# &app; Manual v&manrevision;

2008, 2017 Hanna Knutsson
Hanna Knutsson
Hanna Knutsson
This manual describes version &appversion; of &app;.

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To report a bug or make a suggestion regarding the &app; application or this manual create a new issue at .

&app; is a personal accounting software, with focus on efficiency and ease of use for the small household economy. &app; provides a complete solution, with bookkeeping by double entry and support for scheduled recurring transactions, security investments, and budgeting. It gives a clear overview of past and present transactions, and development of incomes and expenses, with descriptive tables and charts, as well as an approximation of future account values.

Qt Eqonomize Money Finances Bookkeeping Budget

## Introduction

&app; is a tool for keeping track of and monitoring personal finances. This means entering of everyday expenses and incomes – when you buy something, receive salary, pay bills, transfer money between bank accounts, invest in stock, etc. &app; provides tools for making this process as easy and efficient as possible. You can then effortlessly retrieve information and statistics about your financial situation. You will for example be able to easily identify major leaks, and direct saving efforts to the right areas. You can also monitor performance in relation to a budget and check what your choices might mean for your future wealth.

The purpose of this manual is to describe how to practically use &app; for those who do not find the graphical user interface self-explanatory, as well as document some less obvious efficiency-enhancing features and explain how &app; interprets the data you provide.

When using &app; for the first time you should read .

### Accounting with &app;

The basics principle behind accounting in &app; is the idea of money flowing through transactions between accounts as reservoirs. A transaction represents a gain (you receive money), loss (you buy something), or transformation (you withdraw from or deposit in a bank account) of money.

A transaction always means that money is moved from one account to another. An expense (something is bought) can for example mean that you pay with cash from your cash account. The money is then put in an expense account. This account represents the products and services you pay for. It represents the money that you do not have as a result of expenses, and is therefor useful for record keeping.

Incomes is usually put in a bank account and withdrawn from an income account. This means that income accounts will have a negative value, but to avoid confusion, the value of income accounts are shown as positive values.

Different income and expense accounts are used for categorisation, and are therefor more naturally referred to as categories. Other accounts, which represents the money you actually have and often represents real world bank accounts, are simply referred to as accounts.

## Getting Started

The main window consists of six different views. When &app; is started, the accounts view is shown. To change view click on the corresponding icon in the horizontal list above.

### Create Accounts

The first time you start &app; a predefined set of accounts and categories are already present. These can be considered an example or a starting point for a setup matching your own conditions. You can either begin by modifying the suggested accounts and categories or start from scratch with File New (Ctrl N).

Accounts should be created to match your real world bank accounts plus at least one account for cash. Categories are used to keep incomes and expenses better organised. Each transaction must be connected to an account and a category, or two accounts for transfers between accounts. To create accounts and categories use the Accounts menu or the context menu of accounts view. Accounts and categories can also be added as needed when entering new transactions. A monthly budget can be set for each separate category.

### Enter Transactions

Now it is time to start recording transactions each time money have been deposited or withdrawn from one of you accounts. If you have kept book before, either on paper, or in another program, you can either import a file from another program (see ), enter each transaction manually by hand, or start from scratch (remember to enter the correct opening balance for each account).

Transactions can be entered in two ways, either using the new expense/income/transfer dialogs (where you have the option to create a recurring transaction), or from the transaction views. The latter option is usually preferred.

The first time you record an expense you should follow these steps:

1. Switch to the expenses view, using the top icons. The input focus is now in the description entry.

2. Type in a description for the expense. You are free to use the description property as you want, but I suggest you keep short and consistent without any inflections, as a final level of categorisation, for optimum efficiency and good statistics. For example, if you buy a delicious red Ingrid Marie apple and have an expense category for fruit, the description will be Apple, and if you want to record additional information put Delicious red Ingrid Marie apple as comment (others might find it more appropriate to use Groceries as category and Fruit as description). Press Enter or Tab and focus will move to the cost entry.

3. Enter what you paid. Note that the value should not be negative (except for refunds) and you do not need to type any currency. Press Enter or Tab.

4. Optionally enter a quantity (if you bought multiple apples). Note that the previously entered value is the total cost and independent of the quantity. This and the payee field can be hidden from the settings menu, if not used. Press Enter or Tab.

5. Select the date when the transaction occurred. To change the date, either write a valid date, select one from the pop-up calendar, or increment/decrement the current value with up/down keys. If you now press Enter, the new expense record will be created, but we do not want do that this time since the current account and category probably are not correct.

