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write down the expenses

In previous post, I described a few basic, mostly configuration functionalities of the Family Finance Tracker application. If you have not read it yet, I encourage you to read it first. In this part, I will try to show, how you can use the application on a daily basis. Let’s start with the menu:

Accounts

On this screen, you can define all accounts you want to track in the application.

In the current version, two types of accounts are supported:

  • Bank account
  • Cash

The application has no restrictions about the number of accounts added.

Account list in family budget application

Account list

You can add new accounts from the account list. To add an account, you must enter:

  • name,
  • type (cash or bank account),
  • currency – we support all currency codes in accordance with the ISO-4217 standard,
  • account owner (one of the previously defined “payers”),
  • optional account number,
  • current balance
    add new account to the family budget application

    Adding new account

From the moment the account is saved, its balance will be automatically updated with accordance to the operations entered and assigned to it. The account name can be changed at any time. You can also delete it, until you add any operation to the account. Transfers between accounts can also be made. The example screenshot showing transfer between accounts in different currencies, looks as follows:

Transfer between accounts in family budget application

Transfer between accounts

If the source and destination accounts are in different currencies, the field for entering the exchange rate appears on the screen. After confirming the transfer, the accounts’ balances will be updated with the appropriate values.

Clicking on the selected account will display a list of its operations for  active period (upper right corner of the application).

Home page

The home page is the basic, most often used view. It shows the list of all categories, along with the assigned amounts.

List of categories in the home budget management app

Home page

Main categories can be expanded or collapsed freely – all at once or only selected – by double clicking on the selected item. A single click will display a list of operations to the selected category or subcategory –  for the selected period. Using the plus in the bottom right corner, you can add operations.

adding a new operation in the budgeting application

Add new operation

On the operation input screen, you will need to enter:

  • the category to which the operation will be assigned. Just start typing its name – the list will start to filter automatically,
  • the account on which the operation was performed,
  • payer,
  • the date of the operation – current date set as default,
  • amount – always without a sign. Whether the operation will be counted as income or expense, depends on the category to which we will assign it,
  • description of the operation (optional)

At first glance, it may seem that there are a lot of fields to fill, but in the case of categories, accounts and the payer, the last used items are saved.

In the next operation, these fields will be automatically filled with previous values. The date of the operation is automatically set to the current one. So, in many cases entering only amount and category will be required.

It is also worth mentioning, that you can add operations directly for another currency accounts. In this case, just like in the transfers, a field to enter the exchange rate between the currency of the selected account and the main currency will appear. This is necessary, because the amounts in the summary are always shown in the main currency. Information about the currency of the operation remains available in the system.

Settlement periods

The current version of application allows you to choose monthly or annual view. Current period is displayed in the upper right corner of the screen. After pressing the name of the period, the option to change it will appear on the screen.

billing period in the budgeting application

Settlement period

After changing the current period, the content of the main page will be refreshed.

List of operations

The list of operations can be opened in several ways:

  • from the list of payers. Clicking on any payer, will display all his operations for the selected billing period,
  • from the list of accounts. Clicking on any account, will display all operations from a given account for the selected billing period
  • from the home page. Clicking on any category / sub-category, will display all operations for selected area
List of operations

List of operations

You can click on the selected item in the list of operations. Income / expense operations can be freely edited. You can change the amount, category, payer, etc. They can also be deleted (moving the item to the right will display the icon with the basket). The exception here, are the transfer operations, which currently can not be modified.

 

Reports

Application also has reports view. Currently, it is not very extensive. There is only a pie chart with a percentage distribution of expenses divided per category:

Reports

Reports

Over time, new items will appear here.

Summary

In this post I described the main functionalities of the Family Finance Tracker application. At the moment of publishing this post, the application is not yet available. We test it privately, and I can confidently say that it is already a great tool for writing down expenses. Of course, I realize that there are still a lot of functionalities to be added. We cannot yet say, with a completely clear conscience, that this is a full-fledged home budget management application, and that it is an alternative to for example YNAB.

However, please remember, that what you see was created a little over two months. As soon as we finish the tests and “publish” the beta version, we will start working on next functionalities. At the beginning it will be budgeting, and calculation of net value. I hope that what I have presented convinces you to our vision of this type of tool. If you have any questions or concerns, please write in comments. I will be happy to answer them.


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