NAME

       Timedot - hledger's human-friendly time logging format

DESCRIPTION

       Timedot is a plain text format for logging dated, categorised quantities (of time, usually), supported by
       hledger.   It  is  convenient  for approximate and retroactive time logging, eg when the real-time clock-
       in/out required with a timeclock file is too precise or too interruptive.  It can be formatted like a bar
       chart, making clear at a glance where time was spent.

       Though called "timedot", this format is read by hledger as commodityless quantities, so it could be  used
       to represent dated quantities other than time.  In the docs below we'll assume it's time.

       A  timedot  file  contains a series of day entries.  A day entry begins with a non-indented hledger-style
       simple date (Y-M-D, Y/M/D, Y.M.D..) Any additional text on  the  same  line  is  used  as  a  transaction
       description for this day.

       This is followed by optionally-indented timelog items for that day, one per line.  Each timelog item is a
       note,  usually a hledger:style:account:name representing a time category, followed by two or more spaces,
       and a quantity.  Each timelog item generates a hledger transaction.

       Quantities can be written as:

       • dots: a sequence of dots (.) representing quarter hours.  Spaces may optionally be used  for  grouping.
         Eg: ....  ..

       • an integral or decimal number, representing hours.  Eg: 1.5

       • an  integral  or  decimal  number  immediately  followed  by  a  unit  symbol  s, m, h, d, w, mo, or y,
         representing seconds, minutes, hours,  days  weeks,  months  or  years  respectively.   Eg:  90m.   The
         following  equivalencies  are  assumed,  currently:  1m  = 60s, 1h = 60m, 1d = 24h, 1w = 7d, 1mo = 30d,
         1y=365d.

       There is some flexibility allowing notes and todo lists to be kept right in the time log, if needed:

       • Blank lines and lines beginning with # or ; are ignored.

       • Lines not ending with a double-space and quantity are parsed as items taking no time,  which  will  not
         appear in balance reports by default.  (Add -E to see them.)

       • Org  mode  headlines (lines beginning with one or more * followed by a space) can be used as date lines
         or timelog items (the stars are ignored).  Also all org  headlines  before  the  first  date  line  are
         ignored.  This means org users can manage their timelog as an org outline (eg using org-mode/orgstruct-
         mode in Emacs), for organisation, faster navigation, controlling visibility etc.

       Examples:

              # on this day, 6h was spent on client work, 1.5h on haskell FOSS work, etc.
              2016/2/1
              inc:client1   .... .... .... .... .... ....
              fos:haskell   .... ..
              biz:research  .

              2016/2/2
              inc:client1   .... ....
              biz:research  .

              2016/2/3
              inc:client1   4
              fos:hledger   3
              biz:research  1

              * Time log
              ** 2020-01-01
              *** adm:time  .
              *** adm:finance  .

              * 2020 Work Diary
              ** Q1
              *** 2020-02-29
              **** DONE
              0700 yoga
              **** UNPLANNED
              **** BEGUN
              hom:chores
               cleaning  ...
               water plants
                outdoor - one full watering can
                indoor - light watering
              **** TODO
              adm:planning: trip
              *** LATER

       Reporting:

              $ hledger -f t.timedot print date:2016/2/2
              2016-02-02 *
                  (inc:client1)          2.00

              2016-02-02 *
                  (biz:research)          0.25

              $ hledger -f t.timedot bal --daily --tree
              Balance changes in 2016-02-01-2016-02-03:

                          ||  2016-02-01d  2016-02-02d  2016-02-03d
              ============++========================================
               biz        ||         0.25         0.25         1.00
                 research ||         0.25         0.25         1.00
               fos        ||         1.50            0         3.00
                 haskell  ||         1.50            0            0
                 hledger  ||            0            0         3.00
               inc        ||         6.00         2.00         4.00
                 client1  ||         6.00         2.00         4.00
              ------------++----------------------------------------
                          ||         7.75         2.25         8.00

       I prefer to use period for separating account components.  We can make this work with an account alias:

              2016/2/4
              fos.hledger.timedot  4
              fos.ledger           ..

              $ hledger -f t.timedot --alias /\\./=: bal date:2016/2/4
                              4.50  fos
                              4.00    hledger:timedot
                              0.50    ledger
              --------------------
                              4.50

       Here is a sample.timedot.

REPORTING BUGS

       Report bugs at http://bugs.hledger.org (or on the #hledger IRC channel or hledger mail list)

AUTHORS

       Simon Michael <simon@joyful.com> and contributors

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 2007-2019 Simon Michael.
       Released under GNU GPL v3 or later.

SEE ALSO

       hledger(1),    hledger-ui(1),   hledger-web(1),   hledger-api(1),   hledger_csv(5),   hledger_journal(5),
       hledger_timeclock(5), hledger_timedot(5), ledger(1)

       http://hledger.org

hledger 1.18.99                                  September 2020                               hledger_timedot(5)