IchiFund - User Guide

Format: help

If you ever need to quickly refer to this user guide, entering the help command causes the following popup to appear:

You can simply click on the button "Copy URL" to copy the URL to your clipboard. Then, paste and enter the URL into any browser to access this user guide.

Format: exit

If you want to exit from IchiFund, entering the exit command allows you to exit the program through our CLI.

IchiFund data is saved in the hard disk automatically after you enter any command that changes the data.
There is no need for you to save manually.

In the transactions tab, you can maintain a list of your transactions - adding, editing, deleting and filtering items as you like. The image below gives an overview of the GUI of the feature:

Before we introduce the commands you can use, let us briefly run through the labelled components of our GUI.

Format: filter [m/MONTH] [y/YEAR] [c/CATEGORY] [ty/TYPE]

To better understand how your money goes down the drain, it is critical to organise and filter your transactions. filter does the job for you.

Let’s say you are currently viewing transactions from September 2018. The GUI of Ichifund may look like this:

Suppose you want to view transactions from a different month, say, September 2018. You can simply enter the command filter m/9 y/2018, which results in the following view:

Now, if you want to only see expenditure items, simply enter the command filter ty/exp.

You may find that this view of the list is still too cluttered for you. In that case, you can further limit the transactions in the list to contain only items from the category "FOOD" using the command filter c/food

If you want to see expenditure items of the same time, but in a different month, say, August 2019, enter the command filter m/8. Note that you do not need to enter the year, category, or transaction type again. The GUI will update accordingly, as follows:

Format: add de/DESCRIPTION a/AMOUNT [c/CATEGORY] [d/DAY] [m/MONTH] [y/YEAR] [ty/TRANSACTION_TYPE]

As painful as it is to remind yourself each time you part with your money, it is essential to meticulously record your transactions. add eases this process.

Imagine you are browsing your transactions under the category of "Transportation" in November. Your GUI may look like this:

Let’s say you remember that spent $12.31 on lunch on 31 October 2019. If you want to record this transaction under the category "FOOD", you can enter the full command add de/Lunch a/12.31 c/food d/31 m/10 y/2019 ty/exp. The application now looks like this:

Here, IchiFund automatically changes the filter for you, so that you can review the addition you made. This makes it convenient if you want to edit your transactions, as detailed in Section 4.2.4, “Editing transaction: edit”

Also, note that the transaction appears at the top of the list. This is because we automatically sort your transactions by date, followed by category, so that you can systematically look through your transactions.

Format: edit INDEX [de/DESCRIPTION] [a/AMOUNT] [c/CATEGORY] [d/DAY] [m/MONTH] [y/YEAR] [ty/TRANSACTION_TYPE]

Occasionally, you may make a mistake entering your transactions. Perhaps you keyed in the wrong amount, or made a heinous spelling error in your description. Fret not! You can correct these mistakes using edit, and it would be as if it never happened.

Suppose you wanted to record your cab fare to the hospital, and you mistakenly record the amount you spent as $10.00 instead of $20.00:

You can rectify this error simply by entering the command edit 2 a/20.00:

Here, the number "2" specified near the start of the command corresponds to the index of the transaction you want to edit, as shown in the current transaction list. Apart from that, you need to specify only the information you want to edit.

In addition, to make it easier for you to review your edits, the filter of the transaction list changes accordingly such that the edited transaction is shown.

Format: delete INDEX

By a stroke of luck, you may sometimes get a reimbursement for your expenditure! While you celebrate the influx of precious money, do take a moment to update IchiFund using delete.

Let’s say you have just recorded and edited your cab ride to the hospital:

Suppose you now find out that the expenditure is somehow covered by your insurance plan. Simply enter the command delete 2:

Voila! The transaction is now deleted.

Again, you only have to specify the index of the transaction you want to delete, as shown in the current transaction list.

Naturally, you may find your transaction list to be flooded with transactions. Beyond the filtering introduced in Section 4.2.2, “Filtering transaction: filter”, we have in store several features to be released in the next major version of IchiFund.

Format: wealth a/AMOUNT

If you want a quick simple summary of how much money you have left to spend, you can use our upcoming wealth setting feature, where you can set the amount of money you have. The wealth value is automatically updated with every change to your transactions list, so you do not have to worry about manually resetting wealth with every transaction made!

Format: add de/DESCRIPTION a/AMOUNT [c/CATEGORY] [ty/TRANSACTION_TYPE] [so/MONTH_START_OFFSET] [eo/MONTH_END_OFFSET] sm/START_MONTH sy/START_YEAR em/END_MONTH ey/END_YEAR

You can use the add command to create a repeater. This also creates the transactions associated with the created repeater.

The optional arguments take the following default values if left unspecified.

Constraints:

Examples:

Format: edit INDEX [de/DESCRIPTION] [a/AMOUNT] [c/CATEGORY] [ty/TRANSACTION_TYPE] [so/MONTH_START_OFFSET] [eo/MONTH_END_OFFSET] [sm/START_MONTH] [sy/START_YEAR] [em/END_MONTH] [ey/END_YEAR]

You can use the edit command to edit a repeater. This also edits the transactions associated with the edited repeater.

Constraints:

Examples:

Format: delete INDEX

You can use the delete command to delete a repeater. This also deletes all transactions associated with the deleted repeater.

Examples:

Format: find [KEYWORDS]…​

You can use the find command to find repeaters whose description matches any of the (case-insensitive) given keyword(s). If no keyword is specified, then the search filter is cleared.

Examples:

Format: add de/DESCRIPTION a/AMOUNT [c/CATEGORY] [m/MONTH y/YEAR]

You can use the add command to create a budget. Let us first walk through the process of creating a budget for tracking your spending on food.

