# Overview

Transactions are the foundation of any budgeting system, and in our app they represent the flow of money in and out of your accounts. Accurately recording transactions allows you to maintain a clear and up-to-date picture of your financial health. Whether you’re tracking expenses, managing income, or keeping an eye on pending payments, handling your transactions properly ensures that your budget reflects your true financial status and helps you stay on track with your financial goals. Each transaction field is designed to add meaningful detail and context, helping you stay organized and in control of your finances.

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#### Common Fields Across All Transactions

To streamline your budgeting and ensure consistency, Beyond Budget uses a set of **common fields** across all transactions, whether they are income, expenses, or transfers. These fields capture essential details to help you manage your financial activity efficiently. Below is a summary of the fields that you'll encounter every time you log a transaction in the app:

1. **Date**
   * Set the date when the transaction occurred. This helps in keeping your budget timely and accurate, especially when recording transactions that happened on a different day. The default is today's date, but you can adjust it for past or future transactions.
2. **Cleared**
   * Use this to mark a transaction as **Cleared** once the payment has fully processed through your bank or credit card. Your account balance will only update once the transaction is cleared, ensuring that pending payments do not skew your actual available balance.
3. **Payee (Expenses and income only)**
   * Specify the person, business, or entity involved in the transaction. This helps you track who you are paying or receiving money from, making it easier to review and search your transactions later on.
4. **Repeat**
   * Set the transaction to repeat on a regular schedule (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly) if it's a recurring expense or income, like rent or salary. This feature automates future entries, ensuring consistency in your budgeting without manual input every time.
5. **Sentiment**
   * Attach a sentiment to the transaction (e.g., happy, neutral, sad). This feature adds an emotional context to your spending, helping you track how certain purchases or income sources affect your mood. Over time, this can highlight negative financial habits or reinforce positive behaviors.
6. **Tags**
   * Add custom tags to further categorize or group transactions, offering additional layers of organization. Tags can be used to track specific events or projects, like "Vacation" or "Work Expenses," which might cut across multiple categories.
7. **Notes**
   * Include extra details or context for the transaction. Notes are helpful for keeping track of specific information like "Gift for Mom's birthday" or "Reimbursement pending," making it easier to recall the purpose of the transaction later.
8. **Location**
   * Record the geographical location where the transaction took place. This can help identify spending habits tied to certain places or locations, and can be useful for tracking travel expenses or identifying local versus online spending.
9. **Attachments**
   * Upload supporting files like receipts, invoices, or pictures of products related to the transaction. This feature is particularly useful for maintaining records of purchases for tax purposes, warranties, or reimbursement claims.

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Each of these fields adds depth and clarity to your transaction entries, allowing the app to provide a more comprehensive view of your financial habits, assist with budgeting accuracy, and help you maintain control over your spending.


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