> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.myclerkbook.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Your first transaction

> Recording an entry by hand: every field on the form, what it is for, and how to change it afterwards.

A book with nothing in it still has a balance, and it is zero. Your first entry
is what turns it into a record.

## Recording an entry

Open **Add transaction**. It is in the top bar on every screen inside a book,
and on the round button at the bottom right on a phone.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Who the entry is with">
    The vendor, client or source. This is the name you will scan for later, so
    write it the way you would say it.
  </Step>

  <Step title="What it was for">
    An optional description. Useful when the vendor name alone will not remind
    you in six months.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Type and amount">
    **Income** for money received or expected, **expense** for money paid or
    expected, **trial** for a free trial you are tracking.

    The amount is always entered as a positive number. The sign is carried by
    the type, so an expense shows as negative because it *is* an expense. You
    never type a minus.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Date">
    Defaults to today. It is a calendar date, not a timestamp: an entry belongs
    to the day you assign it, in every timezone.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Repeats, optional">
    Weekly, monthly, yearly, or a custom number of days. Leave it on **Does not
    repeat** for a one-off.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Groups, optional">
    Tick any groups the entry belongs to. An entry can be in more than one.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Note>
  A **trial** asks for the date it ends instead of a repeat interval. The two
  are mutually exclusive: a trial is a single commitment with an end date, so it
  does not also repeat.
</Note>

## Groups

A group is your own category: `Software`, `Client work`, `Travel`, whatever
divides your money usefully. Groups belong to a book, carry a colour, and an
entry can sit in several at once.

Create and reorder them on the **Groups** screen in the rail. The entry form
offers the groups that already exist in the book.

## Changing an entry afterwards

Open any row in the ledger and it appears in a panel beside it, without losing
your place in the list. **Every field is edited in place**, so there is no separate
edit mode and no form-wide save. A change commits when you leave the field, and
is recorded in that entry's activity log with what changed, from what, to what,
and who did it.

Each entry also carries a review state, **unreviewed**, **confirmed** or
**queried**, so a book you are working through has a worklist rather than just
a history. Your dashboard counts what is still unreviewed.

## Recording every entry yourself

<Warning>
  **myClerkBook has no document upload.** There is nothing that photographs a
  receipt or reads a statement, so there is no parse to wait for: every entry
  in the book is one you record yourself, and the entry form is the only door.
</Warning>

<Card title="AI Powered" icon="wand-magic-sparkles" href="/features/ai-powered">
  What parsing will do when it exists: read a document into a pre-filled entry
  for you to confirm. It is described on its feature page, not here.
</Card>