HLEDGER(1)

NAME
hledger - a robust, friendly plain text accounting app (command line version).

SYNOPSIS
hledger
or
hledger COMMAND [OPTS] [ARGS]

DESCRIPTION
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 1.52. 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 open a built-in copy, at a point of interest, by running
hledger --man [CMD], hledger --info [CMD] or hledger help [TOPIC].

(And for shorter help, try hledger --tldr [CMD].)

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 [-f FILE2 ...] 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.

  Text encoding
hledger expects non-ascii input to be decodable with the system locale's text encoding. (For CSV/SSV/TSV files, this can be overridden by the encoding CSV rule.)

So, trying to read non-ascii files which have the wrong text encoding, or when no system locale is configured, will fail. To fix this, configure your system locale appropriately, and/or convert the files to your system's text encoding (using iconv on unix, or powershell or notepad on Windows). See Install: Text encoding for more tips.

hledger's output will use the system locale's encoding.

hledger's docs and example files mostly use UTF-8 encoding.

  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: | Automatically used for files with extensions:
journal | hledger journal files and some Ledger journals, for transactions | .journal .j .hledger .ledger
timeclock | timeclock files, for precise time logging | .timeclock
timedot | timedot files, for approximate time logging | .timedot
csv | Comma- or other delimiter-separated values, for data import | .csv
ssv | Semicolon separated values | .ssv
tsv | Tab separated values | .tsv
rules | CSV/SSV/TSV/other separated values, alternate way | .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 containing tab separated values:

        $ hledger -f tsv:/some/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 write the format as a prefix, like timeclock: here:

        $ 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:

•   Are all accounts posted to, declared with an account directive ? (Account error checking)

•   Are all commodities declared with a commodity directive ? (Commodity error checking)

•   Are all commodity conversions declared explicitly ?

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. Some often-used commands are add, print, register, balancesheet and incomestatement.

To show a summary of commands, run hledger with no arguments. You can see the same commands summary at the start of 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, which will also appear in hledger's commands list. Some of these can be installed as separate packages; others can be found in hledger's bin/ directory, documented at https://hledger.org/scripts.html.

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 directly: hledger-ui --watch.

Or you can run them with hledger, like built-in commands: hledger ui --watch. In this case hledger's config file will be used, so you can set custom options for the addon there. (Before hledger 1.50, an -- argument was needed before addon options, but not any more.)

Options
Run hledger -h to see general command line help. Options can be written either before or after the command name. These options are specific to the hledger CLI:

        Flags:
             --conf=CONFFILE        Use extra options defined in this config file. If
                                    not specified, searches upward and in XDG config
                                    dir for hledger.conf (or .hledger.conf in $HOME).
          -n --no-conf              ignore any config file

And the following general options are common to most hledger commands:

        General input/data transformation flags:
          -f --file=[FMT:]FILE      Read data from FILE, or from stdin if FILE is -,
                                    inferring format from extension or a FMT: prefix.
                                    Can be specified more than once. If not specified,
                                    reads from $LEDGER_FILE or $HOME/.hledger.journal.
             --rules=RULESFILE      Use rules defined in this rules file for
                                    converting subsequent CSV/SSV/TSV files. If not
                                    specified, uses FILE.csv.rules for each FILE.csv.
             --alias=A=B|/RGX/=RPL  transform account names from A to B, or by
                                    replacing regular expression matches
             --auto                 generate extra postings by applying auto posting
                                    rules ("=") to all transactions
             --forecast[=PERIOD]    Generate extra transactions from periodic rules
                                    ("~"), from after the latest ordinary transaction
                                    until 6 months from now. Or, during the specified
                                    PERIOD (the equals is required). Auto posting rules
                                    will also be applied to these transactions. In
                                    hledger-ui, also make future-dated transactions
                                    visible at startup.
          -I --ignore-assertions    don't check balance assertions by default
             --txn-balancing=...    how to check that transactions are balanced:
                                    'old':   use global display precision
                                    'exact': use transaction precision (default)
             --infer-costs          infer conversion equity postings from costs
             --infer-equity         infer costs from conversion equity postings
             --infer-market-prices  infer market prices from costs
             --pivot=TAGNAME        use a different field or tag as account names
          -s --strict               do extra error checks (and override -I)
             --verbose-tags         add tags indicating generated/modified data
        General output/reporting flags (supported by some commands):
          -b --begin=DATE           include postings/transactions on/after this date
          -e --end=DATE             include postings/transactions before this date
                                    (with a report interval, will be adjusted to
                                    following subperiod end)
          -D --daily                multiperiod report with 1 day interval
          -W --weekly               multiperiod report with 1 week interval
          -M --monthly              multiperiod report with 1 month interval
          -Q --quarterly            multiperiod report with 1 quarter interval
          -Y --yearly               multiperiod report with 1 year interval
          -p --period=PERIODEXP     set begin date, end date, and/or report interval,
                                    with more flexibility
             --today=DATE           override today's date (affects relative dates)
             --date2                match/use secondary dates instead (deprecated)
          -U --unmarked             include only unmarked postings/transactions
          -P --pending              include only pending postings/transactions
          -C --cleared              include only cleared postings/transactions
                                    (-U/-P/-C can be combined)
          -R --real                 include only non-virtual postings
          -E --empty                Show zero items, which are normally hidden.
                                    In hledger-ui & hledger-web, do the opposite.
             --depth=DEPTHEXP       if a number (or -NUM): show only top NUM levels
                                    of accounts. If REGEXP=NUM, only apply limiting to
                                    accounts matching the regular expression.
          -B --cost                 show amounts converted to their cost/sale amount
          -V --market               Show amounts converted to their value at period
                                    end(s) in their default valuation commodity.
                                    Equivalent to --value=end.
          -X --exchange=COMM        Show amounts converted to their value at period
                                    end(s) in the specified commodity.
                                    Equivalent to --value=end,COMM.
             --value=WHEN[,COMM]    show amounts converted to their value on the
                                    specified date(s) in their default valuation
                                    commodity or a specified commodity. WHEN can be:
                                    'then':     value on transaction dates
                                    'end':      value at period end(s)
                                    'now':      value today
                                    YYYY-MM-DD: value on given date
          -c --commodity-style=S    Override a commodity's display style.
                                    Eg: -c '.' or -c '1.000,00 EUR'
             --pretty[=YN]          Use box-drawing characters in text output? Can be
                                    'y'/'yes' or 'n'/'no'.
                                    If YN is specified, the equals is required.
        General help flags:
          -h --help                 show command line help
             --tldr                 show command examples with tldr
             --info                 show the manual with info
             --man                  show the manual with man
             --version              show version information
             --debug=[1-9]          show this much debug output (default: 1)
             --pager=YN             use a pager when needed ? y/yes (default) or n/no
             --color=YNA --colour   use ANSI color ? y/yes, n/no, or auto (default)

Usually hledger accepts any unambiguous flag prefix, eg you can write --tl instead of --tldr or --dry instead of --dry-run.

You can combine short flags which don't take arguments, eg you can write -MAST instead of -M -A -S -T. Flags requiring an argument can't be combined in this way (-If FILE won't work).

If the same option appears more than once in a command line, usually the last (right-most) wins. Similarly, if mutually exclusive flags are used together, the right-most wins. (When flags are mutually exclusive, they'll usually have a group prefix in --help.)

With most commands, arguments are interpreted as a hledger query which filter the data. Some queries can be expressed either with options or with arguments.

Below are more tips for using the command line interface - feel free to skip these until you need them.

  Special characters
In commands you type at the command line, certain characters have special meaning and sometimes need to be "escaped" or "quoted", by prefixing backslashes or enclosing in quotes.

If you are able to minimise the use of special characters in your data, you won't have to deal with this as much. For example, you could use hyphen - or underscore _ instead of spaces in account names, and you could use the USD currency code instead of the $ currency symbol in amounts.

But if you prefer to use spaced account names and $, it's fine. Just be aware of this topic so you can check this doc when needed. (These examples are mostly tested on unix; some details might need to be adapted if you're on Windows.)

  Escaping shell special characters
These are some characters which may have special meaning to your shell (the program which interprets command lines):

•   SPACE, <, >, (, ), |, \, %

•   $ if followed by a word character

So for example, to match an account name containing spaces, like "credit card", don't write:

        $ hledger register credit card

Instead, enclose the name in single quotes:

        $ hledger register 'credit card'

On unix or in Windows powershell, if you use double quotes your shell will silently treat $ as variable interpolation. So you should probably avoid double quotes, unless you want that behaviour, eg in a script:

        $ hledger register "assets:$SOMEACCT"

But in an older Windows CMD.EXE window, you must use double quotes:

        C:\Users\Me> hledger register "credit card"

On unix or in Windows powershell, as an alternative to quotes you can write a backslash before each special character:

        $ hledger register credit\ card

Finally, since hledger's query arguments are regular expressions (described below), you could also fill that gap with . which matches any character:

        $ hledger register credit.card

  Escaping regular expression special characters
Some characters also have special meaning in regular expressions, which hledger's arguments often are. Those include:

•   ., ^, $, [, ], (, ), |, \

To escape one of these, write \ before it. But note this is in addition to the shell escaping above. So for characters which are special to both shell and regular expressions, like \ and $, you will sometimes need two levels of escaping.

For example, a balance report that uses a cur: query restricting it to just the $ currency, should be written like this:

        $ hledger balance cur:\\$

Explanation:

1.  Add a backslash \ before the dollar sign $ to protect it from regular expressions (so it will be matched literally with no special meaning).

2.  Add another backslash before that backslash, to protect it from the shell (so the shell won't consume it).

3.  $ doesn't need to be protected from the shell in this case, because it's not followed by a word character; but it would be harmless to do so.

But here's another way to write that, which tends to be easier: add backslashes to escape from regular expressions, then enclose with quotes to escape from the shell:

        $ hledger balance cur:'\$'

  Escaping in other situations
hledger options and arguments are sometimes used in places other than the command line, where the escaping/quoting rules are different. For example, backslash-quoting may not be available. Here's a quick reference:

In unix shell | Use single quotes and/or backslash (or double quotes for variable interpolation)
In Windows powershell | Use single quotes (or double quotes for variable interpolation)
In Windows cmd | Use double quotes
In hledger-ui's filter prompt | Use single or double quotes
In hledger-web's search form | Use single or double quotes
In an argument file | Don't use spaces, don't shell-escape, do regex-escape, write one argument/option per line
In a config file | Use single or double quotes, and enclose the whole argument ('desc:a b' not desc:'a b')
In ghci (the Haskell REPL) | Use double quotes, and enclose the whole argument

  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, which can decode the characters being used. This is essential - see Text encoding and Install: Text encoding.

•   Your terminal software (eg Terminal.app, iTerm, CMD.exe, xterm..) must support unicode. On Windows, you may need to use Windows Terminal.

•   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
A regular expression (regexp) is a small piece of text where certain characters (like ., ^, $, +, *, (), |, [], \) have special meanings, forming a tiny language for matching text precisely - very useful in hledger and elsewhere. To learn all about them, visit regular-expressions.info.

hledger supports regexps whenever you are entering a pattern to match something, eg in query arguments, account aliases, CSV if rules, hledger-web's search form, hledger-ui's / search, etc. You may need to wrap them in quotes, especially at the command line (see Special characters above). Here are some examples:

Account name queries (quoted for command line use):

        Regular expression:  Matches:
        -------------------  ------------------------------------------------------------
        bank                 assets:bank, assets:bank:savings, expenses:art:banksy, ...
        :bank                assets:bank:savings, expenses:art:banksy
        :bank:               assets:bank:savings
        '^bank'              none of those ( ^ matches beginning of text )
        'bank$'              assets:bank   ( $ matches end of text )
        'big \$ bank'        big $ bank    ( \ disables following character's special meaning )
        '\bbank\b'           assets:bank, assets:bank:savings  ( \b matches word boundaries )
        '(sav|check)ing'     saving or checking  ( (|) matches either alternative )
        'saving|checking'    saving or checking  ( outer parentheses are not needed )
        'savings?'           saving or savings   ( ? matches 0 or 1 of the preceding thing )
        'my +bank'           my bank, my  bank, ... ( + matches 1 or more of the preceding thing )
        'my *bank'           mybank, my bank, my  bank, ... ( * matches 0 or more of the preceding thing )
        'b.nk'               bank, bonk, b nk, ... ( . matches any character )

Some other queries:

        desc:'amazon|amzn|audible'  Amazon transactions
        cur:EUR              amounts with commodity symbol containing EUR
        cur:'\$'             amounts with commodity symbol containing $
        cur:'^\$$'           only $ amounts, not eg AU$ or CA$
        cur:....?            amounts with 4-or-more-character symbols
        tag:.=202[1-3]       things with any tag whose value contains 2021, 2022 or 2023

Account name aliases: accept . instead of : as account separator:

        alias /\./=:         replaces all periods in account names with colons

Show multiple top-level accounts combined as one:

        --alias='/^[^:]+/=combined'  ( [^:] matches any character other than : )

Show accounts with the second-level part removed:

        --alias '/^([^:]+):[^:]+/ = \1'
                             match a top-level account and a second-level account
                             and replace those with just the top-level account
                             ( \1 in the replacement text means "whatever was matched
                             by the first parenthesised part of the regexp"

CSV rules: match CSV records containing dining-related MCC codes:

        if \?MCC581[124]

Match CSV records with a specific amount around the end/start of month:

        if %amount \b3\.99
        &  %date   (29|30|31|01|02|03)$

  hledger's regular expressions
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.  backreferences are supported when doing text replacement in account aliases or CSV rules, where backreferences can be used in the replacement string to reference capturing groups in the search regexp. Otherwise, if you write \1, it will match the digit 1.

6.  they do not support lazy quantifiers (*?), mode modifiers ((?s)), character classes (\w, \d), or anything else not mentioned above.

7.  they may not (I'm guessing not) properly support right-to-left or bidirectional text.

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 use them by writing @FILE.args as a hledger command argument. The .args file extension is conventional, but not required. In an argument file,

•   Each line can contain one argument, flag, or option.

•   Blank lines or lines beginning with # are ignored.

•   An option's flag and value should be joined by =.

•   An option value or an argument may contain spaces. Don't use single or double quotes.

•   And generally, use one less level of quoting/escaping than at the command line. Eg cur:\$, not cur:\\$ as on the command line.

For example:

        # cash.args
        assets:cash
        assets:charles schwab:sweep
        cur:\$
        -c=$1.

        $ hledger bal @cash.args

  Config files
With hledger 1.40+, you can save extra command line options and arguments in a more featureful hledger config file. Here's a small example:

        # General options are listed first, and used with hledger commands that support them.
        --pretty
        # Options following a `[COMMAND]` heading are used with that hledger command only.
        [print]
        --explicit --infer-costs

To use a config file, specify it with the --conf option. Its options will be inserted near the start of your command line, so you can override them with command line options if needed.

Or, you can set up an automatic config file that is used whenever you run hledger, by creating hledger.conf in the current directory or above, or .hledger.conf in your home directory (~/.hledger.conf), or hledger.conf in your XDG config directory (~/.config/hledger/hledger.conf).

Here is another example config you could start with: https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/blob/master/hledger.conf.sample

You can put not only options, but also arguments in a config file. If the first word in a config file's top (general) section does not begin with a dash (eg: print), it is treated as the command argument (overriding any argument on the command line).

On unix machines, you can add a shebang line at the top of a config file, set executable permission on the file, and use it like a script. Eg (the -S is needed on some operating systems):

        #!/usr/bin/env -S hledger --conf

You can ignore config files by adding the -n/--no-conf flag to the command line. This is useful when using hledger in scripts, or when troubleshooting. When both --conf and --no-conf options are used, the right-most wins.

To inspect the processing of config files, use --debug or --debug=8. Or, run the setup command, which will display any active config files. (setup is not affected by config files itself, unlike other commands.)

Warning!

There aren't many hledger features that need a warning, but this is one!

Automatic config files, while convenient, also make hledger less predictable and dependable. It's easy to make a config file that changes a report's behaviour, or breaks your hledger-using scripts/applications, in ways that will surprise you later.

If you don't want this,

1.  Just don't create a hledger.conf file on your machine.

2.  Also be alert to downloaded directories which may contain a hledger.conf file.

3.  Also if you are sharing scripts or examples or support, consider that others may have a hledger.conf file.

Conversely, once you decide to use this feature, try to remember:

1.  Whenever a hledger command does not work as expected, try it again with -n (--no-conf) to see if a config file was to blame.

2.  Whenever you call hledger from a script, consider whether that call should use -n or not.

3.  Be conservative about what you put in your config file; try to consider the effect on all your reports.

4.  To troubleshoot the effect of config files, run with --debug or --debug 8.

The config file feature was added in hledger 1.40.

  Shell completions
If you use the bash or zsh shells, you can optionally set up context-sensitive autocompletion for hledger command lines. Try pressing hledger<SPACE><TAB><TAB> (should list all hledger commands) or hledger reg acct:<TAB><TAB> (should list your top-level account names). If completions aren't working, or for more details, see Install > Shell completions.

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:

command | txt | html | csv/tsv | fods | beancount | sql | json
aregister | Y | Y | Y | Y |  |  | Y
balance | Y | Y | Y | Y |  |  | Y
balancesheet | Y | Y | Y | Y |  |  | Y
balancesheetequity | Y | Y | Y | Y |  |  | Y
cashflow | Y | Y | Y | Y |  |  | Y
incomestatement | Y | Y | Y | Y |  |  | Y
print | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y
register | Y | Y | Y | Y |  |  | Y

You can also see which output formats a command supports by running hledger CMD -h and looking for the -O/--output-format=FMT option,

You can select the output format by using that option:

        $ hledger print -O csv    # print CSV to standard output

or by choosing a suitable filename extension 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

Here are some notes about the various output formats.

  Text output
This is the default: human readable, plain text report output, suitable for viewing with a monospace font in a terminal. If your data contains unicode or wide characters, you'll need a terminal and font that render those correctly. (This can be challenging on MS Windows.)

Some reports (register, aregister) will normally use the full window width. If this isn't working or you want to override it, you can use the -w/--width option.

Balance reports (balance, balancesheet, incomestatement...) use whatever width they need. Multi-period multi-currency reports can often be wider than the window. Besides using a pager, helpful techniques for this situation include --layout=bare, -X COMM, cur:, --transpose, --tree, --depth, --drop, switching to html output, etc.

  Box-drawing characters
hledger draws simple table borders by default, to minimise the risk of display problems caused by a terminal/font not supporting box-drawing characters.

But your terminal and font probably do support them, so we recommend using the --pretty flag to show prettier tables in the terminal. This is a good flag to add to your hledger config file.

  Colour
hledger tries to automatically detect ANSI colour and text styling support and use it when appropriate. (Currently, it is used rather minimally: some reports show negative numbers in red, and help output uses bold text for emphasis.)

You can override this by setting the NO_COLOR environment variable to disable it, or by using the --color/--colour option, perhaps in your config file, with a y/yes or n/no value to force it on or off.

  Paging
In unix-like environments, when displaying large output (in any output format) in the terminal, hledger tries to use a pager when appropriate. (You can disable this with the --pager=no option, perhaps in your config file.)

The pager shows one page of text at a time, and lets you scroll around to see more. While it is active, usually SPACE shows the next page, h shows help, and q quits. The home/end/page up/page down/cursor keys, and mouse scrolling, may also work.

hledger will use the pager specified by the PAGER environment variable, otherwise less if available, otherwise more if available. (With one exception: hledger help -p TOPIC will always use less, so that it can scroll to the topic.)

The pager is expected to display hledger's ANSI colour and text styling. If you see junk characters, you might need to configure your pager to handle ANSI codes. Or you could disable colour as described above.

If you are using the less pager, hledger tries to provide a consistently pleasant experience by running it with some extra options added to your LESS environment variable:

--chop-long-lines --hilite-unread --ignore-case --no-init --quit-if-one-screen --shift=8 --squeeze-blank-lines --use-backslash

and when colour output is enabled:

--RAW-CONTROL-CHARS

You can prevent this by setting your preferred options in the HLEDGER_LESS variable, which will be used instead of LESS.

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

HTML output will be a HTML fragment, not a complete HTML document. Like other hledger output, for non-ascii characters it will use the system locale's text encoding (see Text encoding).

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

  FODS output
FODS is the OpenDocument Spreadsheet format as plain XML, as accepted by LibreOffice and OpenOffice. If you use their spreadsheet applications, this is better than CSV because it works across locales (decimal point vs. decimal comma, character encoding stored in XML header, thus no problems with umlauts), it supports fixed header rows and columns, cell types (string vs. number vs. date), separation of number and currency (currency is displayed but the cell type is still a number accessible for computation), styles (bold), borders. Btw. you can still extract CSV from FODS/ODS using various utilities like libreoffice --headless or ods2csv.

  Beancount output
This is Beancount's journal format. You can use this to export your hledger data to Beancount, eg to use the Fava web app.

hledger will try to adjust your data to suit Beancount, automatically. Be cautious and check the conversion until you are confident it is good. If you plan to export to Beancount often, you may want to follow its conventions, for a cleaner conversion:

•   use Beancount-friendly account names

•   use currency codes instead of currency symbols

•   use cost notation instead of equity conversion postings

•   avoid virtual postings, balance assignments, and secondary dates.

There is one big adjustment you must handle yourself: for Beancount, the top level account names must be Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Income, and/or Expenses. You can use account aliases to rewrite your account names temporarily, if needed, as in this hledger2beancount.conf config file.

2024-12-20: Some more things not yet handled for you:

•   P directives are not converted automatically - convert those yourself.

•   Balance assignments are not converted (Beancount doesn't support them) - replace those with explicit amounts.

  Beancount account names
Aside from the top-level names, hledger will adjust your account names to make valid Beancount account names, by capitalising each part, replacing spaces with -, replacing other unsupported characters with C<HEXBYTES>, prepending A to account name parts which don't begin with a letter or digit, and appending :A to account names which have only one part.

  Beancount commodity names
hledger will adjust your commodity names to make valid Beancount commodity/currency names, which must be 2-24 uppercase letters, digits, or ', ., _, -, beginning with a letter and ending with a letter or digit. hledger will convert known currency symbols to ISO 4217 currency codes, capitalise letters, replace spaces with -, replace other unsupported characters with C<HEXBYTES>, and prepend or append C if needed.

  Beancount virtual postings
Beancount doesn't allow virtual postings; if you have any, they will be omitted from beancount output.

  Beancount metadata
hledger tags will be converted to Beancount metadata (except for tags whose name begins with _). Metadata names will be adjusted to be Beancount-compatible: beginning with a lowercase letter, at least two characters long, and with unsupported characters encoded. Metadata values will use Beancount's string type.

In hledger, objects can have the same tag repeated with multiple values. Eg an assets:cash account might have both type:Asset and type:Cash tags. For Beancount these will be combined into one, with the values combined, comma separated. Eg: type: "Asset, Cash".

  Beancount costs
Beancount doesn't allow redundant costs and conversion postings as hledger does. If you have any of these, the conversion postings will be omitted. Currently we support at most one cost + conversion postings group per transaction.

  Beancount operating currency
Declaring an operating currency (or several) improves Beancount and Fava reports. Currently hledger will declare each currency used in cost amounts as an operating currency. If needed, replace these with your own declaration, like

        option "operating_currency" "USD"

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

The SQL statements are expected to be executed in the empty database. If you already have tables created via SQL output of hledger, you would probably want to either clear data from these (via delete or truncate SQL statements) or drop the tables completely before import; otherwise your postings would be duplicated.

For SQLite, it is 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' | ...

This is not yet much used; feedback is welcome.

