balance

(bal)

Show accounts and their balances.

_FLAGS

balance is one of hledger's oldest and most versatile commands, for
listing account balances, balance changes, values, value changes and
more, during one time period or many. Generally it shows a table, with
rows representing accounts, and columns representing periods.

Note there are some higher-level variants of the balance command with
convenient defaults, which can be simpler to use: balancesheet,
balancesheetequity, cashflow and incomestatement. When you need more
control, then use balance.

balance features

Here's a quick overview of the balance command's features, followed by
more detailed descriptions and examples. Many of these work with the
higher-level commands as well.

balance can show..

-   accounts as a list (-l) or a tree (-t)
-   optionally depth-limited (-[1-9])
-   sorted by declaration order and name, or by amount

..and their..

-   balance changes (the default)
-   or actual and planned balance changes (--budget)
-   or value of balance changes (-V)
-   or change of balance values (--valuechange)
-   or unrealised capital gain/loss (--gain)
-   or postings count (--count)

..in..

-   one time period (the whole journal period by default)
-   or multiple periods (-D, -W, -M, -Q, -Y, -p INTERVAL)

..either..

-   per period (the default)
-   or accumulated since report start date (--cumulative)
-   or accumulated since account creation (--historical/-H)

..possibly converted to..

-   cost (--value=cost[,COMM]/--cost/-B)
-   or market value, as of transaction dates (--value=then[,COMM])
-   or at period ends (--value=end[,COMM])
-   or now (--value=now)
-   or at some other date (--value=YYYY-MM-DD)

..with..

-   totals (-T), averages (-A), percentages (-%), inverted sign
    (--invert)
-   rows and columns swapped (--transpose)
-   another field used as account name (--pivot)
-   custom-formatted line items (single-period reports only) (--format)
-   commodities displayed on the same line or multiple lines (--layout)

This command supports the output destination and output format options,
with output formats txt, csv, json, and (multi-period reports only:)
html. In txt output in a colour-supporting terminal, negative amounts
are shown in red.

The --related/-r flag shows the balance of the other postings in the
transactions of the postings which would normally be shown.

Simple balance report

With no arguments, balance shows a list of all accounts and their change
of balance - ie, the sum of posting amounts, both inflows and outflows -
during the entire period of the journal. ("Simple" here means just one
column of numbers, covering a single period. You can also have
multi-period reports, described later.)

For real-world accounts, these numbers will normally be their end
balance at the end of the journal period; more on this below.

Accounts are sorted by declaration order if any, and then alphabetically
by account name. For instance (using examples/sample.journal):

$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal bal
                  $1  assets:bank:saving
                 $-2  assets:cash
                  $1  expenses:food
                  $1  expenses:supplies
                 $-1  income:gifts
                 $-1  income:salary
                  $1  liabilities:debts
--------------------
                   0  

Accounts with a zero balance (and no non-zero subaccounts, in tree
mode - see below) are hidden by default. Use -E/--empty to show them
(revealing assets:bank:checking here):

$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal bal  -E
                   0  assets:bank:checking
                  $1  assets:bank:saving
                 $-2  assets:cash
                  $1  expenses:food
                  $1  expenses:supplies
                 $-1  income:gifts
                 $-1  income:salary
                  $1  liabilities:debts
--------------------
                   0  

The total of the amounts displayed is shown as the last line, unless
-N/--no-total is used.

Balance report line format

For single-period balance reports displayed in the terminal (only), you
can use --format FMT to customise the format and content of each line.
Eg:

$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal balance --format "%20(account) %12(total)"
              assets          $-1
         bank:saving           $1
                cash          $-2
            expenses           $2
                food           $1
            supplies           $1
              income          $-2
               gifts          $-1
              salary          $-1
   liabilities:debts           $1
---------------------------------
                                0

The FMT format string specifies the formatting applied to each
account/balance pair. It may contain any suitable text, with data fields
interpolated like so:

%[MIN][.MAX](FIELDNAME)

-   MIN pads with spaces to at least this width (optional)

-   MAX truncates at this width (optional)

-   FIELDNAME must be enclosed in parentheses, and can be one of:

    -   depth_spacer - a number of spaces equal to the account's depth,
        or if MIN is specified, MIN * depth spaces.
    -   account - the account's name
    -   total - the account's balance/posted total, right justified

Also, FMT can begin with an optional prefix to control how
multi-commodity amounts are rendered:

-   %_ - render on multiple lines, bottom-aligned (the default)
-   %^ - render on multiple lines, top-aligned
-   %, - render on one line, comma-separated

There are some quirks. Eg in one-line mode, %(depth_spacer) has no
effect, instead %(account) has indentation built in. Experimentation may
be needed to get pleasing results.

