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docs: rewrite actual/effective dates doc, harmonising with ledger

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Simon Michael 2010-07-11 05:56:25 +00:00
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MANUAL.markdown
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@ -551,34 +551,33 @@ subsequent dates may be written as month/day. Eg:
1/31 ...
##### Actual and effective dates
##### Actual/effective dates
Frequently, a real-life transaction has two (or more) dates of
interest. For example, you might make a purchase on friday with a debit
card, and it might clear (take effect in your bank account) on
tuesday. It's sometimes useful to model this accurately, so that your
hledger balances match reality. So, you can specify two dates for a
transaction, the *actual* and *effective* date, separated by `=`. Eg:
Real-life transactions sometimes have two (or more) dates of interest.
For example, you might buy a movie ticket on friday with a debit or credit
card, and the transaction might appear in your bank account on monday.
When you don't care about this, just record one date. When you do care,
you can record two dates separated by `=`: the *actual date* on the left
and the *effective date* on the right. Here's how hledger and ledger users
use these terms:
2010/2/19=2010/2/23 ...
; The ticket purchase took EFFECT on friday 19th,
; but ACTUALly appeared in bank statement on monday 23rd.
; The effective date is often the earlier one, but it goes on the right.
;
; ACTUAL=EFFECTIVE
2010/2/23=2010/2/19 movie ticket
expenses:cinema $10
assets:bank:checking $-10
Then you can use the `--effective` flag to prefer the effective (second)
date, if any, in reports. This is useful for, eg, seeing a more accurate
daily balance while reconciling a bank account.
You can use the `--effective` flag to prefer the effective date in
reports. This can be useful, eg, to adjust your transaction dates to
match the ones in your bank statement for easier reconciling.
So, what do *actual* and *effective* mean, exactly ? I always assumed that
the actual date comes first, and is "the date you enacted the
transaction", while the effective date comes second, and is optional, and
is "the date the transaction took effect" (showed up in your bank
balance).
The year may optionally be omitted in the second date.
Unfortunately, this is the reverse of c++ ledger's interpretation (cf
[differences](#other-differences)). However it's not *too* serious; just
remember that hledger requires the first date; allows an optional second
date which the `--effective` flag will select; and the meaning of "actual"
and "effective" is up to you.
The second date may omit the year if it is the same as the first's.
hledger does not allow separate dates for individual postings, unlike c++
ledger.
##### Smart dates