Glossary

Quick reference for the terms used in Spendle and throughout this support site. Click through for the full article.

Administration and account

Administration — the digital equivalent of a paper household ledger: one collection of accounts, transactions, categories and budgets. Encrypted with a separate password. See Create an administration.

Spendle account — cloud storage that synchronises an administration between devices. In practice required for a licence and PSD2 connections; synchronisation can be disabled, but then manual export is the only backup. See Create an account.

Account — a bank account, savings account, cash account or credit account within an administration. See Account settings.

Account profile — a group of accounts (for example Current accounts or Liquid assets) used for filtering and assigning budgets. See Set up an account profile.

Transactions and categorisation

Transaction — one line in your account overview: income, an expense or a transfer. See The transactions screen.

Split — dividing one transaction across multiple categories — useful for mixed purchases. See Split a transaction.

Category — the category a transaction belongs to, for example Groceries or Salary. The basis for insight and budget. See Manage categories.

Group — a collection of related categories, for example Housing containing Mortgage, Energy and Water. Insight and reports show totals per group.

Group type — the layer above groups, based on the Nibud classification: for example Fixed expenses, Reservation expenses or Household expenses. See Nibud categories.

Relation — the counterparty of a transaction (shop, employer, insurer). Relations can be renamed and given a logo. See Manage relations.

Tag — a free label on a transaction, in addition to the category (for example holiday-2026). Useful for temporary or project-based expenses. See Setup tips.

Book account — the counter-account of a transaction. By specifying a book account on a transaction, Spendle automatically creates a corresponding entry on that account (for example a cash withdrawal posted to a cash account). If the book account is left blank, the transaction appears only on the original account. See Action rule: book account.

Action rule — automation that categorises transactions based on a pattern, adds a tag or posts to another account. See Auto-categorise and the search and rule syntax.

Balance and result

Balance — the amount in an account at a given moment. Spendle calculates the balance from the reference date using all imported transactions. See Balance overview.

Result — the difference between income and expenses in a period. Transactions with a category where Internal is checked do not count towards the result. See Insight view.

Netting (salderen) — combining two opposing amounts into one net figure. Used in two places: in the Transactions screen via Net group and relation amounts (one net figure per group or relation), and on a joint account by booking part of the salary directly as income on that account instead of as an internal transfer. See Group total netting and Joint account.

Internal transfers — transfers between your own accounts (for example from a current account to a savings account). Assign them a category with Internal checked so they are not counted twice in the result. They remain visible in balance charts and reports. See Joint account and Manage categories.

Reference date and reference balance — a known balance on a known date. This is the starting point from which Spendle calculates the running balance. Everything before it is ignored. See Account settings.

Running balance — the calculated balance directly after each transaction. See Column view.

Balance check — automatic comparison between the calculated balance and the bank balance (PSD2). Flags missing or duplicate transactions. See Balance check.

PSD2 — European regulation that gives Spendle access to your bank account via the certified provider GoCardless for retrieving transactions and balances. See Connect a bank via PSD2.

Budget and forecast

Budget — expected income or expenses per category, for a month, quarter or year. See Budget per category.

Position — the difference between actual and budgeted amounts for a category. A negative position means more has been spent than budgeted; a positive position means there is room remaining. See Budget per category.

Budget method — the setting per category for how the position is calculated: daily, monthly or yearly. See Budget per category.

Cashflow — the monthly flow of income and expenses, including a forward forecast. See Cashflow on the dashboard.

Net worth projection — a chart of the combined total of all account balances over time. See Net worth projection.

Nibud and reports

Nibud classification — the standard classification in Spendle with group types such as Fixed expenses, Reservation expenses and Household expenses, based on Nibud guidelines. See Nibud categories.

Other

Backup and restore — return to an earlier state of your administration; also useful for recovering accidentally deleted transactions. See Backup and restore.

Duplicate detection — flags potential duplicate transactions during import. Adjustable from lenient to strict. See Duplicate detection.