an annual rate they should be multiplied by four!

Let's try to keep a better record of how Snake Oil grew in value:

2019-01-01 Investing in Snake Oil
  assets:cash  -$100
  investment:snake oil

2019-01-02 Buyers remorse
  assets:cash  $90
  investment:snake oil

2019-02-28 Recording the growth of Snake Oil
  investment:snake oil  
  equity:unrealized gains  -$0.25

2019-06-30 Recording the growth of Snake Oil
  investment:snake oil  
  equity:unrealized gains  -$0.25

2019-09-30 Recording the growth of Snake Oil
  investment:snake oil  
  equity:unrealized gains  -$0.25

2019-12-30 Fear of missing out
  assets:cash  -$90
  investment:snake oil

2019-12-31 Recording the growth of Snake Oil
  investment:snake oil
  equity:unrealized gains  -$0.25

Would our quarterly report look better now? Almost:

$ hledger roi -Q --inv investment --pnl "unrealized"
+-------++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-------++--------++------------+----------+
|       ||      Begin |        End || Value (begin) | Cashflow | Value (end) |   PnL ||    IRR || TWR/period | TWR/year |
+=======++============+============++===============+==========+=============+=======++========++============+==========+
|     1 || 2019-01-01 | 2019-03-31 ||             0 |   $10.00 |      $10.25 | $0.25 ||  9.53% ||      2.50% |   10.53% |
|     2 || 2019-04-01 | 2019-06-30 ||        $10.25 |        0 |      $10.50 | $0.25 || 10.15% ||      2.44% |   10.15% |
|     3 || 2019-07-01 | 2019-09-30 ||        $10.50 |        0 |      $10.75 | $0.25 ||  9.79% ||      2.38% |    9.78% |
|     4 || 2019-10-01 | 2019-12-31 ||        $10.75 |   $90.00 |     $101.00 | $0.25 ||  8.05% ||      0.25% |    1.00% |
+-------++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-------++--------++------------+----------+
| Total || 2019-01-01 | 2019-12-31 ||             0 |  $100.00 |     $101.00 | $1.00 ||  9.32% ||      7.77% |    7.77% |
+-------++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-------++--------++------------+----------+

Something is still wrong with TWR computation for Q4, and if you have been paying attention you know what it is already: big $90 buy-back is recorded prior to the only transaction that captures the change of value of Snake Oil that happened in this time period. Lets combine transactions from 30th and 31st of Dec into one:

2019-12-30 Fear of missing out and growth of Snake Oil
  assets:cash  -$90
  investment:snake oil
  equity:unrealized gains  -$0.25

Now growth of investment properly affects its price at the time of buy-back:

$ hledger roi -Q --inv investment --pnl "unrealized"
+-------++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-------++--------++------------+----------+
|       ||      Begin |        End || Value (begin) | Cashflow | Value (end) |   PnL ||    IRR || TWR/period | TWR/year |
+=======++============+============++===============+==========+=============+=======++========++============+==========+
|     1 || 2019-01-01 | 2019-03-31 ||             0 |   $10.00 |      $10.25 | $0.25 ||  9.53% ||      2.50% |   10.53% |
|     2 || 2019-04-01 | 2019-06-30 ||        $10.25 |        0 |      $10.50 | $0.25 || 10.15% ||      2.44% |   10.15% |
|     3 || 2019-07-01 | 2019-09-30 ||        $10.50 |        0 |      $10.75 | $0.25 ||  9.79% ||      2.38% |    9.78% |
|     4 || 2019-10-01 | 2019-12-31 ||        $10.75 |   $90.00 |     $101.00 | $0.25 ||  8.05% ||      2.33% |    9.57% |
+-------++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-------++--------++------------+----------+
| Total || 2019-01-01 | 2019-12-31 ||             0 |  $100.00 |     $101.00 | $1.00 ||  9.32% ||     10.00% |   10.00% |
+-------++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-------++--------++------------+----------+

And for annual report, TWR now reports the exact profitability of our investment:

$ hledger roi -Y --inv investment --pnl "unrealized"
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-------++-------++------------+----------+
|   ||      Begin |        End || Value (begin) | Cashflow | Value (end) |   PnL ||   IRR || TWR/period | TWR/year |
+===++============+============++===============+==========+=============+=======++=======++============+==========+
| 1 || 2019-01-01 | 2019-12-31 ||             0 |  $100.00 |     $101.00 | $1.00 || 9.32% ||     10.00% |   10.00% |
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-------++-------++------------+----------+

Using commodities and prices

Let's redo the same Snake Oil example, but creating a special commodity to track amount of Snake Oil we have.

We will use SNKOIL as a commodity name, and will assume that 1 SNKOIL = $1 at the beginning of 2019.

As before, we start with a simple example where we invest in SNKOIL, and by the end of 2019 our investment growth by 10%.

2019-01-01 Investing in Snake Oil
  assets:cash
  investment:snake oil   100 SNKOIL @@ $100

; Recording the growth of Snake Oil
P 2019-12-24  SNKOIL $1.1

We need to tell roi that we are interested in the growth of value of our investment with --value=then switch, which forces it to use prices that were in effect at each moment in time that roi inspects for its computations:

$ hledger roi -Y --inv investment --pnl "unrealized" --value=then
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-------++--------++------------+----------+
|   ||      Begin |        End || Value (begin) | Cashflow | Value (end) |   PnL ||    IRR || TWR/period | TWR/year |
+===++============+============++===============+==========+=============+=======++========++============+==========+
| 1 || 2019-01-01 | 2019-12-31 ||             0 |   $100.0 |      $110.0 | $10.0 || 10.00% ||     10.00% |   10.00% |
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-------++--------++------------+----------+

Following the story from the previous example, lets say that shorty after investing in the Snake Oil we started to have second thoughts, so we prompty withdrew $90, leaving only $10 in. Before Christmas, though, we started to get the "fear of missing out", so we put the $90 back in. So for most of the year, our investment was just $10 dollars (or, rather 10 SNKOIL):

2019-01-01 Investing in Snake Oil
  assets:cash
  investment:snake oil   100 SNKOIL @@ $100

2019-01-02 Buyers remorse
  assets:cash
  investment:snake oil   -90 SNKOIL @@ $90

2019-12-23 Fear of missing out
  assets:cash
  investment:snake oil  90 SNKOIL @@ $90

; Recording the growth of Snake Oil
P 2019-12-24  SNKOIL $1.1

These numbers do not look correct:

$ hledger roi -Y --inv investment --pnl "unrealized" --value=then
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-------++--------++------------+----------+
|   ||      Begin |        End || Value (begin) | Cashflow | Value (end) |   PnL ||    IRR || TWR/period | TWR/year |
+===++============+============++===============+==========+=============+=======++========++============+==========+
| 1 || 2019-01-01 | 2019-12-31 ||             0 |   $100.0 |      $110.0 | $10.0 || 83.66% ||     10.00% |   10.00% |
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-------++--------++------------+----------+

That is because the "Fear of missing out" buy-back transaction is likely incorrect: based on the price in that transaction, it look like we are buying back $90 worth of Snake Oil at the same price that it had at the beginning of the year, and then after that our investment gets sudden increase in value. This completely throws off IRR computations.

Let's say that we kept a better record of SNKOIL prices and we can compute a more precise amount of SNKOIL we bough back at the end of the year:

2019-01-01 Investing in Snake Oil
 assets:cash
 investment:snake oil   100 SNKOIL @@ $100

2019-01-02 Buyers remorse
 assets:cash
 investment:snake oil   -90 SNKOIL @@ $90

; Recording the price of Snake Oil
P 2019-02-28 SNKOIL $1.025
P 2019-06-30 SNKOIL $1.05
P 2019-09-30 SNKOIL $1.075

2019-12-23 Fear of missing out
 assets:cash 
 investment:snake oil   83.72 SNKOIL @@ $90 ; $90/$1.075 = 83.72

; Recording the growth of Snake Oil
P 2019-12-24  SNKOIL $1.1

Now our IRR looks better:

$ hledger roi -Y --inv investment --pnl "unrealized" --value=then
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+--------++--------++------------+----------+
|   ||      Begin |        End || Value (begin) | Cashflow | Value (end) |    PnL ||    IRR || TWR/period | TWR/year |
+===++============+============++===============+==========+=============+========++========++============+==========+
| 1 || 2019-01-01 | 2019-12-31 ||             0 | $100.000 |    $103.092 | $3.092 || 25.22% ||      3.09% |    3.09% |
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+--------++--------++------------+----------+

Though from IRR perspective it looks like we only had about $10 worth of SNKOIL for most of the year, and still managed to get a return of $3, which looks like about a quarter of $10 invested - hence 25.22% of return from IRR standpoint. Note that TWR gives us more sensive 3.09% of return, which is closer to what you would expect, and shows that TWR is indeed (way) less sensitive to the money movements.

Investments that pay interest out (loans, bonds, dividends)

Let's say that you have given someone a loan or put money in a savings account, or maybe bought bonds that pay out regular coupons, and now you have monthly/quarterly/annual payouts. What is the best way to record them so that we could compute ROI?

For the following example, we will assume that you put $100 into savings account that pays out $1 quarterly (so your interest is not added to your investment):

2019-01-01 Investment
  assets:cash
  investment:saving  $100

We need to make sure that:

  • Payout transactions are included in the analysis, so they must match the query given to --inv. This could be achieved if investment account is mentioned in our transaction.

  • Payout transactions do not change the value of the investment

These two bullet points are naturally translated to this transaction:

2019-03-31 Interest
  assets:cash         $1
  investment:saving   $0

This transaction is not balanced, though. We need to balance it with the "profit and loss" account:

2019-03-31 Interest
  assets:cash         $1
  investment:saving   $0
  equity:profit and loss

So, at the end of the quarter your investment grew $1 in value and that $1 was immediately paid out to you, and this transaction lines with the description pretty well.

Let's complete the journal with one year of payouts:

2019-01-01 Investment
  assets:cash
  investment:saving  $100

2019-03-31 Q1 Interest
  assets:cash         $1
  investment:saving   $0
  equity:profit and loss

2019-06-30 Q2 Interest
  assets:cash         $1
  investment:saving   $0
  equity:profit and loss

2019-09-30 Q3 Interest
  assets:cash         $1
  investment:saving   $0
  equity:profit and loss

2019-12-31 Q4 Interest
  assets:cash         $1
  investment:saving   $0
  equity:profit and loss

We can now compute ROI:

$ hledger roi -Y --inv investment --pnl "profit and loss"
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-----++-------++------------+----------+
|   ||      Begin |        End || Value (begin) | Cashflow | Value (end) | PnL ||   IRR || TWR/period | TWR/year |
+===++============+============++===============+==========+=============+=====++=======++============+==========+
| 1 || 2019-01-01 | 2019-12-31 ||             0 |      $96 |        $100 |  $4 || 4.06% ||      4.06% |    4.06% |
+---++------------+------------++---------------+----------+-------------+-----++-------++------------+----------+

Cashflow is $100 paid in minus $4 of interest received back.

Calculate unrealized gain

This is a guide on calculating the unrealized capital gain/loss of investments, using the balance --gain report (currently unreleased and available only in the git repo).

This guide assumes you've read the investments guide and that you're using the "simple" version of recording investment transactions laid out in that document, using @ or @@. We'll also be using a FIFO system for sales. At the end we'll discuss how to adapt your strategy for different systems.

Buying

Let's say you start your year with $100:

2021-01-04 opening balances
    assets:cash                      $100.00
    equity:opening/closing balances

In february you decide to start investing in a stock you've been monitoring:

P 2021-01-04 ABC $2
P 2021-01-11 ABC $3
P 2021-01-18 ABC $4

2021-01-19 buying stock
    assets:stocks:ABC:20210119   5 ABC @ $4.40
    assets:cash               $-22.00

Note that the stock was not bought at the exact market price we recorded.

Looking at the gain report at this point tells us that we've lost $2:

$ hledger bal --gain

              $-2.00  assets:stocks:ABC:20210119
--------------------
              $-2.00

This is because if we sell at the last known market price, that is what our loss will be. If we add --infer-market-price hledger will insert a P 2021-01-19 ABC $4.40 during processing, making the gain $0.

Price changes

Let's say the market price grows some more in the following weeks:

P 2021-01-25 ABC $5
P 2021-02-01 ABC $6

We now see a profit of $8:

$ hledger bal --gain

                  $8  assets:stocks:ABC:20210119
--------------------
                  $8

We can also track the gain over time:

$ hledger bal --gain -W

Incremental gain in 2021-01-04..2021-02-07, valued at period ends:

                            || 2021-01-04W01  2021-01-11W02  2021-01-18W03  2021-01-25W04  2021-02-01W05 
============================++===========================================================================
 assets:stocks:ABC:20210119 ||             0              0         $-2.00          $5.00          $5.00 
----------------------------++---------------------------------------------------------------------------
                            ||             0              0         $-2.00          $5.00          $5.00

We start out with our gain of $-2 as before. Since the value of the stock increases by $1 every week and we bought 5 shares, we see a $5 increment in the following weeks. To see the total gain over time add the -H option.

At this point, you decide to buy some more shares:

2021-02-02 buying more stock
    assets:stocks:ABC:20210202   4 ABC @ $6.50
    assets:cash               $-26.00

Let's see what this does to our gain calculation:

$ heldger bal --gain
                  $8  assets:stocks:ABC:20210119
                 $-2  assets:stocks:ABC:20210202
--------------------
                  $6

We still see the same gain for the first lot. The new lot has a gain of $-2, decreasing our total gain to $6.

Unfortunately, in the next week the market price of the stock decreases:

P 2021-02-08 ABC $5

Our gain report over time now looks like this:

$ hledger bal --gain -W -b 2021-01-18

Incremental gain in 2021-01-04..2021-02-14, valued at period ends:

                            || 2021-01-18W03  2021-01-25W04  2021-02-01W05  2021-02-08W06 
============================++============================================================
 assets:stocks:ABC:20210119 ||        $-2.00          $5.00          $5.00         $-5.00 
 assets:stocks:ABC:20210202 ||             0              0         $-2.00         $-4.00 
----------------------------++------------------------------------------------------------
                            ||        $-2.00          $5.00          $3.00         $-9.00

We'll add some more prices, and then start selling our stocks.

P 2021-02-15 ABC $6
P 2021-02-22 ABC $7

Selling

We'll start of by selling some of our first lot:

2021-02-23 sell some stock
    assets:cash                $12.00
    assets:stocks:ABC:20210119  -2 ABC @ $4.40
    income:capital gains

This leaves us with the following gain report:

$ hledger bal -W --gain -b 2021-02-07

Incremental gain in 2021-02, valued at period ends:

                            || 2021-02-01W05  2021-02-08W06  2021-02-15W07  2021-02-22W08 
============================++============================================================
 assets:stocks:ABC:20210119 ||         $5.00         $-5.00          $5.00         $-0.20 
 assets:stocks:ABC:20210202 ||        $-2.00         $-4.00          $4.00          $4.00 
----------------------------++------------------------------------------------------------
                            ||         $3.00         $-9.00          $9.00          $3.80

At first glance, the negative value in the last column might seem counterintuitive. Didn't we just make a profit on our sale? However, our unrealized gain decreased by the sale. The realized gain is recorded by the income:capital gains posting. Our income statement tells us our realized gain:

$ hledger is

Income Statement 2021-01-04..2021-02-23

                      || 2021-01-04..2021-02-23 
======================++========================
 Revenues             ||                        
----------------------++------------------------
 income:capital gains ||                  $3.20 
----------------------++------------------------
                      ||                  $3.20 
======================++========================
 Expenses             ||                        
----------------------++------------------------
----------------------++------------------------
                      ||                        
======================++========================
 Net:                 ||                  $3.20

The total value of the remaining 3 stocks we didn't sell increased by $3 that week, leaving us the $-0.20 figure we see in the last column of the gain report.

The next week, the price increases again, and we decide to sell all our remaining stock:

P 2021-03-01 ABC $8

2021-03-02 sell remaining stock
    assets:cash                $54.00
    assets:stocks:ABC:20210119  -3 ABC @ $4.40
    assets:stocks:ABC:20210202  -4 ABC @ $6.50
    income:capital gains

This decreases our remaining unrealized gain down to 0:

$ hledger bal -W --gain -b 2021-02-07 -H

Historical gain in 2021-02-01..2021-03-07, valued at period ends:

                            || 2021-02-07  2021-02-14  2021-02-21  2021-02-28  2021-03-07 
============================++============================================================
 assets:stocks:ABC:20210119 ||      $8.00       $3.00       $8.00       $7.80           0 
 assets:stocks:ABC:20210202 ||     $-2.00      $-6.00      $-2.00       $2.00           0 
----------------------------++------------------------------------------------------------
                            ||      $6.00      $-3.00       $6.00       $9.80           0

Different cost base calculations

The transactions described above could easily be adapted for LIFO: just use a different lot for the initial sale.

