&Michael.T.Edwardes; &Michael.T.Edwardes.mail;
&Roger.Lum; &Roger.Lum.mail;
&Michael.Carpino; &Michael.Carpino.mail;
&Jack.H.Ostroff; &Jack.H.Ostroff.mail;
2024-12-01
5.2.0

# Ledgers

## The Ledgers View

The Ledgers View is functionally the data integration center of &kmymoney;. This view is for entering, examining, editing, and deleting transactions in your defined accounts. This view has had a major overhaul since the 5.1 series of &kmymoney; releases. The main difference is that it is now a tabbed display, so you can have more than one account displayed at once. You can actually only see one at a time, but switching by simply clicking a different tab is significantly more convenient than having to select the other account in a dropdown.

The main display area shows zero or more tabs, each one for the ledger display on one account. The rightmost tab will always have a +. Clicking this will display a dropdown where you can select the account to view, and a new tab will be created for that account. The rest of this chapter will describe using the ledger for any single account.

The Ledgers View allows for several key actions: searching and viewing transactions; entering new transaction; and editing, duplicating, deleting, and scheduling existing transactions. Along with this it also provides the ability to move, mark, show additional details for transactions. Other functionality within the Ledgers View includes modifying and reconciling the account.

ledgers view
ledgers view

The view has three elements:

- The transaction list

- The filter area, which may or may not be displayed

- The transaction form, which may or may not be displayed, depending upon your configuration settings as selected in the Configure &kmymoney; Ledger section.

Previous versions of &kmymoney; had a dropdown where you could select the account to be displayed in the ledger. This is no longer necessary, as to view another account, you just open a new tab.

### The transaction list

ledgers view transaction list
ledgers view transaction list

The transaction list displays all the (possible filtered) transactions in the account. The following columns are always displayed:

#### Date

the post date, or the actual date the transaction occurred

#### Detail

the category/categories, other account (for transfers,) and memo for the transaction

#### Payment and Deposit

the amount of money either leaving or entering the account in this transaction. A value will appear in one or the other column, as appropriate.

#### Balance

This depends on the currently displayed sort order, and will not be calculated if the display is filtered by use of the filter box or transaction status dropdown, as described above.

The following columns are optional, and their presence can be toggled by right clicking any column header and selecting or deselecting the appropriate checkbox. Currently, the columns cannot be reordered. The width of a column can be adjusted by using the mouse to grab the line between that column header and the one to its right.

#### No.

the transaction number, which is always optional

#### Entry

the Entry Date, which is the date the transaction was entered into the ledger.

#### Payee

the person or organization you are giving money to or receiving money from.

#### C

the Reconciliation Status. The value can be blank, C for Cleared, or R for Reconciled. The meaning of these terms is discussed further below.

After a transaction has been entered, it is displayed in the transaction list. You can also change transaction properties or even create new transactions directly in the list. In the transactions list, the default order of transactions is sorted by transaction date, with the most recent transaction on the bottom. Left clicking the header of the transaction list brings up a dialog box that will allow the ability to change the sort order of the transactions. For instructions on how to change the default sort order, see the Sorting tab section of the &kmymoney; Settings Chapter.

Note that altering the sort order can be useful in special circumstances, but for many sort orders, especially where the transaction post date is not the first sort key, the balance column will not be very meaningful, and will almost certainly not match the balance of any statement or display by the bank or institution. To minimize confusion, in such cases, the balance column will show all values as --- and headers which are date dependent (&eg; online balance or reconciliation) are not shown.

In previous versions of &kmymoney; you needed to right-click a column header to change the sort order. Now, right-clicking allows you to toggle display of the optional columns, and you need to left-click to change the sort order.

At the bottom of the transaction list, &kmymoney; displays three values:

#### Last reconciliation

This is the most recent date when you reconciled this account. Reconciliation is an important process for many accounts, and is described in its own chapter.

#### Cleared

This is the total of all cleared and reconciled transactions in this account. See this section for more information about the cleared and reconciled states of transactions.

