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Recording Transactions

How to manually record expenses, income, and transfers, understand category requirements, and manage transaction history.

Ledger Fundamentals

The Three Transaction Types

ExpenseOutflow

Reduces asset or increases credit card debt

Counts toward Category spending

IncomeInflow

Increases cash/asset account balance

Categorized under household income streams

TransferInternal Movement

Moves funds from Account A to Account B

Zero net expense to prevent double-counting

Every financial event in Nobleway is stored as a transaction. There are three types: Expense, Income, and Transfer.

This guide covers creating transactions by hand, how each type changes balances, and how to edit or restore entries.

Transaction Types

Type	What it means	Category needed?
Expense	Money leaves an account for goods, services, or bills	Yes (expense category)
Income	Money enters an account (pay, gifts, refunds)	Yes (income category)
Transfer	Money moves between two of your household accounts	No

Expense

An expense is money spent on goods, services, or bills.

Cash account: The cash balance goes down.
Credit card: The amount you still owe on the card goes up.
Category: Requires an expense category (for example, Food & Dining, Groceries, Utilities).

Income

Income is money coming into the household.

Cash account: The cash balance goes up.
Category: Requires an income category (for example, Salary, Freelance, Investments & Dividends).

Transfer

A transfer moves money from one of your accounts to another.

Household spending and income do not change. You are only relocating money you already have (or already owe).
You pick a source (where it leaves) and a destination (where it arrives).
Transfers have no category. Putting a bill payment in an expense category would inflate spending.

Creating a Transaction Manually

In the sidebar, open Transactions (/app/transactions).
Click New transaction (/app/transactions/new).
Select the type (Expense, Income, or Transfer).
Fill in the fields:
- Date: When it happened (defaults to today).
- Amount: A positive number. Do not type a minus sign.
- Account: The account that paid or received the money. For transfers, pick both source and destination.
- Category: A top-level category or subcategory (expense or income only).
- Person: Optional. Who in the household this relates to.
- Merchant / counterparty (optional): Store or payee (for example, Target).
- Notes (optional): Extra context.
Click Save transaction.

Field Specifications

Field	Description	Rules
Type	Expense, Income, or Transfer	Required. Controls how balances and categories work.
Date	Date the transaction occurred	Required. Used for monthly totals and whether it counts after an opening-balance date.
Amount	Monetary value	Required. Must be greater than zero. Currency matches the account.
Account	Account used	Required. Must be an active account in your workspace.
Source / destination	Accounts for transfers	Required for transfers. Must be two different accounts in the same currency.
Category	Expense or income label	Required for expense and income. Not allowed on transfers.
Person	Household participant	Optional.
Notes	Free text	Optional. Searchable.

Editing and Correcting Transactions

Open Transactions (/app/transactions).
Click the row you want to inspect.
On the detail page, click Edit.
Change amount, date, category, account, or notes.
Click Save changes.

Balances, monthly totals, and net worth update immediately.

Soft Deletion and Restoration

If a transaction was entered by mistake or duplicated:

Open the transaction detail page.
Click Delete.
Confirm in the dialog.

How deletion works

Deleted rows are hidden, not permanently erased right away.
They stop affecting balances, monthly totals, and dashboard cards.
They are left out of CSV and Excel exports.
To undo, filter Transactions by status Deleted, open the row, and click Restore.

Next Steps

Type transactions in plain English: Natural-Language Capture.
Handle credit card payments correctly: Credit Card Payments.
Pay loan installments without inflating spending: Loan Payments & EMI.
Learn how people relate to transactions: People & Balance Visibility.

Need help or spotted an issue?

Nobleway is currently in public beta. If you notice inaccuracies or need guidance on household ledger setups, reach out directly to our engineering team at support@nobleway.app.