Getting started with TallyFolio
Set up your accounts, record your first transactions, and learn how the pieces fit together.
Last updated 2026-09-07
Use TallyFolio to track accounts, transactions, budgets, subscriptions, investments, registered-plan room estimates, payslips, and private assets in one private workspace. This guide walks you through setting it up in the right order.
It's worth knowing the boundaries up front. TallyFolio never connects to your bank, never prepares or files a tax return, doesn't give investment advice, has no shared or joint accounts, and has no offline mode. Every financial number comes from data you entered or imported and reviewed. Real transactions never arrive on their own and nothing is guessed.
Before you start
- Create your account with an email and password, then sign in. You can add passkeys later from Settings for faster, safer sign-ins.
- Have recent bank and card statements handy — or CSV exports from your bank — so opening balances and early history are easy to enter.
- Know which currency you want reports in (CAD, USD, EUR, or GBP) and your timezone. Both live in Settings and shape how periods and totals are calculated.
How to use it
The recommended setup order — each step makes the next one more useful:
- Create your account and sign in.
- Add your accounts on the Accounts page — chequing, savings, credit cards, cash — with their opening balances, meaning what each holds on the day you start. For credit cards, include the limit and statement dates.
- Import a CSV statement from the account menu, or enter transactions by hand on the Transactions page.
- Review categories in Settings so spending is classified the way you think about it. The categories you choose become the rows of the dashboard grid, so it is worth a few minutes.
- Set spending targets once a little categorized history exists: on the dashboard, choose "Set targets".
- Configure forecast settings in Settings: your emergency fund target, cash safety buffer, and default horizon.
- Add your subscriptions and any planned expenses so the Forecast knows what is coming.
- Under Holdings, add investment accounts and registered-plan settings if you track TFSA, RRSP, or FHSA contributions, and add private assets like cash on hand, metals, crypto, receivables, or property.
- Read the Dashboard. It shows your whole year, category by category. Reports answers "what happened over a period I choose", and Forecast answers "can I cover what is coming?".
What affects this page
Everything you see across TallyFolio is derived from what you've put in:
- Transactions drive account balances, the dashboard grid, and reports.
- Subscriptions and planned expenses drive the forecast.
- Your Settings choices — base currency, timezone, reserve targets — shape how totals and periods are calculated.
- Exchange rates you enter determine how amounts in other currencies join combined totals.
What does not affect this page
- Your bank. There is no connection, so nothing updates by itself.
- AI. No AI calculates, classifies, or advises on your money anywhere in the product.
- Labels. They organize and filter but never change any calculation.
- Planned (projected) transactions. They exist for the forecast and never count as actual spending or income.
- Assets. The asset register sits outside your cash flow unless you record a separate transaction.
Keyboard shortcuts
Shortcuts never fire while you're typing in a field. Cmd is shown for macOS; use Ctrl on Windows and Linux.
| Keys | What it does |
|---|---|
| n or Cmd/Ctrl+I | Open the page's “add new” dialog. |
| / | Focus the page's search or filter, where it has one. |
| ? | Show the keyboard shortcuts for the page you're on. |
| Cmd/Ctrl+Enter | Submit the form you have open. |
| [ and ] | Previous or next period — the year on the Dashboard, or a custom range on Reports. |
| g then d, t, f, r, i, a | Go to Dashboard, Transactions, Forecast, Reports, Investments, or Assets. Press g, then the second key within a second and a half. |
There are no single-key shortcuts that delete or change money. Everything destructive still asks first.
Common mistakes
- Waiting for real transactions to appear on their own. Subscriptions only project charges in the forecast; a real transaction exists only after you enter it, import it, or mark a planned entry as posted.
- Skipping the base currency and timezone check in Settings before building history — both affect how everything downstream is calculated.
- Creating accounts without their real opening balances, then wondering why totals look off.
- Setting budgets before categorizing transactions. Budget numbers can only be as good as the categories underneath them.
FAQ
Why do I go straight to the Dashboard when I open TallyFolio?
When you're already signed in, opening TallyFolio at its main address takes you directly to the Dashboard instead of showing the public introduction again. Sign out first if you want to view the public landing page.
What is the setup guide on my dashboard?
While your workspace is still being set up, the dashboard shows a "Set up TallyFolio" card with the four steps that get you going: add your first account, add or import transactions, set a monthly spending target, and set your cash reserve settings. Each step is marked done automatically from your own data, never from a saved flag: adding an active account checks off the first step, and so on. The card disappears once every step is done, and you can hide it any time with "Hide checklist".
What is the line above the grid for?
It is the one place the dashboard asks for your attention, and it shows at most three things at once, each linking to where it is fixed: categories over their target this month, uncategorized spending, low-balance days ahead from the forecast, and amounts left out of totals for want of an exchange rate. When nothing needs attention it says so in a single row. This is only an in-app line; TallyFolio does not send push, email, or browser notifications.
Where do I see what is coming up?
On the Forecast page. It projects your cash over the next 30, 60, or 90 days from your subscriptions, planned expenses, and recurring income detected from your history, and warns when your household cash is projected to fall below zero or below the cash safety buffer you set. The dashboard grid's projected months are a longer-range trend from your own averages and deliberately do not read your subscriptions — the two answer different questions.
Do I have to import statements?
No. Manual entry works fine — import is just much faster when you have weeks of history to bring in.
Why are my numbers empty or wrong at first?
Every financial value in TallyFolio depends on the data you've entered or imported. An empty workspace shows empty numbers; a half-entered month shows half a month. Completeness comes from you.
Does TallyFolio work offline?
No. You can install it to your home screen as a shortcut, but there is no offline mode — your financial data is deliberately never cached on the device.
Can my partner and I share one workspace?
TallyFolio is single-user by design. There are no shared or joint accounts.
Where this lives in the app
Related articles
- Accounts
Create the accounts your money lives in, keep credit-card details current, and retire accounts you no longer use.
- Transactions
Every money movement in TallyFolio is a transaction. Learn the types, the statuses, and how to keep them categorized.
- Import CSV statements
Upload a statement file, map its columns once, review every row, and save the batch — nothing is written until you confirm.
- Spending targets
Give a category a monthly target, then read the whole year against it in the grid.