iFinance3Manual

iFinance
Version 3.2
Manual

iFinance User Guide

Contents
Welcome To iFinance 3
About This Manual! 8

Registration, Demo and Updating
Proper Installation and de-installation of iFinance! 10
Demo Mode — Using iFinance Without A Serial Number! 10
Registering iFinance! 11
Locating your Serial Number! 11
The registration dialog! 12
Is my installation properly registered?! 12
Troubleshooting registration issues! 13
Updates — Keeping iFinance Up-To-Date! 14
Automatic update notiﬁcation! 14
Checking for updates manually ! 15

Your First Look At iFinance 3
All-in-one User Interface! 17
Finding Your Way around iFinance! 18
Title Bar & Info Display ! 18
Organizer! 18
Viewer & Contextual Toolbar! 19
Editor & Contextual Help ! 20
Bottom Bar! 20

Importing
The Database Manager! 23
Creating a new database! 23
Change the location of your database(s)! 24
Migrating Data From iFinance 2! 25
A. You already started working with iFinance 3! 25
B. Youʼre using iFinance 3 for the ﬁrst time! 25
C. Youʼd like to keep your old data separate! 25
Verify that there are no overlapping dates/duplicate transactions! 25
Importing From Other Sources! 26

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iFinance User Guide

CSV (”.csv” files)! 26
MT940 (”.sta” files)! 29
Quicken (”.qif” files)! 30

Working with the iPhone
Importing data from your iPhone! 34
One Mac, several mobile devices! 34
Several Macs, one iPhone! 35
Import or synchronize! 35
A. You entered data in iFinance for your Mac first! 36
B. You started out with iFinance Mobile on your iPhone! 37

Saving Your iFinance 3 Database
Location Of The iFinance Database! 39
Saving! 39
Activating Autosave! 39
Encrypt your database! 39
Working With Archives! 39
Creating iFinance 3 archives! 39
Spotlight — track your archive files! 40
Considering Backups! 40
Storage location! 40
Manual vs. automatic backups! 41

Using iFinance 3
Structure Your Finances! 43
Working with Organizer Items! 43
Inclusion in total funds! 44
1. New Account! 44
2. New Stock! 45
3. New Budget! 46
4. New Chart! 46
New Report! 47
New Folder! 47
Changing Settings For Existing Items! 48
Folders & Subfolders! 48

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iFinance User Guide

Folder totals! 49
Managing Transactions! 49
Adding Transactions! 49
The Transactions List! 50
Sorting Items In The Viewer! 53
Creating And Editing Transactions! 53
Supported Transaction Types! 58
(Simple) Transactions! 58
Recurring Transactions! 58
Split Transactions! 58
Transfers! 58
Recurring Split Transactions! 58
Recurring Transfers! 59
Split Transfers! 59
Recurring Split Transfers! 59
Categories & Subcategories! 59
Tags! 60
Automatic Categorization! 61
Searching Transactions! 61
Working with Multiple Currencies! 61
Jump back and forth between source and target accounts! 61
Exchange rates! 62
Reconciling! 63
Smart deﬁnition of reconciling periods! 63

Tracking Your Stocks
Stock Items And Purchases! 65
Example C: Working with the stock portfolio! 65
Accessing Basic Settings For Stocks! 66
Finding Stock Items On The Internet! 67
Conﬁguring The Stocks Performance Chart! 67
How to automatically refocus on the current date! 68

Working With Budgets
Example D: Budget “Groceries”! 70
Step 1 — Create A New Budget! 70

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iFinance User Guide

Step 2 — Basic Budget Settings! 70
Step 3 — Deﬁne Filters For Relevant Transactions! 71
Step 4 — Adding Relevant Transactions! 72

Charts
Creating A New Chart! 75
Basic Settings! 75
First Look! 76
1. Full Screen Button! 76
2. Chart Name! 76
3. Interactive (3D)! 76
4. Print Version (2D)! 77
Fine-tune Your Chart! 77
Period! 78
Chart Type Button! 78
Transfers Button! 78
Combine Values! 79
Mark 'Today'! 79
Mark 'Future'! 79
Combine Data! 79
Range Of Values! 79
Fast switching to a Report! 80
Smarter Choices! 80
Accounts! 80
All accounts with identical currency! 80
Remove All! 80
Tags! 80
Use Tags! 81
All tags required to match! 81
Categories! 81

Reports
Adjust viewing options (Eye Button)! 83
Filtering Rules! 84
Overview! 84

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iFinance User Guide

Show category analysis! 84
Show tag analysis, Show beneﬁciary analysis! 84
Time frame analysis! 84
Further Options! 85
Transfers! 85
Zoom! 85
Chart Button! 85
Include Subcategories! 85
List of relevant transactions! 86
Report Folders! 86
Comparison of Reports! 86

Exporting
Account Selection! 89
Export Options! 89
Compatibilty Settings! 90

Printing
General information! 93
Funds! 94
Stocks! 95
Budgets! 95
Charts! 95
Print on remittance slip blanks! 97
Automatic ﬁlling-in! 97
Printer settings! 98
Edit Templates! 99
Edit template copy ! 99
New template! 101

Appendix
Preferences! 103
Shortcuts! 105

6

Welcome to iFinance 3

About This Manual
The first part of this manual describes how to install and start iFinance for the first time,
how you transfer information from any other software including iFinance 2 by means of
the Database Manager and how to gain access to your iFinance Mobile data on your
iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

We will then get you acquainted with our new iFinance 3 user interface and most of its
features and options. Once we've covered the basic usage, we'll immediately dive into
working with individual records and transactions:

“Using iFinance 3” thoroughly guides you through some basic workflows, providing
answers to advanced questions like “How do I create a recurring transaction?” or “Can I
automatically update the value of my stock portfolio?” .

Nowadays, managing your financial assets demands close observation of the stock
market and keeping an eye on your personal budget(s). That's why we dedicate one full
chapter to each of these major concepts within iFinance 3.

“Managing Stocks” talks of names and symbols and explains how you search for and add
new stock items. And you will learn how to use the “Stocks Performance Chart” to
visualize your portfolio.

“Working With Budgets”, “Charts” and “Reports” shows you how to keep control over
income and expenses.

To ease the transition from your previous financial software solution to iFinance 3, we
offer native support for “csv” (Comma-separated Values), “sta” (MT940), “qif” (Quicken)
and of course for our own legacy iFinance formats .

Even in this digital age, additional digital and plain paper hardcopies of your financial data
can be vital in case of disaster or your computer storage going awry:

iFinance helps you export dedicated archives as backups “just in case”. Also, using the
comprehensive “.csv” format exporter, built into iFinance 3, you can make your data
available to third parties as easily and flexibly as possible. Read more about importing
and exporting in the chapters “Importing Your Data” and “Exporting” .

“Printing” describes how you create concise lists of all your transactions as well as vivid
charts and output them using your favorite office printer .

In case of questions, please see our ever expanding documentation or contact us using
the contact form in our websiteʼs Support section:

www.synium.de/support

8

2
Registration, Demo and
Updating


Proper Installation and de-installation of iFinance
After downloading the iFinance installer, please double-click it. An installation window like
this will appear:

Please always drag and drop the iFinance application (the double-coin icon on the left) to
your Applications folder. This is required for flawless operation. Launching the iFinance
installer time and again and running iFinance from it can cause all sorts of problems.

If youʼre cautious to install iFinance in the Applications folder - donʼt be! Youʼll merely have
to delete four different files in order to remove iFinance completely in case you donʼt want
to use it anymore:

1. iFinance in your Applications folder
2. com.synium.iFinance.plist in “your user folder” - Library - Preferences
3. Your iFinance database
4. The installer file you downloaded from our website

Demo Mode — Using iFinance Without A Serial Number
In case you read these pages without having purchased iFinance yet, that's fine! You can
try the program in demo mode for as long as you like, but youʼll need a valid Serial
Number to activate “Save”, “Export” and “Print”.

10


To work in demo mode, simply drop iFinance in your Applications folder, launch it and in
the registration dialog, just click the button labeled “Try Demo”.

Registering iFinance
You need to have your license with the Serial Number ready at hand.

Locating your Serial Number
Shortly after the online purchase from one of our distribution partners, you will receive a
registration e-mail with the Serial Number.

Sometimes, youʼll receive more than one e-mail during the process. In that case, please
see which e-mail actually contains your Serial Number and which may simply be an
acknowledgement of your purchase having been successful in the ﬁrst place.