#### Balance

This is where &kmymoney; displays the current balance of the account, which is the sum of all transactions in the account. However, if you select more than one transaction in the transaction list, this changes to display the sum of the selected transactions. This returns to the balance when no transactions or only one transaction is selected.

### The filter area

In previous versions of &kmymoney;, the filter area was above the transaction list, and it was always displayed. Now, when shown, it is below the list. It is normally hidden, but can be displayed by typing &Ctrl;F . At the left of the filter area is a dialog close icon. Clicking this will clear any filters in place and hide the filter area.

ledgers view filter area
ledgers view filter area

When displayed, most of the filter area is a text entry box. Typing here will cause &kmymoney; to display only transactions containing the text typed in the box. The text specified can be in any of the fields of the transaction for the displayed account. Clicking the clear text icon at the right end of the text entry box will clear any text that has been entered.

At the right of the text entry is a status filter dropdown. The default value is Any status, which does not apply any filter to the list. The Not marked and Cleared choices have been previously explained. Not reconciled includes transactions in either of the above groups. There is currently so specific filter for Reconciled transactions.

Imported selects transactions which have been imported, even if they have been matched with a non-imported transaction. Matched selects transactions which have been matched, either by &kmymoney; as part of the import process or manually matched by the user. However, once you have clicked Accept on such a transaction, it will not be selected by this filter.

Erroneous selects transactions where &kmymoney; has detected some problem. Most commonly, these are unbalanced transactions, which is often the case for imported transactions where a category was not assigned.

Scheduled selects upcoming Scheduled Transactions. These are displayed in the Transactions List for your convenience, but have not actually been entered into the ledger yet. When you right-click on one of them, the context menu displayed is Scheduled transaction options which is not the same as Transaction options displayed for regular transactions.

### The transaction form

Whether or not the transaction form is displayed in the Ledgers View depends on your configuration settings and the type of account being displayed. If present, it includes fields for all the details of a single transaction. It is described in more detail in the following sections.

When it is displayed, the transaction form is a read-only display of the currently selected transaction. It is always at the bottom of the Transactions View, below the filter area, if that is displayed. It is separated from everything above it by a splitter bar, which can be dragged up or down to change the height of the form. If dragged to the bottom, it will hide the form, although the height of the form set that way is not persistent, and will revert to its default when &kmymoney; is restarted. The splitter, like the transaction form itself, is only available when the appropriate configuration to show the form is activated.

## Entering and Editing Transactions

Entering and editing transactions is now done directly in the transaction list, whether or not the transaction form is displayed.

The fields in the input area match the fields in the transaction list. Additional fields include the Memo field, for a more detailed description or information related to the transaction, and a Category selection. The Split button allows you to split the transaction into multiple categories.

ledger view direct transaction entry
ledgers view direct transaction entry

To enter a new transaction into the ledger, you can either click the empty entry at the bottom of the ledger list, press &Ctrl;&Ins;, or select the Transaction New transaction... menu item. To edit an existing transaction, use the &Up; and &Down; arrow keys to navigate through the list. After pressing &Enter; or double-clicking an entry, the transaction list displays the fields required to enter or edit the transaction.

Note that the layout of the transaction entry area has been revised in &kmymoney; 5.2. Whether a new transaction is a deposit, withdrawal, or transfer is determined by the data you enter in the amount and category fields. You do not need to explicitly choose a specific tab or specify To: or From:.

To move through the fields press the &Tab; key and when done press &Enter; to save the changes or &Esc; to cancel.

In case the option Use Enter to move between fields is selected, the &Enter; key moves to the next field just as the &Tab; key except for the last entry field where it saves the data.

### The fields of a transaction

Enter the information using the following notes on the available fields. Note that many fields have Auto Completion turned on. That is, if you start typing, &kmymoney; will offer alternatives matching the characters you begin to enter. To select the matching content simply click the entry or press the appropriate keyboard keys. If the entry is not listed finish typing the content to add the new value. The next time you type the content, &kmymoney; will find it for you as you begin to enter the initial characters.

