Your accounts are where the money is: bank accounts, credit cards, cash, and investments. Add each one with its balance, and IAPZ Cashflow works out where every balance is heading.
Add an account
- Go to Accounts and choose Add account.
- Give it a name you'll recognize, like "Business chequing" or "Visa".
- Choose its group, or choose New group… and type a name (see Groups). If you leave a new group's name empty, it's named after the account's type.
- Choose its type: chequing, savings, credit card, cash, or investment. Credit cards don't warn you before going below zero, since owing money on them is normal.
- Choose its currency. Most accounts are CAD.
- Enter the opening balance and the date that balance was correct, for example today's balance from your bank.
- Choose Add account.
Credit cards: enter what you owe as a negative number. If you owe $450, enter -450.
Your balances
The Accounts page shows each account's current balance, in your groups, with each group's total and the total across all accounts in Canadian dollars. The sidebar shows them too; choose one to see its own balance, charts, and transactions. An account's page shows the last 30 days and the next 30; choose other dates at the top to look further ahead or back.
An account's current balance is its opening balance plus every transaction that has cleared. Planned transactions don't change it; they show up in the forecast instead.
Accounts in other currencies are converted to Canadian dollars for the total, using the day's exchange rate. Until a rate is available, those accounts are left out of the total and the page tells you so.
Groups
Groups are yours to organize, for example Business, Personal, and Credit cards. They decide how your accounts are listed in the sidebar and on the Accounts page, and in what order.
On the Accounts page, choose Groups to:
- add a group: type its name and choose Add;
- rename one: change its name and choose Save (or press Enter);
- reorder them with the up and down arrows;
- delete one. If it still has accounts, choose which group they move to, then Move and delete.
To move one account to another group, open it, choose Edit, and pick its Group.
When an import adds new accounts, they go into a group named after their type, such as "Chequing". Move them wherever you like afterwards.
Adjust a balance
Some balances change without a transaction you'd enter, like an investment going up or down. To bring an account up to date:
- Open the account and choose Edit.
- Under Adjust balance, enter what the account is really worth and the date.
- Choose Adjust balance.
IAPZ records the difference as a balance adjustment, so your history still adds up. You can use this for any account, for example to correct a small difference from your bank statement.
Change or archive an account
Open the account and choose Edit to change its name, group, type, opening balance, or date.
Once an account has transactions, its currency can't change, because its amounts were entered in that currency.
When you close an account, open it and choose ⋯ → Archive account. It's hidden from the total and the forecast, and its history is kept. You'll find it under Archived accounts at the bottom of the Accounts page, where you can bring it back.
Tips
- Tracking investments: an investment account holds one total value, like "Questrade: $25,000". If you want to follow individual holdings, add a separate account for each one.
- Personal and business together: keep personal and business accounts side by side in the same cashflow, and record money moving between them as transfers.