  JSON output
Our JSON is rather large and verbose, since it is a faithful representation of hledger's internal data types. To understand its structure, read the Haskell type definitions, which are mostly in https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/blob/master/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Types.hs. hledger-web's OpenAPI specification may also be relevant.

hledger stores numbers with sometimes up to 255 significant digits. This is too many digits for most JSON consumers, so in JSON output we round numbers to at most 10 decimal places. (We don't limit the number of integer digits.) If you find this causing problems, please let us know. Related: #1195

This is not yet much used; feedback is welcome.

  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 be repeated to set the display style for multiple commodities/currencies. Its argument is as described in the commodity directive. Note that omitting the commodity symbol will set the display style for just the no-symbol commodity, not all commodities.

In some cases hledger will adjust number formatting to improve their parseability (such as adding trailing decimal marks when needed).

  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

(This option doesn't work in a config file yet.)

Environment
These environment variables affect hledger:

HLEDGER_LESS If less is your pager, this variable specifies the less options hledger should use. (Otherwise, LESS + custom options are used.)

LEDGER_FILE The default journal file, to be used when no -f/--file option is provided. For example, it could be ~/finance/main.journal. This can also be a glob pattern, eg ./2???.journal. (If the glob matches multiple files, only the alphanumerically first one is used.) If LEDGER_FILE points to a non-existent file, an error will be raised. If the value is the empty string, it is ignored.

If LEDGER_FILE is not set and -f is not provided, the default journal file is $HOME/.hledger.journal (or if a home directory can't be detected, ./.hledger.journal).

See also Common tasks > Setting LEDGER_FILE.

NO_COLOR If this environment variable exists (with any value, including empty), hledger will not use ANSI color codes in terminal output, unless overridden by an explicit --color=y or --colour=y option.

PART 2: DATA FORMATS

Journal
hledger's usual data source is a plain text file containing journal entries in hledger journal format. If you're looking for a quick reference, jump ahead to the journal cheatsheet (or use the table of contents at https://hledger.org/hledger.html).

This file represents an accounting General Journal. The .journal file extension is most often used, though not strictly 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 add-ons 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 Editors at hledger.org for the full list.

A hledger journal file can contain three kinds of thing: comment lines, transactions, and/or directives (including periodic transaction rules and auto posting rules). Understanding the journal file format will also give you a good understanding of hledger's data model. Here's a quick cheatsheet/overview, followed by detailed descriptions of each part.

  Journal cheatsheet

        # Here is the main syntax of hledger's journal format
        # (omitting extra Ledger compatibility syntax).
        ###############################################################################
        # 1. These are comment lines, for notes or temporarily disabling things.
        ; They begin with # or ;
        comment
        Or, lines can be enclosed within "comment" / "end comment".
        This is a block of
        commented lines.
        end comment
        # Some journal entries can have semicolon comments at end of line  ; like this
        # Some of them require 2 or more spaces before the semicolon.
        ###############################################################################
        # 2. Directives customise processing or output in some way.
        # You don't need any directives to get started.
        # But they can add more error checking, or change how things are displayed.
        # They begin with a word, letter, or symbol.
        # They are most often placed at the top, before transactions.
        account assets             ; Declare valid account names and display order.
        account assets:savings     ; A subaccount. This one represents a bank account.
        account assets:checking    ; Another. Note, 2+ spaces after the account name.
        account assets:receivable  ; Accounting type is inferred from english names,
        account passifs            ; or declared with a "type" tag, type:L
        account expenses           ; type:X
                                   ; A follow-on comment line, indented.
        account expenses:rent      ; Expense and revenue categories are also accounts.
                                   ; Subaccounts inherit their parent's type.
        commodity $0.00         ; Declare valid commodities and their display styles.
        commodity 1.000,00 EUR
        decimal-mark .          ; The decimal mark used in this file (if ambiguous).
        payee Whole Foods       ; Declare a valid payee name.
        tag trip                ; Declare a valid tag name.
        P 2024-03-01 AAPL $179  ; Declare a market price for AAPL in $ on this date.
        include other.journal   ; Include another journal file here.
        # Declare a recurring "periodic transaction", for budget/forecast reports
        ~ monthly  set budget goals  ; <- Note, 2+ spaces before the description.
            (expenses:rent)      $1000
            (expenses:food)       $500
        # Declare an auto posting rule, to modify existing transactions in reports
        = revenues:consulting
            liabilities:tax:2024:us          *0.25  ; Add a tax liability & expense
            expenses:tax:2024:us            *-0.25  ; for 25% of the revenue.
        ###############################################################################
        # 3. Transactions are what it's all about.
        # They are dated events, usually movements of money between 2 or more accounts.
        # They begin with a numeric date.
        # Here is their basic shape:
        #
        # DATE DESCRIPTION    ; The transaction's date and optional description.
        #   ACCOUNT1  AMOUNT  ; A posting of an amount to/from this account, indented.
        #   ACCOUNT2  AMOUNT  ; A second posting, balancing the first.
        #   ...               ; More if needed. Amounts must sum to zero.
        #                     ; Note, 2+ spaces between account names and amounts.
        2024-01-01 opening balances         ; At the start, declare pre-existing balances this way.
            assets:savings          $10000  ; Account names can be anything. lower case is easy to type.
            assets:checking          $1000  ; assets, liabilities, equity, revenues, expenses are common.
            liabilities:credit card  $-500  ; liabilities, equity, revenues balances are usually negative.
            equity:start                    ; One amount can be left blank. $-10500 is inferred here.
                                            ; Some of these accounts we didn't declare above,
                                            ; so -s/--strict would complain.
        2024-01-03 ! (12345) pay rent
            ; Additional transaction comment lines, indented.
            ; There can be a ! or * after the date meaning "pending" or "cleared".
            ; There can be a parenthesised (code) after the date/status.
                                            ; Amounts' sign shows direction of flow.
            assets:checking          $-500  ; Minus means removed from this account (credit).
            expenses:rent             $500  ; Plus means added to this account (debit).
        ; Keeping transactions in date order is optional (but helps error checking).
        2024-01-02 Gringott's Bank | withdrawal  ; Description can be PAYEE | NOTE
            assets:bank:gold       -10 gold
            assets:pouch            10 gold
        2024-01-02 shopping
            expenses:clothing        1 gold
            expenses:wands           5 gold
            assets:pouch            -6 gold
        2024-01-02 receive gift
            revenues:gifts          -3 "Chocolate Frogs"  ; Complex commodity symbols
            assets:pouch             3 "Chocolate Frogs"  ; must be in double quotes.
        2024-01-15 buy some shares, in two lots                 ; Cost can be noted.
            assets:investments:2024-01-15     2.0 AAAA @ $1.50  ; @  means per-unit cost
            assets:investments:2024-01-15-02  3.0 AAAA @@ $4    ; @@ means total cost
                              ; ^ Per-lot subaccounts are sometimes useful.
            assets:checking                 $-7
        2024-01-15 assert some account balances on this date
            ; Balances can be asserted in any transaction, with =, for extra error checking.
            ; Assertion txns like this one can be made with hledger close --assert --show-costs
            ;
            assets:savings                    $0                   = $10000
            assets:checking                   $0                   =   $493
            assets:bank:gold                   0 gold              =    -10 gold
            assets:pouch                       0 gold              =      4 gold
            assets:pouch                       0 "Chocolate Frogs" =      3 "Chocolate Frogs"
            assets:investments:2024-01-15      0.0 AAAA            =      2.0 AAAA @  $1.50
            assets:investments:2024-01-15-02   0.0 AAAA            =      3.0 AAAA @@ $4
            liabilities:credit card           $0                   =  $-500
        2024-02-01 note some event, or a transaction not yet fully entered, on this date
            ; Postings are not required.
        # Consistent YYYY-MM-DD date format is recommended,
        # but you can use . or / and omit leading zeros if you prefer.
        2024.01.01
        2024/1/1

  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. (There's also a Ledger-compatible syntax, ; [DATE], which can be convenient.)

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 (and you can combine these, eg -UP to match all except cleared things). Or you can use the status:, status:!, and status:* queries, or the U, P, C keys in hledger-ui.

(Note: in Ledger the "unmarked" state is called "uncleared"; in hledger we renamed it to "unmarked" for semantic clarity.)

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:

status | meaning
uncleared | recorded but not yet reconciled; needs review
pending | tentatively reconciled (if needed, eg during a big reconciliation)
cleared | complete, 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", such as a check number or transaction id, enclosed in parentheses,

This has a few limitations: The code must not contain a closing parenthesis (or it will be truncated). Codes tend to disrupt alignment of the register report, making it harder to scan visually. And you can't store more than one value there per transaction. For these reasons you might want to avoid the code field and use tags(#tags] instead.

  Description
After the date, status mark and/or code fields, the rest of the line (or until a comment is begun with ;) is the transaction's description. Here you can describe the transaction (called the "narration" in traditional bookkeeping), or you can record a payee/payer name, or you can leave it empty.

Transaction descriptions show up in print output and in register reports, and can be listed with the descriptions command.

You can query by description with desc:DESCREGEX, or pivot on description with --pivot desc.

  Payee and note
Sometimes people want a dedicated payee/payer field that can be queried and checked more strictly. If you want that, you can write a | (pipe) character in the description. This divides it into a "payee" field on the left, and a "note" field on the right. (Either can be empty.)

You can query these with payee:PAYEEREGEX and note:NOTEREGEX, list their values with the payees and notes commands, or pivot on payee or note.

Note: in transactions with no | character, description, payee, and note all have the same value. Once a | is added, they become distinct. (If you'd like to change this behaviour, please propose it on the mail list.)

If you want more strict error checking, you can declare the valid payee names with payee directives, and then enforce these with hledger check payees. (Note: because of the above, for this you'll need to ensure every transaction description contains a | and therefore a checkable payee name, even if it's empty.)

  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 including single spaces. If anything follows the account name on the same line, the account name must be ended by two or more spaces.)

•   (optional) an amount

•   (optional) a same-line posting comment, beginning with a semicolon (;).

If the amount is positive, it is being added to the account; if negative, it is being removed from the account.

The posting amounts in a transaction must sum up to zero, indicating that the inflows and outflows are equal. We call this a balanced transaction. (You can read more about the details of transaction balancing below.)

If no amount is written, it will be calculated automatically from the other postings in the transaction, so as to balance the transaction. In other words, in any transaction you can leave one posting amountless to save typing.

  Debits and credits
The traditional accounting concepts of debit and credit of course exist in hledger, but we represent them with numeric sign. Positive and negative posting amounts represent debits and credits respectively.

You don't need to remember that, but if you would like to - eg for helping newcomers or for talking with your accountant - here's a handy mnemonic:

debit / plus / left / short words
credit / minus / right / longer words

  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 spent on food" or "money borrowed from Frank".

Account names are flexible. They may be capitalised or not; they may contain letters, numbers, punctuation, symbols, or single spaces; they may be in any language.

Typically we use the five traditional accounting categories as the starting point for account names. In english they are:

assets, liabilities, equity, revenues, expenses

These will be discussed more in Account types below. In hledger docs you may see them referred to as A, L, E, R, X for short.

  Two space delimiter
Note the two or more spaces delimiter that's sometimes required after account names. hledger's account names, inherited from Ledger, are very permissive; they may contain pretty much any kind of text, including single spaces and semicolons. Because of this, they must be terminated by two or more spaces if there is anything following them on the same line. For example, if an amount, balance assignment, or same-line comment follows an account name, they must be preceded by two or more spaces, else they would be considered part of the account name:

        bad:     assets:accounts receivable $10        ; <- too close!
        good:    assets:accounts receivable  $10

        bad:     assets:accounts receivable =$1000     ; <- too close!
        good:    assets:accounts receivable  =$1000

        bad:     assets:accounts receivable ; comment.   <- too close!
        good:    assets:accounts receivable  ; comment

This two-space delimiter appears in a few places in hledger, such as after account names in postings or account directives; also after the period expression in periodic transaction rules. When you are starting out, expect it to catch you out at least once. It's annoying sometimes, but it lets us use expressive account names while still keeping the syntax light.

  Account hierarchy
For more precise reporting, we usually divide accounts into more detailed subaccounts, subsubaccounts, and so on, by writing a full colon between account name parts. For example, instead of writing assets and expenses, we might write assets:bank:checking and expenses:food. From these names hledger will infer this hierarchy of five accounts:

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

Or as an outline:

        assets
         bank
          checking
        expenses
         food

hledger reports can summarise the account tree to any depth, so you can make your subcategories as detailed as you like. But don't go overboard, especially when getting started; simpler categories can be less work.

  Other account name features
Enclosing the account name in parentheses or brackets, like (expenses:food), enables a non-standard bookkeeping feature: virtual postings.

Account names can be rewritten and restructured, temporarily or permanently, by account aliases.

  Amounts
After the account name, there is usually an amount. (Remember: 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
A decimal mark can be written as a period or a comma:

        1.23
        1,23

Both of these are common in international number formats, so hledger is not biased towards one or the other. Because hledger also supports digit group marks (eg thousands separators), this means that a number like 1,000 or 1.000 containing just one period or comma is ambiguous. In such cases, hledger by default assumes it is a decimal mark, and will parse both of those as 1.

To help hledger parse such ambiguous numbers more accurately, if you use digit group marks, we recommend declaring the decimal mark explicitly. The best way is to add a decimal-mark directive at the top of each data file, like this:

        decimal-mark .

Or you can declare it per commodity with commodity directives, described below.

hledger also accepts numbers like 10. with no digits after the decimal mark (and will sometimes display numbers that way to disambiguate them - see Trailing decimal marks).

  Digit group marks
In the integer part of the amount quantity (left of the decimal mark), groups of digits can optionally be separated by a digit group mark - a comma or period (whichever is not used as decimal mark), or a space (several Unicode space variants, like no-break space, are also accepted). So these are all valid amounts in a journal file:

             $1,000,000.00
          EUR 2.000.000,00
        INR 9,99,99,999.00
              1 000 000.00   ; <- ordinary space
              1 000 000.00   ; <- no-break space

  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.

By default, the format of amounts in the journal influences how hledger displays them in output. This is explained in Commodity display style below.

  Costs
In traditional double entry bookkeeping, to record a transaction where one commodity is exchanged for another, you add extra equity postings to balance the two commodities. Eg:

        2026-01-01 buy euros
          assets:dollars     $-123
          equity:conversion   $123
          equity:conversion  €-100
          assets:euros        €100

hledger offers a more convenient @/@@ "cost notation" as an alternative: instead of equity postings, you can write the "conversion rate" or "transacted price" after a posting amount. hledger docs generically call this "cost", whether buying or selling. It can be written as either @ UNITPRICE or @@ TOTALPRICE. Eg you could write the above as:

        2026-01-01 buy euros
          assets:dollars     $-123
          assets:euros        €100 @ $1.23    ; unit cost (exchange rate)

or:

        2026-01-01 buy euros
          assets:dollars     $-123
          assets:euros        €100 @@ $123    ; total cost

The cost should normally be a positive amount. Negative costs are supported, but can be confusing, as discussed at --infer-market-prices: market prices from transactions.

Costs participate in transaction balancing. Amounts are converted to their cost before checking if the transaction is balanced. You could also write the above less redundantly, like so:

        2026-01-01 buy euros
          assets:dollars                      ; $-123 is inferred
          assets:euros        €100 @ $1.23

or:

        2026-01-01 buy euros
          assets:dollars                      ; $-123 is inferred
          assets:euros        €100 @@ $123

or even:

        2026-01-01 buy euros
          assets:euros        €100            ;  @@ $123 is inferred
          assets:dollars     $-123

This last form works for transactions involving exactly two commodities, with neither cost notation nor equity postings. Note, the order of postings is significant: the cost will be attached to the first (top) posting. So we had to switch the order of postings, to get the same meaning as above. Also, this form is the easiest to make undetected errors with; so it is rejected by hledger check balanced, and by strict mode.

Advantages of cost notation:

1.  it's more compact and easier to read and write

2.  hledger reports can show such amounts converted to their cost, when you add the -B/--cost flag (see Cost reporting).

Advantages of equity postings

1.  they help to keep the accounting equation balanced (if you care about that)

2.  they translate easily to any other double entry accounting system.

Most hledger users use cost notation and don't use equity postings.

But you can always convert cost notation to equity postings by adding --infer-equity. Eg try hledger print -x --infer-equity.

And you can usually convert equity postings to cost notation by adding --infer-costs (see Requirements for detecting equity conversion postings). Eg try hledger print -x --infer-costs.

Finally: using both equity postings and cost notation at the same time is allowed, as long as the journal entry is well formed such that the equity postings / cost equivalences can be detected. (Otherwise you'll get an error message saying that the transaction is unbalanced.):

        2026-01-01 buy euros
          assets:dollars     $-123
          equity:conversion   $123
          equity:conversion  €-100
          assets:euros        €100 @ $1.23

So in principle you could enable both --infer-equity and --infer-costs in your config file, and your reports would have the advantages of both.

  Cost basis / lot syntax
If you are buying some commodity to hold as an investment, it may be important to keep track of

1.  its original acquisition cost

2.  its original acquisition date

3.  and a sequence number or label, if needed, to disambiguate multiple acquisitions on the same day, or to serve as a mnemonic for easy reference.

In hledger we call these three the "cost basis"; and if an amount being acquired has a cost basis, we call it a "lot". Tax authorities often require that lots are tracked carefully and disposed of (sold) in a certain order.

Note, though "cost basis" sounds similar to the "cost" (transacted price) discussed above, they are distinct concepts. In some transactions the transacted price and basis cost are the same, but in others they are not.

So cost basis has its own syntax, also called "lot syntax". hledger's lot syntax is like Ledger's: one or more of the following annotations, following the main amount:

•   {LOTUNITCOST} or {{LOTTOTALCOST}} (see lot price)

•   [LOTDATE] (see lot date)

•   (LOTLABEL) (see lot note)

hledger does not yet do anything with this lot syntax, except to preserve it and show it in print's txt, beancount, and json output. This means you can use this syntax in your hledger journals (plus an amountless extra posting to help transactions balance, if needed), then use the print command to export to Ledger or Beancount or rustledger, to use their lots/gains reports (see Export Lots workflow).

  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 calculates and checks an account's balance assertions in date order (and when there are multiple assertions on the same day, in parse order). Note this is different from Ledger, which checks assertions always in parse order, ignoring dates.

This means in hledger you can freely reorder transactions, postings, or files, and balance assertions will usually keep working. The exception is when you reorder multiple postings on the same day, to the same account, which have balance assertions; those will likely need updating.

  Assertions and multiple files
If an account has transactions appearing in multiple files, balance assertions can still work - but only if those files are part of a hierarchy made by include directives.

If the same files are specified with two -f options on the command line, the assertions in the second will not see the balances from the first.

To work around this, arrange your files in a hierarchy with include. Or, you could concatenate the files temporarily, and process them like one big file.

Why does it work this way ? It might be related to hledger's goal of stable predictable reports. File hierarchy is considered "permanent", part of your data, while the order of command line options/arguments is not. We don't want transient changes to be able to change the meaning of the data. Eg it would be frustrating if tomorrow all your balance assertions broke because you wrote command line arguments in a different order. (Discussion welcome.)

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

        2019/1/1
          (a)     $1 @ €1 = $1

We do allow costs to be written in balance assertion amounts, however, and print shows them, but 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 costs), and because balance assignments do use costs (see below).

  Assertions and commodities
The balance assertions described so far are "single commodity balance assertions": they assert and check the balance in one commodity, ignoring any others that may be present. This is how balance assertions work in Ledger also.

If an account contains multiple commodities, you can assert their balances by writing multiple postings with balance assertions, one for each commodity:

        2013/1/1
          usd   $-1
          eur   €-1
          both
        2013/1/2
          both    0 = $1
          both    0 = €1

In hledger you can make a stronger "sole commodity balance assertion" by writing two equals signs (== EXPECTEDBALANCE). This also asserts that there are no other commodities in the account besides the asserted one (or at least, that their current balance is zero):

        2013/1/1
          usd   $-1  == $-1  ; these sole commodity assertions succeed
          eur   €-1  == €-1
          both      ;==  $1  ; this one would fail because 'both' contains $ and €

It's less easy to make a "sole commodities balance assertion" (note the plural) - ie, asserting that an account contains two or more specified commodities and no others. It can be done by

1.  isolating each commodity in a subaccount, and asserting those

2.  and also asserting there are no commodities in the parent account itself:

        2013/1/1
          usd       $-1
          eur       €-1
          both        0 == 0   ; nothing up my sleeve
          both:usd   $1 == $1  ; a dollar here
          both:eur   €1 == €1  ; a euro there

  Assertions and subaccounts
All of the balance assertions above (both = and ==) are "subaccount-exclusive balance assertions"; they ignore any balances that exist in deeper subaccounts.

In hledger you can make "subaccount-inclusive balance assertions" by adding a star after the equals (=* or ==*):

        2019/1/1
          equity:start
          assets:checking  $10
          assets:savings   $10
          assets            $0 ==* $20  ; assets + subaccounts contains $20 and nothing else

  Assertions and status
Balance assertions always consider postings of all statuses (unmarked, pending, or cleared); they are not affected by the -U/--unmarked / -P/--pending / -C/--cleared flags or the status: query.

  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.

  Assertions and hledger add
Balance assertions can be included in the amounts given in add. All types of assertions are supported, and assertions can be used as in a normal journal file.

All transactions, not just those that have an explicit assertion, are validated against the existing assertions in the journal. This means it is possible for an added transaction to fail even if its assertions are correct as of the transaction date.

If this assertion checking is not desired, then it can be disabled with -I.

However, balance assignments are currently not supported.

  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

  Transaction balancing
How exactly does hledger decide when a transaction is balanced ? Especially when it involves costs, which often are not exact, because of repeating decimals, or imperfect data from financial institutions ? In each commodity, hledger sums the transaction's posting amounts, after converting any with costs; then it checks if that sum is zero, when rounded to a suitable number of decimal digits - which we call the balancing precision.

Since version 1.50, hledger infers balancing precision in each transaction from the amounts in that transaction's journal entry (like Ledger). Ie, when checking the balance of commodity A, it uses the highest decimal precision seen for A in the journal entry (excluding cost amounts). This makes transaction balancing robust; any imbalances must be visibly accounted for in the journal entry, display precision can be freely increased with -c, and compatibility with Ledger and Beancount journals is good.

Note that hledger versions before 1.50 worked differently: they allowed display precision to override the balancing precision. This masked small imbalances and caused fragility (see issue #2402). As a result, some journal entries (or CSV rules) that worked with hledger <1.50, are now rejected with an "unbalanced transaction" error. If you hit this problem, it's easy to fix:

•   You can restore the old behaviour, by adding --txn-balancing=old to the command or to your ~/.hledger.conf file. This lets you keep using old journals unchanged, though without the above benefits.

•   Or you can fix the problem entries (recommended). There are three ways, use whichever seems best:

    1.  make cost amounts more precise (add more/better decimal digits)

    2.  or make non-cost amounts less precise (remove unnecessary decimal digits that are raising the precision)

    3.  or add a posting to absorb the imbalance (eg "expenses:rounding". Remember that one posting may omit the amount; that's convenient here.)

  Tags
Tags are a way to add extra labels or data fields to transactions, postings, or accounts, which you can match with a tag: query in reports. (See queries below.)

