Transactions Overview

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

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

How Transactions Flow Through the App

Your transactions drive several other 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.

Forecast and Calendar

Switch to the Recurring side of the Transactions screen and you'll find two swipeable views above your list:

• Forecast shows where your balance is heading based on your recurring income and bills. It's available on Starter and up.
• Calendar shows a month at a time on every plan. Choose Recurring to see bills and income, or All activity to include everything. Tap a day to see its income, expenses and each transaction, with upcoming and projected items marked.

The same calendar is also available as a Calendar card on your dashboard on Starter and up.

On a Bigger Screen

On desktop and other wide screens, the transactions page uses the space properly: your list stays on the left and the transaction you select opens beside it, instead of replacing it. You can work down the list (reviewing, recategorizing, editing) without ever losing your place. Adding or editing a transaction opens in the same side panel. On phones, tapping a transaction opens its detail full-screen, as before.

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.
• Memo: Add a private note of up to 500 characters in the Memo field when you add or edit a transaction. If your bank sent a note and you replace it, the detail screen keeps a way back to the bank's text.
• Location: The detail screen shows where a purchase happened when the address is known. If it isn't, tap Location then Add to enter one. An address is labeled From your receipt or Added by you when it didn't come from your bank.
• Receipts and line items: On Starter and up, receipts you attach show in a Receipts card on the transaction's detail screen, with Line items above them listing what you bought.

Tips

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I edit a bank-synced transaction?

Yes. You can change the category, add tags, update the description, or split a bank-synced transaction. The original merchant name and amount from your bank are preserved for your reference.

Do pending transactions affect my budget?

Yes, pending transactions are included in budget calculations so you see an up-to-date picture of your spending. They are visually marked as pending, and the amount may adjust slightly when your bank finalizes the transaction.

What happens if I import duplicates?

Forbidden Finance automatically detects duplicates by matching the date, amount, and merchant. Duplicate rows are skipped during import, so you will not end up with double entries.

Can I use transactions without a budget?

Absolutely. You can track transactions on their own without setting up a budget. Many users start with transaction tracking and add a budget later.

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