path: root/doc/ledger.texi

\input texinfo  @c -*-texinfo-*-

@setfilename ledger.info
@settitle Ledger: Command-Line Accounting

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@iftex
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@titlepage
@title Ledger: Command-Line Accounting
@author John Wiegley
@end titlepage

@direntry
* Ledger: (ledger).           Command Line Accounting
@end direntry

@contents

@ifnottex
@node Top, Introduction, (dir), (dir)
@top Overview

@insertcopying
@end ifnottex

@menu
* Introduction::                
* Quick Reference::             
* Ledger Tutorial::             
* Ledger in Practice::          
@end menu

@ifnottex
@section Copyright
@insertcopying
@end ifnottex

@node Introduction, Quick Reference, Top, Top
@chapter Introduction

Ledger is an accounting tool with the moxie to exist.  It provides no
bells or whistles, and returns the user to the days before user
interfaces were even a twinkling in their father's CRT.

What it does offer is a double-entry accounting ledger with all the
flexibility and muscle of its modern day cousins, without any of the
fat.  Think of it as the Bran Muffin of accounting tools.

To use it, you need to start keeping a ledger.  This is the basis of
all accounting, and if you haven't started yet, now is the time to
learn.  The little booklet that comes with your checkbook is a ledger,
so we'll describe double-entry accounting in terms of that.

A checkbook ledger records debits (subtractions, or withdrawals) and
credits (additions, or deposits) with reference to a single account:
the checking account.  Where the money comes from, and where it goes
to, are described in the payee field, where you write the person or
company's name.  The ultimate aim of keeping a checkbook ledger is to
know how much money is available to spend.  That's really the aim of
all ledgers.

What computers add is the ability to walk through these postings,
and tell you things about your spending habits; to let you devise
budgets and get control over your spending; to squirrel away money
into virtual savings account without having to physically move money
around; etc.  As you keep your ledger, you are recording information
about your life and habits, and sometimes that information can start
telling you things you aren't aware of.  Such is the aim of all good
accounting tools.

The next step up from a checkbook ledger, is a ledger that keeps track
of all your accounts, not just checking.  In such a ledger, you record
not only who gets paid---in the case of a debit---but where the money
came from.  In a checkbook ledger, its assumed that all the money
comes from your checking account.  But in a general ledger, you write
posting two-lines: the source account and target account.
@emph{There must always be a debit from at least one account for every
credit made to another account}.  This is what is meant by
``double-entry'' accounting: the ledger must always balance to zero,
with an equal number of debits and credits.

For example, let's say you have a checking account and a brokerage
account, and you can write checks from both of them.  Rather than keep
two checkbooks, you decide to use one ledger for both.  In this
general ledger you need to record a payment to Pacific Bell for your
monthly phone bill.  The cost is $23.00, let's say, and you want to
pay it from your checking account.  In the general ledger you need to
say where the money came from, in addition to where it's going to.
The transaction might look like this:

@smallexample
9/29  BAL  Pacific Bell              $-200.00   $-200.00
           Equity:Opening Balances    $200.00
9/29  BAL  Checking                   $100.00    $100.00
           Equity:Opening Balances   $-100.00
9/29  100  Pacific Bell                $23.00    $223.00
           Checking                   $-23.00     $77.00
@end smallexample

The first line shows a payment to Pacific Bell for $23.00.  Because
there is no ``balance'' in a general ledger---it's always zero---we
write in the total balance of all payments to ``Pacific Bell'', which
now is $223.00 (previously the balance was $200.00).  This is done by
looking at the last transaction for ``Pacific Bell'' in the ledger, adding
$23.00 to that amount, and writing the total in the balance column.
And the money came from ``Checking''---a withdrawal of $23.00---which
leaves the ending balance in ``Checking'' at $77.00.  This is a very
manual procedure; but that's where computers come in...

The posting must balance to $0: $23 went to Pacific Bell, $23 came
from Checking.  There is nothing left over to be accounted for, since
the money has simply moved from one account to another.  This is the
basis of double-entry accounting: that money never pops in or out of
existence; it is always a posting from one account to another.

Keeping a general ledger is the same as keeping two separate ledgers:
One for Pacific Bell and one for Checking.  In that case, each time a
payment is written into one, you write a corresponding withdrawal into
the other.  This makes it easier to write in a ``running balance'',
since you don't have to look back at the last time the account was
referenced---but it also means having a lot of ledger books, if you
deal with multiple accounts.

Enter the beauty of computerized accounting.  The purpose of the
Ledger program is to make general ledger accounting simple, by keeping
track of the balances for you.  Your only job is to enter the
postings.  If a posting does not balance, Ledger displays an
error and indicates the incorrect posting.@footnote{In some
special cases, it automatically balances this transaction for you.}

In summary, there are two aspects of Ledger use: updating the ledger
data file, and using the Ledger tool to view the summarized result of
your transactions.

And just for the sake of example---as a starting point for those who
want to dive in head-first---here are the ledger transactions from above,
formatting as the ledger program wishes to see them:

@smallexample
2004/09/29 Pacific Bell
     Payable:Pacific Bell            $-200.00
     Equity:Opening Balances

2004/09/29 Checking
     Accounts:Checking                $100.00
     Equity:Opening Balances

2004/09/29 Pacific Bell
     Payable:Pacific Bell              $23.00
     Accounts:Checking
@end smallexample

The account balances and registers in this file, if saved as
@file{ledger.dat}, could be reported using:

@example
$ ledger -f ledger.dat balance
$ ledger -f ledger.dat register checking
$ ledger -f ledger.dat register bell
@end example

@section More introduction

The most important part of accounting is keeping a good ledger.  If
you have a good ledger, tools can be written to work whatever
mathematically tricks you need to better understand your spending
patterns.  Without a good ledger, no tool, however smart, can help
you.

The Ledger program aims at making ledger transaction as simple as possible.
Since it is a command-line tool, it does not provide a user interface
for keeping a ledger.  If you like, you may use GnuCash to maintain
your ledger, in which case the Ledger program will read GnuCash's data
files directly.  In that case, read the GnuCash manual now, and skip
to the next chapter.

If you are not using GnuCash, but a text editor to maintain your
ledger, read on.  Ledger has been designed to make data transaction as
simple as possible, by keeping the ledger format easy, and also by
automagically determining as much information as possible based on the
nature of your transactions.

For example, you do not need to tell Ledger about the accounts you
use.  Any time Ledger sees a posting involving an account it knows
nothing about, it will create it.  If you use a commodity that is new
to Ledger, it will create that commodity, and determine its display
characteristics (placement of the symbol before or after the amount,
display precision, etc) based on how you used the commodity in the
posting.

Here is the Pacific Bell example from above, given as a Ledger
posting:

@smallexample
9/29 (100) Pacific Bell
    Expenses:Utilities:Phone                   $23.00
    Assets:Checking                           $-23.00
@end smallexample

As you can see, it is very similar to what would be written on paper,
minus the computed balance totals, and adding in account names that
work better with Ledger's scheme of things.  In fact, since Ledger is
smart about many things, you don't need to specify the balanced
amount, if it is the same as the first line:

@smallexample
9/29 (100) Pacific Bell
    Expenses:Utilities:Phone                   $23.00
    Assets:Checking
@end smallexample

For this transaction, Ledger will figure out that $-23.00 must come from
@samp{Assets:Checking} in order to balance the transaction.

@section Building the program

Ledger is written in ANSI C++, and should compile on any platform.  It
depends on the GNU multiprecision integer library (libgmp), and the
Perl regular expression library (libpcre).  It was developed using GNU
make and gcc 3.3, on a PowerBook running OS/X.

To build and install once you have these libraries on your system,
enter these commands:

@example
./configure && make install
@end example

@section Getting help

If you need help on how to use Ledger, or run into problems, you can
just the Ledger mailing list at the following Web address:

@example
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ledger-discuss
@end example

You can also find help at the @samp{#ledger} channel on the IRC server
@samp{irc.freenode.net}.

@node Quick Reference, Ledger Tutorial, Introduction, Top
@chapter Quick Reference

This chapter describes ledger's features and serves as a quick
reference. You may wish to survey this to get an overview before diving
in to the @ref{Ledger Tutorial} and more detailed examples that follow.

Ledger has a very simple command-line interface, named---enticing
enough---@command{ledger}.  It supports a few reporting commands, and
a large number of options for refining the output from those commands.
The basic syntax of any ledger command is:

@example
ledger [OPTIONS...] COMMAND [ARGS...]
@end example

Command options must always precede the command word.  After the
command word there may appear any number of arguments.  For most
commands, these arguments are regular expressions that cause the
output to relate only to postings matching those regular
expressions.  For the @command{transaction} command, the arguments have a
special meaning, described below.

The regular expressions arguments always match the account name that a
posting refers to.  To match on the payee of the transaction instead,
precede the regular expression with @samp{--}.  For example, the
following balance command reports account totals for rent, food and
movies, but only those whose payee matches Freddie:

@example
ledger bal rent food movies -- freddie
@end example

There are many, many command options available with the
@command{ledger} command, and it takes a while to master them.
However, none of them are required to use the basic reporting
commands.

@menu
* Commands::                    
* Options::                     
* Period expressions::          
* Format strings::              
* Value expressions::           
* File format::                 
@end menu

@node Commands, Options, Quick Reference, Quick Reference
@section Commands

@subsection balance

The @command{balance} command reports the current balance of all
accounts.  It accepts a list of optional regexps, which confine the
balance report to the matching accounts.  If an account contains
multiple types of commodities, each commodity's total is reported
separately.

@subsection register

The @command{register} command displays all the postings occurring
in a single account, line by line.  The account regexp must be
specified as the only argument to this command.  If any regexps occur
after the required account name, the register will contain only those
postings that match.  Very useful for hunting down a particular
posting.

The output from @command{register} is very close to what a typical
checkbook, or single-account ledger, would look like.  It also shows a
running balance.  The final running balance of any register should
always be the same as the current balance of that account.

If you have Gnuplot installed, you may plot the amount or running
total of any register by using the script @file{report}, which is
included in the Ledger distribution.  The only requirement is that you
add either @option{-j} or @option{-J} to your register command, in
order to plot either the amount or total column, respectively.

@subsection print

The @command{print} command prints out ledger transactions in a textual
format that can be parsed by Ledger.  They will be properly formatted,
and output in the most economic form possible.  The ``print'' command
also takes a list of optional regexps, which will cause only those
postings which match in some way to be printed.

The @command{print} command can be a handy way to clean up a ledger
file whose formatting has gotten out of hand.

@subsection output

The @command{output} command is very similar to the @command{print}
command, except that it attempts to replicate the specified ledger
file epostly.  The format of the command is:

@example
ledger -f FILENAME output FILENAME
@end example

Where @file{FILENAME} is the name of the ledger file to output.  The
reason for specifying this command is that only transactions contained
within that file will be output, and not an included transactions (as can
happen with the @command{print} command).

@subsection xml

The @command{xml} command outputs results similar to what
@command{print} and @command{register} display, but as an XML form.
This data can then be read in and processed.  Use the
@option{--totals} option to include the running total with each
posting.

@subsection emacs

The @command{emacs} command outputs results in a form that can be read
directly by Emacs Lisp.  The format of the sexp is:

@example
((BEG-POS CLEARED DATE CODE PAYEE
  (ACCOUNT AMOUNT)...)  ; list of postings
 ...)                   ; list of transactions
@end example

@subsection equity

The @command{equity} command prints out accounts balances as if they
were transactions.  This makes it easy to establish the starting balances
for an account, such as when @ref{Archiving previous years}.

@subsection prices

The @command{prices} command displays the price history for matching
commodities.  The @option{-A} flag is useful with this report, to
display the running average price, or @option{-D} to show each price's
deviation from that average.

There is also a @command{pricesdb} command which outputs the same
information as @command{prices}, but does in a format that can be
parsed by Ledger.

@subsection xact

The @command{xact} commands simplifies the creation of new transactions.
It works on the principle that 80% of all postings are variants of
earlier postings.  Here's how it works:

Say you currently have this posting in your ledger file:

@smallexample
2004/03/15 * Viva Italiano
    Expenses:Food                       $12.45
    Expenses:Tips                        $2.55
    Liabilities:MasterCard             $-15.00
@end smallexample

Now it's @samp{2004/4/9}, and you've just eating at @samp{Viva
Italiano} again.  The epost amounts are different, but the overall
form is the same.  With the @command{xact} command you can type:

@example
ledger xact 2004/4/9 viva food 11 tips 2.50
@end example

This produces the following output:

@smallexample
2004/04/09 Viva Italiano
    Expenses:Food                       $11.00
    Expenses:Tips                        $2.50
    Liabilities:MasterCard             $-13.50
@end smallexample

It works by finding a past posting matching the regular expression
@samp{viva}, and assuming that any accounts or amounts specified will
be similar to that earlier posting.  If Ledger does not succeed in
generating a new transaction, an error is printed and the exit code is set
to @samp{1}.

There is a shell script in the distribution's @file{scripts} directory
called @file{xact}, which simplifies the task of adding a new transaction
to your ledger.  It launches @command{vi} to confirm that the transaction
looks appropriate.

Here are a few more examples of the @command{xact} command, assuming
the above journal transaction:

@example
ledger xact 4/9 viva 11.50
ledger xact 4/9 viva 11.50 checking # (from `checking')
ledger xact 4/9 viva food 11.50 tips 8
ledger xact 4/9 viva food 11.50 tips 8 cash
ledger xact 4/9 viva food $11.50 tips $8 cash
ledger xact 4/9 viva dining "DM 11.50"
@end example

@node Options, Period expressions, Commands, Quick Reference
@section Options

With all of the reports, command-line options are useful to modify the
output generated.  These command-line options always occur before the
command word.  This is done to distinguish options from exclusive
regular expressions, which also begin with a dash.  The basic form for
most commands is:

@example
ledger [OPTIONS] COMMAND [REGEXPS...] [-- [REGEXPS...]]
@end example

The @var{OPTIONS} and @var{REGEXPS} expressions are both optional.
You could just use @samp{ledger balance}, without any options---which
prints a summary of all accounts.  But for more specific reporting, or
to change the appearance of the output, options are needed.

@subsection Basic options

These are the most basic command options.  Most likely, the user will
want to set them using environment variables (see @ref{Options}),
instead of using actual command-line options:

@option{--help} (@option{-h}) prints a summary of all the options, and
what they are used for.  This can be a handy way to remember which
options do what.  This help screen is also printed if ledger is run
without a command.

@option{--version} (@option{-v}) prints the current version of ledger
and exits.  This is useful for sending bug reports, to let the author
know which version of ledger you are using.

@option{--file FILE} (@option{-f FILE}) reads FILE as a ledger file.
This command may be used multiple times.  FILE may also be a list of
file names separated by colons.  Typically, the environment variable
@env{LEDGER_FILE} is set, rather than using this command-line option.

@option{--output FILE} (@option{-o FILE}) redirects output from any
command to @var{FILE}.  By default, all output goes to standard
output.

