Instructions

Contents

1. Overview of functions

2. Basic operations

3. Getting Started

3.1 Setting up accounts

3.2 Setting up recurring transactions

3.3 Setting up templates

3.4 Creating transactions

4. Dialogues

4.1 Overview

4.2 Transactions

4.3 Statistics

4.4 Diagram (Pie, bar and line chart)

4.5 Budgets

4.5.1 Creating budgets

4.5.2 View budgets

4.5.3 Budget management

5. Management

5.1.1 Account management

5.1.2 Managing credit cards

5.2 Category management

5.3 Payment type management

5.4 Recurring transactions

6. Useful functions

6.1 Last entries

6.2 Detailed search

6.3 Uncategorized

7. Settings

7.1 Backup

7.2 Export & import

7.2.1 Export data

7.2.2 CSV import

8. Widgets

9. Synchronization

10. Support

1. Overview of functions

With this app you can manage your daily income and expenses to get a better overview of your financial situation.

You can manage multiple accounts and transfer money between them (known as transfer).

Each transaction can be assigned to a (self-defined) category (e.g. shopping, food, home, car or petrol). With this information you can calculate and display statistics.

You have also the ability to create recurring transactions for your salary, rent or insurance etc. These transactions are generated directly after creating the recurring transaction to give you a better long-term overview. Of course, future transactions can also be hidden at any time so that these transactions only indicate when the due date has been reached.

To speed up the creation of transactions, you can define your own templates (e.g. shopping or petrol) which you can use when entering new transactions.

You have the ability to view your current balance or your monthly balance over several months. You can also save or sent your transactions as HTML or CSV file to view or print them on your PC. In addition, there are several display options for visualizing your data.

By creating a backup (*.mhs), you can transfer all data to your PC and have it protected from damaging your device. Please use the backup function to ensure that you have saved your complete data because the CSV export contains only the transactions and is intended for exchange with other programs.

To import your existing data or your real account statements, you can use the CSV import. So you can import transactions from your bank or other programs. As we do not know the CSV formats of all (worldwide) banks or programs, this feature can only be extended if you send us a sample file.

2. Basic operations

The main functions of the app are accessible via the following tabs: Overview, Transactions, Statistics, Diagram and Budgets. With the action menu at the top you can select additional commands. By clicking on the icon at the top left or by swiping from left to right, you can open a menu with some managing functions and other useful functions. In the right pane of the action bar, you can find more commands that are displayed depending on the current page. For example you can sort the displayed data, etc.

You can adjust the period using the arrow keys or the month/year buttons. In the month selection, you can also select quarters, half years or all months.

Via the funnel icon, you can filter the displayed data by various criteria and time periods. If you activate the search period in the filter, the arrow keys move the relevant period by the intervening days. For example, you can scroll between the different weeks if you select a weekly time period.

If the data is filtered, the funnel icon will be displayed in red to indicate that possibly not all entries are visible. To reset the filter, select the funnel icon again and click Clear fields and select OK or just long press on the red funnel icon.

The bottom sum bar contains the selected view, the amount, the selected accounts and the chosen time period. Clicking on this area opens the selection dialog where you can change the selected accounts.

The view menu (eye icon in the action menu) allows you to specify which transactions should be displayed and included in the balance. The following views are available:

Current balance: All transactions will be displayed for the selected period. The balance includes the opening balance and all transactions of the previous months up to the selected period.

Monthly balance: All transactions will be displayed for the selected period and included in the balance.

Monthly expenses: All expenses will be displayed for the selected period and included in the balance.

Monthly income: All income will be displayed for the selected period and included in the balance.

In addition there are the following options, which can be combined with the mentioned views:

Daily balance: The daily balance considers all transactions up to the present day in the balance. Future transactions are still visible, but grayed out. These are not included in the balance.

Hide future transactions: All future transactions are not displayed and not included in the balance.

Ignore uncleared transactions: If you have activated the clearing status in the general settings of the app in order to reconcile your transactions with your bank statement or to mark transactions as paid, you can quickly choose if uncleared transactions should be ignored in the balance.

