Cash Book: a separate book for a shop, a wedding or a trip

The problem

Some money doesn’t belong in your daily diary. A small shop takes in and pays out money all day. A wedding or a trip adds up to a big number over a few days. If you log all of it with your everyday expenses, your daily numbers stop meaning anything: a stock purchase is not “what a day of your life costs”, and a wedding is not an ordinary week.

Many people who run a small stall or shop still keep this in a notebook, because that keeps it separate.

How Porul handles it

A book is a separate book inside Porul. It has its own entries and its own totals. Nothing you log in a book changes your Daily Life Cost, your budget, your goals or your loans. The two stay apart unless you decide to move an amount across.

A book can have an end date (a wedding, a trip) or none at all (a shop that keeps going). Switch between books from the menu at the top. The free version keeps one book; with Porul Premium you can create as many as you need. Books you already made keep working if your subscription ends.

The book home

Tap the book icon at the top of the Porul home (or open Settings, Cash Book). The book home shows one book at a time:

• Inflow, Outflow and Balance for Today or for All time. Choose which. Porul remembers the choice for each book. A shop that never ends starts on Today. A book with an end date starts on All.
• One big Add entry button.

Tap the numbers to see every entry. Use the name at the top to switch books, create a new one, or open All books. The home icon at the top left takes you straight back to your main account. Your backup and everything else stay in the main account.

Adding an entry

Type the amount on the keypad, choose In (money received) or Out (money paid out), and add a short note if you like, such as “tea” or “vegetables”. The date and time default to now.

The note field remembers what you use often. Tap it and your recent notes for that book appear, and narrow down as you type. In shows the notes you used for money in, and Out shows the notes you used for money out.

Two buttons at the bottom: Save saves and shows your list. Add another saves and clears the page for the next entry, which is handy when you are logging a busy day.

Inflow and Outflow

The list has two tabs, Inflow and Outflow, so you can see each side on its own, with each day’s total.

The date bar works like the one on your main Transactions screen. Choose Day, Week, Month or Year and step back and forward with the arrows, or pick All time, Last 30 days or a custom range. The total at the bottom follows what you see.

Search by note or amount from the box at the top.

Fix, repeat or remove an entry

• Tap an entry to change it.
• Tap the copy button to add the same entry again, with the same direction, amount and note, dated now. Change anything you like before you save. It is quick for the things that repeat all day.
• Swipe left (or tap the grip on the right) to delete. A five-second Undo appears, just like on the Transactions screen.

Move money to your main account

When you want a book’s money to show up in your normal numbers, use Push to main from the menu. Choose what to push: everything not yet pushed, a date range, or entries you pick. Then choose how:

• One total. One entry in your main account. Porul fills in the net and you can change it, name it and give it a category. For example “October shop profit” as income, or “Wedding expense” as an expense.
• Each entry. Every entry becomes its own entry in your main account, with its own date and note.

Pushed entries stay in the book, and the book’s totals do not change. A pushed entry is final. It shows a lock and cannot be changed, deleted or pushed again, even if you later delete the copy in your main account. If a pushed entry was wrong, add a new entry for the difference.

Close a book when you are done

Close a book from its menu. It stays as a record and you can reopen it any time. A closed book is read-only until you reopen it.

All books

All books in the menu at the top lists every book, open and closed, with how many entries each has. From there you can open, rename, close or reopen a book, or create a new one.

You can also delete a book there. Porul asks first, because this deletes the book’s entries too and cannot be undone. Anything you already pushed to your main account stays there. If you might want it later, close it instead.

Export

Export a book as CSV or PDF. The file includes both inflow and outflow for the period you are looking at, with each day’s opening and closing balance.

Event mode

On the Cash Book home, switch on Event mode on the In-Flow or Out-Flow card. Porul then opens straight on that Inflow page (or Outflow page) every time, ready for whoever is helping you log entries. While it is on, the Cash Book has no way into your personal account: the home icon becomes a lock. Tap the lock and pass your phone’s own screen lock (fingerprint, face, PIN or pattern) to open your personal account; Event mode stays on, and the Cash Book is locked again when you come back. To switch Event mode off, use the switch on the card; Porul asks for your screen lock, then opens on its home page again. Only one of Inflow and Outflow can be on. Tap the info icon beside the label for a short explanation inside the app.

While Event mode is on and Porul is open, the screen stays on, so a pause between entries never meets the phone’s lock screen. Choose System (turns off with your phone’s own screen timeout), 5 min (stays on for 5 minutes after the last touch) or Always (dims after a minute with no touch; a tap brightens it) in the Event mode info or in Settings → Cash Book Screen. Leaving Porul or pressing the power button still turns the screen off.

Add entry on the Cash Book home opens the same page.

Quick entry on the start page

When a page is the start page it helps with rapid entries. Under the date and time you see your last 5 entries (newest on top, the oldest drops off as you add more), and below them amount chips: the amount you added last, then the four amounts you use most. Tap a chip to fill the amount, then save. There is a single Save button that keeps you on the page for the next entry; tap the close button when you are done. The list scrolls by itself, so the page stays put.

Example

Ravi runs a tea stall. He creates a book called Tea stall and leaves the end date empty.

1. Through the day he taps Add entry, types 20, taps In and saves. For the milk he types 150, taps Out, notes “milk” and saves. Next time he types “mi”, “milk” appears as a suggestion.
2. In the evening he opens the Inflow tab and sees today’s total. The book home shows Today’s balance.
3. At the end of the month he opens All time, then Push to main, chooses One total, and pushes the month’s balance as income named “Tea stall, October”.

His everyday diary shows one income entry for the month, and his tea stall book still has every entry.