@option{--init-file FILE} (@option{-i FILE}) causes FILE to be read by
ledger before any other ledger file.  This file may not contain any
postings, but it may contain option settings.  To specify options
in the init file, use the same syntax as the command-line.  Here's an
example init file:

@smallexample
--price-db ~/finance/.pricedb

; ~/.ledgerrc ends here
@end smallexample

Option settings on the command-line or in the environment always take
precedence over settings in the init file.

@option{--cache FILE} identifies FILE as the default binary cache
file.  That is, if the ledger files to be read are specified using the
environment variable @env{LEDGER_FILE}, then whenever a command is
finished a binary copy will be written to the specified cache, to
speed up the loading time of subsequent queries.  This filename can
also be given using the environment variable @env{LEDGER_CACHE}, or by
putting the option into your init file.  The @option{--no-cache}
option causes Ledger to always ignore the binary cache.

@option{--account NAME} (@option{-a NAME}) specifies the default
account which QIF file postings are assumed to relate to.

@subsection Report filtering

These options change which postings affect the outcome of a
report, in ways other than just using regular expressions:

@option{--current}(@option{-c}) displays only transactions occurring on or
before the current date.

@option{--begin DATE} (@option{-b DATE}) constrains the report to
transactions on or after @var{DATE}.  Only transactions after that date will be
calculated, which means that the running total in the balance report
will always start at zero with the first matching transaction.  (Note: This
is different from using @option{--display} to constrain what is
displayed).

@option{--end DATE} (@option{-e DATE}) constrains the report so that
transactions on or after @var{DATE} are not considered.  The ending date
is inclusive.

@option{--period STR} (@option{-p STR}) sets the reporting period
to @var{STR}.  This will subtotal all matching transactions within each
period separately, making it easy to see weekly, monthly, quarterly,
etc., posting totals.  A period string can even specify the
beginning and end of the report range, using simple terms like ``last
june'' or ``next month''.  For more using period expressions, see
@ref{Period expressions}.

@option{--period-sort EXPR} sorts the postings within each
reporting period using the value expression @var{EXPR}.  This is most
often useful when reporting monthly expenses, in order to view the
highest expense categories at the top of each month:

@example
ledger -M --period-sort -At reg ^Expenses
@end example

@option{--cleared} (@option{-C}) displays only postings whose transaction
has been marked ``cleared'' (by placing an asterix to the right of the
date).

@option{--uncleared} (@option{-U}) displays only postings whose
transaction has not been marked ``cleared'' (i.e., if there is no asterix to
the right of the date).

@option{--real} (@option{-R}) displays only real postings, not
virtual.  (A virtual posting is indicated by surrounding the
account name with parentheses or brackets; see the section on using
virtual postings for more information).

@option{--actual} (@option{-L}) displays only actual postings, and
not those created due to automated postings.

@option{--related} (@option{-r}) displays postings that are
related to whichever postings would otherwise have matched the
filtering criteria.  In the register report, this shows where money
went to, or the account it came from.  In the balance report, it shows
all the accounts affected by transactions having a related posting.
For example, if a file had this transaction:

@smallexample
2004/03/20 Safeway
    Expenses:Food                       $65.00
    Expenses:Cash                       $20.00
    Assets:Checking                    $-85.00
@end smallexample

And the register command was:

@example
ledger -r register food
@end example

The following would be output, showing the postings related to the
posting that matched:

@smallexample
2004/03/20 Safeway              Expenses:Cash               $-20.00      $-20.00
                                Assets:Checking              $85.00       $65.00
@end smallexample

@option{--budget} is useful for displaying how close your postings
meet your budget.  @option{--add-budget} also shows unbudgeted
postings, while @option{--unbudgeted} shows only those.
@option{--forecast} is a related option that projects your budget into
the future, showing how it will affect future balances.
@xref{Budgeting and forecasting}.

@option{--limit EXPR} (@option{-l EXPR}) limits which postings
take part in the calculations of a report.

@option{--amount EXPR} (@option{-t EXPR}) changes the value expression
used to calculate the ``value'' column in the @command{register}
report, the amount used to calculate account totals in the
@command{balance} report, and the values printed in the
@command{equity} report.  @xref{Value expressions}.

@option{--total EXPR} (@option{-T EXPR}) sets the value expression
used for the ``totals'' column in the @command{register} and
@command{balance} reports.

@subsection Output customization

These options affect only the output, but not which postings are
used to create it:

@option{--collapse} (@option{-n}) causes transactions in a
@command{register} report with multiple postings to be collapsed
into a single, subtotaled transaction.

@option{--subtotal} (@option{-s}) causes all transactions in a
@command{register} report to be collapsed into a single, subtotaled
transaction.

@option{--by-payee} (@option{-P}) reports subtotals by payee.

@option{--comm-as-payee} (@option{-x}) changes the payee of every
posting to be the commodity used in that posting.  This can be
useful when combined with other options, such as @option{-s}.

@option{--empty} (@option{-E}) includes even empty accounts in the
@command{balance} report.

@option{--weekly} (@option{-W}) reports posting totals by the
week.  The week begins on whichever day of the week begins the month
containing that posting.  To set a specific begin date, use a
period string, such as @samp{weekly from DATE}.  @option{--monthly}
(@option{-M}) reports posting totals by month; @option{--yearly}
(@option{-Y}) reports posting totals by year.  For more complex
period, using the @option{--period} option described above.

@option{--dow} reports postings totals for each day of the week.
This is an easy way to see if weekend spending is more than on
weekdays.

@option{--sort EXPR} (@option{-S EXPR}) sorts a report by comparing
the values determined using the value expression @var{EXPR}.  For
example, using @option{-S -UT} in the balance report will sort account
balances from greatest to least, using the absolute value of the
total.  For more on how to use value expressions, see @ref{Value
expressions}.

@option{--wide} (@option{-w}) causes the default @command{register}
report to assume 132 columns instead of 80.

@option{--head} causes only the first N transactions to be printed.  This
is different from using the command-line utility @command{head}, which
would limit to the first N postings.  @option{--tail} outputs only
the last N transactions.  Both options may be used simultaneously.  If a
negative amount is given, it will invert the meaning of the flag
(instead of the first five transactions being printed, for example, it
would print all but the first five).

@option{--pager} tells Ledger to pass its output to the given pager
program---very useful when the output is especially long.  This
behavior can be made the default by setting the @env{LEDGER_PAGER}
environment variable.

@option{--average} (@option{-A}) reports the average posting
value.

@option{--deviation} (@option{-D}) reports each posting's
deviation from the average.  It is only meaningful in the
@command{register} and @command{prices} reports.

@option{--percentage} (@option{-%}) shows account subtotals in the
@command{balance} report as percentages of the parent account.

@option{--totals} include running total information in the
@command{xml} report.

@option{--amount-data} (@option{-j}) changes the @command{register}
report so that it output nothing but the date and the value column,
and the latter without commodities.  This is only meaningful if the
report uses a single commodity.  This data can then be fed to other
programs, which could plot the date, analyze it, etc.

@option{--total-data} (@option{-J}) changes the @command{register}
report so that it output nothing but the date and totals column,
without commodities.

@option{--display EXPR} (@option{-d EXPR}) limits which postings
or accounts or actually displayed in a report.  They might still be
calculated, and be part of the running total of a register report, for
example, but they will not be displayed.  This is useful for seeing
last month's checking postings, against a running balance which
includes all posting values:

@example
ledger -d "d>=[last month]" reg checking
@end example

The output from this command is very different from the following,
whose running total includes only postings from the last month
onward:

@example
ledger -p "last month" reg checking
@end example

Which is more useful depends on what you're looking to know: the total
amount for the reporting range (@option{-p}), or simply a display
restricted to the reporting range (using @option{-d}).

@option{--date-format STR} (@option{-y STR}) changes the basic date
format used by reports.  The default uses a date like 2004/08/01,
which represents the default date format of @samp{%Y/%m/%d}.  To
change the way dates are printed in general, the easiest way is to put
@option{--date-format FORMAT} in the Ledger initialization file
@file{~/.ledgerrc} (or the file referred to by @env{LEDGER_INIT}).

@option{--format STR} (@option{-F STR}) sets the reporting format for
whatever report ledger is about to make.  @xref{Format strings}.
There are also specific format commands for each report type:

@itemize
@item @option{--balance-format STR}
@item @option{--register-format STR}
@item @option{--print-format STR}
@item @option{--plot-amount-format STR} (-j @command{register})
@item @option{--plot-total-format STR} (-J @command{register})
@item @option{--equity-format STR}
@item @option{--prices-format STR}
@item @option{--wide-register-format STR} (-w @command{register})
@end itemize

@subsection Commodity reporting

These options affect how commodity values are displayed:

@option{--price-db FILE} sets the file that is used for recording
downloaded commodity prices.  It is always read on startup, to
determine historical prices.  Other settings can be placed in this
file manually, to prevent downloading quotes for a specific, for
example.  This is done by adding a line like the following:

@example
; Don't download quotes for the dollar, or timelog values
N $
N h
@end example

@option{--price-exp MINS} (@option{-L MINS}) sets the expected
freshness of price quotes, in minutes.  That is, if the last known
quote for any commodity is older than this value---and if
@option{--download} is being used---then the Internet will be
consulted again for a newer price.  Otherwise, the old price is still
considered to be fresh enough.

@option{--download} (@option{-Q}) causes quotes to be automagically
downloaded, as needed, by running a script named @command{getquote}
and expecting that script to return a value understood by ledger.  A
sample implementation of a @command{getquote} script, implemented in
Perl, is provided in the distribution.  Downloaded quote price are
then appended to the price database, usually specified using the
environment variable @env{LEDGER_PRICE_DB}.

There are several different ways that ledger can report the totals it
displays.  The most flexible way to adjust them is by using value
expressions, and the @option{-t} and @option{-T} options.  However,
there are also several ``default'' reports, which will satisfy most
users basic reporting needs:

@table @code
@item -O, --quantity
Reports commodity totals (this is the default)

@item -B, --basis
Reports the cost basis for all postings.

@item -V, --market
Reports the last known market value for all commodities.

@item -g, --performance
Reports the net gain/loss for each posting in a @command{register}
report.

@item -G --gain
Reports the net gain/loss for all commodities in the report that have
a price history.
@end table

@subsection Environment variables

Every option to ledger may be set using an environment variable.  If
an option has a long name such @option{--this-option}, setting the
environment variable @env{LEDGER_THIS_OPTION} will have the same
affect as specifying that option on the command-line.  Options on the
command-line always take precedence over environment variable
settings, however.

Note that you may also permanently specify option values by placing
option settings in the file @file{~/.ledgerrc}, for example:

@example
--cache /tmp/.mycache
@end example

@node Period expressions, Format strings, Options, Quick Reference
@section Period expressions

A period expression indicates a span of time, or a reporting interval,
or both.  The full syntax is:

@example
[INTERVAL] [BEGIN] [END]
@end example

The optional @var{INTERVAL} part may be any one of:

@example
every day
every week
every monthly
every quarter
every year
every N days     # N is any integer
every N weeks
every N months
every N quarters
every N years
daily
weekly
biweekly
monthly
bimonthly
quarterly
yearly
@end example

After the interval, a begin time, end time, both or neither may be
specified.  As for the begin time, it can be either of:

@example
from <SPEC>
since <SPEC>
@end example

The end time can be either of:

@example
to <SPEC>
until <SPEC>
@end example

Where @var{SPEC} can be any of:

@example
2004
2004/10
2004/10/1
10/1
october
oct
this week  # or day, month, quarter, year
next week
last week
@end example

The beginning and ending can be given at the same time, if it spans a
single period.  In that case, just use @var{SPEC} by itself.  In that
case, the period @samp{oct}, for example, will cover all the days in
october.  The possible forms are:

@example
<SPEC>
in <SPEC>
@end example

Here are a few examples of period expressions:

@example
monthly
monthly in 2004
weekly from oct
weekly from last month
from sep to oct
from 10/1 to 10/5
monthly until 2005
from apr
until nov
last oct
weekly last august
@end example

@node Format strings, Value expressions, Period expressions, Quick Reference
@section Format strings

Format strings may be used to change the output format of reports.
They are specified by passing a formatting string to the
@option{--format} (@option{-F}) option.  Within that string,
constructs are allowed which make it possible to display the various
parts of an account or posting in custom ways.

Within a format strings, a substitution is specified using a percent
character (@samp{%}).  The basic format of all substitutions is:

@example
%[-][MIN WIDTH][.MAX WIDTH]EXPR
@end example

If the optional minus sign (@samp{-}) follows the percent character,
whatever is substituted will be left justified.  The default is right
justified.  If a minimum width is given next, the substituted text
will be at least that wide, perhaps wider.  If a period and a maximum
width is given, the substituted text will never be wider than this,
and will be truncated to fit.  Here are some examples:

@example
%-P     a transaction's payee, left justified
%20P    The same, right justified, at least 20 chars wide
%.20P   The same, no more than 20 chars wide
%-.20P  Left justified, maximum twenty chars wide
@end example

The expression following the format constraints can be a single
letter, or an expression enclosed in parentheses or brackets.  The
allowable expressions are:

@table @code
@item %
Inserts a percent sign.

@item t
Inserts the results of the value expression specified by @option{-t}.
If @option{-t} was not specified, the current report style's value
expression is used.

@item T
Inserts the results of the value expression specified by @option{-T}.
If @option{-T} was not specified, the current report style's value
expression is used.

@item |
Inserts a single space.  This is useful if a width is specified, for
inserting a certain number of spaces.

@item _
Inserts a space for each level of an account's depth.  That is, if an
account has two parents, this construct will insert two spaces.  If a
minimum width is specified, that much space is inserted for each level
of depth.  Thus @samp{%5_}, for an account with four parents, will
insert twenty spaces.

@item (EXPR)
Inserts the amount resulting from the value expression given in
parentheses.  To insert five times the total value of an account, for
example, one could say @samp{%12(5*O)}.  Note: It's important to put
the five first in that expression, so that the commodity doesn't get
stripped from the total.

@item [DATEFMT]
Inserts the result of formatting a posting's date with a date
format string, epostly like those supported by @code{strftime}.  For
example: @samp{%[%Y/%m/%d %H:%M:%S]}.

@item S
Insert the pathname of the file from which the transaction's data was read.

@item B
Inserts the beginning character position of that transaction within the file.

@item b
Inserts the beginning line of that transaction within the file.

@item E
Inserts the ending character position of that transaction within the file.

@item e
Inserts the ending line of that transaction within the file.

@item D
By default, this is the same as @samp{%[%Y/%m%/d]}.  The date format
used can be changed at any time with the @option{-y} flag, however.
Using @samp{%D} gives the user more control over the way dates are
output.

@item d
This is the same as the @samp{%D} option, unless the transaction has an
effective date, in which case it prints
@samp{[ACTUAL_DATE=EFFECtIVE_DATE]}.

@item X
If a posting has been cleared, this inserts @samp{*} followed by a
space; otherwise nothing is inserted.

