A pre-transaction is an expense you already know is coming but which hasn't left the account yet: March's car tax, the quoted renovation, the trip you've already decided on. It has an expected amount and date, and stays pending until one of two outcomes — becoming a real entry or being discarded.
The fields
| Field | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Description | Required. It is how you will recognize the pre-transaction on the main screen and in search. |
| Expected amount | How much you expect to spend. It can be an estimate — the point is to size the commitment, not to nail the cents. |
| Expected date | Sets which month the pre-transaction appears in. It is what gives "it's coming" a when. |
| Category | Where it lives. Only categories you can create content in show up in the list. |
| Status | Pending, Applied to transaction or Discarded — the entire lifecycle lives here. |
| Show on the main screen | New pre-transactions start hidden from the main screen, so they don't compete with what has already happened. Turn it on when you want the reminder in sight. |
The three statuses
- Pending — the initial state. The expense is expected and hasn't happened yet.
- Applied to transaction — the expense happened and you linked it to the matching real entry. From then on the pre-transaction displays the linked transaction — date, description and amount — with a shortcut to open it.
- Discarded — the expense is not going to happen. Discarding preserves the record that it was planned, which is more honest — and more useful — than deleting.
A discarded pre-transaction still answers "what did I plan and not do". Deleted, it answers nothing. Use "Show inactive" in the annotations list to revisit discarded ones.
From plan to reality
- Create the pre-transaction as soon as the decision is made. Don't wait for the date: the whole value of a pre-transaction is in occupying space in the month before the money leaves.
- When the expense happens, record the entry normally. By hand or through import — it makes no difference to the pre-transaction.
- Go back to the pre-transaction and set the status to Applied. It starts pointing to the real transaction and stops being an open forecast.
The shortcut through a text annotation
You don't have to choose the type up front. Create a Text annotation, write (or dictate) the full sentence with amount and date — "pay the car tax 1,240.00 on 15/03/2026" — and on save the app recognizes both and promotes the annotation to a pre-transaction by itself. If there is only a date and no amount, it becomes a reminder instead.
Where they show up
- In the category, alongside the other annotations — filterable by the "Pre-transactions" type.
- In global search, by ticking "Include annotations": they appear interleaved with real entries in the same date order, which is the most direct way to compare planned versus actual.
- On the main screen, if you turned the display on.
Pre-transaction, reminder or budget?
| If you want… | Use |
|---|---|
| to record a future expense with an amount and follow it until it materializes | Pre-transaction |
| to simply not forget to do something by a certain date | Reminder |
| to compare price options before deciding | Budget |
| to be warned when a total amount is crossed in the category | Budget Limit |