Tags are a single word or hyphenated word, immediately followed by a full colon, written within a comment. (Yes, storing data in comments is slightly weird.) Here's a transaction with a tag:

        2025-01-01 groceries        ; some-tag:
            assets:checking
            expenses:food       $1

A tag can have a value, a single line of text written after the colon. Tag values can't contain newlines.:

        2025-01-01 groceries        ; tag1: this is tag1's value

Multiple tags can be separated by comma. Tag values can't contain commas.:

        2025-01-01 groceries        ; tag1:value 1, tag2:value 2, comment text

A tag can have multiple values:

        2025-01-01 groceries        ; tag1:value 1, tag1:value 2

You can write each tag on its own line of you prefer (but they still can't contain commas):

        2025-01-01 groceries
            ; tag1: value 1
            ; tag2: value 2

Tags can be attached to individual postings, rather than the overall transaction:

        2025-01-01 rent
            assets:checking
            expenses:rent       $1000  ; postingtag:

Tags can be attached to accounts, in their account directive:

        account assets:checking    ; acct-number: 123-45-6789

  Tag propagation
In addition to what they are attached to, tags also affect related data in a few ways, allowing more powerful queries:

1.  Accounts -> postings. Postings inherit tags from their account.

2.  Transactions -> postings. Postings inherit tags from their transaction.

3.  Postings -> transactions. Transactions also acquire the tags of their postings.

So when you use a tag: query to match whole transactions, individual postings, or accounts, it's good to understand how tags behave. Here's an example showing all three kinds of propagation:

        account assets:checking
        account expenses:food           ; atag:
        2025-01-01 groceries            ; ttag:
            assets:checking             ; p1tag:
            expenses:food           $1  ; p2tag:

data part | has tags | explanation
assets:checking account |  | no tags attached
expenses:food account | atag | atag: in comment
assets:checking posting | p1tag, ttag | p1tag: in comment, ttag acquired from transaction
expenses:food posting | p2tag, atag, ttag | p2tag: in comment, atag from account, ttag from transaction
groceries transaction | ttag, p1tag, p2tag, atag | ttag: in comment, p1tag from first posting, p2tag and atag from second posting

  Displaying tags
You can use the tags command to list tag names or values.

The print command also shows tags.

You can use --pivot to display tag values in other reports, in various ways (eg appended to account names, like pseudo subaccounts).

  When to use tags ?
Tags provide more dimensions of categorisation, complementing accounts and transaction descriptions. When to use each of these is somewhat a matter of taste. Accounts have the most built-in support, and regex queries on descriptions are also quite powerful. So you may not need tags at all. But if you want to track multiple cross-cutting categories, they can be a good fit. For example, you could tag trip-related transactions with trip: YEAR:PLACE, without disturbing your usual account categories.

  Tag names
What is allowed in a tag name ? Most non-whitespace characters. Eg 😀: is a valid tag.

For extra error checking, you can declare valid tag names with the tag directive, and then enforce these with the check command. But note that tags are detected quite loosely at present, sometimes where you didn't intend them. Eg a comment like ; see https://foo.com adds a https tag.

There are several tag names which have special significance to hledger. They are explained elsewhere, but here's a quick reference:

         type                   -- declares an account's type
         date                   -- overrides a posting's date
         date2                  -- overrides a posting's secondary date
         assert                 -- appears on txns generated by close --assert
         retain                 -- appears on txns generated by close --retain
         start                  -- appears on txns generated by close --migrate/--close/--open/--assign
         t                      -- appears on postings generated from timedot letters
         generated-transaction  -- appears on txns generated by a periodic rule
         modified-transaction   -- appears on txns which have had auto postings added
         generated-posting      -- appears on generated postings
         cost-posting           -- appears on postings which have (or could have) a cost,
                                   and which have equivalent conversion postings in the transaction
         conversion-posting     -- appears on postings which are to a V/Conversion account
                                   and which have an equivalent cost posting in the transaction

The second group above (generated-transaction, etc.) are normally hidden, with a _ prefix added. This means print doesn't show them by default; but you can still use them in queries. You can add the --verbose-tags flag to make them visible in print output, which can be useful for troubleshooting.

  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:

purpose | directive
READING DATA: |
Rewrite account names | alias
Comment out sections of the file | comment
Declare file's decimal mark, to help parse amounts accurately | decimal-mark
Include other data files | include
GENERATING DATA: |
Generate recurring transactions or budget goals | ~
Generate extra postings on existing transactions |
CHECKING FOR ERRORS: |
Define valid entities to provide more error checking | account, commodity, payee, tag
REPORTING: |
Declare accounts' type and display order | account
Declare commodity display styles | commodity
Declare market prices | P

  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:

directive | what it does | ends at file end?
account | Declares an account, for checking all entries in all files; and its display order and type. Subdirectives: any text, ignored. | N
alias | Rewrites account names, in following entries until end of current file or end aliases. Command line equivalent: --alias | Y
comment | Ignores part of the journal file, until end of current file or end comment. | Y
commodity | Declares up to four things: 1. a commodity symbol, for checking all amounts in all files 2. the display style for all amounts of this commodity 3. the decimal mark for parsing amounts of this commodity, in the rest of this file and its children, if there is no decimal-mark directive 4. the precision to use for balanced-transaction checking in this commodity, in this file and its children. Takes precedence over D. Subdirectives: format (ignored). Command line equivalent: -c/--commodity-style | N,N,Y,Y
decimal-mark | Declares 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
include | Includes entries and directives from another file, as if they were written inline. Command line alternative: multiple -f/--file | N
payee | Declares a payee name, for checking all entries in all files. | N
P | Declares 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 account | Prepends a common parent account to all account names, in following entries until end of current file or end apply account. | Y
D | Sets 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
Y | Sets 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 directives | Other 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.

•   They can store additional account information as comments, or as tags which can be used to filter or pivot reports.

•   They can restrict which accounts may be posted to by transactions, eg in strict mode, which helps prevent errors.

•   They influence account display order in reports, allowing non-alphabetic sorting (eg Revenues to appear above Expenses).

•   They can help hledger know your accounts' types (asset, liability, equity, revenue, expense), enabling reports like balancesheet and incomestatement.

•   They help with account name completion (in hledger add, hledger-web, hledger-iadd, ledger-mode, etc.)

They are written as the word account followed by a hledger-style account name. Eg:

        account assets:bank:checking

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

        account assets:bank:checking
          format subdirective  ; currently ignored

  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.

Same-line account comments require two+ spaces before ; because that character can appear 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 tags
An account directive's comment may contain tags. These will be propagated to all postings using that account, as hidden but queryable posting tags, except where the posting already a tag of the same name. (Posting tags override account tags.)

  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, or when you run hledger check accounts, 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.

•   If you use the --infer-equity flag, you will also need declarations for the account names it generates.

  Account display order
Account directives also cause hledger to display accounts in a particular order, not just alphabetically. Eg, here is a conventional ordering for the top-level accounts:

        account assets
        account liabilities
        account equity
        account revenues
        account expenses

Now hledger displays them in that order:

        $ hledger accounts
        assets
        liabilities
        equity
        revenues
        expenses

If there are undeclared accounts, those will be displayed last, in alphabetical order.

Sorting is done within each group of sibling accounts, at each level of the account tree. Eg, a declaration like account parent:child influences child's position among its siblings.

Note, it does not affect parent's position; for that, you need an account parent declaration.

Sibling accounts are always displayed together; hledger won't display x:y in between a:b and a:c.

An account directive both declares an account as a valid posting target, and declares its display order; you can't easily do one without the other.

  Account types
hledger knows that in accounting there are three main account types:

Asset | A | things you own
Liability | L | things you owe
Equity | E | owner's investment, balances the two above

and two more representing changes in these:

Revenue | R | inflows (also known as Income)
Expense | X | outflows

hledger also uses a few subtypes:

Cash | C | liquid assets (subtype of Asset)
Conversion | V | commodity conversions equity (subtype of Equity)
Gain | G | capital gains/losses (subtype of Revenue)

As a convenience, hledger will detect most of these types automatically from english account names. But it's better to declare them explicitly by adding a type: tag in the account directives. The tag's value can be any of the types or one-letter abbreviations above.

Here is a typical set of account type declarations. Subaccounts will inherit their parent's type, or can override it:

        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
        account revenues:capital   ; type: G

This enables the easy balancesheet, balancesheetequity, cashflow and incomestatement reports, and querying by type:.

Tips:

•   You can list accounts and their types, for troubleshooting:

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

•   It's a good idea to declare at least one account for each account type. Having some types declared and some inferred can disrupt certain reports.

•   The rules for inferring types from account names are as follows (using Regular expressions).
If they don't work for you, just ignore them and declare your types with type: tags.

            If account's name contains this case insensitive 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

•   As mentioned above, subaccounts will inherit a type from their parent account. To be precise, 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.

•   Account aliases can disrupt account types.

  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 --types -1 --alias assets=bassetts

  commodity directive
The commodity directive performs several functions:

1.  It declares which commodity symbols may be used in the journal, enabling useful error checking with strict mode or the check command. See Commodity error checking below.

2.  It declares how all amounts in this commodity should be displayed, eg how many decimals to show. See Commodity display style above.

3.  (If no decimal-mark directive is in effect:) It sets the decimal mark to expect (period or comma) when parsing amounts in this commodity, in this file and files it includes, from the directive until end of current file. See Decimal marks above.

4.  It declares the precision with which this commodity's amounts should be compared when checking for balanced transactions, anywhere in this file and files it includes, until end of current file.

Declaring commodities solves several common parsing/display problems, so we recommend it.

Note that effects 3 and 4 above end at the end of the directive's file, and will not affect sibling or parent files. So if you are relying on them (especially 4) and using multiple files, placing your commodity directives in a top-level parent file might be important. Or, keep your decimal marks unambiguous and your entries well balanced and precise.

Omitting the commodity symbol will set the display style for just the no-symbol commodity, not all commodities.

Commodity styles can be overridden by the -c/--commodity-style command line option.

(Related: #793)

  Commodity directive syntax
A commodity directive is normally the word commodity followed by a sample amount, and optionally a comment. Only the amount's symbol and the number's format is significant. Eg:

        commodity $1000.00
        commodity 1.000,00 EUR
        commodity 1 000 000.0000   ; the no-symbol commodity

A commodity directive's sample amount must always include a period or comma decimal mark (this rule helps disambiguate decimal marks and digit group marks). If you don't want to show any decimal digits, write the decimal mark at the end:

        commodity 1000. AAAA       ; show AAAA with no decimals

Commodity symbols containing spaces, numbers, or punctuation must be enclosed in double quotes, as usual:

        commodity 1.0000 "AAAA 2023"

Commodity directives normally include a sample amount, but can declare only a symbol (ie, just function 1 above):

        commodity $
        commodity INR
        commodity "AAAA 2023"
        commodity ""               ; the no-symbol commodity

Commodity directives may also be written with an indented format subdirective, as in Ledger. The symbol is repeated and must be the same in both places. Other subdirectives are currently ignored:

        ; 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
          an unsupported subdirective  ; ignored by hledger

  Commodity tags
A commodity directive's comment may contain tags. These will be propagated to all postings using that commodity in their main amount, as hidden but queryable posting tags, except where the posting already a tag of the same name. (Posting tags override account tags override commodity tags.)

  Commodity error checking
In strict mode (-s/--strict) (or when you run hledger check commodities), hledger will report an error if an undeclared commodity symbol is used. (With one exception: zero amounts are always allowed to have no commodity symbol.) It works like account error checking (described above).

  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 SOMEFILE

This has the same effect as if SOMEFILE's content was inlined at this point. (With any include directives in SOMEFILE processed similarly, recursively.)

Only journal files can include other files. They can include journal, timeclock or timedot files, but not CSV files.

If the file path begins with a tilde, that means your home directory: include ~/main.journal.

If it begins with a slash, it is an absolute path: include /home/user/main.journal. Otherwise it is relative to the including file's folder: include ../finances/main.journal.

Also, the path may have a file type prefix to force a specific file format, overriding the file extension(s) (as described in Data formats): include timedot:notes/2023.md.

The path may contain glob patterns to match multiple files. hledger's globs are similar to zsh's: ? to match any character; [a-z] to match any character in a range; * to match zero or more characters that aren't a path separator (like /); ** to match zero or more subdirectories and/or zero or more characters at the start of a file name; etc. For convenience, include always excludes the current file. So, you can do

•   include *.journal to include all other journal files in the current directory (excluding dot files)

•   include **.journal to include all other journal files in this directory and below (excluding dot files and top-level dot directories)

•   include timelogs/2???.timedot to include all timedot files named like a year number.

Note * and ** usually won't match dot files or dot directories, with one exception: ** does search non-top-level dot directories. If this causes problems, make your glob pattern more specific (eg **.journal instead of **).

If you are using many, or deeply nested, include files, and have an error that's hard to pinpoint: a good troubleshooting command is hledger files --debug=6 (or 7).

  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, or the foreign exchange market.

The format is:

        P DATE COMMODITY1SYMBOL COMMODITY2AMOUNT

DATE is a simple date, COMMODITY1SYMBOL is the symbol of the commodity being priced, and COMMODITY2AMOUNT is the amount (symbol and quantity) of commodity 2 that one unit of commodity 1 is worth on this date. Examples:

        # one euro was worth $1.35 from 2009-01-01 onward:
        P 2009-01-01 € $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    ; a comment

Payees do not have tags (tags in the comment will be ignored).

To declare the empty payee name, use "".

        payee ""

Ledger-style indented subdirectives, if any, 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; if you want to prevent this, you can declare and check your tags .

  Periodic transactions
The ~ directive declares a "periodic rule" which generates temporary extra transactions, usually recurring at some interval, when hledger is run with the --forecast flag. These "forecast transactions" are useful for forecasting future activity. They exist only for the duration of the report, and only when --forecast is used; they are not saved in the journal file by hledger.

Periodic rules also have a second use: with the --budget flag they set budget goals for budgeting.

Periodic rules can be a little tricky, so before you use them, read this whole section, or at least the following 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 an "auto posting rule", which adds extra postings to existing transactions. (Remember, postings are the account name & amount lines below a transaction's date & description.)

In the journal, an auto posting rule looks quite like a transaction, but instead of date and description it has = (mnemonic: "match") and a query, like this:

        = QUERY
            ACCOUNT    AMOUNT
            ...

Queries are just like command line queries; an account name substring is most common. Query terms containing spaces should be enclosed in single or double quotes.

Each = rule works like this: when hledger is run with the --auto flag, wherever the QUERY matches a posting in the journal, the rule's postings are added to that transaction, immediately below the matched posting. Note these generated postings are temporary, existing only for the duration of the report, and only when --auto is used; they are not saved in the journal file by hledger.

The postings can contain the special string %account which will be expanded to the account name of the matched account.

Generated postings' amounts can depend on the matched posting's amount. So auto postings can be useful for, eg, adding tax postings with a standard percentage. AMOUNT can be:

•   a number with no commodity symbol, like 2. The matched posting's commodity symbol will be added to this.

•   a normal amount with a commodity symbol, like $2. This will be used as-is.

•   an asterisk followed by a number, like *2. This will multiply the matched posting's amount (and total price, if any) by the number.

•   an asterisk followed by an amount with commodity symbol, like *$2. This multiplies and also replaces the commodity symbol with this new one.

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

Note that depending fully on generated data such as this has some drawbacks - it's less portable, less future-proof, less auditable by others, and less robust (eg your balance assertions will depend on whether you use or don't use --auto). An alternative is to use auto postings in "one time" fashion - use them to help build a complex journal entry, view it with hledger print --auto, and then copy that output into the journal file to make it permanent.

  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:

•   after missing amounts are inferred, and transactions are checked for balancedness,

•   but before balance assertions are checked.

Note this means that journal entries must be balanced both before and after auto postings are added. This changed in hledger 1.12+; see #893 for background.

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 costs
A cost in a balance assignment will cause the calculated amount to have that cost 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 current file.

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: DATE1=DATE2. If the year is omitted, the primary date's year is assumed. When running reports, the primary (left side) date is used by default, but with the --date2 flag (--aux-date or--effective also work, for Ledger users), the secondary (right side) date will be used instead.

The meaning of secondary dates is up to you. Eg it could be "primary is the bank's clearing date, secondary is the date the transaction was initiated, if different".

In practice, this feature usually adds confusion:

•   You have to remember the primary and secondary dates' meaning, and follow that consistently.

•   It splits your bookkeeping into two modes, and you have to remember which mode is appropriate for a given report.

•   Usually your balance assertions will work with only one of these modes.

•   It makes your financial data more complicated, less portable, and less clear in an audit.

•   It interacts with every feature, creating an ongoing cost for implementors.

•   It distracts new users and supporters.

•   Posting dates are simpler and work better.

So secondary dates are officially deprecated in hledger, remaining only as a Ledger compatibility aid; we recommend using posting dates instead.

  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, like (some:account) 10, is called an unbalanced virtual posting. These 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.

  Ledger virtual costs
In Ledger, (@) UNITCOST and (@@) TOTALCOST are virtual costs, which do not generate market prices. In hledger, these are equivalent to @ and @@.

  Ledger lot syntax
In Ledger, these optional annotations after an amount help specify the cost basis of a newly acquired lot, or select existing lot(s) to dispose of:

•   {LOTUNITCOST} and {{LOTTOTALCOST}} (lot price)

•   [LOTDATE] (lot date)

•   (LOTNOTE) (lot note)

hledger does not yet calculate lots itself, but it accepts these annotations and will show them in print's txt, beancount, and json output formats. This means you can use this syntax in your hledger journals (with an amountless extra posting to help transactions balance, when needed), and use the print command to export to Ledger or Beancount when you want to calculate lots and capital gains.

  Ledger fixed lot costs

•   {=UNITCOST} and {{=TOTALCOST}} (fixed price)

    •   when buying, means "this cost is also the fixed value, don't let it fluctuate in value reports"

Probably equivalent to @/@@, I'm not sure.

Beancount has simpler notation and different behaviour:

•   @ UNITCOST and @@ TOTALCOST

    •   expresses a cost without creating a lot, as in hledger

    •   when buying (acquiring) or selling (disposing of) a lot, and combined with {...}: is not used except to document the cost/selling price

•   {UNITCOST} and {{TOTALCOST}}

    •   when buying, expresses the cost for transaction balancing, and also creates a lot with this cost basis attached

    •   when selling,

        •   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

•   {}, {YYYY-MM-DD}, {"LABEL"}, {UNITCOST, "LABEL"}, {UNITCOST, YYYY-MM-DD, "LABEL"}

    •   when selling, other combinations of date/cost/label, like the above, are accepted for selecting the lot.

Currently, hledger

•   supports @ and @@

•   accepts the {UNITCOST}/{{TOTALCOST}} notation, but ignores it

•   and rejects the rest.

CSV
hledger can read transactions from CSV (comma-separated values) files. More precisely, it can read DSV (delimiter-separated values), from a file or standard input. Comma-separated, semicolon-separated and tab-separated are the most common variants, and hledger will recognise these three automatically based on a .csv, .ssv or .tsv file name extension or a csv:, ssv: or tsv: file path prefix.

(To learn about producing CSV or TSV output, see Output format.)

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 expects this rules file to be named like the CSV file, with an extra .rules extension added, 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 option.

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 Tutorial: Import CSV data 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.)

source | optionally declare which file to read data from
archive | optionally enable an archive of imported files
encoding | optionally declare which text encoding the data has
separator | declare the field separator, instead of relying on file extension
decimal-mark | declare the decimal mark used in CSV amounts, when ambiguous
date-format | declare how to parse CSV dates/date-times
timezone | declare the time zone of ambiguous CSV date-times
newest-first | improve txn order when: there are multiple records, newest first, all with the same date
intra-day-reversed | improve txn order when: same-day txns are in opposite order to the overall file
skip | (at top level) skip header line(s) at start of file
fields list | name CSV fields for easy reference, and optionally assign their values to hledger fields
Field assignment | assign a CSV value or interpolated text value to a hledger field
if block | conditionally assign values to hledger fields, or skip a record or end (skip rest of file)
if table | conditionally assign values to hledger fields, using compact syntax
skip | (inside an if rule) skip current record(s)
end | (inside an if rule) skip all remaining records
balance-type | select which type of balance assertions/assignments to generate
include | inline 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.

For more flexibility, add a source rule, which lets you specify a different data file:

        source ./Checking1.csv

If the file does not exist, it is just considered empty, without raising an error.

If you specify just a file name with no path, hledger will look for it in the ~/Downloads folder:

        source Checking1.csv

You can use a glob pattern, to avoid specifying the file name exactly:

        source Checking1*.csv

This has another benefit: if the pattern matches multiple files, hledger will read the newest (most recently modified) one. This avoids problems if you have downloaded a file multiple times without cleaning up.

All this enables a convenient workflow where can you just download CSV files, then run hledger import rules/*.

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

  Data cleaning / data generating commands
After source's file pattern, you can write | (pipe) and a data cleaning command (or command pipeline). If hledger's CSV rules aren't enough, you can pre-process the downloaded data here with a shell command or script, to make it more suitable for conversion. The command will be executed by your default shell, in the directory of the rules file, will receive the data file's content as standard input, and should output zero or more lines of character-separated-values, suitable for conversion by the CSV rules.

Examples:

        source ./paypal.json | paypalcsv
        source data/simplefin.json | simplefincsv - 'chase.*card'
        source OfxDownload*.csv | grep -vE '^(([^,]*,){6}[^,]*|)$' | sort -t, -n +2
        source History_for_Account_Z20144832*.csv   # | grep -E '^([^,]*,){12}[^,]*$' | sed -E -e 's/^ //' -e 's/\.([0-9]),/.\10,/g' -e 's/,([0-9]+),/,\1.00,/g'

Or, after source you can write | and a data generating command (with no file pattern before the |). This command receives no input, and should output zero or more lines of character-separated values, suitable for conversion by the CSV rules.

Examples:

        source | paypaljson | paypalcsv
        source | paypalcsv data/paypal.json
        source | simplefinjson >data/simplefin.json && simplefincsv data/simplefin.json 'chase.*card'
        source | simplefincsv data/simplefin.json 'unify.*checking'

(paypal* and simplefin* scripts are in bin/)

Whenever hledger runs one of these commands, it will echo the command on stderr. If the command produces error output, but exits successfully, hledger will show the error output as a warning. If the command fails, hledger will fail and show the error output in the error message.

Added in 1.50; experimental.

  archive
With archive added to a rules file, the import command will archive each successfully processed data file or data command output in a nearby data/ directory. The archive file name will be based on the rules file and the data file's modification date and extension (or for a data-generating command, the current date and the ".csv" extension). The original data file, if any, will be removed.

Also, in this mode import will prefer the oldest file matched by the source rule's glob pattern, not the newest. (So if there are multiple downloads, they will be imported and archived oldest first.)

Archiving is optional, but it can be useful for troubleshooting your CSV rules, regenerating entries with improved rules, checking for variations in your bank's CSV, etc.

Added in 1.50; experimental.

  encoding

        encoding ENCODING

hledger normally expects non-ascii text to be using the system locale's text encoding. If you need to read CSV files which have some other encoding, you can do it by adding encoding ENCODING to your CSV rules. Eg: encoding iso-8859-1.

The following encodings are supported:

ascii, utf-8, utf-16, utf-32, iso-8859-1, iso-8859-2, iso-8859-3, iso-8859-4, iso-8859-5, iso-8859-6, iso-8859-7, iso-8859-8, iso-8859-9, iso-8859-10, iso-8859-11, iso-8859-13, iso-8859-14, iso-8859-15, iso-8859-16, cp1250, cp1251, cp1252, cp1253, cp1254, cp1255, cp1256, cp1257, cp1258, koi8-r, koi8-u, gb18030, macintosh, jis-x-0201, jis-x-0208, iso-2022-jp, shift-jis, cp437, cp737, cp775, cp850, cp852, cp855, cp857, cp860, cp861, cp862, cp863, cp864, cp865, cp866, cp869, cp874, cp932.

Added in 1.42.

  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

Note currently there is no locale awareness for things like %b, and setting LC_TIME won't help.

  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.

  CSV fields and hledger fields
This can be confusing, so let's start with an overview:

•   CSV fields are provided by your data file. They are named by their position in the CSV record, starting with 1. You can also give them a readable name.

