Accountant
User manual
The basics
Three ideas that make everything in Accountant click.
Learn these three ideas once and the rest of the app will make sense. It takes about three minutes.
1. Your money in one equation
Total assets = Total liabilities + Net worth
- Assets are what you own: cash, bank balances, e-wallets, money others owe you, personal property (such as vehicles), and real property (such as land and homes).
- Liabilities are what you owe: credit cards, loans and unpaid bills.
- Net worth is what's left when you subtract what you owe from what you own.
Example: you have 10,000 in cash and in the bank, and you owe 3,000 on a credit card. Your net worth is 7,000.
Only two things change your net worth: income raises it and expenses lower it. Moving money between your accounts, borrowing, or paying off a debt doesn't change it. Your money just changes places.
Accountant keeps this equation balanced with every transaction you record. You can see it any time in Reports › Net worth.
Learn more about the accounting equation
2. The account structure
Think of a filing cabinet with three levels:
- Account type, the drawer. There are only four:
- Asset: what you own
- Liability: what you owe
- Income: what you earn
- Expense: what you spend on
- Account category, a folder in the drawer. It groups similar accounts together.
- Account, the record inside the folder. This is where your amounts go, and each account has its own balance.
Asset › Cash in bank › Everyday checking, Emergency savings
Expense › Household › Groceries, Apartment rent
A category is not an account. Many money apps call Groceries a "category". In Accountant, Groceries is an expense account, where your grocery spending is recorded. Household is the category that groups it with similar accounts. Categories aren't only for expenses either: Cash in bank groups your bank accounts, and Credit card groups your cards.
Accountants call the full list of your accounts your chart of accounts. In the app, it's the Accounts screen.
Learn more about setting up accounts · Account categories
3. Six kinds of transactions
You don't need to know bookkeeping rules. Pick what happened, and Accountant records both sides of the transaction for you.
| Shortcut | Use it when… |
|---|---|
| Pay money | money leaves your cash, bank or e-wallet |
| Receive money | money arrives in your cash, bank or e-wallet |
| Buy on credit | you buy something now and pay later, for example by credit card |
| Record income due | you've earned income but haven't been paid yet |
| Transfer money | you move money between your own accounts |
| Add adjustment | nothing moved in cash, but something needs correcting |
Remember: not every payment is an expense, and not all money received is income. Paying your credit card bill or moving money to savings doesn't make you poorer. See Money spent isn't always an expense.
Learn more about the six transaction types
Next
You're ready to set up the app: First setup.