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hledger - a command-line accounting tool
hledger [-f FILE] COMMAND [OPTIONS] [ARGS]
hledger [-f FILE] ADDONCMD -- [OPTIONS] [ARGS]
hledger
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 describing financial transactions (in accounting terms, a general journal) 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, timeclock, 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 editor mode such as ledger-mode for added convenience. hledger’s interactive 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.
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.
$ 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
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 happens, here are some tips that may help:
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 ()
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 recent starting date, like today or the start of the week. You can always 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 balances on this date. Here are two ways to do it:
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.
$ 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
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
Periodically you should reconcile - compare your hledger-reported balances 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 discrepancies.
A typical workflow:
2020-01-16 * adjust cash
assets:cash $-2 = $105
expenses:misc
Tip: instead of the register command, use hledger-ui to see a live-updating register while you edit the journal: hledger-ui --watch --register 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 commit:
$ git commit -m 'txns' 2020.journal
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 ****
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.
To see general usage help, including general options which are supported by most hledger commands, run hledger -h.
General help options:
General input options:
General reporting options:
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.
To see options for a particular command, including command-specific options, 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 options after a double-hyphen, eg: hledger ui -- --watch. Or, you can run the addon executable directly: hledger-ui --watch.
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 nothing). 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.
One of hledger's strengths is being able to quickly report on precise subsets of your data. Most commands accept an optional query expression, 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):
The print command instead shows transactions which:
The following kinds of search terms can be used. Remember these can also be prefixed with not:, eg to exclude a particular subaccount.
The following special search term is used automatically in hledger-web, only:
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).
In shell command lines, option and argument values which contain "problematic" characters, ie spaces, and also characters significant to your shell such as <, >, (, ), | and $, should be escaped by enclosing them in quotes or by writing backslashes before the characters. Eg:
hledger register -p 'last year' "accounts receivable (receivable|payable)" amt:\>100.
Characters significant both to the shell and in regular expressions may need one extra level of escaping. These include parentheses, the pipe symbol and the dollar sign. Eg, to match the dollar symbol, bash users should do:
hledger balance cur:'\$'
or:
hledger balance cur:\\$
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:\\$
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:\$
hledger is expected to handle non-ascii characters correctly:
This requires a well-configured environment. Here are some tips:
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 also be one of several other formats, listed below. hledger detects the format automatically based on the file extension, or if that is not recognised, by trying each built-in "reader" in turn:
Reader: | Reads: | Used for file extensions: |
journal | hledger's journal format, also some Ledger journals | .journal .j .hledger .ledger |
timeclock | timeclock files (precise time logging) | .timeclock |
timedot | timedot files (approximate time logging) | .timedot |
csv | comma-separated values (data interchange) | .csv |
If needed (eg to ensure correct error messages when a file has the "wrong" extension), you can force a specific reader/format by prepending it to the file path with a colon. Examples:
$ hledger -f csv:/some/csv-file.dat stats $ echo 'i 2009/13/1 08:00:00' | hledger print -ftimeclock:-
You can also specify multiple -f options, to read multiple files as one big journal. There are some limitations with this:
If you need those, either use the include directive, or concatenate the files, eg: cat a.journal b.journal | hledger -f- CMD.
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 provide 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)
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) and JSON (json). This is controlled 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:
hledger uses regular expressions in a number of places:
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:
Some things to note:
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, 2004.9.1 | exact date, several separators allowed. Year 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, tomorrow | -1, 0, 1 days from today |
last/this/next day/week/month/quarter/year | -1, 0, 1 periods from the current period |
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 results:
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 |
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:
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 replaced with -) |
date:..12/1 | |
date:thismonth.. | |
date:thismonth |
A report interval can be specified so that commands like register, balance 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 complex intervals may be specified with a period expression. Report intervals can not be specified with a query.
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; equivalent to “2009/1/1 to 2009/2/1” |
-p "2009/1/1" | just that day; equivalent to “2009/1/1 to 2009/1/2” |
The argument of -p can also begin with, or be, a report interval expression. The basic report intervals are daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, 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 expression specifies different explicit start and end date.
