Transaction

Transactions play a fundamental role in bookkeeping. They specify the flow of your money between the accounts. In Finances a transaction must have a date and two or more postings. A transaction can also have a note, payee, number and attachment.

Postings

A posting specifies in a transaction how much money is transfered from or to an account.

In the example below one posting reduces the Cash account by $12, and the another posting increases the Food account by $12.

12016-09-15 Pizza
2    Assets:Cash   -$12
3    Expenses:Food  $12

In double-entry bookkeeping the sum of all postings in a transaction must be zero.

Recurring

Transactions can repeat in a specific interval.

For example for your Netflix subscription, you can configure the repeat interval of the transaction to be every month. A repeating transaction can never end, end on a date or end after a specific number of times.

You can also configure your repeating transaction to only occurs on workdays – some banks only process transaction on workdays.

Attachments

You can attach images and PDF files to transactions.

Attachments are stored internally by the app. This means you can delete the original file if you need more space on your device.

Finances for iOS lets you scan and attach invoices to transactions.

Examples

Expense

You pay $75 for groceries at Waltmart from your checking account.

12017-01-01 Walmart
2    Assets:Bank             -$75
3    Expenses:Food:Groceries  $75

Income

You get $2.000 salary on your checking account.

12017-01-15 Salary
2    Assets:Bank    $2,000
3    Income:Salary -$2,000

Transfer

You transfer $500 from your PayPal to your checking account.

12017-01-15 Transfer
2    Assets:Bank    $500
3    Assets:PayPal -$500

A transfer can also include different currencies. For example you withdraw $500 from your PayPal account and get €400 on your checking account.

12017-01-15 Transfer
2    Assets:Bank    €400
3    Assets:PayPal -$500

Split Transaction

You pay $92 in a steak house – the bill is $80 and you tip $12.

12017-01-20 Steak house
2    Assets:Cash              -$92
3    Expenses:Food:Eating Out  $80
4    Expenses:Tip              $12

Receivable

You pay $50 for 2 cinema tickets ($25 each – one for a friend and one for you). The friend will give the money back later.

12017-01-21 Cinema Tickets
2	Assets:Cash            -$50
3	Expenses:Entertainment  $25
4	Assets:Receivables      $25

Account Balances

1Assets
2├── Cash         -$50
3└── Receivables   $25
4
5Expenses
6└── Entertainment $25

When you look at the Receivables account, you see that it has a balance of $25. When you get the money from the friend, you transfer $25 from the Receivables to the Cash account.

12017-01-25 Cinema Ticket
2    Assets:Cash         $25
3    Assets:Receivables -$25

Account Balances

1Assets
2├── Cash         -$25
3└── Receivables   $ 0
4    
5Expenses
6└── Entertainment $25

Your receivables are now zero because nobody owes you money anymore. Also in the Entertainment account you see that you have expenses of $25 – which is correct because the other $25 were not your expenses.

Tax

Let’s say you run a business. When you buy goods, the purchase price includes a prepaid tax, which you get back from your tax authority at a later date. You track all your prepaid taxes in the Assets:Receivables:Tax account. When you purchase an iPhone for $1,200, you also pay $200 prepaid tax.

12018-04-05 iPhone
2    Assets:Cash           -$1,200
3    Assets:Receivables:Tax $  200
4    Expenses:Hardware      $1,000

The balance of the Tax account is the money that your tax authority owes you, which is now $200. When you get the money from your tax authority, you create the following transaction.

12018-04-31 Tax Return
2    Assets:Bank             $200
3    Assets:Receivables:Tax -$200

The balance of the Tax account is now zero again.