
hledger(1)                   hledger User Manuals                   hledger(1)



NAME
       hledger - a command-line accounting tool

SYNOPSIS
       hledger [-f FILE] COMMAND [OPTIONS] [ARGS]
       hledger [-f FILE] ADDONCMD -- [OPTIONS] [ARGS]
       hledger

DESCRIPTION
       hledger  is  a  reliable,  cross-platform  set of programs for tracking
       money, time, or any other commodity, using double-entry accounting  and
       a  simple,  editable  file  format.  hledger is inspired by and largely
       compatible with ledger(1).

       This is hledger's command-line interface (there are also  terminal  and
       web  interfaces).   Its basic function is to read a plain text file de-
       scribing financial transactions (in accounting terms, a  general  jour-
       nal)  and  print  useful  reports on standard output, or export them as
       CSV.  hledger can also read some other file formats such as CSV  files,
       translating  them to journal format.  Additionally, hledger lists other
       hledger-* executables found in the user's $PATH and can invoke them  as
       subcommands.

       hledger  reads  data  from  one or more files in hledger journal, time-
       clock, timedot, or CSV format specified with -f,  or  $LEDGER_FILE,  or
       $HOME/.hledger.journal           (on          windows,          perhaps
       C:/Users/USER/.hledger.journal).  If using $LEDGER_FILE, note this must
       be  a real environment variable, not a shell variable.  You can specify
       standard input with -f-.

       Transactions are dated movements of money between two (or  more)  named
       accounts, and are recorded with journal entries like this:

              2015/10/16 bought food
               expenses:food          $10
               assets:cash

       For more about this format, see hledger_journal(5).

       Most  users use a text editor to edit the journal, usually with an edi-
       tor mode such as ledger-mode for added convenience.  hledger's interac-
       tive  add  command  is another way to record new transactions.  hledger
       never changes existing transactions.

       To get started, you can either save some  entries  like  the  above  in
       ~/.hledger.journal,  or  run  hledger add and follow the prompts.  Then
       try some commands like hledger print or hledger balance.   Run  hledger
       with no arguments for a list of commands.

COMMON TASKS
       Here  are  some  quick  examples  of  how  to  do some basic tasks with
       hledger.  For more  details,  see  the  reference  section  below,  the
       hledger_journal(5)    manual,   or   the   more   extensive   docs   at
       https://hledger.org.

   Getting help
              $ hledger                 # show available commands
              $ hledger --help          # show common options
              $ hledger CMD --help      # show common and command options, and command help
              $ hledger help            # show available manuals/topics
              $ hledger help hledger    # show hledger manual as info/man/text (auto-chosen)
              $ hledger help journal --man  # show the journal manual as a man page
              $ hledger help --help     # show more detailed help for the help command

       Find   more   docs,   chat,   mail   list,   reddit,   issue   tracker:
       https://hledger.org#help-feedback

   Constructing command lines
       hledger  has  an  extensive  and  powerful  command line interface.  We
       strive to keep it simple and ergonomic, but you may run into one of the
       confusing real world details described in OPTIONS, below.  If that hap-
       pens, here are some tips that may help:

       o command-specific options must go after the command (it's fine to  put
         all options there) (hledger CMD OPTS ARGS)

       o running  add-on  executables directly simplifies command line parsing
         (hledger-ui OPTS ARGS)

       o enclose "problematic" args in single quotes

       o if needed, also add a backslash to hide regular expression  metachar-
         acters from the shell

       o to see how a misbehaving command is being parsed, add --debug=2.

   Starting a journal file
       hledger   looks   for   your   accounting   data  in  a  journal  file,
       $HOME/.hledger.journal by default:

              $ hledger stats
              The hledger journal file "/Users/simon/.hledger.journal" was not found.
              Please create it first, eg with "hledger add" or a text editor.
              Or, specify an existing journal file with -f or LEDGER_FILE.

       You can override this by setting the LEDGER_FILE environment  variable.
       It's a good practice to keep this important file under version control,
       and to start a new file each year.  So  you  could  do  something  like
       this:

              $ mkdir ~/finance
              $ cd ~/finance
              $ git init
              Initialized empty Git repository in /Users/simon/finance/.git/
              $ touch 2020.journal
              $ echo "export LEDGER_FILE=$HOME/finance/2020.journal" >> ~/.bashrc
              $ source ~/.bashrc
              $ hledger stats
              Main file                : /Users/simon/finance/2020.journal
              Included files           :
              Transactions span        :  to  (0 days)
              Last transaction         : none
              Transactions             : 0 (0.0 per day)
              Transactions last 30 days: 0 (0.0 per day)
              Transactions last 7 days : 0 (0.0 per day)
              Payees/descriptions      : 0
              Accounts                 : 0 (depth 0)
              Commodities              : 0 ()
              Market prices            : 0 ()

   Setting opening balances
       Pick  a  starting  date  for which you can look up the balances of some
       real-world assets (bank accounts,  wallet..)  and  liabilities  (credit
       cards..).

       To  avoid  a  lot of data entry, you may want to start with just one or
       two accounts, like your checking account or cash wallet; and pick a re-
       cent  starting  date, like today or the start of the week.  You can al-
       ways come back later and add more accounts and older  transactions,  eg
       going back to january 1st.

       Add  an opening balances transaction to the journal, declaring the bal-
       ances on this date.  Here are two ways to do it:

       o The first way: open the journal in any text editor and save an  entry
         like this:

                2020-01-01 * opening balances
                    assets:bank:checking                $1000   = $1000
                    assets:bank:savings                 $2000   = $2000
                    assets:cash                          $100   = $100
                    liabilities:creditcard               $-50   = $-50
                    equity:opening/closing balances

         These  are  start-of-day  balances, ie whatever was in the account at
         the end of the previous day.

         The * after the date is an  optional  status  flag.   Here  it  means
         "cleared & confirmed".

         The  currency symbols are optional, but usually a good idea as you'll
         be dealing with multiple currencies sooner or later.

         The = amounts are optional balance assertions, providing extra  error
         checking.

       o The  second  way:  run hledger add and follow the prompts to record a
         similar transaction:

                $ hledger add
                Adding transactions to journal file /Users/simon/finance/2020.journal
                Any command line arguments will be used as defaults.
                Use tab key to complete, readline keys to edit, enter to accept defaults.
                An optional (CODE) may follow transaction dates.
                An optional ; COMMENT may follow descriptions or amounts.
                If you make a mistake, enter < at any prompt to go one step backward.
                To end a transaction, enter . when prompted.
                To quit, enter . at a date prompt or press control-d or control-c.
                Date [2020-02-07]: 2020-01-01
                Description: * opening balances
                Account 1: assets:bank:checking
                Amount  1: $1000
                Account 2: assets:bank:savings
                Amount  2 [$-1000]: $2000
                Account 3: assets:cash
                Amount  3 [$-3000]: $100
                Account 4: liabilities:creditcard
                Amount  4 [$-3100]: $-50
                Account 5: equity:opening/closing balances
                Amount  5 [$-3050]:
                Account 6 (or . or enter to finish this transaction): .
                2020-01-01 * opening balances
                    assets:bank:checking                      $1000
                    assets:bank:savings                       $2000
                    assets:cash                                $100
                    liabilities:creditcard                     $-50
                    equity:opening/closing balances          $-3050

                Save this transaction to the journal ? [y]:
                Saved.
                Starting the next transaction (. or ctrl-D/ctrl-C to quit)
                Date [2020-01-01]: .

       If you're using version control, this could be a good  time  to  commit
       the journal.  Eg:

              $ git commit -m 'initial balances' 2020.journal

   Recording transactions
       As  you spend or receive money, you can record these transactions using
       one of the methods above (text editor, hledger add)  or  by  using  the
       hledger-iadd  or hledger-web add-ons, or by using the import command to
       convert CSV data downloaded from your bank.

       Here are some simple transactions, see  the  hledger_journal(5)  manual
       and hledger.org for more ideas:

              2020/1/10 * gift received
                assets:cash   $20
                income:gifts

              2020.1.12 * farmers market
                expenses:food    $13
                assets:cash

              2020-01-15 paycheck
                income:salary
                assets:bank:checking    $1000

   Reconciling
       Periodically  you should reconcile - compare your hledger-reported bal-
       ances against external sources of truth, like bank statements  or  your
       bank's  website - to be sure that your ledger accurately represents the
       real-world balances (and, that the  real-world  institutions  have  not
       made  a  mistake!).   This gets easy and fast with (1) practice and (2)
       frequency.  If you do it daily, it can take 2-10 minutes.  If  you  let
       it  pile  up, expect it to take longer as you hunt down errors and dis-
       crepancies.

       A typical workflow:

       1. Reconcile cash.  Count what's in your  wallet.   Compare  with  what
          hledger  reports  (hledger bal cash).  If they are different, try to
          remember the missing transaction, or look for the error in  the  al-
          ready-recorded  transactions.   A  register  report  can  be helpful
          (hledger reg cash).  If you can't find the error, add an  adjustment
          transaction.  Eg if you have $105 after the above, and can't explain
          the missing $2, it could be:

                  2020-01-16 * adjust cash
                      assets:cash    $-2 = $105
                      expenses:misc

       2. Reconcile checking.  Log in to your bank's website.  Compare today's
          (cleared) balance with hledger's cleared balance (hledger bal check-
          ing -C).  If they are different, track down the error or record  the
          missing  transaction(s) or add an adjustment transaction, similar to
          the above.  Unlike the cash case, you can usually compare the trans-
          action  history  and running balance from your bank with the one re-
          ported by hledger reg checking -C.  This will be easier if you  gen-
          erally  record transaction dates quite similar to your bank's clear-
          ing dates.

       3. Repeat for other asset/liability accounts.

       Tip: instead of the register command, use hledger-ui to see a  live-up-
       dating register while you edit the journal: hledger-ui --watch --regis-
       ter checking -C

       After reconciling, it could be a  good  time  to  mark  the  reconciled
       transactions'  status  as "cleared and confirmed", if you want to track
       that, by adding the * marker.  Eg in the  paycheck  transaction  above,
       insert * between 2020-01-15 and paycheck

       If  you're using version control, this can be another good time to com-
       mit:

              $ git commit -m 'txns' 2020.journal

   Reporting
       Here are some basic reports.

       Show all transactions:

              $ hledger print
              2020-01-01 * opening balances
                  assets:bank:checking                      $1000
                  assets:bank:savings                       $2000
                  assets:cash                                $100
                  liabilities:creditcard                     $-50
                  equity:opening/closing balances          $-3050

              2020-01-10 * gift received
                  assets:cash              $20
                  income:gifts

              2020-01-12 * farmers market
                  expenses:food             $13
                  assets:cash

              2020-01-15 * paycheck
                  income:salary
                  assets:bank:checking           $1000

              2020-01-16 * adjust cash
                  assets:cash               $-2 = $105
                  expenses:misc

       Show account names, and their hierarchy:

              $ hledger accounts --tree
              assets
                bank
                  checking
                  savings
                cash
              equity
                opening/closing balances
              expenses
                food
                misc
              income
                gifts
                salary
              liabilities
                creditcard

       Show all account totals:

              $ hledger balance
                             $4105  assets
                             $4000    bank
                             $2000      checking
                             $2000      savings
                              $105    cash
                            $-3050  equity:opening/closing balances
                               $15  expenses
                               $13    food
                                $2    misc
                            $-1020  income
                              $-20    gifts
                            $-1000    salary
                              $-50  liabilities:creditcard
              --------------------
                                 0

       Show only asset and liability balances, as  a  flat  list,  limited  to
       depth 2:

              $ hledger bal assets liabilities --flat -2
                             $4000  assets:bank
                              $105  assets:cash
                              $-50  liabilities:creditcard
              --------------------
                             $4055

       Show  the  same  thing  without negative numbers, formatted as a simple
       balance sheet:

              $ hledger bs --flat -2
              Balance Sheet 2020-01-16

                                      || 2020-01-16
              ========================++============
               Assets                 ||
              ------------------------++------------
               assets:bank            ||      $4000
               assets:cash            ||       $105
              ------------------------++------------
                                      ||      $4105
              ========================++============
               Liabilities            ||
              ------------------------++------------
               liabilities:creditcard ||        $50
              ------------------------++------------
                                      ||        $50
              ========================++============
               Net:                   ||      $4055

       The final total is your "net worth" on the end date.  (Or use bse for a
       full balance sheet with equity.)

       Show income and expense totals, formatted as an income statement:

              hledger is
              Income Statement 2020-01-01-2020-01-16

                             || 2020-01-01-2020-01-16
              ===============++=======================
               Revenues      ||
              ---------------++-----------------------
               income:gifts  ||                   $20
               income:salary ||                 $1000
              ---------------++-----------------------
                             ||                 $1020
              ===============++=======================
               Expenses      ||
              ---------------++-----------------------
               expenses:food ||                   $13
               expenses:misc ||                    $2
              ---------------++-----------------------
                             ||                   $15
              ===============++=======================
               Net:          ||                 $1005

       The final total is your net income during this period.

