Budgets
Budgets help you decide where your money should go — and show whether you are staying on track. The workflow has two screens:
- Set up budget — review six months of spending by category, choose what to track, and set targets.
- Track budget — follow month-to-date progress for only the categories you selected.
You do not need to open Reports just to see how much you spent on Groceries this month. The tracking screen shows actual spending, targets, and progress for your chosen categories.
Budgets are monthly habits. Goals are longer-term outcomes — for example, a monthly Savings budget line tracks this month's allocation, while a House down payment goal tracks progress toward $50,000 over several years.
Simple vs envelope (per category)
Each category you track uses one of two budget types. You choose this on the Set up budget screen for each row:
| Type | Default | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Simple | Yes | Monthly spending caps — groceries, dining, gas |
| Envelope | No | Sinking funds — car repair, gifts, annual insurance |
| Type | What it means |
|---|---|
| Simple | Target is a spending cap for this month. Balance shows how much is left under the cap. Unused money does not carry forward. |
| Envelope | You contribute a monthly amount toward irregular expenses. Balance shows what is available (including rollover from last month). Unspent money carries forward. |
You can mix both in the same month — for example, keep Groceries on Simple and set Car repair to Envelope at $100/month even if you only spend $400 once per quarter.
When at least one category uses Envelope, the tracking screen also shows Ready to assign — income received this month minus everything you allocated to envelope categories. The goal is $0 — every dollar has a job.
See Budget periods for rollover, income, and how actuals are calculated.
Recurring vs variable categories
On the setup screen, mark each category as Recurring or Variable:
| Type | Examples | Progress meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Recurring | Rent, mortgage, insurance, subscriptions | Green when spending matches the expected amount; red if you exceed it |
| Variable | Groceries, restaurants, shopping | Green when plenty of budget remains; yellow below 10% left; red at or over the cap |
The app suggests recurring for categories with stable month-to-month spending over the last six months. You can override that for any row.
What you can do
| Action | Guide |
|---|---|
| Set up a monthly budget | Set up a monthly budget |
| Track progress and drill into transactions | Track budget progress |
| Start a new month from last month’s plan | Budgets landing — Copy from [previous month] |
| Change which categories you track | Tracking screen — Edit budget |
Where actuals come from
Budget progress uses categorized transactions from your ledger. Each transaction’s primary category (or split lines when a purchase is split) counts toward category budgets.
Uncategorized transactions do not count until you assign a category. See Categorization for how categories are assigned.