Create a Journal

A journal is a folder containing plain-text hledger files tracked by git. It holds your accounts, records (that is, transactions), categories, budget allocations, rules, and sync configuration.

my-budget/
├── .git/                  # version history
├── main.journal           # root file. references the other files
├── accounts.journal       # account definitions
├── surebeans.json         # rules, remotes, app config
└── includes/
    ├── 2025.journal       # records for 2025
    └── 2026.journal       # records for 2026

Create the journal

Desktop: Click the hamburger menu (☰) → New Journal. Pick a folder.

Browser: Click ☰ → New Journal. Enter a name.

Surebeans creates a starter journal with example accounts and sample records.

Add an account

Navigate to Plan. Your starter journal includes some default accounts. To add more, go to Records, add a record, and type a new account name. Surebeans creates it automatically.

Add a record

Navigate to Records. Click + Add.

Fill in:

Press Enter or click away to save.

Assign money

Navigate to Plan. This is the envelope budgeting view.

1. Income appears in Ready to Assign at the top.
2. Click a category’s Planned column.
3. Enter the amount to budget for that category.
4. Repeat until Ready to Assign reaches zero.

The Available column shows Planned - Actual for each category. Green means under budget. Red means overspent.

Next steps

• Set up Sync to back up your journal.
• Create Rules to auto-categorize records.
• Import bank records with Beanscrape or SimpleFIN.