       Show transactions affecting your wallet, with running total:

              $ hledger register cash
              2020-01-01 opening balances     assets:cash                   $100          $100
              2020-01-10 gift received        assets:cash                    $20          $120
              2020-01-12 farmers market       assets:cash                   $-13          $107
              2020-01-16 adjust cash          assets:cash                    $-2          $105

       Show weekly posting counts as a bar chart:

              $ hledger activity -W
              2019-12-30 *****
              2020-01-06 ****
              2020-01-13 ****

   Migrating to a new file
       At  the end of the year, you may want to continue your journal in a new
       file, so that old transactions don't slow down or clutter your reports,
       and  to  help ensure the integrity of your accounting history.  See the
       close command.

       If using version control, don't forget to git add the new file.

OPTIONS
   General options
       To see general usage help, including general  options  which  are  sup-
       ported by most hledger commands, run hledger -h.

       General help options:

       -h --help
              show general usage (or after COMMAND, command usage)

       --version
              show version

       --debug[=N]
              show debug output (levels 1-9, default: 1)

       General input options:

       -f FILE --file=FILE
              use  a  different  input  file.   For  stdin,  use  -  (default:
              $LEDGER_FILE or $HOME/.hledger.journal)

       --rules-file=RULESFILE
              Conversion  rules  file  to  use  when  reading  CSV   (default:
              FILE.rules)

       --separator=CHAR
              Field separator to expect when reading CSV (default: ',')

       --alias=OLD=NEW
              rename accounts named OLD to NEW

       --anon anonymize accounts and payees

       --pivot FIELDNAME
              use some other field or tag for the account name

       -I --ignore-assertions
              disable balance assertion checks (note: does not disable balance
              assignments)

       General reporting options:

       -b --begin=DATE
              include postings/txns on or after this date

       -e --end=DATE
              include postings/txns before this date

       -D --daily
              multiperiod/multicolumn report by day

       -W --weekly
              multiperiod/multicolumn report by week

       -M --monthly
              multiperiod/multicolumn report by month

       -Q --quarterly
              multiperiod/multicolumn report by quarter

       -Y --yearly
              multiperiod/multicolumn report by year

       -p --period=PERIODEXP
              set start date, end date, and/or reporting interval all at  once
              using period expressions syntax

       --date2
              match the secondary date instead (see command help for other ef-
              fects)

       -U --unmarked
              include only unmarked postings/txns (can combine with -P or -C)

       -P --pending
              include only pending postings/txns

       -C --cleared
              include only cleared postings/txns

       -R --real
              include only non-virtual postings

       -NUM --depth=NUM
              hide/aggregate accounts or postings more than NUM levels deep

       -E --empty
              show items with zero amount, normally hidden (and vice-versa  in
              hledger-ui/hledger-web)

       -B --cost
              convert amounts to their cost/selling amount at transaction time

       -V --market
              convert  amounts to their market value in default valuation com-
              modities

       -X --exchange=COMM
              convert amounts to their market value in commodity COMM

       --value
              convert amounts to cost or  market  value,  more  flexibly  than
              -B/-V/-X

       --infer-value
              with -V/-X/--value, also infer market prices from transactions

       --auto apply automated posting rules to modify transactions.

       --forecast
              generate  future  transactions  from periodic transaction rules,
              for the next 6 months or till report end date.   In  hledger-ui,
              also make ordinary future transactions visible.

       --color=WHEN (or --colour=WHEN)
              Should  color-supporting  commands  use ANSI color codes in text
              output.  'auto' (default): whenever stdout seems to be a  color-
              supporting  terminal.  'always' or 'yes': always, useful eg when
              piping output into  'less  -R'.   'never'  or  'no':  never.   A
              NO_COLOR environment variable overrides this.

       When a reporting option appears more than once in the command line, the
       last one takes precedence.

       Some reporting options can also be written as query arguments.

   Command options
       To see options for a particular command, including command-specific op-
       tions, run: hledger COMMAND -h.

       Command-specific  options  must  be written after the command name, eg:
       hledger print -x.

       Additionally, if the command is an addon, you may need to put  its  op-
       tions  after  a  double-hyphen, eg: hledger ui -- --watch.  Or, you can
       run the addon executable directly: hledger-ui --watch.

   Command arguments
       Most hledger commands accept arguments after the  command  name,  which
       are often a query, filtering the data in some way.

       You  can  save  a  set of command line options/arguments in a file, and
       then reuse them by writing @FILENAME as a command line  argument.   Eg:
       hledger  bal  @foo.args.   (To prevent this, eg if you have an argument
       that begins with a literal @, precede it with --, eg:  hledger  bal  --
       @ARG).

       Inside  the  argument file, each line should contain just one option or
       argument.  Avoid the use of spaces, except inside quotes (or you'll see
       a  confusing  error).  Between a flag and its argument, use = (or noth-
       ing).  Bad:

              assets depth:2
              -X USD

       Good:

              assets
              depth:2
              -X=USD

       For special characters (see below), use one less level of quoting  than
       you would at the command prompt.  Bad:

              -X"$"

       Good:

              -X$

       See also: Save frequently used options.

   Queries
       One  of  hledger's strengths is being able to quickly report on precise
       subsets of your data.  Most commands accept an optional  query  expres-
       sion,  written  as arguments after the command name, to filter the data
       by date, account name or other criteria.  The syntax is  similar  to  a
       web search: one or more space-separated search terms, quotes to enclose
       whitespace, prefixes to match specific fields, a not: prefix to  negate
       the match.

       We  do  not yet support arbitrary boolean combinations of search terms;
       instead most commands show transactions/postings/accounts  which  match
       (or negatively match):

       o any of the description terms AND

       o any of the account terms AND

       o any of the status terms AND

       o all the other terms.

       The print command instead shows transactions which:

       o match any of the description terms AND

       o have any postings matching any of the positive account terms AND

       o have no postings matching any of the negative account terms AND

       o match all the other terms.

       The  following  kinds  of search terms can be used.  Remember these can
       also be prefixed with not:, eg to exclude a particular subaccount.

       REGEX, acct:REGEX
              match account names by this regular expression.  (With  no  pre-
              fix, acct: is assumed.)  same as above

       amt:N, amt:<N, amt:<=N, amt:>N, amt:>=N
              match  postings with a single-commodity amount that is equal to,
              less than, or greater than N.  (Multi-commodity amounts are  not
              tested, and will always match.) The comparison has two modes: if
              N is preceded by a + or - sign (or is 0), the two signed numbers
              are  compared.  Otherwise, the absolute magnitudes are compared,
              ignoring sign.

       code:REGEX
              match by transaction code (eg check number)

       cur:REGEX
              match postings or transactions including any amounts whose  cur-
              rency/commodity  symbol  is fully matched by REGEX.  (For a par-
              tial match, use .*REGEX.*).  Note, to match characters which are
              regex-significant, like the dollar sign ($), you need to prepend
              \.  And when using the command line you need  to  add  one  more
              level  of  quoting  to hide it from the shell, so eg do: hledger
              print cur:'\$' or hledger print cur:\\$.

       desc:REGEX
              match transaction descriptions.

       date:PERIODEXPR
              match dates within the specified period.  PERIODEXPR is a period
              expression  (with  no  report  interval).   Examples: date:2016,
              date:thismonth,  date:2000/2/1-2/15,  date:lastweek-.   If   the
              --date2  command  line  flag  is present, this matches secondary
              dates instead.

       date2:PERIODEXPR
              match secondary dates within the specified period.

       depth:N
              match (or display, depending on command) accounts  at  or  above
              this depth

       note:REGEX
              match  transaction  notes  (part  of  description right of |, or
              whole description when there's no |)

       payee:REGEX
              match transaction payee/payer names (part of description left of
              |, or whole description when there's no |)

       real:, real:0
              match real or virtual postings respectively

       status:, status:!, status:*
              match unmarked, pending, or cleared transactions respectively

       tag:REGEX[=REGEX]
              match  by  tag  name,  and optionally also by tag value.  Note a
              tag: query is considered to match a transaction  if  it  matches
              any  of  the  postings.  Also remember that postings inherit the
              tags of their parent transaction.

       The following special search term is used automatically in hledger-web,
       only:

       inacct:ACCTNAME
              tells  hledger-web to show the transaction register for this ac-
              count.  Can be filtered further with acct etc.

       Some of these can also be expressed as command-line options (eg depth:2
       is  equivalent  to --depth 2).  Generally you can mix options and query
       arguments, and the resulting query will be their intersection  (perhaps
       excluding the -p/--period option).

   Special characters in arguments and queries
       In shell command lines, option and argument values which contain "prob-
       lematic" characters, ie spaces, and also characters significant to your
       shell  such as <, >, (, ), | and $, should be escaped by enclosing them
       in quotes or by writing backslashes before the characters.  Eg:

       hledger  register  -p  'last  year'   "accounts   receivable   (receiv-
       able|payable)" amt:\>100.

   More escaping
       Characters significant both to the shell and in regular expressions may
       need one extra level of escaping.  These include parentheses, the  pipe
       symbol and the dollar sign.  Eg, to match the dollar symbol, bash users
       should do:

       hledger balance cur:'\$'

       or:

       hledger balance cur:\\$

   Even more escaping
       When hledger runs an addon executable (eg you type hledger ui,  hledger
       runs  hledger-ui),  it  de-escapes  command-line  options and arguments
       once, so you might need to triple-escape.  Eg in bash, running  the  ui
       command and matching the dollar sign, it's:

       hledger ui cur:'\\$'

       or:

       hledger ui cur:\\\\$

       If you asked why four slashes above, this may help:

       unescaped:        $
       escaped:          \$
       double-escaped:   \\$
       triple-escaped:   \\\\$

       (The number of backslashes in fish shell is left as an exercise for the
       reader.)

       You can always avoid the extra escaping for addons by running the addon
       directly:

       hledger-ui cur:\\$

   Less escaping
       Inside  an  argument  file,  or  in  the  search field of hledger-ui or
       hledger-web, or at a GHCI prompt, you need one less level  of  escaping
       than at the command line.  And backslashes may work better than quotes.
       Eg:

       ghci> :main balance cur:\$

   Unicode characters
       hledger is expected to handle non-ascii characters correctly:

       o they should be parsed correctly in input files  and  on  the  command
         line,  by all hledger tools (add, iadd, hledger-web's search/add/edit
         forms, etc.)

       o they should be displayed correctly by  all  hledger  tools,  and  on-
         screen alignment should be preserved.

       This requires a well-configured environment.  Here are some tips:

       o A  system  locale must be configured, and it must be one that can de-
         code the characters being used.  In bash, you can set a  locale  like
         this:  export LANG=en_US.UTF-8.  There are some more details in Trou-
         bleshooting.  This step is essential - without it, hledger will  quit
         on  encountering a non-ascii character (as with all GHC-compiled pro-
         grams).

       o your terminal software (eg  Terminal.app,  iTerm,  CMD.exe,  xterm..)
         must support unicode

       o the terminal must be using a font which includes the required unicode
         glyphs

       o the terminal should be configured to display wide characters as  dou-
         ble width (for report alignment)

       o on  Windows, for best results you should run hledger in the same kind
         of environment in which it was built.  Eg hledger built in the  stan-
         dard  CMD.EXE  environment  (like  the binaries on our download page)
         might show display problems when run in a cygwin  or  msys  terminal,
         and vice versa.  (See eg #961).

   Input files
       hledger reads transactions from a data file (and the add command writes
       to it).  By default this file is $HOME/.hledger.journal (or on Windows,
       something  like C:/Users/USER/.hledger.journal).  You can override this
       with the $LEDGER_FILE environment variable:

              $ setenv LEDGER_FILE ~/finance/2016.journal
              $ hledger stats

       or with the -f/--file option:

              $ hledger -f /some/file stats

       The file name - (hyphen) means standard input:

              $ cat some.journal | hledger -f-

       Usually the data file is in hledger's journal format, but it can be  in
       any of the supported file formats, which currently are:

       Reader:    Reads:                                    Used  for  file  exten-
                                                            sions:
       -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
       journal    hledger journal files and  some  Ledger   .journal   .j  .hledger
                  journals, for transactions                .ledger
       time-      timeclock  files, for precise time log-   .timeclock
       clock      ging
       timedot    timedot  files,  for  approximate  time   .timedot
                  logging
       csv        comma/semicolon/tab/other-separated       .csv .ssv .tsv
                  values, for data import

       hledger detects the format automatically based on the  file  extensions
       shown  above.   If  it  can't  recognise the file extension, it assumes
       journal format.  So for non-journal files,  it's  important  to  use  a
       recognised file extension, so as to either read successfully or to show
       relevant error messages.

       When you can't ensure the right file extension, not to worry:  you  can
       force a specific reader/format by prefixing the file path with the for-
       mat and a colon.  Eg to read a .dat file as csv:

              $ hledger -f csv:/some/csv-file.dat stats
              $ echo 'i 2009/13/1 08:00:00' | hledger print -ftimeclock:-

       You can specify multiple -f options, to read multiple files as one  big
       journal.  There are some limitations with this:

       o directives in one file will not affect the other files

       o balance  assertions  will  not see any account balances from previous
         files

       If you need either of those things, you can

       o use a single parent file which includes the others

       o or concatenate the files into one before reading, eg:  cat  a.journal
         b.journal | hledger -f- CMD.

