Core Concepts Overview
Arthalekha is built around a few core concepts that work together to provide a complete picture of your finances. Understanding these concepts will help you get the most out of the application.
The Big Picture
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ USER │
│ (owns everything) │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
│
┌───────────────────┼───────────────────┐
│ │ │
▼ ▼ ▼
┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐
│ ACCOUNTS │ │ PEOPLE │ │ TAGS │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ Bank │ │ Family │ │ Category │
│ Wallet │ │ members │ │ labels │
│ Credit │ │ │ │ │
└──────────┘ └──────────┘ └──────────┘
│ │ │
│ │ │
└─────────┬─────────┴─────────┬─────────┘
│ │
▼ ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────┐
│ TRANSACTIONS │
│ │
│ • Income (money in) │
│ • Expense (money out) │
│ • Transfer (between accounts) │
└──────────────────────────────────┘
│
▼
┌──────────────────────────────────┐
│ BALANCES │
│ │
│ Real-time + Historical records │
└──────────────────────────────────┘
Core Entities
Accounts
An Account represents any place where you keep money. This could be:
- A bank savings account
- A checking account
- A credit card
- A digital wallet (PayPal, Venmo, etc.)
- Cash on hand
- An investment account
- A loan account
Each account tracks its current balance and maintains a history of balances over time.
Transactions
Transactions are the financial movements that affect your accounts:
| Type | Description | Effect on Balance |
|---|---|---|
| Income | Money received | Increases account balance |
| Expense | Money spent | Decreases account balance |
| Transfer | Money moved between accounts | Decreases source, increases destination |
People
People represent the members of your household or group. When recording a transaction, you can optionally specify which person it's associated with:
- Who received the income?
- Who made the expense?
This helps track individual spending patterns within a family or group.
Tags
Tags provide a flexible way to categorize your transactions. Unlike rigid category systems, tags let you organize transactions in whatever way makes sense for you:
- By category (Food, Transport, Entertainment)
- By project (Home Renovation, Vacation)
- By status (Essential, Optional)
- Or any combination
Balances
Arthalekha maintains two types of balance information:
- Current Balance - The real-time balance of each account, updated with every transaction
- Historical Balances - Monthly snapshots of account balances for tracking changes over time
Recurring Transactions
For transactions that happen regularly (salary, rent, subscriptions), you can set up recurring transactions. These serve as templates that:
- Help you track expected future transactions
- Enable accurate balance projections
- Can be configured for any frequency (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.)
Learn more about Recurring Transactions →
How It All Works Together
- You create accounts for each place you keep money
- You add people to represent family/group members
- You create tags to categorize your transactions
- You record transactions (incomes, expenses, transfers) as they happen
- Balances update automatically based on your transactions
- You set up recurring transactions for regular items
- Projections show future balances based on recurring transactions
- Switch to Family Mode to see consolidated data from all family members
Viewing Modes
Arthalekha supports two viewing modes:
Individual Mode (Default)
- View and manage only your personal data
- Full create, edit, and delete capabilities
- Use for daily transaction entry
Family Mode
- View consolidated data from all family members
- Read-only access (no editing)
- Perfect for family finance reviews and analysis
- Toggle using the mode switch in the navigation bar
The Balance Formula
For any account, the balance is calculated as:
Balance = Initial Balance
+ Total Incomes
- Total Expenses
+ Transfers In
- Transfers Out
This calculation happens automatically whenever you record a transaction.