•   hledger fields are predefined; date, description, account1, amount1, account2 are some of them. They correspond to parts of a transaction's journal entry, mostly.

•   The CSV fields and hledger fields are the only fields you'll be working with; you can't define new fields, or variables as in a programming language. (But you could add extra CSV fields to the data in preprocessing, before running the rules.)

•   For each CSV record, you'll assign values to one or more of the hledger fields to build up a transaction (journal entry). Values can be static text, CSV field values from the current record, or a combination of these.

•   For simple cases, you can give a CSV field the same name as one of the hledger fields, then its value will be automatically assigned to that hledger field.

•   CSV fields can only be read, not written to. They'll be on the right hand side, with a % prefix. Eg

    •   testing a CSV field's value: if %CSVFIELD ...

    •   interpolating its value: HLEDGERFIELD %CSVFIELD

•   hledger fields can only be written to, not read. They'll be on the left hand side (or in a fields list), with no prefix. Eg

    •   setting the transaction's description to a value: description VALUE

    •   setting the transaction's description to the second CSV field's value:
    fields date, description, amount

  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 either by their 1-based position in the CSV record (%N) or by the name they were given in the fields list (%CSVFIELD), and regular expression match groups (\N).

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.

Posting comments can also contain a posting date. A secondary date, or a year-less date, will be ignored.

  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 the Working with CSV 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 of matcher:

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

2.  A field matcher has a percent-prefixed CSV field number or name before the pattern.
Eg: %3 whole foods or %description whole foods.
hledger will try to match the pattern just within the named CSV field.

When using these, there's two things to be aware of:

1.  Whole record matchers don't see the exact original record; they see a reconstruction of it, in which values are comma-separated, and quotes enclosing values and whitespace outside those quotes are removed.
Eg when reading an SSV record like: 2023-01-01 ; "Acme, Inc. " ; 1,000
the whole record matcher sees instead: 2023-01-01,Acme, Inc. ,1,000

2.  Field matchers expect either a CSV field number, or a CSV field name declared with fields. Anything else will cause it to match against the empty string, and probably fail silently (this makes it easier to reuse common rules with different CSV files). Don't use a hledger field name here (see CSV fields and hledger fields).

You can also prefix a matcher with ! (and optional space) to negate it. Eg ! whole foods, ! %3 whole foods, !%description whole foods will match if "whole foods" is NOT present. Added in 1.32.

The pattern is, as usual in hledger, a POSIX extended regular expression that also supports GNU word boundaries (\b, \B, \<, \>) and nothing else. For more details and tips, see Regular expressions in CSV rules below.

  Multiple matchers
When an if block has multiple matchers, each on its own line,

•   By default they are OR'd (any of them can match).

•   Matcher lines beginning with & (or &&, since 1.42) are AND'ed with the matcher above (all in the AND'ed group must match).

•   Matcher lines beginning with & ! (since 1.41, or && !, since 1.42) are first negated and then AND'ed with the matcher above.

You can also combine multiple matchers one the same line separated by && (AND) or && ! (AND NOT). Eg %description amazon && %date 2025-01-01 will match only when the description field contains "amazon" and the date field contains "2025-01-01". Added in 1.42.

  Match groups
Added in 1.32

Matchers can define match groups: parenthesised portions of the regular expression which are available for reference in field assignments. Groups are enclosed in regular parentheses (( and )) and can be nested. Each group is available in field assignments using the token \N, where N is an index into the match groups for this conditional block (e.g. \1, \2, etc.).

Example: Warp credit card payment postings to the beginning of the billing period (Month start), to match how they are presented in statements, using posting dates:

        if %date (....-..)-..
          comment2 date:\1-01

Another example: Read the expense account from the CSV field, but throw away a prefix:

        if %account1 liabilities:family:(expenses:.*)
            account1 \1

  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 && MATCHERC,VALUE1,VALUE2,...  (*since 1.42*)
        ; Comment line that explains MATCHERD
        MATCHERD,VALUE1,VALUE2,...
        <empty line>

The first character after if is taken to be this if table's field separator. It is unrelated to the separator used in the CSV file. It should be a non-alphanumeric character like , or | that does not appear anywhere else in the table (it should not be used in field names or matchers or values, and it cannot be escaped with a backslash).

Each line must contain the same number of separators; empty values are allowed. Whitespace can be used in the matcher lines for readability (but not in the if line, currently). You can use the comment lines in the table body. The table must be terminated by an empty line (or end of file).

An if table like the above is interpreted as follows: try all of the lines with matchers; whenever a line with matchers succeeds, assign all of the values on that line to the corresponding hledger fields; If multiple lines match, later lines will override fields assigned by the earlier ones - just like the sequence of if blocks would behave.

If table presented above is equivalent to this sequence of if blocks:

        if MATCHERA
          HLEDGERFIELD1 VALUE1
          HLEDGERFIELD2 VALUE2
          ...
        if MATCHERB && MATCHERC
          HLEDGERFIELD1 VALUE1
          HLEDGERFIELD2 VALUE2
          ...
        ; Comment line which explains MATCHERD
        if MATCHERD
          HLEDGERFIELD1 VALUE1
          HLEDGERFIELD2 VALUE2
          ...

Example:

        if,account2,comment
        atm transaction fee,expenses:business:banking,deductible? check it
        %description groceries,expenses:groceries,
        ;; Comment line that desribes why this particular date is special
        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 specify a rules file with --rules, 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:

•   https://hledger.org/cookbook.html#setups-and-workflows

•   https://plaintextaccounting.org -> data import/conversion

  Regular expressions in CSV rules
Regular expressions in if conditions (AKA matchers) are POSIX extended regular expressions, that also support GNU word boundaries (\b, \B, \<, \>), and nothing else. (For more detail, see Regular expressions.)

Here are some examples that might be useful in CSV rules:

•   Is field "foo" truly empty ? if %foo ^$

•   Is it empty or containing only whitespace ? if %foo ^ *$

•   Is it non-empty ? if %foo .

•   Does it contain non-whitespace ? if %foo [^ ]

Testing the value of numeric fields is a little harder. You can't use hledger queries like amt:0 or amt:>10 in CSV rules. But you can often achieve the same thing with a regular expression.

Note the content and layout of number fields in CSV varies, and can change over time (eg if you switch data providers). So numeric regexps are always somewhat specific to your particular CSV data; and it's a good idea to make them defensive and robust if you can.

Here are some examples:

•   Does foo contain a non-zero number ? if %foo [1-9]

•   Is it negative ? if %foo -

•   Is it non-negative ? if ! %foo -

•   Is it >= 10 ? if %foo [1-9][0-9]+\. (assuming a decimal period and no leading zeros)

•   Is it >= 10 and < 20 ? if %foo \b1[0-9]\.

  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
When you are reading CSV data, eg with a command like hledger -f foo.csv print, hledger will infer each commodity's decimal precision (and other commodity display styles) from the amounts - much as when reading a journal file without commodity directives (see the link).

Note, the commodity styles are not inferred from the numbers in the original CSV data; rather, they are inferred from the amounts generated by the CSV rules.

When you are importing CSV data with the import command, eg hledger import foo.csv, there's another step: import tries to make the new entries conform to the journal's existing styles. So for each commodity - let's say it's EUR - import will choose:

1.  the style declared for EUR by a commodity directive in the journal

2.  otherwise, the style inferred from EUR amounts in the journal

3.  otherwise, the style inferred from EUR amounts generated by the CSV rules.

TLDR: if import is not generating the precisions or styles you want, add a commodity directive to specify them.

  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 get a confusing error while reading a CSV file, it may help to try to understand which of these steps is failing:

1.  Any included rules files are inlined, from top to bottom, depth first (scanning each included file for further includes, recursively, before proceeding).

2.  Top level rules (date-format, fields, newest-first, skip etc) are read, top to bottom. "Top level rules" means non-conditional rules. If a rule occurs more than once, the last one wins; except for skip/end rules, where the first one wins.

3.  The CSV file is read as text. Any non-ascii characters will be decoded using the text encoding specified by the encoding rule, otherwise the system locale's text encoding.

4.  Any top-level skip or end rule is applied. skip [N] immediately skips the current or next N CSV records; end immediately skips all remaining CSV records (not normally used at top level).

5.  Now any remaining CSV records are processed. For each CSV record, in file order:

    •   Is there a conditional skip/end rule that applies for this record ? Search the if blocks, from top to bottom, for a succeeding one containing a skip or end rule. If found, skip the specified number of CSV records, then continue at 5.
    Otherwise...

    •   Do some basic validation on this CSV record (eg, check that it has at least two fields).

    •   For each hledger field (date, description, account1, etc.):

        1.  Get the field's assigned value, first searching top level assignments, made directly or by the fields rule, then assignments made inside succeeding if blocks. If there are more than one, the last one wins.

        2.  Compute the field's actual value (as text), by interpolating any %CSVFIELD references within the assigned value; or by choosing a default value if there was no assignment.

    •   Generate a hledger transaction from the hledger field values, parsing them if needed (eg from text to an amount).

This is all done by the CSV reader, one of several readers hledger can use to read transactions from an input file. When all input files have been read successfully, their transactions are passed 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","simon@joyful.com","memberships@calmradio.com","60P57143A8206782E","MONTHLY - $1 for the first 2 Months: Me - Order 99309. Item total: $1.00 USD first 2 months, then $6.99 / Month","","I-R8YLY094FJYR","","-6.99",""
        "10/01/2019","03:46:20","PDT","","Bank Deposit to PP Account ","Pending","USD","6.99","0.00","6.99","","simon@joyful.com","0TU1544T080463733","","","60P57143A8206782E","","0.00",""
        "10/01/2019","08:57:01","PDT","Patreon","PreApproved Payment Bill User Payment","Completed","USD","-7.00","0.00","-7.00","simon@joyful.com","support@patreon.com","2722394R5F586712G","Patreon* Membership","","B-0PG93074E7M86381M","","-7.00",""
        "10/01/2019","08:57:01","PDT","","Bank Deposit to PP Account ","Pending","USD","7.00","0.00","7.00","","simon@joyful.com","71854087RG994194F","Patreon* Membership","","2722394R5F586712G","","0.00",""
        "10/19/2019","03:02:12","PDT","Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.","Subscription Payment","Completed","USD","-2.00","0.00","-2.00","simon@joyful.com","tle@wikimedia.org","K9U43044RY432050M","Monthly donation to the Wikimedia Foundation","","I-R5C3YUS3285L","","-2.00",""
        "10/19/2019","03:02:12","PDT","","Bank Deposit to PP Account ","Pending","USD","2.00","0.00","2.00","","simon@joyful.com","3XJ107139A851061F","","","K9U43044RY432050M","","0.00",""
        "10/22/2019","05:07:06","PDT","Noble Benefactor","Subscription Payment","Completed","USD","10.00","-0.59","9.41","noble@bene.fac.tor","simon@joyful.com","6L8L1662YP1334033","Joyful Systems","","I-KC9VBGY2GWDB","","9.41",""

        # paypal-custom.csv.rules
        # Tips:
        # Export from Activity -> Statements -> Custom -> Activity download
        # Suggested transaction type: "Balance affecting"
        # Paypal's default fields in 2018 were:
        # "Date","Time","TimeZone","Name","Type","Status","Currency","Gross","Fee","Net","From Email Address","To Email Address","Transaction ID","Shipping Address","Address Status","Item Title","Item ID","Shipping and Handling Amount","Insurance Amount","Sales Tax","Option 1 Name","Option 1 Value","Option 2 Name","Option 2 Value","Reference Txn ID","Invoice Number","Custom Number","Quantity","Receipt ID","Balance","Address Line 1","Address Line 2/District/Neighborhood","Town/City","State/Province/Region/County/Territory/Prefecture/Republic","Zip/Postal Code","Country","Contact Phone Number","Subject","Note","Country Code","Balance Impact"
        # This rules file assumes the following more detailed fields, configured in "Customize report fields":
        # "Date","Time","TimeZone","Name","Type","Status","Currency","Gross","Fee","Net","From Email Address","To Email Address","Transaction ID","Item Title","Item ID","Reference Txn ID","Receipt ID","Balance","Note"
        fields date, time, timezone, description_, type, status_, currency, grossamount, feeamount, netamount, fromemail, toemail, code, itemtitle, itemid, referencetxnid, receiptid, balance, note
        skip  1
        date-format  %-m/%-d/%Y
        # ignore some paypal events
        if
        In Progress
        Temporary Hold
        Update to
         skip
        # add more fields to the description
        description %description_ %itemtitle
        # save some other fields as tags
        comment  itemid:%itemid, fromemail:%fromemail, toemail:%toemail, time:%time, type:%type, status:%status_
        # convert to short currency symbols
        if %currency USD
         currency $
        if %currency EUR
         currency E
        if %currency GBP
         currency P
        # generate postings
        # the first posting will be the money leaving/entering my paypal account
        # (negative means leaving my account, in all amount fields)
        account1 assets:online:paypal
        amount1  %netamount
        # the second posting will be money sent to/received from other party
        # (account2 is set below)
        amount2  -%grossamount
        # if there's a fee, add a third posting for the money taken by paypal.
        if %feeamount [1-9]
         account3 expenses:banking:paypal
         amount3  -%feeamount
         comment3 business:
        # choose an account for the second posting
        # override the default account names:
        # if the amount is positive, it's income (a debit)
        if %grossamount ^[^-]
         account2 income:unknown
        # if negative, it's an expense (a credit)
        if %grossamount ^-
         account2 expenses:unknown
        # apply common rules for setting account2 & other tweaks
        include common.rules
        # apply some overrides specific to this csv
        # Transfers from/to bank. These are usually marked Pending,
        # which can be disregarded in this case.
        if
        Bank Account
        Bank Deposit to PP Account
         description %type for %referencetxnid %itemtitle
         account2 assets:bank:wf:pchecking
         account1 assets:online:paypal
        # Currency conversions
        if Currency Conversion
         account2 equity:currency conversion

        # common.rules
        if
        darcs
        noble benefactor
         account2 revenues:foss donations:darcshub
         comment2 business:
        if
        Calm Radio
         account2 expenses:online:apps
        if
        electronic frontier foundation
        Patreon
        wikimedia
        Advent of Code
         account2 expenses:dues
        if Google
         account2 expenses:online:apps
         description google | music

        $ hledger -f paypal-custom.csv  print
        2019-10-01 (60P57143A8206782E) Calm Radio MONTHLY - $1 for the first 2 Months: Me - Order 99309. Item total: $1.00 USD first 2 months, then $6.99 / Month  ; itemid:, fromemail:simon@joyful.com, toemail:memberships@calmradio.com, time:03:46:20, type:Subscription Payment, status:Completed
            assets:online:paypal          $-6.99 = $-6.99
            expenses:online:apps           $6.99
        2019-10-01 (0TU1544T080463733) Bank Deposit to PP Account for 60P57143A8206782E  ; itemid:, fromemail:, toemail:simon@joyful.com, time:03:46:20, type:Bank Deposit to PP Account, status:Pending
            assets:online:paypal               $6.99 = $0.00
            assets:bank:wf:pchecking          $-6.99
        2019-10-01 (2722394R5F586712G) Patreon Patreon* Membership  ; itemid:, fromemail:simon@joyful.com, toemail:support@patreon.com, time:08:57:01, type:PreApproved Payment Bill User Payment, status:Completed
            assets:online:paypal          $-7.00 = $-7.00
            expenses:dues                  $7.00
        2019-10-01 (71854087RG994194F) Bank Deposit to PP Account for 2722394R5F586712G Patreon* Membership  ; itemid:, fromemail:, toemail:simon@joyful.com, time:08:57:01, type:Bank Deposit to PP Account, status:Pending
            assets:online:paypal               $7.00 = $0.00
            assets:bank:wf:pchecking          $-7.00
        2019-10-19 (K9U43044RY432050M) Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Monthly donation to the Wikimedia Foundation  ; itemid:, fromemail:simon@joyful.com, toemail:tle@wikimedia.org, time:03:02:12, type:Subscription Payment, status:Completed
            assets:online:paypal             $-2.00 = $-2.00
            expenses:dues                     $2.00
            expenses:banking:paypal      ; business:
        2019-10-19 (3XJ107139A851061F) Bank Deposit to PP Account for K9U43044RY432050M  ; itemid:, fromemail:, toemail:simon@joyful.com, time:03:02:12, type:Bank Deposit to PP Account, status:Pending
            assets:online:paypal               $2.00 = $0.00
            assets:bank:wf:pchecking          $-2.00
        2019-10-22 (6L8L1662YP1334033) Noble Benefactor Joyful Systems  ; itemid:, fromemail:noble@bene.fac.tor, toemail:simon@joyful.com, time:05:07:06, type:Subscription Payment, status:Completed
            assets:online:paypal                       $9.41 = $9.41
            revenues:foss donations:darcshub         $-10.00  ; business:
            expenses:banking:paypal                    $0.59  ; business:

Timeclock
hledger can read time logs in the timeclock time logging format of timeclock.el. As with Ledger, hledger's timeclock format is a subset/variant of timeclock.el's.

hledger's timeclock format was updated in hledger 1.43 and 1.50. If your old time logs are rejected, you should adapt them to modern hledger; for now, you can restore the pre-1.43 behaviour with the --old-timeclock flag.

Here the timeclock format in hledger 1.50+:

        # Comment lines like these, and blank lines, are ignored:
        # comment line
        ; comment line
        * comment line
        # Lines beginning with b, h, or capital O are also ignored, for compatibility:
        b SIMPLEDATE HH:MM[:SS][+-ZZZZ][ TEXT]
        h SIMPLEDATE HH:MM[:SS][+-ZZZZ][ TEXT]
        O SIMPLEDATE HH:MM[:SS][+-ZZZZ][ TEXT]
        # Lines beginning with i or o are are clock-in / clock-out entries:
        i SIMPLEDATE HH:MM[:SS][+-ZZZZ] ACCOUNT[  DESCRIPTION][;COMMENT]]
        o SIMPLEDATE HH:MM[:SS][+-ZZZZ][ ACCOUNT][;COMMENT]

The date is a hledger simple date (YYYY-MM-DD or similar). The time parts must use two digits. The seconds are optional. A + or - four-digit time zone is accepted for compatibility, but currently ignored; times are always interpreted as a local time.

In clock-in entries (i), the account name is required. A transaction description, separated from the account name by 2+ spaces, is optional. A transaction comment, beginning with ;, is also optional. (Indented following comment lines are also allowed, as in journal format.)

In clock-out entries (o) have no description, but can have a comment if you wish. A clock-in and clock-out pair form a "transaction" posting some number of hours to an account - also known as a session. Eg:

        i 2015/03/30 09:00:00 session1
        o 2015/03/30 10:00:00

        $ hledger -f a.timeclock print
        2015-03-30 * 09:00-10:00
            (session1)           1.00h

Clock-ins and clock-outs are matched by their account/session name. If a clock-out does not specify a name, the most recent unclosed clock-in is closed. You can have multiple sessions active simultaneously. Entries are processed in the order they are parsed. Sessions spanning more than one day are automatically split at day boundaries.

Eg, the following time log:

        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
        i 2015/04/02 12:00:00 another:account  ; this demonstrates multple sessions being clocked in
        i 2015/04/02 13:00:00 some account
        o 2015/04/02 14:00:00
        o 2015/04/02 15:00:00 another:account

generates these transactions:

        $ 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
        2015-04-02 * 12:00-15:00  ; this demonstrates multiple sessions being clocked in
            (another:account)           3.00h
        2015-04-02 * 13:00-14:00
            (some account)           1.00h

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 these shell aliases at the command line:

            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 Emacs's built-in timeclock.el, or the extended timeclock-x.el, and perhaps the extras in ledgerutils.el

•   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 more convenient for quick, approximate, and retroactive time logging, and more human-readable (you can see at a glance where time was spent). A quick example:

        2023-05-01
        hom:errands          .... ....  ; two hours; the space is ignored
        fos:hledger:timedot  ..         ; half an hour
        per:admin:finance               ; no time spent yet

hledger reads this as a transaction on this day with three (unbalanced) postings, where each dot represents "0.25". No commodity symbol is assumed, but we typically interpret it as hours.

        $ 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 timedot file contains a series of transactions (usually one per day). Each begins with a simple date (Y-M-D, Y/M/D, or Y.M.D), 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 indented.

•   Two or more spaces - required if there is an amount (as in journal format).

•   A timedot amount, which can be

    •   empty (representing zero)

    •   a number, optionally followed by a unit s, m, h, d, w, mo, or y, representing a precise number of seconds, minutes, hours, days weeks, months or years (hours is assumed by default), which will be converted to hours according to 60s = 1m, 60m = 1h, 24h = 1d, 7d = 1w, 30d = 1mo, 365d = 1y.

    •   one or more dots (period characters), each representing 0.25. These are the dots in "timedot". Spaces are ignored and can be used for grouping/alignment.

    •   Added in 1.32 one or more letters. These are like dots but they also generate a tag t: (short for "type") with the letter as its value, and a separate posting for each of the values. This provides a second dimension of categorisation, viewable in reports with --pivot t.

•   An optional comment following a semicolon (a hledger-style posting comment).

There is some flexibility to help with keeping time log data and notes in the same file:

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

•   After the first date line, lines which do not contain a double space are parsed as postings with zero amount. (hledger's register reports will show these if you add -E).

•   Before the first date line, lines beginning with * (eg org headings) are ignored. And from the first date line onward, Emacs org mode heading prefixes at the start of lines (one or more *'s followed by a space) will be ignored. This means the time log can also be a org outline.

Timedot files don't support directives like journal files. So a common pattern is to have a main journal file (eg time.journal) that contains any needed directives, and then includes the timedot file (include time.timedot).

  Timedot examples
Numbers:

        2016/2/3
        inc:client1   4
        fos:hledger   3h
        biz:research  60m

Dots:

        # 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  .

        $ 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

Letters:

        # Activity types:
        #  c cleanup/catchup/repair
        #  e enhancement
        #  s support
        #  l learning/research
        2023-11-01
        work:adm  ccecces

        $ hledger -f a.timedot print
        2023-11-01
            (work:adm)  1     ; t:c
            (work:adm)  0.5   ; t:e
            (work:adm)  0.25  ; t:s

        $ hledger -f a.timedot bal
                        1.75  work:adm
        --------------------
                        1.75

        $ hledger -f a.timedot bal --pivot t
                        1.00  c
                        0.50  e
                        0.25  s
        --------------------
                        1.75

Org:

        * 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

Using . as account name separator:

        2016/2/4
        fos.hledger.timedot  4h
        fos.ledger           ..

        $ hledger -f a.timedot --alias '/\./=:' bal -t
                        4.50  fos
                        4.00    hledger:timedot
                        0.50    ledger
        --------------------
                        4.50

PART 3: REPORTING CONCEPTS

Time periods

  Report start & end date
Most hledger reports will by default show the full time period 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 period, such as the current month. You can specify a start and/or end date with the -b/--begin, -e/--end, or -p/--period options, or a date: query argument, described below. All of these accept the smart date syntax, also described below.

End dates are exclusive; specify the day after the last day you want to see in the report.

When dates are specified by multiple options, the last (right-most) option wins. And when date: queries and date options are combined, the report period will be their intersection.

Examples:

-b 2016/3/17
    beginning on St. Patrick’s day 2016

-e 12/1
    ending at the start of December 1st in the current year

-p 'this month'
    during the current month

-p thismonth
    same as above, spaces are optional

-b 2023
    beginning on the first day of 2023

date:2023.. or date:2023-
    same as above

-b 2024 -e 2025 -p '2000 to 2030' date:2020-01 date:2020 :
during January 2020 (the smallest common period, with the -p overriding -b and -e)

  Smart dates
In hledger's user interfaces (though not in the journal file), you can optionally use "smart date" syntax. Smart dates can be written with english words, can be relative, and can have parts omitted. Missing parts are inferred as 1, when needed. Smart dates can be interpreted as dates or periods depending on the context.