ACB gets a bit more difficult. If we buy more stock, we essentially have to change the cost basis of our previous lots as well. The resulting journal might look a little like this:

2021-01-04 opening balances
    assets:cash                      $100.00
    equity:opening/closing balances

P 2021-01-04 ABC $2
P 2021-01-11 ABC $3
P 2021-01-18 ABC $4

2021-01-19 buying stock
    assets:stocks:ABC:20210119   5 ABC @ $4.40
    assets:cash               $-22.00

P 2021-01-25 ABC $5
P 2021-02-01 ABC $6

2021-02-02 buying more stock
    assets:stocks:ABC:20210119  -5 ABC @ $4.40
    assets:stocks:ABC:20210119   5 ABC @ $5.33
    assets:stocks:ABC:20210202   4 ABC @ $5.33
    assets:cash               $-26.00
    equity:rounding

P 2021-02-08 ABC $5
P 2021-02-15 ABC $6
P 2021-02-22 ABC $7

2021-02-23 sell some stock
    assets:cash                $12.00
    assets:stocks:ABC:20210119  -2 ABC @ $5.33
    income:capital gains

P 2021-03-01 ABC $8

2021-03-02 sell remaining stock
    assets:cash                $54.00
    assets:stocks:ABC:20210119  -3 ABC @ $5.33
    assets:stocks:ABC:20210202  -4 ABC @ $5.33
    income:capital gains

If and how you deal with rounding depends on if and how you need to report your capital gains to your tax authority. You can avoid rounding errors by always using the @@ symbol, but this essentially makes it impossible to sell only part of your shares (or you have to deal with rounding at time of sale instead of time of purchase). A journal might then look like this:

2021-01-04 opening balances
    assets:cash                      $100.00
    equity:opening/closing balances

P 2021-01-04 ABC $2
P 2021-01-11 ABC $3
P 2021-01-18 ABC $4

2021-01-19 buying stock
    assets:stocks:ABC   5 ABC @@ $22.00
    assets:cash      $-22.00

P 2021-01-25 ABC $5
P 2021-02-01 ABC $6

2021-02-02 buying more stock
    assets:stocks:ABC  -5 ABC @@ $22.00
    assets:stocks:ABC   9 ABC @@ $48.00
    assets:cash      $-26.00

P 2021-02-08 ABC $5
P 2021-02-15 ABC $6
P 2021-02-22 ABC $7
P 2021-03-01 ABC $8

2021-03-02 sell stock
    assets:cash                $70.00
    assets:stocks:ABC:20210119  -9 ABC @@ $48.00
    income:capital gains

Change account name separator

Timedot format makes me want to use dots (.) for separating account components, instead of colon (:). For example, instead of fos:hledger:timedot I'd like to write fos.hledger.timedot. We can use the powerful account aliases feature to rewrite account names before hledger's account name parser sees them.

In journal files, we can use an alias directive. Note the backslash which tells the regular expression engine it's a literal . not a wildcard:

# alias /REGEX/=REPLACEMENT
alias /\./=:

2008/01/01 income
    assets.bank.checking  $1
    income.salary

Check that subaccounts are recognised:

$ hledger -f t.journal bal --no-elide
                  $1  assets
                  $1    bank
                  $1      checking
                 $-1  income
                 $-1    salary
--------------------
                   0

Alias directives aren't supported in the timedot format,

2016/2/4
fos.hledger.timedot  2
fos.ledger           1

so we would use the --alias command line option instead. The second backslash tells the shell that's a literal backslash, not a shell escape sequence:

$ hledger --alias /\\./=: -f t.timedot bal --no-elide
                3.00  fos
                2.00    hledger
                2.00      timedot
                1.00    ledger
--------------------
                3.00

Charts and Graphs

Tips and techniques for producing graphical charts from hledger data.

The most common general approach is to produce simple CSV output from a report - usually the balance report with -N/--no-total and --layout=bare:

hledger bal expenses -N --layout bare -o report.csv

and then use one of the many ways to make charts from CSV data.

Charting tools built for hledger

Simplest first:

hledger-bar

hledger-bar (2023) is a bash script for making quick bar charts in the terminal.

$ hledger bar someacct
2023-01	+++++
2023-02	++++
2023-03	++++
2023-04	+

$ hledger bar -- -v 1 -f $TIMELOG biz
2023-01	        15 +++++++++++++++
2023-02	        10 ++++++++++
2023-03	        20 ++++++++++++++++++++
2023-04	        12 ++++++++++++

$ hledger bar -- -v 1 -f $TIMELOG biz -p weeklyfrom3weeksago
2023-03-27W13	         8 ++++++++
2023-04-03W14	         2 ++
2023-04-10W15	         4 ++++
2023-04-17W16	         5 +++++

hledger-plot

hledger-plot (2023) is a powerful graphical chart-making tool written in python.

hledger-vega

hledger-vega (2022) is a set of scripts for producing custom charts from your hledger reports, using the powerful vega-lite. It works best with hledger 1.25+.

hledger-vega example

r-ledger

r-ledger is an R package for making reports and charts from hledger, Ledger or Beancount.

Other tools

Spreadsheets

Drag the CSV file into your favourite spreadsheet app and use its interactive charting tools.

Ledger chart tools

Tools built for Ledger or other PTA apps can sometimes be adapted to work with hledger also; or, hledger data can be exported to be read by Ledger.

ploterific

ploterific (stack install hvega-theme ploterific) produces simple charts, in a HTML file that uses the Vega-Lite javascript library. Charts can also be saved as SVG or PNG. An example:

hledger -f examples/bcexample.hledger bal -O csv -N expenses -3 cur:USD \
    | sed 's/ USD//' \
    | ploterific -m Bar -f account:N -f balance:Q -c account -o a.html \
    && open a.html

ploterific example 1

Let's break down that command line:

  • -f examples/bcexample.hledger - use this example file in the hledger repo. Omit this to use your default journal.
  • bal - run a balance report
  • -O csv - show it as CSV on stdout
  • -N - disable the final Total row
  • expenses - limit to accounts whose name contains expenses
  • -3 - summarise accounts to depth 3 and above
  • cur:USD - limit to balances in USD currency. If you use the $ symbol, it would be cur:\\$.
  • sed 's/ USD//g' - process the output with sed, stripping the USD symbols to leave bare numbers for ploterific. With $ it would be sed 's/\$//g'.
  • -m Bar - use Bar as the Vega-Lite mark type
  • -f account:N - use the account column as the first feature (X axis), treating values as names
  • -f balance:Q - use the balance column as a second feature (Y axis), treating values as quantities
  • -c account - use account values to select colours
  • -o a.html - save into a temporary HTML file
  • && open a.html - and view it in your web browser, on Mac; on other systems it might be xdg-open or start

Here is the same chart but with the colour set by the balance:

hledger -f examples/bcexample.hledger bal -O csv -N expenses -3 cur:USD \
    | sed 's/ USD//' \
    | ploterific -m Bar -f account:N -f balance:Q -c balance:Q -o a.html

ploterific example 2

Checking for errors

hledger can check your data in various ways.

Built in checks

In hledger 1.21+, see strict mode and the check command.

Old way to check accounts

Here's another way to check for undeclared accounts, that works with older hledger versions, showing some diff tricks:

$ diff -U0 --label "Unused Accounts" --label "Undeclared Accounts" <(hledger accounts --declared) <(hledger accounts --used)

Compare report output

Save the output of a report, and later use diff to compare the output of the same report, revealing any changes.

$ hledger COMMAND > report.txt
$ hledger COMMAND > report2.txt
$ diff report.txt report2.txt

Or, periodically commit a report's output into your version control system, then use the VCS to detect any changes since the last commit.

$ hledger COMMAND > report.txt; git add report.txt; git commit -m 'report' report.txt
$ hledger COMMAND > report.txt; git diff -- report.txt

A pre-commit hook

Version control systems often support a "pre-commit hook", a script which is required to succeed before each commit. Eg:

#!/bin/bash
set -e
hledger check -s

Flycheck mode

If you use Emacs, you can configure flycheck to run your preferred checks when you edit a journal file. This integration is currently quite basic, but it still gives very useful real-time feedback. Setup tips:

  • in Emacs, install the flycheck-hledger package and customise the flycheck-checkers variable, adding hledger to the list
  • customise the flycheck-hledger-strict and flycheck-hledger-checks variables

Todo / maybe

Here are some checks we don't support, but could:

  • accountsactive - for each account used, if there is posting with an open: tag, it must have a corresponding posting with a close: tag, and all other postings must be chronologically between (and if on the same date, textually between) open and close postings. ("Accounts are posted to only within their declared active period.")
  • explicitamounts - all transaction amounts have been recorded explicitly

Climate impact

Most human endeavours should maintain and publish an environmental cost/benefit report. "Cost" means some environmental impact such as resources used (energy, water, land..)
or undesirable waste generated (carbon dioxide, toxins, heat, noise, harm..) --https://ecoaccounting.org

Here is the beginnings of one for the hledger project, with a catchier name.

Development

Costs related to developing hledger come from:

  • developer machine activity
    • recompiling, linking, building docs, browsing, running IDEs etc.
  • test machine activity
    • CI workers recompiling on push, on PR updates etc.
  • source code hosting
    • VCS operations, file and artifact hosting, rich web UIs, issue tracking, forks, notifications (github etc.)
  • public websites and services
    • hledger.org doc hosting, updating
    • demo.hledger.org hosting
    • discussions (matrix, irc, reddit, hacker news..)
    • media (youtube..)
    • project analysis (libhunt..)

Benefits:

  • providing effective accounting tools to people and organisations who would be less effective/less empowered by other tools, potentially unlocking further eco accounting activity and successes
  • potentially help advance best practices and community know-how by sharing useful techniques, tools, processes, architecture, patterns

Delivery

Costs related to packaging and shipping hledger to end-users. Related to development, but broken out separately here. This includes:

  • Github artifact building / additional testing beyond standard dev tests
  • Hackage hosting/maintenance
  • Stackage hosting/maintenance
  • Hosting/maintenance in all the other packaging systems and distributions on the Install page
  • Download/install/cloning/build work done by user machines

Benefits:

  • Roughly speaking, more work done on packaging and delivery means more users able to try out and benefit from the software, magnifying the Development benefits above

Your hledger usage

Costs from your individual/organisational usage of hledger, other than Delivery costs above, may include:

  • Machine usage every time you run hledger
  • Hardware upgrade/purchase pressure to satisfy memory/disk space requirements
  • Personal and online machine usage and human time while learning, discussing, configuring and maintaining hledger and PTA

Benefits:

  • Hopefully, more effective accounting and eco accounting, reducing waste and increasing personal/organisational solvency, success, empowerment and positive impact

Stats

Some useful statistics to guestimate:

  • Yearly cost
  • Yearly cost trend
  • Cumulative cost
  • Predicted lifetime cost
  • Comparison with alternate solutions

Command line completion

Command-line completion is a feature in shells (Bash, Fish, Zsh, ...) to automatically complete a command, argument, or option. Usually, the completion is triggered by pressing the tab key once or twice after typing hledger . (The exact behavior may differ in shells other than Bash.)

asciicast

The completions handle hledger's CLI:

  • commands and generic options
  • command-specific options
  • filenames for options that take a filename as argument
  • account names from journal files (but not yet for files named by --file)
  • query filter keywords like status:, tag:, or amt:

Installation for end users

Completions are currently only implemented for the Bash shell.

Please check first if the completions for hledger are already installed on your distribution. Refer to the last paragraph of this section for how to test that.

To install the completions manually, follow this steps:

  • Download or copy the file hledger/shell-completion/hledger-completion.bash and save it as ~/.hledger-completion.bash.

    Note: Prior to version 1.25, the shell-completion directory was at the repository root (not hledger/shell-completion). Update the URLs, taking this into account, if you are trying to download the completion script for an older version of hledger such as 1.21.

  • Add the command source ~/.hledger-completion.bash to the end of your ~/.bashrc file.

  • Then, you have to start a new Bash, e.g. by typing bash on the current shell.

Example installation script:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/simonmichael/hledger/master/hledger/shell-completion/hledger-completion.bash > ~/.hledger-completion.bash
echo 'source ~/.hledger-completion.bash' >> ~/.bashrc
bash  # open a new bash to try it

Now, try it by typing hledger (with a space after the command) and press the tab key twice. You should see a list of appropriate completions for hledger. Then you can type a part of one of the suggestions and press tab again to complete it. If you only see filenames, the completions are not correctly installed.

Completion scripts for other shells

You're welcome to add completion scripts for other shells (e.g. Fish or Zsh)! It should not be too hard. All available hledger options and commands are already there. Only the shell hooks and logic is missing.

Please refer to the README in the shell-completion folder.

Common journal entries

Here are entries for some common transactions. Check other pages, or https://wiki.plaintextaccounting.org for more detailed examples.

Shopping

2017/1/26 market
  expenses:food    $10
  assets:cash

Invoicing, accrual basis

2018-04-16 * (2018-001) SuperCompany invoice
    Revenue:Software Development                        $ -2420.00
    Assets:Receivable:SuperCompany                       $ 2420.00

2018-04-26 * (2018-001) SuperCompany payment
    Assets:Receivable:SuperCompany                      $ -2420.00 = $0
    Assets:Checking                                      $ 2420.00

Invoicing, cash basis

; Invoices aren't tracked in cash basis, use unbalanced postings to track them anyway.

2018-04-16 * (2018-001) SuperCompany invoice
    (Assets:Receivable:SuperCompany)                      $2420

2018-04-26 * (2018-001) SuperCompany payment
    (Assets:Receivable:SuperCompany)                     $-2420 = $0
    Revenue:Software Development                         $-2420
    (Liabilities:Tax:2018)                                $-420
    Assets:Checking:Estimated Tax Savings:2018             $420
    Assets:Checking                                       $2000

The above plus postings to track and save estimated income tax:

2018-04-26 * (2018-001) SuperCompany payment
    (Assets:Receivable:SuperCompany)                     $-2420 = $0
    Revenue:Software Development                         $-2420
    (Liabilities:Tax:US:2018)                             $-420
    Assets:Checking:Tax:US:2018                            $420
    Assets:Checking                                       $2000

Tracking a mortgage

2019/01/01 Buy House
    Assets:House                                      500,000.00
    Liabilities:Mortgage

2019/02/01 Mortgage Payment
    Liabilities:Mortgage                                1,000.00
    Expenses:Interest:Real Estate                         833.33
    Assets:Cash                                         -1833.33

2019/03/01 Mortgage Payment
    Liabilities:Mortgage                                1,002.00
    Expenses:Interest:Real Estate                         831.33
    Assets:Cash                                         -1833.33

2019/03/01 Zillow Price Estimate
    Assets:House                                                 = 505,000.00  ; assign new balance, generating a transaction
    Equity:Unrealized Gains

Common workflows

There are lots of ways to use hledger; here is an overview. Of course you can mix and match these. Also remember always to back up your files periodically to safeguard your data.

Command line

At a terminal prompt, run hledger add and follow the interactive prompts to enter transactions. It will store data in its default location. Run hledger to list commands to try. Eg, run hledger bs to see your account balances (a balance sheet), and hledger is to see your income and expenses (an income statement).

Tutorial: hledger basics describes this process, and hledger's basic concepts and file format, step by step. You might want to skim through this one even if you don't plan to use hledger add.

Web UI

This is the easiest hledger workflow, if it works for you:

Download and run hledger-web, eg by double-clicking on it. It should open in your web browser. Use the add form to add transactions. It will store data in its default location. (So you'll see your transactions next time you run it.)

Tutorial: hledger-web describes this in more detail.

Terminal UI

Use hledger add once to create a journal file with an opening balances transaction. Now run hledger-ui to view account balances. Use the onscreen help to get around and discover the controls. Eg, press a to add new transactions.

Tutorial: hledger-ui describes this setup in more detail.

