Transactions Overview

How transactions work in Forbidden Finance, including the three ways transactions enter your account: manual entry, bank sync, and CSV and JSON import.

Overview

Transactions are the foundation of your financial picture in Forbidden Finance. Every dollar you earn, spend, or move between accounts is recorded as a transaction. Forbidden Finance uses your transactions to power budgets, track spending trends, detect recurring bills, and calculate your net worth.

There are three ways transactions enter the app: you can type them in manually, sync them automatically from your bank, or import them from a CSV file. Once a transaction is in the system, it works the same way regardless of how it got there, flowing into your budgets, reports, and goals.

Three Transaction Sources

Source	How It Works	Best For
Manual entry	You type in the amount, merchant, category, and date	Cash purchases, quick logging, Free tier users
Bank sync	Transactions import automatically from your connected bank accounts	Hands-off tracking with Starter tier and above
CSV and JSON import	Upload a file exported from another app or your bank's website	Migrating from YNAB, Mint, Monarch, or any other app

Once a transaction is created, its source is permanently recorded. You can always tell whether a transaction was entered by hand, synced from your bank, or imported from a file.

What You Can Do with Transactions

Add Manually

Enter income and expenses by hand.

Search & Filter

Find any transaction instantly.

Split

Divide one transaction across multiple categories.

Link Transfers

Mark movements between your own accounts.

Import CSV

Bring in data from other apps or your bank.

How Transactions Flow Through the App

Your transactions do not just sit in a list. They actively drive several features:

Budgets — Every categorized transaction counts toward your budget spending. Split transactions contribute their individual amounts to the relevant categories.
Recurring detection — Forbidden Finance looks for repeating patterns (like your Netflix subscription or rent payment) and automatically flags them as recurring.
Goals — Transactions tied to savings categories contribute toward your goal progress.
Net worth — Bank-synced transactions keep your account balances current, feeding into your overall net worth calculation.
Reports — Your income and spending summaries are built directly from transaction data.

Transfers between your own accounts are automatically excluded from budget and spending calculations so they do not inflate your numbers.

Key Details

Amount sign convention: Positive amounts represent income. Negative amounts represent expenses.
Categories: Every transaction can be assigned a category. Forbidden Finance learns your preferences and auto-categorizes future transactions from the same merchant.
Tags: Add free-form tags to any transaction for your own organization (like "vacation" or "tax-deductible").
Pending transactions: Bank-synced transactions may arrive as "pending" before your bank finalizes them. Pending transactions are included in your budget but visually marked so you know the amount might change.