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Transfers

Move money between your own accounts without double-counting it as income or an expense.

1. Overview

A transfer (the Move Money option in the Add menu) moves money from one account you own to another. It does not change your net worth because the money stays within your own financial ecosystem. It is excluded from your income and expense totals in Analytics and the Dashboard.

Common uses include:

  • Moving your month-end surplus from a salary account into a savings or investment account
  • Sweeping idle cash from a savings account into a mutual fund account
  • Moving physical cash into a bank account

2. Opening the Transfer Form

The Move Money form

Choose From and To (each shows its balance), then the amount and the date. Both balances update, and the move is not counted as spending. The button shows what it will do, for example Move ₹10,000. Open Add a note if you want to describe it. You need at least two accounts; with only one, the form says so and offers Add Account.

  • Desktop: Click Add in the top navbar, then select Move Money.
  • Mobile: Tap the + button in the bottom tab bar, then tap Move Money.

3. Filling the Form

Complete the following fields:

  1. Amount: The amount you are moving.
  2. Date: When the transfer happens. Defaults to today.
  3. From Account: The account money leaves.
  4. To Account: The account money arrives in.
  5. Description (optional): A short note such as "Monthly savings sweep".

Click Execute Transfer to save.

Allocating a transfer to funds

When the To Account is a Mutual Fund, Demat, ETF, SGB, ULIP or Gold account, an Allocate to funds section appears. Click Add fund for each fund the money went into, pick the fund (or New fund… and type its name), and enter the Amount and the Units you were allotted. The price per unit is worked out for you. For a mutual fund you can leave the Units empty: they are then worked out from the NAV, as described in Which NAV a Purchase Gets. A line under the rows shows how much is allocated and how much stays as cash.

  • The funds can add up to the transfer or to less; what you leave out stays as uninvested cash in the account.
  • Each row becomes a purchase on that fund's page (Holdings → the fund → Purchases), tied to this transfer, so you can always see how much of it went where. The transfer list shows the funds under the description.
  • It works for transfers between accounts in the same currency. You can add more rows later by editing the transfer. Deleting the transfer removes its purchases.
  • A transfer that has been allocated cannot be moved to another account, or reduced below the amount allocated, until you remove those purchases.

4. What Happens After a Transfer

The transfer debits the From Account and credits the To Account immediately. Both account balances update the moment you click Execute Transfer.

The list of transfers

All your transfers are listed under Accounts → Transfers (/transfers/), newest first, 20 to a page. The page has the same toolbar as the other lists:

  • Search matches the description and either account's name.
  • Time range (All time by default), Sort, and Filter by From Account, To Account and Amount. Click the Amount heading to sort by amount; transfers between accounts in different currencies are compared by their value in your own currency.
  • The line under the title shows how many transfers match and the total moved, in your currency. A transfer from a foreign-currency account shows its own amount with the converted value underneath.

The transfer also appears in the Transactions list at /transactions/ with a special transfer indicator. It does not appear in the Expenses or Income lists.

Rules a transfer follows

  • The amount must be greater than zero, and the two accounts must be different and both yours and active.
  • Different currencies: the amount is in the From Account's currency and is converted for the receiving account at the current exchange rate (Rs. 8,000 into a dollar account at 80 credits $100).
  • Credit cards can be the source: the balance simply goes further negative.
  • Locked accounts (over your plan's limit) cannot be used.
  • Double clicks are safe: the form carries a one-time key, so submitting twice creates one transfer.
  • Editing a transfer moves only the difference. Deleting it returns the money to the From Account and takes it back from the To Account.

Do not log a transfer as Expense and Income

A common mistake is logging the outflow as an expense from one account and the inflow as income to another. This double-counts the money in your Analytics, inflating both your total expense and total income figures by the transferred amount. Always use Add → Move Money instead.

5. Setting Up Recurring Transfers for SIPs

For automated monthly investments such as a Systematic Investment Plan (SIP), set up a recurring Transfer rather than logging separate manual records each month:

  1. Go to Add → Add Subscription.
  2. Set Transaction Type to TRANSFER.
  3. Set From Account to your bank account (for example, HDFC Salary).
  4. Set To Account to your investment account (for example, Mutual Funds).
  5. Set Frequency to Monthly and enter your SIP amount.
  6. Click Save Subscription.

Prefer a guided form?

The I started a SIP Flow does all of the above, and creates the investment account too, from one short form.

Every month, money automatically moves from your bank account balance into your Mutual Fund account's cash pool. Record which fund each instalment bought under Holdings and Portfolio: open the fund, choose Buy more, and pick the instalment in Paid by transfer.

Real-world use case

After checking the Trends page and finding that Rs. 80,000 has been sitting idle in his SBI Savings Account for three cycles, Arjun decides to sweep Rs. 25,000 into his Mutual Funds account each month. He sets up the transfer via Add → Move Money, From Account: SBI Savings, To Account: Mutual Funds, Amount: 25,000, and clicks Execute Transfer. His Accounts page immediately shows SBI balance down by Rs. 25,000 and Mutual Funds up by Rs. 25,000. His net worth is unchanged but his asset allocation is now working harder.

6. Investing, Maturity and Renewals

Money moved into an investment or deposit account (an FD, RD, PPF, mutual funds and so on) counts as invested. Money moved back out to a bank, cash or card account counts against it. A move between two investment accounts is neither. So Invested = money moved in, minus money taken out, and it shows on the Dashboard's Invested tile and in Analytics.

An FD that matures and is renewed is the common case. Here is what happens to the numbers:

Step What you do Effect on Invested
1 Move Money from ICICI Savings to FD 1: Rs. 1,00,000 +1,00,000
2 The FD matures. Add the interest as income (Rs. 10,000) on the FD account none (it is income, not investing)
3 Move Money from FD 1 back to ICICI Savings: Rs. 1,10,000 -1,10,000
4 Move Money from ICICI Savings to FD 2: Rs. 1,10,000 +1,10,000
Invested for the period Rs. 1,00,000

Only the Rs. 1,00,000 you actually put in counts. The renewal does not count as new money, and the Rs. 10,000 interest shows as income.

When an FD matures

Open the deposit's account page. When the maturity date is within a week, or has passed, a When it matures card lists the two steps, with a button for each:

  1. Add interest opens a new income entry for that account, with the source set to Investment Returns. Skip this step if the interest was paid straight into your bank account.
  2. Move Money opens the transfer form with the deposit as the From Account.

If you renew into a new FD, move the money to the new deposit. It does not count as new investing.

Move Money tells you what it will do

Under the To account, a short note appears when an investment account is involved: whether the move counts as money invested, lowers Invested, or is not counted at all.

If more was taken out of investments than put in during a period, Invested shows a negative amount, with the words "More taken out than put in".