Copyright © 2013, Craig Earls.  All rights reserved.

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Overview
********

Ledger is a command line accounting tool that provides double-entry accounting based on a text journal.  It provides no bells or whistles, and returns the user to the days before user interfaces were even a 1twinkling in their father's CRT.

Ledger-mode assists you in maintaining input files for Ledger, running reports and much more...

Introduction to Ledger-mode
***************************

Quick Installation
==================

The Emacs lisp source for Ledger-mode is included with the source distribution of Ledger.  It is entirely included in the lisp subdirectory. To use Ledger-mode, include the following in your Emacs initialization file (~/.emacs, ~/.emacs.d/init.el, or ~/.Aquamacs/Preferences.el).

     (add-to-list 'load-path
                  (expand-file-name "/path/to/ledger/source/lisp/"))
     (load "ledger-mode")
     (add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.ledger$" . ledger-mode))

This sets up Emacs to automatically recognize files that end with .ledger and start Ledger-mode.  Nothing else should be required as long as the ledger command line utility is properly installed.

Menus
=====

The vast majority of Ledger-mode functionality is available from the Emacs menu system.  The keystrokes are shown in the menu to help you learn the faster keyboard methods.

Quick Demo
==========

Load the demo file demo.ledger from the Ledger source test/input directory.  The ledger will be loaded and font highlighted.  At this point you could manually edit transactions and run Ledger from a convenient command line.

Quick Add
---------

As simple as the Ledger transaction format is, it can still be daunting to add many transactions manually.  Ledger provides two way to add transactions with minimal typing. Both are based on the idea that most transactions are repetitions of earlier transactions.

In the demo.ledger buffer enter a date using the correct format. Then type the first few characters of another payee in the demo.ledger buffer.  Type C-c TAB.  Ledger-mode will search for a Payee that has the same beginning and copy the rest of the transaction to you new entry.

Additionally you can use the ledger xact command, by either typing C-c C-a or using Add Transaction menu entry. Then typing a close match to the payee. Ledger-mode will call ledger xact with the data you enter and place the transaction in the proper chronological place in the ledger.

Reconciliation
--------------

The biggest task of maintaining a ledger is ensuring that it matches the outside world.  This process is called reconciliation (see Basics of Reconciliation) and can be quite onerous.  Ledger-mode attempts to make it as painless as possible.

In the demo.ledger buffer type C-c C-r.  Emacs will prompt for an account to reconcile in the Minibuffer.  Enter Checking. Emacs will then prompt for a target value.  The target value is the amount you want the cleared transactions in the buffer to total. Normally this would be the ending value from your bank statement, or the latest value in your on-line transaction summary.  Enter 1710. Note that Ledger-mode assumes your are using $ (USD) as your default commodity, this can be easily changed in the customization variables. See Ledger-mode Customization.

You now see a list of uncleared transactions in a buffer below the demo.ledger buffer.  Touching the SPC bar will mark a transaction as pending and display the current cleared (and pending) balance, along with the difference remaining to meet your target. Clear the first three transactions, and you will see the difference to target reach $0.  End the reconciliation by typing C-c C-c.  This saves the demo.ledger buffer and marks the transactions and finally cleared.  Type q to close out the reconciliation buffer.

Reports
-------

The real power of Ledger is in it reporting capabilities.  Reports can be run and displayed in a separate Emacs buffer.  In the demo.ledger buffer, type C-c C-o C-r.  In the Minibuffer Emacs will prompt for a report name.  There are a few built-in reports, and you can add any report you need see Adding and Editing Reports.

In the Minibuffer type account.  When prompted for an account type checking.  In another buffer you will see a Ledger register report. You can move around the buffer, with the point on a transaction, type C-c C-c.  Ledger-mode will take you directly to that transaction in the demo.ledger buffer.

Another built-in report is the balance report.  In the demo.ledger buffer, type C-c C-o C-r.  When prompted for a report to run, type bal, and a balance report of all accounts will be shown.

Narrowing
---------

A ledger file can get very large.  It can be helpful to collapse the buffer to display only the transactions you are interested in. Ledger-mode copies the occur mode functionality.  Typing C-c C-f and entering any regex in the Minibuffer will show only transactions that match the regex.  The regex can be on any field, or amount.

