hledger/MANUAL

hledger manual
==============

This is the official hledger manual. You may also want to visit
the http://hledger.org home page,
the `hledger for techies`_ page,
and perhaps `c++ ledger's manual`_ (but don't worry, we'll link to that below.)

A tip: on hledger.org, these docs are also available with .pdf suffix.

User Guide
----------

Introduction
............

hledger is a program for tracking money, time, or any other commodity,
using a plain text file format and the simple but powerful principles of
double-entry accounting.

It is modelled closely on `John Wiegley's ledger`_ (aka "c++ ledger"),
with some features removed and some new ones added.  I wrote hledger
because I wanted to build financial tools in the Haskell programming
language rather than in C++.

hledger's basic function is to generate register and balance reports from
a plain text ledger file, at the command line or via the web or curses
interface. You can use it to, eg,

- track spending and income
- see time reports by day/week/month/project
- get accurate numbers for client billing and tax filing
- track invoices

hledger aims to help both computer experts and every-day users gain clarity in their finances and time management.
For now though, it is most useful to technically-minded folks who are comfortable with command-line tools.

hledger is copyright (c) 2007-2009 Simon Michael <simon@joyful.com> and
contributors and released as Free Software under GPL version 3 or later.

Installing
..........

hledger works on all major platforms. One of these pre-built binaries_ might work for you.

If not, please report the problem, then install the `Haskell Platform`_ and type::

 cabal update
 cabal install hledger [-fvty] [-fweb]

The optional -f flags will install more libraries and enable hledger's
"ui" and "web" commands respectively. Note -fvty may not work on Microsoft
windows.

Basic usage
...........

hledger looks for your ledger file at ~/.ledger by default. To use a
different file, specify it with the LEDGER environment variable or -f
option (which may be - for standard input). Basic usage is::

 hledger [OPTIONS] [COMMAND [PATTERNS]]

COMMAND is one of balance, print, register, ui, web, test (defaulting to
balance). PATTERNS are zero or more regular expressions used to filter by
account name or transaction description.  Here are some commands to try
(after downloading sample.ledger_)::

 export LEDGER=sample.ledger
 hledger --help                        # show usage & options
 hledger balance                       # all accounts with aggregated balances
 hledger bal --depth 1                 # only top-level accounts
 hledger register                      # transaction register
 hledger reg income                    # transactions to/from an income account
 hledger reg checking                  # checking transactions
 hledger reg desc:shop                 # transactions with shop in the description
 hledger histogram                     # transactions per day, or other interval
 hledger ui                            # curses ui, if installed with -fvty
 hledger web                           # web ui, if installed with -fweb
 hledger -f new.ledger add             # record transactions from the command line

Reference
---------

Feature overview
................

This version of hledger mimics a subset of ledger 3.x, and adds some
features of its own. We currently support regular ledger entries, timelog
entries, multiple commodities, price history (for fixed-rate
transactions), virtual postings, filtering by account and description, the
familiar print, register & balance commands and several new commands. We
handle (almost) the full period expression syntax, and very limited
display expressions consisting of a simple date predicate.

Here is the command-line help::

 $ hledger --help
 Usage: hledger [OPTIONS] [COMMAND [PATTERNS]]
        hours   [OPTIONS] [COMMAND [PATTERNS]]
        hledger convert CSVFILE
 
 hledger uses your ~/.ledger or $LEDGER file (or another specified with -f),
 while hours uses your ~/.timelog or $TIMELOG file.
 
 COMMAND is one of (may be abbreviated):
   add       - prompt for new transactions and add them to the ledger
   balance   - show accounts, with balances
   convert   - read CSV bank data and display in ledger format
   histogram - show a barchart of transactions per day or other interval
   print     - show transactions in ledger format
   register  - show transactions as a register with running balance
   stats     - show various statistics for a ledger
   ui        - run a simple text-based UI
   web       - run a simple web-based UI
   test      - run self-tests
 
 PATTERNS are regular expressions which filter by account name.
 Prefix with desc: to filter by transaction description instead.
 Prefix with not: to negate a pattern. When using both, not: comes last.
 