Some example formats:

-   %(total) - the account's total
-   %-20.20(account) - the account's name, left justified, padded to 20
    characters and clipped at 20 characters
-   %,%-50(account)  %25(total) - account name padded to 50 characters,
    total padded to 20 characters, with multiple commodities rendered on
    one line
-   %20(total)  %2(depth_spacer)%-(account) - the default format for the
    single-column balance report

Filtered balance report

You can show fewer accounts, a different time period, totals from
cleared transactions only, etc. by using query arguments or options to
limit the postings being matched. Eg:

$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal bal --cleared assets date:200806
                 $-2  assets:cash
--------------------
                 $-2  

List or tree mode

By default, or with -l/--flat, accounts are shown as a flat list with
their full names visible, as in the examples above.

With -t/--tree, the account hierarchy is shown, with subaccounts' "leaf"
names indented below their parent:

$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal balance
                 $-1  assets
                  $1    bank:saving
                 $-2    cash
                  $2  expenses
                  $1    food
                  $1    supplies
                 $-2  income
                 $-1    gifts
                 $-1    salary
                  $1  liabilities:debts
--------------------
                   0

Notes:

-   "Boring" accounts are combined with their subaccount for more
    compact output, unless --no-elide is used. Boring accounts have no
    balance of their own and just one subaccount (eg assets:bank and
    liabilities above).

-   All balances shown are "inclusive", ie including the balances from
    all subaccounts. Note this means some repetition in the output,
    which requires explanation when sharing reports with
    non-plaintextaccounting-users. A tree mode report's final total is
    the sum of the top-level balances shown, not of all the balances
    shown.

-   Each group of sibling accounts (ie, under a common parent) is sorted
    separately.

Depth limiting

With a depth:NUM query, or --depth NUM option, or just -NUM (eg: -3)
balance reports will show accounts only to the specified depth, hiding
the deeper subaccounts. This can be useful for getting an overview
without too much detail.

Account balances at the depth limit always include the balances from any
deeper subaccounts (even in list mode). Eg, limiting to depth 1:

$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal balance -1
                 $-1  assets
                  $2  expenses
                 $-2  income
                  $1  liabilities
--------------------
                   0  

Dropping top-level accounts

You can also hide one or more top-level account name parts, using
--drop NUM. This can be useful for hiding repetitive top-level account
names:

$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal bal expenses --drop 1
                  $1  food
                  $1  supplies
--------------------
                  $2  

Showing declared accounts

With --declared, accounts which have been declared with an account
directive will be included in the balance report, even if they have no
transactions. (Since they will have a zero balance, you will also need
-E/--empty to see them.)

More precisely, leaf declared accounts (with no subaccounts) will be
included, since those are usually the more useful in reports.

The idea of this is to be able to see a useful "complete" balance
report, even when you don't have transactions in all of your declared
accounts yet.

Sorting by amount

With -S/--sort-amount, accounts with the largest (most positive)
balances are shown first. Eg: hledger bal expenses -MAS shows your
biggest averaged monthly expenses first. When more than one commodity is
present, they will be sorted by the alphabetically earliest commodity
first, and then by subsequent commodities (if an amount is missing a
commodity, it is treated as 0).

Revenues and liability balances are typically negative, however, so -S
shows these in reverse order. To work around this, you can add --invert
to flip the signs. (Or, use one of the higher-level reports, which flip
the sign automatically. Eg: hledger incomestatement -MAS).

Percentages

With -%/--percent, balance reports show each account's value expressed
as a percentage of the (column) total.

