Envelope List

Overview

The Envelope List is the second section of the left panel. It shows your spending categories as a tree of envelopes. Each envelope is a virtual container for part of your funds, supporting the envelope budgeting model where every dollar has a purpose before it is spent.

Envelopes can be nested inside other envelopes for hierarchical organization. For example, a "Housing" envelope might contain child envelopes for "Rent," "Utilities," and "Insurance."

Double-click an envelope to open its ledger in a new tab.

Columns

The envelope list displays four columns:

Column	Description
Envelope	The envelope name. Nested envelopes are indented under their parent.
!	The watchdog indicator. Displays an alert icon when the envelope balance has fallen below its watchdog limit.
Balance	The current balance of the envelope, including all transactions. Visibility is controlled per envelope in Envelope Properties.
Cleared	The reconciled balance of the envelope. Visibility is controlled per envelope in Envelope Properties.

Column widths can be adjusted by dragging the dividers in the header row.

Toolbar

The toolbar along the top of the envelope list provides quick access to common actions:

Button	Tooltip	Description
Add	Add New Envelope	Creates a new envelope under the currently selected envelope.
Delete	Delete Selected Envelope	Deletes the selected envelope. A confirmation dialog appears first.
Zero Out	Zero Out	Transfers the remaining balance of the selected envelope to another envelope, bringing it to zero.
Print	Print Envelope Reports	Opens a drop-down menu with two report options: Envelope Activity and Envelope Summary.
Settings	Envelope List Settings	Opens a settings dialog for the envelope list display options.
Help	Envelope List Help	Opens this help topic.

Right-Click Menu

Right-clicking in the envelope list opens a context menu with the following actions:

• Insert Envelope -- Creates a new envelope under the selected envelope.
• Delete Envelope -- Deletes the selected envelope.
• Sort Ascending / Descending -- Sorts envelopes within the selected parent by the column that was right-clicked.
• Zero Out -- Transfers the remaining balance of the selected envelope to another envelope, bringing it to zero.
• Edit Properties -- Opens the Envelope Properties dialog for the selected envelope.

Watchdog Alerts

The watchdog system monitors envelope balances and warns you when spending brings a balance below a threshold you define. Each envelope can have its own watchdog limit, set in Envelope Properties.

When a transaction causes an envelope balance to drop below its limit, a Watchdog Alert dialog appears with the envelope name and new balance. The watchdog column in the list shows an alert icon for any envelope that is currently below its limit.

Watchdog alerts can be disabled globally in Settings — Messages.

Zero Out

The Zero Out action transfers the remaining balance of one or more selected envelopes to a destination envelope you choose. This is useful at the end of a budget period when you want to sweep leftover funds into a savings or rollover envelope.

You cannot zero out an envelope against itself or against one of its own descendants.

Envelope Properties

Each envelope has the following configurable properties, accessible through Edit Properties in the right-click menu:

• Name -- The display name of the envelope.
• Limit -- The watchdog threshold amount. When the balance falls below this value, an alert is triggered.
• Watchdog On/Off -- Enables or disables the watchdog for this envelope. When off, the limit field displays Watchdog Off.
• Display Envelope Balance in Envelope List -- Controls whether the balance column shows a value for this envelope.
• Include this Envelope in the Allocation Plan -- Marks the envelope for inclusion in the Allocation Plan.
• Display Envelope Reconcile Balance in Envelope List -- Controls whether the cleared column shows a value for this envelope.
• Description -- A free-text description of the envelope's purpose.

Organizing Envelopes

Drag envelopes to reorder them. You can drag an envelope into another envelope to nest it, or drag it out to change its position in the hierarchy.

Deleting Envelopes

When deleting an envelope that contains transactions or child envelopes, you must select a new envelope to receive the items being moved. You cannot move items into the envelope being deleted or into one of its descendants.

You cannot delete the root envelope.