Glossary
Definitions of the terms Good Steward Money uses on screen and in these articles, with a link to the article for each.
Updated November 10, 2026
Terms are in alphabetical order, written as the app shows them. Each meaning ends with a link to the article that covers the term.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Account | Holds transactions and a balance, for example a checking account, a credit card, a loan or a property. Each account is either on-budget or off-budget. See Add an account. |
| Account group | A card on the Accounts page that collects related accounts and shows their combined total. A goal can track a group's combined balance. See Group and reorder accounts. |
| Add row | The row you use to enter a transaction on Transactions. On a computer it is the first row of the list, under the column headings. On a phone it is a full-screen form called Add transaction. A list of several accounts adds an Account field to it. Once you choose a payee, it can fill in a category from your rules and payee history. See Add a transaction. |
| Annual Budget Plan | A grid of planned amounts with one row for each category and one column for each month of a calendar year. It edits the same Budgeted amounts as the Budget page. See The Annual Budget Plan. |
| Attention chips | Short links on Home, Budget and the Annual Budget Plan that point to things that need action, such as uncategorized transactions, overspent categories and due schedules. A chip appears only when its count is above zero. See Attention chips. |
| Auto categorization | A setting that fills in a category for a new transaction from your payee history, or from the category your bank or a file supplies, when no rule has set one. Rules run whether it is on or off. See How automatic categorization works. |
| Backup | A zip file with the data of one budget file, downloaded from Settings. Import it on the Budget files page to restore the file as a new budget file. See Back up and export your data. |
| Balance | On Budget, what is left in a category: Budgeted minus Spent (for income, Received minus Budgeted), plus anything carried in from the month before. In the headline band, the sum of every category's Balance. On Transactions, the total of every transaction in the accounts you chose. When you view one account with no search, view chip or filter, the Balance column shows the running balance: the total of that row and every row below it. See How the Budget page works. |
| Balance from | A setting on a bank-linked account with two choices, Transactions and Balance only. It decides whether the account's balance comes from its transactions or from your bank's figure. You choose it when you connect the account and can change it in the account's settings. See Transactions or Balance only for a bank account. |
| Balance only | A choice for Balance from. The account's balance is the latest figure your bank reports, no bank transactions come in, and the account is off budget. See Transactions or Balance only for a bank account. |
| Bank sync | Brings an account's latest balance and transactions from your bank into Good Steward. It runs when you select Sync or Sync now, when you open the app, once a day, and when your bank reports new data. See How bank sync works. |
| Billing | The page where you start, change or cancel your subscription, update your card, view invoices and export a backup. Most other pages stay locked until you have a plan or a free trial. See Plans and the free trial. |
| Bucket (money bucket) | The class a category group belongs to: Income, Generosity, Savings & Investments, Debt & Liabilities or Expenses. It decides where the group is listed and how reports sort your money. See Money buckets and starter categories. |
| Budget | The page that shows one month of your plan beside the transactions you recorded, for each category. See How the Budget page works. |
| Budget file | A separate budget with its own accounts, categories, transactions, rules, schedules and plan. Your sign-in, your plan and billing details, and Date format apply to every file. See Work with more than one budget file. |
| Budget switcher | The button under the logo at the top of the sidebar that shows the name of your active budget file. Choose another file in it, or choose Manage budget files. See Navigation and menus. |
| Budget template | A named list of lines that describes your usual month, also called a scenario. It changes nothing in your budget until you apply it. See Budget templates and scenarios. |
| Budgeted | The amount you plan for a category in one month. You enter it on Budget or in the Annual Budget Plan, and both show the same number. See Set your monthly amounts. |
| Carried over | On Budget, the part of the Balance that came from earlier months because a category has Rollover on. It shows as "Carried over: $X" under Balance in the headline band when it is not $0.00. See How Rollover works. |
| Category | A label you budget and report on, such as Groceries. Every category belongs to a category group. See Manage categories and groups. |
| Category group | A set of related categories, such as Essentials or Wants, called a group in the app. Each group is in one money bucket. See Manage categories and groups. |
| Category view | A layout of the Budget page that lists every category in each group, with its own Budgeted, Spent and Balance. Select Category at the top of the page to use it. See Group view and Category view. |
