diff --git a/doc/details-categories.docbook b/doc/details-categories.docbook index e083ce111..8e38e0193 100644 --- a/doc/details-categories.docbook +++ b/doc/details-categories.docbook @@ -1,151 +1,151 @@ &Roger.Lum; &Roger.Lum.mail; 2014-08-30 4.7.01 -Categories +Categories The Categories screen provides a summary of all the existing categories under which transactions are filed. The categories are split into income and expense, and a balance is displayed for each category. Creating a category To create a new category, either select Category New category in the menu, or in the Categories view, select a parent in the tree, right click and select the New Category option. Either way will open the Create new categories wizard. Enter the new category name, and select the currency if the default shown is not correct. In the Hierarchy tab, ensure the required parent account is selected. Finally, in the Tax tab, there is a check box to enable VAT support, and a check box to include this category in certain tax related reports. Enter the category name any notes and click on OK to save the new category. To create a complete hierarchy of accounts, separate the names by colons (:) as in Bills:Car:Gasoline. Editing a Category To edit a category, right-click on a category name, and choose Edit category. A window comes up with three tabs: General, Hierarchy and Tax. The General tab allows you to edit the name of the category and any notes you entered when you created the category. The Hierarchy tab allows you to change the parent category. You can change the parent category by clicking on another category in this view of the category hierarchy. In an earlier version of &kmymoney; it was possible to change the parent of a category by dragging and dropping. This functionality will return in a future version, but possibly not until the conversion of &kmymoney; to &kde; Frameworks. The Tax tab allows you to assign or change VAT category, or alter the automatic VAT assignment. It also allows you to toggle whether or not the category is included in certain tax related reports. &Thomas.Baumgart; &Thomas.Baumgart.mail; VAT Support You can turn an expense/income category into a VAT category, which means that it receives all the splits that actually make up the VAT payment towards the government. You can also enter a specific percentage rate. Categories can be assigned a VAT category, which allows &kmymoney; to split a transaction for a category into two parts, one for the category and one for the VAT. Depending on the setting of the gross/net amount switch, the amount you enter for the transaction is the gross or net amount. Example: In Germany, there are three VAT percentages (0%, 7%, and 19%). So I have a main category "VAT paid" and three subcategories, one for each percentage rate. I create these on both the income and the expense sides so that I have eight categories in total. For the goods I buy, I select one of the above mentioned categories as the "VAT category assignment". When I buy goods, I enter them into a transaction. Let's assume I have selected the gross amount entry method, once I enter the category and amount, &kmymoney; will recognize that there's a VAT assignment and calculate the VAT part, create a second split with the VAT account and VAT amount and reduce the category amount. The same applies to income categories but the other way around. Hope that makes sense. Deleting a category To delete a category, select it in the tree, right click to bring up the popup menu, and select Delete. If there are any transactions assigned to this category, a popup will allow you to move these to another parent category. If you try to delete a parent category, a dialog allows the choice of either having the sub-categories moved up one level or alternatively having them all deleted at the same time. diff --git a/doc/details-forecast.docbook b/doc/details-forecast.docbook index a5ba2f234..eb9c12b87 100644 --- a/doc/details-forecast.docbook +++ b/doc/details-forecast.docbook @@ -1,308 +1,308 @@ &Colin.Wright; &Colin.Wright.mail; 2010-07-25 4.5 -Forecast +Forecast What is a Forecast? In &kmymoney;, a Forecast is a prediction of the balances of Accounts during a specified future period of time. Forecasts can be predicted using one of two methods. Scheduled and Future Transactions &kmymoney; uses a combination of future transactions already entered into the ledgers and the entries in the Schedule. History-based &kmymoney; uses values from past transactions in the ledgers to predict future transactions. The forecast method and forecast period can be set in the &kmymoney; Settings, in the Forecast pane. &kmymoney; Forecast provides a summary, showing the predicted balances at account cycle dates and the expected difference between the starting and ending balances. The length of the account cycle can be set by the user. The summary also displays messages about significant predicted changes to the accounts during the forecast period. As well as the summary, &kmymoney; Forecast also allows you to view day-by-day balances and view the minimum and maximum balances for each forecast account cycle. By default the Forecast is created for 90-days, with 30-day account cycles using Scheduled and Future Transactions. Viewing Forecasts You can view a Forecast by clicking the appropriate icon in the navigation pane at the left hand side of your &kmymoney; window. The Forecast window is split into five tabs Summary Tab The Summary tab is split vertically into two halves. Account Summary The Account Summary contains a grid displaying a row of information for each Asset and Liability. The following columns are displayed: Account The name of the Asset or Liability account Current Balance (Current) The current balance of the account is displayed. Account Cycle Balance The Forecast period is split into account cycles. The default account cycle length is 30 days, but can be set by the user. The first account cycle date is the first Forecast date. By default this is the current date plus one account cycle, but can change depending on the "Day of Month to start Forecast" setting. Remaining account cycle dates are determined by adding the account cycle length to the previous account cycle date. This is continued until the calculated account cycle date would