mirror of
https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger.git
synced 2024-11-08 15:14:49 +03:00
1138 lines
52 KiB
Plaintext
1138 lines
52 KiB
Plaintext
|
|
hledger_journal(5) hledger User Manuals hledger_journal(5)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
NAME
|
|
Journal - hledger's default file format, representing a General Journal
|
|
|
|
DESCRIPTION
|
|
hledger's usual data source is a plain text file containing journal
|
|
entries in hledger journal format. This file represents a standard
|
|
accounting general journal. I use file names ending in .journal, but
|
|
that's not 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 a compatible subset, mostly, of ledger's
|
|
journal format, so hledger can work with compatible ledger journal
|
|
files as well. It's safe, and encouraged, to run both hledger and
|
|
ledger on the same journal file, eg to validate the results you're get-
|
|
ting.
|
|
|
|
You can use hledger without learning any more about this file; just use
|
|
the add or web commands to create and update it. Many users, though,
|
|
also edit the journal file directly with a text editor, perhaps
|
|
assisted by the helper modes for emacs or vim.
|
|
|
|
Here's an example:
|
|
|
|
; A sample journal file. This is a comment.
|
|
|
|
2008/01/01 income ; <- transaction's first line starts in column 0, contains date and description
|
|
assets:bank:checking $1 ; <- posting lines start with whitespace, each contains an account name
|
|
income:salary $-1 ; followed by at least two spaces and an amount
|
|
|
|
2008/06/01 gift
|
|
assets:bank:checking $1 ; <- at least two postings in a transaction
|
|
income:gifts $-1 ; <- their amounts must balance to 0
|
|
|
|
2008/06/02 save
|
|
assets:bank:saving $1
|
|
assets:bank:checking ; <- one amount may be omitted; here $-1 is inferred
|
|
|
|
2008/06/03 eat & shop ; <- description can be anything
|
|
expenses:food $1
|
|
expenses:supplies $1 ; <- this transaction debits two expense accounts
|
|
assets:cash ; <- $-2 inferred
|
|
|
|
2008/10/01 take a loan
|
|
assets:bank:checking $1
|
|
liabilities:debts $-1
|
|
|
|
2008/12/31 * pay off ; <- an optional * or ! after the date means "cleared" (or anything you want)
|
|
liabilities:debts $1
|
|
assets:bank:checking
|
|
|
|
FILE FORMAT
|
|
Transactions
|
|
Transactions are movements of some quantity of commodities between
|
|
named accounts. Each transaction is represented by a journal entry
|
|
beginning with a simple date in column 0. This can be followed by any
|
|
of the following, separated by spaces:
|
|
|
|
o (optional) a status character (empty, !, or *)
|
|
|
|
o (optional) a transaction code (any short number or text, enclosed in
|
|
parentheses)
|
|
|
|
o (optional) a transaction description (any remaining text until end of
|
|
line or a semicolon)
|
|
|
|
o (optional) a transaction comment (any remaining text following a
|
|
semicolon until end of line)
|
|
|
|
Then comes zero or more (but usually at least 2) indented lines repre-
|
|
senting...
|
|
|
|
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:
|
|
|
|
o (optional) a status character (empty, !, or *), followed by a space
|
|
|
|
o (required) an account name (any text, optionally containing single
|
|
spaces, until end of line or a double space)
|
|
|
|
o (optional) two or more spaces or tabs followed by an amount.
|
|
|
|
Positive amounts are being added to the account, negative amounts are
|
|
being removed.
|
|
|
|
The amounts within a transaction must always sum up to zero. As a con-
|
|
venience, one amount may be left blank; it will be inferred so as to
|
|
balance the transaction.
|
|
|
|
Be sure to note the unusual two-space delimiter between account name
|
|
and amount. This makes it easy to write account names containing spa-
|
|
ces. But if you accidentally leave only one space (or tab) before the
|
|
amount, the amount will be considered part of the account name.
|
|
|
|
Dates
|
|
Simple dates
|
|
Within a journal file, transaction dates use Y/M/D (or Y-M-D or Y.M.D)
|
|
Leading zeros are 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 default year directive, or the current date
|
|
when the command is run. Some examples: 2010/01/31, 1/31, 2010-01-31,
|
|
2010.1.31.
|
|
|
|
Secondary dates
|
|
Real-life transactions sometimes involve more than one date - eg the
|
|
date you write a cheque, and the date it clears in your bank. When you
|
|
want to model this, eg for more accurate balances, you can specify
|
|
individual posting dates, which I recommend. Or, you can use the sec-
|
|
ondary dates (aka auxiliary/effective dates) feature, supported for
|
|
compatibility with Ledger.
|
|
|
|
A secondary date can be written after the primary date, separated by an
|
|
equals sign. The primary date, on the left, is used by default; the
|
|
secondary date, on the right, is used when the --date2 flag is speci-
|
|
fied (--aux-date or --effective also work).
