hledger_journal.txt

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 en-
       tries in hledger journal format.  This file represents a  standard  ac-
       counting  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 or import commands to create and update it.

       Many users, though, edit the journal file with a text editor, and track
       changes  with a version control system such as git.  Editor addons such
       as ledger-mode or hledger-mode  for  Emacs,  vim-ledger  for  Vim,  and
       hledger-vscode for Visual Studio Code, make this easier, adding colour,
       formatting, tab completion, and useful commands.  See Editor configura-
       tion at hledger.org for the full list.

FILE FORMAT
       Here's  a  description  of  each part of the file format (and hledger's
       data model).  These are mostly in the order you'll  use  them,  but  in
       some  cases related concepts have been grouped together for easy refer-
       ence, or linked before they are introduced, so feel free to  skip  over
       anything that looks unnecessary right now.

   Transactions
       Transactions  are the main unit of information in a journal file.  They
       represent events, typically a movement of some quantity of  commodities
       between two or more named accounts.

       Each  transaction is recorded as a journal entry, beginning with a sim-
       ple date in column 0.  This can be followed by any of the following op-
       tional fields, separated by spaces:

       o a status character (empty, !, or *)

       o a code (any short number or text, enclosed in parentheses)

       o a description (any remaining text until end of line or a semicolon)

       o a  comment  (any  remaining  text  following a semicolon until end of
         line, and any following indented lines beginning with a semicolon)

       o 0 or more indented posting lines, describing what was transferred and
         the accounts involved.

       Here's a simple journal file containing one transaction:

              2008/01/01 income
                assets:bank:checking   $1
                income:salary         $-1

   Dates
   Simple dates
       Dates  in  the  journal  file  use  simple  dates format: YYYY-MM-DD or
       YYYY/MM/DD or YYYY.MM.DD, with leading zeros optional.  The year may be
       omitted,  in  which case it will be inferred from the context: the cur-
       rent transaction, the default year set with a default  year  directive,
       or   the  current  date  when  the  command  is  run.   Some  examples:
       2010-01-31, 2010/01/31, 2010.1.31, 1/31.

       (The UI also accepts simple dates, as well as the more  flexible  smart
       dates documented in the hledger manual.)

   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, for more accurate daily balances, you can specify
       individual posting dates.

       Or, you can use the older secondary date feature (Ledger calls it  aux-
       iliary  date or effective date).  Note: we support this for compatibil-
       ity, but I usually recommend avoiding this feature; posting  dates  are
       almost always clearer and simpler.

       A secondary date is written after the primary date, following an equals
       sign.  If the year is omitted, the  primary  date's  year  is  assumed.
       When  running  reports, the primary (left) date is used by default, but
       with the --date2 flag (or --aux-date  or  --effective),  the  secondary
       (right) date will be used instead.

       The  meaning of secondary dates is up to you, but it's best to follow a
       consistent rule.  Eg "primary = the bank's clearing date,  secondary  =
       date the transaction was initiated, if different", as shown here:

              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

   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  re-
       ports,  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 de-
       scription or posting account name, separated from it by a space,  indi-
       cating 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  un-
       marked 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 un-
       cashed 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 descriptions to sub-
       divide the description into separate fields for payee/payer name on the
       left (up to the first |) and an additional note field on the right (af-
       ter the first |).  This may be worthwhile if you need to do  more  pre-
       cise querying and pivoting by payee or by note.

   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  de-
       scription and/or indented on the following lines (before the postings).
       Similarly, you can attach comments to an individual posting by  writing
       them after the amount and/or indented on the following lines.  Transac-
       tion and posting comments must begin with a semicolon (;).

       Some examples:

              # a file comment
              ; another file comment
              * also a file comment, useful in org/orgstruct mode

              comment
              A multiline file comment, which continues
              until a line containing just "end comment"
              (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.

   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.

   Virtual Postings
       A posting with a parenthesised account name is called a virtual posting
       or unbalanced posting, which means it is exempt  from  the  usual  rule
       that a transaction's postings must balance add up to zero.

