Capture drafts on the iPhone

The Companion has a single screen, Drafts, with two lists: To Send and Sent. Tap New Draft (+, in the bottom bar) to add one.

The draft form

The form is ordered for speed: the amount first, then where it went.

Field	Notes
First posting — “Spent on…”	The expense account and the amount. Choose the account by typing a few letters of it.
Second posting — “Paid from…”	The account that paid. Its amount says Balanced automatically: leave it empty.
Add Posting	For splits. As on the Mac, leave one amount empty and Beancount balances it.
Currency	Starts as your operating currency; pick another from your ledger’s. Without a context, type it.
Payee	Type a few letters and choose, or keep what you typed.
Description	Free text.
Date	Today by default.
Pending	Writes the transaction with !, so it stands out on the Mac until you confirm it.
Tags and Links	Choose from your ledger’s, or type new ones.
Metadata	Add Metadata offers the keys of your ledger (or Other Key…); for a known key, a Known values menu offers its values.

Pickers search by letters and by words, like on the Mac: groc finds Expenses:Food:Groceries, ex ho finds Expenses:Home:…. Anything not in the list can simply be typed — a new payee, an account you opened yesterday. The Mac is the one that validates.

Choosing a payee fills in the draft

Pick a known payee and the draft takes the accounts, description and tags of your last transaction with that payee. The amount you already typed is respected. This only happens in a new draft that has no accounts yet.

A default “Paid from”

Most things you note down in the street are paid the same way — cash, or one card. Set it once in Ledger ▸ Default “Paid From”… and every new draft starts with that account as the second posting.

It also wins over the payee’s template: the template provides the category and description, but who pays is still your default. Change it in any draft when it was the other card.

Default tags and links

For a stretch of time where everything belongs together — a trip, say — set them once in Ledger ▸ Default Tags & Links…: #trip-rome, ^rome-2026, whatever you use. Every new draft starts with them.

They add to the payee’s template rather than replacing it: pick a known payee and the draft gets that payee’s tags and your defaults. Remove them from any draft that is not part of it. When you are back, Clear Tags & Links in the same place.

Incomplete drafts are fine

In a hurry, “2,40 EUR, Café” is enough. A draft without both accounts is marked Incomplete in the list, in orange. It will reach your ledger flagged ! so you can finish it on the Mac — see how incomplete drafts are written.

Amounts are kept as you type them, decimal comma included; the Mac normalises them.

New Draft without opening the app

From	How
Control Center / Lock Screen	Edit the controls ▸ add ▸ search “Tallystick” ▸ New Draft.
Action Button	Settings ▸ Action Button ▸ Controls ▸ New Draft.
Siri, Spotlight, Shortcuts	“New draft in Tallystick” or “Add an expense in Tallystick”. It is there without any setup.

Each of them opens the app directly on an empty draft form.

You do not need to remember the name, either: after you have opened the app once, searching the iPhone for words like expense, money, bank, account, budget or beancount shows New Draft under Tallystick.

The list

Each draft shows its payee or description, amount, date and account.

• Tap a draft in To Send to edit it.
• Swipe left on any draft to delete it.
• Swipe right on a Sent draft to Duplicate it: the copy opens as a new draft.

Send to Mac

Send to Mac (the share button) creates a .tallydrafts file with everything in To Send and opens the share sheet. Choose AirDrop and your Mac — or Files, Mail, whatever suits you.

• Drafts move to Sent only if the share actually completes. Cancel the sheet and they stay in To Send.
• Sent drafts cannot be edited. The Mac already knows them by their identifier and would ignore a second version. Duplicate one instead: the copy is a new draft.
• Sending again is harmless. The Mac skips drafts it has already imported. If a file got lost on the way, Ledger ▸ Send All Again… resends everything, sent ones included.
• Sent drafts are kept until you remove them: Ledger ▸ Delete Sent Drafts… — after checking they were imported on the Mac.

The Ledger menu

Item	What it does
(header)	The loaded context: ledger title, number of accounts, export date.
Import Context… / Replace Context…	Load a .tallycontext file.
Default “Paid From”…	The account new drafts start with. Shows the current one.
Default Tags & Links…	Tags and links new drafts start with. Shows the current ones.
Send All Again…	Send every draft, including those already sent.
Delete Sent Drafts…	Remove the Sent list, after confirmation.