Creating a transfer budget for a debt

Some loans or debts are not associated with a transaction account that can be connected to PocketSmith. If this is the case, you can add the loan or debt into PocketSmith as a debt using our Asset and Debt feature, then create a transfer budget. This budget will help you to track your progress as you pay off a debt.

Tracking debt in PocketSmith

Setting up a debt on the Net Worth page

For loans or personal debts that don't have a transaction account connected to PocketSmith, you can instead add them as a debt using the Net Worth page. The Net Worth page allows you to see all your financial assets and debt, such as your house, home loan, car, or car loan, all in one place. Learn how to set up a debt here: Adding a debt to your Net Worth page

Using transfer budgets to track a debt 

You are able to track payments towards a debt that you've set up in PocketSmith using a transfer budget. 

Debts you set up in PocketSmith are different from bank and transaction accounts because they don't actually have any transactions attached to them. Transactions alone won't affect the balance of a debt because there are no transactions imported into PocketSmith within the debt itself.

Instead, you'll need to set up a transfer budget to account for payments towards a debt. 

A transfer budget tracks your budgeted expenses when paying down a debt and automatically reduces the amount owing on that debt on the date of that budget.

You will need:

• To set up a debt
• A category (where you'll assign the expense transactions that pay off the loan)
• A budget

Setting up a transfer budget for a debt

1. Head to the Budget page

2. Check which of the below best suits where you are up to:

   ● If you already have a category set up where transactions are assigned that contribute towards your asset, click Start on the category (now continue at step 3) 

   ● If you have already created a budget for the category, click the three-dot menu on the budget row and select Edit / Delete (now continue at step 3)

   ● If you need to start fresh with a new category, click + New budget. This will open up the budget form. Under the field What is this budget for? add a name for your new category e.g. Paying off car (now continue at step 3)

3. If you are currently using the simple budget form, select ADVANCED OPTIONS

4. Choose and fill in the following options: 

   ● How much?

   ● Does this budget repeat (and if so how often)?

   ● Budget start date

   ● Expense or income

   Select Expense 

   ● Which account's forecast is this budget for? 

   Choose the account that the transfer comes from

   Note

   It's best to begin your budget after the date that the asset was added to PocketSmith.

   This is because the current value will override any budget events between the purchase date and the current date (the date the asset was added to PocketSmith).

   However, if you'd prefer your budget to begin earlier, and have the current balance of the asset reflect the original purchase value + budget events, this is possible with a small workaround. Once you have created your budget, you'll just need to follow the steps outlined here to update your asset balance accordingly.

5. Tick the check box This is a transfer to and from the dropdown menu select the debt where the transfer goes to

   

   
   
6. Click Save or Update
7. If you are editing an existing budget, in the Confirm Updates window, select one of the bottom two options to ensure that this change is applied to all future budget events for this budget category. Click Confirm Changes

Now you have set up your transfer budget — yay!