be beyond the Forecast period. For each account cycle date the predicted balance is displayed. Total Variation The rightmost column displays the predicted difference in value between the balances at the start and end of the forecast. If the predicted end value of the account (in terms of net worth) is less than the start value the whole row is highlighted in red. Key Summary Information The bottom half of the Summary tab displays noteworthy information about accounts. This includes: Assets below zero A message is displayed for any asset for which the value starts or will drop below zero during the forecast period. Liabilities above zero A message is displayed for any liability for which the value starts or will rise above zero during the forecast period. Note that the value of a liability is the negative of its ledger balance, since a positive balance indicates money owed. Details Tab The Details tab contains a grid displaying a row of information for each Asset and Liability. Account The name of the Asset or Liability account Dates For each date in the Forecast period a column displays the predicted balance of the account on that date. The date columns are in ascending order from left to right. Total Variation The rightmost column displays the predicted difference in value between the balances at the start and end of the forecast. If the predicted end value of the account (in terms of net worth) is less than the start value the whole row is highlighted in red. Advanced Tab The Advanced tab contains a grid displaying a row of information for each Asset and Liability. The information is split into columns as follows: Account The name of the Asset or Liability account Minimum Account Cycle Balance For each account cycle number <n> in the Forecast period the following columns are displayed: Minimum Balance (Min Bal <n>) The minimum predicted balance during the account cycle Minimum Balance Date (Min Date <n>) The date on which the balance reaches its predicted minimum. Maximum Account Cycle Balance For each account cycle number <n> in the Forecast period the following columns are displayed: Maximum Balance (Max Bal <n>) The maximum predicted balance during the account cycle Maximum Balance Date (Max Date <n>) The date on which the balance reaches its predicted maximum. Average The average balance of the account during the forecast period Budget Forecast Tab The Budget tab displays a forecast calculation for the Income and Expense categories. The columns are similar to the Summary and Detailed tabs. Chart Tab It displays a chart showing the forecast. The level of detail varies depending on the detail level selected on the option above. diff --git a/doc/details-ledgers.docbook b/doc/details-ledgers.docbook index 13472c910..eebc62d4f 100644 --- a/doc/details-ledgers.docbook +++ b/doc/details-ledgers.docbook @@ -1,711 +1,712 @@ &Michael.T.Edwardes; &Michael.T.Edwardes.mail; &Roger.Lum; &Roger.Lum.mail; 2010-07-23 4.5 Ledgers The Ledger View The Ledger view is where most of the functionality of &kmymoney; lies. This view is for examining and entering transaction data in the various accounts. The view is split into three main areas: the filter area, the transaction list, and the input area. This view allows for several key actions: searching and viewing transactions, entering new transactions, and editing or deleting existing transactions. Other functionality includes modifying account details and reconciling the account. Ledger View The view has three elements: The filter area The transaction list The transaction input form, which may or may not appear, depending upon your configuration. The filter area Filter area You can select an account via the account dropdown list at the top of the view area. Note that depending upon the type of the account the transaction input form at the bottom of the view changes. To the right of the account dropdown list, are two additional fields. The search box acts as a filter on the transactions that are shown in the list view. Only transactions that include the text typed in the search box are displayed. The text specified can be in any of the fields of the transaction. The status field is a dropdown list. Only transactions of the type selected in that dropdown are displayed. The transaction list Transaction list After you have entered a transaction, it is displayed in the transaction list. You can also change transaction properties or even create new transactions directly in the list. In the transactions list, the default arrangement of transactions is sorted by date with the most recent transaction on the bottom. Clicking the Right Mouse Button on the header of the transaction list brings up a dialog that allows you to change the sort order of the transactions. For instructions on how to change the default sort order, see the Sorting tab section of the &kmymoney; Settings Chapter. Note that the balance column is based on the currently displayed sort order, and will not be calculated if the display is filtered by the search box or transaction type dropdown, as described above. At the bottom of the transaction list, &kmymoney; displays three values: Last reconciled This is the most recent date on which you reconciled this account. Reconciliation is an important process for many accounts, and is described here. Cleared This is the total of all cleared and reconciled transactions in this account. See this section for more information about the cleared and reconciled states of transactions. Balance This is where &kmymoney; displays the total balance of the account, which is the sum of all transactions in the account. However, if you select more than one transaction in the transaction list, this changes to display the sum of the selected transactions. This returns to the balance when only one transaction is selected. The transaction input form The exact layout of the bottom area of the ledger view depends on your configuration and the type of account being displayed. However, it generally includes fields for all the details of a single transaction, as well as buttons for various actions that can apply to a transaction. It is described in more detail in the following sections. Entering Transactions There are two methods of entering transactions into the ledger: using the transaction input