In Monarch, it’s important to understand how Transfers and credit card payments work — especially when it comes to keeping your budget accurate and avoiding double-counting your spending.
At a glance: Transfers move money between your accounts and don’t count toward your budget or spending totals.
What is a Transfer?
A Transfer in Monarch is when you move money from one of your accounts to another. Common examples include:
- Moving money from your checking account to your savings account.
- Paying off a credit card using money from your bank account.
Because these actions aren’t new spending — they’re just shifting money you already have — Transfers are excluded from your budget and spending totals.
Transfer Categories
You might see two special categories in your “Transfers” group:
- Credit Card Payment: This can be used to specifically track credit card payments versus other types of transfers.
- Transfer: Used when generally moving money between accounts.
Both of these categories are excluded from your budget and spending totals.
Credit Card Charges and Payments in Monarch
Credit cards involve two different transactions:
- The original purchase: When you place a charge on your credit card (like $50 at a gas station), Monarch tracks that original charge immediately as an expense.
- The payment: When you later pay your credit card bill (for example, you pay $50 towards your balance from your checking account), Monarch treats that payment as a Transfer, not a new expense. This is true whether it's a partial payment or the entire balance.
Important: Monarch counts the original purchase as spending. Treating the credit card payment as a Transfer ensures it’s not counted a second time. Otherwise, in the examples above, it would look like you spent $100 instead of $50!
Why Monarch Does It This Way
Monarch is designed for expense tracking. That means it focuses on when you actually spend money — like when you swipe your card — not when you move cash around later.
Other budgeting methods sometimes focus more on cash flow budgeting (tracking every dollar into and out of bank accounts). Monarch instead focuses on expense budgeting: recording your true purchases and spending behavior, whether they happen with a credit card, debit card, or directly from your bank.
This method gives you a much clearer picture of where your money really goes, without the confusion of double-counting transactions.