Text editor

Open your preferred text editor and create a journal file, either .hledger.journal in your home directory, or somewhere else like ~/finance/2023.journal (and set the LEDGER_FILE environment variable). Create transactions by hand using journal file format. Once you have a few, you can copy/paste them to make more. When you want more assistance, set up an editor mode. Here's an example:

; $HOME/.hledger.journal

2020-01-01 opening balances
    assets:checking         $1234
    equity

2020-03-15 client payment
    assets:checking         $2000
    income:consulting

2020-03-20 Sprouts
    expenses:food:groceries  $100
    assets:cash               $40
    assets:checking

Run hledger in a terminal to see reports, as in the Command line workflow. Eg:

$ hledger bs
Balance Sheet 2020-03-20

             || 2020-03-20 
=============++============
 Assets      ||            
-------------++------------
 assets      ||      $3134 
   cash      ||        $40 
   checking  ||      $3094 
-------------++------------
             ||      $3134 
=============++============
 Liabilities ||            
-------------++------------
-------------++------------
             ||            
=============++============
 Net:        ||      $3134 

$ hledger is -M
Income Statement 2020-01-01-2020-03-20

                         || Jan  Feb    Mar 
=========================++=================
 Revenues                ||                 
-------------------------++-----------------
 income:consulting       ||   0    0  $2000 
-------------------------++-----------------
                         ||   0    0  $2000 
=========================++=================
 Expenses                ||                 
-------------------------++-----------------
 expenses:food:groceries ||   0    0   $100 
-------------------------++-----------------
                         ||   0    0   $100 
=========================++=================
 Net:                    ||   0    0  $1900

CSV import

Download CSV files from banks and financial institutions, manually or using tools/services that automate this (ledger_autosync, Plaid, plaid2qif, Tiller etc.) Use hledger's import command to convert and import the new transactions, and use any of the hledger UIs to see reports.

Importing CSV data is a quick tutorial on the importing from CSV part. Some downloading helpers can be found at https://plaintextaccounting.org/#data-importconversion (search for "download").

Some more advanced workflows

Cost notation

Here is a little more background on cost notations, moved here from hledger manual > Cost reporting.

Essentially there are four ways to record a commodity conversion in hledger (as of 2023):

Conversion with implicit cost

Let's assume 100 EUR is converted to 120 USD. You can just record the outflow (100 EUR) and inflow (120 USD) in the appropriate asset account:

2021-01-01
    assets:cash    -100 EUR
    assets:cash     120 USD

hledger will assume this transaction is balanced, inferring that the conversion rate must be 1 EUR = 1.20 USD. You can see the inferred rate by using hledger print -x.

Pro:

  • Concise, easy

Con:

  • Less error checking - typos in amounts or commodity symbols may not be detected
  • Conversion rate is not clear
  • Disturbs the accounting equation, unless you add the --infer-equity flag

You can prevent accidental implicit conversions due to a mistyped commodity symbol, by using hledger check commodities.

You can prevent implicit conversions entirely, by using hledger check balancednoautoconversion, or -s/--strict.

Conversion with explicit cost

You can add the conversion rate using @ notation:

2021-01-01
    assets:cash        -100 EUR @ 1.20 USD
    assets:cash         120 USD

Now hledger will check that 100 * 1.20 = 120, and would report an error otherwise.

Pro:

  • Still concise
  • Makes the conversion rate clear
  • Provides more error checking

Con:

  • Disturbs the accounting equation, unless you add the --infer-equity flag

Conversion with equity postings

In strict double entry bookkeeping, the above transaction is not balanced in EUR or in USD, since some EUR disappears, and some USD appears. This violates the accounting equation (A+L+E=0), and prevents reports like balancesheetequity from showing a zero total.

The proper way to make it balance is to add a balancing posting for each commodity, using an equity account:

2021-01-01
    assets:cash        -100 EUR
    equity:conversion   100 EUR
    equity:conversion  -120 USD
    assets:cash         120 USD

Pro:

  • Preserves the accounting equation
  • Keeps track of conversions and related gains/losses in one place
  • Standard, works in any double entry accounting system

Con:

  • More verbose
  • Conversion rate is not obvious
  • Cost reporting requires adding the --infer-costs flag

Conversion with equity postings and explicit cost

Here both equity postings and @ notation are used together.

2021-01-01
    assets:cash        -100 EUR @ 1.20 USD
    equity:conversion   100 EUR
    equity:conversion  -120 USD
    assets:cash         120 USD

Pro:

  • Preserves the accounting equation
  • Keeps track of conversions and related gains/losses in one place
  • Makes the conversion rate clear
  • Provides more error checking

Con:

  • Most verbose
  • Not compatible with ledger

Create a journal

See also: Input and Setting LEDGER_FILE and Starting a journal file in the hledger manual.

There are lots of ways to start and update a journal file:

with touch

The simplest possible journal is just an empty file:

$ touch 2023.journal

The name doesn't matter much and can be changed later. One file per year is common, and so is a .journal or .hledger extension.

with cat

$ cat >>2023.journal
2023-01-26
    expenses:food     $10
    assets:cash
<CTRL-D>

Account names can be anything and you can change them later by search and replace. If you don't know what to choose, start with these five:
expenses, income, assets, liabilities, and equity,
perhaps with one extra subcategory as above.

with a text editor

Write transactions in a text editor, optionally using an editor mode, and save the file.

with hledger add

Use the interactive add command and follow the prompts:

$ hledger add

with hledger-iadd

  • ensure $LEDGER_FILE exists
  • hledger iadd
  • enter one or more transactions

with hledger-web

  • ensure $LEDGER_FILE exists
  • hledger web
  • wait for web browser to open
  • click "add transaction" or press "a"
  • enter a transaction, click ok or press enter

Currency conversion

Here are various ways of recording a conversion from one currency or commodity to another.

Implicit conversion

For simplicity, let's assume we are just exchanging cash with a friend:

2021-07-27 give dollars, get euros
    assets:cash      USD -10.00
    assets:cash      EUR   8.50

hledger understands that 10 dollars were converted to 8.50 euros. A conversion rate is inferred automatically so as to make the transaction balance. (This can be seen with hledger print -x.)

This is easy to write and to understand; it's fine for getting started. However it is not a fully correct double-entry-bookkeeping journal entry, since USD has magically transformed into EUR "in flight". It is also somewhat error prone, since a typo in either amount may not be detected. For example, we might forget the decimal point and write USD -1000. Also, it is easy to create such entries accidentally. For example, in one posting within a transaction we might mistype or omit the currency symbol.

hledger accepts these implicit conversions by default, for convenience and compatibility. But you can disallow them by using strict mode or by running the check command (eg: hledger check balancednoautoconversion).

Declared conversion rate

We can declare the conversion rate, which adds redundancy allowing hledger to catch errors, and also makes the rate more explicit to human readers. We can write the total amount with @@ (convenient when entries are complex):

2021-07-27 give dollars, get euros
    assets:cash      USD -10.00 @@ EUR 8.50
    assets:cash      EUR   8.50

or the per-unit amount with @ (makes the exchange rate, or an investment's cost basis, clearer):

2021-07-27 give dollars, get euros
    assets:cash      USD -10.00 @ EUR 0.85
    assets:cash      EUR   8.50

hledger calls these "costs". They can also be used generate market prices for value reports.

This is probably the most frequently used style among hledger users.

Fully balanced conversion

A fully correct double-entry-bookkeeping journal entry avoids the PTA-specific @/@@ notation, and is balanced in each commodity, using equity. Eg:

2021-07-27 give dollars, get euros
    assets:cash        USD -10.00
    equity:conversion  USD  10.00
    assets:cash        EUR   8.50
    equity:conversion  EUR  -8.50

or, letting hledger infer the above:

2021-07-27 give dollars, get euros
    assets:cash        USD -10.00
    assets:cash        EUR   8.50
    equity:conversion

This is discussed more here.

Two entries

This comes up eg when converting Paypal CSV, which provides two records for a currency conversion, one for each side. For example, given some paypal CSV rules like:

account1 assets:paypal
...
if %type (T0200|General Currency Conversion)
 description %type for %referencetxnid %itemtitle
 account2 equity:conversion

we might see journal entries like:

2020-05-16 * Liberapay donation to simonmichael (team darcs-hub)
    assets:online:paypal                     C$24.56 =* C$24.56
    revenues:foss donations:darcshub        C$-26.00
    expenses:banking:paypal                   C$1.44

2020-05-16 * General Currency Conversion for 8Y4N723T948333034 Liberapay donation to simonmichael (team darcs-hub)
    assets:online:paypal                    C$-24.56 =* C$0.00
    equity:conversion                        C$24.56

2020-05-16 * General Currency Conversion for 8Y4N723T948333034 Liberapay donation to simonmichael (team darcs-hub)
    assets:online:paypal                      $16.88 =* $17.55
    equity:conversion                        $-16.88

Ie: some canadian dollars received, followed by two transactions converting that balance to US dollars. This is equivalent to the "Fully balanced conversion" above, just with the conversion entry split into two.

Balancing the books

If you are a fan of the accounting equation and like to check it by seeing a zero total in the balancesheetequity report, you will need to do something with these equity:conversion balances. Such as, converting them to retained revenues/expenses in your local currency. This can perhaps be done at transaction time, or at the end of each accounting period, or with report options. Best practice is not yet clear, suggestions welcome.

Currency conversion 2

More notes related to currency conversion.

In a currency conversion or a stock purchase/sale, one commodity is exchanged for another. In plain text accounting, there are two ways to record such conversions:

1. Equity method

Balance both commodities against an Equity account. Eg:

2021-01-01
  assets:usd                -1.20 USD
  equity:conversion          1.20 USD
  equity:conversion         -1.00 EUR
  assets:eur                 1.00 EUR

or, equivalently:

2021-01-01
  assets:usd                -1.20 USD
  assets:eur                 1.00 EUR
  equity:conversion

2. Conversion price method

PTA tools provide the @ (or @@) notation for specifying a conversion price (essentially; Ledger/Beancount also provide an alternate {} notation):

2021-01-01
  assets:usd                -1.20 USD
  assets:eur                 1.00 EUR @ 1.20 USD

@-priced amounts (the 1.00 EUR above) will be converted to their price's commodity (USD)

  • internally for checking transaction balancedness, always
  • and visibly in reports, when the -B/--cost flag is used.

Note the redundancy in this entry; the two amounts and the @ price must agree. This provides some extra error checking, but you can also write it non-redundantly, by omitting an amount:

2021-01-01
  assets:usd                           ; the -1.20 USD amount is inferred
  assets:eur                 1.00 EUR @ 1.20 USD

or the conversion price:

2021-01-01
  assets:usd                -1.20 USD
  assets:eur                 1.00 EUR  ; the @ 1.20 USD price is inferred

Pros and Cons

Cost reporting

The @ (conversion price) method allows "cost" reporting. By adding the -B/--cost flag you can easily see what things cost (or were sold for) in the other commodity. Eg:

$ hledger -f 2a.j bal --cost assets:eur
            1.20 USD  assets:eur
--------------------
            1.20 USD

This kind of report is not possible with the equity method, currently.

Gain/loss reporting

The equity method keeps a trace of all commodity exchanges in the equity account, in effect properly recording the accumulated gain/loss from all commodity exchanges (it can be seen by valuing the accumulated total of those equity balances in some commodity).

The @ method does not record the gain/loss from commodity exchanges (at least, not so explicitly and not grouped by commodity pair. We can still calculate it using hledger valuation features like -V, --valuechange, --gain.)

Balanced accounts

The equity method keeps accounts and the accounting equation (A+L+E=0) balanced. See how it keeps the balance report's total as zero:

$ hledger -f 1a.j bal
            1.00 EUR  assets:eur
           -1.20 USD  assets:usd
           -1.00 EUR
            1.20 USD  equity:conversion
--------------------
                   0

The @ method causes unbalanced accounts and a non-zero total (because of the "magical" transformation from one commodity to the other):

$ hledger -f 2a.j bal
            1.00 EUR  assets:eur
           -1.20 USD  assets:usd
--------------------
            1.00 EUR
           -1.20 USD

The zero total can be seen only if all amounts are converted to cost:

$ hledger -f 2a.j bal --cost
            1.20 USD  assets:eur
           -1.20 USD  assets:usd
--------------------
                   0

Summary

The equity method:

  • doesn't support cost reporting.

The @ method:

  • doesn't support easy gain/loss reporting by commodity pair.
  • doesn't maintain balanced accounts

The rest of this page is about future versions of hledger.

Improvement proposals

The two methods of recording conversions were discussed mostly at https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/issues/1177 in 2020.

1554

https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/pull/1554 was proposed in 2021. Here's an attempted summary:

Goals / problems tackled

  1. Allow entries written with the @ style to be converted on the fly to equity style when appropriate.
  2. Allow all three of cost reporting, gain/loss reporting, and balanced accounts.
  3. Reduce required data entry effort.

Current draft docs

# COSTING

The --cost=TYPE option and the -B flag control how hledger handles any costs which are specified.

-B / --cost / --cost=cost : Convert amounts to their cost or sale amount at transaction time.

--cost=conversion : Generate conversion postings to balance the transactions. This is the default for all reports except the print report.

--cost=nocost : Do no conversion of costs. This is the default for the print report.

When performing cost conversion and price valuation, hledger will always perform cost conversion first, and market price valuations afterwards.

Sample tests

# 3. --cost=conversion generates conversion postings
hledger -f- print --explicit --cost=conversion
<<<
2011/01/01
    expenses:foreign currency       €100 @ $1.35
    assets
>>>
2011-01-01
    expenses:foreign currency            €100
    equity:conversion:€:$               €-100  ; generated-posting:
    equity:conversion:$:€             $135.00  ; generated-posting:
    assets                           $-135.00

>>>=0

# 4. --cost=conversion with --show-costs continues to show transaction costs
hledger -f- print --explicit --cost=conversion --show-costs
<<<
2011/01/01
    expenses:foreign currency       €100 @ $1.35
    assets
>>>
2011-01-01
    expenses:foreign currency    €100 @ $1.35
    equity:conversion:€:$               €-100  ; generated-posting:
    equity:conversion:$:€             $135.00  ; generated-posting:
    assets                           $-135.00

>>>=0

User-visible changes

  1. The -B/--cost flag becomes a flag -B which works as before, and an optional-argument option --cost[=nocost|cost|conversion]:
  • --cost or --cost=cost: works like -B (@-priced amounts are converted to cost)
  • --cost=conversion: in each @-style entries with no equity postings, adds two equity postings of the form: 
    equity:conversion:FIRSTCOMM:SECONDCOMM    FIRSTCOMMAMT
equity:conversion:FIRSTCOMM:SECONDCOMM   -SECONDCOMMAMT
    They are added dynamically (transiently), at report time. They are allowed to coexist with the @ price without unbalancing the transaction (which they would do if added explicitly by the user).
  • --cost=nocost: does neither of the above (ie, nothing)
  1. --cost=conversion will be the default behaviour of all commands except print.

Interactions / impact / compatibility

  1. Commands using -B or --cost (with no argument) should work as before.

  2. In conversion mode, all reports should work as they normally would with equity style entries.

  3. To mimic previous hledger behaviour (don't add equity postings to commodity conversions), users will need to add --cost=nocost (or, not:equity:conversion) to commands. This can be seen in the many changes required to hledger's tests.

  4. Except with print. print will have different default behaviour from all other commands.

Open questions

  • Want to avoid hard-coded "equity:conversion"

  • Why the :FIRSTCOMM:SECONDCOMM subaccounts, are they worth it ?

  • What journal entry variations are handled ?

    • a commodity conversion with other unrelated postings in the transactions
    • one commodity conversion involving more than two postings ?
    • more than one commodity conversions in a transaction ?

  • Why is the new feature (conversion) integrated with the existing --cost option ? Because they are closely related, and the combination of cost reporting and equity postings is not supported (and not expected in future ?)

  • What other names, or other changes, could make this more clear and mnemonic ?

  • When should the new mode be made default behaviour ?

  • Why is print different, and is it worth it ?

1554-sm-2

Goals / problems tackled

  1. Meet the goals of #1554 in a clearer and more compatible way.

Differences from 1554

  • -B/--cost and default behaviour are not changed
  • A new flag is added
  • The equity conversion account is configurable
  • The subaccounts are :FROM:TO, not :FIRST:SECOND.

