BananaBird

What Are Expenses?

Expenses let you track money you spend over time, from recurring bills and subscriptions to occasional or one-time purchases.

Unlike Accounts, Assets, and Income, Expenses are not tied to Snapshots. Expense activity is recorded separately using dated entries and recurring rules.

This allows you to update expenses whenever they occur without waiting for your next financial snapshot.

Creating an Expense

To create an expense, open the Expenses page and select Add Expense.

Name
A recognizable name for the expense, such as Internet, Property Tax, or Netflix.

Vendor
The company, organization, or person you normally pay.

Account Code
Optional information you can use to record an account, customer, reference, or other identifying code associated with the expense.

Website
An optional link to the vendor or service website for quick access from BananaBird.

Description
Optional notes or other information you want to keep with the expense.

Organizing Expenses

BananaBird provides several ways to organize expenses so you can review related spending together.

Bucket
A broad classification of the importance or flexibility of the expense: Essential, Important, or Discretionary.

Category
A general spending category such as Housing, Groceries, Transportation, Insurance, Travel, or Utilities.

Group
An optional custom grouping you can use to associate related expenses in a way that makes sense for you.

Selecting a Bucket, Category, or Group from the Expenses table opens a grouped view showing those expenses together along with their combined totals and spending over time.

Expense Types

Every expense has a type that determines how its amounts are recorded and resolved.

Manual
Use Manual when you want to record each expense amount yourself. Each entry has its own date and amount, and can also include a note.

Estimate
Use Estimate when you want to represent a recurring expense with a reasonable expected amount rather than track every individual transaction.

For example, you might estimate groceries at $300 per month. The actual amount may vary from month to month, but the estimate may be accurate enough for the level of tracking you want.

Automatic
Use Automatic for recurring expenses where the amount is generally known and relatively stable.

For example, a subscription that costs $20 per month and rarely changes is a good candidate for an Automatic expense.

Estimate and Automatic expenses currently behave similarly in BananaBird: both use a recurring amount and frequency. The distinction is primarily about how you think about the expense - an approximate amount versus a known recurring amount.

“Automatic” refers to how BananaBird generates the recurring expense from the rule you provide. It does not mean BananaBird connects to your bank or automatically imports transactions.

Frequency

Frequency describes how often an expense normally occurs. Available options include weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, annually, and ad hoc.

Recurring frequencies allow BananaBird to determine future expense dates and calculate recurring expense activity over time.

Use Ad hoc for expenses that do not follow a regular schedule. Estimate and Automatic expenses require a recurring frequency rather than Ad hoc.

Terms & Renewals

Some expenses continue indefinitely, while others are tied to a contract or agreement that renews or expires on a specific date. BananaBird lets you record this separately from the expense's payment frequency.

Ongoing
Use Ongoing when the expense does not have a known renewal or expiry date. A typical month-to-month subscription may fit this category if there is no contract term you need to track.

Term - Auto-renews
Use this when the expense is tied to a term that will automatically renew on a known date unless you take action. Enter the upcoming renewal date so BananaBird can remind you before it arrives.

Term - Expires
Use this when the expense or agreement ends on a known date rather than renewing automatically. Enter the expiry date so BananaBird can surface it as the date approaches.

Frequency and term describe different things. Frequency describes how often you normally pay the expense, while the term describes whether the underlying agreement continues, renews, or expires.

For example, an insurance policy might be paid monthly but have an annual renewal date. Its Frequency would be Monthly, while its Expense Term could be Term - Auto-renews.

Expense Reminders

BananaBird can show reminders on your Dashboard when certain expenses may need attention.

Overdue Manual Expenses
For active, recurring Manual expenses, BananaBird uses the expense frequency and the date of your most recent entry to determine when another entry would normally be expected.

If the expected date passes and the expense remains overdue beyond your configured grace period, BananaBird can display an Expense overdue reminder on your Dashboard.

Unused Expenses
BananaBird can also remind you about an active expense that has never had an entry or recurring rule associated with it. If the expense remains unused for 45 days after it was created, an Expense unused reminder can appear on your Dashboard.

Term Renewal & Expiry Reminders
For active expenses configured with an auto-renewal or expiry date, BananaBird can display a Dashboard reminder as the term date approaches.

You can choose how many days in advance these reminders begin appearing. You can also enable email reminders for upcoming Expense renewals and expiries.

Overdue-entry reminders apply to recurring Manual expenses. Term reminders are separate and can apply to any active Expense with an auto-renewal or expiry date.

You can manage expense reminder settings from your Profile Reminders section.

Recording Expense Entries

Expense entries are dated independently of your snapshots. You can add an entry whenever an expense occurs or whenever its recurring amount changes.

For Manual expenses, an entry records the actual date and amount. Manual entries may also include a note.

For Estimate and Automatic expenses, dated entries establish recurring rules. A newer rule can take effect from a later date, allowing the recurring amount to change over time without rewriting earlier expense history.

Manual Entries for Recurring Expenses

Estimate and Automatic expenses can also contain Manual entries. This is useful when a particular occurrence differs from the normal recurring amount.

When BananaBird resolves the most recent expense information, it considers both the recurring rule and any Manual entries. A Manual entry takes precedence when it is the more recent applicable entry, including when both occur on the same date.

Closing an Expense

If an expense no longer applies, enter a Closed Date.

The expense remains part of your historical records, but it is treated as inactive after that date. Entries cannot be added after the expense's closed date.

Understanding the Expenses Page

The Expenses page brings your expense definitions, recorded amounts, trends, and upcoming activity together.

Expense List

The main table shows each expense's Bucket, Category, Group, Type, Frequency, most recent entry date, and most recent amount. Expenses with upcoming renewal or expiry dates also display a status indicator so approaching term dates are easier to notice. Inactive expenses can be displayed using the Show Inactive option.

Expense Totals

BananaBird summarizes expense activity over several time periods so you can compare total spending and average weekly spending across different ranges.

Expenses Over Time

The Expenses Over Time chart shows how your tracked spending changes over time.

Upcoming Expenses

The Upcoming Expenses section looks ahead over the next three months and shows the next expected occurrence of recurring expenses.

How Upcoming Expenses Work

For recurring Estimate and Automatic expenses, BananaBird can project both the next expected date and amount using the current recurring rule.

For recurring Manual expenses, BananaBird can project the next expected date from the most recent entry and the configured frequency, but it does not assume what the next amount will be.

Ad hoc expenses are not projected because they do not have a recurring schedule.

Viewing an Individual Expense

Selecting an expense opens its detail page, where you can review the most recent amount, when it was last updated, and the running total recorded for that expense.

The page also includes period summaries, an Expense Over Time chart, general information, and the complete history of entries and recurring rules associated with the expense.

Entries in the History section can be edited or deleted independently of any Snapshot.

If the Expense has a renewal or expiry term, its term type and date are also shown on the detail page, along with how far away the date is.

Expenses