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Budgets

Videos on YouTube:Budget by paycheck Four ways to budget

Set what you plan to spend in each category, carry what you don't spend if you want to, and watch the categories you only want to measure.

More on choosing a period: Budgeting by paycheck.

The screenshots are live captures of a demo account.

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Budgeting from what you have#

Budgeting starts with what you have, takes away what's already committed, and shows what's left to plan with. A category budget can be a plain amount, one that carries what it doesn't spend into the next period, or a group's target as a share of income.

The top of the Budgeting page in a 1440 pixel window with the sidebar open. Planned, spent, scheduled in budgets, budget left and over plan figures across the top, a red banner reading 1 budget needs attention, over plan, the Overview, Projection and Calendar tabs, then the budget period bar showing the cadence and the day of the period, then a line naming the primary account the balance side reads, then the equation row running from true balance through to unassigned, the sustainability score, and the first category group, Dining Out, whose header carries its figures and whose next line reads Target 10 percent of income: 430 dollars of 4,300 dollars, Planned 180 dollars, 250 dollars under, above its Dining Out card marked ON PLAN.The top of the Budgeting page in a 1440 pixel window with the sidebar open. Planned, spent, scheduled in budgets, budget left and over plan figures across the top, a red banner reading 1 budget needs attention, over plan, the Overview, Projection and Calendar tabs, then the budget period bar showing the cadence and the day of the period, then a line naming the primary account the balance side reads, then the equation row running from true balance through to unassigned, the sustainability score, and the first category group, Dining Out, whose header carries its figures and whose next line reads Target 10 percent of income: 430 dollars of 4,300 dollars, Planned 180 dollars, 250 dollars under, above its Dining Out card marked ON PLAN.
The period, then the arithmetic, then the categories.

Budgets can only be changed in the current period#

Page back to last month and the edit pencils disappear. So do Add Category Budget, Pause, Remove Budget and Rollover, and the subtitle above the cards changes to "Budgets can only be changed in the current period."

An edit to a budget changes the plan from now on. Come back to the current period and everything is editable again.

One thing works in every period: dismissing an alert with Got it. A dismissal belongs to the period you're looking at.

Choosing a budget period#

A budget period is whatever length you choose, and Monthly is the default. Open Period Settings from the bar for the four choices:

Monthly
One calendar month.
Semi-Monthly
Two periods a month, on days you choose, such as the 1st and the 15th.
Biweekly
Every 14 days. It drifts across month boundaries, the way a biweekly paycheck does. If you have income rules, it can be aligned to one, so periods start on your payday.
Custom
Any interval: every N days, weeks, months or years, up to a year.

A new cadence starts at the beginning of the next period, worked out under the cadence you're leaving, and a second screen asks you to confirm it first. Until then the bar names the cadence you're in, with a line under it saying what's coming and when.

Change it again before then and the later change replaces the earlier one. The confirmation says which change it's replacing.

The period you're in finishes as it was, and past periods keep the dates and labels they had. A period that ran as a calendar month is still labeled "August 2026" once you've switched to Biweekly.

The first period of a new cadence can be shorter or longer than usual, so that every period after it starts on schedule. A first period of at least half a period stands on its own. Anything shorter joins the next one, since every period carries your full Planned amounts.

Switching to Biweekly on October 1 with a payday on October 8 gives a first period of October 1 to 7, then every two weeks from October 8. With a payday on October 2, one day is too short, so the first period runs October 1 to 15 and the regular rhythm starts October 16. When the first period isn't an ordinary one, the confirmation names it.

Periods aligned to a paycheck keep the schedule they were built on. If you later change when that paycheck is paid, the new schedule takes over from the next period, with the same first-period rule, and earlier periods stay put. Delete the paycheck and your periods keep its rhythm until you change Period Settings.

Start New Period ends the current period today and begins the next, which runs to the next natural end of your cadence. Pressed on the 6th of a monthly period, the new period runs from the 6th to the month's last day, and the days before it become a period of their own. It's for irregular or freelance income that doesn't arrive on a schedule.

Each period keeps its full Planned amounts, so a period cut short still counts in full for rollover and the score. A cadence change waiting for the next boundary starts today instead, with its first period following the same half-period rule from today, and the dialog says so and names that period.