Note it is not useful to calculate percentages if the amounts in a
column have mixed signs. In this case, make a separate report for each
sign, eg:

$ hledger bal -% amt:`>0`
$ hledger bal -% amt:`<0`

Similarly, if the amounts in a column have mixed commodities, convert
them to one commodity with -B, -V, -X or --value, or make a separate
report for each commodity:

$ hledger bal -% cur:\\$
$ hledger bal -% cur:€

Multi-period balance report

With a report interval (set by the -D/--daily, -W/--weekly,
-M/--monthly, -Q/--quarterly, -Y/--yearly, or -p/--period flag), balance
shows a tabular report, with columns representing successive time
periods (and a title):

$ hledger -f examples/sample.journal bal --quarterly income expenses -E
Balance changes in 2008:

                   ||  2008q1  2008q2  2008q3  2008q4 
===================++=================================
 expenses:food     ||       0      $1       0       0 
 expenses:supplies ||       0      $1       0       0 
 income:gifts      ||       0     $-1       0       0 
 income:salary     ||     $-1       0       0       0 
-------------------++---------------------------------
                   ||     $-1      $1       0       0 

Notes:

-   The report's start/end dates will be expanded, if necessary, to
    fully encompass the displayed subperiods (so that the first and last
    subperiods have the same duration as the others).
-   Leading and trailing periods (columns) containing all zeroes are not
    shown, unless -E/--empty is used.
-   Accounts (rows) containing all zeroes are not shown, unless
    -E/--empty is used.
-   Amounts with many commodities are shown in abbreviated form, unless
    --no-elide is used. (experimental)
-   Average and/or total columns can be added with the -A/--average and
    -T/--row-total flags.
-   The --transpose flag can be used to exchange rows and columns.
-   The --pivot FIELD option causes a different transaction field to be
    used as "account name". See PIVOTING.

Multi-period reports with many periods can be too wide for easy viewing
in the terminal. Here are some ways to handle that:

-   Hide the totals row with -N/--no-total
-   Convert to a single currency with -V
-   Maximize the terminal window
-   Reduce the terminal's font size
-   View with a pager like less, eg:
    hledger bal -D --color=yes | less -RS
-   Output as CSV and use a CSV viewer like visidata
    (hledger bal -D -O csv | vd -f csv), Emacs' csv-mode
    (M-x csv-mode, C-c C-a), or a spreadsheet
    (hledger bal -D -o a.csv && open a.csv)
-   Output as HTML and view with a browser:
    hledger bal -D -o a.html && open a.html

Balance change, end balance

It's important to be clear on the meaning of the numbers shown in
balance reports. Here is some terminology we use:

A balance change is the net amount added to, or removed from, an account
during some period.

An end balance is the amount accumulated in an account as of some date
(and some time, but hledger doesn't store that; assume end of day in
your timezone). It is the sum of previous balance changes.

We call it a historical end balance if it includes all balance changes
since the account was created. For a real world account, this means it
will match the "historical record", eg the balances reported in your
bank statements or bank web UI. (If they are correct!)

In general, balance changes are what you want to see when reviewing
revenues and expenses, and historical end balances are what you want to
see when reviewing or reconciling asset, liability and equity accounts.

balance shows balance changes by default. To see accurate historical end
balances:

1.  Initialise account starting balances with an "opening balances"
    transaction (a transfer from equity to the account), unless the
    journal covers the account's full lifetime.

2.  Include all of of the account's prior postings in the report, by not
    specifying a report start date, or by using the -H/--historical
    flag. (-H causes report start date to be ignored when summing
    postings.)

Balance report types

The balance command is quite flexible; here is the full detail on how to
control what it reports. If the following seems complicated, don't
worry - this is for advanced reporting, and it does take time and
experimentation to get familiar with all the report modes.

There are three important option groups:

hledger balance [CALCULATIONTYPE] [ACCUMULATIONTYPE] [VALUATIONTYPE] ...

Calculation type

The basic calculation to perform for each table cell. It is one of:

-   --sum : sum the posting amounts (default)
-   --budget : sum the amounts, but also show the budget goal amount
    (for each account/period)
-   --valuechange : show the change in period-end historical balance
    values (caused by deposits, withdrawals, and/or market price
    fluctuations)
-   --gain : show the unrealised capital gain/loss, (the current valued
    balance minus each amount's original cost)
-   --count : show the count of postings

Accumulation type

How amounts should accumulate across report periods. Another way to say
it: which time period's postings should contribute to each cell's
calculation. It is one of:

-   --change : calculate with postings from column start to column end,
    ie "just this column". Typically used to see revenues/expenses.
    (default for balance, incomestatement)

-   --cumulative : calculate with postings from report start to column
    end, ie "previous columns plus this column". Typically used to show
    changes accumulated since the report's start date. Not often used.

