Add your accounts

Accounts establish the money your budget can work with and the credit-card debt it needs to track. Have a verifiable balance and its date ready for each account.

Choose the right account type

Choose	For	What to enter
Bank account or cash	Chequing, savings, or cash you are tracking	The starting balance; use a negative amount if overdrawn.
Credit card	A card used for spending in this budget	The amount owed as a positive number; use a negative amount if the card has a credit balance.

Only bank accounts and cash contribute cash to the budget. A credit limit is borrowing capacity and does not provide money to fund envelopes. An actual positive card balance also contributes prepaid spending value to nightly funding. The current browser's Available funds and timeline do not include that credit in their starting available funds. The value remains on the card for purchases; it is not bank cash. See Positive card balances and available funds.

Add an account

1. On the budget screen, find the Accounts pane at the bottom and select All accounts. This link is available even when the pane is collapsed.
2. Select Add account.
3. Enter an Account name, such as Chequing.
4. Choose the Account type. Check this carefully: the type cannot be changed after saving.
5. Enter the Starting balance, or Amount owed for a card, with up to two decimal places.
6. Set Balance as of to the date of your starting point.
7. Select Add account.

A starting entry is recorded even for a $0.00 balance. Open the account to check its Current balance and entries. Repeat for the other accounts you want to track.

Example: cash and a card

For $1,000 in Chequing, choose Bank account or cash and enter 1000.00. For a card with $200 owed, choose Credit card and enter 200.00 under Amount owed.

The card's account ledger then shows a balance of -$200.00. This is expected: a negative card balance means money is owed. The payment summary presents that same debt as a positive Owed amount.

Adding the $200 debt does not reserve $200 of cash for payment. Review Use credit cards to set aside money for an opening balance.

Avoid counting earlier activity twice

Your starting balance already includes the activity before your chosen cutoff. If the $1,000 balance includes yesterday's grocery purchase, entering that purchase again would subtract it a second time.

Record activity after the cutoff, including any transactions on the starting date that the balance did not include. Compare pending and posted items consistently; the date alone may not explain which transactions are included.

Check and maintain your accounts

Use All accounts to manage account names. Edit account changes the name, not the opening balance or account type. To investigate an incorrect balance, review the account entries and follow When numbers look wrong.

Once the included accounts agree with your records, continue with Create your envelopes.