---
title: Reports
description: The Reports tab visualizes your budget several ways. Project
  account balances, see cash in versus cash out, break spending down by
  category, and skim the bills that aren't resolved yet.
subtitle: A few views of the same data, for the questions you ask each week.
sidebar:
  order: 40
  section: Day to day
canonical_html_url: https://eb.app/learn/reports/
---

# Reports

The Reports tab is one of four tabs at the bottom of every budget, alongside Setup, Planner, and History. It is the visualizations side of your budget: a small set of charts that take the same underlying data (your items, events, transactions, and resolved history) and show it from different angles.

Open it when the Planner's row-by-row layout doesn't answer the question you came with. "Will my checking account stay positive through the end of the year?" "Where did most of my money go this month?" "Did I forget any bills due this week?" Each report is built around one of those questions.

The Reports tab is open to everyone, on every plan. There are no Premium-only charts and no Premium-only settings. The one Reports affordance that interacts with your subscription is the **Match** button, covered under [Matching from Reports](#matching-from-reports).

## Picking a report

Tap **Select Report** at the top-left of the toolbar. The picker lists five reports.

<!-- SCREENSHOT: Reports tab with the Select Report picker open. Five rows: Account Balances, All Expenses by Category, Unresolved Expenses, and Cash Flow Analysis with two indented children (Bar Chart and Flow Diagram). The picker lives in a modal titled Select Report. -->

The chart you pick is remembered, so the next time you open Reports it lands on whichever one you used last.

### Account Balances

A multi-line chart showing each account's projected balance through your forecast period. Each line starts at today's balance and steps forward through every scheduled income and expense event on that account.

This report is **forward-looking only**. It does not include resolved history; it answers "is my account going to dip below zero before the next paycheck?" rather than "what was my balance last month?"

> **Why this default? Account Balances does not include past transactions.** It is a projection: today's balance, plus whatever you have scheduled, day by day, out through your forecast period. Mixing already-happened transactions back in would muddy the projection (your balance moves when transactions land, not when an event is scheduled). For the historical view, use Cash Flow Analysis or All Expenses by Category, which both fold in resolved events.

### All Expenses by Category

A hierarchical sunburst (a circular chart, sometimes called a Sunburst). The center is the period's total expenses; the inner ring is your top-level expense categories; the outer rings are sub-categories and the items within them. Tap a slice to select it; tap deeper to drill in.

This report includes both resolved and upcoming events for the period, so it shows where your spending is committed across the period, not only what has already landed. Only expenses appear here; income lives on Cash Flow Analysis.

### Unresolved Expenses

A horizontal bar chart of expense events that aren't resolved yet. Each bar is one upcoming bill, sorted with the most urgent at the top. Bar color signals urgency: red for overdue, yellow for due soon, blue for within the next week, green for further out. The amount and the due date appear on the bar.

This is the report to skim when you're worried you forgot something.

<!-- SCREENSHOT: Unresolved Expenses view. About six horizontal bars stacked top to bottom, sorted by due date. Top bar is red and labeled with an overdue date; the next two are yellow with dates within the next week; the bottom bars are green with dates further out. The amount appears on each bar. -->

> **Why this default? Bar color is by urgency, not by category.** Account Balances and Cash Flow Analysis already let you see things by category and by account. Unresolved Expenses is the "what needs my attention right now" view, so the colors map to "how soon does this fall due" instead of repeating category encoding. The active theme's status colors (success, warning, info, danger) drive the bars; changing the palette in your theme does not change them.

### Cash Flow Analysis

Cash Flow Analysis covers two layouts of the same idea: money in versus money out. Open the parent in the picker and pick a child layout.

- **Bar Chart.** Income and expenses for each period as paired bars, with an optional trend line for net cash flow (income minus expenses).
- **Flow Diagram.** A Sankey diagram showing money flowing from income sources, into your accounts, then out to your categories and items. The width of each flow shows how much money is moving.

The Bar Chart answers "am I net positive this period?" The Flow Diagram answers "where does the bulk of my paycheck go?"

