1 Welcome & Setup

First launch, loading data, and understanding the three starting options.

First Launch

When you open MeraFolio for the first time, you'll see the Welcome screen with your logo and three options:

Finding Your Way Around

The top navigation is organised into a few grouped menus rather than a long row of tabs. Dashboard, Portfolio and Goals sit on their own, and the rest are grouped under four dropdowns:

Click a menu to open it; the parent menu highlights when you're on one of its pages. The Portfolio and family-member dropdowns, theme toggle, save/download button and Settings sit in the header.

2 Portfolio Management

Creating, saving, opening, and switching between portfolios.

The Portfolio Dropdown

In the header bar, click the 📁 Portfolio ▾ button. This opens a dropdown with:

Saving Your Work

Family Members

Click the All Members ▾ dropdown in the header to filter all tabs by a family member (Self, Spouse, or anyone you've added). This filter applies across the entire app — Dashboard, Portfolio, Analytics, Reports, everything.

3 Dashboard

Your complete financial snapshot in one view. Every card is clickable — navigate to any tab directly. Cards glow on hover with colored shadows.

Row 1 — The Big Picture

Three columns showing your wealth at a glance:

Action Items — What Gets Flagged

The Action Items panel automatically scans your portfolio and flags items needing attention:

Click any alert to navigate directly to the relevant tab. When there are no alerts, a green checkmark shows "All clear!"

Row 2 — Cash Flow, Performance & Activity

Row 3 — Holdings & Performance

3a Goals

Set financial goals — a target amount by a target date — and fund them by earmarking your existing investments. MeraFolio tracks progress, projects whether you're on track, and nudges you on the Dashboard only when something needs attention.

What a Goal Is

A goal is a target amount you want to reach by a target date — a child's education, a car, a house down-payment, retirement, an emergency fund. You don't set aside separate money for it; instead you link existing investments (fixed deposits, holdings, bank balances, properties, other assets) so the goal is funded from what you already own.

Creating a Goal

Funding a Goal

Two ways to attach money to a goal:

• Tag-based — give an investment a tag, and any goal watching that tag automatically counts it. Good for "everything tagged retirement funds my Retirement goal".
• Manual link — explicitly link a specific investment (or part of it) to a goal. A manual link is never overwritten by tag syncing.

You can partially allocate an asset — e.g. count 50% of a fixed deposit toward one goal and leave the rest free. Across all the goals an asset is shared between, its allocation is capped at 100% so you can never double-count the same rupee.

Reading a Goal Card

• Progress ring — how much is earmarked versus the target, with milestone ticks at 25/50/75%.
• On-track / shortfall — whether the projected value at the target date will meet the target, and if not, how much is short.
• Monthly top-up — the extra per month that would close a shortfall by the deadline.
• Time-remaining pill — a colour-shifting label (ahead, on track, soon, urgent, past due).
• At 100% the card celebrates.

Goals on the Dashboard

Goals are a periodic concern, not a daily one, so the Dashboard does not show every goal's progress. Instead a goal only appears in Action Items when there's something to act on:

• Falling behind — a projected shortfall and the deadline is within about 24 months. A goal that's behind but 15 years away stays quiet, because there's nothing to do about it today.
• About to complete — 90–99% funded (the finish-line nudge).

At most three goal alerts show at once, worst first, so the Dashboard stays calm.

4 Portfolio

Track stocks, mutual funds, and ETFs.

Viewing Holdings

Adding a Holding Manually

Editing Prices Inline

Double-click the Current Price column on any row. An inline editor appears — type the new price and press Enter. Gain/Loss and Return % recalculate instantly.

Importing from Broker CSV

Importing MF CAS Statement

Updating Stock Prices (Bhavcopy)

Syncing Holdings

Click Sync in the Portfolio tab to rebuild all holdings from your transaction history. This is useful when:

Exporting

Click Export to download your holdings as an Excel file. For a complete export of all data, use File → Export to Excel from the menu bar (see Shortcuts & Tips section).

Lumpsum Holdings

For users who don't want to track every individual stock or fund, MeraFolio supports self-reported lumpsum holdings. Just enter the total invested and current value — no scrip-by-scrip detail needed.

Adding a Lumpsum Holding

Updating the Value (Monthly Cadence Recommended)

The whole point of lumpsum tracking is that you update it occasionally rather than after every trade. Each update creates a snapshot in a history list — useful for trend analysis later.

Viewing and Undoing Snapshots

What Lumpsum Does and Doesn't Do

5 Transactions

Your complete buy/sell transaction ledger.

Using Transactions

Fixing Name Mismatches

Different brokers sometimes use different names for the same stock (e.g., "HBLENGINE" vs "HBL ENGINEERING LTD", or "CUPID LIMITED" vs "CUPID LTD."). This causes the buy and sell to appear as separate holdings instead of cancelling out.

6 Fixed Income

FDs, PPF, SSY, NPS, SGBs, NSC, and bonds.

Supported Instrument Types

Understanding Invested vs Value

Adding an Instrument

Auto-Detect Matured Status

If an FD/NSC/RD's maturity date has passed but the status still says "Active", the app automatically shows a "Matured" badge in amber. No need to manually update — the display detects it. The same applies to expired insurance policies showing "Expired" in red.

