Budgets
A named limit, the categories that feed it, and a bar that fills as you spend.
Updated
Creating a Budget
- Open the Budgets tab of the Budget page and tap the + button.
- Enter a Name. This is yours to choose - Groceries, Date Nights, Dog, whatever matches how you think.
- Choose the Budget Type: Monthly or Annual. Get this one right first, because it cannot be changed later.
- Set the amount you want to stay under.
- Pick an icon so you can spot it in a list.
- Link one or more spending categories. Every transaction in those categories lands in this budget from now on.
Budget Type is permanent
Monthly and annual budgets count differently enough that Cadence will not convert one into the other. To move a budget between them, delete it and create a new one with the type you want.
Monthly vs Annual
| Monthly | Annual | |
|---|---|---|
| Resets | The 1st of each month | Never - one bucket for the year |
| Best for | Steady spending: groceries, dining, subscriptions | Lumpy spending: travel, gifts, car repairs |
| Rollover | Available | Not offered - there is no next period |
| Shows | This month against the limit | Year to date against the yearly total |
Mix them freely. Most people end up with mostly monthly budgets and a handful of annual ones for the categories that refuse to behave. See Annual Budgets.
Tracking Your Spending
Each budget shows a progress bar that fills as transactions arrive. Cross the limit and the bar turns red, so the budget that needs attention is obvious without reading a number.
Tap a budget to open it and see the transactions behind the figure, with the same search and filters as any other list. That is the fastest way to answer “why is this one so high?”.
Rollover
Turn rollover on and a monthly budget carries its unused amount forward instead of resetting. Budget $400 for groceries, spend $350, and next month opens with $450 to work with.
Only positive amounts carry. A month you overspend draws down the surplus you had built rather than starting the next month in the hole. Full detail in Budget Rollover.
Reordering Budgets
Drag budgets in the list to put the ones you check most at the top. The order is yours and applies everywhere the list appears.
Archiving a Budget
When a budget has run its course, archiving beats deleting. Open it for editing and choose Archive. It leaves your active list and stops counting toward your totals, but the budget and every transaction attached to it are kept.
Archived budgets collect under an Archived section at the bottom of the Monthly and Annual lists, each with a restore button. The section only appears once you have archived something.
Archiving clears rollover
Archiving switches a budget’s rollover setting off and wipes the balance it had carried forward. Restoring brings back the budget and its spending, but not the setting or the surplus, so you would be starting that from zero. If a rollover budget is only paused for a season, leave it in place rather than archiving it.
Archiving also unlinks the budget’s categories, so check those if you bring it back. Deleting, by contrast, is permanent.
The Four Budget Tabs
| Tab | What it answers |
|---|---|
| Overview | How is this period going? A Cash Flow card, insights, and a calendar. |
| Income | What is coming in, and has it arrived yet? |
| Bills | What is committed and when is it due? |
| Budgets | The budgets themselves - add one, change an amount, switch on WorryFree. |
Overview and Budgets are easy to mix up. Overview reports on the period; Budgets is where the budgets live. See Budget Overview.
If You Would Rather Not Run Budgets
One discretionary limit instead of a dozen budgets is a supported way to work, not a lesser one. The WorryFree Budgeting switch is at the bottom of the Budgets tab. See WorryFree.