form and entering the data directly into the transaction list. The transaction input form is displayed by default and this is the method we will discuss first. The fields in the input area match the information fields in the transactions list. Additional fields include the Memo field, for a more detailed description of the transaction, and a Category selection. The Split button allows you to split the transaction into multiple categories. Using the transaction input form Transaction Form The transaction input form at the bottom of the ledger view is the interface for creating transactions. Depending upon the type or method of transaction you wish to enter there are several tabs available on the transaction form. Click on the tab that best describes your transaction (deposit, transfer, or withdrawal) and the form will load several fields ready for your input. Please note that the actual transaction method is not used directly by &kmymoney; but is purely for grouping/reporting purposes. If you are unsure which method to choose simply use Deposit for any money going into the account, Withdrawal for money coming out of the account, and Transfer for money moving from one account to another. The transaction methods and the differences between them are discussed in more detail elsewhere. Select the transaction method by clicking on one of the tabs. The fields of a transaction Enter the information using the following notes on the available fields. Note that many fields have 'Auto Completion' turned on. That is, if you start typing, &kmymoney; will offer alternatives matching the characters you have entered so far. To select an entry click on it using the mouse or keyboard, or if your entry is not listed keep typing to add the new value. The next time you type the value in, &kmymoney; will find it for you after the first few characters have been input. The Payee The Payee is who the money came from/to. If the payee is a new entry &kmymoney; will ask if you wish to add this to the list of Payees. Any other information related to a payee or payer, such as address details can be updated in the Payees view later. The Category The Category associates a transaction with an income or expense category for accounting and reporting purposes, and enables you to group certain transactions. Type the name of the category into the required field. If you have entered the category and it does not exist then &kmymoney; will ask if you want to create a new one. If you wish to associate parts of the transaction with different categories, &kmymoney; can let you do that. An example transaction might be a cash machine withdrawal of 50 of which you use 10 on food, 20 on beer and 20 as spare cash. The transaction will therefore be assigned three categories: Food, Beer, and Cash. To do this, you need to use Split Transactions, which is described in more detail below. See the special &kmymoney; fields section for more information on how to use this field. The Tag Tags were introduced to &kmymoney; in version 4.7, and they are not yet fully documented in this handbook. Tags are similar to Categories, and can be used to maintain an orthogonal view to Categories. For example, you might have a Category for each different type of automotice expenses, and then have a Tag for each vehicle. As with Categories, you can select from the dropdown list, or type a new Tag name, and be prompted if you want to create a new Tag with that name. The Memo A multi-line memo can be entered if you wish to help you remember what the transaction was for. The Check Number The check number can be entered if needed. Note that the check number can always be visible if desired. This is configured in the Settings dialog. The Date The transaction's posting date must be entered to specify when the transaction took place. See the special &kmymoney; fields section for more information on how the date input field can be used to make entering dates quicker and easier. The Amount Finally, enter the transaction amount into the required field. Note that a simple calculator can be displayed, either by clicking the icon to the right of the amount field, or by entering the % character into the field, or by entering a formula, as in 12 + 3. When entering the plus sign, the calculator will be opened. When you are satisfied that all the fields have been filled in correctly, click on Enter. If you accidentally press or click on Enter before you have finished entering all the data, click on Edit to resume entering the data. Directly inputting transactions into the list Direct Transaction Entry The second method of entering transactions into the ledger involves editing the transaction list itself directly. To do this you must first let &kmymoney; know that you don't want to use the transaction form by opening the settings dialog and unchecking the Show transaction form option. This is performed by selecting Settings Configure &kmymoney; from the menu bar and selecting the Register icon from the list on the left. The option to uncheck is labeled Show transaction form. When finished click on OK to be ready to directly enter transactions. Starting the edit To enter a new transaction into the register you can now either click on an empty entry, press &Ctrl;Ins, or click New at the foot of the window. The Up and Down arrow keys let you navigate through the list. After pressing &Enter; or double clicking on an entry, the transaction list displays the fields required to enter the transaction and waits for input. To move through the fields press the key and when done press &Enter; to save the changes or &Esc; to cancel. In case the option Use Enter to move between fields is selected, the &Enter; moves to the next field just as the TAB key except for the last entry field where it stores the data. Which method you use to enter transactions is up to you and is a matter of personal preference. -Split Transactions +Split Transactions The Split transaction feature allows you to divide up a transaction into multiple categories, representing, for example, the different items bought with a single purchase at a store. To enter a split transaction, using either the transaction input form or the transaction list, start a new transaction as normal, including entering the total amount. Then, instead of selecting a