7 Insurance

Life, health, motor, home, and travel insurance tracking with renewal alerts and document storage.

Policy Types

MeraFolio tracks 5 insurance types: Life, Health, Motor, Home, and Travel. Each has specific fields (Sum Assured for Life/Health, IDV for Motor, Property for Home, etc.).

Renewal Alerts

Policies with renewal dates within the next 60 days are highlighted in amber. The "Renewing Soon" stat card shows the count. This helps you never miss a renewal.

Adding a Policy

Attaching Documents to a Policy

You can attach the policy PDF, premium receipts, or any related image to each policy. Up to 3 documents per policy, accepting PDF, PNG, and JPG files.

How to Attach a Document

Viewing and Removing Documents

In the Edit Policy form, each attached document shows its name, size, and date. Use:

• View — opens an inline preview. PDFs render in a viewer; images display as the image.
• Download button (inside the preview) — saves a copy to your default downloads folder.
• Trash icon — removes the document from disk and the policy. There's a confirmation prompt — once confirmed, the file is gone.

Policies with attached documents show a small 📎 paperclip badge with the document count next to the policy name in the table — quick visual confirmation of which policies have paperwork attached.

8 Bank Accounts

Bank balances, statement import, auto-categorization, and spending analysis.

Adding Accounts

Lumpsum Mode

Some users don't want to enter every bank account separately — they just want to record a total. For these cases, switch to "Track total only" in the Add modal.

Lumpsum bank entries:

• Show with a LUMPSUM badge in the accounts table
• Have no account number, IFSC, or branch — just a label and balance
• Can't have statements imported (the Txns button is disabled)
• Are counted in the Total Balance stat card and get their own "Lumpsum" stat card too
• Are kept separate from Savings / Current balances

Importing Bank Statements

Spending Breakdown

After importing, a donut chart appears showing category-wise spending. Use month and category filters to drill down.

9 Loans

Track home loans, car loans, personal loans, education loans — with auto-EMI generation, prepayments, and property linking.

What MeraFolio Tracks

Each loan record captures the lender, loan account number, original principal, current outstanding balance, EMI, interest rate, start and end dates, and which family member owns it. Loans appear on the Dashboard as a liability and reduce your net worth automatically.

Loan Types Supported

• Home Loan — can be linked to a Property record
• Loan Against Property (LAP) — can be linked to a Property record
• Car Loan
• Personal Loan
• Education Loan
• Gold Loan
• Business Loan
• Other

Adding a Loan

Linking a Loan to a Property

For Home Loans and Loans Against Property, you can connect the loan to the property it's secured against. This is useful because:

• Reports show net equity (current property value minus outstanding loan).
• Selling the property prompts you to deal with the loan too.
• EMI auto-tracking lives on the loan side, not duplicated on the property.

Two ways to set up the link:

• From the loan side: When adding a loan, the "Linked Property" dropdown shows your existing properties. Pick one. Or click + Create new property to enter a property inline without leaving the loan form.
• From the property side: When adding a property, the "Linked Loan" dropdown shows your existing loans. Pick one. Or click + Create new loan to enter a loan inline.

Auto-EMI Generation

When you enable Auto-track EMI on a loan, MeraFolio creates an expense entry tagged "EMI" on the 5th of every month, starting from your chosen start date. These auto-rows are flagged with an AUTO badge in the Expenses tab — you can't edit them manually (delete them on the Loans tab if needed by turning off auto-track).

Recording a Prepayment

A prepayment is a one-off lump sum you pay to reduce the loan principal directly (separate from your regular EMI).

The outstanding balance drops by the amount immediately. The prepayment is added to a history list on the loan, and (if the checkbox was on) a matching expense entry is created.

Undoing a Prepayment

Open the loan in Edit mode → scroll to Prepayment History → click the Undo button on the relevant entry. Confirm the prompt. The amount is added back to the outstanding balance and the matching expense entry is removed from the Expenses tab.

Closing a Loan (Marking as Paid Off)

MeraFolio does not auto-close loans. Even when the outstanding balance hits zero, the loan stays in the Active list with a "Mark closed" button highlighted in amber, and a Dashboard Action Item appears: "<Loan> fully paid — Mark as closed".

Why? Banks sometimes don't formally close a loan account immediately after the last payment. There's NOC paperwork, mortgage release, etc. You decide when to mark it closed — usually after you have the bank's "loan closed" certificate in hand.

Closed loans:

• Move to a separate "Closed Loans" section at the bottom of the Loans table (greyed out).
• Are excluded from total outstanding, total EMI, and net worth liability calculations.
• Stop generating auto-EMIs even if Auto-track was on.
• Stay searchable as historical record.

Re-opening a Closed Loan

Made a mistake? In the Closed Loans section, click Re-open on the row. The loan returns to the Active list. Auto-track stays off — you can re-enable manually if needed.

Deleting a Loan

Click Delete on a loan row. The app asks why:

• Repaid in full — the loan is gone, account closed. Cleanest case.
• Refinanced / migrated to new lender — wording differs slightly, with a reminder to link the property to the new loan.
• Cancel — back out, don't delete.