-   --historical/-H : calculate with postings from journal start to
    column end, ie "all postings from before report start date until
    this column's end". Typically used to see historical end balances of
    assets/liabilities/equity. (default for balancesheet,
    balancesheetequity, cashflow)

Valuation type

Which kind of value or cost conversion should be applied, if any, before
displaying the report. It is one of:

-   no valuation type : don't convert to cost or value (default)
-   --value=cost[,COMM] : convert amounts to cost (then optionally to
    some other commodity)
-   --value=then[,COMM] : convert amounts to market value on transaction
    dates
-   --value=end[,COMM] : convert amounts to market value on period end
    date(s)
    (default with --valuechange, --gain)
-   --value=now[,COMM] : convert amounts to market value on today's date
-   --value=YYYY-MM-DD[,COMM] : convert amounts to market value on
    another date

or one of the equivalent simpler flags:

-   -B/--cost : like --value=cost (though, note --cost and --value are
    independent options which can both be used at once)
-   -V/--market : like --value=end
-   -X COMM/--exchange COMM : like --value=end,COMM

See Cost reporting and Valuation for more about these.

Combining balance report types

Most combinations of these options should produce reasonable reports,
but if you find any that seem wrong or misleading, let us know. The
following restrictions are applied:

-   --valuechange implies --value=end
-   --valuechange makes --change the default when used with the
    balancesheet/balancesheetequity commands
-   --cumulative or --historical disables --row-total/-T

For reference, here is what the combinations of accumulation and
valuation show:

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Valuation:>        no valuation     --value= then     --value= end    --value= YYYY-MM-DD /now
  Accumulation:v                                                        
  ------------------ ---------------- ----------------- --------------- --------------------------
  --change           change in period sum of            period-end      DATE-value of change in
                                      posting-date      value of change period
                                      market values in  in period       
                                      period                            

  --cumulative       change from      sum of            period-end      DATE-value of change from
                     report start to  posting-date      value of change report start to period end
                     period end       market values     from report     
                                      from report start start to period 
                                      to period end     end             

  --historical /-H   change from      sum of            period-end      DATE-value of change from
                     journal start to posting-date      value of change journal start to period
                     period end       market values     from journal    end
                     (historical end  from journal      start to period 
                     balance)         start to period   end             
                                      end                               
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Budget report

The --budget report type activates extra columns showing any budget
goals for each account and period. The budget goals are defined by
periodic transactions. This is useful for comparing planned and actual
income, expenses, time usage, etc.

For example, you can take average monthly expenses in the common expense
categories to construct a minimal monthly budget:

;; Budget
~ monthly
  income  $2000
  expenses:food    $400
  expenses:bus     $50
  expenses:movies  $30
  assets:bank:checking

;; Two months worth of expenses
2017-11-01
  income  $1950
  expenses:food    $396
  expenses:bus     $49
  expenses:movies  $30
  expenses:supplies  $20
  assets:bank:checking

2017-12-01
  income  $2100
  expenses:food    $412
  expenses:bus     $53
  expenses:gifts   $100
  assets:bank:checking

You can now see a monthly budget report:

$ hledger balance -M --budget
Budget performance in 2017/11/01-2017/12/31:

                      ||                      Nov                       Dec 
======================++====================================================
 assets               || $-2445 [  99% of $-2480]  $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] 
 assets:bank          || $-2445 [  99% of $-2480]  $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] 
 assets:bank:checking || $-2445 [  99% of $-2480]  $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] 
 expenses             ||   $495 [ 103% of   $480]    $565 [ 118% of   $480] 
 expenses:bus         ||    $49 [  98% of    $50]     $53 [ 106% of    $50] 
 expenses:food        ||   $396 [  99% of   $400]    $412 [ 103% of   $400] 
 expenses:movies      ||    $30 [ 100% of    $30]       0 [   0% of    $30] 
 income               ||  $1950 [  98% of  $2000]   $2100 [ 105% of  $2000] 
----------------------++----------------------------------------------------
                      ||      0 [              0]       0 [              0] 

This is different from a normal balance report in several ways.
Currently:

-   Accounts with budget goals during the report period, and their
    parents, are shown.
-   Their subaccounts are not shown (regardless of the depth setting).
-   Accounts without budget goals, if any, are aggregated and shown as
    "<unbudgeted>".
-   Amounts are always inclusive (subaccount-including), even in list
    mode.
-   After each actual amount, the corresponding goal amount and
    percentage of goal reached are also shown, in square brackets.

This means that the numbers displayed will not always add up! Eg above,
the expenses actual amount includes the gifts and supplies transactions,
but the expenses:gifts and expenses:supplies accounts are not shown, as
they have no budget amounts declared.

