simpler conversion account with --infer-equity

hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Journal.hs

@@ -96,11 +96,13 @@ module Hledger.Data.Journal (
   journalAccountTypes,
   journalAddAccountTypes,
   journalPostingsAddAccountTags,
+  defaultConversionAccount,
   -- journalPrices,
   journalConversionAccount,
   journalConversionAccounts,
   -- * Misc
   canonicalStyleFrom,
+
   nulljournal,
   journalConcat,
   journalNumberTransactions,

hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/JournalChecks.hs

@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ journalCheckAccounts :: Journal -> Either String ()
 journalCheckAccounts j = mapM_ checkacct (journalPostings j)
   where
     checkacct p@Posting{paccount=a}
-      | a `elem` journalAccountNamesDeclared j = Right ()
+      | a `elem` declaredaccounts = Right ()
       | otherwise = Left $ printf (unlines [
            "%s:%d:"
           ,"%s"
@@ -67,11 +67,24 @@ journalCheckAccounts j = mapM_ checkacct (journalPostings j)
           ,"Consider adding an account directive. Examples:"
           ,""
           ,"account %s"
-          ,"account %s    ; type:A  ; (L,E,R,X,C,V)"
-          ]) f l ex (show a) a a
+          ]) f l ex (show a) a
         where
+          declaredaccounts = journalAccountNamesDeclared j <> builtinAccounts
           (f,l,_mcols,ex) = makePostingAccountErrorExcerpt p
 
+-- | Hard coded account names in hledger, which need not be declared for `hledger check accounts`.
+-- Keep synced with check-accounts.test, hledger manual.
+builtinAccounts = [
+  defaultConversionAccount  -- equity:conversion, the account used by --infer-equity by default
+  ]
+-- The following accounts names are also special, in that they are recognised as conversion equity accounts
+-- by transactionInferCostsFromEquity; but these are not auto-declared for hledger check accounts.
+-- equity:trade
+-- equity:trades
+-- equity:trading
+-- and any subaccounts of these or defaultConversionAccount.
+
+
 -- | Check all balance assertions in the journal and return an error message if any of them fail.
 -- (Technically, this also tries to balance the journal and can return balancing failure errors;
 -- ensure the journal is already balanced (with journalBalanceTransactions) to avoid this.)
@@ -215,7 +228,7 @@ journalCheckTags j = do
       ,"tag %s"
       ])
 
--- | Tag names which have special significance to hledger.
+-- | Tag names which have special significance to hledger, and need not be declared for `hledger check tags`.
 -- Keep synced with check-tags.test and hledger manual > Special tags.
 builtinTags = [
    "date"                   -- overrides a posting's date

hledger-lib/Hledger/Data/Posting.hs

@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ import Data.Foldable (asum)
 import Data.Function ((&))
 import qualified Data.Map as M
 import Data.Maybe (fromMaybe, isJust, mapMaybe)
-import Data.List (sort, union)
+import Data.List (union)
 #if !MIN_VERSION_base(4,20,0)
 import Data.List (foldl')
 #endif
@@ -475,17 +475,15 @@ postingAddInferredEquityPostings verbosetags equityAcct p
       | otherwise  = p{ ptags = ("_cost-matched","") : ptags p }
     conversionPostings amt = case acost amt of
         Nothing -> []
-        Just _  -> [ cp{ paccount = accountPrefix <> amtCommodity
+        Just _  -> [ cp{ paccount = equityAcct
                        , pamount = mixedAmount . negate $ amountStripCost amt
                        }
-                   , cp{ paccount = accountPrefix <> costCommodity
+                   , cp{ paccount = equityAcct
                        , pamount = mixedAmount cost
                        }
                    ]
       where
         cost = amountCost amt
-        amtCommodity  = commodity amt
-        costCommodity = commodity cost
         cp = p{ pcomment = pcomment p & (if verbosetags then (`commentAddTag` ("generated-posting","conversion")) else id)
               , ptags    =
                    ("_conversion-matched","") : -- implementation-specific internal tag, not for users
@@ -494,9 +492,6 @@ postingAddInferredEquityPostings verbosetags equityAcct p
               , pbalanceassertion = Nothing
               , poriginal = Nothing
               }
-        accountPrefix = mconcat [ equityAcct, ":", T.intercalate "-" $ sort [amtCommodity, costCommodity], ":"]
-        -- Take the commodity of an amount and collapse consecutive spaces to a single space
-        commodity = T.unwords . filter (not . T.null) . T.words . acommodity
 
 -- | Make a market price equivalent to this posting's amount's unit
 -- price, if any.

hledger/hledger.m4.md

@@ -714,9 +714,7 @@ hledger will try adjust your account names, if needed, to
 [Beancount account names](https://beancount.github.io/docs/beancount_language_syntax.html#accounts),
 by capitalising, replacing unsupported characters with `-`, and
 prepending `B` to parts which don't begin with a letter or digit.
-(It's possible for this to convert distinct hledger account names to the same beancount name.
-Eg, hledger's automatic equity conversion accounts can have currency symbols in their name,
-so `equity:conversion:$-€` becomes `equity:conversion:B---`.)
+(It's possible for this to convert distinct hledger account names to the same beancount name.)
 
