Transactions
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FAQs
How should I use the different transaction types?
  • EXPENSE
    Everyday expenses like coffee, grocery, bills, etc.
  • INCOME
    Income like a paycheck, interest, etc.
  • TRANSFER
    Movement of money within two of your accounts. E.g.: transfer from checking to savings, paying your credit card bill.
  • REFUND
    Track refund for a previous expense. Refunds are subtracted from your total expenses, while income transactions are added to your total income.
  • INVESTMENT
    Investment related transactions such as buying or selling securities, dividends and capital gains
  • IOU
    Informal debts and shared bill payments for friends and family. E.g.: You pay the restaurant bill for a group of friends, share rent with roommates.
How should I use the different IOU types?
  • PAID FOR FRIEND
    Use this type to record an expense where one person paid for the entire transaction on behalf of someone else, and the person who paid does not have any personal expense in the transaction.
  • SHARED BILL
    Use this type to record an expense when the person(s) paying have a partial share in the expense. E.g.: You go to a restaurant with a group of friends, and pay the bill for everyone.
  • LOAN
    Use this type when money is loaned or borrowed between two people. The money is not used to pay for any expense, it just changes hands from one person to another. E.g.: Your friend is running low on cash and borrows $100 from you.
  • SETTLEMENT
    Use this type to record a payment to settle up an IOU balance. E.g: Your friend owes you $10 and paid it back via Paypal.
What is a transfer and when should I use it?
A Transfer represents a transfer of money between two of your accounts, or between your account and an external account. Transfers are NOT counted as expenses or income, they only affect account balances and Net Worth.
Following are some examples when you might find it useful to use a Transfer:
  • Credit card bill payment.
  • Large transaction that you don't wish to count as an expense for reporting purposes.
For transfers involving external accounts, please use "NONE" as the account to represent the external account.
What is the difference between the transaction types Refund and Income?
Transactions of type "Refund" subtract from your total expenses, while transactions of type "Income" are added to your total income.
For example:
If you have an expense of $50, and an income of $25 => Your total expense is $50
If you have an expense of $50, and a refund of $25 => Your total expense is $25
How should I use the different statuses for a transaction?
A transaction can be assigned one of the following statuses:
CLEARED
This is the default status for any transaction. It denotes a transaction that has cleared your bank.
PENDING
This status should be used for transactions that you have manually entered, but hasn't yet cleared your bank. A pending transaction does not contribute to your expenses or account balances.
RECONCILED
This status should be used to denote a transaction that you manually entered, and has been matched with your bank statement. This is typically only useful if you want to verify all your transactions are being correctly synced or uploaded.
How can I manage transactions in multiple currencies?
A single financial account in Buxfer is tied to a specific currency. To change the currency for a specific account, please visit that account page and click "Edit".
To manage multiple currencies, first create a new account with the desired currency, and then add transactions to that account.
To change your default currency, please visit Settings > Transactions and update the "Default Currency". Note that this setting will only affect accounts added in the future, not any existing accounts.
By default, transactions in other currencies will be converted to your default currency. If you click on a specific account, transaction amounts will be displayed in the currency for that account. If the currency for an account differs from your default currency, you will see the currency symbol next to the amount.
Currency conversion rates are automatically updated daily based on the latest market rates.
How can I easily find transactions that do not have any tags?
To find untagged transactions, please follow these steps:
  • Visit your Dashboard.
  • Locate the search bar just above the list of transactions. Then click the dropdown arrow next to it.
  • Click the "All Tags" dropdown, and select "No Tags".
  • You can also add other filters for accounts or a time period, if needed.
When I delete a transaction, will it be permanently deleted?
Deleted transactions are available for 30 days in the "Deleted" view, in case you want to restore them. After that, they will be permanently deleted.
Can I restore a transaction that was deleted?
Transactions can be restored within 30 days after they are deleted.
To restore a deleted transaction, please follow these steps:
  • Go to your Dashboard and scroll to the top of the transaction list
  • Click the Deleted link. If you can't see a "Deleted" link, it means you do not have any transactions available to restore.
  • Select the transactions you wish to restore using the checkboxes for each transaction, then click "Restore"
How do I attach notes (or memo) to a transaction?
When you add or edit a transaction manually, you will see a field labelled "Memo". Please use that to add any extra notes for the transaction.
Can I download my transactions from Buxfer?
Transactions can be downloaded in various formats suitable for both data backups and importing into a different financial software. To download transactions, click "Download" on the top of the page.
Buxfer provides the following download formats:
  • OFX/QIF (for Quicken/MS Money)
  • Excel/CSV
  • HTML
Buxfer can automatically back up all your transaction data to a cloud storage service every night. Storage services we currently support include: Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive. To use this feature, please upgrade to a PRO membership.
How can I search for transactions using specific criteria (like "search for transfers", "search for expenses in between July 15 - 20", etc.)?
To access advanced search functionalities, please follow these steps:
  • Find the search box just above the list of transactions. Note that this is different from the "Search" action you see at the top of the page.
  • Click on the arrow next to the search box. This will open up the advanced search menu.
  • Select the desired search criteria, and the results will show underneath as you update your selections.
NOTE: This functionality is currently only available on our desktop website, and not on our mobile interfaces.