Beancount.Directives.Open (beancount_ex v0.6.0)

The open directive declares the start of an account's life.

Beancount syntax

2026-01-01 open Assets:Bank USD,EUR "STRICT"
  note: "Primary checking"

General form: YYYY-MM-DD open Account [Currency,...] ["BookingMethod"]

Elixir struct

%Beancount.Directives.Open{
  date: ~D[2026-01-01],
  account: "Assets:Bank",
  currencies: ["USD", "EUR"],
  booking: "STRICT",
  metadata: %{"note" => "Primary checking"}
}

Prefer Beancount.open/4 when building ledgers programmatically:

Beancount.open(~D[2026-01-01], "Assets:Bank", ["USD", "EUR"],
  booking: "STRICT",
  metadata: %{"note" => "Primary checking"}
)

Fields

date - Date.t() when the account becomes active. Must be on or before the first posting to this account.
account - colon-separated account name, e.g. "Assets:Bank".
currencies - optional list of allowed commodities for postings to this account. Empty list [] means no constraint. Rendered comma-separated in the .bean file.
booking - lot-matching method when a reducing posting is ambiguous. Common values: "STRICT" (default; error on ambiguity), "NONE", "FIFO", "LIFO", "AVERAGE", "HIFO". nil omits the booking clause.
metadata - optional map of key/value pairs rendered as indented metadata lines below the directive.

Summary

Types

t()

Types

t()

@type t() :: %Beancount.Directives.Open{
  account: String.t(),
  booking: String.t() | nil,
  currencies: [String.t()],
  date: Date.t(),
  metadata: map()
}