Deletion unlinks any property that was linked to this loan and clears its loan-mirror fields.

10 SIPs

Systematic Investment Plan commitment register.

How SIPs Work in MeraFolio

The SIPs tab is a commitment register — it tracks your standing SIP instructions (which fund, how much per month, start date). It does NOT require you to enter invested amount or current value manually.

Adding a SIP

11 Expenses

Unified expense tracking: manual entries, credit card imports, and bank debits.

Three Sources of Expenses

Importing Credit Card Statements

Spending Pie Chart

The donut chart shows category-wise spending breakdown. Filter by search, category, or month.

12 Income

Track salary, rental, dividends, freelance, and other income sources.

Adding Income

Bank Credits Toggle

Click Show Bank Credits to see salary and interest credits from imported bank statements. These appear with a BANK badge and are read-only. If no bank statements have been imported yet, a message will guide you to import one first.

Source Breakdown

A horizontal bar chart shows your income distribution by source (Salary, Rental, Freelance, etc.).

13 Properties

Real estate tracking with appreciation, rental yield, loan linking, and auto-tracked rental income.

Adding a Property

Linked Loans

Properties can be linked to Home Loans or Loans Against Property. Once linked:

• Outstanding Balance and Monthly EMI shown on the property are read-only mirrors of the loan's actual values — edit them on the Loans tab
• Net Equity automatically reflects the loan's outstanding balance
• Loan EMIs are tracked from the loan side (don't enable auto-track on both)

See Section 9 (Loans) for the full loan-property linking flow.

Auto-Track Rental Income

Enable Auto-track Rental on a rented property and pick a start month — MeraFolio creates a rental income entry on the 2nd of every month, starting from your chosen month, and continues going forward. These auto-rows appear in the Income tab tagged with an AUTO badge.

Selling or Removing a Property

When you delete a property, the app handles linked loans intelligently. If the property has a linked loan:

• Yes, sold, but loan still exists — property is removed; loan stays on the Loans tab as a standalone (unlinked) loan. Use this if the buyer took over the loan or if you have a separate loan that's not tied to this property anymore.
• Yes, cancel the loan too — both the property and the loan are deleted together. Use this when the sale fully closes the loan (e.g., proceeds paid it off).
• Cancel — back out of the deletion.

If there's no linked loan, deletion is straightforward — confirm and the property is removed.

13a Under-Construction Property

A property still being built is a different kind of asset — it earns no rent yet, its loan is in an interest-only phase, and its funding is split between your own money and a loan. MeraFolio has a dedicated mode for it, shown throughout in amber.

Marking a Property Under Construction

When adding or editing a property, tick This property is under construction. New fields appear for the funding split and timeline.

The Funding Split

You enter three figures; the fourth is worked out for you:

• Total cost — the full agreed price of the property.
• Own funds already paid — what you've actually paid the builder so far.
• Loan sanctioned — the sanctioned loan amount.
• Self to be paid (calculated) — Total − Own paid − Loan. This is the balance you'll fund yourself over time.

MeraFolio checks that own funds plus the loan don't exceed the total cost.

The Timeline

• Possession date — when you expect to take possession. Until then the property earns no rent.
• Moratorium end date — during the moratorium you pay only interest (Pre-EMI); afterwards the full EMI begins.
• Rent starts on — the date rent begins. Rent is never assumed from possession; you state it explicitly, and no rental income is generated before it.

Pre-EMI and EMI

Enter the Pre-EMI amount (interest-only, paid during the moratorium) and the EMI amount (full instalment, after the moratorium). By default these are shown for your reference and you record the expense yourself. Tick auto-post if you'd like the applicable figure treated as a monthly expense automatically.

Recording Self-Funding Payments

As you pay the builder from your own funds, click + Pay on the property and enter the amount. This raises your own-funds-paid, lowers the self-to-be-paid balance, and increases your net worth by the same amount. Payments are capped at the remaining self-funding balance.

How Net Worth Is Calculated

While under construction, the property contributes to your net worth as:

Own funds paid + (Current value − Total cost)

That is, what you've actually put in, plus any notional gain (or loss) on the property. The loan-funded portion is not counted as an asset, so the loan is not subtracted as a liability during construction — that would double-count. A notional loss reduces the figure symmetrically.

Possession — Becoming a Normal Property

When construction finishes, the property becomes a normal (ready) property: rent flows from its start date, the loan behaves as a normal amortising liability, and net worth switches to the usual Current value − Outstanding loan. This happens automatically once the possession date passes, or immediately when you click Possessed on the property (for early possession).

14 Other Assets

Gold, silver, jewellery, diamonds, art, rare coins, and collectibles.

Supported Asset Types

All types share: Name, Purchase Date, Purchase Price, Current Value, Storage Location, Family Member.

15 Analytics

Asset allocation, equity breakdown, performance rankings, and wealth forecast.

Charts & Insights

Wealth Forecast

16 Profit & Loss

Realized gains (FIFO), unrealized gains, STCG/LTCG tax estimates.

Time Filters

Choose from: This FY (current April-March), Last FY, 1 Year, 3 Years, All Time, or Custom date range.

