Workspaces and ledgers

Pennyweight keeps your money in a workspace, and splits it into ledgers. Use a ledger for each part of your financial life you want to see on its own: your household, a business, a trip.

How it fits together

• Your workspace holds your encryption key and your base currency. Your account starts with one workspace, created when you set up your account. At setup you can also name your books. If you leave the name blank, your workspace is called "Personal", and that's the name your AI reports.
• Ledgers live inside your workspace. Every workspace starts with a default ledger called "Personal". You can add more, each with a name, a type (personal, business, trip or other) and a currency.
• Accounts belong to one ledger. Their transactions are filed in that ledger. Rules, knowledge notes, budgets and alerts also belong to a ledger.
• Your AI works in one ledger at a time, called the active ledger. When you don't name a ledger, questions about your transactions use the active one.
• Demo ledgers hold a year of fictional data so you can try Pennyweight. Choose a personal or business demo when you set up your account, or use Create a demo ledger under Settings → Ledgers. A demo is free and is left out of totals that combine ledgers. Your AI tells you its data is fictional, and it can't create a demo for you. You can delete a demo in one step. See try Pennyweight with a demo ledger.

If you're new, start with how Pennyweight works.

How to work with ledgers

1. Ask your AI which ledgers you have and which one it's working in.
2. To work in a different ledger, ask your AI to switch to it by name. See choose which ledger your AI works in.
3. To add a ledger, ask your AI to create one, or use Settings → Ledgers → Add a Ledger in the web app. See create a ledger.
4. To get an answer for one ledger without switching, name the ledger in your question.

What you'll see

For the first prompt, your AI lists each ledger with its type and currency, and tells you which one is active. The default "Personal" ledger is always in the list.

For the second, your AI tells you it can't create another workspace, and suggests a separate ledger for the side business instead. A business ledger is the way to keep the side business apart. Your AI may also offer to send the team a feature request. It asks before sending anything.

Good to know

• Your AI can't add a workspace. Use ledgers to separate your finances. See run several businesses in one account.
• A ledger's currency is permanent. Pick it when you create the ledger. If you don't name one, the ledger your AI creates uses your workspace currency. Stored amounts are never converted: each one keeps its own currency. Totals that combine ledgers are converted to your display currency at daily exchange rates. See accounts and totals in more than one currency.
• Each ledger has its own subscription. One trial covers every ledger you create while it runs. After it ends, a ledger without a subscription is read-only, and your other ledgers aren't affected. Demo ledgers are free. See plans and pricing.
• Ledger names must be unique. A name that matches an existing ledger apart from capitalization or extra spaces is refused. That includes "Personal".
• Your AI's active ledger is its own. Switching ledgers in one AI doesn't change another AI or the web app. The web app's ledger switcher remembers its choice per browser tab.
• Deleting a ledger is done in the web app and removes everything in it. The default ledger can't be deleted, and a ledger with a bank connection can't be deleted either. See delete a ledger.
• Transactions can't be moved between ledgers. See move a transaction to a different ledger.