TEXTBOOKS number: (855) 516-7010
If you have questions or want to send feedback, use the (?) in the upper right after signing into your account.
Before you try out the SMS commands, you'll need to at least add funds and create a budget (groceries, for example.)
| Command | Action |
|---|---|
help |
Get list of commands |
stop |
Stop all texts from service |
start |
Resume texts from service |
| Command | Action |
|---|---|
50 groceries, $50 groceries |
Record an expense |
50 groceries for the week |
Record expense with notes |
balance |
Check Safe-To-Budget/Spend & Total Funds Balances |
balances |
See all Budget & Goal balances |
50 income, $50 income deposit |
Record an income/deposit transaction |
50 vacation, $50 vacation |
Contribute to a goal |
cancel |
Start-over when in a flow |
When using a GUIDED FLOW, type one word and then follow the prompts.
Example: recurring or new.
| Command | Action |
|---|---|
new |
Create transaction flow |
recurring |
Convert transation to recurring flow |
refund |
Refund flow |
cancel |
Cancel flow/start over |
Textbooks is a digital version of a system called "envelope budgeting". Basically, you take cash and put it in an envelope labeled "groceries" and that's your budget for groceries. You can create a budget for any spending category you want to track.
We call these "envelopes", Budgets and we can do a lot more than just put money into them.
Everything in Textbooks revolves around Budgets. There is a special kind of Budget called a Goal that allows you to save for the future but you don't have to use Goals to use Textbooks.
Everything in Textbooks relies on transactions.
budgeted transactionexpense transactionincome transactionThere is a "recent transactions" log at the bottom of most pages. There is also a "Transaction Log" page in the main navigation which shows you all of your transactions by month.
A Budget is similar to an envelope as described above with a few more features. When you set up a Budget for the month, you can choose to track it weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. If you're groceries budget is $1000 and you track it weekly, you'll have a balance of $250 each week.
If you send the message "$23.89 groceries", the system will log that transaction and respond:
Recorded expense of $23.89 for groceries
GROCERIES Balance: $226.11
At the end of the month, if you're under Budget, your extra funds will be put back in your Safe-to-Budget/Spend balance. If you've set up a carryover Goal, the remaining balance from a budget can be put towards your Goal.
Goals are a special kind of Budget. Instead of budgeting your spending, you contribute towards future spending.
For example, you could set up a Goal called "Savings". Let's say you want your savings to be 3x the amount of your monthly essentials, that would be the target amount for the Goal.
You might find that there are some expenses and income transactions that are always the same amount. For this scenario, you can enable "recurring" for any expense or income transaction.
If you receive income on a regular basis and it's the same amount, you can make that income transaction recurring. The system will automatically create new transactions for you based on your settings. This way, you don't have to manually enter transactions that are the same every week/month, etc.
If you have a bill, subscription, rent that is the same every month, you can make that expense transaction recurring. The system will automatically create new transactions for you based on your settings. This way, you don't have to manually enter transactions that are the same every week/month, etc.
This shows your unallocated funds this month — money that hasn't been allocated to any Budgets. Pending and budgeted money is subtracted to give you a practical view of your money.
If you're unsure if you have enough money for that new computer, check your Safe-to-Spend Balance and if not, create a Computer Goal.
This reflects the running balance you actually (technically) have — money that has come in or gone out. It doesn't pay attention to budgets or pending/future transactions. It only cares about what has been actually added or spent since you started using the app.