Note also that the actual fields displayed for a transaction depend on the type of account. For example, Investment Account transactions include fields for activity type, security, and other investment specific items.

#### Payer/Payee

This is who the money comes from or goes to. If the payee is a new entry &kmymoney; will ask if you wish to add this to the list of Payees. Any other information related to a payee or payer, such as address, phone number and account number as well as notes can be updated in the Payees View.

#### Category

This specifies an income or expense category for accounting and reporting purposes, and enables you to group certain transactions. Type the name of the category into the defined field. If you have entered the category and it does not exist then &kmymoney; will ask if you want to create a new one. If you select Yes &kmymoney; will then open a dialog box that allows for the further definition of the category based on General, Hierarchy, and Tax characteristics.

For Transfer transactions, you select the other account in the Category field.

If you wish to associate parts of the transaction with different categories, &kmymoney; can handle this need. An example might be a cash withdrawal of 50, of which you use 10 on food, 20 on beer, and 20 as cash. The transaction will therefore be assigned three categories: Food, Beer, and Cash. To do this, you need to use Split Transactions, which is described in more detail below.

See the special section on &kmymoney; fields for some additional information on how to use this field.

#### Tags

Tags are similar to Categories, and can be used to maintain an orthogonal view to Categories. They provide the ability to group transactions within a Category based on your defined needs. This need could be defined by a specifics to Person, Place, or Thing. For example, you might have a Category for each different type of automotive expenses, and then have a Tag for each vehicle. As with Categories, you can select from the dropdown list, or type a new Tag name, and be prompted if you want to create a new Tag with that name. Within the Tag field &kmymoney; will allow for multiple tags entered within a single transaction. Also, you can enter tags on an individual split.

#### Memo

A single or multi-line memo can be entered if you wish to record any further details of the transaction.

#### Number

The transaction number can be entered if needed. Note that the check number field can be made visible or invisible in the ledger list if desired. This is configured in the Ledger Settings dialog. While this is most commonly used for a Check Number in a Checking account, it can be used in any type of account, in any way you might want to number your transactions.

#### Date

The transaction's date must be entered to specify when the transaction took place. See the special &kmymoney; fields section for more information on how the date input field can be used to make entering dates quicker and easier. For transactions in checking and credit card accounts, it is your choice whether to use the actual date (when you wrote the check or made the purchase) or the posting date as reported by the bank or credit card company. Using the actual date can help you track when you made the purchase, for example, but the statement or downloaded data from the bank is more likely to use the posting date. &kmymoney; automatically keeps the date the transaction was entered into the ledger, but this is in a different field, which is optionally displayed in the ledger list.

Note you cannot explicitly enter the Entry Date, which is the date the transaction is actually entered into the ledger. This is always set by &kmymoney;

#### Amount

Finally, enter the transaction amount into either the Payment or Deposit field. Note that a simple calculator can be displayed, either by clicking the icon to the right of the field, or by entering the % character into the field, or by entering any of these mathematical symbols: + - * / in a formula, as in 12 + 3. When entering the plus sign, the calculator will be opened. Note that only the final result of any calculation will be saved as the Payment or Deposit amount of the transaction.

When you are satisfied that all the fields have been adequately filled in, click Enter. If you accidentally press or click Enter before you have finished entering all the data, click Edit to resume entering the data.

## The transaction form

ledgers view transaction form
ledgers view transaction form

In previous versions of &kmymoney; it was possible to enter or edit data in the Transaction Form. As of version 5.2 the Transaction Form is a read-only display of the transaction selected in the transaction list, possibly showing more details than are displayed in the list above.

## Split Transactions

The split transaction feature allows you to divide a transaction into multiple categories, representing, for example, the different types of items bought with a single purchase at a store.

