Core concepts

Shared vocabulary for how PennyBolt thinks about your money.

Six short pages. Read them once and the rest of the docs click into place. Every page here is five minutes or less.

If a word in another doc confuses you, check here first. The vocabulary is consistent across everything we write.

Pages in this section

• The PennyBolt file — your entire financial life in a single file you control, the way you own a Word document.
• Accounts — checking, savings, credit cards, cash, and when to use which.
• Transactions — the anatomy of a transaction row in the register.
• Categories — how we group where your money goes.
• Payees — why your bank’s garbled merchant name becomes something readable.
• Double-entry, in one page — the accounting discipline under the hood, explained once, never shown again.

• The PennyBolt file

  Your entire financial life, in a single file you control.

• Accounts

  Checking, savings, credit cards, and the rest — and when to use each.

• Transactions

  The anatomy of a transaction in PennyBolt.

• Categories

  How PennyBolt groups where your money goes.

• Payees

  Why your bank's garbled merchant name becomes something readable.

• Double-entry, in one page

  Why every transaction has two sides, and why you never have to see them.