Subscriptions, planned expenses, and the forecast
How subscriptions and planned expenses feed the forecast, and how they relate to the real transactions in your ledger.
Last updated 2026-09-22
Use Subscriptions for bills that repeat, like Netflix or a phone plan. Use a planned expense for a one-off future cost. Both tell the forecast what is coming; neither one writes anything to your ledger.
Neither one ever moves money. This article explains what each one does, how the forecast uses them, and how they relate to the real transactions you enter or import.
The simple difference
| Concept | What it does |
|---|---|
| Subscription | Tracks a repeating bill or service: what it costs, how often it bills, the next charge date, whether you consider it essential, and cancellation or review details. Its upcoming charges are projected in the forecast. |
| Planned expense | A one-off future cost you want the forecast to expect — a car repair, a tuition instalment. You add it on the Goals page. It has a single date and does not repeat. |
| Transaction | The actual money movement in your ledger. Subscriptions and planned expenses describe money that is coming — the transaction is the record itself. |
How upcoming charges are calculated
- An active subscription repeats by its billing frequency and amount, starting from its next charge date.
- Its upcoming charges are calculated on the fly each time you open the Forecast page or the dashboard. Nothing is written to your ledger ahead of time, and there is no button to press.
- Cancelling or pausing a subscription, or giving it an end date, removes every projected charge after that point straight away.
- Subscriptions never create transaction rows. The real charge enters your ledger when you enter it by hand or import it from a statement.
- Planned expenses count in the forecast until you mark them complete or their date passes.
Statuses explained
Every transaction row has a status, and the status decides what it counts toward:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Posted | Real and final enough to count. Posted transactions are the actuals: they move account balances, and they are what historical reports and dashboard totals are built from. |
| Pending | Expected, or not fully final yet. A pending transaction affects the current account balance, but it should still be reviewed and marked as posted once final. |
| Projected | Planning only — an entry you add by hand for money that hasn't moved yet. Projected transactions do not count as actual spending or income in reports, do not appear in actual dashboard totals, and never change an account balance. |
Examples
- Netflix, billed monthly — add a subscription. It tracks the cost and the next charge, and the forecast shows each upcoming charge.
- A car repair next month — add a planned expense on the Goals page.
- Salary or rent — these aren't subscriptions, and TallyFolio doesn't schedule them. Record the real transactions as they happen; the forecast detects recurring income from your posted history.
Common mistakes
- "I expected a subscription to create transactions by itself." A subscription only projects its charges in the forecast. The real charge comes from manual entry or a statement import.
- "I cancelled a subscription but still see past charges." Cancelling removes projected charges after the cancellation, not the real transactions already in your ledger.
- "I thought projected transactions were real spending." Projected entries are planning items only. They don't count in reports or change balances until you mark them as posted.
FAQ
Will TallyFolio pay my bills?
Does TallyFolio connect to my bank?
Does a subscription create transactions?
Why does the forecast show something that isn't in my reports?
What if the amount changes?
Where this lives in the app
Related articles
- Subscriptions
Track recurring bills, understand monthly and annual cost, review what is essential, and see upcoming charges in the forecast.
- Forecast
See projected cash over the next 30, 60, or 90 days under three scenarios, plus what your credit-card statements are heading toward.
- Transactions
Every money movement in TallyFolio is a transaction. Learn the types, the statuses, and how to keep them categorized.
- Import CSV statements
Upload a statement file, map its columns once, review every row, and save the batch — nothing is written until you confirm.
- Reports
Historical, read-only analysis of spending and merchants over any period you choose.