User Guide

First-Time Setup

When you first create an account, STEWARD walks you through a six-step onboarding flow:

1. Personal Information — email address, username, and country of residence
2. Password Setup — create a strong password meeting the security requirements
3. How did you hear about us — brief referral question
4. Spending Categories — select the categories that match your lifestyle (you can adjust these later)
5. Terms & Privacy Policy — review and accept before proceeding
6. Payment Setup — start your free trial and set up billing via our secure payment partner

Once onboarding is complete you land on the Dashboard, where you can create your first budget period, add income, and start tracking.

Navigation

STEWARD uses a collapsible sidebar on desktop and a bottom tab bar on mobile, with the following sections:

• Dashboard — financial overview and recent activity
• Income — manage income sources and balance
• Breakdown — allocate budget across categories
• Transactions — view and manage all transactions
• Accounts — track your financial accounts
• Budgets — manage budget periods
• Reports — spending analytics and trends

The profile button (bottom-left on desktop, More menu on mobile) gives access to Settings, Manage Categories, User Guide, Contact Us, theme toggle, and Export Data.

Overview Cards

Four cards at the top summarise your current budget period:

• Total Income — sum of all income sources for the period
• Balance — income minus total spending
• Available to Allocate — income not yet assigned to any category
• Days Remaining — days left in the active budget period

Budget Period Selector

The dropdown at the top of the page lets you switch between budget periods. All dashboard figures, spending summaries, and recent transactions reflect whichever period is selected.

Click the edit icon beside the period name to open Budget Management.

Spending by Category

The main panel shows a per-category breakdown: how much was allocated versus how much was spent, and the remaining balance. Categories that have exceeded their allocation are highlighted in red.

Alerts

STEWARD surfaces alerts at the top of the dashboard when action is needed:

• No Budget Period Found — prompts you to create your first budget
• Budget Unbalanced — total allocations exceed total income
• Overspending Detected — spending has exceeded an allocation in one or more categories

Recent Transactions

The right panel shows your most recent transactions for the active period, with a View all link to the full Transactions page. Use the Record Transaction button to log a new expense or income item.

Adding Income Sources

1. Go to the Income page
2. Click Add Source
3. Enter the source name and amount
4. Save — the period total updates immediately

Sources you add here apply to the active budget period only. For amounts that repeat every period, use Recurring Income instead.

Recurring Income

Recurring income sources are automatically carried into every new budget period, saving you from re-entering them each time.

1. Click Manage Recurring on the Income page
2. Click Add Recurring Source and enter a name and amount (e.g. "Monthly Salary")
3. When you create a new budget period, these sources are pre-populated automatically

Recurring sources are marked with a icon next to the source name on the Income page, so you can easily tell them apart from one-off sources.

You can still add or adjust one-off sources for any individual period without affecting the recurring templates.

Balance Management

The Balance Management panel on the right shows:

• Balance Brought Forward — an optional opening balance you can carry in from a previous period
• Available Balance — total income plus balance brought forward

Click Save Balance to persist a brought-forward amount, or Recalculate Total to resync the income total from your income sources if you notice a discrepancy.

Import from Sub-periods

If your active period is longer than 28 days (e.g. quarterly or yearly), an Import from Sub-periods button appears. This copies income from any overlapping shorter periods, so you don't need to re-enter it manually for a broader budget view.

Budget Period Types

STEWARD supports four period types:

• Monthly — e.g. January 2025
• Quarterly — e.g. Q1 2025
• Yearly — e.g. 2025
• Custom — any start and end dates you choose

Only one period can be active at a time. All dashboard figures and category summaries reflect the active period.

Creating a Budget Period

1. Go to the Budgets page
2. Click Create Budget — a form appears inline
3. Enter a name, choose the period type, and set start and end dates
4. Click Create Budget Period to save

For standard period types, dates and names are auto-suggested based on your existing periods.

