Your first week
You have accounts and some transactions. This guide walks through a day-by-day rhythm for everyday use: reviewing what came in, learning Saved Views, and checking Spending and Budgets.
If you still need to add your first account, start with First steps on Home instead.
Before you start
- At least one account exists
- You have brought in transactions (import, bank sync, or manual entry)
- You can open Transactions, Spending, and Budgets in the left navigation
A rough category tree is enough on day one. Accuracy improves as you review a little each day.
Day 1 — Clear what just came in
New money usually arrives through file import or bank sync. Your first job is to make that data trustworthy.
1. Work the Review queue
Under Transactions, open Review queue. It lists items that need a category decision — uncategorized rows and low-confidence suggestions.
For each item, Accept the suggestion, Change to the right category, or Dismiss to leave it for later. Bulk Accept selected helps when many rows look correct.
2. Check Transfer review
Still under Transactions, open Transfer review. After imports, Big Picture Money suggests pairs that look like the same money moving between your accounts (for example a credit card payment).
Accept real pairs so they stay out of spending totals. Dismiss bad suggestions, or change the category when a row is ordinary spending that only looked like a transfer.
See Review transfer suggestions.
3. Skim the register
Open Transactions (or a pinned account view — see below). Sort or filter to recent dates and scan for anything odd: wrong payee, missing split, duplicate-looking rows. Fix a few now; you can refine rules later.
Home may also show an Action required strip when import follow-up, categorization, or transfers still need attention.
Day 2 — Learn Saved Views (your reusable registers)
The Transactions page is a filterable register. A view is a named, saved set of filters — plus the column layout and sort you want — so you can reopen the same register with one click.
| Concept | What it is |
|---|---|
| Transactions | The register itself — browse, edit, categorize |
| A view | A bookmark for "show me this slice of the register" |
| Pinned view | That bookmark in the left navigation under Views |
When you create an account, Big Picture Money automatically creates a pinned view named after that account. Opening Main Checking in the nav is opening that account's register — filters, columns, and all.
Common views people add later:
- Uncategorized this month
- One credit card with running balance
- Large purchases above a threshold
- Recent bank sync imports
Use Spending when you want a chart-first answer ("where did grocery money go?"). Use Views when you want a list you return to and edit often. Both read the same transaction data.
More detail: Views · Manage views
Day 3 — Check in on Spending
Open Spending. You get a category donut for the period, filters for date/account/tag/payee, and the transactions behind the chart.
A short check-in:
- Set the date range to this month (or last month if you are catching up).
- Notice which slices are largest — and whether Uncategorized is bigger than you like.
- Click a slice to drill in; fix miscategorized rows from the list when something looks wrong.
This is how you learn whether categories and rules are working before you trust budget numbers. See View spending by category and Fix spending from a chart.
Day 4 — Check in on Budgets (when you are ready)
Budgets answer "am I on track this month?" after you have set targets. If you have not set up a budget yet, skim Set up a monthly budget and create a light plan for a few high-impact categories (groceries, dining, gas). Start with those; add more categories as you go.
When a budget exists:
- Open Budgets and look at the tracking screen for the current month.
- Read Actual vs Target and the progress cues for each category you track.
- Click a category row with activity to jump into the matching transactions.
Budgets are monthly habits. Longer outcomes (house fund, checking cushion) belong in Goals — see below.
A simple ongoing rhythm
After the first few days, most people settle into something like this:
| When | What to do |
|---|---|
| After each import or sync | Review queue → Transfer review → quick register skim |
| A few times a week | Open Spending for this month; fix anything that looks off |
| Weekly or mid-month | Open Budgets (and Home) to see whether you are on track |
| When curiosity strikes | Explore Goals, Reports, Chat, and rules (next section) |
Home is your at-a-glance board — net worth, spending trend, budget snippets, and goals — once accounts exist. See Dashboard.
Additional things to explore
When the daily review feels comfortable, try these when you have time:
| Explore | Why it helps | Start here |
|---|---|---|
| Goals | Track longer outcomes — savings targets and balance floors — separate from monthly budgets | Goals · Create a savings goal |
| Reports | Formal period views: spending, income vs expense, balance and net worth over time | Reports |
| Categories & Rules | Teach the app your payees so the Review queue stays short | Categorization · Create a categorization rule |
| Chat (optional AI) | Ask questions about your data, or get help proposing review actions — only after you enable AI in Settings | Using AI Chat |
| Account reconciliation | Align a register to a statement when you want bank-tight accuracy | Reconcile an account |
| Export and backup | Keep a spare copy of your data file on your schedule | Export and backup |
Week one is mostly reviewing imports, learning views, and checking Spending (then Budgets). The rest can wait until that rhythm feels natural.
Expected result
After following this guide you should be able to:
- Clear new imports through Review queue and Transfer review
- Explain what a Saved View is and open a pinned account register from the left navigation
- Use Spending to see where money went this month and fix obvious miscategorization
- Open Budgets to read month-to-date progress once targets exist
- Know where to look next for Goals, Reports, rules, and optional Chat