category, click the Split button. If you have already selected a category, that becomes the first entry in the split editor screen. In the split editor screen, double-click an empty line to enter a new sub-transaction or press &Ctrl;Ins. Specify the category, add an (optional) memo, and enter the amount. To save this part of the split, press the green check mark under the category. To cancel, press the red cross. After entering a split, the bottom of the split editor shows how much of the total transaction is still unassigned. After entering all the splits, press the OK button to save the entire transaction. If there is still an unassigned amount, you will be prompted to either return to editing the splits, change the total transaction amount, or leave part of the transaction unassigned. Note that the category field in the transaction input form or the transaction list now displays Split transaction. Split transactions Split transaction Editing transactions To edit a transaction, select it in the list view and either click on Edit in the transaction input form or right click on the entry and select Edit from the popup menu. If you are editing transactions directly in the list you can edit the transaction simply by double clicking on an entry or by pressing &Enter; when a transaction is highlighted. Deleting transactions To delete a transaction, select it in the list view, right click on the entry, and select Delete from the popup menu when it appears, or click Delete on the transaction form. -Matching Transactions +Matching Transactions Generally, when importing transactions, either via QIF, OFX, or HBCI, &kmymoney; will automatically attempt to match them against existing transactions. To allow for differences in the dates, there is a default setting of 4 days, which may be changed in the settings - Register/Import. Any transactions so matched will be highlighted in green. On completion of the import, you should review these and either accept or unmatch them. If you should find that an imported transaction was not automatically matched with an existing transaction when it should have matched, then it is possible to match them manually. Note that there is a difference between manually matching two transactions and simply deleting one of them, even though they may appear to have the same effect. Specifically with OFX or HBCI, it is important not to delete the imported transaction, because you will find that the next time you import your transactions, the deleted transaction shows up again. This is because modern import formats like OFX and HBCI use a Transaction ID to identify transactions. When you delete the imported transaction, the transaction ID goes with it, so the importer has no way to know this transaction was already imported. The solution is to tell &kmymoney; that the transactions are the same, using the manual matching interface. This allows you to match an imported transaction with a hand-entered (non-imported) transaction. To do so, select one of the transactions to be matched by clicking on it, then select the other by left clicking on it while pressing the &Ctrl; key, and then select Match from the context menu. This changes the background color to a pale green. This will match and combine the two transactions together. The values of both transactions must be the same for the match to work, except that the dates may differ by the window specified in the settings, as described above. If you are happy with the result, right click the matched transaction, then select Accept. During import of online statements - either directly or by importing a downloaded file - &kmymoney; performs matching as best as it can based on the name of the payee and the amount of the transaction. In case of an invalid match, a matched transaction can be unmatched. The matching interface will not allow you to match two transactions which have both been imported. Likewise, it won't allow matching between two transactions which have both been entered by hand. Understanding the Cleared State A transaction can have one of three states: non-reconciled, cleared (C), and reconciled (R). When you enter a transaction, it has state non-reconciled. Once the bank posts the transaction, the user can clear it and thus transform it to state (C). When you receive a statement from the bank, all cleared transactions should be on the statement. Understanding the cleared state cleared state When you reconcile your account, you actually mark the statements as cleared and check that the difference between the beginning balance and the cleared transactions equals the ending balance of the statement. When this is the case, you can 'finish reconciling' which actually changes the state of all cleared transactions (C) to reconciled (R). If you try to edit a transaction with at least one split marked as reconciled (R), you will be warned. A fourth state is defined (frozen (F)) but there's currently no way to set it. It is reserved for future use. Nevertheless, if a transaction has at least one split in state frozen it cannot be edited anymore. -Changing Transaction Settings + +Changing Transaction Settings There are several settings options that change the appearance and behavior of the ledger view in terms of transactions. These settings are found by selecting Settings Configure &kmymoney; from the menu bar, and selecting the Register icon from the list on the left. Most of the settings are self explanatory. For clarity, several of the settings are explained below. Show transaction form (under the Display tab) - toggle to hide the transaction input area at the bottom of this screen. Transactions can still be entered directly into an empty line at the end of the transaction list, through an automatic compact entry area. These images show what direct transaction entry looks like compared to the transaction form. The transaction input form The transaction form Transaction form Transactions entered directly Transactions entered directly Direct input Keep changes when selecting a different transaction/split - by selecting the next line in the transaction list or split editor, the changes are kept, instead of the default behavior where you have to push the green check mark to save changes. -Other Functionality +Other Functionality Additional options are