Understanding your finance dashboard
Understanding your finance dashboard
Creatures Finance keeps simple books for your animal operation: what you have invested in your animals, what has come in, what has gone out, and which animals the money connects to. The dashboard is the plain-language view. Behind it, Creatures keeps proper double-entry books, so your totals stay consistent and your records are ready when it is time to review with an accountant or file taxes.
Open Finance
From your Dashboard, open Finance (or go to creatures.com/finance). This opens the simple view at /finance. Two buttons sit at the top:
- Add money jumps to the entry form lower on the page (covered in Recording money in and out).
- Advanced records opens the full bookkeeping view at
/finance/ledger, where the chart of accounts, the profit-and-loss report, and the balance sheet live. You do not need it for day-to-day tracking, but it is there when you or your accountant want the detail.
The estimated animal value panel
The large number on the left is your estimated animal value: the total starting value (cost basis) of the animals you own and have recorded a value for.
- What it is: the sum of every recorded purchase price or starting value across your owned animals. It is an asset figure, not income.
- What the caption tells you: the line under the number reports how many animals are counted, for example "what you have paid for 6 owned animals so far," or, if some animals were bred in your program, "starting values are recorded for 6 owned animals so far."
- When values are missing: if you own animals that do not yet have a value, an Add animal values (or Add or estimate values) button appears so you can fill the gaps. Animals without a recorded value are simply not counted yet.
- Why it matters: this number is only as complete as the values you record. Recording cost basis is what later lets Creatures calculate accurate profit and tax gain or loss when you sell. See Animal cost basis and starting values. For a market-value second opinion to sense-check a number against, see What is a Crestimate?.
The time period filter
Under the value panel are three period tabs. They control the date range for the Profit, Income, and Expenses tiles and for the category breakdowns below.
- This month: the first day of the current month through today.
- This year: January 1 of the current year through today.
- All time: your earliest recorded activity through today.
Choosing a period does not change your data, only the window you are looking through. Your estimated animal value is a running total and does not change with the period.
Profit, income, and expenses
Three tiles summarize the selected period:
- Income: total money in for the period.
- Expenses: total money out for the period.
- Profit: income minus expenses. It turns red when negative and green when positive, so a loss is obvious at a glance. The caption reads "Income minus expenses for this date range," a reminder that profit here does not subtract your animal cost basis. Cost basis affects gain or loss when an animal is sold, not your period profit.
Income and expenses by category
Below the tiles, two panels break the period down by category, largest first:
- Income lists categories such as Animal sale, Stud/breeding service, Other service, and Other income.
- Expenses lists categories such as Feed, Vet/health, Supplies, Breeding fees paid, and Other.
Each category maps to the correct accounting and tax line for you, so the simple label you pick when you record an entry still lands in the right place in your books. If a panel is empty, you will see "No income yet" or "No expenses yet" for that period.
Recent activity
The Recent activity list shows your latest saved entries and Creatures activity, newest first, with the date and amount. This includes entries you typed in and entries Creatures posted for you, such as a completed marketplace sale. It is the quick audit trail for "what changed recently."
The per-animal table
The Animals panel connects money to individual animals. Each row shows that animal's estimated value, income, expenses, and profit for the selected period, and links to that animal's full Finance tab.
- What it means: only entries you connected to an animal show up here, so this table rewards connecting income and expenses to specific animals as you record them.
- The implication: the more you allocate to animals, the more useful this becomes for seeing which animals earn their keep. An entry with no animal attached still counts in your totals; it just will not appear in any animal's row. For the full per-animal picture, including breeding return, see An animal's finances and ROI.
If a marketplace sale is waiting
If you have completed marketplace sales but have not started records yet, a Marketplace sales are waiting notice appears with a Start records link. Creatures keeps showing it until those sales can be posted to a book, so your numbers are not silently missing real income.
Related information
Updated on: 23/06/2026
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