Recurring entries and payments due in Cashfulness

In short

They look alike, but they're two different things. A recurring entry is a forecast: salary, rent and the gym come back the same every month, and you tell the app just once. A payment due is an obligation that comes from outside: someone sends you a notice with an amount and a date, and if you don't pay on time, you pay more. They share one rule: the app never writes to your accounts on its own. The entry is written when you confirm it.

This page goes with lesson 5 of the free video course "Cashfulness step by step". The steps are in the same order as the video, and the button names are the ones you'll see in the app.

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Creating a recurring entry

In the sidebar, under "Tools", open "Recurring entries". At the top is the "Fixed expenses and income" summary, shown "Per month" and "Per year"; below are "Due entries" and "Your recurring entries". If you can't see the item, switch the sidebar to "Full" mode.

1. Press "New recurring entry" and type the "Name", for example Gym.
2. Under "What is it" choose from "Income", "Expense", "Transfer", "Investment plan", "Subscription" and "Utility bill". Each choice sets up the rest in the right way: for utility bills, for example, the amount is already marked as variable.
3. The two accounts, as in a normal entry: "Paid from" (your checking account) and "Goes to" (Gym). Then the "Amount".
4. If there are already similar payments on the account, the app suggests the schedule it found: "Use this schedule" or "No, I will choose".
5. Under "When" choose how often, for example "Every month", and the "Days of the month". Under "If it falls on a Saturday or Sunday" decide whether to leave it, move it forward or move it back. Below, "The next three" dates let you check straight away.
6. Under "Until when" choose "Starts on" and "Ends on", or "No end date". If the amount changes every time, like a bill, switch on "The amount changes every time": whenever it's due the app asks for the real figure.
7. "Save". If the rule starts in the past, the app asks "Are the payments before today already recorded?". If they aren't, "No, propose them".

Confirming, skipping, pausing

When the date comes, the entry waits for you in "Due entries" and in the "Recurring entries to confirm" panel on the home page. Confirming takes one click: press the "Record" check mark, and only now is the double-entry transaction written. If this month's amount is different, in "Recurring entries" the pencil on the row opens a sheet where you correct the "Amount" and the date with "Change", and see the amounts from the last few times; then "Record". For recurring entries whose amount changes every time, the sheet opens by itself. If that month the payment didn't happen, press "Skip".

Any recurring entry can be paused ("Pause", then "Resume"). If you delete it, the rule goes, but the entries already recorded stay: those really happened.

There's also a shortcut: when you record a new transaction, at the bottom of the form you'll find "Make this entry recurring". When you save, the rule opens already filled in.

Payments due

Also under "Tools", open "Payments due" and press "Add". In "New payment" three things are enough:

1. "Who to pay", for example the council; "What it's for", for example waste charge, second instalment.
2. "Amount".
3. "To be paid by". The date starts empty on purpose: nobody notes down a payment that's due today.

If you have the notice as a PDF or a photo, use "Attach the notice": the payment details are already printed on it. Under "Remind me" choose how many days ahead you want the reminder: the default is seven, because a bank transfer takes a few days. The reminder arrives at 9 in the morning, and if the date passes it comes back every morning until you close it. Under "Expense account" choose where the cost will go, for example Taxes. Then "Save".

When you pay it

Press "I've just paid it". The app asks what you paid with ("Paid with"), when ("On") and how much actually went out. The date is the day you paid, not the due date: that's the date that goes on the transaction. "Record it", and only at that moment is the entry written. Straight after, the app asks "Shall we note the next one?", with the details already filled in.

There are two other answers, and they don't record anything:

• "I'd already paid it": the transaction is already in your accounts by another route.
• "I don't need it": you noted it down by mistake, or in the end it didn't need paying.

Both take the item off the list and stop the reminders.

Common mistakes

• Thinking a recurring entry writes on its own. Until you confirm it, nothing goes into your books: check the panel on the home page.
• Using "I'd already paid it" for a payment that still needs recording. Nobody would write that entry. Use "I've just paid it".
• Dating the payment on the due date. A bill due on the 31st that you pay on the 2nd is an expense of the following month.
• Putting a yearly tax among the recurring entries. If it comes with a notice and a deadline, it belongs in Payments due.

Frequently asked questions

Does a recurring entry record transactions on its own?

No. When the date comes, the entry waits for you among the ones to confirm. Until you press "Record", nothing goes into your books.

Will I get payment reminders on Windows?

No: scheduled reminders don't exist on Windows and Linux. You see what's due when you open the app, in "Payments due" and in the "Payments due" panel on the home page. On your phone and on a Mac, the reminder arrives.

I paid the tax at the counter and already recorded it: what do I press?

"I'd already paid it". It takes the item off the list and stops the reminders without writing anything, because the transaction is already there.

The next lesson

Lesson 6 · Budgets and categories. A real budget, and what category means in Cashfulness, a different idea from other apps.

In the manual

The Tools chapter of the user manual has a section on recurring entries and one on payments due, where you'll also find how to close several items at once.

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Vittorio Giusti is an economist and psychologist, and he built Cashfulness.