|
|
|
|
The meaning of secondary dates is up to you, but it's best to follow a
|
|
consistent rule. Eg write the bank's clearing date as primary, and
|
|
when needed, the date the transaction was initiated as secondary.
|
|
|
|
Here's an example. Note that a secondary date will use the year of the
|
|
primary date if unspecified.
|
|
|
|
2010/2/23=2/19 movie ticket
|
|
expenses:cinema $10
|
|
assets:checking
|
|
|
|
$ hledger register checking
|
|
2010/02/23 movie ticket assets:checking $-10 $-10
|
|
|
|
$ hledger register checking --date2
|
|
2010/02/19 movie ticket assets:checking $-10 $-10
|
|
|
|
Secondary dates require some effort; you must use them consistently in
|
|
your journal entries and remember whether to use or not use the --date2
|
|
flag for your reports. They are included in hledger for Ledger compat-
|
|
ibility, but posting dates are a more powerful and less confusing
|
|
alternative.
|
|
|
|
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. 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. You can set the secondary date
|
|
similarly, with date2:DATE2. The date: or date2: tags must have a
|
|
valid simple date value if they are present, eg a date: tag with no
|
|
value is not allowed.
|
|
|
|
Ledger's earlier, more compact bracketed date syntax is also supported:
|
|
[DATE], [DATE=DATE2] or [=DATE2]. 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.
|
|
|
|
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; or the status:, status:!, and
|
|
status:* queries; or the U, P, C keys in hledger-ui.
|
|
|
|
Note, in Ledger and in older versions of hledger, the "unmarked" state
|
|
is called "uncleared". As of hledger 1.3 we have renamed it to
|
|
unmarked for clarity.
|
|
|
|
To replicate Ledger and old hledger's behaviour of also matching pend-
|
|
ing, combine -U and -P.
|
|
|
|
Status marks are optional, but can be helpful eg for reconciling with
|
|
real-world accounts. Some editor modes provide highlighting and short-
|
|
cuts 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 reconcil-
|
|
iation)
|
|
cleared complete, reconciled as far as possible, and considered cor-
|
|
rect
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
Description
|
|
A transaction's description is the rest of the line following the date
|
|
and status mark (or until a comment begins). Sometimes called the
|
|
"narration" in traditional bookkeeping, it can be used for whatever you
|
|
wish, or left blank. Transaction descriptions can be queried, unlike
|
|
comments.
|
|
|
|
Payee and note
|
|
You can optionally include a | (pipe) character in a description to
|
|
subdivide it into a payee/payer name on the left and additional notes
|
|
on the right. This may be worthwhile if you need to do more precise
|
|
querying and pivoting by payee.
|
|
|
|
Account names
|
|
Account names typically have several parts separated by a full colon,
|
|
from which hledger derives a hierarchical chart of accounts. They can
|
|
be anything you like, but in finance there are traditionally five
|
|
top-level accounts: assets, liabilities, income, expenses, and equity.
|
|
|
|
Account names may contain single spaces, eg: assets:accounts receiv-
|
|
able. Because of this, they must always be followed by two or more
|
|
spaces (or newline).
|
|
|
|
Account names can be aliased.
|
|
|
|
Amounts
|
|
After the account name, there is usually an amount. Important: between
|
|
account name and amount, there must be two or more spaces.
|
|
|
|
Amounts consist of a number and (usually) a currency symbol or commod-
|
|
ity name. Some examples:
|
|
|
|
2.00001
|
|
$1
|
|
4000 AAPL
|
|
3 "green apples"
|
|
-$1,000,000.00
|
|
INR 9,99,99,999.00
|
|
EUR -2.000.000,00
|
|
1 999 999.9455
|
|
EUR 1E3
|
|
1000E-6s
|
|
|
|
As you can see, the amount format is somewhat flexible:
|
|
|
|
o amounts are a number (the "quantity") and optionally a currency sym-
|
|
bol/commodity name (the "commodity").
|
|
|
|
o the commodity is a symbol, word, or phrase, on the left or right,
|
|
with or without a separating space. If the commodity contains num-
|
|
bers, spaces or non-word punctuation it must be enclosed in double
|
|
quotes.
|
|
|
|
o negative amounts with a commodity on the left can have the minus sign
|
|
before or after it
|
|
|
|
o digit groups (thousands, or any other grouping) can be separated by
|
|
space or comma or period and should be used as separator between all
|
|
groups
|
|
|
|
o decimal part can be separated by comma or period and should be dif-
|
|
ferent from digit groups separator
|
|
|
|
o scientific E-notation is allowed. Be careful not to use a digit
|
|
group separator character in scientific notation, as it's not sup-
|
|
ported and it might get mistaken for a decimal point. (Declaring the
|
|
digit group separator character explicitly with a commodity directive
|
|
will prevent this.)
