Managing your data

Accounts, Payees, Categories, and Tags are Actual Bench’s master-data pages, opened from the Data Management section of the sidebar. They share one editing model, so this page explains it once — each entity’s own guide then focuses on what it adds over Actual Budget.

Why manage this data in Actual Bench?

In Actual Budget you generally create and edit these records one at a time, from inside the budgeting UI, with each change taking effect immediately. Actual Bench is built for the opposite job — setting up, cleaning up, and auditing this data in bulk — and adds capabilities the native app doesn’t offer:

Bulk everything — select many rows and act on them at once (delete, close/reopen, merge, visibility), or paste rows straight from Excel / Google Sheets to create many records in one go.
CSV import and export — seed a fresh budget from a spreadsheet, or export for backup and offline editing.
Usage & impact visibility — see how many rules and transactions reference a record, and jump straight to them, before you change or delete anything.
Staged review — creates, edits, and deletes are collected as drafts and only written when you Save, so you can review a whole cleanup pass before it touches your budget.
Duplicate detection — name clashes are flagged as you work.

The shared editing model

All master-data pages behave the same way:

Inline editing — double-click, Enter, or F2 to edit a cell; Escape cancels.
Staged rows — new, edited, and deleted rows are visually marked and only written on Save. See Core Concepts for the full staging model.
Bulk selection — select rows with checkboxes and apply bulk actions. System-managed rows show a disabled checkbox with a tooltip explaining why.
Filters and search — filter and search each page; your filters persist per page and reset when you switch connections.
Duplicate warnings — a visual warning appears when a name already exists.
Impact-aware deletion — destructive actions confirm first, showing transaction counts, rule references, balances, or child counts where available.

Quick Create

Stage a new entity from anywhere 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.
On submit, the entity is staged (one undo step) and you stay on the current page.

Global Search

Press Ctrl/Cmd+K (or the top-bar Search button) to search across accounts, payees, categories, rules, schedules, and tags. Results are grouped by type; selecting one navigates to that entity with the row highlighted. Search runs against loaded in-memory data and never writes anything.

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.

The exact columns for each entity are documented on its own page. Sample files ship in the repository’s public/samples csv/ for testing against a fresh budget.

To move all master-data types at once (a whole-budget snapshot or seed), use Bundle Export / Import instead of the per-page CSVs.

The Usage Inspector

The Info button on any row opens a drawer with a complete usage profile — without starting 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.

Review and Save

Staged creates, edits, deletes, and merges appear in the Draft Changes panel and the top bar. Nothing is written to your Actual Server until you Save; Discard reverts to the last saved state.

Accounts · Payees · Categories · Tags
Core Concepts