What are transactions all about?

transactions Transactions are what iBank uses to store the bulk of your financial data. Transactions are kept under each account you set up, and are intented to represent deposits, withdrawals, transfers, and any other exchange of money that takes place in real life and would normally appear on a bank statement. Examples of transactions that can be tracked in iBank include a visit to the ATM for $40 or using a debit card to purchase groceries.

When you select an account from the source list, your transactions will be displayed to the right. Depending on which button you currently have selected in the toolbar, one of three transaction views will appear:

List view:

Select the list view button or choose View>As List to see the list view:

list view

This view is designed to look similar to a check register that you might keep in your checkbook. In this view, transactions can be edited directly in the register by double-clicking, or by using the transaction editor at the bottom of the list. Split transactions in list view display hierarchically; click the small disclosure triangle to the left of the Date to reveal a transaction's split items.

To sort the transaction list, click a column header; the transactions will automatically sort according to the values in that column. For example, if you want to sort your transactions by date, click "Date." Click the column header a second time to reverse the direction of the sort.

The balance column will always calculate its line items in chronological order, regardless of how your transactions are sorted. If you want the balance column to display in logical fashion, sort your transactions according to date.

To hide and show columns in the list view, click the pencil button to the right of the column headers. A drop-down menu will appear showing all of the columns available; checked items are currently visible. Select an item from the menu to hide or show that column. To adjust the line height of list view transactions, choose iBank>Preferences and click the appearance Appearance button. Drag the slider to set the height of the rows in the account register (ranging from 16 to 32 pixels).

Transactions in list view are displayed with a background color or highlight based on the categories you have assigned to them. If you don't want iBank to display these background colors in list view, choose iBank>Preferences, click the appearance Appearance button, and check the "Hide category background colors" option. Here you can also change the colors of positive and negative amounts: click the colored box next to "Positive" or "Negative," respectively, to choose a new color for positive or negative transaction amounts. The selected colors will display under the Amount column in the transaction list only.

Cover flow view:

Select the cover flow view button or choose View>As Cover Flow to see the cover flow view:

cover flow view

This view works in similar fashion to Cover Flow in iTunes or the Finder. Transactions are represented by the images assigned to them, or by the images assigned to their categories, and arranged in chronological order from left to right. Click on an image to bring that transaction to the front and view more information about it, or use the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard to browse back and forth. You can also click and drag the small blue dot appearing below the transactions to browse left and right.

Below the transactions is a line graph representing the overall account balance as it is affected by each transaction. The graph appears in green as long as the balance is above the minimum balance specified for that account; it appears in red when the balance goes below the minimum. Transactions in cover flow view can only be edited using the transaction editor.

Thumbnail view:

Select the thumbnail view button or choose View>As Thumbnail to see the thumbnail view:

thumbnail view

This view is similar to the list view, but leaves more space to display the image associated with each transaction (or its assigned category). Split transactions in this view do not appear as separate line items, but instead display all split items within the same line. Transactions in thumbnail view can only be edited using the transaction editor. The thumbnail view cannot be sorted directly, but it will follow the same sort order specified in the list view.

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