Both layouts include resolved events alongside upcoming ones. Resolved events appear with a diagonal stripe pattern over the normal color, so you can tell at a glance what has already happened from what is still ahead.

## The time period and the date-range navigator

Most reports cover a window of time. The center of the toolbar shows the date range with arrows on either side. Tap the date range to switch the time period: **Weekly**, **Pay Period**, **Monthly**, **Quarterly**, or **Yearly**. The arrows move forward or back one period; the calendar icon between them returns you to the period that contains today. Pay Period is the default.

The period you pick is shared across reports. If you set Pay Period on Cash Flow Analysis, Account Balances stays on Pay Period when you switch to it.

> **Why this default? The time period is shared across reports.** Once you have a working view of "this period," you usually want to compare the same period across the different angles. Forcing each report to remember its own period would make switching reports a small fight every time.

Three reports support navigating into the past: **Cash Flow Analysis (Bar Chart and Flow Diagram)** and **All Expenses by Category**. They merge resolved events from your history into the period you are viewing. The other two (**Account Balances** and **Unresolved Expenses**) stay forward-looking; if you switch to one of them while viewing a past period, the view jumps back to the current period.

How far back can you go? Five years, measured from January 1 of the current year. The cap is the same for every plan; history retention is also five years for everyone (see [Subscription](https://eb.app/learn/subscription.md#what-is-included-free)).

## The forecast period

Next to the report picker is the **Forecast Period** button. It controls how far ahead Reports calculates events and balances, in years. Five options: **1 Year**, **2 Years**, **3 Years**, **4 Years**, **5 Years**. The default is 1 Year.

The forecast cap extends through December 31 of (current year plus your chosen number of years). At "5 Years" in early May 2026, the chart projects through December 31, 2031. A shorter period makes the page faster to render; a longer period gives you more runway for long-horizon planning.

Forecast Period is shared with the Planner; changing it in one place changes it in the other. See [Planner](https://eb.app/learn/planner.md#forecast-period-how-far-ahead-the-planner-reaches) for the full picture of how the forecast horizon affects scheduled-event generation.

## Selecting and editing from the chart

In Cash Flow Analysis, All Expenses by Category, and Unresolved Expenses, a single tap on a chart element selects it. Once something is selected, the right-side toolbar lights up with **Add Item**, **Mark Event as Paid**, **Resolve Event**, **Edit**, and **Delete**. The Edit and Delete labels follow the selected type (for example, "Edit category" or "Delete item"). For a resolved event, all four actions show **Cannot modify resolved event**; to change a resolved event, undo it first from the History tab.

Double-tap a chart element to open it for editing. For an upcoming event, double-tap opens the **Edit Item Event** dialog. For a category, account, or item, double-tap opens its edit dialog. For a resolved event, double-tap opens the **Event History** view, which is read-only.

> **Why this default? Double-tap goes straight to edit.** If you noticed something in a chart that looked off, the next thing you usually want is to do something about it. Single-tap is the safe default (it only selects); double-tap is the deliberate "open this" gesture.

If you tap **Resolve Event** on a tracked event with no transactions yet, you'll see the same **No Transactions Recorded** confirmation the Planner uses, with **Add Transaction** and **Resolve Anyway** buttons. See [Matching and resolving](https://eb.app/learn/matching-and-resolving.md#the-three-paths-from-scheduled-to-resolved) for the rules.

## How resolved events appear

On Cash Flow Analysis (Bar Chart and Flow Diagram) and All Expenses by Category, resolved events are drawn with a diagonal stripe pattern over the normal color. The legend shows a small `{N} resolved` count for the period when there are any. The amount used for a resolved event is the actual amount it resolved at: the sum of its matched transactions, or the planned amount when it was resolved without transactions.

For more on how events end up resolved, see [Matching and resolving](https://eb.app/learn/matching-and-resolving.md) and [History and Undo](https://eb.app/learn/history-and-undo.md).

## Aggregated View on yearly and quarterly

On Cash Flow Analysis (Bar Chart) at the **Yearly** or **Quarterly** period, each bar represents the period's total rather than individual transactions. There are too many transactions in a year or quarter to draw each one as its own segment.

