Accounts

Account types, joint vs. individual accounts, the three-account model, target balances of reserve accounts and keeping standing orders up to date.

Why accounts in Evensum?

Accounts represent your real-world bank accounts inside the app, so Evensum knows where money sits and where it should flow. An account in the app doesn't necessarily mirror a real-time transaction — Evensum is a planning and overview tool, not a banking app with account access. You maintain your accounts manually and plan based on them.

Account types

Evensum supports several account types, which you can combine freely per household:

Checking account: The everyday account for regular transactions, typically one per person.
Joint account: A shared account used for recurring costs like rent or insurance.
Savings/instant-access account: For flexibly available savings, often interest-bearing.
Buffer account: Specifically for the pro-rated annual and quarterly costs described below.
Cash: For a physical wallet or cash box, if you want to track cash spending too.

Each account is either a joint account or belongs to exactly one person. This unambiguous assignment matters, because Evensum derives from it who pays the items booked against an account — and which buffer account your reserves should be routed to (see below).

Joint accounts vs. individual accounts

Individual accounts belong to one person. They're useful for individual income, personal expenses, or personal savings.
Joint accounts belong to the household as a whole. They typically carry shared recurring costs — rent, utilities, insurance — as well as the automatic settlement payments between members.

This separation makes it visible what money is "mine," "yours," and "ours," without requiring you to switch banks or open new accounts — Evensum simply mirrors what already exists or is planned.

The three-account model

A proven model for couples combines three account types:

Salary account — where income arrives and everyday expenses are paid from.
Buffer account — where you transfer the pro-rated monthly amount for annual and quarterly costs (e.g., car insurance, broadcasting fees) each month, so the money is ready on the due date.
Savings/instant-access account — for longer-term saving unrelated to recurring costs.

Evensum automatically calculates how much should flow into your buffer account each month, based on all recorded annual, quarterly, and semi-annual items. For a detailed explanation with a worked example, see the blog post The Three-Account Model.

Setting up accounts in Evensum

Open the Accounts section of your household.
Select Add account.
Give it a name (e.g., "Shared Buffer Account"), choose the account type, and decide whether it belongs to a single person or the whole household.

Optionally, you can store the IBAN, BIC, and bank name for each account. The IBAN then shows up right on the dashboard under monthly transfers per account — handy when setting up the actual bank transfer or standing order. These details are purely informational; Evensum never accesses your bank accounts.

You can create as many accounts as you like — most households manage well with three to five.

Routing the buffer to accounts

A buffer account can be personal (owned by one person, e.g. "Buffer Rico") or joint (marked as a joint account, e.g. "Household buffer"). As soon as you have at least one buffer account, Evensum automatically routes the buffer recommendation onto your concrete accounts. The rule is deliberately simple:

If one person carries 100 % of a non-monthly item (e.g. split mode "Payer only," or custom percentages with 100 % on one person) and that person owns a personal buffer account, the item's monthly share is routed to their personal buffer account.
Every other item — everything that is shared — is routed to the joint buffer account. If several joint buffer accounts exist, Evensum uses the oldest one.

Example: You've recorded your car insurance (€480 annually, split "Payer only": Rico) and your shared contents insurance (€96 annually, 50/50). Rico owns a personal buffer account, and a joint one exists too. Evensum then recommends: €40 per month into Rico's buffer account (paid by Rico alone) and €8 per month into the joint buffer account (€4 per person). The total always matches the overall recommendation exactly — every item is assigned to exactly one account.

Without a joint buffer account, shared items remain unassigned: the dashboard shows them as a combined "No reserve account" block — just like the previous aggregate recommendation. Simply add a joint account of type "Buffer account" so these items get a destination too. Any recommended initial funding is also broken out per account – with each person's share and a total per person – so each account is covered from day one and everyone knows what to transfer where.

The amounts additionally appear in the "Monthly transfers per account" card (labeled "Reserve"), so you can set up your standing orders right away (see Keeping standing orders up to date). An item routed to a reserve account counts only once there — even if it is debited from another account (e.g. the yearly insurance paid from your checking account). No additional monthly transfer to the checking account is needed for it; on the due date you move the amount over from the reserve account.

Checking the target balance

The monthly rate alone doesn't tell you whether your reserve account holds enough money right now. That's why the Statistics page shows, under "Target balance per reserve account", the minimum balance each reserve account needs at the end of every month so that every bill is covered – assuming the same monthly rate:

Target end of previous month – the balance the account should have now (before this month's rate). This is also the recommended initial funding.
Target end of this month – after this month's rate has come in and the amounts due this month have been transferred out.
Target balance per month – an expandable list of the next 12 months with all due bills. The tightest month sits at exactly €0: that's when the reserve is fully used.

Comparing your actual balance: Enter your current balance and tick whether this month's rate has already come in and whether this month's due amounts have already been transferred. Evensum compares it with the matching target and shows a shortfall (including the month it would run short without topping up) or a buffer.

