Inflation Toolkit

Inflation adjustment walkthrough

Teach teammates how to restate budgets in today’s buying power. This guide walks through turning the feature on, maintaining price numbers, and reading the adjusted charts across the app.

Hint

Keep CPI values current for every active currency so adjusted spending, income, and net-worth charts stay in sync with the real world.

Warning

If the app can’t find price numbers for part of a range, those amounts remain unadjusted—highlight this when sharing reports so stakeholders know why totals might differ.

Why adjust for rising prices

Budget Buddy can rescale every historical amount based on monthly price numbers you provide. When inflation adjustments are enabled, the provider compares the recorded month with the report month, then multiplies the transaction or balance so it reflects today’s buying power.

  • Adjusted values appear in spending, income, and net-worth charts whenever the switch is on.
  • Original figures remain untouched whenever the feature is disabled or any month in the path is missing a price number.

Opening the inflation settings

Navigate to the Settings tab and choose Inflation Settings to reach the price adjustment tools. The screen automatically fetches the list of currencies and any stored numbers as soon as it opens, displaying a spinner while it loads.

Loading state

Automatic refresh

The panel refreshes currencies and saved entries on open and provides an app bar refresh button for retries.

Feature flag

Disabled builds

If inflation adjustments are hidden in your build, the page explains the limitation and no entry list appears.

Turning price adjustments on or off

A card at the top of the screen contains the Enable inflation adjustments switch. Turn it on to apply your CPI values across the experience or toggle it off to review raw amounts. Budget Buddy remembers the last position so returning users see their preferred view instantly.

Hint

Flipping the switch from either Settings or the Statistics page updates the shared preference everywhere in the app.

Understanding the currency cards

Each currency appears in alphabetical order with its code, name, and quick actions. If a currency has no stored price numbers yet, the card mentions that the list is empty so you know it needs attention.

Actions

Add entries

Use the plus icon to create a new month or edit an existing row with the pencil icon.

Bulk tools

Download CPI data

The download button opens a dialog for fetching several months at once from the online inflation source.

At-a-glance metrics

Monthly insights

Saved rows show the CPI value plus month-over-month and year-over-year changes whenever adjacent data exists.

Reading and editing price numbers

Every saved month displays the month name, CPI value, and calculated changes so you can monitor the direction of prices. Edit and delete icons next to each row let you revise entries on demand.

Warning

Keep the sequence chronological and avoid gaps—missing months prevent adjustments from covering the full time span of a report.

Add or update a month manually

Launch the add dialog from the currency card or tap the pencil on an existing entry to revise the value. The picker defaults to the selected month when you edit, making it quick to correct mistakes.

  1. Choose the month the CPI value applies to using the month-and-year picker.
  2. Enter the CPI value—decimal separators such as commas or dots are accepted.
  3. Press Add or Save to validate the entry.

Validation confirms the number is positive, the month is valid, and no duplicate exists. When everything checks out, the app stores the data, closes the dialog, and refreshes the list automatically.

Remove a month

Tap the trash icon beside a row, confirm the prompt, and the entry disappears from the currency’s list.

Download several months at once

The download dialog preselects the most recent stretch of months so you can import data quickly. Adjust the start and end pickers before choosing Fetch to contact the online inflation source.

  1. Review the suggested date range and tweak the start or end months as needed.
  2. Press Fetch to retrieve the CPI values. A spinner indicates progress while the request runs.
  3. Once complete, the dialog summarises how many months were imported and lists the new entries alongside their month-to-month changes.
Warning

If the range is reversed, no data is available, or the network fails, the dialog explains what happened so you can adjust and try again.

How your price numbers power the app

Budget Buddy keeps a dedicated, chronologically sorted collection of CPI values for each currency. The provider loads the data automatically when it starts, ensuring every calculation has quick access to your numbers.

When adjustments are enabled, each amount is scaled by comparing the CPI value recorded in the transaction month with the CPI value for the chart’s target date. If any month in the range is missing or invalid, the system gracefully falls back to the original amount.

Seeing the effect in your statistics

The Statistics page mirrors the inflation switch under its filters. Toggling it there updates the same shared preference and triggers a recalculation, showing a progress indicator while charts refresh.

When adjustments remain on, income and expense distributions convert transactions with your CPI values before currency conversion so every slice represents today’s terms. Net-worth history recalculates each day’s balance in both adjusted and raw values, drawing a second line and legend entry whenever the adjusted data is available.

Tips troubleshooting

Use these reminders to keep the experience smooth for testers and documentation readers.

  • If the feature is disabled in a build, the settings page explains the restriction and shows no entries.
  • The refresh button in the app bar reloads currencies and stored CPI values whenever needed.
  • The inflation switch remembers its state across Settings and Statistics.
  • Limit each currency to one entry per month—duplicates trigger a helpful validation message.
  • Missing months cause the system to show unadjusted figures until the data is added.
  • Bulk fetch results indicate whether no months were returned or the network failed so you can tweak the range or retry later.
  • Successful downloads list the imported count, helping you confirm coverage before closing the dialog.