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Tips & Tricks

Undo/Redo​

If you ever make a mistake, pressing

Cmd
Z
will undo, and pressing
Cmd
Shift
Z
will redo. Using the desktop app, this is an undo system that you can always rely on; any change can be undone and the UI will walk back in time. If you're using the web app, this is only good for the current session of the website. If you refresh, or close the browser tab, undo history is lost.

Keyboard Shortcuts​

Firstly, a few global shortcuts for the Electron App that is still in development. Please be aware that these global shortcuts do not work in the web app:

  • Cmd
    1
    will show the budget
  • Cmd
    2
    will show reports
  • Cmd
    3
    will show all accounts

BUT here is one that WILL work in the web app as well:

  • Cmd
    O
    (O not zero) this will close the file and list other available files to open

Budget​

  • Enter
    while editing a budget amount will move to the next category.
  • Shift
    Enter
    will move to the previous category.

Transaction Editing​

  • When editing,
    Enter
    and
    Shift
    Enter
    will move down and up. If a dropdown is open and you've typed a new value, this will instead save the value and close the dropdown.
  • When editing,
    Tab
    and
    Shift
    Tab
    will move left and right
  • When adding a new transaction,
    Cmd
    Enter
    will add it regardless of where you are editing. Pressing
    Enter
    in either the Payment or Deposit columns will add it as well.

Transaction Management​

  • F
    Show only selected transactions.
  • D
    Delete selected transactions.
  • A
    Set account for selected transactions.
  • P
    set payee for selected transactions.
  • N
    Set notes for selected transactions.
  • C
    Set category for selected transactions.
  • L
    Toggle cleared for current transaction.

The following require a transaction to have been selected first:

  • J
    /
    ↓
    Move to the next transaction down.
  • K
    /
    ↑
    Move to the next transaction up.
  • Space
    Toggle selection of current transaction.
  • Shift
    Space
    Add all transactions between current transaction and most recently selected transaction.

View Multiple Months at Once​

In the top left of the budget, you will see this control:

This sets the maximum amount of months to render at once, and defaults to 1. If you want to view multiple months on the same page, click the boxes to increase the number.

note

This only controls the maximum number of months. If the app is too small to render all of them it will only render the months that fit on the screen.

Scramble and Hide Data​

Actual Budget has a built-in privacy filter which help you hide your data from prying eyes.

To do this: click on the eye icon in the top right corner of the app.

This will scramble all of your data, including payees, categories, and transactions.

This is useful if you want to create a screenshot of your data without showing your actual data. This is useful when you need to show your budget to someone else, like other Actual users in our Discord.

note

This only hide data - no data is lost or encrypted.

To unhide the data, click on the eye icon again. This will show the data in its original form.

Show Running Balance​

A "running balance" is the balance of the account after every transaction over time. This is very useful for reconciling accounts with banks because you can see the balance at a specific date and use it to compare it with your bank. Note that the "Show running balance" option and column is only available when the list of transactions is sorted by date in descending order.

To enable this:

  1. Click on an account
  2. Click on the 3 dots to show the actions menu
  3. Select "Show running balance"

A new column should appear which shows the balance of the account after each transaction: