Forecast
See projected cash over the next 30, 60, or 90 days under three scenarios, plus what your credit-card statements are heading toward.
Last updated 2026-09-08
Use this page to see where your cash is heading over the next 30, 60, or 90 days — the lowest point, the ending balance, and each credit card's projected statement. Every figure is calculated from your own data by fixed rules; there is no prediction model and no guesswork you can't trace.
The forecast recalculates from current data every time you view it. Nothing is saved or locked in — it's a lens, not a ledger.
Before you start
- Set your reserve settings in Settings: the emergency fund target and the cash safety buffer. The forecast's cash and capacity calculations require them — if they can't be loaded, the forecast shows an unavailable state rather than pretending the buffer is zero.
- Give each credit card its limit, statement closing day, and payment due day, so card payments can be placed on the timeline.
- Enter what you already know is coming: subscriptions and planned expenses — the one-time purchases you add on the Goals page. The forecast can only see what you've recorded.
The three scenarios
| Scenario | What it includes |
|---|---|
| Conservative | Only money with a known date and amount: active subscription charges, committed planned expenses, recurring income detected from your history, scheduled credit-card payments, and investment contributions marked committed. |
| Normal | Everything in Conservative, plus your average day-to-day spending calculated from the last 3, 6, or 12 months of real history. The page opens on this one, because it is the scenario that accounts for everything that is actually coming. |
| Heavy spending | Everything in Normal, plus a safety margin on the day-to-day spending (15% unless you change it, up to 50%) — a worse-than-usual month, on purpose. |
How to use it
- Pick a horizon: 30, 60, or 90 days.
- Use the three tabs: Outlook for the projection and what drives it, Upcoming for the dated charges behind it, and Risks for credit cards, accounts heading negative, and how much the forecast is relying on estimates.
- Add the purchases you are still deciding on on the Goals page — a flight, a car repair, an annual fee. Tick Committed and the purchase counts in all three scenarios; leave it unticked and it counts only in Normal and Heavy spending. Mark it complete once it happens and it leaves the projection.
- Compare the scenarios on the chart. All three are drawn together, so you can see whether any of them crosses your safety buffer. If even Heavy spending stays comfortable, the period is safe. If Conservative alone dips low, the pressure comes from fixed obligations, not day-to-day spending.
- Watch the lowest-projected-balance figure — it tells you the worst day, not just how the period ends.
- Review the credit-card section for each card's projected statement balance, how much of its limit that uses, and the payment date.
- Tune the inputs in Settings: safety buffer, emergency fund target, default horizon, how many months feed the spending average, and the Heavy spending buffer.
What affects this page
The forecast is fed by:
- Active subscriptions, projected from their next charge date, billing frequency, and amount.
- Planned expenses added on the Goals page, especially those marked committed.
- Credit-card settings — limit, statement closing day, payment due day.
- Recurring income detected from your posted history: income in the same category seen in at least three months with steady amounts, repeated on its usual schedule into the account it usually lands in. It stops being projected once two deposits in a row are missing.
- Your real spending history, as the average behind the Normal scenario.
- Investment contributions marked committed.
- Exchange rates, when combined totals span currencies.
What does not affect this page
- Closed and archived accounts — they're excluded.
- Cancelled, paused, trial, and review subscriptions — only active ones project charges.
- Labels — they never change forecast events or totals.
- Assets — the register sits outside cash flow.
- Budgets — targets don't constrain the projection; only recorded obligations and history do.
- Planned purchases you've marked complete, and any dated before today — both drop out of the projection.
Common mistakes
- Reading the forecast as a promise. It projects the rules forward from what you've recorded; a purchase you never recorded can't be foreseen.
- Leaving the cash safety buffer and emergency fund unset, then wondering why the forecast shows an incomplete-setup state instead of numbers.
- Forgetting credit-card statement dates. Without a closing day and due day, card payments can't be placed on the timeline.
- Keeping known future expenses in your head. If it's coming, record it as a planned expense so the forecast can see it.
FAQ
Why does the forecast show something my reports don't?
They answer different questions. The forecast looks ahead and includes planned and expected money; reports look back and count only posted actuals. Planned entries never appear in reports until they become real.
Why isn't my planned purchase in the Upcoming list?
Planned purchases have their own register on the Goals page, so Upcoming leaves them out rather than listing the same purchase twice. They still count: each one is a marker on the timeline chart, and it is already in the projected balances for the scenarios it belongs to.
Why is my forecast unavailable?
Usually because reserve settings are missing — the emergency fund target and cash safety buffer must be set. TallyFolio refuses to substitute a zero buffer, because that would produce confident-looking numbers built on a wrong assumption.
Why are the combined totals labelled as estimates?
When your accounts span currencies, combined totals are converted with the most recent exchange rates you've entered. Future money at today's rate is an estimate by nature. Anything without a rate stays visible in its own currency and is left out of the combined total — never converted one-to-one.
What do projected and pending mean here?
Projected entries are planning items — visible to the forecast, invisible to balances and reports. Pending entries are expected but not final; they affect the current account balance and should be reviewed. Neither is ever posted automatically.
Why does the dashboard show a projected low-balance warning?
The dashboard reuses the Forecast page's committed and expected scenario warnings. When either scenario falls below zero or your cash safety buffer, it shows the soonest warnings and links here for the full timeline. It does not run a separate calculation or predict anything with AI.
Where this lives in the app
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