Answers to common questions about using MoneyTracker. For short practical tips, see the hints.
Stores and branches
Should I add a branch for a store?
It is not necessary, but it can help in some cases. Some chains run several formats under one name, for example Carrefour has hypermarkets and smaller Carrefour Market shops, and prices may differ between them. With a branch for each, a product’s price history (grouped by store) shows whether you bought it at the hypermarket or at the market.
A branch also records where you made a purchase, which is useful for products you buy rarely and want to find again.
Branches are added on the store’s page in Settings > Counterparties (Add branch).
Products and brand names
Should I add products to my expenses?
Products have no effect on spending or budgets, which are calculated from categories only.
Adding products (the line items of an expense) builds a price history for each of them: what you paid, when and where. You can see it grouped by store or by date, and use it to choose the cheapest place to buy. When Shopping Lists becomes available, it will show this information too.
What is a product and what is a brand name?
A product is a generic name that can cover many brands. How specific it is depends on you. If any soft drink will do, “Soft drink” can be your product. If you would never replace Coca-Cola Zero with another soft drink, or even with regular Coca-Cola, then “Coca-Cola Zero” can be your product.
The price history compares prices within a product. For one person, comparing the prices of Sprite and Coca-Cola makes sense (“I just buy soft drinks”), so both belong to one product. For another person they are not comparable, so they are different products.
Do not include the size or the quantity in the product name. Enter them in the Size and Quantity fields instead: the app then works out the price per a common size (per 100 g, per litre, per month), converting between units such as grams, kilograms and pounds, so packs of different sizes can be compared. Two product names that differ only by size (“Milk 1 l” and “Milk 2 l”) would be two separate products, and their prices would not be compared.
A brand name is more specific: it is an item that has, or can have, its own barcode. The same brand name always means the same item, for example “Coca-Cola Zero” under the product “Soft drink”.