They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Also, a bird in the hand is supposedly worth two in the bush. Now, we are not exactly sure how much a picture of a bush is worth to a bird, or what’s the current exchange rate for bushes to ounces of gold, but if you’re going to buy some, you might as well add a photo of the receipt next to your records of expenses in the Toshl app. It never hurts to have things recorded in detail, especially when it comes to personal finances.

Remember that adding extra information to either incomes or expenses is done by following the same steps. We will present an example for an expense, but you would edit an income in the same way.

The option to save photos with expenses and incomes becomes available with Toshl Pro or Toshl Medici subscriptions.

1. Selecting the Photos feature

Let’s say that we’re saving an expense during a road trip through Norway. Also known as “the land of reasonable price tags”, the country’s landscape is laced with fjords, and we took a ferry ride to cross one. The price was 120 Norwegian krone (sign: kr, code: NOK), saved under the category “Transport”, paid in cash.

To get to the Photos feature, we click on the “Show more” button to reveal the additional options. Our selection is just on the bottom of the list.

2. Attaching a photo to your expense

Clicking on the “Photos” tab expands it to offer you two options for uploading your photo.

You can either drop it onto the window from your computer folder …

… or click on “Choose file” and select it from a folder on your device.

You can add up to 4 photos for each expense.

The entry can now be saved and the photos will be stored next to your income or expense.

The file formats supported for uploading images are PNG, JPG and JPEG.

3. Reviewing saved photos

Images are available for review in the entries’ details. Select the expense from the overall list …

… and click on it to bring up a detailed view.

You can also edit the entry at any time by adding more photos or removing them altogether.

Besided the receipts you can, for example, also attach photos of invoices and payslips next to your records of incomes. Add pictures of documents such as warranties of products you bought, invoices for tax review purposes, and photos of actual products and services you had just documented.

It’s always better to store too much info about your financial flows than too little, and it will give you a chance to come back to your entries at a later date and easily remember what those expenses and entries were about.

Related articles:

• Add and Track Your Data
• Venues and Locations
• Repeating Entries
• Reminders

Toshl monster can’t keep an eye on his expenses too well, but he’s definitely hooked on recording them all. With pictures!

Certain things tend to repeat themselves. Some are pleasant, like spring or holidays. Others, for instance utility bills and car payments, are more of a necessary evil.

Use the repeat option in the Toshl app to keep track of your reccurring expenses. You can set the interval so that the expenses repeat daily, weekly, monthly, or whenever you decide. Remember that adding extra information to either incomes or expenses is done in the same way. We will present an example for an expense, but you would edit an income following the same steps.

The option to repeat expenses, incomes and transfers automatically becomes available with Toshl Pro or Toshl Medici subscriptions.

Repeating entries are appropriate for use on financial accounts you otherwise track manually. Accounts that are connected to your bank, will add the entries automatically as they come in, so such repeating settings are not necessary there.

1. Selecting the Repeats tab

After adding the basic expense information, click “Show more” under the “Save” button to display the additional options.

The option to automatically repeat the entries is marked with an icon featuring the letter R in an arrowed circle.

2. Repeat options

2.1 Repeat intervals

The expense can be repeated:

• daily
• weekly
• monthly
• yearly
• on weekdays
• on weekends
• in a custom interval.

Click on the Repeat option and select a suitable interval from the menu.

The “Custom repeat” option allows you to set a repeat with an uncommon interval. For instance, you could use it to record your expense that would be paid in 10 instalments (partial payments) every other week. In that case you would set the custom repeat to 2 weeks, and end repeating after 10 times.

2.2 Ending the repeats

The repeats can go on forever until you stop them, stop after a certain date, or stop after a set number of repetitions. Select an option from the menu.

Selecting the repeating to stop after a certain date brings up a calendar.

The date picker functions in the same way as when you are selecting a date for your expense. That includes all the shortcuts, like clicking on a month label to bring up a quicker month selection …

… and clicking on the year label to display a year selection.

Date format can be adjusted in Settings, under the General tab. Check the Regional Settings tutorial for more information.

For a set number of repetitions simply enter a one or two digit number. The date of the final repeat will be displayed on the screen. Also, your first expense is included in the repeat count.

3. Automatic reminders

The weekly, monthly and yearly repeats, as well as the custom repeats (except custom daily repeats) will automatically set two reminders to notify you of an upcoming expense.

The first reminder is set on a day before the expense, and a second one on the day the expense is due. You can modify the reminders according to your needs, or cancel them altogether.

4. Managing repeating expenses

Entries that repeat automatically are marked with an “R” icon on your list of expenses. The set interval and a possible alert for the payment are included in their details.

