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Keeping Track of Subscriptions

Subscriptions (streaming, software, gym memberships, insurance) are the textbook use case for Upcoming Transactions — fixed amount, fixed cadence, easy to forget. This page covers a simple setup for tracking them and reporting on them later.

1. Pick an account structure​

A single Expenses:Subscriptions account is enough if you just want a total. If you want to see spending broken down by service or category, nest it, e.g. Expenses:Subscriptions:Streaming, Expenses:Subscriptions:Software. Either way, open the account(s) once — see Adding Accounts and Commodities.

2. Add a schedule per subscription​

In the Snapshot sidebar's Upcoming tab, click ＋ and fill in the Add Scheduled Transaction modal for each subscription:

  • Frequency: Monthly or Yearly, matching the billing cycle.
  • Start Date: the next billing date.
  • Payee: the service name (e.g. Netflix).
  • Postings: the card/account it's billed to, and the expense account — since the amount is normally fixed, fill both in directly rather than leaving one to auto-balance.

Repeat for each subscription. See Upcoming Transactions for the full reference on frequencies and how the modal works.

Tip: add a tag like #subscription in the transaction (the schedule carries it into every generated occurrence) so you can filter for it later regardless of which expense account it landed in.

3. Process dues as they come up​

Whenever you're catching up on bookkeeping, click Process dues in the Upcoming tab. For each subscription that's come due, choose Insert (record it as-is), Skip (dismiss without recording — e.g. a free trial month), or Hold (deal with it later). See Processing Due Occurrences for the full behavior, including what happens if you've fallen behind by more than one cycle.

4. When a price changes​

Don't delete and recreate the schedule — hover the row and click ✏️ Edit to update the amount, then future occurrences use the new figure. This keeps the schedule's history and next-due-date tracking intact.

5. When you cancel​

Hold or Skip any occurrence that's still pending for the cancelled service, then click ❌ Delete on the schedule row so it stops appearing. Past transactions it already generated stay in your ledger untouched.

6. Reporting on total subscription spend​

If you tagged your subscriptions in step 2, a single query gives you the total, or a breakdown by service:

SELECT payee, sum(position) WHERE 'subscription' IN tags GROUP BY payee ORDER BY sum(position) DESC

You can drop this in a bql code block in any note — see BQL Queries — or build it as a Budget against Expenses:Subscriptions if you want an at-a-glance progress bar on the Overview tab instead.