This can be confusing. When you need to make things clearer, use the
-E/--empty flag, which will reveal all accounts including unbudgeted
ones, giving the full picture. Eg:

$ hledger balance -M --budget --empty
Budget performance in 2017/11/01-2017/12/31:

                      ||                      Nov                       Dec 
======================++====================================================
 assets               || $-2445 [  99% of $-2480]  $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] 
 assets:bank          || $-2445 [  99% of $-2480]  $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] 
 assets:bank:checking || $-2445 [  99% of $-2480]  $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480] 
 expenses             ||   $495 [ 103% of   $480]    $565 [ 118% of   $480] 
 expenses:bus         ||    $49 [  98% of    $50]     $53 [ 106% of    $50] 
 expenses:food        ||   $396 [  99% of   $400]    $412 [ 103% of   $400] 
 expenses:gifts       ||      0                      $100                   
 expenses:movies      ||    $30 [ 100% of    $30]       0 [   0% of    $30] 
 expenses:supplies    ||    $20                         0                   
 income               ||  $1950 [  98% of  $2000]   $2100 [ 105% of  $2000] 
----------------------++----------------------------------------------------
                      ||      0 [              0]       0 [              0] 

You can roll over unspent budgets to next period with --cumulative:

$ hledger balance -M --budget --cumulative
Budget performance in 2017/11/01-2017/12/31:

                      ||                      Nov                       Dec 
======================++====================================================
 assets               || $-2445 [  99% of $-2480]  $-5110 [ 103% of $-4960] 
 assets:bank          || $-2445 [  99% of $-2480]  $-5110 [ 103% of $-4960] 
 assets:bank:checking || $-2445 [  99% of $-2480]  $-5110 [ 103% of $-4960] 
 expenses             ||   $495 [ 103% of   $480]   $1060 [ 110% of   $960] 
 expenses:bus         ||    $49 [  98% of    $50]    $102 [ 102% of   $100] 
 expenses:food        ||   $396 [  99% of   $400]    $808 [ 101% of   $800] 
 expenses:movies      ||    $30 [ 100% of    $30]     $30 [  50% of    $60] 
 income               ||  $1950 [  98% of  $2000]   $4050 [ 101% of  $4000] 
----------------------++----------------------------------------------------
                      ||      0 [              0]       0 [              0] 

It's common to limit budgets/budget reports to just expenses

hledger bal -M --budget expenses

or just revenues and expenses (eg, using account types):

hledger bal -M --budget type:rx

It's also common to limit or convert them to a single currency (cur:COMM
or -X COMM [--infer-market-prices]). If showing multiple currencies,
--layout bare or --layout tall can help.

For more examples and notes, see Budgeting.

Budget report start date

This might be a bug, but for now: when making budget reports, it's a
good idea to explicitly set the report's start date to the first day of
a reporting period, because a periodic rule like ~ monthly generates its
transactions on the 1st of each month, and if your journal has no
regular transactions on the 1st, the default report start date could
exclude that budget goal, which can be a little surprising. Eg here the
default report period is just the day of 2020-01-15:

~ monthly in 2020
  (expenses:food)  $500

2020-01-15
  expenses:food    $400
  assets:checking

$ hledger bal expenses --budget
Budget performance in 2020-01-15:

              || 2020-01-15 
==============++============
 <unbudgeted> ||       $400 
--------------++------------
              ||       $400 

To avoid this, specify the budget report's period, or at least the start
date, with -b/-e/-p/date:, to ensure it includes the budget goal
transactions (periodic transactions) that you want. Eg, adding
-b 2020/1/1 to the above:

$ hledger bal expenses --budget -b 2020/1/1
Budget performance in 2020-01-01..2020-01-15:

               || 2020-01-01..2020-01-15 
===============++========================
 expenses:food ||     $400 [80% of $500] 
---------------++------------------------
               ||     $400 [80% of $500] 

Budgets and subaccounts

You can add budgets to any account in your account hierarchy. If you
have budgets on both parent account and some of its children, then
budget(s) of the child account(s) would be added to the budget of their
parent, much like account balances behave.

In the most simple case this means that once you add a budget to any
account, all its parents would have budget as well.

To illustrate this, consider the following budget:

~ monthly from 2019/01
    expenses:personal             $1,000.00
    expenses:personal:electronics    $100.00
    liabilities

With this, monthly budget for electronics is defined to be $100 and
budget for personal expenses is an additional $1000, which implicitly
means that budget for both expenses:personal and expenses is $1100.

