Yearly Trends in SavePoint

📤 Exporting Yearly Trends

The Export button opens a two-item dropdown that exports exactly what you see on screen: hidden years stay hidden, and the "Hide $0 Categories" setting carries through to the export.

• Export as PDF: Print-ready report with summary cards, the captured chart image, and a styled year-over-year table with color-coded totals. The PDF auto-orients landscape when 4 or more years are visible so wide tables remain legible.
• Export as Excel: Spreadsheet-compatible export including salary breakdown, Income, Expenses grouped by subcategory, Net Cashflow, and the Spending Breakdown (Needs / Discretionary / Savings). Both formats add a per-year Average column so you can see at a glance whether a category's average is climbing year over year.

💰 Optional: Compensation Tracking

Yearly Trends automatically shows all your income from transactions (paychecks, bonuses, freelance deposits, etc.) in the income category rows. The compensation tracking feature is optional and useful if you want to see your compensation as a separate set of line items distinct from other income sources, or if you want to track your total compensation progression over time. It supports five compensation types, multiple pay frequencies, and multi-employer tracking, so you can get a comprehensive picture of your total compensation regardless of how many jobs or income sources you have.

When to use compensation tracking:

• You want to see your base salary, bonuses, commissions, RSUs, or other compensation as dedicated rows in the yearly table, separate from your transaction income categories
• You want to track your total compensation progression over time as a separate line in the chart
• You have multiple jobs or income sources and want per-employer breakdowns
• You're not importing paycheck transactions but still want to track what you earn
• You want to distinguish between guaranteed income (base salary) and variable compensation (bonuses, commissions, RSUs)
• You want to see how your total compensation package has grown year over year, not just your base salary

Five Compensation Types:

• Base Salary (blue badge): Your recurring salary. Base salary entries reflect actual prorated earnings for the year. If you earned $120K for the first six months of a year and then left that job, the row shows roughly $59,506.85 (weighted total divided by 365 or 366), not $120K. If you earned $70K for the full first half and $80K for the second half, the row shows $75K. Multiple entries with different effective dates in the same year are handled automatically using day-accurate calculations.
• Bonus (amber badge): One-time bonus payments. Added directly to the year's total compensation as a lump sum
• Commission (teal badge): Commission payments. Added directly to the year's total compensation as a lump sum
• RSU / Stock (green badge): Stock or RSU vesting amounts. Added directly to the year's total compensation as a lump sum
• Other (gray badge): Any other compensation that does not fit the above types. Added directly to the year's total compensation as a lump sum

Pay Frequencies: When adding a compensation entry, you can specify the pay frequency: Annual, Monthly, Biweekly, Weekly, or Hourly. SavePoint automatically normalizes all amounts to annual figures for calculations (monthly is multiplied by 12, biweekly by 26, weekly by 52, and hourly by 2,080). For lump-sum types like Bonus, Commission, RSU/Stock, and Other, the frequency defaults to Annual since these are typically one-time payments.

Multi-Employer Tracking: If you have more than one job or income source, you can enter an employer name on each compensation entry. When any entry has an employer name, the yearly table shows per-employer breakdown rows below the Base Salary and Bonus totals. These breakdown rows use a slightly lighter background to visually distinguish them from the totals. This allows you to see exactly how much you earned from each employer in each year.

How to add compensation: Click "Add Salary" and fill out the form:

• Compensation Type: Choose from Base Salary, Bonus, Commission, RSU/Stock, or Other
• Pay Frequency: Choose Annual, Monthly, Biweekly, Weekly, or Hourly
• Effective Date: The date when this compensation became effective
• End Date (optional, Base Salary only): The last day this base salary applies. Leave blank if the job is ongoing. SavePoint uses this to prorate earnings correctly when a job stops mid-year. Lump-sum types (Bonus, Commission, RSU/Stock, Other) do not need an end date because they are point-in-time payments.
• Amount: The compensation amount (displayed with your configured currency symbol)
• Employer (optional): The name of the employer. Enables per-employer breakdown rows in the table. Matching is case-insensitive so "Acme" and "ACME" are treated as the same employer.
• Job Title (optional): Your job title. SavePoint groups compensation by (employer, job title) so parallel roles at the same company (e.g., manager and IC, or employee and consultant) are tracked separately.
• Notes (optional): Any additional context about this compensation entry

The Add Compensation modal shows an inline info banner at the top: "Each entry is a pay rate at a specific time. Add a new entry whenever your pay or role changes." This is a reminder that compensation entries are not a running timeline; each one is a snapshot. Add a new entry on the date your pay changed, do not edit the old one.