Examples:

2004-01-01, 2004/10/1, 2004.9.1, 20240504, 2024Q1 :
Exact dates. The year must have at least four digits, the month must be 1-12, the day must be 1-31, the separator can be - or / or . or nothing. The q can be upper or lower case and the quarter number must be 1-4.

2004-10
    start of month

2004q3
    start of third quarter of 2004

q3  start of third quarter of current year

2004
    start of year

10/1 or oct or october
    October 1st in current year

21  21st day in current month

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

last/this/next tuesday
    the previous occurrence of the named day, or the next occurrence after today

last/this/next february
    the previous occurrence of 1st of the named month, or the next occurrence after the current month

in n days/weeks/months/quarters/years
    n periods from the current period

n days/weeks/months/quarters/years ahead
    n periods from the current period

n days/weeks/months/quarters/years ago
    -n periods from the current period

20181201
    8 digit YYYYMMDD with valid year month and day

201812
    6 digit YYYYMM with valid year and month

Dates with no separators are allowed but might give surprising results if mistyped:

•   20181301 (YYYYMMDD with an invalid month) is parsed as an eight-digit year

•   20181232 (YYYYMMDD with an invalid day) gives a parse error

•   201801012 (a valid YYYYMMDD followed by additional digits) gives a parse error

The meaning of relative dates depends on today's date. If you need to test or reproduce old reports, you can use the --today option to override that. (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 adjustments

  Start date adjustment
If you let hledger infer a report's start date, it will adjust the date to the previous natural boundary of the report interval, for convenient periodic reports. (If you don't want that, specify a start date.)

For example, if the journal's first transaction is on january 10th,

•   hledger register (no report interval) will start the report on january 10th.

•   hledger register --monthly will start the report on the previous month boundary, january 1st.

•   hledger register --monthly --begin 1/5 will start the report on january 5th [1].

Also if you are generating transactions or budget goals with periodic transaction rules, their start date may be adjusted in a similar way (in certain situations).

  End date adjustment
A report's end date is always adjusted to include a whole number of intervals, so that the last subperiod has the same length as the others.

For example, if the journal's last transaction is on february 20th,

•   hledger register will end the report on february 20th.

•   hledger register --monthly will end the report at the end of february.

•   hledger register --monthly --end 2/14 also will end the report at the end of february (overriding the requested end date).

•   hledger register --monthly --begin 1/5 --end 2/14 will end the report on march 4th [1].

[1] Since hledger 1.29.

  Period headings
With non-standard subperiods, hledger will show "STARTDATE..ENDDATE" headings. With standard subperiods (ie, starting on a natural interval boundary), you'll see more compact headings, which are usually preferable. (Though month names will be in english, currently.)

So if you are specifying a start date and you want compact headings: choose a start of year for yearly reports, a start of quarter for quarterly reports, a start of month for monthly reports, etc. (Remember, you can write eg -b 2024 or 1/1 as a shortcut for a start of year, or 2024-04 or 202404 or Apr for a start of month or quarter.)

For weekly reports, choose a date that's a Monday. (You can try different dates until you see the short headings, or write eg -b '3 weeks ago'.)

  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] (31st day will be adjusted to each month's last day)

•   every Nth WEEKDAYNAME [of month]

Yearly on a custom month and 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, usually preferred: -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. So all of these are equivalent: depth:2, --depth=2, -2.

You can also provide custom depths for specific accounts, by providing a REGEX=NUM argument instead of just NUM (since 1.41). For example, --depth assets=2 (or depth:assets=2) will collapse accounts matching the regular expression "assets" to depth 2. So assets:bank:savings would be collapsed to assets:bank, but liabilities:bank:credit card would not be affected.

If REGEX contains spaces or other special characters, enclose it in quotes in the usual way. Eg: --depth 'credit card=2'

  Combining depth options
If a command line contains multiple general depth options, the last one wins. (Useful for overriding a depth specified by scripts.)

Or a command may contain a combination of general and custom depth options. In this case, the most specifically (deepest) matching option wins. Some examples:

•   --depth assets=3 --depth expenses=2 --depth 1 would collapse accounts containing "assets" to depth 3, accounts containing "expenses" to depth 2, and all other accounts to depth 1.

•   --depth assets=1 --depth savings=2 would collapse assets:bank:savings to depth 2 (not depth 1; because "savings" matches a deeper part of the account name than "assets").

Note currently, to override a custom depth option --depth REGEX=NUM with a later option, the later option must use the same REGEX.

Queries
Many hledger commands accept query arguments, which restrict their scope and let you report on a precise subset of your data. Here's a quick overview of hledger's queries:

•   By default, a query argument is treated as a case-insensitive substring pattern for matching account names. Eg:

    dining groceries
    car:fuel

•   Patterns containing spaces or other special characters must be enclosed in single or double quotes:

    'personal care'

•   Patterns are actually regular expressions, so you can add regexp metacharacters for more precision (or you may need to backslash-escape certain characters; see "Regular expressions" above):

    '^expenses\b'
    'food$'
    'fuel|repair'
    'accounts (payable|receivable)'

•   To match something other than the account name, you can add a query type prefix, such as:

    date:202312-
    status:
    desc:amazon
    cur:USD
    cur:\\$
    amt:'>0'
    acct:groceries (but acct: is the default, so we usually don't bother writing it)

•   To negate a query, add a not: prefix:

    not:status:'*'
    not:desc:'opening|closing'
    not:cur:USD

•   Multiple query terms can be combined, as space-separated queries Eg: hledger print date:2022 desc:amazon desc:amzn (show transactions dated in 2022 whose description contains "amazon" or "amzn").

•   Or more flexibly as boolean queries. Eg: hledger print expr:'date:2022 and (desc:amazon or desc:amzn) and not date:202210'

All hledger commands use the same query language, but different commands may interpret the query in different ways. We haven't described the commands yet (that's coming in PART 4: COMMANDS below) but here's the gist of it:

•   Transaction-oriented commands (print, aregister, close, import, descriptions..) try to match transactions (including the transaction's postings).

•   Posting-oriented commands (register, balance, balancesheet, incomestatement, accounts..) try to match postings. Postings inherit their transaction's attributes for querying purposes, so transaction fields like date or description can still be referenced in a posting query.

•   A few commands match in more specific ways. (Eg aregister, which has a special first argument.)

  Query types
Here are the query types available:

  acct: query
acct:REGEX, or just REGEX
Match account names containing this case insensitive regular expression.
This is the default query type, so we usually don't bother writing the "acct:" prefix.

  amt: query
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.) amt: needs quotes to hide the less than/greater than sign from the command line shell.

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.

Keep in mind that amt: matches posting amounts, not account balances.

  code: query
code:REGEX
Match by transaction code (eg check number).

  cur: query
cur:REGEX
Match postings or transactions including any amounts whose currency/commodity symbol is fully matched by REGEX. (Contrary to hledger's usual infix matching. To do infix matching, write .*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 will usually need one more level of escaping. Eg to match the dollar sign: cur:\\$ or cur:'\$'

  desc: query
desc:REGEX
Match transaction descriptions.

  date: query
date:PERIODEXPR
Match dates (or with the --date2 flag, secondary dates) within the specified period. PERIODEXPR is a period expression. Examples:
date:2016, date:thismonth, date:2/1-2/15, date:2021-07-27..nextquarter.

PERIODEXPR may include a report interval (since 1.52). On the command line, this is equivalent to specifying a report interval with a command line option. In other contexts (hledger-ui, hledger-web), the report interval may be ignored.

  date2: query
date2:PERIODEXPR
If you use secondary dates: this matches secondary dates within the specified period. It is not affected by the --date2 flag. A report interval in PERIODEXPR will be ignored.

  depth: query
depth:[REGEXP=]N
Match (or display, depending on command) accounts at or above this depth, optionally only for accounts matching a provided regular expression. See Depth for detailed rules.

  note: query
note:REGEX
Match transaction notes (the part of the description right of |, or the whole description if there's no |).

  payee: query
payee:REGEX
Match transaction payee/payer names (the part of the description left of |, or the whole description if there's no |).

  real: query
real:, real:0
Match real or virtual postings respectively.

  status: query
status:, status:!, status:*
Match unmarked, pending, or cleared transactions respectively.

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

  tag: query
tag:NAMEREGEX[=VALREGEX]
Match by tag name, and optionally also by tag value. Note:

•   Both regular expressions do infix matching. If you need a complete match, use ^ and $.
Eg: tag:'^fullname$', tag:'^fullname$=^fullvalue$

•   To match values, ignoring names, do tag:.=VALREGEX

•   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.

  Negative queries

  not: query
not:QUERY
You can prepend not: to a query to negate the match.
Eg: not:equity, not:desc:apple
(Also, a trick: not:not:... can sometimes solve query problems conveniently.)

  Space-separated queries
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.

  Boolean queries
You can write more complicated "boolean" query expressions, enclosed in quotes and prefixed with expr:. These can combine subqueries with NOT, AND, OR operators (case insensitive), and parentheses for grouping. Eg, to show transactions involving both cash and expense accounts:

        hledger print expr:'cash AND expenses'

The prefix and enclosing quotes are required, so don't write hledger print cash AND expenses. That would be a space-separated query showing transactions involving accounts with any of "cash", "and", "expenses" in their names.

You can write space-separated queries inside a boolean query, and they will combine as described above, but it might be confusing and best avoided. Eg these are equivalent, showing transactions involving cash or expenses accounts:

        hledger print expr:'cash expenses'
        hledger print cash expenses

There is a restriction with date: queries: they may not be used inside OR expressions.

Actually, there are three types of boolean query: expr: for general use, and any: and all: variants which can be useful with print.

  expr: query
expr:'QUERYEXPR'
For example, expr:'date:lastmonth AND NOT (food OR rent)' means "match things which are dated in the last month and do not have food or rent in the account name".

When using expr: with transaction-oriented commands like print, posting-oriented query terms like acct: and amt: are considered to match the transaction if they match any of its postings.
So, hledger print expr:'cash and amt:>0' means "show transactions with (at least one posting involving a cash account) and (at least one posting with a positive amount)".

  any: query
any:'QUERYEXPR'
Like expr:, but when used with transaction-oriented commands like print, it matches the transaction only if a posting can be matched by all of QUERYEXPR.
So, hledger print any:'cash and amt:>0' means "show transactions where at least one posting posts a positive amount to a cash account".

  all: query
all:'QUERYEXPR'
Like expr:, but when used with transaction-oriented commands like print, it matches the transaction only if all postings are matched by all of QUERYEXPR (and there is at least one posting).
So, hledger print all:'cash and amt:0' means "show transactions where all postings involve a cash account and have a zero amount".
Or, hledger print all:'cash or checking' means "show transactions which touch only cash and/or checking accounts".

  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 account aliases
When account names are rewritten with --alias or alias, acct: will match either the old or the new account name.

  Queries and valuation
When amounts are converted to other commodities in cost or value reports, cur: and amt: match the old commodity symbol and the old amount quantity, not the new ones. (Except in hledger 1.22, #1625.)

Pivoting
Normally, hledger groups amounts and displays their totals by account (name). With --pivot PIVOTEXPR, some other field's (or multiple fields') value is used as a synthetic account name, causing different grouping and display. PIVOTEXPR can be

•   any of these standard transaction or posting fields (their value is substituted): status, code, desc, payee, note, acct, comm/cur, amt, cost

•   or a tag name

•   or any combination of these, colon-separated.

Some special cases:

•   Colons appearing in PIVOTEXPR or in a pivoted tag value will generate account hierarchy.

•   When pivoting a posting that has multiple values for a tag, the tag's first value will be used as the pivoted value.

•   When a posting has multiple commodities, the pivoted value of "comm"/"cur" will be "". Also when an unrecognised tag name or field is provided, its pivoted value will be "". (If this causes confusing output, consider excluding those postings from the report.)

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 pivot values:

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

Generating data
hledger can enrich the data provided to it, or generate new data, in a number of ways. Mostly, this is done only if you request it:

•   Missing amounts or missing costs in transactions are inferred automatically when possible.

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

•   The --infer-costs flag infers missing costs from conversion equity postings.

•   The --infer-market-prices flag infers P price directives from costs.

•   The --auto flag adds extra postings to transactions matched by auto posting rules.

•   The --forecast option generates transactions from periodic transaction rules.

•   The balance --budget report infers budget goals from periodic transaction rules.

•   Commands like close, rewrite, and hledger-interest generate transactions or postings.

•   CSV data is converted to transactions by applying CSV conversion rules.. etc.

Such generated data is temporary, existing only at report time. You can convert it to permanent recorded data by, eg, capturing the output of hledger print and saving it in your journal file. This can sometimes be useful as a data entry aid.

If you are curious what data is being generated and why, run hledger print -x --verbose-tags. -x/--explicit shows inferred amounts and --verbose-tags adds tags like generated-transaction (from periodic rules) and generated-posting, modified (from auto posting rules). Similar hidden tags (with an underscore prefix) are always present, also, so you can always match such data with queries like tag:generated or tag:modified.

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.

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 occurrence 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.

Amount formatting

  Commodity display style
For the amounts in each commodity, hledger chooses a consistent display style (symbol placement, decimal mark and digit group marks, number of decimal digits) to use in most reports. This is inferred as follows:

First, if there's a D directive declaring a default commodity, that commodity symbol and amount format is applied to all no-symbol amounts in the journal.

Then each commodity's display style is determined from its commodity directive. We recommend always declaring commodities with commodity directives, since they help ensure consistent display styles and precisions, and bring other benefits such as error checking for commodity symbols. Here's an example:

        # Set display styles (and decimal marks, for parsing, if there is no decimal-mark directive)
        # 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

But for convenience, if a commodity directive is not present, hledger infers a commodity's display styles from its amounts as they are written in the journal (excluding cost amounts and amounts in periodic transaction rules or auto posting rules). It uses

•   the symbol placement and decimal mark of the first amount seen

•   the digit group marks of the first amount with digit group marks

•   and the maximum number of decimal digits seen across all amounts.

And as fallback if no applicable amounts are found, it would use a default style, like $1000.00 (symbol on the left with no space, period as decimal mark, and two decimal digits).

Finally, commodity styles can be overridden by the -c/--commodity-style command line option.

  Rounding
Amounts are stored internally as decimal numbers with up to 255 decimal places. They are displayed with their original journal precisions by print and print-like reports, and rounded to their display precision (the number of decimal digits specified by the commodity display style) by other reports. When rounding, hledger uses banker's rounding (it rounds to the nearest even digit). So eg 0.5 displayed with zero decimal digits appears as "0".

  Trailing decimal marks
If you're wondering why your print report sometimes shows trailing decimal marks, with no decimal digits; it does this when showing amounts that have digit group marks but no decimal digits, to disambiguate them and allow them to be re-parsed reliably (see Decimal marks). Eg:

        commodity $1,000.00
        2023-01-02
            (a)      $1000

        $ hledger print
        2023-01-02
            (a)        $1,000.

If this is a problem (eg when exporting to Ledger), you can avoid it by disabling digit group marks, eg with -c/--commodity (for each affected commodity):

        $ hledger print -c '$1000.00'
        2023-01-02
            (a)          $1000

or by forcing print to always show decimal digits, with --round:

        $ hledger print -c '$1,000.00' --round=soft
        2023-01-02
            (a)      $1,000.00

  Amount parseability
More generally, hledger output falls into three rough categories, which format amounts a little bit differently to suit different consumers:

1. "hledger-readable output" - should be readable by hledger (and by humans)

•   This is produced by reports that show full journal entries: print, import, close, rewrite etc.

•   It shows amounts with their original journal precisions, which may not be consistent from one amount to the next.

•   It adds a trailing decimal mark when needed to avoid showing ambiguous amounts.

•   It can be parsed reliably (by hledger and ledger2beancount at least, but perhaps not by Ledger..)

2. "human-readable output" - usually for humans

•   This is produced by all other reports.

•   It shows amounts with standard display precisions, which will be consistent within each commodity.

•   It shows ambiguous amounts unmodified.

•   It can be parsed reliably in the context of a known report (when you know decimals are consistently not being shown, you can assume a single mark is a digit group mark).

3. "machine-readable output" - usually for other software

•   This is produced by all reports when an output format like csv, tsv, json, or sql is selected.

•   It shows amounts as 1 or 2 do, but without digit group marks.

•   It can be parsed reliably (if needed, the decimal mark can be changed with -c/--commodity-style).

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" generically for convenience.) With the -B/--cost flag, hledger can show amounts "at cost", converted to the cost's commodity.

  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.

Note you will need to add account declarations for these to your journal, if you use check accounts or check --strict. (And unlike normal postings, generated equity postings do not inherit tags from account declarations.)

  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:

•   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
hledger can also show amounts "at market value", converted to some other commodity using the market price or conversion rate on a certain date.

This is controlled by the --value=TYPE[,COMMODITY] option. We also provide simpler -V and -X COMMODITY aliases for this, which are often sufficient. The market prices are declared with a special P directive, and/or they can be inferred from the costs recorded in transactions, by using the --infer-market-prices flag.

  -X: Value in specified commodity
The -X COMM (or --exchange=COMM) option converts amounts to their market value in the specified commodity, using the market prices in effect on the valuation date(s), if any. (More on these in a minute.)

Use this when you want to (eg) show everything in your base currency as far as possible. (Commodities for which no conversion rate can be found, will not be converted.)

COMM should be the full commodity symbol or name. Remember to quote special shell characters, if needed. Some examples:

•   -X€

•   -X$ (nothing after $, no quoting needed)

•   -X CNY (the space after -X is optional)

•   -X 'red apples'

•   -X 'r&r'

  -V: Value in default commodity(s)
The -V/--market flag is a variant of -X where you don't have to specify COMM. Instead it tries to guess a default valuation commodity for each original commodity, based on the market prices in effect on the valuation date(s).

-V can often be a convenient shortcut for -X MYCURRENCY, but not always; depending on your data it could guess multiple valuation commodities. Usually you want to convert to a single commodity, so it's better to use -X, unless you're sure -V is doing what you want.

  Valuation date
Market prices can change from day to day. hledger will use the prices on a particular valuation date (or on more than one date). By default hledger uses "end" dates for valuation. More specifically:

•   For single period reports (including normal print and register reports):

    •   If an explicit report end date is specified, that is used.

    •   Otherwise the latest transaction date or non-future P directive date is used.

•   For multiperiod reports, each period is valued on its last day.

This can be customised with the --value option described below, which can select either "then", "end", "now", or "custom" dates.

  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.

  --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.

  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

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, the latest transaction date or price date is used as valuation date (2000-04-01):

        $ hledger -f- print --value=end
        2000-01-01
            (a)             3 B
        2000-02-01
            (a)             3 B
        2000-03-01
            (a)             3 B

The value today is the same (the 2000-04-01 price is still in effect):

        $ 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

  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.

Related: #1625

  Effect of valuation on reports
Here is a reference for how valuation is supposed to affect each part of hledger's reports. It may be useful when troubleshooting. If you find problems, please report them, ideally with a reproducible example. Related: #329, #1083.

First, a quick 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).

Report type | -B, --cost | -V, -X | --value=then | --value=end | --value=DATE, --value=now
print |  |  |  |  |
posting amounts | cost | value at report end or today | value at posting date | value at report or journal end | value at DATE/today
balance assertions/assignments | unchanged | unchanged | unchanged | unchanged | unchanged
register |  |  |  |  |
starting balance (-H) | cost | value at report or journal end | valued at day each historical posting was made | value at report or journal end | value at DATE/today
starting balance (-H) with report interval | cost | value at day before report or journal start | valued at day each historical posting was made | value at day before report or journal start | value at DATE/today
posting amounts | cost | value at report or journal end | value at posting date | value at report or journal end | value at DATE/today
summary posting amounts with report interval | summarised cost | value at period ends | sum of postings in interval, valued at interval start | value at period ends | value at DATE/today
running total/average | sum/average of displayed values | sum/average of displayed values | sum/average of displayed values | sum/average of displayed values | sum/average of displayed values
balance (bs, bse, cf, is) |  |  |  |  |
balance changes | sums of costs | value at report end or today of sums of postings | value at posting date | value at report or journal end of sums of postings | value at DATE/today of sums of postings
budget amounts (--budget) | like balance changes | like balance changes | like balance changes | like balances | like balance changes
grand total | sum of displayed values | sum of displayed values | sum of displayed valued | sum of displayed values | sum of displayed values
balance (bs, bse, cf, is) with report interval |  |  |  |  |
starting balances (-H) | sums of costs of postings before report start | value at report start of sums of all postings before report start | sums of values of postings before report start at respective posting dates | value at report start of sums of all postings before report start | sums of postings before report start
balance changes (bal, is, bs --change, cf --change) | sums of costs of postings in period | same as --value=end | sums of values of postings in period at respective posting dates | balance change in each period, valued at period ends | value 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 end | same as --value=end | sums of values of postings from before period start to period end at respective posting dates | period end balances, valued at period ends | value at DATE/today of sums of postings
budget amounts (--budget) | like balance changes/end balances | like balance changes/end balances | like balance changes/end balances | like balances | like balance changes/end balances
row totals, row averages (-T, -A) | sums, averages of displayed values | sums, averages of displayed values | sums, averages of displayed values | sums, averages of displayed values | sums, averages of displayed values
column totals | sums of displayed values | sums of displayed values | sums of displayed values | sums of displayed values | sums of displayed values
grand total, grand average | sum, average of column totals | sum, average of column totals | sum, average of column totals | sum, average of column totals | sum, average of column totals

--cumulative is omitted to save space, it works like -H but with a zero starting balance.

PART 4: COMMANDS

Here are hledger's standard subcommands. You can list these by running hledger. If you have installed more add-on commands, they also will be listed.

In the following command docs, each command's specific options are shown. Most commands also support the general options described above, though some of them might have no effect. (Usually if there's a sensible way for a general option to affect a command, it will.) You can list all of a command's options by running hledger CMD -h.

Help commands

•   commands - show the hledger commands list (default)

•   demo - show small hledger demos in the terminal

•   help - show the hledger manual with info, man, or pager

User interface commands

•   repl - run commands from an interactive prompt

•   run - run commands from a script

•   ui - (if installed) run hledger's terminal UI

•   web - (if installed) run hledger's web UI

Data entry commands

•   add - add transactions using terminal prompts

•   import - add new transactions from other files, eg CSV files

Basic report commands

•   accounts - show account names

•   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

Standard report commands

•   print - show transactions or export journal data

•   aregister (areg) - show transactions in a particular account

•   register (reg) - show postings in one or more accounts & running total

•   balancesheet (bs) - show assets, liabilities and net worth

•   balancesheetequity (bse) - show assets, liabilities and equity

•   cashflow (cf) - show changes in liquid assets

•   incomestatement (is) - show revenues and expenses

Advanced report commands

•   balance (bal) - show balance changes, end balances, budgets, gains..

•   roi - show return on investments

Chart commands

•   activity - show bar charts of posting counts per period

Data generation commands

•   close - generate balance-zeroing/restoring transactions

•   rewrite - generate auto postings, like print --auto

Maintenance commands

•   check - check for various kinds of error in the data

•   diff - compare account transactions in two journal files

•   setup - check and show the status of the hledger installation

•   test - run self tests

Next, these commands are described in detail.

Help commands

  commands
Show the hledger commands list.

        Flags:
             --builtin             show only builtin commands, not addons

  demo
Play demos of hledger usage in the terminal, if asciinema is installed.

        Flags:
          -s --speed=SPEED         playback speed (1 is original speed, .5 is half, 2
                                   is double, etc (default: 2))

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.