       This  is  not  part  of double entry accounting, so you might choose to
       avoid this feature.  Or you can use it sparingly  for  certain  special
       cases  where  it can be convenient.  Eg, you could set opening balances
       without using a balancing equity account:

              1/1 opening balances
                (assets:checking)   $1000
                (assets:savings)    $2000

       A posting with a bracketed account name is called  a  balanced  virtual
       posting.  The balanced virtual postings in a transaction must add up to
       zero (separately from other postings).  Eg:

              1/1 buy food with cash, update budget envelope subaccounts, & something else
                assets:cash                    $-10 ; <- these balance
                expenses:food                    $7 ; <-
                expenses:food                    $3 ; <-
                [assets:checking:budget:food]  $-10    ; <- and these balance
                [assets:checking:available]     $10    ; <-
                (something:else)                 $5       ; <- not required to balance

       Ordinary non-parenthesised,  non-bracketed  postings  are  called  real
       postings.   You  can  exclude  virtual  postings  from reports with the
       -R/--real flag or real:1 query.

   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: be-
       tween account name and amount, there must be two or more spaces.)

       hledger's amount format is flexible, supporting  several  international
       formats.   Here  are  some examples.  Amounts have a number (the "quan-
       tity"):

              1

       ..and usually a currency or commodity name (the "commodity").  This  is
       a  symbol,  word, or phrase, to the left or right of the quantity, with
       or without a separating space:

              $1
              4000 AAPL

       If the commodity name contains spaces, numbers, or punctuation, it must
       be enclosed in double quotes:

              3 "no. 42 green apples"

       Amounts can be negative.  The minus sign can be written before or after
       a left-side commodity symbol:

              -$1
              $-1

       Scientific E notation is allowed:

              1E-6
              EUR 1E3

       A decimal mark (decimal point) can be written with a period or a comma:

              1.23
              1,23456780000009

   Digit group marks
       In the integer part of the quantity (left of the decimal mark),  groups
       of  digits  can  optionally  be  separated  by a "digit group mark" - a
       space, comma, or period (different from the decimal mark):

                   $1,000,000.00
                EUR 2.000.000,00
              INR 9,99,99,999.00
                    1 000 000.9455

       Note, a number containing a single group mark and no  decimal  mark  is
       ambiguous.  Are these group marks or decimal marks ?

              1,000
              1.000

       hledger will treat them both as decimal marks by default (cf #793).  If
       you use digit group marks, to prevent confusion and undetected typos we
       recommend  you write commodity directives at the top of the file to ex-
       plicitly declare the decimal mark (and optionally a digit group  mark).
       Note,  these  formats ("amount styles") are specific to each commodity,
       so if your data uses multiple formats, hledger can handle it:

              commodity $1,000.00
              commodity EUR 1.000,00
              commodity INR 9,99,99,999.00
              commodity       1 000 000.9455

   Amount display style
       For each commodity, hledger chooses a consistent  format  to  use  when
       displaying  amounts.  (Except price amounts, which are always displayed
       as written).  The display style is chosen as follows:

       o If there is a commodity directive (or  default  commodity  directive)
         for the commodity, that format is used (see examples above).

       o Otherwise  the  format  of the first posting amount in that commodity
         seen in the journal is used.  But the number of decimal places ("pre-
         cision")  will  be the maximum from all posting amounts in that comm-
         modity.

       o Or if there are no such amounts in the journal, a default  format  is
         used (like $1000.00).

       Transaction  prices don't affect the amount display style directly, but
       occasionally they can do so indirectly (eg when an posting's amount  is
       inferred  using  a  transaction price).  If you find this causing prob-
       lems, use a commodity directive to fix the display style.

       In summary: amounts will be displayed much as they appear in your jour-
       nal,  with  the  max observed number of decimal places.  If you want to
       see fewer decimal places in reports, use a commodity directive to over-
       ride that.

   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     EUR100 @ $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     EUR100 @@ $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     EUR100          ; 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
                              EUR100  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     EUR100              ; for 100 euros

              $ hledger bal -N --flat -B
                             EUR-100  assets:dollars  # <- the dollars' selling price
                              EUR100  assets:euros

   Balance Assertions
       hledger supports Ledger-style  balance  assertions  in  journal  files.
       These  look  like, for example, = EXPECTEDBALANCE following a posting's
       amount.  Eg here 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
       -I/--ignore-assertions flag, which can be useful for troubleshooting or
       for reading Ledger files.  (Note: this flag currently does not  disable
       balance assignments, below).

   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 differently-
       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 control 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.   This is how assertions
       work in Ledger also.  We could call this a "partial" balance assertion.

       To assert the balance of more than one commodity in an account, you can
       write multiple postings, each asserting one commodity's balance.

       You  can  make a stronger "total" balance assertion by writing a double
       equals sign (== EXPECTEDBALANCE).  This asserts that there are no other
       unasserted commodities in the account (or, that their balance is 0).