Your Serial Number is similar to the pattern:

SYN-IFIN-1234-ABCD-1234-ABCD-1234-ABCD-EFG

This is not an actual valid number, itʼs for demonstration purposes only

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The registration dialog
Once you have identiﬁed your Serial Number, launch iFinance. Upon launching, iFinance
displays a window asking you to type in that number:

Enter your Serial Number in the empty ﬁeld at the bottom of this window and click
“Register”. You donʼt need an internet connection for the registration process, nor are you
requried to send us an e-mail.

Is my installation properly registered?
There is a way to check if your installation of iFinance has been registered successfully:

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Open the “ iFinance” menu and look for the “Register…” and “Buy” entries. If they are
grayed-out and unaccessible for your mouse, everything is OK: you have successfully
installed and registered iFinance!

Troubleshooting registration issues
If the Serial Number you entered is rejected during the registration process, this may have
different reasons:

✓ you did not enter the Serial Number correctly, or…

✓ you inserted the Serial Number into the registration text field using the “Copy &
Paste” method, accidentally copying invisible characters (Line Break, Space).

Please re-enter the Serial Number, exactly as given in the e-mail you received. Include
the prefix “IFIN-” and all separating hyphens (”-”). In case you need help with the
registration process, please contact iFinance support at Synium Software via the contact
form on our website.

Lost Your Serial Number?

Keep the registration e-mail (from your online purchase) as it contains your Serial
Number. Best is to print a hardcopy of the registration e-mail and store it in a safe place —
apart from saving the e-mail itself as a text file or PDF on your Mac (e.g. in your
“Documents” folder).

When do I need the Serial Number?

The Serial Number is required whenever you want to install and use iFinance on a new
Mac or after reinstalling your Mac OS X operating system. You may also need it for future
updates, special offers and support requests.

Important:

Please include as much detail as possible about your purchase:

✓ which product are you inquiring about (in this case “iFinance”)

✓ (estimate of) date of purchase

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✓ your first and last name(s)

✓ some contact information like city, ZIP code, state, country

✓ e-mail address (the one you used during the purchase). If you are unsure which e-
mail account you have been using at the time, please send as many potential e-mail
addresses as you remember.

Although we try to keep response time low, please be patient. Due to us mostly working
on weekdays only, we cannot always guarantee an immediate reaction to your requests.
Please factor in that weʼre most likely in a different time zone (Germany) so if youʼre
writing us at 3 AM local time on a saturday, it will take some time for an answer to arrive.
Mostly though, we have a response time of just a few hours for anything related to lost
Serial Numbers.

www.synium.de/support

Updates — Keeping iFinance Up-To-Date
Software such as iFinance, though thoroughly tested, will require updates which deal with
software errors which may not even bother you but can cause problems on certain system
configurations under certain conditions. On the other hand, updates may just introduce
new features.

When we add new features to iFinance or fix any known problems, we will make these
enhancements available online. All updates within a major version (1.x, 2.x or 3.x) are free
for registered customers of iFinance, in fact we didnʼt charge for any iFinance update or
upgrade yet. As soon as we have to, weʼll inform you of the upgrade pricing before
installing the latest version.

So there really is no reason for you to leave out any update. Just make sure you create a
backup copy of your database as a precaution before every update.

Automatic update notification
iFinance regularly checks for updates over the Internet. Once an update becomes
available, youʼll be informed after launching iFinance. Starting with version 3.1, iFinance
relies on an automatic update service.

A window will open, informing you of the update and detailing all improvements this
update brings. The Updater lets you:

1. Cancel: The update will not be installed, but you will be reminded the next time you
launch iFinance.
2. Skip version: The update will not be installed, youʼll be notified as soon as the
succeeding update is available.
3. Download: The update is downloaded and installed.
The actual updating is fairly easy. Simply click “Update” as soon as the download is
completed. The update will be installed and the new version of iFinance will launch.

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Checking for updates manually
If you want to check for the availability of software updates yourself, go to the Application
Menu “iFinance” and choose “Check For Updates…”.

Either youʼll see the update window open or the following message, telling you that your
current installation of iFinance is OK and does not need to be updated:

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3
Your First Look At
iFinance 3

Your first look at iFinance

All-in-one User Interface
iFinance 3 keeps everything in one compact, resizable window, helping you focus on your
work. The new user interface groups all frequently-used controls and buttons in the lower-
central portion of the iFinance window. This avoids unnecessary mouse movement. The
main part of the UI with all lists and information views then forms a semicircle around and
above these controls.

The new UI is also much more graphical, and it dynamically visualizes your actions:
Subtle and strictly functional animated effects help you follow actions on screen,
configurable coloring of items and interactive elements guide you through data input,
editing and analysis.

Some elements conveniently hide from view when they arenʼt needed. They virtually
vanish out of sight, granting you an even clearer perspective on your financial status and
transactions.

Simply put, iFinance's main window is divided into five areas:

1. Title Bar & Info Display
2. Organizer
3. Viewer & Contextual Toolbar
4. Editor
5. Bottom Bar

1

2

3

4

5

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Each area serves a specific purpose, but only one is truly “static”: the “Organizer”. All the
others change according to your actions within iFinance and contextually display required
information or tools for managing your assets.

Finding Your Way around iFinance
Title Bar & Info Display
The title bar of iFinance's main window holds a central display, resembling the screen of
your car stereo. This “Info Display” contextually displays certain information, depending on
which feature you are currently using.

Furthermore, there's the sprocket-like Preferences button, granting access to the iFinance
preferences window and many options you may want to configure to your liking.

Organizer
The Organizer is the column to the left. It can be resized by grabbing and dragging its
right border. The Organizer holds groups of items which make up and help you plan your
assets:

✓ Funds

✓ Stocks

✓ Budgets

✓ Reports

✓ Charts

These groups contain any number of accounts, stocks, budgets, reports or charts, which
in turn can be grouped by placing them into enclosing folders. You can freely name items
and folders, giving you a great amount of flexibility when it comes to organizing your
financial data.

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Viewer & Contextual Toolbar
When ever you select any of the items in the Organizer, you will see the right portion of
iFinance's main window change. The top right area is called the “Viewer”, and its size and
contents rearrange, matching the context you're working in.

For every item under “Funds”, i.e. cash and bank accounts, as well as bank or credit
cards, the Viewer behaves the same: Click on any of the items in the Organizer to the left,
and the Viewer displays a list with all the transactions for the selected account — the
“Transactions List”.

Clicking on one of the items under “Stocks”, brings about the “Stocks Performance” chart
for the selected item. Such an either 2D or 3D graphic also appears, once you click on
any of the ”Charts” in the Organizer.

Budgets behave just the same: in the Organizer, click one with your mouse, and you will

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see the graphic Budget Status Bar appear in the Viewer to the right. Underneath, still in
the Viewer, a comprehensive list shows all relevant transactions for the selected budget.

Still part of the Viewer but also distinct, the “Contextual Toolbar” is a small strip of tools
and controls underneath the Viewer itself. These tools change contextually, hence the
toolbar's name. It is here that special buttons allow you to add (”+”), remove (”-”) or auto-
categorize transactions as well as toggle between Full Screen, 2D and 3D views for
charts. Whenever available, a comprehensive, contextual “Search” may also be triggered
from this set of buttons.

A narrow horizontal bar separates the Viewer from the Editor below. Grab this bar with
your mouse and drag it up and down to change the size of the Viewer and Editor,
respectively.

Editor & Contextual Help
When you select an item from the Organizer, a specific context unfolds in the Viewer — in
turn, selecting an item from the Viewer then activates the Editor and brings about a
number of dedicated tools and controls to manipulate e.g. a single transaction entry.

Bottom Bar
The Bottom bar is another “contextual” feature of iFinance's user interface: depending on
the tool you are currently using, more or less options will become available.

While the “Contextual Toolbar” and “Editor” serve to add, remove or manipulate the
entries of a specific type at a rather fine-grained level, it is in the “Bottom Bar” where you
edit your database more “globally”:

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The “+” and “-” buttons in the Bottom Bar serve to add or remove items to/from the
Organizer:

✓ Accounts (Funds)
✓ Stocks
✓ Budgets
✓ Charts
✓ Folders & Subfolders
The multicolor “Edit Categories” button opens a separate Categories window.

Use the controls in this window to create, remove and/or (re-)name categories and
subcategories, to deﬁne keywords and choose their color schemes. Please read on for
more information on how to use (sub-) categories and keywords to structure your data
and ease your daily routine.