What the equation counts#

The budgeting page's version of the same column, seven rows rather than nine because it begins at today's true balance instead of at the cleared balance. One term to a row, each with its name and its amount right aligned in a monospaced face, and every row after the first with its operator in a narrow left gutter. Today's true balance, today's available balance, ready to budget and unassigned are the bolder results; set aside, scheduled from this account and budget left are the quieter operands between them, and each of the three carries a small rows button showing that it opens. Scheduled from this account and the unassigned figure at the foot are green.The budgeting page's version of the same column, seven rows rather than nine because it begins at today's true balance instead of at the cleared balance. One term to a row, each with its name and its amount right aligned in a monospaced face, and every row after the first with its operator in a narrow left gutter. Today's true balance, today's available balance, ready to budget and unassigned are the bolder results; set aside, scheduled from this account and budget left are the quieter operands between them, and each of the three carries a small rows button showing that it opens. Scheduled from this account and the unassigned figure at the foot are green.
The Command Center's equation, asked about the period.

This is the same equation the Command Center shows, asked about the period you're browsing. In the current period the first term is Today's True Balance, the figure the Command Center leads with.

Browse back and the first term becomes the balance on that period's last day, with everything dated up to then included. Browse forward and it becomes that period's Starting Balance: the balance at the end of the day before the period starts, the same figure the Command Center's row starts from for that period. The label on the term says which.

The two halves of the equation count different accounts. The balance half, from True Balance through Ready to Budget, reads your primary account, and a line above the row names it. The category half, Budgets and Spent, counts every account, since a budgeted category can be paid from anywhere.

In Budget Left, a category that's over its budget counts as zero. Its overage is already spent or already on the calendar, so the balance half has it, and it isn't taken out twice. The Over Plan tile in the strip shows the total overage.

Scheduled in budgets and Scheduled from this account are different figures. Scheduled in budgets, in the strip at the top, is uncleared spending inside budgeted categories, on every account. Scheduled from this account, in the equation, is everything still ahead on one account's calendar before the period ends, income and spending netted, so it can add to Ready to Budget as easily as take from it. Early in a period, with bills scheduled and paydays still ahead, it's usually a plus. The two won't match.