6. Select the correct account (where the money for the expense is taken from) and expense category from the drop-down lists on the right. (If you have not yet added the category and/or account, select New expense category or New account from the top list.)

7. Optionally enter a payee (the store where you bought the apple).

8. Optionally enter a comment (memo) for the expense.

9. Click Add or press Enter.

Enter adds a transaction if pressed with input focus in the date or comment entry. Otherwise it moves input focus to the next entry.

Repeat the process to record another expense. When you enter the next (and all subsequent expenses) expense you can however usually do it more efficiently. Date, account and category will not be reset each time, so often you need at least not change account. More importantly &app; remembers the last expense entered for each unique description. When you enter a description, all values, except date, will be filled in with the properties of the last expense with the same description. Even more so, as you type the description a list will pop up with all previous descriptions with matching opening letters. This means that you often will follow this much shorter process:

1. Type the first letter of a description and select the correct one from the list.

2. Check if the cost is the same this time and press enter.

3. Press enter to move past the quantity field, if enabled.

4. Check the date and press enter.

The same process as for recording expenses is repeated for incomes, except that the quantity field is absent. Click the incomes icon on the left and enter an income instead of a cost (still positive, but instead means amount deposited, added, to the account).

To record a transfer from one account to another (for example an ATM withdrawal from a bank account to cash) follow the same process as for expenses and incomes. Click the transfer icon on the left. Enter the amount transferred (positive) and select the from account (withdrawn from) and the to account (deposited to).

### Saving

When you have made some changes you need to save your work. Save the file using File Save (Ctrl S) or the corresponding toolbar button. The first time your work is saved &app; will ask for a location and name for the file. &app; will then automatically open that file each time the program is started.

If when closing &app; there are some changes that have been made after the last save, you will be asked if the file should be saved before closing.

Before the file is saved, a backup copy is made with the name prefixed by ~. Also the current data is continuously (at most once per minute) saved to prevent data loss in case &app; exits unexpectedly.

## Accounts and Categories

### Assets & Liabilities

&app; does not differentiate between accounts for assets and liabilities, except that they are grouped differently in the account view and that liabilities support some special transactions for convenience.

#### Account Creation and Editing

To create an account use Add Account in the context menu, Accounts New Account, or the corresponding button in the toolbar. You can also create a new account by selecting the top item in the accounts list when editing a transaction.

A window will open where you can enter the details of the account. Select the type of account, associated currency, enter a name, and specify the opening balance. The account types debt and credit card are used for liabilities, the rest for assets. The securities type represents special accounts that are the only ones that can be associated with securities and only supports security transactions. The opening balance represents the amount of money present in the account before any recorded transactions. This value should be negative for liabilities. You may optionally also enter a bank (or lender for loan) name and description.

You can also create a debt account using Add Loan. Here you will have the option to create the associated loan transaction at the same time. Notice that a positive debt value here represents a negative opening balance.

You may edit the properties of an account after it has been created by double-clicking the account name, or using Edit in the context menu or the Accounts menu.

#### The Ledger

The ledger shows all transactions to and from an account in chronological order. The ledger is accessed by double-clicking the change or balance column of an account in the account view, Show Transactions in the context menu, Accounts Show Ledger, or by clicking the corresponding button in the toolbar.

All transactions are shown in falling date order. The balance column shows the accumulated account value ⸺ the amount of money in the account after the transaction occurred. This may not be the exact same value as on the corresponding bank statement if the transaction order does not match exactly. You can edit or create transactions using the buttons to the right or by double-clicking a transaction.

Multiple accounts can not be shown simultaneously in the ledger. Switch between accounts using the drop-down list in the upper left corner of the window. To the right of this menu are buttons for saving the transaction list to a HTML file or a CSV file (can be opened in spreadsheet programs), or print it on paper.

#### Adjust Balance

If the account balance shown in &app; differs from the actual balance (in your wallet), and you are unable to find out what is wrong or missing (e.g. by comparing transactions with receipts or bank statements with the ledger), you will have the possibility the adjust the account balance (using Adjust balance in the Accounts menu or in the context menu of an account. When you enter the real value of the account in the dialog, an account balance adjustment transfer to a hidden balancing account is created to match the book value with the real value. This should be avoided, but may sometimes be necessary (usually for cash accounts).

#### Marking an Account as Closed

An account can be mark as closed using Close Account in the Accounts or context menu, or at the bottom of the dialog for account editing. The account will then be hidden from the account view when the change and balance values for the select period is zero. The closed account will be moved to the bottom section of account lists when editing transactions.