Further to the right, the “Print” button grants immediate access to printed or PDF output,
so that you may easily print lists or charts right from within iFinance. Chapter 11 is
dedicated to printing exclusively, please refer to that chapter for in-depth information.

Lastly, the blue-white “i”, ubiquitous in many applications on the Mac for “Inspector” or
“Information”, invokes the most fundamental settings or information for an item — again,
depending on the context.

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The Database Manager

Starting with version 3.1, iFinance will by default display a startup window, the Database
Manager, letting you work with separate databases for separate occasions. Now you can
have individual database ﬁles for your marching band club revenue and for your private
accounts.

The Database Manager is accessible from within iFinance in the File menu, as well.
Quickly switch over to a different database by selecting the “Change Database” option.

Creating a new database
1. In the Database Manager, click the plus sign in the bottom left corner in order to add
a database.
2. Name it so you can easily distinguish your different databases.
3. Select the database youʼd like to work on from the list and click the “Open Database”
button.

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Change the location of your database(s)
iFinance manages multiple databases in a comprehensive library - very much like iTunes
or iPhoto. Each single database can contain multiple accounts and is stored in a separate
database file. All database files are saved in a common folder, your Library.

If you didnʼt change the location, this folder can be found at:

“Your User Folder”/Library/Application Support/iFinance3
In case youʼd rather change the location to your Documents folder,

1. Click the Change button in the startup window.
2. An Open Dialog window will open.
3. Select a new location (we recommend creating an “iFinance Databases” folder in
your Documents folder for it).
4. Confirm the selection.
5. iFinance will move all your databases to the folder you selected.
You can store your databases in folders on your hard disk as well as on any external hard
disks, USB memory sticks or network folders.

Please note: what you select here is your databaseʼs actual storage
location. Please specify only locations on trustworthy storage media -
both in respect to data security (against unauthorized access), as well
as data integrity (data is safe from data loss). If you specify external
storage locations not covered by Time Machine backups, please do
regular backups of your data manually.

You could use a shared network folder for your own and your partnerʼs data by choosing
the same location on a network drive. Please consider the consequences - once you
merge your libraries, there is no way you could separate them automatically again.

In case you have to separate your libraries anyway, please move the database files in
question to a different location manually. As soon as you define that folder as your
database libraryʼs location in iFinance, these files will be listed in your database manager
again.

CAUTION: a centralized network folder doesnʼt allow concurrent data
editing (i.e. working on the same data at the same time). Only the user
who saves his changes first can actually save his changes permanently.
Other usersʼ work will not be permanent in this case.

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Migrating Data From iFinance 2
For all our former iFinance 2 users, thereʼs three ways to preserve your data:

A. You already started working with iFinance 3
Launch iFinance, then open the database you created from the Database Manager. What
youʼd like to do is add your iFinance 2 data and merge it with your new data.

1. Go to the File menu and click “import” - “iFinance 2 File…”.
2. Browse to the folder containing your iFinance 2 database and select it.
3. Importing will add all accounts and charts you created in version 2 to your iFinance 3
data.

B. Youʼre using iFinance 3 for the first time
1. Click the “Import iFinance 2 File” button in the Database Manager.
2. Browse to the folder containing your iFinance 2 database and select it.
3. Your current accounts and charts are imported, the file is automatically named after
the imported fileʼs name.

C. Youʼd like to keep your old data separate
Proceed as if you were using iFinance for the first time. Create a separate new database
for your new data by clicking the plus button in the bottom left corner.

In any of the above cases, the accounts, categories and transactions are transfered into
your new iFinance 3 database unchanged. Please check if everything went smoothly.

Even if you named your items exactly the same as in iFinance 2, the import does never
truly “merge” the entries. Rather, iFinance 3 avoids too much automatism at this point to
protect your valuable data.

Verify that there are no overlapping dates/duplicate transactions
Adding data from an old database will influence your total funds. Make sure you didnʼt
create duplicates:

1. Go to the (new) account you have been using since buying iFinance 3 and check
which is the “oldest” transaction.
2. Open the automatically created, imported (old) account from iFinance 2 and look for
the most recent transaction.
3. If the most recent transaction from the import is older than the oldest transaction
which you recently entered into iFinance 3, your data is okay.

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4. Itʼs safe to simply select all transactions from the imported (old) account and drag
them to the (new) account with the same name.

5. To guide you in this process, iFinance 3 highlights all valid target accounts green.
Items highlighted red are of a different kind — you cannot, for example, drag
transactions from Accounts on Stocks or Charts.

Depending on the number of transactions you've just dragged
from one account to the other, iFinance 3 may require some time
to merge the information. This is usually just a matter of seconds.
But please be patient if it does take longer than expected.

Importing From Other Sources
iFinance 3 natively supports these common data formats:

✓ “CSV”

✓ “MT940”

✓ “Quicken Interchange Format”

The following pages give you a broad view over the formats and iFinanceʼs capabilities to
work with such data.

CSV (”.csv” files)
CSV (”Comma-separated Values”) is available as an export option in spreadsheet
applications like Apple Numbers, Microsoft Excel, OpenOffice.org, as well as in most
software for personal finance management.

When exporting in CSV format, data is saved as one table row per transaction, with
columns containing the associated values like date, target account and amount. CSV-
formatted data is stored in plain text files with the suffix “.csv”.

Categories in CSV files
iFinance supports importing categories formatted as “super-category:sub-category”.

For example: a transaction containing “candy:cotton-candy” in the Category field will be
assigned cotton-candy as Category and since this category doesnʼt exist yet, itʼs

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automatically added to your Categories; candy being the super-category and cotton-candy
its sub-category.

Importing

1. Invoke the CSV import from the File menu with the “Import” - “CSV file …” option.

2. Browse to your csv file, select it and click “Open”.
3. A dialog window will open. Select the account to assign the imported data to

iFinance analyzes the file before importing and prompts you to define which column
corresponds to which value for an entry. In this dialog, iFinance also allows you to exclude
single entries (rows) by unchecking the checkbox at the beginning of each row.

While you may freely choose to discard redundant information by setting the column to
“Ignore” and/or unchecking the checkbox, some information is absolutely required for
iFinance to proceed with the import:

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Each imported transaction must contain date information. Please look for the column
containing the transaction's date, click on the column's heading pop-up button and select
“Date” from the menu which opens under your mouse pointer.

Next, you must identify the column containing the amount of the transaction(s). Find the
column containing the amount, again, click on the column's heading pop-up button and
select the appropriate one of the following three options:

✓ “Amount (Debit/Credit)”

✓ “Amount (Debit)”

✓ “Amount (Credit)”

In the pop-up menu, there are other options too, ready to be assigned to columns
containing other values like:

✓ Sign (Debit/Credit)

✓ Transaction Title

✓ Beneﬁciary/Account of

✓ Beneﬁciary

✓ Account of

✓ Category

✓ Check Number

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✓ Comment 1

✓ Comment 2

✓ Comment 3

✓ Comment 4

Once you identify the column containing the “Date” information, iFinance attempts to
semi-automatically match the date format encountered within the import against a number
of commonly-used formats. Make sure that the “Date Format” pop-up button below the
matching table is set to the correct format.

You may also define your own “Custom …” date format.

As long as either the amount column, the column for date or the
date format are not appropriately defined, iFinance highlights these
invalid entries in the matching table with a light-red overlay and
deactivates the “Import” button.

MT940 (”.sta” files)
Many bank institutes use this plain text file format to digitally store single transaction
records as well as combined account information containing multiple transactions and
balance information. While “MT940” is the name of the format, files formatted accordingly
most likely carry the suffix “.sta”.

1. Invoke the MT940 import from the File menu with the “Import” - “MT940 (SWIFT)…”
option.

2. Importing and matching date and amount information is fully automatic for MT940
files.

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3. In case there are fields that canʼt be assigned automatically, pick the right choice
from the drop-down menus.

Quicken (”.qif” files)
Intuit's “Quicken” is a personal finance management application. iFinance 3 directly
imports files stored in the “.qif” format and fully supports these types of items:

✓ Accounts

✓ Categories

✓ Transactions

✓ Transfers

✓ Splits

Simply select “Import” - “QIF” from the File menu.

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A mapping dialog allows you to fine-tune the import. For transactions belonging to a given
account in the Quicken source file you may define target accounts from your iFinance 3
database, so that all these transactions are automatically merged with your existing
financial data.

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For transactions which have not been properly assigned to any account using the Quicken
software, iFinance prompts you to select a target account from within the iFinance
database.

