Set up your money accounts

Do this first. Every transaction you log afterwards can then say which pocket it came from, and your balances stay real without any reconciling.

Wallets and accounts

Two words that sound alike and are not:

• A wallet is the container. It has its own currency, and it can be shared with other people who each get a role — owner, editor or viewer.
• A money account lives inside a wallet and is where money actually sits: cash, a bank account, mobile money, savings, an investment.

If you are tracking only your own money you can ignore wallets almost entirely. They matter when a household or a business partner needs to see the same figures.

Adding an account

1. Open Money Accounts and press Add Account.
2. Choose the type — Cash, Bank Account, Mobile Money, Savings Account, Investment or Other.
3. Name it something you will recognise in a dropdown at speed. "MTN" beats "Mobile Money Account 1".
4. Set the currency and the opening balance — what is in it right now.

The opening balance is recorded specially: it is a starting position, not income. Hitaji keeps it out of your income totals, which is exactly right — you did not earn the money that was already there.

Moving money between them

Use Transfer rather than logging an expense from one and income to the other. A transfer moves the balance without touching your income or expense figures, because moving your own money between your own pockets is not spending and is not earning.