|
|
|
|
You can use any of these variations when recording data. However,
|
|
there is some ambiguous way of representing numbers like $1.000 and
|
|
$1,000 both may mean either one thousand or one dollar. By default
|
|
hledger will assume that this is sole delimiter is used only for deci-
|
|
mals. On the other hand commodity format declared prior to that line
|
|
will help to resolve that ambiguity differently:
|
|
|
|
commodity $1,000.00
|
|
|
|
2017/12/25 New life of Scrooge
|
|
expenses:gifts $1,000
|
|
assets
|
|
|
|
Though journal may contain mixed styles to represent amount, when
|
|
hledger displays amounts, it will choose a consistent format for each
|
|
commodity. (Except for price amounts, which are always formatted as
|
|
written). The display format is chosen as follows:
|
|
|
|
o if there is a commodity directive specifying the format, that is used
|
|
|
|
o otherwise the format is inferred from the first posting amount in
|
|
that commodity in the journal, and the precision (number of decimal
|
|
places) will be the maximum from all posting amounts in that commmod-
|
|
ity
|
|
|
|
o or if there are no such amounts in the journal, a default format is
|
|
used (like $1000.00).
|
|
|
|
Price amounts and amounts in D directives usually don't affect amount
|
|
format inference, but in some situations they can do so indirectly.
|
|
(Eg when D's default commodity is applied to a commodity-less amount,
|
|
or when an amountless posting is balanced using a price's commodity, or
|
|
when -V is used.) If you find this causing problems, set the desired
|
|
format with a commodity directive.
|
|
|
|
Virtual Postings
|
|
When you parenthesise the account name in a posting, we call that a
|
|
virtual posting, which means:
|
|
|
|
o it is ignored when checking that the transaction is balanced
|
|
|
|
o it is excluded from reports when the --real/-R flag is used, or the
|
|
real:1 query.
|
|
|
|
You could use this, eg, to set an account's opening balance without
|
|
needing to use the equity:opening balances account:
|
|
|
|
1/1 special unbalanced posting to set initial balance
|
|
(assets:checking) $1000
|
|
|
|
When the account name is bracketed, we call it a balanced virtual post-
|
|
ing. This is like an ordinary virtual posting except the balanced vir-
|
|
tual postings in a transaction must balance to 0, like the real post-
|
|
ings (but separately from them). Balanced virtual postings are also
|
|
excluded by --real/-R or real:1.
|
|
|
|
1/1 buy food with cash, and update some budget-tracking subaccounts elsewhere
|
|
expenses:food $10
|
|
assets:cash $-10
|
|
[assets:checking:available] $10
|
|
[assets:checking:budget:food] $-10
|
|
|
|
Virtual postings have some legitimate uses, but those are few. You can
|
|
usually find an equivalent journal entry using real postings, which is
|
|
more correct and provides better error checking.
|
|
|
|
Balance Assertions
|
|
hledger supports Ledger-style balance assertions in journal files.
|
|
These look like =EXPECTEDBALANCE following a posting's amount. Eg in
|
|
this example 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 pro-
|
|
tect you from, eg, inadvertently disrupting reconciled balances while
|
|
cleaning up old entries. You can disable them temporarily with the
|
|
--ignore-assertions flag, which can be useful for troubleshooting or
|
|
for reading Ledger files.
|
|
|
|
Assertions and ordering
|
|
hledger sorts an account's postings and assertions first by date and
|
|
then (for postings on the same day) by parse order. Note this is dif-
|
|
ferent from Ledger, which sorts assertions only by parse order. (Also,
|
|
Ledger assertions do not see the accumulated effect of repeated post-
|
|
ings to the same account within a transaction.)
|
|
|
|
So, hledger balance assertions keep working if you reorder differ-
|
|
ently-dated transactions within the journal. But if you reorder
|
|
same-dated transactions or postings, assertions might break and require
|
|
updating. This order dependence does bring an advantage: precise con-
|
|
trol over the order of postings and assertions within a day, so you can
|
|
assert intra-day balances.
|
|
|
|
Assertions and included files
|
|
With included files, things are a little more complicated. Including
|
|
preserves the ordering of postings and assertions. If you have multi-
|
|
ple postings to an account on the same day, split across different
|
|
files, and you also want to assert the account's balance on the same
|
|
day, you'll have to put the assertion in the right file.
|
|
|
|
Assertions and multiple -f options
|
|
Balance assertions don't work well across files specified with multiple
|
|
-f options. Use include or concatenate the files instead.
|
|
|
|
Assertions and commodities
|
|
The asserted balance must be a simple single-commodity amount, and in
|
|
fact the assertion checks only this commodity's balance within the
|
|
(possibly multi-commodity) account balance. We could call this a par-
|
|
tial balance assertion. This is compatible with Ledger, and makes it
|
|
possible to make assertions about accounts containing multiple commodi-
|
|
ties.
|
|
|
|
To assert each commodity's balance in such a multi-commodity account,
|
|
you can add multiple postings (with amount 0 if necessary). But note
|
|
that no matter how many assertions you add, you can't be sure the
|
|
account does not contain some unexpected commodity. (We'll add support
|
|
for this kind of total balance assertion if there's demand.)