The Ledger Buffer
*****************

Adding Transactions
===================

Beyond the two ways of quickly adding transactions (see Quick Add) Ledger-mode assists you by providing robust TAB completion for payees and accounts.  Ledger-mode will scan the existing buffer for payees and accounts. Included files are not currently included in the completion scan. Repeatedly hitting TAB will cycle through the possible completions.

Ledger-mode can also help you keep your amounts in alignment.  Setting ledger-post-auto-adjust-amounts to true tells Ledger-mode to automatically place any amounts such that their last digit is aligned to the column specified by ledger-post-amount-alignment-column, which defaults to 52. See Ledger Post Customization Group.

Quick Balance Display
---------------------

You will often want to quickly check the balance of an account.  The easiest way it to position point on the account you are interested in, and type C-c C-p.  The Minibuffer will ask you to verify the name of the account you want, if it is already correct hit RET, then the balance of the account will be displayed in the Minibuffer.

Copying Transactions
====================

An easy way to copy a transaction is to type C-c C-k or menu entry Copy Trans at Point. You will be prompted the new date for the copied transaction, and after having confirmed with RET, new transaction will be inserted at date position in buffer.

Editing Amounts
===============

GNU Emacs Calculator, aka Calc, is a very powerful Reverse Polish Notation calculator built into all recent version of Emacs.  Ledger-mode makes it easy to calculate values for amount by integrating Calc. With the point anywhere in the same line as a posting, typing C-c C-b will bring up the Calc buffer, and push the current amount for the posting onto the top of the Calc stack. Perform any calculations you need to arrive at the final value, then type y to yank the value at the top of stack back into the ledger buffer.  Note: Calc does not directly support commas as decimal separators.  Ledger-mode will translate values from decimal-comma format to decimal-period format for use in Calc, but it cannot intercept the value being yanked form the Calc stack, so decimal-comma users will have to manually replace the period with a comma.

Marking Transactions
====================

Ledger considers transaction or posting to be in one of three states: uncleared, cleared, and pending.  For calculation Ledger ignores these states unless specifically instructed to use them.  Ledger-mode assigns some additional meaning to the states:

  * Uncleared. No state.  This is equivalent to sticking a check in the mail.  It has been obligated, but not been cashed by the recipient.  It could also apply to credit/debit card transactions that have not been cleared into your account balance.  You bank may call these transactions ``pending'', but Ledger-mode uses a slightly different meaning.

  * Pending. Ledger-mode's reconciliation function see pending transactions as an intermediate step in reconciling an account.  When doing a reconciliation (see Reconciliation), marking a transaction as pending means that you have seen the transaction finally recorded by the recipient, but you have not completely reconciled the account.

  * Cleared. The transaction has been completely recognized by all parties to the transaction.

Clearing complete transactions is done by typing C-c C-e with point in a transaction.  This places an asterisk * after the date.  Clearing individual postings is done by typing C-c C-c while in a posting. This places an asterisk prior to the posting.

Deleting Transactions
=====================

Along with normal buffer editing methods to delete text, Ledger-mode provides an easy way to delete the transaction under point: C-c C-d.  The advantage to using this method is that the complete transaction operation is in the undo buffer.

Sorting Transactions
====================

As you operating on the Ledger files, they may become disorganized.  For the most part, Ledger doesn't care, but our human brains prefer a bit of order.  Sorting the transactions in a buffer into chronological order can help bring order to chaos.  Either using Sort Region menu entry or typing C-c C-s will sort all of the transactions in a region by date.  Ledger-mode isn't particularly smart about handling dates and it simply sorts the transactions using the string at the beginning of the transaction.  So, you should use the preferred ISO 8601 standard date format YYYY/MM/DD which easily sorts.

Note, there is a menu entry Sort Buffer to sort the entire buffer.  Special transactions like automated transaction, will be moved in the sorting process and may not function correctly afterwards.  For this reason there is no key sequence.

You can limit the allowed sort region by using embedded Ledger-mode markup within your ledger.  For example:

     <<< information to not sort >>>

     ; Ledger-mode: Start sort

     <<< transactions to sort >>>

     ; Ledger-mode: End sort

     <<< information to not sort >>>

You can use menu entries Mark Sort Beginning to insert start and Mark Sort End to insert end markers.  These functions will automatically delete old markers and put new new marker at point.

