How do I use Quick Summary and Custom charts?

The Quick Summary and Custom chart types are used to compare income and expenditures across multiple accounts and categories. The Quick Summary chart is simply a Custom chart that automatically populates with all accounts and active categories. Both charts allow you to generate a standard Cash Flow report based on the information they contain.

To get started with a Quick Summary/Custom chart:

Create a new chart and choose the "Quick Summary" or "Custom" option. Immediately to the right of the source list you will see a number of properties which are used to configure the chart:

chart options

Any changes made to the chart settings will update the chart automatically. Because charts are generated on-the-fly, you don't need to wait to see your changes take effect.

To add accounts:

Start by choosing which accounts you want to include in the chart. Click the plus button to add a blank account item to the list. Click the item to show a pop-up menu from which you can choose the account you want to include. To remove an account from the list, select it and click the minus button. If you leave the "Report On Accounts" list empty, iBank will automatically include all visible accounts.

To add categories:

Next, choose which categories to include in the chart. Click the plus button to add a blank category item to the list. Just as you did with accounts, click the blank item to show a pop-up menu from which you can select the category you want to include.

In addition to standard categories, you can also include account transfers so that you can track, for example, how much money you are putting into a savings account each month. Add a new category to the chart and select the appropriate account name from the bottom of the item's pop-up menu.

To remove a category from the list, select it and click the minus button. Click the action button to view additional options for adding categories:

Another way to add categories to a chart is to switch to the category view by clicking "Categories" in the source list, then dragging and dropping the desired categories onto the chart in the source list.

To configure other options:

Set the following options to determine which transactions are used and how the charts will be displayed.

To view the chart results:

Once you have your chart settings configured the way you want them, iBank provides four different ways of viewing the chart. Switching between views is as easy as clicking the tabs across the top of the chart pane: chart views

By Category

by category viewClick this tab to view a pie chart showing a breakdown of the categories you selected for inclusion in the chart. If you selected expense categories, the chart will show "Expenses;" if you selected income categories, the chart will show "Income." If you selected both types of categories, the chart will only display the expense categories (after all, it doesn't make sense to compare income to expenses on a pie graph).

Each pie slice represents the total amount of the transactions assigned to a particular category. The slices are drawn proportionally so that you can quickly get a sense of how your categories compare. The name of each category is displayed with each slice, along with the number of sub-categories contained within it (where applicable). If you assigned custom colors to your categories, they will be used to color the pie slices; otherwise, iBank will assign colors automatically to differentiate them. To highlight a particular slice and view its category name, total amount, and percentage relative to the other categories included in the chart, click on the slice you want to see. Press one of the arrow keys on your keyboard to move the selection to another pie slice.

digging downDouble-click a pie slice to "dig down" and view more detailed information about it. If the slice represents a category with sub-categories inside it, double-clicking will break the slice into its component pieces (hold Command while double-clicking to show the sub-categories in their own chart). If the slice represents a category without sub-categories, a list of transactions assigned to that category (within the accounts and date range specified for the chart) will be shown. To "climb back up" towards the original pie graph, click the go back button at the top-left of the chart view.

Above the pie chart is a figure representing the total amount of all transactions included in the chart, regardless of category. If you have included both income and expense categories in the chart, this total will include the income amounts even though the income categories are not displayed in the pie graph.

Both main ("parent") categories and sub-categories can be included in charts, but it is a good idea not to mix and match them (e.g. including both "Auto" and "Auto:Fuel" on the same chart). Parent categories will include transactions assigned to all sub-categories as well as those assigned directly to the parent category itself. Thus, if you put "Auto" and "Auto:Fuel" on the same chart, the proportions of those pie slices will appear incorrect because the "Auto:Fuel" transactions are included in both slices. Regardless of how the pie slices are drawn, the total value above the chart will still calculate correctly; the transactions will not be double-counted in the total.

Through Time

through time viewClick this tab to view a bar graph showing the cash flow for each category over time. Time is plotted on the horizontal axis and amounts are plotted on the vertical axis. By default, each bar represents the amount of earnings or income for a single category during the interval you specified. Selecting a shorter interval will result in more bars appearing on the chart, making it easier to visualize trends in the data, but may cause the chart to appear cluttered if there too many categories displayed.

