# Using hledger together with Excel

**URL:** <https://forum.plaintextaccounting.org/t/using-hledger-together-with-excel/697>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [December 16, 2025, 1:04pm UTC](https://forum.plaintextaccounting.org/t/using-hledger-together-with-excel/697 "2025-12-16T13:04:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 7

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**Author:** ![rdsteed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3be4f8/32.png) [@rdsteed](https://forum.plaintextaccounting.org/u/rdsteed)\
**Post date:** [December 17, 2025, 3:38pm UTC](https://forum.plaintextaccounting.org/t/using-hledger-together-with-excel/697/7 "2025-12-17T15:38:43Z")

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Thanks for sharing more about your spreadsheet and workflow. It clears up a lot of my confusion.

I now understand that your Excel ledger uses multiple rows to hold the information in a multiple line hledger plain text transaction. Posting information has its own columns.

 ![image](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex003/uploads/plaintextaccounting/original/1X/5fe0e15cf078c1b14bead6b13f7e405b07e7f2e8.png)

I agree that it is difficult to track lot info in hledger and then do FIFO analysis. I’m not sure what the best workaround is.

As far as using the CSV import functionality in hledger, it is strictly one csv line generates one transaction. Simon did discuss it in another thread where he said that was a design decision to avoid making it too complex.

> [@Is it possible to combine 2 csv transactions into 1 using hledger?](https://forum.plaintextaccounting.org/t/is-it-possible-to-combine-2-csv-transactions-into-1-using-hledger/635):
>
> I have a csv file from a crypto exchange which looks something like this: date,transaction id,currency,amount 2025-09-27,abc123,USD,-20 2025-09-27,abc123,BTC,1.2 2025-09-10,xyz456,USD,-55 2025-09-10,xyz456,BTC,3.1 Basically each purchase is split it into 2 records, the fiat currency deducted and the cryptocurrency purchased and they share the same transaction id. Is it possible for hledger to automatically detect the 2 csv rows with identical IDs and create a single transaction from it? PS: …

I think Simon uses the Emacs text editor to manipulate his journal files. Emacs is programmable in LISP much as Excel is programmable in VBA.

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