|
|
|
|
Assertions and subaccounts
|
|
Balance assertions do not count the balance from subaccounts; they
|
|
check the posted account's exclusive balance. For example:
|
|
|
|
1/1
|
|
checking:fund 1 = 1 ; post to this subaccount, its balance is now 1
|
|
checking 1 = 1 ; post to the parent account, its exclusive balance is now 1
|
|
equity
|
|
|
|
The balance report's flat mode shows these exclusive balances more
|
|
clearly:
|
|
|
|
$ hledger bal checking --flat
|
|
1 checking
|
|
1 checking:fund
|
|
--------------------
|
|
2
|
|
|
|
Assertions and virtual postings
|
|
Balance assertions are checked against all postings, both real and vir-
|
|
tual. They are not affected by the --real/-R flag or real: query.
|
|
|
|
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 assign-
|
|
ment). Note that using balance assignments makes your journal a little
|
|
less explicit; to know the exact amount posted, you have to run hledger
|
|
or do the calculations yourself, instead of just reading it.
|
|
|
|
Transaction prices
|
|
Within a transaction, you can note an amount's price in another commod-
|
|
ity. This can be used to document the cost (in a purchase) or selling
|
|
price (in a sale). For example, transaction prices are useful to
|
|
record purchases of a foreign currency. Note transaction prices are
|
|
fixed at the time of the transaction, and do not change over time. See
|
|
also market prices, which represent prevailing exchange rates on a cer-
|
|
tain date.
|
|
|
|
There are several ways to record a transaction price:
|
|
|
|
1. Write the price per unit, as @ UNITPRICE after the amount:
|
|
|
|
2009/1/1
|
|
assets:euros 100 @ $1.35 ; one hundred euros purchased at $1.35 each
|
|
assets:dollars ; balancing amount is -$135.00
|
|
|
|
2. Write the total price, as @@ TOTALPRICE after the amount:
|
|
|
|
2009/1/1
|
|
assets:euros 100 @@ $135 ; one hundred euros purchased at $135 for the lot
|
|
assets:dollars
|
|
|
|
3. Specify amounts for all postings, using exactly two commodities, and
|
|
let hledger infer the price that balances the transaction:
|
|
|
|
2009/1/1
|
|
assets:euros 100 ; one hundred euros purchased
|
|
assets:dollars $-135 ; for $135
|
|
|
|
(Ledger users: Ledger uses a different syntax for fixed prices, {=UNIT-
|
|
PRICE}, which hledger currently ignores).
|
|
|
|
Use the -B/--cost flag to convert amounts to their transaction price's
|
|
commodity, if any. (mnemonic: "B" is from "cost Basis", as in Ledger).
|
|
Eg here is how -B affects the balance report for the example above:
|
|
|
|
$ hledger bal -N --flat
|
|
$-135 assets:dollars
|
|
100 assets:euros
|
|
$ hledger bal -N --flat -B
|
|
$-135 assets:dollars
|
|
$135 assets:euros # <- the euros' cost
|
|
|
|
Note -B is sensitive to the order of postings when a transaction price
|
|
is inferred: the inferred price will be in the commodity of the last
|
|
amount. So if example 3's postings are reversed, while the transaction
|
|
is equivalent, -B shows something different:
|
|
|
|
2009/1/1
|
|
assets:dollars $-135 ; 135 dollars sold
|
|
assets:euros 100 ; for 100 euros
|
|
|
|
$ hledger bal -N --flat -B
|
|
-100 assets:dollars # <- the dollars' selling price
|
|
100 assets:euros
|
|
|
|
Comments
|
|
Lines in the journal beginning with a semicolon (;) or hash (#) or star
|
|
(*) are comments, and will be ignored. (Star comments cause org-mode
|
|
nodes to be ignored, allowing emacs users to fold and navigate their
|
|
journals with org-mode or orgstruct-mode.)
|
|
|
|
You can attach comments to a transaction by writing them after the
|
|
description and/or indented on the following lines (before the post-
|
|
ings). Similarly, you can attach comments to an individual posting by
|
|
writing them after the amount and/or indented on the following lines.
|
|
Transaction and posting comments must begin with a semicolon (;).
|
|
|
|
Some examples:
|
|
|
|
# a file comment
|
|
|
|
; also a file comment
|
|
|
|
comment
|
|
This is a multiline file comment,
|
|
which continues until a line
|
|
where the "end comment" string
|
|
appears on its own (or end of file).
|
|
end comment
|
|
|
|
2012/5/14 something ; a transaction comment
|
|
; the transaction comment, continued
|
|
posting1 1 ; a comment for posting 1
|
|
posting2
|
|
; a comment for posting 2
|
|
; another comment line for posting 2
|
|
; a file comment (because not indented)
|
|
|
|
You can also comment larger regions of a file using comment and
|
|
end comment directives.
|
|
|
|
Tags
|
|
Tags are a way to add extra labels or labelled data to postings and
|
|
transactions, which you can then search or pivot on.
