Plan ahead

Spending targets

Give a category a monthly target, then read the whole year against it in the grid.

Last updated 2026-07-07

Use spending targets to say what you plan to spend in a category each month, then read the whole year against them. Targets do not have a page of their own: you set them from the dashboard grid, and you read them in the same grid that shows what you actually spent.

Targets and categories are inseparable — a target watches whatever spending lands in its category. That is why categorizing consistently comes before setting targets.

Before you start

  • Have a month or two of categorized transactions, so targets reflect reality rather than guesses.
  • Confirm your base currency in Settings — targets are kept in it.
  • Don't set a target for every category. A handful you actually care about outlives an exhaustive list.

How to use it

  1. On the dashboard, choose "Set targets". You get one field per category — type a monthly amount, or clear a field to remove that target entirely.
  2. Switch the grid toggle from Amounts to "vs Budget". Every cell now shows the room left against that category's target: positive is room to spare, negative is an overspend.
  3. In Amounts mode, a month that went over its target is tinted so you can spot it while reading the year normally.
  4. Because the grid shows twelve months at once, you can see whether a target is realistic across the year rather than judging it from a single month.
  5. Revisit targets when a new year starts, using the Avg column as a starting point — it is your own recent average for that category.

What affects this page

Budget consumption is real spending, precisely defined:

  • Posted expense transactions in the month, counted against their category's target.
  • Category changes — recategorizing a transaction moves its spending to the other budget.
  • Exchange rates — foreign-currency expenses convert into your base currency using the rate for their date.

What does not affect this page

  • Transfers between your accounts — moving money to savings is not consumption.
  • Investment contributions — savings allocation, not spending.
  • Credit-card payments — the spending was counted when you used the card; paying the balance is not spending again.
  • Projected (planned) transactions — planning items never consume budget.
  • Transactions you excluded from budgets, and anything in an excluded category.
  • Labels — they filter views elsewhere but never change budget math.

Common mistakes

  • Setting targets before categorizing. If most transactions sit in Uncategorized, the numbers can't tell you anything.
  • Treating transfers to savings as spending. A transfer isn't consumption — it doesn't use up a target.
  • Setting a target to zero to mean "no target". Clear the field instead; zero reads as "I plan to spend nothing here", and every purchase then shows as an overspend.
  • Setting targets for every category on day one. Overly detailed plans get abandoned; start with the ones you want to control.

FAQ

Why doesn't my credit-card payment count against a budget?
Because the spending was already counted when you made each purchase on the card. Counting the payment too would double-count the same money.
What does "excluded until normalized" mean?
A transaction in another currency has no exchange rate covering its date, so it can't be converted into your budget's currency honestly. Add a rate for that period in Settings and it joins the budget totals.
What happened to the Budgets page?
It was four tabs for what is really one field per category. Setting a target now lives in a sheet on the dashboard, and the comparison lives in the grid beside the actual spending — so you see plan and reality in the same place instead of switching pages.
What about the flex-bucket view?
The three-bucket method (fixed, flexible, non-monthly) was removed along with the page. Per-category targets remain, and the grid's collapsible groups give a similar high-level read.
Why did a figure change when I edited an old transaction?
Spending against targets is calculated from your ledger, live. Changing a category, amount, or the exclude-from-budget switch flows straight into the grid.

Where this lives in the app

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