Categories present in the Quicken source file are fully preserved during import. As long as
a match can be found among the categories defined in your iFinance 3 database, every
item will be correctly assigned the appropriate category. If no match can be found, the
required category will be created in iFinance 3.

Date format matching is semi-automatic. Please refer to my description of CSV import to
learn how to define the correct format for date information.

iFinance does not support Quicken's investment transactions yet.

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Importing data from your iPhone
Thereʼs a companion application called “iFinance Mobile” for the iPhone and iPod touch
available in the AppStore. This application lets you record your spendings on the go,
making it easier not to forget any lunch at a diner, not a single train ticket or receipt at the
supermarket.

Please consider the limitations when combining your Mac and iPhone before syncing for
the first time. After the following basic information, youʼll find step-by-step instructions for
setting up your sync.

One Mac, several mobile devices
The iPhone, as well as the iPod touch are valid options for tracking your finances on the
go.

Mac A

Database A1
Database A2

A1 & A2 A1 & A2

iPhone X iPhone Y
Mobile database A1 Mobile database A1
Mobile database A2 Mobile database A2

Sync
Direct sync impossible

1. You can use several mobile devices for one database (A1) on your Mac, allowing you
and your partner and children to enter data for a shared account.
2. Several databases on one Mac can be synced to several mobile devices (A1 & A2)
3. iPhones canʼt sync amongst themselves directly, just with a Mac as a central sync
server.

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Several Macs, one iPhone
iFinance doesnʼt allow automatic syncing a database across several Macs. Thatʼs why in
this illustration, databases A1 and A2 can exclusively be found on Mac A, not Mac B.

Mac A Mac B

Database A1 Database B1

A1 & A2 B1 & B2

iPhone Y
Mobile database A1
Mobile database A2
Mobile database B1
Mobile database B2

Sync
Sync impossible

1. You can sync one mobile device with an unlimited number of databases A(1, 2, 3, …)
from Mac A and databases B(1, 2, 3, …) from Mac B.
2. You canʼt, however, sync Mac Aʼs databases with Mac Bʼs databases using the
iPhone as a sync server.

Import or synchronize
Synchronize means iFinance automatically ensures that all data on your Mac and iPhone
is identical.

Importing doesnʼt go just as far, as it only reads the data from your iPhone. This is why
you can, for example, sync database A1 between Mac A and an iPhone and then import
that data on a second Mac, i.e. Mac B.

This will, however, not be database A1 which is on your Mac A, even though all current
data from that database is now imported on Mac B. This database on Mac B is called D1,
as you will not be able to sync any changes introduced on Mac B back to your iPhone.

35


Mac A Mac B

Database C1 Database D1

B1 → C1 A1 → D1

A1 & A2 B1 & B2

iPhone Y
Mobile database A1
Mobile database A2
Mobile database B1
Mobile database B2

Sync
Import from an iPhone database
Direct sync impossible

Overall, syncing as well as importing your data requires a licensed copy of iFinance 3 on
your Mac.

Caution: Importing is not syncing!
Your desktop database and your mobile device are automatically
assigned to another during the sync process. This is required for
the sync to work.
After youʼve synced properly once, all changes on the mobile
device(s) will be inserted in your desktop iFinance database.

A. You entered data in iFinance for your Mac ﬁrst
Make sure you sync your data with iFinance Mobile on your iPhone ﬁrst. Additional
instructions are available inside iFinance Mobile. A wireless network connection shared by
both your Mac and mobile device is required. Syncing over USB is not available. In
iFinance on your Mac, just

1. click the “iPhone and iPod touch” entry in the left hand column,
2. launch iFinance Mobile on your mobile device and activate syncing.

36


3. as soon as iFinance recognizes your device, select it from the list and click the Sync
button within iFinance.
Once the sync is completed, start using iFinance Mobile.

B. You started out with iFinance Mobile on your iPhone
a) If you are new to iFinance on your Mac, import your iPhone data via the Database
Manager which will create a new database on your desktop and then sync the device
ﬁrst before proceeding.
b) If you are an existing user of iFinance for your Mac but created a new database in
iFinance Mobile for testing purposes on your device, there is no way you can sync
this mobile database with your desktop database, even if theyʼre named identically.
In order to avoid the hassle of importing, converting and then merging the data
manually, please always sync once before seriously using the mobile device.

37

6
Saving Your iFinance 3
Database

Saving your iFinance database

Location Of The iFinance Database
The iFinance database is stored under “Application Support/iFinance3/” in your user's
“Library” folder. The complete path is:

“your_user_Folder”/Library/Application Support/iFinance3/
Saving
iFinance saves your database every time you quit the application. So, quitting iFinance
not only closes the program, but also saves all your recent changes.

You may also manually save at any time by clicking the “Save” option from the File menu.

Activating Autosave
We highly recommend setting iFinance 3 to automatically save all the changes to your
database at regular intervals. In case you rarely power down your Mac at all, you may run
into trouble and suffer data loss in case your system ever crashes without you having
previously saved the iFinance database.

Open iFinance's “Preferences” window, go to the “Document” pane and activate the
checkbox “Save automatically every 5 minutes”.

Encrypt your database
You can dramatically increase your data security against unauthorized access by
password-protecting the database ﬁle and, if necessary, even encrypt it.

Password protection will keep others from accessing your data with any copy of iFinance
unless theyʼre given the password. With a lot of effort and appropriate means, however,
password protection can be breached. So, while this offers an elevated level of security, it
doesnʼt provide the highest security available. On the plus side: if you ever forget your
password, we might be able to unlock your database if you send it to us and reset the
password for you.

If you opt for encryption, though, your data is highly secure, so much so in fact that even
we canʼt help you in case you forget your password. Youʼd still have your data but wonʼt
be able to access it unless you recover the password.

In order to activate password protection and optional encryption, please open iFinanceʼs
Preferences (via the cogwheel button to the right or the iFinance Menu).

Select the Database pane tab and activate the options under the “Password Protection“
header.

Working With Archives
Creating iFinance 3 archives
Creating an iFinance 3 archive is easy: Go to the “File” menu and select “Export”
“iFinance 3 Archive …”.

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iFinance will prompt you to select a place and a name under which to save a complete
archive copy of your iFinance 3 database. Such archive files carry the suffix “ifi3a”.

Spotlight — track your archive files
Finding an iFinance 3 database archive you created in the past is easy: Simply use
Apple's ”Spotlight” feature. Of course, Spotlight will only show you files stored on your
Mac — or on external hard disks connected at the time of the search:

Click the “Spotlight” icon in the upper right corner of your Mac's screen and enter “.ifi3a”
into the search field. Spotlight will immediately start looking for everything on your Mac
containing this phrase. Please make sure that you enter the search string without
quotation marks but include the leading dot.

Search results are shown in real-time underneath the search string. Clicking on “Show All”
will open all search results in a separate window. This is very useful if there are several
results matching your search criteria.

Clicking on the column header “Kind” sorts all the results by file type. This immediately
groups all your iFinance archive files together — useful for the rare occasion that some
other files matched the “.ifi3a” search string.

Selecting one of the files with your mouse pops up the file path at the bottom of the
search results window. This path tells you where exactly the selected file is stored on your
Mac.

But even more handy is the contextual menu of Mac OS X: right-click (CTRL-click) on a
search result with your mouse and select “Open Enclosing Folder” to directly show the file
in a Finder window. From there you can then easily move or copy the database file, e.g. to
a different folder or onto a backup disk.

Please read on to learn about backup strategies:

Considering Backups
While working in iFinance, regularly go to the “File” menu and select the “Save” option to
save the current state of your finances database. Per se, this does not provide any
additional safety. None at all! In case of hard disk failure, data that hasnʼt been backed up
can only be retrieved by specialized (and expensive) services.

There are various ways for creating a safety net for your valuable data. Two
considerations should be taken very seriously though:

Storage location
Your internal hard disk is in no way a safe location. Please create frequent backups on
CDs, USB memory or online backup services. Using an online and remote backup service
like the one included with Apple's “Mobile Me” is also a viable alternative: you don't have
to travel anywhere to retrieve the data in case of emergency.

40


Storing your sensitive personal ﬁnancial information online may
compromise your own security: Make sure to rely on services you trust
which have proven to be reliable and secure. They should also make
use of secure encrypted transmission methods while storing or
accessing your data. You should also consider encrypting the data you
are about to upload to the “Cloud”

Manual vs. automatic backups
Manual backups give you the advantage of always knowing how much time has passed
since you last made sure your data is safe. Automatic scheduled backups, however,
relieve you of the burden of remembering it.