Category budgets#

Video on YouTube:Running a budget

Category budget cards, each inside a panel for its parent category. A group header reads the category name, how many budgets it holds, then a label reading Committed slash Planned with committed against planned beside it, then what is scheduled, and then what is left. Under the Dining Out header a line reads Target 10 percent of income: 430 dollars of 4,300 dollars, Planned 180 dollars, 250 dollars under, with a Change target control at the right; the Fuel group below it shows Set a target instead. Inside, each card carries a health chip: Dining Out reads ON PLAN in green and Fuel below it reads OVER PLAN in red. The Dining Out card is shown whole: a committed against planned bar, blue for spent and amber for scheduled, a four column strip reading planned, spent, scheduled and remaining, a Forecasted line, since the category has enough regular spending for one, collapsed Spent and Scheduled lists, and buttons for Add Scheduled, Move money, Rollover: Off, Pause and Remove Budget. The Fuel card is cut off at its second line, Committed slash Planned.Category budget cards, each inside a panel for its parent category. A group header reads the category name, how many budgets it holds, then a label reading Committed slash Planned with committed against planned beside it, then what is scheduled, and then what is left. Under the Dining Out header a line reads Target 10 percent of income: 430 dollars of 4,300 dollars, Planned 180 dollars, 250 dollars under, with a Change target control at the right; the Fuel group below it shows Set a target instead. Inside, each card carries a health chip: Dining Out reads ON PLAN in green and Fuel below it reads OVER PLAN in red. The Dining Out card is shown whole: a committed against planned bar, blue for spent and amber for scheduled, a four column strip reading planned, spent, scheduled and remaining, a Forecasted line, since the category has enough regular spending for one, collapsed Spent and Scheduled lists, and buttons for Add Scheduled, Move money, Rollover: Off, Pause and Remove Budget. The Fuel card is cut off at its second line, Committed slash Planned.
One card per budgeted category, grouped under their parents.
The group panel
Every budget sits in a panel for its category, even a category with one budget. The panel header carries the group's own figures, and each is the sum of a column on the cards below it: how many budgets it holds, committed against planned, what's scheduled if anything is, what's left, and, where any budget in the group carries a rollover, what's left once that rollover is counted.
Where no budget in the group carries a rollover, the header reads Committed against Planned and matches its cards word for word. Where one does, it says carry included. An overspend carried in counts against committed, since it's spent out of this period's planned amount first. Money carried in counts into planned, since it stays reserved until this period's planned amount is used up.
Committed already contains what's scheduled, so planned less committed is what's left. Click the header to collapse the group. A paused budget stays in its group and out of its arithmetic.
The health chip
On Plan or Over Plan, and neither is a prediction. Over Plan means what you've spent plus what's already scheduled has passed this period's plan. On Plan means it hasn't.
The chip on a rolling category
The chip reads this period's Planned amount, and money carried in doesn't raise it. A category that planned 100 dollars, carried 600 in and spent 650 reads Over Plan, since it's past what it planned for this period, and With Rollover beside it still shows the 50 dollars it holds. The chip reports the plan and With Rollover reports the money, so the card says both. A carried overspend works the other way and lowers the plan, since it's paid out of it first.
Planned, Spent, Scheduled, Remaining, and the rollover line
Spent is what has cleared. Scheduled is what's on the calendar and hasn't cleared yet. Remaining subtracts both, so it can be lower than you expect. Transfers and payments to your own accounts and debts aren't spending and never count.
Under the five figures, a category that carried something in reads "Rollover: $150.00 carried in · $150.00 still set aside", or "Rollover: -$75.00 overspend carried in" when it carried a debt. A category that carried nothing has no rollover line, and its rollover button still says which mode it's in.
The label above the bar, and which side the carry is on
It reads what this period has used over what there was to use. Money carried in sits on exactly one side, decided by its sign. Money the category still holds joins the right-hand figure: "Committed / Planned + Rollover". A carried overspend is money already gone, spent out of this period's Planned amount before anything else, so it joins the left: "Committed + carried overspend / Planned".
Take the left side from the right and you get the With Rollover figure printed under the bar, on every card. A category that has spent past everything it holds reads a left-hand figure larger than its right-hand one, the same as a category with no rollover at all.
The label doesn't give the bar's width. A carried overspend is drawn at the far left of the bar, where a denominator can't account for it. The Bar measures line directly underneath states the bar's width.
The marker, and the zone past it
A white marker sits where this period's plan ends, with a white rule under the bar running up to it. Past the marker the track is tinted: faint purple where a category carried money in, money it still holds and hasn't touched, and faint salmon where it has gone past everything it has. You can see the moment the fill crosses the marker. A category with nothing carried in and nothing overspent has no marker, since its plan is the whole bar.
With Rollover
On a rolling category only, a fifth figure: everything the category holds, this period's Remaining plus whatever it carried in and hasn't spent. On the bar it's the gap from the fill to the end of the track. Remaining is the gap from the fill to the marker.
Forecasted
Where this category is heading, shown only where the app has evidence: what has cleared, what's scheduled, and your everyday spending here at its recent rate. That rate needs spending on several separate days before it exists, so many categories show none, and a new account shows none until it has enough days of spending. For a category driven by a recurring bill it's cleared plus scheduled, with no rate to project.
Pause
Stops measuring a category without losing its amount. Spending is still recorded, just not judged. The card stays visible and marked Paused, with its bar flattened and its planned amount kept.
When something needs attention
A banner above the tabs counts the budgets that are over plan, and reads, for example, "1 budget needs attention: over plan". It counts scheduled money as well as spent, so it warns before the money leaves: a $250 budget with $180 spent and a $100 repair booked for next week is $30 over today. A watched category past its mark is counted in the same line.
Click the banner and the cards open in a side panel, Budgets Needing Attention (Watched Categories when only watches are past their mark), with Adjust Amount and Got it on each. Close it with Close Panel, the close button or Escape. On the Command Center the same cards sit in the Budget Period panel, opened.

Rollover#

Video on YouTube:Running a budget from 0:41

By default a budget resets each period, and what you didn't spend is gone. Rollover changes that for one category, so what's left over carries forward. The carried amount is called Rollover everywhere it appears, and it's signed: a category carrying a debt reads -$75.00.

