Tags

Tags in the app are a powerful tool for organizing and tracking your financial activities. They allow you to categorize expenses, track goals, and manage different aspects of your budget with ease. Here are some examples of how you can use tags effectively:

1. Categorizing Expenses

   Example: Create tags like "Groceries", "DiningOut", "Utilities", or "Transportation" to filter and review expenses in these categories. This helps you identify spending patterns and make adjustments if needed.

2. Tracking Specific Goals

   Example: If you're saving for a vacation, tag all related expenses and savings with "Summer Vacation". This lets you monitor your progress toward your goal and see how much you've allocated or spent.

3. Project-Based Budgeting

   Example: For a home renovation project, tag all related expenses with "Home Renovation". This helps you track the total project cost and stay within your budget.

4. Managing Multiple Income Streams

   Example: Tag each income source, like "Salary", "Freelance", or "Rental Income", to analyze how much you're earning from each and manage your finances accordingly.

5. Tax Preparation

   Example: Use tags like "Tax Deductible", "Business Expenses", or "Charity Donations" to simplify gathering relevant financial data during tax season, making it easier to file your taxes and maximize deductions.

6. Monitoring Subscriptions

   Example: Tag all subscription services (e.g., Netflix, Spotify) with Subscriptions to keep an eye on recurring expenses and decide if any services can be canceled or adjusted.

7. Budgeting for Events

   Example: For a big event like a wedding, use a tag such as "Wedding Budget" to compile all related expenses, ensuring you stay within your planned budget.

8. Tracking Debt Repayments

   Example: Tags like "Credit Card Debt", "Student Loans", or "Car Loan" help you monitor repayments in each debt category, assisting in prioritizing payments and managing debt effectively.

9. Detailed Income Tracking

   Example: Tagging income sources with details like "Monthly Salary", "Freelance Projects", or SideHustle helps you track not just total income but also specifics of each stream, aiding in better financial planning.

By using tags, you can gain deeper insights into your spending and income, making it easier to manage your budget and achieve your financial goals. These examples illustrate how tags can be customized to fit your unique financial situation, providing a personalized and organized budgeting experience.

Example 1: Grocery Shopping for a Family BBQ

• Transaction: You buy groceries for a family BBQ.

• Tags: Groceries, FamilyEvent, BBQ

Explanation:

• Groceries: Tracks your regular grocery expenses.

• FamilyEvent: Separates spending for special family gatherings from everyday shopping.

• BBQ: Helps you review all expenses related to BBQs, useful for future planning or budgeting.

Example 2: Freelance Income with Tax-Deductible Expenses

• Transaction: You receive payment for a freelance project and also buy software needed for your work.

• Tags: FreelanceIncome, BusinessExpense, TaxDeductible

Explanation:

• FreelanceIncome: Tracks earnings from your freelance projects.

• BusinessExpense: Categorizes the software purchase as a business-related expense.

• TaxDeductible: Identifies the software purchase as a tax-deductible expense, making it easier to gather data for tax filing.

Tag Details Overview

The Tag Details provides a comprehensive view of your spending or income related to a specific tag. Here’s what you can see and track:

1. Historical Spending

   • Feature: A visual representation (like a bar chart) shows how much you've spent over time with that particular tag.

   • Use Case: This helps you understand trends in your spending habits. For instance, seeing how much you've spent on BBQ over the past months can inform future budgeting for similar events.

2. This Month

   • Feature: Displays the total amount spent or earned associated with the tag during the current month.

   • Use Case: You can quickly see if you’re on track with your monthly budget or income goals. For example, if you’re tagging freelance income with FreelanceIncome, this view shows how much you’ve earned this month.

3. All Time

   • Feature: Shows the total amount associated with the tag since you started using it.

   • Use Case: This gives you a big-picture view of your spending or earnings. For example, with the TaxDeductible tag, you can see how much you've spent on tax-deductible expenses overall.

4. Recent Transactions

   • Feature: A list of the most recent transactions associated with the tag.

   • Use Case: This is useful for quickly reviewing your latest activities. For example, after tagging a purchase as BBQ, you can immediately see it in the recent transactions list to ensure everything is accurately categorized.

These features make the Tag Details section a powerful tool for monitoring and managing your finances, providing clear insights into your spending and income across different categories and over various timeframes.

Difference Between Tags and Payees

While tags and payees might seem similar at first glance, they serve distinct purposes in the app:

• Payees: A payee is the entity or person you make a payment to. This is set once per transaction and cannot be changed. Payees help you identify where your money is going, such as a grocery store, a utility company, or a restaurant.

• Tags: Tags, on the other hand, are flexible labels that you can apply to a transaction to categorize it in multiple ways. Unlike payees, you can apply multiple tags to a single transaction, allowing you to organize and track your spending or income from different perspectives. For example, a single transaction at a grocery store (payee) can be tagged as Groceries, FamilyEvent, and BBQ.

Key Difference: Payees are fixed identifiers for who received the payment, while tags are customizable and can be used to group and track transactions across various categories, events, or goals.