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 — Messages
Which prompts and confirmations to show.
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Settings — Search
Default web search engine.