### Categories

Incomes and expenses are organised in categories with associated budgets.

#### Category Creation and Editing

To create an account use Add Category in the context menu, Accounts New Income/Expense Category, or the corresponding button in the toolbar. You can also create a new category by selecting the top item in the category list when editing an income or expense. Enter a name, and optionally a description, a parent category and/or monthly budget, in the window that appears and click OK.

&app; supports one level of subcategories (subcategories of subcategories are not supported). Subcategories can be created using Add Category in the context menu of a category or by selecting a parent category in the category edit dialog. Subcategories can also be moved to and from parent categories using drag and drop.

You may edit the properties of a category after it has been created by double-clicking the category name, or using Edit in the context menu or the Accounts menu.

### Budget

A monthly budget can be associated with each category. This way you can continuously compare actual and planned expenses, and see how your current budget will affect your future wealth.

A budget is initially asked for when creating a category. Later you can update it from the budget tab at the bottom of the accounts view (affects the category currently selected in accounts list). If the budget has not been set for a month, the budget of the previous month is used.

You can choose to set budgets for only some categories. In the accounts list, budget and remaining budget (budget minus past and planned expenses/incomes) is displayed in the second column. If not all categories have a budget, the total remaining budget only summarises the categories with budget and thus does not include actual expenses or incomes from other categories.

A budget can also be set for each subcategory. If no budget is set for the parent category the sum of the value for subcategories with budgets will be displayed (the transactions of subcategories without a budget are excluded). It is possible to specify a budget for both each subcategory and the parent budget. This can be useful if you want to use a single budget for only some subcategories or if some transactions does not belong to a subcategory, but will be confusing if you set the parent budget to a value that is lower than the sum of the specified budgets of subcategories.

#### The Budget Month

The budget month by default starts on the first and ends on the last day of the calendar month. This can be changed using Settings Set Budget Month. Only the first day of the budget month can be selected (the budget month will always be as long as the calendar month of the start date).

This will also affect how statistics are calculated and displayed. Months (and years) in charts and tables refers to the budget month. If the budget day is set to a value greater than 15, the budget month uses the name, and year, of the calendar month of the last the day of the budget month (if the first budget day is set to 25, the budget month that begins on December 25 2017, is referred to as January 2018), otherwise the calendar month of the start day is used.

### The Accounts View

The accounts view displays a list of all accounts and categories, sorted alphabetically under assets, liabilities, incomes, and expenses. The rows for the main account/category types displays the sum of all accounts/categories below.

The list has four columns. The first simply displays the name of the account or category. The second does for categories display the budget for the selected period and what is left of the budget. Unless the Show partial budget option is checked, the budget (and remaining budget) is displayed for whole months, thus you can in the default mode see whats left to spend of the current monthly budget. The third column displays the change in value, while the last column displays the total value.

In the bottom of the accounts view, there is a box for period selection. The period controls within which dates statistics will be shown in the list. If the button for the from (start) date is unchecked, all transactions up til and including the to (end) date will be included. The third, Change, column displays the value of all transactions that occurred between the two dates – the change in total value from start to end date. The last column (Total) displays the total value of all transaction up til and including the end date, plus the initial balance for accounts. If from date is unset, change and total will be equal for all categories. For accounts the total represents the actual money present at the end date, and change, the profit (or loss in the case of liabilities) during the period.

By default, the period is set to run from the beginning of the current month to (including) current date. Thus, the current state of accounts and transactions so far during the month are shown. The four buttons to the right of the dates moves the entire period backwards or forwards a month or a year.

Values for future dates are based on budgets and scheduled transactions (whichever is greatest). An account can be designated as budget account (default for current accounts), meaning that budgeted incomes and expenses will be included in the statistics displayed for that account. Otherwise the budgeted amount will only be included in the values of the total assets item (thus it will not necessarily equal the sum of the values of each assets account).

Double-clicking an account or category in the list will result in a different action depending on type and column. The different actions are listed in the table below.

Double-click actions for the account view

Column | Action for accounts | Action for categories
--- | --- | ---
Account / Category | Edit Account (or expand/collapse list) | Edit Category (or expand/collapse list)
Remaining Budget | Open ledger | Edit budget
Change | Open ledger | Open expenses or incomes view with a filter for selected category
Total | Open ledger | Open expenses or incomes view with a filter for selected category and period

If you press Enter on the keyboard when a row is selected, it will result in the same action as if the last column was double-clicked.