Transactions in expenses:personal:electronics will be counted both
towards its $100 budget and $1100 of expenses:personal , and
transactions in any other subaccount of expenses:personal would be
counted towards only towards the budget of expenses:personal.

For example, let's consider these transactions:

~ monthly from 2019/01
    expenses:personal             $1,000.00
    expenses:personal:electronics    $100.00
    liabilities

2019/01/01 Google home hub
    expenses:personal:electronics          $90.00
    liabilities                           $-90.00

2019/01/02 Phone screen protector
    expenses:personal:electronics:upgrades          $10.00
    liabilities

2019/01/02 Weekly train ticket
    expenses:personal:train tickets       $153.00
    liabilities

2019/01/03 Flowers
    expenses:personal          $30.00
    liabilities

As you can see, we have transactions in
expenses:personal:electronics:upgrades and
expenses:personal:train tickets, and since both of these accounts are
without explicitly defined budget, these transactions would be counted
towards budgets of expenses:personal:electronics and expenses:personal
accordingly:

$ hledger balance --budget -M
Budget performance in 2019/01:

                               ||                           Jan 
===============================++===============================
 expenses                      ||  $283.00 [  26% of  $1100.00] 
 expenses:personal             ||  $283.00 [  26% of  $1100.00] 
 expenses:personal:electronics ||  $100.00 [ 100% of   $100.00] 
 liabilities                   || $-283.00 [  26% of $-1100.00] 
-------------------------------++-------------------------------
                               ||        0 [                 0] 

And with --empty, we can get a better picture of budget allocation and
consumption:

$ hledger balance --budget -M --empty
Budget performance in 2019/01:

                                        ||                           Jan 
========================================++===============================
 expenses                               ||  $283.00 [  26% of  $1100.00] 
 expenses:personal                      ||  $283.00 [  26% of  $1100.00] 
 expenses:personal:electronics          ||  $100.00 [ 100% of   $100.00] 
 expenses:personal:electronics:upgrades ||   $10.00                      
 expenses:personal:train tickets        ||  $153.00                      
 liabilities                            || $-283.00 [  26% of $-1100.00] 
----------------------------------------++-------------------------------
                                        ||        0 [                 0] 

Selecting budget goals

The budget report evaluates periodic transaction rules to generate
special "goal transactions", which generate the goal amounts for each
account in each report subperiod. When troubleshooting, you can use
print --forecast to show these as forecasted transactions:

$ hledger print --forecast=BUDGETREPORTPERIOD tag:generated

By default, the budget report uses all available periodic transaction
rules to generate goals. This includes rules with a different report
interval from your report. Eg if you have daily, weekly and monthly
periodic rules, all of these will contribute to the goals in a monthly
budget report.

You can select a subset of periodic rules by providing an argument to
the --budget flag. --budget=DESCPAT will match all periodic rules whose
description contains DESCPAT, a case-insensitive substring (not a
regular expression or query). This means you can give your periodic
rules descriptions (remember that two spaces are needed), and then
select from multiple budgets defined in your journal.

Budget vs forecast

hledger --forecast ... and hledger balance --budget ... are separate
features, though both of them use the periodic transaction rules defined
in the journal, and both of them generate temporary transactions for
reporting purposes ("forecast transactions" and "budget goal
transactions", respectively). You can use both features at the same time
if you want. Here are some differences between them, as of hledger 1.29:

CLI:

-   --forecast is a general hledger option, usable with any command
-   --budget is a balance command option, usable only with that command.

Visibility of generated transactions:

-   forecast transactions are visible in any report, like ordinary
    transactions
-   budget goal transactions are invisible except for the goal amounts
    they produce in --budget reports.

Periodic transaction rules:

-   --forecast uses all available periodic transaction rules
-   --budget uses all periodic rules (--budget) or a selected subset
    (--budget=DESCPAT)

Period of generated transactions:

-   --forecast generates forecast transactions
    -   from after the last regular transaction to the end of the report
        period (--forecast)
    -   or, during a specified period (--forecast=PERIODEXPR)
    -   possibly further restricted by a period specified in the
        periodic transaction rule
    -   and always restricted within the bounds of the report period
-   --budget generates budget goal transactions
    -   throughout the report period
    -   possibly restricted by a period specified in the periodic
        transaction rule.