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

This command is experimental: there aren't many useful demos yet.

  help
Show the hledger user manual with info, man, or a pager. With a (case insensitive) TOPIC argument, try to open it at that section heading.

        Flags:
          -i                       show the manual with info
          -m                       show the manual with man
          -p                       show the manual with $PAGER or less
                                   (less is always used if TOPIC is specified)

This command shows the hledger manual built in to your hledger executable. It can be useful when offline, or when you prefer the terminal to a web browser, or when the appropriate hledger manual or viewers are not installed properly on your system.

By default it chooses the best viewer found in $PATH, trying in this order: info, man, $PAGER, less, more, stdout. (If a TOPIC is specified, $PAGER and more are not tried.) 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 if running non-interactively, it just prints the manual to stdout.

When using info, TOPIC can match either the full heading or a prefix. If your info --version is < 6, you'll need to upgrade it, eg with 'brew install texinfo' on mac.

When using man or less, TOPIC must match the full heading. For a prefix match, you can write 'TOPIC.*'.

Examples

        $ hledger help -h                 # show the help command's usage
        $ hledger help                    # show the manual with info, man or $PAGER
        $ hledger help 'time periods'     # show the manual's "Time periods" topic
        $ hledger help 'time periods' -m  # use man, even if info is installed

User interface commands

  repl
Start an interactive prompt, where you can run any of hledger's commands. Data files are parsed just once, so the commands run faster.

        Flags:
        no command-specific flags

This command is experimental and could change in the future.

hledger repl starts a read-eval-print loop (REPL) where you can enter commands interactively. As with the run command, each input file (or each input file/input options combination) is parsed just once, so commands will run more quickly than if you ran them individually at the command line.

Also like run, the input file(s) specified for the repl command will be the default input for all interactive commands. You can override this temporarily by specifying an -f option in particular commands. But note that commands will not see any changes made to input files (eg by add) until you exit and restart the REPL.

The command syntax is the same as with run:

•   enter one hledger command at a time, without the usual hledger first word

•   empty lines and comment text from # to end of line are ignored

•   use single or double quotes to quote arguments when needed

•   type exit or quit or control-D to exit the REPL.

While it is running, the REPL remembers your command history, and you can navigate in the usual ways:

•   Keypad or Emacs navigation keys to edit the current command line

•   UP/DOWN or control-P/control-N to step back/forward through history

•   control-R to search for a past command

•   TAB to complete file paths.

Generally repl command lines should feel much like the normal hledger CLI, but you may find differences. repl is a little stricter; eg it requires full command names or official abbreviations (as seen in the commands list).

The commands and help commands, and the command help flags (CMD --tldr, CMD -h/--help, CMD --info, CMD --man), can be useful.

You can type control-C to cancel a long-running command (but only once; typing it a second time will exit the REPL).

And in most shells you can type control-Z to temporarily exit to the shell (and then fg to return to the REPL).

  Examples
Start the REPL and enter some commands:

        $ hledger repl
        Enter hledger commands. To exit, enter 'quit' or 'exit', or send EOF.
        % stats
        Main file           : .../2025.journal
        ...
        % stats -f 2024/2024.journal
        Main file           : .../2024.journal
        ...
        % stats
        Main file           : .../2025.journal
        ...

or:

        $ hledger repl -f some.journal
        Enter hledger commands. To exit, enter 'quit' or 'exit', or send EOF.
        % bs
        ...
        % print -b 'last week'
        ...
        % bs -f other.journal
        ...

  run
Run a sequence of hledger commands, provided as files or command line arguments. Data files are parsed just once, so the commands run faster.

        Flags:
        no command-specific flags

This command is experimental and could change in the future.

You can use run in three ways:

•   hledger run -- CMD1 -- CMD2 -- CMD3 - read commands from the command line, separated by --

•   hledger run SCRIPTFILE1 SCRIPTFILE2 - read commands from one or more files

•   cat SCRIPTFILE1 | hledger run - read commands from standard input.

run first loads the input file(s) specified by LEDGER_FILE or by -f options, in the usual way. Then it runs each command in turn, each using the same input data. But if you want a particular command to use different input, you can specify an -f option within that command. This will override (not add to) the default input, just for that command.

Each input file (more precisely, each combination of input file and input options) is parsed only once. This means that commands will not see any changes made to these files, until the next run. But the commands will run more quickly than if run individually (typically about twice as fast).

Command scripts, whether in a file or written on the command line, have a simple syntax:

•   each line may contain a single hledger command and its arguments, without the usual hledger first word

•   empty lines are ignored

•   text from # to end of line is a comment, and ignored

•   you can use single or double quotes to quote arguments when needed, as on the command line

•   these extra commands are available: echo TEXT prints some text, and exit or quit ends the run.

On unix systems you can use #!/usr/bin/env hledger run in the first line of a command file to make it a runnable script. If that gives an error, use #!/usr/bin/env -S hledger run.

It's ok to use the run command recursively within a command script.

You may find some differences in behaviour between run command lines and normal hledger command lines. run is a little stricter; eg it requires full command names or official abbreviations (as seen in the commands list), and command options must be written after the command name.

  Examples
Run commands from the command line:

        hledger -f some.journal run -- balance assets --depth 2 -- balance liabilities -f /some/other.journal --depth 3 --transpose -- stats

This would load some.journal, run balance assets --depth 2 on it, then run balance liabilities --depth 3 --transpose on /some/other.journal, and finally run stats on some.journal

Run commands from standard input:

        (echo "files"; echo "stats") | hledger -f some.journal run

Run commands as a script:

        $ cat report
        #!/usr/bin/env -S hledger run -f some.journal
        echo "List of accounts in some.journal"
        accounts
        echo "Assets of some.journal"
        balance assets --depth 2
        echo "Liabilities from /some/other.journal"
        balance liabilities -f /some/other.journal --depth 3 --transpose
        echo "Commands from another.script, applied to another.journal"
        run -f another.journal another.script

        $ chmod +x report
        $ ./report
        List of accounts in some.journal
        ...

  ui
Runs hledger-ui (if installed).

  web
Runs hledger-web (if installed).

Data entry commands

  add
Add new transactions to a journal file, with interactive prompting.

        Flags:
             --no-new-accounts      don't allow creating new accounts

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.

•   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.

Notes:

•   If you enter a number with no commodity symbol, and you have declared a default commodity with a D directive, you might expect add to add this symbol for you. It does not do this; we assume that if you are using a D directive you prefer not to see the commodity symbol repeated on amounts in the journal.

•   add creates entries in journal format; it won't work with timeclock or timedot files.

•   There is a known issue on Windows if this hledger version is built from stackage: the prompts will show ANSI junk instead of colours (#2410). You can avoid this by using official hledger release binaries or by building it with haskeline >=0.8.4; or by running add with --color=no, perhaps configured in your config file.

Examples:

•   Record new transactions, saving to the default journal file:

    hledger add

•   Add transactions to 2024.journal, but also load 2023.journal for completions:

    hledger add --file 2024.journal --file 2023.journal

•   Provide answers for the first four prompts:

    hledger add today 'best buy' expenses:supplies '$20'

There is a detailed tutorial at https://hledger.org/add.html.

  add and balance assertions
Since hledger 1.43, you can add a balance assertion by writing AMOUNT = BALANCE when asked for an amount. Eg 100 = 500.

Also, each time you enter a new amount, hledger re-checks all balance assertions in the journal and rejects the new amount if it would make any of them fail. You can run add with -I/--ignore-assertions to disable balance assertion checking.

  add and balance assignments
Since hledger 1.51, you can add a balance assignment by writing = BALANCE (or ==, =* etc) when asked for an amount. The missing amount will be calculated automatically.

add normally won't let you add a new posting which is dated earlier than an existing balance assignment. (Because when add runs, existing balance assignments have already been calculated and converted to amounts and balance assertions.) You can allow it by disabling balance assertion checking with -I.

  import
Import new transactions from one or more data files to the main journal.

        Flags:
             --catchup              just mark all transactions as already imported
             --dry-run              just show the transactions to be imported

This command detects new transactions in one or more data files specified as arguments, and appends them to the main journal.

You can import from any input file format hledger supports, but CSV/SSV/TSV files, downloaded from financial institutions, are the most common import source.

The import destination is the default journal file, or another specified in the usual way with $LEDGER_FILE or -f/--file. It should be in journal format.

Examples:

        $ hledger import bank1-checking.csv bank1-savings.csv

        $ hledger import *.csv

  Import dry run
It's useful to preview the import by running first with --dry-run, to sanity check the range of dates being imported, and to check the effect of your conversion rules if converting from CSV. Eg:

        $ hledger import bank.csv --dry-run

The dry run output is valid journal format, so hledger can re-parse it. If the output is large, you could show just the uncategorised transactions like so:

        $ hledger import --dry-run bank.csv | hledger -f- -I print unknown

You could also run this repeatedly to see the effect of edits to your conversion rules:

        $ watchexec -- "hledger import --dry-run bank.csv | hledger -f- -I print unknown"

Once the conversion and dates look good enough to import to your journal, perhaps with some manual fixups to follow, you would do the actual import:

        $ hledger import bank.csv

  Overlap detection
Reading CSV files is built in to hledger, and not specific to import; so you could also import by doing hledger -f bank.csv print >>$LEDGER_FILE.

But import is easier and provides some advantages. The main one is that it avoids re-importing transactions it has seen on previous runs. This means you don't have to worry about overlapping data in successive downloads of your bank CSV; just download and import as often as you like, and only the new transactions will be imported each time.

We don't call this "deduplication", as it's generally not possible to reliably detect duplicates in bank CSV. Instead, import remembers the latest date processed previously in each CSV file (saving it in a hidden file), and skips any records prior to that date. This works well for most real-world CSV, where:

1.  the data file name is stable (does not change) across imports

2.  the item dates are stable across imports

3.  the order of same-date items is stable across imports

4.  the newest items have the newest dates

(Occasional violations of 2-4 are often harmless; you can reduce the chance of disruption by downloading and importing more often.)

Overlap detection is automatic, and shouldn't require much attention from you, except perhaps at first import (see below). But here's how it works:

•   For each FILE being imported from:

    1.  hledger reads a file named .latest.FILE file in the same directory, if any. This file contains the latest record date previously imported from FILE, in YYYY-MM-DD format. If multiple records with that date were imported, the date is repeated on N lines.

    2.  hledger reads records from FILE. If a latest date was found in step 1, any records before that date, and the first N records on that date, are skipped.

•   After a successful import from all FILEs, without error and without --dry-run, hledger updates each FILE's .latest.FILE for next time.

If this goes wrong, it's relatively easy to repair:

•   You'll notice it before import when you preview with import --dry-run.

•   Or after import when you try to reconcile your hledger account balances with your bank.

•   hledger print -f FILE.csv will show all recently downloaded transactions. Compare these with your journal. Copy/paste if needed.

•   Update your conversion rules and print again, if needed.

•   You can manually update or remove the .latest file, or use import --catchup FILE.

•   Download and import more often, eg twice a week, at least while you are learning. It's easier to review and troubleshoot when there are fewer transactions.

  First import
The first time you import from a file, when no corresponding .latest file has been created yet, all of the records will be imported.

But perhaps you have been entering the data manually, so you know that all of these transactions are already recorded in the journal. In this case you can run hledger import --catchup once. This will create a .latest file containing the latest CSV record date, so that none of those records will be re-imported.

Or, if you know that some but not all of the transactions are in the journal, you can create the .latest file yourself. Eg, let's say you previously recorded foobank transactions up to 2024-10-31 in the journal. Then in the directory where you'll be saving foobank.csv, you would create a .latest.foobank.csv file containing

        2024-10-31

Or if you had three foobank transactions recorded with that date, you would repeat the date that many times:

        2024-10-31
        2024-10-31
        2024-10-31

Then hledger import foobank.csv [--dry-run] will import only the newer records.

  Importing balance assignments
Journal entries added by import will have all posting amounts made explicit (like print -x).

This means that any balance assignments in the imported entries would need to be evaluated. But this generally isn't possible, as the main file's account balances are not visible during import. So try to avoid generating balance assignments with your CSV rules, or importing from a journal that contains balance assignments. (Balance assignments are best avoided anyway.)

But if you must use them, eg because your CSV includes only balances: you can import with print, which leaves implicit amounts implicit. (print can also do overlap detection like import, with the --new flag):

        $ hledger print --new -f bank.csv >> $LEDGER_FILE

(If you think import should preserve implicit balances, please test that and send a pull request.)

  Import and commodity styles
Amounts in entries added by import will be formatted according to the journal's canonical commodity styles, as declared by commodity directives or inferred from the journal's amounts.

Related: CSV > Amount decimal places.

  Import archiving
When importing from a CSV rules file (hledger import bank.rules), you can use the archive rule to enable automatic archiving of the data file. After a successful import, the data file (specified by source) will be moved to an archive folder (data/, next to the rules file, auto-created), and renamed similar to the rules file, with a date. This can be useful for troubleshooting, detecting variations in your banks' CSV data, regenerating entries with improved rules, etc.

The archive rule also causes import to handle source glob patterns differently: when there are multiple matched files, it will pick the oldest, not the newest.

  Import special cases

  Deduplication
Here are two kinds of "deduplication" which import does not handle (and should not, because these can happen legitimately in financial data):

•   Two or more of the new CSV records are identical, and generate identical new journal entries.

•   A new CSV record generates a journal entry identical to one(s) already in the journal.

  Varying file name
If you have a download whose file name varies, you could rename it to a fixed name after each download. Or you could use a CSV source rule with a suitable glob pattern, and import from the .rules file.

  Multiple versions
Say you download bank.csv, import it, but forget to delete it from your downloads folder. The next time you download it, your web browser will save it as (eg) bank (2).csv. The source rule's glob patterns are for just this situation: instead of specifying source bank.csv, specify source bank*.csv. Then hledger -f bank.rules CMD or hledger import bank.rules will automatically pick the newest matched file (bank (2).csv).

Alternately, what if you download, but forget to import or delete, then download again ? Now each of bank.csv and bank (2).csv might contain data that's not in the other, and not in your journal. In this case, it's best to import each of them in turn, oldest first (otherwise, overlap detection could cause new records to be skipped). Enabling import archiving ensures this. Then hledger import bank.rules; hledger import bank.rules will import and archive first bank.csv, then bank (2).csv.

Basic report commands

  accounts
List the account names used or declared in the journal.

        Flags:
          -u --used                 list accounts used
          -d --declared             list accounts declared
             --undeclared           list accounts used but not declared
             --unused               list accounts declared but not used
             --find                 list the first account matched by the first
                                    argument (a case-insensitive infix regexp)
             --directives           show as account directives, for use in journals
             --locations            also show where accounts were declared
             --types                also show account types when known
          -l --flat                 list/tree mode: show accounts as a flat list
                                    (default)
          -t --tree                 list/tree mode: show accounts as a tree
             --drop=N               flat mode: omit N leading account name parts

This command lists account names - all of them by default, or just the ones which have been used in transactions (-u/--used), or declared with account directives (-d/--declared), or used but not declared (--undeclared), or declared but not used (--unused), or just the first one matched by a pattern (--find, returning a non-zero exit code if it fails).

You can add query arguments to select a subset of transactions or accounts.

With --directives, it shows valid account directives which could be pasted into a journal file. This is useful together with --undeclared when updating your account declarations to satisfy hledger check accounts.

With --locations, 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 --types, it also shows each account's type, if it's known. (See Declaring accounts > Account types.)

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.

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

  codes
List the codes seen in transactions, in the order parsed.

        Flags:
        no command-specific flags

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 the commodity symbols used or declared in the journal.

        Flags:
             --used                 list commodities used
             --declared             list commodities declared
             --undeclared           list commodities used but not declared
             --unused               list commodities declared but not used
             --find                 list the first commodity matched by the first
                                    argument (a case-insensitive infix regexp)

This command lists commodity symbols/names - all of them by default, or just the ones which have been used in transactions or P directives, or declared with commodity directives, or used but not declared, or declared but not used, or just the first one matched by a pattern (with --find, returning a non-zero exit code if it fails).

You can add cur: query arguments to further limit the commodities.

  descriptions
List the unique descriptions used in transactions.

        Flags:
        no command-specific flags

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

  files
List all files included in the journal. With a REGEX argument, only file names matching the regular expression (case sensitive) are shown.

        Flags:
        no command-specific flags

  notes
List the unique notes that appear in transactions.

        Flags:
        no command-specific flags

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 payee/payer names used or declared in the journal.

        Flags:
             --used                 list payees used
             --declared             list payees declared
             --undeclared           list payees used but not declared
             --unused               list payees declared but not used
             --find                 list the first payee matched by the first
                                    argument (a case-insensitive infix regexp)

This command lists unique payee/payer names - all of them by default, or just the ones which have been used in transaction descriptions, or declared with payee directives, or used but not declared, or declared but not used, or just the first one matched by a pattern (with --find, returning a non-zero exit code if it fails).

The payee/payer name 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 or payees.

Example:

        $ hledger payees
        Store Name
        Gas Station
        Person A

  prices
Print the market prices declared with P directives. With --infer-market-prices, also show any additional prices inferred from costs. With --show-reverse, also show additional prices inferred by reversing known prices.

        Flags:
             --show-reverse         also show the prices inferred by reversing known
                                    prices

Price amounts are always displayed with their full precision, except for reverse prices which are limited to 8 decimal digits.

Prices can be filtered by a date:, cur: or amt: query.

Generally if you run this command with --infer-market-prices --show-reverse, it will show the same prices used internally to calculate value reports. But if in doubt, you can inspect those directly by running the value report with --debug=2.

  stats
Show journal and performance statistics.

        Flags:
          -1                        show a single line of output
          -v --verbose              show more detailed output
          -o --output-file=FILE     write output to FILE.

The stats command shows summary information for the whole journal, or a matched part of it. With a reporting interval, it shows a report for each report period.

It also shows some performance statistics:

•   how long the program ran for

•   the number of transactions processed per second

•   the peak live memory in use by the program to do its work

•   the peak allocated memory as seen by the program

By default, the output is reasonably discreet; it reveals the main file name, your activity level, and the speed of your machine.

With -v/--verbose, more details are shown: the full paths of all files, and the names of the commodities you work with.

With -1, only one line of output is shown, in a machine-friendly tab-separated format: the program version, the main journal file name, and the performance stats,

The run time of stats is similar to that of a balance report.

Example:

        $ hledger stats -f examples/1ktxns-1kaccts.journal
        Main file           : .../1ktxns-1kaccts.journal
        Included files      : 0
        Txns span           : 2000-01-01 to 2002-09-27 (1000 days)
        Last txn            : 2002-09-26 (7827 days ago)
        Txns                : 1000 (1.0 per day)
        Txns last 30 days   : 0 (0.0 per day)
        Txns last 7 days    : 0 (0.0 per day)
        Payees/descriptions : 1000
        Accounts            : 1000 (depth 10)
        Commodities         : 26
        Market prices       : 1000
        Runtime stats       : 0.12 s elapsed, 8266 txns/s, 4 MB live, 16 MB alloc

        $ hledger stats -1 -f examples/10ktxns-1kaccts.journal
        1.50.99-g0835a2485-20251119, mac-aarch64    10ktxns-1kaccts.journal 0.66 s elapsed  15244 txns/s    28 MB live  86 MB alloc

This command supports the -o/--output-file option (but not -O/--output-format).

  tags
List the tag names used or declared in the journal, or their values.

        Flags:
             --used                 list tags used
             --declared             list tags declared
             --undeclared           list tags used but not declared
             --unused               list tags declared but not used
             --find                 list the first tag whose name is matched by the
                                    first argument (a case-insensitive infix regexp)
             --values               list tag values instead of tag names
             --parsed               show them in the order they were parsed (mostly),
                                    including duplicates

This command lists tag names - all of them by default, or just the ones which have been used on transactions/postings/accounts, or declared with tag directives, or used but not declared, or declared but not used, or just the first one matched by a pattern (with --find, returning a non-zero exit code if it fails).

Note this command's non-standard first argument: it is a case-insensitive infix regular expression for matching tag names, which limits the tags shown. Any additional arguments are standard query arguments, which limit the transactions, postings, or accounts providing tags.

With --values, 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.)

Remember that accounts also acquire tags from their parents; postings also acquire tags from their account and transaction; and transactions also acquire tags from their postings.

Standard report commands

  print
Show full journal entries, representing transactions.

        Flags:
          -x --explicit             show all amounts explicitly
             --invert               display all amounts with reversed sign
             --locations            add tags showing file paths and line numbers
          -m --match=DESC           fuzzy search for one recent transaction with
                                    description closest to DESC
             --new                  show only newer-dated transactions added in each
                                    file since last run
             --round=TYPE           how much rounding or padding should be done when
                                    displaying amounts ?
                                    none - show original decimal digits,
                                           as in journal (default)
                                    soft - just add or remove decimal zeros
                                           to match precision
                                    hard - round posting amounts to precision
                                           (can unbalance transactions)
                                    all  - also round cost amounts to precision
                                           (can unbalance transactions)
             --base-url=URLPREFIX   in html output, generate links to hledger-web,
                                    with this prefix. (Usually the base url shown by
                                    hledger-web; can also be relative.)
          -O --output-format=FMT    select the output format. Supported formats:
                                    txt, beancount, csv, tsv, html, fods, json, sql.
          -o --output-file=FILE     write output to FILE. A file extension matching
                                    one of the above formats selects that format.

The print command displays full journal entries (transactions) from the journal file, sorted by date (or with --date2, by secondary date).

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/regenerate your journal you should take care to also copy over the directives and inter-transaction comments.

Eg:

        $ hledger print -f examples/sample.journal date:200806
        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

  print amount explicitness
Normally, whether posting amounts are implicit or explicit is preserved. For example, when an amount is omitted in the journal, it will not appear in the output. Similarly, if a conversion cost is implied but not written, it will not appear in the output.

You can use the -x/--explicit flag to force explicit display of all amounts and costs. This 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.

The -x/--explicit flag will cause any postings with a multi-commodity amount (which can arise when a multi-commodity transaction has an implicit amount) to be split into multiple single-commodity postings, keeping the output parseable.

  print alignment
Amounts are shown right-aligned within each transaction (but not aligned across all transactions; you can achieve that with ledger-mode in Emacs).

  print amount style
Amounts will be displayed mostly in their commodity's display style, with standardised symbol placement, decimal mark, and digit group marks. This does not apply to their decimal digits; print normally shows the same decimal digits that are recorded in each journal entry.

You can override the decimal precisions with print's special --round option (since 1.32). --round tries to show amounts with their commodities' standard decimal precisions, increasingly strongly:

•   --round=none show amounts with original precisions (default)

•   --round=soft add/remove decimal zeros in amounts (except costs)

•   --round=hard round amounts (except costs), possibly hiding significant digits

•   --round=all round all amounts and costs

soft is good for non-lossy cleanup, displaying more consistent decimals where possible, without making entries unbalanced.

hard or all can be good for stronger cleanup, when decimal rounding is wanted. Note rounding can produce unbalanced journal entries, perhaps requiring manual fixup.

  print parseability
Normally, print's output is a valid hledger journal, which you can "pipe" to a second hledger command for further processing. This is sometimes convenient for achieving certain kinds of query (though less needed now that queries have become more powerful):

        # 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

But here are some things which can cause print's output to become unparseable:

•   --round (see above) can disrupt transaction balancing.

•   Account aliases or pivoting can disrupt account names, balance assertions, or balance assignments.

•   Value reporting also can disrupt balance assertions or balance assignments.

•   Auto postings can generate too many amountless postings.

•   --infer-costs or --infer-equity can generate too-complex redundant costs.

•   Because print always shows transactions in date order, balance assertions involving non-date-ordered transactions (and same-day postings) could be disrupted.

  print, other features
With -B/--cost, amounts with costs are shown converted to cost.

