Budget periods
Period boundaries
Each budget covers a calendar month: from the first day through the last day of that month. All amounts use your household’s single currency.
You can view and edit one month at a time on the Budgets page. Copying from last month brings targets, settings, and expected income — not transactions.
Budget types (per category)
Each category line is either Simple or Envelope. This is stored as rollover_enabled on the budget line.
Simple (default)
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Target | Spending cap for the period |
| Spent | Sum of matching transactions |
| Balance | Target − spent (shown as Remaining) |
- Each month starts fresh at the target.
- Unused money does not roll forward.
Envelope
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Target | Monthly contribution to this sinking fund |
| Spent | Sum of matching transactions |
| Rollover | Unused or overspent balance from last month |
| Balance | Target + rollover − spent (shown as Available) |
- Unspent available carries to the next month.
- Use for irregular expenses — car repair, gifts, annual bills.
Setup history averages
On Set up budget, six lookback months appear oldest → newest, then Average.
| Default include rule | Detail |
|---|---|
| Income | Exclude months with zero activity |
| Simple category | Exclude zero months |
| Envelope category | Include zero months |
Right-click a history cell to Ignore or Include that month for the Average. Overrides are stored on the budget period and restored on edit. Target prefills from Average and only auto-updates when Target still matches the previous Average.
Expected income and plan balance
On setup, the Income row sets expected income for the period (stored on the budget period when Income is included).
When expected income is set:
Plan balance = expected income − sum of all expense category targets.
- Goal is near $0 — every planned dollar has a job. Near zero usually means no action is required.
- Negative → over-assigned (allocated more than expected income).
- Positive → some expected income is not yet assigned.
Plan balance appears for both Simple-only and Envelope budgets once expected income exists. It does not use income received in the period as the denominator. Income received can still be shown for awareness (for example when received exceeds expected).
When expected income is not set (Income unchecked or never saved), Plan balance is hidden. There is no fallback to income-received-so-far math.
Rollover
Rollover applies only to envelope categories. The unused or overspent balance from the previous month’s same category carries into the current period:
- Underspend → positive rollover increases available balance
- Overspend → negative rollover reduces available balance
Rollover is per category, not shared across categories.
Target types
A budget line points at exactly one target:
| Type | Counts |
|---|---|
| Category | Transactions whose primary category (or split line) matches |
| Category group | Transactions in any member category of the group |
| Tag | Transactions that carry that tag |
Only one line per target per period.
The setup and tracking screens focus on category budgets. Group and tag lines, if present, may appear separately in advanced views.
Recurring vs variable
Each category line stores an expense kind:
| Kind | Stored as | Progress behavior |
|---|---|---|
| Recurring | recurring | On track when spending matches the fixed target |
| Variable | variable | Warning thresholds based on remaining budget (10% / 0%) |
You choose the kind on the setup screen. The app may suggest recurring when the last six months show stable spending for that category.
Recurring/variable is independent of simple/envelope — a category can be recurring and envelope (for example a fixed monthly contribution to car repair) or variable and simple (for example groceries).
How actuals are calculated
- Primary category only — supplemental categories and group membership for reporting do not double-count unless you budget on that group or tag directly
- Split transactions — each split line counts toward its category; the unsplit primary category is ignored
- Transfers — internal transfers between your accounts are excluded
- Expense categories — spending is the absolute value of outflows
- Income categories — actuals are positive inflows
- Tag budgets — only tagged transactions count; untagged spending is ignored