@item Y
This is the same as @samp{%X}, except that it only displays a state
character if all of the member postings have the same state.

@item C
Inserts the checking number for a transaction, in parentheses, followed by
a space; if none was specified, nothing is inserted.

@item P
Inserts the payee related to a posting.

@item a
Inserts the optimal short name for an account.  This is normally used
in balance reports.  It prints a parent account's name if that name
has not been printed yet, otherwise it just prints the account's name.

@item A
Inserts the full name of an account.

@item W
This is the same as @samp{%A}, except that it first displays the
posting's state @emph{if the transaction's posting states are not
all the same}, followed by the full account name.  This is offered as
a printing optimization, so that combined with @samp{%Y}, only the
minimum amount of state detail is printed.

@item o
Inserts the ``optimized'' form of a posting's amount.  This is
used by the print report.  In some cases, this inserts nothing; in
others, it inserts the posting amount and its cost.  It's use is
not recommend unless you are modifying the print report.

@item n
Inserts the note associated with a posting, preceded by two spaces
and a semi-colon, if it exists.  Thus, no none becomes an empty
string, while the note @samp{foo} is substituted as @samp{ ; foo}.

@item N
Inserts the note associated with a posting, if one exists.

@item /
The @samp{%/} construct is special.  It separates a format string
between what is printed for the first posting of a transaction, and
what is printed for all subsequent postings.  If not used, the
same format string is used for all postings.
@end table

@node Value expressions, File format, Format strings, Quick Reference
@section Value expressions

Value expressions are an expression language used by Ledger to
calculate values used by the program for many different purposes:

@enumerate
@item
The values displayed in reports
@item
For predicates (where truth is anything non-zero), to determine which
postings are calculated (@option{-l}) or displayed (@option{-d}).
@item
For sorting criteria, to yield the sort key.
@item
In the matching criteria used by automated postings.
@end enumerate

Value expressions support most simple math and logic operators, in
addition to a set of one letter functions and variables.  A function's
argument is whatever follows it.  The following is a display predicate
that I use with the @command{balance} command:

@example
ledger -d /^Liabilities/?T<0:UT>100 balance
@end example

The effect is that account totals are displayed only if: 1) A
Liabilities account has a total less than zero; or 2) the absolute
value of the account's total exceeds 100 units of whatever commodity
contains.  If it contains multiple commodities, only one of them must
exceed 100 units.

Display predicates are also very handy with register reports, to
constrain which transactions are printed.  For example, the following
command shows only transactions from the beginning of the current month,
while still calculating the running balance based on all transactions:

@example
ledger -d "d>[this month]" register checking
@end example

This advantage to this command's complexity is that it prints the
running total in terms of all transactions in the register.  The following,
simpler command is similar, but totals only the displayed
postings:

@example
ledger -b "this month" register checking
@end example

@subsection Variables

Below are the one letter variables available in any value expression.
For the register and print commands, these variables relate to
individual postings, and sometimes the account affected by a
posting.  For the balance command, these variables relate to
accounts---often with a subtle difference in meaning.  The use of each
variable for both is specified.

@table @code
@item t
This maps to whatever the user specified with @option{-t}.  In a
register report, @option{-t} changes the value column; in a balance
report, it has no meaning by default.  If @option{-t} was not
specified, the current report style's value expression is used.

@item T
This maps to whatever the user specified with @option{-T}.  In a
register report, @option{-T} changes the totals column; in a balance
report, this is the value given for each account.  If @option{-T} was
not specified, the current report style's value expression is used.

@item m
This is always the present moment/date.
@end table

@subsubsection Posting/account details

@table @code
@item d
A posting's date, as the number of seconds past the epoch.  This
is always ``today'' for an account.

@item a
The posting's amount; the balance of an account, without
considering children.

@item b
The cost of a posting; the cost of an account, without its
children.

@item v
The market value of a posting, or an account without its children.

@item g
The net gain (market value minus cost basis), for a posting or an
account without its children.  It is the same as @samp{v-b}.

@item l
The depth (``level'') of an account.  If an account has one parent,
it's depth is one.

@item n
The index of a posting, or the count of postings affecting an
account.

@item X
1 if a posting's transaction has been cleared, 0 otherwise.

@item R
1 if a posting is not virtual, 0 otherwise.

@item Z
1 if a posting is not automated, 0 otherwise.
@end table

@subsubsection Calculated totals

@table @code
@item O
The total of all postings seen so far, or the total of an account
and all its children.

@item N
The total count of postings affecting an account and all its
children.

@item B
The total cost of all postings seen so far; the total cost of an
account and all its children.

@item V
The market value of all postings seen so far, or of an account and
all its children.

@item G
The total net gain (market value minus cost basis), for a series of
postings, or an account and its children.  It is the same as
@samp{V-B}.
@end table

@subsection Functions

The available one letter functions are:

@table @code
@item -
Negates the argument.

@item U
The absolute (unsigned) value of the argument.

@item S
Strips the commodity from the argument.

@item A
The arithmetic mean of the argument; @samp{Ax} is the same as
@samp{x/n}.

@item P
The present market value of the argument.  The syntax @samp{P(x,d)} is
supported, which yields the market value at time @samp{d}.  If no date
is given, then the current moment is used.
@end table

@subsection Operators

The binary and ternary operators, in order of precedence, are:

@enumerate
@item @samp{* /}
@item @samp{+ -}
@item @samp{! < > =}
@item @samp{& | ?:}
@end enumerate

@subsection Complex expressions

More complicated expressions are possible using:

@table @code
@item NUM
A plain integer represents a commodity-less amount.

@item @{AMOUNT@}
An amount in braces can be any kind of amount supported by ledger,
with or without a commodity.  Use this for decimal values.

@item /REGEXP/
@item W/REGEXP/
A regular expression that matches against an account's full name.  If
a posting, this will match against the account affected by the
posting.

@item //REGEXP/
@item p/REGEXP/
A regular expression that matches against a transaction's payee name.

@item ///REGEXP/
@item w/REGEXP/
A regular expression that matches against an account's base name.  If
a posting, this will match against the account affected by the
posting.

@item c/REGEXP/
A regular expression that matches against the transaction code (the text
that occurs between parentheses before the payee name).

@item e/REGEXP/
A regular expression that matches against a posting's note, or
comment field.

@item (EXPR)
A sub-expression is nested in parenthesis.  This can be useful passing
more complicated arguments to functions, or for overriding the natural
precedence order of operators.

@item [DATE]
Useful specifying a date in plain terms.  For example, you could say
@samp{[2004/06/01]}.
@end table

@node File format,  , Value expressions, Quick Reference
@section File format

The ledger file format is quite simple, but also very flexible.  It
supports many options, though typically the user can ignore most of
them.  They are summarized below.

The initial character of each line determines what the line means, and
how it should be interpreted.  Allowable initial characters are:

@table @code
@item NUMBER
A line beginning with a number denotes a transaction.  It may be followed
by any number of lines, each beginning with whitespace, to denote the
transaction's account postings.  The format of the first line is:

@example
DATE[=EDATE] [*|!] [(CODE)] DESC
@end example

If @samp{*} appears after the date (with optional effective date), it
indicates the transaction is ``cleared'', which can mean whatever the user
wants it t omean.  If @samp{!} appears after the date, it indicates d
the transaction is ``pending''; i.e., tentatively cleared from the user's
point of view, but not yet actually cleared.  If a @samp{CODE} appears
in parentheses, it may be used to indicate a check number, or the type
of the posting.  Following these is the payee, or a description of
the posting.

The format of each following posting is:

@example
  ACCOUNT  AMOUNT  [; NOTE]
@end example

The @samp{ACCOUNT} may be surrounded by parentheses if it is a virtual
postings, or square brackets if it is a virtual postings that
must balance.  The @samp{AMOUNT} can be followed by a per-unit
posting cost, by specifying @samp{@@ AMOUNT}, or a complete
posting cost with @samp{@@@@ AMOUNT}.  Lastly, the @samp{NOTE} may
specify an actual and/or effective date for the posting by using
the syntax @samp{[ACTUAL_DATE]} or @samp{[=EFFECTIVE_DATE]} or
@samp{[ACTUAL_DATE=EFFECtIVE_DATE]}.

@item =
An automated transaction.  A value expression must appear after the equal
sign.

After this initial line there should be a set of one or more
postings, just as if it were normal transaction.  If the amounts of the
postings have no commodity, they will be applied as modifiers to
whichever real posting is matched by the value expression.

@item ~
A period transaction.  A period expression must appear after the tilde.

After this initial line there should be a set of one or more
postings, just as if it were normal transaction.

@item !
A line beginning with an exclamation mark denotes a command directive.
It must be immediately followed by the command word.  The supported
commands are:

@table @samp
@item !include
Include the stated ledger file.

@item !account
The account name is given is taken to be the parent of all
postings that follow, until @samp{!end} is seen.

@item !end
Ends an account block.
@end table

@item ;
A line beginning with a colon indicates a comment, and is ignored.

@item Y
If a line begins with a capital Y, it denotes the year used for all
subsequent transactions that give a date without a year.  The year should
appear immediately after the Y, for example: @samp{Y2004}.  This is
useful at the beginning of a file, to specify the year for that file.
If all transactions specify a year, however, this command has no effect.

@item P
Specifies a historical price for a commodity.  These are usually found
in a pricing history file (see the @option{-Q} option).  The syntax
is:
@example
P DATE SYMBOL PRICE
@end example

@item N SYMBOL
Indicates that pricing information is to be ignored for a given
symbol, nor will quotes ever be downloaded for that symbol.  Useful
with a home currency, such as the dollar ($).  It is recommended that
these pricing options be set in the price database file, which
defaults to @file{~/.pricedb}.  The syntax for this command is:
@example
N SYMBOL
@end example

@item D AMOUNT
Specifies the default commodity to use, by specifying an amount in the
expected format.  The @command{transaction} command will use this commodity
as the default when none other can be determined.  This command may be
used multiple times, to set the default flags for different
commodities; whichever is seen last is used as the default commodity.
For example, to set US dollars as the default commodity, while also
setting the thousands flag and decimal flag for that commodity, use:
@example
D $1,000.00
@end example

@item C AMOUNT1 = AMOUNT2
Specifies a commodity conversion, where the first amount is given to
be equivalent to the second amount.  The first amount should use the
decimal precision desired during reporting:
@example
C 1.00 Kb = 1024 bytes
@end example

@item i, o, b, h
These four relate to timeclock support, which permits ledger to read
timelog files.  See the timeclock's documentation for more info on the
syntax of its timelog files.
@end table

@node Ledger Tutorial, Ledger in Practice, Quick Reference, Top
@chapter Ledger Tutorial

This chapter presents a series of recipes, gradually introducing all of
the command-line features of Ledger.

For the purpose of these examples, assume the environment variable
@var{LEDGER} is set to the file @file{sample.dat} (which is included
in the distribution), and that the contents of that file are:

@smallexample
= /^Expenses:Books/
  (Liabilities:Taxes)             -0.10

~ Monthly
  Assets:Bank:Checking          $500.00
  Income:Salary

2004/05/01 * Checking balance
  Assets:Bank:Checking        $1,000.00
  Equity:Opening Balances

2004/05/01 * Investment balance
  Assets:Brokerage              50 AAPL @@ $30.00
  Equity:Opening Balances

2004/05/14 * Pay day
  Assets:Bank:Checking          $500.00
  Income:Salary

2004/05/27 Book Store
  Expenses:Books                 $20.00
  Liabilities:MasterCard

2004/05/27 (100) Credit card company
  Liabilities:MasterCard         $20.00
  Assets:Bank:Checking
@end smallexample

This sample file demonstrates a basic principle of accounting which it
is recommended you follow: Keep all of your accounts under five parent
Assets, Liabilities, Income, Expenses and Equity.  It is important to
do so in order to make sense out of the following examples.

@section Checking balances

Ledger has seven basic commands, but by far the most often used are
@command{balance} and @command{register}.  To see a summary balance of
all accounts, use:

@example
ledger bal
@end example

@command{bal} is a short-hand for @command{balance}.  This command
prints out the summary totals of the five parent accounts used in
@file{sample.dat}:

@smallexample
           $1,480.00
             50 AAPL  Assets
          $-2,500.00  Equity
              $20.00  Expenses
            $-500.00  Income
              $-2.00  Liabilities
--------------------
          $-1,502.00
             50 AAPL    
@end smallexample

None of the child accounts are shown, just the parent account totals.
We can see that in @samp{Assets} there is $1,480.00, and 50 shares of
Apple stock.  There is also a negative grand total.  Usually the grand
total is zero, which means that all accounts balance@footnote{It is
impossible for accounts not to balance in ledger; it reports an error
if a posting does not balance}.  In this case, since the 50 shares
of Apple stock cost $1,500.00 dollars, then these two amounts balance
each other in the grand total.  The extra $2.00 comes from a virtual
posting being added by the automatic transaction at the top of the file.
The transaction is virtual because the account name was surrounded by
parentheses in an automatic transaction.  Automatic transactions will be
discussed later, but first let's remove the virtual posting from
the balance report by using the @option{--real} option:

@example
ledger --real bal
@end example

Now the report is:

@smallexample
           $1,480.00
             50 AAPL  Assets
          $-2,500.00  Equity
              $20.00  Expenses
            $-500.00  Income
--------------------
          $-1,500.00
             50 AAPL    
@end smallexample

Since the liability was a virtual posting, it has dropped from the
report and we see that final total is balanced.

But we only know that it balances because @file{sample.dat} is quite
simple, and we happen to know that the 50 shares of Apple stock cost
$1,500.00.  We can verify that things really balance by reporting the
Apple shares in terms of their cost, instead of their quantity.  To do
this requires the @option{--basis}, or @option{-B}, option:

@example
ledger --real -B bal
@end example

This command reports:

@smallexample
           $2,980.00  Assets
          $-2,500.00  Equity
              $20.00  Expenses
            $-500.00  Income
@end smallexample

With the basis cost option, the grand total has disappeared, as it is
now zero.  The confirms that the cost of everything balances to zero,
@emph{which must always be true}.  Reporting the real basis cost
should never yield a remainder@footnote{If it ever does, then
generated postings are involved, which can be removed using
@option{--actual}}.

@subsection Sub-account balances

The totals reported by the balance command are only the topmost parent
accounts.  To see the totals of all child accounts as well, use the
@option{-s} option:

@example
ledger --real -B -s bal
@end example

This reports:

@smallexample
           $2,980.00  Assets
           $1,480.00    Bank:Checking
           $1,500.00    Brokerage
          $-2,500.00  Equity:Opening Balances
              $20.00  Expenses:Books
            $-500.00  Income:Salary
@end smallexample

This shows that the @samp{Assets} total is made up from two child
account, but that the total for each of the other accounts comes from
one child account.