With --invert, posting amounts are shown with their sign flipped. It could be useful if you have accidentally recorded some transactions with the wrong signs.

With --new, print shows 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.)

With -m DESC/--match=DESC, print shows 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 --locations, print adds the source file and line number to every transaction, as a tag.

  print output format
This command also supports the output destination and output format options The output formats supported are txt, beancount (Added in 1.32), csv, tsv (Added in 1.32), json and sql.

The beancount format tries to produce Beancount-compatible output, as follows:

•   Transaction and postings with unmarked status are converted to cleared (*) status.

•   Transactions' payee and note are backslash-escaped and double-quote-escaped and wrapped in double quotes.

•   Transaction tags are copied to Beancount #tag format.

•   Commodity symbols are converted to upper case, and a small number of currency symbols like $ are converted to the corresponding currency names.

•   Account name parts are capitalised and unsupported characters are replaced with -. If an account name part does not begin with a letter, or if the first part is not Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Income, or Expenses, an error is raised. (Use --alias options to bring your accounts into compliance.)

•   An open directive is generated for each account used, on the earliest transaction date.

Some limitations:

•   Balance assertions are removed.

•   Balance assignments become missing amounts.

•   Virtual and balanced virtual postings become regular postings.

•   Directives are not converted.

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.)

  aregister
(areg)

Show the transactions and running balances in one account, with each transaction on one line.

        Flags:
             --txn-dates            filter strictly by transaction date, not posting
                                    date. Warning: this can show a wrong running
                                    balance.
             --no-elide             don't show only 2 commodities per amount
             --cumulative           accumulation mode: show running total from report
                                    start date
          -H --historical           accumulation mode: show historical running
                                    total/balance (includes postings before report
                                    start date) (default)
             --invert               display all amounts with reversed sign
             --drop=N               omit N leading account name parts
             --heading=YN           show heading row above table: yes (default) or no
          -w --width=N              set output width (default: terminal width). -wN,M
                                    sets description width as well.
             --align-all            guarantee alignment across all lines (slower)
          -O --output-format=FMT    select the output format. Supported formats:
                                    txt, html, csv, tsv, json.
          -o --output-file=FILE     write output to FILE. A file extension matching
                                    one of the above formats selects that format.

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 included in the running balance (--historical mode is the default). You can suppress this behaviour using the --cumulative option.

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:

•   aregister is best when reconciling real-world asset/liability accounts

•   register is best when reviewing individual revenues/expenses.

Note this command's non-standard, and required, first argument; it specifies the account whose register will be shown. You can write the account's name, or (to save typing) a case-insensitive infix regular expression matching the name, which selects the alphabetically first matched account. (For example, if you have assets:personal checking and assets:business checking, hledger areg checking would select assets:business checking.)

Transactions involving subaccounts of this account will also be shown. aregister ignores depth limits, so its final total will always match a historical balance report with similar arguments.

Any additional arguments are standard query arguments, which will limit 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.

By default, aregister shows a heading above the data. However, when reporting in a language different from English, it is easier to omit this heading and prepend your own one. For this purpose, use the --heading=no option.

This command also supports the output destination and output format options. The output formats supported are txt, csv, tsv (Added in 1.32), html, fods (Added in 1.41) and json.

  aregister and posting dates
aregister always shows one line (and date and amount) per transaction. But sometimes transactions have postings with different dates. Also, not all of a transaction's postings may be within the report period. To resolve this, aregister shows the earliest of the transaction's date and posting dates that is in-period, and the sum of the in-period postings. In other words it will show a combined line item with just the earliest date, and the running balance will (temporarily, until the transaction's last posting) be inaccurate. Use register -H if you need to see the individual postings.

There is also a --txn-dates flag, which filters strictly by transaction date, ignoring posting dates. This too can cause an inaccurate running balance.

  register
(reg)

Show postings and their running total.

        Flags:
             --cumulative           accumulation mode: show running total from report
                                    start date (default)
          -H --historical           accumulation mode: show historical running
                                    total/balance (includes postings before report
                                    start date)
          -A --average              show running average of posting amounts instead
                                    of total (implies --empty)
          -m --match=DESC           fuzzy search for one recent posting with
                                    description closest to DESC
          -r --related              show postings' siblings instead
             --invert               display all amounts with reversed sign
             --drop=N               omit N leading account name parts
             --sort=FIELDS          sort by: date, desc, account, amount, absamount,
                                    or a comma-separated combination of these. For a
                                    descending sort, prefix with -. (Default: date)
          -w --width=N              set output width (default: terminal width). -wN,M
                                    sets description width as well.
             --align-all            guarantee alignment across all lines (slower)
             --base-url=URLPREFIX   in html output, generate links to hledger-web,
                                    with this prefix. (Usually the base url shown by
                                    hledger-web; can also be relative.)
          -O --output-format=FMT    select the output format. Supported formats:
                                    txt, csv, tsv, html, fods, json.
          -o --output-file=FILE     write output to FILE. A file extension matching
                                    one of the above formats selects that format.

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 --drop option will trim leading segments from account names.

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:

The --sort=FIELDS flag sorts by the fields given, which can be any of account, amount, absamount, date, or desc/description, optionally separated by commas. For example, --sort account,amount will group all transactions in each account, sorted by transaction amount. Each field can be negated by a preceding -, so --sort -amount will show transactions ordered from smallest amount to largest amount.

        $ 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 1
        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.

If you have a deeply nested account tree some reports might benefit from trimming leading segments from the account names using --drop.

        $ hledger register --monthly income --drop 1
        2008/01                 salary                                 $-1          $-1
        2008/06                 gifts                                  $-1          $-2

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 normally uses the full terminal width (or 80 columns if it can't detect that). You can override this with 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
        $ hledger reg -w 100,40           # set overall width 100, description width 40

This command also supports the output destination and output format options The output formats supported are txt, csv, tsv (Added in 1.32), and json.

  balancesheet
(bs)

Show the end balances in asset and liability accounts. Amounts are shown with normal positive sign, as in conventional financial statements.

        Flags:
             --sum                  calculation mode: show sum of posting amounts
                                    (default)
             --valuechange          calculation mode: show total change of value of
                                    period-end historical balances (caused by deposits,
                                    withdrawals, market price fluctuations)
             --gain                 calculation mode: show unrealised capital
                                    gain/loss (historical balance value minus cost
                                    basis)
             --count                calculation mode: show the count of postings
             --change               accumulation mode: accumulate amounts from column
                                    start to column end (in multicolumn reports)
             --cumulative           accumulation mode: accumulate amounts from report
                                    start (specified by e.g. -b/--begin) to column end
          -H --historical           accumulation mode: accumulate amounts from
                                    journal start to column end (includes postings
                                    before report start date) (default)
          -l --flat                 list/tree mode: show accounts as a flat list
                                    (default). Amounts exclude subaccount amounts,
                                    except where the account is depth-clipped.
          -t --tree                 list/tree mode: show accounts as a tree. Amounts
                                    include subaccount amounts.
             --drop=N               in list mode, omit N leading account name parts
             --declared             include non-parent declared accounts (best used
                                    with -E)
          -A --average              show a row average column (in multicolumn
                                    reports)
          -T --row-total            show a row total column (in multicolumn reports)
             --summary-only         display only row summaries (e.g. row total,
                                    average) (in multicolumn reports)
          -N --no-total             omit the final total row
             --no-elide             in tree mode, don't squash boring parent accounts
             --format=FORMATSTR     use this custom line format (in simple reports)
          -S --sort-amount          sort by amount instead of account code/name
          -% --percent              express values in percentage of each column's
                                    total
             --layout=ARG           how to show multi-commodity amounts:
                                    'wide[,WIDTH]': all commodities on one line
                                    'tall'        : each commodity on a new line
                                    'bare'        : bare numbers, symbols in a column
             --base-url=URLPREFIX   in html output, generate hyperlinks to
                                    hledger-web, with this prefix. (Usually the base
                                    url shown by hledger-web; can also be relative.)
          -O --output-format=FMT    select the output format. Supported formats:
                                    txt, html, csv, tsv, json.
          -o --output-file=FILE     write output to FILE. A file extension matching
                                    one of the above formats selects that format.

This command displays a balance sheet, showing historical ending balances of asset and liability accounts. (To see equity as well, use the balancesheetequity command.)

Accounts declared with the Asset, Cash or Liability type are shown (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 2008-12-31
                            || 2008-12-31
        ====================++============
         Assets             ||
        --------------------++------------
         assets:bank:saving ||         $1
         assets:cash        ||        $-2
        --------------------++------------
                            ||        $-1
        ====================++============
         Liabilities        ||
        --------------------++------------
         liabilities:debts  ||        $-1
        --------------------++------------
                            ||        $-1
        ====================++============
         Net:               ||          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, tsv (Added in 1.32), html, and 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.

        Flags:
             --sum                  calculation mode: show sum of posting amounts
                                    (default)
             --valuechange          calculation mode: show total change of value of
                                    period-end historical balances (caused by deposits,
                                    withdrawals, market price fluctuations)
             --gain                 calculation mode: show unrealised capital
                                    gain/loss (historical balance value minus cost
                                    basis)
             --count                calculation mode: show the count of postings
             --change               accumulation mode: accumulate amounts from column
                                    start to column end (in multicolumn reports)
             --cumulative           accumulation mode: accumulate amounts from report
                                    start (specified by e.g. -b/--begin) to column end
          -H --historical           accumulation mode: accumulate amounts from
                                    journal start to column end (includes postings
                                    before report start date) (default)
          -l --flat                 list/tree mode: show accounts as a flat list
                                    (default). Amounts exclude subaccount amounts,
                                    except where the account is depth-clipped.
          -t --tree                 list/tree mode: show accounts as a tree. Amounts
                                    include subaccount amounts.
             --drop=N               in list mode, omit N leading account name parts
             --declared             include non-parent declared accounts (best used
                                    with -E)
          -A --average              show a row average column (in multicolumn
                                    reports)
          -T --row-total            show a row total column (in multicolumn reports)
             --summary-only         display only row summaries (e.g. row total,
                                    average) (in multicolumn reports)
          -N --no-total             omit the final total row
             --no-elide             in tree mode, don't squash boring parent accounts
             --format=FORMATSTR     use this custom line format (in simple reports)
          -S --sort-amount          sort by amount instead of account code/name
          -% --percent              express values in percentage of each column's
                                    total
             --layout=ARG           how to show multi-commodity amounts:
                                    'wide[,WIDTH]': all commodities on one line
                                    'tall'        : each commodity on a new line
                                    'bare'        : bare numbers, symbols in a column
             --base-url=URLPREFIX   in html output, generate hyperlinks to
                                    hledger-web, with this prefix. (Usually the base
                                    url shown by hledger-web; can also be relative.)
          -O --output-format=FMT    select the output format. Supported formats:
                                    txt, html, csv, tsv, json.
          -o --output-file=FILE     write output to FILE. A file extension matching
                                    one of the above formats selects that format.

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 2008-12-31
                            || 2008-12-31
        ====================++============
         Assets             ||
        --------------------++------------
         assets:bank:saving ||         $1
         assets:cash        ||        $-2
        --------------------++------------
                            ||        $-1
        ====================++============
         Liabilities        ||
        --------------------++------------
         liabilities:debts  ||        $-1
        --------------------++------------
                            ||        $-1
        ====================++============
         Equity             ||
        --------------------++------------
        --------------------++------------
                            ||          0
        ====================++============
         Net:               ||          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 report is the easiest way to see if the accounting equation (A+L+E = 0) is satisfied (after you have done a close --retain to merge revenues and expenses with equity, and perhaps added --infer-equity to balance your commodity conversions).

This command also supports the output destination and output format options The output formats supported are txt, csv, tsv, html, and json.

  cashflow
(cf)

This command displays a (simple) 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.

        Flags:
             --sum                  calculation mode: show sum of posting amounts
                                    (default)
             --valuechange          calculation mode: show total change of value of
                                    period-end historical balances (caused by deposits,
                                    withdrawals, market price fluctuations)
             --gain                 calculation mode: show unrealised capital
                                    gain/loss (historical balance value minus cost
                                    basis)
             --count                calculation mode: show the count of postings
             --change               accumulation mode: accumulate amounts from column
                                    start to column end (in multicolumn reports)
                                    (default)
             --cumulative           accumulation mode: accumulate amounts from report
                                    start (specified by e.g. -b/--begin) to column end
          -H --historical           accumulation mode: accumulate amounts from
                                    journal start to column end (includes postings
                                    before report start date)
          -l --flat                 list/tree mode: show accounts as a flat list
                                    (default). Amounts exclude subaccount amounts,
                                    except where the account is depth-clipped.
          -t --tree                 list/tree mode: show accounts as a tree. Amounts
                                    include subaccount amounts.
             --drop=N               in list mode, omit N leading account name parts
             --declared             include non-parent declared accounts (best used
                                    with -E)
          -A --average              show a row average column (in multicolumn
                                    reports)
          -T --row-total            show a row total column (in multicolumn reports)
             --summary-only         display only row summaries (e.g. row total,
                                    average) (in multicolumn reports)
          -N --no-total             omit the final total row
             --no-elide             in tree mode, don't squash boring parent accounts
             --format=FORMATSTR     use this custom line format (in simple reports)
          -S --sort-amount          sort by amount instead of account code/name
          -% --percent              express values in percentage of each column's
                                    total
             --layout=ARG           how to show multi-commodity amounts:
                                    'wide[,WIDTH]': all commodities on one line
                                    'tall'        : each commodity on a new line
                                    'bare'        : bare numbers, symbols in a column
             --base-url=URLPREFIX   in html output, generate hyperlinks to
                                    hledger-web, with this prefix. (Usually the base
                                    url shown by hledger-web; can also be relative.)
          -O --output-format=FMT    select the output format. Supported formats:
                                    txt, html, csv, tsv, json.
          -o --output-file=FILE     write output to FILE. A file extension matching
                                    one of the above formats selects that format.

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 2008
                            || 2008
        ====================++======
         Cash flows         ||
        --------------------++------
         assets:bank:saving ||   $1
         assets:cash        ||  $-2
        --------------------++------
                            ||  $-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, tsv (Added in 1.32), html, and json.

  incomestatement
(is)

Show revenue inflows and expense outflows during the report period. Amounts are shown with normal positive sign, as in conventional financial statements.

        Flags:
             --sum                  calculation mode: show sum of posting amounts
                                    (default)
             --valuechange          calculation mode: show total change of value of
                                    period-end historical balances (caused by deposits,
                                    withdrawals, market price fluctuations)
             --gain                 calculation mode: show unrealised capital
                                    gain/loss (historical balance value minus cost
                                    basis)
             --count                calculation mode: show the count of postings
             --change               accumulation mode: accumulate amounts from column
                                    start to column end (in multicolumn reports)
                                    (default)
             --cumulative           accumulation mode: accumulate amounts from report
                                    start (specified by e.g. -b/--begin) to column end
          -H --historical           accumulation mode: accumulate amounts from
                                    journal start to column end (includes postings
                                    before report start date)
          -l --flat                 list/tree mode: show accounts as a flat list
                                    (default). Amounts exclude subaccount amounts,
                                    except where the account is depth-clipped.
          -t --tree                 list/tree mode: show accounts as a tree. Amounts
                                    include subaccount amounts.
             --drop=N               in list mode, omit N leading account name parts
             --declared             include non-parent declared accounts (best used
                                    with -E)
          -A --average              show a row average column (in multicolumn
                                    reports)
          -T --row-total            show a row total column (in multicolumn reports)
             --summary-only         display only row summaries (e.g. row total,
                                    average) (in multicolumn reports)
          -N --no-total             omit the final total row
             --no-elide             in tree mode, don't squash boring parent accounts
             --format=FORMATSTR     use this custom line format (in simple reports)
          -S --sort-amount          sort by amount instead of account code/name
          -% --percent              express values in percentage of each column's
                                    total
             --layout=ARG           how to show multi-commodity amounts:
                                    'wide[,WIDTH]': all commodities on one line
                                    'tall'        : each commodity on a new line
                                    'bare'        : bare numbers, symbols in a column
             --base-url=URLPREFIX   in html output, generate hyperlinks to
                                    hledger-web, with this prefix. (Usually the base
                                    url shown by hledger-web; can also be relative.)
          -O --output-format=FMT    select the output format. Supported formats:
                                    txt, html, csv, tsv, json.
          -o --output-file=FILE     write output to FILE. A file extension matching
                                    one of the above formats selects that format.

This command displays an income statement, showing revenues and expenses during one or more periods.

It 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 2008
                           || 2008
        ===================++======
         Revenues          ||
        -------------------++------
         income:gifts      ||   $1
         income:salary     ||   $1
        -------------------++------
                           ||   $2
        ===================++======
         Expenses          ||
        -------------------++------
         expenses:food     ||   $1
         expenses:supplies ||   $1
        -------------------++------
                           ||   $2
        ===================++======
         Net:              ||    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, tsv (Added in 1.32), html, and json.

Advanced report commands

  balance
(bal)

A flexible, general purpose "summing" report that shows accounts with some kind of numeric data. This can be balance changes per period, end balances, budget performance, unrealised capital gains, etc.

        Flags:
             --sum                  calculation mode: show sum of posting amounts
                                    (default)
             --valuechange          calculation mode: show total change of value of
                                    period-end historical balances (caused by deposits,
                                    withdrawals, market price fluctuations)
             --gain                 calculation mode: show unrealised capital
                                    gain/loss (historical balance value minus cost
                                    basis)
             --budget[=DESCPAT]     calculation mode: show sum of posting amounts
                                    together with budget goals defined by periodic
                                    transactions. With a DESCPAT argument (must be
                                    separated by = not space),
                                    use only periodic transactions with matching
                                    description
                                    (case insensitive substring match).
             --count                calculation mode: show the count of postings
             --change               accumulation mode: accumulate amounts from column
                                    start to column end (in multicolumn reports,
                                    default)
             --cumulative           accumulation mode: accumulate amounts from report
                                    start (specified by e.g. -b/--begin) to column end
          -H --historical           accumulation mode: accumulate amounts from
                                    journal start to column end (includes postings
                                    before report start date)
          -l --flat                 list/tree mode: show accounts as a flat list
                                    (default). Amounts exclude subaccount amounts,
                                    except where the account is depth-clipped.
          -t --tree                 list/tree mode: show accounts as a tree. Amounts
                                    include subaccount amounts.
             --drop=N               in list mode, omit N leading account name parts
             --declared             include non-parent declared accounts (best used
                                    with -E)
          -A --average              show a row average column (in multicolumn
                                    reports)
          -T --row-total            show a row total column (in multicolumn reports)
             --summary-only         display only row summaries (e.g. row total,
                                    average) (in multicolumn reports)
          -N --no-total             omit the final total row
             --no-elide             in tree mode, don't squash boring parent accounts
             --format=FORMATSTR     use this custom line format (in simple reports)
          -S --sort-amount          sort by amount instead of account code/name (in
                                    flat mode). With multiple columns, sorts by the row
                                    total, or by row average if that is displayed.
          -% --percent              express values in percentage of each column's
                                    total
          -r --related              show the other accounts transacted with, instead
             --invert               display all amounts with reversed sign
             --transpose            switch rows and columns (use vertical time axis)
             --layout=ARG           how to lay out multi-commodity amounts and the
                                    overall table:
                                    'wide[,W]': commodities on same line, up to W wide
                                    'tall'    : commodities on separate lines
                                    'bare'    : commodity symbols in a separate column
                                    'tidy'    : each data field in its own column
             --base-url=URLPREFIX   in html output, generate links to hledger-web,
                                    with this prefix. (Usually the base url shown by
                                    hledger-web; can also be relative.)
          -O --output-format=FMT    select the output format. Supported formats:
                                    txt, html, csv, tsv, json, fods.
          -o --output-file=FILE     write output to FILE. A file extension matching
                                    one of the above formats selects that format.

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 variants of the balance command with convenient defaults, which are 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 other balance-like commands as well (bs, cf, is..).

balance can show..

•   accounts as a list (-l) or a tree (-t)

•   optionally depth-limited (-[1-9])

•   sorted by declaration order and name, or by amount

..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 balance changes from sibling postings (--related/-r)

•   or postings count (--count)

..in..

•   one time period (the whole journal period by default)

•   or multiple periods (-D, -W, -M, -Q, -Y, -p INTERVAL)

..either..

•   per period (the default)

•   or accumulated since report start date (--cumulative)

•   or accumulated since account creation (--historical/-H)

..possibly converted to..

•   cost (--value=cost[,COMM]/--cost/-B)

•   or market value, as of transaction dates (--value=then[,COMM])

•   or at period ends (--value=end[,COMM])

•   or now (--value=now)

•   or at some other date (--value=YYYY-MM-DD)

..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, tsv (Added in 1.32), json, and (multi-period reports only:) html, fods (Added in 1.40). In txt output in a colour-supporting terminal, negative amounts are shown in red.

  Simple balance report
With no arguments, balance shows a list of all accounts and their change of balance - ie, the sum of posting amounts, both inflows and outflows - during the entire period of the journal. ("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 you could use one of the higher-level balance reports (bs, is..), which flip the sign automatically (eg: hledger is -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.

•   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.

•   The --summary-only flag (--summary also works) hides all but the Total and Average columns (those should be enabled with --row-total and -A/--average).

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

•   Filter to a single currency with cur:

•   Convert to a single currency with -V [--infer-market-price]

•   Use a more compact layout like --layout=bare

•   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 modes
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 [CALCULATIONMODE] [ACCUMULATIONMODE] [VALUATIONMODE] ...

  Calculation mode
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 mode
How amounts should accumulate across a report's subperiods/columns. 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, cashflow, 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)

  Valuation mode
Which kind of value or cost conversion should be applied, if any, before displaying the report. See Cost reporting and Value reporting for more about conversions.

A valuation (or cost) mode can be selected with the --value option:

•   no conversion : 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 with the legacy -B/-V/-X options, which are equivalent and easier to type:

•   -B/--cost : like --value=cost

•   -V/--market : like --value=end

•   -X COMM/--exchange COMM : like --value=end,COMM

Note that --value can also convert to cost, as a convenience; but actually --cost and --value are independent options, and could be used together.

  Combining balance report modes
Most combinations of these modes 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
--change | change in period | sum of posting-date market values in period | period-end value of change in period | DATE-value of change in period
--cumulative | change from report start to period end | sum of posting-date market values from report start to period end | period-end value of change from report start to period end | DATE-value of change from report start to period end
--historical /-H | change from journal start to period end (historical end balance) | sum of posting-date market values from journal start to period end | period-end value of change from journal start to period end | DATE-value of change from journal start to period end

  Budget report
The --budget report is like a regular balance report, but with two main differences:

•   Budget goals and performance percentages are also shown, in brackets

•   Accounts which don't have budget goals are hidden by default.

This is useful for comparing planned and actual income, expenses, time usage, etc.

Periodic transaction rules are used to define budget goals. For example, here's a periodic rule defining monthly goals for bus travel and food expenses:

        ;; Budget
        ~ monthly
          (expenses:bus)              $30
          (expenses:food)            $400

After recording some actual expenses,

        ;; Two months worth of expenses
        2017-11-01
          income                   $-1950
          expenses:bus                $35
          expenses:food:groceries    $310
          expenses:food:dining        $42
          expenses:movies             $38
          assets:bank:checking
        2017-12-01
          income                   $-2100
          expenses:bus                $53
          expenses:food:groceries    $380
          expenses:food:dining        $32
          expenses:gifts             $100
          assets:bank:checking

we can see a budget report like this:

        $ hledger bal -M --budget
        Budget performance in 2017-11-01..2017-12-31:
                       ||                  Nov                   Dec
        ===============++============================================
         <unbudgeted>  || $-425                 $-565
         expenses      ||  $425 [ 99% of $430]   $565 [131% of $430]
         expenses:bus  ||   $35 [117% of  $30]    $53 [177% of  $30]
         expenses:food ||  $352 [ 88% of $400]   $412 [103% of $400]
        ---------------++--------------------------------------------
                       ||     0 [  0% of $430]      0 [  0% of $430]

This is "goal-based budgeting"; you define goals for accounts and periods, often recurring, and hledger shows performance relative to the goals. This contrasts with "envelope budgeting", which is more detailed and strict - useful when cash is tight, but also quite a bit more work. https://plaintextaccounting.org/Budgeting has more on this topic.