              2013/1/1
                a   $1
                a    1EUR
                b  $-1
                c   -1EUR

              2013/1/2  ; These assertions succeed
                a    0  =  $1
                a    0  =   1EUR
                b    0 == $-1
                c    0 ==  -1EUR

              2013/1/3  ; This assertion fails as 'a' also contains 1EUR
                a    0 ==  $1

       It's not yet possible to make a complete assertion about a balance that
       has multiple commodities.  One workaround is to isolate each  commodity
       into its own subaccount:

              2013/1/1
                a:usd   $1
                a:euro   1EUR
                b

              2013/1/2
                a        0 ==  0
                a:usd    0 == $1
                a:euro   0 ==  1EUR

   Assertions and prices
       Balance  assertions  ignore  transaction prices, and should normally be
       written without one:

              2019/1/1
                (a)     $1 @ EUR1 = $1

       We do allow prices to be written there, however, and print shows  them,
       even  though  they  don't affect whether the assertion passes or fails.
       This is for backward compatibility (hledger's  close  command  used  to
       generate  balance  assertions with prices), and because balance assign-
       ments do use them (see below).

   Assertions and subaccounts
       The balance assertions above (= and ==) do not count the  balance  from
       subaccounts;  they check the account's exclusive balance only.  You can
       assert the balance including subaccounts by writing =* or ==*, eg:

              2019/1/1
                equity:opening balances
                checking:a       5
                checking:b       5
                checking         1  ==* 11

   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.

   Assertions and precision
       Balance  assertions  compare  the exactly calculated amounts, which are
       not always what is shown by reports.   Eg  a  commodity  directive  may
       limit  the  display  precision, but this will not affect balance asser-
       tions.  Balance assertion failure messages show exact amounts.

   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.

   Balance assignments and prices
       A  transaction  price in a balance assignment will cause the calculated
       amount to have that price attached:

              2019/1/1
                (a)             = $1 @ EUR2

              $ hledger print --explicit
              2019-01-01
                  (a)         $1 @ EUR2 = $1 @ EUR2

   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   di-   subdi-    purpose                        can  affect  (as of
       tive       rective     rec-                                     2018/06)
                              tives
       ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
       account                any       document  account names, de-   all  entries in all
                              text      clare account types  &  dis-   files,  before   or
                                        play order                     after
       alias      end                   rewrite account names          following       in-
                  aliases                                              line/included   en-
                                                                       tries until end  of
                                                                       current file or end
                                                                       directive
       apply      end apply             prepend a common  parent  to   following       in-
       account    account               account names                  line/included   en-
                                                                       tries  until end of
                                                                       current file or end
                                                                       directive
       comment    end  com-             ignore part of journal         following       in-
                  ment                                                 line/included   en-
                                                                       tries until end  of
                                                                       current file or end
                                                                       directive
       commod-                format    declare  a commodity and its   number    notation:
       ity                              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  to be   default  commodity:
                                        used    for    commodityless   following   commod-
                                        amounts,  and its number no-   ityless entries un-
                                        tation & display style         til  end of current
                                                                       file; number  nota-
                                                                       tion: following en-
                                                                       tries in that  com-
                                                                       modity until end of
                                                                       current file;  dis-
                                                                       play 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  re-
                                                                       ports, when  -V  is
                                                                       used
       Y                                declare  a year for yearless   following       in-
                                        dates                          line/included   en-
                                                                       tries until end  of
                                                                       current file

       And some definitions:

       subdi-   optional  indented directive line immediately following a parent
       rec-     directive
       tive
       number   how to interpret numbers when parsing journal entries (the iden-
       nota-    tity  of the decimal separator character).  (Currently each com-
       tion     modity can have its own notation, even in the same file.)
       dis-     how to display amounts of a commodity in  reports  (symbol  side
       play     and spacing, digit groups, decimal separator, decimal places)
       style



       direc-   which  entries  and  (when there are multiple files) which files
       tive     are affected by a directive
       scope

       As you can see, directives vary in which journal entries and files they
       affect, and whether they are focussed on input (parsing) or output (re-
       ports).  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  in-
       clude 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 has several functions:

       1. It  declares  commodities which may be used in the journal.  This is
          currently not enforced, but can serve as documentation.

       2. It declares what decimal mark character (period or comma) to  expect
          when  parsing  input  -  useful to disambiguate international number
          formats in your data.  (Without this, hledger will parse both  1,000
          and 1.000 as 1).

