Searching transactions

The search box above your transactions is a small query language. Type any word to search everything, or start with a prefix like Category: to search one field. Results update as you type. On desktop the box sits in the register toolbar; on your phone, tap the magnifying glass in the toolbar to open the Search sheet.

Search everything

Type a word and Zerosum matches it against the payee, note, category, tag, and amount of every transaction. Typing coffee finds a payee called Blue Bottle Coffee, a note that mentions coffee, and anything in your Coffee category.

Search one field

Start a search with a prefix to target a single field. As you type, Zerosum suggests matching categories, tags, accounts, and payees, so you rarely have to type a full name.

• Category: Groceries searches categories.
• Tag: Holiday searches tags. Flag: works too.
• Account: Everyday Checking searches accounts.
• Payee: whole finds any payee containing "whole".
• Note: refund searches notes. Memo: works too.
• Outflow: and Inflow: search amounts.
• On:, Before:, and After: search dates.
• Income: finds income received in a given month.
• Is: searches cleared and reconciled status.

Category, tag, and account names are matched in full. If what you type isn't one of your names, Zerosum searches that field for the text instead, so a half-remembered name still finds something.

Combine searches

Separate searches with a comma and a space. The space matters: it keeps amounts like 1,850 in one piece.

Repeat a prefix to mean either, and mix different prefixes to mean all of them. So Category: Groceries, Category: Dining Out, Outflow: >= 50 finds anything over 50 in either of those two categories.

Amounts

A bare number matches that amount exactly. Add a comparison to open one end.

• Outflow: 50 finds transactions of exactly 50.
• Outflow: >= 50 finds 50 or more.
• Inflow: <= 20 finds 20 or less.

Amounts follow your budget's number format, so both 1,850.50 and 1.850,50 work if that is how your budget writes them.

Dates

Dates follow your budget's date format. Type a partial date and Zerosum fills in the rest, showing you the full date before you commit it.

• On: 18/10/2026 finds that exact day.
• After: 01/07/2026, Before: 31/07/2026 finds a date range.
• Income: July finds income received in that month.

Status

Is: Cleared, Is: Uncleared, Is: Reconciled, and Is: Unreconciled search by status. Searching for cleared or reconciled transactions shows them even when the register is set to hide reconciled rows, so your search never comes back empty for a reason you cannot see.

Search chips

Press Enter, or type a comma and a space, and the search you just wrote becomes a chip. Click a chip to edit it, or click its ✕ to drop that one search and keep the rest. The ✕ at the end of the box clears everything at once.

When you have several chips and the box is not focused, it collapses to the last one behind a small count; click the count to see them all. Arrow keys walk between chips, and Backspace removes the one you are on.

On your phone the Search sheet shows the same suggestions as tappable rows, with your committed chips under the field. Tap a suggestion to apply it and jump back to the results, or press Return to commit what you have typed. While a search is active, a bar under the toolbar shows your chips: tap the bar to edit the search, or its X to clear it.

💡 Tip: When a register has uncleared transactions, a Show uncleared transactions prompt appears above the list on your phone. Tapping it applies Is: Uncleared for you.

How search works with the filter controls

When your search claims a field, the matching filter control steps back rather than fighting it. Search for Category: Groceries and the Categories picker greys out and reads Set by your search. Your selection is kept, so removing the search brings it straight back.

This applies to categories, tags, accounts, direction, and cleared status. Dates and payees still combine with the controls, because After: plus a To date is a useful range, and a payee search matches part of a name while the picker selects exact payees.

Save a search

Presets capture your search along with the rest of your filters, so a view like "everything over 50 in Groceries this month" is one click away next time. Open Presets in the toolbar to save the current setup.

💡 Tip: Starting your search with # searches tag names only, so #hol finds everything tagged Holiday.

Where to next

• Transactions: the register, filters, presets, and exports.
• Tags: colored labels that work alongside categories.