   Output destination
       hledger commands send their output to the terminal by default.  You can
       of course redirect this, eg into a file, using standard shell syntax:

              $ hledger print > foo.txt

       Some commands (print, register, stats, the balance commands) also  pro-
       vide  the  -o/--output-file  option,  which does the same thing without
       needing the shell.  Eg:

              $ hledger print -o foo.txt
              $ hledger print -o -        # write to stdout (the default)

   Output format
       Some commands (print, register, the balance commands) offer a choice of
       output format.  In addition to the usual plain text format (txt), there
       are CSV (csv), HTML (html), JSON (json) and SQL (sql).   This  is  con-
       trolled by the -O/--output-format option:

              $ hledger print -O csv

       or, by a file extension specified with -o/--output-file:

              $ hledger balancesheet -o foo.html   # write HTML to foo.html

       The -O option can be used to override the file extension if needed:

              $ hledger balancesheet -o foo.txt -O html   # write HTML to foo.txt

       Some notes about JSON output:

       o This  feature  is  marked  experimental,  and  not yet much used; you
         should expect our JSON to evolve.  Real-world feedback is welcome.

       o Our JSON is rather large and verbose, as it is quite a faithful  rep-
         resentation  of  hledger's  internal  data  types.  To understand the
         JSON,  read  the  Haskell  type  definitions,  which  are  mostly  in
         https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/blob/master/hledger-
         lib/Hledger/Data/Types.hs.

       o hledger represents quantities as Decimal values  storing  up  to  255
         significant  digits,  eg  for  repeating  decimals.  Such numbers can
         arise in practice (from automatically-calculated transaction prices),
         and  would break most JSON consumers.  So in JSON, we show quantities
         as simple Numbers with at most 10 decimal places.  We don't limit the
         number  of  integer  digits, but that part is under your control.  We
         hope this approach will not cause problems in practice; if  you  find
         otherwise, please let us know.  (Cf #1195)

       Notes about SQL output:

       o SQL  output is also marked experimental, and much like JSON could use
         real-world feedback.

       o SQL output is expected to work with sqlite, MySQL and PostgreSQL

       o SQL output is structured with the expectations that  statements  will
         be  executed  in the empty database.  If you already have tables cre-
         ated via SQL output of hledger, you would  probably  want  to  either
         clear tables of existing data (via delete or truncate SQL statements)
         or drop tables completely as otherwise your postings will be duped.

   Regular expressions
       hledger uses regular expressions in a number of places:

       o query terms, on the command line and in the hledger-web search  form:
         REGEX, desc:REGEX, cur:REGEX, tag:...=REGEX

       o CSV rules conditional blocks: if REGEX ...

       o account  alias  directives  and options: alias /REGEX/ = REPLACEMENT,
         --alias /REGEX/=REPLACEMENT

       hledger's regular expressions come from  the  regex-tdfa  library.   If
       they're  not doing what you expect, it's important to know exactly what
       they support:

       1. they are case insensitive

       2. they are infix matching (they do not need to match the entire  thing
          being matched)

       3. they are POSIX ERE (extended regular expressions)

       4. they also support GNU word boundaries (\b, \B, \<, \>)

       5. they  do  not support backreferences; if you write \1, it will match
          the digit 1.  Except when doing  text  replacement,  eg  in  account
          aliases,  where backreferences can be used in the replacement string
          to reference capturing groups in the search regexp.

       6. they do not support mode modifiers ((?s)),  character  classes  (\w,
          \d), or anything else not mentioned above.

       Some things to note:

       o In  the  alias directive and --alias option, regular expressions must
         be enclosed in forward  slashes  (/REGEX/).   Elsewhere  in  hledger,
         these are not required.

       o In  queries,  to match a regular expression metacharacter like $ as a
         literal character, prepend a backslash.  Eg  to  search  for  amounts
         with the dollar sign in hledger-web, write cur:\$.

       o On  the command line, some metacharacters like $ have a special mean-
         ing to the shell and so must be escaped at least once more.  See Spe-
         cial characters.

   Smart dates
       hledger's user interfaces accept a flexible "smart date" syntax (unlike
       dates in the journal file).  Smart dates allow some english words,  can
       be  relative  to today's date, and can have less-significant date parts
       omitted (defaulting to 1).

       Examples:

       2004/10/1,   2004-01-01,   exact  date, several separators allowed.  Year
       2004.9.1                   is 4+ digits, month is 1-12, day is 1-31
       2004                       start of year
       2004/10                    start of month
       10/1                       month and day in current year
       21                         day in current month
       october, oct               start of month in current year
       yesterday, today, tomor-   -1, 0, 1 days from today
       row
       last/this/next             -1, 0, 1 periods from the current period
       day/week/month/quar-
       ter/year
       20181201                   8 digit YYYYMMDD with valid year month and day
       201812                     6 digit YYYYMM with valid year and month

       Counterexamples  -  malformed digit sequences might give surprising re-
       sults:

       201813        6 digits with an  invalid  month  is  parsed  as  start  of
                     6-digit year
       20181301      8  digits  with  an  invalid  month  is  parsed as start of
                     8-digit year
       20181232      8 digits with an invalid day gives an error
       201801012     9+ digits beginning with a valid YYYYMMDD gives an error

   Report start & end date
       Most hledger reports show the full span  of  time  represented  by  the
       journal data, by default.  So, the effective report start and end dates
       will be the earliest and latest transaction or posting dates  found  in
       the journal.

       Often  you  will  want  to see a shorter time span, such as the current
       month.  You can specify a  start  and/or  end  date  using  -b/--begin,
       -e/--end, -p/--period or a date: query (described below).  All of these
       accept the smart date syntax.

       Some notes:

       o As in Ledger, end dates are exclusive, so you need to write the  date
         after the last day you want to include.

       o As  noted  in reporting options: among start/end dates specified with
         options, the last (i.e.  right-most) option takes precedence.

       o The effective report start and end dates are the intersection of  the
         start/end  dates  from options and that from date: queries.  That is,
         date:2019-01 date:2019 -p'2000 to  2030'  yields  January  2019,  the
         smallest common time span.

       Examples:

       -b 2016/3/17       begin on St. Patrick's day 2016
       -e 12/1            end  at  the  start  of  december  1st of the current year
                          (11/30 will be the last date included)
       -b thismonth       all transactions on or after the 1st of the current month
       -p thismonth       all transactions in the current month
       date:2016/3/17..   the  above  written as queries instead (.. can also be re-
                          placed with -)
       date:..12/1
       date:thismonth..
       date:thismonth

   Report intervals
       A report interval can be specified so that commands like register, bal-
       ance  and  activity will divide their reports into multiple subperiods.
       The  basic  intervals  can  be  selected  with   one   of   -D/--daily,
       -W/--weekly,  -M/--monthly,  -Q/--quarterly, or -Y/--yearly.  More com-
       plex intervals may be specified with a period expression.   Report  in-
       tervals can not be specified with a query.

   Period expressions
       The  -p/--period  option accepts period expressions, a shorthand way of
       expressing a start date, end date, and/or report interval all at once.

       Here's a basic period expression specifying the first quarter of  2009.
       Note,  hledger  always treats start dates as inclusive and end dates as
       exclusive:

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

       Keywords like "from" and "to" are optional, and so are the  spaces,  as
       long  as you don't run two dates together.  "to" can also be written as
       ".." or "-".  These are equivalent to the above:

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

       Dates are smart dates, so if the current year is 2009,  the  above  can
       also be written as:

       -p "1/1 4/1"
       -p "january-apr"
       -p "this year to 4/1"

       If you specify only one date, the missing start or end date will be the
       earliest or latest transaction in your journal:

       -p "from 2009/1/1"   everything  after  january
                            1, 2009
       -p "from 2009/1"     the same
       -p "from 2009"       the same

       -p "to 2009"         everything  before january
                            1, 2009

       A single date with no "from" or "to" defines both  the  start  and  end
       date like so:

       -p "2009"       the  year 2009; equivalent
                       to "2009/1/1 to 2010/1/1"
       -p "2009/1"     the month of jan;  equiva-
                       lent   to   "2009/1/1   to
                       2009/2/1"
       -p "2009/1/1"   just that day;  equivalent
                       to "2009/1/1 to 2009/1/2"

       Or you can specify a single quarter like so:

       -p "2009Q1"   first   quarter  of  2009,
                     equivalent to "2009/1/1 to
                     2009/4/1"
       -p "q4"       fourth quarter of the cur-
                     rent year

       The argument of -p can also begin with, or be, a  report  interval  ex-
       pression.  The basic report intervals are daily, weekly, monthly, quar-
       terly, or yearly, which have the same effect as the -D,-W,-M,-Q, or  -Y
       flags.   Between report interval and start/end dates (if any), the word
       in is optional.  Examples:

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

       Note that weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly intervals  will  always
       start on the first day on week, month, quarter or year accordingly, and
       will end on the last day of same period, even if associated period  ex-
       pression specifies different explicit start and end date.

       For example:

       -p  "weekly from 2009/1/1   starts on 2008/12/29, closest preceding Mon-
       to 2009/4/1"                day
       -p       "monthly      in   starts on 2018/11/01
       2008/11/25"
       -p    "quarterly     from   starts  on  2009/04/01,  ends on 2009/06/30,
       2009-05-05 to 2009-06-01"   which are first and last days of Q2 2009
       -p      "yearly      from   starts on 2009/01/01, first day of 2009
       2009-12-29"

       The  following  more  complex  report intervals are also supported: bi-
       weekly, fortnightly, bimonthly, every day|week|month|quarter|year,  ev-
       ery N days|weeks|months|quarters|years.

       All  of  these  will start on the first day of the requested period and
       end on the last one, as described above.

       Examples:

       -p "bimonthly from 2008"    periods will have boundaries on  2008/01/01,
                                   2008/03/01, ...
       -p "every 2 weeks"          starts on closest preceding Monday
       -p  "every  5  month from   periods will have boundaries on  2009/03/01,
       2009/03"                    2009/08/01, ...

       If  you want intervals that start on arbitrary day of your choosing and
       span a week, month or year, you need to use any of the following:

       every Nth day of week, every <weekday>, every Nth day [of month], every
       Nth weekday [of month], every MM/DD [of year], every Nth MMM [of year],
       every MMM Nth [of year].

       Examples:

       -p  "every  2nd  day  of   periods will go from Tue to Tue
       week"
       -p "every Tue"             same
       -p "every 15th day"        period  boundaries  will  be  on  15th of each
                                  month
       -p "every 2nd Monday"      period boundaries will be on second Monday  of
                                  each month
       -p "every 11/05"           yearly periods with boundaries on 5th of Nov
       -p "every 5th Nov"         same
       -p "every Nov 5th"         same

       Show  historical balances at end of 15th each month (N is exclusive end
       date):

       hledger balance -H -p "every 16th day"

       Group postings from start of wednesday to end of  next  tuesday  (N  is
       start date and exclusive end date):

       hledger register checking -p "every 3rd day of week"

   Depth limiting
       With the --depth N option (short form: -N), commands like account, bal-
       ance and register will show only the uppermost accounts in the  account
       tree,  down to level N.  Use this when you want a summary with less de-
       tail.  This flag has the same effect as a depth: query argument (so -2,
       --depth=2 or depth:2 are equivalent).

   Pivoting
       Normally hledger sums amounts, and organizes them in a hierarchy, based
       on account name.  The --pivot FIELD option causes it to sum  and  orga-
       nize  hierarchy  based on the value of some other field instead.  FIELD
       can be: code, description, payee, note, or the full name (case insensi-
       tive) of any tag.  As with account names, values containing colon:sepa-
       rated:parts will be displayed hierarchically in reports.

       --pivot is a general option affecting all reports;  you  can  think  of
       hledger transforming the journal before any other processing, replacing
       every posting's account name with the value of the specified  field  on
       that posting, inheriting it from the transaction or using a blank value
       if it's not present.

       An example:

              2016/02/16 Member Fee Payment
                  assets:bank account                    2 EUR
                  income:member fees                    -2 EUR  ; member: John Doe

       Normal balance report showing account names:

              $ hledger balance
                             2 EUR  assets:bank account
                            -2 EUR  income:member fees
              --------------------
                                 0

       Pivoted balance report, using member: tag values instead:

              $ hledger balance --pivot member
                             2 EUR
                            -2 EUR  John Doe
              --------------------
                                 0

       One way to show only amounts with a member: value (using a  query,  de-
       scribed below):

              $ hledger balance --pivot member tag:member=.
                            -2 EUR  John Doe
              --------------------
                            -2 EUR

       Another  way  (the  acct:  query  matches  against the pivoted "account
       name"):

              $ hledger balance --pivot member acct:.
                            -2 EUR  John Doe
              --------------------
                            -2 EUR

   Valuation
       Instead of reporting amounts in their original commodity,  hledger  can
       convert them to cost/sale amount (using the conversion rate recorded in
       the transaction), or to market value (using some market price on a cer-
       tain date).  This is controlled by the --value=TYPE[,COMMODITY] option,
       but we also provide the simpler -B/-V/-X  flags,  and  usually  one  of
       those is all you need.

   -B: Cost
       The  -B/--cost  flag  converts  amounts to their cost or sale amount at
       transaction time, if they have a transaction price specified.

   -V: Value
       The -V/--market flag converts amounts to market value in their  default
       valuation commodity, using the market prices in effect on the valuation
       date(s), if any.  More on these in a minute.

