How balances are calculated
This is the page to read if a number ever surprises you.
AI Money shows two families of figures, and they are not supposed to agree with each other. Once you can tell them apart, every screen in the app becomes predictable.
Stock and flow
A balance is a stock. It is everything that ever happened to an account, from the day it opened until right now. It ignores the date range on screen, because "how much do I have" has nothing to do with which month you are looking at.
A flow is income minus expenses for the period and filters you selected. Reports, budgets and the income and expense cards on your home screen are all flows.
A balance and a monthly flow that differ is normal, not a bug. Two flows with the same filters that differ, or the same account showing two balances on two screens, is a bug. Report it.
The balances, precisely
| Figure | What it is |
|---|---|
| Account balance | Its opening balance plus every transaction of that account, including transfers and adjustments. |
| Available | Your liquid money: everything except savings pockets and debt accounts. |
| Balance and savings | Available plus everything in your savings pockets. This is the big number at the top of Transactions and the default balance card on Home. |
Those three are consistent by construction: Balance and savings, minus savings, equals Available. If that subtraction ever fails on your screen, something is wrong and we want to know.
The same rule applies to the home screen widget on your phone. It shows the same total and its two components underneath, formatted by the same code as the app. Three figures that do not add up there is the same bug as three that do not add up inside.
What counts as an expense or income
A flow only counts real money moving in or out. Four kinds of rows move balances but never appear in your income or expenses:
- Opening balances. Registering an account with money already in it is not income. It is where the account starts.
- Balance adjustments. Reconciling with your bank corrects a balance. It does not mean you earned or spent anything that day.
- Transfer legs. Moving money from one account to another leaves you exactly as rich as before. Both legs cancel out.
- Savings and shared fund legs. Putting money into a pocket is moving it, not spending it. Savings have their own card, Total saved, so the money is visible without being counted twice.
Debt accounts are also outside your net worth figures. They live in their own module, with their own totals.
The one exception, and why it exists
There is a single case where a transfer does count: when its two legs land in different currency worlds and you are looking at only one of them.
If you get paid in Argentine pesos and spend in Colombian pesos, the transfer between those accounts has one leg in each world. Looking at the peso world alone, the money genuinely arrived. Treating that leg as neutral left the world with all the expenses and none of the income that paid for them, and the period balance stayed negative forever.
So the rule is about scope, not currencies: a leg counts as flow when its sibling falls outside the view you are looking at. Same currency, both legs inside, neutral. Different currencies with the converted lens on, both inside again, neutral again.
Where each figure lives
- Home: the balance card, the accounts carousel, income and expenses for the period.
- Transactions: the header shows Balance and savings with no filters. Select categories and it switches to the flow of what you filtered. Select one account and it shows that account's balance. On the Savings tab it shows total saved.
- Reports: total balance, income and expenses for the period, all flows.
The home cards and the Transactions carousel read the same source, so an account shows the same balance in both. Reports and the home income and expense widgets are flows, so with the same period they must match each other.
Checking it yourself
If something looks off, do this in order:
- Clear the date filter. A flow with a filter is not a balance.
- Check whether the figure includes savings. Available and Balance and savings are both correct and they are different numbers.
- Check the currency lens. With several currencies the app shows one world at a time unless you turn on Balance with all currencies. See Multiple currencies.
- Look for hidden opening balances with Include opening balances in the filter sheet. They are hidden by design, and they always count towards the account balance whether you see them or not.
If after that a balance still disagrees with itself across two screens, write to servicios@cuentate.com with the two screenshots. That class of bug gets priority.