How transfers between accounts work in Money by Zaweba

Moving money between your own accounts isn't spending, and Money by Zaweba treats it that way. A transfer is one linked pair: a row in each account's register, joined together. Transfers are never counted as spending or income, so paying off a credit card or topping up savings doesn't make a month look more expensive than it was.

Getting transfers right is one of the quiet things that makes the reports believable. A household that pays its credit card from its current account would otherwise see that payment counted twice, once as the shopping on the card and again as the payment.

How a transfer is made

There's no separate transfer form. You make one by choosing a Transfer entry in the category list when you enter or edit a transaction, picking the other account involved. The money out or in choice sets the direction: money out of this account and into the other, or the reverse.

Money then puts the matching row in the other account's register. Look in either account and the transfer is there, with the same amount going the opposite way.

Why the pair stays linked

Because the two rows are joined, changing or deleting one half changes or deletes the other. Correct the amount in the current account and the savings account follows. Delete the transfer from the credit card and it goes from the current account too. That keeps both balances right without you having to remember the other side.

It also means a transfer can never be half there, with money leaving one account and arriving nowhere, which is a common way for home finance records to drift out of step with the bank.

Transfers and statement imports

Most transfers show up on two statements, one from each account. If you've typed a transfer by hand and then import a statement containing it, Money matches the hand-typed transfer to the imported row on amount and date alone. The payee text on a bank statement for a transfer is often a reference number or an abbreviation that wouldn't match anything you typed, so matching on amount and date is the practical choice.

As with every import, you review the matches before anything is added, so you can check the pairing looks right. QIF files can also carry transfers, and those come in with the import.

Common transfers to set up

Credit card repayments from a current account. Regular savings into a savings account. Cash withdrawals, if you track a cash account, since taking money from the cash machine moves it rather than spends it. Payments towards a loan or mortgage account you track in Money.

For sole traders, moving money between a business account and a personal account is a transfer too, which keeps business takings from being counted as personal income twice.

A quick check

If a month's spending looks too high, look for payments to your own accounts filed under a normal category instead of a Transfer entry. Changing the category to the right Transfer entry links it up, and the reports correct themselves.

Set up every account that money moves between, and Money by Zaweba keeps transfers out of your spending and both sides of every move in step.