diff --git a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Journal.hs b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Journal.hs
index 843638c0b..c6ee1cc4d 100644
--- a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Journal.hs
+++ b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Journal.hs
@@ -296,29 +296,6 @@ journalAccountNameTree = accountNameTreeFrom . journalAccountNames
 
 -- queries for standard account types
 
--- | Get a query for accounts of a certain type (Asset, Liability..) in this journal.
--- The query will match all accounts which were declared as that type by account directives,
--- plus all their subaccounts which have not been declared as a different type.
--- If no accounts were declared as this type, the query will instead match accounts
--- with names matched by the provided case-insensitive regular expression.
-journalAccountTypeQuery :: AccountType -> Regexp -> Journal -> Query
-journalAccountTypeQuery atype fallbackregex j =
-  case M.lookup atype (jdeclaredaccounttypes j) of
-    Nothing -> Acct fallbackregex
-    Just as ->
-      -- XXX Query isn't able to match account type since that requires extra info from the journal.
-      -- So we do a hacky search by name instead.
-      And [
-         Or $ map (Acct . accountNameToAccountRegex) as
-        ,Not $ Or $ map (Acct . accountNameToAccountRegex) differentlytypedsubs
-        ]
-      where
-        differentlytypedsubs = concat
-          [subs | (t,bs) <- M.toList (jdeclaredaccounttypes j)
-              , t /= atype
-              , let subs = [b | b <- bs, any (`isAccountNamePrefixOf` b) as]
-          ]
-
 -- | A query for accounts in this journal which have been
 -- declared as Asset by account directives, or otherwise for
 -- accounts with names matched by the case-insensitive regular expression
@@ -369,12 +346,43 @@ journalProfitAndLossAccountQuery j = Or [journalRevenueAccountQuery j
                                         ,journalExpenseAccountQuery j
                                         ]
 
--- | A query for Cash (-equivalent) accounts in this journal (ie,
--- accounts which appear on the cashflow statement.)  This is currently
--- hard-coded to be all the Asset accounts except for those with names
--- containing the case-insensitive regular expression @(receivable|:A/R|:fixed)@.
+-- | A query for "Cash" (liquid asset) accounts in this journal (ie,
+-- accounts which appear on the cashflow statement.) This is the
+-- accounts declared to be Cash type, or if none of these are
+-- declared, the Asset accounts whose names do not contain the
+-- case-insensitive regular expression @(investment|receivable|:A/R|:fixed)@.
 journalCashAccountQuery  :: Journal -> Query
-journalCashAccountQuery j = And [journalAssetAccountQuery j, Not $ Acct "(receivable|:A/R|:fixed)"]
+journalCashAccountQuery j =
+  case M.lookup Cash (jdeclaredaccounttypes j) of
+    Just _  -> journalAccountTypeQuery Cash notused j
+      where notused = error' "journalCashAccountQuery: this should not have happened!"
+    Nothing -> And
+               [journalAssetAccountQuery j
+               ,Not $ Acct "(investment|receivable|:A/R|:fixed)"
+               ]
+
+-- | Get a query for accounts of a certain type (Asset, Liability..) in this journal.
+-- The query will match all accounts which were declared as that type by account directives,
+-- plus all their subaccounts which have not been declared as a different type.
+-- If no accounts were declared as this type, the query will instead match accounts
+-- with names matched by the provided case-insensitive regular expression.
+journalAccountTypeQuery :: AccountType -> Regexp -> Journal -> Query
+journalAccountTypeQuery atype fallbackregex j =
+  case M.lookup atype (jdeclaredaccounttypes j) of
+    Nothing -> Acct fallbackregex
+    Just as ->
+      -- XXX Query isn't able to match account type since that requires extra info from the journal.
+      -- So we do a hacky search by name instead.
+      And [
+         Or $ map (Acct . accountNameToAccountRegex) as
+        ,Not $ Or $ map (Acct . accountNameToAccountRegex) differentlytypedsubs
+        ]
+      where
+        differentlytypedsubs = concat
+          [subs | (t,bs) <- M.toList (jdeclaredaccounttypes j)
+              , t /= atype
+              , let subs = [b | b <- bs, any (`isAccountNamePrefixOf` b) as]
+          ]
 
 -- Various kinds of filtering on journals. We do it differently depending
 -- on the command.
diff --git a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Types.hs b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Types.hs
index 4f3d78dae..5c2457059 100644
--- a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Types.hs
+++ b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Types.hs
@@ -121,6 +121,7 @@ data AccountType =
   | Equity
   | Revenue
   | Expense
+  | Cash  -- ^ a subtype of Asset - liquid assets to show in cashflow report
   deriving (Show,Eq,Ord,Data,Generic)
 
 instance NFData AccountType
diff --git a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/JournalReader.hs b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/JournalReader.hs
index d7289730c..746a4c05d 100644
--- a/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/JournalReader.hs
+++ b/hledger-lib/Hledger/Read/JournalReader.hs
@@ -380,10 +380,12 @@ parseAccountTypeCode s =
     "r"         -> Right Revenue
     "expense"   -> Right Expense
     "x"         -> Right Expense
+    "cash"      -> Right Cash
+    "c"         -> Right Cash
     _           -> Left err
   where
     err = "invalid account type code "++T.unpack s++", should be one of " ++
-          (intercalate ", " $ ["A","L","E","R","X","ASSET","LIABILITY","EQUITY","REVENUE","EXPENSE"])
+          (intercalate ", " $ ["A","L","E","R","X","C","Asset","Liability","Equity","Revenue","Expense","Cash"])
 
