68 KiB
hledger
This doc is for version 1.3. []{.docversions}
- toc
NAME
hledger - a command-line accounting tool
SYNOPSIS
hledger [-f FILE] COMMAND [OPTIONS] [ARGS]
hledger [-f FILE] ADDONCMD -- [OPTIONS] [ARGS]
hledger
DESCRIPTION
hledger is a cross-platform program 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).
Tested on unix, mac, windows, hledger aims to be a reliable, practical
tool for daily use.
This is hledger’s command-line interface (there are also curses and web interfaces). Its basic function is to read a plain text file describing financial transactions (in accounting terms, a general journal) and print useful reports on standard output, or export them as CSV. hledger can also read some other file formats such as CSV files, translating them to journal format. Additionally, hledger lists other hledger-* executables found in the user’s $PATH and can invoke them as subcommands.
hledger reads data from one or more files in hledger journal, timeclock,
timedot, or CSV format specified with -f, or $LEDGER_FILE, or
$HOME/.hledger.journal (on windows, perhaps
C:/Users/USER/.hledger.journal). If using $LEDGER_FILE, note this
must be a real environment variable, not a shell variable. You can
specify standard input with -f-.
Transactions are dated movements of money between two (or more) named accounts, and are recorded with journal entries like this:
2015/10/16 bought food
expenses:food $10
assets:cash
For more about this format, see hledger_journal(5).
Most users use a text editor to edit the journal, usually with an editor mode such as ledger-mode for added convenience. hledger’s interactive add command is another way to record new transactions. hledger never changes existing transactions.
To get started, you can either save some entries like the above in
~/.hledger.journal, or run hledger add and follow the prompts. Then
try some commands like hledger print or hledger balance. Run
hledger with no arguments for a list of commands.
EXAMPLES
Two simple transactions in hledger journal format:
2015/9/30 gift received
assets:cash $20
income:gifts
2015/10/16 farmers market
expenses:food $10
assets:cash
Some basic reports:
$ hledger print
2015/09/30 gift received
assets:cash $20
income:gifts $-20
2015/10/16 farmers market
expenses:food $10
assets:cash $-10
$ hledger accounts --tree
assets
cash
expenses
food
income
gifts
$ hledger balance
$10 assets:cash
$10 expenses:food
$-20 income:gifts
--------------------
0
$ hledger register cash
2015/09/30 gift received assets:cash $20 $20
2015/10/16 farmers market assets:cash $-10 $10
More commands:
$ hledger # show available commands
$ hledger add # add more transactions to the journal file
$ hledger balance # all accounts with aggregated balances
$ hledger balance --help # show detailed help for balance command
$ hledger balance --depth 1 # only top-level accounts
$ hledger register # show account postings, with running total
$ hledger reg income # show postings to/from income accounts
$ hledger reg 'assets:some bank:checking' # show postings to/from this checking account
$ hledger print desc:shop # show transactions with shop in the description
$ hledger activity -W # show transaction counts per week as a bar chart
OPTIONS
General options
To see general usage help, including general options which are supported
by most hledger commands, run hledger -h. (Note -h and --help are
different, like git.)
General help options:
-h- show general usage (or after COMMAND, command usage)
--help- show this program's manual as plain text (or after an add-on COMMAND, the add-on's manual)
--man- show this program's manual with man
--info- show this program's manual with info
--version- show version
--debug[=N]- show debug output (levels 1-9, default: 1)
General input options:
-f FILE --file=FILE- use a different input file. For stdin, use - (default:
$LEDGER_FILEor$HOME/.hledger.journal) --rules-file=RULESFILE- Conversion rules file to use when reading CSV (default: FILE.rules)
--alias=OLD=NEW- rename accounts named OLD to NEW
--anon- anonymize accounts and payees
--pivot TAGNAME- use some other field/tag for account names
-I --ignore-assertions- ignore any failing balance assertions
General reporting options:
-b --begin=DATE- include postings/txns on or after this date
-e --end=DATE- include postings/txns before this date
-D --daily- multiperiod/multicolumn report by day
-W --weekly- multiperiod/multicolumn report by week
-M --monthly- multiperiod/multicolumn report by month
-Q --quarterly- multiperiod/multicolumn report by quarter
-Y --yearly- multiperiod/multicolumn report by year
-p --period=PERIODEXP- set start date, end date, and/or reporting interval all at once (overrides the flags above)
--date2- show, and match with -b/-e/-p/date:, secondary dates instead
-U --unmarked- include only unmarked postings/txns (can combine with -P or -C)
-P --pending- include only pending postings/txns
-C --cleared- include only cleared postings/txns
-R --real- include only non-virtual postings
--depth=N- hide accounts/postings deeper than N
-E --empty- show items with zero amount, normally hidden
-B --cost- convert amounts to their cost at transaction time (using the transaction price, if any)
-V --value- convert amounts to their market value on the report end date (using the most recent applicable market price, if any)
Note when multiple similar reporting options are provided, the last one
takes precedence. Eg -p feb -p mar is equivalent to -p mar.
Some of these can also be written as queries.
Command options
To see options for a particular command, including command-specific
options, run: hledger COMMAND -h.
Command-specific options must be written after the command name, eg:
hledger print -x.