We advise all customers to at least use the free Time Machine backup mechanism
included in Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.6. If you simply attach a USB hard disk and have Time
Machine work its magic, youʼll have greatly improved recoverability after system failure by
an order of magnitude.

In case youʼre concerned that might not be enough for your data, please contact
specialized data backup providers.

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Using iFinance 3

Structure Your Finances
The left hand column of iFinance's main window is the Organizer. It lets you structure your
assets and gives fast access to Accounts, Stocks, Budgets and Charts by clicking on
these items. Within categories, use folders and subfolders whenever it makes sense to
you - after all, itʼs you who will regularly be working with this data.

Funds

Stocks

Budgets

Reports

Charts

Mobile

For example, iFinance's default database groups Bank Account and Credit Card inside a
folder named “Accounts”, while the charts for Income and Expenses are contained within
a “Categories” folder. iFinance supports an indefinite number of items and folders.

Working with Organizer Items
To create any new item or folder, click the plus button in the Bottom Bar, underneath the
Organizer. A floating menu appears:

From the menu, choose one of five options, to create e.g. a new account or folder. Next, a
dialog prompts you for a number of different basic settings, depending on the item you
just created:

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Using iFinance 3

Inclusion in total funds

Inclusion in total funds
By default, all Accounts within a folder will be summed up and a
total for that folder is displayed. All folder totals are
consolidated into the amount of total funds. When creating a
new Account or a new Stock, you can choose to include or
exclude them in the total Funds. If you change your mind along
the way, simply double-click an account or a stock in the left
hand organizer and change this setting.
For Accounts included in the total Funds, the amount is
displayed with dark blue background color, Accounts not
included are highlighted light-gray.

1. New Account
While creating new stocks and charts may
become a frequent habit, depending on your
day-to-day use of iFinance — adding accounts
or changing their behavior should only occur
once in a while – Whenever you open a new
account at your bank, or if you decide to track
another bank or credit card.

For each account, there is some basic
information to deﬁne:

Account Name
Please use a name which best describes this
account. “My Private Account at Bank XYZ” or
“Account No. 123 456 789 at Bank XYZ” —
iFinance doesn't care, but you should know at
once which account the name refers to.

Start Value
While this ﬁeld defaults to zero (”0.00”), it
accepts any amount with which iFinance should
start tracking a particular account.

If you know that you can only access account information back to a certain date in time, at
which the account in question already showed a balance other than zero, simply enter
that balance as the start value.

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Using iFinance 3

This field is very important! If the start value is not correctly defined, the daily balance for
the account, and of course for your assets in total, will never correspond to the total funds
actually available to you.

Currency
A very important setting too: iFinance supports multiple currencies per database but any
account considers only one currency for its transactions. Please choose the appropriate
currency from the pop-up button.

The use of foreign currencies is described in the section “Working With Multiple
Currencies”.

Other information to enter in the settings dialog for an account includes the Icon to display
in the Organizer, the Account Number, Bank Code and Bank Name as well as the more
comprehensive IBAN and BIC/SWIFT.

2. New Stock
In the default database setup, iFinance automatically creates one example item under
Stocks — the “Apple” (Name) or “AAPL” (Symbol) entry, representing the stock of the
company Apple Inc., traded at the New York Stock Exchange.

For all the stocks added to this section, iFinance displays a configurable and printable
Stocks Performance Chart in the Viewer to the right. More on this later .

Each stock must be defined by such a generic Name and a unique Symbol. The names
are freely definable to best describe each stock to yourself. Symbols are unique, but there
may be more than one symbol for a given company:

Symbols are issued by the stock trading institutions of the national and international stock
markets, such as the “NYSE” (New York Stock Exchange in New York/U.S.A.) or the
“DAX” (maintained by the Deutsche Börse in Frankfurt/Main, Germany). So, if a
company's shares are traded at more than one market place in the world, every such
place has a unique identifier for the share.

If you hold shares in a publicly-traded company, you will know the symbol required to
search for. But if you want to track certain stocks and are unsure about which symbol to

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Using iFinance 3

use in this settings dialog, simply use the search field to enter the company's name and
click “Search”. Your Web browser then opens with a list of search results from Yahoo,
which is the service iFinance uses to query stock market information.

Identify the symbol for iFinance to use and enter it into the “Symbol” field of the settings
dialog. Then click “Done” to finish creating the new stock to track, or to save the changes.

More options to define the way the “Stocks Performance Chart” in the viewer to the right
behaves will be discussed in “Tracking Your Stocks”.

3. New Budget
Budgets help to keep your earnings and spendings within specific boundaries. Either to
simply avoid running out of cash before the end of the month, or to assist you in putting
aside the money required for the Caribbean cruise, for that new car, your kid's college
education …you get the idea.

When you first create a new budget by clicking the “+” button in the Bottom Bar, your are
prompted for a name. Budgets are defined, interactively, in the “Editor” portion of the
iFinance window. We will talk about this later in “Working With Budgets”.

4. New Chart
Charts in iFinance are graphical representations of either snapshots or historical trends,
regarding your personal finances. Once you have imported or entered a sufficient amount
of information, they vividly and interactively visualize certain contexts either by account(s)
or categories.

After naming your new chart and because iFinance also needs to know which basic data
to consider, you must select the desired “Data Source” from our set of predefined options
such as e.g. “Account History”, “Income/Expenses” or “Profit/Loss”.

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Using iFinance 3

Depending on the selected data source, the option “Visualization Mode”, allows you to
choose between “Accounts” and “Categories” for the perspective this newly-created chart
grants on your data.

More tools for fine-tuning any chart are available in the “Editor” portion of the iFinance
window. But we will go into more detail in “Creating Charts”.

5. New Report
Reports behave very much the same as charts. One major difference is you donʼt have to
select a data source, instead, you simply select one of the templates like Income/
Expenses or Profits/Losses. Please see chapter 11 for more detailed information.

6. New Folder
Folders exist for all four sections of the Organizer. Folders can be grouped hierarchically,
one inside the other, to allow for complex logical structures. Every such level of your
custom folder hierarchy supports multiple items and folders.

Its “Name” and “Type” are the only settings currently available for a folder. “Type” firmly
defines the section to which a given folder belongs.

If you select a folder or subfolder within any of the sections, prior to hitting the “+” button,
iFinance automatically assumes that location as the place for the new item or folder to be
created. You may later change the exact location for an item, simply by dragging it around
within the same section.

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Using iFinance 3

Changing Settings For Existing Items
You may alter these settings at any time: Simply select the item to edit and click the blue-
white “i” button in the Bottom Bar or simply double-click the item in the Organizer and
choose the appropriate option from the contextual menu.

If you want to move an item or folder to a different (sub-) folder within the same section
later on, simply drag it with your mouse to the desired location and drop it. iFinance
highlights in green, where you may put an item. A blue line indicates where the item will
be placed. Red highlighting warns you that such areas cannot host a given item.

Folders & Subfolders
While “Funds” and “Stocks” display the total worth of all cash and bank accounts or
stocks, respectively, single items in the Organizer may still be grouped in distinct folders
and subfolders.

E.g., should you be tracking accounts for members of your family or speciﬁc projects, this
allows you to structure the iFinance database in a way that each family member or project
has a corresponding folder.

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Using iFinance 3

Folder totals
As explained here, you can choose wether or not to include an accountʼs total or stock
value in the superordinate folder and since all folders are consolidated in the end,
ultimately in the total Funds.

Folders can come in pretty handy when working with multiple currencies, too. You can
work with european Accounts, all in Euro but for a better overview, the folder will display
the total in US $.

Just double-click the Folder in the Organizer and select the currency from the list. This
can be reverted at any time and gives you a fairly exact estimation based on the most
current exchange rate determined by iFinance.

Managing Transactions
For transactions, you will mostly be working in the right portion of the iFinance window.
The Viewer and Editor are your tools of the trade:

Adding Transactions
Immediately underneath the Viewer, in the Contextual Toolbar are plus and minus buttons.
Use them to manually add to or remove items from the account selected in the Organizer
to the left.

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Using iFinance 3

Instead of adding transactions manually, you may always populate accounts by importing
single or multiple entries from an external data file. Please refer to „Importing Your Data“
to learn more about importing and file formats supported by iFinance.

Whatever the procedure for adding data, once you click on any one of the items under
“Funds” in the Organizer, the Viewer changes to the “Transactions List” — a list of all
transactions available for the selected account:

The Transactions List

In the Transactions List each row corresponds to one transaction and the columns divide
information for each transaction into several cells. While the contents of every single cell
may be edited “inline”, directly inside the Transactions List, it is recommended to use the
Editor to edit this information.