Three Views

How FIFO Works

When you sell shares, the app matches each sell against the earliest buy (First In, First Out). If a buy was held for more than 365 days before selling, it's classified as LTCG (Long Term Capital Gain). Otherwise it's STCG (Short Term).

Tax Estimates

STCG (Short Term, held ≤ 12 months) on equity is taxed at 20%. LTCG (Long Term, held > 12 months) on equity is taxed at 12.5% for gains above ₹1.25 lakh exemption per financial year. These are the defaults for FY 2024-25 onwards (Budget 2024); earlier years default to the rates that applied then. You can change all of them per financial year in Settings → Capital Gains Tax Rates. These are estimates — consult your CA for actual tax computation including surcharge and cess.

17 PDF Reports

Generate polished PDF reports of your portfolio — for personal records, sharing with family, or handing to your CA.

What You Can Generate

MeraFolio creates branded PDF reports with cover page, executive summary, asset allocation chart, and detailed tables across every section of your portfolio. Two report types are supported:

• Snapshot — current state of the portfolio as of today. Net worth, holdings, properties, loans, insurance, etc. Useful for "where do I stand right now" reviews.
• Period — what happened over a date range. Income earned, expenses paid, transactions, EMIs, prepayments, rentals received. Useful for FY summaries or reviewing a specific quarter.

Generating a Report

Period Presets Explained

• Current FY: April 1 of the current Indian financial year up to today. So in November 2026, this means April 1, 2026 → today.
• Last FY: The full previous Indian financial year. April 1 → March 31. Useful for ITR filing season.
• Calendar YTD: January 1 of the current calendar year up to today.
• Last 12 Months: Rolling — exactly 12 months back from today.
• Custom: Pick any "From" and "To" date. Validated to ensure From is before To.

Sections in a Snapshot Report

• Cover page — MeraFolio branding, family member name, generated date, headline net worth
• Executive Summary — net worth, gross assets, liabilities, EMIs, rentals, insurance cover, savings — at a glance
• Asset Allocation — donut chart + percentage table
• Equity Holdings — grouped by DMAT, with returns
• Mutual Funds — folio table with returns
• Fixed Income — FDs, bonds, RDs, PPF
• Real Estate — properties with appreciation, equity, rentals
• Bank Balances
• Other Assets
• Loans & Liabilities
• Insurance — active policies, sum assured, premium, renewals
• Cash Flow — last 6 months income vs expenses bar chart
• Action Items — what needs attention
• Disclaimer — always included

Extra Sections in a Period Report

• Period Cover — replaces the snapshot cover; shows period income, expenses, net investment, and closing net worth
• Period Executive Summary — period-specific stats with income-by-source and expenses-by-category breakdowns
• Capital Gains — FIFO-matched realised gains for the period, split into short-term and long-term, with an estimated tax figure at your configured rates
• Equity & MF Transactions — every buy/sell during the period
• Loan Repayments — EMIs paid + prepayments made during the period
• Rental Income — by property
• FIs Matured — fixed income instruments that matured during the period
• Insurance Premiums Due — policies whose renewal fell within the period
• Cash Flow — re-binned monthly across the full period (vs last 6 months for snapshots)

Family Member Filtering

Pick a specific family member instead of "All" to generate a report just for them. The filter is strict — a record is included only if its "Family Member" field matches exactly.

PDF Filename Convention

Default filenames encode what's in the report so you can identify them later:

• Snapshot: MeraFolio_Report_All_Snapshot_2026-05-04.pdf
• Period FY: MeraFolio_Report_Self_FY2025-26_2026-05-04.pdf
• Custom: MeraFolio_Report_All_Custom_2026-01-01_to_2026-03-31_2026-05-04.pdf

You can change the filename in the Save dialog — these are just defaults.

18a Document Vault

A place for the things that aren't investments or policies but still matter — bills and warranties for big purchases (fridge, TV, car), and important papers (will, property deed, passport, licence). Group them into categories, record purchase and expiry details, attach the actual documents, and let MeraFolio remind you before anything expires.

What the Vault Is For

The Vault holds two kinds of things:

• Purchases — a household good you bought: a refrigerator, washing machine, TV, laptop, car. You can record the purchase date and price, brand, model, serial number and where you bought it.
• Documents — an important paper: a will, a property deed, a passport, a driving licence, a rental agreement. Here the issuing authority and the expiry/renewal date matter more than a price.

Purchase prices recorded here are for your own reference — the Vault is possessions and paperwork, not investable wealth, so nothing in it is added to your net worth.

Categories

Items live inside categories you control. The first time you open the Vault, six starter categories are created for you — Appliances, Vehicles, Electronics, Furniture & Home, Legal & Important, Personal Documents — each with a suitable icon. You can rename them, change the icon, delete the ones you don't need, and add your own. An icon is inferred automatically from a new category's name if you don't pick one.

Adding an Item

Reminders — One Field for Every Expiry

Rather than a warranty-only field, the Vault uses a single flexible reminder made of three parts, so it covers any kind of expiry:

• Reminder date — when the thing expires or needs renewing.
• Reminder label — what that date means: "Warranty", "Passport expiry", "AMC ends", "Road tax", "Agreement renewal", and so on.
• Alert lead (days) — how far ahead the reminder should start. The default is 60 days; set it to 180 for a passport you want to renew six months out, or shorter for a warranty.

