A short walkthrough of every part of the app.
Quick definitions for terms you'll see throughout SpeakCents.
Net worth
Everything you own (assets like cash, investments, and property) minus everything you owe (liabilities like loans and credit cards).
Assets vs. liabilities
Assets are things that hold value for you — checking, savings, investments, a home. Liabilities are what you owe — credit cards, loans, mortgages. Accounts you add are sorted into one of the two.
Cash flow
The money moving in (income) and out (expenses) over a period. Positive cash flow means you earn more than you spend.
Emergency fund
Cash set aside for unexpected costs, usually 3–6 months of expenses, so you don't have to sell investments or borrow.
Savings rate
The share of your income you keep instead of spend, over the period you're viewing. A 20% savings rate means 20 cents of every dollar earned stayed with you.
Discretionary vs. fixed spending
Fixed costs stay roughly the same each month (rent, insurance). Discretionary spending is optional and easier to cut (dining out, shopping).
Debt payoff methods
Two ways of ordering debts. Snowball orders debts from the smallest balance to the largest balance; Avalanche orders debts from the highest interest rate to the lowest interest rate.
Transaction
A single movement of money — a purchase, a deposit, a payment, or a transfer — either pulled from a connected bank or added by you.
Pending vs. posted
A pending charge has been authorized but not finalized by your bank, so the amount or date can still change. Posted means it has settled and won't move.
Manual
A transaction you entered yourself — by voice, by form, or from a receipt — instead of one imported from a bank connection.
Merchant
The business or seller you pay, normalized from your transaction description so every 'Starbucks' shows up the same way.
Merchant normalization
Cleaning up raw bank text like 'SQ *WHOLE FOODS MKT #123' into a readable name, so spending by merchant adds up correctly instead of splitting across a dozen spellings.
Category
A label that groups related spending — groceries, dining, transport — so you can see where your money goes.
Internal transfer
Money moved between your own accounts. SpeakCents flags these so they don't count as income or spending, which keeps totals from double-counting.
Confidence score
How sure SpeakCents is about the category it picked. Low-confidence items are gathered into a review list so you can confirm or correct them quickly.
Smart rule
A rule you set once — for example, 'anything from this merchant is Groceries' — that is applied automatically to future matching transactions.
Split transaction
One charge divided across more than one category, useful when a single store receipt covers groceries and household goods.
Refund / reimbursement
Money coming back for something you already paid. It offsets the original spending instead of counting as new income.
Recurring transaction
A charge or deposit that repeats on a schedule, like a subscription, rent, or paycheck. SpeakCents auto-detects these.
Subscription vs. bill
Both are recurring. A subscription is an ongoing service you can cancel (streaming, gym, apps). A bill is an obligation tied to living costs (rent, utilities, insurance).
Money leaks
Recurring charges that look forgotten, unused, duplicated, or newly increased — the first place to look when you want to free up cash.
Price increase alert
A heads-up when a repeating charge comes in higher than its usual amount, so a quiet price hike doesn't slip by.
Next expected date
SpeakCents' estimate of when a repeating charge will hit again, based on its past pattern rather than a date the merchant gave us.
Budget vs. actual
Compares what you planned to spend in a category against what you actually spent, so you can spot where you're over or under.
Rollover
Carrying leftover budget from one period into the next, instead of resetting the category to zero each month.
Goal
A savings target with an amount and optional deadline — a trip, a down payment, an emergency fund — tracked as you contribute.
Contribution
Money you put toward a goal. Progress on a goal is the total contributed compared with the target amount.
Forecast
A projection of where your balances and spending are heading, based on your recent history and known repeating items. It's an estimate, not a guarantee.
Burn rate
How fast you're spending in the current period. Compared against income, it shows whether you'll end the month ahead or behind.
Linked account
A bank, card, or investment account connected to SpeakCents so transactions and balances arrive automatically.
Sync / refresh
Asking your bank for the latest transactions right now. Banks release data on their own schedule, so very recent purchases can take a day to appear.
Available vs. current balance
Current balance is what has posted. Available balance subtracts pending charges and holds, which is why the two rarely match.
Archived account
An account you've closed or stopped tracking. Its history stays for reporting, but it no longer syncs or counts toward net worth.
Date range filter
The period every chart, table, and report on the page uses. Change it once at the top and the whole page follows.
Voice command
Speaking a request instead of typing it — 'add $12 lunch at Chipotle' or 'how much did I spend on groceries?' — to add, edit, delete, or ask about your money.
Auto-add / auto-edit / auto-delete
Settings that let voice changes apply immediately without showing a confirmation form. Leave them off if you'd rather review each change first.
Household member
Someone on your family plan who shares the account. Transactions can be assigned to a specific member so you can see who spent what.
Report template
A ready-made view — money leaks, category breakdown, budget vs. actual and more — you can open instead of building a report from scratch.