Ignore Transfers: Transfers between two accounts are not considered. The transfers are still visible, but grayed out. In the view of Current balance transfers are always included in the balance. There, this option has no effect, because the view Current balance should reflect your real account balance.

3. Getting Started

To help you get started with the app, the following steps should be performed at the beginning.

3.1 Setting up accounts

At first, go to the management menu (click on the top left icon or swipe from left to right) to select the "Account Management" and enter your existing accounts such as checking account, credit card, cash, etc. Enter your opening balance for every account (the money that you have available for each account when you start using the app).

There was already a Current account set up during installation. You can rename the existing entry by selecting the account. You can set up a new account using the New (+) button.

Hint: You can quickly choose the account selection within the app by clicking on the bottom area with your balance. If you long click on an account, you can edit or delete it directly.

3.2 Setting up recurring transactions

Via the menu item Recurring transactions in the Management menu, you can define your recurring transactions such as salary, rent, insurance or loan rates. The generated transactions can also be changed separately at a later date.

If you dont select an expiration date, the recurring transactions are always created for 2 years in the future. Every time the app starts, the app checks if new recurring transactions must be created. So you have always your unlimited recurring transactions for the next 2 years.

If you enter an expiration date, the transactions of the recurring transaction are created completely up to the expiration date.

3.3 Setting up templates

Via the menu item Templates in the Management menu, you can define templates to speed up the creation of transactions. For frequently used transactions, e.g. shopping or petrol, you can pre-assign all the fields as desired, so you dont need to type it every time when you create a transaction.

3.4 Creating transactions

Once you have configured the app, you can enter your income and expenses by clicking on the lower right + icon.

In order to create a transaction, specify a title, date, amount and an account or use a template. When creating a new transaction the selected account and the current date are preset. If you dont enter a title, the name of the category will be used as title.

Via the autofill function, after entering a title, all the other fields such as comment, amount, category and account are automatically preassigned based on previous transactions with the same title.

A recurring transaction is specified by the values of Date, Expiration Date and Period. These values can only completely be changed subsequently via the menu item Recurring transactions in the Management menu.

If you want to transfer money on another account, you can create a transfer. If you create a transfer, you must specify a source and a target account. This creates an expense on your source account and an income on the target account. These transactions are linked together and will be changed or deleted at the same time. You can also create a recurring transfer, for example if you want to save a fixed amount each month.

To add a transaction into the watch list (Watching), the checkbox Watch can be activated. The checkbox Watch can be enabled in the general settings.

To mark a transaction as paid, the checkbox Cleared can be activated. The checkbox Cleared can be activated in the general settings.

To save multiple transactions sequentially, you can click on the button "Save & New" from the action menu.

4. Dialogues

4.1 Overview

In this view you can control your income and expenses over several months. You can configure the number of months and the number of months in the past in the settings (General/Overview). The bars show your account balance depending on your income, the selected account and the selected filter criteria. Here, the green bar (income) moves from left to right, the more expenses (red) you enter. The red bar increases accordingly.

By clicking on a bar you will get the transactions for the selected month. Here you can edit or delete transactions.

If you have a negative balance, the bar is completely red. A yellow line marks the point of when the income has been exceeded and you can see how much money you have overdrawn your account. If there are only expenses and no income, the bar is completely red.

In the view of Current balance the previous months and the opening balance are considered in the amount. The values in brackets refer always to the displayed month.

In the view of Monthly balance all values refer to the displayed month.

In the view of Monthly expenses only the expenses are displayed relative to the other months in red.

In the view of Monthly income only the income are displayed relative to the other months in green.

The view can be changed via the eye icon in the action menu at the top.

In addition, you can sort the entries in ascending or descending order by date.

4.2 Transactions

Here you see all transactions for the selected time period (month, quarter, half year or every month), the selected accounts and the selected filter criteria (funnel icon). Via the action menu, you can sort the transactions by date, date (grouped with daily balance), date (grouped with current balance), amount, title or category.

In this list, the income are marked green and the expenses are marked red. A symbol indicates the type of transaction (recurring transaction or transfer).

By clicking on an entry you get into the details of the transaction. In this dialog you can modify or delete the transaction. If you long click on an entry, the transaction can be edited, copied, used as template, deleted or marked as cleared.