## Transactions

### Expenses, incomes and transfers

&app; has three different basic transactions types – expenses, incomes, and transfers.

Expenses represent a loss of money, a transaction where you give away money, mostly in return for something else. This can be a payment for products and services, or a gift.

Incomes represent a gain of money; when you are given money. This is when your at the other end of an expense, when you receive payment for products and services you provide (often as salary for your regular job), or when someone gives you money as a gift.

The third transaction type, transfer, represents neither a loss nor gain, but a transfer of money from one account to another. This can for example be when you withdraw money from your bank account as cash, or when you transfer money to a savings account. Loans, and loan payments reducing the debt, are also transfers (from a liability account to an assets account, and vice versa), even though &app; provides alternative methods for recording these.

Each transaction has a number of mandatory or optional properties. All the basic transactions have four mandatory properties – value, date, and from and to accounts/categories. Value represents the amount of money that is affected by the transaction, date when the transaction occurred, from account where the money was taken from and to account where money was put. These are the generic property names, which shows that all transaction types basically are the same.

For expenses the value is a cost, a positive value representing a loss of money, from the account that the expense is paid from, to an expense category. For incomes the value is an income, a positive value representing a gain of money, from an income category, to the account that the income is deposited in. For transfers the value is referred to as amount, or withdrawal (from an account) and deposit (to an account).

Mandatory Properties

Generic | Expense | Income | Transfer
--- | --- | --- | ---
Value | Cost | Income | Amount (withdrawal and deposit)
Date | Date | Date | Date
From Account/Category | Account (account) | Category (income category) | From (account)
To Account/Category | Category (expense category) | Account (account) | To (account)

All transactions do in addition have three optional properties. The description property provides information about the nature of the transaction. This can be considered a final level of categorisation (you get enhanced statistics and increased efficiency if you keep the description consise and without inflections, and reuse it for similar transactions).

The comment property is used for any additional information, not used for categorisation, about the transaction. If you for example buy a pair of shoes, you might create an expense in a clothing category, with the description Shoes and comments Shiny red Pradas.

The third property, associated file, allows you to specify a link to a file on the computer which will be connected to the transaction. This will typically be receipt, invoice or payslip, but any file can be selected. The file will not be moved, copied or modified. If the file is moved or renamed outside of &app;, the file will not be accessible from within the program.

Expenses have two additional properties which can be shown or hidden using Settings Use Additional Transaction Properties (deactivating this option will not permanently remove any data from already entered transactions). The quantity property denotes how many entities was involved in the transaction. This can be a whole number, as in two CD's, or a fraction, as in 0.56 kg apples (units are not included). This property is by default set to 1 and does not affect the value (the value per entity equals value divided by quantity). The payee property represents the person or entity, for example the store where goods where bought, which receives the money. Incomes have a similar payer property, representing the one who gave you the money, for example your employer.

### The Transactions Views

The transactions views show a list of expenses, incomes or transfers. By default all transactions (including scheduled transactions, shown in italics) up till and including the current date are shown, sorted in falling date order. The sort order can be changed by clicking the appropriate column header. Transactions with the same date are shown in the order they were entered.

Statistics are shown immediately below the list. These numbers summarises all transactions currently in the list, unless two or more transactions are selected (in which case the numbers only refers to selected transactions).

#### Filter Transactions

Below the list of transactions is a section for filtering transactions. By default the tab for editing transactions is shown instead. To show the filter tab, click on Filter above the input fields. This enables you to select which transactions are shown in the list above.

You can filter transactions based on date, value, account, category, description and/or payee/payer. Unless the exact match box is marked, text in the description and payee/payer fields will be matched against any part of the of the corresponding transaction properties, including comments in the case of the description field. You can opt to show all transactions that do not match (all) the filter criteria, by activating Exclude instead of Include.

### Create/Edit Transactions

New transactions can be entered in two ways, either with the new expense/income/transfer dialogs (accessed from context menus, the Transactions menu or the toolbar), or from the transactions views, below the transaction list. The edit a previous transaction either double-click the transaction (there are further options in different menus) or select (single-click) the transaction in the transactions view and change the values in the fields below the list. Notice that you have to press Apply or the changes are lost.

Both the Enter key and the Tabulator key, on the keyboard, can be used to move to the next field. When in the last field of column (in the transaction edit dialog this is the last input field; in the transaction view this refers to both the date field and the comments field), the Enter key will however instead confirm the entered values (equivalent to pressing OK in the transaction edit dialog, or the Add button in the transaction view).

