What are transactions all about?

Transactions are what Banktivity uses to store the bulk of your financial data. Transactions are kept under each account you set up, and they represent deposits, withdrawals, transfers, and all other financial exchanges that take place in real life and normally appear on statements from your financial institution. For example, a visit to the ATM, an online account transfer, a grocery store purchase made with a debit card, and a check written to pay a bill can all be recorded in Banktivity as transactions.

View the account register

When you select an account in the sidebar, its transactions are displayed in a table to the right. If you see a statement list or an Account Summary report, click the "Transactions" button at the top of the main window to show the register:

The account register is designed to look similar to the kind of check register that you keep with your checkbook. Each pair of lines represents a single transaction. Selecting a transaction and pressing the "Enter" key on your keyboard (or double-clicking it) reveals additional details about the transaction and allows you to modify it using the using the transaction editor:

Select multiple transactions in the register using Shift-click or Command-click, and the total value of those transactions will be shown at the bottom right corner of the register.

Open multiple windows

To open the register for a particular account in a separate window, select the account in the sidebar and choose View > Open In New Window. This allows you to view and edit the transactions in that account while performing other tasks in the main window. Other features support this command as well, e.g. budgets and reports.

Sort the register

At the top of the register is a series of column headings that identify the information shown in each transaction:

To sort the register, click a column heading; the transactions will automatically sort according to the values in that column. For example, if you want to sort your transactions chronologically, click "Date." Click the column header a second time to reverse the direction of the sort. Sorting can also be controlled by using the View > Sort Transactions By menu.

The balance column will always calculate its figures in chronological order, regardless of how your transactions are sorted. If you want the balance column to display in logical fashion, be sure to sort your transactions according to date.

When the account register is sorted chronologically, transactions that share the same date can be rearranged by dragging and dropping them in whatever order you prefer.

Print the register

Choose File > Print and click the "Print" button to print out a report showing the details of the transactions in the current account register. You can also use the "PDF" button in the print window to save the report to a PDF file.

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