4.3 Statistics

In the statistics, the transactions are accumulated and displayed according to their categories. The displayed amount depends on the selected time period, the selected accounts and the selected filter criteria. If you click on a category, all transactions of the corresponding main or sub-category are displayed.

There are always the main categories with the corresponding subcategories displayed. When you enter a transaction directly on a main category, this is also displayed to indicate the amount that was recognized directly to the main category. When you enter your transactions only on a main category, it is listed twice.

For analysis purposes, you should always create transactions on a subcategory.

In the views of Monthly expenses or Monthly income, the percentage distribution is also displayed.

4.4 Diagram (Pie, bar and line chart)

By further clicking on the Diagram tab, you can switch between the pie, bar and line chart.

The pie and bar chart shows in the views of Current balance or Monthly balance the income and expenses graphically.

In the views Monthly expenses or Monthly income the main categories are visualized. The view can be changed via the eye icon in the action menu. The data always refers to the selected time period, the selected accounts and the selected filter criteria.

When you filter in the views Monthly expenses or Monthly income by a main category, the subcategories are displayed.

You can also click on an entry in the pie or bar chart. In the views Current balance or Monthly balance the corresponding main categories are displayed when you click on expenses or income.

If you click on a main category, the subcategories are displayed (+ the clicked main category, if transactions were created directly on the main category). By clicking on a subcategory, the transactions are shown grouped by title and it can possibly be further deepened.

To move one level back, just click outside of an entry in the chart.

The line chart shows the amount of income and expenses over time. Here, also the different views are taken into account to see the progress of the account balance or month.

4.5 Budgets

You have the ability to define budgets for various criteria. For example, you can set a monthly limit for refueling or a weekly limit for food etc. You can also define limits for accounts such as credit cards or define limits for payment types. Furthermore, it can be determined whether recurring budgets should be transferred in the next periods. In addition, you can adjust the limit in recurring budgets for individual time periods, if you have a month more or less money to spend.

4.5.1 Creating budgets

At first, enter a name for the new budget such as "My weekly food". If you do not enter a name, but select a category, the name of the category (e.g. food) is used. If you want to describe the budget even further or if you want to capture keywords, you can use the Comment field.

Now select the amount, which shall not exceed the budget. For example, set a limit of weekly expenses for food. Then select the category on which you save your food when creating an expense. Now select the date from when the budget is to be calculated for the first time. Then select the period (e.g. every week) in order to set the time period for the budget. In the field Budget ends on, you can specify how long a recurring budget should be created. If you want to transfer a budget to the next period, select the option Rollover balance. For example, you have defined a weekly budget for purchases of $50 and have only spend $30 in the first week, the remaining budget of $20 will be transferred to the next period and then you have a budget of $70.

The selection of a payment type, category or account is not necessary. If you do not fill these fields, the criteria are ignored and all entries are taken into account regardless of payment type, category or account. Then, the budget is valid for all payment types, categories and accounts. You can also combine the criteria. For example, select the category for refueling of your Cash account and define another budget with the same category but your Current account.

4.5.2 View budgets

On the Budgets tab, the generated budgets will be displayed for the selected period.

The bar chart shows for each budget the remaining budget in green and in red the already spent money. If the budget amount is exceeded, the bar is displayed completely red. A yellow line marks the point of when the budget has been exceeded and you can see how much money you have overdrawn your budget. The first amount below each bar chart always shows the remaining budget. In brackets you will see your defined budget and the total of the calculated transactions.

If you have selected the option Rollover balance for a recurring budget, the transferred amount of the previous budget is also displayed in brackets next to the amount of your budget and it is also taken into account.

If you click on a budget item, you can select the menu item View transactions to show the considered transactions.

You can also change the budget for a certain period, without changing the budgets for the remaining periods. For example, if you have a month more or less money than the other months, just choose the budget for the corresponding period and select Change this budget. Now you can change the budget and optionally set a comment for the selected period without affecting the other periods of the budget.

If you select the option Change all entries of this budget for a recurring budget, you will be asked when saving the budget if all budgets after an entered date (All future budgets) should be changed (e.g. if you have more money from this month) or by selecting All budgets whether the changes should affect all budgets (even past budgets).

