Adding Transactions
Adding Transactions 💸
Section titled “Adding Transactions 💸”The Ledger is the financial heart of Vanlife Assistant. Every coffee you buy, every tank of diesel you fill, and every freelance invoice you get paid feeds into the app’s powerful Runway and Scenario engines.
Because vanlifers have unique financial needs—like crossing borders, splitting grocery bills, and tracking vehicle costs—we built the transaction editor to handle it all effortlessly.
To add a new transaction, open the Money tab, navigate to the Ledger, and tap the floating + button.
🔘 The Basics: Income, Expense, or Transfer
Section titled “🔘 The Basics: Income, Expense, or Transfer”At the top of the editor, choose what kind of transaction you are logging:
- Expense (Red): Money leaving your pocket (e.g., Buying groceries).
- Income (Green): Money entering your pocket (e.g., Getting paid).
- Transfer (Blue): Moving money between your own accounts (e.g., Moving savings to your checking account). Note: Transfers do not affect your Net Worth or Daily Burn Rate!
🧮 The Built-In Calculator
Section titled “🧮 The Built-In Calculator”You never need to jump to your phone’s calculator app to split a bill again.
If you tap the big Amount number, a full calculator slides up! You can type 15 + 8.50, hit the = button, and tap Confirm Amount to drop it straight into the ledger.
🌍 Multi-Currency & Auto-Detection
Section titled “🌍 Multi-Currency & Auto-Detection”Travelling across borders? The app has your back.
If you have Location Services enabled, the app will automatically detect what country you are in and switch the transaction to the local currency! * You enter the amount in the local currency (e.g., Euros).
- The app automatically fetches the latest exchange rate and shows you exactly how much that costs in your Home currency (e.g., GBP).
- You can tap the Exchange Rate to manually override it if your bank gave you a different rate.
✂️ Split Transactions
Section titled “✂️ Split Transactions”Have you ever gone to a supermarket and bought £50 of Groceries, £20 of Alcohol, and a £10 Engine Oil top-up on the same receipt?
Instead of entering three separate transactions, toggle on Split Transaction.
- Enter the total receipt amount at the top (£80).
- Assign the first chunk (£50) to the Groceries category.
- Tap Add Split and assign the next chunk (£20) to Alcohol.
- The app will constantly do the math for you, showing you exactly how much is “Remaining to allocate” until the bar turns green!
🚐 Vehicle Expenses & Odometers
Section titled “🚐 Vehicle Expenses & Odometers”The Ledger is fully integrated with your Van Profile. If you select a category that is flagged as a Vehicle Expense (like Fuel, Maintenance, or Upgrades), the app will ask you which Vehicle it belongs to and ask for your current Odometer reading. 👉 Logging your odometer here is what powers the beautiful Fuel Efficiency charts in the Van tab!
📷 Smart Receipts (Glovebox Integration)
Section titled “📷 Smart Receipts (Glovebox Integration)”Paper receipts fade and get lost under the passenger seat. Tap Scan Receipt to open the built-in document scanner. Snap a photo of your receipt, and the app will convert it to a crisp PDF.
- The Magic: This receipt isn’t just attached to the transaction; it is also automatically filed away into your secure Glovebox under the “Receipts” tag for safekeeping!
📍 Location Auto-Tagging
Section titled “📍 Location Auto-Tagging”If you are logging an expense on the go, the app will automatically tag the GPS coordinates and the name of the town you are in. You can also toggle Is Waypoint (Check-in) to have this expense show up as a pin on your Trip Map!
What’s Next?
Section titled “What’s Next?”Now that you have logged a few expenses, let’s see how they affect your master budget. 👉 Check out Budgets and Remaining Budget.