From c31079fc59229eaed4f34c8669610f00ae35a24f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: James Cole Date: Sat, 31 Jan 2015 21:22:06 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] Updated full description (markdown) --- full-description.md | 27 ++++++++++++++++++++++++--- 1 file changed, 24 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/full-description.md b/full-description.md index bb053e5..c34132c 100644 --- a/full-description.md +++ b/full-description.md @@ -47,7 +47,11 @@ This seems pretty pointless but it is useful when transferring money back and fo Transactions have a few useful fields: a description, the amount (duh), the date, the accounts involved (from and to) and some meta-information. -Read more about creating transactions here (TODO). +In Firefly, a transaction can be a withdrawal, a deposit or a transfer. Beyond the obvious, they are slightly different from one another: + +- Withdrawals have a dynamic "expense account" which you can fill in freely. +- Deposits don't have budgets, but do have dynamic "revenue accounts". +- Transfers can be linked to piggy banks. So you could move € 200 to your savings account and have it added to your piggy bank "new couch". Transfers don't have budgets either. ## Budgets @@ -98,11 +102,28 @@ The general gist is that saving money is difficult. So you could set a target am ## Recurring transactions -Rent, bills and insurance come back every month. By creating "recurring transactions" Firefly III will try to tell you what to expect, and when. I built this because I always forgot my phone bill (which is huge) and this helps preventing it being a nasty surprise. +Rent, bills and insurance come back every month. By creating "recurring transactions" Firefly III will try to tell you what to expect, and when. I built this because I always forgot my yearly web hosting bill (which is huge) and this helps preventing it being a nasty surprise. + +## Bills + +Rent. Comes back every month. Create a bill and Firefly will not only match new withdrawals to bills but also show you which bills are still due and which ones aren't. ## Reports -Speaks for itself. Not very report-y yet. +Speaks for itself. + +### Budget reports + +This is a though one. Let's say you budget 1000,- every month. But one month (after saving up money using the "piggy banks" feature of course!) you decide to buy a 500,- couch. You pay this from your checking account using money you've saved up in your savings account. + +If you give this transfer a one-time budget you're doing it wrong. Instead, you _don't_ give it a budget but rather give it a category. Once you've bought the couch you create two transactions: + +1. A transfer from your savings account to your checking account. +2. A withdrawal (at the store) for the couch. + +This also works for your credit card, should you use it. There's a page on credit cards here (TODO). + +If you relate these two transfers as being "special" most reports will exclude this expense as being "over budget". ## Repeated expenses