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
Tip
Before you create a budget, PocketSmith will highlight your average spending or earnings figure for each category, based on the transactions you have categorized. For example, for the Automotive category above, the average spend is $40 / mo
PocketSmith will also show how many transactions have been assigned to a category for that period. In the example above, the Automotive category has 1 transaction assigned to it.
You can choose from either:
Note
By default, when starting a new budget from the Budget page, the start date will be the first day of the budget period determined by PocketSmith based on the frequency and nature of transactions assigned to that category. You can always change this - check out the ADVANCED SETTINGS described below!
- What is this budget for?
This will already display the category you chose to create a budget for, or you can change the category here. - Does this budget repeat?
Are you budgeting for a repeating expense or income? Select Yes if so, and choose a repeating period. Learn more here: Repeating budgets and how to make changes to them. - How much?
Here you can add an amount for your budget and select whether this is an expense or an income budget. We recommend setting round numbers for budgets that vary (e.g. Groceries) and exact amounts for ones that don't (e.g. Insurance or Salary). - Which account's forecast is this budget for?
Select which account you would like this budget to forecast against. This means that on the calendar, you can select this account and see how the budget affects this particular account's balance.
ADVANCED OPTIONS
- Budget start date - Budget end date
By default, when starting a new budget from the Budget page, the start date will be the first day of the budget period determined by PocketSmith based on the frequency and nature of transactions assigned to that category. You can change the start date here, and choose whether you'd like to apply an end date for this budget. - This is a transfer
If the transactions in this budget category are moving between your accounts or to an asset or liability, tick the checkbox and from the dropdown menu select the account where the transfer will go to (if you chose an Expense budget) or come from (if you chose an Income budget). Learn more here: Creating a transfer budget - This is a bill / This is scheduled income
If this budget is for a bill category or scheduled income category, choose this option so that PocketSmith analyses the budgets correctly. If you've already set this category up as a bill category or scheduled income, this option will automatically be selected for you in the budget form. You can learn more here: The difference between bill /scheduled income budgets and non-bill/non-scheduled income repeating budgets - Budget notes
Type in any extra details you want to add to this budget. - Color
Add a color to your budget. This will be reflected in various graphs within PocketSmith and on the Calendar
Tip
You don't need to get out a calculator if you want to do a simple calculation in the amount field. Just type your calculation in the amount field to subtract (-), add (+), multiply (x) or divide (/) and then hit enter to get the result.
Creating a budget on the Calendar page
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
⚡️ ADVANCED OPTIONS
THE SIMPLE BUDGET FORM
- What is this budget for?
Select a category to apply to this budget - Does this budget repeat?
When creating a new budget from the + New budget option, the start date will be for today's date. When creating a new budget from a specific date on the Calendar, the start date will reflect the date you selected. Are you budgeting for a repeating expense or income? Select Yes if so, and choose a repeating period. Learn more here: Repeating budgets and how to make changes to them - How much?
Here you can add an amount for your budget and select whether this is an expense or an income budget. We recommend setting round numbers for budgets that vary (e.g. Groceries) and exact amounts for ones that don't (e.g. Insurance or Salary). - Which account's forecast is this budget for?
Select which account you would like this budget to forecast against. This means that on the calendar, you can select this account and see how the budget affects this particular account's balance.
ADVANCED OPTIONS
- Budget start date - Budget end date
When creating a new budget from the + New budget option, the start date will be for today's date. When creating a new budget from a specific date on the Calendar, the start date will reflect the date you selected. You can change the start date here, and choose whether you'd like to apply an end date for this budget. - This is a transfer
If the transactions in this budget category are moving between your accounts or to an asset or liability, tick the checkbox and from the dropdown menu select the account where the transfer will go to (if you chose an Expense budget) or come from (if you chose an Income budget). Learn more here: Creating a transfer budget - This is a bill / This is scheduled income
If this budget is for a bill category or scheduled income category, chose this option so that PocketSmith analyses the budgets correctly. Learn more here: The difference between bill /scheduled income budgets and non-bill/non-scheduled income repeating budgets - Budget notes
Type in any extra details you want to add to this budget. - Color
Add a color to your budget. This will be reflected in various graphs within PocketSmith and on the Calendar
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.
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!
Got any more questions? Check out our Budget Quick Answers!