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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, account, or time) and display summary statistics for each group, including transaction count and total amount spent.

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

Merchant View
Merchants view 		Category View
Categories view
Group View
Groups view 		Account View
Accounts view
TIME View (by Years)
Time view by years 		TIME View (by Months)
Time view by months
TIME View (by Days)
Time view by days
View What It Shows Use For
Merchant Spending by store/service + top category 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
Time Spending by time period (years, months, or days) Analyze spending trends over time, year-over-year comparisons

Columns displayed:

  • Name, Count, Total (all aggregate views)
  • Top Category (Merchant view only) - Shows the most common category for each merchant with percentage (e.g., "Groceries 90%"). This helps identify categorization patterns and spot miscategorized transactions.

Top Category Column

The Top Category column in Merchant view shows at a glance whether a merchant is properly categorized:

  • 100% = All transactions use the same category (consistent)
  • 85% = Mostly one category (likely correct)
  • 60% = Mixed categorization (may need cleanup)

Example: "Whole Foods → Groceries 95%" confirms most purchases are correctly categorized.

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

Default Backend Amazon Mode Shows
Merchant Item Product names
Category Category Product categories
Group Group Category groups
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.

To return to an aggregate view, press g or Escape.

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

Detail view with indicators

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.

Merchant view with Amazon highlighted

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

Drilled down into Amazon - transaction detail view

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 - View changes to Merchants > Amazon (by Year)
  9. Shows Amazon spending trends over time (press t to cycle granularity)
  10. Press g again - Returns to detail view
  11. Shows all Amazon transactions ungrouped

Drilled into Merchant, grouped by Category

Drilled into Amazon, grouped by Account

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:

Sub-grouping cycle: Category → Group → Account → Time → Detail → Category...

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

Multi-level drill-down breadcrumb

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.

From top-level detail view:

  • When viewing all transactions (not drilled down), press g or Escape to return to an aggregate view
  • Both keys restore your previous aggregate view (Merchant, Category, Group, or Account)

Single-level drill-down with sub-grouping:

  • From Merchants > Amazon (by Category), press Escape to return to Merchants > Amazon (clears sub-grouping)
  • From Merchants > Amazon, press Escape to return to Merchants (clears merchant filter)

Multi-level drill-down:

  • From Merchants > Amazon > Groceries, press Escape to return to Merchants > Amazon (removes category filter)
  • From Merchants > Amazon, press Escape to return to Merchants (removes 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 as an Aggregate Dimension

Time is a first-class aggregate dimension, just like Merchant, Category, Group, or Account. You can view spending grouped by time periods, drill into specific years or months, and combine time with other dimensions for powerful temporal analysis.

TIME View

Press g to cycle to the TIME view, which shows your transactions aggregated by time period. Toggle through three granularity levels to adjust the time grouping:

  • Press t - Cycle through granularities (Year, then Month, then Day, then back to Year)

Example workflow:

  1. Press g until you reach TIME view - Shows all years in your dataset
  2. Press t - Toggle to monthly view - Shows all months with data
  3. Press t again - Toggle to daily view - Shows all days with data
  4. Press Enter on a specific period - Drill into that time period
  5. Press g to sub-group - Pivot by Merchant/Category/etc within that period

Drilling Into Time Periods

From TIME view, press Enter on any year, month, or day to drill down and see only transactions from that period.

Drilled Into Year
Drilled into specific year 		Drilled Into Month
Drilled into specific month

Example:

  1. In TIME view (showing years 2023, 2024, 2025)
  2. Press Enter on 2024 → Breadcrumb shows Time > 2024
  3. Press g → View by Merchants within 2024
  4. Press g again → Cycle through Categories, Groups, Accounts, Time (by month)
  5. Press Escape → Back to Time > 2024 (detail view)
  6. Press Escape → Back to TIME view (all years)

Time + Other Dimensions

Combine time with other dimensions for multi-faceted analysis:

Time-first analysis (Time > 2024 > Merchants):

  1. Drill into a year/month
  2. Sub-group by Merchant/Category/Account
  3. Analyze spending within that time period

Dimension-first with time sub-grouping (Merchants > Amazon > by Year):

  1. Drill into a merchant/category
  2. Press g to sub-group by Year or Month
  3. See spending trends over time for that dimension

When drilled into a specific time period, use arrow keys to navigate forward/backward:

  • ← (Left arrow) - Previous period (e.g., from 2024 to 2023, or from Mar 2024 to Feb 2024)
  • → (Right arrow) - Next period (e.g., from 2024 to 2025, or from Mar 2024 to Apr 2024)
  • a - Clear time period selection (shortcut for Escape)

Arrow keys only work when drilled into a time period. The navigation respects your current granularity (years vs months).

Command-Line Data Loading

For Monarch Money and YNAB backends, you can fetch only recent data for faster startup:

moneyflow --year 2025           # Fetch from 2025-01-01 onwards
moneyflow --since 2024-06-01    # Fetch from specific date onwards
moneyflow --mtd                 # Fetch month-to-date only

API Fetching vs View Filtering

These flags control what data is fetched from the API, not what you see in the view. Once data is loaded, all of it is visible by default. Use TIME view to analyze specific periods.

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

Search modal

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 results for "coffee"

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

"How has my spending changed over time?"

  1. Navigate to TIME view - Press g until you see Years
  2. Review annual totals - See 2023: $45,000, 2024: $52,000, 2025: $48,000
  3. Toggle to months - Press t to see monthly breakdown
  4. Drill into a month - Press Enter on "Mar 2024" to see that month's transactions
  5. Navigate months - Use ← → to move between months

"How has my Amazon spending trended?"

  1. Navigate to Merchant view - Press g until you see Merchants
  2. Drill into Amazon - Move cursor to "Amazon", press Enter
  3. Sub-group by Year - Press g until breadcrumb shows "(by Year)"
  4. View year-over-year - See 2023: $2,500, 2024: $3,200, 2025: $2,800
  5. Toggle to months - Press t to see monthly Amazon spending
  6. Drill deeper - Press Enter on a specific year to see all Amazon transactions from that year

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
  • Time works symmetrically: drill into Time then pivot by dimension, OR drill into dimension then sub-group by time

Quick Reference

Key Action
g Cycle aggregate views (includes TIME), or return to aggregate view from detail view
d Detail view (all transactions)
Enter Drill down
Escape Go back (or return to aggregate view from detail view)
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 Cycle time granularity (Year → Month → Day) in TIME view
a Clear time period drill-down
← / → Navigate time periods (when drilled into time)

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