If you double-tap a bar at one of these wide periods, an **Aggregated View** modal opens to explain the choice and prompts you to switch to a shorter period (Weekly, Pay Period, or Monthly) to interact with individual events.

The Sankey Flow Diagram disables the deepest depth controls (Show items, Show individual events) at Yearly and Quarterly for the same reason; the chart settings dialog labels them "Disabled for quarterly and yearly chart views."

## Per-chart settings

The gear icon on the toolbar opens **Chart Settings** for the active report. The settings are different for each report; they are remembered locally per user, so the next time you open the chart the toggles are where you left them. Sharing a budget does not share chart settings; each collaborator has their own.

- **Account Balances.** Hide or show specific accounts. Includes a zoom control.
- **All Expenses by Category.** Hide or show specific accounts; choose which depth levels render (categories, sub-categories, items, individual events); zoom; reset to defaults.
- **Unresolved Expenses.** Toggle **Show Transaction Tracked Events** to include or exclude items where you record each purchase. Toggle **Normalize bar heights (recommended)** to compress large outliers so smaller bills stay visible. Hide or show specific accounts.
- **Cash Flow Analysis - Bar Chart.** Toggle the trend line; toggle bar-height normalization with the same recommended-on default; hide or show specific accounts.

### Flow Diagram (Sankey) settings

The Flow Diagram has the most controls of any report. The settings dialog groups them into General, Accounts, Income, and Expenses.

- **General.** Toggle inner labels, amounts, and percentages on the diagram itself. With percentages on, a slider controls how many decimal places to show. Three layout sliders adjust **Node Spacing**, **Node Width**, and **Column Spacing**. Zoom controls live here; on desktop you can also Ctrl-scroll (or Cmd-scroll on Mac), and on mobile pinch with two fingers.
- **Accounts.** A master **Show account level** toggle that controls whether the diagram has an account column at all, plus per-account **Data Filters** to hide individual accounts.
- **Income** and **Expenses.** Each has its own depth toggles: **Show categories**, **Show subcategories**, **Show items**, **Show individual events**. With individual events on, **Include event name** controls whether each event's label appears on the flow.

The depth toggles for **Show items** and **Show individual events** are disabled at Yearly and Quarterly periods; switch to a shorter period to enable them.

## Matching from Reports

The **Match** button on the right side of the toolbar opens the **Match Transactions** dialog, the same dialog the Planner's Match button opens. From Reports it opens in **Compare Budget** mode by default, the analysis mode that compares your bank activity to your budget without pairing transactions to events. You can switch modes from inside the dialog. See [Matching and resolving](https://eb.app/learn/matching-and-resolving.md) for the full flow.

If your budget is linked to a bank and you are no longer on Premium, the Match button is hidden, since bank-linked budgets cannot be updated by file upload and bank pulls require Premium. On a non-Plaid budget the Match button stays available; free editors see it in a disabled state if they are not the budget's owner.

## Getting your data out

The **Export to Excel or CSV** button is not on the Reports toolbar. It lives on the [Planner](https://eb.app/learn/planner.md#reordering-hiding-exporting) (for your full planner view) and on [History and Undo](https://eb.app/learn/history-and-undo.md) (for your resolved and deleted events). Either tab opens the same **Export** dialog with two options: **Export to Excel** (an `.xlsx` file with formatted columns and grouping) and **Export to CSV** (a plain comma-separated file). The export captures the columns you have visible, so what's on screen is what comes out.

If you want everything (accounts, categories, items, balances) in one go, that is the full-budget Backup flow, on the Budgets list. See [Your Account](https://eb.app/learn/account.md#backing-up-a-budget).

## What changes if Premium ends

The Reports tab itself keeps working in full when Premium ends: every chart, every period, the gear settings, the Forecast Period control, double-tap to edit, and the per-account hide toggles all stay available. Your existing accounts, categories, items, transactions, and history are untouched, and the same five-year history retention applies.

The one Reports affordance that changes is the **Match** button. On a bank-linked budget, the button is hidden after Premium ends (because bank pulls require Premium and file upload is intentionally blocked on linked budgets). On a non-bank-linked budget, the button stays visible and free editors keep using it the same way they did before.

