Editing, review and save

Data Management pages use the same staged-editing workflow: Budget, Rules, Accounts, Payees, Categories, Schedules, and Tags. Use this page to learn how to make bulk changes, review them, and save them.

Budget impact: Changes remain staged for review until you Save. Notes save immediately.

What the bulk model adds

• Bulk everything - select rows and delete, close, reopen, merge or hide them together. Or paste straight out of a spreadsheet to create dozens at once.
• CSV in and out - seed a new budget from a spreadsheet, or take one away to edit offline.
• Usage before damage - see how many rules and transactions point at a record, and jump to them, before you change or delete it.
• Staged review - creates, edits and deletes pile up as a draft and go nowhere until you Save. A whole cleanup pass gets read once, as a unit.
• Duplicate detection - name clashes are flagged while you type, not after.

Start with one cleanup pass

1. Open the entity page that contains the problem.
2. Filter or search until the affected rows are visible.
3. Inspect usage before deleting or merging anything important.
4. Stage the edits or bulk action.
5. Review Draft Changes, then Save.

Moving an entire structure? Use Bundle Export / Import rather than repeating that loop on eight pages.

One shop appearing five times because the import text carries a date or a card number is a different problem. Start at Payee Cleanup. It finds the groups for you - and the payees whose imports will stop matching once the names are tidy.

The shared editing model

Every master-data page behaves the same way:

• Inline editing - double-click, Enter, or F2 to edit a cell; Escape cancels.
• Staged rows - new, edited and deleted rows are marked and written only on Save. Work safely has the full model.
• Bulk selection - checkboxes, then an action. Rows the system manages show a disabled checkbox and a tooltip saying why.
• Filters and search - per page, and they stick. Switching connection clears them.
• Duplicate warnings - a visual warning appears when a name already exists.
• Impact-aware deletion - destructive actions stop and show you the transaction counts, rule references, balances and child counts they know about.

Quick Create

Create a supported entity without leaving the current page:

• Press N (when no input or dialog is focused) or Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+N (from anywhere) to open the Quick Create dialog.
• Choose Payee, Category, Account, or Tag.
• Category requires a group; Account has an on-budget / off-budget toggle; Tag has an optional color.
• Submitting stages it as a single undo step. You do not move.

Global Search

Ctrl/Cmd+K, or the top-bar Search button. It covers accounts, payees, categories, rules, schedules and tags, groups the results by type, and takes you to the row with it highlighted. It reads what is already in memory and writes nothing.

CSV import and export

Every master-data page supports CSV export and import:

• Exports are UTF-8 with a BOM, so they open cleanly in Excel / Google Sheets.
• Imports are staged with per-row validation (and a 5 MB limit), so you review everything before Save.

Each entity’s page lists its exact columns. Sample files live in the repository under public/sample-csv/ if you want something to test against a fresh budget.

For all the types at once - a whole-budget snapshot, or a seed - use Bundle Export / Import rather than eight separate CSVs.

The Usage Inspector

The Info button on any row opens a drawer showing everything that references it. It does not start a delete:

• A stats row: Rules (always), Transactions (except tags), Balance (accounts, amber when non-zero), and Categories (groups only).
• An impact section describing what a deletion would affect.
• Quick links (for example View rules →) for entities with rule references.
• An empty state (“No known references found.”) when nothing references the entity.

Rule counts are clickable

Accounts, payees, categories, and tags show how many rules reference them. Click the count to jump to the Rules page filtered to that entity.

Review and Save

Creates, edits, deletes and merges collect in the Draft Changes panel and the top bar. Your Actual Server sees none of it until you Save. Discard throws the draft away and goes back to the last saved state.

Notes are the exception

Notes on accounts, categories and category groups save the moment you confirm them. They are not part of the draft, and Discard will not take them back. See Work safely.

Related pages

• Accounts · Payees · Payee Cleanup · Categories · Tags
• Work safely