Recurring items

A recurring item is the template for a movement that repeats: your salary each month, the rent, the gym fee, the electricity bill, a service's yearly subscription, a fixed transfer to your savings account… Instead of entering that movement over and over, you define the template once and Cuéntamo takes care of projecting it into the future.

That's the point of this screen: recurring items are the engine of your balance forecast. From each active template, Cuéntamo generates the forecast movements (the future, still-unconfirmed ones) up to a horizon of 24 months. That way the forecast chart knows how much will come in and go out, and when, without you having to anticipate anything.

You don't have to register them all on day one. Start with the big ones (salary, rent or mortgage, the fixed bills) and add the rest as you notice them missing from the forecast.

The screen at a glance

At the top you have the title, the search box and the filters; on the right, two buttons (unless you're a read-only member):

• Detect recurring items (the sparkles icon ): it scans your real movements and suggests recurring items you could create from repeating patterns. We cover it at the end.
• New : opens the form to create a template from scratch.

Below is the list of your recurring items. On wide screens it shows as a table; when there isn't enough width, it switches automatically to cards (one per item), handier on mobile. The information is the same in both formats.

Creating or editing a recurring item: the form

Both “New” and the edit pencil open the same form in a window. Let's go through it field by field. The first thing is to choose the type with the three buttons at the top, because it changes the rest of the fields:

• Expense: money going out (red).
• Income: money coming in (green).
• Transfer: moves money between two of your accounts in the same book (purple). When you choose it, the category, the freelance scope and the VAT disappear (a transfer is never income, expense or a freelance operation), and instead it asks for the destination account.

Concept. The movement's name (for example “Salary”, “Flat rent”, “Netflix”). It's required and is what you'll later see in the list and in every generated forecast.

Account. The account where the movement happens. In a transfer, this is the source account (the money comes out of it) and a second picker appears, the destination account, which must be different from the source.

Category. To classify the expense or income (optional). The picker only shows categories compatible with the chosen type. Transfers have no category.

Tags. The tags you want to attach. They'll be copied to every forecast movement the template generates, and you'll be able to filter by them both here and in the movements list.

Amount and frequency

Base amount. The figure, always positive (the sign comes from the type: expense subtracts, income adds). If you turn on per-month amounts (below), the label becomes “Base amount (when there's no monthly override)”: it's the value used for the months you leave un-customised.

Currency. Next to the amount there's a small currency picker. It defaults to the account's currency; with Cuéntamo Más you can pick another (for example a subscription in USD). If you pick a currency different from the account's, forecasts are generated converted to the account's currency at the day's exchange rate.

Frequency. How often it repeats. The options are:

• Daily: every day.
• Weekly: every 7 days.
• Fortnightly: every 14 days.
• Every 4 weeks: every 28 days (not the same as “monthly”: it drifts across the calendar).
• Monthly: the same day each month.
• Bimonthly: every 2 months.
• Quarterly: every 3 months.
• Annual: once a year.
• Custom…: you define the interval. An “every N” + unit appears (days, weeks, months or years). For example, “every 5 weeks” or “every 2 years”.

If the income belongs to the “Interest” category, an interest-rate helper also appears to work out the amount from a principal and an annual percentage, adjusting the frequency accordingly.

Per-month custom amounts

Many “fixed” expenses aren't so fixed: gas is dearer in winter, electricity varies, some bills go up in summer. That's what the “Variable amounts per month” checkbox is for, available on the monthly, bimonthly, quarterly frequencies and on the per-month custom one (it doesn't appear on daily, weekly, fortnightly, every-4-weeks or annual).

When you turn it on, a grid unfolds with the relevant months for the frequency (for example, a quarterly one shows only the four months it falls on). In each month you can type a different amount, always positive. Months you leave blank use the base amount. So, with a monthly gas item you set the usual figure as the base and only fill the winter months with the higher one.

Recurring items with per-month amounts are flagged in the list with a “Variable amount” label so you can spot them at a glance.

Start and end dates

Start date. The first day the recurring item counts. From there Cuéntamo works out all the future repetitions. It's required.

End date. Optional. If you leave it blank, the item is open-ended (projected up to the 24-month horizon and stays alive). Set it only when you know the repetition ends on a specific date: a loan with a final instalment, a subscription you cancel, a rental with a contract end. No more forecasts are generated after that date.