Current draft docs

     --infer-equity          in commodity conversion transactions which lack
                             equity postings and rely on @/@@ prices to balance,
                             add the missing equity postings.

User-visible changes

  • The --infer-equity flag is added (consistent with --infer-market-prices). It is off by default. In a future release it would probably be on by default and there would probably be a --no-infer-equity to disable it.

  • From a conversion from FROMCOMM to TOCOMM, generated equity postings will have the form:

    EQUITYACCT:FROMCOMM:TOCOMM       -TOCOMMAMT
EQUITYACCT:TOCOMM:FROMCOMM      FROMCOMMAMT
    • FROMCOMMAMT is the negative amount, TOCOMMAMT is the positive one
    • FROMCOMM, TOCOMM are the corresponding commodity symbols
    • EQUITYACCT is the first declared subaccount of the first highest-level account declared with type Equity, falling back to equity:conversion. So account declarations might be: 
      account equity         ; type:E
account equity:trades
account equity:opening balances
etc..

    Or, they might be of this simpler form, it's not yet decided:

    EQUITYACCT:COMMPAIR       -TOCOMMAMT
EQUITYACCT:COMMPAIR      FROMCOMMAMT
    • COMMPAIR is the two commodity symbols concatenated in alphabetic order

  • In infer equity mode, conversion prices should be used only to infer equity postings, and otherwise should not be used for transaction balancing. This means that fully explicit entries with both equity postings and conversion prices recorded are supported, whether manually recorded or inferred.

Interactions / impact / compatibility

  • There is no change to default behaviour at this stage.

  • With --infer-equity, --cost reports should work as before, using @ conversion prices when they are present. Other reports should work as if the equity postings had been recorded manually.

Open questions

  • What's a better way to specify the conversion account(s) ? Should there be a new Conversion or Trade account type, a subtype of Equity, and the first account declared with that type is used ?

  • How many equity subaccounts are needed ? Is EQUITYACCT:COMMPAIR sufficient ? Can per-direction reports still be achieved by filtering on amount sign ?

  • Should inferred postings be displayed by print --infer-equity, or only by print --infer-equity --explicit ? (-x/--explicit is required to see other infered things like amounts and prices)

  • How much of this applies equally well to currency exchanges, investment purchases, and investment sales, in principle ? How much of that commonality should we expose for best UX ?

  • How does this relate to the idea of lot identity, and generating lot subaccounts ? Should lot subaccounts exist on the asset(/liability) side, on the equity side, or both ?

Text editors

If you edit your journals (and other hledger data files) with a text editor, you want that frequent task to be as pleasant and non-tedious as possible. So it's worth using a powerful text editor - one with comfortable copy/paste, search & replace, and perhaps more advanced features like macros.

For the popular text editors there are helper modes/extensions which can make editing hledger journal files much more convenient. These provide things like syntactic highlighting, auto indentation, and tab completion of account names. You can find a list of these extensions at
https://plaintextaccounting.org/#editor-support.
The ones with "hledger" in their name are designed specifically for working with hledger journals, while the ones with "ledger" in their name are not, but can often work well with hledger as well (eg: ledger-mode).

Here are more details and tips.

Emacs

ledger-mode

https://github.com/ledger/ledger-mode (manual), for Emacs, is the most used and maintained helper mode for hledger and Ledger files.

It has some hard-coded dependence on Ledger's command-line interface, so does not work perfectly with hledger, whose CLI is similar but not identical. There are a few ways to get around this:

  • Most common: configure ledger-mode to run hledger, and accept that some more advanced features (reports, reconcile-mode) will not work for now; help welcome. Configure ledger-mode this way:

    1. M-x customize-group, ledger-exec
    2. change ledger-binary-path to hledger

  • Or: keep your hledger journal 100% Ledger-compatible, and let ledger-mode run ledger as it usually does. Unless you are a Ledger user who wants to run both tools, you may find this too limiting.

  • Or: set up compatibility scripts emulating the ledger command set and CLI with hledger. For example: ledger-display-balance-at-point (C-c C-p) runs ledger cleared ACCT. hledger doesn't have a "cleared" command, but you could make one similar to Ledger's using an add-on script: hledger-cleared.sh in $PATH containing:

    #!/bin/sh
hledger balance -N -C "$@"

    This approach can solve some of the incompatibilities, but it's a hassle.

More tips:

To toggle a transaction's cleared status: move point to it, C-c C-e.

To toggle just a posting's status: move point to it, C-c C-c.

#367 ledger-mode setup for hledger needs documenting has more tips to be collected here.

Here are ledger-mode's hledger-related issues.

hledger-mode

https://github.com/narendraj9/hledger-mode
An alternative to ledger-mode, written specifically for hledger. Has some different features. Less actively maintained.

flycheck-hledger

https://github.com/DamienCassou/flycheck-hledger (2021) provides realtime indication of problems in your journal. It can be used with ledger-mode or hledger-mode.

C-x ` steps to the next problem in the current file.
C-u C-x ` restarts the scan from the top.
A description should appear in the message area, but Emacs may hide it behind "...locus..." messages; you can fix that by customising the next-error-verbose variable to off.

Sample config:

(use-package flycheck-hledger
  :after (flycheck ledger-mode)  ; or hledger-mode
  :ensure t
  :demand t
  :custom
  (flycheck-hledger-strict t) 
  (flycheck-hledger-checks '("ordereddates" "recentassertions"))   ; extra checks from https://hledger.org/hledger.html#check: ordereddates, uniqueleafnames, payees, recentassertions, tags..
  ;(flycheck-hledger-executable "hledger")
  )

Currently flycheck-hledger always runs hledger with the --auto flag, so be aware that any auto posting rules will be active.

flymake-hledger

https://github.com/DamienCassou/flymake-hledger/ (2023) is a more recent alternative to flycheck-hledger, using the built-in Flymake rather than the third-party Flycheck feature.

Here are some early configuration notes, using use-package:

;; Enable verbose use-package debug info when starting with --debug-init
;; (when init-file-debug
;;   (setq use-package-verbose t
;;         use-package-expand-minimally nil
;;         use-package-compute-statistics t
;;         debug-on-error t))

;; Configure flycheck-like keybindings for flymake:
(use-package flymake
  :bind (
         :map flymake-mode-map
         ("C-c ! n" . flymake-goto-next-error)
         ("C-c ! p" . flymake-goto-prev-error)
         ("C-c ! l" . flymake-show-buffer-diagnostics)  ; a new list for each buffer, unlike flycheck
         ("C-c ! v" . flymake-switch-to-log-buffer)))

(use-package flymake-hledger
  :load-path "~/src/flymake-hledger"
  :after (ledger-mode flymake)

  :hook (
  (ledger-mode . flymake-hledger-enable)
  ;; Make C-x ` work ?
  ;; XXX Both of these work only in the first file opened; debugging needed.
  ;; (ledger-mode . (lambda () (setq next-error-function 'flymake-goto-next-error)))
  ;; (ledger-mode . (lambda () (setq next-error-function (lambda (num reset) (when reset (goto-char (point-min))) (flymake-goto-next-error num)))))
  )

  :custom
  (flymake-show-diagnostics-at-end-of-line t)  ; might require Emacs 30
  (flymake-suppress-zero-counters t)
  (flymake-hledger-checks '("accounts" "commodities" "balancednoautoconversion" "ordereddates")) ; "recentassertions" "payees" "tags" "uniqueleafnames" https://hledger.org/hledger.html#check
  )

To extra checks for a specific journal file, add a line like this near the top:

; -*- eval:(add-to-list 'flymake-hledger-checks "recentassertions" t); -*-

org babel

org babel (ob) is the system for evaluating code blocks embedded in org outlines. hledger reports can be embedded within an org outline in this way, and easily evaluated inline or exported in various formats. This is a nice way to save and organise and interactively update reports.

In 2021 this functionality was moved to an optional package, org-contrib. To enable it:

  • M-x list-packages, install org-contrib

  • In your emacs config, add: (require 'ob-hledger)
    (and evaluate it with C-M-x, or a restart)

  • In any org file, add hledger commands like this:

    #+begin_src hledger :cmdline -f ~/finance/2022.journal balance
#+end_src

  • To evaluate the command inline, press C-c C-c with point (cursor) inside the above line

  • To update all such reports in the file, press C-c C-v b

  • To export all reports:

    • as html, and open in browser: C-c C-e h o
    • as html: C-c C-e h h
    • as UTF-8 text: C-c C-e t U
    • as markdown (if configured): C-c C-e m o
    • etc.

  • To export only the reports in the current subtree:

    • configure it at top of org file: # -*- org-export-initial-scope:subtree; -*-)
    • put point in the desired subtree before exporting as above

See also Using Ledger for Accounting in Org-mode with Babel

calc

Calc can help perform arithmetic on amounts in the buffer during data entry. Eg to split an amount by two:

  • put point at the start of the amount, after the currency symbol
  • C-x * w 2 / q

Misc

A helper to browse TODO tags in the journal:

(defun journal-todos nil (interactive) (lgrep "TODO:" "current.journal" "~/finance" nil))

Vim

vim-ledger

https://github.com/ledger/vim-ledger

hledger-vim

https://github.com/anekos/hledger-vim

timedot-vim

https://github.com/linuxcaffe/timedot-vim

Neovim

Run :TSInstall ledger to enable nvim-treesitter for hledger.

VS Code

hledger-vscode

https://github.com/mhansen/hledger-vscode

Miscellaneous

From the mail list, a trick for aligning transaction amounts: "Space-indent the account, tab-indent the amount, set a large tab stop."

Exporting from hledger

Many finance apps have a way to import CSV files from financial institutions. You can produce similar CSV with hledger's register command. Export one account and one currency at a time. This helps keep the CSV simple and importable. Eg:

$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal reg -O csv checking cur:'\$'
"txnidx","date","code","description","account","amount","total"
"1","2008-01-01","","income","assets:bank:checking","$1","$1"
"2","2008-06-01","","gift","assets:bank:checking","$1","$2"
"3","2008-06-02","","save","assets:bank:checking","$-1","$1"
"5","2008-12-31","","pay off","assets:bank:checking","$-1","0"

The new aregister command (currently in master) is best for this, since it guarantees one record per transaction even with complex multi-posting transactions, and provides the (abbreviated) other account names, making categorisation easier when importing:

$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal areg checking -O csv cur:'\$'
"txnidx","date","code","description","otheraccounts","change","balance"
"1","2008-01-01","","income","in:salary","$1","$1"
"2","2008-06-01","","gift","in:gifts","$1","$2"
"3","2008-06-02","","save","as:ba:saving","$-1","$1"
"5","2008-12-31","","pay off","li:debts","$-1","0"

hledger supports other output formats, including HTML, JSON and SQL. Not all formats are supported by all commands/reports though. For a given report, you can check the --help or just try an output format to see if it has been added.

$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal reg checking -O sql
hledger: Sorry, output format "sql" is unrecognised or not yet implemented for this report or report mode.
$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal print checking -O sql
create table if not exists postings(id serial,txnidx int,date1 date,date2 date,status text,code text,description text,comment text,account text,amount numeric,commodity text,credit numeric,debit numeric,posting_status text,posting_comment text);
insert into postings(txnidx,date1,date2,status,code,description,comment,account,amount,commodity,credit,debit,posting_status,posting_comment) values
('1','2008-01-01',NULL,NULL,NULL,'income',NULL,'assets:bank:checking','1','$',NULL,'1',NULL,NULL)
,('1','2008-01-01',NULL,NULL,NULL,'income',NULL,'income:salary','-1','$','1',NULL,NULL,NULL)
,('2','2008-06-01',NULL,NULL,NULL,'gift',NULL,'assets:bank:checking','1','$',NULL,'1',NULL,NULL)
,('2','2008-06-01',NULL,NULL,NULL,'gift',NULL,'income:gifts','-1','$','1',NULL,NULL,NULL)
,('3','2008-06-02',NULL,NULL,NULL,'save',NULL,'assets:bank:saving','1','$',NULL,'1',NULL,NULL)
,('3','2008-06-02',NULL,NULL,NULL,'save',NULL,'assets:bank:checking','-1','$','1',NULL,NULL,NULL)
,('5','2008-12-31',NULL,'*',NULL,'pay off',NULL,'liabilities:debts','1','$',NULL,'1',NULL,NULL)
,('5','2008-12-31',NULL,'*',NULL,'pay off',NULL,'assets:bank:checking','-1','$','1',NULL,NULL,NULL)
;

hledger2psql is a tool that exports a hledger journal to a postgres database.

Related discussion: https://groups.google.com/g/hledger/c/HS1Wd2iUSgA/m/oqVhSEf4AgAJ

Frequently Asked Questions

Welcome! This FAQ is for all hledger-related topics, for now. If you have additions or improvements, please click the "edit this page" link at the bottom, or chat with us.

Accounting

What's accounting ?

Accounting means keeping track of the flow and whereabouts of things you value, such as money or time, and using this information for insight, planning and decision-making. Here's hledger's Accounting concepts page and Accounting links.

Why might I want to do accounting ?

For clarity, control, planning, accountability, compliance, tax reporting, tax audits. It clarifies activity, priorities, obligations, opportunities.

What's double-entry accounting ?

Double-entry bookkeeping is the traditional method for keeping accounting records reliably. For every movement of value (a transaction), both the source and destination are recorded. These are labelled "Credit" and "Debit", to minimise working with negative numbers. Simple arithmetic invariants help prevent errors.

What's plain text accounting ?

You can read more about Plain Text Accounting (PTA) at https://plaintextaccounting.org. In short, it is a way of doing Double Entry Bookkeeping (DEB) and accounting on a computer, using simple text files and small flexible tools, rather than databases and big applications. Minus and plus signs are usually used instead of Credit and Debit notation, making it easier to learn than traditional DEB. The text files are human-readable and easy to convert or to manage with version-control tools.

The hledger project

What's hledger ?

One of the best tools for doing Plain Text Accounting. It's free and you can read all about it at the https://hledger.org home page.

Why was hledger created ?

  • to provide a more usable, robust, documented, cross-platform-installable version of the Ledger accounting tool for users
  • to provide a more maintainable and hackable version of Ledger for developers
  • to provide a useful library and toolbox for finance-minded haskell programmers
  • to explore the suitability of Haskell for such applications
  • to experiment with building a successful time-and-money-solvent project in a thriving ecosystem of financial software projects

What is the hledger project's current mission and plans ?

  1. Help make plain text accounting more usable and useful for all.
  2. Bring relief to people experiencing financial and financial technology stress, by providing dependable, empowering accounting tools, learning materials, and community.
  3. Help people and communities in all countries increase their financial mastery and freedom.
  4. Help grow a shared global culture of accountability and sustainability.
  5. Starting with this project and ourselves.

Here is the ROADMAP.

hledger and Plain Text Accounting

We use another system, we don't need this ?

Every tool has strengths and weaknesses. hledger is lightweight, flexible and relatively easy to glue into other systems; it might be worth exploring as a complementary tool.

How do you collaborate with accountants and the non-PTA world ?

Depending on their needs, you send them a few standard reports (balance sheet, income statement, itemized account registers or a full transaction journal)

  • as plain text (optionally spruced up with your own templates)
  • or as HTML
  • or as PDF
  • or as CSV they can import into Excel and elsewhere

Must I enter data in a text editor ??

No. A good text editor can be a very efficient way to work on your data, but there are other ways:

  • use a terminal-based data entry tool like hledger add or hledger-iadd
  • use a web-based data entry tool like hledger-web
  • use a phone-based data entry app like MoLe
  • import CSV data, avoiding manual data entry.

What account names do I use? Why isn't a default list provided ?

Any standard set of account names you're familiar with. Feel free to copy list from any other software. A default list is a good idea, but right now we don't really provide one because

  • hledger aims to be useful for many needs and in many languages, so a single list won't do
  • we are not that large and organised yet
  • no-one has stepped up and worked on it.

What can hledger do for me ?

hledger can provide clarity and insight into your personal or business finances, time logs, or other dated quantitative data, with relatively little effort on your part. You need only provide a list of transactions, as a plain text file in a simple human-readable format. (Or a CSV file plus some conversion rules.) From this hledger can generate a variety of useful reports and interactive views. See Features.

How could that help me ?

  • More clarity, transparency and accountability, for yourself or others
  • Know what you owe, or who owes you
  • Know where the money went; steer your spending
  • Know how you spent your time; easy client invoicing
  • More foresight and ability to plan; avoid overdrafts, late fees, cashflow crunches
  • Know all the numbers you need for tax reporting; know how much to save for estimated taxes
  • Less stress, fear or overwhelm
  • More satisfaction, empowerment, and prosperity!

