Reviewing transactions: four small decisions

This is the screen you will use most. Every imported row waits here as Unreviewed until you tell SoloBook four things about it. It takes a few seconds per row, and it is what turns a pile of bank lines into books.

🔍 Finding your way around

Open Transactions. Above the list you can narrow things down:

• Account: one account, or all of them.
• Type: income, expense or transfer.
• Show: All (the default), Business or Personal.
• Status: all rows, only the Unreviewed ones, or only the Confirmed ones.
• Period, Income status, a search over payment names, an amount range and a currency.

The period you pick is shared with Dashboard, Budget and Tax year, so all four look at the same stretch of time, and the list opens on the current year. Under the list, SoloBook shows what the rows you filtered add up to.

Each row shows its date, description, account, type, status and amount. A small badge says Business or Personal, so you can see at a glance which way a row is counted. A marker shows that a row has a note.

🧩 The four decisions

Click a row, or Review this row, and a panel opens under it.

1. Category: what was this for? Pick one, or create a new one on the spot with + New category. Categories are explained on their own page: Categories.
2. Business or personal: this decides whether the row counts as a business income or deduction. A personal row stays out of your business numbers.
3. Budget envelope: for personal spending, choose the envelope it comes out of. You need a budget first. See Budget.
4. Note: a few words about what it was for. Your accountant will thank you, and so will you next spring.

Then press Save, or Save and confirm. Confirming moves the row from Unreviewed to Confirmed. If you confirmed something by mistake, Return to the review queue puts it back.

Why can’t I change the amount? The date, amount and name come from your bank, and SoloBook does not let anyone edit them. That keeps your books honest.

🧠 Teach SoloBook once

When you save a row, tick Always do this for payments like this. SoloBook saves a rule for payments with exactly this description. New imports are then classified the same way, and so are the unreviewed rows already in the list.

All your rules are on the Categories screen, under Saved rules, with how often each one has been used. Delete rule removes one. A rule matches the description exactly, so a payment with a slightly different name needs its own.

🔁 Money that is not income or an expense

If you moved money between your own accounts, it is neither income nor an expense. Open the row and choose This is a transfer. SoloBook clears the category and the envelope on that row, and the Dashboard shows transfers separately, not counted.

Changed your mind? Not a transfer puts the row back to what your statement said.

A payment you recorded against an invoice cannot be turned into a transfer.

For deposits, there is one more question, “is this really my income?” It has its own page: Is it income?.

💻 When a purchase is a capital purchase

Some purchases, like a laptop, are not spent in one year the way a coffee is. CRA treats them as capital, and the cost is claimed over several years through capital cost allowance (CCA). You can read CRA’s rules on the CRA website .

When you pick a category that is linked to a capital line, SoloBook asks if you want to record the purchase as an asset instead. You choose a CCA class and a business-use percent, and press Record as a capital asset. If you are not sure which class applies, ask your accountant.

✅ A short routine

• Import.
• Open Transactions and look at the unreviewed rows.
• Sort them, and press Save and confirm.
• Glance at Needs attention on the Dashboard. It counts rows to review, expenses without a category and overdue invoices.

When that box says Nothing needs attention, you are caught up.