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File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Top,  Up: (dir)

hledger_journal(5) hledger 1.18.99
**********************************

Journal - hledger's default file format, representing a General Journal

   hledger's usual data source is a plain text file containing journal
entries in hledger journal format.  This file represents a standard
accounting general journal.  I use file names ending in '.journal', but
that's not required.  The journal file contains a number of transaction
entries, each describing a transfer of money (or any commodity) between
two or more named accounts, in a simple format readable by both hledger
and humans.

   hledger's journal format is a compatible subset, mostly, of ledger's
journal format, so hledger can work with compatible ledger journal files
as well.  It's safe, and encouraged, to run both hledger and ledger on
the same journal file, eg to validate the results you're getting.

   You can use hledger without learning any more about this file; just
use the add or web or import commands to create and update it.

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

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

* Menu:

* Transactions::


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Transactions,  Up: Top

1 Transactions
**************

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

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

   * a status character (empty, '!', or '*')
   * a code (any short number or text, enclosed in parentheses)
   * a description (any remaining text until end of line or a semicolon)
   * a comment (any remaining text following a semicolon until end of
     line, and any following indented lines beginning with a semicolon)
   * 0 or more indented _posting_ lines, describing what was transferred
     and the accounts involved (indented comment lines are also allowed,
     but not blank lines or non-indented lines).

   Here's a simple journal file containing one transaction:

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

* Menu:

* Dates::
* Status::
* Description::
* Comments::
* Tags::
* Postings::
* Account names::
* Amounts::
* Transaction prices::
* Lot prices and lot dates::
* Balance assertions::
* Balance assignments::
* Directives::
* Periodic transactions::
* Auto postings::


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Dates,  Next: Status,  Up: Transactions

1.1 Dates
=========

* Menu:

* Simple dates::
* Secondary dates::
* Posting dates::


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Simple dates,  Next: Secondary dates,  Up: Dates

1.1.1 Simple dates
------------------

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

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


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Secondary dates,  Next: Posting dates,  Prev: Simple dates,  Up: Dates

1.1.2 Secondary dates
---------------------

Real-life transactions sometimes involve more than one date - eg the
date you write a cheque, and the date it clears in your bank.  When you
want to model this, for more accurate daily balances, you can specify
individual posting dates.

   Or, you can use the older _secondary date_ feature (Ledger calls it
auxiliary date or effective date).  Note: we support this for
compatibility, but I usually recommend avoiding this feature; posting
dates are almost always clearer and simpler.

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

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

2010/2/23=2/19 movie ticket
  expenses:cinema                   $10
  assets:checking

$ hledger register checking
2010-02-23 movie ticket         assets:checking                $-10         $-10

$ hledger register checking --date2
2010-02-19 movie ticket         assets:checking                $-10         $-10


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Posting dates,  Prev: Secondary dates,  Up: Dates

1.1.3 Posting dates
-------------------

You can give individual postings a different date from their parent
transaction, by adding a posting comment containing a tag (see below)
like 'date:DATE'.  This is probably the best way to control posting
dates precisely.  Eg in this example the expense should appear in May
reports, and the deduction from checking should be reported on 6/1 for
easy bank reconciliation:

2015/5/30
    expenses:food     $10  ; food purchased on saturday 5/30
    assets:checking        ; bank cleared it on monday, date:6/1

$ hledger -f t.j register food
2015-05-30                      expenses:food                  $10           $10

$ hledger -f t.j register checking
2015-06-01                      assets:checking               $-10          $-10

   DATE should be a simple date; if the year is not specified it will
use the year of the transaction's date.  You can set the secondary date
similarly, with 'date2:DATE2'.  The 'date:' or 'date2:' tags must have a
valid simple date value if they are present, eg a 'date:' tag with no
value is not allowed.

   Ledger's earlier, more compact bracketed date syntax is also
supported: '[DATE]', '[DATE=DATE2]' or '[=DATE2]'.  hledger will attempt
to parse any square-bracketed sequence of the '0123456789/-.='
characters in this way.  With this syntax, DATE infers its year from the
transaction and DATE2 infers its year from DATE.


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Status,  Next: Description,  Prev: Dates,  Up: Transactions

1.2 Status
==========

Transactions, or individual postings within a transaction, can have a
status mark, which is a single character before the transaction
description or posting account name, separated from it by a space,
indicating one of three statuses:

mark  status
 
-----------------
      unmarked
'!'   pending
'*'   cleared

   When reporting, you can filter by status with the '-U/--unmarked',
'-P/--pending', and '-C/--cleared' flags; or the 'status:', 'status:!',
and 'status:*' queries; or the U, P, C keys in hledger-ui.

   Note, in Ledger and in older versions of hledger, the "unmarked"
state is called "uncleared".  As of hledger 1.3 we have renamed it to
unmarked for clarity.

   To replicate Ledger and old hledger's behaviour of also matching
pending, combine -U and -P.

   Status marks are optional, but can be helpful eg for reconciling with
real-world accounts.  Some editor modes provide highlighting and
shortcuts for working with status.  Eg in Emacs ledger-mode, you can
toggle transaction status with C-c C-e, or posting status with C-c C-c.

   What "uncleared", "pending", and "cleared" actually mean is up to
you.  Here's one suggestion:

status     meaning
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
uncleared  recorded but not yet reconciled; needs review
pending    tentatively reconciled (if needed, eg during a big
           reconciliation)
cleared    complete, reconciled as far as possible, and considered
           correct

   With this scheme, you would use '-PC' to see the current balance at
your bank, '-U' to see things which will probably hit your bank soon
(like uncashed checks), and no flags to see the most up-to-date state of
your finances.


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Description,  Next: Comments,  Prev: Status,  Up: Transactions

1.3 Description
===============

A transaction's description is the rest of the line following the date
and status mark (or until a comment begins).  Sometimes called the
"narration" in traditional bookkeeping, it can be used for whatever you
wish, or left blank.  Transaction descriptions can be queried, unlike
comments.