Ending a Job and Multi-Role Tracking: Active Base Salary rows in the Manage Compensation table have a door-icon "End Job" quick action. Clicking it opens a date picker so you can record when the job ended. The end date pre-fills with today's date in your local timezone. Time-weighted Base Salary calculations respect end dates, so a half-year role no longer counts as if it ran the full year. When you add a new compensation entry at an employer where you already have an active entry but with a different job title, SavePoint shows a "What just changed?" modal with two options:

• I got promoted to a new role: SavePoint marks the old entry as ended on the day before the new entry's effective date and tracks them as a single continuous career arc at that employer.
• I picked up a second role at the same company: Both entries stay active in parallel (think manager and IC, or employee and consultant). The compensation calculation groups by (employer, job title) so each role is tracked separately.

Manage Compensation table layout: The Employer column is in the first position to make multi-job tracking easier to scan. The End Date column appears between Effective Date and Amount.

Managing compensation entries: Click "Manage Salary" to open a modal showing all your compensation entries in a table with columns for Employer, Type (with color-coded badge), Effective Date, End Date, Amount, Frequency, Job Title, Notes, and action buttons to Edit or Delete each entry. Deleting an entry uses soft delete (the data is preserved in the background), so if you delete an entry by mistake, you can recreate it with the same details.

Duplicate validation: SavePoint prevents you from creating duplicate entries with the same effective date, compensation type, and employer combination. If you try to add a second Base Salary entry for the same date and employer, you will see an error message. This is intentional: if you want to record a salary change, use a different effective date.

If you skip compensation tracking: Yearly Trends still works perfectly. Your total income is accurately captured from all income transactions. You just won't have separate compensation rows or compensation lines in the chart. All income will appear in the income category rows.

📊 Understanding the Year-by-Year Table

The table is the heart of Yearly Trends. Each row is a category (income or expense), and each column is a year. Scan across a row to see how that category changed over time. Scan down a column to see where your money went in a specific year.

Table structure:

• Base Salary (Weighted Avg) row (optional): If you've added compensation entries, this row shows your weighted average base salary for each year. If you got a raise mid-year, the weighted average reflects the time spent at each salary level
• Per-Employer Base Salary rows (optional, indented): If you've entered employer names on your compensation entries, you'll see a breakdown row for each employer showing their individual base salary amounts. These appear with a lighter background below the Base Salary total
• Bonus & Other Compensation row (optional): Appears when you have bonus, commission, RSU/stock, or other compensation entries. Shows the sum of all lump-sum compensation payments for each year
• Per-Employer Bonus rows (optional, indented): If you have employer names and bonus-type entries, you'll see per-employer bonus breakdowns below the Bonus total
• Total Compensation row (optional, bold): Appears when you have both base salary and bonus/other entries. Shows the sum of base salary plus all other compensation for each year
• Income category rows: All your income categories (Salary/Wages, Freelance, Bonuses, Interest, etc.) showing total earned in each year from your transactions. Below these is a "Total Income" row summing everything
• Expense category rows: Grouped by type (Needs Expenses, Discretionary Expenses, Savings Expenses). Each category shows total spent that year. "Total Cash Outflow" row sums all expenses
• Net Cashflow row (blue, bold): Income minus expenses. Green text means you saved money that year; red means you spent more than you earned

What you learn: If you see your "Groceries" row showing $8,400 → $9,200 → $10,500 over three years, your grocery spending is trending upward significantly. Is that because groceries cost more, you're buying more, or your family grew? Yearly Trends allows you to think about these questions. Similarly, if "Total Income" went up 15% but "Total Cash Outflow" also went up 15%, you may not actually be getting ahead; the extra income is being spent.

📈 Reading the Chart: Income and Net Cashflow

The chart at the top visualizes your income sources as stacked bars (each colored segment is an income category from your transactions), plus a line showing your net cashflow over time. If you've added salary entries, you'll also see a salary line. This makes it easy to see trends at a glance.