A transaction always contains one or more splits. Each split represents money moving into or out of a single account. Most of the time, a transaction contains exactly two splits, one for the account the money is coming from and the other for the account the money is going to. The term Split Transaction is used when there are actually three or more splits, when one side of the transaction is further divided into more than one split. This is most commonly done when money moves in or out of a typical bank account, but is allocated to more than one category.

If a transaction has only one split, it is almost always said to be unbalanced, meaning that money is coming from somewhere, but not going anywhere (or vice versa.) Such transactions are typically flagged by being displayed in red in the Ledger. Valid transactions with a single split are usually in Investment Accounts: Add, Remove, or Split shares. The other case is where the amount of the transaction is 0, which banks sometimes produce.

To enter a split transaction, create a new transaction, entering the total amount. Then, instead of selecting a category, click the split icon at the right of the Category field. If you have already selected a category, that becomes the first entry in the split editor.

This will display the Split Editor, which shows the Category, Memo, and Payment or Deposit for each split. It also shows the total of the splits, the amount of the transaction, and the difference between them.

split editor split with unassigned amount
split editor split with unassigned amount

To enter a new split or sub-transaction click New, press &Ctrl;&Ins;, or double-click an empty row. Double-clicking an existing row lets you edit the split. This will expand the row into form where you can enter or edit a split.

split transaction edit form
split transaction edit form

Here you specify the category and amount, as well as optional payee, memo, and tag(s). Note that if a payee and memo were entered into the transaction before entering the split editor, they will be included in the first split. It often makes sense to enter a specific memo for each split. This can also be done for the Payee, but it may make more sense to enter that only once for the transaction. To save the split, press Enter. To cancel, press Cancel.

After entering a split, the bottom of the split editor shows how much of the total transaction is still unassigned. After entering all the splits, press the OK button to save the entire transaction. If there is still an unassigned amount, you will be prompted to either return to editing the splits, change the total transaction amount, or leave part of the transaction unassigned. The same is true if the amount is overassigned, in which case the total of the splits is more than the amount of the transaction.

To redistribute an Unassigned or Overassigned amount, select the split to be adjusted, and click Apply Difference. If Unassigned was previously shown and non-zero, that amount will be added to the selected line item value. If Overassigned was previously shown and non-zero, that amount will be subtracted from the selected line item value. As a result, the Unassigned or Overassigned amount will be set to zero and the transaction can be saved successfully.

split transaction in ledger
split transaction in ledger

Note that the category field in the transaction form or the transaction list now displays a comma separated list of the categories in each of the split entries.

## Other transaction actions

### Editing transactions

To edit a transaction, double-click it in the list view, right-click the entry and select Edit from the popup menu. or press &Enter; when a transaction is highlighted.

### Deleting transactions

To delete a transaction, right-click it in the list view and select Delete from the popup menu when it appears, or click Delete on the transaction form.

### Matching Transactions

Generally, when you import transactions, either via QIF, CSV, OFX, or HBCI, &kmymoney; will automatically attempt to match them against existing transactions. This can be useful for transactions which are created both as Scheduled Transactions, and also imported from your bank or credit card. To allow for differences in the dates, there is a default setting of 4 days, which may be changed in Settings Configure KMyMoney... Ledger section, Import Tab. Any transactions so matched will be indicated in the ledger with an icon, and on completion of the import, you should review these and either accept or unmatch them.

If you find that an imported transaction was not automatically matched with an existing transaction when it should have matched, then it is possible to match them manually. Note there is a difference between manually matching two transactions and simply deleting one of them, even though they may appear to have the same effect. Specifically, it is important not to delete the imported transaction, because you will find that the next time you import your transactions, the deleted transaction may show up again. This is because modern import formats like OFX and HBCI use a Transaction ID to identify transactions. When you delete the imported transaction, the transaction ID goes with it, so the importer has no way to know this transaction was already imported. For CSV and QIF imports, &kmymoney; creates an identifier for each transaction that is intended to serve the same purpose.