For example:
-p "weekly from 2009/1/1 to 2009/4/1" | starts on 2008/12/29, closest preceding Monday |
-p "monthly in 2008/11/25" | starts on 2018/11/01 |
-p "quarterly from 2009-05-05 to 2009-06-01" | starts on 2009/04/01, ends on 2009/06/30, which are first and last days of Q2 2009 |
-p "yearly from 2009-12-29" | starts on 2009/01/01, first day of 2009 |
The following more complex report intervals are also supported: biweekly, bimonthly, every day|week|month|quarter|year, every 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 2009/03" | periods will have boundaries on 2009/03/01, 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 week" | periods will go from Tue to Tue |
-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"
With the --depth N option (short form: -N), commands like account, balance 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 detail. This flag has the same effect as a depth: query argument (so -2, --depth=2 or depth:2 are equivalent).
Normally hledger sums amounts, and organizes them in a hierarchy, based on account name. The --pivot FIELD option causes it to sum and organize hierarchy based on the value of some other field instead. FIELD can be: code, description, payee, note, or the full name (case insensitive) of any tag. As with account names, values containing colon:separated: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, described 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
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 certain 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.
The -B/--cost flag converts amounts to their cost or sale amount at transaction time, if they have a transaction price specified.
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.
The -X/--exchange=COMM option is like -V, except you tell it which currency you want to convert to, and it tries to convert everything to that.
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.
(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 :
Amounts for which no applicable market price can be found, are not converted.
(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 needing 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 confusing/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:
(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 suitable 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:
This means:
Amounts for which no valuation commodity can be found are not converted.
Here are some quick examples of -V:
; one euro is worth this many dollars from nov 1 P 2016/11/01 € $1.10 ; purchase some euros on nov 3 2016/11/3
assets:euros €100
assets:checking ; the euro is worth fewer dollars by dec 21 P 2016/12/21 € $1.03
How many euros do I have ?
$ hledger -f t.j bal -N euros
€100 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
-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:
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.
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 reverse 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 specifying a display style for A, 0.5A gets the default style, which shows no decimal digits. Because the displayed amount looks like zero, the commodity symbol and minus sign are not displayed either. Adding a commodity 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
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. Related: #329, #1083.
Report type | -B, --value=cost | -V, -X | --value=then | --value=end | --value=DATE, --value=now |
posting amounts | cost | value at report end or today | value at posting date | value at report or journal end | value at DATE/today |
balance assertions / assignments | unchanged | unchanged | unchanged | unchanged | unchanged |
register | |||||
starting balance (with -H) | cost | value at day before report or journal start | not supported | value at day before report or journal start | value at DATE/today |
posting amounts (no report interval) | cost | value at report end or today | value at posting date | value at report or journal end | value at DATE/today |
summary posting amounts (with report interval) | summarised cost | value at period ends | sum of postings in interval, valued at interval start | value at period ends | value at DATE/today |
running total/average | sum/average of displayed values | sum/average of displayed values | sum/average of displayed values | sum/average of displayed values | sum/average of displayed values |
balance (bs, bse, cf, is..) | |||||
balances (no report interval) | sums of costs | value at report end or today of sums of postings | not supported | value at report or journal end of sums of postings | value at DATE/today of sums of postings |
balances (with report interval) | sums of costs | value at period ends of sums of postings | not supported | value at period ends of sums of postings | value at DATE/today of sums of postings |
starting balances (with report interval and -H) | sums of costs of postings before report start | sums of postings before report start | not supported | sums of postings before report start | sums of postings before report start |
budget amounts with --budget | like balances | like balances | not supported | like balances | like balances |
grand total (no report interval) | sum of displayed values | sum of displayed values | not supported | sum of displayed values | sum of displayed values |
row totals/averages (with report interval) | sums/averages of displayed values | sums/averages of displayed values | not supported | sums/averages of displayed values | sums/averages of displayed values |
column totals | sums of displayed values | sums of displayed values | not supported | sums of displayed values | sums of displayed values |
grand total/average | sum/average of column totals | sum/average of column totals | not supported | sum/average of column totals | sum/average of column totals |
Glossary:
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 incomestatement). 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 detailed command help.
accounts, a
Show account names.
This command lists account names, either declared with account directives (--declared), posted to (--used), or both (the default). With query arguments, only matched account names and account names referenced 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 components. 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
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
Prompt for transactions and add them to the journal.
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 transactions, 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:
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 it can cause data loss on that platform (cf #1056).