If you assigned custom colors to your categories, they will be used to color the bars; otherwise, iBank will assign colors automatically to differentiate them. Click any bar to view the category and amount that it represents.

To simplify the chart by combining all income categories together and all expense categories together, check "Composite income and expenses" below the chart view. On the resulting chart, red bars indicate the sum of all included expense categories for each interval; green bars indicate the sum of all included income categories for each interval.

Category & Date

category & date viewClick this tab to view a table showing a breakdown of categories and their amounts over time. Next to each category name is the total amount of all transactions in that category for the period of time you specified for the chart. Click the small disclosure triangle next to each category to view a breakdown by date according to the interval you specified in the chart settings.

Any sub-categories that belong to categories included in the chart are also displayed in the Category & Date table. The main "parent" categories only count transactions that are assigned to them directly; sub-categories are not totaled under the parent categories.

As with any table in iBank, you can click any of the column headers to sort the list according to the values in that column. Click twice to reverse the direction of the sort. To resize the columns, click and drag the dividers between column headers. Columns can be repositioned by clicking and dragging the column headers.

Transactions

transactions viewClick this tab to view a table showing detailed information about the transactions assigned to the categories included in the chart. Split transaction items are counted and displayed individually in the transaction table, but they will show the payee and memo information from the main transactions to which they belong.

At the bottom-right corner of the chart view is a "Total" figure representing the sum of amounts of all the transactions included in the chart, regardless of category. In addition, the "Selected total" shows the sum of all transactions currently highlighted in the table.

As with any table in iBank, you can click any of the column headers to sort the list according to the values in that column. Click twice to reverse the direction of the sort. To resize the columns, click and drag the dividers between column headers. Columns can be repositioned by clicking and dragging the column headers.

To generate a standard Cash Flow report:

Cash Flow reports provide a tabular breakdown of your income and expenses over a 12-month period, beginning with the start date specified for the chart. The chart's end date is irrelevant, as a standard Cash Flow report always covers a 12-month period. Only categories included in the chart setup will appear in the report, and only transactions from accounts included in the chart setup will be counted.

Make sure you have a Quick Summary or Custom chart selected in the source list, then click the generate report button at the bottom of the main window. iBank will generate a PDF document of the report and open it using the preview Preview application (or your default PDF viewer). From there, you can print the report or save it for your records; iBank does not save your reports internally.

cash flow report

If you check "Add Report to Quick Look" before generating the report, an image of the Cash Flow report will be stored inside your data file. If you highlight your iBank data file in the Finder and press the spacebar to invoke Quick Look, you will see all of your saved reports in a slideshow format.

Interpreting Cash Flow reports

Across the top of each page of the report, you will see the date the chart was generated, the title of the report ("Cash Flow Analysis"), the name of the iBank chart from which the report was generated, the page number, and the name of the application that created the report ("iBank").

The left-most column lists each of the categories included in the chart in groups according to type - income categories are listed first, then expense categories.

The six columns in the middle of the report represent category totals for each month. Each category row displays its corresponding amount in the appropriate month column. Income and expense categories are subtotaled, and a grand total for each month is displayed at the bottom of the column.

Both main "parent" categories and sub-categories can be included in the same report (e.g. "Auto" and "Auto:Fuel"). Parent categories (and the resulting totals) will display two amounts, one in parentheses and one not. The amount in parentheses indicates the total amount of all transactions assigned directly to the parent category as well as those assigned to its sub-categories. The amount without parentheses indicates the total amount of transactions assigned directly to the parent category only (not counting those assigned to its sub-categories).

The right-most column displays subtotals for each category for the six months shown on that half of the report. Subtotals for the income, expense, and grand total rows are cumulative in the second half of the report: for example, the "Income" subtotal for the second six months of the report includes the "Income" subtotals from the first six months as well. The final "Grand Total" figure at the bottom-right corner of the last page is the combined total of all income and expense categories for the entire twelve-month period.

To export the chart data:

Make sure you have a Quick Summary or Custom chart selected in the source list, then click the button at the bottom-right corner of the main window. It doesn't matter which chart view you have selected. Choose one of the following options from the pop-up menu:

Regardless of which option you choose, iBank will prompt you to enter a name and choose a location in which to save the file. Click "Save" to complete the export process.