Personal or freelance scope, and VAT

If you have the freelance module active (and Cuéntamo Más), and it isn't a transfer, a scope selector appears:

• Personal: a normal movement of your household finances.
• Freelance: an income or expense of your business activity, which enters your record books and tax returns.

When you mark Freelance, the movement's VAT % field shows up (with the usual rates suggested: 0, 4, 10, 21). On income it's the VAT you charge your client; on expenses, the one the supplier charges you (leave it blank if exempt). This value travels to the tax document created with each freelance forecast.

Default counterparty (tax ID)

With Cuéntamo Más, and if it isn't a transfer, you can set a default counterparty: the client or supplier (with their tax ID) always behind that movement. You search it by name in your tax counterparties directory. Its behaviour depends on the scope:

• In freelance: the counterparty is copied to the tax document of each generated forecast. When you confirm the movement, its details are already filled in the record book. If a counterparty is set, a “group invoice by supplier” checkbox also appears.
• In personal: the counterparty is linked directly to each forecast movement (handy for keeping the tax ID of your landlord, accountant, etc. at hand for your income tax return).

How forecasts are generated (and the golden rule)

When you save a recurring item, Cuéntamo automatically creates all its forecast movements (the future, unconfirmed ones) up to 24 months ahead. You'll see them in the movements list as future ones and in the forecast chart.

A forecast only becomes real when you confirm it (with the ✓ tick in the movements list, by editing it, or when a bank import matches it with the real movement on your statement). No automatic process turns a forecast into a real movement: the template just proposes, and you confirm when the money actually moves.

If you edit a recurring item's amount or dates, Cuéntamo regenerates the future forecasts to reflect the change. If, on editing, there are past-dated forecasts still unconfirmed, it asks what to do with them: apply the changes, leave them as they are or delete them. If you delete a whole recurring item, its future forecasts are removed (the real movements you already confirmed stay untouched).

Searching, filtering and sorting the list

Above the list there's a filter bar (on narrow screens it unfolds with the funnel icon ):

• Search: by concept.
• Type: all, income, expense or transfer.
• Status: all, active only or inactive only.
• Scope (if you use freelance): all, personal or freelance.
• Category: a specific category or “no category”.
• Tags: one or more tags at once.

When filters are active, a link appears to clear them all at once, and a counter tells you how many recurring items are shown. You can sort by next run, concept, amount, frequency, account or category; in the table you sort by clicking the column header (a second click reverses it), and in the card view there's a small sort selector.

What each row shows

Each recurring item shows its concept (with its tags next to it), its category, the account (on transfers, “source → destination”), the type, the frequency, the amount and the next run. That next date is worked out on its own from the start date and the frequency; if it's already in the past without being confirmed, it's highlighted in orange. If you use freelance, you also see scope, VAT % and counterparty columns.

An inactive recurring item looks dimmed. If a “deactivated by plan” notice appears, the template used a Cuéntamo Más feature and was paused because the plan isn't active. In the desktop table you can adjust the column widths by dragging their edge; the width is remembered.

Activate, pause, edit and delete

On each row (unless you're a read-only member) you have these controls:

• Pause / resume (pause or play icon): deactivates or reactivates the recurring item. An inactive item stops generating forecasts and doesn't count in the forecast, but it isn't deleted: it's there for you to reactivate whenever you want. It's the clean way to “freeze” something temporarily (an expense you pause for a few months) without losing the template.
• Edit (pencil ): opens the form with the data loaded.
• Delete (bin ): asks for confirmation and removes the template along with its future forecasts.

Detecting recurring items automatically

The “Detect recurring items” button analyses your real movements looking for repeating patterns (same concept or a similar amount, at regular intervals) and offers to turn them into recurring items, so you don't have to create them by hand.

Each suggestion shows the detected frequency, how many times it has happened, a confidence bar and the specific movements it's based on. Before accepting it you can edit the concept, amount and category, exclude a movement that doesn't fit, or split the suggestion into two groups if it mixes different things. When it matches a recurring item you already have, instead of creating a new one it offers to link it by adjusting its date.

For each suggestion you decide: create (or link), split or dismiss. It's the fastest way to register all your usual bills and subscriptions in one go.

Recurring items that are transfers

A recurring item of type transfer repeats a movement of money between two of your accounts (for example, it sets aside a fixed amount to your savings account each month). It's neither income nor expense and doesn't count in your income/expense reports, but it does affect the balance of both accounts and, therefore, the forecast. You can read more in Transfers.