Your Money Mastery Operating Manual

On the first of the month, type one balance for each account. Five minutes, twelve times a year, and the workbook does the rest.

The one number a month

The Dashboard answers one question, how am I doing, and every number on it comes from the balances you typed.

How am I doing

Write every debt down with its rate and payment, then let the Payoff screen show you the finish month for every order you could pay them in.

Which debt first

12 min

Where this is heading

Projections runs your numbers forward, shows the most likely path and the range around it, and lets you try any what-if without touching your saved numbers.

15 min

Ask about your own numbers

Reports draws four charts from the balances you typed, and Ask Clarity answers a question about your own numbers with the figures underneath so you can check.

10 min

When a screen does not match your workbook

Every screen reads your workbook when it opens. If you typed a balance and the screen still shows the old one, here is the button on each screen that reads it again.

From the welcome email to your hub, to your workbook, to the Start Here and Setup screens. Nothing to install, nothing to work out alone.

Chapter 1

Your membership

5 tutorials

Everything around the workbook: the hub you sign in to, the library, the Collective, your plan and billing. Start with your first day, then walk the hub once so nothing on it is a mystery.

Your first day

10 min

Your membership hub

One page holds your whole membership. Walk it once, top to bottom, so nothing on it is a mystery.

8 min

The Library

Every how-to lives in the library. Learn how it is arranged so an answer is never more than two clicks away.

The Money Mastery Collective

The private community of members, with Donna in it. How to get in from the hub, what each space is for, and what to do first.

Your plan, your card, your invoices, how to change plan, and what to do when life changes: pause first.

Your account and billing

From your bank's download button to the rows landing in your workbook, with the review table in between where nothing happens until you say so.

Chapter 2

Bringing a statement in

6 tutorials

Once a month, one file per account comes from your bank into Money Mastery through the Upload window inside Categorize. These six pages take you from your bank's download button to the rows landing in your workbook, with every check along the way.

Bringing a statement in

8 min

Getting the file from your bank

Every bank hides the download somewhere slightly different. Here is how to find Transactions, choose the month, and export a CSV at any bank.

The table, before anything happens

After the upload reads your file it shows a table. Read it in thirty seconds, so what lands in your workbook is right the first time.

When plus and minus are backwards

A card statement where spending shows as positive, or a file with the dates day first. Two buttons fix both before anything lands.

What happens if you upload a file twice, and how the review table catches it before it doubles your month.

The same month twice

One transaction and no file: cash, a cheque, a refund you want to note today. How to type a row straight into the account tab, safely.

Typing a row by hand

Categorize your transactions

Chapter 3

Labels and the Categorize window

14 tutorials

The Categorize window opens from the Categorize button on the brown band at the top of your workbook, or from the app's sidebar. Across its top are the filter tabs All, Uncategorized, Income, Expense and Clarity, each with a count, then the search box, Sort, a date range and Clear. Each row has the date, the description, the amount, the personal label box, the business label box, Need and Desire, a memo box, a checkbox on the left and three dots on the right. The footer shows Auto-save and Saving, then Saved.

The monthly habit that makes everything else work: open Uncategorized, give each row its label and its need or desire, and watch the count reach zero.

8 min

Use Clarity suggestions

Clarity proposes labels for the rows it recognises. Here is where they appear, when to accept, when to read first, and how to say no.

One charge that was really two things. Open the row menu, Split Transaction, two pieces that add up, Apply Split.

Split a transaction

7 min

What each column means

One row in the Categorize window has nine parts, each with one job. Once you know them, labelling stops being a guess.

Four small controls turn a wall of rows into a short list: the filter tabs, search, sort and a date range, with Clear to bring everything back.

Find the rows you want

The fastest way to label a batch of identical rows, and how to use it safely: cluster, tick, Apply to Selected, confirm.

Label many rows at once

Add a label that does not exist yet

The label you need is not in the list. Create it from the Categorize window, under the right group, without opening the workbook.

Leaving without losing work

Two small buttons, Refresh and Close, and the one question to ask before either: has the footer said Saved.

Personal or business, decide the lane first

Every row has two label boxes, personal and business. Decide which lane the row belongs in first, then the label, and the business book fills itself.

A few rows are situations, not categories: card payments, transfers and the row to ignore. Here is where the special labels are and what each does.

Special labels

Name where the money comes from

The Income Labels tab: main labels on the left, their smaller labels to the right, and the choices you see when you label a deposit.

Name where the money goes

The Expense Labels tab is the list every report, chart and total is built from. Groups on the left, labels to the right, and only labels from this list on your rows.

Before the first statement, each account tab needs a real name and the balance you are starting from. Setup does it for you; here is how to change one by hand.

Name your account tabs

Venmo, Cash App and PayPal

Payments that go through an app confuse everyone once. The app is the road, not the destination: what the money was for decides the label.

One page, every number traced to its rows. Where each figure on the Dashboard tab comes from and what to do when one looks wrong.

Chapter 4

Reading your numbers

8 tutorials

The tabs and screens that draw themselves from your labels. Nobody types on them. Each one answers one question, and when a number surprises you, the rows behind it are two clicks away.

The Dashboard

Pick a month and every number, chart and table on the tab follows. The place to slow down and understand what one month was really doing.

One month, up close

Twelve months side by side

The year draws itself from your labels: totals across the top, every month side by side, shares, and the exclude boxes for a one-off.

Is the business making money

The Profit and Loss tab in your business workbook: three numbers for the year, the months for rhythm, and the rows behind them when you need them.