Overview

For years, I managed/tracked my expenses via Excel spreadsheet. It was good but since I developed a Wealth application I figured why not add Cash to it.
The Cash application tracks monthly expenditures as well as income. Using standard categorization allow us to track to averages (based on Stats Canada surveys).
Why use the Cash app?

• Easy to search for previous expenses
• Visualize a specific expense (like auto insurance) over time.
• How do I compare to national averages (pending)
• Will I have enough money to retire? I am retired, so it is a moot point but maybe not for you (pending)

It is time I included this:

Searching

I can argue the ability so search is the most useful feature. I often use it and it is one of the few features that is useful on my phone. Searching consists of the following categories

Hidden	Search for items that have been explicitly hidden
Category	Search on a Category, the result charts are based on that Category
Subcategory	Search on a Subcategory, if multiple categories have this subcatgory the results will reflect that.
Search From	Start on this date
Search Until	End by this date
Amount	Look for less than, greater than or equal to a specific amount
Description	Look in notes or description for an item

How to get started

Well that depends... If you already have data in a spreadsheet you can upload it. If you have a bank and/or credit card account with a decent interface you can download transactions as CSV files (Comma Seperated Values).
The Cash application stores each Item and allows you to categorize and subcategorize as you see fit. It also supports templates so that later imports will automatically categorize based on your prior instructions.

Upload CSV Files Formats - Default Columns

Date	Description	Amount	Category	Subcategory	Hidden	Details	Notes
2014-12-01	Cosco's GreenBank inc.	213.97	Housing	Other	false	0003	I bought too many tee shirts again!
Format must be YYYY-MM-DD	Text, usually the exact text on the bank account or credit card statement	Decimal number	Must be a valid Category	Must be a valid Subcategory	true or false	Other data from the statement	arbitrary note you add

You do not need to have all the columns, Date, Description and Amount are mandatory

Other than the default columns we support native uploads of CSV file export by: CIBC Bank statements and CIBC VISA statements, If you have another format you would like supported send along a sample CSV, and I'll do my best to add it.

Default Categories

Category	Subcategories
Food	Grocery	TakeOut	Dinning	Alcohol
Utilities	Water	Electricity	Heat	Telecom
Housing	Maintenance	Mortgage/Rent	Appliances/Furniture	Insurance	Taxes	Other
Healthcare	Medical	Dental	Insurance	Other
Recreation	Events	Computers/Tech	Streaming	Other	Insurance
Transportation	Fuel	Maintenance	Lease/Purchase	Insurance	Parking/Tolls	Fees	Public/Rental
Personal Care	Beauty	Fitness	Clothing	Other
Other	Education	Unknown	Taxes	Savings	Interest
Income	Salary	Commissions	Pensions	Government Programs	Investments	Refunds

You can always add your own categories via Personal Categories selection in the main Cash Menu dropdown (full screen only)

How do I maintain this once it is going

Once a month or whenever you feel like update fresh data.

Create templates

If you are shopping a certain stores often and they often have the same categorization then a template will make life easy. Templates can search from the beginning or the end of the description or even somewhere in the description and then assign categories / subcategories or even ignore/hide the records.
Templates are 'greedy', the first match wins, so If you have to templates that both satisfy the same search, the first will win.
Don't go crazy with templates. In fact, you may want to visit the template page and remove things you don't really use. They will slow down future imports.