Principal Plan Help
Welcome to Principal Plan — a personal budgeting application built on the envelope system. These topics explain the application's screens and controls, grouped by task. Pick a topic to get started.
Note: The entire help system is available as a single Markdown file suitable for teaching your favorite AI agent to be your personal Principal Plan expert. Download
Getting started
Concepts
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Envelope budgeting
The budgeting philosophy behind Principal Plan.
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Principal Plan's Envelope model
How Principal Plan tracks money across Accounts and Envelopes simultaneously.
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Accounts vs. Envelopes
Understanding the difference between Accounts and Envelopes.
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Using credit cards
How credit cards work within the envelope budgeting model.
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Handling debt
Managing loans, mortgages, and other debt with envelope budgeting.
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Transaction workflow
The lifecycle of a Transaction from creation through clearing.
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Reconciling an Account
Verifying your records against bank statements.
Main window
Accounts
Envelopes
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Select an Envelope
Pick an Envelope for the current operation.
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Envelope properties
Create or edit an Envelope.
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Envelope activity report
Detailed activity breakdown across Envelopes over a date range.
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Envelope summary report
A summary of Envelope names and balances.
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Envelope Ledger
The Transaction register for a single Envelope.
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Delete an Envelope
Safely remove an Envelope from your file.
Transactions
Templates and plans
Import and print
Settings
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Settings
Application preferences.
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Settings — Application
General application preferences.
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Settings — Accounts
Account list and Ledger display options.
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Settings — Envelopes
Envelope list and Ledger display options.
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Settings — Backup
Automatic backup settings.
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Settings — Miscellaneous
Messages, import, formatting, Transfer, search, and text size options.