4.5.3 Budget management

You can choose the menu item Budget management in the Management menu of the app. There you can see all defined budgets regardless of the period. Expired budgets are shaded in gray.

All budgets (including expired budgets) can be managed over the entire period.

If you change a budget in the budget management, you can choose whether the budget for All future budgets after an entered date or All budgets should be changed.

5. Management

The "Management" menu can be accessed by clicking on the icon at the top left or by swiping from left to right.

5.1.1 Account management

Here, all your accounts will be displayed and you can create new accounts, edit or delete them. You can enter your opening balance for each account. The opening balance is the money that is available when you start using the app. The opening balance should not be changed later as this would influence the account balance calculation. Via the action menu at the top, you can sort the accounts by various criteria and your can switch between the compact and extended view.

If you delete an account, all transactions and associated transfers of this account will be deleted too.

If you no longer need an account, you can mark it as closed. Closed accounts are no longer displayed for new transactions or budgets. In the account selection (click on the balance), etc. the closed accounts are still displayed, but shaded in gray. To hide the account in all dialogs, you can use the option "Hide closed account completely". Thereafter, the closed accounts are only visible (shaded in gray) via the menu item "Account management" in the Management menu.

Hint: You can quickly choose the account selection within the app by clicking on the bottom area with your balance. If you long click on an account, you can edit or delete it directly.

5.1.2 Managing credit cards

The following procedure should be used for credit cards. Just create an account for your credit card. Then save all credit card purchases on this account. If the credit card is billed, make a transfer from your checking account to your credit card account. So you have balanced your credit card account.

To select the accounts for analysis, just click on the bottom area with your balance. So you can always see the balance of your credit card or select all accounts except the credit card account to see your currently available money.

If you want to manage the limit of your credit card, you can create a budget for it. For more information on creating budgets, please read the chapter Budgets.

5.2 Category management

To prepare your data for the statistics, you should assign each transaction to a (sub) category. You can create new main and sub-categories, edit or delete them. With the + symbol, a new main category will be created. To create a subcategory, you must press the + symbol after you have chosen the main category.

Select a main or sub-category to edit or delete it.

5.3 Payment type management

The payment type management can be activated in the general settings of the app. Then you can also add a payment type for every transaction.

5.4 Recurring transactions

In the menu Recurring transactions you can create or edit your recurring transactions. If you change a recurring transaction, you have the possibility to determine whether only all future transactions or all transactions should be changed completely. Be aware that if you select All transactions, all past and future transactions are overwritten with the current values.

If you only want to change an entry of a recurring transaction, you can do this on the Transactions tab. It will change only the selected transaction and does not affect the other transactions of the recurring transaction. This is useful, for example, if the date or amount of one transaction differs.

6. Useful functions

The "Useful functions" menu can be accessed by clicking on the icon at the top left or by swiping from left to right.

6.1 Last entries

This dialog shows the last added or modified transactions.

This dialog is only intended for a quick check of recently created or modified transactions. Therefore, transactions which were last created or modified are displayed at first in the list.

For analysis, please use the tab Transactions. There, the transactions can be filtered and sorted according to various criteria. If you want to search for specific transactions, you can filter the transactions via the funnel icon on the Transactions tab or use the Detailed search in the Useful functions menu.

6.2 Detailed search

This dialog lets you search for specific transactions. You can restrict the results based on the search criteria. After the search you can edit or delete the transactions.

6.3 Uncategorized

A statistic is only as good as the transactions were categorized. This dialog displays all transactions that have not been assigned to a category. By clicking on a transaction, you can change the entry (or the missing category).

7. Settings

You can access the settings via the menu button or the action menu. You can manage general settings, activate the password protection, set the language and currency, perform and restore backups or import and export your data. You also have the option to reset the program to factory settings or delete all transactions or categories.

The following options are available in the general settings:

You can set the beginning of the month for the selected time period (e.g. when you receive your salary on the 15th of each month). In this case, the selected month starts from the selected day.

You can activate a query before quitting the app via the back button.