If this happens, the solution is to tell &kmymoney; that the transactions are the same, using the manual matching interface. This allows you to match an imported transaction with a hand-entered (non-imported) transaction. To do so, select one of the transactions to be matched by clicking it, then select the other by clicking it while pressing the &Ctrl; key, and then select Match from the context menu. This will match and combine the two transactions. The values of both transactions must be the same for the match to work, except that the dates may differ by the window specified in the settings, as described above.

Match transaction dialog
Match transaction dialog

Since the value is the only field in the two transactions which must absolutely be the same, the value of other fields may differ. Note that although the two Payees may not be identical, they must have been matched by the import process. Match, you will see a Match Transactions dialog. This dialog allows you to choose which of the two transactions is used as the source of the other fields in the matched transaction. Note that if one of the transactions is imported, the date of that transaction will always be used in the matched transaction, even if all other fields are taken from the non-imported transaction. That dialog also gives you the option of reversing the transactions in terms of which is used as a source of fields which differ.

If you are happy with the status of the match dialog, click OK. The transaction is then displayed as a Matched Transaction in the Ledger. You can then click Transaction Accept or right-click the matched transaction and select Accept from the context menu.

During import of online statements, either directly or by importing a downloaded file, &kmymoney; performs matching as best as it can based on the name of the payee and the amount of the transaction. In case of an invalid match, a matched transaction can be unmatched.

The matching interface will not allow you to match two transactions which have both been imported. Likewise, it also will not allow matching between two transactions which have both been entered by hand.

## Understanding the State of a transaction

A later section of this handbook discusses reconciliation in more detail. For now, it is only important to know that transaction can have one of three states: not marked (blank), cleared (C), or reconciled (R). When a transaction is entered, it's state is set to the value specified in the Data entry tab of the Ledger section of the &kmymoney; configuration dialog, which defaults to not marked. Once the bank posts the transaction, the user can mark it as cleared and thus transform it to state (C). Note that these are only a subset of the states described earlier as available in the Ledger Filter.

understanding the state of a transaction
understanding the state of a transaction

When you receive a statement from the bank, all cleared transactions should be on the statement. When you reconcile your account, you confirm that the transactions marked Cleared and the transactions listed on the statement are the same, and that the beginning balance plus the sum of the cleared transactions equals the ending balance of the statement. When this is the case, you can 'finish reconciling' which changes the state of all cleared (C) transactions prior to the date of reconciliation to reconciled (R).

If you try to edit a transaction with at least one split marked as reconciled (R), you will be warned. There is a further discussion about why this is important in the section on Reconciliation.

## Changing Transaction Settings

There are several options that change the appearance and behavior of the Ledgers View in terms of transactions. These settings are found by selecting Settings Configure &kmymoney; from the menu bar, and selecting the ledger icon from the list on the left.

Most of the settings are self explanatory. The section linked above has a more detailed explanation of each of the settings. Some of these settings have already been mentioned, but for clarity, several of them are explained briefly below.

### Show transaction form

This setting is under the Display tab in the Settings dialog: toggle to hide the transaction form at the bottom of the Ledgers View. The transaction form is now a display only area for the transaction selected in the Transaction List. All entries and edits of transactions are now made directly on the list.

These images show what direct transaction entry looks like compared to the transaction form.

The transaction form:

the transaction form
the transaction form

Transactions entered directly:

transactions entered directly in ledger
transaction entered directly in ledger

### Keep changes when selecting a different transaction/split

By selecting the next line in the transaction list or split editor, the changes are kept, instead of the default behavior where you have to push the green check mark to save changes.

## Other Transaction Functionality

Additional options are available from the Transaction Options menu, accessed by right-clicking any transaction in the list.

transaction options sub-menu
transaction options sub-menu

Options include jumping to the Payees view for the Payee in the transaction, jumping to the Ledgers View for another account in the transaction, creating a schedule based on this transaction, and changing the reconciled or cleared status.

To edit the account information from the Ledgers View, select Account from the menu bar. From the Edit Account... menu item, you can change the account details. There is also a menu item to bring up the Reconcile menu, which allows you to match transactions against an official bank statement or credit card notice.