How to Track expenses with Soulver

1 Create variables

We’ll start by defining a couple of variables. These use the format

[variable] = [number]. This can be as simple as a = 1. For our expenses example, enter two lines: Hotel = £199 and Breakfast = £19.

2 Add a heading

Soulver uses shorthand to format lines in specific ways. To mark up a heading, type @ at the start of the line. Everything to the right of that will be formatted in bold and not evaluated. On line 4, type @ January.

3 Use your variables

Now we’ll use the variables to add information for a three-night stay. Over the next two lines, type 3\*hotel and 3\*breakfast. Soulver interprets

\* as a multiplication sign. Note that variables are not case sensitive.

4 Type out a label

Another way of formatting text in Soulver is to use a label, which sets anything to the left of a colon in bold, and evaluates only data to the right of it. Use this to add a line totalling costs for taxi journeys.

5 Work with tokens

Soulver adds line totals in the answers column. You can add these to your ongoing calculation as answer tokens, which update dynamically. Type

Jan total: and double-click each of the answers under January’s heading.

6 Copy, paste, edit

Copy and paste January’s section and change the heading in the duplicate to February. Under this, alter the number of days of hotel stays and breakfasts — note that the tokens in the line for its total automatically update.

7 Create a total

Soulver’s automated total bar (View > Show Statistics) is fine for basic documents, but this one includes subtotals. You need to manually create a grand total using tokens from the two lines for monthly totals, as in step 5.

8 Convert currency

What’s that in dollars? On a new line, add the grand total as a token and type USD after it. To see how flexible Soulver is, update the Hotel variable’s value to £249 and note how this affects calculations throughout.

9 Export calculation

Saved Soulver documents are editable, but to send your output to someone who doesn’t have the app, go to File > Export. Choose the elements to include in your PDF, HTML doc, or email, click Next, then save/send.