Account balance & opening balance

Insights show the balance for each period: income minus expenses for that period alone. If you start using patchio in January, you often see a minus there – not because the account is empty, but because the rent goes out on the first and the salary only arrives at the end of the month. With an opening balance you tell patchio once how much money was there to begin with. That turns into the account balance figure.

How it works

You enter two things:

• the account balance – what was in the account on that date (a minus is fine, just write -320.50);
• the date – usually 31 December of the previous year. patchio suggests it for you.

The account balance in Insights is then: opening balance + everything booked after that date, up to the end of the selected period.

The date itself is not counted twice

The amount is the balance at the end of that day. So an entry from 31 December is already included – the calculation starts on 1 January. Otherwise that one entry would sit in the figure twice.

One opening balance per view

The opening balance belongs to the view selected at the top of Insights (see Insights):

• Shared: one opening balance for the whole household. Everyone sees it and everyone works with the same figure. Household admins can change it – as with the start month, because it shifts everyone's figures.
• Only me: your own opening balance. Only you see it, and you set it yourself – no admin rights needed.

You can set both; they do not get in each other's way.

Two different account balances

patchio knows this figure in two places, and they answer different questions:

• Here, in Insights: “What does my analysis start from?” The opening balance belongs to the view (Shared / Only me) and works with every entry that view shows, no matter which account it went through. If you keep several accounts, use the total of the accounts that flow into Insights.
• Under Accounts: “What is on THIS account?” There you enter an opening balance per bank account; it is calculated from the imported statement lines and the entries you assigned to that account.

The two do not get in each other's way. You can set both, one of them, or neither.

The history chart

Below the tile patchio draws the history: the balance at the end of each month. In the year period those are the months of that year, otherwise the last twelve months – in both cases only up to the current month, because a month that is not over yet has no month-end balance. Months before your date do not appear either – there is no balance for them at all. The dashed line is zero.

How this relates to the start month

If your Insights only begin with a certain month (start month, see Insights), the months before that are hidden. If your date lies before the start month, exactly that stretch of time is missing from the account balance. patchio then carries the figure forward from the start month and says so – in the dialog and below the figure. Cleanest is to put both at the same transition: date 31 December, start month January.

Good to know

• When you look at the current month, the account balance is a preview of the month end: the fixed costs from your contracts are already in there for the whole month.
• If you pick a period that ends before the date, the tile shows no figure but a note saying from when your opening balance applies.
• Remove only deletes the opening balance for that view. Your entries stay untouched, and the balance in Insights does not change because of it.
• The opening balance also appears on the Finances overview – as a small line under the monthly figures.