A Household budget card that carried money in, marked ON PLAN. Its bar is labeled Committed slash Planned plus Rollover and reads 0 dollars of 171 dollars 92. With nothing spent yet, the bar is empty plan up to a marker where this period's plan ends, then a faint purple zone past it for the money carried in, with a rule under the bar spanning the plan. Under it five figures: planned 100 dollars with a pencil to edit it, spent 0 dollars, scheduled 0 dollars, remaining 100 dollars, and with rollover 171 dollars 92, which is what the category holds in total. Then a line reading Rollover: 71 dollars 92 carried in, 71 dollars 92 still set aside, and buttons for Add Scheduled, Move money, Rollover: Unspent, Pause and Remove Budget.A Household budget card that carried money in, marked ON PLAN. Its bar is labeled Committed slash Planned plus Rollover and reads 0 dollars of 171 dollars 92. With nothing spent yet, the bar is empty plan up to a marker where this period's plan ends, then a faint purple zone past it for the money carried in, with a rule under the bar spanning the plan. Under it five figures: planned 100 dollars with a pencil to edit it, spent 0 dollars, scheduled 0 dollars, remaining 100 dollars, and with rollover 171 dollars 92, which is what the category holds in total. Then a line reading Rollover: 71 dollars 92 carried in, 71 dollars 92 still set aside, and buttons for Add Scheduled, Move money, Rollover: Unspent, Pause and Remove Budget.
The rollover line sits under the five figures, and the button says which mode the category is in.
Off
Leftover resets each period.
Unspent
What the category doesn't spend carries into the next period. Overspending is absorbed, and doesn't carry.
Both
Unspent money carries forward, and so does overspending. A category that went over starts the next period short by that much, and pays itself back out of it.

Each budget card says which of the three it's using.

A positive rollover is money set aside. It joins the Set aside term, so it stops counting as spendable, the same as a savings goal. Within a period, spending draws on this period's planned amount first, then the rollover. A negative rollover applies at once: it comes straight out of this period's budget for that category.

Spending money that was already set aside doesn't change what's free. The rollover goes down and the amount available for budgeting goes up by the same amount, so Unassigned holds still.

Turning rollover off on a category that holds money warns you first, and names the amount it releases.

Moving money between categories#

Video on YouTube:Running a budget from 1:41

When one category runs short and another has room, move the money across. Open the category that has it, choose Move money, and pick where it goes and how much.

You can move whatever the category still has, and the card already shows that figure: With Rollover where the category carries money, and Remaining where it doesn't. The dialog shows the number before you type, and a larger move is refused.

Both plans stay as you set them
Both PLANNED tiles keep the numbers you set. The move shows as its own line on each card, naming the other category.
The bar shows it leaving
Money moved out is drawn in gray, after any carried overspend and before what you've spent: money already gone, just not spent here. Money moved in isn't a band, since it isn't spending. It widens the category's own zone and moves the planned marker with it.
It counts as this period's money
A category topped up by a move and then spent into isn't over plan, and one that sent money away is measured against what it has left. A category already over plan gets closer to level with every dollar moved in, and reaches it when the move covers the overspend.
Undo one at a time
Each move is kept as its own record, so the card lists them and any single one can be undone. Both cards go back to exactly the figures they had.

Moves belong to the period they were made in, and only the current period's can be changed. A paused category can't send or receive money.

A target as a share of income#

Some people budget by percentages: half of income to needs, 30 percent to wants, 20 to savings, or whatever split they keep. A category group can hold that rule. Under the group's header, Set a target takes a whole percent. From then on the group shows one line: the target as a share of this period's income, the group's Planned total beside it, and the gap between them.

The percent stays as you set it. The income is the period's: every paycheck and other income dated inside the period, posted or still on the calendar, on every account, with transfers and card payments left out the way the reports leave them out. Browse to another period and the target follows that period's income.

The Overview report's Period Income shows only what has posted so far, so during a period the target's income runs ahead of it by the income still to come. The two meet once the period has ended.

Planned is the header's figure, rollover included, so the line and the header always agree. Only a group can carry a target, not a subcategory. A period with no income on the calendar says so, and shows no target.

Watching a category without budgeting it#

Sometimes you want to know what a category costs without committing to a number. Watching it does that.