  Using the budget report
Historically this report has been confusing and fragile. hledger's version should be relatively robust and intuitive, but you may still find surprises. Here are more notes to help with learning and troubleshooting.

•   In the above example, expenses:bus and expenses:food are shown because they have budget goals during the report period.

•   Their parent expenses is also shown, with budget goals aggregated from the children.

•   The subaccounts expenses:food:groceries and expenses:food:dining are not shown since they have no budget goal of their own, but they contribute to expenses:food's actual amount.

•   Unbudgeted accounts expenses:movies and expenses:gifts are also not shown, but they contribute to expenses's actual amount.

•   The other unbudgeted accounts income and assets:bank:checking are grouped as <unbudgeted>.

•   --depth or depth: can be used to limit report depth in the usual way (but will not reveal unbudgeted subaccounts).

•   Amounts are always inclusive of subaccounts (even in -l/--list mode).

•   Numbers displayed in a --budget report will not always agree with the totals, because of hidden unbudgeted accounts; this is normal. -E/--empty can be used to reveal the hidden accounts.

•   In the periodic rules used for setting budget goals, unbalanced postings are convenient.

•   You can filter budget reports with the usual queries, eg to focus on particular accounts. It's common to restrict them to just expenses. (The <unbudgeted> account is occasionally hard to exclude; this is because of date surprises, discussed below.)

•   When you have multiple currencies, you may want to convert them to one (-X COMM --infer-market-prices) and/or show just one at a time (cur:COMM). If you do need to show multiple currencies at once, --layout bare can be helpful.

•   You can "roll over" amounts (actual and budgeted) to the next period with --cumulative.

See also: https://hledger.org/budgeting.html.

  Budget date surprises
With small data, or when starting out, some of the generated budget goal transaction dates might fall outside the report periods. Eg with the following journal and report, the first period appears to have no expenses:food budget. (Also the <unbudgeted> account should be excluded by the expenses query, but isn't.):

        ~ monthly in 2020
          (expenses:food)  $500
        2020-01-15
          expenses:food    $400
          assets:checking

        $ hledger bal --budget expenses
        Budget performance in 2020-01-15:
                       ||         2020-01-15
        ===============++====================
         <unbudgeted>  || $400
         expenses:food ||    0 [ 0% of $500]
        ---------------++--------------------
                       || $400 [80% of $500]

In this case, the budget goal transactions are generated on first days of of month (this can be seen with hledger print --forecast tag:generated expenses). Whereas the report period defaults to just the 15th day of january (this can be seen from the report table's column headings).

To fix this kind of thing, be more explicit about the report period (and/or the periodic rules' dates). In this case, adding -b 2020 does the trick.

  Selecting budget goals
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 between period expression and description), and then select from multiple budgets defined in your journal.

  Budgeting vs forecasting
--forecast and --budget both use the periodic transaction rules in the journal to generate temporary transactions for reporting purposes. However they are separate features - though you can use both at the same time if you want. Here are some differences between them:

--forecast | --budget
is a general option; it enables forecasting with all reports | is a balance command option; it selects the balance report's budget mode
generates visible transactions which appear in reports | generates invisible transactions which produce goal amounts
generates forecast transactions from after the last regular transaction, to the end of the report period; or with an argument --forecast=PERIODEXPR generates them throughout the specified period, both optionally restricted by periods specified in the periodic transaction rules | generates budget goal transactions throughout the report period, optionally restricted by periods specified in the periodic transaction rules
uses all periodic rules | uses all periodic rules; or with an argument --budget=DESCPAT uses just the rules matched by DESCPAT

  Balance report layout
The --layout option affects how balance and the other balance-like commands show multi-commodity amounts and commodity symbols. It can improve readability, for humans and/or machines (other software). 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. (This one is currently supported only by the balance command.)

Here are the --layout modes supported by each output format Only CSV output supports all of them:

- | txt | csv | html | json | sql
wide | Y | Y | Y |  |
tall | Y | Y | Y |  |
bare | Y | Y | Y |  |
tidy |  | Y |  |  |

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

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 has its own row, amounts are bare numbers, 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"

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
This produces normalised "tidy data" (see https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/tidyr/vignettes/tidy-data.html) where every variable has its own column and each row represents a single data point. This is the easiest kind of data for other software to consume:

        $ 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"

  Balance report output
As noted in Output format, if you choose HTML output (by using -O html or -o somefile.html), you can create a hledger.css file in the same directory to customise the report's appearance.

The HTML and FODS output formats can generate hyperlinks to a hledger-web register view for each account and period. E.g. if your hledger-web server is reachable at http://localhost:5000 then you might run the balance command with the extra option --base-url=http://localhost:5000. You can also produce relative links, like --base-url="some/path" or --base-url="".)

  Some 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

  roi
Shows the time-weighted (TWR) and money-weighted (IRR) rate of return on your investments.

        Flags:
             --cashflow                 show all amounts that were used to compute
                                        returns
             --investment=QUERY         query to select your investment transactions
             --profit-loss=QUERY --pnl  query to select profit-and-loss or
                                        appreciation/valuation transactions

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:

•   Using roi to compute total return of investment in stocks: https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/blob/master/examples/investing/roi-unrealised.ledger

•   Cookbook > Return on Investment: https://hledger.org/roi.html

  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:

•   Explanation of rate of return

•   Explanation of IRR

•   Explanation of TWR

•   IRR vs TWR

•   Examples of computing IRR and TWR and discussion of the limitations of both metrics

Chart commands

  activity
Show an ascii barchart of posting counts per interval.

        Flags:
        no command-specific flags

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 **

Data generation commands

  close
(equity)

close prints several kinds of "closing" and/or "opening" transactions, useful in various situations: migrating balances to a new journal file, retaining earnings into equity, consolidating balances, viewing lot costs.. Like print, it prints valid journal entries. You can copy these into your journal file(s) when you are happy with how they look.

        Flags:
             --clopen[=TAGVAL]      show closing and opening balances transactions,
                                    for AL accounts by default
             --close[=TAGVAL]       show just a closing balances transaction
             --open[=TAGVAL]        show just an opening balances transaction
             --assert[=TAGVAL]      show a balance assertions transaction
             --assign[=TAGVAL]      show a balance assignments transaction
             --retain[=TAGVAL]      show a retain earnings transaction, for RX
                                    accounts by default
          -x --explicit             show all amounts explicitly
             --show-costs           show amounts with different costs separately
             --interleaved          show source and destination postings together
             --assertion-type=TYPE  =, ==, =* or ==*
             --close-desc=DESC      set closing transaction's description
             --close-acct=ACCT      set closing transaction's destination account
             --open-desc=DESC       set opening transaction's description
             --open-acct=ACCT       set opening transaction's source account
             --round=TYPE           how much rounding or padding should be done when
                                    displaying amounts ?
                                    none - show original decimal digits,
                                           as in journal (default)
                                    soft - just add or remove decimal zeros
                                           to match precision
                                    hard - round posting amounts to precision
                                           (can unbalance transactions)
                                    all  - also round cost amounts to precision
                                           (can unbalance transactions)

close has six modes, selected by choosing one of the mode flags: --clopen, --close (default), --open, --assert, --assign, or --retain. They are all doing the same kind of operation, but with different defaults for different situations.

The journal entries generated by close will have a clopen: tag, which is helpful when you want to exclude them from reports. If the main journal file name contains a number, the tag's value will be that base file name with the number incremented. Eg if the journal file is 2025.journal, the tag will be clopen:2026. Or you can set the tag value by providing an argument to the mode flag. Eg --close=foo or --clopen=2025-main.

  close --clopen
This is useful if migrating balances to a new journal file at the start of a new year. It prints a "closing balances" transaction that zeroes out account balances (Asset and Liability accounts, by default), and an opposite "opening balances" transaction that restores them again. Typically, you would run

        hledger close --clopen -e NEWYEAR >> $LEDGER_FILE

and then move the opening transaction from the old file to the new file (and probably also update your LEDGER_FILE environment variable).

Why might you do this ? If your reports are fast, you may not need it. But at some point you will probably want to partition your data by time, for performance or data integrity or regulatory reasons. A new file or set of files per year is common. Then, having each file/fileset "bookended" with opening and closing balance transactions will allow you to freely pick and choose which files to read - just the current year, any past year, any sequence of years, or all of them - while showing correct account balances in each case. The earliest opening balances transaction sets correct starting balances, and any later closing/opening pairs will harmlessly cancel each other out.

The balances will be transferred to and from equity:opening/closing balances by default. You can override this by using --close-acct and/or --open-acct.

You can select a different set of accounts to close/open by providing an account query. Eg to add Equity accounts, provide arguments like assets liabilities equity or type:ALE. When migrating to a new file, you'll usually want to bring along the AL or ALE accounts, but not the RX accounts (Revenue, Expense).

Assertions will be added indicating and checking the new balances of the closed/opened accounts.

  close --close
This prints just the closing balances transaction of --clopen. It is the default if you don't specify a mode.

More customisation options are described below. Among other things, you can use close --close to generate a transaction moving the balances from any set of accounts, to a different account. (If you need to move just a portion of the balance, see hledger-move.)

  close --open
This prints just the opening balances transaction of --clopen. (It is similar to Ledger's equity command.)

  close --assert
This prints a transaction that asserts the account balances as they are on the end date (and adds an assert: tag). It could be useful as documention and to guard against changes.

  close --assign
This prints a transaction that assigns the account balances as they are on the end date (and adds an "assign:" tag). Unlike balance assertions, assignments will post changes to balances as needed to reach the specified amounts.

This is another way to set starting balances when migrating to a new file, and it will set them correctly even in the presence of earlier files which do not have a closing balances transaction. However, it can hide errors, and disturb the accounting equation, so --clopen is usually recommended.

  close --retain
This is like --close, but it closes Revenue and Expense account balances by default. They will be transferred to equity:retained earnings, or another account specified with --close-acct.

Revenues and expenses correspond to changes in equity. They are categorised separately for reporting purposes, but traditionally at the end of each accounting period, businesses consolidate them into equity, This is called "retaining earnings", or "closing the books".

In personal accounting, there's not much reason to do this, and most people don't. (One reason to do it is to help the balancesheetequity report show a zero total, demonstrating that the accounting equation (A-L=E) is satisfied.)

  close customisation
In all modes, the following things can be overridden:

•   the accounts to be closed/opened, with account query arguments

•   the closing/opening dates, with -e OPENDATE

•   the balancing account, with --close-acct=ACCT and/or --open-acct=ACCT

•   the transaction descriptions, with --close-desc=DESC and --open-desc=DESC

•   the transactions' clopen tag value, with a TAGVAL argument for the mode flag (see above).

By default, the closing date is yesterday, or the journal's end date, whichever is later; and the opening date is always one day after the closing date. You can change these by specifying a report end date; the closing date will be the last day of the report period. Eg -e 2024 means "close on 2023-12-31, open on 2024-01-01".

With --x/--explicit, the balancing 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 --interleaved, each individual transfer is shown with source and destination postings next to each other (perhaps useful for troubleshooting).

With --show-costs, balances' costs are also shown, with different costs kept separate. This may generate very large journal entries, if you have many currency conversions or investment transactions. close --show-costs is currently the best way to view investment lots with hledger. (To move or dispose of lots, see the more capable hledger-move script.)

  close and balance assertions
close adds balance assertions verifying that the accounts have been reset to zero in a closing transaction or restored to their previous balances in an opening transaction. These provide useful error checking, but you can ignore them temporarily with -I, or remove them if you prefer.

Single-commodity, subaccount-exclusive balance assertions (=) are generated by default. This can be changed with --assertion-type='==*' (eg).

When running close you should probably avoid using -C, -R, status: (filtering by status or realness) or --auto (generating postings), since the generated balance assertions would then require these.

Transactions with multiple dates (eg posting dates) spanning the file boundary also can 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 this you can transfer the money to and from a temporary account, 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

  close examples

  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

After this, to see 2022's revenues and expenses you must exclude the retain earnings transaction:

        $ hledger -f 2022.journal is not:desc:'retain earnings'

  Migrate balances to a new file
Close assets/liabilities on 2022-12-31 and re-open them on 2023-01-01:

        $ hledger close --clopen -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

After this, to see 2022's end-of-year balances you must exclude the closing balances transaction:

        $ hledger -f 2022.journal bs not:desc:'closing balances'

For more flexibility, it helps to tag closing and opening transactions with eg clopen:NEWYEAR, then you can ensure correct balances by excluding all opening/closing transactions except the first, like so:

        $ hledger bs -Y -f 2021.j -f 2022.j -f 2023.j expr:'tag:clopen=2021 or not tag:clopen'
        $ hledger bs -Y -f 2021.j -f 2022.j           expr:'tag:clopen=2021 or not tag:clopen'
        $ hledger bs -Y -f 2022.j -f 2023.j           expr:'tag:clopen=2022 or not tag:clopen'
        $ hledger bs -Y -f 2021.j                     expr:'tag:clopen=2021 or not tag:clopen'
        $ hledger bs -Y -f 2022.j                     expr:'tag:clopen=2022 or not tag:clopen'
        $ hledger bs -Y -f 2023.j                     # unclosed file, no query needed

  More detailed close examples
See examples/multi-year.

  rewrite
Print all transactions, rewriting the postings of matched transactions. For now the only rewrite available is adding new postings, like print --auto.

        Flags:
             --add-posting='ACCT  AMTEXPR'  add a posting to ACCT, which may be
                                            parenthesised. AMTEXPR is either a literal
                                            amount, or *N which means the transaction's
                                            first matched amount multiplied by N (a
                                            decimal number). Two spaces separate ACCT
                                            and AMTEXPR.
             --diff                         generate diff suitable as an input for
                                            patch tool

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.

Maintenance commands

  check
Check for various kinds of errors in your data.

        Flags:
        no command-specific flags

hledger provides a number of built-in correctness checks to help validate your data and prevent errors. Some are run automatically, some when you enable --strict mode; or you can run any of them on demand by providing them as arguments to the check command. check produces no output and a zero exit code if all is well. Eg:

        hledger check                      # run basic checks
        hledger check -s                   # run basic and strict checks
        hledger check ordereddates payees  # run basic checks and two others

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. They are generally checked in the order they are shown here, and only the first failure will be reported.

  Basic checks
These important checks are performed by default, by almost all hledger commands:

•   parseable - data files are in a supported format, with no syntax errors and no invalid include directives. This ensures that all files exist and are readable.

•   autobalanced - all transactions are balanced, after automatically inferring missing amounts and conversion rates and then converting amounts to cost. This ensures that each transaction's journal entry is well formed.

•   assertions - all balance assertions in the journal are passing. Balance assertions are a strong defense against errors, catching many problems. This check is on by default, but if it gets in your way, you can disable it temporarily with -I/--ignore-assertions, or as a default by adding that flag to your config file. (Then use -s/--strict or hledger check assertions when you want to enable it).

  Strict checks
When the -s/--strict flag is used (AKA strict mode), all commands will perform the following additional checks (and assertions, above). These provide extra error-catching power to help you keep your data clean and correct:

•   balanced - like autobalanced, but implicit conversions between commodities are not allowed; all conversion transactions must use cost notation or equity postings. This prevents wrong conversions caused by typos.

•   commodities - all commodity symbols used must be declared. This guards against mistyping or omitting commodity symbols.

•   accounts - all account names used must be declared. This prevents the use of mis-spelled or outdated account names.

  Other checks
These are not wanted by everyone, but can be run using the check command:

•   tags - all tags used must be declared. This prevents mis-spelled tag names. Note hledger fairly often finds unintended tags in comments.

•   payees - all payees used in transactions must be declared. This will force you to declare any new payee name before using it. Most people will probably find this a bit too strict.

•   ordereddates - within each file, transactions must be ordered by date. This is a simple and effective error catcher. It's not included in strict mode, but you can add it by running hledger check -s ordereddates. If enabled, this check is performed before balance assertions.

•   recentassertions - all accounts with balance assertions must have one that's within the 7 days before their latest posting. This will encourage adding balance assertions for your active asset/liability accounts, which in turn should encourage you to reconcile regularly with those real world balances - another strong defense against errors. (hledger close --assert >>$LEDGER_FILE is a convenient way to add new balance assertions. Later these become quite redundant, and you might choose to remove them to reduce clutter.)

•   uniqueleafnames - no two accounts may have the same last account name part (eg the checking in assets:bank:checking). This ensures each account can be matched by a unique short name, easier to remember and to type.

  Custom checks
You can build your own custom checks with add-on command scripts. See also Cookbook > Scripting. Here are some examples from hledger/bin/:

•   hledger-check-tagfiles - all tag values containing / exist as file paths

•   hledger-check-fancyassertions - more complex balance assertions are passing

  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.

        Flags:
        no command-specific flags

More precisely: for each posting affecting this account in either file, this command looks for a corresponding posting in the other file which posts the same amount to the same account (ignoring date, description, etc).

Since it compares postings, not transactions, this also works when multiple bank transactions have been combined into a single journal entry.

This command 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:

  setup
Check the status of the hledger installation.

        Flags:
        no command-specific flags

setup tests your hledger installation and prints a list of results, sometimes with helpful hints. This is a good first command to run after installing hledger. Also after upgrading, or when something's not working, or just when you want a reminder of where things are.

It makes one network request to detect the latest hledger release version. It's ok if this fails or times out. It will use ANSI color by default, unless disabled by NO_COLOR or --color=n. It does not use a pager or a config file.

It expects that the hledger version you are running is installed in your PATH. If not, it will stop until you have done that (to keep things simple).

Example:

        $ hledger setup
        Checking your hledger setup..
        Legend: good, neutral, unknown, warning
        hledger
        * is a released version ?                   no  hledger 1.42.99-gbca4b39c5-20250425, mac-aarch64
        * is up to date ?                          yes  1.42.99 installed, latest is 1.42.1
        * is a native binary for this machine ?    yes  aarch64
        * is installed in PATH ?                   yes  /Users/simon/.local/bin/hledger
        * has a system text encoding configured ?  yes  UTF-8, data files should use this encoding
        * has a user config file ? (optional)       no
        * current directory has a local config ?   yes  /Users/simon/src/hledger/hledger.conf
        * the config file is readable ?            yes  /Users/simon/src/hledger/hledger.conf
        terminal
        * the NO_COLOR variable is defined ?        no
        * --color is configured by config file ?    no
        * hledger will use color by default ?      yes
        * the PAGER variable is defined ?          yes  less
        * --pager is configured by config file ?    no
        * hledger will use a pager when needed ?   yes  /opt/homebrew/bin/less
        * the LESS variable is defined ?           yes
        * the HLEDGER_LESS variable is defined ?    no
        * adjusting LESS variable for color etc. ? yes
        * --pretty is enabled by config file ?      no  tables will use ASCII characters
        * bash shell completions are installed ?     ?
        * zsh shell completions are installed ?      ?
        journal
        * the LEDGER_FILE variable is defined ?    yes  /Users/simon/finance/2025/2025.journal
        * a default journal file is readable ?     yes  /Users/simon/finance/2025/2025.journal
        * it includes additional files ?           yes  15
        * all commodities are declared ?           yes  10
        * all accounts are declared ?              yes  160
        * all accounts have types ?                 no  14 untyped
        * accounts of each type were detected ?    yes  ALERXCV
        * commodities/accounts are checked ?        no  use -s to check commodities/accounts
        * balance assertions are checked ?         yes  use -I to ignore assertions

  test
Run built-in unit tests.

        Flags:
        no command-specific flags

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!

Any arguments before a -- argument will be passed to the tasty test runner as test-selecting -p patterns, and any arguments after -- will be passed to tasty unchanged.

Examples:

        $ hledger test               # run all unit tests
        $ hledger test balance       # run tests with "balance" in their name
        $ hledger test -- -h         # show tasty's options

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)

•   you can run addon commands via hledger (hledger ui [ARGS]) or directly (hledger-ui [ARGS])

•   enclose "problematic" arguments 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

  Set LEDGER_FILE on unix
It depends on your shell, but running these commands in the terminal will work for many people; adapt if needed:

        $ echo 'export LEDGER_FILE=~/finance/main.journal' >> ~/.profile
        $ source ~/.profile

When correctly configured:

•   env | grep LEDGER_FILE will show your new setting

•   and so should hledger setup and hledger files.

  Set LEDGER_FILE on mac
In a terminal window, follow the unix procedure above.

Also, this optional step may be helpful for GUI applications:

1.  Add an entry to ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist like

            {
              "LEDGER_FILE" : "~/finance/main.journal"
            }

2.  Run killall Dock in a terminal window (or restart the machine), to complete the change.

When correctly configured for GUI applications:

•   apps started from the dock or a spotlight search, such as a GUI Emacs, will be aware of the new LEDGER_FILE setting.

  Set LEDGER_FILE on Windows
It can be easier to create a default file at C:\Users\USER\.hledger.journal, and have it include your other files. See I'm on Windows, how do I keep my files in AppData?

Otherwise: using the gui is easiest:

1.  In task bar, search for environment variables, and choose "Edit environment variables for your account".

2.  Create or change a LEDGER_FILE setting in the User variables pane. A typical value would be C:\Users\USER\finance\main.journal.

3.  Click OK to complete the change.

4.  And open a new powershell window. (Existing windows won't see the change.)

Or at the command line, you can do it this way:

1.  In a powershell window, run [Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("LEDGER_FILE", "C:\User\USER\finance\main.journal", [System.EnvironmentVariableTarget]::User)

2.  And open a new powershell window. (Existing windows won't see the change.)

Warning, doing this from the Windows command line can be tricky; other methods you may find online:

•   may not affect the current window

•   may not be persistent

•   may not work unless you are an administrator

•   may limit values to 1024 characters

•   may break dynamic references to other variables

•   may require a new-enough version of powershell

•   or may be intended for the older command window.

•   If you still have trouble, see eg Setting Windows PowerShell environment variables or Adding path permanently to windows using powershell doesn't appear to work.

When correctly configured:

•   in a new powershell window, $env:LEDGER_FILE will show your new setting

•   and so should hledger setup and (once the file exists) hledger files.

  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 (https://bugs.hledger.org), or on the hledger chat or mail list (https://hledger.org/support).

Some known issues and limitations:

hledger uses the system's text encoding when reading non-ascii text. If no system encoding is configured, or if the data's encoding is different, hledger will give an error. (See Text encoding, Troubleshooting.)

On Microsoft Windows, depending what kind of terminal window you use, non-ascii characters, ANSI text formatting, and/or the add command's TAB key, may not be fully supported. (For best results, try a powershell window.)

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). On Windows, $env:LEDGER_FILE should show it.

•   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.

Text decoding issues: I get errors like "Illegal byte sequence" or "Invalid or incomplete multibyte or wide character" or "commitAndReleaseBuffer: invalid argument (invalid character)"
hledger usually needs its input to be decodable with the system locale's text encoding. See Text encoding and Install: Text encoding.

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.

AUTHORS
Simon Michael <simon@joyful.com> and contributors.
See http://hledger.org/CREDITS.html

COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2007-2023 Simon Michael and contributors.

LICENSE
Released under GNU GPL v3 or later.

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