 -- Add an account declaration to the journal, auto-numbering it.
 addAccountDeclaration :: (AccountName,Text,[Tag]) -> JournalParser m ()
diff --git a/hledger-lib/hledger_journal.m4.md b/hledger-lib/hledger_journal.m4.md
index 0a9a6b058..f2b12b6c8 100644
--- a/hledger-lib/hledger_journal.m4.md
+++ b/hledger-lib/hledger_journal.m4.md
@@ -1087,37 +1087,88 @@ account ACCTNAME  [ACCTTYPE] [;COMMENT]
 
 #### Account types
 
-hledger recognises five types (or classes) of account: Asset, Liability, Equity, Revenue, Expense.
-This is used by a few accounting-aware reports such as [balancesheet][], [incomestatement][] and [cashflow][].
+hledger recognises five main types of account,
+corresponding to the account classes in the [accounting equation][]:
 
-[balancesheet]: hledger.html#balancesheet
-[cashflow]: hledger.html#cashflow
-[incomestatement]: hledger.html#incomestatement
+`Asset`, `Liability`, `Equity`, `Revenue`, `Expense`.
+
+These account types are important for controlling which accounts
+appear in the [balancesheet][], [balancesheetequity][],
+[incomestatement][] reports (and probably for other things in future).
+
+There is also the `Cash` type, which is a subtype of `Asset`,
+and which causes accounts to appear in the [cashflow][] report.
+("Cash" here means [liquid assets][CCE], eg typically bank balances
+but not investments or receivables.)
+
+##### Declaring account types
+
+Generally, to make these reports work you should declare your
+top-level accounts and their types, 
+using [account directives](#declaring-accounts) 
+with `type:` [tags](journal.html#tags).
+
+The tag's value should be one of:
+`Asset`, `Liability`, `Equity`, `Revenue`, `Expense`, `Cash`,
+`A`, `L`, `E`, `R`, `X`, `C` (all case insensitive).
+The type is inherited by all subaccounts except where they override it.
+Here's a complete example:
+
+```journal
+account assets       ; type: Asset
+account assets:bank  ; type: Cash
+account assets:cash  ; type: Cash
+account liabilities  ; type: Liability
+account equity       ; type: Equity
+account revenues     ; type: Revenue
+account expenses     ; type: Expense
+```
 
 ##### Auto-detected account types
 
-If you name your top-level accounts with some variation of
-`assets`, `liabilities`/`debts`, `equity`, `revenues`/`income`, or `expenses`,
-their types are detected automatically.
+If you happen to use common english top-level account names, you may
+not need to declare account types, as they will be detected
+automatically using the following rules:
 
-##### Account types declared with tags
+| If name matches [regular expression][]: | account type is:
+|-----------------------------------------|-----------------
+| `^assets?(:|$)`                         | `Asset`
+| `^(debts?|liabilit(y|ies))(:|$)`        | `Liability`
+| `^equity(:|$)`                          | `Equity`
+| `^(income|revenue)s?(:|$)`              | `Revenue`
+| `^expenses?(:|$)`                       | `Expense`
+
+| If account type is `Asset` and name does not contain regular expression: | account type is:
+|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------
+| `(investment|receivable|:A/R|:fixed)`                                    | `Cash`
+
+Even so, explicit declarations may be a good idea, for clarity and
+predictability. 
+
+##### Interference from auto-detected account types
+
+If you assign any account type, it's a good idea to assign all of
+them, to prevent any confusion from mixing declared and auto-detected
+types. Although it's unlikely to happen in real life, here's an
+example: with the following journal, `balancesheetequity` shows
+"liabilities" in both Liabilities and Equity sections. Declaring another
+account as `type:Liability` would fix it:
 
-More generally, you can declare an account's type with an account directive,
-by writing a `type:` [tag](journal.html#tags) in a comment, followed by one of the words
-`Asset`, `Liability`, `Equity`, `Revenue`, `Expense`,
-or one of the letters `ALERX` (case insensitive):
 ```journal
-account assets       ; type:Asset
-account liabilities  ; type:Liability
-account equity       ; type:Equity
-account revenues     ; type:Revenue
-account expenses     ; type:Expense
+account liabilities  ; type:Equity
+
+2020-01-01
+  assets        1
+  liabilities   1
+  equity       -2
 ```
 
-##### Account types declared with account type codes
+##### Old account type syntax
+
+In some hledger journals you might instead see this old syntax (the
+letters ALERX, separated from the account name by two or more spaces);
+this is deprecated and may be removed soon:
 
-Or, you can write one of those letters separated from the account name by two or more spaces,
-but this should probably be considered deprecated as of hledger 1.13:
 ```journal
 account assets       A
 account liabilities  L
@@ -1126,18 +1177,15 @@ account revenues     R
 account expenses     X
 ```
 
-##### Overriding auto-detected types
 
-If you ever override the types of those auto-detected english account names mentioned above,
-you might need to help the reports a bit. Eg:
-```journal
-; make "liabilities" not have the liability type - who knows why
-account liabilities  ; type:E
+[balancesheet]: hledger.html#balancesheet
+[balancesheetequity]: hledger.html#balancesheetequity
+[cashflow]: hledger.html#cashflow
+[incomestatement]: hledger.html#incomestatement
+[CCE]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash_and_cash_equivalents
+[regular expression]: hledger.html#regular-expressions
+[account equation]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accounting_equation
 
-; we need to ensure some other account has the liability type,
-; otherwise balancesheet would still show "liabilities" under Liabilities
-account -            ; type:L
-```
 
 #### Account display order