When entering a previously used description in the description field, all are other fields (except date) will be automatically filled with the values of the last transaction with the same description. This requires that the current value in the value/cost/income field is zero. If the description field is empty, the category and payee/payer fields exhibit a similar behaviour.

#### The Value Input Field

The input field for transaction values support basic arithmetic calculation. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and exponentiation are supported and uses standard order of operations (1+2*3 equals 7, not 9).

Currency conversion is also supported. Currencies will be converted to the currency of the currently selected account of the transaction. Note that the currency symbols used for conversion must be unambiguous. Symbols used for multiple currencies are not allowed (e.g. $ is used by many currencies, and you should therefor type USD instead for conversion from U.S. dollars), except for the main currency.

By default the value field uses the current currency as prefix or suffix. This can be omitted when entering a new value and is ignored when using currency conversion (expressions similar to £5 € are allowed).

If arithmetic or conversion have been used, the calculated expression is copied to the comments field, if empty.

#### Edit Multiple Transaction Simultaneously

It is possible to change the value of one or more properties of multiple transactions at the same time (e.g. if you want to move some transactions to a new subcategory). Select the transactions you want to edit in the transaction list and select Edit transactions (Occurrence) from the context menu or the Transactions menu. A window will open with a list of properties that can be changed. The fields are prefilled with the values of the first transaction. Next to each property is a box for marking each property that will be changed. Properties with equal value for all selected transaction are marked for change by default. Enter new values for appropriate properties and click OK to make the change.

### Refunds and Repayments

You should enter a refund instead of an income when you receive money as a refund for a previous expense. This can for example be if you return a product and get your money back, or if you buy a present that you and your friend will give to a mutual friend, and you receive your friends share of the cost later.

The create a new refund use Transactions New Refund/Repayment or the context menu with the refunded expense selected in the expense list. You will have to enter the amount of money refunded (initially set to full refund) and the date of the refund. In addition you should specify the product quantity returned by you. In the first expample above this is clearly 1, but in the second case this is less clear. It can either be 0.5 if you count it as a half product, or 0 if considered a whole gift (none returned). The use is more obvious if the quantity property is activated for all expenses and incomes. The refund is recorded as an expense with negative cost and quantity.

Repayments are similar tto refunds, but is used for incomes that you have been forced to repay.

### Split Transactions

Split transactions are used when a single transfer to/from an account is used for multiple transactions. This is not when money is withdrawn from a bank account through an ATM and you go shopping (that is first a transfer from a bank account to cash, then multiple regular expenses). A split transaction will for example be appropriate when you make a single payment for multiple products (especially if they are categorised differently), or when you pay with your credit card in a store and tell them to withdraw some extra money, which you get as cash in your hand.

It is up to you how and when you want to use split transactions. Multiple ordinary transactions can be used with the same end result, even though one way might represent reality better.

A split transaction can be created from scratch using Transactions New Split Transaction or from the context menu. It is however often more efficient to use the join action. This way you can enter transactions the usual way and later join them in a split transaction. Select the transactions to join and activate Join Transactions from the Transactions menu or the context menu, and enter a description. All transactions in a split transaction share a common date, account and payee/payer.

To reverse the action and transform transactions in a split transaction to ordinary transactions, select a split transaction and use Split Up.

In the transaction list (ledger) for the account associated with the split, the split will be shown as only one transaction, but everywhere else the parts of the split will appear as ordinary transactions. You cannot edit a transaction that is part of a split transaction directly from the fields below the transaction lists. Instead you should press Edit to edit the whole split transaction, or double click the transaction in the list to edit the separate transaction (excluding the common date, account and payee/payer properties of the split transaction).

### Expenses with Multiple Payments

Expenses with multiple payments are similar to split transactions, but instead of using a common date and account, they share description, category, quantity and comments. The intended usage is for when multiple payments, primarily from different accounts, are made for a single product/service. They should not be used for payment plans/loans (although an expenses with multiple payments is created for expenses with downpayment).

Expenses with multiple payments can be created using the Transactions New Expense with Multiple Payments or by selecting Multiple accounts/payments in the account menu for an expense.

Expenses with multiple payments will show up as a single transaction in the expenses view, but as multiple transactions in the ledger. Similarly to split transactions they cannot be edited directly from the fields under the expenses list.

