Cleared and uncleared

Concepts

A transaction is cleared once it shows up on your bank statement. Clearing keeps Balanced in step with your bank, and it decides when income becomes money you can budget.

You often record a purchase before your bank does: you pay at the till, type it into Balanced, and the bank books it a day or two later. Until then, the transaction is uncleared. Once it appears on your statement, you mark it as Cleared.

Spotting what isn’t cleared yet

Uncleared counts the uncleared transactions dated today or earlier. Tap it to see them in one list, together with uncleared transactions dated later.
Next to an account, the overview shows its balance as of today. When some of its transactions aren’t cleared, the cleared balance appears underneath. That’s the number to compare with your bank.

In every list of transactions, an uncleared transaction has a small dot in front of its note: blue, or green in dark mode. The dot disappears when you clear it.

How to clear a transaction

In a list: swipe right on the transaction to Clear it. If you cleared it by mistake, swipe right again to Unclear it.
In the editor: turn on Cleared. The note below the switch says it in one sentence: “Mark a transaction as cleared once it shows up on your bank statement.”

A good habit: open Uncleared with your banking app next to it, and clear each transaction you find on your statement. If the cleared balance then matches your bank, your books are right.

Only cleared income counts

Income becomes money you can budget only when it’s cleared and its date has come. Say you enter your salary on the 28th, before the bank has booked it:

Salary · Oct 31 (not cleared yet)

Assets:Checking: +2,500.00
Income:Salary: −2,500.00
Balanced: 0.00 ✓

It doesn’t count towards Available yet. Once the date has come and you’ve cleared it, it does. That way you never budget money that hasn’t arrived.

Spending works the other way round: it counts as soon as its date has come, cleared or not. Once you’ve paid, the money is gone, whatever the bank says. Your opening balances and corrections count straight away too.

Zero-based budgeting explains everything that counts as available.

Under the hood · for the curious

Clearing doesn’t change the transaction’s postings at all, only a single yes-or-no mark on it. Balanced keeps two running totals for each account from the same postings:

balance =
  all postings up to today
cleared balance =
  cleared postings up to today

And for the budget:

The salary from above is one posting on Income; it counts once the transaction is cleared and dated today or earlier:

Salary

Assets:Checking: +2,500.00
Income:Salary: −2,500.00
Balanced: 0.00 ✓

income that counts =
  −(Income postings of cleared
    transactions up to today)