|
|
|
|
A simple tag is a word (which may contain hyphens) followed by a full
|
|
colon, written inside a transaction or posting comment line:
|
|
|
|
2017/1/16 bought groceries ; sometag:
|
|
|
|
Tags can have a value, which is the text after the colon, up to the
|
|
next comma or end of line, with leading/trailing whitespace removed:
|
|
|
|
expenses:food $10 ; a-posting-tag: the tag value
|
|
|
|
Note this means hledger's tag values can not contain commas or new-
|
|
lines. Ending at commas means you can write multiple short tags on one
|
|
line, comma separated:
|
|
|
|
assets:checking ; a comment containing tag1:, tag2: some value ...
|
|
|
|
Here,
|
|
|
|
o "a comment containing" is just comment text, not a tag
|
|
|
|
o "tag1" is a tag with no value
|
|
|
|
o "tag2" is another tag, whose value is "some value ..."
|
|
|
|
Tags in a transaction comment affect the transaction and all of its
|
|
postings, while tags in a posting comment affect only that posting.
|
|
For example, the following transaction has three tags (A, TAG2,
|
|
third-tag) and the posting has four (those plus posting-tag):
|
|
|
|
1/1 a transaction ; A:, TAG2:
|
|
; third-tag: a third transaction tag, <- with a value
|
|
(a) $1 ; posting-tag:
|
|
|
|
Tags are like Ledger's metadata feature, except hledger's tag values
|
|
are simple strings.
|
|
|
|
Directives
|
|
A directive is a line in the journal beginning with a special keyword,
|
|
that influences how the journal is processed. hledger's directives are
|
|
based on a subset of Ledger's, but there are many differences (and also
|
|
some differences between hledger versions).
|
|
|
|
Directives' behaviour and interactions can get a little bit complex, so
|
|
here is a table summarising the directives and their effects, with
|
|
links to more detailed docs.
|
|
|
|
|
|
direc- end subdi- purpose can affect (as of
|
|
tive directive rec- 2018/06)
|
|
tives
|
|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
account any declare an account name & account code: bal-
|
|
text optional account code ance reports
|
|
(except balance
|
|
single-column mode)
|
|
alias end aliases rewrite account names following
|
|
inline/included
|
|
entries until end
|
|
of current file or
|
|
end directive
|
|
apply account end apply account prepend a common parent to following
|
|
account names inline/included
|
|
entries until end
|
|
of current file or
|
|
end directive
|
|
comment end comment ignore part of journal following
|
|
inline/included
|
|
entries until end
|
|
of current file or
|
|
end directive
|
|
commodity format declare a commodity and its number notation:
|
|
number notation & display following entries
|
|
style in that commodity
|
|
in all files; dis-
|
|
play style: amounts
|
|
of that commodity
|
|
in reports
|
|
D declare a commodity, number commodity: all com-
|
|
notation & display style for modityless entries
|
|
commodityless amounts in all files; num-
|
|
ber notation: fol-
|
|
lowing commodity-
|
|
less entries and
|
|
entries in that
|
|
commodity in all
|
|
files; display
|
|
style: amounts of
|
|
that commodity in
|
|
reports
|
|
include include entries/directives what the included
|
|
from another file directives affect
|
|
P declare a market price for a amounts of that
|
|
commodity commodity in
|
|
reports, when -V is
|
|
used
|
|
Y declare a year for yearless following
|
|
dates inline/included
|
|
entries until end
|
|
of current file
|
|
|
|
And some definitions:
|
|
|
|
|
|
subdirec- optional indented directive or unparsed text lines immedi-
|
|
tive ately following a parent directive
|
|
account numeric code influencing account display order in most bal-
|
|
code ance reports
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
number how to interpret numbers when parsing journal entries (the
|
|
notation identity of the decimal separator character). (Currently
|
|
each commodity can have its own notation, even in the same
|
|
file.)
|
|
display how to display amounts of a commodity in reports (symbol side
|
|
style and spacing, digit groups, decimal separator, decimal places)
|
|
directive which entries and (when there are multiple files) which files
|
|
scope are affected by a directive
|
|
|
|
As you can see, directives vary in which journal entries and files they
|
|
affect, and whether they are focussed on input (parsing) or output
|
|
(reports). Some directives have multiple effects.
|
|
|
|
If you have a journal made up of multiple files, or pass multiple -f
|
|
options on the command line, note that directives which affect input
|
|
typically last only until the end of their defining file. This pro-
|
|
vides more simplicity and predictability, eg reports are not changed by
|
|
writing file options in a different order. It can be surprising at
|
|
times though.
|
|
|
|
Comment blocks
|
|
A line containing just comment starts a commented region of the file,
|
|
and a line containing just end comment (or the end of the current file)
|
|
ends it. See also comments.
|
|
|
|
Including other files
|
|
You can pull in the content of additional files by writing an include
|
|
directive, like this:
|
|
|
|
include path/to/file.journal
|
|
|
|
If the path does not begin with a slash, it is relative to the current
|
|
file. The include file path may contain common glob patterns (e.g.
