Totals look wrong

If a total from your AI or the Reports page doesn't match your bank, comes back as two numbers, or leaves something out, it is usually right for what it counts. For how reports work, see get any report by asking your AI.

Why it happens

Transfers are left out

Spending and cash flow totals leave out transfers between your own accounts. Your bank statement and balances include them, so the figures differ by the amount transferred. When a spending total leaves transfers out, Pennyweight tells your AI how many and their total, so it can explain the gap.

A transaction is left out when it is linked to its other side as a transfer, as a full refund, or as the duplicate side of one purchase recorded twice. An unlinked transaction is left out only when its category is exactly Transfer, Transfer_In or Transfer_Out, in any letter case. Transfer In (with a space) or Bank Transfer is ordinary spending. A card payment or move between your accounts that is neither linked nor categorized as Transfer counts as spending, making the total higher. See transfers explained and link the two sides of a transfer.

Refunds show as money in

A cash flow report decides money in and money out by sign. A refund that isn't matched to its purchase, or is only partly matched, counts as money in rather than lowering your spending. See match a refund to its purchase.

You hold more than one currency

Pennyweight never converts the amounts it stores. When a total inside one ledger covers dollars and euros, your AI gets a separate sum for each currency, so you see two numbers. A spending total also carries a sum that adds the amounts as they are, flagged as mixed. That sum isn't an amount in any currency. A cash flow report for one ledger gives no combined figure for a period that mixes currencies. See accounts and totals in more than one currency.

Cash flow for all your ledgers combined keeps the per-currency figures and adds one figure converted into your display currency, with the rate's date. To change that currency, see choose the currency for totals across ledgers. If amounts in yen or won look 100 times too large, see fix foreign-currency amounts that look 100x too large.

On the web, the Reports page totals only the ledger's currency, and a note names the other currencies it left out.

The total covers one ledger

Your AI's spending and cash flow reports cover the ledger you're working in, unless you name another or ask about an account in another. A spending total can also add up several ledgers you name, in your display currency. Cash flow can also combine all your ledgers, leaving out demo ledgers. When a demo ledger is the one you're working in, it covers only that demo. The web Reports page covers the ledger selected in the app. See workspaces and ledgers.

You asked about a time of day

Pennyweight stores the date of each transaction but not the time. When your AI searches by time of day, no transactions come back, with a warning (TIME_OF_DAY_NO_TIMESTAMPS) that the filter couldn't be applied. A spending total for a time of day comes back as zero, with no warning. Treat a figure such as "what I spent after 10pm" as unavailable.

How to fix it

1. Ask your AI what a total left out and why. Name the account and the dates.

2. If a move between your accounts counted as spending, ask your AI to link its two sides as a transfer.
3. If you see two numbers, ask for one currency's total, or for an account or ledger that holds one currency.

4. If something seems missing, name the ledger it belongs to, or ask for a total that combines your ledgers.

What you'll see

For the first prompt, your AI gives last month's money out of Everyday Checking and says the $500 Transfer to Rainy Day Savings was left out as a transfer. For the second, it gives the euro spending from the Euro Account, €86.90, apart from the dollar spending, and says this total doesn't convert them. For the third, it finds the $2,400 in the Studio ledger, which an income total for the ledger you're working in doesn't cover.

Good to know

• Balances count everything. An account's balance includes transfers. Linking or unlinking a transfer never changes a balance.
• Counts on large searches can be approximate. Past one page, a search's match count can be a minimum. A total covers every matching transaction, so ask for one when you need an exact number. See ask about any transaction.
• Splits count by piece. In a category total, each piece of a split counts under its own category, so a list of transactions by category can differ from its total. See split one charge across categories.