Transactions or Balance only for a bank account

Each bank-linked account has a Balance from setting with two choices. Transactions brings in your bank's transactions, and the transactions in the account make its balance. Balance only keeps the account's balance up to date from your bank without bringing in its transactions.

Which choice suits an account

Transactions suits accounts where each transaction matters to your budget: checking, savings, credit cards, and a home equity line or line of credit you follow payment by payment.

Balance only suits accounts whose balance moves without transactions: investment accounts, where market gains and losses are never transactions, and mortgages or other loans where the bank's balance is what you want to follow. When you connect a bank, Good Steward suggests Balance only for investment accounts and for loans other than a home equity line or a line of credit. The choice is yours.

A Balance-only account is always off budget. See On-budget and off-budget accounts.

How the balance is kept

Each sync asks your bank for the account's balance and keeps one figure per day. The account's balance is the latest figure your bank reported. Under the account's name on its settings page, a line says where it comes from: "From your bank, as of November 2." When your bank gives a figure without a time, it reads "Reported by your bank on November 4." When the latest figure is more than 3 days old, it reads "Your bank last reported this balance on October 30." When your bank has not reported a balance yet, the account shows the total of its transaction entries, and the line reads "Your bank has not reported a balance yet. This is the total of your transaction entries."

If your bank reports no balance at a sync, the previous figure stands. See How bank sync works. For a loan or credit account whose bank figure is positive while its transactions add up to a negative amount, the page warns: "Your bank reports this balance as a positive amount. Check that the balance shown is right, and email support@goodsteward.io if it is not."

Transactions you enter

You can still add transactions to a Balance-only account, for example the other side of a transfer from checking. They appear in the account's list and count in anything that reads transactions, such as a goal's contributions. They never change the account's balance. When you have transactions dated after the latest figure, the settings page adds "Entries since then: +$500.00. Your bank's balance does not include them yet." The Add row says "This account's balance comes from your bank. Entries here are a record and do not change it."

The account's list shows no Balance column, no cleared control, no Cleared or Uncleared figures, no Reconcile and no Off by. New transactions start Cleared and reviewed.

Net worth

The Net worth report uses your bank's figure for each date from the first figure on. For dates before the first figure, it adds up the account's transactions, so history from before you chose Balance only stays in the chart. When the account has no transactions, the chart starts at your bank's first figure.

Changing the setting

Open the account's settings page. In the Bank connection card, select Change… beside the Balance from line. A dialog describes what will happen before you confirm.

To keep only the balance, select Keep only the balance in the dialog titled "Keep only the balance?". Every transaction you have stays as history. Transactions your bank still reports as pending are removed, since they can never be cleared now; they go to the trash. A pending transaction that is one side of a transfer is kept as a record instead; the dialog says "1 pending transfer stays as a record." Transactions in To review are marked reviewed, any Off by is cleared, and the account moves off budget if it was in the plan.

To bring transactions back, select Bring in transactions in the dialog titled "Bring in transactions?". When you confirm, your transactions dated today or earlier that are not reconciled are marked Cleared. The next sync brings in the transactions your bank still provides, for you to review. Some banks only provide the last few months. A transaction you entered can be brought in again by your bank; Find duplicates shows the pair. For the next 7 days the Starting Balance follows your bank while you tidy up. After that, a difference shows as Off by. A reconciled Starting Balance is never changed, and any difference from your bank shows as Off by at once. A Starting Balance brought in from Good Steward Local is not changed either, except in an investment account. If it differs from your bank, the difference shows as Off by. The account stays off budget until you move it.

An account linked before this setting existed stays on Transactions. If your bank describes it as an investment or a loan, its settings page shows a box once: "Keep only this account's balance from your bank? Transactions stop coming in; the ones you have stay as history." Select Keep only the balance to open the same dialog, or Not now to hide the box.

When the bank is no longer connected

If the bank is disconnected, the Balance from card shows "This account's balance came from a bank that is no longer connected." and a Track by hand button. Select it to open "Track this account by hand?". The dialog says, for example, "The balance will be kept as of November 2, 2026 and your entries will move it from there." When your bank never gave a figure, it says "This account has no balance from your bank. Your entries will make its balance."

Select Track by hand in the dialog to confirm. The balance stays as of the latest figure your bank reported, and your entries move it from there. If the account has no transactions, Good Steward adds a Starting Balance with that figure. If it has transactions, Good Steward adds a Cleared transaction for the difference between that figure and the account's transactions dated up to that day, dated that day, with the note "Balance adjustment (last balance from your bank)". No transaction is added when they already match. The account then works like any account you track by hand. This also applies to a restored backup.