Accounts
All your accounts, cards and cash, with their real balance and their role in the forecast
What they're for
An account in Cuéntamo is any place where you have money. Your salary arrives in one, the mortgage goes out from another, the credit card charges at the end of the month, there's €50 in your wallet and another €3,000 in a fund. Cuéntamo needs to know where every euro is so it can tell you how much you have and how much you'll have.
The six types
- Checking — Your bank account. Where the salary comes in and the direct debits go out.
- Savings — Savings accounts, deposits, fixed-term accounts.
- Credit card — With billing cycle and automatic charge. Cuéntamo automatically calculates what you'll pay at the end of the month (see below).
- Cash — Your wallet, the envelope in the drawer, what you carry on you.
- Investment — Funds, stocks, pension plans, crypto.
- Other — Anything that doesn't fit. A piggy bank, a loan to a friend, whatever.
The initial balance
When you create an account, you enter the balance it has today. That's the starting point. From there, every movement you add will add to or subtract from that figure.
Example: today your bank account has €2,450. You set that as the initial balance. Tomorrow you confirm a €60 grocery expense: balance goes to €2,390. The day after, your €1,700 salary: balance €4,090. It's that simple.
If you later discover you got the initial balance wrong, you can correct it when editing the account. Everything is recalculated automatically.
Credit cards: what makes them different
A credit card isn't a regular account: you spend during the month and at the end of the cycle the bank charges the total to your current account. Cuéntamo handles this automatically.
Set up three things when you create one:
- Cycle start day: when the period begins (e.g. the 26th of each month).
- Charge day: when the bank charges you (e.g. the 5th of the following month).
- Charge account: your current account.
Result: you log your card purchases as normal expenses. Cuéntamo totals the cycle and generates a forecast charge on your current account for the 5th. When the real charge arrives, you confirm it. The forecast already had that expense covered.
How the account is treated in reports
When you edit an account you pick its role in reports. There are three options, and in all of them the account balance still counts towards your total balance and net worth:
- Normal account: its movements count as income and expenses in reports, and its balance is part of the Forecast. The usual choice.
- Auxiliary account: out of the Forecast (no chart, no negative-balance alerts), but its movements still count as income/expense in the donuts and analysis. Handy for an investment account, cash, or an account in another currency that you don't want swinging your day-to-day forecast.
- Debt / reimbursement account: neither in the Forecast nor in income/expense reports. For a ledger account where you track what you're owed or owe: its balance counts towards your net worth, but its movements never show up as income or expense in any donut, summary or table.
Accounts in another currency
Each account can be in a different currency. If you have a USD account for international freelance work, set it up that way and movements are stored in dollars. Conversion to your base currency is done automatically at the day's exchange rate for totals and net worth.
Tips
- Create a "Cash" account even if it's small. It's the only way for cash expenses to show up in your analyses.
- If you share an account with your partner, you have two options: share the entire book (both see and edit everything) or use connected accounts (each has their own independent book and the shared account's movements sync between the two). Either saves you duplicating movements manually.
- For loans to friends: "Other" type account with the loan balance. When they pay you back, transfer to your current account.
- Inactive accounts aren't deleted: deactivate them. The history stays and you can check it anytime.
The Accounts screen is Cuéntamo's starting point. Here you record every place where you have (or owe) money: your bank account, your credit card, the cash in the drawer, an investment account… Each account stores its balance, and the sum of them all is the basis for three things: your total balance, your net worth and the balance forecast.
You don't need to add them all on day one: start with your main account and your card, and add the rest as you go. Accounts are shown as cards in a grid; you can reorder them by dragging, and that order is respected across the whole app (net-worth breakdown, account pickers, and so on).
Creating an account
Click “+ New account” at the top right. The form opens (detailed below). When you save, the account appears in the grid with its initial balance.
If you are the owner of the account book, next to the button there is an arrow that reveals “New connected account” (a Cuéntamo Más feature): it lets you share the same account with another person or with another of your books. See Connected accounts.
The form, field by field
Name. How you recognise it (for example “BBVA salary”, “Amazon card”, “Cash”).
Type. Choose from seven:
- Checking: your day-to-day account.
- Savings: where you set money aside.
- Credit card: unlocks the billing cycle section (below).
- Cash: physical money.
- Investment: a broker or similar account (its cash counts as investment in net worth).
- Virtual: a “helper” account that isn't a real bank account; handy for organising without touching your banks.
