Accounts

Bank accounts and cards with a balance on a given day.

The accounts module answers "how much do I have right now" and "how has that been changing".

Balances carry a date

A balance is recorded as of a day, not as a current value. History matters here: the net worth chart takes its data from exactly this place, and a single number with no date could not be plotted on it.

Recording the state every so often is enough — on the first of the month, say.

Types

A current account, a savings account and a credit card count differently. A card balance is a liability, so it enters your net worth with a minus sign.

Unaccounted spending

If the sum of recorded transactions does not match the change in balance, the difference is shown outright instead of quietly disappearing. It is usually spending that never got written down — and it is better to know about it than to pretend the budget adds up.

Account types

Choose from current, savings, credit card, cash and investment, each in its own currency. For a card you set the limit, and when recording a reading you enter the debt — it is saved as a negative amount.

All balances at once

"Enter balances" opens one list of every account with an "as of" date. Each shows the last reading and how many days ago it was. Accounts whose balance you do not know can be left alone; only the amounts you type are saved.

How to read the reconciliation

Reconciliation needs at least two readings on the same account. It compares the actual change in the balance with the change your recorded transactions explain. When the balance fell by 3,000 and recorded spending is 2,600, the 400 goes into unaccounted spending.