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Transactions

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What are transactions?

Transactions allow you to move amounts between accounts.

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Transaction Status

Transactions have a few types of statuses.

  • completed - Transaction is completed. Once transaction went into this state, it updates balance.balance.
  • pending - Transaction is in progress. Once transaction went into this state, it updates pending balance.
  • failed | cancelled | declined | returned - Transaction has failed. Failed transactions don't affect balances and if they were completed or pending those balance changes will be reversed.

Other statuses:

  • prepared - Placeholder, doesn't affect balances. Use for creating drafts.
  • scheduled - Schedule transaction to go into pending state at future date. If you want to use this status you also need to provide scheduled_date_time.

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Transaction Types

There are two transaction types: simple and complex.

Most transactions in the world are between two accounts and you're used to having transactions with 'from' and 'to' accounts. We call them simple transactions.

However sometimes transactions can happen between 3 or more accounts at the same time. We call them complex transactions.

Think of a simple transaction as a simple exchange of something between 2 parties, and complex transactions as a more complex exchange between 3 and more parties at the same time.

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Transaction History

When you archive a transaction or a line, the history is kept and stored. However, when you delete a transaction or line, the history is deleted.

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TransactionLines

Transactions have lines. Think of lines as parts of the transaction.
E.g Transaction that moves $100 from Account A to Account B will have 2 lines:

  • Line 1: +$100 for Account A
  • Line 2: -$100 for Account B

You can even have a weird $0 transaction where only Account A is involved:

  • Line 1: +$100 for Account A
  • Line 2: -$100 for Account A

You can update lines at any time. You can even add new lines to the transaction. This can be done as a block operation, meaning that you can batch update lines.

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Transaction Items

With Modernbanc you can even go more granular and record items per line. An example of an item could be a t-shirt, an interest or VAT fee. Items don't have to add up to line's amount but it's helpful if you do that to keep things accounted for. Items also have variables where you can put any other data.

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Usage

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Create transaction

  • Navigate to the Transactions tab in the settings dropdown or by pressing G and then T
  • Click the Create button in the upper right corner. From there you can create simple or complex transactions.
  • Fill out the form with the following values:
    • Amount: a sample amount like 20.
    • From: select an account that will transfer the units.
    • To: select an account that will receive the units.
    • Status: select the status of the transaction. Can be completed, pending, failed, cancelled, declined, returned, prepared, scheduled.
    • Date/Scheduled Date: select the date/time of the transaction. If the status is scheduled then you will need to select the scheduled date.
    • Name: an optional sample name like Sample Transaction.
    • Description: an optional sample description like Sample Description.
    • Tags: select an existing tag or create a new one by typing in example and + Create new item and finally select a color, like Purple.
  • Click Create on the bottom right of the form.

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Update transaction

A common action is to update a transaction after it is completed. We can do this by updating the status of the transaction from pending to completed.

  • Navigate to the Transactions tab in the settings dropdown or by pressing G and then T.
  • Select the transaction you want to update, or apply Filters or Sorts to narrow down the list.
  • Edit the fields you want to update, typically that means:
    • changing the Status to Completed or Cancelled.
    • changing the Amount of the transaction.
    • adding or removing Labels.
    • adding or removing Lines.
    • changing Date to a specific date and time.

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Archive transaction

A common operation is to archive a transaction if it is never completed or if it is no longer needed.

In order to archive a transaction, we must first archive all lines associated with the transaction.

  • Navigate to the Transactions tab in the settings dropdown or by pressing G and then T.
  • Select the transaction you want to archive, or apply Filters or Sorts to narrow down the list.
  • Change the Status to Cancelled.