moneyGuru BasicsmoneyGuru is loosely based on double-entry accounting. The core of the system is the transaction which represents a movement of money from some account(s) to some other account(s) at a particular date. A transaction consists in a zero-sum set of 2 or more entries to 2 or more accounts. Any account, whether it's an asset or an income, can send money to any other account (no segregation! no "categories"!). This comes handy when it comes to cash management. There's not much else to describe for the basics of the system itself. Things get a little more complex when multiple currencies are involved, but the details about that are described on the currencies page. The date rangeThe currently selected date range affects the whole application. Everything you see in the views is for the current date range. For example, if August 2008 is selected, everything that you see in all the views is data from 2008/08/01 to 2008/08/31. The range is controlled by this little widget:
There are 7 types of date ranges:
For "navigable" date ranges (Month, Quarter, Year), you can use the arrows to select the previous or the next date range (on the keyboard, it's ⌘⌥[ and ⌘⌥]). There are also shortcuts to select date range types (⌘⌥1-7). You can also press ⌘⌥T to return to today's date range. When selecting custom date ranges, you also have the option to have moneyGuru put that date range into one of the 3 available slots. When you do this, a new date range will appear in the menu and will be quickly re-callable. The thin red lineAll information in moneyGuru is displayed according to the currently selected date range. Things get interesting when the date range ends at a future date. If you have scheduled transactions or budget set up, the numbers you will see and the chart you will look at will include them. In the graphs, there is a sharp distinction between the past and the future. The past is displayed in green, and the future is displayed in gray, a thin red line separating both. So when you look at the grey part of graphs, you are looking at stuff that has not happened yet. Your net worth in your balance sheet will count the yet-to-happen scheduled transactions as well as budgets. Sometimes, you just want to know about your current financial situation. This is what the "Year to date" (⌘⌥4) date range is for. The toolbar
The toolbar is mainly used to select one of the 6 views of moneyGuru, which are described below. Additionally to those button, there's also a button to toggle reconciliation on and off and a filter field. The filter field allows you to see all transactions that match the stuff you type in it. To use it, type something and press return. Only transactions that have a description, payee, check #, account or amount matching with what you typed will be shown. If you want to see transactions from specific accounts or groups, type "account: account1,account2" or "group: group1,group2" in the filter box. This is very handy for mass editing. Net Worth and Profit & Loss
The Net Worth and Profit & Loss views are where you do account management and get statistics about your financial situation. They both have a similar layout and behave the same way. Sheet: At the top left, there is the "sheet", listing accounts, gives totals account groups. Totals are always given in your native currency. You can also add, change and remove accounts from this sheets. Show Account: Next to each account, there is a little Account Exclusion: You can also "exclude" accounts by clicking on the little Pie Chart: At the right of the sheet of each view are two pie charts showing the weight of every account for each type. If you have account groups, you can collapse one of these groups in the sheet to have the account values grouped in the pie chart. For example, if you have a "Automobile" group with a few related accounts under it, you can collapse the group in the sheet to have "Automobile" as one slice (rather than having one slice for Gas, one slice for Insurance, etc..). Graph: The graph at the bottom of the view shows the progression of the primary view statistic (net worth or profit) over time. Columns: The sheets each have a different set of columns (customizable with ⌘J).
Transactions
In the Transactions view, all transactions of the document for the current date range are listed. From there, you can add, change and remove transactions. This view is the most efficient view for adding a batch of transactions (if you have a pile of invoices and receipts to add, for example). Amount contains the value that is transferred by the transaction. From and To contain the name of the accounts affected by the transaction (if it's a split transaction, names are comma separated). What these 3 columns mean is "This transaction transfers Amount from From and sent it to To". For example, if From is "Checking" and To is "Groceries", money is taken out of Checking and put in "Groceries". For an income From would be "Salary" and To would be "Checking". Above the transactions list, there is a filter bar allowing you to see only certain types of transactions.
The filter bar also contains a status line showing the number of transactions shown compared to the total number of transactions in the current date range. From and To cells have a little Account
This view displays transactions from the perspective of a specific account. It lists transactions similarly to the Transactions view, but it only lists transactions that affect the shown account. Instead of a From and a To column, there is only a Transfer column (the other side(s) of the transaction). However, the Amount column is split into an Increase and a Decrease column. For example, if I have Checking shown and the Transfer is "Groceries" and the Decrease is "42", it means that 42$ are taken from Checking and sent to Groceries. If the shown account is an asset or liability, there is also a Balance column, which shows the running balance of the account. The graph below shows the balance of the account for each day of the date range. If the shown account is an income or an expense, a bar chart similar to the Profit & Loss chart will be shown. This view is initially disabled because it needs a target account to show. That is why you must first select an account to show with the The Account view also has a filter bar, which behaves similarly to the one in the Transactions view, but with slight differences.
The Account view's filter bar also has a status line, which additionally shows the total amounts in the "Increase" and "Decrease" columns. Transfer cells have a little View Options
moneyGuru has a View options panel allowing you to hide some elements (such as charts). You can toggle its visibility with ⌘J. What You See Is What You Print (Kinda)In moneyGuru, you can print whatever is currently shown in any of the four views. You want to report a transaction listing for last year? Just set the current date range to last year, go to the Transactions view, and press ⌘P. moneyGuru automatically sizes the columns according to their content (columns with longer data are larger), trying to fit the most data in the page. |
. You can click on it to show this account in the Account view. You can also select it and press ⌘→.
icon, or by pressing space. Excluded accounts are not counted in the sheet's totals or in the charts.
