sure/docs/onboarding/guide.md

Welcome to Sure!

This guide aims to assist new users through:

1. Creating a Sure account
2. Adding your first accounts
3. Recording transactions

This guide also covers the differences between asset and liability accounts, a key concept for using and understanding balances in Sure!

Important

Sure is evolving quickly. If you find something inaccurate while following this guide, please:

• Ask in the Discord
• Open an issue
• Or if you know the answer, open a PR!

1. Creating your Sure Account

Once Sure is installed, open a browser and navigate to localhost:3000.
You will see the login page (pictured below). Since we do not have an account yet, click on Sign Up to begin.

You’ll be guided through a short series of screens to set your login details, personal information, and preferences.
When you arrive at the main dashboard, showing No accounts yet, you’re all set up!

Note

The next sections of this guide cover how to manually add accounts and transactions in Sure.
If you’d like to use an integration with a data provider instead, see:

• Lunch Flow (WIP)
• Plaid
• SimpleFin (WIP)

Even if you use an integration, we still recommend reading through this guide to understand account types and how they work in Sure.

2. Account Types in Sure

Sure supports several account types, which are grouped into Assets (things you own) and Debts/Liabilities (things you owe):

Assets	Debts/Liabilities
Cash	Credit Card
Investment	Loan
Crypto	Other Liability
Property
Vehicle
Other Asset

3. How Asset Accounts Work

Cash, checking and savings accounts increase when you add money and decrease when you spend money.

Example:

• Starting balance: $500
• Add an expense of $20 -> balance is now $480
• Add an income of $100 -> balance is now $580

4. How Debt Accounts Work (Liabilities)

Liability accounts track how much money you owe, so the math can feel backwards compared to an asset account.

Key rule:

• Positive Balances = you owe money
• Negative balances = the bank owes you (e.g. overpayment or refund)

Transactions behave like this:

• Expenses (e.g. purchases) => increase your debt (you owe more)
• Payments or refunds => decrease your debt (you owe less)

Credit Card example:

1. Balance: $200 owed
2. Spend $20 => You now owe $220 (balance goes up in red)
3. Pay off $50 => You now owe $170 (balance goes down in green)

Overpayment Example:

1. Balance: -$44 (bank owes you $44)
2. Spend $1 => Bank now owes you $43 (balance shown as -$43, moving towards zero)

Tip

Why does it work this way? This matches standard accounting and what your credit card provider shows online. Think of a liability balance as "Amount Owed", not "available cash."

5. Quick Reference: Assets vs. Liability Behavior

Action	Asset Account (e.g. Checking)	Liability Account (e.g. Credit Card)
Spend $20	Balance ↓ $20	Balance ↑ $20 (more debt)
Receive $50	Balance ↑ $50	Balance ↓ $50 (less debt)
Negative Balance	Overdraft	Bank owes you money

6. Adding Accounts

For this example we'll add a Savings Account.

Tip

If you’re adding a credit card, loan, or any other debt, be sure to select a Credit Card or Liability account type instead of Cash. This will ensure balances update correctly and match what your bank shows.

Most bank accounts (checking, savings, money market) are Cash Accounts

1. Click + Add Account → Cash → Enter Account Balance
2. Fill in details such as:
   • Account name
   • Current Balance
   • Account Subtype (This is where you specify checking, savings, or other)
3. Click Create Account when you are ready to proceed.

Once created, you'll return to the Home screen.
You'll now see:

• Your new cash account in the Accounts list (left side)
• An overview of your accounts in the center, under the net worth bar.

To get this bar moving let's add some transactions!

7. Adding Transactions

To add a transaction:

1. Go to the Transactions page (left sidebar, under Home, above Budgets)
2. Click + New Transaction (top right)
3. Choose the transaction type:
   • Expense → Spending money
   • Income → Receiving money
   • Transfer → Move money between accounts
4. Enter the details, then click Add transaction

You will now see the transaction you added in your transaction history, as well as the net worth chart updating accordingly.

8. Next Steps

Now that you have one account and your first transaction:

• Explore the other account types that Sure offers, adding ones relevant to your finances.
• Categorize and Tag transactions for better searching and reporting.
• Experiment with Budgets to track your spending habits.
• If you have many historical transactions, use Bulk Import to load them in.

More detailed user guides for these features are coming soon™.