Getting started

This page takes your family from a new account to a working budget.

It is for the first person in a household setting up Nestbalm. Everyone else joins along the way.

You need one thing before you start: a banking app that can export your transactions as an OFX or QFX file. OFX and QFX are file formats many banking apps offer under names like “export” or “download transactions”.

Creating your household

If a family member already uses Nestbalm, don’t create your own household. Ask them for an invitation link instead; the next section shows how they create it.

1. Sign in at nestbalm.com and follow the onboarding steps. Nestbalm creates a household with you as its first member.

Inviting the rest of the family

An invitation link is a link one family member creates in Nestbalm and shares, so another person can join the household. For example, Anna creates the link and sends it to Boris in the family chat. Nestbalm does not send the invitation by email; you pass the link on yourselves.

Inviting family members is included in the Family plan. On the Demo or Personal plan, Nestbalm cannot create the invite. Nothing in your household changes; you can change your plan in the settings.

1. Go to Profile → Household.
2. Under Invite a family member, enter the family member’s email address.
3. Select Create invite. Nestbalm shows the invitation link once, with a Copy button.
4. Share the link with your family member in any way that suits you.

When they open the link, they sign in with their own Google account for that email address and set a passphrase. They then see the same household and the same budget.

Importing your bank data

1. In your banking app, export your recent transactions as an OFX or QFX file.
2. In Nestbalm, upload the file. Your transactions appear, ready for review.

Nestbalm recognises transactions it has already imported, so uploading the same file twice does not create duplicates.

Reviewing and categorising transactions

A pending transaction is one that has arrived but that nobody in the household has confirmed yet.

1. Open your new transactions. Each one carries a suggested pocket.
2. Confirm the suggestions that fit, and correct the ones that don’t. When you correct a suggestion, Nestbalm remembers the correction and applies it to future imports.

Building your first budget

A pocket is a place in your budget where you tuck money for one purpose. For example, €200 tucked into the Groceries pocket is set aside for groceries. To tuck money is to set it aside in a pocket, so it has one purpose.

1. Open the Budget page. You see a row for each pocket.
2. Tuck money into each pocket you plan to use this month. The row updates as you go.

Each pocket row shows three numbers. Carryover is money left in a pocket at the end of the month that stays there for the next one.

Column	Meaning
Tucked	What you tucked in this month
Activity	What your household spent or received here this month
Available	What is in the pocket now, including carryover from last month

What changed

Your household now has its accounts, its transactions, and a plan for the month. Everyone in the household sees the same budget.

Next steps

• Read Budgeting concepts for the ideas behind the numbers on the Budget page.
• Set up transfer matching. Transfer matching links the two sides of a move between your own accounts, so it doesn’t count as spending.