- Other: anything else.
Balance. When creating, you enter the initial balance: the money in that account today. It's the starting point on top of which movements are added. When editing, a “Current balance / Initial balance” toggle appears:
- Current balance = initial balance + all real movements. It's what you have right now.
- Initial balance = the starting point. If you change it, Cuéntamo recalculates the current one (initial + movements).
Currency. Your book's currency by default. With Cuéntamo Más you can pick another (USD, GBP, etc.) for foreign-currency accounts; net worth converts them to your base currency.
Colour. A colour stripe that identifies the account in lists and movements.
External reference. The IBAN, last digits or card number. It lets statement imports automatically recognise which account each file belongs to.
The account role (Normal / Auxiliary / Debts)
This selector decides how the account takes part in your reports and forecast. It's a ladder: in all three cases the balance always counts towards your total balance and net worth; what changes is the rest.
- Normal. The usual choice. It enters the balance forecast and its movements count as income/expense in reports.
- Auxiliary. It does not enter the forecast (for accounts you don't want to project), but its movements do count as income/expense.
- Debts and reimbursements. It does not enter the forecast and its movements do not count as income/expense (they are debt adjustments, not real spending). It's the “scratchpad” account for tracking what you owe or are owed.
In the list, a debts account shows a “Doesn't count as income/expense” marker instead of the forecast toggle.
Credit cards: the billing cycle
If the type is Credit card, a section appears to automate the monthly charge. Turn it on with the switch and fill in:
- Cycle start day: the day your billing cycle begins (1–28).
- Charge day: the day the bank debits the bill.
- Charge month: whether the charge falls in the same month the period ends or the next month.
- Charge account: the checking account the money comes from.
Based on your input, Cuéntamo shows a live example (“1 Mar to 31 Mar is charged on 5 Apr…”) so you can check you've understood your cycle. With this, Cuéntamo groups the period's spending and creates a forecast charge in the charge account, so the forecast adds up. When editing an existing card, the “Regenerate charges” button recomputes those charges if you change the settings.
Changing the balance of an account with movements
If you edit the current balance of an account that already has movements, Cuéntamo can't know the reason for the difference, so it asks how to reconcile it:
- Regularise (recommended): creates an adjustment movement for the difference (category “Other income” or “Miscellaneous” depending on the sign). It keeps your history intact and records the adjustment.
- Force: changes the initial balance so the current one adds up, without creating any movement. Useful if the starting balance was wrong.
If instead you edit the initial balance, it's set directly and the current one recalculates on its own; no dialog. To reconcile the balance on a specific date with certainty, use the reconciliation anchors from the movements list.
The account list
Each account is a card. At a glance you see its colour stripe, type, name and balance (red if negative). Clicking the name or the balance takes you straight to that account's movements. If it's a card with a configured cycle, a period summary is shown; if it's a connected account, it says “Connected with…”.
Below, the quick controls (only if you're not a read-only member):
- In forecast / Not in forecast: toggle to include the account in the balance projection or not (hidden for debts accounts).
- Auto-charge (cards): turns automatic charge generation on or off. If it isn't configured yet, it takes you to the form.
- Archive, edit and delete .
To reorder, drag the card by the grip icon . The order is saved and used across the app.
Equities and fixed income
If you use the investments module, this screen also shows two aggregated virtual cards: Equities (your positions at market value) and Fixed income (your active products: deposits, bills, bonds). Clicking them opens a visibility panel where you can include or exclude specific positions or products from that total. They only appear if you have capital invested.
Connected accounts (Cuéntamo Más)
A connected account is the same account shared between two books: both sides see its movements, each from their own book. There are two ways to create one from the “+” menu :
- Invite: you email another person so they connect their account with yours (e.g. a joint account with your partner).
- Connect with another of my books: you link two books you already own (for example, your personal book and your freelance one).
You set the account's name on each side and its currency. Invitations not yet accepted are listed below under “Pending”, with the email they were sent to and their expiry date.
Archiving and deleting
Archiving hides the account without losing anything: its movements and balance are kept, and the account moves to a collapsible “Archived” section at the end of the list. You can reactivate it whenever you want. It's the recommended option for accounts you no longer use but whose history you want to keep.
Deleting is permanent. If the account has no movements, it's removed directly. If it does, Cuéntamo asks you to type the account's exact name to confirm, because deleting it takes all its movements with it and can't be undone.