 In addition, you must ensure that the top level account names are `Assets`, `Liabilities`, `Equity`, `Income`, and `Expenses`,
 which Beancount requires.
@@ -1980,7 +1978,8 @@ Some notes:
 - The account directive's scope is "whole file and below" (see [directives](#directives)). This means it affects all of the current file, and any files it includes, but not parent or sibling files. The position of account directives within the file does not matter, though it's usual to put them at the top.
 - Accounts can only be declared in `journal` files, but will affect [included](#include-directive) files of all types.
 - It's currently not possible to declare "all possible subaccounts" with a wildcard; every account posted to must be declared.
-- If you use the [--infer-equity](#inferring-equity-conversion-postings) flag, you will also need declarations for the account names it generates.
+- The account [--infer-equity](#inferring-equity-conversion-postings) uses by default - equity:conversion - need not be declared.
+  (If you configure a different conversion account, that will need to be declared.)
 
 ### Account display order
 
@@ -2049,7 +2048,8 @@ account expenses           ; type: X
 account assets:bank        ; type: C
 account assets:cash        ; type: C
 
-account equity:conversion  ; type: V
+; if you want to override the conversion account name, which is equity:conversion by default:
+;account equity:exchange   ; type: V
 ```
 
 [five main account types]:      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chart_of_accounts#Types_of_accounts
@@ -5709,15 +5709,12 @@ $ hledger print --infer-equity
 2022-01-01
     assets:dollars                    $-135
     assets:euros               €100 @ $1.35
-    equity:conversion:$-€:€           €-100
-    equity:conversion:$-€:$         $135.00
+    equity:conversion                 €-100
+    equity:conversion               $135.00
 ```
 
-The equity account names will be "equity:conversion:A-B:A" and "equity:conversion:A-B:B"
-where A is the alphabetically first commodity symbol.
-You can customise the "equity:conversion" part by declaring an account with the `V`/`Conversion` [account type](#account-types).
-
-Note you will need to add [account declarations](#account-error-checking) for these to your journal, if you use `check accounts` or `check --strict`.
+`--infer-equity` will use the "equity:conversion" account by default (and you don't have to declare this account for `check accounts` or `check --strict`).
+If you declare some other account with the `V`/`Conversion` [account type](#account-types), it will use that instead.
 
 ## Combining costs and equity conversion postings
 
@@ -5762,9 +5759,9 @@ It will infer costs only in transactions with:
   Equity conversion accounts are:
 
   - any accounts declared with account type `V`/`Conversion`, or their subaccounts
-  - otherwise, accounts named `equity:conversion`, `equity:trade`, or `equity:trading`, or their subaccounts.
+  - otherwise, accounts named `equity:conversion`, `equity:trade`, `equity:trades`, `equity:trading`, or any subaccounts of these.
 
-And multiple such four-posting groups can coexist within a single transaction.
+Multiple such four-posting groups can coexist within a single transaction.
 When `--infer-costs` fails, it does not infer a cost in that transaction, and does not raise an error (ie, it infers costs where it can).
 
 Reading variant 5 journal entries, combining cost notation and equity postings, has all the same requirements.

hledger/test/check-accounts.test

@@ -51,3 +51,27 @@ $ hledger -f- --auto check accounts
 $ hledger -f- --auto --strict bal
 >2 /account "b" has not been declared/
 >=1
+
+# ** 7. The default equity:conversion account used by --infer-equity does not need to be declared for check accounts.
+<
+account a
+account b
+
+2024-01-01
+    a    1A
+    b   -1B
+
+$ hledger -f- check accounts --infer-equity
+
+# ** 8. It does not need to be declared, even without --infer-equity, and even if a different conversion account is declared. (For simplicity.)
+<
+account a
+account b
+account equity  ; type:V
+
+2024-01-01
+    a    1A
+    b   -1B
+    equity:conversion   0
+
+$ hledger -f- check accounts

hledger/test/errors/accounts.test

@@ -9,7 +9,6 @@ account "a" has not been declared.
 Consider adding an account directive. Examples:
 
 account a
-account a    ; type:A  ; \(L,E,R,X,C,V\)
 
 /
 >>>= 1

hledger/test/journal/costs.test

@@ -30,8 +30,8 @@ $ hledger -f- print --explicit --cost
 $ hledger -f- print --infer-equity --verbose-tags
 2011-01-01
     expenses:foreign currency    €100 @ $1.35
-    equity:conversion:$-€:€             €-100  ; generated-posting: conversion
-    equity:conversion:$-€:$           $135.00  ; generated-posting: conversion
+    equity:conversion                   €-100  ; generated-posting: conversion
+    equity:conversion                 $135.00  ; generated-posting: conversion
     assets                           $-135.00
 
 >=0
@@ -142,8 +142,8 @@ $ hledger -f - balance --value=cost,XXX
 $ hledger -f - balance --infer-equity
                  10£  a
                 -16$  b
-                 16$  equity:conversion:$-£:$
-                -10£  equity:conversion:$-£:£
+                 16$
+                -10£  equity:conversion
 --------------------
                    0  
 >=0
@@ -366,8 +366,8 @@ account  equity:trades   ; type:V
 $ hledger -f- print --infer-equity
 2011-01-01
     expenses:foreign currency    €100 @ $1.35
-    equity:trades:$-€:€                 €-100
-    equity:trades:$-€:$               $135.00
+    equity:trades                       €-100
+    equity:trades                     $135.00
     assets
 
 >=0