Your budget splits your monthly income into fixed costs, a spending budget and a savings target. The setup builds it from the transactions you already have, so it works best once a few months have come in. See ways to bring in your money.
Answer the setup questions
Start
Go to Budgets and choose Start. On a phone, Budgets is under More in the tab bar.
Confirm your monthly income
Tick the income that comes in regularly, like pay, and leave out one-offs such as refunds or a gift. You see your last three complete months with income; the month in progress is left out. If some income came in without a category, choose Add missing income to file it under Income.
Choose the figure to plan on
Pick Lowest month (recommended), Average month or A number of my own.
Tick your bills and subscriptions
One question for bills and utilities, one for subscriptions. Tick the recurring charges that belong in your budget.
Check your fixed costs
See what they come to in a typical month. A yearly fee counts one twelfth each month, and a charge you split with someone counts only your share.
Add a buffer
Choose 5% buffer (recommended), No buffer or Set my own: a cushion for bills that run high.
Split what's left
Slide between Spending budget and Savings target. We start from what you usually spend, rounded up a little, or half and half if that would leave almost nothing to save.
Budget some categories (optional)
Tick the categories you want to budget. With Let them share one total (a budget group) on, they become one group called Everyday spending. Turn it off to give each its own limit. Choose Save my budget, or Skip and save.
Use Back and Continue to move between questions. When you save, the Budgets page opens on your new plan.
Pick up where you left off
Your answers are saved in this browser as you go, so you can leave to check something and come back. The Budgets page then says Carry on where you left off, with Continue.
If something changed meanwhile, like new income or a charge that's gone, a note lists it and takes you back to the question it affects. Choose Start over in the note to begin again. Saved answers last 14 days, and if a month has finished since, the setup starts fresh because the numbers no longer line up.
Change one part later
You only do the setup once. After that, change each part right where you see it on the Budgets page:
To change | Go to |
|---|---|
Your income | Income & savings, then Change |
Spending vs saving | Income & savings, then Change split (or Spending, then Change amount) |
Your fixed costs | Fixed costs, then Edit fixed costs |
The buffer | Fixed costs, then the buffer button |
Category budgets and groups | Spending, then Add a budget, or tap any amount to change it |
To rebuild from scratch, open the ⋯ menu next to the month and choose Start over with the setup. It asks every question again and replaces your category budgets and groups.