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Your first ten minutes

From a fresh install to your first Sankey chart.

Last updated: April 16, 2026

This page takes you from a freshly installed PennyBolt to a chart of your own spending. It takes about ten minutes and uses one file you already have: a recent download from your bank.

flowchart LR
  A[Open PennyBolt] --> B[Create your file]
  B --> C[Add one account]
  C --> D[Import a bank download]
  D --> E[Open the Sankey report]

The five steps of your first ten minutes.

What you need

  • PennyBolt installed. If it isn’t, see Install PennyBolt .
  • One file downloaded from your bank’s website, in OFX or QFX format. Most banks offer this under a name like “Download transactions,” “Export to Quicken,” or “Download for Money/Quicken.” A single month is plenty.

If you don’t have a bank download handy, stop here and get one. The rest of the page assumes you have it.

1. Open PennyBolt and create your file

Open PennyBolt. On first launch, it asks where to keep your PennyBolt file. Choose a folder you back up — your Documents folder, iCloud Drive, Dropbox, anywhere you trust. Name the file anything you like; finances.pb is a good default.

Everything PennyBolt knows about your money will live inside this one file. You can move it, copy it, or back it up like any other file.

2. Add your first account

Click Add account. Fill in three things:

  • A nickname you’ll recognize — “Chase Checking,” not “Checking Account 4821.”
  • The account type — checking, savings, credit card, and so on.
  • The opening balance — the balance as of the oldest date you plan to import. If you’re importing the last month, use the balance at the start of that month.

If you don’t know the opening balance exactly, put your best guess. You can correct it after you import.

3. Import your bank download

Drag the OFX or QFX file onto the PennyBolt window, or use File → Import. PennyBolt opens a preview.

The preview shows every transaction in the file with a proposed payee and category. Nothing has been saved yet. Look for three things:

  • Payees read like real merchants. “SQ *BLUE BOTTLE” should have become “Blue Bottle Coffee.” If any look wrong, you can fix them after the import — don’t fix them here.
  • Categories look reasonable. On a first import, many transactions will show “Uncategorized.” That’s expected and fine.
  • The transaction count matches. If your bank says you had 42 transactions in May and the preview shows 42, the import is complete.

Click Import. Your transactions are now in your file.

4. Look at your register

Click the account in the sidebar. You’re looking at the register — a row per transaction, running balance on the right. This is where you’ll spend most of your time in PennyBolt.

Scan the list. Does the running balance match your bank’s balance as of the latest transaction? If yes, your import is clean. If no, see Reconciling with your bank — the difference is almost always a missing opening balance or a missing transaction.

5. Open the Sankey report

Click Reports → Sankey flow. You’re looking at the first real picture of your spending.

flowchart LR
  I[Income] --> T[Total spending]
  T --> G[Groceries]
  T --> R[Rent]
  T --> D[Dining]
  T --> S[Subscriptions]
  T --> U[Uncategorized]

A Sankey chart traces every dollar from income on the left to category on the right. Thicker bands are bigger flows.

On a first import, expect a large “Uncategorized” band. That’s the chart telling you where to look next.

What’s next

You have a working PennyBolt file with one account. From here:

See also