Expense Tablet FAQ
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How does this app work?
Expense Tablet's main function is to track your monthly spending. It does this by allowing you to crease expense records that are associated with a particular category and account. You can also define monthly budgets for each category and account. The app will keep track of your total expenses per month, total expenses per category and account, and the used and available funds in all of your budgets. You can also enter income items; the app keeps a running balance (i.e. income minus expenses) across all months for each of your accounts.

How do I set up the app the first time I use it?
The first thing you will want to do is set up the categories and accounts to match your own needs. You can edit or delete any of the default categories and accounts by tapping on the Edit button that appears in the right pane after selecting a particular account or category. You can edit the name, default and current budgets, and set whether to use the account or category as the default for new expense records. You can also create new accounts and categories using the New button that appears in the left pane. Once your categories and accounts are set up, you can use the plus sign on the top left to start adding expense (or income) records.

How do I create a new account or category?
To add a new account, switch to the Accounts view and tap the New button near the bottom center, and enter the appropriate details (see the questions about Default and Current Budgets and the Use as Default option.) When you are satisfied with your settings, tap Save to create the new item, or tap Cancel to discard it. To add a new category, switch to the Categories view and use the same procedure as for accounts.

How do I edit or delete an account or category?
To edit or delete an account or category, select the desired account or category from the appropriate list and tap the Edit button that appears near the bottom middle. The view will switch to editing mode and you can change any of the account or categories settings. Tap the Done button to save your changes or Cancel to discard them. You can also tap the Delete button to permanently remove the category and all of the expenses it contains.

How do I create a new expense?
To create a new expense, tap the plus sign in the top left corner of the app. A new view will appear where you can enter the amount, name, and date of the item as well as associate it with an account and category. You can also switch the type of the item from an expense to income. When you are done entering the info, tap Save to create the new item or Cancel to discard it.

How do I delete or edit an expense?
To edit or delete an expense (or income) item, tap on the item's row in the list that it appears in (i.e. while viewing an account or category, or while in Overview mode). A screen with the item's details will appear and allow you to edit any of its information. Tap Done to save your changes. You can also tap the Delete button that appears on this screen to permanently remove the item. You can also finger swipe the item's row in the list that it appears in to display a Delete button that will also remove the item when tapped.

How do I set the budget for an account or category?
To set the budget, follow the instructions for editing an account or category. You can change the current or default budget while in editing mode.

What is the difference between Default Budget and Current Budget?
The Default Budget for a given category or account is the amount that it will set as your budget for any month that you haven't set a different Current Budget for. The Current Budget setting allows you to override the Default Budget for a particular month. Every category and account has its own Default and Current Budget setting.

What does Use as Default mean in an account's or category's settings?
Use as Default means that this category or account will be the default for new expenses that you create while not viewing any particular category or account, respectively. For example, if your Groceries category is set as the default and you are currently viewing the Entertainment category in the app, a new expense that you create will have its category set to Entertainment by default because that is the category you are viewing. However, if you were viewing the Checking account and created a new expense, the Use as Default category setting would determine that this new expense would have Groceries as its default category. If you are in the Overview view when you create a new expense, both the category and account that have their Use as Default setting turned on will be used by the new expense by default. You can always edit the category and account that a new expense uses regardless of the default settings.

Why don't my income items add to my budgets?
By default, income items in a particular account or category do not affect how much of their budgets are remaining. If you have $200 of a $300 budget remaining in the Groceries category and you create a $50 income item in that category, you will still have $200 remaining. If you want income to add to the budget, you can turn it on via the Settings menu, accessed via the gear icon in the lower right corner of the app. Tap the gears icon, then Budgets, and then turn on Add Income to Available Funds. This can be turned on or off for both all categories and all accounts, but not individual categories or accounts.

Can I import or export my expense data?
Importing and exporting are not currently supported, but will be soon. Support for exporting to Numbers for iPad documents will probably be included.

Can I back up my data?
Backing up and restoring data is not currently supported directly by the app, however iTunes does back up your app data when synced with a device. We will be adding our own support for backing up and restoring via iTunes file management in the near future.

Can I set up recurring bills or income?
Recurring items are not currently supported but will be soon.

How do I switch to a different currency?
The app uses your device's region format settings to determine the appropriate currency symbol to use. To change the region format, open the main Settings app and go to General -> International -> Region Format and select the appropriate region. Note that this will affect the way dates/times/currency is displayed in most of your apps. We will be adding support for setting the currency independently of the device's settings in the future.