Adding Your Accounts
The foundation of good budgeting is knowing where your money lives. In HOB, you'll manually track all your financial accounts - checking, savings, cash, debt, investments, and other assets. This guide will show you how to add accounts and keep them organized.
Understanding Account Types
HOB supports eight account types. Choosing the right type helps with organization and reporting.
🏦 Checking Accounts
Your everyday spending account. Most transactions will come from here - groceries, gas, bills, restaurants.
💰 Savings Accounts
Emergency funds, vacation savings, house down payment funds. Any account where you're saving money for a specific purpose.
💵 Cash
Physical cash you want to track separately from a bank account.
💳 Credit Cards
Track your credit card balances and payments. When you make a purchase on a credit card, it's an expense from the card account. When you pay it off, it's a transfer from checking to the credit card.
🏛️ Loans
Auto loans, personal loans, student loans - anything with a fixed balance you're paying down over time. Works the same way as a credit card balance-wise; see the Debt Accounts section below.
🏦 Lines of Credit
A HELOC or other revolving line of credit - similar to a credit card, but usually with a different rate and terms. Also covered in the Debt Accounts section below.
📈 Investment Accounts
401(k), IRA, brokerage accounts. These are tracked separately from your budget and automatically update with current market prices.
🚗 Other Assets
Anything with real value that isn't liquid - a vehicle, for example. Its equity counts toward your net worth, but it isn't something you can pull cash from directly.
💼 Running a Business Too?
Every account - any of the eight types above - can be tagged Personal or Business when you edit it. This lets you keep business finances in the same app as your personal ones while still getting clean, separate numbers - reports, totals, and the tools under Tools and Reports can all be filtered to one, the other, or both.
Adding Your First Account
Let's add an account step-by-step. We'll use a checking account as an example.
To add an account:
- Click Accounts in the navigation bar
- Click the Add Account button
- Enter the account name (e.g., "Chase Checking" or "Wells Fargo Savings")
- Select the account type from the dropdown
- Enter the current balance - this is what the account shows right now
- Optionally add notes (account number last 4 digits, purpose, etc.)
- Click Create Account
📈 Investment Accounts Work Differently
For investment accounts, enter only the cash balance (uninvested cash sitting in the account). Don't include the value of your stocks, ETFs, or funds yet.
After creating the account, add your holdings separately. This allows HOB to automatically update their values based on current market prices. See Investment Tracking for the full guide.
💡 Pro Tip: Starting Balances
Use the balance shown in your bank account TODAY. Don't worry about pending transactions - you'll add those as they clear. Starting with your current, real balance keeps everything in sync.
Naming Your Accounts
Good account names make budgeting easier. Here are some tips:
Recommended naming format:
- Bank Name + Account Type - "Chase Checking", "Ally Savings"
- Purpose-based - "Emergency Fund", "Vacation Savings", "House Down Payment"
- Person's name - "John's Checking", "Sarah's Credit Card" (for shared finances)
Examples of good account names:
- Chase Freedom Unlimited
- Emergency Fund (Ally)
- Joint Checking
- Vanguard Roth IRA
- Car Savings
Avoid:
- Generic names like "Checking" or "Savings" (confusing with multiple accounts)
- Account numbers (hard to remember)
- Overly long names (clutters your interface)
Debt Accounts (Credit Cards, Loans, and Lines of Credit)
These three account types all work the same way balance-wise. Here's what you need to know:
Starting balance for debt accounts:
Enter your current balance as a positive number representing what you owe. If you owe $500 on your credit card, enter 500. A positive balance means real debt to pay off. If you ever see a negative balance on a debt account, that means you've paid more than you owed - a credit or overpayment, not debt.
How debt account transactions work:
- When you buy something (or borrow more): Add an expense transaction on the account. This increases the debt (makes the balance more positive).
- When you pay it down: Add a transfer from your checking account to the debt account. This decreases the debt (makes the balance less positive, moving toward zero).
📝 Example
Credit card balance: $500 (you owe $500)
You spend $50 at a restaurant (expense on credit card)
New balance: $550
You pay $300 from checking (transfer from checking to credit card)
New balance: $250
Managing Multiple Accounts
Most people have multiple accounts. Here's how to stay organized:
How accounts are organized:
Your accounts are grouped into sections automatically - Liquid Assets, Liabilities, Other Assets, and Investments - based on account type, not the order you added them. Within each section, click a column header (Name, Type, or Balance) to sort - your sort choice is remembered per section the next time you visit.
Archiving accounts:
Closed an account? Don't delete it (you'll lose transaction history). Instead, archive it. Archived accounts don't show up in dropdowns but keep all your historical data intact.
To archive an account:
- Go to Accounts
- Find the account and click Archive
- Confirm in the popup that appears
Reconciling Your Accounts
Once a month, compare HOB's balance with your bank's balance. They should match.
If they don't match:
- Look for transactions you forgot to enter in HOB
- Check for duplicate entries
- Look for pending transactions (don't enter these yet!)
- Verify amounts - typos happen
✅ Best Practice
Reconcile weekly, especially when you're first starting. It's easier to find a mistake from 3 days ago than from 3 weeks ago. As you get more consistent, monthly reconciliation is fine.
Quick Tips
- 💪 Start simple: Add your primary checking and one credit card first. You can always add more accounts later.
- 🔄 Update balances regularly: Every time you reconcile, you're making sure HOB matches reality.
- 📝 Use descriptive names: "Chase Freedom" is better than "Credit Card 1"
- 🗂️ Archive, don't delete: Keep your history by archiving closed accounts
- 💳 Positive balances = debt: Credit cards, loans, and lines of credit should show positive balances for what you owe
Next Steps
Now that your accounts are set up, you're ready to organize your spending:
- Setting Up Categories - Organize your income and expenses
- Adding Transactions - Start tracking your spending
- Getting Started Guide - Full overview of HOB
Still have questions? Contact support