Narrowing Transactions
======================

Often you will want to run Ledger register reports just to look at a specific set of transactions.  If you don't need the running total calculation handled by Ledger, Ledger-mode provides a rapid way of narrowing what is displayed in the buffer in a way that is simpler than the Ledger register command.

Based on the Emacs Occur mode by Alexey Veretennikov, Ledger-occur hides all transactions that do not meet a specific regular expression. The regular expression can match on any part of the transaction.  If you want to find all transactions whose amount ends in .37, you can do that (I don't know why, but hey, whatever ever floats you aerostat).

Using C-c C-f or the Narrow to Regex menu entry, enter a regular expression in the Minibuffer.  Ledger-mode will hide all other transactions.  For details of the regular expression syntax, see Syntax of Regular Expressions or Regular Expressions.  A few examples using the demo.ledger are given here:

Groceries
     Show only transactions that have a posting to the Groceries account.

^2011/01
     Show only transactions occurring in January of 2011.

^2011/.*/25
     Show only transactions occurring on the 25th of the month in 2011.

auto
     Show only transactions with payees or accounts or comments containing. auto

harley$
     Show only transactions with any line ending with harley.

To show back all transactions simply invoke Narrow to Regex or C-c C-f again.

The Reconcile Buffer
********************

Basics of Reconciliation
========================

Even in this relatively modern era, financial transactions do not happen instantaneously, unless you are paying cash.  When you swipe your debit card the money may take several days to actually come out of your account, or a check may take several days to clear.  That is the root of the difference between obligating funds and expending funds.  Obligation says you have agreed to pay it, the expenditure doesn't happen until the money actually leaves your account. Or in the case of receiving payment, you have an account receivable until the money has actually made it to you.

After an account has been reconciled you have verified that all the transactions in that account have been correctly recorded and all parties agree.

Starting a Reconciliation
=========================

To start reconciling an account you must have a target, both the transactions that you know about and the transactions the bank knows about.  You can get this from a monthly statement, or from checking your on-line transaction history.  It also helps immensely to know the final cleared balance you are aiming for.

Use menu Reconcile Account or C-c C-r and enter the account you wish to reconcile in the Minibuffer.  Ledger-mode is not particular about what you enter for the account.  You can leave it blank and *Reconcile* buffer will show you all uncleared transactions.  After you enter the account enter the target amount. Ledger expects you to enter an amount with a commodity.  It assumes initially that you are using $ (USD) as your default commodity. If you are working in a different currency you can change the default in variable ledger-reconcile-default-commodity to whatever you need.  If you work in multiple commodities simply enter the commoditized amount (for example 340 VSDX, for 340 shares of VSDX).

Ledger-mode reconcile cannot currently reconcile accounts that have multiple commodities, such as brokerage accounts. You may use reconciliation mode to clear transactions, but balance calculations will not display the complete list of commodities.

Mark Transactions Pending
=========================

The *Reconcile* buffer will show all the uncleared transactions that meet the criteria set in the regex.  By default uncleared transactions are shown in red.  When you have verified that a transaction has been correctly and completely recorded by the opposing party, mark the transaction as pending using the SPC bar. Continue this process until you agree with the opposing party and the difference from your target is zero.

Edit Transactions during Reconciliation
=======================================

If you find errors during reconciliation.  You can visit the transaction under point in the *Reconcile* buffer by hitting the RET key.  This will take you to the transaction in the Ledger buffer.  When you have finished editing the transaction saving the buffer will automatically return you to the *Reconcile* buffer and you can mark the transaction if appropriate.

Finalize Reconciliation
=======================

Once you have marked all transactions as pending and the cleared balance is correct.  Finish the reconciliation by typing C-c C-c.  This marks all pending transaction as cleared and saves the ledger buffer.

Adding and Deleting Transactions during Reconciliation
======================================================

While reconciling, you may find new transactions that need to be entered into your ledger.  Simply type a to bring up the quick add for the ledger buffer.

Typing d will delete the transaction under point in the *Reconcile* buffer from the ledger buffer.

