Glossary

This glossary establishes the preferred terms for Common Cents. It is a reference for understanding the app and for keeping help content consistent.

Core concepts #

Account #

A real-world financial account, asset, or debt that Common Cents tracks, such as a checking account, credit card, loan, cash account, or fixed asset. An account has an account balance.

Account balance #

The amount held in an account as of a particular date. An account balance may be negative for a debt account.

Activity #

What happened during a selected period. In a summary, Activity is the signed net effect of recorded transactions for the thing being viewed. In ordinary language, it can also mean the underlying transaction history, such as a category’s activity.

Use Activity for category budgeting and history-oriented views.

Available #

The amount a category can still cover. It reflects assigned money and category activity, including money carried from earlier months when applicable. Available is not an account balance.

Balance #

A point-in-time amount. When clarity matters, use a qualified term: account balance, label balance, or Available for a category.

Budget #

The plan that gives money a purpose through categories, assignments, targets, and availability.

Budget month #

The calendar month Common Cents uses to organize assignments, category activity, targets, and availability.

Category #

The budget purpose for money, such as Groceries, Rent, or Vacation. Categories answer the question, “What is this money for?”

Category group #

A named collection of related categories, such as Everyday Spending or Annual Expenses. Category groups organize the budget but do not themselves receive transactions.

Category move #

A reallocation of Available money from one category to another. A category move changes the budget but does not move money between real-world accounts.

Category target #

A goal that helps determine how much money a category should have or spend during a budget period.

Inflow #

Money entering an account. An inflow may be income, a refund, a transfer from another tracked account, or another inflow.

Label #

An optional cross-cutting tracking layer, such as a trip, project, event, or reimbursable expense. Labels can group activity and allocated balances across accounts without changing category budgeting.

Label balance #

The portion of an account balance associated with a label. Label balances help track money within and across accounts; they do not change a category’s Available amount.

Net Flow #

Inflows minus outflows for a selected period.

Use Net Flow for account summaries, dashboard metrics, exports, and anywhere the calculation itself matters.

Outflow #

Money leaving an account. An outflow may be an expense, a transfer to another tracked account, a payment, fee, or another withdrawal.

Payee #

The person, business, organization, or other counterparty associated with a transaction. A payee is not an account or a budget category.

Transaction #

A record of financial activity on an account. A transaction may include a payee, category, label, note, and one or more details or splits.

Transaction context #

The account, category, label, payee, and other details that explain a transaction. Transaction context is a documentation term, not necessarily a prominent product label.

Transaction detail #

A portion of a transaction assigned to a category and, when applicable, a label. A transaction with multiple details is a split transaction.

Split transaction #

A transaction divided among two or more transaction details, such as one receipt split between Groceries and Household Supplies.

Transaction kinds #

Debt payment #

A payment that reduces a tracked debt account. Depending on the debt setup, it may coordinate the payment account, debt account, and a payment category.

Expense #

An ordinary outflow, usually a purchase or payment to a payee. Expense is a useful descriptive term, but it is not a separate transfer-like transaction type.

Gain #

An increase in the recorded value of an asset that is not ordinary income or a transfer.

Income #

An inflow classified as earnings or other revenue, such as a paycheck, freelance payment, benefit payment, or recurring business revenue.

Initial transaction #

The entry that establishes an account’s opening balance when the account is created or brought into Common Cents.

Interest #

An amount charged or earned because of an account balance, such as credit-card interest or interest earned on savings.

Loss #

A decrease in the recorded value of an asset that is not ordinary spending or a transfer.

Other inflow #

An inflow that is neither income nor a refund, such as a gift, cash found, or money transferred from an account Common Cents does not track.

Use Other inflow, rather than Deposit, for the normal transaction-entry concept.

Refund #

An inflow that returns money from an earlier purchase, payment, or overpayment. A refund can be linked to the original transaction.

Transfer #

A linked movement of money between two accounts tracked in Common Cents. One side is an outflow from the source account; the other is an inflow to the destination account.

Money entering from an account that Common Cents does not track is an Other inflow, not a Transfer. Money leaving for an untracked account is an ordinary outflow, with an appropriate category when needed.

Budgeting and planning #

Assigned #

Money allocated to a category for a budget month.

Ending Available #

A category’s Available amount at the end of a completed budget month.

Expected Available #

A future-month estimate of category availability, shown for comparison and planning.

Forecast Activity #

Expected future category activity from scheduled transactions. Forecast Activity helps planning but does not change live account balances or current Available money.

Funding #

Money from an inflow that is available, or forecast, to be allocated to category assignments for a specific budget month. Funding is not spending: funding gives money a budget purpose, while spending records category activity.

Month funding is the portion of an inflow allocated to a particular budget month. The month an inflow is received and the month it funds can differ, and one inflow can be split across multiple budget months. Scheduled month funding is a forecast until the inflow is posted or matched; posted month funding reflects the actual amount available from that inflow.

Planning Mode #

A budget view for preparing future months. It uses planned assignments and forecast activity without changing live balances or actual assignments.

Projected Available #

The expected category availability in Planning Mode after planned assignments and forecast activity are considered.

Ready to Plan #

Money available to allocate in the budget. This is generally unassigned inflow that can support category assignments.

Review & Apply #

The workflow for reviewing a plan and applying actual available funding to category assignments.

Unassigned #

Inflow that has not yet been allocated to a category.

Time and measurement #

Cash flow #

The movement of money into and out of accounts over a selected period. Cash flow can be described as separate inflow and outflow totals, or as Net Flow.

Ending Balance #

The account balance as of the end of a selected period.

Period #

The date range used for a report, table, or calculation. A period may be a month, a custom range, or another selected timeframe.

Starting Available #

A category’s Available amount immediately before a selected budget month begins.

Starting Balance #

The account balance immediately before a selected period begins.

Use Starting Balance as the canonical term; avoid alternating it with “Beginning Balance.”

Scheduled transactions #

Match #

Connect a scheduled occurrence to an existing actual transaction so Common Cents does not record it twice.

Post #

Turn a scheduled occurrence into an actual recorded transaction.

Schedule rule #

The recurring instructions that generate scheduled transaction occurrences, including timing, amount, direction, and account.

Scheduled occurrence #

One expected instance generated by a schedule rule, such as this month’s rent payment.

Scheduled transaction #

A planned future inflow or outflow, usually recurring. It remains a forecast until it is posted or matched to an actual transaction.

Terminology rules #

• Use Transfer only for movement between two accounts tracked in Common Cents.
• Use Category move only for reallocating category availability.
• Use Activity for budget and history language; use Net Flow for the explicit inflow-minus-outflow calculation.
• Use Available for categories, not “category balance” in ordinary UI copy.
• Use account balance and label balance rather than an unqualified “balance” where clarity matters.
• Use Other inflow, not “Deposit,” for the normal transaction-entry concept.
• Avoid Move by itself. It is ambiguous across accounts, categories, and labels.