diff --git a/Ledger/Parse.hs b/Ledger/Parse.hs
index d6d53db04..d17ef8223 100644
--- a/Ledger/Parse.hs
+++ b/Ledger/Parse.hs
@@ -313,7 +313,7 @@ ledgerTransaction = do
   let t = LedgerTransaction date status code description comment postings ""
   case balanceLedgerTransaction t of
     Right t' -> return t'
-    Left err -> error err
+    Left err -> fail err
 
 ledgerdate :: GenParser Char LedgerFileCtx Day
 ledgerdate = try ledgerfulldate <|> ledgerpartialdate
@@ -331,7 +331,7 @@ ledgerpartialdate = do
   (_,m,d) <- md
   many spacenonewline
   y <- getYear
-  when (y==Nothing) $ error "partial date found, but no default year specified"
+  when (y==Nothing) $ fail "partial date found, but no default year specified"
   return $ fromGregorian (fromJust y) (read m) (read d)
 
 ledgerdatetime :: GenParser Char LedgerFileCtx LocalTime
diff --git a/Tests.hs b/Tests.hs
index 66496e11d..c9e9a4020 100644
--- a/Tests.hs
+++ b/Tests.hs
@@ -84,7 +84,9 @@ $ hledger -f sample.ledger balance --depth 1
 {-
 @
 $ printf "2009/1/1 a\n  b  1.1\n  c  -1\n" | runhaskell hledger.hs -f- reg 2>&1 ; true
-hledger.hs: could not balance this transaction, amounts do not add up to zero:
+"-" (line 4, column 1):
+unexpected end of input
+could not balance this transaction, amounts do not add up to zero:
 2009/01/01 a
     b                                            1.1
     c                                             -1