   -X: Value in specified commodity
       The -X/--exchange=COMM option is like -V, except you tell it which cur-
       rency  you  want  to  convert to, and it tries to convert everything to
       that.

   Valuation date
       Since market prices can change from day to day,  market  value  reports
       have a valuation date (or more than one), which determines which market
       prices will be used.

       For single period reports, if an explicit report end date is specified,
       that  will  be used as the valuation date; otherwise the valuation date
       is "today".

       For multiperiod reports, each column/period is valued on the  last  day
       of the period.

   Market prices
       (experimental)

       To  convert  a  commodity A to its market value in another commodity B,
       hledger looks for a suitable market price (exchange rate)  as  follows,
       in this order of preference :

       1. A  declared market price or inferred market price: A's latest market
          price in B on or before the valuation date as declared by a P direc-
          tive,  or (if the --infer-value flag is used) inferred from transac-
          tion prices.

       2. A reverse market price: the inverse of a declared or inferred market
          price from B to A.

       3. A  chained  market  price: a synthetic price formed by combining the
          shortest chain of market prices (any of  the  above  types)  leading
          from A to B.

       Amounts for which no applicable market price can be found, are not con-
       verted.

   --infer-value: market prices from transactions
       (experimental)

       Normally, market value in hledger is fully controlled by, and requires,
       P directives in your journal.  Since adding and updating those can be a
       chore, and since transactions usually take place  at  close  to  market
       value, why not use the recorded transaction prices as additional market
       prices (as Ledger does) ?  We could produce value reports without need-
       ing P directives at all.

       Adding  the  --infer-value  flag to -V, -X or --value enables this.  So
       for example, hledger bs -V --infer-value will get  market  prices  both
       from P directives and from transactions.

       There is a downside: value reports can sometimes be affected in confus-
       ing/undesired ways by your journal entries.  If this  happens  to  you,
       read all of this Valuation section carefully, and try adding --debug or
       --debug=2 to troubleshoot.

       --infer-value can infer market prices from:

       o multicommodity transactions with explicit prices (@/@@)

       o multicommodity transactions with implicit prices (no @, two  commodi-
         ties,  unbalanced).   (With  these,  the  order  of postings matters.
         hledger print -x can be useful for troubleshooting.)

       o but not, currently, from "more correct"  multicommodity  transactions
         (no @, multiple commodities, balanced).

   Valuation commodity
       (experimental)

       When you specify a valuation commodity (-X COMM or --value TYPE,COMM):
       hledger  will convert all amounts to COMM, wherever it can find a suit-
       able market price (including by reversing or chaining prices).

       When you leave the  valuation  commodity  unspecified  (-V  or  --value
       TYPE):
       For  each  commodity  A, hledger picks a default valuation commodity as
       follows, in this order of preference:

       1. The price commodity from the latest P-declared market price for A on
          or before valuation date.

       2. The price commodity from the latest P-declared market price for A on
          any date.  (Allows conversion to proceed  when  there  are  inferred
          prices before the valuation date.)

       3. If  there are no P directives at all (any commodity or date) and the
          --infer-value flag is used: the  price  commodity  from  the  latest
          transaction-inferred price for A on or before valuation date.

       This means:

       o If  you  have  P directives, they determine which commodities -V will
         convert, and to what.

       o If you have no P directives, and use the --infer-value flag, transac-
         tion prices determine it.

       Amounts  for  which  no  valuation  commodity can be found are not con-
       verted.

   Simple valuation examples
       Here are some quick examples of -V:

              ; one euro is worth this many dollars from nov 1
              P 2016/11/01 EUR $1.10

              ; purchase some euros on nov 3
              2016/11/3
                  assets:euros        EUR100
                  assets:checking

              ; the euro is worth fewer dollars by dec 21
              P 2016/12/21 EUR $1.03

       How many euros do I have ?

              $ hledger -f t.j bal -N euros
                              EUR100  assets:euros

       What are they worth at end of nov 3 ?

              $ hledger -f t.j bal -N euros -V -e 2016/11/4
                           $110.00  assets:euros

       What are they worth after 2016/12/21 ?  (no report end date  specified,
       defaults to today)

              $ hledger -f t.j bal -N euros -V
                           $103.00  assets:euros

   --value: Flexible valuation
       -B, -V and -X are special cases of the more general --value option:

               --value=TYPE[,COMM]  TYPE is cost, then, end, now or YYYY-MM-DD.
                                    COMM is an optional commodity symbol.
                                    Shows amounts converted to:
                                    - cost commodity using transaction prices (then optionally to COMM using market prices at period end(s))
                                    - default valuation commodity (or COMM) using market prices at posting dates
                                    - default valuation commodity (or COMM) using market prices at period end(s)
                                    - default valuation commodity (or COMM) using current market prices
                                    - default valuation commodity (or COMM) using market prices at some date

       The TYPE part selects cost or value and valuation date:

       --value=cost
              Convert  amounts  to cost, using the prices recorded in transac-
              tions.

       --value=then
              Convert amounts to their value in the default valuation  commod-
              ity,  using  market prices on each posting's date.  This is cur-
              rently supported only by the print and register commands.

       --value=end
              Convert amounts to their value in the default valuation  commod-
              ity,  using  market  prices on the last day of the report period
              (or if unspecified, the journal's end date); or  in  multiperiod
              reports, market prices on the last day of each subperiod.

       --value=now
              Convert  amounts to their value in the default valuation commod-
              ity using current market prices (as of  when  report  is  gener-
              ated).

       --value=YYYY-MM-DD
              Convert  amounts to their value in the default valuation commod-
              ity using market prices on this date.

       To select a different valuation commodity, add the optional ,COMM part:
       a  comma,  then  the  target  commodity's symbol.  Eg: --value=now,EUR.
       hledger will do its best to convert amounts to this commodity, deducing
       market prices as described above.

   More valuation examples
       Here  are  some  examples  showing  the effect of --value, as seen with
       print:

              P 2000-01-01 A  1 B
              P 2000-02-01 A  2 B
              P 2000-03-01 A  3 B
              P 2000-04-01 A  4 B

              2000-01-01
                (a)      1 A @ 5 B

              2000-02-01
                (a)      1 A @ 6 B

              2000-03-01
                (a)      1 A @ 7 B

       Show the cost of each posting:

              $ hledger -f- print --value=cost
              2000-01-01
                  (a)             5 B

              2000-02-01
                  (a)             6 B

              2000-03-01
                  (a)             7 B

       Show the value as of the last day of the report period (2000-02-29):

              $ hledger -f- print --value=end date:2000/01-2000/03
              2000-01-01
                  (a)             2 B

              2000-02-01
                  (a)             2 B

       With no report period specified, that shows the value as  of  the  last
       day of the journal (2000-03-01):

              $ hledger -f- print --value=end
              2000-01-01
                  (a)             3 B

              2000-02-01
                  (a)             3 B

              2000-03-01
                  (a)             3 B

       Show the current value (the 2000-04-01 price is still in effect today):

              $ hledger -f- print --value=now
              2000-01-01
                  (a)             4 B

              2000-02-01
                  (a)             4 B

              2000-03-01
                  (a)             4 B

       Show the value on 2000/01/15:

              $ hledger -f- print --value=2000-01-15
              2000-01-01
                  (a)             1 B

              2000-02-01
                  (a)             1 B

              2000-03-01
                  (a)             1 B

       You  may  need  to explicitly set a commodity's display style, when re-
       verse prices are used.  Eg this output might be surprising:

              P 2000-01-01 A 2B

              2000-01-01
                a  1B
                b

              $ hledger print -x -X A
              2000-01-01
                  a               0
                  b               0

       Explanation: because there's no amount or commodity directive  specify-
       ing  a display style for A, 0.5A gets the default style, which shows no
       decimal digits.  Because the displayed amount looks like zero, the com-
       modity  symbol  and minus sign are not displayed either.  Adding a com-
       modity directive sets a more useful display style for A:

              P 2000-01-01 A 2B
              commodity 0.00A

              2000-01-01
                a  1B
                b

              $ hledger print -X A
              2000-01-01
                  a           0.50A
                  b          -0.50A

   Effect of valuation on reports
       Here is a reference for how valuation is supposed to affect  each  part
       of  hledger's  reports  (and  a  glossary).  (It's wide, you'll have to
       scroll sideways.) It may be useful when troubleshooting.  If  you  find
       problems, please report them, ideally with a reproducible example.  Re-
       lated: #329, #1083.

       Report type    -B,            -V, -X         --value=then    --value=end    --value=DATE,
                      --value=cost                                                 --value=now
       ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
       print
       posting        cost           value at re-   value      at   value at re-   value      at
       amounts                       port end  or   posting date    port      or   DATE/today
                                     today                          journal end
       balance  as-   unchanged      unchanged      unchanged       unchanged      unchanged
       sertions   /
       assignments

       register
       starting       cost           value at day   not supported   value at day   value      at
       balance                       before   re-                   before   re-   DATE/today
       (with -H)                     port      or                   port      or
                                     journal                        journal
                                     start                          start
       posting        cost           value at re-   value      at   value at re-   value      at
       amounts  (no                  port end  or   posting date    port      or   DATE/today
       report   in-                  today                          journal end
       terval)
       summary        summarised     value at pe-   sum  of post-   value at pe-   value      at
       posting        cost           riod ends      ings  in  in-   riod ends      DATE/today
       amounts                                      terval,  val-
       (with report                                 ued at inter-
       interval)                                    val start
       running  to-   sum/average    sum/average    sum/average     sum/average    sum/average
       tal/average    of displayed   of displayed   of  displayed   of displayed   of  displayed
                      values         values         values          values         values


       balance (bs,
       bse,     cf,
       is..)
       balances (no   sums      of   value at re-   not supported   value at re-   value      at
       report   in-   costs          port end  or                   port      or   DATE/today of
       terval)                       today     of                   journal  end   sums of post-
                                     sums      of                   of  sums  of   ings
                                     postings                       postings
       balances       sums      of   value at pe-   not supported   value at pe-   value      at
       (with report   costs          riod ends of                   riod ends of   DATE/today of
       interval)                     sums      of                   sums      of   sums of post-
                                     postings                       postings       ings
       starting       sums      of   sums      of   not supported   sums      of   sums of post-
       balances       costs     of   postings be-                   postings be-   ings   before
       (with report   postings be-   fore  report                   fore  report   report start
       interval and   fore  report   start                          start
       -H)            start
       budget         like    bal-   like    bal-   not supported   like    bal-   like balances
       amounts with   ances          ances                          ances
       --budget
       grand  total   sum  of dis-   sum  of dis-   not supported   sum  of dis-   sum  of  dis-
       (no   report   played  val-   played  val-                   played  val-   played values
       interval)      ues            ues                            ues
       row      to-   sums/aver-     sums/aver-     not supported   sums/aver-     sums/averages
       tals/aver-     ages of dis-   ages of dis-                   ages of dis-   of  displayed
       ages   (with   played  val-   played  val-                   played  val-   values
       report   in-   ues            ues                            ues
       terval)
       column   to-   sums of dis-   sums of dis-   not supported   sums of dis-   sums of  dis-
       tals           played  val-   played  val-                   played  val-   played values
                      ues            ues                            ues
       grand    to-   sum/average    sum/average    not supported   sum/average    sum/average
       tal/average    of    column   of    column                   of    column   of column to-
                      totals         totals                         totals         tals


       Glossary:

       cost   calculated using price(s) recorded in the transaction(s).

       value  market value using available market price declarations,  or  the
              unchanged amount if no conversion rate can be found.

       report start
              the  first  day  of the report period specified with -b or -p or
              date:, otherwise today.

       report or journal start
              the first day of the report period specified with -b  or  -p  or
              date:,  otherwise  the earliest transaction date in the journal,
              otherwise today.

       report end
              the last day of the report period specified with  -e  or  -p  or
              date:, otherwise today.

       report or journal end
              the  last  day  of  the report period specified with -e or -p or
              date:, otherwise the latest transaction  date  in  the  journal,
              otherwise today.

       report interval
              a  flag (-D/-W/-M/-Q/-Y) or period expression that activates the
              report's multi-period mode (whether showing one or many subperi-
              ods).

COMMANDS
       hledger  provides  a  number  of subcommands; hledger with no arguments
       shows a list.

       If you install additional hledger-* packages, or if you put programs or
       scripts  named  hledger-NAME in your PATH, these will also be listed as
       subcommands.

       Run a subcommand by writing its name as first argument (eg hledger  in-
       comestatement).   You  can also write one of the standard short aliases
       displayed in parentheses in the command list (hledger b),  or  any  any
       unambiguous prefix of a command name (hledger inc).

       Here  are  all  the  builtin  commands in alphabetical order.  See also
       hledger for a more organised command list, and hledger CMD -h  for  de-
       tailed command help.

   accounts
       accounts, a
       Show account names.

       This  command  lists account names, either declared with account direc-
       tives (--declared), posted to (--used), or both  (the  default).   With
       query  arguments,  only  matched account names and account names refer-
       enced by matched postings are shown.  It shows a flat list by  default.
       With  --tree,  it  uses  indentation to show the account hierarchy.  In
       flat mode you can add --drop N to omit the first few account name  com-
       ponents.   Account names can be depth-clipped with depth:N or --depth N
       or -N.

