Navigation & Search

moneyflow provides multiple views of your transaction data and powerful drill-down capabilities to analyze spending from different angles.

View Types

Aggregate Views

Press g to cycle through aggregate views. Aggregate views group your transactions by a specific field (merchant, category, group, or account) and display summary statistics for each group, including transaction count and total amount spent.

Cycle Order: Merchant → Category → Group → Account → Merchant...

Merchant View	Category View
Group View	Account View

View	What It Shows	Use For
Merchant	Spending by store/service	See patterns by merchant (e.g., total spent at Amazon)
Category	Spending by category	Identify which categories consume your budget
Group	Spending by category group	Monthly budget reviews, broad spending patterns
Account	Spending by payment method	Reconciliation, per-account spending analysis

Each view displays: Name, Count (# of transactions), Total (amount spent)

Amazon Mode: View names reflect purchase data instead of financial transactions.

Monarch Mode	Amazon Mode	Shows
Merchant	Item	Product names
Category	Category	Product categories
Group	Group	Category groups (same as Monarch)
Account	Order ID	Amazon orders

Detail View

Press d to view all transactions ungrouped in chronological order, or press Enter from any aggregate row to see the transactions for that specific item.

Columns displayed: - Date - Merchant - Category - Account - Amount

Visual indicators:

Indicator	Meaning
✓	Transaction selected for bulk operations
H	Transaction hidden from reports
*	Transaction has pending edits

Capabilities: - Edit merchant names, categories, and hide status - Multi-select for bulk operations - View full transaction details

Drill-Down

From any aggregate view, press Enter on a row to drill into it and see the individual transactions that make up that aggregate.

Example workflow:

1. Start in Merchant view - Press g if needed to cycle to Merchants
2. Navigate to "Amazon" - Use arrow keys to move cursor
3. Press Enter - Drill down to see transactions
4. View results - All Amazon transactions displayed

The breadcrumb shows your current path: Merchants > Amazon

Going back: Press Escape to return to Merchant view with your cursor position and scroll restored.

Sub-Grouping

Once you've drilled down into a specific item, press g to sub-group the filtered data by a different field. This allows you to analyze the same transactions from multiple perspectives without losing your filter context.

Example - Analyzing Amazon purchases:

1. Drill into Amazon - From Merchant view, press Enter on Amazon row
2. Press g - View changes to Merchants > Amazon (by Category)
3. Shows Amazon spending grouped by category
4. Press g again - View changes to Merchants > Amazon (by Group)
5. Shows Amazon spending grouped by category group
6. Press g again - View changes to Merchants > Amazon (by Account)
7. Shows which payment methods you use at Amazon
8. Press g again - Returns to detail view
9. Shows all Amazon transactions ungrouped

Sub-grouping helps answer analytical questions like: - "How much did I spend on groceries from Amazon?" - "Which credit card do I use most at Starbucks?" - "What categories make up my Target spending?"

When you're in a drilled-down view, pressing g cycles through the available sub-groupings. The field you're already filtered by is automatically excluded from the cycle to avoid redundancy.

Multi-Level Drill-Down

You can drill down from sub-grouped views to add another level of filtering, creating a multi-level filter hierarchy.

Example - Finding Amazon grocery transactions:

1. Drill into Amazon - From Merchant view, press Enter on "Amazon"
2. Sub-group by Category - Press g repeatedly until breadcrumb shows "(by Category)"
3. Drill into Groceries - Press Enter on the "Groceries" row
4. View results - Breadcrumb shows: Merchants > Amazon > Groceries
5. Now viewing only Amazon grocery transactions

This powerful feature lets you combine multiple filters to answer very specific questions about your spending.

Going Back

Press Escape to navigate backwards through your drill-down path, removing one filter level at a time.

Single-level drill-down with sub-grouping: - From Merchants > Amazon (by Category) → press Escape → returns to Merchants > Amazon (clears the sub-grouping, shows detail view) - From Merchants > Amazon → press Escape → returns to Merchants (clears the merchant filter)

Multi-level drill-down: - From Merchants > Amazon > Groceries → press Escape → returns to Merchants > Amazon (removes the category filter) - From Merchants > Amazon → press Escape → returns to Merchants (removes the merchant filter)

With search active: - If search was your most recent action, the first Escape press clears the search and returns to your previous view - Subsequent Escape presses navigate backwards through your drill-down levels

Your cursor position and scroll state are preserved when going back, making it easy to explore different views and return to exactly where you were.

