Setting Up Your Accounts in WIMM, and Why It Works This Way

Accounts are the foundation of everything else in Where Is My Money. Your budgets, your dashboard, your savings goals, they all read from the transactions that flow through your accounts. So it is worth a few minutes to set them up properly. The good news is that it takes longer to read this article than to do it.

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Two ways to add an account

WIMM gives you two paths, and you can mix them freely.

Linked accounts connect directly to your bank through Plaid. Once connected, your transactions and balances sync automatically, so you are never typing anything in. This covers thousands of banks and is the closest thing to a set it and forget it experience. Linked accounts are a Premium feature.

Manual accounts are for everything else. A credit union Plaid does not reach, a cash envelope you keep at home, an old account you still want to track. You give it a name, a type, and a starting balance, then you bring transactions in by importing a CSV, Excel, or OFX file, or by typing them in. Manual accounts are free, and you can create as many as you need.

This combination matters. A lot of households have one or two big banks that link cleanly, plus a stubborn credit union or a cash stash that does not. Tools that only support bank linking leave that money invisible. WIMM lets you see all of it in one place.

The account types and why they exist

When you add an account you pick a type. Checking, savings, credit, investment, home loan, automobile loan, loan, or other. This is not busywork. The type tells WIMM how to treat the balance. A credit card balance is money you owe, not money you have, and a loan works the same way. Separating these means your totals tell the truth instead of quietly counting debt as available cash.

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Why accounts are kept separate instead of lumped together

It can be tempting to want one big bucket, but keeping each account distinct buys you three things.

First, accurate filtering. Because every transaction is tied to a specific account, you can isolate one card or one joint account anywhere in the app.

Second, household coordination. If you share finances, an account can be marked as shared so every member of your household sees it, while your private accounts stay private. Shared households support up to five members and are a Premium feature.

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Third, honest reconciliation. Manual accounts store a starting balance and date, and linked accounts carry the live balance from your bank. Keeping both lets you check that what WIMM thinks you have matches reality.

A clean setup, step by step

Start with the account you spend from the most, usually your main checking. If you are on Premium, link it so it syncs on its own. If not, add it as a manual account with today's balance as the starting point.

Add your credit cards next, since that is where a surprising share of spending hides. Then add savings and any loans so your full picture, the good and the owed, is on screen.

If you live with a partner, decide which accounts are shared and mark them. Everything you do not mark stays yours alone.

How WIMM compares here

When Mint shut down, the thing people missed most was seeing every account in one dashboard. WIMM brings that back, and goes a step further than bank only tools like the typical Plaid based app by treating manual import as a first class citizen rather than an afterthought. YNAB users will feel at home too, since WIMM supports the same CSV style import for the banks Plaid does not cover, without the higher yearly price.

Get your accounts in

Add your first account in a couple of minutes and watch the dashboard fill in. Start at app.wimm.money/demo to try it with sample data, or sign in and connect the account you use every day.