Complete guide

This guide covers everything you need to know about using Sure, from creating your account to managing investments.

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Creating your account

Once Sure is installed, navigate to localhost:3000. On a fresh install you land directly on the Create account page — there is no separate sign-up step. Complete the setup screens to configure your login details, personal information, and preferences. When you reach the main dashboard showing “No accounts yet”, you’re ready to go.

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Using integrations

The next sections cover how to manually add accounts and transactions. If you’d prefer to use an integration with a data provider, Sure supports:

• Self-custody wallets — Bitcoin, EVM, and Solana wallets tracked natively
• Akahu (beta) for New Zealand bank accounts
• Binance (beta)
• Coinbase (beta)
• CoinStats (beta)
• Enable Banking (beta) for European banks
• Lunch Flow
• monobank for Ukrainian cards and jars
• Plaid (US and EU)
• Questrade (beta) for Canadian investment accounts
• Redbark for Australian banks
• SimpleFIN
• SnapTrade (beta) for brokerage and investment accounts
• Up (Australian bank)

See Settings > Bank sync for the full list of supported providers and their setup options. Only admin users can connect a provider. Even if you use an integration, we recommend reading this guide to understand account types and how they work in Sure.

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Account types

Sure supports several account types, grouped into assets (things you own) and debts/liabilities (things you owe):

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How asset accounts work

Cash, checking, and savings accounts increase when you add money and decrease when you spend money. Example:

• Starting balance: $500
• Add an expense of $20 → balance is now$480
• Add an income of $100 → balance is now$580

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How debt accounts work

Liability accounts track how much money you owe, so the math works differently than asset accounts. Key rule:

• Positive balances = you owe money
• Negative balances = the bank owes you (overpayment or refund)

Transaction behavior:

• Expenses (purchases) → increase your debt (you owe more)
• Payments or refunds → decrease your debt (you owe less)

Credit card example:

1. Balance: $200 owed
2. Spend $20 → You now owe$220 (balance goes up in red)
3. Pay off $50 → You now owe$170 (balance goes down in green)

Overpayment example:

1. Balance: -$44 (bank owes you$44)
2. Spend $1 → Bank now owes you$43 (balance shown as -$43, moving towards zero)

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Quick reference

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Adding accounts

This example shows how to add a savings account. Most bank accounts (checking, savings, money market) are cash accounts:

1. Click Add account (on the dashboard) or New account (on the Accounts page), then choose Cash
2. Choose Enter account balance to add the account manually. (If bank sync is configured, admins also see Link with … provider options here.)
3. Fill in the details:
   • Account name
   • Balance on date (the balance as of the opening balance date below — that date defaults to two years ago, so set it to today if you’re entering your current balance)
   • Opening balance date
   • Subtype (specify checking, savings, or another type)
4. Click Create Account

The account selection dialog supports keyboard navigation. Use J / K or the arrow keys to move between options, Enter to select, and Esc to close. These labels display in your configured interface language. Once created, you’ll return to the home screen. You’ll see your new account in the accounts list and an overview in the center under the net worth bar.

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Expand and collapse account groups

Each tab in the accounts sidebar (All, Assets, Debts) has an expand/collapse toggle icon in its header. Clicking the icon expands every account group in that tab when any group is closed, and collapses all groups when every group is already open. The icon updates automatically as you open or close groups manually. The same toggle appears in the Dashboard balance sheet header, where it controls the groups on the dashboard rather than the sidebar. You can configure which groups start expanded by default under Settings → Appearance → Dashboard. Groups you mark there open automatically on every page load across the sidebar and the dashboard.

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Account sparklines and trend percentages

Each account and account group in the sidebar displays a small 30-day sparkline chart and a percentage trend. The trend percentage shows how the balance has changed over the last 30 days. The sparkline and trend percentage only appear once there is enough balance history. For a brand-new account with no historical data, the sidebar shows a placeholder instead. Once balances accumulate over time, the chart and trend fill in automatically. For linked investment and crypto accounts, the sparkline only covers the period supported by your provider connection. Data from before the provider’s first import is excluded, so the sparkline reflects your actual account history rather than estimated or zero-filled values from before the connection was established.