       Examples:

              $ hledger accounts
              assets:bank:checking
              assets:bank:saving
              assets:cash
              expenses:food
              expenses:supplies
              income:gifts
              income:salary
              liabilities:debts

   activity
       activity
       Show an ascii barchart of posting counts per interval.

       The activity command displays an ascii  histogram  showing  transaction
       counts  by  day, week, month or other reporting interval (by day is the
       default).  With query arguments, it counts only matched transactions.

       Examples:

              $ hledger activity --quarterly
              2008-01-01 **
              2008-04-01 *******
              2008-07-01
              2008-10-01 **

   add
       add
       Prompt for transactions and add them to  the  journal.   Any  arguments
       will be used as default inputs for the first N prompts.

       Many  hledger users edit their journals directly with a text editor, or
       generate them from CSV.  For more interactive data entry, there is  the
       add  command, which prompts interactively on the console for new trans-
       actions, and appends them to the journal file (if there are multiple -f
       FILE  options,  the  first file is used.) Existing transactions are not
       changed.  This is the only hledger command that writes to  the  journal
       file.

       To use it, just run hledger add and follow the prompts.  You can add as
       many transactions as you like; when you are finished, enter . or  press
       control-d or control-c to exit.

       Features:

       o add  tries to provide useful defaults, using the most similar (by de-
         scription) recent transaction (filtered by the query, if  any)  as  a
         template.

       o You can also set the initial defaults with command line arguments.

       o Readline-style edit keys can be used during data entry.

       o The tab key will auto-complete whenever possible - accounts, descrip-
         tions, dates (yesterday, today, tomorrow).   If  the  input  area  is
         empty, it will insert the default value.

       o If  the  journal defines a default commodity, it will be added to any
         bare numbers entered.

       o A parenthesised transaction code may be entered following a date.

       o Comments and tags may be entered following a description or amount.

       o If you make a mistake, enter < at any prompt to go one step backward.

       o Input prompts are displayed in a different colour when  the  terminal
         supports it.

       Example (see the tutorial for a detailed explanation):

              $ hledger add
              Adding transactions to journal file /src/hledger/examples/sample.journal
              Any command line arguments will be used as defaults.
              Use tab key to complete, readline keys to edit, enter to accept defaults.
              An optional (CODE) may follow transaction dates.
              An optional ; COMMENT may follow descriptions or amounts.
              If you make a mistake, enter < at any prompt to go one step backward.
              To end a transaction, enter . when prompted.
              To quit, enter . at a date prompt or press control-d or control-c.
              Date [2015/05/22]:
              Description: supermarket
              Account 1: expenses:food
              Amount  1: $10
              Account 2: assets:checking
              Amount  2 [$-10.0]:
              Account 3 (or . or enter to finish this transaction): .
              2015/05/22 supermarket
                  expenses:food             $10
                  assets:checking        $-10.0

              Save this transaction to the journal ? [y]:
              Saved.
              Starting the next transaction (. or ctrl-D/ctrl-C to quit)
              Date [2015/05/22]: <CTRL-D> $

       On  Microsoft  Windows,  the add command makes sure that no part of the
       file path ends with a period, as that would cause problems (#1056).

   aregister
       aregister, areg
       Show transactions affecting a particular  account,  and  the  account's
       running balance.

       aregister  shows  the  transactions affecting a particular account (and
       its subaccounts), from the point of view of that  account.   Each  line
       shows:

       o the transaction's (or posting's, see below) date

       o the names of the other account(s) involved

       o the net change to this account's balance

       o the  account's  historical  running  balance  (including balance from
         transactions before the report start date).

       With aregister, each line  represents  a  whole  transaction  -  as  in
       hledger-ui,  hledger-web,  and  your  bank statement.  By contrast, the
       register command shows individual postings, across all  accounts.   You
       might  prefer aregister for reconciling with real-world asset/liability
       accounts, and register for reviewing detailed revenues/expenses.

       An account must be specified as the first argument, which should be the
       full  account name or an account pattern (regular expression).  aregis-
       ter will show transactions in this account (the first one matched)  and
       any of its subaccounts.

       Any  additional  arguments  form a query which will filter the transac-
       tions shown.

       Transactions making a net change of zero are not shown by default;  add
       the -E/--empty flag to show them.

   aregister and custom posting dates
       Transactions  whose  date  is  outside  the  report period can still be
       shown, if they have a posting to this account dated inside  the  report
       period.   (And  in this case it's the posting date that is shown.) This
       ensures that aregister can show an accurate historical running balance,
       matching the one shown by register -H with the same arguments.

       To  filter  strictly  by  transaction date instead, add the --txn-dates
       flag.  If you use this flag and  some  of  your  postings  have  custom
       dates, it's probably best to assume the running balance is wrong.

   Output format
       This command also supports the output destination and output format op-
       tions The output formats supported are txt, csv, and json.

       Examples:

       Show all transactions and historical running balance in the  first  ac-
       count whose name contains "checking":

              $ hledger areg checking

       Show  transactions and historical running balance in all asset accounts
       during july:

              $ hledger areg assets date:jul

   balance
       balance, bal, b
       Show accounts and their balances.

       The balance command is hledger's most versatile command.  Note, despite
       the  name,  it  is  not always used for showing real-world account bal-
       ances; the more accounting-aware balancesheet and  incomestatement  may
       be more convenient for that.

       By default, it displays all accounts, and each account's change in bal-
       ance during the entire period of the journal.  Balance changes are cal-
       culated  by  adding up the postings in each account.  You can limit the
       postings matched, by a query, to see fewer  accounts,  changes  over  a
       different time period, changes from only cleared transactions, etc.

       If you include an account's complete history of postings in the report,
       the balance change is equivalent to the account's current  ending  bal-
       ance.   For a real-world account, typically you won't have all transac-
       tions in the journal; instead you'll have all transactions after a cer-
       tain  date,  and  an "opening balances" transaction setting the correct
       starting balance on that date.  Then  the  balance  command  will  show
       real-world account balances.  In some cases the -H/--historical flag is
       used to ensure this (more below).

       The balance command can produce several styles of report:

   Classic balance report
       This is the original balance report, as found in  Ledger.   It  usually
       looks like this:

              $ hledger balance
                               $-1  assets
                                $1    bank:saving
                               $-2    cash
                                $2  expenses
                                $1    food
                                $1    supplies
                               $-2  income
                               $-1    gifts
                               $-1    salary
                                $1  liabilities:debts
              --------------------
                                 0

       By default, accounts are displayed hierarchically, with subaccounts in-
       dented below their parent.  At each level of  the  tree,  accounts  are
       sorted  by  account  code  if  any,  then  by  account  name.   Or with
       -S/--sort-amount, by their balance amount, largest first.

       "Boring" accounts, which contain a single interesting subaccount and no
       balance  of their own, are elided into the following line for more com-
       pact output.  (Eg above, the "liabilities" account.) Use --no-elide  to
       prevent this.

       Account  balances  are  "inclusive"  - they include the balances of any
       subaccounts.

       Accounts which have zero balance  (and  no  non-zero  subaccounts)  are
       omitted.  Use -E/--empty to show them.

       A  final  total  is displayed by default; use -N/--no-total to suppress
       it, eg:

              $ hledger balance -p 2008/6 expenses --no-total
                                $2  expenses
                                $1    food
                                $1    supplies

   Customising the classic balance report
       You can customise the layout of classic balance reports  with  --format
       FMT:

              $ hledger 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 (plus a newline) specifies the formatting applied
       to each account/balance pair.  It may contain any suitable  text,  with
       data fields interpolated like so:

       %[MIN][.MAX](FIELDNAME)

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

       o MAX truncates at this width (optional)

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

         o depth_spacer  - a number of spaces equal to the account's depth, or
           if MIN is specified, MIN * depth spaces.

         o account - the account's name

         o total - the account's balance/posted total, right justified

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

       o %_ - render on multiple lines, bottom-aligned (the default)

       o %^ - render on multiple lines, top-aligned

       o %, - render on one line, comma-separated

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

       Some example formats:

       o %(total) - the account's total

       o %-20.20(account)  -  the account's name, left justified, padded to 20
         characters and clipped at 20 characters

       o %,%-50(account)  %25(total) - account name padded to  50  characters,
         total  padded to 20 characters, with multiple commodities rendered on
         one line

       o %20(total)  %2(depth_spacer)%-(account) - the default format for  the
         single-column balance report

   Colour support
       In  terminal  output, when colour is enabled, the balance command shows
       negative amounts in red.

   Flat mode
       To see a flat list instead of the  default  hierarchical  display,  use
       --flat.   In this mode, accounts (unless depth-clipped) show their full
       names and "exclusive" balance, excluding any subaccount  balances.   In
       this mode, you can also use --drop N to omit the first few account name
       components.

              $ hledger balance -p 2008/6 expenses -N --flat --drop 1
                                $1  food
                                $1  supplies

   Depth limited balance reports
       With --depth N or depth:N or just -N,  balance  reports  show  accounts
       only  to the specified numeric depth.  This is very useful to summarise
       a complex set of accounts and get an overview.

              $ hledger balance -N -1
                               $-1  assets
                                $2  expenses
                               $-2  income
                                $1  liabilities

       Flat-mode balance reports, which normally show exclusive balances, show
       inclusive balances at the depth limit.

   Percentages
       With  -%  or  --percent,  balance reports show each account's value ex-
       pressed as a percentage of the column's total.  This is useful  to  get
       an  overview of the relative sizes of account balances.  For example to
       obtain an overview of expenses:

              $ hledger balance expenses -%
                           100.0 %  expenses
                            50.0 %    food
                            50.0 %    supplies
              --------------------
                           100.0 %

       Note that --tree does not have an effect on -%.   The  percentages  are
       always  relative  to the total sum of each column, they are never rela-
       tive to the parent account.

       Since the percentages are relative to the columns sum,  it  is  usually
       not  useful  to  calculate  percentages if the signs of the amounts are
       mixed.  Although the results are technically  correct,  they  are  most
       likely  useless.   Especially  in a balance report that sums up to zero
       (eg hledger balance -B) all percentage values will be zero.

       This flag does not work if the report contains any mixed commodity  ac-
       counts.  If there are mixed commodity accounts in the report be sure to
       use -V or -B to coerce the report into using a single commodity.

   Multicolumn balance report
       Multicolumn or tabular balance reports are a very useful  hledger  fea-
       ture,  and  usually  the preferred style.  They share many of the above
       features, but they show the report as a table, with columns  represent-
       ing  time periods.  This mode is activated by providing a reporting in-
       terval.

       There are three types of multicolumn balance report, showing  different
       information:

       1. By default: each column shows the sum of postings in that period, ie
          the account's change of balance in that period.  This is  useful  eg
          for a monthly income statement:

                  $ hledger balance --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

       2. With --cumulative: each column shows the ending balance for that pe-
          riod, accumulating the changes across periods, starting  from  0  at
          the report start date:

                  $ hledger balance --quarterly income expenses -E --cumulative
                  Ending balances (cumulative) in 2008:

                                     ||  2008/03/31  2008/06/30  2008/09/30  2008/12/31
                  ===================++=================================================
                   expenses:food     ||           0          $1          $1          $1
                   expenses:supplies ||           0          $1          $1          $1
                   income:gifts      ||           0         $-1         $-1         $-1
                   income:salary     ||         $-1         $-1         $-1         $-1
                  -------------------++-------------------------------------------------
                                     ||         $-1           0           0           0

       3. With --historical/-H: each column shows the actual historical ending
          balance for that period, accumulating the  changes  across  periods,
          starting  from the actual balance at the report start date.  This is
          useful eg for a multi-period balance sheet, and when you are showing
          only the data after a certain start date:

                  $ hledger balance ^assets ^liabilities --quarterly --historical --begin 2008/4/1
                  Ending balances (historical) in 2008/04/01-2008/12/31:

                                        ||  2008/06/30  2008/09/30  2008/12/31
                  ======================++=====================================
                   assets:bank:checking ||          $1          $1           0
                   assets:bank:saving   ||          $1          $1          $1
                   assets:cash          ||         $-2         $-2         $-2
                   liabilities:debts    ||           0           0          $1
                  ----------------------++-------------------------------------
                                        ||           0           0           0

       Note that --cumulative or --historical/-H disable --row-total/-T, since
       summing end balances generally does not make sense.

       Multicolumn balance reports display accounts in flat mode  by  default;
       to see the hierarchy, use --tree.

       With   a  reporting  interval  (like  --quarterly  above),  the  report
       start/end dates will be adjusted if necessary so  that  they  encompass
       the displayed report periods.  This is so that the first and last peri-
       ods will be "full" and comparable to the others.

       The -E/--empty flag does two things  in  multicolumn  balance  reports:
       first, the report will show all columns within the specified report pe-
       riod (without -E, leading and trailing columns with all zeroes are  not
       shown).   Second,  all  accounts which existed at the report start date
       will be considered, not just the ones with activity during  the  report
       period  (use  -E to include low-activity accounts which would otherwise
       would be omitted).

       The -T/--row-total flag adds an additional column showing the total for
       each row.

       The  -A/--average  flag adds a column showing the average value in each
       row.