|
|
*).
|
|
|
|
The include directive can only be used in journal files. It can
|
|
include journal, timeclock or timedot files, but not CSV files.
|
|
|
|
Default year
|
|
You can set a default year to be used for subsequent dates which don't
|
|
specify a year. This is a line beginning with Y followed by the year.
|
|
Eg:
|
|
|
|
Y2009 ; set default year to 2009
|
|
|
|
12/15 ; equivalent to 2009/12/15
|
|
expenses 1
|
|
assets
|
|
|
|
Y2010 ; 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
|
|
|
|
Declaring commodities
|
|
The commodity directive declares commodities which may be used in the
|
|
journal (though currently we do not enforce this). It may be written
|
|
on a single line, like this:
|
|
|
|
; commodity EXAMPLEAMOUNT
|
|
|
|
; display AAAA amounts with the symbol on the right, space-separated,
|
|
; using period as decimal point, with four decimal places, and
|
|
; separating thousands with comma.
|
|
commodity 1,000.0000 AAAA
|
|
|
|
or on multiple lines, using the "format" subdirective. In this case
|
|
the commodity symbol appears twice and should be the same in both
|
|
places:
|
|
|
|
; commodity SYMBOL
|
|
; format EXAMPLEAMOUNT
|
|
|
|
; 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 9,99,99,999.00
|
|
|
|
Commodity directives have a second purpose: they define the standard
|
|
display format for amounts in the commodity. Normally the display for-
|
|
mat is inferred from journal entries, but this can be unpredictable;
|
|
declaring it with a commodity directive overrides this and removes
|
|
ambiguity. Towards this end, amounts in commodity directives must
|
|
always be written with a decimal point (a period or comma, followed by
|
|
0 or more decimal digits).
|
|
|
|
Default commodity
|
|
The D directive sets a default commodity (and display format), to be
|
|
used for amounts without a commodity symbol (ie, plain numbers). (Note
|
|
this differs from Ledger's default commodity directive.) The commodity
|
|
and display format will be applied to all subsequent commodity-less
|
|
amounts, or until the next D directive.
|
|
|
|
# commodity-less amounts should be treated as dollars
|
|
# (and displayed with symbol on the left, thousands separators and two decimal places)
|
|
D $1,000.00
|
|
|
|
1/1
|
|
a 5 ; <- commodity-less amount, becomes $1
|
|
b
|
|
|
|
As with the commodity directive, the amount must always be written with
|
|
a decimal point.
|
|
|
|
Market prices
|
|
The P directive declares a market price, which is an exchange rate
|
|
between two commodities on a certain date. (In Ledger, they are called
|
|
"historical prices".) These are often obtained from a stock exchange,
|
|
cryptocurrency exchange, or the foreign exchange market.
|
|
|
|
Here is the format:
|
|
|
|
P DATE COMMODITYA COMMODITYBAMOUNT
|
|
|
|
o DATE is a simple date
|
|
|
|
o COMMODITYA is the symbol of the commodity being priced
|
|
|
|
o COMMODITYBAMOUNT is an amount (symbol and quantity) in a second com-
|
|
modity, giving the price in commodity B of one unit of commodity A.
|
|
|
|
These two market price directives say that one euro was worth 1.35 US
|
|
dollars during 2009, and $1.40 from 2010 onward:
|
|
|
|
P 2009/1/1 $1.35
|
|
P 2010/1/1 $1.40
|
|
|
|
The -V/--value flag can be used to convert reported amounts to another
|
|
commodity using these prices.
|
|
|
|
Declaring accounts
|
|
The account directive predeclares account names. The simplest form is
|
|
account ACCTNAME, eg:
|
|
|
|
account assets:bank:checking
|
|
|
|
Currently this mainly helps with account name autocompletion in eg
|
|
hledger add, hledger-iadd, hledger-web, and ledger-mode.
|
|
In future it will also help detect misspelled accounts.
|
|
|
|
Account names can be followed by a numeric account code:
|
|
|
|
account assets 1000
|
|
account assets:bank:checking 1110
|
|
account liabilities 2000
|
|
account revenues 4000
|
|
account expenses 6000
|
|
|
|
This affects how accounts are sorted in account and balance reports:
|
|
accounts with codes are listed before accounts without codes, and in
|
|
increasing code order (instead of listing all accounts alphabetically).
|
|
Warning, this feature is incomplete; account codes do not yet affect
|
|
sort order in
|
|
|
|
o the accounts command
|
|
|
|
o the balance command's single-column mode
|
|
|
|
o flat mode balance reports (to work around this, declare account codes
|
|
on the subaccounts as well).
|
|
|
|
o hledger-web's sidebar
|
|
|
|
Account codes should be all numeric digits, unique, and separated from
|
|
the account name by at least two spaces (since account names may con-
|
|
tain single spaces). By convention, often the first digit indicates
|
|
the type of account, as in this numbering scheme and the example above.
|
|
In future, we might use this to recognize account types.
