Recording an expense or income

An expense

Tap a category on the home screen. The keypad opens: type the amount and press Record. If you need to work the number out, the keypad adds and subtracts, and "=" finishes the calculation.

The same sheet lets you change:

• the account the money left;
• the date — Today and Yesterday sit next to the field;
• a note about what it actually was.

Income

The Income section works the same way: income categories, keypad, and the account the money arrived in.

A transfer between your own accounts

A transfer is neither income nor spending and stays out of the reports. Taking cash out of a card is a transfer, not an expense.

Fixing or deleting

The Transactions section lists everything recorded. Tap a row to change the amount, date, category or account, or to delete it. Balances update immediately.

If you forgot to record something

Record it late — that is what the date field is for. An approximate entry dated yesterday beats a missing one.

A calculator, not just a field

The entry window holds a calculator rather than a box for a number: you can add up several receipts or subtract a refund on the spot. One rule — the calculation has to be finished with "=". Until it is, the app will not save and says so, because otherwise there is no telling what to record, "300+150" or 450.

If the account does not hold that much

An ordinary account does not go negative, and the app stops the entry showing what is missing: "the account holds X, this expense is short by Y". Usually that does not mean the amount is wrong — it means an income went unrecorded, or the money actually left a different account.

Only a credit card carries a negative balance, and those are set up separately, under "Credit cards".

You paid for everyone

The "Split the bill" button sits beside the expense entry. You say how many people were at the table and the app works out each share. One expense is recorded for the full amount — the money really did leave your account — and everyone else's share becomes a "they owe me" debt under Debts, where repayments get marked off later.

Splitting can be equal, by percentage or by exact amounts; the leftover cents are not lost, they go to whoever paid.

The things that repeat every month

Rent, phone and subscriptions do not need entering by hand. The "Recurring transactions" section holds the amount, the period and the day of the charge, and once a month the app asks by itself: did everything go as usual? You can confirm the lot with one button, tick only some, correct the amounts, or skip the month.

Not only expenses recur: a salary goes in the same place.

Why you record as you pay rather than at night from receipts: reconstructing from memory loses a third to a half of the small daily spending, and those are the items that explain everything.