Changing Reconciliation Account
===============================

You can conveniently switch the account being reconciled by typing g, and entering a new account to reconcile.  This simply restarts the reconcile process. Any transactions that were marked `pending' in the ledger buffer are left in that state when the account is switched.

Changing Reconciliation Target
==============================

If for some reason during reconciliation your target amount changes, type t and enter the new target value.

The Report Buffer
*****************

Running Reports
===============

The real power behind Ledger is in its amazing reporting capability. Ledger-mode provides easy facility to run reports directly from Emacs. It has four reports built-in and facilities for adding custom reports.

Typing C-c C-o C-r or using menu Ledger Run Report prompt for the name of a saved report.  The built-in reports are:

bal
     Produce a balance reports of all accounts.

reg
     Produce a register report of all transactions.

payee
     Prompt for a payee, then produce a register report of all transactions involving that payee.

account
     Prompt for an account, then produce a register report of all transactions involving that account.

Adding and Editing Reports
==========================

If you type a report name that Ledger-mode doesn't recognize it will prompt you for a ledger command line to run.  That command is automatically saved with the name given and you can re-run it at any time.

There are two ways to edit the command line for a report. The first is to provide a prefix argument to the run-report command.  For example, type M-1 C-c C-o C-r. This will prompt you for the report name, then present the report command line to be edited.  When you hit RET, the report will be run, but it will not be permanently saved. If you want to save it, type S in the *Ledger Report* buffer you will have the option to give it a new name, or overwrite the old report.

Deleting reports is accomplished by typing C-c C-o C-e or using Edit Reports menu in the ledger buffer, or typing e in the *Ledger Report* buffer.  This takes you to the Emacs customization window for the Ledger Reports variables.  Use the widgets to delete the report you want removed.

Expansion Formats
-----------------

It is sometimes convenient to leave room to customize a report without saving the command line every time.  For example running a register report for a specific account, enter at runtime by the user.  The built-in report ACCOUNT does exactly that, using a variable expansion to prompt the user for the account to use.  There are four variables that can be expanded to run a report:

ledger-file
     Returns the file to be operated on.

payee
     Prompts for a payee.

account
     Prompt for an account.

value
     Prompt for a tag value.

You can use these expansion values in your ledger report commands.  For example, if you wanted to specify a register report the displayed transactions from a user-determined account with a particular meta-data tag value, you specify the following command line:

     ledger -f %(ledger-file) reg %(account) \
       --limit \"tag('my-tag') =~/%(value)/\"

Note how the double-quotes are escaped with back-slashes.

Make Report Transactions Active
-------------------------------

In a large register report it is convenient to be able to jump to the source transaction.  Ledger-mode will automatically include source information in every register file that doesn't contain a --subtotal option. It does this by adding --prepend-format='%(filename):%(beg_line):' to the register report command-line you specify.  You should never have to see this, but if there is an error in your ledger output this additional information may not get stripped out of the visible report.

Reversing Report Order
======================

Often, banks show their on-line transaction histories with the most recent transaction at the top.  Ledger itself cannot do a sensible ledger report in reverse chronological order, if you sort on reverse date the calculation will also run in the opposite direction.  If you want to compare a ledger register report to a bank report with the most recent transactions at the top, type R in the *Ledger Report* buffer and it will reverse the order of the transactions and maintain the proper mathematical sense.

Scheduling Transactions
***********************

The Ledger program provide for automating transactions but these transaction aren't ``real'', they only exist inside a ledger session and are not reflected in the actual data file.  Many transactions are very repetitive, but may vary slightly in the date they occur on, or the amount.  Some transactions are weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually. Ledger mode provides a way to schedule upcoming transaction with a flexible scheduler that allows you to specify the transactions in a separate ledger file and calculate the upcoming occurrences of those transactions.  You can then copy the transactions into your live data file.

Specifying Upcoming Transactions
================================

The format for specifying transactions is identical to Ledger's file format with the exception of the date field.  The data field is modified by surrounding it with brackets and using wild cards to specity free months or years.

Customizing Ledger-mode
***********************

Ledger-mode Customization
=========================

Ledger-mode has several options available for configuration.  All options can be configured through the Emacs customization menus, or specified in your Emacs initialization file.  The complete list of options is shown below. To change the option using the Emacs customization menu, simply chose customize in the Options menu and look for Ledger under the data options.  Alternately you can choose Customize Specific Group and enter Ledger as the group.