* Menu:

* Payee and note::


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Payee and note,  Up: Description

1.3.1 Payee and note
--------------------

You can optionally include a '|' (pipe) character in descriptions to
subdivide the description into separate fields for payee/payer name on
the left (up to the first '|') and an additional note field on the right
(after the first '|').  This may be worthwhile if you need to do more
precise querying and pivoting by payee or by note.


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Comments,  Next: Tags,  Prev: Description,  Up: Transactions

1.4 Comments
============

Lines in the journal beginning with a semicolon (';') or hash ('#') or
star ('*') are comments, and will be ignored.  (Star comments cause
org-mode nodes to be ignored, allowing emacs users to fold and navigate
their journals with org-mode or orgstruct-mode.)

   You can attach comments to a transaction by writing them after the
description and/or indented on the following lines (before the
postings).  Similarly, you can attach comments to an individual posting
by writing them after the amount and/or indented on the following lines.
Transaction and posting comments must begin with a semicolon (';').

   Some examples:

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

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

2012/5/14 something  ; a transaction comment
    ; the transaction comment, continued
    posting1  1  ; a comment for posting 1
    posting2
    ; a comment for posting 2
    ; another comment line for posting 2
; a file comment (because not indented)

   You can also comment larger regions of a file using 'comment' and
'end comment' directives.


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Tags,  Next: Postings,  Prev: Comments,  Up: Transactions

1.5 Tags
========

Tags are a way to add extra labels or labelled data to postings and
transactions, which you can then search or pivot on.

   A simple tag is a word (which may contain hyphens) followed by a full
colon, written inside a transaction or posting comment line:

2017/1/16 bought groceries  ; sometag:

   Tags can have a value, which is the text after the colon, up to the
next comma or end of line, with leading/trailing whitespace removed:

    expenses:food    $10 ; a-posting-tag: the tag value

   Note this means hledger's tag values can not contain commas or
newlines.  Ending at commas means you can write multiple short tags on
one line, comma separated:

    assets:checking  ; a comment containing tag1:, tag2: some value ...

   Here,

   * "'a comment containing'" is just comment text, not a tag
   * "'tag1'" is a tag with no value
   * "'tag2'" is another tag, whose value is "'some value ...'"

   Tags in a transaction comment affect the transaction and all of its
postings, while tags in a posting comment affect only that posting.  For
example, the following transaction has three tags ('A', 'TAG2',
'third-tag') and the posting has four (those plus 'posting-tag'):

1/1 a transaction  ; A:, TAG2:
    ; third-tag: a third transaction tag, <- with a value
    (a)  $1  ; posting-tag:

   Tags are like Ledger's metadata feature, except hledger's tag values
are simple strings.


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Postings,  Next: Account names,  Prev: Tags,  Up: Transactions

1.6 Postings
============

A posting is an addition of some amount to, or removal of some amount
from, an account.  Each posting line begins with at least one space or
tab (2 or 4 spaces is common), followed by:

   * (optional) a status character (empty, '!', or '*'), followed by a
     space
   * (required) an account name (any text, optionally containing *single
     spaces*, until end of line or a double space)
   * (optional) *two or more spaces* or tabs followed by an amount.

   Positive amounts are being added to the account, negative amounts are
being removed.

   The amounts within a transaction must always sum up to zero.  As a
convenience, one amount may be left blank; it will be inferred so as to
balance the transaction.

   Be sure to note the unusual two-space delimiter between account name
and amount.  This makes it easy to write account names containing
spaces.  But if you accidentally leave only one space (or tab) before
the amount, the amount will be considered part of the account name.

* Menu:

* Virtual postings::


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Virtual postings,  Up: Postings

1.6.1 Virtual postings
----------------------

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

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

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

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

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

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


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Account names,  Next: Amounts,  Prev: Postings,  Up: Transactions

1.7 Account names
=================

Account names typically have several parts separated by a full colon,
from which hledger derives a hierarchical chart of accounts.  They can
be anything you like, but in finance there are traditionally five
top-level accounts: 'assets', 'liabilities', 'income', 'expenses', and
'equity'.

   Account names may contain single spaces, eg: 'assets:accounts
receivable'.  Because of this, they must always be followed by *two or
more spaces* (or newline).

   Account names can be aliased.


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Amounts,  Next: Transaction prices,  Prev: Account names,  Up: Transactions

1.8 Amounts
===========

After the account name, there is usually an amount.  (Important: between
account name and amount, there must be *two or more spaces*.)

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

1

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

$1
4000 AAPL

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

3 "no. 42 green apples"

   Amounts can be preceded by a minus sign (or a plus sign, though plus
is the default), The sign can be written before or after a left-side
commodity symbol:

-$1
$-1

   One or more spaces between the sign and the number are acceptable
when parsing (but they won't be displayed in output):

+ $1
$-      1

   Scientific E notation is allowed:

1E-6
EUR 1E3

   A decimal mark can be written as a period or a comma:

1.23
1,23456780000009

* Menu:

* Digit group marks::
* Amount display style::


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Digit group marks,  Next: Amount display style,  Up: Amounts

1.8.1 Digit group marks
-----------------------

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

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

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

1,000
1.000

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

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


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Amount display style,  Prev: Digit group marks,  Up: Amounts

1.8.2 Amount display style
--------------------------

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

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

   * Otherwise the format of the first posting amount in that commodity
     seen in the journal is used.  But the number of decimal places
     ("precision") will be the maximum from all posting amounts in that
     commodity.

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

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

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

   hledger uses banker's rounding: it rounds to the nearest even number,
eg 0.5 displayed with zero decimal places is "0").  (Note, prior to
hledger 1.17.1 this could vary if hledger happened to be built with an
old version of Decimal (<0.5.1); since 1.17.1 it's guaranteed.)


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Transaction prices,  Next: Lot prices and lot dates,  Prev: Amounts,  Up: Transactions

1.9 Transaction prices
======================

Within a transaction, you can note an amount's price in another
commodity.  This can be used to document the cost (in a purchase) or
selling price (in a sale).  For example, transaction prices are useful
to record purchases of a foreign currency.  Note transaction prices are
fixed at the time of the transaction, and do not change over time.  See
also market prices, which represent prevailing exchange rates on a
certain date.