Example: The joint reserve account needs €300 at the end of September but holds €110. Evensum reports a shortfall of €190 – and that without topping up, January will be about €180 short when the car insurance is due. Typical cause: the initial funding was transferred, but the current month's rate wasn't yet. A one-off extra payment of the shortfall puts the account back on track.

Savings pots: If a monthly item runs straight to a reserve account – such as a repair fund for the car – Evensum shows it as a savings pot. It isn't part of the target because it builds up on top; an amount above target is then labelled "Savings pot & buffer" rather than just buffer.

Initial funding and month changes: The recommended initial funding is the target balance at the end of the previous month – so the current month's rate comes on top if it hasn't been paid in yet. Once you've marked the initial funding as done, it stays that way until new or more expensive items require a higher amount; a new month alone doesn't reset it.

Paying due bills from the reserve

When a yearly or quarterly item falls due, the money comes from the reserve account its monthly rate has been flowing into. Evensum tells you what to do in two places:

Overview → "Due this month": Every payment shows where the money comes from – for items backed by a reserve, e.g. "transfer from household reserve to joint account", "paid directly from …" if the item is debited from the reserve account itself, otherwise the payment account. Below, Evensum sums up the month's transfers per account pair so you can handle them in one go.
Fixed costs → search and detail page: When you search for a yearly, half-yearly or quarterly item (e.g. "TV licence"), Evensum shows right at the result where the monthly rate goes, when the item is next due, which account to transfer from and to – and how much should be saved for this item by now. The item's detail page shows this in full as a "Reserve & transfer" card, including each person's share, a progress bar and all due dates in the next 12 months.

How much should be saved for an item: After each due date, the item's reserve starts at 0 and grows by its rate every month until the full amount is ready by the next due date. Example: car insurance €876 per year in January → €73 per month; at the end of October, €657 (9 of 12 rates) should be on the reserve account for it. The sum over all items of an account is exactly that account's target balance.

Monthly transfers per account

Once you assign accounts to your recurring items, the overview calculates who needs to transfer how much to which account each month so that all payments are covered. Every item is normalized to a monthly amount and distributed across members according to its split mode (50/50, by income, custom percentages …).

Example: if the €1,500 rent is paid from the joint account and you split 60/40 by income, the "Monthly transfers per account" card shows: joint account €1,500 – person A transfers €900, person B €600. For the reserve account, the total matches the reserve recommendation for yearly and quarterly bills exactly. Set up your standing orders once and know everything is covered on payday.

Salary account: no transfers to yourself

Each member can mark one of their individual accounts as their salary account (checkbox when creating or editing an account). That's where the salary arrives – so the owner's own shares on this account need no transfer and don't appear in the transfers card. If, say, your personal subscriptions are paid from your salary account, the account disappears from the card entirely. If another member owes shares on your salary account (e.g. a 50/50 item debited there), their row stays – that money still has to get there.

Keeping standing orders up to date

You set up your standing orders from the "Monthly transfers per account" card. When an item, a salary or an advance payment changes later, what each person has to transfer changes too – and Evensum lets you know:

Confirm the setup: On the overview, the "Set up standing orders" card shows your monthly transfers per account (with IBAN). Enter what you actually transfer – a round amount or knowingly less is fine; an empty field means "no standing order to this account". Each person confirms their own standing orders. Evensum also remembers your needs at that moment.
Adjust when needed: If your needs change since you confirmed, "Adjust standing orders" appears at the top of the overview and on the fixed-costs page, with the old and new amount. Evensum always flags a shortfall (otherwise money is missing on the due date). It only suggests transferring less from a difference of €5 or 2% – so rounded-up amounts don't trigger alerts.

Deliberate difference: If you confirmed less than needed (say, a fixed amount that has run like this for years), Evensum doesn't keep alarming you. The card stays calm and just notes how much is short each month. It only speaks up again when your needs increase.
Look-ahead: If your needs change on their own next month – for example through a scheduled tariff change, a scheduled salary change or an item with a start date – Evensum announces it during the current month so you can change the standing order in time.

Members without their own login: If a member never signs in to Evensum – for example a member without their own login –, they can't confirm their standing orders. The household owner then also sees a "…'s standing orders" card and confirms on their behalf. As soon as the member signs in, they take this over themselves.

Monthly overview by email: At the start of each month, Evensum sends you a short email when something is due – which amounts to transfer out of the reserve and which standing orders need adjusting (as the owner, also those of members without a login). If nothing is due, no email is sent. You can unsubscribe at any time under More → Account.

When everything matches, the overview just shows a short "Your standing orders are up to date", from where you can view and edit the amounts at any time.

Practical tip

Set up your buffer account early, before entering your first annual recurring costs. That way, Evensum shows you the recommended monthly transfer to this account right from the start.