Transaction Workflow

Overview

A transaction records a financial event in Principal Plan: a purchase, a deposit, a transfer, or a split. Each transaction moves from creation through optional clearing and reconciliation.

Transaction Fields

Each transaction carries the following information:

Field	Description
Date	The date the transaction occurred.
Payable To	The payee or description of the transaction.
Amount	The transaction amount, entered as either a Payment or Deposit.
Code	An optional reference such as a check number.
Memo	An optional note.
Account	The account the transaction affects.
Envelope	The envelope the transaction draws from or credits.
Cleared	Two independent clearing states, one for the account and one for the envelope.

Transaction Types

Principal Plan supports four transaction types:

Type	Description
Simple	A single deposit or payment in one account assigned to one envelope.
Transfer	Moves money between accounts, between envelopes, or both. Use it when money changes location or budget category without creating new income or spending.
Regular Multiple	Splits one deposit or payment across multiple envelope allocations. If Enable Account Transfers in Multiples is enabled, it can also move part of the amount to another account.
Multiple Envelope Transfer	Moves budget amounts among multiple envelopes in one transaction. Use it to redistribute money across several envelope categories.

Creating a Transaction

Open an account or envelope ledger by double-clicking an item in the left panel. In the ledger, use the Add New Transaction button or Ctrl+Insert to open the transaction editor. In the editor, use Save & New to save and start another transaction, or Save & Close to save and return to the ledger. The transaction editor includes fields for the transaction information listed above.

Auto-complete is available for the Payable To and Code fields, drawing from your transaction history. When you select a payee from the auto-complete list, the other fields are filled in from the most recent matching transaction.

Templates can also pre-fill a new transaction. Use Create Transaction from the right-click menu in the Templates list, or apply a template from within the transaction editor.

Editing a Transaction

Double-click a transaction in the ledger to open it for editing. All fields can be changed. If you change the amount on a transaction that has already been cleared, a warning appears and the clearing state is automatically reset on both the transaction and any related transfer or split records.

Clearing States

Each transaction has two independent clearing states -- one for the account side and one for the envelope side. The three states are:

State	Display	Description
Not Cleared	(blank)	The transaction has not been verified.
Pending	*	The transaction has been marked by the user during reconciliation.
Cleared	X	The transaction has been confirmed and saved.

Toggle a transaction between not cleared and pending by clicking the cleared column or selecting Toggle Cleared from the right-click menu. When a file is saved, pending transactions are promoted to cleared.

Importing Transactions

When transactions are imported from a bank download (CSV, OFX/QFX, or QIF), the import system attempts to match them against existing records. Matched transactions have their clearing state promoted to pending, confirming that the bank has processed them. Unmatched transactions are created as new records.

Imported transactions can be identified using the Filter View option Freshly Imported or Synchronized.

Deleting a Transaction

Select a transaction in the ledger and delete it from the right-click menu. A confirmation dialog appears before the transaction is removed. Deleting a transfer or split transaction also removes its related records (the buddy or child items).