   There are several ways to record a transaction price:

  1. Write the price per unit, as '@ UNITPRICE' after the amount:

     2009/1/1
       assets:euros     €100 @ $1.35  ; one hundred euros purchased at $1.35 each
       assets:dollars                 ; balancing amount is -$135.00

  2. Write the total price, as '@@ TOTALPRICE' after the amount:

     2009/1/1
       assets:euros     €100 @@ $135  ; one hundred euros purchased at $135 for the lot
       assets:dollars

  3. Specify amounts for all postings, using exactly two commodities,
     and let hledger infer the price that balances the transaction:

     2009/1/1
       assets:euros     €100          ; one hundred euros purchased
       assets:dollars  $-135          ; for $135

  4. Like 1, but the '@' is parenthesised, i.e.  '(@)'; this is for
     compatibility with Ledger journals (Virtual posting costs), and is
     equivalent to 1 in hledger.

  5. Like 2, but as in 4 the '@@' is parenthesised, i.e.  '(@@)'; in
     hledger, this is equivalent to 2.

   Use the '-B/--cost' flag to convert amounts to their transaction
price's commodity, if any.  (mnemonic: "B" is from "cost Basis", as in
Ledger).  Eg here is how -B affects the balance report for the example
above:

$ hledger bal -N --flat
               $-135  assets:dollars
                €100  assets:euros
$ hledger bal -N --flat -B
               $-135  assets:dollars
                $135  assets:euros    # <- the euros' cost

   Note -B is sensitive to the order of postings when a transaction
price is inferred: the inferred price will be in the commodity of the
last amount.  So if example 3's postings are reversed, while the
transaction is equivalent, -B shows something different:

2009/1/1
  assets:dollars  $-135              ; 135 dollars sold
  assets:euros     €100              ; for 100 euros

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


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Lot prices and lot dates,  Next: Balance assertions,  Prev: Transaction prices,  Up: Transactions

1.10 Lot prices and lot dates
=============================

Ledger allows another kind of price, lot price (four variants:
'{UNITPRICE}', '{{TOTALPRICE}}', '{=FIXEDUNITPRICE}',
'{{=FIXEDTOTALPRICE}}'), and/or a lot date ('[DATE]') to be specified.
These are normally used to select a lot when selling investments.
hledger will parse these, for compatibility with Ledger journals, but
currently ignores them.  A transaction price, lot price and/or lot date
may appear in any order, after the posting amount and before the balance
assertion if any.


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Balance assertions,  Next: Balance assignments,  Prev: Lot prices and lot dates,  Up: Transactions

1.11 Balance assertions
=======================

hledger supports Ledger-style balance assertions in journal files.
These look like, for example, '= EXPECTEDBALANCE' following a posting's
amount.  Eg here we assert the expected dollar balance in accounts a and
b after each posting:

2013/1/1
  a   $1  =$1
  b       =$-1

2013/1/2
  a   $1  =$2
  b  $-1  =$-2

   After reading a journal file, hledger will check all balance
assertions and report an error if any of them fail.  Balance assertions
can protect you from, eg, inadvertently disrupting reconciled balances
while cleaning up old entries.  You can disable them temporarily with
the '-I/--ignore-assertions' flag, which can be useful for
troubleshooting or for reading Ledger files.  (Note: this flag currently
does not disable balance assignments, below).

* Menu:

* Assertions and ordering::
* Assertions and included files::
* Assertions and multiple -f options::
* Assertions and commodities::
* Assertions and prices::
* Assertions and subaccounts::
* Assertions and virtual postings::
* Assertions and precision::


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Assertions and ordering,  Next: Assertions and included files,  Up: Balance assertions

1.11.1 Assertions and ordering
------------------------------

hledger sorts an account's postings and assertions first by date and
then (for postings on the same day) by parse order.  Note this is
different from Ledger, which sorts assertions only by parse order.
(Also, Ledger assertions do not see the accumulated effect of repeated
postings to the same account within a transaction.)

   So, hledger balance assertions keep working if you reorder
differently-dated transactions within the journal.  But if you reorder
same-dated transactions or postings, assertions might break and require
updating.  This order dependence does bring an advantage: precise
control over the order of postings and assertions within a day, so you
can assert intra-day balances.


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Assertions and included files,  Next: Assertions and multiple -f options,  Prev: Assertions and ordering,  Up: Balance assertions

1.11.2 Assertions and included files
------------------------------------

With included files, things are a little more complicated.  Including
preserves the ordering of postings and assertions.  If you have multiple
postings to an account on the same day, split across different files,
and you also want to assert the account's balance on the same day,
you'll have to put the assertion in the right file.


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Assertions and multiple -f options,  Next: Assertions and commodities,  Prev: Assertions and included files,  Up: Balance assertions

1.11.3 Assertions and multiple -f options
-----------------------------------------

Balance assertions don't work well across files specified with multiple
-f options.  Use include or concatenate the files instead.


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Assertions and commodities,  Next: Assertions and prices,  Prev: Assertions and multiple -f options,  Up: Balance assertions

1.11.4 Assertions and commodities
---------------------------------

The asserted balance must be a simple single-commodity amount, and in
fact the assertion checks only this commodity's balance within the
(possibly multi-commodity) account balance.  This is how assertions work
in Ledger also.  We could call this a "partial" balance assertion.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Assertions and prices,  Next: Assertions and subaccounts,  Prev: Assertions and commodities,  Up: Balance assertions

1.11.5 Assertions and prices
----------------------------

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

2019/1/1
  (a)     $1 @ €1 = $1

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


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Assertions and subaccounts,  Next: Assertions and virtual postings,  Prev: Assertions and prices,  Up: Balance assertions

1.11.6 Assertions and subaccounts
---------------------------------

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

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


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Assertions and virtual postings,  Next: Assertions and precision,  Prev: Assertions and subaccounts,  Up: Balance assertions

1.11.7 Assertions and virtual postings
--------------------------------------

Balance assertions are checked against all postings, both real and
virtual.  They are not affected by the '--real/-R' flag or 'real:'
query.


