7. Planned transactions

A planned transaction is a template that either automatically generates real transactions at a fixed cadence, or pre-generates planned occurrences that you confirm before they are booked.

When to use it

• The amount and category are fixed (or rarely change) → use Fixed amount mode.
• You want to be notified before each due date and decide whether to confirm, skip, or reschedule → use Planned occurrence mode.
• It's a one-time future payment you want to track → use Once scheduling mode.

Creating a planned transaction

Open the Transactions menu in the navigation bar and select Planned, then click + New planned.

Scheduling mode

Amount mode

Once mode always uses Fixed amount — the Variable option is not available for one-time entries.

Frequency (SIMPLE mode)

Reminder lead days

How many days before the due date you receive a reminder email (default: 3, range: 0–30).

Other fields

• Type — Income / Expense / Transfer.
• Account (and destination account for transfers).
• Amount and description.
• Category — optional (not used for transfers).
• Tags — optional, inherited by every generated transaction.
• Start date — must be in the future (tomorrow or later). In Custom dates mode this field is hidden; the start date is automatically derived from the earliest date in the custom dates list.
• End date — optional, open-ended if blank.
• Active — toggle pause/resume without deleting the template.

Planned occurrence lifecycle

When a recurring template is active, the daily cron generates PlannedOccurrence entries 60 days ahead. Each occurrence passes through the following states:

PLANNED → READY_TO_CONFIRM  (reminder email sent N days before due date)
        → EXPIRED            (due date passed without action)
READY_TO_CONFIRM → EXECUTED (you confirm and book the transaction)
EXPIRED → EXECUTED | SKIPPED | RESCHEDULED  (your decision in the UI)

A red badge appears on the Planned nav link and a warning banner on the dashboard whenever you have EXPIRED occurrences awaiting a decision.

How direct transactions are generated (SIMPLE mode)

A separate command (app:recurring:process) runs daily and creates real transactions directly from active SIMPLE templates whose next occurrence is today or earlier. It advances next_occurrence after each generation.

If the cron was paused, every missed occurrence is caught up in order on the next run.

List and filters

The Planned page header offers — just like the executed transactions list and the dashboard — a separate account switcher button (shown only when you have more than one account). By default the All accounts view is active, but you can pick a single account — then only planned entries whose schedule belongs to that account are shown (for transfers, the source or the target account counts too).

The Planned page has a collapsible filter bar (click the Filter button to expand it). The badge on the button shows the number of active filters.

Available filters:

• Description — partial text search with autocomplete suggestions
• Type — Income / Expense
• Scheduling mode — Simple / Once / Custom dates / Custom rule
• Amount mode — Fixed / Variable
• Tags — multi-select; an AND / OR rule can be chosen next to the field:
  • All tags (AND) — default: only entries carrying every selected tag
  • Any tag (OR) — entries carrying at least one selected tag
• Active — All / Active / Inactive
• Date range — filters by next occurrence date

Deletion

Deleting a template does not affect transactions or planned occurrences that were already generated — they stay untouched. Only future automatic generation is stopped.

Related chapters

6. Transactions, 8. Budgets