Each item shows a colour-shifting chip: green while the date is comfortably ahead, amber once it enters the lead window ("Warranty · 21 days left"), and red once it has passed ("Passport · expired").

Reminders on the Dashboard

Approaching and passed reminders surface in the Dashboard's Action Items, alongside insurance renewals and the rest. An item within its lead window reads "name — label ends in N days" (turning urgent inside 15 days); one that's already passed reads "name — label expired". The Vault tab itself also shows a small "expiring soon" count so you can see at a glance whether anything needs attention.

Attaching Documents

Every item has a 📎 button showing how many documents are attached. Click it to view, upload, or remove files — the bill PDF, the warranty card, the scanned will. The Vault reuses the same attachment system as the rest of the app, so these documents travel inside your offline ZIP and survive backup/restore exactly like insurance or property documents. Vault items allow up to 5 documents each (a will plus codicils plus deed scans need a little more room than other records, which allow 3); PDF/PNG/JPG, 10 MB each.

18 Document Attachments

Attach PDFs and images (policy documents, receipts, certificates) to your records — kept on disk, not bloating your portfolio file.

How Documents Work

You can attach documents (policy PDFs, receipts, certificates, agreements) to your records. Attachments are stored privately in your account, scoped to you — no one else can see them. Only a small reference (filename, size, type) travels with your portfolio data; the files themselves are kept separately so your data stays lean.

Which Records Support Documents

Document attachments are available on:

• Insurance — policy documents, premium receipts
• Fixed Income — FD certificates, bond documents
• Properties — sale deeds, agreements, possession letters
• Loans — sanction letters, statements

On each of these tabs, a 📎 paperclip icon sits next to the record name. It's faded when there are no documents and shows a count (e.g. 📎2) when there are. Click it to expand an inline panel where you can view, upload, or remove documents.

Attaching, Viewing, Removing

Supported File Types & Limits

• PDF, PNG, JPG/JPEG only. Convert other formats to PDF first.
• Maximum 3 documents per record.
• Up to 10 MB per file.

19 Moving Your Portfolio

How to back up your data, move between online and offline, and restore — with your documents always travelling along.

One File Holds Everything

MeraFolio packages your whole portfolio — all your data and your attached documents — into a single ZIP file. Because everything is in one file, there's nothing to leave behind: back it up, email it to yourself, or move it to another device, and your documents come with it.

Backing Up (Online)

While online, use Settings → Download Backup to download a ZIP of your whole portfolio including documents. Keep it somewhere safe — a drive, a cloud folder, wherever you keep important files. You can download a fresh backup any time; your data stays in your account.

Restoring (Online)

To bring a backup back in, use Settings → Restore and choose your .zip (or a .json). MeraFolio loads the data and puts every attached document back where it belongs. A ZIP made offline restores online, and vice-versa — it's one unified format.

Moving Between Online and Offline

See Section 21 (Online & Offline Modes) for the full explanation. In short:

• Going offline — "Download & go offline" hands you a ZIP of everything (data + documents) and then removes the copy from our servers. Because it's a ZIP, your documents go with you.
• Opening offline — the offline gate accepts a .zip or a .json; documents in a ZIP are extracted for the session.
• Saving offline — "Save" downloads a fresh ZIP (data + documents) you keep on your device.
• Coming back online — switch to online mode, then restore your ZIP so your portfolio (and documents) are back in your account.

Regular Backups

The simplest reliable habit: every so often, download a backup ZIP (online) or save your portfolio (offline) and keep a date-stamped copy — e.g. MeraFolio_Portfolio_2026-08-07.zip — on a drive or cloud folder. One file, documents included, done.

20 Settings

Theme, family members, categories, auto-save, backup, and data management.

Appearance

Toggle between Light and Dark mode. All tabs, charts, and badges adapt automatically.

Family Members

Add family members (Father, Mother, Child, etc.) as pill badges. Each member can be used when adding any holding, expense, income, or policy. The "Self" member cannot be removed.

Expense Categories

Default categories (Food, Shopping, Transport, etc.) are built-in. Add custom categories (e.g., "Pet Care", "Subscription") in amber — these appear in all expense dropdowns.

Save & Backup

Portfolio Location

This panel shows where your portfolio lives on disk. It includes:

• JSON file path — the full path to your portfolio file (e.g., D:\MeraFolio\Family.json)
• Documents folder path — where your attached PDFs/images live (e.g., D:\MeraFolio\Family.assets)
• File count and total size — quick check of how much space your documents are using
• "Open in Explorer" button — opens File Explorer at the portfolio location with the JSON highlighted. Useful when you want to copy or move files manually.

If your portfolio is unsaved (still in browser memory), this panel shows "No file — data saved to browser memory" and the Open in Explorer button is hidden. Click Save As to save to a real file location.

Danger Zone

Clear All Data permanently deletes everything — requires two confirmation dialogs. Use with caution. After clearing, you'll return to the Welcome screen.

21 Online & Offline Modes

The same application, two places to keep your data.

