FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What are the main sections of the apps?
TRACKEN SECTIONS
Transactions, Budget, Dashboard & More |
BUDGETTAIL SECTIONS
Accounts, Budget, Summary & More |
There are four groups of functionalities used to manage related information:
- The Transactions (or Accounts) section is used to manage transactions in each of your accounts;
- The Budget section is used to manage recurring transactions you want to add. For instance, every month you pay Utilities / Gas;
- The Dashboard (or Summary) section shows a set of charts presenting aggregated values for all of your transactions from all accounts, in different periods of time;
- The More section is used to manage the lists you use in your transactions (payees and categories). Please note that in BUDGETTAIL the list of accounts is managed directly in the Accounts section, whereas in TRACKEN they are managed in this More section.
- The Transactions (or Accounts) section is used to manage transactions in each of your accounts;
- The Budget section is used to manage recurring transactions you want to add. For instance, every month you pay Utilities / Gas;
- The Dashboard (or Summary) section shows a set of charts presenting aggregated values for all of your transactions from all accounts, in different periods of time;
- The More section is used to manage the lists you use in your transactions (payees and categories). Please note that in BUDGETTAIL the list of accounts is managed directly in the Accounts section, whereas in TRACKEN they are managed in this More section.
How to manage accounts?
TRACKEN ACCOUNTS
Buttons under the 'Edit' section of the content area panel |
BUDGETTAIL ACCOUNTS
Buttons at the bottom of the left panel |
You can manage accounts of three types: Checking, Savings or Credit.
- To manage accounts in TRACKEN use the buttons under the 'Edit' section of the content area panel. The "See Details" link at the right portion is used to edit the currently selected account in the grid.
- To manage accounts in BUDGETATIL use the buttons at the lower-left portion of the Account section. The gear button is used to edit the currently selected account;
Important: Please note that when you delete an account all of its transactions will also be deleted.
Cool features:
- In TRACKEN you have the ability to inactivate an account, by unchecking account field Active. This will hide your account from the Transactions menu;
- By default the accounts are presented sorted by type (checking, savings, then credit), and then account name. However, in TRACKEN you can override this and define your own sort order: simply type sequence numbers in the field Menu Order.
- To manage accounts in TRACKEN use the buttons under the 'Edit' section of the content area panel. The "See Details" link at the right portion is used to edit the currently selected account in the grid.
- To manage accounts in BUDGETATIL use the buttons at the lower-left portion of the Account section. The gear button is used to edit the currently selected account;
Important: Please note that when you delete an account all of its transactions will also be deleted.
Cool features:
- In TRACKEN you have the ability to inactivate an account, by unchecking account field Active. This will hide your account from the Transactions menu;
- By default the accounts are presented sorted by type (checking, savings, then credit), and then account name. However, in TRACKEN you can override this and define your own sort order: simply type sequence numbers in the field Menu Order.
How to manage transactions?
You can either enter transactions manually, or import from a file you have downloaded from your financial institution:
- To enter transactions manually use the buttons at the bottom of grid in the Transactions (or Account) section;
- To import transactions from a downloaded file use the "Import" button at the top of the screen. The App accepts the most used file formats for financial statements: .ofc, .ofx, and .qfx.
Selected account:
TRACKEN: When you import a file to a selected account for the first time, the app will inform you that the account number is different than the one in the statement. Once you confirm, next time it will verify to ensure that you are importing to the correct selected account.
BUGETTAIL: When you import a file to an account for the first time, the app will ask you to select the destination account. Next time the app will remember to which account you added the transactions, and that account will be automatically selected from the dropdown list.
Account balances calculation:
TRACKEN: Transactions are used to calculate the account balances only after you check the 'C' column. Transactions not checked will not be used for calculating the account balances.
BUDGETTAIL: All entered or imported transactions are automatically used to calculate the account balances. The 'C' column is used only as a reference for you to indicate that you checked against your bank statement;
Cool features:
- As you identify the payees and categories from an imported transaction, the next time the app will remember that selection and do it for you automatically;
- When you mark a transaction as a transfer the app will generate the equivalent transaction in the transfer account. Any modification will be reflected in both accounts.
- To enter transactions manually use the buttons at the bottom of grid in the Transactions (or Account) section;
- To import transactions from a downloaded file use the "Import" button at the top of the screen. The App accepts the most used file formats for financial statements: .ofc, .ofx, and .qfx.
Selected account:
TRACKEN: When you import a file to a selected account for the first time, the app will inform you that the account number is different than the one in the statement. Once you confirm, next time it will verify to ensure that you are importing to the correct selected account.
BUGETTAIL: When you import a file to an account for the first time, the app will ask you to select the destination account. Next time the app will remember to which account you added the transactions, and that account will be automatically selected from the dropdown list.
Account balances calculation:
TRACKEN: Transactions are used to calculate the account balances only after you check the 'C' column. Transactions not checked will not be used for calculating the account balances.
BUDGETTAIL: All entered or imported transactions are automatically used to calculate the account balances. The 'C' column is used only as a reference for you to indicate that you checked against your bank statement;
Cool features:
- As you identify the payees and categories from an imported transaction, the next time the app will remember that selection and do it for you automatically;
- When you mark a transaction as a transfer the app will generate the equivalent transaction in the transfer account. Any modification will be reflected in both accounts.
