Setting up your first account
Nothing else in LedgerBear works until you have at least one account, so that's the first thing to do in a fresh household.
Create the account
- In the left sidebar, find the Accounts header and click the + icon next to it. (You can also go to the Accounts page and click the Create button in the top right.)
- Enter a Name. This is just a label for you — something like "Chase Checking" or "Visa" works fine. Names must be 2–40 characters and are unique within your household.
- Pick a Type:
- Checking — a standard bank checking account.
- Savings — for savings accounts and money-market accounts.
- Credit — any credit card.
- Cash — physical cash you want to track.
- If you chose Credit, a Statement Closing Day of Month field appears. Pick the day your card's statement closes (1–28). This drives the monthly cycles on the Spending and History tabs — see The credit-card closing day for why it matters.
- Click Create.
That's it — the account shows up in the sidebar immediately, grouped under Cash or Credit depending on its type.
What's next
A new account is empty. To make it useful:
- Add transactions. The fastest way is to import a CSV from your bank — see Importing transactions from a CSV. You can also type them in directly; see Adding, editing, and deleting transactions.
- Set up reminders for anything recurring — rent, paychecks, subscriptions. The cashflow forecast is built from reminders, so this is what makes LedgerBear earn its keep.
- Add categories (or let the first import prompt you to create them as you go). See How categories are organized.
About starting balances
LedgerBear doesn't have a separate "starting balance" field. The account balance is just the running sum of its transactions. If you want the current balance to match your bank, one common approach is to import enough history to reach a point where the balance would be zero (typically the account opening), or add a single Starting Balance transaction dated before your earliest import with the amount needed to make the running balance match.
Renaming or deleting an account
On the Accounts page, every row has an Edit (pencil) icon and a Delete (trash) icon in its Actions column. Editing lets you rename the account and — for credit cards — change the closing day. Deleting is permanent and wipes out every transaction, reminder, and rule tied to the account, so LedgerBear asks you to type the account name to confirm. See Deleting an account for the full warning.