 DATES can be y/m/d or ledger-style smart dates like "last month".
 
 Options:
   -f FILE  --file=FILE        use a different ledger/timelog file; - means stdin
   -b DATE  --begin=DATE       report on transactions on or after this date
   -e DATE  --end=DATE         report on transactions before this date
   -p EXPR  --period=EXPR      report on transactions during the specified period
                               and/or with the specified reporting interval
   -C       --cleared          report only on cleared transactions
   -U       --uncleared        report only on uncleared transactions
   -B       --cost, --basis    report cost of commodities
            --depth=N          hide accounts/transactions deeper than this
   -d EXPR  --display=EXPR     show only transactions matching EXPR (where
                               EXPR is 'dOP[DATE]' and OP is <, <=, =, >=, >)
            --effective        use transactions' effective dates, if any
   -E       --empty            show empty/zero things which are normally elided
   -R       --real             report only on real (non-virtual) transactions
            --no-total         balance report: hide the final total
   -W       --weekly           register report: show weekly summary
   -M       --monthly          register report: show monthly summary
   -Q       --quarterly        register report: show quarterly summary
   -Y       --yearly           register report: show yearly summary
   -h       --help             show this help
   -V       --version          show version information
   -v       --verbose          show verbose test output
            --binary-filename  show the download filename for this hledger build
            --debug            show extra debug output; implies verbose
            --debug-no-ui      run ui commands with no output
 
File format
...........

hledger's data file (aka "the ledger") is a readable plain text
representation of an accounting journal. The format is mostly identical
with c++ ledger's. Here's an example::

 ; A sample ledger file.
 
 2008/01/01 income
     assets:bank:checking  $1
     income:salary
 
 2008/06/01 gift
     assets:bank:checking  $1
     income:gifts
 
 2008/06/02 save
     assets:bank:saving  $1
     assets:bank:checking
 
 2008/06/03 * eat & shop
     expenses:food      $1
     expenses:supplies  $1
     assets:cash
 
 2008/12/31 * pay off
     liabilities:debts  $1
     assets:bank:checking

Each transaction has a date, description, and two or more postings (of
some amount to some account) which must balance to 0. As a convenience,
the last posting's amount may be left blank and will be inferred.

Other c++ ledger features like effective dates, comments, and prices
are also supported. Some additional features like modifier and periodic
entries are accepted, but ignored.

Compatibility
"""""""""""""

Compared to c++ ledger, hledger's file format has some omissions (we do
not support all the latest ledger 3 syntax like @@ and {}) and some subtle
punctuation differences (eg comments may be permissible in different
places.)

As long as you avoid the more esoteric syntax, your ledger files should
work with both hledger and c++ ledger. You can inadvertently create a file
that works for one but not the other; but it's easy to restore
compatibility by making small adjustments.

Commands
........

Reporting commands
""""""""""""""""""

print
'''''

The print command displays full transactions from the ledger file, tidily
formatted and showing all amounts explicitly. The output of print is
always valid ledger data. 

hledger's print command also shows all unit prices in effect, or
(with -B/--cost) shows cost amounts.

register
''''''''

The register command displays postings, one per line, and their running total.

balance
'''''''

The balance command displays accounts and their balances.

histogram
'''''''''

The histogram command displays a quick bar chart showing transaction
counts, per day, week, month or other reporting interval. It is
experimental.

stats
'''''

The stats command displays quick summary information for the ledger.

ui
'''

The ui command starts hledger's text-based "curses" interface, which
allows interactive navigation of the print/register/balance reports.

Modifying commands
""""""""""""""""""

add
'''

The add command prompts interactively for new transactions, and adds them
to the ledger. It is experimental.

web
'''

The web command starts hledger's web interface, and tries to open a web
browser to view it (if this fails, you'll have to visit the indicated url
yourself.) The web ui combines the features of the print, register,
balance and add commands. It is experimental.
Known issues: filtering does not work completely.