Additionally, if the command is an addon, you may need to
put its options after a double-hyphen, eg: hledger ui -- --watch. Or,
you can run the addon executable directly: hledger-ui --watch.
Command arguments
Most hledger commands accept arguments after the command name, which are often a query, filtering the data in some way.
Special characters
Option and argument values which contain problematic characters should
be escaped with double quotes, backslashes, or (best) single quotes.
Problematic characters means spaces, and also characters which are
significant to your command shell, such as less-than/greater-than. Eg:
hledger register -p 'last year' "accounts receivable (receivable|payable)" amt:\>100.
Characters which are significant both to the shell and in regular
expressions sometimes need to be double-escaped.
These include parentheses, the pipe symbol and the dollar sign. Eg, to
match the dollar symbol, bash users should do:
hledger balance cur:'\$' or hledger balance cur:\\$.
There's more.. options and arguments get de-escaped when hledger is
passing them to an addon executable. In this case you might need
triple-escaping. Eg: hledger ui cur:'\\$' or hledger ui cur:\\\\$.
If in doubt, keep things simple:
- run add-on executables directly
- write options after the command
- enclose problematic args in single quotes
- if needed, also add a backslash to escape regexp metacharacters
If you're really stumped, add --debug=2 to troubleshoot.
Input files
hledger reads transactions from a data file (and the add command writes
to it). By default this file is $HOME/.hledger.journal (or on Windows,
something like C:/Users/USER/.hledger.journal). You can override this
with the $LEDGER_FILE environment variable:
$ setenv LEDGER_FILE ~/finance/2016.journal
$ hledger stats
or with the -f/--file option:
$ hledger -f /some/file stats
The file name - (hyphen) means standard input:
$ cat some.journal | hledger -f-
Usually the data file is in hledger's journal format, but it can also be one of several other formats, listed below. hledger detects the format automatically based on the file extension, or if that is not recognised, by trying each built-in "reader" in turn:
Reader: Reads: Used for file extensions:
journal hledger's journal format, also some Ledger journals .journal .j .hledger .ledger
timeclock timeclock files (precise time logging) .timeclock
timedot timedot files (approximate time logging) .timedot
csv comma-separated values (data interchange) .csv
If needed (eg to ensure correct error messages when a file has the "wrong" extension), you can force a specific reader/format by prepending it to the file path with a colon. Examples:
$ hledger -f csv:/some/csv-file.dat stats
$ echo 'i 2009/13/1 08:00:00' | hledger print -ftimeclock:-
You can also specify multiple -f options, to read multiple files as
one big journal. There are some limitations with this:
- directives in one file will not affect the other files
- balance assertions will not see any account balances from previous files
If you need those, either use the include
directive, or concatenate the
files, eg: cat a.journal b.journal | hledger -f- CMD.
Smart dates
hledger's user interfaces accept a flexible "smart date" syntax (unlike dates in the journal file). Smart dates allow some english words, can be relative to today's date, and can have less-significant date parts omitted (defaulting to 1).
Examples:
2009/1/1, 2009/01/01, 2009-1-1, 2009.1.1 simple dates, several separators allowed
2009/1, 2009 same as above - a missing day or month defaults to 1
1/1, january, jan, this year relative dates, meaning january 1 of the current year
next year january 1 of next year
this month the 1st of the current month
this week the most recent monday
last week the monday of the week before this one
lastweek spaces are optional
today, yesterday, tomorrow
Report start & end date
Most hledger reports show the full span of time represented by the journal data, by default. So, the effective report start and end dates will be the earliest and latest transaction or posting dates found in the journal.
Often you will want to see a shorter time span, such as the current
month. You can specify a start and/or end date using
-b/--begin, -e/--end,
-p/--period or a date: query
(described below). All of these accept the smart date
syntax. One important thing to be aware of when specifying end dates: as
in Ledger, end dates are exclusive, so you need to write the date
after the last day you want to include.
Examples:
-b 2016/3/17 begin on St. Patrick's day 2016
-e 12/1 end at the start of december 1st of the current year (11/30 will be the last date included)
-b thismonth all transactions on or after the 1st of the current month
-p thismonth all transactions in the current month
date:2016/3/17- the above written as queries instead
date:-12/1
date:thismonth-
date:thismonth
Report intervals
A report interval can be specified so that commands like
register, balance and activity
will divide their reports into multiple subperiods. The basic intervals
can be selected with one of -D/--daily, -W/--weekly, -M/--monthly,
-Q/--quarterly, or -Y/--yearly. More complex intervals may be
specified with a period expression. Report
intervals can not be specified with a query, currently.
Period expressions
The -p/--period option accepts period expressions, a shorthand way of
expressing a start date, end date, and/or report interval all at once.