Isn't manual data entry a pain ?

  • Not if you spend a few minutes every day.
  • Not if the benefits are worth it to you.
  • Not if you use a comfortable editor and copy/paste a lot.
  • Not if you use tools to help (editor modes, hledger add, hledger-iadd, hledger-web..)
  • Not if you use rules to generate your recurring transactions.

Isn't importing from banks a pain ?

Not once you have set up a manual or automated routine for it. The possibilities for automation vary by bank and country, but the following semi-manual workflow is almost always possible and quick:

  1. Manually download recent CSVs from your bank's website
  2. hledger import ACCT1.csv ACCT2.csv ...
  3. review/clean up the new entries in your journal.

Isn't plain text ugly and hard to use ?

No way, it's great, honest. We love it. You'll love it. It's fast. It's cheap. It's non-distracting. It keeps you focussed on the content. It's copy-pasteable. It's accessible to screen readers. It's resizable. You can pick the font and colours. You do not need "Plaintext Reader, Trial Version" to read it. you do not need "Plaintext Studio Pro" to write it. You can use your favorite editor and skills you already have. You can search in it! You can version control it. It works well over remote/slow connections. It's future-proof. It will be just as usable in 15 or 50 years. You can still read it even without the right software or (if you print it) a working computer. "Accounting data is valuable; we want to know that it will be accessible for ever - even without software. We want to know when it changes, and revision-control it. We want to search and manipulate it efficiently. So, we store it as human-readable plain text."

Isn't this too weird for my family, business partners, tax accountant to use ?

Maybe. You can ask them to enter data via hledger-web, or import from their mobile expenses app or a shared spreadsheet. You can show them the hledger-web UI, or HTML reports, or give them CSV to open in a spreadsheet.

Why are my revenue (income), liability, and equity balances negative ?

It's normal; it's because hledger and most other plain text accounting tools use negative and positive numbers instead of credit and debit terminology. Certain hledger reports (balancesheet, incomestatement, cashflow) and flags (--invert) can show them as positive when needed. See Accounting > Debits and credits.

hledger and other software

How does hledger relate to Ledger ?

hledger (begun 2006) is inspired by, and a friendly coopetitor of, John Wiegley's Ledger (begun 2003). It is an attempt to rewrite Ledger in a more expressive programming language and take it to the next level in usability and practicality. See hledger and Ledger.

What is/was ledger4 ?

hledger has its own parser for a file format close to Ledger's. In 2012 John Wiegley prototyped a more exact conversion of Ledger 3's parser to Haskell, calling it ledger4. For a while I integrated this as an alternate file format within hledger, hoping to improve our ability to read original Ledger files, but the parser needed lots more work to become useful, so later I removed it again.

How is hledger different from / interoperable with... ?

See Cookbook > Other software for notes on Ledger, Beancount, GnuCash, Quickbooks, etc. Also:

How could I import/migrate from...

How could I export/migrate to...

Using hledger

How do I set environment variables like LEDGER_FILE (persistently) ?

See hledger manual > Setting LEDGER_FILE.

Why does this entry give a "no amount" error even though I wrote an amount ?

2019-01-01
  a $1
  b

Because there's only a single space between a and 1, so this is parsed as an account named "a 1", with no amount. There must be at least two spaces between account name and amount.

Why does this journal fail strict account checking even though I declared all accounts ?

account assets:bank:checking ; my bank account
account equity               ; equity

2023-01-01
    equity
    assets:bank:checking   $1000

Because there's only a single space between assets:bank:checking and the ; comment, so the comment is parsed as part of the account name. (hledger accounts shows this.) There must be at least two spaces between an account name and anything that follows it.

Why do some directives not affect other files ? Why can't I include account aliases ?

Directives vary in their scope, ie which journal entries and which input files they affect. The differences are partly due to historical accident, and partly by design, so that reordering files, or adding another file, does not change their meaning. See journal format > Directives and multiple files. Related discussion: #217, #510, #1007.

Why am I seeing some amounts without an account name in reports ?

When an account has a multi-commodity balance, hledger's default balance, print, and register reports, like Ledger's, will show the balance on multiple lines, with each commodity on its own line, but with the account name appearing only once (either top- or bottom-aligned, depending on report). For a clearer report, try balancesheet, incomestatement or cashflow, and/or --layout=bare, or restrict the report to a single currency with cur:SYMBOL.

Another reason you might see amounts without an account name: dropping too many account name parts with --drop.

How do I control the number of decimal places displayed ?

To set that temporarily, use the -c/--commodity-style option (one for each commodity, as needed). Eg, this shows dollars with two decimal places, ADA with six, and EUR with none:

hledger -c '$1000.00' -c '1000.000000 ADA' -c 'EUR 1000.' bal

To make it permanent, use commodity directives.

How do I display a decimal mark different from the one in the input file ?

Use -c/--commodity-style options (one for each commodity) to override the display style(s). Eg hledger bal -c '$1,00' displays dollar amounts with comma decimal marks, even if they use period decimal marks in the journal.

How do I report by financial year, not calendar year ?

Use hledger 1.29+, and just specify the desired start date, eg hledger is -Y -b 2020/4/15 or hledger is -p 'yearly from 2020/4/15'. With older hledger versions, you can approximate it with -p 'every 12 months from 2020/4 or -p 'every 365 days from 2020/4/15'.

How do I report inflows and outflows separately ?

Use two register reports with an amt: query. Eg:

hledger register 'amt:<0'
hledger register 'amt:>0'

How do I show transactions where money left an account ?

You can use register with an account and amount query:

hledger register cash 'amt:<0'

If you prefer aregister, write it this way (because of aregister's special first argument):

hledger aregister cash cash 'amt:<0'

Printing the full transactions with print is difficult, since print is a transaction-based report that matches transactions with any matched postings.

You can do it in Emacs ledger-mode with C-c C-f (or M-x ledger-occur) and a regular expression. Eg, to show just the transactions where cash was decreased:

C-c C-f :cash.*- *[1-9]

For now, this seems to be the best approach at the command line too: filter the output of hledger print ACCT, keeping only transactions where ACCT and a negative (or positive) amount appear on the same line. This means using awk or some other unix tool that can treat transactions as multi-line records. (Example welcome)

How do I show transactions between one account and another account ?

Use aregister with the other account as the query:

hledger aregister checking expenses:tax

To filter by direction, add 'amt:>0' or 'amt:<0' to the above:

hledger aregister checking expenses:tax 'amt:>0'

To see full transactions, use print with a boolean query (requires hledger 1.30+):

hledger print expr:'checking AND expenses:tax'

or with hledger <1.30, emulate that with not:not::

hledger print checking not:not:expenses:tax

The above won't work with the register command because it reports postings, not transactions - each report item has only a single account. If you want a register report, combine it with print like so:

hledger print checking | hledger -f- -I register expenses:tax

How do I show an income statement restricted to just my credit card (eg) ?

First extract just the credit card transactions, then run the income statement report from those:

hledger print liabilities:mastercard | hledger -f- -I incomestatement

You might also need to exclude (or split up) transactions which mix the credit card, other assets/liabilities, and expenses/revenues.

What are some gotchas with piping hledger print into another hledger command ?

hledger print reproduces transactions, but it discards directives. The output will normally be a valid journal, but it can have a different meaning or even be unparseable due to:

  1. Loss of decimal-mark directives, which could disrupt number parsing.
  2. Loss of commodity directives declaring display precisions, which could disrupt transaction balancing.
  3. Loss of account directives declaring accounts' types, which could alter reports.
  4. Balance assertions which break because you have excluded transactions they depend on.

Workarounds:

  • Whenever you use -f - to read hledger print output, also add -I to ignore balance assertions. And write these flags separately (-If- does not work). So:

    $ hledger print ... | hledger -f- -I ...

  • Also recreate any required directives in the input stream. This is often not needed, but it depends on your data. If needed:

    • Keep those directives in their own file if possible (if directive scope rules allow it), which you can use as another input:

      $ hledger print ... | hledger -f- -I -f2023accounts.journal ...

    • Or find another way to pass the required directives along. Eg:

      $ { hledger print ...; grep '^[acd]' $LEDGER_FILE; } | hledger -I f- ...
$ { hledger print ...; grep '^[acd]' `hledger files` --no-filename; } | hledger -f- -I ...

With hledger-ui in iTerm2 on mac, why does Shift-Up/Shift-Down move the selection instead of adjusting the report period ?

iTerm2 by default doesn't recognise SHIFT-UP/SHIFT-DOWN keys correctly. (If this has changed in recent releases, please let us know.) Here's one way to fix it: iTerm2 > CMD-i > Keys > Key Mappings > Presets -> select "xterm Defaults" (not "Terminal.app Compatibility").

Customising hledger

How do I install hledger CSV rules for my financial institutions ?

git clone the main hledger repo, and look in examples/csv/ for a rules file you can copy to your financial working directory. If your financial institution is not there yet, please use these for inspiration, ask the #hledger chat for help, and send a pull request contributing your working rules to the repo.

How do I make new hledger CSV rules ?

See the Importing CSV tutorial and the hledger manual > CSV format. (After checking for a pre-existing rules file in examples/csv/ in the hledger repo.) If possible, add your new rules file to that directory and send a pull request.

How do I install more hledger scripts and add-on commands ?

git clone the hledger repo, and add the bin/ directory to your shell's PATH. See Scripts and add-ons.

How do I make new hledger scripts ?

Install the example Scripts and add-ons and find a suitable one to copy and modify. Also see Scripting. If your new script can be useful to others, consider contributing it with a pull request.

Features

What can hledger do for me ?

hledger can provide clarity and insight into your personal or business finances, time logs, or other dated quantitative data, with relatively little effort on your part. You need only provide a list of transactions, as a plain text file in a simple human-readable format. (Or a CSV file plus some conversion rules.) From this hledger can generate a variety of useful reports and interactive views. See Features.

How is it different from other accounting software ?

hledger is a Plain Text Accounting system, which means:

  • Data is stored in simple plain text files, which can be easily read by humans, tracked with version control software such as Git, and maintained with text processing tools. This facilitates auditing, portability, and longevity of your valuable accounting data.

  • The data format is flexible and easy to write or generate, but hledger can check it and prevent many kinds of error. This, plus the transparency and version control, provides confidence in your data and reports.

  • Data and software is kept on your local computer, keeping your financial data private and under your control. But if you should want to collaborate, version control makes that easy.

  • You can edit data with your favourite text editor or IDE, or a data entry UI, or convert and import data from other formats (eg CSV from your banks).

  • There is a fast command-line interface, which makes the tool easy to script, automate, and integrate into custom workflows.

  • The model of operation is simple: put a log of transactions in, get reports out.

  • It is fast, lightweight, non-distracting, and great for learning more of double-entry bookkeeping and accounting.

What can it do, in detail ?

hledger can:

  • list your transactions, payees, currencies/commodities, accounts, statistics
  • show the hierarchy of accounts and subaccounts
  • show the transactions affecting any account, and calculate its running balance
  • make a balance sheet, showing your asset and liability account balances
  • make a cashflow report, showing changes in your cash assets
  • make an income statement, showing your revenues and expenses
  • show a bar chart of transaction activity by period
  • show purchase costs/selling prices
  • show market values in any currency at any valuation date
  • calculate the rate of return of a savings account or investment
  • make reports from timeclock or timedot time logs
  • make reports from any CSV file

It can slice, dice, and present your data in different ways:

  • filter out just the items or time period you're interested in
  • show multiple periods side by side
  • summarise accounts to give the big picture
  • rewrite or pivot account names to give different views
  • output reports as plain text, HTML, or CSV
  • run as a live-updating terminal UI, for fast interactive exploration
  • run as a web app, allowing remote/multi-user browsing and data entry
  • run as a JSON web API, for integrating with custom apps

If you add a few directives to the file, hledger can:

  • include multiple data sets
  • generate recurring transactions by rule
  • add extra postings (splits) to transactions by rule
  • show a forecast of future activity, eg to help with cashflow planning
  • make a budget report, showing your budget goals and status by account and period

Also, it can:

  • generate interest transactions by rule
  • help you enter new transactions with prompts or a terminal UI
  • help you convert and import new transactions from external sources, eg banks
  • be used as a library in a quick Haskell script or compiled program

Batteries are included

hledger comes with multiple user interfaces that just work:

A command-line tool (CLI). Transactions are stored in a journal file which you can edit with a text editor. From this hledger produces various reports, without changing your data.

A live-updating terminal interface (TUI), that lets you review account balances and transactions quickly. (screencast)

A zero-setup web interface (WUI), allowing terminal-free, point-and-click usage. Run it privately on your local machine, or on a server to collaborate with others. (demo).

A haskell library. You can write scripts, add-on commands, or financial applications as powerful as hledger itself.

It's relatively easy

Within its scope - a Plain Text Accounting tool, which is by nature slightly technical - hledger aims to be intuitive, learnable and highly usable, learning from other PTA tools and taking PTA to a higher level of usability and utility. Here are some things it provides out of the box:

Dependable

hledger strives to be comfortable to use, to be absolutely dependable, to provide real-world value, and to never waste your time. It provides:

  • Robust installation: multiple options are provided for binary and source installation. Building from source is reliable and consistent across platforms.

  • Robust execution: hledger is written in Haskell, a modern, highly-regarded programming language. Runtime failures are minimised by Haskell's memory management and strong compile-time type checking. Failures caused by user input are reported clearly and promptly.

  • Robust testing: The software is continually tested by extensive automated tests.

  • Robust features: built-in commands and options combine well with one another, and are expected to do something sensible in all cases, with all kinds of input.

  • Robust calculation: results are expected to always perfectly match what you would calculate on paper, up to 255 decimal places.

  • Robust parsing: dated items, such as balance assertions and balance assignments, are processed in date order. Assertions/assignments with the same date are processed in parse order. Multiple assertions/assignments within a single transaction work as you would expect.

  • Robust reporting: reports are deterministic and not affected by the order of input files or data items except where that is part of their spec.

  • Robust documentation: all functionality is documented precisely, with a mnemonic permalink. User manuals for your hledger version are available online, and built in for offline viewing. General and command-specific command line help is provided. We favour documentation-driven development.

Fast

  • Reports normally take a fraction of a second.
  • hledger-ui --watch normally updates instantly as you edit.
  • On a 2021 macbook air m1, hledger parses and analyses about 25000 transactions per second.

Compatible

hledger is a rewrite of the pioneering Ledger CLI, aiming to build out the same core features to a higher level of quality, and to add new ones making it useful to more people. Ledger users will find the file formats and commands familiar, and with a little care can run both tools on the same data files. (You can read more about the origins and differences.)

hledger can read Beancount files, or vice versa, by converting them with the beancount2ledger and ledger2beancount tools.

Many tools exist for importing from other applications. Data can be exported as CSV, JSON or basic SQL.

Free Software

hledger is Free Software, with no purchase price or monthly fees. It is licensed under GNU GPLv3+, providing the strongest guarantee that you will always have the right to run, inspect, modify, or share it. It is actively maintained, with regular releases and a large chat room and other support resources.

github

But not yet...

  • ... easy for completely non-technical people to install and use (without a little help)
  • ... easy to use on a phone
  • ... equipped with mature, polished GUIs
  • ... or easy charts
  • ... able to download directly from banks and financial institutions
  • ... with as many investing-savvy users as Beancount
  • ... simple, clear and obvious for all needs, or masterable in a day (or a week).

Double Entry Bookkeeping, Plain Text Accounting, and Accounting in general are deep and rich topics; as a newcomer you might feel there's too both much and not enough to read, too much flexibility and not enough structure or guidance. You may need to pace yourself, ask the chat for tips, and learn through practice.

Forecasting

Some ways:

  • Enter future-dated transactions in your journal, commented out (with ; or comment)

  • Enter future transactions uncommented; use a query to exclude them from reports when needed (-e tomorrow or date:-tomorrow. hledger-ui hides them by default.)

  • Enter future transactions in a separate forecast.journal, which you can include when needed (eg, add -f forecast.journal).

  • Enter periodic transaction rules describing future transactions (recurring or non-recurring), and activate the forecast with --auto.

  • Budgeting and forecasting (2018) > Forecasting - reusing a budget's periodic transactions to generate a forecast.

