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Flow Types — Expense, Income & Transfer

Overview

Section titled “Overview”

Every subcategory in Acclo IQ has a flow type — expense, income, or transfer. Flow types are the sole classifier for how transactions appear in budgets, dashboards, and analysis. Acclo IQ never uses the amount sign (positive/negative) to determine whether a transaction is spending or income.

The Three Flow Types

Section titled “The Three Flow Types”

| Flow Type | Description | Examples | Amount Sign | | ---- | ---- | ---- | ---- | | Expense | Normal spending — money leaves your account for goods or services | Groceries, Restaurants, Rent, Utilities, Gas, Subscriptions | Usually negative | | Income | Money coming in — deposits, earnings, returns | Salary, Dividends, Interest, Tax Refund, Deposit | Usually positive | | Transfer | Internal movement — money moving between your own accounts | Credit Card Payment, Savings Transfer, Investment, Withdrawal | Positive or negative |

Why Flow Types Matter

Section titled “Why Flow Types Matter”

Budgets

Section titled “Budgets”

Only expense transactions count toward budget targets. Income and transfers are excluded so your budget reflects actual spending.

Dashboard

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The Dashboard separates metrics by flow type:

  • Expenses card — sum of expense transactions
  • Income card — sum of income transactions
  • Transfers card — sum of transfer transactions
  • Net Cash Flow — income minus expenses

Analysis

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The Analysis page lets you switch between Expenses, Income, and Cash Flow views using amount mode pills.

Filtering

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On the Transactions page, the three flow type pills (Expense, Income, Transfer) let you quickly filter by type. Other pages that drill down to Transactions include the flow type in the URL parameters.

How Flow Types Are Assigned

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Flow types are set on subcategories, not on individual transactions. When a transaction is categorized (manually or by the rule engine), its flow type comes from the assigned subcategory.

For example, if a transaction is categorized as "Food & Dining > Groceries" and Groceries has flow type "expense," the transaction is treated as an expense regardless of its amount sign.

Uncategorized Transactions

Section titled “Uncategorized Transactions”

Transactions without a category use default flow type rules based on the account type and amount sign:

| Account Type | Positive Amount | Negative Amount | | ---- | ---- | ---- | | Checking | Income | Expense | | Savings | Transfer | Transfer | | Credit Card | Transfer | Expense | | Investment | Income | Transfer | | Cash | Income | Expense | | Loan | Transfer | Transfer | | Money Market | Income | Expense |

These defaults ensure uncategorized transactions are handled sensibly until you categorize them. You can customize the defaults per account in Settings > Accounts > Edit.

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