Here's a basic period expression specifying the first quarter of 2009. Note, hledger always treats start dates as inclusive and end dates as exclusive:
-p "from 2009/1/1 to 2009/4/1"
Keywords like "from" and "to" are optional, and so are the spaces, as long as you don't run two dates together. "to" can also be written as "-". These 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, the above can also be written as:
-p "1/1 4/1"
-p "january-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 in your journal:
-p "from 2009/1/1" everything after january 1, 2009
-p "from 2009/1" the same
-p "from 2009" the same
-p "to 2009" everything before january 1, 2009
A single date with no "from" or "to" defines both the start and end date like so:
-p "2009" the year 2009; equivalent to "2009/1/1 to 2010/1/1"
-p "2009/1" the month of jan; equivalent to "2009/1/1 to 2009/2/1"
-p "2009/1/1" just that day; equivalent to "2009/1/1 to 2009/1/2"
The argument of -p can also begin with, or be, a report
interval expression. The basic report intervals are
daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly, which have the
same effect as the -D,-W,-M,-Q, or -Y flags. Between report
interval and start/end dates (if any), the word in is optional.
Examples:
-p "weekly from 2009/1/1 to 2009/4/1"
-p "monthly in 2008"
-p "quarterly"
The following more complex report intervals are also supported:
biweekly, bimonthly, every N days|weeks|months|quarters|years,
every Nth day [of month], every Nth day of week.
Examples:
-p "bimonthly from 2008"
-p "every 2 weeks"
-p "every 5 days from 1/3"
Show historical balances at end of 15th each month (N is exclusive end date):
hledger balance -H -p "every 16th day"
Group postings from start of wednesday to end of next tuesday (N is start date and exclusive end date):
hledger register checking -p "every 3rd day of week"
Depth limiting
With the --depth N option, commands like account,
balance and register will show only the
uppermost accounts in the account tree, down to level N. Use this when
you want a summary with less detail.
Pivoting
Normally hledger sums amounts, and organizes them in a hierarchy, based
on account name. The --pivot TAGNAME option causes it to sum and
organize hierarchy based on some other field instead.
TAGNAME is the full, case-insensitive name of a
tag you have defined, or one of the built-in
implicit tags (like code or payee). As with account names, when tag
values have multiple:colon-separated:parts hledger will build
hierarchy, displayed in tree-mode reports, summarisable with a depth
limit, and so on.
--pivot is a general option affecting all reports; you can think of
hledger transforming the journal before any other processing, replacing
every posting's account name with the value of the specified tag on that
posting, inheriting it from the transaction or using a blank value if
it's not present.
An example:
2016/02/16 Member Fee Payment
assets:bank account 2 EUR
income:member fees -2 EUR ; member: John Doe
Normal balance report showing account names:
$ hledger balance
2 EUR assets:bank account
-2 EUR income:member fees
--------------------
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, described below):
$ 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
Cost
The -B/--cost flag converts amounts to their cost at transaction time,
if they have a transaction price
specified.
Market value
The -V/--value flag converts the reported amounts to their market
value on the report end date, using the most recent applicable market
prices, when known. Specifically, when there is a market
price (P directive) for the amount's
commodity, dated on or before the report end
date (see hledger -> Report
start & end date), the amount will be converted to the price's
commodity. If multiple applicable prices are defined, the latest-dated
one is used (and if dates are equal, the one last parsed).
For example:
# 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 euros
€100 assets:euros
What are they worth on nov 3 ? (no report end date specified, defaults to the last date in the journal)
$ hledger -f t.j bal euros -V
$110.00 assets:euros
What are they worth on dec 21 ?
$ hledger -f t.j bal euros -V -e 2016/12/21
$103.00 assets:euros
Currently, hledger's -V only uses market prices recorded with P directives, not transaction prices (unlike Ledger).
Using -B and -V together is allowed.
Regular expressions
hledger uses regular expressions in a number of places:
- query terms, on the command line and in the hledger-web
search form:
REGEX,desc:REGEX,cur:REGEX,tag:...=REGEX - CSV rules conditional blocks:
if REGEX ... - account alias directives and options:
alias /REGEX/ = REPLACEMENT,--alias /REGEX/=REPLACEMENT
hledger's regular expressions come from the regex-tdfa library. In general they:
- are case insensitive
- are infix matching (do not need to match the entire thing being matched)
- are POSIX extended regular expressions
- also support GNU word boundaries (\<, \>, \b, \B)
- and parenthesised capturing groups and numeric backreferences in replacement strings
- do not support mode modifiers like (?s)
Some things to note:
-
In the
aliasdirective and--aliasoption, 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, writecur:\$. -
On the command line, some metacharacters like
$have a special meaning to the shell and so must be escaped at least once more. See Special characters.
QUERIES
One of hledger's strengths is being able to quickly report on precise subsets of your data. Most commands accept an optional query expression, written as arguments after the command name, to filter the data by date, account name or other criteria. The syntax is similar to a web search: one or more space-separated search terms, quotes to enclose whitespace, optional prefixes to match specific fields. Multiple search terms are combined as follows:
All commands except print: show transactions/postings/accounts which match (or negatively match)
- any of the description terms AND
- any of the account terms AND
- any of the status terms AND
- all the other terms.
The print command: show transactions which
- match any of the description terms AND
- have any postings matching any of the positive account terms AND
- have no postings matching any of the negative account terms AND
- match all the other terms.