Other commands
""""""""""""""

convert
'''''''

The convert command reads a CSV_ file you have downloaded from your bank,
and prints out the transactions in ledger format, suitable for adding to
your ledger.  This can be a lot quicker than entering every transaction by
hand. (The downside is that you are less likely to notice if your bank makes an
error!)

Use it like this::

 hledger convert FILE.csv >FILE.ledger

where FILE.csv is your downloaded csv file. This will convert the csv data
using conversion rules defined in FILE.rules (auto-creating this file if
needed), and save the output into a temporary ledger file.  Then you
should review FILE.ledger for problems; update the rules and convert again
if needed; and finally copy/paste transactions which are new into your
main ledger.

Rules file
,,,,,,,,,,

A .rules file contains some data definitions and some rules for assigning
destination accounts to transactions. Typically you will have one csv file
and one rules file per bank account. Here's an example rules file for
converting csv data from a Wells Fargo checking account::

 base-account assets:bank:checking
 date-field 0
 description-field 4
 amount-field 1
 currency $

 # account-assigning rules

 SPECTRUM
 expenses:health:gym

 ITUNES
 BLKBSTR=BLOCKBUSTER
 expenses:entertainment

 (TO|FROM) SAVINGS
 assets:bank:savings

This says:

- the ledger account corresponding to this csv file is assets:bank:checking
- the first csv field is the date, the second is the amount, the fifth is the description
- prepend a dollar sign to the amount field
- if description contains SPECTRUM (case-insensitive), the transaction is a gym expense
- if description contains ITUNES or BLKBSTR, the transaction is an entertainment expense; also rewrite BLKBSTR as BLOCKBUSTER
- if description contains TO SAVINGS or FROM SAVINGS, the transaction is a savings transfer

Notes:

- Lines beginning with # or ; are ignored (but avoid using inside an account rule)

- Definitions must come first, one per line, all in one paragraph.  Each
  is a name and a value separated by whitespace. Supported names are:
  base-account, date-field, status-field, code-field, description-field,
  amount-field, currency-field, currency. All are optional and will
  use defaults if not specified.

- The remainder of the file is account-assigning rules. Each is a
  paragraph consisting of one or more description-matching patterns
  (case-insensitive regular expressions), one per line, followed by the
  account name to use when the transaction's description matches any of
  these patterns.

- A match pattern may optionally be followed by = and a replacement
  pattern, which will become the ledger transaction's description.
  Otherwise the matched part of the csv description is used. (To preserve
  the full csv description, use .* before and after the match pattern.)

test
''''

This command runs hledger's internal self-tests and displays a quick report.

Smart dates
...........

hledger accepts "smart dates" in most places a date can be used, such as:
-b and -e options, and `period expressions <#period-expressions>`_
(but actually, not in the ledger file, which has more limited date parsing.)
Here are some examples:

- 2009/1/1, 2009/01/01, 2009-1-1, 2009.1.1, 2009/1, 2009 (january 1, 2009)
- 1/1, january, jan, this year (january 1, this year)
- next year (january 1, 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)
- today, yesterday, tomorrow

Period expressions
..................

hledger supports flexible "period expressions" with the ``-p/--period``
option to select transactions within a period of time (like 2009) and/or
with a reporting interval (like weekly). hledger period expressions are
similar but not identical to c++ ledger's.

Here is a basic period expression specifying the first quarter of 2009
(start date is always included, end date is always excluded)::

 -p "from 2009/1/1 to 2009/4/1"

Keywords like "from" and "to" are optional, and so are the spaces. Just
don't run two dates together::

 -p2009/1/1to2009/4/1
 -p"2009/1/1 2009/4/1"

Dates are `smart dates <#smart-dates>`_, so if the current year is 2009, the above can also
be written as::

 -p "1/1 to 4/1"
 -p "january to 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 ledger data::

 -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")

Reporting interval
""""""""""""""""""

You can also specify a reporting interval, which causes the "register"
command to summarise the transactions in each interval. It goes before the
dates, and can be: "daily", "weekly", "monthly", "quarterly", or
"yearly". An "in" keyword is optional, and so are the dates::

 -p "weekly from 2009/1/1 to 2009/4/1"
 -p "monthly in 2008"
 -p "monthly from 2008"
 -p "quarterly"

A reporting interval may also be specified with the -W/--weekly,
-M/--monthly, -Q/--quarterly, and -Y/--yearly options. However..

