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 |
- 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.
Expected income and plan balance
On Set up budget, an Income row at the top shows six months of income history (oldest month first), an Average, and a Target for what you expect to earn this month. That target is your expected income. The Income row is visually distinct from expense rows.
Average on each setup row uses the months you include. Zero months are left out by default for Income and Simple categories; Envelope categories keep zeros in the average. Right-click a history amount to Ignore this value or Include this value (for outliers such as a bonus, or to bring a zero month back). Those choices are saved with that month’s budget. If you have not edited Target, it follows the Average when ignores change.
While editing on Set up budget with Income checked, the footer shows the same math live: total income, total budget (expense targets), and remainder. Remainder uses a traffic light — green near $0, yellow when some income is still unassigned, red when over-assigned.
When expected income is set, the tracking screen shows Plan balance — expected income minus everything you allocated to expense categories. The healthy state is near $0 (every planned dollar has a job). You usually do not need to take an action when the balance is near zero.
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Near $0 | Your expense targets match expected income |
| Positive | You have not allocated all of expected income yet |
| Negative (over-assigned) | Expense targets exceed expected income — call this out and reduce targets or raise expected income |
Plan balance uses expected income, not income already received. Early in the month, missing paychecks do not create a false over-assigned warning. If you receive more than expected, the plan stays on expected income and tracking also shows that you received more than expected.
If you uncheck Income on setup (or never set expected income), Plan balance is hidden. The app does not fall back to income received so far.
See Budget periods for rollover, expected 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, or Edit on a single row |
| Change one category’s target, type, or budget style | Tracking screen — Edit opens Edit [category name] 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.
Ask Chat to propose budget changes
With AI enabled, you can ask Chat about budget progress for a month or to propose adding, changing, or copying budget lines. Review the preview and click Apply. See Using AI Chat.
Importing budgets from YNAB
When you import from YNAB and choose to import the Budget file, Big Picture Money creates Envelope targets for every month in the export from YNAB Budgeted amounts. You review expected income (prefilled from the file) before commit. You can change Envelope vs Simple later on Set up budget.
Budget targets under YNAB Credit Card Payments are not imported unless you opt in. You may budget Transfer Out · Credit Card Payment (or your own per-card categories) anytime after migrate.