The following kinds of search terms can be used:
REGEX- match account names by this regular expression
acct:REGEX- same as above
amt:N, amt:<N, amt:<=N, amt:>N, amt:>=N- match postings with a single-commodity amount that is equal to, less than, or greater than N. (Multi-commodity amounts are not tested, and will always match.) The comparison has two modes: if N is preceded by a + or - sign (or is 0), the two signed numbers are compared. Otherwise, the absolute magnitudes are compared, ignoring sign.
code:REGEX- match by transaction code (eg check number)
cur:REGEX- match postings or transactions including any amounts whose
currency/commodity symbol is fully matched by REGEX. (For a partial
match, use
.*REGEX.*). Note, to match characters which are regex-significant, like the dollar sign ($), you need to prepend\. And when using the command line you need to add one more level of quoting to hide it from the shell, so eg do:hledger print cur:'\$'orhledger print cur:\\$. desc:REGEX- match transaction descriptions
date:PERIODEXPR- match dates within the specified period. PERIODEXPR is a period
expression (with no report interval).
Examples:
date:2016,date:thismonth,date:2000/2/1-2/15,date:lastweek-. If the--date2command line flag is present, this matches secondary dates instead. date2:PERIODEXPR- match secondary dates within the specified period.
depth:N- match (or display, depending on command) accounts at or above this depth
real:, real:0- match real or virtual postings respectively
status:, status:!, status:*- match unmarked, pending, or cleared transactions respectively
tag:REGEX[=REGEX]- match by tag name, and optionally also by tag value. Note a tag: query is considered to match a transaction if it matches any of the postings. Also remember that postings inherit the tags of their parent transaction.
not:- before any of the above negates the match.
inacct:ACCTNAME- a special term used automatically when you click an account name in
hledger-web, specifying the account register we are currently in
(selects the transactions of that account and how to show them, can
be filtered further with
acctetc). Not supported elsewhere in hledger.
Some of these can also be expressed as command-line options (eg
depth:2 is equivalent to --depth 2). Generally you can mix options
and query arguments, and the resulting query will be their intersection
(perhaps excluding the -p/--period option).
COMMANDS
hledger provides a number of subcommands; hledger with no arguments
shows a list.
If you install additional hledger-* packages, or if you put programs
or scripts named hledger-NAME in your PATH, these will also be listed
as subcommands.
Run a subcommand by writing its name as first argument (eg
hledger incomestatement). You can also write any unambiguous prefix of
a command name (hledger inc), or one of the standard short aliases
displayed in the command list (hledger is).
accounts
Show account names.
--tree- show short account names, as a tree
--flat- show full account names, as a list (default)
--drop=N- in flat mode: omit N leading account name parts
This command lists all account names that are in use (ie, all the accounts which have at least one transaction posting to them). With query arguments, only matched account names are shown.
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.
Examples:
$ hledger accounts --tree
assets
bank
checking
saving
cash
expenses
food
supplies
income
gifts
salary
liabilities
debts
$ hledger accounts --drop 1
bank:checking
bank:saving
cash
food
supplies
gifts
salary
debts
$ hledger accounts
assets:bank:checking
assets:bank:saving
assets:cash
expenses:food
expenses:supplies
income:gifts
income:salary
liabilities:debts
activity
Show an ascii barchart of posting counts per interval.
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.
$ hledger activity --quarterly
2008-01-01 **
2008-04-01 *******
2008-07-01
2008-10-01 **
add
Prompt for transactions and add them to the journal.
--no-new-accounts- don't allow creating new accounts; helps prevent typos when entering account names
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 journal file (if there are
multiple -f FILE options, the first file is used.) Existing
transactions are not changed. This is the only hledger command that
writes to the journal file.
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 recent transaction (by description) 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,
descriptions, dates (
yesterday,today,tomorrow). If the input area is empty, it will insert the default value. - If the journal defines a default commodity, it will be added to any bare numbers entered.
- 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 restart the transaction. - Input prompts are displayed in a different colour when the terminal supports it.
Example (see the tutorial for a detailed explanation):
$ hledger add
Adding transactions to journal file /src/hledger/examples/sample.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 restart the transaction.
To end a transaction, enter . when prompted.
To quit, enter . at a date prompt or press control-d or control-c.
Date [2015/05/22]:
Description: supermarket
Account 1: expenses:food
Amount 1: $10
Account 2: assets:checking
Amount 2 [$-10.0]:
Account 3 (or . or enter to finish this transaction): .
2015/05/22 supermarket
expenses:food $10
assets:checking $-10.0
Save this transaction to the journal ? [y]:
Saved.
Starting the next transaction (. or ctrl-D/ctrl-C to quit)
Date [2015/05/22]: <CTRL-D> $
balance
Show accounts and their balances. Alias: bal.
--change- show balance change in each period (default)
--cumulative- show balance change accumulated across periods (in multicolumn reports)
-H --historical- show historical ending balance in each period (includes postings before report start date)
--tree- show accounts as a tree; amounts include subaccounts (default in simple reports)
--flat- show accounts as a list; amounts exclude subaccounts except when account is depth-clipped (default in multicolumn reports)
-A --average- show a row average column (in multicolumn mode)
-T --row-total- show a row total column (in multicolumn mode)
-N --no-total- don't show the final total row
--drop=N- omit N leading account name parts (in flat mode)
--no-elide- don't squash boring parent accounts (in tree mode)
--format=LINEFORMAT- in single-column balance reports: use this custom line format
-O FMT --output-format=FMT- select the output format. Supported formats: txt, csv.