-p overrides other flags
""""""""""""""""""""""""

A period option on the command line will override any -b/-e/-W/-Q/-Y flags.

Display expressions
...................

A display expression with the ``-d/--display`` option selects which
transactions will be displayed (unlike a `period expression
<#period-expressions>`_, which selects the transactions to be used for
calculation).

hledger currently supports a very small subset of c++ ledger's display
expressions, namely: transactions before or after a date. This is useful
for displaying your recent check register with an accurate running total.
Note the use of >= here to include the first of the month::

 hledger register -d "d>=[this month]"

Prices
.............

As in c++ ledger, you can specify a per-unit price (or conversion rate) in
the following ways:

- **set the unit price for a single amount** by appending `` @ PRICE``, where
  PRICE is another amount in a different commodity. Eg, here is one
  hundred euros purchased at $1.35 per euro::

    2009/1/2 x
     expenses:foreign currency       €100 @ $1.35
     assets

- **set the unit price for a commodity as of a certain date** using "P"
  historical price records. Eg, here we say the exchange rate for 1 euro
  is $1.35 on 2009/1/1 (and thereafter, until a newer price record is
  found)::

    P 2009/1/1 € $1.35

    2009/1/2 x
     expenses:foreign currency       €100
     assets

The print command will show the unit prices in effect::

 $ hledger print
 2009/01/02 x
     expenses:foreign currency  €100 @ $1.35
     assets                     €-100 @ $1.35

And to see amounts converted to their total cost, use the ``--cost/-B`` flag with any command::

 $ hledger print --cost
 2009/01/02 x
     expenses:foreign currency       $135.00
     assets                         $-135.00

Notes:

- unlike c++ ledger we assume unit prices do not vary over time.  This is
  good for simple reporting of foreign currency transactions, but not for
  tracking fluctuating-value investments or capital gains.

- a price is a simple amount with only one commodity. Ie you can't say an
  orange is worth two grapes and an apple.

- ``--cost/-B`` does only one lookup step, ie it will not look up the
  price of a price's commodity.

Timelog reporting
.................

hledger will also read timelog files in timeclock.el format.  As a
convenience, if you invoke hledger via an "hours" symlink or copy, it uses
your timelog file (~/.timelog or $TIMELOG) by default, rather than your ledger.

Timelog entries look like this::

 i 2009/03/31 22:21:45 some:project
 o 2009/04/01 02:00:34

The clockin description is treated as an account name. Here are some
queries to try (after downloading sample.timelog_)::

 ln -s `which hledger` ~/bin/hours            # set up "hours" in your path
 export TIMELOG=sample.timelog
 hours                                        # show all time balances
 hours -p 'last week'                         # last week
 hours -p thismonth                           # the space is optional
 hours -p 'from 1/15' register project        # project sessions since jan 15
 hours -p 'weekly' reg --depth 1 -E           # weekly time summary

This is a useful feature, if you can find a way to efficiently record
timelog entries. The "ti" and "to" scripts may be available from the c++
ledger 2.x repository. I use
`timeclock-x.el <http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/timeclock-x.el>`_ and
`ledgerutils.el <http://joyful.com/repos/ledgertools/ledgerutils.el>`_ 
in emacs.

Differences from c++ ledger
...........................

hledger is written in the Haskell programming language. Haskell enables a
coding style known as pure lazy functional programming, which holds the
promise of more robust and maintainable software built with fewer lines of
code.

