Tracking projects

Projects let you track spending across categories for a specific purpose — a holiday, a kitchen renovation, Christmas, a wedding. While categories answer "what type of spending was this?" (groceries, transport, entertainment), projects answer "what was it for?" (Italy 2026, the new kitchen). A transaction always has one category, and can belong to at most one project.

Projects are a lens over your existing data. They never affect your financial health score, your reports, or your budgets — they exist purely so you can see what something really cost.

How it works

Creating a project

1. Open Projects from the menu and tap "Add a project."
2. Give it a name (up to 80 characters). Budget and date range are optional.
3. Tap "Start project."

The date range is purely descriptive — it never restricts which transactions you can tag. If you set both a start and end date, you'll get an optional "Within project dates" filter when adding transactions.

You can also create a project straight from any transaction's detail page: tap the Project row, then "New project." The transaction is assigned automatically; start and end dates can be added later from the project page.

Adding transactions

Two routes:

• From a transaction — open its detail page, tap the Project row, and pick a project. Active projects appear first, archived ones below.
• In bulk — from the project page, tap "Add transactions." A full-screen search opens with an "untagged only" filter (on by default) and merchant search. It shows all your transactions by default, which is handy when you start a project after the spending has already happened. Select individually or all at once, then confirm.

A brand-new project shows "No transactions yet — Add some" on its hero card, linking straight to the bulk-add screen.

Tracking against a budget

If you set a budget, the project shows a progress bar: teal under 90%, amber between 90% and 100%, red when you've gone over. Going over blocks nothing — keel is informational, not restrictive.

All tagged transactions count toward the budget regardless of when they happened. If you tag a deposit paid before the project started, it counts.

Editing

From the project page, click the name to rename it in place, or click the budget pill to change the amount — Enter saves, Escape cancels. No budget yet? Click "Set a budget." Archived projects are read-only; reopen first to edit.

Archiving and the retrospective

When a project is finished, archive it. The page transforms into a read-only retrospective view with an AI-written summary — total cost, biggest spending categories, and how you compared to budget — plus the category breakdown, timeline, and full transaction list.

The retrospective also appears as a dashboard card for 30 days after archiving (dismissible early).

You can still tag late transactions to an archived project without reopening it — assign them from the transaction's detail page, and a "Regenerate summary" link appears on the project so the retrospective can catch up. Reopening a project clears the retrospective; a fresh one is generated when you archive again.

Deleting

Deleting permanently removes the project. Your transactions keep all their data — categories, amounts, dates — but lose their project assignment. This can't be undone. If you just want to finish a project, archive it instead.

Why it works this way

• One project per transaction keeps the model simple. If a lunch was both "holiday" and "client dinner," pick the more relevant one.
• The budget counts everything you tag, rather than only transactions inside a date window. You decide what belongs to the project; keel doesn't second-guess you.
• No automatic suggestions. keel doesn't try to guess which transactions belong to a project — guesses would be wrong often enough to be annoying. Bulk tagging with search and filters covers the job.

Good to know

• Empty projects archive fine — you'll just get a simple "had no tracked spending" summary.
• Projects are shared. They belong to your household, not to one person. Every member can see, edit, and tag transactions to any project.
• If the AI summary can't be generated when you archive, keel falls back gracefully and you can regenerate it later.

FAQ

Can I assign a transaction to multiple projects? No — at most one. If a cost genuinely spans two projects, assign it to the more relevant one.

Do projects appear on my P&L report? No. Projects are a separate view; the P&L shows spending by category as usual.

What happens if I delete a project with tagged transactions? The transactions keep everything (category, amount, merchant) but lose their project assignment. No transaction data is deleted.

Can other household members see my projects? Yes. Projects are household-level — all members can view, edit, and add transactions.