Imports

A model can be split across files: salary in one, loans in another, and a main file that brings them together. import reads another file into the model.

Syntax

import "<path>"

The path is relative to the directory of the file the import is in, or absolute. Imports go between declarations, anywhere in a file.

Example

budget.saldo, the file you run:

account Assets:Cash = 5_000 @ 2026-01-01

import "salary.saldo"
import "loans/car.saldo"

assert that Assets:Cash >= 0

salary.saldo:

account Income:Salary

param salary = 95_000 per year

entry monthly on the 15th and last day "Paycheck" {
  Assets:Cash = salary
  Income:Salary
}

loans/car.saldo:

account Liabilities:Loans:Car = -30_000 @ 2026-01-01
account Expenses:Interest:Car

param car_loan_rate = 5% per year

entry monthly on the last day "Car loan payment" {
  Expenses:Interest:Car = -Liabilities:Loans:Car * car_loan_rate
  Liabilities:Loans:Car = 600
  Assets:Cash
}

saldo budget.saldo --from 2026-01-01 --to 2026-12-31

One model, many files

All the files make up one model, with one set of names. A file can use any account, param, schedule, function or entry alias declared in any other file, whether it imports that file or not: the car loan pays from Assets:Cash, which budget.saldo declares. Names still have to be unique across files, so declaring Assets:Cash in two files is an error.

Each file is read once, no matter how many files import it. Two files can import a shared file of accounts, and files can import each other.

Order

An import works as if the file’s declarations were written where it’s first imported. That order matters in two places: entries that fire on the same day fire in declaration order, and CSV columns follow the order accounts are declared in. Above, a paycheck on the last day of the month comes before that day’s car loan payment, because salary.saldo is imported first.