Setting up accounts in Money by Zaweba

Every figure in Money by Zaweba belongs to an account, so setting them up well is the foundation for everything else. There are six types: current, savings, credit card, cash, loan or mortgage, and investment. Each has an opening balance, an opening date and a currency, and New account is on the File menu.

Getting the opening balance and date right is most of the job. Do that and balances, net worth and reconciliation all fall into place.

Choosing the type

Pick the type that matches what the account really is. A current account is the one your wages go into and your bills come out of. Savings is for money put aside. A credit card holds what you owe on a card. Cash is the money in your purse or wallet, if you want to track it. Loan or mortgage covers borrowing that you pay down. Investment covers anything whose value you record by hand, such as shares, a pension figure or a property.

The type shapes how the account appears on the Accounts page on the left and in net worth, so a credit card or a mortgage counts against what you own rather than towards it.

Opening balance and opening date

These two settings work together. An account's balance on any date is nothing before its opening date, then the opening balance plus every transaction up to that date.

The simplest way to choose them is to take a statement. Use the date the statement starts and the balance it shows at that point. Then import or enter transactions from that date on, and the running balance in the register should match the bank's.

Transactions dated before the opening date are allowed, so an early one won't be refused. It's still best to keep things tidy and choose an opening date that comes before the first transaction you plan to record.

Currencies

Each account has a currency, GBP by default. Money follows UK conventions throughout, but if you have an account in another currency, say a euro account for holidays, set it to that. Other currencies are shown with their own symbol and are never converted. Money doesn't fetch exchange rates, because it never goes online, and it won't make up a rate for you.

Investments valued by hand

An investment account is valued by you. When you have a new figure, from a statement or a valuation, use Update value and Money records the rise or fall. That way the change appears in net worth over time without pretending to be spending or income.

The sample file shows a neat use of this: a house held as a manually valued investment account, so a household's net worth isn't just its mortgage.

Keeping accounts tidy

Give accounts names you'll recognise at a glance, especially if you have two of the same kind at different banks. Set up every account money moves between, so transfers have somewhere to go. And if you're a sole trader, give business money its own accounts, which keeps the two sides apart in the reports.

After that, the day-to-day work happens in each account's register and in statement imports. With accounts set up carefully, Money by Zaweba keeps every balance right from then on.