What each element shows:

• Stacked bars: Total height shows total income for that year from all your transaction income categories. Each colored segment represents one income category (Salary/Wages, Freelance, Bonuses, etc.)
• Yellow Base Salary line (optional, solid line, only if you added compensation entries): Your base salary progression over the years. If this line slopes upward, your salary is growing. Flat line means stable salary. If you haven't entered compensation data, this line won't appear and your salary income is just part of the stacked bars
• Orange Total Compensation line (optional, dashed line, only appears when bonus/commission/RSU/other entries exist): Shows your total compensation (base salary plus all other compensation) for each year. The dashed style visually distinguishes it from the solid base salary line. If this line diverges significantly from the base salary line, it means a meaningful portion of your compensation comes from variable sources like bonuses or RSUs
• Blue net cashflow line: How much you saved (or overspent) each year. Line above zero means savings; below zero means deficit. Look for this line trending upward over time

Example: Your net cashflow line is flat or declining even though your total income bars are growing taller. This means your spending grew proportionally with your income, a common trap called lifestyle inflation. You're earning more but not saving more. That's a signal to review your expense trends in the table below.

Chart controls: Too many categories making the chart crowded? Click "Hide All" to hide all datasets, then click individual category names in the legend to show only what you want to compare. Your selections are saved, so next time you open Yearly Trends, you see the same view.

💡 Spending Breakdown: Needs, Discretionary, Savings

At the bottom of the table, you see three rows showing what percentage of your income went to Essential Needs, Discretionary Spending, and Savings/Investments. This is based on how you categorized your expenses (each expense category has a type: Needs, Discretionary, or Savings).

What the percentages mean:

• Essential Needs %: Housing, utilities, groceries, transportation, insurance. Ideally 50% of income or less. If this is 70%, you may have a housing cost problem or need to increase income.
• Discretionary Spending %: Dining out, entertainment, hobbies, lifestyle purchases. Ideally 30% of income or less. If this is 40-50%, cutting here is usually easier than cutting needs.
• Savings %: This is your net cashflow divided by income (only if positive). Ideally 20% or more. If you're saving 5%, you have little cushion for emergencies or retirement.

How to use this: Compare your percentages year over year. If your Needs % increased from 45% to 60% over three years, something major changed (moved to expensive city? new car payment?). If your Discretionary % went from 25% to 40% while your Savings % dropped to 5%, you're lifestyle inflating as your income grows. This breakdown gives you a chance to review where your money actually goes.

Example: You see Needs at 55%, Discretionary at 35%, Savings at 10%. You want to save more. Looking at the numbers, you have $900/month in discretionary spending. Cutting that by just 20% ($180/month) would increase your savings by $2,160/year, moving your savings rate from 10% to 13%. Small changes in discretionary spending have big impacts.

🎛️ Table Controls: Focusing on What Matters

The table can get overwhelming with 5-10 years of data and dozens of categories. SavePoint gives you controls to simplify the view and focus on specific comparisons.

Available controls:

• Expand All Years / Recent Years Only: If you have data going back to 2015 but only care about the last 3 years, click "Recent Years Only" to show just the last three years. Click "Expand All Years" to restore the full view. Your selection persists between visits
• Hide $0 Categories / Show $0 Categories: Some categories may have no activity in some years. Clicking "Hide $0 Categories" removes any category row where every year is $0, cleaning up the table significantly. Useful after you stop using certain categories or before you started using others. Your selection persists between visits
• Hide individual years: Each year column header has an eye icon. Click it to hide that specific year. Useful for comparing non-consecutive years (e.g., compare 2020 vs 2024 without the middle years cluttering the view). Hidden years persist between visits
• Chart dataset visibility: Click individual category names in the chart legend to show or hide specific datasets. Your chart visibility selections also persist between visits, so next time you open Yearly Trends, you see the same chart view you left

All of these view preferences are saved automatically and persist between visits. When you return to Yearly Trends, you will see the same view you left, including which years are hidden, whether $0 categories are shown, and which chart datasets are visible. This means you can set up your preferred view once and not have to reconfigure it each time.

Example: You're planning 2025 and want to compare it to 2023 and 2024. You hide 2020-2022 using the eye icons. You also click "Hide $0 Categories" because you have 15 old categories you don't use anymore. Now you have a clean 3-year view showing only active categories. This makes patterns much easier to spot.