4.1 Edit repeating expenses

You are able to edit, duplicate or delete such expenses in the same way as all other entries. However, you do have to specify if you wish to apply changes to only the expense you are editing, to all the repetitions of this expense, or just the expenses that are planned for the future.

A dialogue with these options also appears whenever you attempt to delete an entry with a set reminder.

After a repeating expense has been created, it is not possible to edit the overall repeat setting – with the exception of setting it to “Never” and cancelling the repetitions. For example, if an expense was set to repeat on the 10th every month, it cannot be changed to repeat on the 15th, or for instance switched from a monthly to a weekly repeat.

The date can be edited only for an individual expense inside the repeat frame, but the repeating for the expense will continue the way it was set initially.

4.2 Cancel repeating expenses

To permanently change the pattern of a recurring expense, you have to stop the expense from repeating and enter a new one with new repeating dates.

There are two ways of ending an existing repeat:

• edit the repeating expense on the date from when you’d like it to stop, and change the repeat setting to “Never”,

or

• edit the repeating expense by adjusting the date for “Stop repeating after”. As the change affects the entire repetition it will automatically apply to “All repetitions of expense”.

When modifying or deleting the entries with repeats, make sure not to delete all the repetitions of an expense, if you wish to keep the past entries in your record of expenses.

5. Examples for using repeats

5.1 Example: salary – repeating income

The most clear-cut example of a repeating income is the monthly salary. Let’s record a regular income of 1400 €, in a category “Salary”, for the financial account “General”. The event will be repeated monthly on the 15th, with a reminder on the day it’s due.

That is all you have to do to have your income automatically recorded and repeated. Simple.

5.2 Example: subscriptions – repeating expense

Another good example for the use of repeats are the subscription services. Let’s check the recurring expenses for a media streaming subscription for 7.99 € on the 12th each month, file hosting for 9.99 € on the 10th, and, most importantly, a monthly delivery of socks for 12.02 € on the 21st. These amonts will be billed on the credit card (be careful when selecting the appropriate financial account).

We will record them all under a category “Subscriptions” to further simplify the overview of our expenses later on. This way, they will all be listed together in the main expenses’ list.

5.3 Example: repeated transfers into a savings account

Repeats can also come in handy when managing your savings account.

Open up a new transfer tab (click on the “All accounts” tab in the upper right corner and select “Add transfer” option), enter the amount as well as the “Source” and “Destination” accounts – in our case that’s “General” and “Savings”. Proceed with the date, an optional description, the repeat setting, and a reminder.

This way the Toshl app will remind you each month, on the 16th, that 300 € is waiting to be transfered from your general financial account into savings.

5.4 Example: paying off debt in instalments – repeating expense

Let’s say that you bought a 750 € custom paint job for your car, as one of those impulse purchases. No reason to worry, here’s how you can quickly split your expense into, for instance, 3 instalments with a custom repeat every 3 weeks, for a total of 3 repeats for 250 € each.

Other great examples to use repeats with your incomes and expenses in Toshl include tracking of utility bills, rent, taxes, insurance, and many more.

6. In conclusion

With such versatile options, why not take advantage of the repeating entry function and include it into your monitoring of personal finances. A brief moment to consider possible patterns in your financial flows now could save you loads of time later on.

For additional information and, perhaps, inspiration on how you might be able to use repeats with your financial tracking, follow this link to learn more about tracking of loans, repaying debt, and shady loansharks.

Related articles:

• Add and Track Your Data
• Venues and Locations
• Reminders
• Photos

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 and expenses in the Toshl web app.

1. Add a new expense or income

Both options are located in the menu on the left side of the screen. Navigate to either one and click the large “+” button in the bottom right corner for a new entry; a red one for expenses and a green one for incomes.

Remember, after selecting either the income or expense, both 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

Click the “+” button in the bottom right corner and a new window will pop up. You can then enter the amount of the expense.

Use a decimal separator when necessary. Decimal separator is either a point or a comma. You can use either. Which one is used primarily in the forms and with the display of sums in Toshl depends on your regional formatting setting. Check the Regional Settings guide for more details.

Make sure to use the correct currency. Clicking the currency symbol, for example the $ or € sign‚ will open a menu with all the currencies available in Toshl. Whichever currency you used when saving the last expense will remain the default currency until you change it back.

It is possible to quickly switch between adding an income, expense or a transfer between accounts by using the shortcut on the top edge of the window. Simply select the option you need.

2.2 Categories

Click in the Category field to display and select one of the categories. Assigning a category is required for every entry.

While preset categories cover most types of expenses and incomes, you can always add your own and edit them according to your needs. Simply type in the title of your new category and confirm it by pressing Enter.

This new category will be stored after saving this entry and can be used with your future entries. Begin typing its name into the category window and it will be brought up automatically. This works for tags as well.

