Help
Short answers to the things people actually get stuck on, from one person who believes managing money well is part of stewarding it. If something here is wrong or missing, tell us — that is worth knowing.
Getting started
From an empty account to your first budget, in the order it actually happens.
- What Lamp & Ledger doesA budgeting and debt-payoff tool that reads your accounts. What it can do, and what it deliberately cannot.
- Connect your first bankHow a bank connection works, what arrives, and what to do when your institution is not listed.
- Your first syncWhat happens after you connect, why pending and cleared are kept apart, and what to do first.
- Build your first budgetStart from what you actually spent rather than a blank page, and what Budget, Income and Spending each show.
- Your daily briefThe morning email: what is in it, what is deliberately left out, and how to start or stop it.
Accounts
Your register and the accounts behind it: categories, splits, transfers, and syncing.
- Categories and rulesSort a merchant once and have it sorted next time, and what happens to history when you retire a category.
- Splitting a transactionOne receipt across several categories, without inventing fake transactions.
- Transfers between your own accountsWhy moving your own money is neither income nor spending, and how to pair the two sides so your ledger tells the truth.
- Keeping your data currentHow often your banks update on their own, and the three different reasons a connection stops working.
- Adding accounts and debts by handFor cash, an unsupported bank, or anything you would rather not connect. Everything works the same afterwards.
- Cards, loans and the payoff mathWhich cards and loans arrive on their own, which you enter yourself, and why the promo-rate fields matter.
Budget
Building a month, and what the numbers on it mean.
Goals
Payoff strategies, your Debt Payoff Goal, and the date on your dashboard.
Your data & security
What we hold, what we can see, and how to take it all back.
- What we hold about you, and how to take it backWhat's stored, what we can see, what you can export today, and how to delete everything yourself.
- Sharing your account with your SpouseInvite your Spouse to see your account with a sign-in of their own, choose Full Edit or Read Only, and change or end it any time.
Still stuck? Email info@lampandledger.com and say what you expected to happen. A real person reads it.