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Assertions and precision,  Prev: Assertions and virtual postings,  Up: Balance assertions

1.11.8 Assertions and precision
-------------------------------

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


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Balance assignments,  Next: Directives,  Prev: Balance assertions,  Up: Transactions

1.12 Balance assignments
========================

Ledger-style balance assignments are also supported.  These are like
balance assertions, but with no posting amount on the left side of the
equals sign; instead it is calculated automatically so as to satisfy the
assertion.  This can be a convenience during data entry, eg when setting
opening balances:

; starting a new journal, set asset account balances
2016/1/1 opening balances
  assets:checking            = $409.32
  assets:savings             = $735.24
  assets:cash                 = $42
  equity:opening balances

   or when adjusting a balance to reality:

; no cash left; update balance, record any untracked spending as a generic expense
2016/1/15
  assets:cash    = $0
  expenses:misc

   The calculated amount depends on the account's balance in the
commodity at that point (which depends on the previously-dated postings
of the commodity to that account since the last balance assertion or
assignment).  Note that using balance assignments makes your journal a
little less explicit; to know the exact amount posted, you have to run
hledger or do the calculations yourself, instead of just reading it.

* Menu:

* Balance assignments and prices::


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Balance assignments and prices,  Up: Balance assignments

1.12.1 Balance assignments and prices
-------------------------------------

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

2019/1/1
  (a)             = $1 @ €2

$ hledger print --explicit
2019-01-01
    (a)         $1 @ €2 = $1 @ €2


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Directives,  Next: Periodic transactions,  Prev: Balance assignments,  Up: Transactions

1.13 Directives
===============

A directive is a line in the journal beginning with a special keyword,
that influences how the journal is processed.  hledger's directives are
based on a subset of Ledger's, but there are many differences (and also
some differences between hledger versions).

   Directives' behaviour and interactions can get a little bit complex,
so here is a table summarising the directives and their effects, with
links to more detailed docs.

directiveend       subdirectivespurpose                  can affect (as of
         directive                                       2018/06)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
'account'          any     document account names,       all entries in
                   text    declare account types &       all files, before
                           display order                 or after
'alias'  'end              rewrite account names         following
         aliases'                                        inline/included
                                                         entries until end
                                                         of current file
                                                         or end directive
'apply   'end              prepend a common parent to    following
account' apply             account names                 inline/included
         account'                                        entries until end
                                                         of current file
                                                         or end directive
'comment''end              ignore part of journal        following
         comment'                                        inline/included
                                                         entries until end
                                                         of current file
                                                         or end directive
'commodity'        'format'declare a commodity and its   number notation:
                           number notation & display     following entries
                           style                         in that commodity
                                                         in all files;
                                                         display style:
                                                         amounts of that
                                                         commodity in
                                                         reports
'D'                        declare a commodity to be     default
                           used for commodityless        commodity:
                           amounts, and its number       following
                           notation & display style      commodityless
                                                         entries until end
                                                         of current file;
                                                         number notation:
                                                         following entries
                                                         in that commodity
                                                         until end of
                                                         current file;
                                                         display style:
                                                         amounts of that
                                                         commodity in
                                                         reports
'include'                  include entries/directives    what the included
                           from another file             directives affect
'P'                        declare a market price for    amounts of that
                           a commodity                   commodity in
                                                         reports, when -V
                                                         is used
'Y'                        declare a year for yearless   following
                           dates                         inline/included
                                                         entries until end
                                                         of current file
'='                        declare an auto posting       all entries in
                           rule, adding postings to      parent/current/child
                           other transactions            files (but not
                                                         sibling files,
                                                         see #1212)

   And some definitions:

subdirectiveoptional indented directive line immediately following a parent
       directive
number how to interpret numbers when parsing journal entries (the
notationidentity of the decimal separator character).  (Currently each
       commodity can have its own notation, even in the same file.)
displayhow to display amounts of a commodity in reports (symbol side
style  and spacing, digit groups, decimal separator, decimal places)
directivewhich entries and (when there are multiple files) which files
scope  are affected by a directive

   As you can see, directives vary in which journal entries and files
they affect, and whether they are focussed on input (parsing) or output
(reports).  Some directives have multiple effects.

* Menu:

* Directives and multiple files::
* Comment blocks::
* Including other files::
* Default year::
* Declaring commodities::
* Default commodity::
* Declaring market prices::
* Declaring accounts::
* Rewriting accounts::
* Default parent account::


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Directives and multiple files,  Next: Comment blocks,  Up: Directives

1.13.1 Directives and multiple files
------------------------------------

If you use multiple '-f'/'--file' options, or the 'include' directive,
hledger will process multiple input files.  But note that directives
which affect input (see above) typically last only until the end of the
file in which they occur.

   This may seem inconvenient, but it's intentional; it makes reports
stable and deterministic, independent of the order of input.  Otherwise
you could see different numbers if you happened to write -f options in a
different order, or if you moved includes around while cleaning up your
files.

   It can be surprising though; for example, it means that 'alias'
directives do not affect parent or sibling files (see below).


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Comment blocks,  Next: Including other files,  Prev: Directives and multiple files,  Up: Directives

1.13.2 Comment blocks
---------------------

A line containing just 'comment' starts a commented region of the file,
and a line containing just 'end comment' (or the end of the current
file) ends it.  See also comments.


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Including other files,  Next: Default year,  Prev: Comment blocks,  Up: Directives

1.13.3 Including other files
----------------------------

You can pull in the content of additional files by writing an include
directive, like this:

include FILEPATH

   Only journal files can include, and only journal, timeclock or
timedot files can be included (not CSV files, currently).

   If the file path does not begin with a slash, it is relative to the
current file's folder.

   A tilde means home directory, eg: 'include ~/main.journal'.

   The path may contain glob patterns to match multiple files, eg:
'include *.journal'.

   There is limited support for recursive wildcards: '**/' (the slash is
required) matches 0 or more subdirectories.  It's not super convenient
since you have to avoid include cycles and including directories, but
this can be done, eg: 'include */**/*.journal'.

