Why hledger ?

Why should you consider using hledger ? See below, and also the FAQ.

Summary

hledger is free, user-friendly accounting software designed to be:

Dependable - Your data stays local, private, version-controlled, and future-proof. Plain text files work with your favorite text tools and never lock you in. Features interact as you'd expect. Built with a high-assurance programming language.

Fast and lightweight - Starts instantly, processes thousands of transactions per second. Single executable, no database, no configuration required.

Versatile - Track money, investments, cryptocurrencies, time, or any commodity using battle-tested double-entry bookkeeping. Scales from personal use to business accounting.

Actively maintained - New releases quarterly since 2008, extensive documentation, active chat community. We'll pay you $50 if you find or fix a regression bug.

How is it different from traditional 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.

How is it different from other plain text accounting apps ?

hledger has for many years been the most actively developed and supported PTA app.
It strives to also be the easiest to use, most robust, and best documented.
See also:

What can hledger do ?

hledger can provide clarity and insight into your personal or business finances, time logs, or other dated quantitative data. You provide a list of transactions (plain text or CSV), and hledger generates reports and interactive views.

For your goals

It can help you to:

  • understand bookkeeping
  • keep your financial records safe, correct, and private
  • untangle accounting messes
  • know your financial status
  • keep track of loans, due dates, invoices
  • forecast future activity and balances
  • search your financial history
  • categorise your spending
  • understand your patterns
  • make impactful changes and plans
  • track spending and saving goals
  • answer financial questions
  • explore what-if scenarios
  • produce detailed time reports
  • get data needed for tax preparation
  • convert/transform financial data
  • check the correctness of other systems
  • automate accounting tasks
  • create more clarity, balance, and peace of mind

Core capabilities

hledger can:

  • list transactions, payees, currencies/commodities, accounts, statistics
  • show account hierarchies and subaccounts
  • show transactions affecting any account with running balances
  • make balance sheets, cashflow reports, income statements
  • show simple bar charts by period
  • show purchase costs/selling prices and market values in any currency
  • calculate rates of return for investments
  • make reports from timeclock, timedot, or CSV/SSV/TSV files
  • filter by time period, account, or any criteria
  • show multiple periods side by side
  • summarise accounts to any depth
  • rewrite or pivot account names to transform reports
  • output as plain text, HTML, CSV, TSV, JSON, SQL
  • run as a live-updating terminal UI for fast interactive exploration
  • run as a web app for remote/multi-user browsing and data entry
  • run as a JSON web API for custom integrations
  • combine multiple files and data sets
  • generate recurring transactions and forecasts by rule
  • generate extra postings (splits) on transactions by rule
  • make budget reports showing goals vs actual performance
  • generate interest transactions by rule
  • help you enter new transactions with prompts or a terminal UI
  • import and convert transactions from banks and other sources
  • be used as a library in Haskell scripts or programs

More examples: Charts and Graphs • HTML reports • Working with other software • Investing and trading • Scripts and addons

What problems does hledger solve ?

Here are some problems a plain text accounting app, and hledger specifically, can solve. Do any of these apply to you ?

I am a technical person wanting to track finances with familiar tools and a minimum of fuss

You can learn hledger's syntax quickly, manage data with your favourite text processing tools, and produce useful financial reports right away with a single executable requiring no configuration.

I don't have an effective accounting system, and am experiencing financial chaos, loss, or worry

(This was my situation when I started writing hledger.) I can tell you that having some kind of system to keep a record of financial activity and give clarity and insight is a huge help; it can be life-changing. hledger is a free, highly dependable accounting tool, that scales smoothly from basic to advanced needs. It provides structure, extensive documentation, and a supportive community. It is lightweight and minimal, so you can start simply without feeling overwhelmed by complex software.

I’m worried I may accidentally lose my financial records (paper or digital).

hledger data takes up no physical space. Because the files are plain text and relatively small, it’s easy to copy them and to make redundant backups, and to use a version control system providing a clear history of changes. Multiple independent software apps can read them, and you could relatively easily build a new one. They are also human-readable and printable, useful even without software or computers.

I do single entry accounting; sometimes reports are wrong, I can't rely on them

You can do single entry with hledger too, if you like. But for centuries, the standard for serious accounting has been double entry, because it is so good at preventing errors. hledger, like other plaintext accounting apps, is built around double entry accounting. This provides great reassurance that your reports are rock solid, so you can confidently make decisions and take actions based on them.

I am confused by accounting and bookkeeping, and I want to get better at it

Using a plain text accounting app like hledger, you'll be working hands-on with double entry bookkeeping and general journal entries, with a minimum of distracting software and jargon. Also you'll have a supportive community of fellow learners and experts to answer questions.

I want to try Plain Text Accounting, but I am finding it hard to get started

Perhaps you've struggled to get a productive Beancount setup. Or you weren't able to figure out how to do some things with Ledger. You are finding it too much work to produce basic financial reports at the command line. Maybe you want a GUI or TUI, that's simple to install and use. You want more up to date and complete documentation, or active chat rooms where you can get quick support.
hledger aims to serve both techies and non-techies and to provide a smoother getting started experience, with standard financial reports and simple UIs that work out of the box.

