Recording transactions

Guides

Every purchase, salary and transfer is a transaction. Here's how to enter one, split it between categories and find it again later.

In Balanced, a transaction always moves money from one account to another. You don’t pick whether it’s an expense, income or a transfer: Balanced works that out from the accounts you choose. Transactions and postings explains how.

Start a new transaction

In the journal overview, tap ＋ New Transaction in the bottom bar, or press ⌘N on a keyboard.
In an account’s list of transactions, tap ＋ New Transaction. That account is already filled in.
In the overview, touch and hold an account and tap Create transaction. Again, the account is filled in.
Or let a photo do the typing: Scanning receipts.

Balanced doesn’t connect to your bank and can’t import statements yet. You enter transactions yourself, scan receipts or let them repeat.

To change a transaction later, tap it in any list. The same editor opens.

Fill in the editor

Date: set to now. Tap it to pick another day and time. A date after today makes it a planned transaction.
Note: what it was, such as the shop’s name. Lists show it as the transaction’s title.
Under Accounts, tap Choose Account, pick the type and then the account. Type the amount next to it.
＋ Account adds another line, to split a transaction. Swipe left on a line to remove it.
Cleared: turn it on once the transaction is on your bank statement. See Clearing transactions.
Repeat: for rent, salary and anything else that comes back regularly. See Repeating transactions.

Tap Save (✓), or press ⌘↩ on a keyboard. Esc closes the editor without saving.

When you can save

Save works once:

the transaction has at least two lines,
every line has an account,
and the amounts add up to zero.

You rarely need to work out the last amount yourself. Leave a line’s amount empty and Balanced fills in what’s missing, shown in gray. If you leave several lines empty, Balanced shares the missing amount equally between them, in whole cents. The first lines get any cent left over.

The easiest way: type the amount where the money goes, and leave the amount empty on the account it comes from. Balanced puts in the minus.

To type a minus yourself, use the buttons above the keypad: +/- switches the amount between plus and minus, and Clear empties the field, so Balanced calculates that amount again. Done closes the keypad.

Examples

A purchase. Pick Groceries and type 42.80. Pick Checking and leave it empty.

Supermarket

Expenses:Groceries: +42.80
Assets:Checking: −42.80
Balanced: 0.00 ✓

Your salary. Pick Checking and type 2,500. Pick Salary and leave it empty. Turn on Cleared once it’s in your account: only then does it count as money you can budget.

Salary

Assets:Checking: +2,500.00
Income:Salary: −2,500.00
Balanced: 0.00 ✓

A transfer to savings. Pick Savings and type 200. Pick Checking and leave it empty. Both are your own accounts, so this is a transfer: your money just moves.

To savings

Assets:Savings: +200.00
Assets:Checking: −200.00
Balanced: 0.00 ✓

One receipt, two categories. Pick Groceries and type 30. Tap ＋ Account, pick Household and type 12.80. Pick Checking for the third line and leave it empty.

Supermarket

Expenses:Groceries: +30.00
Expenses:Household: +12.80
Assets:Checking: −42.80
Balanced: 0.00 ✓

Find your transactions

In the overview, the Transactions section opens All Transactions. Tap an account to see only its transactions.

Each month starts with a short summary: Income, Expenses and Liability repayment for that month.
Below, transactions by day, newest first. Each row shows the note, the accounts the money came from → went to, and the amount: red for an expense, green for income, uncolored for a transfer. The small number underneath is the account’s balance after this transaction. A dot in front of the note means it isn’t cleared yet; a ↻ symbol, that it repeats.
Today scrolls to today, or to the last day before it with transactions. Lists open there anyway.

Transactions dated in the future appear dimmed until their day comes. The Uncleared and Repeated rows in the overview open lists of just those transactions.

There’s no search or filter yet. Browse by month, or open an account to see only its transactions.

Swipe to clear or delete

Swipe right on a transaction to Clear it, or to Unclear it again.
Swipe left to Delete it. A normal transaction is deleted right away. For a repeating one, Balanced asks which occurrences to delete.