Source
Supported bank CSV files remain the starting evidence.
HOW WE CALCULATE
Trust starts with definitions you can inspect.
Financial software should explain where its numbers come from. This is the operating logic behind Money Calculated: source records preserved, transformations structured and limitations made clear.
THE DATA PIPELINE
Five stages from export to insight.
Every stage solves a different data-quality problem. Keeping them separate makes errors easier to find and rules easier to improve.
Clean
Dates, amounts, text and account fields are standardised.
Enrich
Useful fields are derived without overwriting the source.
Classify
Priority-based rules assign financial meaning.
Report
Measures and dashboards answer defined questions.
CATEGORY PRIORITY
Specific decisions take precedence over broad guesses.
Explicit overrides
Known exceptions receive deliberate treatment when a broad rule would be wrong.
Transfer logic
Movements between owned accounts are identified before spending totals are produced.
Merchant and text rules
Reusable patterns assign specific categories to repeatable activity.
Visible fallback
Unresolved records remain reviewable instead of being silently forced into a category.
CORE DEFINITIONS
The same words should mean the same thing every month.
| Measure | Working definition | Important exclusions |
|---|---|---|
| Income | External money received and classified as income | Transfers between owned accounts; reversed items |
| Expenses | External outflows classified as genuine costs | Internal transfers; savings movements |
| Net cash flow | Income less genuine expenses for the selected period | Account-to-account movement |
| Savings rate | Net saving or positive cash-flow measure divided by relevant income | Definitions vary; the system states the version used |
| Specific categorisation | Records assigned beyond a broad fallback label | Unresolved or generic fallback rows |
Why definitions matter: There is no single universal personal-finance taxonomy. Money Calculated prioritises consistent, visible definitions so comparisons remain useful over time.
VALIDATION & LIMITS
Evidence without overclaiming.
Real transaction history
- 8,665 source transactions
- Approximately seven years of history
- Multiple supported account exports
- 28 standardised data fields
- Four-level classification priority
Your data and results
- Bank export formats can change
- Merchant descriptions vary by transaction
- Cash purchases may lack useful detail
- Personal categories require personal judgement
- No system can infer every financial intention
EARLY ACCESS
Clarity is a product feature.
Join early access for a finance system built to show its work, preserve your control and improve with honest feedback.