Receipts, IOUs and counting cash in Dura

The everyday habits that keep a cash budget honest are simple: record each spend when you pay, keep the receipt, settle any borrowing between envelopes, and count the real notes now and then. This guide shows how to do each of those in Dura, plus how to get useful answers from the coach.

How to record a spend from an envelope

Open the envelope you are spending from and fill in three things: "How much?", "What for?" and "Whose cash did you actually hand over?". You can also tap "Snap the receipt" to attach a photo. Save, and you get a flying-bill animation and a cha-ching.

The best time to record is straight away, at the till or as you step off the kombi. Every entry shows in Activity with the name of the person who recorded it, and your partner sees it live on their phone.

Whose cash did you actually hand over?

This question matters more than it looks. It starts out set to the same envelope you are spending from, which is right most of the time. But cash life is messy. Say Rudo buys $9 of vegetables, the seller has no change for her groceries notes, and she pays with a $10 note from the Transport envelope (getting $1 back into Transport).

She records the spend from Groceries and picks Transport under "Whose cash did you actually hand over?". Dura then shows an IOU tag on the table: "Groceries owes Transport $9". The real notes and the app still agree, and nobody has to remember the swap.

Settle IOUs between envelopes, fully or in part

Each IOU tag has a Settle button. Settling moves the notes back, so in the example above $9 goes from Groceries back to Transport. Do the same with the real notes in your hands at the same time.

• Settle in full when the borrowing envelope has enough.
• Settle part of it when it does not. Pay back $5 now and the IOU drops to $4.
• Let opposite IOUs cancel out. If Groceries owes Transport $9 and Transport owes Groceries $4, Dura nets them off so only $5 is owed.

Settling your first IOU earns the Square deal stamp, and clearing every open IOU earns All squared up. For why IOUs make shared budgets calmer, see our cash envelope budget guide for couples.

Three ways to scan receipts

A scanned receipt can turn one long supermarket slip into several spends, each from the right envelope. There are three ways in:

1. Snap it. Tap the scan button on the table header, then take a photo or pick one from your gallery. PDFs work too.
2. Hand it to the coach. Attach the receipt with the paperclip in the coach chat. The coach tells you what it found and links you to check it.
3. Forward the email. Each of you has a private receipts address, which you can find in Settings under "Email receipts". It looks like receipts+yourcode@dura.muchiround.com. Forward an emailed receipt or a photo to it, and it waits under "To check" on the table. If the address ever gets shared by mistake, "Make a new address" replaces it and the old one stops working.

Review, then Deduct

Dura reads the shop name, the date, every line and the total, and suggests an envelope for each line. You look it over and change anything that is wrong. Then a summary shows exactly what will come out of each envelope and what will be left.

Nothing comes out of any envelope until you tap Deduct. Worked example: a $46 supermarket slip might split into $38 from Groceries and $8 from Fun money for a treat. The summary also shows that Groceries would drop to $12, so you know where you stand before a single dollar comes out.

Dura keeps the receipt with the spends it created, and each spend's note carries the shop name and the items, so Activity still tells you what was bought. There is a limit of 40 receipt scans per household per day, which is far more than most families need.

Count an envelope and fix the difference

Counting is how you catch leaks. Open an envelope, count the real notes and enter the amount. If it matches what Dura expects, Dura celebrates. If not, it shows the difference and asks for a reason:

• Forgot to record a spend
• Change not recorded
• Lost
• Found extra
• Other

If you forgot a spend, you can record it there and then. Otherwise you accept the difference as an adjustment and move on. Worked example: Dura expects $42 in Transport and Tendai counts $37. He remembers a $5 fare he never recorded, adds the spend, and the envelope matches.

At the end of the month, "Count everything" in Settings walks you through every envelope one by one. Three counts that match earn the Counted and correct stamp. If counts keep coming up short, our guide to budgeting when you earn online and spend cash has ideas for small notes and change-short sellers.

Undo mistakes and use the Activity filters

Recorded $50 instead of $5? Any entry can be undone from Activity. Undo adds a reversing entry rather than deleting the original, so the history stays honest. Undone entries are hidden unless you tick "Show undone".

Activity lists every entry, newest first, with the name of whoever recorded it. You can filter by envelope, kind, member and month, and tap a receipt thumbnail to open it full size. Filtering by one envelope and one month is the quickest way to answer "where did the transport money go?".

Ask the coach good questions

The coach is a chat that looks at your household's envelopes, budgets, spends, cash-ins, counts and piggy bank. It gives the best answers to specific questions. Here are six that match what it can do:

• "How did we do against budget in every envelope last month?" compares budget with spending for each envelope in a month.
• "Show me every Transport spend between the 1st and the 15th." lists the spends for one envelope between two dates.
• "Can we afford a $35 school trip from the School envelope?" checks the remaining budget, the cash and the projected spending to month end.
• "Can we afford $20 for a braai from Fun money this weekend?" works the same way for any envelope.
• "When will the piggy bank reach our goal?" estimates the date from your average monthly feed.
• "Which envelopes went over budget in August?" uses the same budget comparison to spot problem envelopes.

Each person can send 30 coach messages a day, and the coach only sees your own household.

The Monday insight and the month summary

Every Monday at 7am household time, the coach leaves a short insight card on the table. Read it together, then dismiss it. It makes a good opening for a weekly money date.

At the end of the month, the month summary shows budget against spending for each envelope, the month's exchange cost and how much you saved. Budgets do not roll over, so this is the moment to adjust next month's numbers. To turn these check-ins into something you look forward to, read how to make budgeting fun. New to Dura? Start your table first.

Frequently asked questions

What happens if I pay from the wrong envelope?

Record the spend from the envelope it belongs to and choose the envelope you actually paid from under Whose cash did you actually hand over. Dura creates an IOU, such as Groceries owes Transport $9, that you can settle later.

Does scanning a receipt take money out straight away?

No. Dura suggests an envelope for each line and shows a summary of what will come out of each envelope. Nothing is deducted until you review it and tap Deduct.

Can I delete a spend I recorded by mistake?

You can undo any entry from Activity. Undo adds a reversing entry so the history stays complete, and undone entries are hidden unless you tick Show undone.

How many receipts can we scan each day?

Each household can scan up to 40 receipts a day.