Let's have a look at the information available for each entry:

Label

Selectively label an entry to remember it for editing at a later moment. Use the “Label This
Transaction” checkbox in the Editor to set or remove the Label flag. The Transaction List
is sortable by any criteria by clicking in the corresponding columnʼs headline.

Activate or Consider

Uncheck the box in front of a transaction to deactivate and exclude it from all calculations
in the database. Inactive transactions remain fully searchable, but they will not be
considered for any mathematical calculations and not show in, totals or graphical
representations, like charts or Budget Status Bars.

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Using iFinance 3

Recurring

Recurring Transactions, i.e. transactions that occur on a regular basis showing the same
amount, title and beneficiary can easily be specified by the “Repeat” dropdown as daily,
weekly, monthly, yearly or even at a user-defined intervall. The Recurring icon will show
up for all recurring transfers in the Viewer.

Part of a Transfer

Transactions from one of one ownʼs accounts to another are marked by the “Transfer”
checkbox. Clicking this checkbox allows you to select one of your own accounts as the
target. All transactions marked as transfers show the “Part of a Transfer” icon in the
Viewer.

Date
You can type directly into the date field or use the Editor to choose the appropriate date
from the Date Picker, accessible via a small calendar icon next to its date field.

Category
Category Indicators are solid bubbles, matching the color definition for the specific
category. If an item has not been assigned a category, you will see a glass-like,
transparent bubble instead.

Optionally, for “Split Transactions”, category indicators may appear as “Pie Charts”, with
slices of different colors, representing the categories assigned to each individual item of
which a split transaction consists. Color blind users best use the optional text display.

Transaction Title
As with “Comment”, this field usually holds some descriptive text, making it easier for you
to search for and understand the purpose or context of a transaction.

You are free to work with Title and Comment in any way you like, but it is probably a good
idea to use one of both fields for the textual information accompanying the written/digital
record of any given check, bank transfer or other transaction.

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Using iFinance 3

By clicking these fields directly, you switch to “Inline Edit Mode”, allowing
you to directly type into the cell and input some text. This allows for very
quick on-the-fly editing and is basically the same as using the Editor.

Credit and Debit
These two columns hold positive or negative values. With their green or red background
color and the “+” and “-” sign in front of each amount it is very easy to distinguish Credit
from Debit.

Comment
As with “Transaction Title”, this field usually holds some descriptive text, making it easier
for you to search for and understand the purpose or context of a transaction.

You are free to work with Title and Comment in any way you like, but it is probably a good
idea to use one of the two fields for the textual information accompanying the written/
digital record of any given check, bank transfer or other transaction.

Mostly, comments will be information relating to the reason or purpose of a transfer,
intended for the payer, as well as for the beneficiary to keep their accounting as well-
documented as possible.

Don't waste time entering redundant information. But if a transaction refers to, e.g. a
specific contract or purchase you have on file, it surely comes in handy to be able to
annotate a reference to precisely that contract or invoice.

By clicking these fields directly, iFinance switches to “Inline Edit Mode”,
allowing to directly type into the cell and input some text. This allows for
very quick on-the-fly editing and is basically the same as using the Editor.

Amount
This is the total amount of money for the transaction. Positive and negative amounts can
easily be distinguished by the “+” and “-” signs and green or red colors.

Explaining Day Balance Headers
When you select the “Date” column in a Transactions List in iFinance's Viewer, you will
see tiny horizontal rows inserted between some of the transactions. Looking closer, you
may have already guessed that these rows separate transactions into blocks of calendar
days. Such headers only appear when sorting the Transactions List by date.

Every such row is a “Day Balance Header”, with all transactions belonging to that day
appearing immediately below. In this example, the balance rose from -1,756.43 to +
8,099.69 €.

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Using iFinance 3

Day Balance
The selected account's balance at the end of that particular day.

Trend indicator
This is an arrow, indicating if your account balance has been going up or down or
remained unchanged, if compared with the previous day balance.

Sorting Items In The Viewer
By clicking any of the column headers, the corresponding column is activated, telling
iFinance to sort all entries in the Transaction List by that criteria. E.g., click on “Date” to
sort all transactions chronologically.

Once a column has been activated and the Transactions List sorted
accordingly, clicking the same column title again inverts the sort order from
ascending to descending, or vice versa.

Creating And Editing Transactions
All transactions use the same basic template which appears in the Editor, after clicking the
“+” button underneath the Transactions List in the Viewer.

Transactions have a number of different attributes. Depending on the speciﬁc transaction
type, certain attributes may only become available contextually:

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Using iFinance 3

Title
As with the “Comment” you should use this field to enter some descriptive text, making it
easier for you to search for and understand the purpose or context of a transaction.

You are free to use either Title or Comment in any way you like, but it is probably a good
idea, using one of both fields for the textual information accompanying the written/digital

Picture
You can assign a picture to a transaction by dragging and dropping an image from the
finder or the desktop onto the marked area. After you assigned a picture, double-clicking
will enlarge it.

Date
Open our “Date Picker” to quickly enter a date, by clicking on the tiny calendar icon next
to the date field.

Amount
This is the total amount of money for the transaction. Positive and negative amounts can
easily be distinguished by the plus and minus buttons and green or red colors.

If a given transaction has a positive value defined for “Amount”, the account you currently
work on “receives” this amount, you may be “earning” some money. Mostly this will be any
form of income like your salary or a pay check for any service you provide. Of course, it
can also be the payment you receive for that comic book collection or old car you just
sold.

In the case of a negative value, the amount is “moved away” from the active account: You
are most likely “spending” money, i.e. purchasing something or paying your rent.

You can quickly toggle between positive and negative amounts for a
transaction by clicking on the “+” or “-” button in front of the amount.

Exchange Rate
Transfers between accounts with different currencies need to be converted with the most
recent exchange rate between those currencies. Consequently, this attribute is only
available for the transaction type “Transfer” between oneʼs accounts with different
currencies. The Exchange rate is set in the target accountʼs settings for a specific transfer
after it is saved.

Using the reverse arrow button to the right, you can easily invert the exchange rate to
correctly consider the direction of the conversion to apply to the transferred amount.

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Using iFinance 3

Please see “Working with multiple currencies” for more details.

Check Number
This helps you keep track of your checks by their reference numbers.

Category
Please select the appropriate Category for the transaction from the menu accesible via
this pop-up button. You may also choose “No Category” if you prefer to not assign this
transaction no specific category (yet).

Choosing “Add Categories …” opens the Categories Window, where you may add a new
category or subcategory specifically for this item or manage your categories altogether.

Beneficiary/Account Of
Please enter the name or the account number of a person or entity as the target
(Beneficiary) or source (Account Of) for a particular transaction into this field.

Changing the signing of the transaction amount toggles “Beneficiary” and “Account Of”,
respectively. Clicking on the “+” or “-” sign in front of the amount has the same effect.

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Using iFinance 3

Comment
As with the “Title”, you should use this field to enter some descriptive text, making it easier
for you to search for and understand the purpose or context of a transaction.

You are free to use either Title or Comment in any way you like, but it is probably a good
idea, using one of both fields for the textual information accompanying the written/digital

Tags
Tags let you assign key words to a transaction. These are searchable so that if you use
tags extensively, youʼll be able to selectively find all your expenses for organic white
chocolate in a snap.

To create any of the special transaction types below, you must activate certain options in
the Editor's standard transaction template. These options can be combined, e.g. to define
even a rather exotic “Recurring Split Transfer”:

Repeat/End
Using these two drop-down buttons you change any transaction into a recurring one by
defining an interval (”Repeat”) and an (optional) “End” date. iFinance uses the date of the
original transaction you've just been working on as the start date.

Split This Transaction
This gray button is somewhat special: activating it for a given transaction moves a small
list into sight. The “Split Details” list.

Using the “+” and “-” button underneath, you add items to the list. Each of these items has
some attributes of its own:

✓ Title

✓ Amount

✓ Category

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Using iFinance 3

Think of Split Details as of single “positions”, constituting, for example, a purchase where
you acquire more than one item with your payment. Just like an invoice or purchase
receipt, it holds multiple individual articles you bought during the same purchase.

While you can use this list to completely break down all purchase receipts and invoices
into their single positions, this feature is meant rather for convenience than to add another
layer of complexity:

Imagine having purchased a new laptop plus a number of CDs or DVDs from your local
electronics store. You certainly want to correctly track this laptop as belonging to the
category “Computer”, while music and movies are filed under “Entertainment” or “Media”.
Split transactions are what you need. And this is where you access them.

