This is hledger_journal.info, produced by makeinfo version 6.5 from stdin.  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Top, Next: FILE FORMAT, Up: (dir) hledger_journal(5) hledger 1.9 ****************************** 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 getting. 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 * Menu: * FILE FORMAT:: * Periodic transactions:: * Automated postings:: * EDITOR SUPPORT::  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: FILE FORMAT, Next: Periodic transactions, Prev: Top, Up: Top 1 FILE FORMAT ************* * Menu: * Transactions:: * Postings:: * Dates:: * Status:: * Description:: * Account names:: * Amounts:: * Virtual Postings:: * Balance Assertions:: * Balance Assignments:: * Prices:: * Comments:: * Tags:: * Directives::  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Transactions, Next: Postings, Up: FILE FORMAT 1.1 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: * (optional) a status character (empty, '!', or '*') * (optional) a transaction code (any short number or text, enclosed in parentheses) * (optional) a transaction description (any remaining text until end of line or a semicolon) * (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 representing...  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Postings, Next: Dates, Prev: Transactions, Up: FILE FORMAT 1.2 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: * (optional) a status character (empty, '!', or '*'), followed by a space * (required) an account name (any text, optionally containing *single spaces*, until end of line or a double space) * (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 convenience, 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 spaces. But if you accidentally leave only one space (or tab) before the amount, the amount will be considered part of the account name.  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Dates, Next: Status, Prev: Postings, Up: FILE FORMAT 1.3 Dates ========= * Menu: * Simple dates:: * Secondary dates:: * Posting dates::  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Simple dates, Next: Secondary dates, Up: Dates 1.3.1 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'.  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Secondary dates, Next: Posting dates, Prev: Simple dates, Up: Dates 1.3.2 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 secondary 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 specified ('--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 compatibility, but posting dates are a more powerful and less confusing alternative.  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Posting dates, Prev: Secondary dates, Up: Dates 1.3.3 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.  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Status, Next: Description, Prev: Dates, Up: FILE FORMAT 1.4 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 pending, 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 shortcuts 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 reconciliation) cleared complete, reconciled as far as possible, and considered correct 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.  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Description, Next: Account names, Prev: Status, Up: FILE FORMAT 1.5 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. * Menu: * Payee and note::  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Payee and note, Up: Description 1.5.1 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.  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Account names, Next: Amounts, Prev: Description, Up: FILE FORMAT 1.6 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 receivable'. Because of this, they must always be followed by *two or more spaces* (or newline). Account names can be aliased.  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Amounts, Next: Virtual Postings, Prev: Account names, Up: FILE FORMAT 1.7 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 commodity 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: * amounts are a number (the "quantity") and optionally a currency symbol/commodity name (the "commodity"). * the commodity is a symbol, word, or phrase, on the left or right, with or without a separating space. If the commodity contains numbers, spaces or non-word punctuation it must be enclosed in double quotes. * negative amounts with a commodity on the left can have the minus sign before or after it * 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 * decimal part can be separated by comma or period and should be different from digit groups separator * scientific E-notation is allowed. Be careful not to use a digit group separator character in scientific notation, as it's not supported 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 decimals. 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: * if there is a commodity directive specifying the format, that is used * 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 commmodity * 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.  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Virtual Postings, Next: Balance Assertions, Prev: Amounts, Up: FILE FORMAT 1.8 Virtual Postings ==================== When you parenthesise the account name in a posting, we call that a _virtual posting_, which means: * it is ignored when checking that the transaction is balanced * 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 posting_. This is like an ordinary virtual posting except the balanced virtual postings in a transaction must balance to 0, like the real postings (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.  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Balance Assertions, Next: Balance Assignments, Prev: Virtual Postings, Up: FILE FORMAT 1.9 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 protect 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. * Menu: * Assertions and ordering:: * Assertions and included files:: * Assertions and multiple -f options:: * Assertions and commodities:: * Assertions and subaccounts:: * Assertions and virtual postings::  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Assertions and ordering, Next: Assertions and included files, Up: Balance Assertions 1.9.1 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 different from Ledger, which sorts assertions only by parse order. (Also, Ledger assertions do not see the accumulated effect of repeated postings 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.  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Assertions and included files, Next: Assertions and multiple -f options, Prev: Assertions and ordering, Up: Balance Assertions 1.9.2 Assertions and included files ----------------------------------- With included files, things are a little more complicated. Including preserves the ordering of postings and assertions. If you have multiple 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.  