Managing Periods

• Activate — makes this the active period; all other periods become inactive
• Edit — update the name, dates, or type
• Delete — removes the period and all its associated allocations

Transaction Attribution

Transactions appear in every period whose date range contains the transaction date. A March expense will show in both a March monthly period and a Q1 quarterly period — each with their own independent allocations and spending totals.

Allocating Income

The Breakdown page is where you distribute your income across spending categories:

1. Go to the Breakdown page
2. Enter an allocation amount next to each subcategory
3. A sticky bar at the top shows how much of your income is still available to allocate
4. Allocations save automatically as you type

Category Management

Categories and subcategories can be managed directly from the Breakdown page, or via Profile → Manage Categories:

• Click Add New Category to create a top-level category
• Each category card has an option to add subcategories within it
• Use the edit and delete icons on any category or subcategory to modify or remove it

Recurring Allocations

Set default allocation amounts per subcategory that carry over to every new budget period automatically.

1. Click Manage Recurring Allocations on the Breakdown page
2. Click Add Recurring Allocation
3. Select a subcategory, enter the amount, and choose a period type (Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly, or Custom)
4. New periods of that type will be pre-populated with the allocation

Subcategories with a recurring allocation are marked with a icon on the Breakdown page, so you can see at a glance which allocations are automatic.

Recording a Transaction

1. Click Record Transaction on the Transactions page or Dashboard
2. Enter:
   • Amount — positive number
   • Date — defaults to today
   • Merchant — where you spent
   • Category & Subcategory — from your budget categories
   • Comment — optional notes
3. Save

Searching & Filtering

The filter bar at the top of the transaction table provides:

• Search — filters by merchant, comment, category, or subcategory
• Category dropdown — show only one category
• Unassigned button — quickly find transactions with no category assigned
• Clear button — reset all active filters

Sorting

Click any column header to sort the table. Click again to reverse the order.

• Date (default: newest first)
• Merchant
• Category
• Subcategory
• Amount

Bulk Reassign

When the Unassigned filter is active, a bulk-reassign panel appears above the table. Select a subcategory from the dropdown and click Reassign all visible to assign every unassigned transaction currently shown to that subcategory in one step.

Editing & Deleting

Click the edit icon on any row to update the transaction's amount, date, merchant, category, subcategory, or comment. Click the delete icon to permanently remove the transaction.

The Import Flow

Importing follows a four-step wizard:

1. Upload — select your CSV file
2. Map Columns — tell STEWARD which column is Date, Merchant, and Amount
3. Review — categorise transactions before import
4. Confirm — finalise and import

If you leave and return mid-import, a banner will offer to Resume your draft or Discard it.

Step 1 — Upload

Drag and drop a CSV file onto the upload zone, or click Choose File to browse. Once a file is loaded, STEWARD shows the filename and row count.

Optionally select a saved Bank Profile to auto-apply a previously saved column mapping before proceeding.

Step 2 — Map Columns

Match your CSV's columns to the required fields:

• Date Column and Date Format — choose from a list of common formats (e.g. DD/MM/YYYY, YYYY-MM-DD, etc.)
• Merchant / Description Column
• Amount Type — either a single signed column or separate Money Out / Money In columns

Tick Save this mapping as a bank profile and give it a name to reuse these settings next time.

Step 3 — Review

Parsed rows are split into two tabs: Expenses and Income.

On the Expenses tab:

• Assign a subcategory to each row individually, or use the keyword filter + Assign to bulk-assign matching rows at once
• A progress bar shows how many transactions have been resolved
• Resolve all assigned marks all categorised rows as ready
• Edit or delete individual rows before committing

On the Income tab, each row will be added as an income source to your active budget period.

Step 4 — Confirm

A summary shows how many transactions are ready to import and how many will be skipped (no category assigned). Click Import Transactions to finalise.

Transactions without a category are still imported — you can assign them later using the Unassigned filter on the Transactions page.