MeraFolio runs in two modes. They are the same application — every screen, every feature, identical. Only the storage differs. A small ONLINE or OFFLINE chip beside the logo tells you which you are in.

Switching to Offline

Go to Account & mode → Offline and type DOWNLOAD to confirm. Your entire portfolio downloads as one file — a ZIP that includes all your attached documents — and the copy on our servers is deleted, which is what makes it offline. Because documents are bundled into the ZIP, nothing is left behind.

Working Offline

When you sign in offline you are asked to open your file or start fresh. The file picker accepts a .zip (with documents) or a .json (data only) — MeraFolio detects which and handles both, so a backup from anywhere opens here. Documents inside a ZIP are made available for the session. After opening, the app behaves exactly as it does online.

Your work is backed up in your browser automatically as you go — the header shows when. That is a safety net for a lost session, not a substitute for saving. Click ↓ in the header to save a real file before you finish — this downloads a fresh ZIP with your data and documents. If a session ended before you saved, the opening screen offers Recover unsaved work.

Switching Back to Online

Account & mode → Online, then restore your file from Settings → Backup & Restore. Choose your .zip (or .json) — your data and documents are put back into your account. Until you restore, your account is empty. The format is unified, so a file saved offline restores online and vice-versa.

22 How Figures Are Calculated

The rules behind the numbers, so nothing surprises you.

Bank Balances — Two Numbers

Every account has two:

• Balance — the figure you typed
• Effective balance — the closing balance of your most recent imported statement, or your typed figure if you have not imported one

Everything you see — the account list, net worth, allocation, reports, exports — uses the effective balance. The edit form shows your typed figure, because that is the field you are editing. The two are identical until you import a statement.

Net Worth

Everything you own: equities, fixed income, bank balances, property and other assets. Loans are shown separately rather than netted off, so you can see both sides. The same figure appears on the Dashboard, Analytics and your reports.

Joint Ownership — Everyone Sees Their Share

Properties, fixed deposits and bank accounts can be jointly owned by percentage. When you view a single family member, every figure — net worth, the allocation ring, the family-wealth tags and the reports — shows that member's share of a co-owned asset, not the whole value. A property owned 60% / 40% contributes 60% to one member and 40% to the other, and the shares add up to the household total when you view All. Holdings and other assets belong to a single member, so they always show in full.

Property Equity

For a normal (ready) property: current value minus the outstanding loan, read live from the linked loan rather than a number you maintain separately. A closed loan stops counting — a repaid loan owes nothing, so equity rises to full value.

For an under-construction property the rule is different: it contributes own funds paid + (current value − total cost) — what you've actually put in plus any notional gain or loss — and the loan is not subtracted while under construction. See Section 13a for the full explanation and an example.

Fixed Income Totals

Total Invested and Current Value count active instruments only. A deposit that matured years ago is not part of your holdings any more; the card shows how many have matured. The average interest rate is weighted by principal, so a ₹10,000 deposit does not drag the headline rate as hard as a ₹50 lakh one.

Insurance Premiums

The annual figure multiplies by frequency — monthly ×12, quarterly ×4, half-yearly ×2, annual ×1. One-time premiums count as zero, because a single lump sum is not a recurring yearly cost. Motor policies use IDV as cover; other types use Sum Assured.

SIP Totals

If two SIPs feed the same fund — a monthly plus a top-up — that fund's value is counted once, not twice.

Return Percentages

Computed from totals, not by averaging individual percentages. A small holding does not distort the figure the way a simple average would.

23 Automatic Entries

What the AUTO badge means, and why nothing is counted twice.

Some entries are generated for you. They carry an AUTO badge and warn before you delete them.

Bank Transactions on the Income and Expense Pages

Expenses → Show bank debits adds spending from your statements, excluding transfers, salary, interest, cashback and refunds.

Income → Show bank credits is deliberately narrow — only salary, interest, cashback and refunds count. Most credits are not earnings: a transfer between your own accounts, a loan disbursal, a reversal. Counting all of them would badly overstate your income.

When They Generate

Automatic entries are created when you visit the relevant page — there is no background scheduler. Nothing is ever dated in the future: EMIs stop at today or the loan's end date, whichever comes first.

24 Net Worth History

Quarterly tracking, and what the ≈ symbol means.

Analytics shows your net worth by quarter with the change from the previous one.

• The current quarter is LIVE — it refreshes each time you open the page, so it always reflects where you stand now. Whatever it holds when the quarter ends becomes its permanent figure.
• Closed quarters never change.
• Quarters marked ≈ are estimated — reconstructed from purchase dates and current values, because the app was not recording your net worth back then.

Wealth Forecast

Projects forward using assumed growth rates — conservative, moderate or aggressive — over 5 to 30 years. This is a scenario, not a prediction. Equity, debt and property grow at fixed assumed rates; bank and other assets are held flat. Real returns vary considerably.

25 Shortcuts & Tips

Keyboard shortcuts, best practices, and power-user tips.

Keyboard Shortcuts

File Menu (Electron App)

Best Practices

Privacy

26 FAQ

Frequently asked questions.

When I go offline, do my attached documents come with me?