Foreign trip expenses

From https://www.reddit.com/r/plaintextaccounting/comments/9r9cfj/beancount_price_and_cost :

  1. Before going to vacation to Europe, I borrowed 350 EUR, cash.
  2. I also took out of ATM 200 EUR, cash - now I know the price.
  3. I spent 500 EUR in trip, and I have 50 left.
  4. Now, after the trip, I exchanged some of my home currency to 300 EUR to give it back - and it's the different price from step two. So how do I write all this down?

My attempt follows. Notes:

  • When transactions occur on such trips, I sometimes know the USD amount spent, and sometimes the EUR amount. I sometimes know the total converted amount, and sometimes the conversion rate. I record whichever of these is more convenient.
  • After the trip, when reviewing expenses, I'll add a P market price directive covering the period of the trip, and use -V to see all expenses in home currency (USD).
; a hledger example based on colindean's
; hledger doesn't currently support the {} syntax, just @ or @@

2018-10-25 * vacation loan
    Liabilities:Loans:Vacation
    Assets:Cash                             350 EUR

2018-10-26 * ATM withdrawal
    Assets:Cash                             200 EUR @@ 220 USD  ; conversion price written out for clarity; redundant due to -225 USD below
    Expenses:Fees:CurrencyConversion          5 USD
    Assets:Bank                            -225 USD

2018-10-27 * food
    Assets:Cash                            -190 EUR
    Expenses:Vacation:Food

2018-10-27 * hotel
    Assets:Cash                            -310 EUR = 50 EUR    ; assert that Cash's EUR balance is now 50
    Expenses:Vacation:Hotel

2018-10-28 * withdraw more euros to repay loan
    Assets:Cash                             300 EUR @@ 360 USD  ; conversion rate has gone up to 1.20
    Expenses:Fees:CurrencyConversion          5 USD
    Assets:Bank                            -365 USD

2018-10-28 * repay vacation loan
    Liabilities:Loans:Vacation              350 EUR = 0 EUR     ; assert that euro loan is repaid
    Assets:Cash

; Conversion rate to use in reports for the trip period.
; You could declare each time it changed, eg:
; P 2018-10-25 EUR 1.10 USD
; P 2018-10-28 EUR 1.20 USD
; but hledger currently picks just one,
; and for expense reporting a rough average price is usually fine:
P 2018-10-25  EUR  1.15 USD

Here are a few different reports, for comparison:

Simple balance change report for all accounts. --flat and -Y help ensure a readable tabular layout here.

$ hledger bal --flat -Y
Balance changes in 2018:

                                  ||                 2018 
==================================++======================
 Assets:Bank                      ||          -590.00 USD 
 Expenses:Fees:CurrencyConversion ||            10.00 USD 
 Expenses:Vacation:Food           ||              190 EUR 
 Expenses:Vacation:Hotel          ||              310 EUR 
----------------------------------++----------------------
                                  || 500 EUR, -580.00 USD

Adding the -B/--cost flag converts transaction amounts to the other commodity in the transaction, using the conversion rate specified in the transaction if any. This typically helps collapse the grand total to one commodity, so we can see it is zero here (expected, since we're showing all accounts).

$ hledger bal --flat -Y -B
Balance changes in 2018:

                                  ||                 2018 
==================================++======================
 Assets:Bank                      ||          -590.00 USD 
 Assets:Cash                      || -500 EUR, 580.00 USD 
 Expenses:Fees:CurrencyConversion ||            10.00 USD 
 Expenses:Vacation:Food           ||              190 EUR 
 Expenses:Vacation:Hotel          ||              310 EUR 
----------------------------------++----------------------
                                  ||                    0

Adding the -V/--value flag instead converts report amounts using the market price effective on the reporting date (hledger prices and date can help identify that). The grand total of -5 USD here corresponds to our capital loss due to change in exchange rate (the price of a euro went from $1.10 to $1.20 while we still owed some):

$ hledger prices 
P 2018-10-25 EUR 1.15 USD
$ date
Fri Oct 26 15:03:00 PDT 2018
$ hledger bal --flat -Y -V
Balance changes in 2018:

                                  ||        2018 
==================================++=============
 Assets:Bank                      || -590.00 USD 
 Expenses:Fees:CurrencyConversion ||   10.00 USD 
 Expenses:Vacation:Food           ||  218.50 USD 
 Expenses:Vacation:Hotel          ||  356.50 USD 
----------------------------------++-------------
                                  ||   -5.00 USD

The "exp" account query is added to show just the expenses. Now we can see their total.

$ hledger bal --flat -Y -V exp
Balance changes in 2018:

                                  ||       2018 
==================================++============
 Expenses:Fees:CurrencyConversion ||  10.00 USD 
 Expenses:Vacation:Food           || 218.50 USD 
 Expenses:Vacation:Hotel          || 356.50 USD 
----------------------------------++------------
                                  || 585.00 USD

Or you might use the is/incomestatement command which is specialised for income/expense reporting. It's tabular and flat by default.

$ hledger is -V
Income Statement 2018/10/25-2018/10/28

                                  || 2018/10/25-2018/10/28 
==================================++=======================
 Revenues                         ||                       
----------------------------------++-----------------------
----------------------------------++-----------------------
                                  ||                       
==================================++=======================
 Expenses                         ||                       
----------------------------------++-----------------------
 Expenses:Fees:CurrencyConversion ||             10.00 USD 
 Expenses:Vacation:Food           ||            218.50 USD 
 Expenses:Vacation:Hotel          ||            356.50 USD 
----------------------------------++-----------------------
                                  ||            585.00 USD 
==================================++=======================
 Net:                             ||           -585.00 USD

Get Started

Starting out with hledger or Plain Text Accounting, not to mention setting up a new accounting system, can be a lot. This page aims to help! After installing hledger, reading one or more of the docs below should be helpful.

Quick starts

Quick introductions (may assume a bit of command line know-how):

Tutorials

Detailed step by step tutorials, with screenshots:

Videos

Manuals

hledger's manual is the authoritative documentation. For complete details, go straight here (or view it in the terminal with hledger help):

How-tos

Practical advice and examples for real-world tasks are collected at:

See also

  • Support, especially the #hledger chat and hledger mail list, open 24/7

How to approach hledger and accounting

Little and often

Remember that accounting is an ongoing activity, best done in regular small doses.

The more often you do it, the easier it is, because less has happened and you can remember it. Ten minutes daily can achieve a lot. (Or less, once you get a routine going.)

Small steps

Good news: you can start using hledger in very simple ways, and get immediate benefit. A good way to prioritise is to think about your most pressing needs and what kind of report would help. For example,

  • Take inventory of your debts, loans and assets; write down the names and numbers.
  • Record these as "opening balances" transactions (as in the quick start docs).
  • Make corrections until hledger shows your balances accurately.

Or:

  • Start recording changes to the cash in your wallet, starting with today's balance.
  • Then start reconciling daily (comparing the reported and actual balance, and troubleshooting any disagreements).
  • Then start tracking the balance in your checking account.
  • Then start tracking your other bank accounts.
  • Then start categorising your incomes and expenses.
  • Then find your bank transaction history and manually enter the transactions from the previous week.
  • Then manually download your bank transactions as CSV and develop CSV rules so that you can print the CSV as journal entries.
  • Then try downloading and importing this CSV into your journal daily for a while. (Only if you wish. Many people stick to manual data entry for the increased awareness it brings.)

If the task feels unclear or overwhelming, I recommend this small steps, verifiable reports approach.

If not, of course feel free to blaze away and do it all on day one. But I would still recommend establishing a frequent reconciling routine. It is surprising how quickly small events can slip through the cracks and create chaos, and it takes a little time to develop the troubleshooting skills. Reconciling often will save you time.

Imperfection

Your bookkeeping does not have to be perfect or even very accurate [1]. As you practice, you will naturally learn more about the tools and about double-entry accounting, such as how to organise your account categories, and how to write effective journal entries for various real-world events (transactions).

Later you can come back and improve your old journal entries if you wish. You can decide what level of accuracy you need.

[1] Though if you really catch the PTA bug, you may find that nothing less than perfection will do!

hledger!

Fast, robust, user-friendly
plain text accounting
⚡️💪🏼❤️

hledger is...

Features tells more, or don't hesitate to join Discussion/Support chat and ask questions.

Github repo GitHub downloads GitHub downloads, latest Hackage Stackage
CI binaries-linux-x64-static CI binaries-mac-x64 CI binaries-windows-x64

Quick start

Welcome! This plain text accounting stuff is useful and more fun than it sounds - care to give it a try ?

Install, then see Get Started, or the Examples below, or run hledger to see help and demos. Full documentation is ready when you need it, in the sidebar to the left. (If not visible, click/tap the horizontal-lines icon at top left.)

Examples

Here are three transactions in journal format, recorded in the journal file ($LEDGER_FILE or ~/.hledger.journal) by hledger add or other method. The account names and amounts are separated by at least two spaces; a positive amount means "added to this account", negative means "removed from this account". hledger will check that each transaction's amounts sum to zero; one of them may be omitted for convenience.


2023-01-01 opening balances            ; <- First transaction sets starting balances.
    assets:bank:checking        $1000  ; <- Account names can be anything.
    assets:bank:savings         $2000  ; <- Colons indicate subaccounts.
    assets:cash                  $100  ; <- 2+ spaces are required before the amount.
    liabilities:credit card      $-50  ; <- A debt; these are negative.
    equity:opening/closing     $-3050  ; <- Starting balances come from equity.
                                       ;    Equity is also usually negative.
                                       ;    (Reports can show as positive when needed.)

2023-02-01 GOODWORKS CORP              ; <- Date order is recommended but optional.
    assets:bank:checking       $1000
    income:salary                      ; <- $-1000 is inferred here to balance the txn.
                                       ;    Income amounts are negative.

2023-02-15 market
    expenses:food             $50
    assets:cash                        ; <- $-50 is inferred here.

You can run reports like so:

$ hledger bs
Balance Sheet 2023-02-15

                         || 2023-02-15 
=========================++============
 Assets                  ||            
-------------------------++------------
 assets:bank:checking    ||      $2000 
 assets:bank:savings     ||      $2000 
 assets:cash             ||        $50 
-------------------------++------------
                         ||      $4050 
=========================++============
 Liabilities             ||            
-------------------------++------------
 liabilities:credit card ||        $50 
-------------------------++------------
                         ||        $50 
=========================++============
 Net:                    ||      $4000 

$ hledger is -MTA
Income Statement 2023-01-01..2023-02-28

               || Jan    Feb    Total  Average 
===============++==============================
 Revenues      ||                              
---------------++------------------------------
 income:salary ||   0  $1000    $1000     $500 
---------------++------------------------------
               ||   0  $1000    $1000     $500 
===============++==============================
 Expenses      ||                              
---------------++------------------------------
 expenses:food ||   0    $50      $50      $25 
---------------++------------------------------
               ||   0    $50      $50      $25 
===============++==============================
 Net:          ||   0   $950     $950     $475 

$ hledger aregister checking
Transactions in assets:bank:checking and subaccounts:
2023-01-01 opening balances     as:ba:savings, as:..         $1000         $1000
2023-02-01 GOODWORKS CORP       in:salary                    $1000         $2000

Declarations

If you use other account names, it's useful to declare their account types:


account actifs                          ; type:Asset, 2+ spaces required before the ;
account actifs:banque:compte courant    ; type:Cash
account actifs:banque:compte d'épargne  ; type:Cash
account actifs:espèces                  ; type:Cash
account passifs                         ; type:Liability
account capitaux propres                ; type:Equity
account revenus                         ; type:Revenue
account dépenses                        ; type:Expense

Or declare all accounts, currencies and tags, if you want strict error checking:


account assets                   ; type:A, 2+ spaces required before the ;
account assets:bank              ; type:C
account assets:bank:checking
account assets:bank:savings
account assets:cash              ; type:C
account liabilities              ; type:L
account liabilities:credit card
account equity                   ; type:E
account equity:opening/closing
account income                   ; type:R
account income:salary
account income:gifts
account expenses                 ; type:X
account expenses:rent
account expenses:food
account expenses:gifts

commodity $1000.00

tag type

$ hledger check --strict
$

Declaring accounts also helps set their preferred display order:

$ hledger accounts -t
assets
  bank
    checking
    savings
  cash
liabilities
  credit card
equity
  opening/closing
income
  salary
  gifts
expenses
  rent
  food
  gifts

You can declare account aliases to save typing:


alias chk  = assets:bank:checking
alias cash = assets:cash
alias card = liabilities:creditcard
alias food = expenses:food

...

2023-02-15 market
    food          $50
    cash

Other UIs

Instead of using the command line, you could run hledger-ui or hledger-web. Here are the command line, terminal, and web interfaces, with more complex data:

Time tracking

hledger can also read time logs in timeclock format:


i 2023/03/27 09:00:00 projects:a
o 2023/03/27 17:00:34
i 2023/03/31 22:21:45 personal:reading:online
o 2023/04/01 02:00:34

$ hledger -f 2023.timeclock register -D
2023-03-27   projects:a                         8.01h         8.01h
2023-03-31   personal:reading:online            1.64h         9.65h
2023-04-01   personal:reading:online            2.01h        11.66h

Or in timedot format:


2023/2/1
biz:research  .... ..
fos:hledger   .... .... ....

2023/2/2
fos:ledger    0.25
fos:haskell   .5
biz:client1   .... ....

$ hledger -f 2023.timedot balance -tDTA  # tree, Daily, Total, Average
Balance changes in 2023-02-01..2023-02-02:

            || 2023-02-01  2023-02-02    Total  Average 
============++==========================================
 biz        ||       1.50        2.00     3.50     1.75 
   client1  ||          0        2.00     2.00     1.00 
   research ||       1.50           0     1.50     0.75 
 fos        ||       3.00        0.75     3.75     1.88 
   haskell  ||          0        0.50     0.50     0.25 
   hledger  ||       3.00           0     3.00     1.50 
   ledger   ||          0        0.25     0.25     0.12 
------------++------------------------------------------
            ||       4.50        2.75     7.25     3.62

CSV import

hledger can read CSV (or SSV, TSV, or other character-separated) files representing transactions:


"Date","Notes","Amount"
"2023/2/22","DEPOSIT","50.00"
"2023/2/23","TRANSFER TO SAVINGS","-10.00"


# bank.csv.rules  # this rules file tells hledger how to read bank.csv
skip 1
fields date, description, amount
currency $
account1 assets:bank:checking

if WHOLE FOODS
 account2 expenses:food

if (TO|FROM) SAVINGS
 account2 assets:bank:savings

$ hledger -f bank.csv print
2023-02-22 DEPOSIT
    assets:bank:checking          $50.00
    income:unknown               $-50.00

2023-02-23 TRANSFER TO SAVINGS
    assets:bank:checking         $-10.00
    assets:bank:savings           $10.00

The import command detects and adds just new transactions to the journal (works with most CSVs):

$ hledger import bank.csv
imported 2 new transactions from bank.csv

$ hledger import bank.csv
no new transactions found in bank.csv

$ hledger aregister checking
2023-01-01 opening balances     as:ba:savings, as:..      $1000.00      $1000.00
2023-02-01 GOODWORKS CORP       in:salary                 $1000.00      $2000.00
2023-02-22 DEPOSIT              in:unknown                  $50.00      $2050.00
2023-02-23 TRANSFER TO SAVINGS  as:ba:savings              $-10.00      $2040.00

More examples...

See also




hledger.org site tips:

  • Use the horizontal lines icon at top left to toggle the sidebar.
  • Use the paintbrush icon to change theme.
  • Use the magnifying-glass icon to search.
  • Access keys are also available:
    s toggle sidebar, t theme, / search,
    1 home page, 2 recent changes, < previous page, > next page.

Importing CSV data

hledger has a powerful CSV converter built in. After saving a few declarations in a "CSV rules file", it can read transactions from almost any CSV file. This is described in detail in the hledger manual, but here are some quick examples.