For further information check the Edit Categories and Tags guide.

At this point, you can already save your expense since all the required information – the amount, category, account and date – has already been entered or pre-set. You can also add additional details to your entry.

2.3 Tags

You also have an option to assign multiple tags to your entry. Use a tag like “groceries”, “restaurant”, “parking” and others to add further details to your entry.

Just like with categories, you can always add your own tag by typing it into the window and confirming the input with the Enter key. Unlike the categories which are limited to one per entry, multiple tags can be assigned to each income or expense. 

Once a category is selected, the tags are sorted automatically based on your category selection. Tags that were sorted into the category you selected will be displayed first, followed by all the rest. You can still use any tag with any category, but this will make 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. Consult the Edit Categories and Tags guide for more details.

2.4 Accounts

This option is displayed only if you use more than one financial account. In that case you will be given the option to specify an account for your expense.

When you sign up with Toshl, a Cash account is added automatically, but you can always add more. Check your accounts by clicking the “Accounts” button on the top right in the web app, or read more about adding financial accounts.

2.5 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 clicking on the set date and selecting a different one from the calendar. Any entries set in the future will be grouped as “planned” and displayed on top of the expense list.

Clicking on a month label brings up a quicker month selection.

Clicking on the year label displays a quicker year selection.

The date format can be adjusted in Settings, under the General tab. Check the Regional Settings tutorial for more information.

It is not possible to set the date picker to display Sunday as the first day of the week, it will always start on Monday.

3. Advanced options

Clicking the “Show more” bar on the bottom of the entry window displays the options for additional information and automation:

• Location
• Description
• Repeats
• Reminders
• Photos

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 the entry

To save, simply click the Save button to confirm and the expense will appear in the expense lists, graphs and other sums.

5. Edit, duplicate or delete an entry

After you have saved your expense, it will appear on the Expenses list inside the Toshl web app. Clicking on an entry will open the expense details tab on the right side of your screen. Here, you can review the details of your entry or edit, duplicate and delete it by choosing the appropriate option from the screen.

When you wish to store an expense that’s similar to a previous one, you can save yourself a few clicks by using a duplicate. Selecting this option will re-open the expense window with all the details. There you will be able to make all the modifications, for example change the amount, category or date, and save it as a new expense.

6. Transfers

Besides incomes and expenses you can also record a money transfer between two financial accounts. This option is accessible from a quick menu on the top upper edge of a new expense window (shown in section 2.1) or from the Accounts menu (described in section 2.4 a few paragraphs above).

After selecting the “Add transfer” option you are presented with a similar form as before, except that now you have 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 at an ATM to withdraw cash. That withdrawal should be noted in Toshl as a transfer from the credit card account to cash.

Entry fields function the same as before, except that there are no categories or tags. Additional options under “Show more” include Description, Repeats and Reminders.

When ready, confirm your transfer by clicking “Save”. Your transfer is now shown under both incomes and expenses if all financial accounts are set to display and marked with a special transfer icon with two arrows. 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.

Any transfer can be viewed, edited or duplicated just like incomes and expenses.

Related articles:

• Venues and Locations
• Repeating Entries
• Reminders
• Photos

Toshl monsters love nothing more than to help you keep track of your personal finances. And huge lollipops, yep, definitely love those.

The more information you keep on your earning and spending habits, the easier it is to take control of your personal finances. In the following paragraphs we will take a closer look on how to record where exactly your spending takes place.

Remember, adding extra information to either incomes or expenses is done in the same way. We’ll show you how to do this for an expense, but you would add location information to an income in an identical fashion.

1. Selecting the Location tab

After you have entered the amount for your expense and selected a category, click the “Show more” button on the bottom of the expense window.

Location option is the first optional feature in the extended view.

2. Entering the location details

Select the newly shown tab to receive a list of suggestions on your current location. This list depends on the location information that your web browser can obtain at the time. By default you will see the venues in your vicinity. If the location you’re searching for isn’t on the list, or if you are recording a past expense, enter it manually.

Let’s say that, for example, you bought a pair of running shoes. You can enter the store’s name and the app will provide a list of options. Another option is to enter the name of the venue, add a comma (,), and type in the town or city where the expense took place. Check this guide on the use of a comma with locations.

3. Reviewing locations

The Locations tab in the main menu displays a map with all the recorded expenses with stored locations. Clicking on a mark on the map brings up a bubble with the amount that was spent there.

From here you can review the expenses in detail just like in the main Expenses menu. Select an expense from the list to see additional information, as well as the exact location on a mini map.

If you wish to learn more about using locations with your incomes and expenses in the Toshl app, check our Location, Location, Location! guide.

Related articles:

• Add and Track Your Data
• Repeating Entries
• Reminders
• Photos