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Adding transactions

To add a transaction:

1. Go to the Transactions page (left sidebar)
2. Click New transaction (top right; a round + button on mobile)
3. Choose the transaction type:
   • Expense → Spending money
   • Income → Receiving money
   • Transfer → Move money between accounts
4. Enter the details, then click Add transaction

You’ll see the transaction in your transaction history and the net worth chart will update accordingly.

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Managing investment accounts

If you’re tracking investments in Sure, there are additional features to help you manage your portfolio accurately.

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Cost basis tracking

Cost basis tracking helps you understand the original purchase price of your investments, which is essential for calculating returns and tax reporting.

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Cost basis sources

Sure tracks cost basis from three sources:

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Priority hierarchy

When multiple sources provide cost basis data, Sure uses this priority: Manual > Calculated > Provider This means:

• Manual values always take precedence
• Calculated values override provider data
• Provider data is used when no other source is available

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Lock protection

When you manually set a cost basis, Sure automatically locks it to prevent automatic updates from overwriting your value. This ensures your manual entries remain intact during account syncs.

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Setting cost basis manually

You can set cost basis in two ways: From the holdings list:

1. Navigate to your investment account
2. Find the holding in your portfolio
3. Click the average cost value (a pencil icon appears on hover)
4. Enter either:
   • Total cost basis: The total amount you paid for all shares
   • Per-share cost: The average price per share
5. The form automatically converts between total and per-share values
6. Click Save

The system will show a confirmation if you’re overwriting an existing cost basis. From the holding drawer:

1. Click on a holding to open its detail drawer
2. In the overview section, click the pencil icon next to “Average Cost”
3. Enter the cost basis (total or per-share)
4. Click Save

After saving, you’ll see:

• A lock icon indicating the value is protected
• A source label showing “(manual)“

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Unlocking cost basis

If you want to allow automatic updates to recalculate your cost basis:

1. Open the holding drawer
2. Scroll to the Settings section
3. Find “Cost basis locked”
4. Click Unlock

After unlocking:

• The lock icon disappears
• Future syncs can update the cost basis
• Calculated values (from trades) will replace the manual value

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Bidirectional conversion

The cost basis editor provides real-time conversion between total and per-share values:

• Enter total cost → automatically calculates per-share cost
• Enter per-share cost → automatically calculates total cost

This makes it easy to enter cost basis in whichever format you have available.

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Investment activity labels

Activity labels help you classify and understand investment transactions. They appear as badges in your transaction list and can be used to organize and filter your investment activity.

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Available activity types

Sure supports these investment activity labels:

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Setting activity labels

You can set activity labels in two ways: Manually for individual transactions:

1. Open a transaction from an investment or crypto account
2. Scroll to the Settings section
3. Find “Activity type”
4. Select a label from the dropdown
5. The change saves automatically

Automatically with rules: Create rules to automatically label transactions based on patterns:

1. Go to Settings > Rules
2. Create a new rule
3. Set conditions (e.g., “IF transaction name contains ‘DIVIDEND’”)
4. Add action: “Set investment activity label”
5. Choose the label (e.g., “Dividend”)
6. Save the rule

Example rules:

• IF name contains “DIVIDEND” THEN set label to “Dividend”
• IF name contains “INTEREST” THEN set label to “Interest”
• IF name contains “FEE” THEN set label to “Fee”

Rules apply automatically to new transactions and can be run on existing transactions.

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Viewing activity labels

Activity labels appear as badges in:

• Transaction lists
• Transaction detail drawers
• Account activity views

They help you quickly identify the nature of each investment transaction without reading the full transaction name.

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Investment contributions in cashflow

Investment contributions are now automatically visible in your cashflow and transaction history. When you add money to an investment account, Sure automatically:

• Categorizes the transaction: Contributions are auto-categorized so they appear in your cashflow reports
• Labels the activity: The transaction receives a “Contribution” activity label
• Tracks the movement: The money flow is visible in your overall financial picture

This ensures that money moved into investment accounts doesn’t disappear from your financial tracking - you can see exactly where your money went and how it affects your overall cashflow. How it works:

1. When you transfer money to an investment account, the transaction is created
2. Sure automatically applies the “Contribution” activity label
3. The transaction is categorized appropriately for cashflow tracking
4. You can view these contributions in:
   • Your transaction list
   • Cashflow reports
   • Category breakdowns
   • Investment account activity

This feature eliminates the “black hole” effect where investment contributions would seem to vanish from your financial overview.

