Guides

Correct mistakes

A work in progress — some sections are written, others are still being filled in.

A typo does not trap you. You can edit an amount, date or account in place — a correction keeps the original effective date, so your as-of history stays true — re-categorise a transaction into a different bucket, or remove one entirely. Nothing here is a reset button; each is a small, reversible edit that leaves the rest of your record intact.

Fix a wrong amount, date or account

Open the transaction from Activity and edit the field. A correction is recorded against the original effective date, not today’s, so a balance you look up “as of” any past date stays correct. The transaction keeps its identity — if it came from a bank import and was reconciled, it stays matched to that statement line after the fix.

Re-categorise into a different bucket

Pointing a spend at a different bucket moves only the envelope side; the cash fact — which account the money left, and when — is untouched. This is the everyday correction: money that should have come from Groceries went to Eating out. Move it, and both bucket balances settle without disturbing the account.

Rename or annotate the description

Every transaction has one description — the headline line you see in Activity. On an imported row it starts as the bank’s own text, which is often a cryptic payee string. When you have worked out what an unrecognised charge actually was, you can rewrite the description to something you will recognise later — or simply add to it — and that is exactly what it is there for.

Editing the description is safe against your bank. When a row is imported, Duration records a fixed key for that statement line and matches future imports against that key — not against the text you see. So renaming or annotating a description never causes the same line to come back as a duplicate the next time you import an overlapping date range. Reconciliation looks at the money — amount, date, account — never at the words. (If you would rather keep the bank’s original wording and add your own, just append to it rather than replacing it.)

Note what a split share was for

When you split one payment across several buckets — an instant transfer to a partner covering a coffee, some clothes for the children, and a shared bill in one line — the destination bucket already says a lot about each share. Where it does not say enough, you can attach an optional note to an individual slice, so “220” against the kids’ clothing bucket can carry “winter boots” alongside it. A note belongs to that one slice, not to the whole transaction; leave it blank whenever the bucket is explanation enough.

Remove a transaction

Removing an entry takes it out of every balance it touched, cleanly. If it was reconciled against a bank import, re-importing that statement will simply bring the line back — the record follows the bank, not a deletion you might not have meant.

For restructuring rather than fixing — re-homing a bucket, rethinking horizons — see changing course.

Last reviewed: July 2026.