|
|
|
|
An account directive can also have indented subdirectives following it,
|
|
which are currently ignored. Here is the full syntax:
|
|
|
|
; account ACCTNAME [OPTIONALCODE]
|
|
; [OPTIONALSUBDIRECTIVES]
|
|
|
|
account assets:bank:checking 1110
|
|
a comment
|
|
some-tag:12345
|
|
|
|
Rewriting accounts
|
|
You can define account alias rules which rewrite your account names, or
|
|
parts of them, before generating reports. This can be useful for:
|
|
|
|
o expanding shorthand account names to their full form, allowing easier
|
|
data entry and a less verbose journal
|
|
|
|
o adapting old journals to your current chart of accounts
|
|
|
|
o experimenting with new account organisations, like a new hierarchy or
|
|
combining two accounts into one
|
|
|
|
o 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.
|
|
|
|
See also Cookbook: 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. 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. Sub-
|
|
accounts 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 the forward slashes:
|
|
|
|
alias /REGEX/ = REPLACEMENT
|
|
|
|
or --alias '/REGEX/=REPLACEMENT'.
|
|
|
|
REGEX is a case-insensitive regular expression. Anywhere it matches
|
|
inside an account name, the matched part will be replaced by REPLACE-
|
|
MENT. If REGEX contains parenthesised match groups, these can be ref-
|
|
erenced by the usual numeric backreferences in REPLACEMENT. Eg:
|
|
|
|
alias /^(.+):bank:([^:]+)(.*)/ = \1:\2 \3
|
|
# rewrites "assets:bank:wells fargo:checking" to "assets:wells fargo checking"
|
|
|
|
Also note that REPLACEMENT continues to the end of line (or on command
|
|
line, to end of option argument), so it can contain trailing white-
|
|
space.
|
|
|
|
Multiple aliases
|
|
You can define as many aliases as you like using directives or com-
|
|
mand-line options. Aliases are recursive - each alias sees the result
|
|
of applying previous ones. (This is different from Ledger, where
|
|
aliases are non-recursive by default). Aliases are applied in the fol-
|
|
lowing order:
|
|
|
|
1. alias directives, most recently seen first (recent directives take
|
|
precedence over earlier ones; directives not yet seen are ignored)
|
|
|
|
2. alias options, in the order they appear on the command line
|
|
|
|
end aliases
|
|
You can clear (forget) all currently defined aliases with the
|
|
end aliases directive:
|
|
|
|
end aliases
|
|
|
|
Default parent account
|
|
You can specify a parent account which will be prepended to all
|
|
accounts within a section of the journal. Use the apply account and
|
|
end apply account directives like so:
|
|
|
|
apply account home
|
|
|
|
2010/1/1
|
|
food $10
|
|
cash
|
|
|
|
end apply account
|
|
|
|
which is equivalent to:
|
|
|
|
2010/01/01
|
|
home:food $10
|
|
home:cash $-10
|
|
|
|
If end apply account is omitted, the effect lasts to the end of the
|
|
file. Included files are also affected, eg:
|
|
|
|
apply account business
|
|
include biz.journal
|
|
end apply account
|
|
apply account personal
|
|
include personal.journal
|
|
|
|
Prior to hledger 1.0, legacy account and end spellings were also sup-
|
|
ported.
|
|
|
|
A default parent account also affects account directives. It does not
|
|
affect account names being entered via hledger add or hledger-web. If
|
|
account aliases are present, they are applied after the default parent
|
|
account.
|
|
|
|
Periodic transactions
|
|
Periodic transaction rules describe transactions that recur. They
|
|
allow you to generate future transactions for forecasting, without hav-
|
|
ing to write them out explicitly in the journal (with --forecast).
|
|
Secondly, they also can be used to define budget goals (with --budget).
|
|
|
|
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.):
|
|
|
|
~ monthly
|
|
expenses:rent $2000
|
|
assets:bank:checking
|
|
|
|
There is an additional constraint on the period expression: the start
|
|
date must fall on a natural boundary of the interval. Eg
|
|
monthly from 2018/1/1 is valid, but monthly from 2018/1/15 is not.
|
|
|
|
If you write a transaction description or same-line comment, it must be
|
|
separated from the period expression by two or more spaces. Eg:
|
|
|
|
; 2 or more spaces
|
|
; ||
|
|
; vv
|
|
~ every 2 weeks from 2018/6 to 2018/9 paycheck
|
|
assets:bank:checking $1500
|
|
income:acme inc
|
|
|
|
Forecasting with periodic transactions
|
|
With the --forecast flag, each periodic transaction rule generates
|
|
future transactions recurring at the specified interval. These are not
|
|
saved in the journal, but appear in all reports. They will look like
|
|
normal transactions, but with an extra tag named recur, whose value is
|
|
the generating period expression.
|
|
|
|
Forecast transactions start on the first occurrence, and end on the
|
|
last occurrence, of their interval within the forecast period. The
|
|
forecast period:
|
|
|
|
o begins on the later of
|
|
|
|
o the report start date if specified with -b/-p/date:
|
|
|
|
o the day after the latest normal (non-periodic) transaction in the
|
|
journal, or today if there are no normal transactions.
