This is an app for tracking and analyzing simple personal income, expense, and investment. The target audience is an average working adult.
To start using this application,
Note that this app does not save any data to any server, so it is very important that you Save your work after you're done, otherwise all of your progress will be lost.
If you need any further Help, feel free to ask any question.
A: DOUBLE-CLICK the row that you want to edit or delete. That row will become editable, and a DELETE button will appear. You can edit that input row and press ENTER to resubmit the edit.
A: Any money that you receive. Salary, bonus, stipend, compensation, investment dividend, someone paying back a personal loan, bank account balance carryover at the start of the financial year, ...
A: Any money that you spend. Buying something, paying fees and penalties, paying taxes, paying loan installments, ...
A: Gross Worth = Total Income − Total Expense
A: Net Worth = Gross Worth + Total Obligation
A: Deferred expense and income. A positive obligation is when someone/something promises to pay you a specific amount at a later date (deferred income). A negative obligation is when you promise to pay someone/something a specific amount at a later date (deferred expense).
Recording deferred expense/income helps you better understand your financial position at a particular moment. Your goal in this game is to try keep both your gross worth and net worth above zero. Between net worth and gross worth, the lower amount represents your discretionary fund that you can spend on entertainment or luxury. Stop any luxury spending before you dip into negative worth.
Example 1: You have a big yearly payment commitment (motor insurance, college tuition, property tax, club membership) of $6000. An easy way to spread out this commitment/obligation is to record the amount divided by 12 as a negative obligation on every month. This is an example of deferred expense. Even though you haven't made the payment yet, you pretend that you have made fractions of the payment by recording it as a negative obligation.
OBLIGATION | 1-Feb | tuition | -$500
OBLIGATION | 1-Mar | tuition | -$500
OBLIGATION | 1-Apr | tuition | -$500
This will automatically deduct that amount from your net worth, which signals that you don't have as much discretionary fund as your bank account statement might tell you. At the end of the year, when it's time to pay that commitment, record it as an expense, and also record the same amount as a positive obligation.
EXPENSE | 31-Dec | tuition | $6000
OBLIGATION | 31-Dec | tuition | $6000
Example 2: You lend $300 to a friend, who promises to pay it back in three months. Record it as an expense, and also as a positive obligation by the same amount. This signals that while there is less money in your bank account, you have more worth available that is locked up. This is an example of deferred income. Even though you haven't received the money yet, you pretend as if you have received the money by recording it as a positive obligation.
EXPENSE | 24-Feb | loan to John | $300
OBLIGATION | 24-Feb | loan to John | $300
When the friend pays the loan back, record it as an income, and also a negative obligation by the same amount.
INCOME | 24-May | loan to John | $300
OBLIGATION | 24-May | loan to John | -$300
Example 3: You borrow $300 from a friend, promising to pay it back in three months. Record it as an income, and also as a negative obligation by the same amount. This signals that while there is more money in your bank account, this is not part of your discretionary fund. This is an example of deferred expense. Even though you haven't paid back the loan yet, you pretend as if you have paid the loan by recording it as a negative obligation.
INCOME | 24-Feb | loan from John | $300
OBLIGATION | 24-Feb | loan from John | -$300
When the you pay the loan back, record it as an expense, and also a positive obligation by the same amount.
EXPENSE | 24-May | loan from John | $300
OBLIGATION | 24-May | loan from John | $300
A: You could record your deposits into an investment account as an expense, paired with a positive obligation. This signals that while your checking account balance may be low, you have a significant amount of worth tied up elsewhere. The dividend is recorded as income if you withdraw it, or as a positive obligation if you immediately reinvest it.
EXPENSE | 26-Feb | invest | $300
OBLIGATION | 26-Feb | invest | $300
EXPENSE | 26-Mar | invest | $300
OBLIGATION | 26-Mar | invest | $300
EXPENSE | 26-Apr | invest | $300
OBLIGATION | 26-Apr | invest | $300
INCOME | 01-May | dividend | $550
When you withdraw from an investment account, record it as an income, paired with an equal amount of negative obligation.
INCOME | 17-Oct | investment | $70,000
OBLIGATION | 17-Oct | investment | -$70,000
But some people have a phobia of excess fund. You could also record investment deposits simply as expense, treating the amount in your investment account as a mystery so that you can't be tempted to spend it. Withdrawing from the investment account then is just an income.
EXPENSE | 26-Feb | invest | $300
EXPENSE | 26-Mar | invest | $300
EXPENSE | 26-Apr | invest | $300
INCOME | 26-May | invest W/ | $1000
A: When you charge a purchase on a credit card, you haven't actually paid anything yet. Since this is a deferred expense, you can record it as a negative obligation. When you pay the credit card balance at the end of the month, then it is an expense, paired with a positive obligation of the same amount.
OBLIGATION | 5 Jul | clothing | -$50
OBLIGATION | 6 Jul | grocery | -$80
OBLIGATION | 7 Jul | coffee | -$20
EXPENSE | 31 Jul | cc bal | $150
OBLIGATION | 31 Jul | cc bal | $150
However, if you are the kind of person that uses a credit card as if it is a debit card and fully pays off the balance every month, you could just record every credit card charge like a normal expense. In this case, the payment of credit card balance at the end of the month is not recorded.
EXPENSE | 5 Jul | clothing | $50
EXPENSE | 6 Jul | grocery | $80
EXPENSE | 7 Jul | coffee | $20
** This is written assuming that you are a millenial adult living in a fairly developed country who doesn't really use cash for significant expenses all that much anymore.
A: Technically, cash withdrawal is not any kind of transaction. Only when you buy something with that cash would it become an expense. However, since cash is often used for small purchases that are tedious to record, it's easier to just record the cash withdrawal as an expense to lump together all of your small cash expenses.
EXPENSE | 13-Mar | cash withdraw | $300
In the rare case where you had to make a big expense with cash, you may record it as such. Let's say you withdraw $500 to buy an item for $467 cash.
EXPENSE | 26-Mar | antique clock | $467
EXPENSE | 26-Mar | cash withdraw | $33
A: That would be convenient for sure, but is a privacy risk. You should store your financial records locally, or on a secure file hosting service.
A: On the New page, type your current Gross Worth into the Starting Balance field, and your current total Obligation into the Starting Obligation field.