Help & Documentation
Finralis uses envelope budgeting, your money lives in Accounts and is planned in Budgets. Transactions keep the two in sync. Once you understand this, everything else follows.
Every dollar sits in an Account (checking, savings, credit card, etc.) and is assigned to a Budget, a named category with a purpose, like Rent, Groceries, or Savings.
Your budget allocations should always equal your non-investment account balances. When they match, the Budget Delta is $0.00. When they don't (usually after income) the dashboard prompts you to allocate the difference.
Recurring Expenses are informational only. They summarize and present upcoming charges but don't affect balances, record actual charges as transactions.
To get set up:
- Add your accounts. Go to Accounts and add each bank account, credit card, and investment account. Enter the current balance for each.
- Create your budgets. Go to Budgets and add spending categories (e.g. Rent, Groceries, Savings). If unsure where to start, try three: Needs, Wants, and Savings.
- Allocate your money. After adding accounts, the Dashboard shows an unallocated Budget Delta. Click it to distribute your balances across budgets.
- Record transactions as they happen. Each time you spend, earn, or transfer money, add a transaction. This keeps balances and allocations accurate.
Five transaction types, each with different required fields.
| Type | What it does | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Income | Increases an account balance. Creates unallocated money to distribute to budgets. | Salary, freelance payment, refund, gift |
| Expense | Decreases an account balance and reduces a budget's allocation. | Any purchase or bill paid from a specific budget |
| Bank Transfer | Moves money between two bank accounts. No budget change. | Moving money from checking to savings |
| Budget Transfer | Moves allocation between two budgets. No account balance change. | Reallocating money mid-month (e.g. pulling from Wants to cover Rent) |
| Credit Card Payment | Moves money from a bank account to reduce your credit card balance. | Paying your credit card bill |
Recording income
Add a transaction with type Income and select the account it landed in. The balance increases immediately.
Allocating to budgets
After recording income, the Budget Delta increases: the money is in your account but not yet assigned to a budget. Go to Budgets → Allocate (or click the delta on the dashboard) to distribute it. Enter amounts for each budget until the remaining delta reaches $0.00.
Why allocate separately?
Separating income from allocation lets you decide where money goes after receiving it, rather than locking it to a category upfront.
Budget Delta
The Budget Delta is the gap between your account balances and budget allocations. Ideally, it's $0.00.
- Positive delta: money in your accounts not yet assigned to a budget. Go to Allocate.
- Negative delta: your budgets exceed your account balances. Check for a data entry error or missing transaction.
Net Worth
Calculated as: Bank total + Investments − debt. Hide it with the eye icon in the Net Worth card, or under Settings.
Account types
- Bank: Checking, Savings, HYSA. Included in budget math.
- Credit: Credit cards. The balance shown is what you owe; paying your card reduces it.
- Investment: Brokerage, IRA, Roth IRA. Tracked separately; excluded from budget allocations.
Editing a balance
Correct an account balance from the edit screen. The change is logged as a manual adjustment for a full audit trail.
Deleting an account
Deleting an account permanently removes it and all its transactions and ledger history. This cannot be undone, consider zeroing the balance instead if unsure.
Recurring Expenses are a reference list of subscriptions, bills, and regular charges, showing your total monthly and annual committed spending at a glance.
Important: Recurring Expenses don't create transactions or affect balances automatically. When a charge hits, record it as an Expense transaction.
- Frequencies supported: Weekly, Monthly, Annually
- Set the next charge date to keep upcoming bills visible
Transaction list
The Transactions page lists all active transactions in reverse chronological order. You can edit or delete any transaction. Deleting one immediately reverses its effect on your balances.
Ledger
The Ledger is a full audit trail of every balance change, including manual adjustments, reversals, and transfers. Deleted transactions remain visible and can be restored from there.
Investment accounts (brokerage, IRA, Roth IRA) are tracked separately. From the Investments page, log two types of changes:
- Value update: record market gains or losses without a bank transfer
- Contribution: record a transfer from a bank account into an investment account
Investment totals are included in your Net Worth calculation but excluded from budget math.
Your data is stored securely and never sold or used for advertising. You can delete your account at any time from the Profile page, permanently removing all your data.