Add and Manage Accounts

Use Add Account when you want Common Cents to track a real place where money, debt, or value lives. For many people that starts with checking, savings, and a credit card. The form can stay simple at first, but a few controls are worth understanding so the app behaves the way you expect later.

Ways to open the account form #

• On the Accounts page, use the Add Account button in Accounts Overview.
• Use the main Add button and choose Add Account.
• Use the Combo Palette and search for the Add Account command.
• If you have no accounts yet, the empty Accounts screen shows Create Account.

The controls most people use first #

• Account Name: The name you will see everywhere else in the app.
• Account Type: Choose Transaction, Saving, or Investment for ordinary accounts. Debt and Fixed Asset appear only when those features are enabled.
• Account Number (Optional): Good for the last four digits or another short identifier.
• Starting Balance or Starting Value: This only appears when you are creating a new account. It gives the account its beginning amount.
• Include this account in the budget: For ordinary cash accounts, this decides whether the account affects category availability and unassigned money. Debt accounts are always on-budget. Fixed asset accounts stay off-budget.
• Include in Dashboard Summary Cash Flow: This decides whether the account contributes to the Dashboard’s Month Inflow, Month Outflow, and Net Flow cards.
• Set as primary transaction account: This appears for transaction accounts. The primary transaction account becomes the default From Account for new transactions and transfers. There can only be one primary transaction account.
• Add another: Keeps the form open after saving so you can enter the next account right away.
• Add Account, Add and Continue, and Add and Finish: These are the save buttons you will see depending on whether Add another is turned on.

If you are not sure where to start, focus on the name, account type, starting balance, and budget setting first. Those choices do most of the work.

What each account type means #

• Transaction: Everyday spending and cashflow accounts such as checking or cash.
• Saving: Savings accounts you want tracked separately from everyday spending.
• Investment: Investment balances you want to keep on the account side of the app.
• Debt: Credit cards and loans. Debt accounts add extra workflow rules and can open debt-specific payment actions later.
• Fixed Asset: Things like a home or vehicle that you want to track as an asset account.

If you do not see Debt or Fixed Asset in the list, that usually means the feature is off in Settings > Features.

Extra controls for debt accounts #

Debt accounts show more fields because Common Cents needs more help understanding how the debt behaves.

• Debt Behavior chooses between Revolving, Installment, and Mortgage-style debt behavior.
  • Revolving - this type of debt is for credit cards or lines of credit. When creating a revolving debt account Common Cents will automatically create a system payment category in the Debt Payments group.
  • Installment - this type of debt it for simple loans like vehicle or personal loans
  • Mortgage - this is specifically for mortgage-type loans that use an amortization schedule
• Default Payee (Optional) lets you search for an existing payee, type a new one, or edit a payee directly from the picker. For broader payee cleanup and review, see Payees.
• Default Payment Category (Optional) can preselect the category you normally use for loan or mortgage payments. This will automatically set the category when paying the debt.
• Minimum Payment (Optional) appears for installment debts.
• Interest Mode appears for installment debts and lets you choose Manual or Auto.
• APR (%) or Interest Rate (%) stores the rate used by the debt workflow.
• Linked Fixed Asset adds a relationship panel where you can choose a Relationship Mode of None, Link existing fixed asset, or Create new fixed asset. This links the debt to a fixed asset.

Extra controls for fixed asset accounts #

Fixed asset accounts stay simpler than debt accounts, but they still add a special relationship panel.

• The creation form uses Starting Value instead of Starting Balance.
• The budget checkbox is not shown because fixed assets stay off-budget.
• Linked Debt Accounts lets you connect existing debt accounts to the asset.
• The Relationship Mode dropdown lets you choose None, Link existing debt accounts, or Link existing and create one new debt account.
• If you select debt accounts that already belong to another asset, the app warns you before reassigning those links.

Most people can ignore linked asset and linked debt controls unless they are intentionally tracking a debt against a specific asset.

Editing an account later #

To edit an account, open it from Accounts Overview or from Closed Accounts, then use the Edit Account button.

One important difference from account creation: the original Starting Balance or Starting Value field is not shown when you edit an account. After an account exists, balance changes should come from transactions, transfers, debt actions, or asset disposal workflows instead of rewriting the original starting number.

Account detail view #

When you are in the detail view, these controls matter most:

• ← Back to All Accounts returns to the overview list.
• Jump To Account switches the detail view to another account without going back first.
• Save Account applies your changes.

If you need to archive an account, the edit form footer may show Close Account, Close Fixed Asset, or Dispose Asset. The next page explains how those work: Closed Accounts.