Basic concepts
Before you start using Finerdy, it's important to understand the fundamental concepts that organize your finances.
Accounts
An account represents any place where you keep money:
- Bank accounts (checking, savings)
- Digital wallets (PayPal, Wise, Venmo)
- Cash
- Cryptocurrencies
- Investments
Account properties
Each account has:
- Name - How you identify it (e.g., "Chase Bank", "Cash USD")
- Currency - The currency it operates in (USD, EUR, ARS, etc.)
- Balance - The current balance, automatically calculated from transactions
Supported currencies
Finerdy supports the following currencies:
| Code | Currency |
|---|---|
| USD | US Dollar |
| EUR | Euro |
| GBP | British Pound |
| ARS | Argentine Peso |
| BRL | Brazilian Real |
| MXN | Mexican Peso |
| CLP | Chilean Peso |
| COP | Colombian Peso |
| CAD | Canadian Dollar |
| AUD | Australian Dollar |
| CHF | Swiss Franc |
| JPY | Japanese Yen |
| CNY | Chinese Yuan |
Important notes about accounts
- An account can only have one currency.
- The balance is automatically calculated by summing all transactions.
- You cannot change an account's currency after creating it (you'd need to create a new one).
Categories
Categories organize your transactions by type of income or expense.
Category types
Each category belongs to a transaction type:
| Type | Use |
|---|---|
| Income | Money coming in (Salary, Sales, Freelance) |
| Expense | Money going out (Groceries, Utilities, Transportation) |
Transfers and currency exchanges don't use categories.
Category examples
For income: - Salary - Freelance - Sales - Investments - Other income
For expenses: - Groceries - Utilities (electricity, gas, internet) - Transportation - Entertainment - Health - Education
Tips for categories
- Don't create too many categories. 10-15 is usually enough.
- Categories are per workspace, so each context can have its own.
- You can create new categories at any time.
Categories vs Tags
Categories and tags are two complementary ways to organize your transactions, but they work differently.
Categories: vertical classification
Categories function as a vertical classification: each transaction belongs to a single category. It's an exclusive organization.
Categories
├── Food
├── Transportation
├── Utilities
└── Entertainment
If you buy something at the grocery store, it goes in the "Food" category. It can't be in two categories at once.
Tags: cross-cutting grouping
Tags function as a cross-cutting grouping: they can span multiple categories. A transaction can have multiple tags.
Tag "vacation-2025"
├── Hotel (category: Lodging)
├── Restaurant (category: Food)
├── Flight (category: Transportation)
└── Tour (category: Entertainment)
All these expenses share the "vacation-2025" tag, even though each has its own category.
Practical example
Imagine you want to track expenses for a trip to Miami:
| Expense | Category | Tags |
|---|---|---|
| Hotel | Lodging | vacation, miami-2025 |
| Uber to airport | Transportation | vacation, miami-2025 |
| Restaurant dinner | Food | vacation, miami-2025 |
| Museum entry | Entertainment | vacation, miami-2025 |
With categories, you can see how much you spend on food overall (including your daily life and vacations).
With tags, you can filter "miami-2025" and see the total trip cost, regardless of which categories the expenses fell into.
When to use each
| Need | Use |
|---|---|
| Classify an expense by type | Category |
| Group expenses for a project or event | Tag |
| See totals by category (food, transportation) | Category |
| See totals by context (vacation, work) | Tag |
| Monthly reports by expense type | Category |
| Track a specific goal | Tag |
Reference currency
The reference currency (or base currency) is Finerdy's most important concept.
What is it?
It's the currency in which you want to see all your consolidated reports. When you have accounts in different currencies, Finerdy converts everything to your reference currency so you can see:
- Your total net worth
- How much you earned this month (summing income in different currencies)
- How much you spent (summing expenses in different currencies)
How does it work?
- When creating a workspace, you choose your reference currency.
- Each transaction stores two values:
- The original amount in the account's currency
- The reference amount converted to your base currency
- Reports use the reference amount to sum everything.
Practical example
Let's say your reference currency is USD:
Expense 1: 100 EUR (euro account)
→ Converted: 108 USD (at that day's exchange rate)
Expense 2: 50 USD (dollar account)
→ Converted: 50 USD
Expense 3: 10,000 ARS (peso account)
→ Converted: 10 USD (at that day's exchange rate)
Month total: 168 USD
Can I change my reference currency?
The reference currency is defined when creating the workspace and cannot be changed afterward. This is intentional: changing it would require recalculating all historical transactions with exchange rates that might not be available.
If you need a different reference currency, create a new workspace.
Next steps
Now that you understand the basic concepts, learn about the different transaction types.