A watched category is measured, never committed. It isn't in the equation and can't move Budget Left or Unassigned, and its block says so: "Measured only. These do not affect Budget Left or Unassigned. Transfers and payments to your own accounts and debts do not count as spending."

You can give a watch an optional mark: a line to be aware of, never a limit. With one set, the row reads something like "Tracking to $340 by Sep 30 · over your $300 mark". Without one it just measures. In a past period the same row reads "Ended the period at $340", and a category with nothing yet reads "Tracking to $0 · nothing yet this period".

A category is watched or budgeted, never both. To budget a watched category, unwatch it first. The picker doesn't offer a category you already budget.

The Cashflow Sustainability Score#

Video on YouTube:Running a budget from 2:58

Between the equation and the cards sits one number out of 100. It weighs three measures together: whether spending in each active budget stays within what it holds, this period's plan plus anything carried in (40); whether the projected balance stays above your safety floor or debt ceiling across the horizon (35); and how healthy your savings goals are (25). A score of 90 or more shows green, 60 to 89 blue, and below 60 red.

The line under the title names what was measured. When no budget is active in the period, the score is built from the other two measures alone, and the line says so.

The Projection and Calendar tabs#

Video on YouTube:Running a budget from 2:58

The Projection tab, headed Discretionary-Adjusted Cashflow, with a line saying what it compares and how far it runs. A legend names true balance, available balance, after budgets, the safety floor and beyond period. Four tiles sit above the chart, reading lowest point, highest point, period-end projected and buffer status, which says Safe. In the chart three stepped lines run left to right: the true balance, solid and highest; the available balance, dashed just beneath it; and after budgets, dotted and lowest, with a shaded band between the top and bottom lines through the period. A dashed red safety floor runs across with the ground beneath it tinted red. A dashed vertical line marks today near the start, a second marks the end of the period, and the weeks after it are shaded as a 60-day lookahead.The Projection tab, headed Discretionary-Adjusted Cashflow, with a line saying what it compares and how far it runs. A legend names true balance, available balance, after budgets, the safety floor and beyond period. Four tiles sit above the chart, reading lowest point, highest point, period-end projected and buffer status, which says Safe. In the chart three stepped lines run left to right: the true balance, solid and highest; the available balance, dashed just beneath it; and after budgets, dotted and lowest, with a shaded band between the top and bottom lines through the period. A dashed red safety floor runs across with the ground beneath it tinted red. A dashed vertical line marks today near the start, a second marks the end of the period, and the weeks after it are shaded as a 60-day lookahead.
Three lines: what you have, what's free, and what's free after budgets.

Projection checks the budget against your calendar. It draws your true balance, then the same line once goals are taken off, then again once budgets are taken off. The gap between the top and bottom lines is everything you've already committed.

Four figures sit above the chart: the lowest and highest points inside the window, the projected balance at the period's end, and your buffer status. The chart marks today and the period's end, and shades the 60 days after the period as a lookahead.

The Budget Calendar. A heading, and a line explaining that it shows every budgeted category's spend for the period, cleared and scheduled, and that the number in each day's corner is the running budget remaining, in red once you are over. Below it a single Display menu, then a legend naming eight kinds by color: income, recurring bill, budgeted, BNPL installment, one-off expense, goal contribution, transfer and balance adjustment. Then a month grid with the weekday names across the top. Days list the budgeted spending that falls on them, each item with its amount, and each day in the period carries the running budget remaining in its corner, falling as the month goes on. Today is circled, and the days outside the period carry no figure.The Budget Calendar. A heading, and a line explaining that it shows every budgeted category's spend for the period, cleared and scheduled, and that the number in each day's corner is the running budget remaining, in red once you are over. Below it a single Display menu, then a legend naming eight kinds by color: income, recurring bill, budgeted, BNPL installment, one-off expense, goal contribution, transfer and balance adjustment. Then a month grid with the weekday names across the top. Days list the budgeted spending that falls on them, each item with its amount, and each day in the period carries the running budget remaining in its corner, falling as the month goes on. Today is circled, and the days outside the period carry no figure.
The period as a calendar, with budget remaining in each day's corner.

Calendar lays out every budgeted category's spending on the days it happens, across all your accounts. The number in each day's corner is your running budget remaining, in red once you're over. The grid shows the period you're browsing. To see another, page the period bar above it.

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