available from the Transaction Options menu, accessed by right-clicking any transaction in the list. The transaction options sub-menu Transaction options Options include jumping to the Payee's page, creating a schedule, and changing the reconciled or cleared indication. To edit the account information from the ledger view, select Account from the menu bar. From this menu, you can change the account details, or bring up the Reconcile menu, which allows you to match transactions against an official bank statement or credit card notice. diff --git a/doc/details-payees.docbook b/doc/details-payees.docbook index 77c85251f..70fd184ff 100644 --- a/doc/details-payees.docbook +++ b/doc/details-payees.docbook @@ -1,228 +1,227 @@ &Roger.Lum; &Roger.Lum.mail; &Ace.Jones; &Ace.Jones.mail; 2010-07-25 4.5 -Payees +Payees The Payees screen provides detailed information about all the payees and payers involved in transactions. The Payees screen is split into two main areas: a payees and payers list and a detail area. The Payees screen allows for viewing the transactions for the selected payee, updating personal information associated with a particular payee or payer, and specifying transaction matching criteria. Payees List A list of payees and payers is on the left side of this screen. The payee list is sorted alphabetically. Adding a Payee or Payer To add a payee or payer, right-click on any payee name and choose New payee. This creates a new payee called New Payee. Right-click on this payee and select Rename payee to enter the name of the new payee or payer. Renaming a Payee or Payer To rename a payee or payer, simply right-click on the name, select Rename payee and the name becomes editable. Changing the name will affect the name in all the transactions in which it appears. Deleting a Payee or Payer To remove a payee or payer, right-click the name and select Delete payee. If the payee has any transactions, you will be presented with a dialog that allows you to reassign them to a different payee, and also a check box to enable a deleted name to be added to the new payee's matching list. - Additional Payee Details Personal Information To view and edit the personal information associated with a particular payee, select the payee from the list and select the Address tab. To modify this information, edit the detail area directly and press the Update button when finished. The personal information tab Personal information - + Transaction Matching Settings Overview &kmymoney; has the ability to automatically assign the proper payee to imported transactions. This can be handy when importing transactions from your bank, when the payee name has extra unnecessary characters, or worse, if the payee names change. For example, let's say your monthly mortgage payment comes in from your bank like this SUNTRUST BANK MAPLE VALLEY, GA 111506 one month and then SUNTRUST BANK MAPLE VALLEY, GA 121606 the next month. You would really like both of those transactions to be assigned simply to your payee SunTrust. The transaction matching feature is for you! The payee matching tab Payee matching details Setting up From the Matching tab, you can set the Transaction Matching Settings. You have 3 major options: No Matching. Disables the feature for this payee. This is the default setting for all payees. Match on Payee Name. Enables the feature, and uses the payee name itself as the Match Key Match on Key. Enables the feature, and allows you to enter one or more Match Keys of your choosing. In general, entering a plain string will work perfectly. However, the match keys are actually regular expressions, so it is possible to match on more complicated patterns. You can also choose whether you want to ignore the case of the Match Key. If you choose this option, the Match Key SunTrust would match SUNTRUST BANK or SunTrust Bank. Importing Transactions When you import transactions using the QIF import, or using a plugin such as OFX or AqBanking, the Match Keys you have set will be considered. If the Match Key for one of your payees is found anywhere in the payee of the imported transaction, the corresponding payee from your list will be assigned to that transaction. Thus, a Match Key of SunTrust will match SUNTRUST BANK MAPLE VALLEY,GA or even MORGENSUNTRUST&LOAN. So choose your Match Keys carefully. If a transaction payee matches more than one Match Key, the behavior is undefined. &kmymoney; will arbitrarily pick one of the matching payees. Viewing Transaction History To view all transactions associated with a particular payee, select the payee from the list and the Transaction tab in the detail area. Double-clicking a particular transaction will bring you directly to that transaction in the Ledgers screen. The transaction tab Transaction history diff --git a/doc/firsttime.docbook b/doc/firsttime.docbook index f984e1932..4556795b8 100644 --- a/doc/firsttime.docbook +++ b/doc/firsttime.docbook @@ -1,1035 +1,1035 @@ &Michael.T.Edwardes; &Michael.T.Edwardes.mail; &Jack.H.Ostroff; &Jack.H.Ostroff.mail; 2018-02-01 5.0.0 Using &kmymoney; for the first time Running &kmymoney; for the first time Once &kmymoney; has fully loaded two windows will be opened. The top window, 'Tip of the Day' offers one of a series of important or useful pieces of information about the application. Tip of the Day Tip of the Day You are recommended to quickly read through these tips by pressing on the Previous and Next buttons at the bottom of the window. Once you have read the tips the window can be closed; it will re-open each time &kmymoney; is started. To stop this default behavior, uncheck the appropriate option on the Tip of the Day window. Tips can be read at anytime by selecting Show tip of the day from the Help menu within &kmymoney;. All tips have been extracted from the Frequently Asked Questions list (FAQ) that provides more detailed help and can be found on the project website and in this manual. Please click on Close to close the Tip of the Day dialog. When you run &kmymoney;, it might not look exactly like the screenshots in this manual. Many details, such as fonts, colors, and icons, can be customized, either using the SettingsConfigure &kmymoney;... dialog or the KDE System Settings application, depending on your operating system. The main window The Main Window The Main