If you’re using Goodbudget Premium and have multiple accounts linked, you’ll likely see two automatically imported transactions that represent one real-life transfer between your accounts.
It’s okay to be confused! But this happens because there are two separate transactions generated from one single transfer.
Take a credit card payment as an example:
If you’ve linked both:
- a checking account, and
- a credit card account,
Goodbudget may import:
- one expense (money leaving checking), and
- one credit (payment received by the credit card),
even though they’re two sides of the same transaction.
You can use Goodbudget’s Match tool to merge these two transactions together, so they’re recognized as a single item. Below are the most common ways to do that.
Option 1. Match Your Payment and Credit into an Account Transfer
If both sides of the transaction have already synced, you can merge them into one Account Transfer to represent your credit card payment.
- Open the Confirm screen by tapping View Transactions at the top of the Home screen
- Click the open checkmarks to the left of the date to select both imported transactions.
- Click Match in the upper-right corner of the screen.
- Goodbudget will combine them into a single transaction labeled “Account Transfer.”
- (Optional) Edit the transaction name to be more specific.
- Tap on Confirm # Imported Transactions at the top of the Envelopes tab to navigate to the Need to Confirm screen.
- Tap Edit in the top-right corner.
- Select both imported transactions > tap Match at the bottom to merge the items together.
- (Optional) Edit the transaction name to be more specific by tapping Done and then on the matched Account Transfer.
Option 2: Match a Synced Transaction to an Existing Account Transfer
Banks sync transactions on different schedules, so sometimes one side of the payment syncs before the other.
In that case, you can:
- Convert the first synced transaction into an Account Transfer, and
- Match the second transaction when it later syncs.
Step 1: Convert the first transaction into an Account Transfer
When the first half of the payment appears:
- Open the Confirm screen by tapping View Transactions at the top of the Home screen.
- Click on your transaction to convert to an Account Transfer.
- If the transaction amount is negative, click the Transfer tab at the top to select which Account the money is going to.
- If the amount is positive, first change the transaction type to Transfer, then select the account the money came from.
- Click Save and Confirm
Step 2: Match the second transaction when it syncs
When the other half of the payment syncs:
- Use the Match tool to merge it with the side of the Account Transfer that has the same sign (positive or negative). See below:
Step 1: Convert the first transaction into an Account Transfer
When the first half of the payment appears:
- Tap on Confirm # Imported Transactions at the top of the Envelopes tab to navigate to the Need to Confirm screen.
- Tap on your transaction to convert to an Account Transfer.
- If the amount is negative, tap Type and select Account Transfer to choose which Account the money is going to.
- If the amount is positive, tap Type and select Account Transfer to choose which Account the money came from.
- Tap Confirm to save your choice
Step 2: Match the second transaction when it syncs
When the other half of the payment syncs:
- Tap Edit while on the Need to Confirm screen
- Tap to select the two transactions you’re matching – their signs should be the same (positive or negative)
- Tap Match at the bottom to confirm the merge
- Tap Done when you’re finished
Alternative
Instead of matching, you may choose to delete the second synced transaction if the transfer is already correct.
If You’ve Already Created Duplicate Account Transfers
If both imported transactions were already converted into separate Account Transfers, they cannot be matched together.
What to do
- Manually delete one of the duplicate Account Transfers.
Keep the one that best represents the full transaction.
*This article was written by humans, restructured for scannability using GenAI, and reviewed by humans.