Via the menu item Autofill you can specify whether when entering a new transaction, after entering the title, the other fields should be preassigned based on previous transactions.

With the function Grouped by you can specify whether the default assignment is done by the last transaction (with the latest transaction date) or on the basis of the most common transaction with the selected title. If you choose Frequent transaction, all transactions will be grouped with the selected title and preset the new transaction with the most frequently used.

Furthermore, you can specify which fields should be considered for auto filling.

You can define a default account which is pre-assigned when creating new transactions.

You can activate an additional field Payment Type for every transaction.

If the optional field "Payment type" is enabled, you can assign a default value for new transactions.

Watch -> When enabled, every transaction can be marked as watched. In the action menu at the top right appears the additional menu item Watching. This dialog displays all transactions in which the switch Watch has been activated. You might watch important transactions. An important reason might be an expected transaction or a transfer that still must be paid.

You can activate a clearing status for your transactions. With this setting you can mark your transactions as cleared or pending. You can, for example, compare your transactions with your bank account statements and mark accordingly. Or simply mark the transactions as paid or unpaid.

If the clearing status is enabled, you can specify whether new transactions should be initialized with the value Cleared.

With the option Ignore uncleared transactions, you can specify that only cleared transactions should be included in the balance. If the "Clearing status" is enabled, this option is additionally displayed in the view menu (eye icon) in order to enable or disable this feature for analysis purposes even faster.

You can adjust the number of months and the number of months in the past for the bars on the "Overview" tab.

You can select whether to display the comment in the list of the transactions.

You can adjust the label and legend size for the pie chart.

You can adjust the label alignment and text size for the bar chart.

You can adjust the text size for the line chart.

You can set the transparency of the 4x1 widget.

If you want to protect the app with a password, please remember that without the password or the self-created security question, you have no longer access to your data!

7.1 Backup

You should periodically create a backup of your data. By creating a backup, you can export all data for example on your PC and have them protected from damaging your device, so your valuable data will not be lost.

To create a backup, select the menu item Create backup from the left menu (click on the icon at the top left or swipe from left to right) or in the settings of the app.

If you select "Save & send" when creating the backup, the backup will be saved and can be send as an e-mail, via Bluetooth or to the Dropbox or Google Drive app etc.

If the option "Automatic backup" is enabled, a backup is made automatically when you exit the app (via the back button of your device). The automatic backup is only performed when data or settings has been changed since the last backup.

To add automatic backups to Dropbox, Google Drive etc., it is recommended that you use a synchronization app like Dropsync, FolderSync or Autosync for Google Drive. For more information, please read the chapter Synchronization.

To restore a backup, select the menu item Restore backup from the left menu or in the settings of the app.

7.2 Export & import

7.2.1 Export data

You can export your transactions in the settings or via the left menu (click on the icon at the top left or swipe from left to right) in order to view or print them on your PC. For this purpose, you have the HTML and CSV format. The HTML file can be opened with a web browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox. The CSV file can be opened e.g. with Excel.

With the HTML export, you can also export your statistics.

You can limit the result set with your own search criteria. The data is stored in the folder My Budget Book. The exact location is also displayed.

If you select Save & send when creating the export, the file will be saved and can be send as by mail, via Bluetooth or to the Dropbox or Google Drive app etc.

Please note that a CSV or HTML export is not a backup of the complete data. Only transactions are exported in order to view or print them with other programs. To save the entire data, please read the chapter Backup.

7.2.2 CSV import

To import your existing data from other programs or transactions from your bank, the CSV import has been developed. As we do not know the CSV format of all (worldwide) banks or programs, this feature can only be extended if you send us a sample data set. Of course, this must be no real data.

To import a CSV file it must be saved in the folder My Budget Book. The exact path will be displayed in the import dialog. Then you must choose the menu item CSV import in the left menu (click on the icon at the top left or swipe from left to right) or via the menu Export & import in the settings of the app. All existing CSV files are listed here. If a format is not supported, we can probably install it on request with an update.

Before importing, you should select the account to which the data will be imported. If the CSV contains a column "account", the selected account will be ignored. If accounts or categories are not available during the import, they will be generated automatically.