So, just click the gray button, add at least the new laptop to the list, define its purchase
price under “Amount” and select the appropriate “Category” — that's it. Date, amount and
other attributes for the original transaction remain unchanged, regardless of items you
define in this list.

Once a split with at least one item is defined, you will see three things change for this
transaction:

The tiny bubble in the gray button changes its color to green.

Also, representing the categories assigned to item(s) under Split Details, you will see the
“Category” indicator in the Viewer change its appearance too: It looks much like a pie
chart now, representing the percentage each category holds of the total amount for this
particular transaction.

Accessing the Split Details is as simple as clicking the gray button with your mouse.
Hiding it works just the same, and you will not lose any of the edits if you choose to hide
the list of items once you're done editing the individual items of this split transaction.

Splits can consist of a mix of positive and negative items. E.g., you may have received a
rebate or refund on the invoice which also holds your latest purchase. To create a single
item with a negative value, just enter “-” in front of the value for “Amount” under Split
Details. If you change the amount for the entire split transaction in the main Editor, by
simply clicking on the “+” or “-” icon in front of the “Amount” field, the signing of all
individual items defined in the Split Details list, will simply be inverted.

Transfer
Activate this option, and the field “Beneficiary”/”Account Of” changes to a pop-up button,
allowing you to choose from any of the accounts in the database.

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Using iFinance 3

If a given transaction has a positive amount deﬁned, activating “Transfer” means that on
this occasion, money is “retrieved” from another account within your iFinance database. If
the value is negative, the money is “deposited” on the target account. Changing the
signing of the transaction amount also toggles “Beneﬁciary” and “Account Of”,
respectively. Clicking on the “+” or “-” sign in front of the amount has the same effect.

Supported Transaction Types
iFinance supports the following types of real-life transactions. While you add and edit
them in mostly the same way, it is important to understand their purpose:

(Simple) Transactions
These are the basic transactions, just like for instance a receipt from the grocery store or
pharmacist with only grocery or medicine items on them, respectively.

Recurring Transactions
Transactions occurring repeatedly over time, while maintaining all their attributes
unchanged can be scheduled , so that iFinance automatically creates such entries at
given intervals.

Split Transactions
With Split Transactions you can assign partial amounts within one Transaction in order to
assign partial value to different categories.

Transfers
Transactions between two accounts in your iFinance database are called “Transfers”.
Combinations of the various transaction types above are also fully supported:

Recurring Split Transactions
iFinance supports Split Transactions that are periodically recurring.

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Using iFinance 3

Recurring Transfers
If you pay your regularly occurring cable provider bill with your credit card, the Recurring
Transfers has you covered.

Split Transfers
In order to keep track of category assignment for partial amounts within a credit card
payment, youʼll need Split Transfers

Recurring Split Transfers
Letʼs say you use the ATM every friday to get the same amount of cash you then spend
on a burger, bowling and the bus ride. Well, guess what, you can track those expenses
with iFinance.

Categories & Subcategories
iFinance features a powerful mechanism to sort and structure your data: “Categories”.

Categories are like smart, multicolor labels which you use to indicate that a specific item
belongs to a specific set of other items. E.g., you will use categories to aggregate
expenses for specific projects, maintenance costs as well as insurance and tax payments
for your car, money you spend for food and other more basic needs — grouping all
transactions for these “Categories” in neat sets, across accounts and easily identifiable.

Select the appropriate Category for each transaction from the dropdown list.

The Categories Window
Open the Categories Window from either iFinance's “Window→Categories Window” menu
or by clicking the multicolor “Categories” button in the Bottom Bar of iFinance's main
window.

The Categories window allows you to change colors for categories, add or delete
categories and assign keywords to categories. Keywords will be recognized when using
the “automatically assign categories to selected transaction” button:

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Using iFinance 3

Using categories
Also, for each item, select the appropriate category or subcategory from a menu
accessible via the “Category” pop-up button in the Editor. If you prefer not to assign a
specific category (yet) to a given item, simply choose “No Category”.

Once you assign a category to any item, its Category Indicator in the Transaction List, as
well as in other instances in the application, takes the color you specified for the category.
Specifying a color is as easy as clicking on a category's color patch in the Categories
Window.

Category Indicators are solid bubbles, matching the color definition for the specific
category. If an item has not been assigned a category, you will see a glass-like,
transparent bubble instead.

Split Transactions
Optionally, for “Split Transactions”, category indicators may appear as “Pie Charts”, with
slices of different colors, representing the categories assigned to each individual item of
which a split transaction consists or as written text. Please see the iFinance Preferences
to change this behavior.

Merge sub-category with super-category
Letʼs say youʼd like to consolidate all mobile phone and cable phone bills into “Phone”
instead of assigning the more detailed sub-categories. Select the sub-category in the
“Categories” window and click the merge button:

All keywords will be merged and all transactions formerly separated are assigned the
super-category “Phone”.

Tags
Simply put, try to use tags to avoid creating a myriad of different categories for each and
every purpose. This helps identify certain transactions and makes them more easily
manageable.

Additionally, iFinance can filter your database for tags during automatic categorization, as
well as when generating charts. This makes categories and tags a very powerful
combination for analytical purposes. Remember the organic white chocolate from earlier?

Tags are consecutive strings of characters. I.e., they can be any word, number or
combination of characters you like.

To separate one tag from another, simply type a “blank” or “space” character with your
keyboard.

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Using iFinance 3

Tags are self-contained: they cannot interfere with any other occurrence of the same
string anywhere else in the database. If iFinance filters for tags, it only filters for strings in
the “Tags” fields of database items. If there are ambiguities, it will be because you used
the same expression in different or conflicting contexts.

Automatic Categorization
Whenever you click an account in the Organizer, in the Contextual Toolbar of the Viewer,
the second button from the right invokes iFinance's “Automatic Categorization” feature.

Select one or multiple transactions in the Transactions List for this button to become
available.

iFinance analyzes the selected entries for information matching existing transaction-
category pairs and keywords you defined in the Categories Window.

Searching Transactions
If you assigned Tags to Transactions, simply click the magnifying glass button and enter
the word youʼre looking for. iFinance immediately starts to filter through your Transactions
and displays all results containing said word.

Search for phrases (multiple words in a given order) by enclosing them in quotes. If you
search for “Mac mini”, your results will show just the Mac mini you bought, not the new
180 horsepower gem in your garage.

You may find this topic a little dry now, but wait until you entered your first few thousand
transactions over the first five years. So youʼre looking for that receipt for the RAM you
bought six months ago and which youʼre about to have replaced? You may thank us, but
you will definitely thank yourself for entering “RAM” as a tag.

Working with Multiple Currencies
iFinance replicates the way banks handle foreign currencies:

✓ Each account has a single currency assigned to it.

✓ Moving money between two of your own accounts is called a transfer

✓ You need the exchange rate at the date when the transfer took place.

Jump back and forth between source and target accounts
When you add a transfer, an arrow will appear in the transaction list. Click this arrow to
quickly access the counter entry on the target account. The exchange rate applied to the
transfer is always kept on the target account as it directly influences the resulting amount
in the target accountʼs currency.

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Using iFinance 3

Letʼs say you transfer money from an account in Europe to a U.S. account but all you
have is the Dollar amount. Klick the arrow button in the transaction list and enter the
Dollar amount in the target account editor. iFinance will automatically calculate the Euro
amount and enter it in the source account.

Exchange rates
iFinance can always just determine the current exchange rate. While (historical) exchange
rates are available on the Internet, they are actually different from one bank to another.
The exchange rate applied to each transfer will however appear on your bank statement.

When creating a foreign-currency transfer, you will need to enter the exchange rate into
the special attribute field “Exchange Rate”. By default, iFinance pre-fills that field with the
current factor downloaded from the internet.

This field is only available for the transaction type “Transfer” between accounts with
different currencies.

Using the reverse arrow button to the right, you can easily invert the exchange rate. Did
you incidentally enter the Dollar amount in Euros or vice versa? No problem, this button
will apply the exchange rate for you.

Apart from the standard exchange rate in effect at a given moment, additional fees apply,
for the transfer and conversion between accounts with different currencies. This fee is
usually processed independently and your account will be charged with this fee in a
separate transaction. Make sure to create entries for these fees to keep your account
balance in sync.

✓ If you change an existing transfer amount on the source account, iFinance will
assume the amount on the target account is entered correctly and will adjust the
exchange rate automatically.