Sometimes you may have a lot of children, nested very deeply, but only
want to report the first two levels.  This can be done with a display
predicate, using a value expression.  In the value expression,
@code{T} represents the reported total, and @code{l} is the display
level for the account:

@example
ledger --real -B -d "T&l<=2" bal
@end example

This reports:

@smallexample
           $2,980.00  Assets
           $1,480.00    Bank
           $1,500.00    Brokerage
          $-2,500.00  Equity:Opening Balances
              $20.00  Expenses:Books
            $-500.00  Income:Salary
@end smallexample

Instead of reporting @samp{Bank:Checking} as a child of @samp{Assets},
it report only @samp{Bank}, since that account is a nesting level of
2, while @samp{Checking} is at level 3.

To review the display predicate used---@code{T&l<=2}---this rather
terse expression means: Display an account only if it has a non-zero
total (@code{T}), and its nesting level is less than or equal to 2
(@code{l<=2}).

@subsection Specific account balances

While reporting the totals for all accounts can be useful, most often
you will want to check the balance of a specific account or accounts.
To do this, put one or more account names after the balance command.
Since these names are really regular expressions, you can use partial
names if you wish:

@example
ledger bal checking
@end example

Reports:

@smallexample
           $1,480.00  Assets:Bank:Checking
@end smallexample

Any number of names may be used:

@example
ledger bal checking broker liab
@end example

Reports:

@smallexample
           $1,480.00  Assets:Bank:Checking
             50 AAPL  Assets:Brokerage
              $-2.00  Liabilities
@end smallexample

In this case no grand total is reported, because you are asking for
specific account balances.

For those comfortable with regular expressions, any Perl regexp is
allowed:

@example
ledger bal ^assets.*checking ^liab
@end example

Reports:

@smallexample
           $1,480.00  Assets:Bank:Checking
              $-2.00  Liabilities:Taxes
@end smallexample

@section The register report

While the @command{balance} command can be very handy for checking
account totals, by far the most powerful of Ledger's reporting tools
is the @command{register} command.  In fact, internally both commands
use the same logic, but report the results differently:
@command{balance} shows the summary totals, while @command{register}
reports each posting and how it contributes to that total.

Paradoxically, the most basic form of @command{register} is almost
never used, since it displays every posting:

@example
ledger reg
@end example

@command{reg} is a short-hand for @command{register}.  This command
reports:

@smallexample
2004/05/01 Checking balance     Assets:Bank:Checking      $1,000.00    $1,000.00
                                Equity:Opening Balan..   $-1,000.00            0
2004/05/01 Investment balance   Assets:Brokerage            50 AAPL      50 AAPL
                                Equity:Opening Balan..   $-1,500.00   $-1,500.00
                                                                         50 AAPL
2004/05/14 Pay day              Assets:Bank:Checking        $500.00   $-1,000.00
                                                                         50 AAPL
                                Income:Salary              $-500.00   $-1,500.00
                                                                         50 AAPL
2004/05/27 Book Store           Expenses:Books               $20.00   $-1,480.00
                                                                         50 AAPL
                                Liabilities:MasterCard      $-20.00   $-1,500.00
                                                                         50 AAPL
                                (Liabilities:Taxes)          $-2.00   $-1,502.00
                                                                         50 AAPL
2004/05/27 Credit card company  Liabilities:MasterCard       $20.00   $-1,482.00
                                                                         50 AAPL
                                Assets:Bank:Checking        $-20.00   $-1,502.00
                                                                         50 AAPL
@end smallexample

This rather verbose output shows every account posting in
@file{sample.dat}, and how it affects the running total.  The final
total is identical to what we saw with the plain @command{balance}
command.  To see how things really balance, we can use @samp{--real
-B}, just as we did with @command{balance}:

@example
ledger --real -B reg
@end example

Reports:

@smallexample
2004/05/01 Checking balance     Assets:Bank:Checking      $1,000.00    $1,000.00
                                Equity:Opening Balan..   $-1,000.00            0
2004/05/01 Investment balance   Assets:Brokerage          $1,500.00    $1,500.00
                                Equity:Opening Balan..   $-1,500.00            0
2004/05/14 Pay day              Assets:Bank:Checking        $500.00      $500.00
                                Income:Salary              $-500.00            0
2004/05/27 Book Store           Expenses:Books               $20.00       $20.00
                                Liabilities:MasterCard      $-20.00            0
2004/05/27 Credit card company  Liabilities:MasterCard       $20.00       $20.00
                                Assets:Bank:Checking        $-20.00            0
@end smallexample

Here we see that everything balances to zero in the end, as it must.

@subsection Specific register queries

The most common use of the register command is to summarize
postings based on the account(s) they affect.  Using
@file{sample.dat} as as example, we could look at all book purchases
using:

@example
ledger reg books
@end example

Reports:

@smallexample
2004/05/29 Book Store           Expenses:Books               $20.00       $20.00
@end smallexample

If a double-dash (@samp{--}) occurs in the list of regular
expressions, any following arguments are matched against payee names,
instead of account names:

@example
ledger reg ^liab -- credit
@end example

Reports:

@smallexample
2004/05/29 Credit card company  Liabilities:MasterCard       $20.00       $20.00
@end smallexample

There are many reporting options for tailoring which postings are
found, and also how to summarize the various amounts and totals that
result.  These are plumbed in greater depth below.

@section Selecting postings

Although the easiest way to use the register is to report all the
postings affecting a set of accounts, it can often result in more
information than you want.  To cope with an ever-growing amount of
data, there are several options which can help you pinpoint your
report to epostly the postings that interest you most.  This is
called the ``calculation'' phase of Ledger.  All of its related
options are documented under @option{--help-calc}.

@subsection By date

@c  -c, --current          show only current and past transactions (not future)

@option{--current}(@option{-c}) displays transactions occurring on or
before the current date.  Any transaction recorded for a future date will be
ignored, as if it had not been seen.  This is useful if you happen to
pre-record transactions, but still wish to view your balances in terms of
what is available today.

@c  -b, --begin DATE       set report begin date
@c  -e, --end DATE         set report end date

@option{--begin DATE} (@option{-b DATE}) limits the report to only
those transactions occurring on or after @var{DATE}.  The running total in
the register will start at zero with the first posting, even if
there are earlier transactions.

To limit the display only, but still add earlier postings to the
running total, use the display expression @samp{-d 'd>=[DATE]'}):

@example
ledger --basis -b may -d 'd>=[5/14]' reg ^assets
@end example

Reports:

@smallexample
2004/05/14 Pay day              Assets:Bank:Checking        $500.00    $3,000.00
2004/05/27 Credit card company  Assets:Bank:Checking        $-20.00    $2,980.00
@end smallexample

In this example, the displayed postings start from @samp{5/14},
but the calculated total starts from the beginning of @samp{may}.

@option{--end DATE} (@option{-e DATE}) states when reporting should
end, both calculation and display.  The ending date is inclusive.

The @var{DATE} argument to the @option{-b} and @option{-e} options can
be rather flexible.  Assuming the current date to be November 15,
2004, then all of the following are equivalent:

@example
ledger -b oct bal
ledger -b "this oct" bal
ledger -b 2004/10 bal
ledger -b 10 bal
ledger -b last bal
ledger -b "last month" bal
@end example

@c  -p, --period STR       report using the given period
@c      --period-sort EXPR sort each report period's transactions by EXPR

To constrain the report to a specific time period, use
@option{--period} (@option{-p}).  A time period may have both a
beginning and an end, or neither, as well as a specified interval.
Here are a few examples:

@example
ledger -p 2004 bal
ledger -p august bal
ledger -p "from aug to oct" bal
ledger -p "daily from 8/1 to 8/15" bal
ledger -p "weekly since august" bal
ledger -p "monthly from feb to oct" bal
ledger -p "quarterly in 2004" bal
ledger -p yearly bal
@end example

See @ref{Period expressions} for more on syntax.  Also, all of the
options @option{-b}, @option{-e} and @option{-p} may be used together,
but whatever information occurs last takes priority.  An example of
such usage (in a script, perhaps) would be:

@example
ledger -b 2004 -e 2005 -p monthly reg ^expenses
@end example

This command is identical to:

@example
ledger -p "monthly in 2004" reg ^expenses
@end example

The postings within a period may be sorted using
@option{--period-sort}, which takes a value expression.  This is
similar to the @option{--sort} option, except that it sorts within
each period transaction, rather than sorting all postings in the report.
See the documentation on @option{--sort} below for more details.

@subsection By status

By default, all regular postings are included in each report.  To
limit the report to certain kinds of postings, use one or more of
the following options:

@table @option
@item -C, --cleared
Consider only cleared postings.
@item -U, --uncleared
Consider only uncleared and pending postings.
@item -R, --real
Consider only real (non-virtual) postings.
@item -L, --actual
Consider only actual (non-automated) postings.
@end table

Cleared postings are indicated by an asterix placed just before
the payee name in a posting.  The meaning of this flag is up to
the user, but typically it means that a transaction has been seen on a
financial statement.  Pending postings use an exclamation mark in
the same position, but are mainly used only by reconciling software.
Uncleared postings are for things like uncashed checks, credit
charges that haven't appeared on a statement yet, etc.

Real postings are all non-virtual postings, where the account
name is not surrounded by parentheses or square brackets.  Virtual
postings are useful for showing a transfer of money that never
really happened, like money set aside for savings without actually
transferring it from the parent account.

Actual postings are those not generated, either as part of an
automated transaction, or a budget or forecast report.  A useful of when you
might like to filter out generated postings is with a budget:

@example
ledger --budget --actual reg ^expenses
@end example

This command outputs all postings affecting a budgeted account,
but without subtracting the budget amount (because the generated
postings are suppressed with @option{--actual}).  The report shows
how much you actually spent on budgeted items.

@subsection By relationship

@c  -r, --related          calculate report using related postings

Normally, a register report includes only the postings that match
the regular expressions specified after the command word.  For
example, to report all expenses:

@example
ledger reg ^expenses
@end example

This reports:

@smallexample
2004/05/29 Book Store           Expenses:Books               $20.00       $20.00
@end smallexample

Using @option{--related} (@option{-r}) reports the postings that
did not match your query, but only in transactions that otherwise would
have matched.  This has the effect of indicating where money came
from, or when to:

@example
ledger -r reg ^expenses
@end example

Reports:

@smallexample
2004/05/29 Book Store           Liabilities:MasterCard       $20.00       $20.00
@end smallexample

@subsection By budget

@c      --budget           generate budget transactions based on FILE

There is more information about budgeting and forecasting in
@ref{Budgeting and forecasting}.  Basically, if you have any period
transactions in your ledger file, you can use these options.  A period
transaction looks like:

@example
~ Monthly
  Assets:Bank:Checking         $500.00
  Income:Salary
@end example

The difference from a regular transaction is that the first line begins with
a tilde (~), and instead of a payee there's a period expression
(@ref{Period expressions}).  Otherwise, a period transaction is in every
other way the same as a regular transaction.

With such a transaction in your ledger file, the @option{--budget} option
will report only postings that match a budgeted account.  Using
@file{sample.dat} from above:

@example
ledger --budget reg ^income
@end example

Reports:

@smallexample
2004/05/01 Budget transaction         Income:Salary               $500.00      $500.00
2004/05/14 Pay day              Income:Salary              $-500.00            0
@end smallexample

The final total is zero, indicating that the budget matched epostly
for the reported period.  Budgeting is most often helpful with period
reporting; for example, to show monthly budget results use
@option{--budget -p monthly}.

@c      --add-budget       show all postings plus the budget
@c      --unbudgeted       show only unbudgeted postings

The @option{--add-budget} option reports all matching postings in
addition to budget postings; while @option{--unbudgeted} shows
only those that don't match a budgeted account.  To summarize:

@table @option
@item --budget
Show postings matching budgeted accounts.
@item --unbudgeted
Show postings matching unbudgeted accounts.
@item --add-budget
Show both budgeted and unbudgeted postings together (i.e., add the
generated budget postings to the regular report).
@end table

@c      --forecast EXPR    generate forecast transactions while EXPR is true

A report with the @option{--forecast} option will add budgeted
postings while the specified value expression is true.  For
example:

@example
ledger --forecast 'd<[2005] reg ^income
@end example

Reports:

@smallexample
2004/05/14 Pay day              Income:Salary              $-500.00     $-500.00
2004/12/01 Forecast transaction       Income:Salary              $-500.00   $-1,000.00
2005/01/01 Forecast transaction       Income:Salary              $-500.00   $-1,500.00
@end smallexample

The date this report was made was November 5, 2004; the reason the
first forecast transaction is in december is that forecast transactions are only
added for the future, and they only stop after the value expression
has matched at least once, which is why the January transaction appears.  A
forecast report can be very useful for determining when money will run
out in an account, or for projecting future cash flow:

@example
ledger --forecast 'd<[2008]' -p yearly reg ^inc ^exp
@end example

This reports balances projected income against projected expenses,
showing the resulting total in yearly intervals until 2008.  For the
case of @file{sample.dat}, which has no budgeted expenses, the result
of the above command (in November 2004) is:

@smallexample
2004/01/01 - 2004/12/31         Income:Salary            $-1,000.00   $-1,000.00
                                Expenses:Books               $20.00     $-980.00
2005/01/01 - 2005/12/31         Income:Salary            $-6,000.00   $-6,980.00
2006/01/01 - 2006/12/31         Income:Salary            $-6,000.00  $-12,980.00
2007/01/01 - 2007/12/31         Income:Salary            $-6,000.00  $-18,980.00
2008/01/01 - 2008/01/01         Income:Salary              $-500.00  $-19,480.00
@end smallexample

@subsection By value expression

@c  -l, --limit EXPR       calculate only postings matching EXPR

Value expressions can be quite complex, and are treated more fully in
@ref{Value expressions}.  They can be used for limiting a report with
@option{--limit} (@option{-l}).  The following command report income
since august, but expenses since october:

@example
ledger -l '(/income/&d>=[aug])|(/expenses/&d>=[oct])' reg
@end example

The basic form of this value expression is @samp{(A&B)|(A&B)}.  The
@samp{A} in each part matches against an account name with
@samp{/name/}, while each @samp{B} part compares the date of the
posting (@samp{d}) with a specified month.  The resulting report
will contain only postings which match the value expression.

@c  -t, --amount EXPR      use EXPR to calculate the displayed amount
@c  -T, --total EXPR       use EXPR to calculate the displayed total

Another use of value expressions is to calculate the amount reported
for each line of a register report, or for computing the subtotal of
each account shown in a balance report.  This example divides each
posting amount by two:

@example
ledger -t 'a/2' reg ^exp
@end example

The @option{-t} option doesn't affect the running total, only how the
posting amount is displayed.  To change the running total, use
@option{-T}.  In that case, you will likely want to use the total
(@samp{O}) instead of the amount (@samp{a}):

@example
ledger -T 'O/2' reg ^exp
@end example

@section Massaging register output

Even after filtering down your data to just the postings you're
interested in, the default reporting method of one posting per
line is often still too much.  To combat this complexity, it is
possible to ask Ledger to report the details to you in many different
forms, summarized in various ways.  This is the ``display'' phase of
Ledger, and is documented under @option{--help-disp}.

