How do I get started with Banktivity? (Quick basics)

To use Banktivity to track your finances, you will want to set up accounts for each "real-life" account you have. That is, you will want an account for each of your credit cards as well as checking, savings, and investment accounts.

Then, for each account you will want to record a transaction for each "real-life" transaction that occurs in the account. For example, if you receive a bank statement that shows two trips to the ATM and one point-of-sale (aka debit) purchase, then you will want to enter three transactions in Banktivity to match those.

We mention transactions a lot, and for good reason - they are the core "unit" in Banktivity for effectively tracking your money in each of your accounts. In Banktivity, each transaction that results in money being taken out of your account (e.g. a withdrawal) should have a negative value and each transaction that results in money going into your account (e.g. a deposit) should be positive. So far, if you do as suggested and record a transaction in Banktivity for each transaction that occurs in real life, Banktivity will track, to the penny, exactly how much money you have in each of your accounts.

This should be reason enough to use Banktivity: to know exactly, at any minute, the balances of all of your accounts. However, the real power of Banktivity comes into play when you start tracking where you are spending your money. For example, you might enter a transaction of -$20.00 and make the payee "Starbucks." Although this information is helpful, it would be better to categorize this transaction by associating it with a category like "Dining," or "Coffee." By assigning categories to your Banktivity transactions, you'll be able to run robust reports to analyze your spending based on those categories. Categorizing your transactions will also allow you to set up budgets to help you plan ahead.

With tags, Banktivity lets you group and identify transactions across multiple categories. For example, let's say you finally book that once-in-a-lifetime trip to Alaska. You enter a transaction for "Travel" and use a sub-category for "Airfare," then you enter transactions for all of the other expenses such as "Clothing" and "Dining." Adding a tag to each transaction for "Alaska" lets you see how much you spent for the entire trip, while still letting you track your spending in each category.

In summary:

• Accounts mirror your real-life bank accounts.
• Transactions record deposits and withdrawals in your accounts.
• Categories track where your money comes from and goes to.
• Tags classify your transactions beyond categorizing them as income or expenses.
• Reports allow you to quickly analyze your spending habits.
• Budgets let you compare your actual spending against your expectations.

Don't forget - this is just an overview of Banktivity's major features; much more awaits inside! Hopefully these principles and guidelines will help you get started tracking your money and spending with Banktivity. Read on for more detailed information about using Banktivity's various features.