Onboarding

Use this guide when you are creating a new file with guided setup.

Onboarding is a draft-based wizard. You can move forward and backward, add staged items, edit or remove staged items, and change choices before anything is written to the file. Common Cents commits the staged setup only when you click Start Using Common Cents on Next Steps.

Each onboarding sheet has a help button beside its title. The help button opens the matching section of this guide or, for the income-source form, the deeper Income Sources guide.

Set Up an Account #

The first step creates one or more accounts. An account is where money, debt, or asset value lives. Most new files start with a checking account, savings account, credit card, or loan.

Required fields:

• Account Name: the name shown in account lists, transaction forms, and dashboards.
• Account Type: the kind of account. Transaction, Saving, and Investment are available for ordinary setup. Debt and Fixed Asset appear when those features are enabled.

Common optional fields:

• Account Number (Optional): a short identifier such as the last four digits.
• Starting Balance or Starting Value: the amount the account starts with. Debt starting balances are recorded as negative liability balances.
• Include this account in the budget: controls whether a cash account affects category availability and unassigned money. Debt accounts are always on-budget. Fixed asset accounts stay off-budget.
• Set as primary transaction account: appears for transaction accounts. The primary transaction account becomes the default From Account for new transactions and transfers.

Some account controls are hidden during onboarding so the first setup stays focused. Common Cents uses the normal default values for Default Paste Import Mapping, Default to importing new transactions only, and Include in Dashboard Summary Cash Flow when onboarding is committed.

When Debt or Fixed Asset account types are available, extra controls can appear:

• Debt Behavior: chooses Revolving, Installment, or Mortgage behavior.
• Default Payee (Optional): sets the usual payee for debt payments. During onboarding, typed payee names are staged and created or resolved when setup is finished.
• Default Payment Category (Optional): can preselect the category normally used for installment or mortgage payments.
• Minimum Payment (Optional), Interest Mode, and APR (%) or Interest Rate (%) support installment and mortgage workflows.
• Linked Fixed Asset and Linked Debt Accounts connect loans, mortgages, and assets when you want to track the relationship.

The account step buttons are:

• Back: shown disabled because Account is the first step.
• Skip: clears staged account setup if needed and moves to categories.
• Add Another: validates the current form, adds it to Staged Accounts, and resets the form for another account.
• Add and Next: validates the current form, stages it, and moves to categories.
• Next: appears when you already have staged accounts and the current form is blank.

Use Edit on a staged account to load it back into the form. Use Remove to delete it from the staged list before onboarding is committed.

See also: Add and Manage Accounts, Create an Account, Debt Accounts, and Fixed Assets.

Set Up Categories #

Categories answer “what is this money for?” Account balances say where money is. Category balances say the job that money has in your budget.

Simple is selected by default. The options are:

• Simple: creates one group named Budget with Giving, Bills, Housing, Food, Transportation, Entertainment, and Other.
• Detailed: creates six groups with starter categories for giving, bills, housing, food, transportation, and other spending. It includes categories such as Tithe, Electric, House Payments, Groceries, Vehicle Maintenance, Fuel, Medical, and Travel.
• None - Set Up Later: starts without user-created categories now so you can build groups and categories after onboarding.
• Groups/Categories from Another File: copies category groups and categories from another .cents file.

The import option adds these controls:

• Choose File: pick another .cents file to read category groups and categories from.
• Choose Different File: replace the previously selected import file.
• Import summary: shows the selected file name plus the number of groups and categories that will be staged.

The category step buttons are:

• Back: returns to the account step.
• Skip: clears the current category choice if needed and moves to income setup.
• Next: stages the selected category setup and moves to income setup. For import, Next is disabled until a valid file has been chosen.

See also: Category Groups and Categories, Create a Category, Budgeting Overview, and Create or Open a New File.

Set Up Income #

The income step decides whether this file should start with income tools enabled.

The first sheet has these buttons:

• Back: returns to categories.
• Skip: skips income setup. You can enable Income Sources or Income Planning later in Settings.
• Setup Income Tracking Only: enables Income Sources so recurring income definitions can generate expected income events.
• Set Up Income Tracking and Planning: enables Income Sources and Income Planning so the Budget page can use expected income for planning.

If you choose one of the setup options, Common Cents opens Add an Income Source. Income sources are recurring definitions, not transactions. They tell Common Cents who pays you, how much, and on what schedule.

The income-source form includes:

• Payor: the employer, client, or other payer. During onboarding, new typed payor names are staged and resolved or created when setup is finished.
• Pay Type: choose Salary or Hourly.
• Net Pay per Check: required for salary sources.
• Gross Salary (optional): optional yearly gross amount for salary sources.
• Hourly Rate and Usual Hours: required for hourly sources.
• Pay Frequency: Weekly, Biweekly, Semi-monthly, or Monthly.
• Second Pay Day: appears for semi-monthly sources.
• Monthly Schedule: appears for monthly sources.
• Week and Day of Week: appear when the monthly schedule uses a weekday rule.
• First Pay Date: the first expected paycheck date.
• Start Date (optional) and Stop Date (optional): limit when the source is active.
• Active: controls whether the source can be used for expected income generation.
• Note (optional): stores any reminder you want with the source.

The income-source step buttons are:

• Back: returns to the income choice sheet.
• Skip: clears staged income sources if needed and moves to settings.
• Add Another: validates the current form, adds it to Staged Income Sources, and resets the form.
• Add and Next: validates the current form, stages it, and moves to settings.
• Next: appears when you already have staged income sources and the current form is blank.

Use Edit on a staged income source to load it back into the form. Use Remove to delete it from the staged list before onboarding is committed.

See also: Income Sources, Paycheck Planning, Budget Planning, and Settings > Features.

Settings #

The Settings step stages a few file defaults. These choices are not saved until Start Using Common Cents.

Visible controls:

• Strict Mode: prevents overspending transactions from saving when a category does not have enough money available. Turning this on also enables Budgeting.
• Auto-load this file on startup: automatically reopens this file when Common Cents starts, when the platform can reopen the file reference.
• Theme: chooses System, Light, or Dark. System follows your device appearance.

The Settings step buttons are:

• Back: returns to income setup.
• Skip: clears staged settings changes if needed and moves to Next Steps.
• Next: stages the visible settings and moves to Next Steps.

The shortcut note shows the keyboard shortcut for opening Settings later.

See also: Settings > Features, Appearance, File / Export, and Saving, Autosave, and Recovery.

Next Steps #

Next Steps is the final review point for onboarding.

The buttons are:

• Back: returns to Settings so you can revise staged choices.
• Start Using Common Cents: commits the staged onboarding setup and closes onboarding.

When setup is committed, Common Cents applies category setup first, applies required income and settings feature toggles, creates staged accounts and income sources, resolves or creates staged payees, refreshes affected data, recalculates balances, and then opens the app for normal use.

If commit fails, onboarding stays open on Next Steps and keeps the staged data so you can try again or go back and adjust the setup.

The Next Steps links point to useful starting places after setup, including getting-started help, Settings, guides, the Combo Palette, and the help site.