@subsection Summarizing

@c  -n, --collapse         register: collapse transactions with multiple postings

When multiple postings relate to a single transaction, they are reported
as part of that transaction.  For example, in the case of @file{sample.dat}:

@example
ledger reg -- book
@end example

Reports:

@smallexample
2004/05/29 Book Store           Expenses:Books               $20.00       $20.00
                                Liabilities:MasterCard      $-20.00            0
                                (Liabilities:Taxes)          $-2.00       $-2.00
@end smallexample

All three postings are part of one transaction, and as such the transaction
details are printed only once.  To report every transaction on a single
line, use @option{-n} to collapse transactions with multiple postings:

@example
ledger -n reg -- book
@end example

Reports:

@smallexample
2004/05/29 Book Store           <Total>                      $-2.00       $-2.00
@end smallexample

In the balance report, @option{-n} causes the grand total not to be
displayed at the bottom of the report.

@c  -s, --subtotal         balance: show sub-accounts; other: show subtotals

If an account occurs more than once in a report, it is possible to
combine them all and report the total per-account, using @option{-s}.
For example, this command:

@example
ledger -B reg ^assets
@end example

Reports:

@smallexample
2004/05/01 Checking balance     Assets:Bank:Checking      $1,000.00    $1,000.00
2004/05/01 Investment balance   Assets:Brokerage          $1,500.00    $2,500.00
2004/05/14 Pay day              Assets:Bank:Checking        $500.00    $3,000.00
2004/05/27 Credit card company  Assets:Bank:Checking        $-20.00    $2,980.00
@end smallexample

But if the @option{-s} option is added, the result becomes:

@smallexample
2004/05/01 - 2004/05/29         Assets:Bank:Checking      $1,480.00    $1,480.00
                                Assets:Brokerage          $1,500.00    $2,980.00
@end smallexample

When account subtotaling is used, only one transaction is printed, and the
date and name reflect the range of the combined postings.

@c  -P, --by-payee         show summarized totals by payee

With @option{-P}, postings relating to the same payee are
combined.  In this case, the date of the combined transaction is that of the
latest posting.

@c  -x, --comm-as-payee    set commodity name as the payee, for reporting

@option{-x} changes the payee name for each posting to be the same
as the commodity it uses.  This can be especially useful combined with
other options, like @option{-P}.  For example:

@example
ledger -Px reg ^assets
@end example

Reports:

@smallexample
2004/05/29 $                    Assets:Bank:Checking      $1,480.00    $1,480.00
2004/05/01 AAPL                 Assets:Brokerage            50 AAPL    $1,480.00
                                                                         50 AAPL
@end smallexample

This reports shows the subtotal for each commodity held, and where it
is located.  To see the basis cost, or initial investment, add
@option{-B}.  Applied to the example above:

@smallexample
2004/05/29 $                    Assets:Bank:Checking      $1,480.00    $1,480.00
2004/05/01 AAPL                 Assets:Brokerage          $1,500.00    $2,980.00
@end smallexample

@c  -E, --empty            balance: show accounts with zero balance

The only other options which affect summarized totals is @option{-E},
which works only in the balance report.  In this case, it shows
matching accounts with a zero a balance, which are ordinarily
excluded.  This can be useful to see all the accounts involved in a
report, even if some have no total.

@subsection Quick periods

Although the @option{-p} option (also @option{--period}) is much more
versatile, there are other options to make the most common period
reports easier:

@table @option
@item -W, --weekly
Show weekly sub-totals.  Same as @samp{-p weekly}.
@item -M, --monthly
Show monthly sub-totals.  Same as @samp{-p monthly}.
@item -Y, --yearly
Show yearly sub-totals.  Same as @samp{-p yearly}.
@end table

@c      --dow              show a days-of-the-week report

There is one kind of period report cannot be done with @option{-p}.
This is the @option{--dow}, or ``days of the week'' report, which
shows summarized totals for each day of the week.  The following
examples shows a ``day of the week'' report of income and expenses:

@example
ledger --dow reg ^inc ^exp
@end example

Reports:

@smallexample
2004/05/27 Thursdays            Expenses:Books               $20.00       $20.00
2004/05/14 Fridays              Income:Salary              $-500.00     $-480.00
@end smallexample

@subsection Ordering and width

@c  -S, --sort EXPR        sort report according to the value expression EXPR

The postings displayed in a report are shown in the same order as
they appear in the ledger file.  To change the order and sort a
report, use the @option{--sort} option.  @option{--sort} takes a value
expression to determine the value to sort against, making it possible
to sort according to complex criteria.  Here are some simple and
useful examples:

@example
ledger --sort d reg ^exp    # sort by date
ledger --sort t reg ^exp    # sort by amount total
ledger --sort -t reg ^exp   # reverse sort by amount total
ledger --sort Ut reg ^exp   # sort by abs amount total
@end example

For the balance report, you will want to use @samp{T} instead of
@samp{t}:

@example
ledger --sort T reg ^exp    # sort by amount total
ledger --sort -T reg ^exp   # reverse sort by amount total
ledger --sort UT reg ^exp   # sort by abs amount total
@end example

The @option{--sort} options sorts all postings in a report.  If
periods are used (such as @option{--monthly}), this can get somewhat
confusing.  In that case, you'll probably want to sort within periods
using @option{--period-sort} instead of @option{--sort}.

@c  -w, --wide             for the default register report, use 132 columns

And if the register seems too cramped, and you have a lot of screen
real estate, you can use @option{-w} to format the report within 132
acolumns, instead of 80.  You are more likely then to see full payee
and account names, as well as properly formatted totals when
long-named commodities are used.

If you want only the first or last N transactions to be printed---which can
be very useful for viewing the last 10 transactions in your checking
account, while also showing the cumulative balance from all
transactions---use the @option{--head} and/or @option{--tail} options.  The
two options may be used simultaneously, for example:

@example
ledger --tail 20 reg checking
@end example

If the output from your command is very long, Ledger can output the
data to a pager utility, such as @command{more} or @command{less}:

@example
ledger --pager /usr/bin/less reg checking
@end example

@subsection Averages and percentages

@c  -A, --average          report average posting amount

To see the running total changed to a running average, use
@option{-A}.  The final posting's total will be the overall
average of all displayed postings.  The works in conjunction with
period reporting, so that you can see your monthly average expenses
with:

@example
ledger -AM  reg ^expenses:food
ledger -AMn reg ^expenses
@end example

This works in the balance report too:

@example
ledger -AM  bal ^expenses:food
ledger -AMs bal ^expenses
@end example

@c  -D, --deviation        report deviation from the average

The @option{-D} option changes the running average into a deviation
from the running average.  This only makes sense in the register
report, however.

@example
ledger -DM reg ^expenses:food
@end example

@c  -%, --percentage       report balance totals as a percentile of the parent

In the balance report only, @option{-%} changes the reported totals
into a percentage of the parent account.  This kind of report is
confusing if negative amounts are involved, and doesn't work at all if
multiple commodities occur in an account's history.  It has a somewhat
limited usefulness, therefore, but in certain cases it can be handy,
such as reviewing overall expenses:

@example
ledger -%s -S T bal ^expenses
@end example

@subsection Reporting total data

@c      --totals           in the "xml" report, include running total

Normally in the @command{xml} report, only posting amounts are
printed.  To include the running total under a @samp{<total>} tag, use
@option{--totals}.  This does not affect any other report.

@c  -j, --amount-data      print only raw amount data (useful for scripting)
@c  -J, --total-data       print only raw total data

In the register report only, the output can be changed with
@option{-j} to show only the date and the amount---without
commodities.  This only makes sense if a single commodity appears in
the report, but can be quite useful for scripting, or passing the data
to Gnuplot.  To show only the date and running total, use @option{-J}.

@subsection Display by value expression

@c  -d, --display EXPR     display only postings matching EXPR

With @option{-d} you can decide which postings (or accounts in the
balance report) are displayed, according to a value expression.  The
computed total is not affected, only the display.  This can be very
useful for shortening a report without changing the running total:

@example
ledger -d 'd>=[last month]' reg checking
@end example

This command shows the checking account's register, beginning from
last month, but with the running total reflecting the entire history
of the account.

@subsection Change report format

@c  -y, --date-format STR  use STR as the date format (default: %Y/%m/%d)

When dates are printed in any report, the default format is
@samp{%Y/%m/%d}, which yields dates of the form @samp{YYYY/mm/dd}.
This can be changed with @option{-y}, whose argument is a
@code{strftime} string---see your system's C library documentation for
the allowable codes.  Mostly you will want to use @samp{%Y}, @samp{%m}
and @samp{%d}, in whatever combination is convenient for your locale.

@c  -F, --format STR       use STR as the format; for each report type, use:
@c      --balance-format      --register-format       --print-format
@c      --plot-amount-format  --plot-total-format     --equity-format
@c      --prices-format       --wide-register-format

To change the format of the entire reported line, use @option{-F}.  It
supports quite a large number of options, which are all documented in
@ref{Format strings}.  In addition, each specific kind of report
(except for @command{xml}) can be changed using one of the following
options:

@table @option
@item --balance-format
@command{balance} report.  Default:
@smallexample
%20T  %2_%-a\n
@end smallexample

@item --register-format
@command{register} report.  Default:
@smallexample
%D %-.20P %-.22A %12.66t %12.80T\n%/%32|%-.22A %12.66t %12.80T\n
@end smallexample

@item --print-format
@command{print} report.  Default:
@smallexample
%D  %-.35P %-.38A %22.108t %22.132T\n%/%48|%-.38A %22.108t %22.132T\n
@end smallexample

@item --plot-amount-format
@command{register} report when @option{-j} (plot amount) is used.  Default:
@smallexample
%D %(St)\n
@end smallexample

@item --plot-total-format
@command{register} report when @option{-J} (plot total) is used.  Default:
@smallexample
%D %(ST)\n
@end smallexample

@item --equity-format
@command{equity} report.  Default:
@smallexample
\n%D %Y%C%P\n    %-34W  %12o%n\n%/    %-34W  %12o%n\n
@end smallexample

@item --prices-format
@command{prices} report.  Default:
@smallexample
\n%D %Y%C%P\n%/    %-34W  %12t\n
@end smallexample

@item --wide-register-format
@command{register} report when @option{-w} (wide) is used.  Default:
@smallexample
%D  %-.35P %-.38A %22.108t %22.132T\n%/%48|%-.38A %22.108t %22.132T\n
@end smallexample
@end table

@section Standard queries

If your ledger file uses the standard top-level accounts: Assets,
Liabilities, Income, Expenses, Equity: then the following queries will
enable you to generate some typical accounting reports from your data.

Your @emph{net worth} can be determined by balancing assets against
liabilities:

@example
ledger bal ^assets ^liab
@end example

By removing long-term investment and loan accounts, you can see your
current net liquidity (or liquid net worth):

@example
ledger bal ^assets ^liab -retirement -brokerage -loan
@end example

Balancing expenses against income yields your @emph{cash flow}, or net
profit/loss:

@example
ledger bal ^exp ^inc
@end example

In this case, if the number is positive it means you spent more than
you earned during the report period.

@c ----------------------------------------------------------------------

The most often used command is the ``balance'' command:

@example
export LEDGER=/home/johnw/doc/ledger.dat
ledger balance
@end example

Here I've set my Ledger environment variable to point to where my
ledger file is hiding.  Thereafter, I needn't specify it again.

@section Reporting balance totals

The balance command prints out the summarized balances of all my
top-level accounts, excluding sub-accounts.  In order to see the
balances for a specific account, just specify a regular expression
after the balance command:

@example
ledger balance expenses:food
@end example

This will show all the money that's been spent on food, since the
beginning of the ledger.  For food spending just this month
(September), use:

@example
ledger -p sep balance expenses:food
@end example

Or maybe you want to see all of your assets, in which case the -s
(show sub-accounts) option comes in handy:

@example
ledger -s balance ^assets
@end example

To exclude a particular account, use a regular expression with a
leading minus sign.  The following will show all expenses, but without
food spending:

@example
ledger balance expenses -food
@end example

@section Reporting percentages

There is no built-in way to report posting amounts or account
balances in terms of percentages

@node Ledger in Practice,  , Ledger Tutorial, Top
@chapter Ledger in Practice

@menu
* Stating where money goes::    
* Assets and Liabilities::      
* Typical queries::             
* Budgeting and forecasting::   
* Commodities and Currencies::  
* Accounts and Inventories::    
* Understanding Equity::        
* Dealing with Petty Cash::     
* Working with multiple funds and accounts::  
* Archiving previous years::    
* Virtual postings::        
* Automated postings::      
* Using Emacs to Keep Your Ledger::  
* Using GnuCash to Keep Your Ledger::  
* Using timeclock to record billable time::  
* Using XML::                   
@end menu

@node Stating where money goes, Assets and Liabilities, Ledger in Practice, Ledger in Practice
@section Stating where money goes

Accountants will talk of ``credits'' and ``debits'', but the meaning
is often different from the layman's understanding.  To avoid
confusion, Ledger uses only subtractions and additions, although the
underlying intent is the same as standard accounting principles.

Recall that every posting will involve two or more accounts.
Money is transferred from one or more accounts to one or more other
accounts.  To record the posting, an amount is @emph{subtracted}
from the source accounts, and @emph{added} to the target accounts.

In order to write a Ledger transaction correctly, you must determine where
the money comes from and where it goes to.  For example, when you are
paid a salary, you must add money to your bank account and also
subtract it from an income account:

@smallexample
9/29  My Employer
    Assets:Checking                           $500.00
    Income:Salary                            $-500.00
@end smallexample

Why is the Income a negative figure?  When you look at the balance
totals for your ledger, you may be surprised to see that Expenses are
a positive figure, and Income is a negative figure.  It may take some
getting used to, but to properly use a general ledger you must think
in terms of how money moves.  Rather than Ledger ``fixing'' the minus
signs, let's understand why they are there.

When you earn money, the money has to come from somewhere.  Let's call
that somewhere ``society''.  In order for society to give you an
income, you must take money away (withdraw) from society in order to
put it into (make a payment to) your bank.  When you then spend that
money, it leaves your bank account (a withdrawal) and goes back to
society (a payment).  This is why Income will appear negative---it
reflects the money you have drawn from society---and why Expenses will
be positive---it is the amount you've given back.  These additions and
subtractions will always cancel each other out in the end, because you
don't have the ability to create new money: it must always come from
somewhere, and in the end must always leave.  This is the beginning of
economy, after which the explanation gets terribly difficult.

Based on that explanation, here's another way to look at your balance
report: every negative figure means that that account or person or
place has less money now than when you started your ledger; and every
positive figure means that that account or person or place has more
money now that when you started your ledger.  Make sense?

@node Assets and Liabilities, Typical queries, Stating where money goes, Ledger in Practice
@section Assets and Liabilities

Assets are money that you have, and Liabilities are money that you
owe.  ``Liabilities'' is just a more inclusive name for Debts.

