The Cash Flow report shows your income and expenses over time, helping you understand whether you're living within your means and where your money is going each month.
Understanding Cash Flow
Cash flow is the movement of money in and out of your accounts:
- Income: Money coming in (salary, dividends, refunds, etc.)
- Expenses: Money going out (bills, shopping, food, etc.)
- Net Cash Flow: Income minus expenses
Positive cash flow means you're earning more than you spend. Negative cash flow means you're spending more than you earn.
Accessing the Report
- Go to Reports from the main navigation.
- Select Cash Flow from the report options.
Reading the Chart
The bar chart displays income and expenses for each month:
- Green bars represent income
- Red bars represent expenses
- The height of each bar shows the total amount
Chart Styles
Toggle between two chart styles using the chart style button:
Stacked: Income and expense bars are stacked on top of each other, making it easy to see the total money movement for each month.
Grouped: Income and expense bars are shown side by side, making it easier to compare the two amounts directly.
Savings Rate
Alongside Total Income, Total Expenses and Difference, the report always shows your savings rate:
Savings Rate = (Income - Expenses) / Income × 100
This percentage shows how much of your income you're keeping. A higher savings rate means more money is being saved or invested.
Healthy Savings Rate
Financial advisors often recommend a savings rate of 20% or more. Use this metric to track your progress toward that goal.
Sankey Diagram
Switch to the flow view (Flow on iPhone) to see a visual representation of how money flows through your categories. The width of each flow corresponds to the amount, making it easy to see at a glance where most of your money comes from or goes to.
Income View
Select Income to see how your total income splits across its sources:
- Total Income flows out to your parent income categories (e.g., Salary / Wages, Investments)
- Parent categories then flow to their subcategories
- The wider the flow, the larger the amount
This view helps you understand which income streams contribute most to your finances.
Expenses View
Select Expenses to see how your spending breaks down:
- Total Expenses flows out to parent expense categories (e.g., Food & Drink, Transportation)
- Parent categories then flow to their subcategories (e.g., Groceries, Restaurants)
- The wider the flow, the more you've spent in that category
This view makes it easy to identify your biggest spending areas and drill down into specific subcategories.
Both
Select Both to see the full picture in one diagram: your income sources flow into Total Income, Total Income then splits into Total Expenses and Savings (or into a Debt node if you spent more than you earned), and Total Expenses fans back out across your spending categories.
Reading the Diagram
On the web, hover over any flow to see the exact amount. The colour-coded categories make it easy to trace money from source to destination.
Calendar View
Click Calendar to switch to the calendar view. This shows:
- A monthly calendar grid
- Daily totals for income (green) and expenses (red)
- Quick identification of high-spending or high-income days
The calendar view is excellent for:
- Spotting spending spikes
- Identifying when regular income arrives
- Understanding day-by-day money patterns
Click any day to see the transactions for that date.
Showing Only Income or Only Expenses
In the calendar view, the Show selector above the grid switches between Both, Income and Expenses, so you can read a month of spending without income days competing for attention.
Table View
Switch to the table view for a month-by-month breakdown with columns for Month, Income, Expenses, Difference and Savings Rate, plus a Total row across the whole period.
Tap Table for one row per month showing that month's difference. Tap a month to expand it and see its income, expenses and savings rate, with bars comparing the two.
This view provides exact figures for accounting or financial planning purposes.
Filtering Options
Click the Filters button to refine what's included in the report. You can filter by:
- Accounts: Focus on specific accounts like credit cards or your everyday account
- Categories: Include or exclude expense/income categories
- Merchants: Filter by specific shops or service providers
- Tags: Show only transactions with certain tags (e.g., "Business", "Holiday")
- Amounts: Set minimum/maximum amounts to focus on transactions within a range
For detailed information on how filters work, including saving filter configurations, see Filtering Reports.
Asking Insights Questions
Insights answers plain-English questions about your cash flow using your own data.
Click the purple Insights button next to Filters to open the questions drawer.
Tap the sparkles icon in the top-right corner to open the questions sheet. Questions are grouped by topic.
Pick a question from the list. Some have highlighted parts you can tap to change (an account, an amount, a time period), so "When will my savings reach $100k?" can become "$250k" with one tap. Each answer shows a headline figure with a short caption, a couple of sentences of explanation and a tip.
These questions look at your whole household over the last twelve months, regardless of the date range shown on the chart.
Questions on this report include:
- How much money will I have left at the end of this month?
- What's my average daily spending?
- What's my savings rate?
- How many months of expenses do I have in cash?
- Am I spending less than I earn?
- What were my best and worst months for cash flow?
- What's my biggest expense category this month?
- Which category has my spending increased the most in?
- When will my savings reach a target amount?
- How much do I need to save per month to reach a target by a date?
Most of these are calculated directly by Financio; a handful are answered with help from an AI provider using only amounts, dates and category or merchant names. The first time you use Insights you'll be asked to acknowledge how your data is handled. See AI Features & Privacy for details, including how to turn AI features off for the whole household.
Questions that need more history than you have (for example, three months of transactions) are hidden until enough data exists.
Downloading Data
On the web, the Cash Flow report doesn't offer a download. On iPhone it does. See Exporting Reports.
Common Use Cases
Tracking Monthly Budget
Compare your expenses to your income each month to ensure you're staying within budget.
Identifying Seasonal Patterns
Look for months where expenses consistently spike (holidays, insurance renewals, school fees) and plan accordingly.
Measuring Progress
Track your savings rate over time to see if you're improving your financial habits.
Finding Leaks
Use category filters to identify areas where spending is higher than expected.
Understanding Transfers
Internal transfers between your own accounts (e.g., moving money from everyday to savings) are automatically excluded from cash flow calculations. Only transactions marked as income or expenses are included.
Transfer Detection
If a transfer is incorrectly included in your cash flow, edit the transaction and set its type to "Transfer" instead of expense or income.