Window The &kmymoney; main window consists of four major parts A. The menu bar B. The toolbar C. The View selector D. The view The menu and toolbars provide access to the features of &kmymoney; and allow you to Create files or configure how &kmymoney; operates. - The view selector consists of at least eleven icons in the left side of the - main window, depending upon the software provided by your system. More icons - could be added by various plugins. By clicking on an icon, the view window on - the right hand side is loaded with the appropriate view of your financial - data. Each view provides a unique representation of your financial situation - and allows you to view or edit the information shown. + On the left side of the main window, the view selector consists of at least + eleven icons with optional labels, depending upon the software provided by + your system. More icons could be added by various plugins. By clicking on an + icon, the view window on the right hand side is loaded with the appropriate + view of your financial data. Each view provides a unique representation of + your financial situation and allows you to view or edit the information shown. The view selector may contain the following icons Home View Home: A configurable overview of your current financial situation (or an introduction page when no data file is open). Institutions View Institutions: All of your institutions and accounts displayed in a hierarchy. Accounts View Accounts: All of your accounts displayed in a hierarchy. Schedules View Scheduled Transactions: Your recurring bills and deposits. Categories View Categories: Special accounts that provide a means for you to group associated transactions. Tags View Tags: Special accounts that provide an additional means to Categories for you to group associated transactions. Payees View Payees: All Payees used by &kmymoney;. These are all the people or organizations you pay money to or receive money from. Ledgers View Ledgers: Your account transactions. Investments View Investments: Your portfolio summary. Reports View Reports: A collection of useful reports, providing alternate, customizable views of your financial data. Budgets View Budgets: Your budgets Forecast View Forecast: This view provides a forecast of your accounts and categories Outbox View Outbox: Used by the online banking module to provide feedback on running processes. This view is provided by the KBanking plugin and may not be present on your system. Creating a new file &kmymoney; keeps all the data about your finances in a file. As was stated in Defining the accounts (personal records), you can keep more than one set of accounts, but the data for each will be kept in a separate file, and &kmymoney; can only have one file open at a time. See the chapter on File Formats for more details about &kmymoney;'s data files. To create a new file you can either select FileNew from the menu or choose the New icon from the toolbar. In addition, if the main welcome page is displayed, you can also select the first link: "Get started and setup accounts." &kmymoney; will then open the New File Setup Wizard which will guide you through the process of creating the file. Personal Data Page Personal Data Page Since all fields are optional, you can use &kmymoney; without entering any information now. Any information entered here is used only to personalize your file. In the future, it may be used in some reports and for online banking. If &kmymoney; requires any personal information in future releases and finds none, you will be prompted to enter the relevant data then. Please enter your name and address or nothing and press Next. In case you have an address for yourself stored in the &kaddressbook;, the button Load from Addressbook is enabled and pressing it imports all information into &kmymoney;. &kmymoney; supports multiple currencies. To set your base currency (the currency you use day to day and which will be used for your reports), select the appropriate entry from the list provided and press Next. A default will be selected from &kmymoney; based upon your locale settings. In the following example, US Dollar has been selected as the base currency. Base currency selection Page Base currency selection page The following page allows you to create an initial account. For the typical &kmymoney; user this is a checking account. Checking account creation Page Checking account creation page Enter the name of the account and a possible account or reference number assigned by the institution managing the account. Enter the opening date of the account and the opening balance of the account. For example, you want to use &kmymoney; to manage all your finances as of 2008-01-01, then enter the balance of the account at the beginning of this date. The number can possibly be obtained from a paper statement. Also enter the name and routing number of the institution, though this information is optional and only required for online banking purposes. In case you don't want to setup an initial account, please uncheck the check box. Once finished, press Next to proceed. Account template selection Page Account template selection page Choose the appropriate country and account template(s). Each template provides a different set of categories for organizing your finances. Multiple templates, even from different countries, can be selected using a combination of &Ctrl; and &Shift; together with the left mouse button. The account hierarchy to be setup will be shown in a preview part of the wizard. In case you cannot find a template that suits your needs, don't select a template at this time, and you can manually set up categories later. Once finished with the template selection press Next to proceed. The next page of the wizard allows you to setup user preferences. If you select the checkbox, the application settings dialog will be displayed after you have completed the account setup wizard. Press Next if you are done and want to proceed. Preference Page Preference page The last page of the wizard allows you to select the location and filename that will be used to store your financial data. Initial values will be constructed out of your HOME folder and user name. In case the file exists, a warning will be displayed which reminds you to select a name of a non-existing