Create a Journal

A journal is a folder of plain-text hledger files tracked by git. It holds your records, meaning your transactions, along with accounts, 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 Assigned column.
3. Enter the amount to budget for that category.
4. Repeat until Ready to Assign reaches zero.

The Available column shows each category’s balance. Green means under budget. Red means overspent. See Plan for how it is calculated.

Next steps

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