Set a monthly budget

A budget puts a monthly cap on one category or tag. Your AI can then tell you how much you've spent this month and how much is left.

How to do it

1. Pick the category you want to cap. Budgets match the category name exactly, so ask your AI which categories you use first. How categories work explains where the names come from.
2. Ask your AI to set the budget. Give it an amount and the category or tag. A budget needs a name too, and your AI can choose one.
3. Say which ledger it belongs to if it isn't your active ledger. Without one, your AI puts the budget in your active ledger. A budget counts spending in its own ledger only, and it can't move to another ledger later.
4. Any time during the month, ask your AI how you're doing on it. See a monthly money review with your AI.
5. To see your budgets, ask your AI to list them. It lists your active ledger's budgets unless you ask for every ledger.

What you'll see

Your AI confirms the new budget with its name, amount and category. When you ask how you're doing, it reports for the current calendar month:

• how much you've spent;
• how much is left, which turns negative once you go over;
• whether you're over budget, and by how much;
• the share of the cap you've used;
• whether you're on pace;
• up to five transactions in the budget's category or tag this month.

When you list your budgets, each one shows its amount, its ledger and the currency of the cap, which is that ledger's currency.

How spending is counted

• The current calendar month. Spending is counted from the 1st to the last day of this month. Each new month starts from zero. To carry unspent money into the next month, see roll unspent budget into this month.
• Money out only. Spent is the total of outgoing transactions in the budget's category or tag. Money coming back, such as a refund, doesn't lower it.
• Splits count. If you split a charge, each slice counts toward the budget for its own category.
• On pace has a fixed meaning. A budget is on pace while spending stays at or below 90% of the cap. It doesn't take into account how far into the month you are.

Good to know

• Get an alert as you near the cap. Your AI can set an alert for when a budget reaches a share of its cap, such as 80%. Pennyweight checks it when new data reaches it, not in real time, and it goes off once per month. To create one, see set up an alert. If it stays quiet, see my alert didn't notify me.
• No budget page on the web. You set and check budgets through your AI.
• Spell the category exactly. Names are case-sensitive, and your AI can create a budget for a category no transaction uses. A budget for restaurants won't count transactions in Restaurants.
• The cap is in the ledger's currency. If any spending the budget matches is in another currency, your AI won't say whether you're over or under. It shows what you spent in each currency instead. Budgets don't convert currencies. To get a verdict, keep the budget in a ledger whose spending is all in that ledger's currency. See accounts and totals in more than one currency.
• The amount must be more than zero.
• Saving toward a goal is different. For a target you build up over time, see save toward a goal. To stop a budget for a while or remove it, see pause, resume or delete a budget.