file. Filename selection Page Filename selection page Now you have entered all relevant information to create the file. Press Finish and &kmymoney; will create the file for you and open it. Creating accounts There are multiple ways you can create an account, which are described here: Using the menu To create an account using the menu select AccountsNew account. Using the Accounts view To create an account using the accounts view click on the Accounts icon in the view selector to display the Accounts View. Right click on the either the Asset tree icon or the Liability tree icon in the right hand view and select New account from the popup menu. The Asset tree holds all of your accounts that are an asset, such as savings and investments. Liabilities are accounts that represent money you owe, such as loans and credit cards. These and all the other account types are discussed in more detail later in this manual. Using the toolbar If the New Account... button is displayed on the toolbar, you can click it to create an account. Note that &kmymoney; uses context menus a lot throughout the whole application. If you find yourself stuck trying to figure out how to do something, try right-clicking where you would expect to see a feature. Creating a new account by either method opens the New Account Wizard. This wizard will take you step by step through the process of creating an account, gathering the required information at each step. To navigate through the pages click on the Next and Back buttons. Create an account using any of the previously mentioned methods to continue. A full description of creating accounts can be found in the Accounts section. Now that one or more accounts exist in &kmymoney;, your account summary is shown in the Home view. You can create transactions manually in the Ledgers view, or set up automatic transactions through the Schedules view. Schedules Sometimes called a recurring transaction, a Schedule is a transaction that occurs one or more times over a certain period of time. A typical example is your pay check that you receive every month or week. Rather than have to enter the transaction details each time you get paid, you can instruct &kmymoney; to create a schedule that will enter a transaction for you when you get paid. To maintain schedules click on the Schedules icon in the view selector. Categories To maintain categories click on the Categories icon in the view selector. A full description of this topic can be found in the Categories section. Tags To maintain tags click on the Tags icon in the view selector. A full description of this topic can be found in the Tags section. Payees To maintain your list of payees click on the Payees icon in the view selector. A full description of this topic can be found in the Payees section. Quicken Interchange Format (QIF) Import If you currently use another financial manager application, &kmymoney; can import an account's transactions as long as they can be exported or saved in a format &kmymoney; understands. The most common of these is the Quicken Interchange Format (QIF). Most financial programs can export this format, although the different applications' methods of exporting QIF is not discussed here for brevity. A full description of this topic can be found in the QIF Import section. Searching for transactions &kmymoney; provides a useful and powerful transaction search facility in the form of the search dialog. The search dialog can be opened from the toolbar using the Find icon or by selecting Find Transaction from the Edit menu. A full description of this topic can be found in the Search section. Reconciliation At some point you will want to reconcile the transactions you have entered with the transactions listed in a statement, be it a bank statement, credit card statement, loan statement, or any other statement. Reconciliation involves matching what you have entered with what the statement lists. If any discrepancies are found then either you or the person who created the statement have made a mistake. To reconcile an account, first select the account, either from Accounts view or from Ledgers view. Then, either click on the Reconcile icon on the Toolbar, or select Reconcile from the Account menu. A full description of this topic can be found in the Reconciliation section. Backing up Now that you have created some accounts and entered transactions it's a good idea to perform a backup. Because the file used by &kmymoney; is a standard Unix file you can just copy the file to another location to back it up or use the dialog provided by &kmymoney;. Using the dialog is the preferred method because if &kmymoney; ever starts using other file formats, such as SQL, then it would be much harder to copy the file manually. To backup your file through &kmymoney; Select Backup from the File menu and enter the folder where you wish the file to be saved. If the folder needs mounting first and you have the sufficient privileges then check the tick box labeled Mount this directory before backing up and click on OK. The file will be saved to the folder specified with the current date appended to the filename so it is easy to see the date the file was backed up. Launching &kmymoney; Most commonly, you will launch &kmymoney; from an icon or a start menu of your window manager. In this case, the default behavior is that &kmymoney; will open the last file you had open. However, in some circumstances, you will want or need to launch &kmymoney; from the command line. For a complete description of all the available command line options, see the man page for &kmymoney;. However, there are two special cases which we describe here. <command>kmymoney -n</command> The -n option tells &kmymoney; not to open the last file it had open. This can be useful if the program crashes on startup. <command>kmymoney <path to file></command> Giving &kmymoney; a filename on the command line tells it to open that file instead of the last file it had open. You can use the name of any valid &kmymoney; file, as described in the chapter on file formats. In addition, this can be used to import a GnuCash file. How to move &kmymoney; to a new computer Moving your data If you get a new computer, it's very easy to move your data. In fact, all you have to do is to copy your &kmymoney; data