An Asset is typically increased by transferring money from an Income
account, such as when you get paid.  Here is a typical transaction:

@smallexample
2004/09/29  My Employer
    Assets:Checking               $500.00
    Income:Salary
@end smallexample

Money, here, comes from an Income account belonging to ``My
Employer'', and is transferred to your checking account.  The money is
now yours, which makes it an Asset.

Liabilities track money owed to others.  This can happen when you
borrow money to buy something, or if you owe someone money.  Here is
an example of increasing a MasterCard liability by spending money with
it:

@smallexample
2004/09/30  Restaurant
    Expenses:Dining                $25.00
    Liabilities:MasterCard
@end smallexample

The Dining account balance now shows $25 spent on Dining, and a
corresponding $25 owed on the MasterCard---and therefore shown as
$-25.00.  The MasterCard liability shows up as negative because it
offsets the value of your assets.

The combined total of your Assets and Liabilities is your net worth.
So to see your current net worth, use this command:

@example
ledger balance ^assets ^liabilities
@end example

Relatedly, your Income accounts show up negative, because they
transfer money @emph{from} an account in order to increase your
assets.  Your Expenses show up positive because that is where the
money went to.  The combined total of Income and Expenses is your cash
flow.  A positive cash flow means you are spending more than you make,
since income is always a negative figure.  To see your current cash
flow, use this command:

@example
ledger balance ^income ^expenses
@end example

Another common question to ask of your expenses is: How much do I
spend each month on X?  Ledger provides a simple way of displaying
monthly totals for any account.  Here is an example that summarizes
your monthly automobile expenses:

@example
ledger -M register expenses:auto
@end example

This assumes, of course, that you use account names like
@samp{Expenses:Auto:Gas} and @samp{Expenses:Auto:Repair}.

@subsection Tracking reimbursable expenses

Sometimes you will want to spend money on behalf of someone else,
which will eventually get repaid.  Since the money is still ``yours'',
it is really an asset.  And since the expenditure was for someone
else, you don't want it contaminating your Expenses reports.  You will
need to keep an account for tracking reimbursements.

This is fairly easy to do in ledger.  When spending the money, spend
it @emph{to} your Assets:Reimbursements, using a different account for
each person or business that you spend money for.  For example:

@smallexample
2004/09/29  Circuit City
    Assets:Reimbursements:Company XYZ     $100.00
    Liabilities:MasterCard
@end smallexample

This shows $100.00 spent on a MasterCard at Circuit City, with the
expense was made on behalf of Company XYZ.  Later, when Company XYZ
pays the amount back, the money will transfer from that reimbursement
account back to a regular asset account:

@smallexample
2004/09/29  Company XYZ
    Assets:Checking                       $100.00
    Assets:Reimbursements:Company XYZ
@end smallexample

This deposits the money owed from Company XYZ into a checking account,
presumably because they paid the amount back with a check.

But what to do if you run your own business, and you want to keep
track of expenses made on your own behalf, while still tracking
everything in a single ledger file?  This is more complex, because you
need to track two separate things: 1) The fact that the money should
be reimbursed to you, and 2) What the expense account was, so that you
can later determine where your company is spending its money.

This kind of posting is best handled with mirrored postings in
two different files, one for your personal accounts, and one for your
company accounts.  But keeping them in one file involves the same
kinds of postings, so those are what is shown here.  First, the
personal transaction, which shows the need for reimbursement:

@smallexample
2004/09/29  Circuit City
    Assets:Reimbursements:Company XYZ     $100.00
    Liabilities:MasterCard
@end smallexample

This is the same as above, except that you own Company XYZ, and are
keeping track of its expenses in the same ledger file.  This transaction
should be immediately followed by an equivalent transaction, which shows the
kind of expense, and also notes the fact that $100.00 is now payable
to you:

@smallexample
2004/09/29  Circuit City
    Company XYZ:Expenses:Computer:Software      $100.00
    Company XYZ:Accounts Payable:Your Name
@end smallexample

This second transaction shows that Company XYZ has just spent $100.00 on
software, and that this $100.00 came from Your Name, which must be
paid back.

These two transactions can also be merged, to make things a little clearer.
Note that all amounts must be specified now:

@smallexample
2004/09/29  Circuit City
    Assets:Reimbursements:Company XYZ         $100.00
    Liabilities:MasterCard                   $-100.00
    Company XYZ:Expenses:Computer:Software    $100.00
    Company XYZ:Accounts Payable:Your Name   $-100.00
@end smallexample

To ``pay back'' the reimbursement, just reverse the order of
everything, except this time drawing the money from a company asset,
paying it to accounts payable, and then drawing it again from the
reimbursement account, and paying it to your personal asset account.
It's easier shown than said:

@smallexample
2004/10/15  Company XYZ
    Assets:Checking                           $100.00
    Assets:Reimbursements:Company XYZ        $-100.00
    Company XYZ:Accounts Payable:Your Name    $100.00
    Company XYZ:Assets:Checking              $-100.00
@end smallexample

And now the reimbursements account is paid off, accounts payable is
paid off, and $100.00 has been effectively transferred from the
company's checking account to your personal checking account.  The
money simply ``waited''---in both @samp{Assets:Reimbursements:Company
XYZ}, and @samp{Company XYZ:Accounts Payable:Your Name}---until such
time as it could be paid off.

The value of tracking expenses from both sides like that is that you
do not contaminate your personal expense report with expenses made on
behalf of others, while at the same time making it possible to
generate accurate reports of your company's expenditures.  It is more
verbose than just paying for things with your personal assets, but it
gives you a very accurate information trail.

The advantage to keep these doubled transactions together is that they
always stay in sync.  The advantage to keeping them apart is that it
clarifies the transfer's point of view.  To keep the postings in
separate files, just separate the two transactions that were joined above.
For example, for both the expense and the pay-back shown above, the
following four transactions would be created.  Two in your personal ledger
file:

@smallexample
2004/09/29  Circuit City
    Assets:Reimbursements:Company XYZ     $100.00
    Liabilities:MasterCard               $-100.00

2004/10/15  Company XYZ
    Assets:Checking                       $100.00
    Assets:Reimbursements:Company XYZ    $-100.00
@end smallexample

And two in your company ledger file:

@smallexample
!account Company XYZ

2004/09/29  Circuit City
    Expenses:Computer:Software            $100.00
    Accounts Payable:Your Name           $-100.00

2004/10/15  Company XYZ
    Accounts Payable:Your Name            $100.00
    Assets:Checking                      $-100.00

!end
@end smallexample

(Note: The @samp{!account} above means that all accounts mentioned in
the file are children of that account.  In this case it means that all
activity in the file relates to Company XYZ).

After creating these transactions, you will always know that $100.00 was
spent using your MasterCard on behalf of Company XYZ, and that Company
XYZ spent the money on computer software and paid it back about two
weeks later.

@node Typical queries, Budgeting and forecasting, Assets and Liabilities, Ledger in Practice
@section Typical queries

A query such as the following shows all expenses since last
October, sorted by total:

@example
ledger -b "last oct" -s -S T bal ^expenses
@end example

From left to right the options mean: Show transactions since October, 2003;
show all sub-accounts; sort by the absolute value of the total; and
report the balance for all expenses.

@subsection Reporting monthly expenses

The following query makes it easy to see monthly expenses, with each
month's expenses sorted by the amount:

@example
ledger -M --period-sort t reg ^expenses
@end example

Now, you might wonder where the money came from to pay for these
things.  To see that report, add @option{-r}, which shows the
``related account'' postings:

@example
ledger -M --period-sort t -r reg ^expenses
@end example

But maybe this prints too much information.  You might just want to
see how much you're spending with your MasterCard.  That kind of query
requires the use of a display predicate, since the postings
calculated must match @samp{^expenses}, while the postings
displayed must match @samp{mastercard}.  The command would be:

@example
ledger -M -r -d /mastercard/ reg ^expenses
@end example

This query says: Report monthly subtotals; report the ``related
account'' postings; display only related postings whose
account matches @samp{mastercard}, and base the calculation on
postings matching @samp{^expenses}.

This works just as well for report the overall total, too:

@example
ledger -s -r -d /mastercard/ reg ^expenses
@end example

The @option{-s} option subtotals all postings, just as @option{-M}
subtotaled by the month.  The running total in both cases is off,
however, since a display expression is being used.

@subsection Visualizing with Gnuplot

If you have @command{Gnuplot} installed, you can graph any of the
above register reports.  The script to do this is included in the
ledger distribution, and is named @file{scripts/report}.  Install
@file{report} anywhere along your @env{PATH}, and then use
@command{report} instead of @command{ledger} when doing a register
report.  The only thing to keep in mind is that you must specify
@option{-j} or @option{-J} to indicate whether Gnuplot should plot the
amount, or the running total.  For example, this command plots total
monthly expenses made on your MasterCard.

@example
report -j -M -r -d /mastercard/ reg ^expenses
@end example

The @command{report} script is a very simple Bourne shell script, that
passes a set of scripted commands to Gnuplot.  Feel free to modify the
script to your liking, since you may prefer histograms to line plots,
for example.

@subsubsection Typical plots

Here are some useful plots:

@smallexample
report -j -M reg ^expenses         # monthly expenses
report -J reg checking             # checking account balance
report -J reg ^income ^expenses    # cash flow report

# net worth report, ignoring non-$ postings

report -J -l "Ua>=@{\$0.01@}" reg ^assets ^liab

# net worth report starting last February.  the use of a display
# predicate (-d) is needed, otherwise the balance will start at
# zero, and thus the y-axis will not reflect the true balance

report -J -l "Ua>=@{\$0.01@}" -d "d>=[last feb]" reg ^assets ^liab
@end smallexample

The last report uses both a calculation predicate (@option{-l}) and a
display predicate (@option{-d}).  The calculation predicates limits
the report to postings whose amount is greater than $1 (which can
only happen if the posting amount is in dollars).  The display
predicate limits the transactions @emph{displayed} to just those since last
February, even those transactions from before then will be computed as part
of the balance.

@node Budgeting and forecasting, Commodities and Currencies, Typical queries, Ledger in Practice
@section Budgeting and forecasting

@subsection Budgeting

Keeping a budget allows you to pay closer attention to your income and
expenses, by reporting how far your actual financial activity is from
your expectations.

To start keeping a budget, put some period transactions at the top of your
ledger file.  A period transaction is almost identical to a regular transaction,
except that it begins with a tilde and has a period expression in
place of a payee.  For example:

@smallexample
~ Monthly
  Expenses:Rent               $500.00
  Expenses:Food               $450.00
  Expenses:Auto:Gas           $120.00
  Expenses:Insurance          $150.00
  Expenses:Phone              $125.00
  Expenses:Utilities          $100.00
  Expenses:Movies              $50.00
  Expenses                    $200.00  ; all other expenses
  Assets

~ Yearly
  Expenses:Auto:Repair        $500.00
  Assets
@end smallexample

These two period transactions give the usual monthly expenses, as well as
one typical yearly expense.  For help on finding out what your average
monthly expense is for any category, use a command like:

@example
ledger -p "this year" -MAs bal ^expenses
@end example

The reported totals are the current year's average for each account.

Once these period transactions are defined, creating a budget report is as
easy as adding @option{--budget} to the command-line.  For example, a
typical monthly expense report would be:

@example
ledger -M reg ^exp
@end example

To see the same report balanced against your budget, use:

@example
ledger --budget -M reg ^exp
@end example

A budget report includes only those accounts that appear in the
budget.  To see all expenses balanced against the budget, use
@option{--add-budget}.  You can even see only the unbudgeted expenses
using @option{--unbudgeted}:

@example
ledger --unbudgeted -M reg ^exp
@end example

You can also use these flags with the @command{balance} command.

@subsection Forecasting

Sometimes it's useful to know what your finances will look like in the
future, such as determining when an account will reach zero.  Ledger
makes this easy to do, using the same period transactions as are used for
budgeting.  An example forecast report can be generated with:

@example
ledger --forecast "T>@{\$-500.00@}" register ^assets ^liabilities
@end example

This report continues outputting postings until the running total
is greater than $-500.00.  A final posting is always output, to
show you what the total afterwards would be.

Forecasting can also be used with the balance report, but by date
only, and not against the running total:

@example
ledger --forecast "d<[2010]" bal ^assets ^liabilities
@end example

@node Commodities and Currencies, Accounts and Inventories, Budgeting and forecasting, Ledger in Practice
@section Commodities and Currencies

Ledger makes no assumptions about the commodities you use; it only
requires that you specify a commodity.  The commodity may be any
non-numeric string that does not contain a period, comma, forward
slash or at-sign.  It may appear before or after the amount, although
it is assumed that symbols appearing before the amount refer to
currencies, while non-joined symbols appearing after the amount refer
to commodities.  Here are some valid currency and commodity
specifiers:

@example
$20.00         ; currency: twenty US dollars
40 AAPL        ; commodity: 40 shares of Apple stock
60 DM          ; currency: 60 Deutsch Mark
£50            ; currency: 50 British pounds
50 EUR         ; currency: 50 Euros (or use appropriate symbol)
@end example

Ledger will examine the first use of any commodity to determine how
that commodity should be printed on reports.  It pays attention to
whether the name of commodity was separated from the amount, whether
it came before or after, the precision used in specifying the amount,
whether thousand marks were used, etc.  This is done so that printing
the commodity looks the same as the way you use it.

An account may contain multiple commodities, in which case it will
have separate totals for each.  For example, if your brokerage account
contains both cash, gold, and several stock quantities, the balance
might look like:

@smallexample
  $200.00
100.00 AU
  AAPL 40
 BORL 100
 FEQTX 50  Assets:Brokerage
@end smallexample

This balance report shows how much of each commodity is in your
brokerage account.

Sometimes, you will want to know the current street value of your
balance, and not the commodity totals.  For this to happen, you must
specify what the current price is for each commodity.  The price can
be any commodity, in which case the balance will be computed in terms
of that commodity.  The usual way to specify prices is with a price
history file, which might look like this:

@smallexample
P 2004/06/21 02:18:01 FEQTX $22.49
P 2004/06/21 02:18:01 BORL $6.20
P 2004/06/21 02:18:02 AAPL $32.91
P 2004/06/21 02:18:02 AU $400.00
@end smallexample

Specify the price history to use with the @option{--price-db} option,
with the @option{-V} option to report in terms of current market
value:

@example
ledger --price-db prices.db -V balance brokerage
@end example

The balance for your brokerage account will be reported in US dollars,
since the prices database uses that currency.

