Bank Accounts is where you see your money: how much is in each bank, in savings and investments, and how much you owe on the card. Every expense you pay and every income you receive changes an account's balance. That balance feeds the statement, the cash flow and the home dashboard, so accounts come before any entry.
Throughout this article we will follow Marina. She has a Nubank Checking Account with R$ 4,200, an Itaú Savings Account with R$ 9,000 and a Nubank Mastercard with an R$ 8,000 limit, due on the 10th of every month.
Add an account
In the menu, go to Records › Bank Accounts and click Add Account. The fields are:
- Account Name (required) — how you recognize the account in lists. E.g. "Nubank Checking Account".
- Financial Institution — pick the bank from the list so the account gets its logo, or type a free name.
- Branch and Account Number — optional, for your reference only. The branch takes digits only; the account number takes digits and a hyphen.
- Account Type (required) — Checking Account, Savings Account, Credit Card or Investment.
- Initial Balance — how much the account had on the day you started using Finances. It can only be set once: after the account has an initial balance, the field is locked.
- Current Balance — if you leave it blank, it starts equal to the initial balance.
- Active account — checked by default.
Marina adds the Nubank Checking Account with an initial balance of R$ 4,200 and the Itaú Savings Account with R$ 9,000. A regular account cannot be turned into a card later, and a card cannot become a regular account: if you pick the wrong type, add the account again with the right one.
Credit cards are set up differently
When you choose Credit Card, the balance fields go away and the statement cycle fields appear:
- Credit limit (required).
- Due day (required) — from 1 to 31. In shorter months, the due date falls on the last day.
- Closing (days before due date) (required) — from 1 to 30. This decides which statement each purchase goes into.
- Debit account (pays the statement) — the account that usually pays the card. Other cards are not listed here.
- Current statement balance and Balance type — only when adding the card. If this month's statement already has R$ 1,350 in purchases when you start, enter that amount as Debit. Use Credit when the bank owes you, for example after a refund.
Marina enters due day 10 and closing 7 days before. The statement closes on the 3rd: a purchase made up to the 3rd goes into the statement due on the 10th; a purchase from the 4th onward goes into the next month's statement.
The rule that causes the most questions: a card purchase does not change any account's balance. It goes into the statement. The money only leaves the checking account when you pay the statement. That way the same purchase is never counted twice.
Card statements
In the accounts list, open the menu on the card's row and choose Statements. The top shows the Limit, the Current debt and the Available limit. Below are the statements, each with its due date, total, amount paid and amount left to pay.
- View entries lists the purchases in that statement.
- Pay statement asks for the Payment amount, the Debit account and the Payment date, which cannot be in the future. You can pay part of it: the statement stays partially paid until it is settled. The amount cannot exceed what is left.
- Reopen statement undoes the recorded payments and returns the money to the debit account. Use it to fix a payment recorded by mistake.
The statement closes on its own on the closing date. If you record an old purchase in a statement that has already received a payment, it goes into the current open statement, so what was already paid is not changed.
In the expenses list, a card purchase has no payment of its own: once the statement is paid, it shows that it was paid through the statement.
An account's statement
Click the account name to open its statement. It starts on the current month and shows the Opening balance for the period. Then come the transactions grouped by day, each day with its Day total and the balance at the end of it. Money in has a plus sign; money out, a minus sign.
You can pick shortcuts such as this month, the last 90 days or this year, or a custom range of up to 366 days. Export creates the same view as the screen in Excel, CSV or PDF.
A card's statement only shows statement payments. To see what was bought, use View card statements.
Fix the balance and deactivate
If the balance in Finances does not match the bank, use Edit on the account's row and change the Current Balance. The difference becomes a balance adjustment entry in the statement. The balance changes without erasing history, and the cash flow still adds up.
If someone recorded a payment in that account while you were editing, the system warns you and asks whether to use the updated balance or keep the amount you typed.
Deactivate takes the account out of the selection lists without deleting anything: entries, statements and balance stay, and you can Activate it again at any time. An inactive account cannot send or receive transfers.
Transfers between accounts
A transfer is money changing places: it is neither income nor an expense, and your total stays the same. In Transactions › Transfers, click New Transfer:
- Source Account and Destination Account — they must be different. Each account shows its balance next to it.
- Amount, Date (from 01/01/2020 to one year ahead) and Description (3 to 255 characters).
- Click Transfer. Both balances change right away.
Marina transfers R$ 1,000 from the Nubank Checking Account to the Itaú Savings Account with the description "Travel savings". Checking drops to R$ 3,200, savings rises to R$ 10,000, and her total stays at R$ 13,200.
A transfer is recorded as completed and cannot be edited. If the amount is wrong, use Delete: both balances go back to what they were. Then record the correct transfer.
Do not use a transfer to pay the card: it does not reduce the statement. Pay with the Pay statement button.
The list has a search and filters for period, minimum amount, maximum amount, source account and destination account. Exporting the transfers list is part of the Pro and Enterprise plans.
Where this shows up in the rest of the system
- Expenses and Income — when you settle an entry, you choose the account, and its balance changes.
- OFX import — the bank statement is imported into an account and matched against what is already recorded.
- Reports › Cash Flow and Credit Card — built from the balances and statements here.
- Calendar — card purchases show up on the due date of the statement they went into.
Where to go next
- Expenses and income (personal) — record what comes in and goes out and settle it in the right account.
- Data import — bring the bank's OFX statement into an account.
- Categories — classify card purchases and account expenses.
- Budget — set a monthly spending cap per category.
In short: add each account with today's balance and each card with its due and closing days. Card purchases go into the statement and only leave the account when you pay the statement. Fix differences with a balance adjustment, and use transfers only to move money between your own accounts.