Budgets

Budgets help you plan spending and see how much room is left in a period.

Quick start

1. Create a budget for an area you want to control.
2. Pick the category or label it should track.
3. Set the amount for the period.
4. Review progress during the month.
5. Adjust the budget when your real spending changes.

Budget flow

What a budget tracks

A budget can track spending that matches a category or label.

Use a category when the spending has one clear meaning.

Use a label when the spending cuts across categories.

Example:

• Category budget: Groceries.
• Label budget: Vacation, Project, Business trip.

Good budget examples

Reading budget progress

Budget progress compares matched transactions with the budget amount.

If progress is high early in the period, slow down or increase the budget if the plan was too low.

If progress is low, the budget may be generous or the period may not be finished.

Budget periods

A budget repeats over a period you choose: monthly, weekly, every two weeks, or yearly. Monthly suits most spending; weekly works well for groceries; yearly fits things like insurance or taxes that arrive once.

When reviewing a budget, make sure you are looking at the right period.

What happens at the end of a period

Each budget decides what to do with what is left over:

• Reset: the next period starts fresh at the budget amount. This is the usual choice for regular spending.
• Carry over: what you did not spend is added to the next period, and going over eats into it. Better for a budget you are saving up within, like a yearly travel budget.

A budget for everything else

One budget can be marked as the catch-all. Instead of tracking a category or a label, it absorbs every expense that no other budget is already tracking.

It answers the question a set of budgets normally cannot: how much am I spending outside of what I planned for.

Alerts

A budget can tell you when it needs attention:

• When a new transaction lands in it.
• When it gets close to its limit.
• When it goes over.

They arrive by email, and they are set per budget under Settings → Notifications, where you can also set what new budgets start with. So you can watch the two that matter and leave the rest quiet.

Common mistakes

• Budgeting before transactions are categorized.
• Creating too many budgets at once.
• Mixing one-time purchases with normal monthly spending.
• Forgetting that labels can be better for projects or trips.

FAQ

Do budgets change my transactions?

No. Budgets read transactions. They do not change them.

Should every category have a budget?

No. Budget only what you want to actively control.

Why does a budget look empty?

The matching transactions may be uncategorized, use a different label, or be in another period.