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Accounts in CashCat represent your real-world bank accounts, credit cards, and cash holdings. They track where your money physically exists, separate from what you’ve budgeted it for.

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Account basics

Each account has the following properties:
  • Name — A descriptive label like “Chase Checking” or “Emergency Savings”
  • Type — The kind of account (e.g., “checking”, “savings”, “credit”)
  • Balance — Calculated automatically from transaction history
  • Status — Active or inactive accounts
Account balances are computed from all transactions and transfers, not manually entered. This ensures they stay accurate as you add or edit transactions.

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Account types

When creating an account, you specify a type that describes what kind of account it is. Common types include:
  • checking — Primary spending accounts
  • savings — Savings and emergency fund accounts
  • credit — Credit cards
  • cash — Physical cash on hand
  • Custom types as needed
Account types are text fields, so you can use any label that makes sense for your situation.

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The default account

One account can be marked as the default using the is_default flag. This account is automatically selected when creating transactions without specifying an account.
Set your primary checking account as the default to streamline transaction entry.
If you create a transaction without specifying an account_id, CashCat will:
  1. Use the account marked with is_default: true
  2. If no default exists, use the first available account
  3. Return an error if you have no accounts

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Account balances

Balances are calculated by summing:
  • Transactions — All income, payment, and starting balance transactions
  • Transfers in — Money transferred into the account from other accounts
  • Transfers out — Money transferred out to other accounts
The balance calculation runs up to a specific date, so you can see historical balances using the as_of_date parameter.
To include balance information in API responses, use include_balance=true and optionally specify an as_of_date in YYYY-MM-DD format.

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Active vs inactive accounts

The is_active flag lets you mark accounts as inactive without deleting them. Inactive accounts:
  • Preserve historical transaction data
  • Don’t appear in normal account lists (unless filtered)
  • Can’t be used for new transactions
This is useful for closed accounts or accounts you no longer use but want to maintain for record-keeping.

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Starting balances

When you first add an account to CashCat, you’ll want to record its current balance. Use a transaction with type: "starting" to set the initial balance: 
{
  "type": "starting",
  "amount": 1234.56,
  "date": "2024-01-01",
  "account_id": "your-account-id"
}
Starting balance transactions don’t require a category and don’t affect your budget assignments.

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Transfers between accounts

Money moving between your accounts is tracked as transfers, not transactions. This keeps account balances accurate without double-counting funds in your budget. For example, moving money from checking to savings:
  • Decreases the checking account balance
  • Increases the savings account balance
  • Does not affect category budgets
See the Transfers documentation for more details on how inter-account transfers work.

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