Accounts and balances

One account for each place

A balance is only worth trusting if you know where it comes from. That starts with giving every real place you keep money its own account. The usual everyday set is a bank account, a credit card and savings.

The free plan allows two accounts, so a third needs a paid plan. If you're on Free, start with the two you use most.

Your bank account

Start with the account that moves the most. Enter a name, choose the checking type and pick the currency. For the opening balance, enter what your bank shows today. From then on, abacova works out the balance by adding up every transaction.

Your credit card

A credit card is an account too, even though it works the other way round: what you spend on it is money you owe. Choose the credit card type and leave the opening balance at zero. Each purchase then takes the balance below zero, and that figure is what you owe.

An opening balance can't be negative. If you already owe money on the card, enter that debt as a transaction.

A savings account

Keeping savings apart from your checking account shows you at a glance what's for spending and what isn't. Choose the savings type and enter what you have put aside right now.

Each account keeps its own balance, and abacova adds them up in your display currency.

Where each balance comes from

Record an expense on your checking account, such as the electricity bill: choose expense, then enter the amount, a description you'll recognise and the account it's paid from.

New transactions start as pending, which means they haven't yet been checked against a real bank statement. abacova can show balances with or without pending amounts. You can mark a transaction as confirmed in its form, or reconcile it against your statement, which also locks it.

A card purchase

Now record a purchase on the card, such as a tank of fuel. Enter it like any other expense, but choose the credit card as the account. The card's balance drops below zero, and the bank account doesn't change. The bank's money only moves when you pay the card.

Moving money between your accounts

Moving money from one account to another isn't spending it. A transfer is neither an expense nor income, so it changes where your money sits, not how much you have.

A transfer to savings

In the new-transaction dialog, choose Transfer. Pick the account the money leaves and the account it arrives in, then enter the amount and a description. abacova records both sides at once and keeps them linked. If you open a transfer later, you edit both sides together, so they always agree.

Paying off the card

Paying off the card is a transfer too, from your bank account to the card. Enter what you owe. The bank account goes down, the card comes back towards zero, and neither counts as spending again: the purchase was already counted when you made it.

When you stop using an account

Say you cancel a card. Rather than deleting its account, archive it. An archived account keeps all its transactions and stops appearing in the pickers when you record new ones. Deleting is much rarer, and abacova refuses it while the account is still in use elsewhere.