How do you find a past expense? Searching by word, date, account, category and tag

Which fields does search look at?

The search box checks a record's note, its category and parent category, its account name, the other account's name for a transfer, and its tags. Type "fuel" and you get records with fuel in the note as well as records in a Fuel category. Because it also checks the parent category, searching "transport" finds the Fuel and Public transport records filed under Transport.

If you type several words, a record has to contain all of them. "grocery discount" brings only records where both words appear; they can sit in different places, one in the category and one in the note. Upper and lower case make no difference, and neither do Turkish letters: typing "cay" also finds a note that says "çay".

What does search not find?

Amounts are not searched. Typing "450" finds a record with 450 in its note, not a 450 dollar expense. If you remember the amount but not what it was, narrow the date range and scan the list.

A record without a note can only be found by its category, account and tag names. A short note on records you may look for months later, such as the shop or the bill's name, turns that later search into a few seconds.

What do the filters do?

Opening the Filters section under the search box shows these fields:

• The Start and End dates draw a range by the date written on the record. Fill in only one and you get everything after that day or everything up to it.
• The account filter brings the records of that account, including transfers into it.
• The category filter brings the chosen category together with its subcategories. Choosing Transport covers Fuel and Public transport too.
• The tag filter brings the records that carry that tag.
• The type filter keeps only Expense, Income, Transfer or Debt records.

The totals of what was found

After a search, the number of records found and three totals appear above the list: income, expense and net. The totals are in your main currency; records in foreign currency accounts are added at their value on the day they were entered. Transfers are left out, because they are neither income nor expense.

That total answers many questions in one go. How much have you spent on taxis since January? Type taxi, set Start to 1 January and read the expense total. What did last summer's holiday cost? Choose the holiday tag and leave the box and the dates empty.

The list shows at most 200 records. If more match, "showing the first 200" appears next to the count. The count and the totals still cover every match, not only the 200 shown.

Month view versus search

With the search box and the dates empty, the Transactions page shows a single month and the arrows move to the months before and after. In this view the account, category, tag and type filters work inside that month. As soon as you enter a word or a date, the page leaves the month and searches your whole history.

The Clear link removes the words and dates and keeps the filters you chose, so you go back to the month view with the same filters.

Example: a year of health spending

Say you want to know what you spent on medicine and doctor visits in a year. Open the filters, choose the category you use for health costs, set Start to 1 January and End to 31 December, set the type to Expense and press Apply. The expense total is that year's health spending, and the list shows each bill. To compare with the year before, move both dates back a year and press Apply again. If you want the same records in a spreadsheet, download everything as CSV and filter it in Excel; the export guide explains how.

Which plan includes this?

Pro includes word search and date ranges. Every new account gets 14 days of Pro without a card; after that Pro is $39.99 a year or $6.99 a month. The free plan has 1 account and 30 records a month. Details are on the pricing page. On the free plan you move through the Transactions page month by month and the filters work inside that month.