The balance directive asserts an account balance at a date.

See Balance Assertions.

Beancount syntax

2026-01-31 balance Assets:Bank   5000 USD
2026-01-31 balance Assets:Bank   1.5 ~ 0.5 USD

General form: YYYY-MM-DD balance Account Amount [~ Tolerance] Currency

The check runs at the beginning of date (midnight).

Elixir struct

%Beancount.Directives.Balance{
  date: ~D[2026-01-31],
  account: "Assets:Bank",
  amount: Decimal.new("1.5"),
  currency: "USD",
  tolerance: Decimal.new("0.5"),
  metadata: %{}
}

Or use Beancount.balance/5:

Beancount.balance(~D[2026-01-31], "Assets:Bank", Decimal.new("1.5"), "USD",
  tolerance: Decimal.new("0.5")
)

Fields

• date - Date.t() when the assertion is evaluated (start of day).
• account - account whose balance is checked (may be a parent account).
• amount - expected Decimal.t() balance in currency.
• currency - commodity symbol being asserted.
• tolerance - optional Decimal.t() for explicit local tolerance (amount ~ tolerance currency). nil uses inferred tolerance from options.
• metadata - optional map rendered below the directive.