Say you have downloaded this checking.csv file from a bank for the first time:

"Date","Note","Amount"
"2012/3/22","DEPOSIT","50.00"
"2012/3/23","TRANSFER TO SAVINGS","-10.00"

Create a rules file named checking.csv.rules in the same directory. This tells hledger how to read this CSV file. Eg:

# skip the headings line:
skip 1

# use the first three CSV fields for hledger's transaction date, description and amount:
fields date, description, amount

# specify the date field's format - not needed here since date is Y/M/D
# date-format %-d/%-m/%Y
# date-format %-m/%-d/%Y
# date-format %Y-%h-%d

# since the CSV amounts have no currency symbol, add one:
currency $

# set the base account that this CSV file corresponds to
account1 assets:bank:checking

# the other account will default to expenses:unknown or income:unknown;
# we can optionally refine it by matching patterns in the CSV record:
if (TO|FROM) SAVINGS
  account2 assets:bank:savings

if WHOLE FOODS
  account2 expenses:food

You can print the resulting transactions in any of hledger's output formats:

$ hledger -f checking.csv print
2012-03-22 DEPOSIT
    assets:bank:checking          $50.00
    income:unknown               $-50.00

2012-03-23 TRANSFER TO SAVINGS
    assets:bank:checking         $-10.00
    assets:bank:savings           $10.00

Or run reports directly from the CSV:

$ hledger -f checking.csv bal
              $40.00  assets:bank:checking
              $10.00  assets:bank:savings
             $-50.00  income:unknown
--------------------
                   0

Or import any new transactions, saving them into your main journal:

$ hledger import checking.csv --dry-run 
; would import 2 new transactions from checking.csv:

2012-03-22 DEPOSIT
    assets:bank:checking          $50.00
    income:unknown               $-50.00

2012-03-23 TRANSFER TO SAVINGS
    assets:bank:checking         $-10.00
    assets:bank:savings           $10.00

$ hledger import checking.csv
imported 2 new transactions from checking.csv

hledger import ignores transactions it has seen before, so it's safe to run it repeatedly. (It creates a hidden .latest.checking.csv file in the same directory. If you need to forget the state and start over, delete this.)

Customize the default "unknown" accounts

When converting CSV, hledger uses the account names income:unknown and expenses:unknown as defaults. Normally when you see these, you will want to add CSV rules to set a more specific account name. But you may want to change these defaults, eg into your language.

Method 1: You can add rules something like these, as the first account2 rules:

# set account2 to this:
account2 Revenues:Misc

# change it to Expenses:Misc if the csv "amount" field contains a minus sign:
if %amount -
 account2 Expenses:Misc

# override it with more specific rules below...

Method 2: You can use --alias options to rewrite those account names. With hledger 1.20+:

$ hledger -f checking.csv --alias income:unknown=Income:Misc --alias expenses:unknown=Expenses:Misc print
2012-03-22 DEPOSIT
    assets:bank:checking          $50.00
    Income:Misc                  $-50.00

2012-03-23 TRANSFER TO SAVINGS
    assets:bank:checking         $-10.00
    assets:bank:savings           $10.00

(Before hledger 1.20, --alias only worked with journal format so you had to pipe it like this:)

$ hledger -f checking.csv print | hledger -f- --alias income:unknown=Income:Misc --alias expenses:unknown=Expenses:Misc print

See also

Full documentation of CSV conversion, and more rules examples, can be found in the hledger manual.

A collection of CSV rules can be found in examples/csv/ in the main hledger repository. There is also a Makefile to help manage and import multiple CSV files. I keep journals, csv files and csv rules in one finance directory; the makefile moves downloaded csv files there and imports them. The procedure could be:

  • In browser: download one or more CSVs manually
  • In terminal: make -C ~/finance Import

There are many other CSV conversion tools (nine CSV->*ledger tools at last count), linked at plaintextaccounting.org -> data import/conversion.

Install

The current hledger release is 1.31. Release notes

Here are lots of ways to install hledger:

After downloading binaries or building from source, please check that the run requirements (PATH and locale) are satisfied.

And finally please share any feedback so we can make this process smoother!


Binary packages

Mac

hledger CI binaries
hledger-mac-x64.zip
Homebrew
brew install hledger

Windows

hledger CI binaries
hledger-windows-x64.zip
Scoop package
scoop install hledger
Chocolatey package
choco install hledger -y
Winget package
winget install simonmichael.hledger

GNU/Linux

hledger CI binaries
hledger-linux-x64.zip
Gentoo
sudo layman -a haskell && sudo emerge hledger hledger-ui hledger-web
Alpine edge
doas apk add hledger hledger-ui hledger-web
enabling the community repository
Arch
pacman -Sy hledger hledger-ui hledger-web
Void Linux x86_64
xbps-install -S hledger hledger-ui hledger-web
Debian unstable
Debian stable
Debian oldstable
Debian oldoldstable
more..
sudo apt install hledger hledger-ui hledger-web





more..
sudo apt install hledger hledger-ui hledger-web





more..
sudo dnf install hledger

Raspberry Pi

hledger CI binaries
hledger-linux-arm32v7.zip
Contributed binaries
hledger-aarch64-manjaro.gz
hledger-armhf32-debian.gz
Note: unaudited third party binaries

BSD

openbsd ports
pkg_add hledger
netbsd package
pkg_add hledger
freebsd ports
pkg install hs-hledger hs-hledger-ui hs-hledger-web

Other

Docker
more..
docker pull dastapov/hledger
Nix
nix-shell -p hledger hledger-ui hledger-web
On Linux, note #1030, #1033.
Sandstorm
HLedger Web app

Preview releases

hledger CI binaries
https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/releases
Previews of the next major release, for testers & early adopters.

Build the current release

Release source
  1. Check build requirements
  2. Use one of the build methods

Build requirements

Hardware

  • A machine where the Haskell build tools are available.
  • 4G of RAM is recommended.
  • 2G of free disk space will be needed if this is your first Haskell build.

GHC, stack, cabal

These are the Haskell build tools. If you choose the "Build with hledger-install" method below, they will be installed automatically. If you choose the "Build with stack" method, you will need to have stack installed. If you choose the "Build with cabal" method, you will need to have cabal and GHC installed.

You can probably install these tools with your local packaging system. They need not be the latest versions (but later versions are better):

  • GHC should be >=8.8. On Arch GNU/Linux, the packaged GHC is non-standard and may be troublesome.
  • cabal (ie cabal-install) should be >=3.2.
  • stack should be >=2.7. You can often upgrade an existing stack installation quickly with stack upgrade. On Windows, prefer the 64-bit version of stack.

Or, you can install them with ghcup. Since 2022, this is most reliable, platform-independent and recommended method.

  1. Install ghcup
  2. Install a recent version of ghc and stack
    ghcup install ghc
    ghcup install stack
    # or interactively: ghcup tui
  3. When ghcup asks if stack should use ghcup-managed GHC, say yes.

C libraries

On unix systems, you may need to install additional C libraries to avoid errors like "cannot find -ltinfo" when building hledger. Install them with a command like the below:

Debian, Ubuntu & co.:
sudo apt install libgmp-dev libtinfo-dev zlib1g-dev
Fedora, RHEL:
sudo dnf install gmp-devel ncurses-devel zlib-devel

(Please send updates for this list.)

UTF-8 locale

On unix systems, when building hledger the LANG environment variable must be set to a UTF-8-aware locale. See Check your locale.

Known build issues

More build tips

  • Building the hledger tools and possibly all their dependencies could take anywhere from a minute to an hour.

  • On machines with less than 4G of RAM, the build may use swap space and take much longer (overnight), or die part-way through. In such low memory situations, try adding -j1 to the stack/cabal install command, and retry a few times, or ask for more tips.

  • You could build just hledger CLI to use less time and space, by omitting hledger-ui and hledger-web from the commands below.

  • It's ok to kill a build and rerun the command later; you won't lose progress.

  • You can add --dry-run to the stack/cabal/nix install commands to see how much building remains.

  • If you have previously installed the hledger tools, they will usually be overwritten by the new version. If you have them installed in multiple places in your PATH, you may see a warning, reminding you to remove or rename the old executables.

Build methods

Use any of the following methods:

Build with hledger-install

The hledger-install.sh script builds the current release of the hledger tools, plus some add-on tools, in a relatively reliable way, requiring bash but not any Haskell build tools. It uses stack or cabal if you have them (installing stack in ~/.local/bin otherwise), and installs the hledger tools in ~/.local/bin or ~/.cabal/bin respectively. This can be a good choice if you are new to Haskell.

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/simonmichael/hledger/master/hledger-install/hledger-install.sh
less hledger-install.sh # <- good security practice: inspect downloaded scripts before running
bash hledger-install.sh

Build with stack

If you have stack installed, you can run it to install the main hledger tools in ~/.local/bin:

stack update
stack install --resolver=lts-21 hledger-lib-1.31 hledger-1.31 hledger-ui-1.31 hledger-web-1.31 --silent

On Windows, omit hledger-ui from this command (unless you are in WSL).

Build with cabal

If you have GHC and cabal, you can run cabal to install the main hledger tools in ~/.cabal/bin:

cabal update
cabal install alex happy
cabal install hledger-1.31 hledger-ui-1.31 hledger-web-1.31

On Windows, omit hledger-ui from this command (unless you are in WSL).

Build with nix

If you have nix, you can use nix-env to build hledger from source (but we try to provide a nix command that installs already-cached binaries, see above).

Build on Android

Here's how to build hledger on Android with Termux (if your phone has plenty of memory).

Build the development version

Latest source

If you want the very latest improvements, our master branch on github is suitable for daily use.

  1. Check build requirements above

  2. Get the source with git and enter the source directory:

    git clone https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger
    cd hledger

  3. Build and install executables (to ~/.local/bin) with stack:

    stack update
    stack install

    or (to ~/.cabal/bin) with cabal:

    cabal update
    cabal install alex happy
    cabal install all:exes

    or you can build in a Docker container which includes the necessary tools and dependencies:

    git clone https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger
    cd hledger/docker
    ./build.sh

    (This will build the image tagged hledger with just the latest binaries inside. If you want to keep all the build artifacts and use the resulting image for hledger development, run ./build-dev.sh instead.)

Run requirements

After installing, run the hledger tools and verify that their versions are what you just installed (and not older versions from a previous install). Eg:

$ hledger --version
hledger 1.31-g7fbe76970-20230903, mac-aarch64

$ hledger-ui --version
hledger-ui 1.31-g7fbe76970-20230903, mac-aarch64

$ hledger web --version
hledger-web 1.31-g7fbe76970-20230903, mac-aarch64

If you like, you can also run the unit tests:

$ hledger test
...
All 221 tests passed (0.10s)

or the more thorough functional tests, if you are in hledger's source directory:

$ make functest
...
Total 998 ...
functest PASSED

If things are not yet working, then:

Check your PATH

After building/installing, you may see a message about where the executables were installed. Eg:

  • with stack: $HOME/.local/bin (on Windows, %APPDATA%\local\bin)
  • with cabal: $HOME/.cabal/bin (on Windows, %APPDATA%\cabal\bin)
  • with nix: $HOME/.nix-profile/bin

Make sure that this install directory is included in your shell's $PATH (preferably near the start, to preempt any old hledger binaries you might have lying around). How to configure this depends on your platform and shell. Eg if you are using bash, this will show $PATH:

echo $PATH

and this will add the stack and cabal install dirs to it permanently:

echo "export PATH=~/.local/bin:~/.cabal/bin:$PATH" >> ~/.profile
source ~/.profile

Here's how to set environment variables on Windows.

Check your locale

On unix systems, when running hledger (and other GHC-compiled programs, like GHC, cabal & stack), the LANG environment variable must be set to a UTF-8-aware locale to avoid errors like "invalid byte sequence" or "mkTextEncoding: invalid argument" when processing non-ascii text.

Check that LANG's value mentions UTF-8, and if not, change it:

$ echo $LANG
C
$ export LANG=C.UTF-8    # or en_US.UTF-8, fr_FR.utf8, etc.
$ echo $LANG
C.UTF-8

In some cases the locale may need to be installed with your system package manager first. See hledger: Troubleshooting for more help.

If you see similar problems on Microsoft Windows, perhaps this doc can help with configuring it.

With Nix or GUIX, the procedures are different.

Next steps

Nicely done! Now see Get started, or come to the #hledger chat where we'll gladly share tips or receive your feedback.


Invoicing

Freelancers and businesses send invoices to clients to request payment.

See common journal entries and https://wiki.plaintextaccounting.org/Invoicing

Reports

With invoices and payments recorded as above, you can track unpaid invoices:

$ hledger bal receivable:supercompany

or list all invoices and payments:

$ hledger areg receivable:supercompany

or just invoices:

$ hledger areg receivable:supercompany amt:'>0'

or just payments:

$ hledger areg receivable:supercompany amt:'<0'

Creating Invoices

How to translate the data from your ledger into a professional-looking invoice you can send to clients ?

You can create the invoice manually or semi-manually, eg using a tool like Freshbooks, and copy-paste the numbers in.

Or you can automate this somehow. There are few ready-made tools for this, because needs are so diverse.

But you'll find some useful starter scripts in hledger's examples/invoicing directory, such as

See also

Mobile apps

Entering expenses on the spot using a mobile device can be convenient. One of the challenges is finding apps that focus on making this efficient. Here are some options. See also:

https://cone.tangential.info/wiki/Mobile-ledgers
https://plaintextaccounting.org/#ui-mobile

Apps that talk to hledger

MoLe (Android, GNU GPL v3+)

https://mole.ktnx.net
https://git.ktnx.net/?p=mobile-ledger.git
A data entry app that talks to a hledger-web (1.14+) server.

MoLe-1 MoLe-2

Apps with journal file export

Cashier (PWA, GNU GPL v3)

https://gitlab.com/alensiljak/cashier
demo
A progressive web application that can be used on desktop and (offline!) on web-capable mobile devices for entering transactions and viewing balances. The transactions can be exported as a (h)ledger file. The future plans include data synchronization with an instance of hledger-web.

Cashier options Cashier new transaction screen

cone (Android, GNU GPL v3)

https://github.com/bradyt/cone
Currently implements offline data entry, and saves a local *ledger file, which can be synced with a server via Syncthing.

Ledger Expense Tracking (Android)

https://github.com/jduepmeier/ledger-app
google play
Expense tracking app with *ledger export.

Apps with CSV export

The general workflow here is that every so often you manually initiate a CSV export from the app. Typically the app starts up a temporary HTTP server and you can fetch the data to your main machine with curl. Then, with suitable CSV rules, either run hledger reports directly from the CSV file, or convert it/import the new transactions into a more permanent journal file. A script or Makefile to automate this can be helpful.

GnuCash for Android

https://github.com/codinguser/gnucash-android
google play
Mobile UI for the mature GnuCash desktop accounting app.

GnuCash for Android accounts GnuCash for Android transactions GnuCash for Android reports

Eternity (IOS)

http://www.komorian.com/eternity.html
Excellent time tracking app. These CSV rules can be used to convert its CSV export to *ledger format.

XpenseTracker, BizXpenseTracker (IOS)

http://www.silverwaresoftware.com/XpenseTracker.html
Comprehensive and serviceable money & time tracking apps. CSV rules, Makefile

Apps with other ways to export

Money Manager Ex for Android (Android, GNU GPL v3)

http://android.moneymanagerex.org, https://github.com/moneymanagerex/android-money-manager-ex
Android port of the Money Manager Ex cross platform finance application. The MoneyManagerExLib python library can be used to convert its db to *ledger format.

MyExpenses (Android, GNU GPL v3+)

http://www.myexpenses.mobi, https://github.com/mtotschnig/MyExpenses
GPL personal finance manager for Android.

Export to *ledger format: https://github.com/ony/ledger-myexpenses (2017)

Sync to/from Ledger: https://gitlab.com/IanTwenty/ledgermyexpenses (2023)

Mockups

Mockups, draft docs and notes exploring possible future features. See also https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/tree/master/doc/mockups

Lot terminology

Some investment-related terminology, as we use it here and in the PTA world:

  • "Investment" - something whose value fluctuates while you hold it.

  • Acquiring, disposing - receiving and getting rid of investments, whether by purchase, exchange, gift, stock options..

  • Augmenting, reducing - the same thing; terminology used in Beancount docs. Most often the investment is an asset and acquiring/augmenting increases a positive balance, but with other kinds of investments (options..) it might decrease a negative balance. Acquiring/augmenting increases your exposure (risk), disposing/reducing reduces it.

  • Lot - a quantity of an investment purchased at a specific time and cost. It may also have descriptive note attached. With many investments, lots must be tracked individually for tax reporting.

  • Cost basis - a lot's acquisition cost. More generally, the combination of acquisition time, cost, and note if any.

