Accounts
Where your balances live — every income and expense belongs to an account.
4 min read
An account in Steer is a bucket that groups income and expenses that belong together — a current account, a savings pot, a shared household kitty, a side-business float. Accounts give your projection a starting point (today's balance) and a home for every income and expense.
Each account shows two numbers: its cash balance, and its portfolio value — the cash plus any investments and loans you've put under that account. Add every account's portfolio together and you get your overall portfolio — the single headline figure on your Finance home. It isn't something you set up; it's just the sum of your accounts, so the more honestly they reflect real life, the more your portfolio means.
You always start with one
Every new Steer account begins with a Checking account, so there's somewhere for your first income or expense to land. Rename it, change its type, or add more whenever you like.
Why accounts matter
Your net worth has to start somewhere. Each account's current balance is the "now" that Steer projects forward from. Get your balances roughly right and your whole forecast lines up with reality.
On the projection chart you can break down by account to see a separate line for each one, and toggle accounts on and off — handy for answering "what's my savings doing on its own?" Open any account in the breakdown and its Portfolio view shows that account's total value projected forward, exactly like the headline chart.
Always anchored to today
Account balances represent today. Steer projects your net worth forward from now — it never tries to guess what your balance was in the past, so historical months simply show no net-worth line.
Managing accounts
Accounts live on their own page (Finance → Accounts), with a quick glimpse on the Overview. There you can:
- Add an account with a name, type and current balance.
- Rename it or change its type.
- Update the balance as things change.
- Delete one you no longer use.
Every item has an account
Each income or expense belongs to an account — so Steer knows which pot it flows in or out of. When you add an income or expense, you pick the account it's for (your Checking account is selected by default).
When should I create a separate account?
One account is plenty to start. Add another when a part of your money has a different question attached to it — something you'd want to see on its own line in the chart. Good reasons to split:
Keep a savings or emergency pot separate so everyday spending never makes it look like you have more (or less) set aside than you really do.
Joint rent, bills and groceries in their own account keeps shared money from tangling with your personal spending.
Freelance income and its costs in one account answer "is this actually making money?" without polluting your personal picture.
A wallet of cash, or a pot in another currency, deserves its own account so balances stay honest.
When not to split: don't make an account per shop or per bill. That's what categories on each item are for. Accounts are about whose money and what it's for, not line-by-line bookkeeping.
Tip
You don't need a perfect mirror of your real bank setup. Two or three accounts — say "Checking", "Savings" and maybe "Joint" — is plenty for a useful projection.
Accounts, loans and investments
Day-to-day accounts hold your cash. Your loans and investments are modelled separately and roll into the same net-worth picture:
- Loans count against your net worth (what you owe).
- Investments count toward it (what you're growing).
Together with your account balances, they make up the assets & liabilities list on your Overview.