@smallexample
$40880.00  Assets:Brokerage
@end smallexample

You can convert from any commodity to any other commodity.  Let's say
you had $5000 in your checking account, and for whatever reason you
wanted to know many ounces of gold that would buy, in terms of the
current price of gold:

@example
ledger -T "@{1 AU@}*(O/P@{1 AU@})" balance checking
@end example

Although the total expression appears complex, it is simply saying
that the reported total should be in multiples of AU units, where the
quantity is the account total divided by the price of one AU.  Without
the initial multiplication, the reported total would still use the
dollars commodity, since multiplying or dividing amounts always keeps
the left value's commodity.  The result of this command might be:

@smallexample
14.01 AU  Assets:Checking
@end smallexample

@subsection Commodity price histories

Whenever a commodity is purchased using a different commodity (such as
a share of common stock using dollars), it establishes a price for
that commodity on that day.  It is also possible, by recording price
details in a ledger file, to specify other prices for commodities at
any given time.  Such price transactions might look like those below:

@smallexample
P 2004/06/21 02:17:58 TWCUX $27.76
P 2004/06/21 02:17:59 AGTHX $25.41
P 2004/06/21 02:18:00 OPTFX $39.31
P 2004/06/21 02:18:01 FEQTX $22.49
P 2004/06/21 02:18:02 AAPL $32.91
@end smallexample

By default, ledger will not consider commodity prices when generating
its various reports.  It will always report balances in terms of the
commodity total, rather than the current value of those commodities.
To enable pricing reports, use one of the commodity reporting options.

@subsection Commodity equivalencies

Sometimes a commodity has several forms which are all equivalent.  An
example of this is time.  Whether tracked in terms of minutes, hours
or days, it should be possible to convert between the various forms.
Doing this requires the use of commodity equivalencies.

For example, you might have the following two postings, one which
transfers an hour of time into a @samp{Billable} account, and another
which decreases the same account by ten minutes.  The resulting report
will indicate that fifty minutes remain:

@smallexample
2005/10/01 Work done for company
    Billable:Client                 1h
    Project:XYZ
    
2005/10/02 Return ten minutes to the project
    Project:XYZ                    10m
    Billable:Client
@end smallexample

Reporting the balance for this ledger file produces:

@smallexample
       50.0m  Billable:Client
      -50.0m  Project:XYZ
@end smallexample

This example works because ledger already knows how to handle seconds,
minutes and hours, as part of its time tracking support.  Defining
other equivalencies is simple.  The following is an example that
creates data equivalencies, helpful for tracking bytes, kilobytes,
megabytes, and more:

@smallexample
C 1.00 Kb = 1024 b
C 1.00 Mb = 1024 Kb
C 1.00 Gb = 1024 Mb
C 1.00 Tb = 1024 Gb
@end smallexample

Each of these definitions correlates a commodity (such as @samp{Kb})
and a default precision, with a certain quantity of another commodity.
In the above example, kilobytes are reporetd with two decimal places
of precision and each kilobyte is equal to 1024 bytes.

Equivalency chains can be as long as desired.  Whenever a commodity
would report as a decimal amount (less than @samp{1.00}), the next
smallest commodity is used.  If a commodity could be reported in terms
of a higher commodity without resulting to a partial fraction, then
the larger commodity is used.

@node Accounts and Inventories, Understanding Equity, Commodities and Currencies, Ledger in Practice
@section Accounts and Inventories

Since Ledger's accounts and commodity system is so flexible, you can
have accounts that don't really exist, and use commodities that no one
else recognizes.  For example, let's say you are buying and selling
various items in EverQuest, and want to keep track of them using a
ledger.  Just add items of whatever quantity you wish into your
EverQuest account:

@smallexample
9/29  Get some stuff at the Inn
    Places:Black's Tavern                   -3 Apples
    Places:Black's Tavern                   -5 Steaks
    EverQuest:Inventory
@end smallexample

Now your EverQuest:Inventory has 3 apples and 5 steaks in it.  The
amounts are negative, because you are taking @emph{from} Black's
Tavern in order to add to your Inventory account.  Note that you don't
have to use @samp{Places:Black's Tavern} as the source account.  You
could use @samp{EverQuest:System} to represent the fact that you
acquired them online.  The only purpose for choosing one kind of
source account over another is for generate more informative reports
later on.  The more you know, the better analysis you can perform.

If you later sell some of these items to another player, the transaction
would look like:

@smallexample
10/2  Sturm Brightblade
    EverQuest:Inventory                     -2 Steaks
    EverQuest:Inventory                     15 Gold
@end smallexample

Now you've turned 2 steaks into 15 gold, courtesy of your customer,
Sturm Brightblade.

@node Understanding Equity, Dealing with Petty Cash, Accounts and Inventories, Ledger in Practice
@section Understanding Equity

The most confusing transaction in any ledger will be your equity account---
because starting balances can't come out of nowhere.

When you first start your ledger, you will likely already have money
in some of your accounts.  Let's say there's $100 in your checking
account; then add a transaction to your ledger to reflect this amount.
Where will money come from?  The answer: your equity.

@smallexample
10/2  Opening Balance
    Assets:Checking                         $100.00
    Equity:Opening Balances
@end smallexample

But what is equity?  You may have heard of equity when people talked
about house mortgages, as ``the part of the house that you own''.
Basically, equity is like the value of something.  If you own a car
worth $5000, then you have $5000 in equity in that car.  In order to
turn that car (a commodity) into a cash flow, or a credit to your bank
account, you will have to debit the equity by selling it.

When you start a ledger, you are probably already worth something.
Your net worth is your current equity.  By transferring the money in
the ledger from your equity to your bank accounts, you are crediting
the ledger account based on your prior equity.  That is why, when you
look at the balance report, you will see a large negative number for
Equity that never changes: Because that is what you were worth (what
you debited from yourself in order to start the ledger) before the
money started moving around.  If the total positive value of your
assets is greater than the absolute value of your starting equity, it
means you are making money.

Clear as mud?  Keep thinking about it.  Until you figure it out, put
@samp{-Equity} at the end of your balance command, to remove the
confusing figure from the total.

@node Dealing with Petty Cash, Working with multiple funds and accounts, Understanding Equity, Ledger in Practice
@section Dealing with Petty Cash

Something that stops many people from keeping a ledger at all is the
insanity of tracking small cash expenses.  They rarely generate a
receipt, and there are often a lot of small postings, rather than
a few large ones, as with checks.

One solution is: don't bother.  Move your spending to a debit card,
but in general ignore cash.  Once you withdraw it from the ATM, mark
it as already spent to an @samp{Expenses:Cash} category:

@smallexample
2004/03/15 ATM
    Expenses:Cash                      $100.00
    Assets:Checking
@end smallexample

If at some point you make a large cash expense that you want to track,
just ``move'' the amount of the expense from @samp{Expenses:Cash} into
the target account:

@smallexample
2004/03/20 Somebody
    Expenses:Food                       $65.00
    Expenses:Cash
@end smallexample

This way, you can still track large cash expenses, while ignoring all
of the smaller ones.

@node Working with multiple funds and accounts, Archiving previous years, Dealing with Petty Cash, Ledger in Practice
@section Working with multiple funds and accounts

There are situations when the accounts you're tracking are different
between your clients and the financial institutions where money is
kept.  An example of this is working as the treasurer for a religious
institution.  From the secular point of view, you might be working
with three different accounts:

@itemize
@item Checking
@item Savings
@item Credit Card
@end itemize

From a religious point of view, the community expects to divide its
resources into multiple ``funds'', from which it makes purchases or
reserves resources for later:

@itemize
@item School fund
@item Building fund
@item Community fund
@end itemize

The problem with this kind of setup is that when you spend money, it
comes from two or more places at once: the account and the fund.  And
yet, the correlation of amounts between funds and accounts is rarely
one-to-one.  What if the school fund has @samp{$500.00}, but
@samp{$400.00} of that comes from Checking, and @samp{$100.00} from
Savings?

Traditional finance packages require that the money reside in only one
place.  But there are really two ``views'' of the data: from the
account point of view and from the fund point of view -- yet both sets
should reflect the same overall expenses and cash flow.  It's simply
where the money resides that differs.

This situation can be handled one of two ways.  The first is using
virtual postings to represent the fact that money is moving to and
from two kind of accounts at the same time:

@smallexample
2004/03/20 Contributions
    Assets:Checking                    $500.00
    Income:Donations

2004/03/25 Distribution of donations
    [Funds:School]                     $300.00
    [Funds:Building]                   $200.00
    [Assets:Checking]                 $-500.00
@end smallexample

The use of square brackets in the second transaction ensures that the
virtual postings balance to zero.  Now money can be spent directly
from a fund at the same time as money is drawn from a physical
account:

@smallexample
2004/03/25 Payment for books (paid from Checking)
    Expenses:Books                    $100.00
    Assets:Checking                  $-100.00
    (Funds:School)                   $-100.00
@end smallexample

When reports are generated, by default they'll appear in terms of the
funds.  In this case, you will likely want to mask out your
@samp{Assets} account, because otherwise the balance won't make much
sense:

@example
ledger bal -^Assets
@end example

If the @option{--real} option is used, the report will be in terms of
the real accounts:

@example
ledger --real bal
@end example

If more asset accounts are needed as the source of a posting, just
list them as you would normally, for example:

@smallexample
2004/03/25 Payment for books (paid from Checking)
    Expenses:Books                    $100.00
    Assets:Checking                   $-50.00
    Liabilities:Credit Card           $-50.00
    (Funds:School)                   $-100.00
@end smallexample

The second way of tracking funds is to use transaction codes.  In this
respect the codes become like virtual accounts that embrace the entire
set of postings.  Basically, we are associating a transaction with a
fund by setting its code.  Here are two transactions that desposit money
into, and spend money from, the @samp{Funds:School} fund:

@smallexample
2004/03/25 (Funds:School) Donations
    Assets:Checking                   $100.00
    Income:Donations

2004/04/25 (Funds:School) Payment for books
    Expenses:Books                     $50.00
    Assets:Checking
@end smallexample

Note how the accounts now relate only to the real accounts, and any
balance or registers reports will reflect this.  That the transactions
relate to a particular fund is kept only in the code.

How does this become a fund report?  By using the
@option{--code-as-payee} option, you can generate a register report
where the payee for each posting shows the code.  Alone, this is
not terribly interesting; but when combined with the
@option{--by-payee} option, you will now see account subtotals for any
postings related to a specific fund.  So, to see the current
monetary balances of all funds, the command would be:

@smallexample
ledger --code-as-payee -P reg ^Assets
@end smallexample

Or to see a particular funds expenses, the @samp{School} fund in this
case:

@smallexample
ledger --code-as-payee -P reg ^Expenses -- School
@end smallexample

Both approaches yield different kinds of flexibility, depending on how
you prefer to think of your funds: as virtual accounts, or as tags
associated with particular transactions.  Your own tastes will decide which
is best for your situation.

@node Archiving previous years, Virtual postings, Working with multiple funds and accounts, Ledger in Practice
@section Archiving previous years

After a while, your ledger can get to be pretty large.  While this
will not slow down the ledger program much---it's designed to process
ledger files very quickly---things can start to feel ``messy''; and
it's a universal complaint that when finances feel messy, people avoid
them.

Thus, archiving the data from previous years into their own files can
offer a sense of completion, and freedom from the past.  But how to
best accomplish this with the ledger program?  There are two commands
that make it very simple: @command{print}, and @command{equity}.

Let's take an example file, with data ranging from year 2000 until
2004.  We want to archive years 2000 and 2001 to their own file,
leaving just 2003 and 2004 in the current file.  So, use
@command{print} to output all the earlier transactions to a file called
@file{ledger-old.dat}:

@smallexample
ledger -f ledger.dat -b 2000 -e 2001 print > ledger-old.dat
@end smallexample

To delete older data from the current ledger file, use @command{print}
again, this time specifying year 2002 as the starting date:

@example
ledger -f ledger.dat -b 2002 print > x
mv x ledger.dat
@end example

However, now the current file contains @emph{only} postings from
2002 onward, which will not yield accurate present-day balances,
because the net income from previous years is no longer being tallied.
To compensate for this, we must append an equity report for the old
ledger at the beginning of the new one:

@example
ledger -f ledger-old.dat equity > equity.dat
cat equity.dat ledger.dat > x
mv x ledger.dat
rm equity.dat
@end example

Now the balances reported from @file{ledger.dat} are identical to what
they were before the data was split.

How often should you split your ledger?  You never need to, if you
don't want to.  Even eighty years of data will not slow down ledger
much---and that's just using present day hardware!  Or, you can keep
the previous and current year in one file, and each year before that
in its own file.  It's really up to you, and how you want to organize
your finances.  For those who also keep an accurate paper trail, it
might be useful to archive the older years to their own files, then
burn those files to a CD to keep with the paper records---along with
any electronic statements received during the year.  In the arena of
organization, just keep in mind this maxim: Do whatever keeps you
doing it.

@node Virtual postings, Automated postings, Archiving previous years, Ledger in Practice
@section Virtual postings

A virtual posting is when you, in your mind, see money as moving
to a certain place, when in reality that money has not moved at all.
There are several scenarios in which this type of tracking comes in
handy, and each of them will be discussed in detail.

To enter a virtual posting, surround the account name in
parentheses.  This form of usage does not need to balance.  However,
if you want to ensure the virtual posting balances with other
virtual postings in the same transaction, use square brackets.  For
example:

@smallexample
10/2 Paycheck
    Assets:Checking                        $1000.00
    Income:Salary                         $-1000.00
    (Debt:Alimony)                          $200.00
@end smallexample

In this example, after receiving a paycheck an alimony debt is
increased---even though no money has moved around yet.

@smallexample
10/2  Paycheck
    Assets:Checking                        $1000.00
    Income:Salary                         $-1000.00
    [Savings:Trip]                          $200.00
    [Assets:Checking]                      $-200.00
@end smallexample

In this example, $200 has been deducted from checking toward savings
for a trip.  It will appear as though the money has been moved from
the account into @samp{Savings:Trip}, although no money has actually
moved anywhere.

When balances are displayed, virtual postings will be factored in.
To view balances without any virtual balances factored in, using the
@option{-R} flag, for ``reality''.

@node Automated postings, Using Emacs to Keep Your Ledger, Virtual postings, Ledger in Practice
@section Automated postings

As a Bahá'í, I need to compute Huqúqu'lláh whenever I acquire assets.
It is similar to tithing for Jews and Christians, or to Zakát for
Muslims.  The epost details of computing Huqúqu'lláh are somewhat
complex, but if you have further interest, please consult the Web.

Ledger makes this otherwise difficult law very easy.  Just set up an
automated posting at the top of your ledger file:

@smallexample
; This automated transaction will compute Huqúqu'lláh based on this
; journal's postings.  Any that match will affect the
; Liabilities:Huququ'llah account by 19% of the value of that
; posting.

