Trying the sample file in Money by Zaweba

Before you type in a single real figure, Money by Zaweba lets you look around a finished example. File > Try the sample file makes a fresh example household money file in Documents\Money by Zaweba, filled with accounts and transactions, so every page has something on it from the first minute.

An empty finance app tells you very little. The Home dashboard has no balances, the reports have nothing to draw and the budget bars sit at zero. The sample file fixes that, and because it's a separate file, nothing you do in it touches your own money file later.

What the sample shows you

The example is a household, with the kinds of accounts most homes have. Money's account types are current, savings, credit card, cash, loan or mortgage, and investment, and the sample uses them to show how they sit together.

One detail is worth a look. The sample includes a house held as a manually valued investment account. That's there so net worth isn't just a mortgage. Without it, a household with a mortgage would show a large negative figure, which is technically right and not much use. With the house valued alongside the loan, the net worth report reads the way people expect.

It also shows how Money treats investments in general: they're valued by hand. There is no price feed, because Money never connects to anything online. You record a new value when you want to, and the rise or fall is recorded.

A tour worth taking

Start on the Home dashboard. It shows account balances, net worth, bills due, this month's budget and where the money went, all from the sample's figures.

Then open an account from the Accounts page on the left and look at its register: date, payee, amount, category, memo, a cleared or reconciled flag and a running balance. Try adding a transaction with Ctrl+T, typing a date such as today or 12/8, and pressing Enter to save. Delete it again afterwards if you like.

Open the categories to see the UK set Money starts with, from Household and Transport to Business and Income. Then press Ctrl+R for the reports and try a few date ranges, to see how spending by category, income against spending and net worth over time look with a few months of data behind them.

Things to try without worry

The sample is the place to make mistakes. Money saves every change straight away and has no undo, which is fine in your real file once you're used to it but can feel unnerving at first. In the sample, it doesn't matter.

So recategorise a payment and choose Always, to see payee rules at work. Split a supermarket shop between two categories. Make a transfer between two accounts and watch it appear in both registers. Set a budget and see the spent versus budget bars change.

You can come back and make a fresh sample whenever you like, since the menu item makes a new one each time.

Moving on to your own money

When you're ready, start your own file with Ctrl+N for a new money file. It's a single .ozm file on your PC, one per household or business, and can be locked with a password if you want. Add your accounts with their opening balances and dates, then import your first statement with Ctrl+I.

Half an hour in the sample file is the quickest way to understand how Money by Zaweba fits together, and it means your real file starts tidy.