       Here's an example of all three:

              $ hledger balance -Q income expenses --tree -ETA
              Balance changes in 2008:

                          ||  2008q1  2008q2  2008q3  2008q4    Total  Average
              ============++===================================================
               expenses   ||       0      $2       0       0       $2       $1
                 food     ||       0      $1       0       0       $1        0
                 supplies ||       0      $1       0       0       $1        0
               income     ||     $-1     $-1       0       0      $-2      $-1
                 gifts    ||       0     $-1       0       0      $-1        0
                 salary   ||     $-1       0       0       0      $-1        0
              ------------++---------------------------------------------------
                          ||     $-1      $1       0       0        0        0

              (Average is rounded to the dollar here since all journal amounts are)

       The --transpose flag can be used to exchange the rows and columns of  a
       multicolumn report.

       When  showing  multicommodity amounts, multicolumn balance reports will
       elide any amounts which have more than two commodities, since otherwise
       columns  could get very wide.  The --no-elide flag disables this.  Hid-
       ing totals with the -N/--no-total flag can also help reduce  the  width
       of multicommodity reports.

       When the report is still too wide, a good workaround is to pipe it into
       less -RS (-R for colour, -S to chop long lines).  Eg:  hledger  bal  -D
       --color=yes | less -RS.

   Budget report
       With  --budget,  extra  columns  are displayed showing budget goals for
       each account and period, if any.  Budget goals are defined by  periodic
       transactions.  This is very useful for comparing planned and actual in-
       come, expenses, time usage, etc.  --budget is most often combined  with
       a report interval.

       For  example,  you  can take average monthly expenses in the common ex-
       pense 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:

       o Only accounts with budget goals during the report period  are  shown,
         by default.

       o In  each  column,  in square brackets after the actual amount, budget
         goal amounts are shown, and the actual/goal percentage.  (Note:  bud-
         get goals should be in the same commodity as the actual amount.)

       o All  parent accounts are always shown, even in flat mode.  Eg assets,
         assets:bank, and expenses above.

       o Amounts always include all subaccounts, budgeted or unbudgeted,  even
         in flat mode.

       This means that the numbers displayed will not always add up! Eg above,
       the expenses actual amount includes the  gifts  and  supplies  transac-
       tions,  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]

       For more examples, see Budgeting and Forecasting.

   Nested budgets
       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 bud-
       get(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  to-
       wards 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:electron-
       ics:upgrades and expenses:personal:train tickets,  and  since  both  of
       these  accounts  are  without explicitly defined budget, these transac-
       tions 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]

   Output format
       This command also supports the output destination and output format op-
       tions  The output formats supported are txt, csv, (multicolumn non-bud-
       get reports only) html, and (experimental) json.

   balancesheet
       balancesheet, bs
       This command displays a balance sheet, showing historical  ending  bal-
       ances of asset and liability accounts.  (To see equity as well, use the
       balancesheetequity command.) Amounts are  shown  with  normal  positive
       sign, as in conventional financial statements.

       The asset and liability accounts shown are those accounts declared with
       the Asset or Cash or Liability type, or otherwise all accounts under  a
       top-level  asset  or  liability  account (case insensitive, plurals al-
       lowed).

       Example:

              $ hledger balancesheet
              Balance Sheet

              Assets:
                               $-1  assets
                                $1    bank:saving
                               $-2    cash
              --------------------
                               $-1

              Liabilities:
                                $1  liabilities:debts
              --------------------
                                $1

              Total:
              --------------------
                                 0

       With a reporting interval, multiple columns will be shown, one for each
       report  period.  As with multicolumn balance reports, you can alter the
       report mode  with  --change/--cumulative/--historical.   Normally  bal-
       ancesheet  shows historical ending balances, which is what you need for
       a balance sheet; note this means it ignores  report  begin  dates  (and
       -T/--row-total,  since  summing  end  balances  generally does not make
       sense).  Instead of absolute values percentages can be  displayed  with
       -%.

       This command also supports the output destination and output format op-
       tions The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and  (experimen-
       tal) json.

   balancesheetequity
       balancesheetequity, bse
       This  command  displays a balance sheet, showing historical ending bal-
       ances of asset, liability and equity accounts.  Amounts are shown  with
       normal positive sign, as in conventional financial statements.

       The  asset,  liability and equity accounts shown are those accounts de-
       clared with the Asset, Cash, Liability or Equity type, or otherwise all
       accounts under a top-level asset, liability or equity account (case in-
       sensitive, plurals allowed).

       Example:

              $ hledger balancesheetequity
              Balance Sheet With Equity

              Assets:
                               $-2  assets
                                $1    bank:saving
                               $-3    cash
              --------------------
                               $-2

              Liabilities:
                                $1  liabilities:debts
              --------------------
                                $1

              Equity:
                        $1  equity:owner
              --------------------
                        $1

              Total:
              --------------------
                                 0

       This command also supports the output destination and output format op-
       tions  The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and (experimen-
       tal) json.

   cashflow
       cashflow, cf
       This command displays a cashflow statement,  showing  the  inflows  and
       outflows  affecting "cash" (ie, liquid) assets.  Amounts are shown with
       normal positive sign, as in conventional financial statements.

       The "cash" accounts shown are those accounts  declared  with  the  Cash
       type,  or  otherwise all accounts under a top-level asset account (case
       insensitive, plural allowed) which do not have fixed,  investment,  re-
       ceivable or A/R in their name.

       Example:

              $ hledger cashflow
              Cashflow Statement

              Cash flows:
                               $-1  assets
                                $1    bank:saving
                               $-2    cash
              --------------------
                               $-1

              Total:
              --------------------
                               $-1

       With a reporting interval, multiple columns will be shown, one for each
       report period.  Normally cashflow shows changes in assets  per  period,
       though  as  with  multicolumn  balance reports you can alter the report
       mode with --change/--cumulative/--historical.  Instead of absolute val-
       ues percentages can be displayed with -%.

       This command also supports the output destination and output format op-
       tions The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and  (experimen-
       tal) json.

   check-dates
       check-dates
       Check  that  transactions are sorted by increasing date.  With --date2,
       checks secondary dates instead.  With  --strict,  dates  must  also  be
       unique.   With  a  query, only matched transactions' dates are checked.
       Reads the default journal file, or another specified with -f.

   check-dupes
       check-dupes
       Reports account names having the same leaf but different prefixes.   In
       other  words,  two  or  more  leaves  that are categorized differently.
       Reads the default journal file, or another specified as an argument.

       An example: http://stefanorodighiero.net/software/hledger-dupes.html

   close
       close, equity
       Prints a "closing  balances"  transaction  and  an  "opening  balances"
       transaction that bring account balances to and from zero, respectively.
       These can be added to your journal file(s), eg to bring asset/liability
       balances  forward into a new journal file, or to close out revenues/ex-
       penses to retained earnings at the end of a period.

       You can print just one of these transactions by using  the  --close  or
       --open  flag.   You  can customise their descriptions with the --close-
       desc and --open-desc options.

       One amountless posting to "equity:opening/closing balances" is added to
       balance  the  transactions, by default.  You can customise this account
       name with --close-acct and --open-acct; if  you  specify  only  one  of
       these, it will be used for both.

       With --x/--explicit, the equity posting's amount will be shown.  And if
       it involves multiple commodities, a posting for each commodity will  be
       shown, as with the print command.

       With  --interleaved, the equity postings are shown next to the postings
       they balance, which makes troubleshooting easier.

       By default, transaction prices in the journal are ignored when generat-
       ing the closing/opening transactions.  With --show-costs, this cost in-
       formation is preserved (balance -B reports will be unchanged after  the
       transition).   Separate  postings  are  generated for each cost in each
       commodity.  Note this can generate very large journal entries,  if  you
       have many foreign currency or investment transactions.

   close usage
       If you split your journal files by time (eg yearly), you will typically
       run this command at the end of the year, and save the closing  transac-
       tion  as last entry of the old file, and the opening transaction as the
       first entry of the new file.  This makes the files self  contained,  so
       that  correct balances are reported no matter which of them are loaded.
       Ie, if you load just one file, the balances are initialised  correctly;
       or  if  you  load several files, the redundant closing/opening transac-
       tions cancel each other out.  (They will show up in print  or  register
       reports;  you  can  exclude  them  with  a  query like not:desc:'(open-
       ing|closing) balances'.)

       If you're running a business, you might also use this command to "close
       the  books"  at  the  end  of an accounting period, transferring income
       statement account balances to retained  earnings.   (You  may  want  to
       change the equity account name to something like "equity:retained earn-
       ings".)

       By default, the closing transaction is dated  yesterday,  the  balances
       are  calculated  as of end of yesterday, and the opening transaction is
       dated today.  To close on some other date, use: hledger close -e  OPEN-
       INGDATE.   Eg,  to  close/open  on the 2018/2019 boundary, use -e 2019.
       You can also use -p or date:PERIOD (any starting date is ignored).

       Both transactions will include balance assertions  for  the  closed/re-
       opened accounts.  You probably shouldn't use status or realness filters
       (like -C or -R or status:) with this command, or the generated  balance
       assertions  will depend on these flags.  Likewise, if you run this com-
       mand with --auto, the balance assertions will probably  always  require
       --auto.

       Examples:

       Carrying asset/liability balances into a new file for 2019:

              $ hledger close -f 2018.journal -e 2019 assets liabilities --open
                  # (copy/paste the output to the start of your 2019 journal file)
              $ hledger close -f 2018.journal -e 2019 assets liabilities --close
                  # (copy/paste the output to the end of your 2018 journal file)

       Now:

              $ hledger bs -f 2019.journal                   # one file - balances are correct
              $ hledger bs -f 2018.journal -f 2019.journal   # two files - balances still correct
              $ hledger bs -f 2018.journal not:desc:closing  # to see year-end balances, must exclude closing txn

       Transactions spanning the closing date can complicate matters, breaking
       balance assertions:

              2018/12/30 a purchase made in 2018, clearing the following year
                  expenses:food          5
                  assets:bank:checking  -5  ; [2019/1/2]

       Here's one way to resolve that:

              ; in 2018.journal:
              2018/12/30 a purchase made in 2018, clearing the following year
                  expenses:food          5
                  liabilities:pending

              ; in 2019.journal:
              2019/1/2 clearance of last year's pending transactions
                  liabilities:pending    5 = 0
                  assets:checking

   codes
       codes
       List the codes seen in transactions, in the order parsed.

       This command prints the value of each transaction's code field, in  the
       order  transactions  were  parsed.  The transaction code is an optional
       value written in parentheses between the date  and  description,  often
       used to store a cheque number, order number or similar.

       Transactions aren't required to have a code, and missing or empty codes
       will not be shown by default.  With the -E/--empty flag, they  will  be
       printed as blank lines.

       You can add a query to select a subset of transactions.

       Examples:

              1/1 (123)
               (a)  1

              1/1 ()
               (a)  1

              1/1
               (a)  1

              1/1 (126)
               (a)  1

              $ hledger codes
              123
              124
              126

              $ hledger codes -E
              123
              124


              126

   commodities
       commodities
       List all commodity/currency symbols used or declared in the journal.

   descriptions
       descriptions
       List the unique descriptions that appear in transactions.

       This command lists the unique descriptions that appear in transactions,
       in alphabetic order.  You can add a query to select a subset of  trans-
       actions.

       Example:

              $ hledger descriptions
              Store Name
              Gas Station | Petrol
              Person A

   diff
       diff
       Compares  a  particular  account's transactions in two input files.  It
       shows any transactions to this account which are in one file but not in
       the other.

       More precisely, for each posting affecting this account in either file,
       it looks for a corresponding posting in the other file which posts  the
       same  amount  to  the  same  account (ignoring date, description, etc.)
       Since postings not transactions are compared, this also works when mul-
       tiple bank transactions have been combined into a single journal entry.

       This is useful eg if you have downloaded an account's transactions from
       your bank (eg as CSV data).  When hledger and your bank disagree  about
       the account balance, you can compare the bank data with your journal to
       find out the cause.

       Examples:

              $ hledger diff -f $LEDGER_FILE -f bank.csv assets:bank:giro
              These transactions are in the first file only:

              2014/01/01 Opening Balances
                  assets:bank:giro              EUR ...
                  ...
                  equity:opening balances       EUR -...

              These transactions are in the second file only:

   files
       files
       List all files included in the journal.  With a  REGEX  argument,  only
       file names matching the regular expression (case sensitive) are shown.

   help
       help
       Show any of the hledger manuals.

       The  help  command  displays any of the main hledger manuals, in one of
       several ways.  Run it with no argument to list the manuals, or  provide
       a full or partial manual name to select one.

       hledger  manuals  are  available in several formats.  hledger help will
       use the first of these  display  methods  that  it  finds:  info,  man,
       $PAGER,  less,  stdout (or when non-interactive, just stdout).  You can
       force a particular viewer with the --info, --man, --pager, --cat flags.

       Examples:

              $ hledger help
              Please choose a manual by typing "hledger help MANUAL" (a substring is ok).
              Manuals: hledger hledger-ui hledger-web journal csv timeclock timedot

              $ hledger help h --man

              hledger(1)                    hledger User Manuals                    hledger(1)

              NAME
                     hledger - a command-line accounting tool

              SYNOPSIS
                     hledger [-f FILE] COMMAND [OPTIONS] [ARGS]
                     hledger [-f FILE] ADDONCMD -- [OPTIONS] [ARGS]
                     hledger

              DESCRIPTION
                     hledger  is  a  cross-platform  program  for tracking money, time, or any
              ...

   import
       import
       Read new transactions added to each FILE since last run, and  add  them
       to  the  main journal file.  Or with --dry-run, just print the transac-
       tions that would be added.  Or with --catchup, just  mark  all  of  the
       FILEs' transactions as imported, without actually importing any.

