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How budgeting works

FlyBudget uses zero-based budgeting: at the start of each month you give every dollar you have a job, until there's nothing left to assign.

The Budget page​

Each row is a category, grouped into income and expenses:

  • Planned: how much you expect to earn or spend this month. Click (or tap) an amount to change it. You can also apply the same amount to the months after.
  • Actual: what came in or went out, from your on-budget accounts.
  • Remaining: what's left to spend. Unspent money carries over to next month; overspending carries over too, so it's covered by next month's plan.

Expense categories are organized by budget type (Fixed, Flexible, Non-Monthly and Savings/Investments), so you can see at a glance which spending you control.

To Be Budgeted​

To Be Budgeted = income received + carry-over from last month − total planned
  • Positive: you have money without a job yet. Plan it into a category, or into savings.
  • Zero: every dollar has a job. That's the goal.
  • Negative: you've planned more than you have. Lower a category until it's back to zero.

Only on-budget accounts count. Investments, property and loans appear in your net worth but not here (see Accounts).

Categories​

Add, rename, reorder and give emoji icons to categories and groups in Settings → Categories. Deleting a category asks where its transactions should move.

A simple routine​

  1. When you get paid, plan that income into your categories until To Be Budgeted is zero.
  2. As you spend, keep an eye on Remaining.
  3. If a category runs out, move money from one that has some left.

See the Budget tour for every control on the page.