|
|
|
|
o ends on the report end date if specified with -e/-p/date:, or 180
|
|
days from today.
|
|
|
|
where "today" means the current date at report time. The "later of"
|
|
rule ensures that forecast transactions do not overlap normal transac-
|
|
tions in time; they will begin only after normal transactions end.
|
|
|
|
Forecasting can be useful for estimating balances into the future, and
|
|
experimenting with different scenarios. Note the start date logic
|
|
means that forecasted transactions are automatically replaced by normal
|
|
transactions as you add those.
|
|
|
|
Forecasting can also help with data entry: describe most of your trans-
|
|
actions with periodic rules, and every so often copy the output of
|
|
print --forecast to the journal.
|
|
|
|
You can generate one-time transactions too: just write a period expres-
|
|
sion specifying a date with no report interval. (You could also write
|
|
a normal transaction with a future date, but remember this disables
|
|
forecast transactions on previous dates.)
|
|
|
|
Budgeting with periodic transactions
|
|
With the --budget flag, currently supported by the balance command,
|
|
each periodic transaction rule declares recurring budget goals for the
|
|
specified accounts. Eg the first example above declares a goal of
|
|
spending $2000 on rent (and also, a goal of depositing $2000 into
|
|
checking) every month. Goals and actual performance can then be com-
|
|
pared in budget reports.
|
|
|
|
For more details, see: balance: Budget report and Cookbook: Budgeting
|
|
and Forecasting.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Transaction Modifiers
|
|
Transaction modifier rules describe changes that should be applied
|
|
automatically to certain transactions. Currently, this means adding
|
|
extra postings (also known as "automated postings"). Transaction modi-
|
|
fiers are enabled by the --auto flag.
|
|
|
|
A transaction modifier rule looks a bit like a normal journal entry,
|
|
except the first line is an equal sign (=) followed by a query
|
|
(mnemonic: = suggests matching something.):
|
|
|
|
= expenses:gifts
|
|
budget:gifts *-1
|
|
assets:budget *1
|
|
|
|
The posting amounts can be of the form *N, which means "the amount of
|
|
the matched transaction's first posting, multiplied by N". They can
|
|
also be ordinary fixed amounts. Fixed amounts with no commodity symbol
|
|
will be given the same commodity as the matched transaction's first
|
|
posting.
|
|
|
|
This example adds a corresponding (unbalanced) budget posting to every
|
|
transaction involving the expenses:gifts account:
|
|
|
|
= expenses:gifts
|
|
(budget:gifts) *-1
|
|
|
|
2017-12-14
|
|
expenses:gifts $20
|
|
assets
|
|
|
|
$ hledger print --auto
|
|
2017/12/14
|
|
expenses:gifts $20
|
|
(budget:gifts) $-20
|
|
assets
|
|
|
|
Like postings recorded by hand, automated postings participate in
|
|
transaction balancing, missing amount inference and balance assertions.
|
|
|
|
EDITOR SUPPORT
|
|
Add-on modes exist for various text editors, to make working with jour-
|
|
nal files easier. They add colour, navigation aids and helpful com-
|
|
mands. For hledger users who edit the journal file directly (the
|
|
majority), using one of these modes is quite recommended.
|
|
|
|
These were written with Ledger in mind, but also work with hledger
|
|
files:
|
|
|
|
|
|
Editor
|
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Emacs http://www.ledger-cli.org/3.0/doc/ledger-mode.html
|
|
Vim https://github.com/ledger/vim-ledger
|
|
Sublime Text https://github.com/ledger/ledger/wiki/Edit-
|
|
ing-Ledger-files-with-Sublime-Text-or-RubyMine
|
|
Textmate https://github.com/ledger/ledger/wiki/Using-TextMate-2
|
|
Text Wran- https://github.com/ledger/ledger/wiki/Edit-
|
|
gler ing-Ledger-files-with-TextWrangler
|
|
Visual Stu- https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?item-
|
|
dio Code Name=mark-hansen.hledger-vscode
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
REPORTING BUGS
|
|
Report bugs at http://bugs.hledger.org (or on the #hledger IRC channel
|
|
or hledger mail list)
|
|
|
|
|
|
AUTHORS
|
|
Simon Michael <simon@joyful.com> and contributors
|
|
|
|
|
|
COPYRIGHT
|
|
Copyright (C) 2007-2016 Simon Michael.
|
|
Released under GNU GPL v3 or later.
|
|
|
|
|
|
SEE ALSO
|
|
hledger(1), hledger-ui(1), hledger-web(1), hledger-api(1),
|
|
hledger_csv(5), hledger_journal(5), hledger_timeclock(5), hledger_time-
|
|
dot(5), ledger(1)
|
|
|
|
http://hledger.org
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
hledger 1.10.99 July 2018 hledger_journal(5)
|