  • Capital gain/loss - your net profit or loss arising from the change in value of an investment since you acquired it. Some times abbreviated as "gains" in these docs. While you are holding the investment, you have unrealised gains, which fluctuate along with the market value. Once you dispose of it, you have realised gains. Capital gain/loss has tax consequences.

  • Reduction strategy, lot selection - the order in which lots are reduced, eg when you are selling a stock or gifting some cryptocurrency, which ones do you reduce first ? Common strategies: FIFO (first in first out), LIFO (last in first out), and Specific Order (a custom order, which should be recorded). The reduction strategy affects capital gains now and later, and has tax consequences. Sometimes you can choose it, at other times it is mandated by the tax authorities.

Lot ideas

2023-01 Some examples/brainstorming of lot notations and functionality.

I believe one could emulate most of ledger/beancount's lot tracking/selection with simpler syntax - just @, with less or no need for {} (curly brace syntax).

Explicit lot accounts

Eg here, using explicit subaccounts to track lots, no {} is needed.:

2022-01-01 buy at 10
  assets:aaa:_20220101     10 AAA @ $10
  assets:cash           $-100
    
2022-02-01 buy at 12
  assets:aaa:_20220201     10 AAA @ $12
  assets:cash           $-120
    
2022-03-01 sell at 20
  assets:aaa:_20220101    -10 AAA @ $10  ; original cost basis
  assets:aaa:_20220201     -5 AAA @ $12
  assets:cash            $300
  revenues:gains        $-140

Inferring cost from lot account

Assuming each lot subaccount holds only one lot, the cost basis could be recalled automatically when selling, though it's less readable:

2022-01-01 buy at 10
  assets:aaa:_20220101     10 AAA @ $10
  assets:cash           $-100
    
2022-02-01 buy at 12
  assets:aaa:_20220201     10 AAA @ $12
  assets:cash           $-120
    
2022-03-01 sell at 20
  assets:aaa:_20220101    -10 AAA  ; @ $10 implied
  assets:aaa:_20220201     -5 AAA  ; @ $12 implied
  assets:cash            $300
  revenues:gains        $-140

Cost in lot account name

Cost basis could also be indicated in the subaccount name:

2022-01-01 buy at 10
  assets:aaa:_20220101_$10     10 AAA @ $10
  assets:cash               $-100
    
2022-02-01 buy at 12
  assets:aaa:_20220201_$12     10 AAA @ $12
  assets:cash               $-120
    
2022-03-01 sell at 20
  assets:aaa:_20220101_$10    -10 AAA  ; @ $10 implied, now more clear
  assets:aaa:_20220201_$12     -5 AAA
  assets:cash                $300
  revenues:gains            $-140

Automatic lot accounts

Lot subaccounts could be created automatically, without having to write them; and could be used to select lots when withdrawing:

2022-01-01 buy at 10
  assets:aaa                 10 AAA @ $10  ; creates _20220101_$10 subaccount
  assets:cash             $-100
    
2022-02-01 buy at 12
  assets:aaa                 10 AAA @ $12  ; creates _20220201_$12
  assets:cash             $-120
    
2022-03-01 sell at 20
  assets:aaa:_20220201_$12  -10 AAA  ; select lot by subaccount
  assets:aaa:_20220101_$10   -5 AAA  ; LIFO order here
  assets:cash              $300
  revenues:gains          $-130

Implicit lots

Or there could be no lot subaccounts, just lots tracked implictly by the tool, with special commands to view them, as in ledger/beancount:

2022-01-01 buy at 10
  assets:aaa                 10 AAA @ $10  ; creates an implicit lot
  assets:cash             $-100
    
2022-02-01 buy at 12
  assets:aaa                 10 AAA @ $12  ; view lots with bal --lots
  assets:cash             $-120

Reduction strategy

Whether explicit, automatic or implicit, lots could be selected automatically according to some reduction strategy, specified eg with a tag:

2022-03-01 sell at 20, FIFO
  assets:aaa                -15 AAA  ; reduce lots FIFO by default
  assets:cash              $300
  revenue:gains                      ; $-140 calculated

2022-03-01 sell at 20, LIFO
  assets:aaa                -15 AAA  ; reduce:LIFO
  assets:cash              $300
  revenue:gains                      ; $-130 calculated

The above are easy to enter but less informative and hard to calculate by eye; you could use the tool to convert to a more explicit entry:

2022-03-01 sell at 20, FIFO
  assets:aaa                -10 AAA @ $10
  assets:aaa                 -5 AAA @ $12
  assets:cash              $300
  revenue:gains           $-140

2022-03-01 sell at 20, LIFO
  assets:aaa                -10 AAA @ $12
  assets:aaa                 -5 AAA @ $10
  assets:cash              $300
  revenue:gains           $-130

Lot selection syntax

If lots are implicit, ie there are no subaccounts by which to select them, some special syntax is needed to allow identifying them individually by cost, date, and/or note. This could be {}, [], tags, or something new. Eg:

2022-03-01 sell at 20, taking 3 alternately from each lot
  assets:aaa                 -3 AAA {@ $10}                         ; lot 1
  assets:aaa                 -3 AAA {2022-02-01}                    ; lot 2
  assets:aaa                 -3 AAA {buy at 10}                     ; lot 1
  assets:aaa                 -3 AAA {@ $10, 2022-02-01, buy at 12}  ; lot 2
  assets:aaa                 -3 AAA                                 ; lot-date:2022-01-01, lot-cost:$10, lot-note:buy at 10, (lot 1)
  assets:cash              $300
  revenue:gains           $-138

Use of curly braces

I don't see the need to use {} as much as Ledger/Beancount do. In particular, Ledger/Beancount's {} syntax allows creating a lot with a cost basis different from what it cost you in the transaction acquiring it. What is the real need for this, and how often is it needed ?

It's not needed eg when buying a commodity at a rate different from the market rate; you can do:

2022-01-01 receive AAA, currently worth $10, with effective cost to us of ~$11 because of fees
  revenues:usd              -10 AAA @ $10
  expenses:fees               1 AAA
  equity:basis adjustment    -1 AAA
  assets:cash                 9 AAA @ $11.111

commodity $0.00  ; help hledger balance the above

Investments vs one-time transactions

Not yet mentioned: some commodities/balances fluctuate in value while you hold them (eg an investment) and others are a one-time conversion (eg buying foreign currency at the airport).

@ can be used for both of these, it's essentially a matter of which cost you calculate with when disposing:

2022-01-01 buy at 10, hold with fluctuating value
  assets:aaa                 10 AAA @ $10     ; today's acquisition cost
  assets:cash             $-100

2022-03-01 sell at 20, with capital gain/loss
  assets:aaa                -10 AAA @ $10     ; original acquisition cost
  assets:cash              $200
  revenue:gains           $-100

2022-01-01 exchange SEK for USD, one-time conversion
  assets:cash              -100 SEK
  assets:cash                10 USD @ 10 SEK  ; today's conversion cost

2022-03-01 exchange back to SEK, one-time conversion
  assets:cash               -10 USD @ 11 SEK  ; today's conversion cost
  assets:cash               110 SEK

I believe @ and {} were intended to/can/do distinguish between these. If using only @ there needs to be some other mechanism to indicate fluctuating value vs one-time conversion, or so it seems - eg an annotation on the transaction, the account, or the commodity.

Price syntax

In Ledger and hledger

  • In the journal, a P DATE COMMODITY AMOUNT directive some commodity's market price in some other commodity on DATE. (A timestamp may be added, but is ignored.)

  • In a posting, AMT @ UNITPRICE declares the per-unit price that was used to convert AMT into the price's commodity. Eg: 2A @ 3B records that 2A was posted, in exchange for 6B.

  • @@ TOTALPRICE is another form of @, sometimes more convenient. Eg: 2A @@ 5.99B records that 2A was posted in exchange for 5.99B.

In Ledger

  • @ UNITPRICE Any use of @ also generates an implicit P directive. Eg:

    2019/1/1
  a  2A @ 3B
  b

    in the journal is equivalent to writing

    2019/1/1
  a  2A @ 3B
  b

P 2019/1/1 A 1.5B

  • {UNITPRICE}

  • {=FIXEDUNITPRICE}

The following are variants of the above; they work the same way except that you write the total instead of the unit price:

  • @@ TOTALPRICE
  • {{TOTALPRICE}}
  • {{=FIXEDTOTALPRICE}}

In hledger

  • @ does not generate a market price
  • {} and {=} are ignored

Capital gains

A model for capital gains

Capital gain/loss (when the value of assets you hold increases/decreases due to market price fluctuations) - is an important topic, since it can generate tax liability.

Here is a description of how it works, intended for both users and builders of accounting software (especially, plain text accounting software). (I'm a software engineer, not an accountant. In places there may be better accounting terms I'm not familiar with yet.)

  • lots/units - A quantity of some commodity, acquired at a certain price on a certain date, is called a lot, or unit. (I'm not sure which is the most standard term. Using lot for now.)

  • Since you might have purchased the lot on a stock exchange, received it as a gift, or something else, we'll call this event lot acquisition, on the acquisition date.

  • Later you might sell the lot for cash, or exchange it for something else, or gift it. We'll call this lot disposal.

  • You might have paid current market value for the lot, or you might have paid less or more than that. We'll call what you paid/exchanged the acquisition amount.

  • I think the acquisition amount is also called the basis or cost basis. Or possibly the current market value is the basis, regardless of what you paid. Perhaps it depends. To be clarified. The basis at which you acquired a lot is important.

  • After acquisition, while you are still holding the lot, if the market value of that commodity goes up (or down), your potential return from disposing of the lot increases (or decreases). This is known as capital gain (or loss) (we'll just call it "capital gain"). At this stage, the gain is only "on paper", so it is called unrealised capital gain (URG). This is not considered revenue, or taxable.

  • It's common to be holding multiple lots, perhaps many, even in a single account. Eg, say you buy a small amount of some stock or cryptocurrency each week. Each purchase adds a new lot to your assets. We'll call this a multi-lot balance, or balance.

  • URG is calculated for a lot at a certain point in time. Likewise for a multi-lot balance.

  • realised capital gain

  • lot withdrawal strategies

  • specific identification

Capital gains in hledger

  • postings can have multiple commodities and multiple prices; each of these parts is a deposit or withdrawal to the account

  • -- | Given a list of amounts all in the same commodity, interprets them
-- as a sequence of lot deposits (the positive amounts) and withdrawals
-- (the negative amounts), and applies them in order using the FIFO
-- strategy for withdrawals, then returns the resulting lot balance (as
-- another, shorter, list of amounts).
sumLots :: [Amount] -> [Amount]

Ease of getting started

What could make getting started substantially easier ?

  • Official CI-generated binaries for all major platforms
  • Builtin access to docs in web format

Web docs

Provide the embedded user manuals as HTML also. Eg:

  • hledger help --html # temporary static html files
  • hledger help --web # serve from local hledger-web instance if installed
  • hledger help --site # on hledger.org
  • hledger-ui ? h/w/s # same as above
  • hledger-web -> help # served from hledger-web

Config file

Name: hledger.conf (and possibly ~/.hledger.conf as well).

  • easy to say and spell
  • good highlighting support in editors

Format: toml/ini-ish format, but customised for our needs (if necessary).

Example:

# hledger.conf

[defaults]
# Set options/arguments to be always used with hledger commands.
# Each line is: HLEDGERCMD ARGS, or: hledger ARGS
hledger -f hledger.journal
bal -M --flat -b lastmonth
ui --watch
web -V
help --html

[commands]
# Define aliases for custom hledger commands.
# Each line is: CMDALIAS = HLEDGERCMD ARGS
assets = bal -M ^assets\b
liab   = bal -M ^liabilities\b

# Or use colon, like make ?
bs2:   bs --no-total date:thisyear

# Or just whitespace, like hledger csv rules ?
smui   ui ^sm\b

# Allow arbitrary shell commands ?
2019:    hledger -f 2019.journal
jstatus: git status -sb -- *.journal

# Allow multi-command shell scripts, with optional help string ?
bsis:
  "Show monthly balance sheet and income statement"
  hledger bs -M
  echo
  hledger is -M
  echo

Loaded:

  • at startup and ideally:
  • hledger-web: on each page load if changed, like journals
  • hledger-ui --watch: on change, like journals

Location:

Search a number of locations in order. Values from multiple files are combined, with later files taking precedence.

User config file: should it be "modern" ~/.config/hledger.conf or "old/simple" ~/.hledger.conf ? One or the other may be preferred/easier/more portable. If we support both, should it be one or the other, or both ?

Parent directory config files: we'd probably like to recognise config files in parent directories. How far up should we look - to the root dir ? to the user's home dir ? and if not under the user's home dir, don't look up at all ? to the nearest VCS working directory root ?

This would be the simplest comprehensive scheme: use all of

  1. ~/.config/hledger.conf
  2. ~/.hledger.conf
  3. hledger.conf in all directories from / down to the current directory

Eg: running hledger in /home/simon/project/finance would combine any of the following which exist:

  • ~/.config/hledger.conf
  • ~/.hledger.conf
  • /hledger.conf
  • /home/hledger.conf
  • /home/simon/hledger.conf
  • /home/simon/project/hledger.conf
  • /home/simon/project/finance/hledger.conf

Cf #1353

User-visible changes when going from 1.20.4 to master:
-B/--costNow a primary flag.
--value=costNow an alias for -B/--cost, and deprecated.
--value=cost,COMMNo longer supported, suggests -B --value=X,COMM.
--value=endWith --change, shows change of end values instead of end value of change.
--value=then approximates and hopefully is preferable to the old behaviour.

Meaning of the cost/valuation short flags in master:

Short flagEquivalent to
-B--cost
-V--value=then (soon)
-X/--exchange COMM--value=then,COMM (soon)

Valuation examples

Minimal example for testing some valuation behaviours discussed in #1353. See Balance report valuation above.

; every ~15 days: one A is purchased, and A's market price in B increases.

2020-01-01
  (a)  1 A

2020-01-15
  (a)  1 A

2020-02-01
  (a)  1 A

2020-02-15
  (a)  1 A

P 2020-01-01 A  1 B
P 2020-01-15 A  2 B
P 2020-02-01 A  3 B
P 2020-02-15 A  4 B

Old balance --change --value=end behaviour: shows period-end value of period's balance change:

$ hledger-1.20.4 bal -M --value=end  # --change is the default
Balance changes in 2020-01-01..2020-02-29, valued at period ends:

   || Jan  Feb 
===++==========
 a || 4 B  8 B 
---++----------
   || 4 B  8 B

New balance --change --value=end behaviour in master: shows change between period-end-valued period-end balances:

$ hledger-master bal -M --value=end
Period-end value changes in 2020-01-01..2020-02-29:

   || Jan   Feb 
===++===========
 a || 4 B  12 B 
---++-----------
   || 4 B  12 B

balance --value=then is also supported in master: shows sum of postings' then-values in each period:

$ hledger-master bal -M --value=then
Balance changes in 2020-01-01..2020-02-29, valued at posting date:

   || Jan  Feb 
===++==========
 a || 3 B  7 B 
---++----------
   || 3 B  7 B

Multicurrency tutorial (2018)

Anya begins using hledger without any currency symbols. She adds some journal entries like this (not bothering with descriptions, either):

2018/11/01
  income:gifts
  assets:bank          1000
    
2018/11/02
  assets:bank
  expenses:food         500

She knows hledger is filling in the missing amounts, which can be seen with print's -x/--explicit flag:

$ hledger print -x
2018/11/01
    income:gifts            -1000
    assets:bank              1000

2018/11/02
    assets:bank              -500
    expenses:food             500

The balance command with no arguments shows all balance changes. The total is zero, as Anya expects - each transaction sums to zero, and all transactions are included in this report, so the report also sums to zero:

$ hledger bal
                 500  assets:bank
                 500  expenses:food
               -1000  income:gifts
--------------------
                   0

Unlike partial balance reports (omitting some accounts), which typically do not have a zero total:

$ hledger bal food
                 500  expenses:food
--------------------
                 500

Anya maintains a popular free software project. She remembers that she added a Liberapay button to the project website yesterday, allowing donations. Her native currency is rubles, but Liberapay pays out US dollars or euros.

She realises she had better start tracking currencies in her journal or things will get confusing. So she adds currency symbols throughout her journal:

2018/11/01
  income:gifts
  assets:bank         ₽1000
    
2018/11/02
  assets:bank
  expenses:food        ₽500

Thinking ahead, she sees that entering euro symbols will be a bit un