Accounts

Accounts represent where money lives (checking/savings) and where debt lives (credit cards). Alto uses account type to decide how balances move and what counts as “income” for Ready to Assign.

Account types

Checking
Primary spending account. Starting balance counts toward Ready to Assign.
Savings
Cash you still own, just parked. Starting balance counts toward Ready to Assign.
Credit card
Debt account. Starting balance does not count as income; it represents what you owe.

Manual vs Plaid-linked

  • Manual accounts: you maintain balances by entering transactions.
  • Plaid accounts: Alto can sync transactions and keep balances aligned with the institution.
  • Newly-linked Plaid accounts typically create a starting balance so Alto’s internal balance math matches Plaid’s “current balance”.

Starting balances

When you add an account with an initial balance, Alto creates a “Starting Balance” transaction and then updates the account balance using the same balance-change rules as any other transaction.

Cash accounts (checking/savings)
  • A positive starting balance is stored as an inflow.
  • Cash starting balances count toward Total Income (and therefore Ready to Assign).
Credit cards
  • A positive starting balance represents debt and is stored as an outflow.
  • Credit-card starting balances do not count as income.

Net worth calculation

The Accounts page shows a net worth-style number by treating credit card balances as liabilities (subtracted) and cash balances as assets (added).

Credit card settings

Credit card accounts can store additional metadata to help you manage your cards:

  • Payment due day (1–31): The day of the month when your payment is due. Used for sorting cards and surfacing what's due sooner.
  • Minimum payment: Your minimum required payment amount.
  • Credit limit: The total credit limit on the card. Helpful for tracking utilization.
  • Interest rate: The APR on the card. Useful for prioritizing which cards to pay down first.

Deleting accounts

When you delete an account, Alto carefully handles the data to keep your budget balanced. Here's what happens:

Transfer handling
  • Payments to the deleted account (e.g., credit card payments) are converted to regular outflows on the source account. This keeps your checking account balance accurate.
  • Transfers from the deleted account are converted to inflows on the destination account.
Category activity preservation
  • Categorized transactions are preserved (without an account) to maintain accurate category "available" amounts.
  • This prevents your category balances from incorrectly increasing when you delete an account with spending history.
Credit card specific
  • Credit card payment envelopes are deleted along with the card.
  • Any direct assignments to the card are removed from the budget.
Important note

Deleting an account is permanent. The account's starting balance and uncategorized transactions will be removed from your budget history. If the account had significant income or spending, your Ready to Assign may change after deletion.