The "Balance" Screen: Your Financial Command Center

This is where you'll interact most with your finances. The "Balance" screen lets you report income or expenses as they happen and always know your current financial standing.

What Should I Report in Themis Balance?

Themis Balance is designed to give you a clear view of your actual available funds – the money you can really spend or save. To keep this "weekly balance" accurate, you should aim to report any financial transaction, big or small, that affects this spendable amount. This includes:

• Expenses: Money going out of your household. This could be:
  • Cash purchases (like your morning coffee, a quick lunch, small market buys).
  • Credit card transactions (groceries, online shopping, gas, subscriptions, dinners out).
  • Debit card payments.
  • Online payments or bank transfers for goods or services.
• Income: Money coming into your household. This might be:
  • Salary payments.
  • Freelance income.
  • Cash gifts received.
  • Refunds for returned items.

Essentially, if money has moved, whether it's via cash, card, or any other mean, a quick update in Themis Balance ensures your shared financial picture stays clear. And remember our 'No Cents' philosophy - just round to the nearest whole number to keep things quick and simple!

Note that regular income or expenses (such as salary, rent or mortgage) can be automated during the onboarding screens or via the "Weekly Budget" screen.

As an example, let's say you and your friend grabbed coffee together but your friend forgot (or "forgot", we don't judge) their wallet at home, so you paid $60 cash for the both of you. Later that day, your friend made an eTransfer of $25 to your bank account. If you already got into the habit of reporting everything to Themis balance there should be a $-60 transaction (perhaps with a comment "to be refunded") and a $25 later. However, if you only remembered that in the evening you could add a transaction of $-35. Really up to you, just consider that detailed updates makes it easier to understand what happened later when you look at the "History" screen

The Benefit of Regular Updates

Keeping your balance regularly updated means Themis Balance can provide the most accurate reflection of your current financial flow. This allows you and your household to:

• Make more confident spending decisions.
• Gain clearer insights into your financial habits.
• Maintain a truly cohesive and synchronized financial view for everyone sharing the household.

Main Controls:

• Amount Input: A field where you enter the amount of your transaction.
• Comment (Optional but Recommended): A text field to add a note about the transaction (e.g., "Lunch with Sarah," "Gas fill-up"). This is super helpful for your History and Insights!
• Update Button: Tap this to send your reported income or expense to the server and update your balance.

Top Cards Carousel (Scroll Horizontally):

At the top, you'll see a carousel of three informative cards. You can swipe left or right to view each one, and each card can be flipped for more details.

• Card 1: Current Balance (Your Go-To View)
  • Front: Shows your current available balance in big, clear numbers.
  • Flip Side: Displays how much time is remaining until your next "Weekly Budget" update (when your balance gets adjusted by your regular income and expenses).
• Card 2: Recent Expenses
  • Front: Shows the total dollar amount of expenses you've reported in the last two days (specifically, since midnight yesterday).
  • Flip Side: Lists the specific expenses that make up that total.
• Card 3: Continuous Balance (An Advanced Perspective)

  This card offers a different, more dynamic way to view your financial status. Here's the idea: instead of your Weekly Budget amount arriving as a lump sum once a week (as reflected in Card 1), the Continuous Balance card *spreads that weekly budget evenly across every second of the week*. So, with every passing second, this balance very slightly increases.

  Why is this useful? It gives you an extremely precise, real-time understanding of your spending relative to your weekly flow. If Card 1 shows $100 left, that might be great if your weekly budget is about to hit, but concerning if it just did. The Continuous Balance helps normalize this by showing you a constantly adjusting "true" position.

  Important Note: This is an advanced concept! Many users find Card 1 (Current Balance) perfectly straightforward and sufficient for their needs. It's absolutely fine to primarily use the first card. The Continuous Balance is there if you want a more granular view, but don't feel pressured to use it if the first card makes more sense to you.

  Flip Side: If the continuous balance is negative, shows the estimated time when will it break even. Otherwise, it means you're doing great! it'll show an inspirational quote.

"More" Controls (For Less Common Updates):

Below the main input area, a "More" control reveals some advanced options:

• Expense / Income Toggle: By default, amounts you enter are treated as expenses (reducing your balance). Tap this toggle to switch to "Income" if the amount you're reporting should increase your balance.
• "Use Payment Plan" Switch: This is a powerful feature for managing large, unexpected expenses or windfalls without drastically skewing your immediate balance.
  • How it works: If you enable "Payment Plan" another input field appears asking for the number of weeks over which you want to spread the entered amount.
  • Impact: The amount you enter will not immediately change your main balance. Instead, Themis Balance divides it by the number of weeks you specified. This calculated weekly portion will then be added as an item on your "Weekly Budget" screen (see below), effectively adjusting your future weekly budget amounts.
  • Example: You have an unexpected $500 car repair. You can report it as a $500 Payment Plan and spread it over 5 weeks. Your immediate balance won't drop by $500. Instead, for the next 5 weeks, your weekly budget will be reduced by $100 (this plan will appear on the "Weekly Budget" screen). This helps you absorb the cost gradually. The same logic applies to a large income you want to spread out.
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