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Assertions and multiple -f options, Next: Assertions and commodities, Prev: Assertions and included files, Up: Balance Assertions 1.9.3 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.  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Assertions and commodities, Next: Assertions and subaccounts, Prev: Assertions and multiple -f options, Up: Balance Assertions 1.9.4 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 partial balance assertion. This is compatible with Ledger, and makes it possible to make assertions about accounts containing multiple commodities. 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.)  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Assertions and subaccounts, Next: Assertions and virtual postings, Prev: Assertions and commodities, Up: Balance Assertions 1.9.5 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  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Assertions and virtual postings, Prev: Assertions and subaccounts, Up: Balance Assertions 1.9.6 Assertions and virtual postings ------------------------------------- Balance assertions are checked against all postings, both real and virtual. They are not affected by the '--real/-R' flag or 'real:' query.  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Balance Assignments, Next: Prices, Prev: Balance Assertions, Up: FILE FORMAT 1.10 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 assignment). 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.  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Prices, Next: Comments, Prev: Balance Assignments, Up: FILE FORMAT 1.11 Prices =========== * Menu: * Transaction prices:: * Market prices::  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Transaction prices, Next: Market prices, Up: Prices 1.11.1 Transaction prices ------------------------- Within a transaction, you can note an amount's price in another commodity. 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. Transaction prices are fixed, and do not change over time. (Ledger users: Ledger uses a different syntax for fixed prices, '{=UNITPRICE}', which hledger currently ignores). 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 Amounts with transaction prices can be displayed in the transaction price's commodity by using the '-B/--cost' flag (except for #551) ("B" is from "cost Basis"). Eg for the above, here is how -B affects the balance report: $ 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  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Market prices, Prev: Transaction prices, Up: Prices 1.11.2 Market prices -------------------- Market prices are not tied to a particular transaction; they represent historical exchange rates between two commodities. (Ledger calls them historical prices.) For example, the prices published by a stock exchange or the foreign exchange market. hledger can use these prices to show the market value of things at a given date, see market value. To record market prices, use P directives in the main journal or in an included file. Their format is: P DATE COMMODITYBEINGPRICED UNITPRICE DATE is a simple date as usual. COMMODITYBEINGPRICED is the symbol of the commodity being priced. UNITPRICE is an ordinary amount (symbol and quantity) in a second commodity, specifying the unit price or conversion rate for the first commodity in terms of the second, on the given date. For example, the following 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  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Comments, Next: Tags, Prev: Prices, Up: FILE FORMAT 1.12 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.) Also, anything between 'comment' and 'end comment' directives is a (multi-line) comment. If there is no 'end comment', the comment extends to the end of the file. You can attach comments to a transaction by writing them after the description 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. 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)  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Tags, Next: Directives, Prev: Comments, Up: FILE FORMAT 1.13 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 newlines. 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, * "'a comment containing'" is just comment text, not a tag * "'tag1'" is a tag with no value * "'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.  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Directives, Prev: Tags, Up: FILE FORMAT 1.14 Directives =============== * Menu: * Account aliases:: * account directive:: * apply account directive:: * Multi-line comments:: * commodity directive:: * Default commodity:: * Default year:: * Including other files::  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Account aliases, Next: account directive, Up: Directives 1.14.1 Account aliases ---------------------- You can define aliases which rewrite your account names (after reading the journal, before generating reports). hledger's account aliases can be useful for: * expanding shorthand account names to their full form, allowing easier data entry and a less verbose journal * adapting old journals to your current chart of accounts * experimenting with new account organisations, like a new hierarchy or combining two accounts into one * customising reports See also Cookbook: rewrite account names. * Menu: * Basic aliases:: * Regex aliases:: * Multiple aliases:: * end aliases::  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Basic aliases, Next: Regex aliases, Up: Account aliases 1.14.1.1 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 full account names. hledger will replace any occurrence of the old account name with the new one. Subaccounts 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"  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Regex aliases, Next: Multiple aliases, Prev: Basic aliases, Up: Account aliases 1.14.1.2 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 REPLACEMENT. If REGEX contains parenthesised match groups, these can be referenced 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 whitespace.  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Multiple aliases, Next: end aliases, Prev: Regex aliases, Up: Account aliases 1.14.1.3 Multiple aliases ......................... You can define as many aliases as you like using directives or command-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 following 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  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: end aliases, Prev: Multiple aliases, Up: Account aliases 1.14.1.4 end aliases .................... You can clear (forget) all currently defined aliases with the 'end aliases' directive: end aliases  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: account directive, Next: apply account directive, Prev: Account aliases, Up: Directives 1.14.2 account directive ------------------------ 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 account display order in reports: accounts with codes are listed before accounts without codes, in increasing code order. (Otherwise, accounts are listed alphabetically.) Account codes should be all numeric digits, unique, and separated from the account name by at least two spaces (since account names may contain 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  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: apply account directive, Next: Multi-line comments, Prev: account directive, Up: Directives 1.14.3 apply account directive ------------------------------ 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 supported.  