| Cleared | Marks a transaction as having appeared on your bank or card statement. The Cleared balance at the top of an account's list is the total of its cleared transactions. See To review, Cleared and Reconciled. |
| Closed account | An account you no longer use. Its past transactions stay in the budget and reports, but it no longer counts toward net worth and is no longer offered when you add a transaction. See Close, reopen or delete an account. |
| Connect plans | The plans that include bank sync: Basic, Advanced and Premium. The Manual plan has no bank sync. See Bank connections and your plan. |
| Credit | The amount field for money coming into an account, in Edit transaction. Enter the amount without a minus sign. The Add row has one Amount box with a − / + button in its place. On a phone, the form has Money out and Money in. See Edit a transaction. |
| Debit | The amount field for money going out of an account, in Edit transaction. Enter the amount without a minus sign. The Add row has one Amount box with a − / + button in its place. On a phone, the form has Money out and Money in. See Edit a transaction. |
| Details | A panel on the Transactions page where you edit one transaction. With nothing selected, it shows the balance and counts for the accounts you are viewing. See Edit a transaction. |
| Disconnected | A bank status meaning the connection has ended, either because you selected Disconnect or because the connection reported that it ended. Syncing stops, and your accounts and transactions stay. See A bank needs attention or is disconnected. |
| Free trial | The first 30 days of your first plan, free if you cancel before it ends. It starts when you finish checkout and needs a card. See Plans and the free trial. |
| Funding formula | A formula on an expense category that works out its Budgeted amount, either A share of income or Follow my bills. It changes nothing until you run it. See Set up funding formulas. |
| Generosity | The money bucket for giving. A category in a Generosity group, or with the Generosity heart, counts as giving in the Giving report. An overspent category with the heart shows in gold instead of red. In a Generosity group, an overspent category without the heart shows in red, and only the group's bar and the bucket's bar show gold. See Money buckets and starter categories. |
| Goal | A target amount to save up or a debt to pay off. A Save up goal is tracked by a budget category, an account or an account group. A Pay off goal is tracked by an account or an account group. A goal tracked by a category counts the money recorded into the category, not the amount you budget, and turns on Rollover for it. See Set up a goal. |
| Good Steward Local | The previous Good Steward app. Its export imports into Good Steward Money as a new budget file. See Import a backup or a Good Steward Local export. |
| Group view | A layout of the Budget page with one line per category group. Open a group to see its categories, and edit the group's Budgeted total there. See Group view and Category view. |
| Grouped | A layout of the Transactions list that shows Uncleared transactions in a section above the Cleared ones. With no search, view chip or filter, each section header shows its total, and the Uncleared section is on the first page only. By date lists the transactions by date instead. See The Transactions page. |
| Hide | Takes a category or group out of category lists and out of automatic fills. Hiding never changes a total. Where a hidden category still has an amount, Budget and the Annual Budget Plan list it with a small hidden label, so every total is the sum of the rows you see. The same label shows on the ledger, rules, schedules, goals and reports. Existing transactions keep the category. See Manage categories and groups. |
| imported payee | The text exactly as it arrived from your bank or a file, before any rule or rename. For a bank transaction, it is the bank's own description (Bank description in Details). Renaming the payee does not change it, so a rule on it keeps matching. A later bank sync can replace the text on older bank transactions with the bank's own description. See Rule conditions and actions. |
| Kind | In reports, another word for a money bucket. The Spending report can rank spending by kind. See Find where your money went. |
| Ledger | The list of your transactions on the Transactions page. It is your own record, which can differ from your bank's. See The Transactions page. |
| Left over | In the Income and cash flow and Where income goes reports, income minus everything that went out: giving, saving, debt payments, spending and uncategorized money out. It reads Short when more went out than came in. See Read Income and cash flow. |
| Linked banks | The page that lists every bank you have connected, from any of your budget files, with each bank's accounts and sync status. Your plan sets how many banks you can connect. See Connect a bank. |
| Locked page | A page marked with a small lock in the sidebar because your account has no active plan. Selecting it opens Billing. See Some pages show a lock. |
| Looking ahead | A report that draws the combined balance of your open on-budget accounts forward from today, using your schedules and the unspent part of your plan. It says whether the balance falls below a line you set. See See what's ahead. |