= /^(?:Income:|Expenses:(?:Business|Rent$|Furnishings|Taxes|Insurance))/
  (Liabilities:Huququ'llah)               0.19
@end smallexample

This automated posting works by looking at each posting in the
ledger file.  If any match the given value expression, 19% of the
posting's value is applied to the @samp{Liabilities:Huququ'llah}
account.  So, if $1000 is earned from @samp{Income:Salary}, $190 is
added to @samp{Liabilities:Huqúqu'lláh}; if $1000 is spent on Rent,
$190 is subtracted.  The ultimate balance of Huqúqu'lláh reflects how
much is owed in order to fulfill one's obligation to Huqúqu'lláh.
When ready to pay, just write a check to cover the amount shown in
@samp{Liabilities:Huququ'llah}.  That transaction would look like:

@smallexample
2003/01/01 (101) Baha'i Huqúqu'lláh Trust
    Liabilities:Huququ'llah          $1,000.00
    Assets:Checking
@end smallexample

That's it.  To see how much Huqúq is currently owed based on your
ledger transactions, use:

@example
ledger balance Liabilities:Huquq
@end example

This works fine, but omits one aspect of the law: that Huquq is only
due once the liability exceeds the value of 19 mithqáls of gold (which
is roughly 2.22 ounces).  So what we want is for the liability to
appear in the balance report only when it exceeds the present day
value of 2.22 ounces of gold.  This can be accomplished using the
command:

@smallexample
ledger -Q -t "/Liab.*Huquq/?(a/P@{2.22 AU@}<=@{-1.0@}&a):a" -s bal liab
@end smallexample

With this command, the current price for gold is downloaded, and the
Huqúqu'lláh is reported only if its value exceeds that of 2.22 ounces
of gold.  If you wish the liability to be reflected in the parent
subtotal either way, use this instead:

@smallexample
ledger -Q -T "/Liab.*Huquq/?(O/P@{2.22 AU@}<=@{-1.0@}&O):O" -s bal liab
@end smallexample

In some cases, you may wish to refer to the account of whichever
posting matched your automated transaction's value expression.  To do
this, use the special account name @samp{$account}:

@smallexample
= /^Some:Long:Account:Name/
  [$account]  -0.10
  [Savings]    0.10
@end smallexample

This example causes 10% of the matching account's total to be deferred
to the @samp{Savings} account---as a balanced virtual posting,
which may be excluded from reports by using @option{--real}.

@node Using Emacs to Keep Your Ledger, Using GnuCash to Keep Your Ledger, Automated postings, Ledger in Practice
@section Using Emacs to Keep Your Ledger

In the Ledger tarball is an Emacs module, @file{ledger.el}.  This
module makes the process of keeping a text ledger much easier for
Emacs users.  I recommend putting this at the top of your ledger file:

@example
; -*-ledger-*-
@end example

And this in your @file{.emacs} file, after copying @file{ledger.el} to
your @file{site-lisp} directory:

@example
(load "ledger")
@end example

Now when you edit your ledger file, it will be in
@command{ledger-mode}.  @command{ledger-mode} adds these commands:

@table @strong
@item C-c C-a
For quickly adding new transactions based on the form of older ones (see
previous section).

@item C-c C-c
Toggles the ``cleared'' flag of the posting under point.

@item C-c C-d
Delete the transaction under point.

@item C-c C-r
Reconciles an account by displaying the postings in another
buffer, where simply hitting the spacebar will toggle the pending flag
of the posting in the ledger.  Once all the appropriate
postings have been marked, press C-c C-c in the reconcile buffer
to ``commit'' the reconciliation, which will mark all of the transactions
as cleared, and display the new cleared balance in the minibuffer.

@item C-c C-m
Set the default month for new transactions added with C-c C-a.  This is
handy if you have a large number of postings to enter from a
previous month.

@item C-c C-y
Set the default year for new transactions added with C-c C-a.  This is
handy if you have a large number of postings to enter from a
previous year.
@end table

Once you enter the reconcile buffer, there are several key commands
available:

@table @strong
@item RET
Visit the ledger file transaction corresponding to the reconcile transaction.

@item C-c C-c
Commit the reconcialation.  This marks all of the marked postings
as ``cleared'', saves the ledger file, and then displays the new
cleared balance.

@item C-l
Refresh the reconcile buffer by re-reading postings from the
ledger data file.

@item SPC
Toggle the posting under point as cleared.

@item a
Add a new transaction to the ledger data file, and refresh the reconcile
buffer to include its postings (if the transaction is added to the same
account as the one being reconciled).

@item d
Delete the transaction related to the posting under point.  Note: This
may result in multiple postings being deleted.

@item n
Move to the next line.

@item p
Move to the previous line.

@item C-c C-r
@item r
Attempt to auto-reconcile the postings to the entered balance.  If
it can do so, it will mark all those postings as pending that
would yield the specified balance.

@item C-x C-s
@item s
Save the ledger data file, and show the current cleared balance for
the account being reconciled.

@item q
Quit the reconcile buffer.
@end table

There is also an @command{emacs} command which can be used to output
reports in a format directly @code{read}-able from Emacs Lisp.

@node Using GnuCash to Keep Your Ledger, Using timeclock to record billable time, Using Emacs to Keep Your Ledger, Ledger in Practice
@section Using GnuCash to Keep Your Ledger

The Ledger tool is fast and simple, but it offers no custom method for
actually editing the ledger.  It assumes you know how to use a text
editor, and like doing so.  There is, at least, an Emacs mode that
makes editing Ledger's data files much easier.

You are also free to use GnuCash to maintain your ledger, and the
Ledger program for querying and reporting on the contents of that
ledger.  It takes a little longer to parse the XML data format that
GnuCash uses, but the end result is identical.

Then again, why would anyone use a Gnome-centric, multi-megabyte
behemoth to edit their data, and only a one megabyte binary to query
it?

@node Using timeclock to record billable time, Using XML, Using GnuCash to Keep Your Ledger, Ledger in Practice
@section Using timeclock to record billable time

The timeclock tool makes it easy to track time events, like clocking
into and out of a particular job.  These events accumulate in a
timelog file.

Each in/out event may have an optional description.  If the ``in''
description is a ledger account name, these in/out pairs may be viewed
as virtual postings, adding time commodities (hours) to that
account.

For example, the command-line version of the timeclock tool could be
used to begin a timelog file like:

@example
export TIMELOG=$HOME/.timelog
ti ClientOne category
sleep 10
to waited for ten seconds
@end example

The @file{.timelog} file now contains:

@smallexample
i 2004/10/06 15:21:00 ClientOne  category
o 2004/10/06 15:21:10 waited for ten seconds
@end smallexample

Ledger parses this directly, as if it had seen the following transaction:

@smallexample
2004/10/06 category
    (ClientOne)      10s
@end smallexample

In other words, the timelog event pair is seen as adding 0.00277h (ten
seconds) worth of time to the @samp{ClientOne} account.  This would be
considered billable time, which later could be invoiced and credited
to accounts receivable:

@smallexample
2004/11/01 (INV#1) ClientOne, Inc.
    Receivable:ClientOne       $0.10
    ClientOne              -0.00277h @@ $35.00
@end smallexample

The above posting converts the clocked time into an invoice for
the time spent, at an hourly rate of $35.  Once the invoice is paid,
the money is deposited from the receivable account into a checking
account:

@smallexample
2004/12/01 ClientOne, Inc.
    Assets:Checking            $0.10
    Receivable:ClientOne
@end smallexample

And now the time spent has been turned into hard cash in the checking
account.

The advantage to using timeclock and invoicing to bill time is that
you will always know, by looking at the balance report, epostly how
much unbilled and unpaid time you've spent working for any particular
client.

I like to @samp{!include} my timelog at the top of my company's
accounting ledger, with the attached prefix @samp{Billable}:

@smallexample
; -*-ledger-*-

; This is the ledger file for my company.  But first, include the
; timelog data, entering all of the time events within the umbrella
; account "Billable".

!account Billable
!include /home/johnw/.timelog
!end

; Here follows this fiscal year's postings for the company.

2004/11/01 (INV#1) ClientOne, Inc.
    Receivable:ClientOne           $0.10
    Billable:ClientOne         -0.00277h @@ $35.00

2004/12/01 ClientOne, Inc.
    Assets:Checking                $0.10
    Receivable:ClientOne
@end smallexample

@node Using XML,  , Using timeclock to record billable time, Ledger in Practice
@section Using XML

By default, Ledger uses a human-readable data format, and displays its
reports in a manner meant to be read on screen.  For the purpose of
writing tools which use Ledger, however, it is possible to read and
display data using XML.  This section documents that format.

The general format used for Ledger data is:

@smallexample
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<ledger>
  <xact>...</xact>
  <xact>...</xact>
  <xact>...</xact>...
</ledger>
@end smallexample

The data stream is enclosed in a @samp{ledger} tag, which contains a
series of one or more transactions.  Each @samp{xact} describes the transaction
and contains a series of one or more postings:

@smallexample
<xact>
  <en:date>2004/03/01</en:date>
  <en:cleared/>
  <en:code>100</en:code>
  <en:payee>John Wiegley</en:payee>
  <en:postings>
    <posting>...</posting>
    <posting>...</posting>
    <posting>...</posting>...
  </en:postings>
</xact>
@end smallexample

The date format for @samp{en:date} is always @samp{YYYY/MM/DD}.  The
@samp{en:cleared} tag is optional, and indicates whether the
posting has been cleared or not.  There is also an
@samp{en:pending} tag, for marking pending postings.  The
@samp{en:code} and @samp{en:payee} tags both contain whatever text the
user wishes.

After the initial transaction data, there must follow a set of postings
marked with @samp{en:postings}.  Typically these postings will
all balance each other, but if not they will be automatically balanced
into an account named @samp{<Unknown>}.

Within the @samp{en:postings} tag is a series of one or more
@samp{posting}'s, which have the following form:

@smallexample
<posting>
  <tr:account>Expenses:Computer:Hardware</tr:account>
  <tr:amount>
    <value type="amount">
      <amount>
        <commodity flags="PT">$</commodity>
        <quantity>90.00</quantity>
      </amount>
    </value>
  </tr:amount>
</posting>
@end smallexample

This is a basic posting.  It may also be begin with
@samp{tr:virtual} and/or @samp{tr:generated} tags, to indicate virtual
and auto-generated postings.  Then follows the @samp{tr:account}
tag, which contains the full name of the account the posting is
related to.  Colons separate parent from child in an account name.

Lastly follows the amount of the posting, indicated by
@samp{tr:amount}.  Within this tag is a @samp{value} tag, of which
there are four different kinds, each with its own format:

@enumerate
@item boolean
@item integer
@item amount
@item balance
@end enumerate

The format of a boolean value is @samp{true} or @samp{false}
surrounded by a @samp{boolean} tag, for example:

@smallexample
<boolean>true</boolean>
@end smallexample

The format of an integer value is the numerical value surrounded by an
@samp{integer} tag, for example:

@smallexample
<integer>12036</integer>
@end smallexample

The format of an amount contains two members, the commodity and the
quantity.  The commodity can have a set of flags that indicate how to
display it.  The meaning of the flags (all of which are optional) are:

@table @strong
@item P
The commodity is prefixed to the value.
@item S
The commodity is separated from the value by a space.
@item T
Thousands markers are used to display the amount.
@item E
The format of the amount is European, with period used as a thousands
marker, and comma used as the decimal point.
@end table

The actual quantity for an amount is an integer of arbitrary size.
Ledger uses the GNU multi-precision math library to handle such
values.  The XML format assumes the reader to be equally capable.
Here is an example amount:

@smallexample
<value type="amount">
  <amount>
    <commodity flags="PT">$</commodity>
    <quantity>90.00</quantity>
  </amount>
</value>
@end smallexample

Lastly, a balance value contains a series of amounts, each with a
different commodity.  Unlike the name, such a value does need to
balance.  It is called a balance because it sums several amounts.  For
example:

@smallexample
<value type="balance">
  <balance>
    <amount>
      <commodity flags="PT">$</commodity>
      <quantity>90.00</quantity>
    </amount>
    <amount>
      <commodity flags="TE">DM</commodity>
      <quantity>200.00</quantity>
    </amount>
  </balance>
</value>
@end smallexample

That is the extent of the XML data format used by Ledger.  It will
output such data if the @command{xml} command is used, and can read
the same data.

@chapter Anatomy of a journal file

Everything begins with a journal file---the anatomy of which is covered
in detail in chapter one.  To review: a @emph{journal} contains one or
more @emph{transactions}, each of which refers to two or more
@emph{postings}.  A @emph{posting} specifies that a given
@emph{amount} is added to, or subtracted from, an @emph{account}.
(@emph{Accounts} may be nested hierarchically by separating the elements
using a colon).  Lastly, an @emph{amount} is a figure representing a
given @emph{quantity} of a @emph{commodity}.  Here follows a review of
these terms, which are all used extensively throughout this chapter:

@table @emph
@item journal
A journal is a data file containing a series of transactions.

@item transaction
a transaction relates a group of two or more postings, with the absolute
constraint that the total sum of a transaction's postings must equal
zero.  That is, every transaction in a journal must @emph{balance} to zero.

@item posting
Postings record how commodities are moved between accounts.  If you
spent money on a movie ticket, for example, such a transaction would have two
postings: One to show how the money was taken from your wallet, and
another to show how it was applied to your movie expenses.

@item account
An account 

@item amount

@item quantity

@item commodity
@end table

@chapter Example accounting practices

@chapter Generating useful reports

Once you have a journal file representing a recent history of your
finances, the next step is to generate reports in order to give richer
meaning to this data.  For example: Where do you spend your money?  Do
you have enough to cover upcoming expenses?  Are you creating or losing
net worth?  Are your investment performing well?  All of these questions
can be answered easily with Ledger---if you know how to ask them.

Preparing complex reports is not a simple task, but neither is it a
difficult one.  All that's required is a proper understanding of how
Ledger views your data, and how it prepares it for reporting.

After Ledger reads a journal file, it creates an in-memory
representation reflecting the order and composition of those transactions.

@chapter Value expressions

@chapter Format strings

@chapter Extensions in Python

@chapter The design of Ledger

The following sections discuss how Ledger is architected, from the
ground up, and will show how to use the various parts of the Ledger
library from your own scripts.  Ledger essentially follows five steps in
reporting data to the user:

@enumerate
@item Parse journal file into an internal representation
@item Perform any implied math within the journal file
@item ``Face'' this internal representation as a virtual document
@item Apply a series of transforms to the virtual document
@item Display the virtual document using a formatting command
@end enumerate

The calculations in step two are specified by the user, such as when a
posting's value might contain mathematical operators.  The
calculations in step four are implied in the transformations, for
example when the @option{--average} option is used.

At the core, however, Ledger is basically a sophisticated calculator
with special knowledge about commoditized values.  It knows what you
mean if you add ten dollars to twenty euros, and later ask for the
balance of that particular account.  So it follows that first we must
discuss how Ledger deals with math, and from there move on to describing
how the steps above are achieved.

@section Numerics

@subsection Basic amounts

The most fundamental type in Ledger is the amount, which may or may
not have a commodity attached to it.  First, we'll deal with the bare
case, just to show how the amount type works.  In C++, most all of
Ledger's internal types end in @code{_t}; in Python, the same type
name is used, but the @code{_t} suffix is dropped.  Examples of usage
in both languages will be presented throughout.



amount_t
commodity_t
updater_t
datetime_t
balance_t
balance_pair_t
value_t
valexpr_t
format_t
mask_t

@section Journal Representation

journal_t
account_t
xact_t
post_t
parser_t

@section Reporting

@section Terminal Interface

@section General Utility

@bye