Categorisation Rules

Rules automatically assign a subcategory to any imported transaction whose description contains a matching keyword — so future imports arrive pre-categorised.

1. Go to Import → Categorisation Rules
2. Click Add Rule, enter a keyword (e.g. "WOOLWORTHS"), and choose a subcategory
3. On every subsequent import, matching descriptions are assigned automatically
4. Longer, more specific keywords take priority over shorter ones

You can also save a rule directly from the Review step — after a bulk keyword-assign, STEWARD will prompt you to save it as a rule.

Date Range

Select a reporting range using the pills at the top of the page:

• 3M — last 3 months
• 6M — last 6 months
• 12M — last 12 months (default)
• YTD — year to date
• All — all recorded history

All charts and KPI cards update when you change the range.

KPI Cards

Four summary cards sit below the range selector:

• Total Spent — total spending over the selected range
• Monthly Average — average spend per month
• Peak Month / Peak Year — the period with the highest spending (label changes to Year when viewing All)
• vs Prior Month / vs Prior Year — percentage change compared to the previous equivalent period (label changes for All range)

Spending Trend Chart

Shows how your spending has moved over time. Use the toggle to switch views:

• Total — a bar chart of overall spending per period
• By Category — a line chart with a separate line per category; click the legend checkboxes to show or hide individual categories

Spending by Category

A donut chart showing the proportional breakdown of your spending across categories. The legend lists each category with its total amount and percentage share of overall spending.

Top Merchants

A ranked table of your most-frequented merchants, showing transaction count, total spend, and a share bar. Use the Last 3 / 6 / 12 months dropdown in the card header to change the look-back window independently of the main range selector.

Adding an Account

1. Go to the Accounts page
2. Click Add Account
3. Enter the account name, type, bank/institution, last 4 digits of the account number, and current balance
4. Click Save & Close

Supported account types: Checking, Savings, Credit Card, Investment, Cash, Other.

Updating Balances

Each account row shows the current balance. Click the edit (pencil) icon next to the balance to edit it inline — press Enter or click away to save, or Esc to cancel. This lets you quickly reconcile without opening the full edit modal.

Balance Summary

The Balance Summary card shows:

• Total Accounts Balance — sum of all account balances you've entered
• Application Balance — calculated from your recorded transactions
• Misalignment — the difference between the two

The card shows Aligned or Misaligned. A misalignment typically means there are bank transactions not yet recorded in STEWARD — use Import to close the gap.

Account Settings

• Display Name — change how your name appears on the dashboard greeting (leave blank to use your first name)
• Password — update your password; STEWARD enforces a minimum of 12 characters with mixed case, numbers, and symbols. A live strength indicator guides you as you type.

Application Settings

• Currency — choose from 20+ currencies including ZAR, USD, EUR, GBP, and others. All monetary values across the app update immediately.
• Theme — switch between Light and Dark mode directly from this card, or from the profile menu in the sidebar.

Subscription & Billing

View your current plan status, trial days remaining, and next billing date. From here you can upgrade your subscription, view payment history, or manage your plan (pause, cancel, or resume).

Data Management

• Export Data — download your financial data (also accessible from the profile menu)
• Reset All Data — clears all budget periods, transactions, income sources, and categories. Your account credentials and settings are preserved. Type RESET to confirm.
• Delete Account — permanently removes your account and all associated data. Type the full confirmation phrase and enter your password to proceed.

Budgeting Principles

• 50/30/20 rule — 50% needs, 30% wants, 20% savings
• Always budget savings as a category first, not an afterthought
• Leave a small buffer allocation for unexpected expenses
• Review category overspending weekly so you can course-correct in-period

Transaction Hygiene

• Reconcile your accounts with bank statements at least monthly
• Use the Unassigned filter regularly to catch uncategorised transactions
• Add a comment to transactions where the merchant name alone isn't descriptive enough