| Match to existing account | An option in Choose accounts to import that links a bank's account to an account you already have, so its transactions are not added twice. An import option creates a second account instead. See Choose which bank accounts to bring in. |
| Month actions | A menu at the top of the Budget page that changes the Budgeted amounts for the month you are viewing, for example by copying last month's budget. Its items depend on whether you use Group view or Category view. See Month actions. |
| Month summary | A column on the right of the Budget page, or a panel on a smaller screen or a phone, that sums up the month: budgeted against spent, what Balance is made of, buckets, a year outlook, categories over plan and top spending. Each card collapses to one line. See How the Budget page works. |
| Needs | On a goal card, the amount per month that reaches the target by the deadline. It shows only for a goal with a deadline. See Goal progress calculations. |
| Needs attention | A bank status meaning the connection reported an error. Automatic syncs skip the bank until you select Reconnect on its card on Linked banks and sign in to your bank again, or the bank reports a successful sync. See A bank needs attention or is disconnected. |
| Net this month | Income received minus money spent in the month, shown on Home and Budget. Only categorized transactions in on-budget accounts count. See How the Budget page works. |
| Net worth | What you own minus what you owe: the total balance of every open account, on-budget and off-budget. The Net worth report charts it over time. See Track your net worth. |
| Next date | The date of a schedule's next occurrence. It moves forward by the schedule's repeat each time you select Post or Skip. See Schedule repeat and amount options. |
| Off by | A gold label next to the balance of a bank-linked account on Accounts. It shows how far the total of the account's Cleared transactions is from the last balance your bank reported. See An account shows "Off by". |
| Off-budget | Left out of your budget and of reports. An off-budget account counts for net worth only, and you can set a category off-budget, for example for expenses you are repaid for. See On-budget and off-budget accounts. |
| On date | A placement for a template line: the line plans its full amount only in the months it falls due, counted from its start date. On a phone it reads on occurrence. See Set up template lines. |
| On-budget | An account whose transactions count toward your budget. The Accounts page lists these accounts under For budget. See On-budget and off-budget accounts. |
| Overspent | A category whose Balance on Budget is below zero. It shows in a red badge, or gold for a category with the Generosity heart, and it does not reduce any other category. See A category is overspent. |
| Pace | On a goal card, the average change in progress per month over the last three months. It shows in red when it is zero or negative. See Goal progress calculations. |
| Paused | A bank-linked account whose syncing you stopped with Pause syncing. The bank stays connected and still counts toward your plan's bank limit. See Sync or pause a bank account. |
| Payee | The name on a transaction, such as a store or an employer. Good Steward creates a payee when you enter a new name, import or sync transactions, or save a schedule. See Rename, merge and delete payees. |
| Pending | A transaction your bank has reported but not finalized. It stays uncleared until the bank posts it, and you cannot change its status. See Pending, possible match and removed transactions. |
| Plan | The amount you plan for each category in each month: the Budgeted amount on Budget and a cell in the Annual Budget Plan. On Home, Plan is planned income minus planned spending for the month. See Screens and reports that use your plan. |
| Possible match | A marker on a bank transaction and on one you entered by hand that look like the same purchase. Open the bank's copy and choose Merge or Not the same. See Pending, possible match and removed transactions. |
| Possible schedule | A label beside a payee on a transaction that looks like a payment from one of your schedules. Open Details and choose Mark paid: with the schedule's name to link them. See See what's coming up. |
| Post | A button on a schedule that adds a transaction for its next occurrence, dated the Next date. Nothing posts by itself. See Post, skip or end a scheduled item. |
| Posted | A bank transaction that the bank has finalized, as opposed to a pending one. It is Cleared. See Pending, possible match and removed transactions. |
| Privacy mode | Blurs money amounts on screen, for example when you share your screen. The setting is saved in your browser, not your account. See Hide amounts with Privacy mode. |
| Projected | On a goal card, the month the goal is reached if you keep your current Pace. See Goal progress calculations. |
| Received | The Budget column for income categories: the total of money in that is dated in the month. Expense categories show Spent instead. See How the Budget page works. |
| Reconcile | To confirm that an account's balance in Good Steward matches your statement or your bank. It locks the account's Cleared transactions and adds an adjustment transaction for any difference. See Reconcile an account. |
| Reconciled | A transaction locked by reconciling, shown with a lock icon in place of the Cleared circle. You can still change it, but a new date, amount or payee asks you to confirm first. See To review, Cleared and Reconciled. |
