Finding your way around
What each screen in the sidebar is for, how to choose the dates a screen shows, and the search, sort and row menus every list shares.
Simple Balance has 13 screens, listed in the sidebar down the left side of the app. This page says what each one is for, how to choose the dates a screen shows, and how the searches, menus and buttons that every list shares work.
The sidebar
| Screen | What it’s for | Read more |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | Your balance, money in and out, and spending by category for the dates you pick. | The overview |
| Accounts | Every checking, savings, credit card, loan, cash or crypto account you track. | Accounts |
| Transactions | Everything you’ve recorded, to search, edit, delete or export. | Transactions |
| Staged | Transactions waiting for you to check them. Nothing here counts until you commit it. | Staged transactions |
| Categories | The labels you sort income and spending into, like Groceries or Rent, and groups of them. | Categories and payees |
| Payees | The people and businesses you pay or get paid by. | Categories and payees |
| Templates | Saved starting points for a transaction you enter often, with an optional email reminder. | Templates |
| Recurring | Rules that put a transaction on Staged on a schedule, like rent or a paycheck. | Recurring transactions |
| Budgets | How much each category is allowed to spend, and how it’s going. | Budgets |
| Reports | Six reports, from your net worth to where your money came from and went. | Reports |
| Import CSV | Bring in transactions from a file your bank lets you download. | Importing a statement |
| Activity | Every change made to your books, newest first. | Activity history |
| Settings | Theme, timezone and currency, how you sign in, connected AI assistants, and your plan. | Theme, timezone and currency and Your account and plan |
Under the list are your name and email address and two buttons. The moon or sun switches between light and dark, and the arrow beside it signs you out. Links to the privacy policy and the terms of use sit below them.
On a phone, the sidebar is tucked away. Tap the menu button at the top of the screen to open it, and it closes again when you pick a screen. The X or a tap outside it closes it without going anywhere.
Names open their own page. Click an account, a category or a payee where it’s linked, and you get a page of the transactions that belong to it, for the dates you’re looking at. A template’s page opens from the Used count on Templates, and it starts on All time.
Choose the dates you’re looking at
Most screens have a bar labeled Viewing at the top. It decides which dates the screen covers.
- Pick a range from the menu beside Viewing.
- Or type your own dates in the two boxes on either side of to. Changing either date switches the menu to Custom.
| Choice | What it covers |
|---|---|
| This month | The 1st of this month through today. |
| Last month | All of last month. |
| Year to date | January 1 through today. |
| Last 30 days | Today and the 29 days before it. |
| Last 90 days | Today and the 89 days before it. |
| All time | Everything, with no start or end date. |
| Custom | The dates you type. It starts with today as the end date and no start date. |
The bar is on Overview, Transactions, Staged, Budgets and Reports, and on the page for each account, category, payee and template.
What to know about dates
- Each of these screens starts on This month until you pick something else.
- The dates follow you. Pick Last 90 days on Overview, open Transactions from the sidebar, and it shows the same 90 days. Clicking through to an account or a category keeps them too.
- They’re part of the page’s address, so a bookmark or a link you share opens on the same dates. A bookmark keeps the exact dates on screen when you saved it. For one that always opens on the current month, bookmark the screen’s plain address, like app.smpl.money/transactions, with nothing after it.
- Overview, Budgets and Reports stop at today, in your timezone, even when the end date is later. Money dated in the future hasn’t moved yet. The Transactions list does show a future-dated transaction when your dates include it. Your timezone decides what today is.
Search, sort and page through a list
Most lists have a search box, and each one looks in different places:
| Screen | The search box looks in |
|---|---|
| Transactions and Staged | Payee, description and notes |
| Templates | Name, payee and notes |
| Recurring | Name and payee |
| Accounts, Categories and Payees | Name |
A search stays on the screen you typed it on. It doesn’t follow you the way the dates do.
To sort, click a column heading on Transactions, Staged, Templates or Recurring, and click it again to reverse the order. Accounts, Categories and Payees aren’t tables, so they have a Sort by menu instead, with an arrow beside it that reverses the order.
Long lists come in pages. Transactions shows 50 rows at a time, Staged 100 and Templates 25. Recurring shows everything on one page. Under a long list, a line says which rows you’re looking at out of how many, with page numbers and arrows to move between pages. Activity history shows 100 lines and has a Show older activity button for the next 100.
Some rows are hidden until you ask for them. A deleted transaction shows only with Show deleted checked on Transactions. Archived accounts show with Show archived accounts on Accounts, and archived categories with Show archived on Categories.
Buttons and menus on a row
On Transactions, Staged and Categories, each row has a pencil to edit it and a trash can to delete it. A deleted transaction has a restore button in their place.
The three dots (⋯) at the end of a row open a menu of what else you can do with it. On Transactions and Staged, that’s Clone transaction, Save as template and Save as recurring transaction. On Accounts, Templates and Recurring, it’s where editing and deleting live, and on Accounts and Categories, it’s where you archive or restore.
Select several rows at once
Check the box at the start of a row to select it, or the box in the heading to select the whole page. On Transactions, Staged and Templates, a bar appears above the list with what you can do to all of them together, such as Edit selected and Delete selected, and Commit selected on Staged. On Categories and Payees, checking two or more opens a panel for merging them.
When more rows match than fit on one page, a button like Select all 230 matching takes in every row that matches your dates, search and filters, not just the ones on screen. Clear selection lets go of them all. Changing many transactions at once has the details.
Nothing counts until it’s committed
Some things put a transaction on Staged instead of straight into your books: importing a statement, a recurring transaction coming due, an AI assistant with Read and queue for review access, cloning a transaction, or choosing Stage for review when you add one. A staged transaction isn’t in any balance, report or budget until you check it and commit it. If a number looks short, look at Staged. Staged transactions covers the review.
Light and dark
The moon or sun button at the bottom of the sidebar switches between light and dark. To match your device’s setting instead, see Theme, timezone and currency.