file. The name of the file is shown in the title bar when &kmymoney; is running, it usually ends in .kmy. The first time you run the application on the new computer you will have to tell it where you have put the data file, either by running from the command line, or from the FileOpen... menu. You should even be able to move between &Windows;, &MacOS;, and &Linux; systems. If you have encrypted your data file, be sure the appropriate software and keys have also been set up on the new computer. If your data is in an SQL database, refer to documentation for your database software for guidance on migrating your data. Note that this assumes you have installed the same version of &kmymoney; on the new computer as you were running on the old computer. Installing a newer version should also be safe, but you need to be aware of any issues related to that upgrade. Any such issues should be noted in the release notes for the new version. Moving your settings If you only move your data file to the new machine, as described in the previous section, &kmymoney; will work correctly, but you will have lost any settings you changed from the default on your old machine. To maintain these settings, you also need to copy your configuration file. This file is called kmymoneyrc. This file will be in a directory with other &kde; application configuration files. On a &Linux; system, this will be in $KDEHOME/share/config where $KDEHOME is usually .config within your home directory. If you are migrating from a version of &kmymoney; prior to 5.0 to 5.0 or later, the old location of $KDEHOME was .kde4. Moving plugin settings If you have run any &kmymoney; plugin, such as the csv importer or exporter, it may also have created a configuration file in that same directory, such as csvimporterrc or csvexporterrc. These should also be copied to the new computer. As with the main data file, this assumes the same version of the plugin on both computers. Upgrades are generally safe, but if the functionality of the plugin has changed greatly, it is advisable to carefully test using the old configuration file, to be sure the plugin behaves as you expect. Note that when upgrading from a previous version to version 5.0 or higher, the location of the template files used by the plugin for printing checks has changed. Please consult the release notes or the project website for more details. These instructions are solely for moving your &kmymoney; data and settings. However, there may be important items which are stored by &kde; and not by &kmymoney;, such as passwords stored in kwallet. Moving other parts of your &kde; setup is beyond the scope of this manual, although many of the relevant files are also stored under $KDEHOME. Contacting the Developers / Reporting Bugs Contacting the developers For general questions or comments about &kmymoney;, there is a users' mailing list &userlist;. (more details here.) In addition, you can contact the developers through their mailing list &devlist;. (more details here.) Since replies are often sent only to the list, you may not get any response unless you subscribe to one of the lists before sending to it. We're happy to hear about your experiences using &kmymoney;. Reporting bugs To report a bug please use the interface provided by &kmymoney; by selecting HelpReport Bug and filling in the required information. However, in case you have any difficulties with that method, you can report a bug (or file a wish-list or enhancement request) directly at the &kde; bug reporting web site. Reports should be filed against the product kmymoney. In any case, before reporting a bug, please read through the guidelines below. Following them will make it more likely that the developers will be able to quickly identify the problem without having to ask you for more information. Writing High Quality Bug Reports We encourage users to take extra time to write high-quality bug reports when submitting them. This reduces wasted effort on all sides, as the reporter and the developer who will fix it trade emails until this information is really in place. Eli Goldberg wrote the canonical Bug-Writing Guideline, available at http://issues.apache.org/bugwritinghelp.html. Generally, you'll be well-served by following these guidelines: Include your system information The HelpReport Bug menu choice will fill this in automatically, but if you would prefer not to use this interface, there are several items you need to include in the report. We will need to know what operating system you are using (&Linux;, &MacOS;, or &Windows;), the version of &kde;, and the version of &kmymoney; you're running, and either the version of &MacOS; or &Windows; or the name and version of your &Linux; distribution and the version of your kernel. Include a backtrace for crashes The backtrace is often the single most useful piece of information in solving crashes. Try to reproduce it Let us know if you were able to do so. It's useful to know whether the bug only happened once and you couldn't get it to happen again or happens every time or happens sometimes but not others. Include specific steps This is a bad bug report: I entered a transaction, and &kmymoney; crashed. A much better bug report is: Using the transaction form, I entered a new transaction in my Credit Card account. I selected the Transfer tab, entered in an amount, then changed to the Deposit tab, and back to the Transfer tab. When I returned to the Transfer tab, &kmymoney; crashed. This bug is fully reproducible for me. Tell us what you expected to happen In some cases, this is obvious, but in more subtle bugs, sometimes you'll see a bug report where it is not obvious what the reporter expected to happen. Always tell us what you think should have happened. Consider running with debugging enabled By compiling a version configured with --enable-debug=full you can ensure that the best possible backtraces are generated. If you encounter a crash, run &kmymoney; again from within gdb, and reproduce the crash. When it crashes, type bt to generate a backtrace. Running this way is a bit more difficult, so we don't expect all users to do this. However, if you're interested in helping &kmymoney; become as stable as possible, this is the best way to do it short of finding the bug in the code and sending in a patch.