Note that even if you create a recurring expense with multiple payments where each payment has a different date, all recurrences after the first occurrence will use the same date for each separate payment. If a future date is set for the first, or only, occurrence, the program will only ask for confirmation of the expense on the first date.

#### Expense Paid with Loan

An expense paid with loan is not actually recorded as a specific kind of transaction, but is a shortcut for creating a debt account and an expense with multiple payments (or a regular expense if downpayment is zero). Expenses with multiple payments can be created using the Loans Expense Paid with Loan or by selecting Paid with loan in the account menu for an expense.

Enter the usual expense properties (account excluded), an optional lender and optional value and account for downpayment (represents the amount of money you pay immediately).

### Debt Payments

Debt payments are a third kind of combined transaction. These group together repayment, interest and fees. Ordinary transactions can also be used for these purposes. Interest and fee are expenses and loan reductions are transfers.

Debt reduction represents the amount you (re)pay that actually reduces the value of the debt. Interest represents the amount the debt has increased (before debt reduction) and may or may not be paid directly. Fee usually represents an administration fee added to each bill. You only need the enter one of the three values (the other can be zero).

Loans New Unpaid Interest also creates loan payment transactions but provides a simplified dialog when the debt has increased because of added interest.

Transactions in a loan payment cannot be edited separately.

### Scheduled Transactions

A scheduled transaction is a transaction that is planned to occur, and thus it has not occurred yet. It is basically just a transaction, of any type, that has a date set in the future. When a scheduled transaction has occurred, it becomes a regular transaction. Scheduled transactions makes it possible to keep track of and be reminded of future transactions. &app; will ask for confirmation when the transaction is expected to have occurred.

A scheduled transaction can be recurring, thus it will regularly occur on a certain date or with a certain interval. This is useful mostly for bills and salaries, which then need not be entered manually each time, and you can check &app; for upcoming payments. When a recurring scheduled recurring transaction has occurred, a regular transaction is created, the occurrence date is removed from the recurrence, and the scheduled transaction date is moved forward to the next occurrence. If you modify the properties of a recurring transaction, the previous occurrences will not be affected and vice versa. A scheduled transaction with no occurrences left is removed.

Single occurrence scheduled transactions are create just like ordinary transactions, except with a future date. Recurring transactions can only be created from the transaction dialogs (opened from the schedule view, toolbar buttons or menu items, or when double clicking a transaction), with recurrences specified in the second tab.

The next occurrence of each scheduled transaction is displayed in the schedule view. You can edit or delete either the single occurrence or all future recurrences. If a single occurrence is edited, it will be created as a separate transaction, and any changes made to recurring transaction will not affect this occurrence. If the date is changed to the current or a past date, the scheduled transaction becomes an ordinary transaction.

When a scheduled transaction is due, when the current date has gone past the date of the occurrence (or same date after 6 pm), &app; will ask you to confirm that the transaction really has occurred. You are then given the option to accept the transaction as it is, make some changes (for example the cost of your telephone bill might vary slightly), or postpone it. If the scheduled transaction is not postponed, it will become an ordinary transaction.

## Securities

Securities represents money invested in stock, bonds and mutual funds. &app; does not differentiate between different kinds of securities, even though the terminology used is better suited for some. Securities and associated statistics are displayed in the securities view.

The create a new security in &app; use Securities New Security or the New Security button. First select an account. Securities are associated with an account of securities type, which cannot be associated with ordinary transactions. Enter name of the security and select type. Specify initial shares if you do not want to back-track all transactions (it is always preferred to use transactions instead, for better statistics), and enter a quotation with associated date.

Automatic updates of stock quotes are not supported. You will have to update the value per share manually (using Set Quote or Edit Quotes in Securities or context menu) for the security value to be up to date.

### Security Transactions

The following transactions are supported for securities:

Shares bought

  When additional shares of a security have been bought or received (as an income). Specify two of number of shares bought, price per share and total cost (including fees/commission), and select an account (if bought) or income category (if received).

Shares sold

  When some shares of a security have been sold or given away (or used as payment). Specify two of number of shares sold, price per share and total income, and select an account (if sold) or expense category (if given away).

Shares traded

  When shares of one security are sold and shares of another security are bought for the same amount of money, without transfer of income to an account in between.

Dividend

  When money is received for each share of a security. Specify income and income category.

Reinvested dividend

  When dividend is received as additional shares.