-o FILE --output-file=FILE- write output to FILE. A file extension matching one of the above formats selects that format.
--pretty-tables- Use unicode to display prettier tables.
The balance command displays accounts and balances. It is hledger's most featureful and versatile command.
$ hledger balance
$-1 assets
$1 bank:saving
$-2 cash
$2 expenses
$1 food
$1 supplies
$-2 income
$-1 gifts
$-1 salary
$1 liabilities:debts
--------------------
0
More precisely, the balance command shows the change to each account's balance caused by all (matched) postings. In the common case where you do not filter by date and your journal sets the correct opening balances, this is the same as the account's ending balance.
By default, accounts are displayed hierarchically, with subaccounts
indented below their parent. "Boring" accounts, which contain a single
interesting subaccount and no balance of their own, are elided into the
following line for more compact output. (Use --no-elide to prevent
this. Eliding of boring accounts is not yet supported in multicolumn
reports.)
Each account's balance is the "inclusive" balance - it includes the balances of any subaccounts.
Accounts which have zero balance (and no non-zero subaccounts) are
omitted. Use -E/--empty to show them.
A final total is displayed by default; use -N/--no-total to suppress
it:
$ hledger balance -p 2008/6 expenses --no-total
$2 expenses
$1 food
$1 supplies
Flat mode
To see a flat list of full account names instead of the default
hierarchical display, use --flat. In this mode, accounts (unless
depth-clipped) show their "exclusive" balance, excluding any subaccount
balances. In this mode, you can also use --drop N to omit the first
few account name components.
$ hledger balance -p 2008/6 expenses -N --flat --drop 1
$1 food
$1 supplies
Depth limited balance reports
With --depth N, balance shows accounts only to the specified depth.
This is very useful to show a complex charts of accounts in less detail.
In flat mode, balances from accounts below the depth limit will be shown
as part of a parent account at the depth limit.
$ hledger balance -N --depth 1
$-1 assets
$2 expenses
$-2 income
$1 liabilities
Multicolumn balance reports
With a reporting interval, multiple balance columns will be shown, one for each report period. There are three types of multi-column balance report, showing different information:
-
By default: each column shows the sum of postings in that period, ie the account's change of balance in that period. This is useful eg for a monthly income statement: <!-- multi-column income statement:
$ hledger balance ^income ^expense -p 'monthly this year' --depth 3
or cashflow statement:
$ hledger balance ^assets ^liabilities 'not:(receivable|payable)' -p 'weekly this month' -->
$ hledger balance --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 $1 0 0 -
With
--cumulative: each column shows the ending balance for that period, accumulating the changes across periods, starting from 0 at the report start date:$ hledger balance --quarterly income expenses -E --cumulative Ending balances (cumulative) in 2008: || 2008/03/31 2008/06/30 2008/09/30 2008/12/31 ===================++================================================= expenses:food || 0 $1 $1 $1 expenses:supplies || 0 $1 $1 $1 income:gifts || 0 $-1 $-1 $-1 income:salary || $-1 $-1 $-1 $-1 -------------------++------------------------------------------------- || $-1 0 0 0 -
With
--historical/-H: each column shows the actual historical ending balance for that period, accumulating the changes across periods, starting from the actual balance at the report start date. This is useful eg for a multi-period balance sheet, and when you are showing only the data after a certain start date:$ hledger balance ^assets ^liabilities --quarterly --historical --begin 2008/4/1 Ending balances (historical) in 2008/04/01-2008/12/31: || 2008/06/30 2008/09/30 2008/12/31 ======================++===================================== assets:bank:checking || $1 $1 0 assets:bank:saving || $1 $1 $1 assets:cash || $-2 $-2 $-2 liabilities:debts || 0 0 $1 ----------------------++------------------------------------- || 0 0 0
Multi-column balance reports display accounts in flat mode by default;
to see the hierarchy, use --tree.
With a reporting interval (like --quarterly above), the report
start/end dates will be adjusted if necessary so that they encompass the
displayed report periods. This is so that the first and last periods
will be "full" and comparable to the others.
The -E/--empty flag does two things in multicolumn balance reports:
first, the report will show all columns within the specified report
period (without -E, leading and trailing columns with all zeroes are not
shown). Second, all accounts which existed at the report start date will
be considered, not just the ones with activity during the report period
(use -E to include low-activity accounts which would otherwise would be
omitted).
The -T/--row-total flag adds an additional column showing the total
for each row.
The -A/--average flag adds a column showing the average value in each
row.
Here's an example of all three:
$ hledger balance -Q income expenses --tree -ETA
Balance changes in 2008:
|| 2008q1 2008q2 2008q3 2008q4 Total Average
============++===================================================
expenses || 0 $2 0 0 $2 $1
food || 0 $1 0 0 $1 0
supplies || 0 $1 0 0 $1 0
income || $-1 $-1 0 0 $-2 $-1
gifts || 0 $-1 0 0 $-1 0
salary || $-1 0 0 0 $-1 0
------------++---------------------------------------------------
|| $-1 $1 0 0 0 0
# Average is rounded to the dollar here since all journal amounts are
Custom balance output
In simple (non-multi-column) balance reports, you can customise the
output with --format FMT:
$ hledger 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 (plus a newline) 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 nametotal- 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
Colour support
The balance command shows negative amounts in red, if:
- the
TERMenvironment variable is not set todumb - the output is not being redirected or piped anywhere
Output destination
The balance, print, register and stats commands can write their output
to a destination other than the console. This is controlled by the
-o/--output-file option.