If you want to track all monthly expenditures, simply leave out the c/CATEGORY argument. For instance, the following command creates a $500.00 budget that applies to all expenditures: add de/General budgeting a/500.

Format: delete INDEX

You can use delete to delete a budget with a given index. Let us walk through the process of deleting the Saving my tummy budget we created previously.

Format: find [KEYWORDS]…​

You can use find to find budgets with description that matches all the given keywords. To illustrate this, let us suppose you want to find all budgets with saving in its description. To do so, type find saving into the command bar and press enter. You should see the search result on the budget list.

You can also revert the budget list to show all budgets by executing find without any argument. To revert the budget list so that all budgets are listed, simply execute find without any argument.

Format: add a/AMOUNT [c/NAME] [sm/START_MONTH] [sy/START_YEAR] [em/END_MONTH] [ey/END_YEAR] [de/DESCRIPTION]

You can use the add command to create a loan. This also creates the other objects associated with the created repeater.

The optional arguments take the following default values if left unspecified:

Constraints:

Example:

This creates a loan of 420.42 for "Buying airpods" taken on 12 December 2019 to 02 February 2020.

Format: edit INDEX [a/AMOUNT] [de/DESCRIPTION] [n/NAME] [sm/START_MONTH] [sy/START_YEAR] [em/END_MONTH] [ey/END_YEAR]

You can use the edit command to edit a loan. This can change any attribute(s) of the loan.

Constraints:

Example:

This edits the first loanr in the current list to - $99999.99 loan taken on 1st January 2020 and to be paid back by 30th December 2021.

Mark loan as paid and remove it from the list.
Take any loan, with an outstanding loan amount, and when it is paid off, it can referenced by it’s index to be removed.

Format: pay i/INDEX

Format: expenditure [y/YEAR]

You may have committed to reducing your expenditure, but you are unsure if you are on the right track. With the expenditure command, you can take a quick look at your monthly expenditure trends to measure your success in cutting your expenditure.

Suppose you made a New Year’s resolution to track your personal finances using IchiFund, and you have been diligently adding transactions since the start of 2019. After entering the expenditure command, the GUI of IchiFund may look like this:

Examples:

Format: income [y/YEAR]

Perhaps you are contemplating asking for a promotion at your part-time job or seeking a better-paying place of employment. The income command gives you a clear overview of your monthly income trends, allowing you to make more informed decisions regarding your source of income (or the lack thereof).

Suppose you work part-time at a restaurant, but business has been slow for the past few months, and your boss decides to give you a pay cut. After entering the income command, the GUI of IchiFund may look like this:

Examples:

Format: balance [y/YEAR]

Maybe you have set a target for yourself to accumulate a certain amount of money in your savings account by the end of the year. With the balance command, you will be able to take a look at your monthly balance (income - expenditure) trends, and determine if more needs to be done to hit your target.

Let’s say you have been saving up for a new laptop as your old one is due for a repair. With the recent pay cut, you are unsure if you will be able to save up enough money to purchase the laptop in time for the start of the next school semester. After entering the balance command, the GUI of IchiFund may look like this:

You now know that you are on track to getting your laptop in spite of the pay cut.

Examples:

Format: breakdown [m/MONTH] [y/YEAR]

Perhaps you have entered the expenditure command, and you are now aware that you are spending more than you would like to, but you are still unsure what is it exactly that you are spending the bulk of your money on. With the breakdown command, you will be given a clear breakdown of your expenditure by category, and hence be able to pinpoint the categories that have larger contributions to your expenditure.

It is now mid-November, and your expenditure has exceeded half of your monthly budget. Clueless as to what you could have spent on, you enter the breakdown command, and the GUI of IchiFund may look like this:

Examples:

Format: catrank [m/MONTH] [y/YEAR]

What if, instead of the breakdown of your expenditure by category, i.e., breakdown, you wanted to zoom in on the top 2 largest contributing categories to your expenditure so as to cut down on your expenditure more effectively? With the catrank command, you can take a look at your expenditure category ranking chart, and hence be able to zoom in on and cut down on expenditure for categories that have the largest contributions to your expenditure.

As the month comes to a close, you realise that you have transactions from many categories, and running the breakdown command returns you a view that is too cluttered for your liking. After you enter the catrank command, and the GUI of IchiFund may look like this:

With the catrank command, you are now able to identify that it must have been the trips to the beauty salon and the Grab rides you take on a daily basis that have contributed to your overspending, and that perhaps you should consider painting your own nails and taking public transport to school instead.

Examples:

Format: mthrank [y/YEAR]

If you have a tendency to overspend in certain seasons or on certain occasions, with the mthrank command, you can look at your expenditure ranking chart by month, swiftly identify the months that you spend most in and take steps to reduce your expenditure in the same few months in the years to come.

Let’s say you have always planned overseas trips over the summer break. After entering the mthrank command, the GUI of IchiFund may look like this:

You are now aware that the expenditure on and during these overseas trips are burning a hole in your pocket, and can take measures to set a budget before going on these trips or reduce the frequency of such trips.

Examples:

Format: exprank [m/MONTH] [y/YEAR]

If you are keen to identify the biggest purchases you make so that you can cut your expenditure swiftly, the command exprank is what you are looking for. exprank allows you to look at your expenditure ranking chart.

Let’s say you have made a couple of big purchases over the course of the year. After entering the exprank command, the GUI of IchiFund may look like this:

You are now aware that cutting expenditure on luxury items and gadgets would probably do wonders for the health of your wallet.

Examples: