Creating a new budget
Create budgets for all of your categories to help plan for your future as well as track historical income and expenses. Use your budgets in PocketSmith to help stay on track with your earning and spending.
In this user guide
Creating a budget on the Budget page
- Head to the Budget page
Each of your categories will be displayed on this page ready to be budgeted. Navigate to the category for which you would like to create a budget and click Start
- The budget form will open where you will be able to set up your budget.
- You can choose from either the SIMPLE BUDGET FORM or the ADVANCED OPTIONS form. For more on this: Budget forms for creating or editing budgets.
- Once you have entered all the details for the budget, click Save
This category will now display on the Budget page as a budgeted category
Note
Before you create a budget, PocketSmith will highlight your average spending or earnings figure for each category, based on the transactions you have categorized. It will also show how many transactions have been assigned to a category for that period.
In the example below, the Automotive category has 1 transaction assigned to it and the average spend is $40/mo.
Creating a budget on the Calendar page
- Head to your Calendar
Click on New budget or the day you would like your budget to occur on (or to start on, if you are setting up a repeating budget)
The budget form will open where you will be able to set up your budget.
You can choose from either the SIMPLE BUDGET FORM or the ADVANCED OPTIONS form.
You can read more on these forms and their options here: Budget forms for creating or editing budgets.
- Once you have entered all the details for the budget, click Save
This budget will now display on the Calendar page on the date it is set to occur
Note
If the checkbox Show actuals in history is ticked, then you won't see any past budgets on your calendar instead, your actual transactions will be displayed. To see past budgets, un-tick Show actuals in history.
You can click on any budget event on the calendar to edit that budget.
After making changes to a repeating budget, click Update, and you'll be provided with options to manage how the changes are applied. Learn more here: Options for applying changes to a repeating budget
Tip
Every budget you create will be applied to your forecast (such as the forecast graph at the top of the Calendar page). The more budgets you add so that it will match your actual earning and spending, the more accurate your forecasted balances will be and you'll be able to see how your finances look projected into the future!