Via the option Ignore existing transactions, you can ignore existing transactions that have the same title, date, amount etc., so that the transactions (if a file is imported more than once) are not imported again. For example, you can then import transactions from your partner, if you want to use the app with multiple users.

A CSV file can be created with Excel, and should look like this:

Date

Title

Comment

Main Category

Subcategory

Account

Amount

9/01/2014

My apartment

Home & Household

Rent

Current account

-500

9/15/2014

My company

Income

Salary

Current account

2,000.00

With the Excel command Save As you must select the file type CSV (Comma delimited) (*.csv).

If you use the app in another language, the headlines must be written in the corresponding language. To see the exactly country-specific currency and date format, just make a CSV export of your transactions.

8. Widgets

My Budget Book contains 4 widgets, which you can assign to your home screen. Press and hold on an open space on your home screen and select Widgets.

The following widgets are available:

Widget (1x1) for fast entry of expenses.

Widget (1x1) for fast entry of income.

Widget (1x1) for fast entry of transfers.

Widget (4x1) for fast entry of expenses and income. Displays the balance and the selected account. The app can be started from the widget and the account can be selected.

To capture multiple transactions sequentially, you can click on the button "Save & New". If you use a widget then you no longer have to enter a password for each transaction.

If you move the app to SD card, you cannot use the widgets. This is due to the Android system and it cannot be changed. This behavior is specified by Google. Please move the app to the internal memory to use the widgets.

9. Synchronization

A direct synchronization is currently not available. The basic problem is the authorization concept of Android. For Google Drive, Dropbox etc. the permission for full Internet access is required. Unfortunately, this would put off many users, especially if you add this permission later. It is after all very sensitive data. So you can be sure that your data will not be used elsewhere and we have no access to your trusted data.

However, you can transfer backups on another device and restore it there. This works on the exchange of backups by mail, Bluetooth or with your PC. The path of the backups can be freely configured in the settings. However, there is also a very simple way to get the data transferred to another device:

To use the app as a single user on different devices, it is recommended that you use a synchronization app such as Dropsync, FolderSync or Autosync for Google Drive.

When you exit the app (via the back button), an automatic encrypted backup is created. The backups are stored in the folder My Budget Book. This folder can be synced (e.g. via Dropsync) to your Dropbox account and thus can be transferred to other devices. The automatic backup starts with the name AutoBackup and it also contains the date and time (including seconds) and the name of the backup device (e.g. AutoBackup_20140915_123050_Samsung_GT-I9100.mhs). The synchronization app can be set to automatically recognize the creation of a new file. This will be uploaded directly to Dropbox. Because the backup files are very small and the automatic backup is only created when data or settings have been changed, this can even be synchronized on the way. You can also set that the synchronization only takes place when a wireless connection is available.

The 2nd device downloads the files at the set interval (e.g. every hour). If the file does not yet exists, just start the synchronization app and press Sync. Dropsync even offers a Sync now widget. When you launch My Budget Book the app checks if a newer backup than the most recently created backup exists. If a newer backup is available, the dialog Restore backup appears automatically and the latest file is marked green.

Of course, the data is not directly available on the other device. But think of the standard case. You collect your data at midday with your Smartphone and in the evening, you analyze your data with your tablet. In this time, the latest backup file should be available automatically and should be displayed when starting the app.

To use the app with multiple users, you can use the CSV export/import. Then you can also synchronize your CSV exports for example with Dropsync and import them using the option "Ignore existing transactions". For more information about the CSV export/import, please read the chapter Export & import.

If you have any further questions, please let me know by mail at onetwoapps@gmail.com or via the built in support function.

10. Support

We would be pleased if you contact us directly from the app if you have any questions or suggestions. We are grateful for any feedback. The support function has the advantage that we can see the device, the app version, the Android firmware and the selected language in the subject of the mail to analyze system problems. We try to answer all mails personally and promptly. If there are any problems, please dont write a bad review or add questions to it. Many misunderstandings can be avoided by clarifying things by mail. If you find a bug, you should also report this via the support function and it should not be included in the reviews. No software is 100% free of errors and we will fix bugs as soon as possible.

Thank you very much and have a lot of fun and a lot of success in saving money.