       3. It  declares the amount display style to use in output - decimal and
          digit group marks, number of decimal places, symbol placement etc.

       You are likely to run into one of the problems solved by commodity  di-
       rectives,  sooner or later, so it's a good idea to just always use them
       to declare your commodities.

       A commodity directive is just the word commodity followed by an amount.
       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 1,00,00,000.00

       The quantity of the amount does not matter; only the format is signifi-
       cant.  The number must include a decimal mark: either  a  period  or  a
       comma, followed by 0 or more decimal digits.

   Default commodity
       The  D directive sets a default commodity, to be used for amounts with-
       out a commodity symbol (ie, plain numbers).  This commodity will be ap-
       plied to all subsequent commodity-less amounts, or until the next D di-
       rective.  (Note, this is different from Ledger's D.)

       For compatibility/historical reasons, D also acts like a commodity  di-
       rective, setting the commodity's display style (for output) and decimal
       mark (for parsing input).  As with commodity, the amount must always be
       written  with a decimal mark (period or comma).  If both directives are
       used, commodity's style takes precedence.

       The syntax is D AMOUNT.  Eg:

              ; commodity-less amounts should be treated as dollars
              ; (and displayed with the dollar sign on the left, thousands separators and two decimal places)
              D $1,000.00

              1/1
                a     5  ; <- commodity-less amount, parsed as $5 and displayed as $5.00
                b

   Market prices
       The P directive declares a market price, which is an exchange rate  be-
       tween  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 EUR $1.35
              P 2010/1/1 EUR $1.40

       The  -V/--value flag can be used to convert reported amounts to another
       commodity using these prices.

   Declaring accounts
       account directives can be used to pre-declare accounts.  Though not re-
       quired, they can provide several benefits:

       o They can document your intended chart of accounts, providing a refer-
         ence.

       o They can store extra information  about  accounts  (account  numbers,
         notes, etc.)

       o They  can  help  hledger know your accounts' types (asset, liability,
         equity, revenue, expense), useful for reports like  balancesheet  and
         incomestatement.

       o They  control  account  display order in reports, allowing non-alpha-
         betic sorting (eg Revenues to appear above Expenses).

       o They help with account name completion in the add  command,  hledger-
         iadd, hledger-web, ledger-mode etc.

       The  simplest form is just the word account followed by a hledger-style
       account name, eg:

              account assets:bank:checking

   Account comments
       Comments, beginning with a semicolon, can be added:

       o on the same line, after two or more spaces (because ; is  allowed  in
         account names)

       o on the next lines, indented

       An example of both:

              account assets:bank:checking  ; same-line comment, note 2+ spaces before ;
                ; next-line comment
                ; another with tag, acctno:12345 (not used yet)

       Same-line comments are not supported by Ledger, or hledger <1.13.

   Account subdirectives
       We  also  allow  (and ignore) Ledger-style indented subdirectives, just
       for compatibility.:

              account assets:bank:checking
                format blah blah  ; <- subdirective, ignored

       Here is the full syntax of account directives:

              account ACCTNAME  [ACCTTYPE] [;COMMENT]
                [;COMMENTS]
                [LEDGER-STYLE SUBDIRECTIVES, IGNORED]

   Account types
       hledger recognises five types (or classes) of account:  Asset,  Liabil-
       ity,  Equity, Revenue, Expense.  This is used by a few accounting-aware
       reports such as balancesheet, incomestatement and cashflow.

   Auto-detected account types
       If you name your top-level accounts with some variation of assets, lia-
       bilities/debts,  equity,  revenues/income, or expenses, their types are
       detected automatically.

   Account types declared with tags
       More generally, you can declare an account's type with an  account  di-
       rective,  by  writing  a type: tag in a comment, followed by one of the
       words Asset, Liability, Equity, Revenue, Expense, or one of the letters
       ALERX (case insensitive):

              account assets       ; type:Asset
              account liabilities  ; type:Liability
              account equity       ; type:Equity
              account revenues     ; type:Revenue
              account expenses     ; type:Expense

   Account types declared with account type codes
       Or,  you can write one of those letters separated from the account name
       by two or more spaces, but this should probably  be  considered  depre-
       cated as of hledger 1.13:

              account assets       A
              account liabilities  L
              account equity       E
              account revenues     R
              account expenses     X

   Overriding auto-detected types
       If  you  ever override the types of those auto-detected english account
       names mentioned above, you might need to help the reports a bit.  Eg:

              ; make "liabilities" not have the liability type - who knows why
              account liabilities  ; type:E

