Ledger
How to record variable expenses, let Evensum calculate a monthly average, and optionally convert it into a recurring item.
What's the ledger for?
Beyond fixed, recurring costs, every household has variable expenses: grocery runs, spontaneous leisure spending, smaller purchases. These don't map well to a "recurring item" because the amount differs every month. That's exactly what the Ledger is for.
Recording variable expenses
In the Ledger area, you log individual expenses with:
- Date of the expense
- Amount
- Category (e.g., Groceries, Leisure, Health)
- Description (e.g., "Weekly grocery shop")
- Account it was paid from
- optionally a splitting mode, if the expense should be shared
Any member of the household can add entries — who entered what and when can always be checked in the Audit Log.
Letting Evensum calculate a monthly average
Evensum automatically calculates the average per category and month from your ledger entries. This is especially useful for categories that occur irregularly but fundamentally repeat — groceries being the classic example.
Example: Over three months, the following grocery expenses were recorded:
| Month | Grocery expenses |
|---|---|
| May | €480 |
| June | €520 |
| July | €440 |
Average: (€480 + €520 + €440) ÷ 3 = €480 per month
Converting it into a recurring item
Once a category turns out to be fairly stable on average, you can convert that average into a fixed monthly recurring item with a single click. This has two benefits:
- You get a more realistic planning basis for your monthly budget, instead of a rough guess.
- The item automatically feeds into the splitting calculation, without needing to split each individual grocery expense manually.
This conversion is fully reversible — you can later delete or adjust the converted recurring item if your spending changes.
Ledger entries and splitting
Ledger expenses can be split, but don't have to be. Purely personal expenses can simply be recorded without a splitting mode, or with "Payer only," while shared purchases are recorded directly with the appropriate splitting mode — say, 50/50.
Practical tip
On your phone you can simply swipe a list entry to the left — this reveals the Edit and Delete actions behind it.
Log expenses as close to the moment of purchase as possible, ideally right after shopping. This prevents forgotten receipts and results in a realistic monthly average that your recurring cost planning can build on.
Categories in the ledger
You can use the predefined categories such as Groceries, Leisure, or Health, or create custom categories for your household, such as "Pet supplies" or "Childcare." Custom categories then become available both in the ledger and among recurring costs.