| Removed by provider | A marker on a bank transaction that your bank reported before and has stopped reporting. Good Steward keeps it until you open it and choose Keep it or Delete it. See Pending, possible match and removed transactions. |
| Rollover | A setting on each category that carries its Balance at the end of a month, positive or negative, into the next month when it is on. See How Rollover works. |
| Rule | A saved set of conditions and actions that sets a category, payee or other field on transactions as they arrive from a file or your bank. See Categorize transactions automatically with rules. |
| Saved view (report) | A saved report setup, such as its period, accounts and filters. It appears as a card on the Reports home. See Save a report view. |
| Saved view (Transactions) | A saved set of account, view chip, search and filters, listed under Saved views in Filters. See Search and filter transactions. |
| Scenario | A named Budget template. A budget file can hold several, and the active one is the template that Generate and Apply my template use. See Budget templates and scenarios. |
| Schedule | A bill or income that repeats, such as rent or a paycheck. You enter it once, the app tracks its Next date, and you add each occurrence with Post. See Set up a recurring bill or income. |
| Scheduled | A section above the transactions on the first page of Transactions. It shows the overdue and upcoming scheduled items in the accounts you are viewing, as far ahead as the Upcoming button is set. Its header shows how many items it lists and their total. Each item has Post, and a repeating one also has Skip. See See what's coming up. |
| Setup | The walkthrough that runs after you create an account. It builds your starting categories and your first monthly plan in four steps: About you, Your path, Review & prioritize and Plan. See Set up your first budget. |
| Spent | The Budget column for expense categories: the total of transactions in the category dated in the month. Select the amount to see them. See How the Budget page works. |
| Split | A transaction divided into two or more lines, each with its own category and amount. The transaction keeps its total. See Split a transaction. |
| Spread | A placement for a template line that plans the line's monthly equivalent in every month from its start month. A $1,200 yearly line plans $100 each month. See Set up template lines. |
| Stage | A setting on a rule that decides when it runs relative to other rules: Pre, Default or Post. Within a stage, rules run in the order you created them. See How rules run. |
| Standard set | The starter categories Good Steward creates when you skip setup or choose Start with the standard set. It has the groups Income, Generosity, Savings, Essentials, Needs and Wants. See Setup paths and life templates. |
| Starting Balance | The transaction that holds an account's opening balance. You create it with the Starting balance field when you add an account, and on a bank-linked account Good Steward adjusts it while your bank is still delivering history. See How bank sync works. |
| Tag | A label you add to transactions for context across categories, such as a trip or a project. A tag never changes an amount, a category or any budget figure. See Tag transactions. |
| Template line | One category's recurring amount in a Budget template, with a frequency, an optional start date and a placement of Spread or On date. See Set up template lines. |
| To review | A transaction or split line you have not marked reviewed. A split is To review while any of its lines is, and each such line adds one to the To review count. Transactions from your bank or an imported file start as To review, and most transactions you enter yourself start reviewed. See To review, Cleared and Reconciled. |
| Transaction | A record of money moving: a purchase, a deposit or a transfer. Each transaction belongs to one account and can have a payee, a category, notes and tags. See The Transactions page. |
| Transfer | Money moved between two of your accounts, such as paying a credit card from checking. It is two linked transactions with opposite amounts, one in each account. See Record a transfer between accounts. |
| Trash | Where deleted transactions go. They stay for 30 days, and you can restore them. Open it with View trash on Settings. See Delete, undo and restore transactions. |
| Uncategorized | A transaction or split line in an on-budget account that has no category, so it is in no budget figure. A transfer between two on-budget accounts needs no category and does not count. The uncategorized chip and the Uncategorized view chip list them, showing a split with all its lines. See Attention chips. |
| Uncleared | A transaction that has not appeared on your statement yet, shown with a hollow circle. Transactions you enter by hand start uncleared unless you change that in Settings. The cleared mark in the Add row changes it for the transaction you are adding. See To review, Cleared and Reconciled. |
| Where income goes | A report that splits the income of a period into five shares: given, saved, paid to debt, spent and left over. You can set a target for each share. See See where your income goes. |
| Year-end statement | A printable record of your gifts in one calendar year, grouped by recipient. It is your own record, not an official tax receipt. See Print a year-end giving statement. |