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Multi-line comments, Next: commodity directive, Prev: apply account directive, Up: Directives 1.14.4 Multi-line comments -------------------------- A line containing just 'comment' starts a multi-line comment, and a line containing just 'end comment' ends it. See comments.  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: commodity directive, Next: Default commodity, Prev: Multi-line comments, Up: Directives 1.14.5 commodity directive -------------------------- The 'commodity' directive predefines commodities (currently this is just informational), and also it may define the display format for amounts in this commodity (overriding the automatically inferred format). 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  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Default commodity, Next: Default year, Prev: commodity directive, Up: Directives 1.14.6 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  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Default year, Next: Including other files, Prev: Default commodity, Up: Directives 1.14.7 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  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Including other files, Prev: Default year, Up: Directives 1.14.8 Including other files ---------------------------- You can pull in the content of additional journal 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. Glob patterns ('*') are not currently supported. The 'include' directive can only be used in journal files. It can include journal, timeclock or timedot files, but not CSV files.  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Periodic transactions, Next: Automated postings, Prev: FILE FORMAT, Up: Top 2 Periodic transactions *********************** Periodic transactions are a kind of rule with a dual purpose: they can specify recurring future transactions (with '--forecast'), or budget goals (with '--budget'). They look a bit like a transaction, except the first line is a tilde ('~') followed by a period expression: ~ weekly assets:bank:checking $400 ; paycheck income:acme inc With '--forecast', each periodic transaction rule generates recurring "forecast" transactions at the specified interval, beginning the day after the latest recorded journal transaction (or today, if there are no transactions) and ending 6 months from today (or at the report end date, if specified). With 'balance --budget', each periodic transaction declares recurring budget goals for the specified accounts. Eg the example above declares the goal of receiving $400 from 'income:acme inc' (and also, depositing $400 into 'assets:bank:checking') every week. For more details, see: balance: Budgeting and Budgeting and Forecasting.  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: Automated postings, Next: EDITOR SUPPORT, Prev: Periodic transactions, Up: Top 3 Automated postings ******************** Automated postings are postings added automatically by rule to certain transactions (with '--auto'). An automated posting rule looks like a transaction where the first line is an equal sign ('=') followed by a query: = 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 assets (budget:gifts) $-20  File: hledger_journal.info, Node: EDITOR SUPPORT, Prev: Automated postings, Up: Top 4 EDITOR SUPPORT **************** Add-on modes exist for various text editors, to make working with journal files easier. They add colour, navigation aids and helpful commands. 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/ledger/wiki/Getting-started Sublime https://github.com/ledger/ledger/wiki/Editing-Ledger-files-with-Sublime-Text-or-RubyMine Text Textmate https://github.com/ledger/ledger/wiki/Using-TextMate-2 Text https://github.com/ledger/ledger/wiki/Editing-Ledger-files-with-TextWrangler Wrangler Visual https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=mark-hansen.hledger-vscode Studio Code  Tag Table: Node: Top76 Node: FILE FORMAT2419 Ref: #file-format2550 Node: Transactions2773 Ref: #transactions2894 Node: Postings3578 Ref: #postings3705 Node: Dates4700 Ref: #dates4815 Node: Simple dates4880 Ref: #simple-dates5006 Node: Secondary dates5372 Ref: #secondary-dates5526 Node: Posting dates7089 Ref: #posting-dates7218 Node: Status8592 Ref: #status8712 Node: Description10420 Ref: #description10558 Node: Payee and note10877 Ref: #payee-and-note10991 Node: Account names11233 Ref: #account-names11376 Node: Amounts11863 Ref: #amounts11999 Node: Virtual Postings15014 Ref: #virtual-postings15173 Node: Balance Assertions16393 Ref: #balance-assertions16568 Node: Assertions and ordering17464 Ref: #assertions-and-ordering17650 Node: Assertions and included files18350 Ref: #assertions-and-included-files18591 Node: Assertions and multiple -f options18924 Ref: #assertions-and-multiple--f-options19178 Node: Assertions and commodities19310 Ref: #assertions-and-commodities19545 Node: Assertions and subaccounts20241 Ref: #assertions-and-subaccounts20473 Node: Assertions and virtual postings20994 Ref: #assertions-and-virtual-postings21201 Node: Balance Assignments21343 Ref: #balance-assignments21512 Node: Prices22632 Ref: #prices22765 Node: Transaction prices22816 Ref: #transaction-prices22961 Node: Market prices25117 Ref: #market-prices25252 Node: Comments26212 Ref: #comments26334 Node: Tags27576 Ref: #tags27694 Node: Directives29096 Ref: #directives29209 Node: Account aliases29402 Ref: #account-aliases29546 Node: Basic aliases30150 Ref: #basic-aliases30293 Node: Regex aliases30983 Ref: #regex-aliases31151 Node: Multiple aliases31869 Ref: #multiple-aliases32041 Node: end aliases32539 Ref: #end-aliases32679 Node: account directive32780 Ref: #account-directive32960 Node: apply account directive34307 Ref: #apply-account-directive34503 Node: Multi-line comments35162 Ref: #multi-line-comments35352 Node: commodity directive35480 Ref: #commodity-directive35664 Node: Default commodity36536 Ref: #default-commodity36709 Node: Default year37246 Ref: #default-year37411 Node: Including other files37834 Ref: #including-other-files37991 Node: Periodic transactions38388 Ref: #periodic-transactions38554 Node: Automated postings39543 Ref: #automated-postings39706 Node: EDITOR SUPPORT40608 Ref: #editor-support40733  End Tag Table