Closing accounts

Accounts get closed in real life — the credit card paid off and shut, the savings account moved to a new bank, the loan finished. Project Budget keeps closed accounts around for history without letting them clutter the live UI.

When to close

Close an account when:

• The real-world account is closed and you have no more transactions to enter.
• The balance is zero (or you've reconciled it to zero deliberately).
• You don't want it in the Accounts sidebar anymore.

Don't close an account just because you stopped using it temporarily. A dormant card you may use again is better left open with a zero balance.

How to close

From Accounts, click the account, then choose Close account from the actions menu. Project Budget prompts for confirmation if the balance is non-zero — you can choose to close anyway, but a non-zero balance on a closed account is usually a mistake.

What happens to a closed account

• It hides from the default Accounts view. Toggle Show closed to bring it back into the list.
• It stops appearing in account dropdowns (transaction entry, transfers, reconcile).
• Its transactions remain in the register — historical reports still see them.
• It stops contributing to Net worth from the close date onward.
• The account name gets struck through in the sidebar so it reads as archived.

For a closed credit-card account, the auto-created Credit Card Payment category is also hidden but kept for history. You can't assign to it anymore.

Reopening

Same menu, Reopen account. Everything returns to normal. The account is selectable in dropdowns again, transactions resume.

Deleting

There is no hard delete for accounts — only close. If you genuinely don't want the history, two options:

• Delete each transaction individually from the register, then close the account. The account row becomes an empty stub; close hides it.
• Export, edit, re-import. Export the profile, open the JSON, remove the account block, re-import. Destructive but complete.

Most people are better off leaving closed accounts alone. They take no UI space once hidden and the history is occasionally useful — Spending and Net worth reports both benefit from full account history even on closed accounts.

What about a transferred balance?

A common pattern: closing Savings Account A and moving the balance to Savings Account B at a new bank. Do this in three steps:

1. Add Account B with opening balance $0 (not the transferred amount — you haven't moved anything yet).
2. Enter a transfer from Account A to Account B for the full balance.
3. Close Account A.

The transfer is the audit trail. Both balances land where they should. Net worth is unchanged.