Effectively managing your personal finances begins by keeping a good overview over your financial flows. That is why adding incomes and expenses into your Toshl app was made simple. We surely wouldn’t want you to be wasting your time, that’s something even money can’t buy.
This tutorial is for adding entries to financial accounts that you track manually. If you use connected financial accounts with Toshl Medici, the entries will fly in automatically as they show up on your bank / financial service.
For a basic expense all you need to do is: enter the amount, select a category and click save. All done.
Toshl also enables you to add richer data, automate the entries or get reminded about them. There are quite a few useful tricks along the way. Let’s take a more detailed look on how to add incomes, expenses and transfers in the Toshl app on iOS.
1. Add a new expense or income
Starting the Toshl app will bring up the Expenses screen. Tap the large red “+” in the bottom left corner for a new entry.
To enter an income, open the main menu by tapping the main menu button in the top left former and navigate to Incomes. Alternatively you can also swipe from anywhere along the left edge of the screen toward right. This will open the main navigation menu.
After selecting the Incomes option, tap the large green “+” to record a new entry.
There is another quick way to add a new entry: drag the “+” button across the screen up and to the right, to open a new expense, income or transfer window, depending on where you release it. Read more about this useful trick here.
Your Toshl app will normally open up on the Expenses screen, but you can change that at any time by going into “Settings” and selecting “Open app on” option.
Remember, after selecting a new entry for either an income or expense, both procedures follow the same steps and include the same options. Here, we will present an example for entering a new expense.
2. Adding an expense
2.1 The amount
Tap the “+” button in the bottom left corner and a new screen will pop up. You can then enter the amount of the expense and confirm it by tapping “>” in the top right or bottom right corner.
Use a decimal separator when necessary. It is either a point or a comma. Which one is used in the forms and displays of sums inside Toshl depends on the regional settings of your mobile device.
2.2 Currencies
Make sure to use the correct currency. Tapping the currency symbol, for example the $ or € sign‚ will open a list of all the currencies available in Toshl, including their suggested exchange rates.
The currency catalogue includes a search field right on top, so you do not have to scroll through the whole list to get to the right one.
5 currencies that you have used most recently will be placed on the top of the list for easier selection. If you have used any custom exchange rates, the custom exchange rate will be saved in the “recently used” section as well. If you would prefer to use the automatically updated suggested exchange rate, select the currency from the alphabetical part of the list.
Selecting the red “i” icon next to the currency on the list brings up a convenient currency converter, where you can quickly check if you’ve brought enough Venezuelan bolívars (the black market edition) to pay for a scoop of ice cream.
For the well-being of your pockets we hope you aren’t carrying coins.
Whichever currency was used with your last expense will remain set for further entries until changed to another.
2.3 Expense calculator
The expense screen includes two additional features to help you figure out the exact amount you need to store. Tapping the “Σ” (greek letter sigma) adds four basic mathematical operations to your entry form: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
2.4 Percentage calculator
Similarly, the “%” button brings up an option to add or deduct a certain percentage to or from your amount. Perfect for when you are, for example, deciding on a tip for a great service in a bar or a restaurant.
After entering the correct amount, whether you’ve modified it with a calculator or not, simply confirm it with the “>” button.
2.5 Categories
In the next step, select a category for your expense. Assigning a category is required with each entry.
Swipe right to browse through more categories, or swipe left (onto the magnifying glass icon) to seach among them by entering a letter or two of the category’s name into the text field.
While preset categories cover most types of expenses and incomes, you can always add your own. Simply tap the “+” icon on the right side of the Category tab, type in the title of your new category, and confirm.
This new category will be stored after saving this entry and can be used with your future entries. Begin typing its name into the search window and it will be brought up automatically. This works for tags as well.
You can edit, remove or merge the categories by accessing your Toshl account through the Web app, and modify them according to your needs. For further information check the Edit Categories and Tags guide.
At this point your expense is ready to be saved since all the required information – the amount, category, account and date – has already been entered or pre-set. For a more detailed record of your personal finances you can continue with your entry and supply additional information.
2.6 Tags
It is possible to assign multiple tags to your incomes or expenses. Use tags such as “groceries”, “restaurant”, “parking” and others to add further details to your financial data.
Just like with categories, it is possible to swipe left or right to browse through the stored tags, or swipe onto the magnifying glass icon (far left) to seach among them by name.
Using the “+” option on the right side of the Tags tab gives you an option to enter your own tag, which is then stored and can be used with future entries.
Once a category is selected, the tags are arranged automatically based on your choice. Tags that were sorted into the category you selected will be displayed first (for example: the category “Food & Drinks” brings up the tags “groceries”, “soft drinks”, “restaurants”, etc.), followed by all the rest. You can still use any tag with any category, but this step makes it easier to find the correct one.
The second sorting criteria is your frequency of use – most commonly used tags will eventually be brought up to the front of the list.
You can modify and manually assign tags to specific categories at any time through the Toshl Web app. Consult the Edit Categories and Tags guide for more details.
2.7 Accounts
Set the financial account this expense was made with. The payment method in other words. This might be your credit card, bank account, a financial service like PayPal or simply cash. Toshl can help you track the balance of incomes and expenses on each of the accounts.
When you sign up on Toshl, the Cash account is added automatically, but you can always add others. Check your accounts by tapping in the upper right corner of the screen when not adding an expense. You’ll see an indicator of the time span and accounts you’re currently observing …
… or swipe from anywhere on the rightmost edge of the screen toward left to access the accounts and time span sidebar.
… to display the list of your financial accounts.
To add a new account, tap “Edit” in the bottom right corner …
… and tap the option “Add account“.
2.8 Date
The date of the expense is automatically set to the present day when viewing the current month. You can of course change it by tapping on the Date tab. From there, select either the “Custom“ option or use the convenient shortcut to assign the yesterday’s date.
For a custom date, pick your specific day, month and year.
3. Advanced options
Icons on the bottom of the entry window, just below the date, represent the options for additional information and automation:
While the location and description entry is available to all Toshl users, adding repeats, reminders and photos becomes available with the upgrade to Toshl Pro or Toshl Medici.
4. Save your entry
To save your expense, simply confirm by tapping the tick button on the bottom of the screen or the top right corner. It will instantly appear in the expense list, graphs and sums.
5. Edit or delete an entry
After you have saved your expense, it will appear on the Expenses list inside the Toshl app. Tapping on an entry will display the expense details. Here, you can review the information of your entry and edit or delete it by selecting the appropriate option from the screen.
6. Transfers
Besides incomes and expenses you can also record a money transfer between two financial accounts. This option is available from the accounts and time span sidebar (mentioned in the section 2.4), which is accessible by clicking on the indicator of time span and accounts in the upper right corner or by swiping from the rightmost edge of the screen.
The “Add transfer” button is at the bottom of the screen.
Alternatively, you can also also drag the “+” button across the screen and release it near the right edge, when the icon turns grey, indicating a new transfer.
Entering the amount for a transfer works the same as with other inputs, except that the next step requires you to select two accounts. The first one is the source, and the second one the destination account.
Let’s say that you use your credit card to withdraw cash at an ATM. That withdrawal should be noted in Toshl as a transfer from the credit card account to cash account.
This time there are no categories or tags. Additional options include Description, Repeats and Reminders.
Confirm your transfer when ready. It will be shown under both incomes and expenses if all financial accounts are set to be displayed, and marked with a special transfer icon with two arrows. All transfers can be viewed, edited or deleted just like incomes and expenses.
If you filter the accounts to a single one, the transfer is displayed either in the expense or income list, based on whether it’s an outgoing or incoming transfer, relative to that financial account.
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