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 balances; 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 balance during the entire period of the journal. Balance changes are calculated 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 balance. For a real-world account, typically you won't have all transactions in the journal; instead you'll have all transactions after a certain 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:
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 indented 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.
"Boring" accounts, which contain a single interesting subaccount and no balance of their own, are elided into the following line for more compact 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
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)
Also, FMT can begin with an optional prefix to control how multi-commodity amounts are rendered:
There are some quirks. Eg in one-line mode, %(depth_spacer) has no effect, instead %(account) has indentation built in. Experimentation may be needed to get pleasing results.
Some example formats:
The balance command shows negative amounts in red, if:
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
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.
With -% or --percent, balance reports show each account's value expressed 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 relative 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 accounts. 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 or tabular balance reports are a very useful hledger feature, and usually the preferred style. They share many of the above features, but they show the report as a table, with columns representing time periods. This mode is activated by providing a reporting interval.
There are three types of multicolumn balance report, showing different information:
$ 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
$ 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
$ 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 periods 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 period (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)
A limitation of multicolumn balance reports: eliding of boring parent accounts in tree mode, as in the classic balance report, is not yet supported.
The --transpose flag can be used to exchange the rows and columns of a multicolumn 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 income, expenses, time usage, etc. --budget is most often combined with a report interval.
For example, you can take average monthly expenses in the common expense categories to construct a minimal monthly budget:
;; Budget ~ monthly
income $2000
expenses:food $400
expenses:bus $50
expenses:movies $30
assets:bank:checking ;; Two months worth of expenses 2017-11-01
income $1950
expenses:food $396
expenses:bus $49
expenses:movies $30
expenses:supplies $20
assets:bank:checking 2017-12-01
income $2100
expenses:food $412
expenses:bus $53
expenses:gifts $100
assets:bank:checking
You can now see a monthly budget report:
$ hledger balance -M --budget Budget performance in 2017/11/01-2017/12/31:
|| Nov Dec ======================++====================================================
assets || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480]
assets:bank || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480]
assets:bank:checking || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480]
expenses || $495 [ 103% of $480] $565 [ 118% of $480]
expenses:bus || $49 [ 98% of $50] $53 [ 106% of $50]
expenses:food || $396 [ 99% of $400] $412 [ 103% of $400]
expenses:movies || $30 [ 100% of $30] 0 [ 0% of $30]
income || $1950 [ 98% of $2000] $2100 [ 105% of $2000] ----------------------++----------------------------------------------------
|| 0 [ 0] 0 [ 0]
This is different from a normal balance report in several ways:
This means that the numbers displayed will not always add up! Eg above, the expenses actual amount includes the gifts and supplies transactions, but the expenses:gifts and expenses:supplies accounts are not shown, as they have no budget amounts declared.
This can be confusing. When you need to make things clearer, use the -E/--empty flag, which will reveal all accounts including unbudgeted ones, giving the full picture. Eg:
$ hledger balance -M --budget --empty Budget performance in 2017/11/01-2017/12/31:
|| Nov Dec ======================++====================================================
assets || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480]
assets:bank || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480]
assets:bank:checking || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-2665 [ 107% of $-2480]
expenses || $495 [ 103% of $480] $565 [ 118% of $480]
expenses:bus || $49 [ 98% of $50] $53 [ 106% of $50]
expenses:food || $396 [ 99% of $400] $412 [ 103% of $400]
expenses:gifts || 0 $100
expenses:movies || $30 [ 100% of $30] 0 [ 0% of $30]
expenses:supplies || $20 0
income || $1950 [ 98% of $2000] $2100 [ 105% of $2000] ----------------------++----------------------------------------------------
|| 0 [ 0] 0 [ 0]
You can roll over unspent budgets to next period with --cumulative:
$ hledger balance -M --budget --cumulative Budget performance in 2017/11/01-2017/12/31:
|| Nov Dec ======================++====================================================
assets || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-5110 [ 103% of $-4960]
assets:bank || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-5110 [ 103% of $-4960]
assets:bank:checking || $-2445 [ 99% of $-2480] $-5110 [ 103% of $-4960]
expenses || $495 [ 103% of $480] $1060 [ 110% of $960]
expenses:bus || $49 [ 98% of $50] $102 [ 102% of $100]
expenses:food || $396 [ 99% of $400] $808 [ 101% of $800]
expenses:movies || $30 [ 100% of $30] $30 [ 50% of $60]
income || $1950 [ 98% of $2000] $4050 [ 101% of $4000] ----------------------++----------------------------------------------------
|| 0 [ 0] 0 [ 0]
For more examples, see Budgeting and Forecasting.
You can add budgets to any account in your account hierarchy. If you have budgets on both parent account and some of its children, then budget(s) of the child account(s) would be added to the budget of their parent, much like account balances behave.
In the most simple case this means that once you add a budget to any account, all its parents would have budget as well.
To illustrate this, consider the following budget:
~ monthly from 2019/01
expenses:personal $1,000.00
expenses:personal:electronics $100.00
liabilities
With this, monthly budget for electronics is defined to be $100 and budget for personal expenses is an additional $1000, which implicitly means that budget for both expenses:personal and expenses is $1100.
Transactions in expenses:personal:electronics will be counted both towards its $100 budget and $1100 of expenses:personal , and transactions in any other subaccount of expenses:personal would be counted towards only towards the budget of expenses:personal.
For example, let's consider these transactions:
~ monthly from 2019/01
expenses:personal $1,000.00
expenses:personal:electronics $100.00
liabilities 2019/01/01 Google home hub
expenses:personal:electronics $90.00
liabilities $-90.00 2019/01/02 Phone screen protector
expenses:personal:electronics:upgrades $10.00
liabilities 2019/01/02 Weekly train ticket
expenses:personal:train tickets $153.00
liabilities 2019/01/03 Flowers
expenses:personal $30.00
liabilities
As you can see, we have transactions in expenses:personal:electronics:upgrades and expenses:personal:train tickets, and since both of these accounts are without explicitly defined budget, these transactions would be counted towards budgets of expenses:personal:electronics and expenses:personal accordingly:
$ hledger balance --budget -M Budget performance in 2019/01:
|| Jan ===============================++===============================
expenses || $283.00 [ 26% of $1100.00]
expenses:personal || $283.00 [ 26% of $1100.00]
expenses:personal:electronics || $100.00 [ 100% of $100.00]
liabilities || $-283.00 [ 26% of $-1100.00] -------------------------------++-------------------------------
|| 0 [ 0]
And with --empty, we can get a better picture of budget allocation and consumption:
$ hledger balance --budget -M --empty Budget performance in 2019/01:
|| Jan ========================================++===============================
expenses || $283.00 [ 26% of $1100.00]
expenses:personal || $283.00 [ 26% of $1100.00]
expenses:personal:electronics || $100.00 [ 100% of $100.00]
expenses:personal:electronics:upgrades || $10.00
expenses:personal:train tickets || $153.00
liabilities || $-283.00 [ 26% of $-1100.00] ----------------------------------------++-------------------------------
|| 0 [ 0]
This command also supports the output destination and output format options The output formats supported are txt, csv, (multicolumn non-budget reports only) html, and (experimental) json.
balancesheet, bs
This command displays a simple balance sheet, showing historical ending balances of asset and liability accounts (ignoring any report begin date). It assumes that these accounts are under a top-level asset or liability account (case insensitive, plural forms also allowed).
Note this report shows all account balances with normal positive sign (like conventional financial statements, unlike balance/print/register) (experimental).
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 balancesheet 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 options The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and (experimental) json.
balancesheetequity, bse
Just like balancesheet, but also reports Equity (which it assumes is under a top-level equity account).
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 options The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and (experimental) json.
cashflow, cf
This command displays a simple cashflow statement, showing changes in "cash" accounts. It assumes that these accounts are under a top-level asset account (case insensitive, plural forms also allowed) and do not contain receivable or A/R in their name. Note this report shows all account balances with normal positive sign (like conventional financial statements, unlike balance/print/register) (experimental).
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 values percentages can be displayed with -%.
This command also supports the output destination and output format options The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and (experimental) json.
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
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, 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/expenses 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 generating the closing/opening transactions. With --show-costs, this cost information 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.
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 transaction 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 transactions cancel each other out. (They will show up in print or register reports; you can exclude them with a query like not:desc:'(opening|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 earnings".)
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 OPENINGDATE. 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/reopened 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 command 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
commodities
List all commodity/currency symbols used or declared in the journal.
descriptions Show descriptions.
This command lists all descriptions that appear in transactions.
