Getting started with Rokada

In Rokada, a project is your primary unit of organisation. Think of it as a bucket for a specific purpose — a piece of land, a rental property, a family event, or general expenses.

Choosing a project type

• Farmland — for agricultural land: bore wells, crop cycles, labour payments, irrigation.
• Residential — for property you own, rent out, or renovate.
• General — catch-all for family expenses, travel, or anything that doesn't fit a property.

Base currency

Most Indian projects should use INR as the base currency. If you have a project tracking US expenses (like a US property), use USD. Transactions can always be entered in any currency regardless of the base setting.

1. Click "New project" on the Projects page.
2. Enter a name (e.g. "Nampalle Farmland").
3. Pick the type and base currency.
4. Click "Create project".

Transactions are the core record in Rokada. Every rupee in or out of a project is a transaction.

Transaction types

• Bank — money moved via bank transfer (NEFT, RTGS, IMPS). No cash changes hands.
• Cash — physical notes given or received. Use this for vendor payments, daily wages, or any payment where no digital record exists.
• UPI — digital payment via PhonePe, GPay, Paytm, or BHIM. You can also import UPI statements in bulk instead of entering each one manually.
• Transfer — money you sent from your US bank account to India. This is a special type used for reconciliation — see Section 5.

Cash chain — splitting a large withdrawal

When you withdraw a large cash amount (say ₹1,00,000) and then distribute it across multiple payments, use the cash chain feature. It tracks the parent withdrawal and all child disbursements so nothing goes unaccounted.

1. Add a CASH transaction for the full withdrawal amount.
2. Open the transaction and click "Split as cash disbursements".
3. Add each payment (vendor, amount, date) as a child disbursement.
4. The float remaining shows how much cash is still unaccounted for.

If you have months of past transactions, importing is faster than entering them manually. Rokada supports three import formats.

UPI statement (PhonePe / GPay / Paytm)

Download your UPI statement from the app and upload it in Rokada. Supported formats:

• PhonePe — download as PDF from the app history screen
• Google Pay — download as CSV from Google Pay settings → Transaction history
• Paytm — download as CSV from Passbook → Statement

Indian bank statement (ICICI NRE / HDFC / SBI)

Download your statement in PDF or CSV format from net banking. Rokada auto-detects the format for ICICI NRE, HDFC, and SBI accounts.

1. Open a project and click "Import bank statement".
2. Upload the PDF or CSV file (max 10 MB).
3. Rokada parses the statement and creates staged transactions.
4. Review and confirm each transaction in the Import Inbox.

CSV / Excel import

For any other data (e.g. a spreadsheet you have been maintaining), use the CSV/Excel wizard. It lets you map your columns to Rokada fields and preview the data before confirming.

Rokada integrates with US banks via Plaid, allowing your US account transactions to sync automatically every day.

This feature is available on Pro plans. Wire transfer transactions from your US account are detected and logged as Transfer type transactions, which feed directly into your reconciliation panel.

Reconciliation is the heart of Rokada for NRIs. It answers the question: "I sent $34,000 from the US — where did it all go?"

How it works

• USD Funded — the total of all your Transfer transactions (money wired from the US).
• INR Received — the rupee equivalent of what you funded, calculated using your weighted average exchange rate.
• INR Spent — the sum of all confirmed expense transactions in the project.
• Float remaining — the unaccounted gap: INR Received minus INR Spent. A positive float means there is cash still in India that has not been logged. A negative float means you have logged more expenses than you funded — check for missing transfers.

Exchange rate

Rokada uses your actual transfer rate, not a live market rate. When you log a Transfer, you enter the USD amount, the INR amount received (from your bank confirmation), and Rokada computes the effective rate. The weighted average across all transfers drives the reconciliation.

The dashboard gives you a cross-project portfolio view — balances, cash flow, and recent activity across all your projects at once.

Portfolio balances

Balances are net: total confirmed income minus total confirmed expenses, per currency. They are not bank balances — they represent the accounting position across all your Rokada projects.

Cash flow this month

How much income you received and how much you spent in the current calendar month, per currency. A positive number means you are in the black for the month.

Annual summary (per project)

Open any project to see the monthly cash flow waterfall chart. Use the year selector to compare different years. Each bar shows income (green) and expenses (rose) side by side.

Onboarding checklist

The dashboard shows a getting-started checklist until you complete all five steps. Once done, you can dismiss it permanently.

Contributors are family members or trusted agents in India who can log transactions on your behalf. They see only the projects they are added to and can only add/edit transactions — they cannot change project settings, invite others, or delete data.

Roles

• Owner — full control. Only you (the account creator) are the Owner.
• Contributor — can add and edit transactions, import statements.
• Viewer — read-only. Can see all data but cannot make changes.

Have more questions? Visit the FAQ page or email us at support@rokada.app.