Archiving and Protected Deletion

Finerdy protects your financial history by preventing accidental deletion of accounts, categories, and tags that have associated transactions. Instead, you can archive items you no longer use.

Protected Deletion

You cannot directly delete accounts, categories, or tags that have transactions linked to them.

Why this protection exists

Deleting an account, category, or tag with transactions would leave orphaned data and corrupt your financial history. Imagine deleting your "Cash" account—all those transactions would no longer make sense.

What gets protected

Archive Instead of Delete

The solution is archiving. When you archive an item, it becomes hidden from regular use but preserves all historical data.

What happens when you archive

• Disappears from lists: Won't show in the main accounts list or in the dropdowns when creating new transactions, transfers, or exchanges
• Hidden from active view: Main lists only show active items
• Accessible in archive: View all archived items in a dedicated section
• History intact: All past transactions remain untouched
• Reversible: Unarchive anytime to restore it

How to archive

For accounts: 1. Go to the Accounts list 2. Open the account's actions menu (⋮) 3. Select "Archive" 4. Confirm

For categories and tags: 1. Go to settings or the item's edit page 2. Select "Archive" 3. Confirm

What archiving an account affects

• Account lists & selectors: The account stops appearing in the main accounts list and in the selectors used to create new transactions, transfers, and exchanges.
• Dashboard & net worth: The balance of an archived account is excluded from your dashboard totals and net worth.
• Editing old transactions: If you edit an older transaction that already used the archived account, the account stays visible in that selector so you can still save your changes. Archiving never breaks existing transactions.
• Transaction history: Every transaction tied to the account stays intact and keeps showing in reports and history.

Viewing Archived Items

Archived items are not deleted—they're just hidden from normal view.

How to see archived items

For accounts: 1. Go to the Accounts list 2. Tap "Archived accounts" 3. View all archived accounts

For categories and tags: 1. Go to Settings 2. Navigate to Categories or Tags 3. Toggle "Show Archived" or select the "Archived" tab 4. View all archived items

What you can do with archived items

Unarchiving

Changed your mind? Unarchiving is simple and instant.

How to unarchive

1. View archived items (see previous section). For accounts, open the "Archived accounts" page from the Accounts list.
2. Select the item you want to restore
3. Tap "Unarchive"
4. The item returns to active status immediately

When you unarchive an account, it reappears in the main accounts list, in the transaction/transfer/exchange selectors, and its balance is once again included in your dashboard totals and net worth.

Transfer and Delete

If you really need to delete an account, category, or tag with transactions, you can transfer all associated transactions to another item first.

How it works

1. Select the item you want to delete
2. Choose "Delete with transfer"
3. Select a destination item of the same type
4. All transactions transfer to the new item
5. The original item is permanently deleted

Transfer rules

For accounts: - Can only transfer to another account with the same currency - Transfers, exchanges, and corrections are also moved - Balance of the destination account updates accordingly

For categories: - Can only transfer to another category of the same type (income or expense) - All budgets linked to transactions will update

For tags: - Can transfer to any other tag - Tags are cross-cutting, so no restrictions

API Examples

If you're integrating with the Finerdy API, here's how archiving and deletion work:

Archive an account

PUT /accounts/{id}
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "archived": true
}

Unarchive an account

PUT /accounts/{id}
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "archived": false
}

Delete with transfer

DELETE /accounts/{id}
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "transfer_to_account_id": 123
}

Same pattern for categories and tags

PUT /categories/{id}
{ "archived": true }

DELETE /categories/{id}
{ "transfer_to_category_id": 456 }

PUT /tags/{id}
{ "archived": true }

DELETE /tags/{id}
{ "transfer_to_tag_id": 789 }

Common Scenarios

Scenario 1: Old bank account you no longer use

Situation: You closed your "Chase Checking" account and moved to a new bank.

Best approach: 1. Archive the old account 2. Your historical transactions remain visible in reports 3. The account won't appear when creating new transactions, transfers, or exchanges 4. Its balance no longer skews your dashboard totals or net worth

Don't: Transfer and delete—you'll lose the historical context.

Scenario 2: Duplicate categories

Situation: You have both "Groceries" and "Supermarket" categories and want to consolidate.

Best approach: 1. Choose which category to keep (e.g., "Groceries") 2. Transfer and delete the duplicate (e.g., "Supermarket") 3. All past transactions now use "Groceries"

Why: This actually fixes data inconsistency.

Scenario 3: Temporary project tag

Situation: You used "renovation-2024" to track home renovation expenses, and the project is done.

Best approach: 1. Archive the tag 2. Reports can still filter by this tag for historical analysis 3. Won't clutter your active tag list

Don't: Delete it—you might want to reference those costs later.

Best Practices

1. Archive instead of delete

Unless you're consolidating duplicates or fixing errors, always prefer archiving. It's reversible and preserves context.

2. Review before transfer

Before using "transfer and delete," review a few transactions to ensure the destination item makes sense.

3. Use descriptive names

If you have similar accounts or categories, clear names help you choose the right transfer destination: - Good: "Chase Checking (Closed 2024)" - Bad: "Bank Account 2"

4. Archive periodically

Every few months, review your accounts, categories, and tags. Archive anything you haven't used recently.

5. Don't fear archiving

Archiving is low-risk. If you archive something by mistake, unarchiving takes 2 seconds.

Summary

Next steps

Learn about other features: - Transactions - How to record income, expenses, transfers, and more - Corrections - How to adjust account balances - Budgets - Control spending by category