Why the dashed budget line may stay flat
See how spending consumes a reserve without being deducted twice from After budgets.
Overview
The dashed After budgets line is a planning view, not a second bank balance. It subtracts the part of your budget allocations still reserved for spending as of each day.
Read the three values
- Balance is the daily Cash Flow balance from recorded and scheduled movements.
- Reserved is the unused positive allocation for that day's active budgets.
- After budgets equals Balance minus Reserved.
Matching spending and dated commitments consume their budget allocation on their dates. The reserve for each budget cannot fall below zero. No extra budget withdrawal is created in the Ledger.
Why the dashed line can stay flat
Consider a synthetic example with one budget, no carry-forward, and no other movements:
- Balance is $800 and the unused reserve is $100. After budgets is $700.
- A matching $30 expense occurs. Balance falls to $770 and the unused reserve falls to $70.
- After budgets remains $700: $770 minus $70.
The flat dashed line means the expense used money already reserved. The expense was still deducted from Balance. Deducting it again from After budgets would count it twice.
Once the reserve is exhausted, further spending reduces After budgets too. Spending outside the budget's categories lowers Balance without consuming that reserve. Refunds can reduce net spending and increase the remaining reserve.
When the lines differ unexpectedly
Check the account, category, date, monthly allocation, effective revision, and carry-forward setting. A new month's allocation can create a new gap between the lines. After budgets can be negative even when Balance is positive.
The Budgets page's Remaining considers the month's known commitments; the chart's daily reserve consumes them only through the selected day. Compare the same account and dates before expecting those figures to match. These figures are not a guarantee that money is safe to spend.