cheatsheets/ledger.md

---
title: Ledger CLI
layout: default
---

### Queries

    # any/all matches
      ledger bal Rent Transportation  # any
      ledger bal Income and Job       # all
      ledger bal Expenses and not (Drinks or Food)

    # what did I spend on most? (--sorted)
      ledger reg Expenses -S amount

    # how much do I have now?
      ledger bal ^Assets ^Liabilities

    # how much did I have at this date? (--end)
      ledger bal -e 01/15 ^Assets ^Liabilities

    # how much did I spend and earn this month?
      ledger bal ^Expenses ^Income --invert

    # what did I spend my Mastercard on? (--period, --begin, --end)
    # ..list transactions in account "Mastercard" for this date.
      ledger reg mastercard
      ledger reg mastercard -p "january"
      ledger reg mastercard -b 01/25 -e 01/31

    # what did I do yesterday?
    # ..list transactions on this day
      ledger reg -p 01/26

    # how much was spent on Expenses:Grocery?
      ledger reg grocery
      ledger reg grocery --weekly
      ledger reg grocery --monthly

    # how much was spent over the course of 3 days? (totalled)
      ledger reg -b 01/25 -e 01/27 --subtotal
      ledger reg -b 01/25 -e 01/27 --subtotal grocery

### Format

    2013/01/03 * Rent for January
      Expenses:Rent   $600.00
      Assets:Savings

    * = cleared
    ! = pending

### Secondary dates

   2008/01/01=2008/01/14 Client invoice  ;  estimated date you'll be paid

### Balance assertions

   2008/01/01 * KFC
     Expenses:Food  $20
     Assets:Cash   $-20  = $500 ; ensures cash is at $500

### Balance assignment

   2008/01/01 * Cash balance
     Assets:Cash   = $500
     Equity:Adjustments

   2008/01/01 * KFC
     Expenses:Food  $20
     Assets:Cash   = $500 ; figures out what's needed to make it $500

### Payables

    2008/04/25 * Rent
      (Assets:Checking)  -$200
      Expenses:Rent

### Commodities

    ; cost per item
    2010/05/31 * Market
      Assets:Fridge                35 apples @ $0.42
      Assets:Cash

    ; total cost
    2010/05/31 * Market
      Assets:Fridge                35 apples @@ $14.70
      Assets:Cash

    ; fixed lot prices
    2010/05/31 * Gas
      Expenses:Gasoline             11 GAL {=$2.299}


### Budgeting

    ~ Monthly
      Expenses:Rent  $500
      Expenses:Food  $100
      Expenses        $40 ; everything else
      Assets

    ~ Yearly

    ; ledger bal --budget Expenses
    ; ledger bal --unbudgeted Expenses

### Comments

   ; line comment
   # also line comment
   % also line comment
   | also line comment
   * also line comment

CLI interface
-------------

### Examples

    $ ledger bal         # show balance
    $ ledger reg grocery # show entries for grocery
    $ ledger print       # show entries

    $ ledger bal assets  # check if im broke

      $2000 Assets
      $1400   Savings
       $600   Cash

    $ ledger bal -b 2013/01/01 -e 2013/01/31

### Periods

    [interval] [begin] [end]

    interval:
      every day|week|month|quarter|year
      every N days|weeks|...
      daily|weekly|...
    begin:
      from <spec>
    end:
      to <spec>
    spec:
      2004
      2004/10/1

    $ ledger bal|reg --period "until aug"
    $ ledger bal|reg --period "last oct"
    $ ledger bal|reg --period "every week"

### Register

    $ ledger reg
      -D, --daily
      -W, --weekly
      -M, --monthly
      --quarterly
      -Y, --yearly
      -s, --subtotal
      --start-of-week monday

      -S, --sort date
      -S, --sort amount

### Filters

    -b, --begin DATE
    -e, --end DATE

    -d EXPR          # only transactions matching EXPR (`-d payee =~ /pioneer/`)

    -C, --cleared    # only cleared transactions (with *)
    -U, --uncleared  # only uncleared (no *)
        --pending    # only pending (with !)

    -R, --real       # ignore virtual postings (eg: "(Cash)  $-400")
    -L, --actual     # no automated postings (eg: "= /^Income/")

        --aux-date   # use aux dates as if it were the primary dates

    -r, --related   # show the other side
                    # "reg -r savings" shows where it comes from)

### Display

    -n, --collapse       # [register] collapse entries
                         # [balance] no grand total
    -s, --subtotal       # [balance] show sub-accounts
                         # [other] show subtotals
    --flat

### Effective dates

Say you're in business. If you bill a customer, you can enter something like

     2008/01/01=2008/01/14 Client invoice  ;  estimated date you'll be paid
         Assets:Accounts Receivable            $100.00
         Income: Client name

Then, when you receive the payment, you change it to

     2008/01/01=2008/01/15 Client invoice ;  actual date money received
         Assets:Accounts Receivable            $100.00
         Income: Client name

### CSV format

    date,        ?,  desc,    account,      currency, amt, pending/cleared, ?
    "2013/09/02","","things", "Assets:Cash","P","-2000","*",""
    "2013/09/02","","things", "Liabilities:Card","P","-200","*",""
    "2013/09/02","","things", "Expenses:Things","P","2200","*",""
    "2013/09/04","","stuff",  "Assets:Cash","P","-20","*",""
    "2013/09/04","","stuff",  "Expneses:Others","P","20","*",""

### Commodity

    commodity $
             note American Dollars
             format $1,000.00
             nomarket
             default

### See

 * http://ledger-cli.org/3.0/doc/ledger3.html
 * https://gist.github.com/agaviria/3317397