       The input files are specified as arguments - no need to write -f before
       each one.  So eg to add new transactions from all CSV files to the main
       journal, it's just: hledger import *.csv

       New transactions are detected in the same way as print --new: by assum-
       ing transactions are always added to the input files in increasing date
       order, and by saving .latest.FILE state files.

       The  --dry-run output is in journal format, so you can filter it, eg to
       see only uncategorised transactions:

              $ hledger import --dry ... | hledger -f- print unknown --ignore-assertions

   Importing balance assignments
       Entries added by import will have their posting amounts  made  explicit
       (like  hledger  print  -x).  This means that any balance assignments in
       imported files must be evaluated; but, imported files don't get to  see
       the  main file's account balances.  As a result, importing entries with
       balance assignments (eg from an institution that provides only balances
       and  not  posting  amounts)  will  probably  generate incorrect posting
       amounts.  To avoid this problem, use print instead of import:

              $ hledger print IMPORTFILE [--new] >> $LEDGER_FILE

       (If you think import should leave amounts  implicit  like  print  does,
       please test it and send a pull request.)

   incomestatement
       incomestatement, is
       This  command  displays  an  income statement, showing revenues and ex-
       penses during one or more periods.  Amounts are shown with normal posi-
       tive sign, as in conventional financial statements.

       The revenue and expense accounts shown are those accounts declared with
       the Revenue or Expense type, or otherwise all  accounts  under  a  top-
       level  revenue  or income or expense account (case insensitive, plurals
       allowed).

       Example:

              $ hledger incomestatement
              Income Statement

              Revenues:
                               $-2  income
                               $-1    gifts
                               $-1    salary
              --------------------
                               $-2

              Expenses:
                                $2  expenses
                                $1    food
                                $1    supplies
              --------------------
                                $2

              Total:
              --------------------
                                 0

       With a reporting interval, multiple columns will be shown, one for each
       report  period.   Normally  incomestatement shows revenues/expenses per
       period, though as with multicolumn balance reports you  can  alter  the
       report  mode with --change/--cumulative/--historical.  Instead of abso-
       lute values percentages can be displayed with -%.

       This command also supports the output destination and output format op-
       tions  The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and (experimen-
       tal) json.

   notes
       notes
       List the unique notes that appear in transactions.

       This command lists the unique notes that appear in transactions, in al-
       phabetic  order.   You  can  add a query to select a subset of transac-
       tions.  The note is the part of the transaction description after  a  |
       character (or if there is no |, the whole description).

       Example:

              $ hledger notes
              Petrol
              Snacks

   payees
       payees
       List the unique payee/payer names that appear in transactions.

       This command lists the unique payee/payer names that appear in transac-
       tions, in alphabetic order.  You can add a query to select a subset  of
       transactions.   The payee/payer is the part of the transaction descrip-
       tion before a | character (or if there is no |, the whole description).

       Example:

              $ hledger payees
              Store Name
              Gas Station
              Person A

   prices
       prices
       Print market price directives from the  journal.   With  --costs,  also
       print  synthetic market prices based on transaction prices.  With --in-
       verted-costs, also print inverse prices based  on  transaction  prices.
       Prices  (and  postings  providing  prices)  can be filtered by a query.
       Price amounts are always displayed with their full precision.

   print
       print, txns, p
       Show transaction journal entries, sorted by date.

       The print command displays full journal entries (transactions) from the
       journal  file  in date order, tidily formatted.  With --date2, transac-
       tions are sorted by secondary date instead.

       print's output is always a valid hledger journal.
       It preserves all transaction information, but it does not preserve  di-
       rectives or inter-transaction comments

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

              2008/06/01 gift
                  assets:bank:checking            $1
                  income:gifts                   $-1

              2008/06/02 save
                  assets:bank:saving              $1
                  assets:bank:checking           $-1

              2008/06/03 * eat & shop
                  expenses:food                $1
                  expenses:supplies            $1
                  assets:cash                 $-2

              2008/12/31 * pay off
                  liabilities:debts               $1
                  assets:bank:checking           $-1

       Normally, the journal entry's explicit or implicit amount style is pre-
       served.  For example, when an amount is omitted in the journal, it will
       not  appear  in the output.  Similarly, when a transaction price is im-
       plied but not written, it will not appear in the output.  You  can  use
       the  -x/--explicit  flag to make all amounts and transaction prices ex-
       plicit, which can be useful for  troubleshooting  or  for  making  your
       journal more readable and robust against data entry errors.  -x is also
       implied by using any of -B,-V,-X,--value.

       Note, -x/--explicit will cause postings with a  multi-commodity  amount
       (these  can  arise  when  a multi-commodity transaction has an implicit
       amount) to be split into multiple  single-commodity  postings,  keeping
       the output parseable.

       With  -B/--cost,  amounts with transaction prices are converted to cost
       using that price.  This can be used for troubleshooting.

       With -m/--match and a STR argument, print will show at most one  trans-
       action:  the  one  one whose description is most similar to STR, and is
       most recent.  STR should contain at least two characters.  If there  is
       no similar-enough match, no transaction will be shown.

       With --new, for each FILE being read, hledger reads (and writes) a spe-
       cial state file (.latest.FILE in the same  directory),  containing  the
       latest  transaction  date(s)  that  were  seen last time FILE was read.
       When this file is found, only transactions with newer  dates  (and  new
       transactions  on  the latest date) are printed.  This is useful for ig-
       noring already-seen entries in import  data,  such  as  downloaded  CSV
       files.  Eg:

              $ hledger -f bank1.csv print --new
              (shows transactions added since last print --new on this file)

       This  assumes  that  transactions added to FILE always have same or in-
       creasing dates, and that transactions on the same day do  not  get  re-
       ordered.  See also the import command.

       This command also supports the output destination and output format op-
       tions The output formats supported are  txt,  csv,  and  (experimental)
       json and sql.

       Here's an example of print's CSV output:

              $ hledger print -Ocsv
              "txnidx","date","date2","status","code","description","comment","account","amount","commodity","credit","debit","posting-status","posting-comment"
              "1","2008/01/01","","","","income","","assets:bank:checking","1","$","","1","",""
              "1","2008/01/01","","","","income","","income:salary","-1","$","1","","",""
              "2","2008/06/01","","","","gift","","assets:bank:checking","1","$","","1","",""
              "2","2008/06/01","","","","gift","","income:gifts","-1","$","1","","",""
              "3","2008/06/02","","","","save","","assets:bank:saving","1","$","","1","",""
              "3","2008/06/02","","","","save","","assets:bank:checking","-1","$","1","","",""
              "4","2008/06/03","","*","","eat & shop","","expenses:food","1","$","","1","",""
              "4","2008/06/03","","*","","eat & shop","","expenses:supplies","1","$","","1","",""
              "4","2008/06/03","","*","","eat & shop","","assets:cash","-2","$","2","","",""
              "5","2008/12/31","","*","","pay off","","liabilities:debts","1","$","","1","",""
              "5","2008/12/31","","*","","pay off","","assets:bank:checking","-1","$","1","","",""

       o There  is  one  CSV record per posting, with the parent transaction's
         fields repeated.

       o The "txnidx" (transaction index) field shows which postings belong to
         the  same transaction.  (This number might change if transactions are
         reordered within the file, files are parsed/included in  a  different
         order, etc.)

       o The  amount  is  separated into "commodity" (the symbol) and "amount"
         (numeric quantity) fields.

       o The numeric amount is repeated in either the "credit" or "debit" col-
         umn,  for convenience.  (Those names are not accurate in the account-
         ing sense; it just puts negative amounts under  credit  and  zero  or
         greater amounts under debit.)

   print-unique
       print-unique
       Print transactions which do not reuse an already-seen description.

       Example:

              $ cat unique.journal
              1/1 test
               (acct:one)  1
              2/2 test
               (acct:two)  2
              $ LEDGER_FILE=unique.journal hledger print-unique
              (-f option not supported)
              2015/01/01 test
                  (acct:one)             1

   register
       register, reg, r
       Show postings and their running total.

       The register command displays matched postings, across all accounts, in
       date order, with their running total  or  running  historical  balance.
       (See  also the aregister command, which shows matched transactions in a
       specific account.)

       register normally shows line per posting, but note that multi-commodity
       amounts will occupy multiple lines (one line per commodity).

       It  is  typically  used with a query selecting a particular account, to
       see that account's activity:

              $ hledger register checking
              2008/01/01 income               assets:bank:checking            $1           $1
              2008/06/01 gift                 assets:bank:checking            $1           $2
              2008/06/02 save                 assets:bank:checking           $-1           $1
              2008/12/31 pay off              assets:bank:checking           $-1            0

       With --date2, it shows and sorts by secondary date instead.

       The --historical/-H flag adds the balance from  any  undisplayed  prior
       postings  to  the  running  total.  This is useful when you want to see
       only recent activity, with a historically accurate running balance:

              $ hledger register checking -b 2008/6 --historical
              2008/06/01 gift                 assets:bank:checking            $1           $2
              2008/06/02 save                 assets:bank:checking           $-1           $1
              2008/12/31 pay off              assets:bank:checking           $-1            0

       The --depth option limits the amount of sub-account detail displayed.

       The --average/-A flag shows the running average posting amount  instead
       of the running total (so, the final number displayed is the average for
       the whole report period).  This flag implies --empty (see  below).   It
       is  affected  by --historical.  It works best when showing just one ac-
       count and one commodity.

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

       The  --invert flag negates all amounts.  For example, it can be used on
       an income account where amounts are normally displayed as negative num-
       bers.   It's  also  useful to show postings on the checking account to-
       gether with the related account:

              $ hledger register --related --invert assets:checking

       With a reporting interval, register shows summary postings, one per in-
       terval, aggregating the postings to each account:

              $ hledger register --monthly income
              2008/01                 income:salary                          $-1          $-1
              2008/06                 income:gifts                           $-1          $-2

       Periods  with no activity, and summary postings with a zero amount, are
       not shown by default; use the --empty/-E flag to see them:

              $ hledger register --monthly income -E
              2008/01                 income:salary                          $-1          $-1
              2008/02                                                          0          $-1
              2008/03                                                          0          $-1
              2008/04                                                          0          $-1
              2008/05                                                          0          $-1
              2008/06                 income:gifts                           $-1          $-2
              2008/07                                                          0          $-2
              2008/08                                                          0          $-2
              2008/09                                                          0          $-2
              2008/10                                                          0          $-2
              2008/11                                                          0          $-2
              2008/12                                                          0          $-2

       Often, you'll want to see just one line per interval.  The --depth  op-
       tion helps with this, causing subaccounts to be aggregated:

              $ hledger register --monthly assets --depth 1h
              2008/01                 assets                                  $1           $1
              2008/06                 assets                                 $-1            0
              2008/12                 assets                                 $-1          $-1

       Note  when using report intervals, if you specify start/end dates these
       will be adjusted outward if necessary to contain a whole number of  in-
       tervals.   This  ensures  that  the  first  and last intervals are full
       length and comparable to the others in the report.

   Custom register output
       register uses the full terminal width by default,  except  on  windows.
       You  can override this by setting the COLUMNS environment variable (not
       a bash shell variable) or by using the --width/-w option.

       The description and account columns normally share  the  space  equally
       (about half of (width - 40) each).  You can adjust this by adding a de-
       scription width as part of --width's argument, comma-separated: --width
       W,D .  Here's a diagram (won't display correctly in --help):

              <--------------------------------- width (W) ---------------------------------->
              date (10)  description (D)       account (W-41-D)     amount (12)   balance (12)
              DDDDDDDDDD dddddddddddddddddddd  aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa  AAAAAAAAAAAA  AAAAAAAAAAAA

       and some examples:

              $ hledger reg                     # use terminal width (or 80 on windows)
              $ hledger reg -w 100              # use width 100
              $ COLUMNS=100 hledger reg         # set with one-time environment variable
              $ export COLUMNS=100; hledger reg # set till session end (or window resize)
              $ hledger reg -w 100,40           # set overall width 100, description width 40
              $ hledger reg -w $COLUMNS,40      # use terminal width, & description width 40

       This command also supports the output destination and output format op-
       tions The output formats supported are  txt,  csv,  and  (experimental)
       json.

   register-match
       register-match
       Print the one posting whose transaction description is closest to DESC,
       in the style of the register command.  If there  are  multiple  equally
       good  matches,  it  shows the most recent.  Query options (options, not
       arguments) can be used to restrict the search space.  Helps  ledger-au-
       tosync detect already-seen transactions when importing.

   rewrite
       rewrite
       Print all transactions, rewriting the postings of matched transactions.
       For now the only rewrite available is adding new postings,  like  print
       --auto.

       This is a start at a generic rewriter of transaction entries.  It reads
       the default journal and prints the transactions, like print,  but  adds
       one or more specified postings to any transactions matching QUERY.  The
       posting amounts can be fixed, or a multiplier of the existing  transac-
       tion's first posting amount.