Yes. "Download & go offline" gives you a single ZIP that includes your data and all attached documents. The same is true when you Save while offline or Download a backup online. Documents are always bundled, so nothing is left behind. (A plain JSON file is data-only and is offered as a fallback.)

Can I open an offline file that I saved on another device?

Yes. The offline "open a file" screen accepts a .zip (with documents) or a .json (data only). A ZIP saved offline can also be restored online, and an online backup can be opened offline — it's one unified format.

Which records can I attach documents to?

Insurance, Fixed Income, Properties and Loans, plus any item in the Document Vault. Look for the 📎 icon next to the record — click it to view, upload, or remove documents (PDF/PNG/JPG, 10 MB each; up to 3 per record, or up to 5 for a Vault item).

What's the difference between a document attachment and the Document Vault?

An attachment is a file pinned to an existing record — a premium receipt on an insurance policy, a sale deed on a property. The Document Vault is a separate area for things that aren't investments at all: household purchases and important papers like your will or passport, organised into categories, with expiry reminders. Both use the same underlying file system, so both travel offline and survive backup/restore.

How do I add a property that's still under construction?

Tick "This property is under construction" when adding it, then enter the funding split (total cost, own funds paid, loan sanctioned) and the timeline (possession, moratorium, rent-start dates) plus Pre-EMI/EMI. A self-funding goal is created for you automatically. See Section 13a.

Why does my under-construction property show a smaller value than its price?

While a property is under construction its net-worth contribution is own funds paid + notional gain, not the full price — the loan-funded portion isn't counted as your asset yet. Once you take possession it becomes a normal property valued at current value minus outstanding loan. See Section 22.

We co-own a property — whose net worth does it count in?

Both, in proportion. Each owner's share is counted toward their own net worth and shown on their reports and dashboard. When you view "All" the shares add up to the full value. This also applies to jointly-owned fixed deposits and bank accounts.

Why don't my goals show on the Dashboard all the time?

Goals are a periodic concern, so the Dashboard only mentions a goal when there's something to act on — it's falling behind with a deadline within about two years, or it's 90–99% funded. Otherwise, track them on the Goals tab.

How do I update stock prices?

Three options: (1) Click Update Prices in Portfolio and upload a Bhavcopy CSV from NSE/BSE — this bulk-updates all stock closing prices at once. (2) Double-click the Current Price column in the Portfolio tab and enter the new price manually. (3) For mutual funds, re-import a fresh CAS statement — all NAVs update automatically.

My broker uses different names for the same stock. How do I fix this?

During import, a Name Matching screen appears when similar names are detected. Check the matches you want to consolidate and uncheck false matches. If duplicates slip through, go to the Transactions tab, click Edit on the mismatched entry, change the Asset Name to match, then click Sync in the Portfolio tab to rebuild holdings.

I see phantom holdings (stocks I've sold showing with quantity). How do I fix this?

This happens when the buy and sell have slightly different names. Go to Transactions → search for the stock → click Edit to standardize the name → go to Portfolio → click Sync. The sync rebuilds all positions from transactions and removes fully-sold stocks.

How do I export all my data to share with my CA?

Click File → Export to Excel in the menu bar. This creates a single Excel file with separate sheets for Portfolio, Transactions, Fixed Income, Insurance, Bank Accounts, Expenses, Income, Properties, SIPs, and Other Assets. A native Save dialog lets you choose where to save it.

Can I track multiple family members?

Yes. Add members in Settings → Family Members. Every holding, expense, income, and policy can be tagged to a member. Use the header dropdown to filter the entire app by member.

What if I import overlapping data?

Deduplication is built-in. If you import January-March, then later import February-April, the overlapping February-March transactions are auto-detected and marked as DUP (auto-deselected).

Why does my PPF/SSY show ₹0 gain?

You need to enter the Total Contributed field — this is the total amount deposited across all years, not just this year. Without it, the app uses Current Balance as both invested and current value, resulting in zero gain. Edit the instrument and fill in Total Contributed.

Can I use MeraFolio on multiple computers?

Save your portfolio as a .json file (Portfolio → Save As). Copy that file to any computer, install MeraFolio, and open it (Portfolio → Open File).

My bank statement PDF doesn't import?

Some bank PDFs are image-based (scanned), not text-based — these can't be parsed. Download the statement as CSV or Excel from your bank's net banking portal instead. For CC statements, make sure to select the correct bank from the dropdown for accurate parsing.

What happens if I clear all data?

Everything is permanently deleted. Always download a backup first (Settings → Download Backup). After clearing, you return to the Welcome screen and can start fresh or load a backup.

How accurate are the tax estimates?

The P&L tab estimates STCG at 20% and LTCG at 12.5% above ₹1.25L exemption (for equity, post-Budget 2024). These are indicative only. Your actual tax depends on income slab, surcharge, cess, and other factors. Always consult a Chartered Accountant for final tax computation.

The Dashboard shows expired insurance but status says Active?

The app auto-detects expired policies based on the Renewal Date. If the renewal date has passed, the status badge shows "Expired" in red even if the stored data says Active. Similarly, matured FDs show "Matured" in amber. The stored data isn't modified — just the display. Update the renewal date or status manually after you renew.

