Connecting bank transactions to budgets is how you turn raw cash flow into actionable insight. This tutorial shows you how to import transactions in Flowtly and assign them to the right budget lines so spending stays on track.
What you'll do
- Open Transactions and connect a bank account
- Review incoming transactions
- Link transactions to your budget
Step 1: Open Transactions
From the sidebar, expand Finance & Business and click Transactions. This is where Flowtly aggregates all bank activity from your connected accounts.
If you're starting fresh, the list is empty with a message "No added accounts yet". Click Add account in the top-right to connect a bank feed, or use the Choose files button to import a CSV/MT940 statement.
Tip: Connecting a live bank feed is the most reliable approach — transactions appear automatically and stay in sync with your accounts. CSV imports work well for historical data or banks without direct integration.
Step 2: Review and categorize transactions
Once transactions are imported, each row shows the bank, item, currency, type, and bank account number. Click on any transaction to see more detail and assign it to a category or budget.
Flowtly suggests categories based on the transaction description, but you can override them per transaction or set up rules to auto-assign recurring payments (e.g., your SaaS subscriptions always map to "Software" expenses).
Step 3: Link transactions to your budget
Open the Budget section (Finance & Business → Budget) and you'll see each budget line item now has a "Linked transactions" view. Click into a line to see which transactions are feeding into it.
The linked amounts roll up into the budget group, so you get a real-time comparison of planned vs. actual spending. If a transaction is mis-categorized, edit it from either side — transactions or budget — and the link updates immediately.
Important: Review unassigned transactions weekly. If too many accumulate, budget reporting stops being trustworthy.
You're finished
You now have bank transactions flowing into Flowtly and linked to budget line items. Your budget dashboards reflect real spending, and you can spot overruns before they compound. For deeper control, set up auto-categorization rules and review them monthly.
