Practical tips

Practical tips for setting up and maintaining your personal finances in Spendle. The topics below follow a logical order: from importing transactions to budgeting.

Updating transactions

Connect your bank accounts via PSD2 and update your data at least once a week via the Import tab. This keeps categorisation manageable and makes deviations in income and expenses visible quickly.
In Import, click Update to update all connected PSD2 accounts at once since the last synchronisation. Clicking on a connection itself allows you to choose a longer period.
CSV files from online banking can also be imported. Combining CSV import and PSD2 on the same account is not recommended: it causes duplicate transactions.

Categorising

Categorise all transactions for the current year on a weekly basis.
Choose standard categories such as Salary, Groceries, Holiday, Mortgage or Rent, or create a custom category. Too many categories make the administration hard to manage.
Categories that have both income and expenses are shown as a net amount. The type field determines whether the net amount falls under income or expenses. Example: you pay €100 for a dinner and a friend pays back €50. With both transactions in the Restaurants category, the difference (€50) appears under expenses.
To assign multiple transactions to one category at once: click the logo circle to the left of a transaction, check the others and choose Assign category in the action menu (⋮ at the top right).

Automatic assignment

Let Spendle assign categories automatically using action rules. In the transaction details, choose Add rule to have similar transactions categorised automatically going forward. Over time, only exceptional cases remain.
At the bottom left of the transaction details, you can see whether a category was assigned by an action rule.
In the Description and Memo fields of a rule, multiple search values can be entered, separated by commas.

Internal transfers

Assign transfers between your own accounts a category with Internal checked. This prevents them from being counted twice in result overviews. They remain visible in balance charts and reports.
Use internal transfers for transfers between savings and current accounts, or for large expenses you want to keep outside the result — such as buying a car or a renovation.

Joint (and/or shared) account

For a joint account, assign all transactions between your current account and the joint account a category with Internal checked. The default Spendle category Internal is suitable for this. This prevents these transfers from being counted twice.

Example: you receive €1,000 salary in your current account and transfer €500 to the joint account. From there, €100 is spent on groceries. The Insight tab across both accounts then shows:

Income: €1,000
Expenses: €100

If you filter on only the joint account, only the €100 expense is visible.

Adding savings accounts and debts

By adding savings accounts and debts to the Balances tab, you build up a net worth overview. Most banks do not include savings accounts via PSD2. To get a savings account into Spendle:

Most banks have a CSV export for savings accounts that can be imported.
Create a savings account manually and update the balance periodically via Balance correction in the account detail screen.
Specify a book account on a transaction from your current account. In the transaction details, click the options menu at the top right → Book to account and choose the savings account. Spendle then creates a corresponding entry on the savings account.

Budgeting

Once all transactions are categorised, a budget can be set or generated per category. Base a starting budget on the historical pattern and your expected spending for the year. The forecast shows what will remain at the end of the year. If it is negative, the budget can be adjusted.
Adjust the budget monthly based on the position. Open the Insight tab, choose Expenses, click Position and work through the categories from top to bottom.
The position is the difference between actual and budgeted. A negative position means more has been spent than budgeted.

The budget method per category determines how the position is calculated:

Daily — position per day. For categories with a daily pattern such as Groceries or Miscellaneous.
Monthly — position at the end of the month. For monthly recurring categories such as Rent, Salary, Mortgage, Subscriptions or Clothing.
Yearly — position at the end of the year. For categories that occur at irregular times during the year such as Holiday, Hairdresser or Tax refund. The budget here is rolling: if nothing is spent in January, Spendle distributes that amount across the remaining months. Overspending counts directly towards the position.

Feats

The Feats tab contains recommendations for further refining the administration. Following them unlocks new achievements.

Assigning tags

Tags are free labels on a transaction, in addition to the category. For holiday transactions, for example, the category Holiday and the tag France can be used. This keeps the total per category available, while the tag view lets you look at each holiday separately. Tags can be assigned automatically via action rules.

Assigning relations

A relation is a clear name for the counterparty. A transaction with the original description Q PARK AMSTELVEEN STAD NLD could be given the relation Q-Park. Relations, like categories, can be assigned automatically via action rules.

Splitting transactions

A transaction can be divided across multiple categories — for example with credit card expenses. Avoid splitting into too many categories; that makes the administration hard to maintain.