How to schedule recurring transactions?
You can add recurring scheduled transactions for payment, deposit and transfer. The scheduled transactions will be used for presenting your budget forecast. The forecast uses today's balance on each of your accounts and apply all future scheduled transactions to show what you should expect in the future --based on what you have planned.
Cool features:
- You can modify the date or value for some of the future instances of your scheduled transactions;
- As you enter a transaction the app will check if you have an equivalent scheduled transaction for that same Payee, and properly update the schedule. If you prefer you can manually move a scheduled transaction to the account, by using the "Move" button in the detail for the scheduled transaction.
Cool features:
- You can modify the date or value for some of the future instances of your scheduled transactions;
- As you enter a transaction the app will check if you have an equivalent scheduled transaction for that same Payee, and properly update the schedule. If you prefer you can manually move a scheduled transaction to the account, by using the "Move" button in the detail for the scheduled transaction.
How to use the summary charts?
TRACKEN SUMMARY
|
BUDGETTAIL SUMMARY
|
Use the charts to see total values of transactions entered for same Payee and Category in a given period of time. Click on each of the pie slices (or bars) and drill-down to the actual transactions used to calculate that aggregated value.
Cool features:
- Scheduled transactions are automatically marked as budgeted (see column 'Budg.'), and will be summarized either under income or expense budgets. Budget values are presented as the actual versus budgeted;
- On all charts you can click on a slice, bar, line, or arc and drill-down to the list of transactions that were used for calculation of that summarized value;
- Once you are seeing the related transactions you can click the "Detail" button and modify that transaction --including if they are supposed to be marked as budgeted (or scheduled). The app will refresh all charts with the updated values.
- In the bar (or area) chart you can see totals for your income and expense on each month, based on the entered transactions for all accounts. Two flat-lines for income and expense are also presented to indicate the average values for the year.
TIPS:
- In the "Annual Summary" chart select a specific category (from the dropdown lists) for visualizing its average value in the previous year. This way you can create your budget based on the average values for the previous year;
- In TRACKEN you can use the "Budget Goals" chart to see totals for actual versus budgeted values for the selected period, in a single chart. The expectation is that arcs for income and expense are progressing in the same proportion as the period. The center indicates the percentage of number of days for the selected period.
Cool features:
- Scheduled transactions are automatically marked as budgeted (see column 'Budg.'), and will be summarized either under income or expense budgets. Budget values are presented as the actual versus budgeted;
- On all charts you can click on a slice, bar, line, or arc and drill-down to the list of transactions that were used for calculation of that summarized value;
- Once you are seeing the related transactions you can click the "Detail" button and modify that transaction --including if they are supposed to be marked as budgeted (or scheduled). The app will refresh all charts with the updated values.
- In the bar (or area) chart you can see totals for your income and expense on each month, based on the entered transactions for all accounts. Two flat-lines for income and expense are also presented to indicate the average values for the year.
TIPS:
- In the "Annual Summary" chart select a specific category (from the dropdown lists) for visualizing its average value in the previous year. This way you can create your budget based on the average values for the previous year;
- In TRACKEN you can use the "Budget Goals" chart to see totals for actual versus budgeted values for the selected period, in a single chart. The expectation is that arcs for income and expense are progressing in the same proportion as the period. The center indicates the percentage of number of days for the selected period.
How to backup and restore my database?
Both apps offer options to backup and restore the database files. Ideally you should plan for creating regular backup of your data (let's say, weekly), just in case you need to restore your data from a given point in time.
To create a backup file:
In the File menu, select Create Backup option to create a backup file. The default file name is formed with the current date and ".bkp" extension. The app will ask you to select a location and then will save a copy of your current data.
To restore a backup file:
In the File menu, select Restore Backup option to restore a previously created backup file. The app will ask you to select the location of the backup file (with ".bkp" extension), and then will restore that data to the currently open database file, entirely replacing your current data.
TIP:
You cannot directly open a database file created by BUDGETTAIL in TRACKEN. However, TRACKEN offers the option to restore a backup file created by BUDGETTAIL. This way you can easily transfer your data from BUDGETTAIL to TRACKEN.
To create a backup file:
In the File menu, select Create Backup option to create a backup file. The default file name is formed with the current date and ".bkp" extension. The app will ask you to select a location and then will save a copy of your current data.
To restore a backup file:
In the File menu, select Restore Backup option to restore a previously created backup file. The app will ask you to select the location of the backup file (with ".bkp" extension), and then will restore that data to the currently open database file, entirely replacing your current data.
TIP:
You cannot directly open a database file created by BUDGETTAIL in TRACKEN. However, TRACKEN offers the option to restore a backup file created by BUDGETTAIL. This way you can easily transfer your data from BUDGETTAIL to TRACKEN.
How to archive transactions?
TRACKEN offers a capability to archive transactions that are older than previous year. Archiving these old transactions will avoid cluttered grids to be presented, as well as improve performance when calculating the summary charts. The archived transactions will be saved in a separate backup file, and readily available for you in case you need in the future.
In the File menu, select Archive option to start archiving older transactions. The app will ask for a location to save the old transactions, and then saving them --in addition to removing from current database file.
In the File menu, select Archive option to start archiving older transactions. The app will ask for a location to save the old transactions, and then saving them --in addition to removing from current database file.