   The path may also be prefixed to force a specific file format,
overriding the file extension (as described in hledger.1 -> Input
files): 'include timedot:~/notes/2020*.md'.


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Default year,  Next: Declaring commodities,  Prev: Including other files,  Up: Directives

1.13.4 Default year
-------------------

You can set a default year to be used for subsequent dates which don't
specify a year.  This is a line beginning with 'Y' followed by the year.
Eg:

Y2009  ; set default year to 2009

12/15  ; equivalent to 2009/12/15
  expenses  1
  assets

Y2010  ; change default year to 2010

2009/1/30  ; specifies the year, not affected
  expenses  1
  assets

1/31   ; equivalent to 2010/1/31
  expenses  1
  assets


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Declaring commodities,  Next: Default commodity,  Prev: Default year,  Up: Directives

1.13.5 Declaring commodities
----------------------------

The 'commodity' directive has several functions:

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

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

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

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

   A commodity directive is just the word 'commodity' followed by an
amount.  It may be written on a single line, like this:

; commodity EXAMPLEAMOUNT

; display AAAA amounts with the symbol on the right, space-separated,
; using period as decimal point, with four decimal places, and
; separating thousands with comma.
commodity 1,000.0000 AAAA

   or on multiple lines, using the "format" subdirective.  (In this case
the commodity symbol appears twice and should be the same in both
places.):

; commodity SYMBOL
;   format EXAMPLEAMOUNT

; display indian rupees with currency name on the left,
; thousands, lakhs and crores comma-separated,
; period as decimal point, and two decimal places.
commodity INR
  format INR 1,00,00,000.00

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

   Note hledger normally uses banker's rounding, so 0.5 displayed with
zero decimal digits is "0".  (More at Amount display style.)


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Default commodity,  Next: Declaring market prices,  Prev: Declaring commodities,  Up: Directives

1.13.6 Default commodity
------------------------

The 'D' directive sets a default commodity, to be used for amounts
without a commodity symbol (ie, plain numbers).  This commodity will be
applied to all subsequent commodity-less amounts, or until the next 'D'
directive.  (Note, this is different from Ledger's 'D'.)

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

   The syntax is 'D AMOUNT'.  Eg:

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

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


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Declaring market prices,  Next: Declaring accounts,  Prev: Default commodity,  Up: Directives

1.13.7 Declaring market prices
------------------------------

The 'P' directive declares a market price, which is an exchange rate
between two commodities on a certain date.  (In Ledger, they are called
"historical prices".)  These are often obtained from a stock exchange,
cryptocurrency exchange, or the foreign exchange market.

   Here is the format:

P DATE COMMODITYA COMMODITYBAMOUNT

   * DATE is a simple date
   * COMMODITYA is the symbol of the commodity being priced
   * COMMODITYBAMOUNT is an amount (symbol and quantity) in a second
     commodity, giving the price in commodity B of one unit of commodity
     A.

   These two market price directives say that one euro was worth 1.35 US
dollars during 2009, and $1.40 from 2010 onward:

P 2009/1/1 € $1.35
P 2010/1/1 € $1.40

   The '-V', '-X' and '--value' flags use these market prices to show
amount values in another commodity.  See Valuation.


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Declaring accounts,  Next: Rewriting accounts,  Prev: Declaring market prices,  Up: Directives

1.13.8 Declaring accounts
-------------------------

'account' directives can be used to pre-declare accounts.  Though not
required, they can provide several benefits:

   * They can document your intended chart of accounts, providing a
     reference.
   * They can store extra information about accounts (account numbers,
     notes, etc.)
   * They can help hledger know your accounts' types (asset, liability,
     equity, revenue, expense), useful for reports like balancesheet and
     incomestatement.
   * They control account display order in reports, allowing
     non-alphabetic sorting (eg Revenues to appear above Expenses).
   * They help with account name completion in the add command,
     hledger-iadd, hledger-web, ledger-mode etc.

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

account assets:bank:checking

* Menu:

* Account comments::
* Account subdirectives::
* Account types::
* Account display order::


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Account comments,  Next: Account subdirectives,  Up: Declaring accounts

1.13.8.1 Account comments
.........................

Comments, beginning with a semicolon, can be added:

   * on the same line, *after two or more spaces* (because ; is allowed
     in account names)
   * on the next lines, indented

   An example of both:

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

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


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Account subdirectives,  Next: Account types,  Prev: Account comments,  Up: Declaring accounts

1.13.8.2 Account subdirectives
..............................

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

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

   Here is the full syntax of account directives:

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


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Account types,  Next: Account display order,  Prev: Account subdirectives,  Up: Declaring accounts

1.13.8.3 Account types
......................

hledger recognises five main types of account, corresponding to the
account classes in the accounting equation:

   'Asset', 'Liability', 'Equity', 'Revenue', 'Expense'.

   These account types are important for controlling which accounts
appear in the balancesheet, balancesheetequity, incomestatement reports
(and probably for other things in future).

   Additionally, we recognise the 'Cash' type, which is also an 'Asset',
and which causes accounts to appear in the cashflow report.  ("Cash"
here means liquid assets, eg bank balances but typically not investments
or receivables.)  Declaring account types Generally, to make these
reports work you should declare your top-level accounts and their types,
using account directives with 'type:' tags.

