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Getting started

Install Kabacus, make your first books and record a first transaction.

Kabacus keeps double-entry books in a database. By default that is a file ending in .kabacus on your computer; no server or sign-in is involved.

Make your first books

  1. Install the app (see Download) and start it. With no books open it shows Welcome.
  2. Choose New Books…, pick where to save the .kabacus file, then give it a currency and a first account.
  3. Press Add (Ctrl+N) and choose what happened: spent, received, card purchase, transfer and so on.
  4. Fill in the amount. The preview shows the balances before and after and whether the books balance. Save when it looks right.

Already use hledger?

Import your journal once with kabacus-cli. After that the database is the books and the journal files are no longer read. See Import and export.

Where things are

The sidebar lists the destinations in a fixed order: Overview, Transactions, Reserves, Credit, Loans, People, Reports and Activity. Settings is at the foot. The foot of the sidebar also says where your books live and that every change is saved.

Check before relying on the books

  1. Use account paths that match the account-kind rules, such as assets:bank:checking. Check Overview for unclassified accounts.
  2. Record or import opening balances and compare them with the real accounts. Do not enter an existing balance again as new income.
  3. Inspect the first saved transaction in Transactions and its revision in Activity.
  4. Save a separate copy and verify that it opens before making the file your only record.