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Filtering In Actual

Introduction​

Filter is a little known tool in Actual but is really quite a powerhouse. Filters go well beyond the simple Search tool and will allow you to create all sorts of useful transaction summaries. This will help you view various aspects of your spending, extract data for tax filing and so on.

Caveats​

Inevitably, there are some restrictions but these offer a great opportunity for developers to improve Actual in the future:

  1. The filtered searches cannot be saved - so they need to be recreated each time you wish to use them.
  2. The only way to print the filtered results is via a screen shot (unless you save to a spreadsheet as a CSV file first)
  3. The columns of the filtered view cannot yet be sorted. But you can of course export the filtered results to a spreadsheet and play with them to your heart’s content.
  4. Split transactions do not behave well in the filtered view. The non-applicable part of the filtered results can end up getting added into the total.
  5. Filters are just one way of searching and viewing your data. There is still great scope for the future development of graphical style reports in Actual.

How to use the Filter tool​

Well, having got that out of the way please don’t let any of this put you off. Filters are a great tool – and there is lots more scope for further development.

note

Payees have been redacted in all images for privacy reasons

First go to the Accounts view. This is to be sure that you are picking up all relevant transactions, rather than those from just one Account or Credit Card.

Now select Filter. You will see from this drop-down that there are a number to choose from:

The great thing is that you are not limited to just one Filter. You can select multiple filters. In effect stacking one upon another. An example will help illustrate this.

There are further options to choose within each area, in order to narrow the Filter still further. Here are three just to illustrate the choices – Dates, Categories and Notes:

Example​

In this example we are finding out how much the Mercedes car cost to run during the 2021 calendar year. To enhance this analysis a Note of each vehicle owned was added to transactions in the “Car” category group. Adding such a note is made much easier by ensuring that the Note is added to each relevant scheduled (recurring) transaction. In this instance the Note was added using the tag symbol (#Merc) but the # is not needed. It is a personal preference. Alternatively, you could just be more granular in your creation of Categories.

Here is an image of the multiple filters that have been selected. In this example, these include a Date range, multiple Categories, and a Note.

Now we want to see the total spent on the Mercedes car in 2021. This is shown at the top centre of the following image.

But what if we need to drill down further and calculate just the costs were for servicing this particular car? By deselecting the non-applicable transactions a revised total appears as shown below. Alternatively just remove the non-applicable category filters.

Conclusion​

This is just one possible use case. The filters you personally create will be dictated by your own needs. There is lots of room here for personal creativity!