   The tag's value should be one of: 'Asset', 'Liability', 'Equity',
'Revenue', 'Expense', 'Cash', 'A', 'L', 'E', 'R', 'X', 'C' (all case
insensitive).  The type is inherited by all subaccounts except where
they override it.  Here's a complete example:

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

   Auto-detected account types If you happen to use common english
top-level account names, you may not need to declare account types, as
they will be detected automatically using the following rules:

If name matches regular            account
expression:                        type is:
-------------------------------------------------
'^assets?(:|$)'                    'Asset'
'^(debts?|liabilit(y|ies))(:|$)'   'Liability'
'^equity(:|$)'                     'Equity'
'^(income|revenue)s?(:|$)'         'Revenue'
'^expenses?(:|$)'                  'Expense'

If account type is 'Asset' and name does not contain       account type
regular expression:                                        is:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
'(investment|receivable|:A/R|:fixed)'                      'Cash'

   Even so, explicit declarations may be a good idea, for clarity and
predictability.  Interference from auto-detected account types If you
assign any account type, it's a good idea to assign all of them, to
prevent any confusion from mixing declared and auto-detected types.
Although it's unlikely to happen in real life, here's an example: with
the following journal, 'balancesheetequity' shows "liabilities" in both
Liabilities and Equity sections.  Declaring another account as
'type:Liability' would fix it:

account liabilities  ; type:Equity

2020-01-01
  assets        1
  liabilities   1
  equity       -2

   Old account type syntax In some hledger journals you might instead
see this old syntax (the letters ALERX, separated from the account name
by two or more spaces); this is deprecated and may be removed soon:

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


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Account display order,  Prev: Account types,  Up: Declaring accounts

1.13.8.4 Account display order
..............................

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

account assets
account liabilities
account equity
account revenues
account expenses

   you'll see those accounts displayed in declaration order, not
alphabetically:

$ hledger accounts -1
assets
liabilities
equity
revenues
expenses

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

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

account other:zoo

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

   * you will sometimes declare parent accounts (eg 'account other'
     above) that you don't intend to post to, just to customize their
     display order
   * sibling accounts stay together (you couldn't display 'x:y' in
     between 'a:b' and 'a:c').


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Rewriting accounts,  Next: Default parent account,  Prev: Declaring accounts,  Up: Directives

1.13.9 Rewriting accounts
-------------------------

You can define account alias rules which rewrite your account names, or
parts of them, before generating reports.  This can be useful for:

   * expanding shorthand account names to their full form, allowing
     easier data entry and a less verbose journal
   * adapting old journals to your current chart of accounts
   * experimenting with new account organisations, like a new hierarchy
     or combining two accounts into one
   * customising reports

   Account aliases also rewrite account names in account directives.
They do not affect account names being entered via hledger add or
hledger-web.

   See also Rewrite account names.

* Menu:

* Basic aliases::
* Regex aliases::
* Combining aliases::
* Aliases and multiple files::
* end aliases::


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Basic aliases,  Next: Regex aliases,  Up: Rewriting accounts

1.13.9.1 Basic aliases
......................

To set an account alias, use the 'alias' directive in your journal file.
This affects all subsequent journal entries in the current file or its
included files.  The spaces around the = are optional:

alias OLD = NEW

   Or, you can use the '--alias 'OLD=NEW'' option on the command line.
This affects all entries.  It's useful for trying out aliases
interactively.

   OLD and NEW are case sensitive full account names.  hledger will
replace any occurrence of the old account name with the new one.
Subaccounts are also affected.  Eg:

alias checking = assets:bank:wells fargo:checking
; rewrites "checking" to "assets:bank:wells fargo:checking", or "checking:a" to "assets:bank:wells fargo:checking:a"


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Regex aliases,  Next: Combining aliases,  Prev: Basic aliases,  Up: Rewriting accounts

1.13.9.2 Regex aliases
......................

There is also a more powerful variant that uses a regular expression,
indicated by the forward slashes:

alias /REGEX/ = REPLACEMENT

   or '--alias '/REGEX/=REPLACEMENT''.

   REGEX is a case-insensitive regular expression.  Anywhere it matches
inside an account name, the matched part will be replaced by
REPLACEMENT. If REGEX contains parenthesised match groups, these can be
referenced by the usual numeric backreferences in REPLACEMENT. Eg:

alias /^(.+):bank:([^:]+):(.*)/ = \1:\2 \3
; rewrites "assets:bank:wells fargo:checking" to  "assets:wells fargo checking"

   Also note that REPLACEMENT continues to the end of line (or on
command line, to end of option argument), so it can contain trailing
whitespace.


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Combining aliases,  Next: Aliases and multiple files,  Prev: Regex aliases,  Up: Rewriting accounts

1.13.9.3 Combining aliases
..........................

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

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

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

  1. 'alias' directives preceding the journal entry, most recently
     parsed first (ie, reading upward from the journal entry, bottom to
     top)
  2. '--alias' options, in the order they appeared on the command line
     (left to right).

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

   * the nearest alias declaration before/above the entry is applied
     first
   * the next alias before/above that will be be applied next, and so on
   * aliases defined after/below the entry do not affect it.

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

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


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Aliases and multiple files,  Next: end aliases,  Prev: Combining aliases,  Up: Rewriting accounts

1.13.9.4 Aliases and multiple files
...................................

As explained at Directives and multiple files, 'alias' directives do not
affect parent or sibling files.  Eg in this command,

hledger -f a.aliases -f b.journal

   account aliases defined in a.aliases will not affect b.journal.
Including the aliases doesn't work either:

include a.aliases

2020-01-01  ; not affected by a.aliases
  foo  1
  bar

   This means that account aliases should usually be declared at the
start of your top-most file, like this:

alias foo=Foo
alias bar=Bar

2020-01-01  ; affected by aliases above
  foo  1
  bar

include c.journal  ; also affected


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: end aliases,  Prev: Aliases and multiple files,  Up: Rewriting accounts

1.13.9.5 'end aliases'
......................

You can clear (forget) all currently defined aliases with the 'end
aliases' directive:

end aliases


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Default parent account,  Prev: Rewriting accounts,  Up: Directives

1.13.10 Default parent account
------------------------------

You can specify a parent account which will be prepended to all accounts
within a section of the journal.  Use the 'apply account' and 'end apply
account' directives like so:

apply account home

2010/1/1
    food    $10
    cash

end apply account

   which is equivalent to:

2010/01/01
    home:food           $10
    home:cash          $-10

   If 'end apply account' is omitted, the effect lasts to the end of the
file.  Included files are also affected, eg:

apply account business
include biz.journal
end apply account
apply account personal
include personal.journal

   Prior to hledger 1.0, legacy 'account' and 'end' spellings were also
supported.

   A default parent account also affects account directives.  It does
not affect account names being entered via hledger add or hledger-web.
If account aliases are present, they are applied after the default
parent account.


