Track a trip's spending in its own ledger

Say you're spending a week in Lisbon and want the trip's costs in one place. Give the trip its own ledger in euros, record the cash you spend in an account inside it, and count part of a charge from another account toward it. Then ask for the trip's cash flow. Start with create a ledger if you haven't made one before.

How to do it

1. Ask your AI to create a trip ledger called Lisbon in EUR. A ledger's currency can't be changed later, so name it now. After your trial, a new ledger needs its own subscription before you can add anything to it. See billing when you have more than one ledger.
2. Ask your AI to add a cash account to the Lisbon ledger. An account you add without a currency takes its ledger's currency, so this one is in euros. See add a manual account.
3. Tell your AI what you spent in cash. Each entry lands in the cash account, in euros and in the Lisbon ledger. See record cash or a missing transaction.
4. For a charge on an account outside the trip ledger, ask your AI to split it and assign the trip's share to Lisbon. The charge stays on its account. Pennyweight can't move a transaction to another ledger, so a split is how part of it counts toward the trip. See split one charge across categories and move a transaction to a different ledger.
5. Ask for Lisbon's cash flow, and name the ledger. See see income vs expenses over time.

What you'll see

For the first prompt, your AI confirms a trip ledger named Lisbon in EUR, a Lisbon Cash account in euros, and the two expenses. Lisbon's cash flow for last month shows €24.70 out and nothing in.

For the second, your AI finds the €46.40 Rapido Rail charge from last month and splits it into two €23.20 pieces, one assigned to Lisbon. The charge stays on the Euro Account. Lisbon's cash flow for last month shows €23.20 out.

Where the trip's totals show

Transactions filed in the Lisbon ledger, such as the cash entries, count in every report on Lisbon. Split pieces count in fewer places.

• Cash flow for Lisbon, by name. Counts the cash entries and every piece assigned to Lisbon.
• Cash flow with no ledger named. Covers the ledger you're working in and counts each transaction whole, so the pieces don't show, even when you're working in Lisbon.
• Spending by category, merchant or account for Lisbon. Counts only transactions filed in Lisbon. A piece stays in the ledger of its original charge in these reports.
• Reports in the web app. With Lisbon selected, they count only transactions filed in Lisbon. See the built-in web reports.

To see everything the trip cost, ask for Lisbon's cash flow and name the ledger.

Good to know

• Pieces keep the charge's currency. A dollar card charge split into Lisbon shows in Lisbon's cash flow as dollars, next to the euros, with no combined total. Lisbon's cash flow doesn't convert one currency into the other. See accounts and totals in more than one currency.
• The pieces must add up to the charge. If they don't, the split is refused and nothing changes.
• A cash entry can't go into a different ledger from its account. Its ledger comes from the account, and your AI's request to file it elsewhere is refused.
• Ledger names are unique. If a ledger called Lisbon already exists, your AI tells you and nothing is created.
• The trip ledger shows in the web app under Settings → Ledgers, next to your other ledgers.