Examples:
$ hledger descriptions Store Name Gas Station | Petrol Person A
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 multiple 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
List all files included in the journal. With a REGEX argument, only file names matching the regular expression (case sensitive) are shown.
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
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 transactions 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 assuming 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
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, is
This command displays a simple income statement, showing revenues and expenses during a period. It assumes that these accounts are under a top-level revenue or income or expense account (case insensitive, plural forms also allowed). Note this report shows all account balances with normal positive sign (like conventional financial statements, unlike balance/print/register) (experimental).
This command displays a simple income statement. It currently assumes that you have top-level accounts named income (or revenue) and expense (plural forms also allowed.)
$ 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 absolute values percentages can be displayed with -%.
This command also supports the output destination and output format options The output formats supported are txt, csv, html, and (experimental) json.
notes Show notes.
This command lists all notes that appear in transactions.
Examples:
$ hledger notes Petrol Snacks
payees Show payee names.
This command lists all payee names that appear in transactions.
Examples:
$ hledger payees Store Name Gas Station Person A
prices
Print market price directives from the journal. With --costs, also print synthetic market prices based on transaction prices. With --inverted-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, 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, transactions 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 directives 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 preserved. For example, when an amount is omitted in the journal, it will not appear in the output. Similarly, when a transaction price is implied but not written, it will not appear in the output. You can use the -x/--explicit flag to make all amounts and transaction prices explicit, 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 transaction: 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 special 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 ignoring 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 increasing dates, and that transactions on the same day do not get reordered. See also the import command.
This command also supports the output destination and output format options The output formats supported are txt, csv, and (experimental) json.
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","","",""
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, reg, r
Show postings and their running total.
The register command displays postings in date order, one per line, and their running total. This 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 account 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 numbers. It's also useful to show postings on the checking account together with the related account:
$ hledger register --related --invert assets:checking
With a reporting interval, register shows summary postings, one per interval, 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 option 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 intervals. This ensures that the first and last intervals are full length and comparable to the others in the report.
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 description 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 options The output formats supported are txt, csv, and (experimental) json.
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-autosync detect already-seen transactions when importing.
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 transaction'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 includes a commodity name, the new posting amount will be in the new commodity; otherwise, it will be in the matched posting amount's commodity.
During the run this tool will execute so called "Automated Transactions" 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 transactions 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 postings.
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 containing 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
This command predates print --auto, and currently does much the same thing, but with these differences:
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 account 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
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 selection.
tags
List all the tag names used in the journal. With a TAGREGEX argument, only tag names matching the regular expression (case insensitive) are shown. With QUERY arguments, only transactions matching the query are considered. With --values flag, the tags' unique values are listed instead.
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).
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 extension (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,
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 interfaces. These are maintained and released along with hledger:
hledger-ui provides an efficient terminal interface.
hledger-web provides a simple web interface.
Third party add-ons, maintained separately from hledger, include:
hledger-iadd is a more interactive, terminal UI replacement for the add command.
hledger-interest generates interest transactions for an account according 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.
COLUMNS The screen width used by the register command. Default: the full terminal width.
LEDGER_FILE The journal file path when not specified with -f. Default: ~/.hledger.journal (on windows, perhaps C:/Users/USER/.hledger.journal).
A typical value is ~/DIR/YYYY.journal, where DIR is a version-controlled finance directory and YYYY is the current year. Or ~/DIR/current.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/environment.plist file containing
{
"LEDGER_FILE" : "~/finance/current.journal" }
To see the effect you may need to killall Dock, or reboot.
Reads data from one or more files in hledger journal, timeclock, timedot, or CSV format specified with -f, or $LEDGER_FILE, or $HOME/.hledger.journal (on windows, perhaps C:/Users/USER/.hledger.journal).
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.
Here are some issues you might encounter when you run hledger (and remember 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 argument (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 supports 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/Debian:
$ 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 difference 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
Report bugs at http://bugs.hledger.org (or on the #hledger IRC channel or hledger mail list)
Simon Michael <simon@joyful.com> and contributors
Copyright (C) 2007-2019 Simon Michael.
Released under GNU GPL v3 or later.
hledger(1), hledger-ui(1), hledger-web(1), hledger-api(1), hledger_csv(5), hledger_journal(5), hledger_timeclock(5), hledger_timedot(5), ledger(1)
http://hledger.org
June 2020 | hledger 1.18.1 |