              ; we need to ensure some other account has the liability type,
              ; otherwise balancesheet would still show "liabilities" under Liabilities
              account -            ; type:L

   Account display order
       Account directives also set the order in which accounts are  displayed,
       eg  in  reports,  the  hledger-ui  accounts screen, and the hledger-web
       sidebar.  By default accounts are listed in alphabetical order.  But if
       you have these account directives in the journal:

              account assets
              account liabilities
              account equity
              account revenues
              account expenses

       you'll see those accounts displayed in declaration order, not alphabet-
       ically:

              $ hledger accounts -1
              assets
              liabilities
              equity
              revenues
              expenses

       Undeclared accounts, if any, are displayed last, in alphabetical order.

       Note that sorting is done at each level of  the  account  tree  (within
       each  group of sibling accounts under the same parent).  And currently,
       this directive:

              account other:zoo

       would influence the position of zoo among other's subaccounts, but  not
       the position of other among the top-level accounts.  This means:

       o you  will  sometimes declare parent accounts (eg account other above)
         that you don't intend to post to, just to customize their display or-
         der

       o sibling  accounts  stay together (you couldn't display x:y in between
         a:b and a:c).

   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 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  re-
       place  any occurrence of the old account name with the new one.  Subac-
       counts 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.

   Combining aliases
       You can define as many aliases as you like,  using  journal  directives
       and/or command line options.

       Recursive  aliases  -  where an account name is rewritten by one alias,
       then by another alias, and so on - are allowed.  Each  alias  sees  the
       effect of previously applied aliases.

       In  such  cases it can be important to understand which aliases will be
       applied and in which order.  For (each account name  in)  each  journal
       entry, we apply:

       1. alias  directives  preceding the journal entry, most recently parsed
          first (ie, reading upward from the journal entry, bottom to top)

       2. --alias options, in the order they  appeared  on  the  command  line
          (left to right).

       In other words, for (an account name in) a given journal entry:

       o the nearest alias declaration before/above the entry is applied first

       o the next alias before/above that will be be applied next, and so on

       o aliases defined after/below the entry do not affect it.

       This  gives nearby aliases precedence over distant ones, and helps pro-
       vide semantic stability - aliases will keep working the same way  inde-
       pendent of which files are being read and in which order.

       In  case  of  trouble,  adding  --debug=6 to the command line will show
       which aliases are being applied when.

   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 ac-
       counts 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  al-
       low  hledger  to  generate  temporary  future transactions to help with
       forecasting, so you don't have to write out each one  in  the  journal,
       and  it's easy to try out different forecasts.  Secondly, they are also
       used to define the budgets shown in budget reports.

       Periodic transactions can be a little tricky, so before you  use  them,
       read this whole section - or at least these tips:

       1. Two  spaces  accidentally  added or omitted will cause you trouble -
          read about this below.

       2. For troubleshooting, show the generated  transactions  with  hledger
          print   --forecast  tag:generated  or  hledger  register  --forecast
          tag:generated.

       3. Forecasted transactions will begin only  after  the  last  non-fore-
          casted transaction's date.

       4. Forecasted  transactions  will  end 6 months from today, by default.
          See below for the exact start/end rules.

       5. period expressions can be tricky.   Their  documentation  needs  im-
          provement, but is worth studying.

       6. Some  period  expressions  with a repeating interval must begin on a
          natural boundary of that interval.  Eg in  weekly  from  DATE,  DATE
          must  be a monday.  ~ weekly from 2019/10/1 (a tuesday) will give an
          error.

       7. Other period expressions with an interval are automatically expanded
          to  cover a whole number of that interval.  (This is done to improve
          reports, but it also affects periodic transactions.  Yes, it's a bit
          inconsistent  with  the  above.)  Eg: ~ every 10th day of month from
          2020/01, which is equivalent to ~  every  10th  day  of  month  from
          2020/01/01, will be adjusted to start on 2019/12/10.

   Periodic rule syntax
       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.

       Partial  or  relative dates (M/D, D, tomorrow, last week) in the period
       expression can work (useful or not).  They will be relative to  today's
       date,  unless  a  Y  default year directive is in effect, in which case
       they will be relative to Y/1/1.