✓ Likewise, if you adjust the existing amount on the target account, only the exchange
rate is adjusted accordingly.

Caution!
Amounts from foreign currency accounts, as well as foreign stocks appear
rounded in the total funds.

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Using iFinance 3

Reconciling
iFinance allows you to tag transactions as either open, pending or cleared. By default,
youʼll find a red cross next to the Check Number field, labeling the transaction “open”.
Click this cross in order to change the transactionʼs status:

In order to activate the Reconciling view,

1. click “Reconcile” in the Contextual Toolbar.
2. Then click the plus button to create a new reconciling period.
3. Specify the period to display.
4. All transactions outside that period will not be displayed in the Viewerʼs results.
5. Apply filtering if practical. Clicking the red cross button, for example, will hide all
transactions labeled “open”.

6. Now enter the start balance and closing balance for this period and youʼre ready to
start.
7. Select a transaction from the Viewerʼs list, check the entry and then adjust its status
via the status selector to the right of the Closing Balance field if applicable.
8. Repeat the steps to clear each transaction in your list.

Smart definition of reconciling periods
Starting with version 3.2, iFinance comes with a smart add-button. Letʼs say you set up a
reconciling period “month of May”. Select it in the list and click the center button:

iFinance automatically adds the most likely candidate, “month of June”. This way, adding
such time frame can be achieved with merely one click.

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Tracking your stocks

Stock Items And Purchases
In chapter 6 we saw how to add items to the “Stocks” section of iFinance's Organizer.
Adding your own portfolio to the database is very straightforward.

Selecting a stock item in the Organizer changes the Viewer on the right to a chart,
displaying the more recent trend of the current stock's value per share. This graph
indicates the market performance of the particular stock, not your personal portfolio's
performance.

Directly below the chart is the “Portfolio List”, empty if you did not add any data yourself
yet.

Example C: Working with the stock portfolio
Assuming you purchased some 1,000 shares of Apple stock (back then still “Apple
Computer Inc.”) back on December 28, 1997 at the then low price of $13.31 US Dollars,
you have really cut an excellent deal by now. Let's go ahead and enter this stocks
purchase into iFinance's database:

1. Click the “+” button below the Portfolio List. A new list item appears.
2. Enter “12/28/97” or “12/28/1997”, iFinance automatically formats the date
accordingly.
3. Enter the “Quantity” you purchased of the Apple stock: “1000”
4. Enter the price you paid per share: “13.31”

65


5. Repeat steps 1 to 4 for a purchase of e.g. another 1,000 shares on April 19, 2003, at
the price of $13.12 US Dollars per share.
6. Now, out of curiosity, take a look at the Organizer to the left:

As of May 13, 2009, this amounted to about $196,000.00 US Dollars. More information is
available in the Info Display in iFinance's Title Bar:

Rate
The price one of the company's shares is currently traded at.

Stock Value
The total value of Apple stock you own.

Profit
The total profit, calculated from the total amount spent purchasing the selected stock

Accessing Basic Settings For Stocks
There are four ways to re-open this settings dialog:

✓ “i” Button in the Bottom Bar

✓ “Stock Settings …” in the “Stocks” menu in the Menu Bar which appears whenever
you select a Stock in the Organizer

✓ “Edit Stock Settings …” contextual menu

✓ Right-click, CTRL-click with your mouse on the stock you want to edit.

✓ Names And Symbols

Each stock must be defined by such a generic “Name” and a unique “Symbol”. The
names are freely definable to best describe each stock to yourself. Symbols are unique,
but there may be more than one symbol for a given company:

Symbols are issued by the stock trading institutions of the national and international stock
markets, such as the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange in New York/U.S.A.) or the DAX
(maintained by the “Deutsche Börse” in Frankfurt/Main, Germany). So, if a company's
shares are traded at more than one market place in the world, every such place has a
unique identifier for the share.

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Finding Stock Items On The Internet
If you hold shares in a publicly-traded company, you will know the symbol required to
search for. But, if you want to track certain stocks and are unsure about which symbol to
use in this settings dialog, simply use the search field to enter the company's name and
click “Search”. Your Web browser then opens with a list of search results from Yahoo,
which is the service iFinance uses to query stock market information.

Configuring The Stocks Performance Chart
Just as before with accounts, underneath the Viewer showing the Stocks Performance
Chart and Portfolio List is the Editor. In the case of Stocks, the Editor allows to further
define how the Stocks Performance Chart works.

The Editor offers the following set of tools:

Date Range
“From” and “To” are two date fields to define a date range to consider for the Stocks
Performance Chart. Either type into the fields directly, or choose the appropriate dates
from the Date Picker, accessible via two small calendar icons next to each date field.
These settings are only available, if the “Period” option below is set to “Manually”.

Today Button
When defining a date range, click this button, and iFinance automatically sets the current
date as the end date for the range.

Period Button
Click this pop-up button to choose from the following options:

✓ Week

✓ Month

✓ Quarter

✓ Year

✓ Manual

Activating one of these options, tells iFinance to automatically consider fixed periods for
the Stocks Performance Chart. Select “Manually” to access the Date Range setting
described above.

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Summary
An information summary for a selected stock appears below the various options in the
Editor. This is the same data shown in the Info Display in the iFinance main window's Title
Bar.

Please refer to “Charts” for more information.

How to automatically refocus on the current date
The “Keep Focus Current” switch is available in the Editor portion for Stock Performance
Charts, Budgets and Charts in general.

This tiny round switch looks much like the “Skip” button on your CD or DVD player. Click it
to toggle between active and inactive state. While active, the symbols are light-green and
the switch is dark.

This feature makes a given chart refocus on the current date, while at the same time
preserving whatever date range or period had already been deﬁned. To this extent, it
resembles the “Until Today” and “Today” buttons.

Once this switch is set for a given context, iFinance automatically retrieves or recalculates
its data to the most current state, always — even after you quit and restart the application.

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Working with budgets

Except for the budget name, budgets are configured entirely from the Editor.

A newly-created budget defaults to all accounts and all categories selected. This way, you
get a complete overview of your financial situation and start defining the cutout that serves
you best keeping control over your expenses/income or profit/loss.

Example D: Budget “Groceries”
Step 1 — Create A New Budget
Add a new budget to the database by clicking the “+” button underneath the Organizer.
Select “New Budget …”. In the settings sheet is only one option: Please name this budget
“Groceries”.

Step 2 — Basic Budget Settings
The default limit of 200 € is a little tight for an entire month, but you also travel quite
frequently for your job, eating out and living off less healthy snacks and fast food. Apart
from thinking of changing this bad habit, letʼs say you want to plan your groceries budget
on a weekly basis — tricking yourself into purchasing smaller quantities means less food
going bad over the time of a trip.

So please enter “75” into the field “Amount” and change the “Period” to “Week”. The
Period pop-up button also allows to “Manually” define your very own time span for this
budget. And, if you rather live on preserves, frozen and instant stuff, you may even go for
“Year”.

Please also change the “Warning” to something a little earlier than “Late”, probably drag
the slider to the center of the scale, so that you won't receive a message when returning
with the second 60 € purchase for a week — but already after the first.

Detailed view for split transactions
This switch should be left on by default, so that you will actually see all relevant
transactions.

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Working with budgets

Step 3 — Define Filters For Relevant Transactions
Look for those three gray buttons in the right portion of the Editor. You may still remember
the one “Split Transaction” button described before. These buttons behave exactly the
same:

Accounts
Clicking on the gray “Accounts” button brings about a list of all accounts within your
database. Choose the accounts iFinance should consider for your groceries purchases. If
you regularly use even your credit card when shopping for milk or coffee, then it may be a
good idea to leave all accounts activated.

Tags
If you regularly tag purchase receipts you enter into iFinance as “Groceries”, “Kitchen
Supplies”, “Dinner Stuff” or “Veggies” etc. — using tags could be handy.

Make sure you enter the appropriate tags into the field below:

Tags are consecutive strings of characters. I.e., they can be any word, number or
combination of characters you like. To separate one tag from another, simply type a blank.

For this example, please enter these tags (separated by single blank spaces):

✓ coffee

✓ milk

✓ veggies

✓ fruit

✓ cereals

All tags required to match
This switch defines whether all tags or at least one tag is required for a transaction to be
included in this budget. You could add a tag to each transaction relating to spendings
while away, for example “on the go”. Spare that tag for groceries near home and easily
get a better idea of how much you spend during lunch break or while abroad.

For the sake of this tutorial, letʼs leave this option de-activated.

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