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Dashboard

The Dashboard gives you a live snapshot of your financial picture. Several widgets are available, and you can reorder and collapse them to suit your workflow.

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Drag to select a date range on charts

You can select a custom date range directly on the net worth chart or on any account’s balance chart by clicking and dragging across it. Dragging left-to-right over the chart highlights the range and, when you release, navigates the page to that date range. The period picker updates to show the actual start and end dates of your selection.

• Drag-select works on the dashboard net worth chart and on individual account balance charts.
• The selection snaps to the nearest plotted data points, so the range always matches what the tooltip showed while you were dragging.
• Drag-select is a mouse-only interaction. On touch devices, swiping the chart scrolls the page as usual.
• After drag-selecting, the period picker shows the selected dates (for example, “Aug 15 – Sep 5”) instead of a generic “Custom” label. Choosing a preset period from the picker clears the custom range.

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Customizing the dashboard

You can show or hide individual dashboard widgets to keep the dashboard focused on what matters to you. To enter Customize mode, click the layout icon in the top-right corner of the dashboard header (hover over it to see the “Customize” tooltip). While in Customize mode:

• Each widget shows a hide button (eye icon). Click it to remove the widget from your dashboard.
• A “Hidden widgets” card lists every widget you have hidden. Click Add next to any hidden widget to bring it back. Widgets with no data to show are not offered in the re-add list.
• If you hide every widget, the dashboard shows an empty state with a link back to Customize mode.

Click Done to leave Customize mode. Your view settings (date range, selected month, and similar filters) carry through so nothing resets when you hide or restore a widget. Hidden widgets also skip their data queries, so a hidden spending trend or money flow chart does not run in the background. Hidden widget preferences are per-user. Other members of your family see their own layout.

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Spending trend chart

The spending trend chart shows cumulative daily expenses for a selected month plotted against the previous month’s curve, so you can see whether you are spending faster or slower than last month at the same point in the month.

• Use the month picker to review any of the last 12 months.
• The x-axis always spans the selected month’s days. If the previous month was longer, its curve’s extra days are folded into the final visible point, so the endpoint matches the full-month total shown in the header.
• The current month’s curve stops at today while the month is in progress.
• The header totals and the signed delta compare the same number of elapsed days in both months, so the figure is always apples-to-apples. While the selected month is still in progress, the previous-month label names the day range being compared (for example, “Aug 1–8”) rather than implying a full month. Once the selected month is complete, both months are compared in full.
• The previous month’s chart curve still draws the full month so you can see the complete reference shape.
• On mobile, the x-axis shows tick labels for the selected month only and the header shows a compact date range (for example, “Sep 01 - 6, 2026”) so the chart stays readable on narrow screens.
• The chart uses the same transaction scoping as the Reports page: pending transactions, manually excluded transactions, tax-advantaged account activity, and investment portfolio movements (Transfers, Sweeps, Exchanges) are all excluded, so the totals always agree with what you see in Reports.

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Reports

The Reports page gives you a breakdown of your income and expenses by category for any date range.

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Navigating periods with the keyboard

On the Reports page, press the Left Arrow key to go to the previous period and the Right Arrow key to go to the next period. Right Arrow does nothing when you are already on the current period. The custom date range mode has no preset period to step through, so neither arrow key navigates when a custom range is active. Each chevron button shows a tooltip with its keyboard shortcut. The shortcuts are also announced to screen readers via aria-keyshortcuts. Keys pressed inside text fields on the page are not intercepted, so typing in a date input works normally.

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Drilling into categories

Income and expense category rows in the breakdown are clickable. Clicking a category row takes you directly to your transaction list filtered to that category, so you can see exactly which transactions make up the total. Investment-only rows (such as Other Investments) are not clickable because those entries are trade records rather than regular transactions and cannot be shown in the transaction list.

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Next steps

Now that you have your account set up:

• Explore other account types that Sure offers
• Categorize and tag transactions for better searching and reporting
• Experiment with budgets to track your spending habits
• Use Import (the Import button on the Transactions page, or Settings > Imports) to load historical transactions