All shares bought and sold are listed as transfers (listed in the transfers view), unless recieved/given away (in which case the transaction are listed as an income or expense), and dividends as incomes (in the incomes view). You can list all transactions associated with a single security using Securities Transactions (or the context menu).

### The Securities View

Statistics displayed for each security:

Value

  Value at period end date date (quotation * shares).

Quotation

  Price per share at period end date.

Shares

  Shares at period end date.

Cost

  Total price paid for all buys minus sells, at end date.

Profit

  Profit during the period (value + dividends - cost).

Yearly Rate

  Percent increase of value per share (for a share bought at the beginning of the period), during the period on a yearly basis. Includes dividends.

In the total statistics displayed below the security list, quotation and yearly rate are weighted based on the value of each security.

Predictions are simplistic and based on previous development, with respect to dividends and quotations, only. Future quotations are calculated using quotations during the nearest past time. The quotation one month from current date is assumed to have increased at the same rate as during the past month (or the date before with a specified quotation). Dividends are always predicted using full past years (they are assumed to occur on a yearly basis).

## Using Multiple Currencies

&app; support per account currencies. A different currency can be selected for each account (for assets and liabilities).

The main currency determines the default currency for new accounts and the currency used for statistics. The sum of values from accounts in different currencies and the total value and change of categories (for example in the accounts view, or in the statistical reports and diagrams) are be shown in the main currency. By default the main currency is set to the system wide local currency. Use Settings Set Main Currency to change the main currency. A dialog is then shown, where you can select a new main currency, with the option to change the currency of all accounts using the previous main currency.

The currency of an account is selected in the dialog for account creation/editing. It is generally not advisable to change the currency of an account with associated transactions. This will leave the numerical value of associated transactions unchanged, but the actual monetary value might be radically different.

For transfers between accounts with different currencies both withdrawn and deposited amount must be specified. The same is true for loan payments (reductions) where the loan is in a different currency from the account used for the payment. Conversion losses are not treated as expenses and are thus not included in statistics for expenses and profits.

Included currencies support automatic exchange rate updates If multiple currencies are in use, the exchange rates are automatically updated once every week, but they can also be updated using File Update Exchange Rates.

If a currency is not available, you can add it manually using the top item in currency menu when creating a new or editing a present account (it can also be done from main currency selection dialog). You must specify the three letter code of the currency and you should enter an exchange rate in European euros. The currently selected currency of the account can be edited using the button directly under the currency menu. The exchange rate will not be updated automatically.

### Which Exchange Rate is used When?

&app; saves, but does not download, historical exchange rates. It is not obvious which exchange rate should and is used when converting the value of transaction to a different currency, for display. In the account view, the exchange rate nearest the current end date (of the displayed period) is always used for the sum of assets and liabilities.

For expense and income categories, however, their are two options (selectable from the Settings menu) available. The first option is to use the appropriate exchange rate for the date of each separate transaction. The second default option is to simply use to current exchange rate, regardless of the transaction date (or the current end date). The same logic is used in the transaction lists for transactions using multiple currencies, as well as in different statistics (with the exception of historical account values). None of the options are optimal and which one is more appropriate depends on the typical flow between accounts in different currencies. This is however of minor importance for stable currencies.

### Currency Conversion

You can quickly convert between different currencies by using the currency converter (File Currency Converter). Select currencies for conversion in the drop-down menus on the right and enter a value in one of the fields to the left. The value is converted as you type.

It is also possible to do currency conversion in every value field elsewhere in &app; (see ).

## Statistics

You can get an overview of your economical situation by using the charts and reports accessible from the Statistics menu.

### Categories Comparison

The categories comparison report allows comparison between or within expense and/or income categories. The initial view shows all categories with subcategories hidden, with values for the past year. The display settings can be changed at the bottom of the window.

The source can changed to also display every separate subcategory, or only show a single category. If a specific category is selected, you will have the option to compare the values for subcategories, different transaction descriptions or payees/payers. The data can be broken even further down by only comparing descriptions for a specific payee/payer, payees/payers for a specific description.

Below, the period shown can be selected. For dates extending into the future, scheduled transactions are included in the value, but not budgeted incomes/expenses.

Finally you can select which columns shall be displayed. Displayable columns include total value, averages based on different time periods (e.g. the daily average equals the total value divided by the number of days in the selected time period), total quantity, and average value of each item (total value divided by total quantity).

The buttons in the upper right corner allows you to save the view as a HTML file or print it on paper.

The categories comparison chart displays the same total values as the report, but in a pie or bar chart. The chart type and style is selected in the upper right corner of the window.