Customization Variables
=======================

Ledger Customization Group
--------------------------

ledger-occur-use-face-shown
     If non-nil, use a custom face for transactions shown in ledger-occur mode using ledger-occur-xact-face.

ledger-clear-whole-transactions
     If non-nil, clear whole transactions, not individual postings.

ledger-highlight-xact-under-point
     If non-nil, highlight transaction under point using ledger-font-highlight-face.

Ledger Reconcile Customization Group
------------------------------------

ledger-reconcile-default-commodity
     The default commodity for use in target calculations in ledger reconcile.  Defaults to $ (USD).

ledger-recon-buffer-name
     Name to use for reconciliation buffer. Defaults to *Reconcile*.

ledger-narrow-on-reconcile
     If non-nil, limit transactions shown in main buffer to those matching the reconcile regex.

ledger-buffer-tracks-reconcile-buffer
     If non-nil, then when the cursor is moved to a new transaction in the reconcile window.

ledger-reconcile-force-window-bottom
     If non-nil, make the reconcile window appear along the bottom of the register window and resize.

ledger-reconcile-toggle-to-pending
     If non-nil, then toggle between uncleared and pending !. If false toggle between uncleared and cleared *.

Ledger Report Customization Group
---------------------------------

ledger-reports
     Definition of reports to run.

ledger-report-format-specifiers
     An alist mapping ledger report format specifiers to implementing functions.

Ledger Faces Customization Group
--------------------------------

Ledger Faces: Ledger-mode highlighting

ledger-font-uncleared-face
     Default face for Ledger.

ledger-font-cleared-face
     Default face for cleared * transactions.

ledger-font-highlight-face
     Default face for transaction under point.

ledger-font-pending-face
     Default face for pending ! transactions.

ledger-font-other-face
     Default face for other transactions.

ledger-font-posting-account-face
     Face for Ledger accounts.

ledger-font-posting-account-cleared-face
     Face for cleared Ledger accounts.

ledger-font-posting-account-pending-face
     Face for Ledger pending accounts.

ledger-font-posting-amount-face
     Face for Ledger amounts.

ledger-occur-narrowed-face
     Default face for Ledger occur mode hidden transactions.

ledger-occur-xact-face
     Default face for Ledger occur mode shown transactions.

ledger-font-comment-face
     Face for Ledger comments.

ledger-font-reconciler-uncleared-face
     Default face for uncleared transactions in the reconcile window.

ledger-font-reconciler-cleared-face
     Default face for cleared  * transactions in the reconcile window.

ledger-font-reconciler-pending-face
     Default face for pending  ! transactions in the reconcile window.

ledger-font-report-clickable-face
     FIXME

Ledger Post Customization Group
-------------------------------

Ledger Post:

ledger-post-auto-adjust-amounts
     If non-nil, then automatically align amounts to column specified in ledger-post-amount-alignment-column.

ledger-post-amount-alignment-column
     The column Ledger-mode uses to align amounts.

ledger-default-acct-transaction-indent
     Default indentation for account transactions in an entry.

ledger-post-use-completion-engine
     Which completion engine to use: ISWITCHB, IDO, or built-in.

ledger-post-use-ido

Ledger Exec Customization Group
-------------------------------

Ledger Exec: Interface to the Ledger command-line accounting program.

ledger-binary-path
     Path to the ledger executable.

ledger-init-file-name
     Location of the ledger initialization file. nil if you don't have one.

Ledger Test Customization Group
-------------------------------

ledger-source-directory
     Directory where the Ledger sources are located.

ledger-test-binary
     Directory where the debug binary.

Ledger Texi Customization Group
-------------------------------

ledger-texi-sample-doc-path
     Location for sample data to be used in texi tests, defaults to ~/ledger/doc/sample.dat.

ledger-texi-normalization-args
     texi normalization for producing ledger output, defaults to --args-only --columns 80.

Generating Ledger Regression Tests
**********************************

Work in Progress.

Embedding Example results in Ledger Documentation
*************************************************

Work in Progress.

Hacking Ledger-mode
*******************

Work in Progress.