Transactions

Transactions in Commander Finance record the movement of money into and out of your accounts. Each transaction belongs to exactly one account and can optionally link to a budget line and a merchant.

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Transaction properties

• Amount—the monetary value of the transaction. Negative amounts represent expenses—money going out—and positive amounts represent income—money coming in. Zero-amount transactions aren’t allowed.
• Merchant—the business or entity associated with the transaction. Optional, but you must provide either a merchant or memo.
• Memo—a text note or description. Optional, but you must provide either a merchant or memo.
• Date—when the transaction occurred. For manually created transactions, you set this directly. For imported transactions, Commander selects the most relevant date from the data your bank provides.
• Account—the account this transaction belongs to. Required.
• Budget line—the budget category for this transaction. Optional; you can categorize unassigned transactions later.
• Status—either Settled or Pending.

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Transaction status

• Settled—the financial institution has fully processed the transaction.
• Pending—the financial institution has authorized the transaction but hasn’t yet settled it.

For synced accounts, Commander automatically updates a transaction’s status when your bank reports that a pending transaction has settled. For manual transactions, you set the status when creating or editing the transaction. You can also settle a pending manual transaction in one step, without opening the edit form:

• On the transaction’s detail page, select Mark Settled next to Edit.
• In the transactions table, select the timer icon beside the date.
• On a phone, swipe the row left and select Settle.

Each of these shows a confirmation with an Undo option, in case you settle a transaction by mistake. Commander doesn’t offer this shortcut on transactions a connection imports, because your bank settles those for you.

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Transaction direction

The sign of the amount determines the transaction’s direction:

• Negative amounts represent expenses—money leaving the account.
• Positive amounts represent income—money entering the account.

When creating a transaction, a toggle button switches between expense and income modes. You can also type a minus sign in the amount field to change the sign.

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Data sources

Transactions enter Commander through one of two paths:

• Manual—you create the transaction by hand through the transaction form.
• Plaid—Commander imports the transaction automatically from your linked bank account.

Both types function identically once in the system. You can edit imported transactions if the bank data is incorrect or incomplete.

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Sorting and display

Commander sorts transactions by date—most recent first—then alphabetically by name. In list views, transactions display their merchant name as the primary identifier. When viewing transactions grouped by merchant, the memo field identifies individual transactions within that merchant’s group. When the list is sorted by date, Commander groups rows under a date header—Today, Yesterday, or the date itself (June 15, or June 15, 2025, for a date outside the current year). Sorting by any other column removes the date grouping and shows a flat list. Click any column header to sort the table by that column; click again to reverse the direction. To sort by more than one column at once, shift-click additional headers—Commander adds them as secondary sorts applied in the order you click. The primary sort column shows a plain caret icon; every secondary column shows the caret with a small numeric badge—2, 3, and so on—that marks its place in the sort order. You can also search the loaded rows, filter the full history by date, account, budget line, or merchant, and read a running in/out/net total of what’s shown. See Finding and filtering transactions for those tools.

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Merchant transaction history

A transaction’s detail page ends with a ledger headed Transactions at this merchant, listing that merchant’s transactions across all of your accounts. The ledger appears only when the transaction has a merchant. The transaction you’re viewing appears in that ledger alongside the merchant’s other transactions, marked This transaction. That row doesn’t open anything, since you’re already on that transaction’s page—the links inside the row still work, and the row still takes keyboard focus.

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Budget line assignment

Assigning a transaction to a budget line connects the transaction’s amount to that budget category’s totals. You can assign a budget line during transaction creation, from the transaction detail page, or from the transactions list. Transactions dated before your budget start date don’t require assignment. If you have linked a merchant to a budget line, selecting that merchant when creating a transaction automatically fills in the budget line field.