For the chart you can select (in the lower right corner) to display all expense or income categories (with subcategories shown or hidden), or a specific category. If a single category is selected, the data is divided into subcategories, or (if there are no subcategory) into different transaction descriptions. Here you will also have the option to compare the value of different accounts (assets).

As in the report you can select the time period values are shown for (for accounts the from date is ignored). In the upper right there also here buttons for saving (to an image file), or printing the chart.

Click on a sector, or the corresponding title in the legend, to show it exploded (separated).

### Development Over Time

The development over time report shows values for each separate month and year. Initially total profits (incomes minus expenses) are shown. Below the table you will have the option to show expenses or incomes separately instead. These can be further broken down into separate categories and transaction descriptions. Note that payments that reduces a debt are not counted as expenses.

At the bottom of the window displayed columns can be selected. The columns include total value, averages based on different time periods (e.g. the daily average equals the total value divided by the number of days in the selected time period), total quantity, and average value of each item (total value divided by total quantity). The buttons in the upper right corner allows you to save the view as a HTML file or print it on paper.

The development over time chart shows how expenses and incomes change over time, with values grouped by month, in line or bar chart. The chart type and style is selected in the upper right corner of the window. Initially incomes and expenses are shown from the month and year of the first transaction to the the end of the last budget month (unless the first and last month are the same).

The time span displayed can be changed below the chart. Bar chart can at most display one whole year at the same time. For future dates scheduled transactions are included, but budgeted incomes/expenses are only included when all categories are combined (including the profits source).

Below the table you will have the option to show profits(expenses minus incomes) or specific categories. Categories can be shown combined or separately ⸺ all with separate lines/bars or only one. Categories can be further broken down into transaction descriptions and separate payees/payers. There is also an option to display total accumulated assets and liabilities (the Assets and Liabilities source).

The char can show the total values for each month, the daily average (within each month), the total quantity, or average value per quantity each month. Daily averages compensates for the different number of days in month, but this is offset by the fact that large expenses and incomes often occur monthly.

Click on a label in the chart legend to hide a data series from the chart. Move the mouse over a line or a bar to show details above single values. Click, hold and move the pointer (drag) to zoom in the chart. In the upper right there also here buttons for saving (to an image file), or printing the chart.

## Import & Export of Transactions

### QIF Files

Files using the Quicken Interchange Format can be read by most personal money management software. The format is however old and has limitations, which means that data might be lost during import and export.

#### QIF Import

Select File Import Import QIF File and follow the instructions. QIF is a file format that might differ much depending on the software that saved the file. How much details you will need to provide about the file depends on ambiguity of the date format, how localised the file is, and how well accounts are defined. Securities, investment transactions, memorised transactions, budgets, and classes are not imported.

#### QIF Export

Activate File Export QIF File and select account to export, format for dates and numbers, and filename. It is possible to export transactions from all accounts, but multi-account QIF files are not always supported by other software. Not all transaction properties are exported.

### CSV Import

This function imports data files with clear text values in columns separated by a character (comma, space, tab, etc.), with a new transaction on each row. Select File Import Import CSV File and enter details about the structure of the file you want to import. Transaction parameters can either be imported from a column in the file or a set to a specified value.

### CSV or HTML Export

Every account and transaction list in &app; can be saved to a HTML or CSV file. HTML files are suitable for display in a web browser and CSV (comma separated values) files can be opened in most spreadsheet programs. Use File Export View or the corresponding toolbar button to save a list of accounts, expenses, incomes, transfers, securities or scheduled transactions. The displayed values will be exported (for accounts and securities the current time period is used and for transactions the current filter and sort order is adhered to). The ledger can be exported using the Export button in the upper left corner of the ledger window.

### Merge &app; File

Accounts and transactions from another &app; file can be imported to the current file using File Import Import &app; File. All accounts and transactions from the file will be copied. When the file has been selected you will be presented with alternatives for handling of duplicate transactions, accounts, categories and securities. If you select the rename options ("imported") will be appended to the name, otherwise the transactions will be added to the already present accounts with the same name. This makes it easier to distinguish and manipulate imported transactions. (For information on how to modify/move mmultiple transactions at the same time see .)

## Credits and License

Program copyright 2017 Hanna Knutsson hanna.knutsson@protonmail.com

Contributors:

- Hanna Knutsson hanna.knutsson@protonmail.com

Documentation copyright 2017 Hanna Knutsson hanna.knutsson@protonmail.com