I paid off my loan completely. Why doesn't it close automatically?

Even when the outstanding balance reaches zero, MeraFolio leaves the loan in the Active list with a "Mark closed" button highlighted. This is intentional — banks often take days or weeks to formally close the account after the last payment, and you may need an NOC (No Objection Certificate) before considering it done. Click Mark closed on the Loans tab when you're ready. The Dashboard also shows a reminder Action Item: "<Loan> fully paid — Mark as closed".

Can I undo a prepayment I recorded by mistake?

Yes. Edit the loan → scroll to Prepayment History → click Undo on the row. The amount goes back to outstanding, and the matching expense entry is removed. Note: if the prepayment had a "New EMI" or "New tenure" adjustment, the EMI and end date aren't auto-restored — adjust them manually if needed.

I attached a PDF but it disappeared after restarting the app?

This shouldn't happen — attached documents are flushed to disk immediately. If it did happen, two things to check: (a) is your portfolio saved to a file location, or just in browser memory? Documents only persist when the portfolio has a real on-disk path. Open Settings → Portfolio Location to verify. (b) is the .assets folder still in the same parent folder as your JSON? If you moved the JSON without moving the assets folder, the references break.

How do I move my portfolio to a new computer?

You need to copy two things: the JSON file (e.g., Family.json) AND its sibling .assets folder (e.g., Family.assets). Both must end up in the same parent folder on the new machine. See Section 19 — Moving Your Portfolio for full step-by-step. Use Settings → Portfolio Location → "Open in Explorer" to find the files quickly.

My View button on a document shows "Could not load document"

The app expected to find the file at a specific path but didn't. The error message tells you the expected path — verify in File Explorer whether that file actually exists. Most common cause: you moved the JSON without copying the matching .assets folder. Copy the folder over (in the same parent as the JSON) and try again.

Can I generate a report for just one family member?

Yes. Click Generate Report on the Dashboard → in the modal, change "Family Member" from "All" to the specific person → Generate. The filter is strict — only records explicitly tagged to that person are included. Joint accounts go to whichever member is currently tagged. Joint ownership with proportional shares is planned for a future update.

What's the difference between a Snapshot and a Period report?

A Snapshot answers "where do I stand right now" — current net worth, current holdings, current loan balances. A Period report answers "what happened during this date range" — income earned, expenses paid, EMIs, prepayments, transactions, rentals received over the period. Period reports are useful for FY summaries (e.g., for ITR filing or year-end review). Both reports start with the same cover page format but the headlines and section selection differ.

How are capital gains calculated?

Each sale is matched against your earliest purchases first (FIFO) — what Indian tax treatment expects — with brokerage and charges included. Holdings over 365 days are long-term, otherwise short-term, so a single sale can produce both LTCG and STCG rows if it draws on lots bought at different times.

Tax is estimated at the rates you set per financial year in Settings → Capital Gains Tax Rates, so older years keep their own historical rates. Capital gains appear on the P&L page and in your Period reports.

If you sold something with no recorded purchase, it is shown marked “no basis” and excluded from the totals rather than counted as zero profit — use Add buy on that row to record the missing purchase. These figures are indicative; please confirm with a CA before filing.

Why does the Save button sometimes open a Save As dialog?

If your portfolio has never been saved to disk before, "Save" (Ctrl+S) automatically falls through to "Save As" so you actually get a file dialog. Once saved, subsequent Save commands silently flush to that same file. This avoids the confusing case where Save would silently store data only in browser memory.

Can I still use the app if I delete the .assets folder?

Yes — your JSON data still loads fine, and most features work normally. Only document-related actions (View, attaching new documents) will fail or show errors. If you don't care about attached documents, deleting the folder is harmless. If you want documents back, re-attach them from their original sources — the app doesn't know how to recover documents whose disk files are gone.

What's the difference between a lumpsum holding and a regular holding?

A regular holding is built up from individual buy/sell transactions — each transaction adjusts the quantity, average price, etc. A lumpsum holding is just a self-reported total: "Invested ₹50L, currently worth ₹62L". No transactions, no scrip-level detail. Lumpsum holdings count toward your net worth and asset allocation, but are excluded from P&L (no transactions to compute gains from) and bhavcopy auto-updates (no ticker to match).

How often should I update my lumpsum values?

Whatever frequency suits you — most users do it monthly when they get a fresh portfolio statement from their broker or AMC. Each update creates a snapshot in the history list, so over time you build a record of how the lumpsum has changed. This data is used for trend analysis (MoM, YoY) features coming in future updates.

Can I convert a regular holding into a lumpsum (or vice-versa)?

No. The mode is fixed when you create a holding. To switch modes, delete the existing record and re-create it in the other mode. This is intentional — converting between modes would orphan transaction data or fabricate a fake history.

I tried to undo my only lumpsum snapshot but the button is missing.

Correct — you can't remove the only snapshot from a lumpsum's history (it would leave the holding with no values). If you want to remove the lumpsum entirely, delete the entire holding instead. If you want to "reset" the snapshot, click Update Value and enter fresh numbers — same-date snapshots overwrite, so you can effectively replace the only one without removing it.