Getting Started

First Run

On your first visit to Dosh, you'll be taken through a short setup wizard:

1. Create your account — Enter a username and password. This becomes the first user.
2. Starting accounts — Two accounts are created automatically: Spending (transactional) and Emergency (savings). You can rename or delete these later.

After setup you'll land on the Budget page for the current week.

Adding Accounts

Go to Accounts and click New Account. You'll be asked for:

• Name — e.g. "Everyday", "Credit Card", "Emergency Fund"
• Type — Transactional, Savings, or Debt
• Starting balance — The current balance of the account as a dollar amount. This is recorded as a special starting-balance transaction and used as the base for all future balance calculations.
• Notes — Optional description or account number.
• Goal — For savings accounts, an optional target balance shown on the Goals report.

See Accounts for more detail on account types and reconciliation.

Setting Up Your Budget

Go to Budget and navigate to the current week. Your budget is organised into groups (e.g. "Living Expenses", "Savings Goals") containing categories (e.g. "Groceries", "Rent", "Emergency Fund").

Create a Group

Click + Group at the bottom of the budget table. Give it a name. Groups can be reordered by dragging on desktop.

Create a Category

Click + Category inside a group. You'll set:

• Name — e.g. "Groceries"
• Amount — How much you want to budget
• Period — How often this budget resets:
  • Weekly — resets each Sunday
  • Fortnightly — resets every two weeks
  • Monthly — resets on the 1st of each month
  • Quarterly — resets every three months
  • Annually — resets once per year

For a zero-based budget, your total budgeted income should equal your total budgeted expenses across all categories.

See Budget for a full explanation of how spent and balance are calculated per period.

Adding Transactions

Go to Accounts, select an account, and click + Transaction. Enter:

• Date
• Payee — autocompletes from previous payees
• Amount — positive for income, negative for expenses
• Category — assign to a budget category

Alternatively, import transactions from a CSV file using the Import button. See CSV Import.

Navigation

• Desktop: Sidebar on the left with links to Budget, Accounts, Reports, Rules, Settings, and Audit.
• Mobile: Bottom navigation bar.

Week navigation arrows appear at the top of the Budget page to step forward/back through weeks.