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Periodic transactions,  Next: Auto postings,  Prev: Directives,  Up: Transactions

1.14 Periodic transactions
==========================

Periodic transaction rules describe transactions that recur.  They allow
hledger to generate temporary future transactions to help with
forecasting, so you don't have to write out each one in the journal, and
it's easy to try out different forecasts.  Secondly, they are also used
to define the budgets shown in budget reports.

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

  1. Two spaces accidentally added or omitted will cause you trouble -
     read about this below.
  2. For troubleshooting, show the generated transactions with 'hledger
     print --forecast tag:generated' or 'hledger register --forecast
     tag:generated'.
  3. Forecasted transactions will begin only after the last
     non-forecasted transaction's date.
  4. Forecasted transactions will end 6 months from today, by default.
     See below for the exact start/end rules.
  5. period expressions can be tricky.  Their documentation needs
     improvement, but is worth studying.
  6. Some period expressions with a repeating interval must begin on a
     natural boundary of that interval.  Eg in 'weekly from DATE', DATE
     must be a monday.  '~ weekly from 2019/10/1' (a tuesday) will give
     an error.
  7. Other period expressions with an interval are automatically
     expanded to cover a whole number of that interval.  (This is done
     to improve reports, but it also affects periodic transactions.
     Yes, it's a bit inconsistent with the above.)  Eg: '~ every 10th
     day of month from 2020/01', which is equivalent to '~ every 10th
     day of month from 2020/01/01', will be adjusted to start on
     2019/12/10.

* Menu:

* Periodic rule syntax::
* Two spaces between period expression and description!::
* Forecasting with periodic transactions::
* Budgeting with periodic transactions::


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Periodic rule syntax,  Next: Two spaces between period expression and description!,  Up: Periodic transactions

1.14.1 Periodic rule syntax
---------------------------

A periodic transaction rule looks like a normal journal entry, with the
date replaced by a tilde ('~') followed by a period expression
(mnemonic: '~' looks like a recurring sine wave.):

~ monthly
    expenses:rent          $2000
    assets:bank:checking

   There is an additional constraint on the period expression: the start
date must fall on a natural boundary of the interval.  Eg 'monthly from
2018/1/1' is valid, but 'monthly from 2018/1/15' is not.

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


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Two spaces between period expression and description!,  Next: Forecasting with periodic transactions,  Prev: Periodic rule syntax,  Up: Periodic transactions

1.14.2 Two spaces between period expression and description!
------------------------------------------------------------

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

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

   So,

   * Do write two spaces between your period expression and your
     transaction description, if any.
   * Don't accidentally write two spaces in the middle of your period
     expression.


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Forecasting with periodic transactions,  Next: Budgeting with periodic transactions,  Prev: Two spaces between period expression and description!,  Up: Periodic transactions

1.14.3 Forecasting with periodic transactions
---------------------------------------------

The '--forecast' flag activates any periodic transaction rules in the
journal.  They will generate temporary recurring transactions, which are
not saved in the journal, but will appear in all reports (eg print).
This can be useful for estimating balances into the future, or
experimenting with different scenarios.  Or, it can be used as a data
entry aid: describe recurring transactions, and every so often copy the
output of 'print --forecast' into the journal.

   These transactions will have an extra tag indicating which periodic
rule generated them: 'generated-transaction:~ PERIODICEXPR'.  And a
similar, hidden tag (beginning with an underscore) which, because it's
never displayed by print, can be used to match transactions generated
"just now": '_generated-transaction:~ PERIODICEXPR'.

   Periodic transactions are generated within some forecast period.  By
default, this

   * begins on the later of
        * the report start date if specified with -b/-p/date:
        * the day after the latest normal (non-periodic) transaction in
          the journal, or today if there are no normal transactions.

   * ends on the report end date if specified with -e/-p/date:, or 6
     months (180 days) from today.

   This means that periodic transactions will begin only after the
latest recorded transaction.  And a recorded transaction dated in the
future can prevent generation of periodic transactions.  (You can avoid
that by writing the future transaction as a one-time periodic rule
instead - put tilde before the date, eg '~ YYYY-MM-DD ...').

   Or, you can set your own arbitrary "forecast period", which can
overlap recorded transactions, and need not be in the future, by
providing an option argument, like '--forecast=PERIODEXPR'.  Note the
equals sign is required, a space won't work.  PERIODEXPR is a period
expression, which can specify the start date, end date, or both, like in
a 'date:' query.  (See also hledger.1 -> Report start & end date).  Some
examples: '--forecast=202001-202004', '--forecast=jan-',
'--forecast=2020'.


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Budgeting with periodic transactions,  Prev: Forecasting with periodic transactions,  Up: Periodic transactions

1.14.4 Budgeting with periodic transactions
-------------------------------------------

With the '--budget' flag, currently supported by the balance command,
each periodic transaction rule declares recurring budget goals for the
specified accounts.  Eg the first example above declares a goal of
spending $2000 on rent (and also, a goal of depositing $2000 into
checking) every month.  Goals and actual performance can then be
compared in budget reports.

   For more details, see: balance: Budget report and Budgeting and
Forecasting.


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Auto postings,  Prev: Periodic transactions,  Up: Transactions

1.15 Auto postings
==================

"Automated postings" or "auto postings" are extra postings which get
added automatically to transactions which match certain queries, defined
by "auto posting rules", when you use the '--auto' flag.

   An auto posting rule looks a bit like a transaction:

= QUERY
    ACCOUNT  AMOUNT
    ...
    ACCOUNT  [AMOUNT]

   except the first line is an equals sign (mnemonic: '=' suggests
matching), followed by a query (which matches existing postings), and
each "posting" line describes a posting to be generated, and the posting
amounts can be:

   * a normal amount with a commodity symbol, eg '$2'.  This will be
     used as-is.
   * a number, eg '2'.  The commodity symbol (if any) from the matched
     posting will be added to this.
   * a numeric multiplier, eg '*2' (a star followed by a number N). The
     matched posting's amount (and total price, if any) will be
     multiplied by N.
   * a multiplier with a commodity symbol, eg '*$2' (a star, number N,
     and symbol S). The matched posting's amount will be multiplied by
     N, and its commodity symbol will be replaced with S.

