How to move your history from Saldo
A Saldo export is not a list of purchases. It is a bookkeeping journal, and that single difference is why a Saldo file can double your spending in an app that reads it one row at a time.
How to bring it in
- 1. Export your history from Saldo. You want the CSV file.
- 2. Open Money Talks, go to Settings and tap Import Data.
- 3. Choose Saldo from the list of apps.
- 4. Pick the file you exported.
- 5. Read the preview. It shows how many transactions will be added, which categories are new, and every row that was skipped along with the reason.
- 6. Confirm.
The file you need
Saldo exports one CSV file.
You have the right file if its first line looks like this:
"Transaction ID","Transaction Date","Description","Parent account","Account","Account Type","Archived","Journal Type","Amount","Currency","Tags","Accrual Month","Notes"Thirteen columns. The two that decide everything are Transaction ID and Account Type: rows sharing a Transaction ID are one transaction, and Account Type says whether the row touched an account or a category.
Frequently asked questions
Why do several rows in my Saldo export share one Transaction ID?
Because Saldo exports a double-entry journal. One purchase is written as two or more rows that share a Transaction ID: one for money leaving an account, one for it arriving in a category. A purchase split across two categories has three. Money Talks groups them back into a single transaction before anything is counted.
Will my transfers between accounts survive the move?
Yes. When every row in a Saldo entry touches an account and none touches a category, the entry is a transfer, and Money Talks records it as one transaction with both sides. A cross-currency transfer keeps both amounts and both currencies, so the rate you got that day stays in your history instead of being flattened.
Some rows were skipped. Did my import fail?
Not necessarily. Money Talks separates rows it could not read from rows it skipped on purpose. Opening balances written against an EQUITY account are in the second group, and so are rows with a zero amount. The preview names the reason for each one before you confirm anything.
Do I need an account to import from Saldo?
No. Import works without signing up. If you do have an account, Settings keeps a Delete last import row that removes the transactions from your most recent import in one tap.
What comes across from Saldo
- Every transaction with its date, description and notes
- Categories, including a purchase split across more than one of them
- The currency written on each row, so a multi-currency history stays multi-currency
- Transfers between your own accounts, kept as one record with both sides and both amounts
- The name of the account each transaction came from
What does not come across
- Opening balances - Saldo writes them against an EQUITY account so the ledger balances. They are not money you spent, and counting them would bend your totals. The preview lists them as skipped on purpose, not as errors.
- Rows priced in a ticker - An investment account can carry something like S#T:NYSE where a currency code belongs. That is not a currency, so those rows cannot be converted to your base currency.
- Tags - Money Talks has no tags, so the Tags column stays behind. Notes and descriptions come across in full.
- Your accounts themselves - Each transaction remembers the account name it came from, and the preview lists every name it found. Money Talks does not recreate the accounts or their balances, so you set those up once.
Saldo writes a journal, not a list of purchases
Most budgeting apps export one row per purchase. Saldo exports a double-entry accounting journal, the structure a bookkeeper works in, and that changes what a single row means.
Buy a coffee for 80 UAH and Saldo writes two rows. One records 80 UAH leaving
your card. The other records 80 UAH arriving in the Cafes category. Both carry
the same Transaction ID, and that shared id is the only thing marking them as
two halves of one purchase.
An app that reads the file row by row sees 160 UAH of coffee. This is the failure worth knowing about, because nothing looks broken. Every row is real. The total is simply twice what you spent, and your busiest categories are the most wrong.
Money Talks groups rows by Transaction ID before counting anything, so one
coffee stays one coffee.
How a transfer gets recognised
Two columns do the work. Journal Type says whether a row is the DEBIT or the
CREDIT side. Account Type says what the row touched: BANK_ACCOUNTS, CASH,
EQUITY and so on.
When every row in an entry touches an account and none touches a category, no money entered or left your finances. It moved between two places you already own. Money Talks records that as one transfer with both sides, so it never lands in your spending totals.
If the two sides are in different currencies, both amounts are kept. The gap between them is the rate you got that day, and that is worth keeping rather than recalculating later from a rate table.
Opening balances are skipped, and that is on purpose
When you set an account up in Saldo, its starting balance is written against an
EQUITY account. It is a bookkeeping entry that makes the ledger balance, not
money you earned or spent.
Money Talks skips those rows and marks them as skipped deliberately. In the preview they carry a note saying the row is an opening balance, kept apart from rows that genuinely failed. You see the count either way, so nothing goes missing quietly.
If you hold investments
Where a currency code belongs, an investment account in Saldo can carry a ticker
instead, something like S#T:NYSE. That is not a currency, so those rows cannot
be converted and do not come across. Everything priced in a real currency does.