$ hledger balance -o - # write to stdout (the default)
$ hledger balance -o FILE # write to FILE
CSV output
The balance, print and register commands can write their output as CSV.
This is useful for exporting data to other applications, eg to make
charts in a spreadsheet. This is controlled by the -O/--output-format
option, or by specifying a .csv file extension with
-o/--output-file.
$ hledger balance -O csv # write CSV to stdout
$ hledger balance -o FILE.csv # write CSV to FILE.csv
balancesheet
Show a balance sheet. Alias: bs.
--change- show balance change in each period, instead of historical ending balances
--cumulative- show balance change accumulated across periods (in multicolumn reports), instead of historical ending balances
-H --historical- show historical ending balance in each period (includes postings before report start date) (default)
--tree- show accounts as a tree; amounts include subaccounts (default in simple reports)
--flat- show accounts as a list; amounts exclude subaccounts except when account is depth-clipped (default in multicolumn reports)
-A --average- show a row average column (in multicolumn mode)
-T --row-total- show a row total column (in multicolumn mode)
-N --no-total- don't show the final total row
--drop=N- omit N leading account name parts (in flat mode)
--no-elide- don't squash boring parent accounts (in tree mode)
--format=LINEFORMAT- in single-column balance reports: use this custom line format
This command displays a simple balance
sheet. It currently assumes
that you have top-level accounts named asset and liability (plural
forms also allowed.)
$ hledger balancesheet
Balance Sheet
Assets:
$-1 assets
$1 bank:saving
$-2 cash
--------------------
$-1
Liabilities:
$1 liabilities:debts
--------------------
$1
Total:
--------------------
0
With a reporting interval, multiple columns will
be shown, one for each report period. As with multicolumn balance
reports, you can alter the report mode
with --change/--cumulative/--historical. Normally balancesheet
shows historical ending balances, which is what you need for a balance
sheet; note this means it ignores report begin dates.
cashflow
Show a cashflow statement. Alias: cf.
--change- show balance change in each period (default)
--cumulative- show balance change accumulated across periods (in multicolumn reports), instead of changes during periods
-H --historical- show historical ending balance in each period (includes postings before report start date), instead of changes during each period
--tree- show accounts as a tree; amounts include subaccounts (default in simple reports)
--flat- show accounts as a list; amounts exclude subaccounts except when account is depth-clipped (default in multicolumn reports)
-A --average- show a row average column (in multicolumn mode)
-T --row-total- show a row total column (in multicolumn mode)
-N --no-total- don't show the final total row (in simple reports)
--drop=N- omit N leading account name parts (in flat mode)
--no-elide- don't squash boring parent accounts (in tree mode)
--format=LINEFORMAT- in single-column balance reports: use this custom line format
This command displays a simple cashflow
statement It shows
the change in all "cash" (ie, liquid assets) accounts for the period. It
currently assumes that cash accounts are under a top-level account named
asset and do not contain receivable or A/R (plural forms also
allowed.)
$ hledger cashflow
Cashflow Statement
Cash flows:
$-1 assets
$1 bank:saving
$-2 cash
--------------------
$-1
Total:
--------------------
$-1
With a reporting interval, multiple columns will
be shown, one for each report period. Normally cashflow shows changes in
assets per period, though as with multicolumn balance
reports you can alter the report mode
with --change/--cumulative/--historical.
help
Show any of the hledger manuals.
The help command displays any of the main hledger man
pages. (Unlike hledger --help, which displays only the
hledger man page.) Run it with no arguments to list available topics
(their names are shortened for easier typing), and run
hledger help TOPIC to select one. The output is similar to a man page,
but fixed width. It may be long, so you may wish to pipe it into a
pager. See also info and man.
$ hledger help
Choose a topic, eg: hledger help cli
cli, ui, web, api, journal, csv, timeclock, timedot
$ hledger help cli | less
hledger(1) hledger User Manuals hledger(1)
NAME
hledger - a command-line accounting tool
SYNOPSIS
hledger [-f FILE] COMMAND [OPTIONS] [CMDARGS]
hledger [-f FILE] ADDONCMD -- [OPTIONS] [CMDARGS]
:
incomestatement
Show an income statement. Alias: is.
--change- show balance change in each period (default)
--cumulative- show balance change accumulated across periods (in multicolumn reports), instead of changes during periods
-H --historical- show historical ending balance in each period (includes postings before report start date), instead of changes during each period
--tree- show accounts as a tree; amounts include subaccounts (default in simple reports)
--flat- show accounts as a list; amounts exclude subaccounts except when account is depth-clipped (default in multicolumn reports)
-A --average- show a row average column (in multicolumn mode)
-T --row-total- show a row total column (in multicolumn mode)
-N --no-total- don't show the final total row
--drop=N- omit N leading account name parts (in flat mode)
--no-elide- don't squash boring parent accounts (in tree mode)
--format=LINEFORMAT- in single-column balance reports: use this custom line format
This command displays a simple income
statement. It currently
assumes that you have top-level accounts named income (or revenue)
and expense (plural forms also allowed.)
