Account types in Aspire — Aspire Budgeting

Aspire organizes accounts into two sections on the Configuration tab: Bank Accounts / Cash and Credit Cards. Here’s how to decide where each real-world account belongs.

Bank Accounts / Cash

This section holds accounts where you have money (assets):

Account type	Examples	Notes
Checking	Chase Checking, Wells Fargo Checking	Your primary spending accounts
Savings	Ally Savings, Marcus HYSA	Money you’re holding for goals or emergencies
Cash	Wallet, Cash envelope	Physical money you spend and want to track
Prepaid / Debit cards	Venmo balance, Cash App	If you use them regularly for spending

All accounts in this section contribute positively to your total balance and Available to budget.

Credit Cards

This section holds accounts where you owe money (liabilities):

Account type	Examples	Notes
Credit cards	Visa, Amex, Discover	Cards you spend on and pay off monthly or over time
Lines of credit	Home equity line, personal line of credit	Similar to credit cards in behavior

Credit card account balances are negative (showing what you owe). They reduce your overall net position.

What about loans?

Aspire handles loans differently depending on how active they are in your daily budget:

Active loan with monthly payments (car loan, student loan):

Don’t add it as an account — instead, create a category for the payment (e.g., “Car Payment”)
Set the Monthly Amount to your payment amount
Log each payment as a transaction from your checking account to that category
Track the loan balance in Net Worth Categories on the Configuration tab

Why not add it as an account? Because you don’t make transactions against a loan — you make payments from your checking account. The loan itself isn’t a spending vehicle.

Exception — credit cards with carried balances: These do belong as Credit Card accounts because you actively spend on them.

Investment and retirement accounts

These typically don’t belong in Aspire’s main account list because:

You don’t spend from them
Their balance changes with market fluctuations, not transactions
Including them inflates Available to budget with money you can’t use

Instead: Track them in the Net Worth Categories section on the Configuration tab. This lets you see your full financial picture in Net Worth Reports without affecting your day-to-day budget.

How many accounts should I have?

Only add accounts that you actively spend from or receive money into. A good rule:

✅ Add: any account you’ll log transactions against
✅ Add: any account whose balance you want to see on the Dashboard
❌ Skip: accounts you never touch (old savings accounts, investment accounts)
❌ Skip: accounts tracked elsewhere (your employer’s HSA portal, 401k)

Most people have 2–5 accounts: 1–2 checking, 1 savings, 1–2 credit cards.

Setting up a new account

Go to the Configuration tab
Under the appropriate section (Bank Accounts / Cash or Credit Cards), add the account name
Go to the Transactions tab and create a starting balance transaction:
- For bank accounts: enter the balance in the Inflow column (how much you have)
- For credit cards: enter the balance you owe in the Outflow column
- Category: Available to budget
- Memo: “Starting balance”