Daily review workflow

A short review keeps the workspace accurate without turning personal finance into a second job.

1. Use Account Details to sync a linked account if recent bank activity is missing.
2. Scan Transactions for uncategorized or incorrectly tagged records.
3. Open Bills and mark any paid bill occurrences.
4. Check Budget for remaining spend and bills left in the month.
5. Use Insights for trend checks after the data is current.

Accounts and linked institutions

Accounts are the product-facing records. Linked institutions are Plaid connections and their synced bank accounts.

How mapping works

1. Create or open an Ardonyx account.
2. Choose a synced institution account from the Linked institutions tab.
3. Mapped synced accounts are hidden or marked unavailable in other mapping dropdowns.
4. Visible balances prefer synced available balance. Current balance stays in account detail.

Account type breakdown

Account type controls how the account is interpreted in summaries, balances, and future reporting. Pick the type that best describes how the money behaves.

Asset-style accounts

Checking

Everyday spending account for bills, debit transactions, deposits, and cash flow.

Savings

Cash reserve account for emergency funds, short-term goals, or money you do not spend daily.

Cash

Manual cash wallet or envelope balance. Useful when the account is not connected through Plaid.

Investment / Brokerage

Longer-term investment accounts. Transaction support may be limited until investment-specific sync is added.

Liability-style accounts

Credit card

Revolving debt account. Current balance is treated as amount owed; available balance may represent remaining credit.

Loan

Installment or line-of-credit debt. Use payment due details for recurring account payments.

Mortgage

Home loan account. Use this when payments and debt should be treated separately from everyday spending accounts.

Other

Fallback for accounts that do not fit the standard categories yet.

Link synced institution accounts

Linking attaches a Plaid bank account to an Ardonyx account. Ardonyx stays as the user-facing record, while Plaid supplies synced transaction and balance data.

1. Open Accounts and choose Linked institutions.
2. Expand the institution that contains the synced account.
3. Select the Ardonyx account to map to the synced bank account.
4. Save the mapping and confirm the account now shows synced balance/details.

Mapping rules

Already mapped synced accounts are shown as unavailable in mapping dropdowns so one bank account does not accidentally drive multiple Ardonyx accounts.

Available, current, and credit limit

Visible account balances prefer synced available balance because that is usually the amount users expect to make decisions with.

Available balance

The balance available for use according to the institution. This is the default visible account balance.

Current balance

The institution's current posted balance. This remains visible in account detail and is used for liability math when appropriate.

Credit limit

The maximum credit line reported by the institution when available, or a manual account setting when the institution does not provide it.

Balance synced

The last time Ardonyx received the stored account balance payload from Plaid sync.

Transactions, tags, and overrides

Synced transactions are merged from Plaid by transaction ID. Manual transactions are stored separately so unlinked accounts can still participate in budgets and reporting.

Tag precedence

1. Per-transaction user override.
2. User category/tag mapping override.
3. Built-in system category mapping.
4. Uncategorized fallback.

Tagging rules and category mapping

Tags turn transactions into budget and reporting categories. Ardonyx keeps Plaid source categories read-only and layers user choices on top.

Manage tags

1. Use custom tags for personal categories you control.
2. Built-in system tags stay available in mapping dropdowns with a system label.
3. Use category/tag mapping to set how synced transaction categories should map into your budget tags.
4. Use transaction-level overrides when one transaction needs a different tag than the mapping would apply.

Bills and payment history

Bills are projected from bill rules. Payment history confirms a specific due date was paid.

1. Create the bill with amount, interval, start date, and due day.
2. Use the calendar or upcoming list to find the bill occurrence.
3. Mark the occurrence paid to create a payment history record.
4. Use Payment history to review or mark a payment unpaid.

Bill payments and history

Bill payment records confirm that a projected bill occurrence was paid. They are separate from the bill configuration so history can remain useful even if a bill later changes or becomes inactive.

1. Open Bills and select a due occurrence.
2. Choose Mark paid and confirm the paid date, amount, source account, and memo.
3. Use Payment history to audit prior payments.
4. Use Mark unpaid when a payment was recorded by mistake.

Deleted or inactive bills

When bill records are removed, payment history should keep enough memo context to explain what was paid.

Budget profiles and family budget

Flexible, Balanced, and Aggressive profiles support personal planning. Family mode adds a Family profile that uses selected-family data while preserving personal goals.

1. Pick the profile you want to review.
2. Use Manage budget to adjust category goals.
3. Review remaining spend, bills left, and transactions by category.
4. Use Family scope when you want the family budget view.

Insights and reports

Insights is the reporting area for trends across personal or family scope.

1. Use Money Flow to see where income goes.
2. Use Payment Outlook to compare recent non-bill spending, upcoming bills, and available assets.
3. Use Spending, Income, Trend, and Activity for narrower reports.
4. Apply account and member filters to focus the chart.

Family sharing and visibility

Family sharing has two layers: what a member shares, and what a viewer chooses to see.

1. Create or join a family.
2. Choose what accounts, bills, and budget access you share.
3. Use visibility settings to hide member data you do not want in your own view.
4. Use the global Family scope toggle on supported pages.

Sharing versus visibility

Family data access is intentionally split into consent and personal preference.

Sharing

What a member allows the family to access. Each member controls their own shared accounts and bills.

Owner display controls

What the family owner allows to show in the family workspace. This cannot force a member to share more than they consented to share.

Viewer visibility

What each viewer chooses to see from shared family data. These preferences are private to the viewer.

Member colors

Personal visual preferences for identifying family-owned rows in Family scope.

Practical example

A family member may share all accounts, but you can still hide one of those accounts from your own Family view if it adds noise to your reports.

Sync and connection states

Connected means consent is active. Unmapped means the synced bank account is not attached to an Ardonyx account. Preparing means Plaid has the connection but transactions are not ready yet.

1. Sync the linked account from Account Details, or run a Settings backfill if older history is missing.
2. Check Linked institutions for inactive, unmapped, or error states.
3. If transactions are preparing, wait a few minutes and sync again.
4. If data is missing on family pages, check member sharing and your visibility settings.