$ hledger incomestatement
Income Statement
Revenues:
$-2 income
$-1 gifts
$-1 salary
--------------------
$-2
Expenses:
$2 expenses
$1 food
$1 supplies
--------------------
$2
Total:
--------------------
0
With a reporting interval, multiple columns will
be shown, one for each report period. Normally incomestatement shows
revenues/expenses per period, though as with multicolumn balance
reports you can alter the report mode
with --change/--cumulative/--historical.
info
Show any of the hledger manuals using info.
The info command displays any of the hledger reference
manuals using the
info hypertextual
documentation viewer. This can be a very efficient way to browse large
manuals. It requires the "info" program to be available in your PATH.
As with help, run it with no arguments to list available topics (manuals).
man
Show any of the hledger manuals using man.
The man command displays any of the hledger reference
manuals using
man, the standard
documentation viewer on unix systems. This will fit the text to your
terminal width, and probably invoke a pager automatically. It requires
the "man" program to be available in your PATH.
As with help, run it with no arguments to list available topics (manuals).
Show transactions from the journal.
-x --explicit- show all amounts explicitly
-m STR --match=STR- show the transaction whose description is most similar to STR, and is most recent
-O FMT --output-format=FMT- select the output format. Supported formats: txt, csv.
-o FILE --output-file=FILE- write output to FILE. A file extension matching one of the above formats selects that format.
$ hledger print
2008/01/01 income
assets:bank:checking $1
income:salary $-1
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
2008/12/31 * pay off
liabilities:debts $1
assets:bank:checking $-1
The print command displays full journal entries (transactions) from the journal file, tidily formatted.
As of hledger 1.2, print's output is always a valid hledger journal. However it may not preserve all original content, eg it does not print directives or inter-transaction comments.
Normally, transactions' implicit/explicit amount style is preserved:
when an amount is omitted in the journal, it will be omitted in the
output. You can use the -x/--explicit flag to make all amounts
explicit, which can be useful for troubleshooting or for making your
journal more readable and robust against data entry errors. Note, in
this mode postings with a multi-commodity amount (possible with an
implicit amount in a multi-commodity transaction) will be split into
multiple single-commodity postings, for valid journal output.
With -B/--cost, amounts with transaction prices are converted to cost (using the transaction price).
The print command also supports output destination and CSV output. 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.)
register
Show postings and their running total. Alias: reg.
--cumulative- show running total from report start date (default)
-H --historical- show historical running total/balance (includes postings before report start date)
-A --average- show running average of posting amounts instead of total (implies --empty)
-r --related- show postings' siblings instead
-w N --width=N- set output width (default: terminal width or COLUMNS. -wN,M sets description width as well)
-O FMT --output-format=FMT- select the output format. Supported formats: txt, csv.
-o FILE --output-file=FILE- write output to FILE. A file extension matching one of the above formats selects that format.
The register command displays postings, one per line, and their running total. This 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
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 --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.
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 1h
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.
Custom register output
register uses the full terminal width by default, except on windows. You
can override this by setting the COLUMNS environment variable (not a
bash shell variable) or by using 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:
<--------------------------------- 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
$ COLUMNS=100 hledger reg # set with one-time environment variable
$ export COLUMNS=100; hledger reg # set till session end (or window resize)
$ hledger reg -w 100,40 # set overall width 100, description width 40
$ hledger reg -w $COLUMNS,40 # use terminal width, and set description width
The register command also supports the -o/--output-file and
-O/--output-format options for controlling output
destination and CSV output.
stats
Show some journal statistics.
-o FILE --output-file=FILE- write output to FILE. A file extension matching one of the above formats selects that format.
$ hledger stats
Main journal file : /src/hledger/examples/sample.journal
Included journal files :
Transactions span : 2008-01-01 to 2009-01-01 (366 days)
Last transaction : 2008-12-31 (2333 days ago)
Transactions : 5 (0.0 per day)
Transactions last 30 days: 0 (0.0 per day)
Transactions last 7 days : 0 (0.0 per day)
Payees/descriptions : 5
Accounts : 8 (depth 3)
Commodities : 1 ($)
The stats command displays summary information for the whole journal, or a matched part of it. With a reporting interval, it shows a report for each report period.
The stats command also supports -o/--output-file for controlling
output destination.
test
Run built-in unit tests.
$ hledger test
Cases: 74 Tried: 74 Errors: 0 Failures: 0
This command runs hledger's built-in unit tests and displays a quick report. With a regular expression argument, it selects only tests with matching names. It's mainly used in development, but it's also nice to be able to check your hledger executable for smoke at any time.
ADD-ON COMMANDS
hledger also searches for external add-on commands, and will include
these in the commands list. These are programs or scripts in your PATH
whose name starts with hledger- and ends with a recognised file
extension (currently: no extension, bat,com,exe,
hs,lhs,pl,py,rb,rkt,sh).
Add-ons can be invoked like any hledger command, but there are a few
things to be aware of. Eg if the hledger-web add-on is installed,
-
hledger -h webshows hledger's help, whilehledger web -hshows hledger-web's help. -
Flags specific to the add-on must have a preceding
--to hide them from hledger. Sohledger web --serve --port 9000will be rejected; you must usehledger web -- --serve --port 9000. -
You can always run add-ons directly if preferred:
hledger-web --serve --port 9000.
