Questions, how-tos, and how to reach us.

✉ Contact Support

Email support@gxsanchez.com for anything not answered below — a bug, a billing question, help recovering data, or feedback. Include your device type and MomBooks version (Settings → About MomBooks) if you're reporting a problem.

01 Adding a Transaction: Form vs. CLI

MomBooks has two ways to record a transaction — use whichever fits the moment.

Form Quick Entry is a guided form: pick a date, payee, and one or more account/amount splits from pickers. Best when you want autocomplete and don't want to remember account names.

CLI Quick Entry is a raw plain-text editor with live syntax highlighting, for typing PTA-format transactions directly (the same syntax used by ledger/hledger/beancount). Best for fast, keyboard-only entry once you know your account names.

Both create the exact same kind of transaction under the hood — pick one per entry, not per preference forever.

02 Understanding Splits

Every MomBooks transaction is double-entry: it has two or more "postings" (account + amount pairs) that must balance to zero per commodity — that's the Rule of Zero.

You can leave one posting's amount blank ("elided") and MomBooks fills it in automatically as the negative sum of the others. This is why a simple coffee purchase only needs one amount: Assets:Checking −$5.75, Expenses:Food:Coffee (elided → auto-filled as $5.75).

A transaction can have more than two postings — a paycheck might split into gross pay, federal tax, state tax, 401(k), and net deposit, all in one transaction, as long as they all balance to zero together.

Split Templates (Settings → Manage Split Templates) save a reusable set of accounts for a recurring multi-line transaction, so you don't re-pick the same accounts every payday.

03 Importing Bank Statements & Ledger Files

Import / Export Center accepts plain-text .ledger/.beancount files, OFX/QFX bank downloads (Pro), and CSV exports with a visual column mapper (Pro).

Imported transactions land in a reconciliation queue first — nothing is added to your ledger until you review it there, so duplicates and mis-mapped columns get caught before they touch your real data.

04 Creating, Editing & Deleting Accounts

Go to Accounts, then tap the + button for a single account, or Generate Chart of Accounts... to add a starter set (Personal, Rental Property, or Small Business profiles — you can combine more than one). Tap any account to edit its name, category, default commodity, or — for business/1099 accounts — its routing number, TIN, and 1099 box classification.

To delete an account, swipe it or use its detail view. If it's never been used in a transaction, it's removed immediately. If it has transactions, you'll choose between reassigning them to a different account first, or permanently deleting the account and every transaction on it. The second option is irreversible — there is no undo, though the Audit Log records what happened.

05 Managing or Canceling MomBooks Pro

Tap Manage next to your subscription in Settings to see plans, or Restore Purchases if you're re-installing on a new device with an existing subscription.

To actually cancel a subscription, use your device's own Settings → [your name] → Subscriptions (or the Mac App Store's account page) — that's Apple's standard subscription management; MomBooks can't cancel it for you directly. A Lifetime purchase has nothing to cancel; it's a one-time unlock.

If you cancel, nothing is deleted. Your accounts, transactions, splits, and reports data all stay exactly as they were. Pro-only screens show an unlock prompt instead of your data until you resubscribe — the data underneath is untouched and reappears immediately if you resubscribe or restore purchases. If iCloud sync was on, it's automatically turned off when a subscription lapses — but see below for what that means for data already in iCloud.

06 iCloud Sync & Backups

iCloud Sync (Pro, Settings → iCloud Sync) mirrors your ledger across your own signed-in devices via your personal iCloud account — the developer never sees this data. Toggling it on or off only takes effect the next time you fully quit and reopen MomBooks, on every device you want included.

It is not a dedicated backup feature. If you want a durable, exportable backup you control, use Import / Export Center → Export to Plain Text periodically — that file is human-readable and works as a real backup independent of iCloud or MomBooks itself.

07 Deleting All Your Data

In the app: Settings → Database & Sample Data → Reset Entire Ledger Database. This permanently deletes every transaction, account, budget, split template, commodity price, and receipt attachment — across every book — from local storage. It cannot be undone.

If iCloud Sync is on when you reset, the deletion syncs too — MomBooks deletes each record individually rather than just erasing the local file, which is what tells iCloud to remove it from your other devices and your private iCloud storage as well.

If iCloud Sync is off when you reset — including if your Pro subscription lapsed, which turns sync off automatically — only the local copy is cleared. Anything already uploaded to iCloud from an earlier sync stays in your private iCloud storage, using up space, with no way for MomBooks to reach it while sync is off.

To remove old iCloud data MomBooks can no longer reach — for example after canceling Pro — use Apple's own storage manager, not the app: Settings → [your name] → iCloud → Manage Account Storage → MomBooks → Delete Data. This works regardless of your subscription status and doesn't require reinstalling or resubscribing.

Uninstalling the app removes the local database file entirely, same as Reset, but doesn't touch anything already in your iCloud account — use the Manage Account Storage path above for that.

08 Face ID, Touch ID & PIN Lock

Settings → Security & Privacy Lock lets you require biometrics and/or a PIN to open MomBooks, set an auto-lock delay, and hide your balances in the app switcher.

If you forget your PIN, there is no recovery code — remove the PIN requirement from Settings while still unlocked, or reinstall the app (which resets local settings but does not touch data already synced to iCloud).

09 More Questions

The FAQ on the main site covers privacy, pricing, and file-format questions. For anything else, email support@gxsanchez.com — a real person reads and replies to every message.