Features not supported
""""""""""""""""""""""

ledger features not currently supported include: modifier and periodic
entries, and the following options and commands::

   Basic options:
   -o, --output FILE      write output to FILE
   -i, --init-file FILE   initialize ledger using FILE (default: ~/.ledgerrc)
   -a, --account NAME     use NAME for the default account (useful with QIF)
 
   Report filtering:
   -c, --current          show only current and past entries (not future)
       --period-sort EXPR sort each report period's entries by EXPR
   -L, --actual           consider only actual (non-automated) transactions
   -r, --related          calculate report using related transactions
       --budget           generate budget entries based on periodic entries
       --add-budget       show all transactions plus the budget
       --unbudgeted       show only unbudgeted transactions
       --forecast EXPR    generate forecast entries while EXPR is true
   -l, --limit EXPR       calculate only transactions matching EXPR
   -t, --amount EXPR      use EXPR to calculate the displayed amount
   -T, --total EXPR       use EXPR to calculate the displayed total
 
   Output customization:
   -n, --collapse         Only show totals in the top-most accounts.
   -s, --subtotal         other: show subtotals
   -P, --by-payee         show summarized totals by payee
   -x, --comm-as-payee    set commodity name as the payee, for reporting
       --dow              show a days-of-the-week report
   -S, --sort EXPR        sort report according to the value expression EXPR
   -w, --wide             for the default register report, use 132 columns
       --head COUNT       show only the first COUNT entries (negative inverts)
       --tail COUNT       show only the last COUNT entries (negative inverts)
       --pager PAGER      send all output through the given PAGER program
   -A, --average          report average transaction amount
   -D, --deviation        report deviation from the average
   -%, --percentage       report balance totals as a percentile of the parent
       --totals           in the "xml" report, include running total
   -j, --amount-data      print only raw amount data (useful for scripting)
   -J, --total-data       print only raw total data
   -y, --date-format STR  use STR as the date format (default: %Y/%m/%d)
   -F, --format STR       use STR as the format; for each report type, use:
       --balance-format      --register-format       --print-format
       --plot-amount-format  --plot-total-format     --equity-format
       --prices-format       --wide-register-format
 
   Commodity reporting:
       --price-db FILE    sets the price database to FILE (def: ~/.pricedb)
   -L, --price-exp MINS   download quotes only if newer than MINS (def: 1440)
   -Q, --download         download price information when needed
   -O, --quantity         report commodity totals (this is the default)
   -V, --market           report last known market value
   -g, --performance      report gain/loss for each displayed transaction
   -G, --gain             report net gain/loss
 
   Commands:
   xml      [REGEXP]...   print matching entries in XML format
   equity   [REGEXP]...   output equity entries for matching accounts
   prices   [REGEXP]...   display price history for matching commodities
   entry DATE PAYEE AMT   output a derived entry, based on the arguments

Other differences
"""""""""""""""""

* hledger recognises description and negative patterns by  "desc:" and "not:" prefixes,
  unlike ledger 3's free-form parser
* hledger doesn't require a space before command-line option values, you can write -f-
* hledger's weekly reporting intervals always start on mondays
* hledger shows start and end dates of the intervals requested, not just the span containing data
* hledger period expressions don't support "biweekly", "bimonthly", or "every N days/weeks/..." 
* hledger always shows timelog balances in hours
* hledger splits multi-day timelog sessions at midnight
* hledger doesn't track the value of commodities with varying price;
  prices are fixed as of the transaction date
* hledger print shows amounts for all postings, and shows unit prices for amounts which have them

Tips
....

- when writing a negative amount with a left-side currency symbol, the
  minus goes after the symbol. Eg ``$-1`` not ``-$1``

- when combining desc: and not: in a filter pattern, not: goes last. Eg
  ``desc:not:...`` not ``not:desc:...``.



.. _hledger for techies:   README2.html
.. _c++ ledger's manual:   http://joyful.com/repos/ledger/doc/ledger.html
.. _John Wiegley's ledger: http://wiki.github.com/jwiegley/ledger
.. _sample.ledger:         http://joyful.com/repos/hledger/sample.ledger
.. _sample.timelog:        http://joyful.com/repos/hledger/sample.timelog
.. _binaries:              http://hledger.org/binaries/
.. _Haskell Platform:      http://hackage.haskell.org/platform/
.. _CSV:                   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma-separated_values