Moving between the cloud app and your own copy

You can move from the cloud app at app.smpl.money to a copy you host yourself, or from your own copy to the cloud app. It works the same way in both directions, because both run the same software: you export each account’s transactions as a spreadsheet from one, and bring them into the other.

It isn’t one button, and it’s worth knowing why before you start. The export carries transactions, and your records hold more than that. So read the two lists below first. They’re short, and they’re the difference between an account that balances on the other side and one that’s off by whatever it started with.

What moves, and what you set up again#

Moves. Every transaction in every account, as a spreadsheet, including the category, the payee, the date and the amount. The currency comes from the account you bring the file into, not from the file, which is why each account is created in the same currency first. Categories come back by name as the rows use them.

Doesn’t move. Budgets, category groups, transaction templates, recurring transactions, and each account’s opening balance. The first four you set up again on the other side, which takes a few minutes. The last is the one that trips people up, because nothing on screen says it’s missing.

The opening balance isn’t in the file, and that’s how the books work rather than a gap in the export. Simple Balance posts an opening balance straight against an equity account without writing a transaction, which is what keeps your records netting to zero from the first day instead of starting from a number kept outside them. Nothing writes a transaction, so nothing exports one.

Before you export anything#

Get the side you’re moving to ready first.

• To your own copy. Set it up and sign in to it. Self-hosting: running your own copy covers the install.
• To the cloud app. Sign up at app.smpl.money. The free plan lets you use 3 accounts at once, so if you’re bringing more than 3 that you still use, you’ll need Premium. Your account and plan has the details.

Then create each account you’re moving, by hand, on the new side. Give each one the same currency, the same opening balance and the same opening date it has where it is now. That’s the step that carries the opening balance across, and doing it first means the first import lands on a correct starting figure instead of on zero.

Closed accounts on the free plan. An archived account doesn’t count toward the 3, so an account you’ve closed can come over too, one at a time. Create the accounts you still use first. Then, for each closed account, create it, bring its file in, commit its rows, and archive it before you create the next. Commit or delete everything waiting for it on Staged first, its transfers to your other accounts included: an archived account takes no new entries, and one with rows still waiting can’t be archived.

Moving one account#

Repeat this for each account. An import file goes into exactly one account, so there’s no way to do several at once.

1. On the side you’re leaving, open the account.
2. Set the date range at the top to All time before you export, because it opens on This month and an export takes whatever the page is showing. Skipping this is how people move one month of each account and think they’re finished.
3. Press Export CSV to save its transactions as a spreadsheet.
4. On the side you’re moving to, open Import CSV, choose that file, and pick the matching account. Nothing counts until you commit the rows, so look them over on Staged first.
5. Check the closing balance against the one on the side you’re leaving before you move on. If it’s off, it’s almost always the opening balance from the section above or the date range from step 2. An account that’s archived on the side you’re leaving shows a balance of zero there, so compare it with the new one after you’ve archived that too.

Transfers appear in both files#

A transfer between two of your own accounts is one movement with two sides, so it turns up in both files.

Pick both accounts for it the first time it comes up, which records the whole movement. When you import the other account’s file, leave it out. You already have it.

If you do select it a second time, Simple Balance flags it as a transaction you already have and shows you both before anything counts. Commit it anyway and the transfer is recorded twice, which is the one mistake this page can’t undo for you.

Large accounts#

An import takes 10,000 rows at a time, and the importer says so when you hand it a bigger file. If an account has more than 10,000 transactions, use the same date range control from step 2 to export a shorter date range, bring that file in, and then move to the next range. A copy you host yourself can be set to take fewer rows than that, with CSV_MAX_ROWS.

When you’re done#

Set up the budgets, category groups, templates and recurring transactions you had. Nothing carries them. Nothing on the side you left is deleted by any of this, so you can keep both open while you check that the figures agree.

Each has a page to follow while you set it up again: Budgets, grouping categories, Templates and Recurring transactions.

Once you’re sure, the side you left is yours to clean up. If you left the cloud app, delete your account there, which also cancels a Premium subscription. If you left your own copy, keep its database as a backup or delete it.