Create and review monthly budgets

Allocate monthly spending by account and category, then compare spending and commitments.

Overview

A budget allocates a monthly amount to expense categories in one account. It reserves planning room without moving money or creating ledger transactions. Budgets are optional; your recorded balance remains separate.

Create a budget

Choose Add New in Budgets.
Enter a name, active account, positive monthly amount, and starting month.
Select the expense categories. A parent selection includes its subcategories.
Optionally set an end month and enable Carry forward unused allocation.
Save, then review the selected month's figures.

The end month is included. Two budgets cannot cover overlapping category families for the same account during overlapping months.

Understand the monthly figures

Allocated is the monthly amount plus any applicable unused carry-forward.
Spent is matching recorded spending through today, reduced by category refunds. Transfers are excluded.
Scheduled includes matching future-dated ledger entries and unentered scheduled commitments, without counting linked occurrences twice.
Remaining is allocation minus spending and commitments. It can be negative.

With carry-forward off, each month starts with its monthly amount. With it on, positive unused allocation can carry into the next month; overspending does not create negative carry-forward.

A split purchase counts only the portion assigned to the budget's categories. For a 100 purchase split into 75 Groceries and 25 Entertainment, a groceries-only budget counts 75, not 100. A budget covering both categories counts 100 once. The account still has one withdrawal. Future-dated split purchases use the same rule for commitments; splitting an entered scheduled payment does not make its original occurrence due again.

Change or end a budget

Edit the budget and choose the effective month for a revision. Earlier months retain their saved allocation. An existing budget's account cannot be changed; create a separate budget for another account.

Use End month to stop future allocations while retaining history. Delete removes the entire budget and its allocation history, not just the selected month. It does not delete ledger transactions, categories, or schedules.

Troubleshooting

Check account, month, category coverage, and hidden or archived categories when saving fails. A negative Remaining figure is different from a negative account balance. The daily reserve also differs from the month's Remaining value because commitments consume reserves on their dates.