See [Subscription](https://eb.app/learn/subscription.md#when-premium-ends) for the full list of what changes when Premium ends.

## Quick reference

| If you want to... | Open this report |
|---|---|
| Watch an account's balance over the next weeks or months | Account Balances |
| See where most of your spending goes by category | All Expenses by Category |
| Skim upcoming bills you might forget | Unresolved Expenses |
| Compare income and spending period by period | Cash Flow Analysis (Bar Chart) |
| See where your paycheck flows | Cash Flow Analysis (Flow Diagram) |
| Edit something you noticed on a chart | Double-tap into it; the editor opens |
| Hide accounts or change which levels show | The gear icon (Chart Settings) |
| Match transactions from a bank file | The Match button on the toolbar |
| Save a copy to Excel or CSV | Open the Planner or History tab and use Export to Excel or CSV |

## Behind the scenes

A few notes on what the app does behind the user-facing flow, for the curious.

**Where chart colors come from.** The chart picks its colors from the active theme in two ways. On **All Expenses by Category** (the sunburst), the segments cycle through the theme's palette in order; this is why the palette setting on a theme matters most for that chart. On **Cash Flow Analysis** (Bar Chart and Flow Diagram), the income segments use the theme's success color and the expense segments use the theme's danger color; the net trend line uses one of the palette colors as an accent, and the legend chips for accounts use the first few palette colors. On **Unresolved Expenses**, every bar's color comes from the theme's status colors keyed to urgency (success / info / warning / danger), not from the palette. On **Account Balances**, each account's line is assigned a palette color. So if you change a theme and the bars on Cash Flow Analysis don't change color, that's expected: those bars are tied to the success / danger semantics of the theme, not its palette. See [Themes and Icons](https://eb.app/learn/themes.md) for editing both.

**What the forecast actually projects.** The Account Balances chart starts at each account's current balance and steps forward through every scheduled event on that account. It does not model historical variance, and it does not "learn" from how often you go over budget; it projects your scheduled items at the amounts you set. For tracking items where you record each purchase, the chart projects the higher of the planned amount or the running total of transactions you have already recorded for that period. As real transactions land and you resolve events, the projection narrows toward your actual balance.

**How the date filter on aggregated periods works.** On Yearly and Quarterly periods, each bar on Cash Flow Analysis sums every event whose pay date falls inside the period. Income (categories typed Income) and Expense (Expense) are summed separately. Transfers (Transfer) are excluded; deleted events are excluded. Resolved events use the actual amount they resolved at; unresolved tracking events use whichever is higher of the planned amount or the recorded total.

**Why the forecast cap is calendar-bound.** Picking "5 Years" extends through December 31 of the year five years from this one. So if you pick "5 Years" in January, you get nearly six full years of runway; if you pick it in late December, you get almost exactly five. The cap is rounded to year-end so the chart's right edge always lines up with a calendar boundary.

## Related pages

- [Planner](https://eb.app/learn/planner.md): the source of the events Reports visualizes, where most editing happens day to day, and where the Forecast Period button is shared from. The Planner toolbar is also where Export to Excel or CSV lives.
- [Matching and resolving](https://eb.app/learn/matching-and-resolving.md): how an upcoming event becomes a resolved one, what Compare Budget mode does, and why the Match button can be hidden on bank-linked budgets.
- [History and Undo](https://eb.app/learn/history-and-undo.md): how resolved events are stored, how to undo a resolve, and where to export your resolved history to Excel or CSV.
- [Themes and Icons](https://eb.app/learn/themes.md): editing the palette and the status colors that drive chart colors.
- [Subscription](https://eb.app/learn/subscription.md): what is free, what is Premium, and what changes on the Reports tab when Premium ends (only the Match button on bank-linked budgets).
- [Items](https://eb.app/learn/items.md): the **Transaction Tracking** toggle that the Unresolved Expenses settings refer to.

---

## About this document

This is a markdown mirror of [https://eb.app/learn/reports/](https://eb.app/learn/reports/).
The HTML version is the canonical form. This file exists so AI/LLM
tools can ingest the content without HTML parsing.
