Four reports answer "where is the money going?" from different angles.
Spending by Category
Total spent per category over the range, largest first.
The one to start with. It's the fastest way to find the gap between what you think you spend and what you do — and it's the report most likely to change a budget number.
Read it against your assigned amounts. A category consistently coming in over is under-budgeted, not a discipline problem. Fix it in the budget.
Spending by Payee
Total spent per payee, largest first.
Useful for the questions categories can't answer: how much did that subscription cost this year, how much really goes to one supermarket, which merchant quietly became a monthly expense.
Payees only group well if they're named consistently. Bank descriptions are messy — the same shop can arrive as three different strings. Payee rules normalise this as a side-effect of categorizing.
Spending Over Time
Total spending per month or week across the range.
Use it to see direction rather than detail. A single expensive month means little; three rising months is a trend.
Switch granularity to week for a short range, month for anything longer than a quarter.
Trends
Spending plotted against a rolling average, so normal variation is visible as variation rather than as a problem.
This is the report to check before reacting. Most months are above or below average — that's what an average means. What matters is the line moving away from the average and staying there.
Making the numbers reliable
Categorize everything. Uncategorized spending is grouped as "Uncategorized" and tells you nothing. The Needs review badge is the queue.
Split shared purchases. One trip covering groceries and a birthday present distorts both categories if it lands in one. See splitting a transaction.
Reconcile before drawing conclusions. A missing or duplicated transaction distorts exactly the category you're investigating. See reconciling an account.
What's excluded
- Transfers between two on-budget accounts — moving money isn't spending.
- The parent row of a split — only its lines are counted, never both.
- Starting Balance transactions — account setup, not spending.
- Transfer legs to accounts you chose not to import — the money moved somewhere you don't track.
A payment to a loan is not excluded. The loan is off-budget, so the money genuinely left your budget and it counts as spending in its payment category.