Creating and Managing Budgets

Budgets

A budget is a spending limit for a category or envelope during a period.

Creating a budget

1. Go to Budgets
2. Click Set budget on a category, or click New Budget
3. Choose:
   • Category or Envelope — what to budget
   • Period — monthly is the default; you can also set quarterly, annual, or custom date ranges
   • Amount — your spending limit
   • Rollover — whether unused budget carries forward to the next period

Reading the budget meter

Each budget card shows:

• Budget amount
• Amount spent so far
• Remaining amount (or overage if in the red)
• A progress bar — green under 80%, amber at 80–99%, red at 100%+

The "% used" shown on the dashboard Budgeted card compares your total spending to the sum of all active budgets.

Rollover

With rollover enabled: unused budget accumulates. Spend $300 on a $500 budget this month, and next month's effective budget is $700.

With rollover disabled: each period starts fresh at the set amount.

When rollover is enabled and you go over budget, the overage is carried forward as a negative — reducing next month's effective budget. This enforces real spending discipline across periods.

Envelope budgets

You can set a budget on an envelope (project) independently of its parent category. This is useful when pacing a long-running project — set a monthly allowance and the envelope's progress bar shows you both the monthly budget and the lifetime target.