       Examples:

              $ hledger-rewrite.hs ^income --add-posting '(liabilities:tax)  *.33  ; income tax' --add-posting '(reserve:gifts)  $100'
              $ hledger-rewrite.hs expenses:gifts --add-posting '(reserve:gifts)  *-1"'
              $ hledger-rewrite.hs -f rewrites.hledger

       rewrites.hledger may consist of entries like:

              = ^income amt:<0 date:2017
                (liabilities:tax)  *0.33  ; tax on income
                (reserve:grocery)  *0.25  ; reserve 25% for grocery
                (reserve:)  *0.25  ; reserve 25% for grocery

       Note  the  single  quotes to protect the dollar sign from bash, and the
       two spaces between account and amount.

       More:

              $ hledger rewrite -- [QUERY]        --add-posting "ACCT  AMTEXPR" ...
              $ hledger rewrite -- ^income        --add-posting '(liabilities:tax)  *.33'
              $ hledger rewrite -- expenses:gifts --add-posting '(budget:gifts)  *-1"'
              $ hledger rewrite -- ^income        --add-posting '(budget:foreign currency)  *0.25 JPY; diversify'

       Argument for --add-posting option is a  usual  posting  of  transaction
       with  an  exception  for amount specification.  More precisely, you can
       use '*' (star symbol) before the amount to indicate that that this is a
       factor  for  an  amount of original matched posting.  If the amount in-
       cludes a commodity name, the new posting amount will be in the new com-
       modity;  otherwise,  it will be in the matched posting amount's commod-
       ity.

   Re-write rules in a file
       During the run this tool will execute  so  called  "Automated  Transac-
       tions" found in any journal it process.  I.e instead of specifying this
       operations in command line you can put them in a journal file.

              $ rewrite-rules.journal

       Make contents look like this:

              = ^income
                  (liabilities:tax)  *.33

              = expenses:gifts
                  budget:gifts  *-1
                  assets:budget  *1

       Note that '=' (equality symbol) that is used instead of date in  trans-
       actions you usually write.  It indicates the query by which you want to
       match the posting to add new ones.

              $ hledger rewrite -- -f input.journal -f rewrite-rules.journal > rewritten-tidy-output.journal

       This is something similar to the commands pipeline:

              $ hledger rewrite -- -f input.journal '^income' --add-posting '(liabilities:tax)  *.33' \
                | hledger rewrite -- -f - expenses:gifts      --add-posting 'budget:gifts  *-1'       \
                                                              --add-posting 'assets:budget  *1'       \
                > rewritten-tidy-output.journal

       It is important to understand that relative order of  such  entries  in
       journal  is important.  You can re-use result of previously added post-
       ings.

   Diff output format
       To use this tool for batch modification of your journal files  you  may
       find useful output in form of unified diff.

              $ hledger rewrite -- --diff -f examples/sample.journal '^income' --add-posting '(liabilities:tax)  *.33'

       Output might look like:

              --- /tmp/examples/sample.journal
              +++ /tmp/examples/sample.journal
              @@ -18,3 +18,4 @@
               2008/01/01 income
              -    assets:bank:checking  $1
              +    assets:bank:checking            $1
                   income:salary
              +    (liabilities:tax)                0
              @@ -22,3 +23,4 @@
               2008/06/01 gift
              -    assets:bank:checking  $1
              +    assets:bank:checking            $1
                   income:gifts
              +    (liabilities:tax)                0

       If you'll pass this through patch tool you'll get transactions contain-
       ing the posting that matches your query be updated.  Note that multiple
       files  might  be  update according to list of input files specified via
       --file options and include directives inside of these files.

       Be careful.  Whole transaction being re-formatted in a style of  output
       from hledger print.

       See also:

       https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/issues/99

   rewrite vs. print --auto
       This  command  predates  print --auto, and currently does much the same
       thing, but with these differences:

       o with multiple files, rewrite lets rules in any file affect all  other
         files.   print  --auto  uses standard directive scoping; rules affect
         only child files.

       o rewrite's query limits which transactions can be rewritten;  all  are
         printed.  print --auto's query limits which transactions are printed.

       o rewrite  applies  rules  specified on command line or in the journal.
         print --auto applies rules specified in the journal.

   roi
       roi
       Shows the time-weighted (TWR) and money-weighted (IRR) rate  of  return
       on your investments.

       This  command  assumes  that  you have account(s) that hold nothing but
       your investments and whenever you record current appraisal/valuation of
       these investments you offset unrealized profit and loss into account(s)
       that, again, hold nothing but unrealized profit and loss.

       Any transactions affecting balance of  investment  account(s)  and  not
       originating  from  unrealized profit and loss account(s) are assumed to
       be your investments or withdrawals.

       At a minimum, you need to supply a query (which could be  just  an  ac-
       count name) to select your investments with --inv, and another query to
       identify your profit and loss transactions with --pnl.

       It will compute and display the internalized rate of return  (IRR)  and
       time-weighted  rate  of  return (TWR) for your investments for the time
       period requested.  Both rates of return are annualized before  display,
       regardless of the length of reporting interval.

   stats
       stats
       Show some journal statistics.

       The  stats  command displays summary information for the whole journal,
       or a matched part of it.  With a reporting interval, it shows a  report
       for each report period.

       Example:

              $ hledger stats
              Main journal file        : /src/hledger/examples/sample.journal
              Included journal files   :
              Transactions span        : 2008-01-01 to 2009-01-01 (366 days)
              Last transaction         : 2008-12-31 (2333 days ago)
              Transactions             : 5 (0.0 per day)
              Transactions last 30 days: 0 (0.0 per day)
              Transactions last 7 days : 0 (0.0 per day)
              Payees/descriptions      : 5
              Accounts                 : 8 (depth 3)
              Commodities              : 1 ($)
              Market prices            : 12 ($)

       This  command also supports output destination and output format selec-
       tion.

   tags
       tags
       List the unique tag names used in the journal.  With a  TAGREGEX  argu-
       ment, only tag names matching the regular expression (case insensitive)
       are shown.  With QUERY arguments, only transactions matching the  query
       are considered.

       With the --values flag, the tags' unique values are listed instead.

       With  --parsed flag, all tags or values are shown in the order they are
       parsed from the input data, including duplicates.

       With -E/--empty, any blank/empty values will also be  shown,  otherwise
       they are omitted.

   test
       test
       Run built-in unit tests.

       This  command  runs the unit tests built in to hledger and hledger-lib,
       printing the results on stdout.  If any test fails, the exit code  will
       be non-zero.

       This  is  mainly used by hledger developers, but you can also use it to
       sanity-check the installed hledger executable on  your  platform.   All
       tests  are  expected to pass - if you ever see a failure, please report
       as a bug!

       This command also accepts tasty test runner options, written after a --
       (double hyphen).  Eg to run only the tests in Hledger.Data.Amount, with
       ANSI colour codes disabled:

              $ hledger test -- -pData.Amount --color=never

       For help on these, see  https://github.com/feuerbach/tasty#options  (--
       --help currently doesn't show them).

   Add-on commands
       hledger  also  searches  for external add-on commands, and will include
       these in the commands list.  These are programs or scripts in your PATH
       whose  name starts with hledger- and ends with a recognised file exten-
       sion (currently: no extension, bat,com,exe, hs,lhs,pl,py,rb,rkt,sh).

       Add-ons can be invoked like any hledger command, but there  are  a  few
       things to be aware of.  Eg if the hledger-web add-on is installed,

       o hledger  -h  web  shows  hledger's  help,  while hledger web -h shows
         hledger-web's help.

       o Flags specific to the add-on must have a preceding --  to  hide  them
         from  hledger.   So hledger web --serve --port 9000 will be rejected;
         you must use hledger web -- --serve --port 9000.

       o You can always run add-ons directly if preferred: hledger-web --serve
         --port 9000.

       Add-ons  are  a relatively easy way to add local features or experiment
       with new ideas.  They can be  written  in  any  language,  but  haskell
       scripts  have  a  big  advantage:  they  can  use the same hledger (and
       haskell) library functions that built-in commands do, for  command-line
       options, journal parsing, reporting, etc.

       Two  important  add-ons  are the hledger-ui and hledger-web user inter-
       faces.  These are maintained and released along with hledger:

   ui
       hledger-ui provides an efficient terminal interface.

   web
       hledger-web provides a simple web interface.

       Third party add-ons, maintained separately from hledger, include:

   iadd
       hledger-iadd is a more interactive, terminal UI replacement for the add
       command.

   interest
       hledger-interest generates interest transactions for an account accord-
       ing to various schemes.

       A few more experimental or old add-ons can be found in  hledger's  bin/
       directory.  These are typically prototypes and not guaranteed to work.

ENVIRONMENT
       LEDGER_FILE The journal file path when not specified with -f.  Default:
       ~/.hledger.journal (on  windows,  perhaps  C:/Users/USER/.hledger.jour-
       nal).

       A  typical  value  is  ~/DIR/YYYY.journal,  where DIR is a version-con-
       trolled finance directory and YYYY is the current year.  Or  ~/DIR/cur-
       rent.journal, where current.journal is a symbolic link to YYYY.journal.

       On Mac computers, you can set this and other environment variables in a
       more thorough way that also affects applications started from  the  GUI
       (say, an Emacs dock icon).  Eg on MacOS Catalina I have a ~/.MacOSX/en-
       vironment.plist file containing

              {
                "LEDGER_FILE" : "~/finance/current.journal"
              }

       To see the effect you may need to killall Dock, or reboot.

       COLUMNS The screen width used by the register  command.   Default:  the
       full terminal width.

       NO_COLOR  If  this variable exists with any value, hledger will not use
       ANSI  color   codes   in   terminal   output.    This   overrides   the
       --color/--colour option.

FILES
       Reads  data from one or more files in hledger journal, timeclock, time-
       dot,  or  CSV  format  specified   with   -f,   or   $LEDGER_FILE,   or
       $HOME/.hledger.journal           (on          windows,          perhaps
       C:/Users/USER/.hledger.journal).

LIMITATIONS
       The need to precede addon command options with  --  when  invoked  from
       hledger is awkward.

       When input data contains non-ascii characters, a suitable system locale
       must be configured (or there will be an unhelpful error).  Eg on POSIX,
       set LANG to something other than C.

       In a Microsoft Windows CMD window, non-ascii characters and colours are
       not supported.

       On Windows, non-ascii characters may not display correctly when running
       a hledger built in CMD in MSYS/CYGWIN, or vice-versa.

       In a Cygwin/MSYS/Mintty window, the tab key is not supported in hledger
       add.

       Not all of Ledger's journal file syntax is supported.  See file  format
       differences.

       On  large  data  files,  hledger  is  slower  and uses more memory than
       Ledger.

TROUBLESHOOTING
       Here are some issues you might encounter when you run hledger (and  re-
       member  you  can  also seek help from the IRC channel, mail list or bug
       tracker):

       Successfully installed, but "No command 'hledger' found"
       stack and cabal install binaries into a special directory, which should
       be  added  to your PATH environment variable.  Eg on unix-like systems,
       that is ~/.local/bin and ~/.cabal/bin respectively.

       I set a custom LEDGER_FILE, but hledger is still using the default file
       LEDGER_FILE should be a real environment variable,  not  just  a  shell
       variable.   The command env | grep LEDGER_FILE should show it.  You may
       need to use export.  Here's an explanation.

       Getting errors like "Illegal byte sequence" or "Invalid  or  incomplete
       multibyte  or wide character" or "commitAndReleaseBuffer: invalid argu-
       ment (invalid character)"
       Programs compiled with GHC (hledger, haskell build tools, etc.) need to
       have a UTF-8-aware locale configured in the environment, otherwise they
       will fail with these kinds of  errors  when  they  encounter  non-ascii
       characters.

       To  fix it, set the LANG environment variable to some locale which sup-
       ports UTF-8.  The locale you choose must be installed on your system.

       Here's an example of setting LANG temporarily, on Ubuntu GNU/Linux:

              $ file my.journal
              my.journal: UTF-8 Unicode text         # the file is UTF8-encoded
              $ echo $LANG
              C                                      # LANG is set to the default locale, which does not support UTF8
              $ locale -a                            # which locales are installed ?
              C
              en_US.utf8                             # here's a UTF8-aware one we can use
              POSIX
              $ LANG=en_US.utf8 hledger -f my.journal print   # ensure it is used for this command

       If available, C.UTF-8 will also work.  If your preferred  locale  isn't
       listed  by  locale  -a, you might need to install it.  Eg on Ubuntu/De-
       bian:

              $ apt-get install language-pack-fr
              $ locale -a
              C
              en_US.utf8
              fr_BE.utf8
              fr_CA.utf8
              fr_CH.utf8
              fr_FR.utf8
              fr_LU.utf8
              POSIX
              $ LANG=fr_FR.utf8 hledger -f my.journal print

       Here's how you could set it permanently, if you use a bash shell:

              $ echo "export LANG=en_US.utf8" >>~/.bash_profile
              $ bash --login

       Exact spelling and capitalisation may be important.  Note  the  differ-
       ence  on  MacOS  (UTF-8,  not  utf8).  Some platforms (eg ubuntu) allow
       variant spellings, but others (eg macos) require it to be exact:

              $ locale -a | grep -iE en_us.*utf
              en_US.UTF-8
              $ LANG=en_US.UTF-8 hledger -f my.journal print



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 1.18.99                 September 2020                      hledger(1)
