5. Transactions
Transactions Overview
Learn how Common Cents records activity, from everyday entries to splits and faster multi-entry workflows.
Transactions are where Common Cents records what actually happened. They update account balances, category activity, refund history, debt payment history, and the month-to-month picture you see elsewhere in the app.
Most transaction work happens in one of two places:
- the All Transactions page, where you search, filter, sort, and review activity across accounts
- the Add Transaction form, where you enter new activity or edit an existing row
If you are bringing in years of older records, use Historical Transaction Import instead of entering each row by hand. Historical import can add reporting-only history for reports and transaction searches, or it can create full ledger transactions that affect balances and budget history.
When you open All Transactions, the page gives you a few important controls right away:
- a Search field for payees, notes, categories, labels, and account names
- a Type filter for transaction types such as normal, transfer, gain, loss, and interest
- From and To date filters
- an Accounts dropdown with All Accounts plus individual account checkboxes
- a Future toggle to show future-month-dated transactions when that filter is available
- Future transactions are transactions dated into a future month from the current month
The table itself is built for review work:
- the column headers are sortable
- the common columns are Date, Account, Type, Payee, Category, Label, Note, and Amount
- the Type column shows one clear label per row, so refunds appear as Refund rather than as Normal plus a second badge
- each row has a Related Actions menu for things like Edit, Start a Refund, and, when applicable, View Refunds
- the footer includes Rows, Previous, and Next controls for pagination
If you arrive from a payee page, label page, or a Combo Palette search, the title changes to match that filter and the header gives you a contextual back button. Filtered views can also show View All Transactions so you can jump back to the full list.