Understanding Transaction Rules

A transaction rule represents a single predictable item in your cash flow, such as your salary, your rent, or a subscription payment. You give it a name, a type (income or expense), and one or more scheduling entries that tell ForwardFi when it occurs and how much it is.

Rules do not record transactions that have already happened. They describe transactions you expect to happen so the forecast engine can project them forward.

Set Type to Income for money coming in (salary, rent received, dividends) and Expense for money going out (mortgage, insurance, subscriptions). The forecast adds income occurrences to your balance and subtracts expense occurrences.

A transfer rule moves money between two of your own accounts. In forecasts, the amount is treated as an expense on the source account and as incoming on the selected target account, so your total cash position remains consistent.

Transfer rules are available on the Pro plan. Free plan users can still use regular income and expense rules.

You can attach an optional category to a rule to group related items. Categories carry a colour and are useful for high-level groupings such as "Housing" or "Transport". Create and manage categories from an account's Settings screen, or create one while you are editing a rule.

Pro includes a separate One-offs tab beside recurring rules. Use it for a dated income or expense that should affect the forecast once, such as an annual bill, refund, or planned purchase.