Onboarding

Use this guide when you are creating a new file with guided setup. If you choose No - Blank File instead, Common Cents creates an empty file and skips this flow.

Before onboarding begins #

Before Common Cents opens your new file, it asks two questions on the startup screen:

• Where are you on your budgeting journey? Choose the option that best reflects your experience. Common Cents uses it to enable an appropriate starting set of features and choose a default page and Combo Palette mode. You can change any of these choices later in Settings.
• Do you use credit cards? Choosing Yes enables revolving debt accounts. Common Cents treats credit cards as revolving debt accounts so it can keep spending and payments connected to your budget. See Revolving Debt Transactions for details.

How the guided flow works #

Onboarding lets you move forward and backward, add staged items, edit or remove staged accounts, and revise choices before the final step. Common Cents commits the staged accounts, categories, initial assignments, income rules, giving goal, and settings when you choose Start Using Common Cents on Next Steps.

The normal flow is Set Up an Account, Set Up Categories, Initial Assignment when Ready to Assign is positive, Giving Goal, Settings, and Next Steps. If you chose the most experienced budgeting option, it also includes Recurring Income before Giving Goal. Each sheet has Start Over on the left side of its footer. Confirming it abandons the staged onboarding progress and returns you to the startup screen; the new file remains available to reopen.

Set Up an Account #

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

Set an Account Name and Account Type, then use the optional fields that apply to the account. For cash accounts, Include this account in the budget determines whether its balance affects category availability.

Guided onboarding requires at least one on-budget primary transaction account before you can continue. This can be a checking account, cash, or another transaction account you use as your budget’s main account. You can add other accounts now or later.

If you said you use credit cards but have not added a revolving debt account, Common Cents gives you a reminder when you continue. You can set one up then or continue without it.

The buttons are:

• Back: disabled because this is the first step
• Skip: available after you have a primary account; it discards only an account currently being edited and continues to Categories
• Add Another: validates and adds the current account to Staged Accounts
• Add and Next: stages the account and continues to categories
• Next: appears when you already have staged accounts and the current form is blank

Use Edit or Remove beside a staged account before you finish onboarding.

Set Up Categories #

Categories answer “what is this money for?” Choose one of these starting points:

• Simple: one Budget group with common starter categories
• Detailed: several groups with a broader set of starter categories
• Groups/Categories from Another File: stage groups and categories from another .cents file

Guided onboarding requires at least one spending category, so you cannot skip this step. An imported file must contain at least one spending category. You can add, remove, or reorganize categories later.

You can start with one of these sets of categories and remove some or add more later. While we are setting up structure for your money it is still strucutre of your making and you can change it as life changes.

Back returns to Accounts. Next stages the selected setup and continues to Initial Assignment when there is money Ready to Assign; otherwise it continues to the next applicable step.

Initial Assignment #

This sub-step appears when your staged on-budget accounts leave a positive amount Ready to Assign. It shows the categories you selected and lets you assign all or part of that money. You can also skip it and make your first assignment later.

Initial assignments are stored separately from normal monthly assignments. They affect category availability and Ready to Assign, but do not inflate assignment history graphs or averages. To revise one later, open the category’s edit sheet and choose Edit Initial Assignment; Common Cents asks you to confirm the change because it changes both the category’s available amount and Ready to Assign.

Recurring Income #

This step appears only when you selected I’m a budgeting world traveler in the experience question. Choose whether to set up a recurring-income schedule rule now.

If you choose Yes, select the receiving account, amount, first date, and frequency. Use Add Another to stage more rules or Add and Next when you are done. You can also skip this step and add scheduled transactions later in Planning.

Giving Goal #

Giving Goal is optional. Enter the percentage of income you hope to give and a target date, which defaults to two years from today. This goal does not change your budget or lock you into anything; it gives you something to measure against and work toward.

You can revise or clear it later in Settings → General → Giving.

Settings #

Settings stages a few defaults; nothing is saved until you finish onboarding.

• Strict Mode prevents overspending transactions from saving when a category lacks enough available money.
• Auto-load this file on startup reopens the file automatically when the platform supports it.
• Theme chooses System, Light, or Dark.

Back returns to Giving Goal, Skip clears staged settings choices, and Next continues to Next Steps.

Next Steps #

Next Steps is the final review point. Choose Back to revise Settings or Start Using Common Cents to commit the staged accounts, categories, initial assignments, income rules, giving goal, and settings.

If saving the setup fails, onboarding stays open with your staged data intact so you can try again or go back and adjust it.