Add-ons are a relatively easy way to add local features or experiment with new ideas. They can be written in any language, but haskell scripts have a big advantage: they can use the same hledger (and haskell) library functions that built-in commands do, for command-line options, journal parsing, reporting, etc.
Here are some hledger add-ons available:
Official add-ons
These are maintained and released along with hledger.
api
hledger-api serves hledger data as a JSON web API.
ui
hledger-ui provides an efficient curses-style interface.
web
hledger-web provides a simple web interface.
Third party add-ons
These are maintained separately, and usually updated shortly after a hledger release.
diff
hledger-diff shows differences in an account's transactions between one journal file and another.
iadd
hledger-iadd is a curses-style, more interactive replacement for the add command.
interest
hledger-interest generates interest transactions for an account according to various schemes.
irr
hledger-irr calculates the internal rate of return of an investment account.
Experimental add-ons
These are available in source form in the hledger repo's bin/ directory; installing them is pretty easy. They may be less mature and documented than built-in commands. Reading and tweaking these is a good way to start making your own!
autosync
hledger-autosync is a symbolic link for easily running ledger-autosync, if installed. ledger-autosync does deduplicating conversion of OFX data and some CSV formats, and can also download the data if your bank offers OFX Direct Connect.
budget
hledger-budget.hs adds more budget-tracking features to hledger.
chart
hledger-chart.hs is an old pie chart generator, in need of some love.
check
hledger-check.hs checks more powerful account balance assertions.
check-dates
hledger-check-dates.hs checks that journal entries are ordered by date.
check-dupes
hledger-check-dupes.hs checks for account names sharing the same leaf name.
equity
hledger-equity.hs prints balance-resetting transactions, useful for bringing account balances across file boundaries.
prices
hledger-prices.hs prints all prices from the journal.
print-unique
hledger-print-unique.hs prints transactions which do not reuse an already-seen description.
register-match
hledger-register-match.hs helps ledger-autosync detect already-seen transactions when importing.
rewrite
hledger-rewrite.hs Adds one or more custom postings to matched transactions.
ENVIRONMENT
COLUMNS The screen width used by the register command. Default: the full terminal width.
LEDGER_FILE The journal file path when not specified with -f.
Default: ~/.hledger.journal (on windows, perhaps
C:/Users/USER/.hledger.journal).
FILES
Reads data from one or more files in hledger journal, timeclock,
timedot, or CSV format specified with -f, or $LEDGER_FILE, or
$HOME/.hledger.journal (on windows, perhaps
C:/Users/USER/.hledger.journal).
BUGS
The need to precede addon command options with -- when invoked from
hledger is awkward.
When input data contains non-ascii characters, a suitable system locale must be configured (or there will be an unhelpful error). Eg on POSIX, set LANG to something other than C.
In a Microsoft Windows CMD window, non-ascii characters and colours are not supported.
In a Cygwin/MSYS/Mintty window, the tab key is not supported in hledger add.
Not all of Ledger's journal file syntax is supported. See file format differences.
On large data files, hledger is slower and uses more memory than Ledger.
TROUBLESHOOTING
Here are some issues you might encounter when you run hledger (and remember you can also seek help from the IRC channel, mail list or bug tracker):
Successfully installed, but "No command 'hledger' found"
stack and cabal install binaries into a special directory, which should
be added to your PATH environment variable. Eg on unix-like systems,
that is ~/.local/bin and ~/.cabal/bin respectively.
I set a custom LEDGER_FILE, but hledger is still using the default
file
LEDGER_FILE should be a real environment variable, not just a shell
variable. The command env | grep LEDGER_FILE should show it. You may
need to use export. Here's an
explanation.
"Illegal byte sequence" or "Invalid or incomplete multibyte or wide
character" errors
In order to handle non-ascii letters and symbols (like £), hledger needs
an appropriate locale. This is usually configured system-wide; you can
also configure it temporarily. The locale may need to be one that
supports UTF-8, if you built hledger with GHC < 7.2 (or possibly
always, I'm not sure yet).
Here's an example of setting the locale temporarily, on ubuntu gnu/linux:
$ file my.journal
my.journal: UTF-8 Unicode text # <- the file is UTF8-encoded
$ locale -a
C
en_US.utf8 # <- a UTF8-aware locale is available
POSIX
$ LANG=en_US.utf8 hledger -f my.journal print # <- use it for this command
Here's one way to set it permanently, there are probably better ways:
$ echo "export LANG=en_US.UTF-8" >>~/.bash_profile
$ bash --login
If we preferred to use eg fr_FR.utf8, we might have to install that
first:
$ apt-get install language-pack-fr
$ locale -a
C
en_US.utf8
fr_BE.utf8
fr_CA.utf8
fr_CH.utf8
fr_FR.utf8
fr_LU.utf8
POSIX
$ LANG=fr_FR.utf8 hledger -f my.journal print
Note some platforms allow variant locale spellings, but not all (ubuntu
accepts fr_FR.UTF8, mac osx requires exactly fr_FR.UTF-8).