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

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

   Some examples:

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

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

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

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

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

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

* Menu:

* Auto postings and multiple files::
* Auto postings and dates::
* Auto postings and transaction balancing / inferred amounts / balance assertions::
* Auto posting tags::


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Auto postings and multiple files,  Next: Auto postings and dates,  Up: Auto postings

1.15.1 Auto postings and multiple files
---------------------------------------

An auto posting rule can affect any transaction in the current file, or
in any parent file or child file.  Note, currently it will not affect
sibling files (when multiple '-f'/'--file' are used - see #1212).


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Auto postings and dates,  Next: Auto postings and transaction balancing / inferred amounts / balance assertions,  Prev: Auto postings and multiple files,  Up: Auto postings

1.15.2 Auto postings and dates
------------------------------

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


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Auto postings and transaction balancing / inferred amounts / balance assertions,  Next: Auto posting tags,  Prev: Auto postings and dates,  Up: Auto postings

1.15.3 Auto postings and transaction balancing / inferred amounts /
-------------------------------------------------------------------

balance assertions Currently, auto postings are added:

   * after missing amounts are inferred, and transactions are checked
     for balancedness,
   * but before balance assertions are checked.

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


File: hledger_journal.info,  Node: Auto posting tags,  Prev: Auto postings and transaction balancing / inferred amounts / balance assertions,  Up: Auto postings

1.15.4 Auto posting tags
------------------------

Automated postings will have some extra tags:

   * 'generated-posting:= QUERY' - shows this was generated by an auto
     posting rule, and the query
   * '_generated-posting:= QUERY' - a hidden tag, which does not appear
     in hledger's output.  This can be used to match postings generated
     "just now", rather than generated in the past and saved to the
     journal.

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

   * 'modified:' - this transaction was modified
   * '_modified:' - a hidden tag not appearing in the comment; this
     transaction was modified "just now".


Tag Table:
Node: Top76
Node: Transactions1875
Ref: #transactions1967
Node: Dates3251
Ref: #dates3350
Node: Simple dates3415
Ref: #simple-dates3541
Node: Secondary dates4050
Ref: #secondary-dates4204
Node: Posting dates5540
Ref: #posting-dates5669
Node: Status7041
Ref: #status7162
Node: Description8870
Ref: #description9004
Node: Payee and note9324
Ref: #payee-and-note9438
Node: Comments9773
Ref: #comments9899
Node: Tags11093
Ref: #tags11208
Node: Postings12601
Ref: #postings12729
Node: Virtual postings13755
Ref: #virtual-postings13872
Node: Account names15177
Ref: #account-names15318
Node: Amounts15805
Ref: #amounts15944
Node: Digit group marks17052
Ref: #digit-group-marks17200
Node: Amount display style18138
Ref: #amount-display-style18292
Node: Transaction prices19729
Ref: #transaction-prices19901
Node: Lot prices and lot dates22332
Ref: #lot-prices-and-lot-dates22529
Node: Balance assertions23017
Ref: #balance-assertions23203
Node: Assertions and ordering24236
Ref: #assertions-and-ordering24424
Node: Assertions and included files25124
Ref: #assertions-and-included-files25367
Node: Assertions and multiple -f options25700
Ref: #assertions-and-multiple--f-options25956
Node: Assertions and commodities26088
Ref: #assertions-and-commodities26320
Node: Assertions and prices27477
Ref: #assertions-and-prices27691
Node: Assertions and subaccounts28131
Ref: #assertions-and-subaccounts28360
Node: Assertions and virtual postings28684
Ref: #assertions-and-virtual-postings28926
Node: Assertions and precision29068
Ref: #assertions-and-precision29261
Node: Balance assignments29528
Ref: #balance-assignments29702
Node: Balance assignments and prices30866
Ref: #balance-assignments-and-prices31038
Node: Directives31262
Ref: #directives31421
Node: Directives and multiple files37112
Ref: #directives-and-multiple-files37295
Node: Comment blocks37959
Ref: #comment-blocks38142
Node: Including other files38318
Ref: #including-other-files38498
Node: Default year39422
Ref: #default-year39591
Node: Declaring commodities39998
Ref: #declaring-commodities40181
Node: Default commodity41987
Ref: #default-commodity42173
Node: Declaring market prices43062
Ref: #declaring-market-prices43257
Node: Declaring accounts44114
Ref: #declaring-accounts44300
Node: Account comments45225
Ref: #account-comments45388
Node: Account subdirectives45812
Ref: #account-subdirectives46007
Node: Account types46320
Ref: #account-types46504
Node: Account display order49550
Ref: #account-display-order49720
Node: Rewriting accounts50871
Ref: #rewriting-accounts51056
Node: Basic aliases51813
Ref: #basic-aliases51959
Node: Regex aliases52663
Ref: #regex-aliases52835
Node: Combining aliases53554
Ref: #combining-aliases53747
Node: Aliases and multiple files55023
Ref: #aliases-and-multiple-files55232
Node: end aliases55811
Ref: #end-aliases55968
Node: Default parent account56069
Ref: #default-parent-account56237
Node: Periodic transactions57121
Ref: #periodic-transactions57296
Node: Periodic rule syntax59168
Ref: #periodic-rule-syntax59374
Node: Two spaces between period expression and description!60078
Ref: #two-spaces-between-period-expression-and-description60397
Node: Forecasting with periodic transactions61081
Ref: #forecasting-with-periodic-transactions61386
Node: Budgeting with periodic transactions63441
Ref: #budgeting-with-periodic-transactions63680
Node: Auto postings64129
Ref: #auto-postings64269
Node: Auto postings and multiple files66448
Ref: #auto-postings-and-multiple-files66652
Node: Auto postings and dates66861
Ref: #auto-postings-and-dates67135
Node: Auto postings and transaction balancing / inferred amounts / balance assertions67310
Ref: #auto-postings-and-transaction-balancing-inferred-amounts-balance-assertions67661
Node: Auto posting tags68003
Ref: #auto-posting-tags68218

End Tag Table


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