My paper-based system is too much work and too hard to get insights from

hledger can optionally import bank data, reducing the work of manual data entry. With a little programming you can automate many accounting tasks. And hledger provides many useful and flexible reports.

My accounting spreadsheet has grown too large, too error prone, or too limiting

hledger provides a simple, expressive, widely used syntax for describing any kind of financial transaction, using standard double entry bookkeeping. It scales up to large files, provides extensive error checking, and provides very flexible reports.

My accounting software is expensive, invasive, and hard to leave

As GPLv3-licensed Free Software, hledger both is free in price, and also works to preserve your personal freedoms. It runs entirely under your control, on your private machine. You can see all of its code, and you can improve it or fix it yourself, or you can hire someone to do that. There's no lock-in, and there are multiple ways to export data, including to other plain text accounting apps like Ledger, Beancount, Fava, Paisa etc.

My accounting software works only with an online connection

hledger is local software that works offline. The user manuals are also built in and viewable on any machine. The only time you might need the internet is to download bank data or to run your own hledger-web server, and these are optional.

My accounting software is opaque or unreliable, and I worry about messing up my data

Most hledger operations are read only and can't affect your data. Commands that change your files are clearly identified, and often are append-only. hledger provides extensive error checking to help you avoid data errors, and the app itself is heavily tested and written in a high assurance programming language. Best of all, the plain text data files are ideal for version control. This means you can review and audit every change to your data, and undo or roll back history at any time.

My accounting software is inefficient

Is it slow to start up ? Are certain operations tedious and time-consuming ?
hledger is lightweight and fast, starting instantly and usually producing results in a fraction of a second even on old machines. It stores data as human-readable plain text files, which means you can do even large-scale bulk edits quickly and easily. The command line interface means you can turn complex operations into easy commands, or integrate it in automated scripts.

My accounting software is not improving, and I would prefer a tool that's actively maintained and supported

hledger has delivered a new major release every quarter since 2017. It's the only PTA app with active chat rooms (matrix and IRC). It's the most-used PTA app in some circles.

I need to track time and produce accurate time reports

hledger has built-in support for two time logging formats, so you can produce detailed time reports just as easily as financial reports.

Key characteristics

Easy to get started

Plain Text Accounting apps are usually slightly technical, but hledger aims to be intuitive, learnable and highly usable. It provides out of the box:

Several UIs to choose from

hledger comes with several user interfaces that just work:

  • Command line - a comfortable command line interface for full control
  • Terminal UI - a live-updating interface for quickly reviewing balances and transactions (screencast)
  • Web UI - an easy web interface for terminal-free browsing and data entry. Runs locally or on a server (demo)
  • Haskell library - write scripts, add-on commands, or applications as powerful as hledger itself.

Fast

  • Reports take a fraction of a second
  • hledger-ui --watch updates instantly as you edit
  • Processes 15k-25k transactions/second (benchmark)

Dependable and robust

hledger strives to be absolutely dependable and never waste your time:

  • Robust installation - Multiple binary and source options, reliable builds across platforms
  • Robust execution - Written in Haskell, minimizing runtime failures through strong compile-time checking
  • Robust features - Commands and options combine well, handling all kinds of input sensibly
  • Robust parsing - Dated items processed in date order, multiple assertions work as expected
  • Robust calculation - Results match manual calculations perfectly, up to 255 decimal places
  • Robust reporting - Deterministic reports, unaffected by input file order
  • Robust testing - Continually tested by 1000+ automated tests
  • Robust documentation - All functionality documented precisely with mnemonic permalinks, built-in offline manuals

Cross platform

hledger works well on Windows, Mac, and Unix systems, with official binaries provided for each. There is also a mobile app.

Compatible

hledger was inspired by Ledger CLI and provides most of its features, in more depth and with fewer sharp edges. Ledger users will find the file formats and commands familiar, and can often run both tools on the same data files (more about origins and differences).

hledger can convert to/from Beancount format. Many import tools exist for other applications. Data exports to CSV, JSON, or SQL.

Free Software

Free Software with no purchase price or monthly fees, licensed under GNU GPLv3+. You always have the right to run, inspect, modify, or share it.

Actively maintained and supported

hledger is actively maintained, with regular releases and strong community support.

When might hledger not be a good choice ?

hledger is not yet ..

  • easy for completely non-technical people to install and use without help
  • easy to use on a phone
  • equipped with mature, polished GUIs, or easy charts
  • able to download directly from banks and financial institutions
  • capable of automatically tracking capital gains like Beancount and Ledger
  • masterable in a day (or a week..)

Plain Text Accounting, and Double Entry Bookkeeping and Accounting generally, are deep and rich topics. As a newcomer you might feel there's both too 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 hands-on practice.