Data layout

The --layout option affects how balance reports show multi-commodity
amounts and commodity symbols, which can improve readability. It can
also normalise the data for easy consumption by other programs. It has
four possible values:

-   --layout=wide[,WIDTH]: commodities are shown on a single line,
    optionally elided to WIDTH
-   --layout=tall: each commodity is shown on a separate line
-   --layout=bare: commodity symbols are in their own column, amounts
    are bare numbers
-   --layout=tidy: data is normalised to easily-consumed "tidy" form,
    with one row per data value

Here are the --layout modes supported by each output format; note only
CSV output supports all of them:

  -      txt   csv   html   json   sql
  ------ ----- ----- ------ ------ -----
  wide   Y     Y     Y             
  tall   Y     Y     Y             
  bare   Y     Y     Y             
  tidy         Y                   

Examples:

-   Wide layout. With many commodities, reports can be very wide:

    $ hledger -f examples/bcexample.hledger bal assets:us:etrade -3 -T -Y --layout=wide
    Balance changes in 2012-01-01..2014-12-31:

                      ||                                          2012                                                     2013                                             2014                                                      Total 
    ==================++====================================================================================================================================================================================================================
     Assets:US:ETrade || 10.00 ITOT, 337.18 USD, 12.00 VEA, 106.00 VHT  70.00 GLD, 18.00 ITOT, -98.12 USD, 10.00 VEA, 18.00 VHT  -11.00 ITOT, 4881.44 USD, 14.00 VEA, 170.00 VHT  70.00 GLD, 17.00 ITOT, 5120.50 USD, 36.00 VEA, 294.00 VHT 
    ------------------++--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                      || 10.00 ITOT, 337.18 USD, 12.00 VEA, 106.00 VHT  70.00 GLD, 18.00 ITOT, -98.12 USD, 10.00 VEA, 18.00 VHT  -11.00 ITOT, 4881.44 USD, 14.00 VEA, 170.00 VHT  70.00 GLD, 17.00 ITOT, 5120.50 USD, 36.00 VEA, 294.00 VHT 

-   Limited wide layout. A width limit reduces the width, but some
    commodities will be hidden:

    $ hledger -f examples/bcexample.hledger bal assets:us:etrade -3 -T -Y --layout=wide,32
    Balance changes in 2012-01-01..2014-12-31:

                      ||                             2012                             2013                   2014                            Total 
    ==================++===========================================================================================================================
     Assets:US:ETrade || 10.00 ITOT, 337.18 USD, 2 more..  70.00 GLD, 18.00 ITOT, 3 more..  -11.00 ITOT, 3 more..  70.00 GLD, 17.00 ITOT, 3 more.. 
    ------------------++---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                      || 10.00 ITOT, 337.18 USD, 2 more..  70.00 GLD, 18.00 ITOT, 3 more..  -11.00 ITOT, 3 more..  70.00 GLD, 17.00 ITOT, 3 more.. 

-   Tall layout. Each commodity gets a new line (may be different in
    each column), and account names are repeated:

    $ hledger -f examples/bcexample.hledger bal assets:us:etrade -3 -T -Y --layout=tall
    Balance changes in 2012-01-01..2014-12-31:

                      ||       2012        2013         2014        Total 
    ==================++==================================================
     Assets:US:ETrade || 10.00 ITOT   70.00 GLD  -11.00 ITOT    70.00 GLD 
     Assets:US:ETrade || 337.18 USD  18.00 ITOT  4881.44 USD   17.00 ITOT 
     Assets:US:ETrade ||  12.00 VEA  -98.12 USD    14.00 VEA  5120.50 USD 
     Assets:US:ETrade || 106.00 VHT   10.00 VEA   170.00 VHT    36.00 VEA 
     Assets:US:ETrade ||              18.00 VHT                294.00 VHT 
    ------------------++--------------------------------------------------
                      || 10.00 ITOT   70.00 GLD  -11.00 ITOT    70.00 GLD 
                      || 337.18 USD  18.00 ITOT  4881.44 USD   17.00 ITOT 
                      ||  12.00 VEA  -98.12 USD    14.00 VEA  5120.50 USD 
                      || 106.00 VHT   10.00 VEA   170.00 VHT    36.00 VEA 
                      ||              18.00 VHT                294.00 VHT 

-   Bare layout. Commodity symbols are kept in one column, each
    commodity gets its own report row, account names are repeated:

    $ hledger -f examples/bcexample.hledger bal assets:us:etrade -3 -T -Y --layout=bare
    Balance changes in 2012-01-01..2014-12-31:

                      || Commodity    2012    2013     2014    Total 
    ==================++=============================================
     Assets:US:ETrade || GLD             0   70.00        0    70.00 
     Assets:US:ETrade || ITOT        10.00   18.00   -11.00    17.00 
     Assets:US:ETrade || USD        337.18  -98.12  4881.44  5120.50 
     Assets:US:ETrade || VEA         12.00   10.00    14.00    36.00 
     Assets:US:ETrade || VHT        106.00   18.00   170.00   294.00 
    ------------------++---------------------------------------------
                      || GLD             0   70.00        0    70.00 
                      || ITOT        10.00   18.00   -11.00    17.00 
                      || USD        337.18  -98.12  4881.44  5120.50 
                      || VEA         12.00   10.00    14.00    36.00 
                      || VHT        106.00   18.00   170.00   294.00 

-   Bare layout also affects CSV output, which is useful for producing
    data that is easier to consume, eg for making charts:

    $ hledger -f examples/bcexample.hledger bal assets:us:etrade -3 -O csv --layout=bare
    "account","commodity","balance"
    "Assets:US:ETrade","GLD","70.00"
    "Assets:US:ETrade","ITOT","17.00"
    "Assets:US:ETrade","USD","5120.50"
    "Assets:US:ETrade","VEA","36.00"
    "Assets:US:ETrade","VHT","294.00"
    "total","GLD","70.00"
    "total","ITOT","17.00"
    "total","USD","5120.50"
    "total","VEA","36.00"
    "total","VHT","294.00"

-   Tidy layout produces normalised "tidy data", where every variable
    has its own column and each row represents a single data point. See
    https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/tidyr/vignettes/tidy-data.html
    for more. This is the easiest kind of data for other software to
    consume. Here's how it looks:

    $ hledger -f examples/bcexample.hledger bal assets:us:etrade -3 -Y -O csv --layout=tidy
    "account","period","start_date","end_date","commodity","value"
    "Assets:US:ETrade","2012","2012-01-01","2012-12-31","GLD","0"
    "Assets:US:ETrade","2012","2012-01-01","2012-12-31","ITOT","10.00"
    "Assets:US:ETrade","2012","2012-01-01","2012-12-31","USD","337.18"
    "Assets:US:ETrade","2012","2012-01-01","2012-12-31","VEA","12.00"
    "Assets:US:ETrade","2012","2012-01-01","2012-12-31","VHT","106.00"
    "Assets:US:ETrade","2013","2013-01-01","2013-12-31","GLD","70.00"
    "Assets:US:ETrade","2013","2013-01-01","2013-12-31","ITOT","18.00"
    "Assets:US:ETrade","2013","2013-01-01","2013-12-31","USD","-98.12"
    "Assets:US:ETrade","2013","2013-01-01","2013-12-31","VEA","10.00"
    "Assets:US:ETrade","2013","2013-01-01","2013-12-31","VHT","18.00"
    "Assets:US:ETrade","2014","2014-01-01","2014-12-31","GLD","0"
    "Assets:US:ETrade","2014","2014-01-01","2014-12-31","ITOT","-11.00"
    "Assets:US:ETrade","2014","2014-01-01","2014-12-31","USD","4881.44"
    "Assets:US:ETrade","2014","2014-01-01","2014-12-31","VEA","14.00"
    "Assets:US:ETrade","2014","2014-01-01","2014-12-31","VHT","170.00"

Useful balance reports

Some frequently used balance options/reports are:

-   bal -M revenues expenses
    Show revenues/expenses in each month. Also available as the
    incomestatement command.

-   bal -M -H assets liabilities
    Show historical asset/liability balances at each month end. Also
    available as the balancesheet command.

-   bal -M -H assets liabilities equity
    Show historical asset/liability/equity balances at each month end.
    Also available as the balancesheetequity command.

-   bal -M assets not:receivable
    Show changes to liquid assets in each month. Also available as the
    cashflow command.

Also:

-   bal -M expenses -2 -SA
    Show monthly expenses summarised to depth 2 and sorted by average
    amount.

-   bal -M --budget expenses
    Show monthly expenses and budget goals.

-   bal -M --valuechange investments
    Show monthly change in market value of investment assets.

-   bal investments --valuechange -D date:lastweek amt:'>1000' -STA [--invert]
    Show top gainers [or losers] last week