Sorting

Control how rows are sorted in the current view.

Cycle sort fields: - Press s to cycle through the available sort fields for the current view - Available fields depend on whether you're in an aggregate or detail view

Reverse sort direction: - Press v to reverse the sort direction between ascending and descending

Available sort fields by view type: - Aggregate Views: Field name (e.g., Merchant, Category), Count (number of transactions), Amount (total spent) - Detail Views: Date, Merchant name, Category, Account, Amount

Time Navigation

Filter your transactions to specific time periods for focused analysis.

Quick time filters: - t - Filter to this month only - y - Filter to this year only - a - Show all time (remove time filter)

Navigate between periods: - ← (Left arrow) - Move to the previous time period - → (Right arrow) - Move to the next time period

The arrow keys intelligently navigate based on your current time filter. When viewing "This Month", arrows move to the previous or next month. When viewing "This Year", arrows move to the previous or next year. The breadcrumb displays your current time period.

Command-line time filters:

You can also specify time filters when launching moneyflow for faster startup with large transaction histories:

moneyflow --year 2025      # Load only 2025 transactions
moneyflow --days 90        # Load last 90 days
moneyflow --month 2025-03  # Load March 2025 only

Search

Press / to search and filter transactions by text matching across merchant names, categories, and transaction notes.

Using search:

1. Press / - Opens the search modal
2. Type your query - Filters as you type (case-insensitive, partial matching)
3. Press Enter - Applies the search filter
4. Press Escape - Clears search and returns to previous view

Search filters persist as you navigate between different views. The breadcrumb displays "Search: your query" to remind you that search is active. To clear a search, press / again and submit an empty search, or press Escape if search was your most recent action.

Multi-Select

Select multiple transactions or aggregate groups to perform bulk operations.

Selecting rows: - Press Space to toggle selection on the current row - Press Ctrl+A to select all visible rows in the current view - Selected rows display a checkmark indicator

Bulk operations available: - Rename merchants across multiple transactions - Change categories for multiple transactions - Hide or unhide multiple transactions from reports

Common Use Cases

Here are some practical examples of using moneyflow's navigation features to answer real questions about your spending:

"What do I buy at Costco?"

1. Navigate to Merchant view - Press g until you see Merchants
2. Drill into Costco - Move cursor to "Costco", press Enter
3. Sub-group by Category - Press g until breadcrumb shows "(by Category)"
4. View breakdown - See Groceries $450, Gas $120, etc.

"Where am I buying groceries?"

1. Navigate to Category view - Press g until you see Categories
2. Drill into Groceries - Move cursor to "Groceries", press Enter
3. Sub-group by Merchant - Press g until breadcrumb shows "(by Merchant)"
4. View breakdown - See Whole Foods $890, Safeway $650, Amazon $234

"How do I use my Chase Sapphire card?"

1. Navigate to Account view - Press g until you see Accounts
2. Drill into Chase Sapphire - Move cursor to "Chase Sapphire", press Enter
3. Sub-group by Category - Press g until breadcrumb shows "(by Category)"
4. View breakdown - See spending by category for this card

Quick Analysis Tip: - When drilled down, g becomes your pivot tool for viewing the same filtered data from different perspectives - No need to go back to the top-level view and re-filter - Combine drill-down with time navigation for powerful analysis: press t to filter to this month, drill down to analyze current spending, then press ← to compare with previous months

Quick Reference

Key	Action
g	Cycle views (Merchant/Category/Group/Account)
d	Detail view (all transactions)
Enter	Drill down
Escape	Go back
s	Cycle sort field
v	Reverse sort
/	Search
f	Filters
Space	Select row
Ctrl+A	Select all
m / c / h	Edit selected transaction(s)
x	Delete selected transaction(s)
u	Undo pending edit
w	Commit pending edits
t / y / a	Time filters
← / →	Previous/next period

For the complete list of keyboard shortcuts, see Keyboard Shortcuts.