   Two spaces between period expression and description!
       If the period expression is  followed  by  a  transaction  description,
       these must be separated by two or more spaces.  This helps hledger know
       where the period expression ends, so that descriptions can not acciden-
       tally alter their meaning, as in this example:

              ; 2 or more spaces needed here, so the period is not understood as "every 2 months in 2020"
              ;               ||
              ;               vv
              ~ every 2 months  in 2020, we will review
                  assets:bank:checking   $1500
                  income:acme inc

       So,

       o Do  write two spaces between your period expression and your transac-
         tion description, if any.

       o Don't accidentally write two spaces in the middle of your period  ex-
         pression.

   Forecasting with periodic transactions
       With  the --forecast flag, each periodic transaction rule generates fu-
       ture 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:

       o generated-transaction:~ PERIODICEXPR - shows that this was  generated
         by a periodic transaction rule, and the period

       There  is  also a hidden tag, with an underscore prefix, which does not
       appear in hledger's output:

       o _generated-transaction:~ PERIODICEXPR

       This can be used to match transactions  generated  "just  now",  rather
       than generated in the past and saved to the journal.

       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 Budgeting  and  Fore-
       casting.

   Auto postings / transaction modifiers
       Transaction modifier rules, AKA auto posting rules, describe changes to
       be applied automatically to certain  matched  transactions.   Currently
       just  one  kind of change is possible - adding extra postings, which we
       call "automated postings" or just "auto postings".  These rules  become
       active when you use the --auto flag.

       A transaction modifier rule looks much like a normal transaction except
       the first line is an equals sign followed by a query that matches  cer-
       tain  postings  (mnemonic: = suggests matching).  And each "posting" is
       actually a posting-generating rule:

              = QUERY
                  ACCOUNT  AMOUNT
                  ACCOUNT  [AMOUNT]
                  ...

       These posting-generating rules look like normal  postings,  except  the
       amount can be:

       o a  normal  amount  with a commodity symbol, eg $2.  This will be used
         as-is.

       o a number, eg 2.  The commodity symbol (if any) from the matched post-
         ing will be added to this.

       o a  numeric  multiplier,  eg  *2 (a star followed by a number N).  The
         matched posting's amount (and total price, if any) will be multiplied
         by N.

       o a  multiplier  with a commodity symbol, eg *$2 (a star, number N, and
         symbol S).  The matched posting's amount will be multiplied by N, and
         its commodity symbol will be replaced with S.

       A  query  term  containing  spaces must be enclosed in single or double
       quotes, as on the command line.  Eg, note the quotes around the  second
       query term below:

              = expenses:groceries 'expenses:dining out'
                  (budget:funds:dining out)                 *-1

       These rules have global effect - a rule appearing anywhere in your data
       can potentially affect any transaction, including transactions recorded
       above it or in another file.

       Some examples:

              ; every time I buy food, schedule a dollar donation
              = expenses:food
                  (liabilities:charity)   $-1

              ; when I buy a gift, also deduct that amount from a budget envelope subaccount
              = expenses:gifts
                  assets:checking:gifts  *-1
                  assets:checking         *1

              2017/12/1
                expenses:food    $10
                assets:checking

              2017/12/14
                expenses:gifts   $20
                assets:checking

              $ hledger print --auto
              2017-12-01
                  expenses:food              $10
                  assets:checking
                  (liabilities:charity)      $-1

              2017-12-14
                  expenses:gifts             $20
                  assets:checking
                  assets:checking:gifts     -$20
                  assets:checking            $20

   Auto postings and dates
       A  posting  date (or secondary date) in the matched posting, or (taking
       precedence) a posting date in the auto posting rule itself,  will  also
       be used in the generated posting.

   Auto postings and transaction balancing / inferred amounts / balance asser-
       tions
       Currently, transaction modifiers are applied / auto postings are added:

       o after missing amounts are inferred, and transactions are checked  for
         balancedness,

       o but before balance assertions are checked.

       Note  this  means that journal entries must be balanced both before and
       after auto postings are added.  This changed in hledger 1.12+; see #893
       for background.

   Auto posting tags
       Postings added by transaction modifiers will have some extra tags:

       o generated-posting:= QUERY - shows this was generated by an auto post-
         ing rule, and the query

       o _generated-posting:= QUERY - a hidden tag, which does not  appear  in
         hledger's output.  This can be used to match postings generated "just
         now", rather than generated in the past and saved to the journal.

       Also, any transaction that has been  changed  by  transaction  modifier
       rules will have these tags added:

       o modified: - this transaction was modified

       o _modified: - a hidden tag not appearing in the comment; this transac-
         tion was modified "just now".



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) 2007-2019 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 1.17.0.1                  March 2020                hledger_journal(5)