For the full guide on the Budget page, please see: Using the Budget page: An overview.
Understanding your individual category budgets
Default behaviour
By default, the information you'll see in the budget bars beside each of your categories is based on the current budget period for the category.
Example
You have a repeating fortnightly expense budget for your 🍎 Groceries category of $200. This budget was started on October 1.
- The first budget period will run from October 1 - October 14
- The second budget period will run from October 15 - October 28
- The third budget period will run from October 29 - November 11
If you view this budgeted category within the Budget page on October 17, the budget information that will be displayed within the budget bars will be based on the second budget period from October 15 - October 28.
Note
You can adjust the period shown for each category to match the date range in your Total Budget Summary. See more about this below, in the section: Applying the budget summary date range to the entire page
Budget types
PocketSmith uses different icons to show different budget types:
Budget - a regular budget
Scheduled income or a Bill category - see user guide: Bill and scheduled income categories)
Transfer - a category that is set up as a transfer (see user guide: Dealing with transfers in PocketSmith)
Unbudgeted category - a category that does not have a budget
Rollover category - a category that has beta feature rollover budgeting set up
Terminology and features on the budget bars
There are many different variables that can affect how a budget category is displayed. We've made sure to consider as much as possible so you can see an accurate representation of your budgeted earning and spending. Here are some common scenarios you might notice alongside your budget categories.
Budget total
The full budgeted amount and period will be displayed on the far right of the category row.
For example, this Healthcare budget is set up as $1000 / year:
Expense budget
The budget bar will fill up as you spend money within an expense budget.
For example, $675 has been spent out of a total budget of $1000 / year for this Healthcare budget. There is $325 left to spend:
Income budget
The budget bar will fill up as you earn money against an income budget. For example, $1,900 has been earned out of a total budget of $3,800 / month for this income budget. There is $1,900 to go:
Transfer budget
The budget bar will fill up as money is transferred from one account to another.
For example, $0 has been transferred out of a total of $4500 / month for this Mortgage Repayment budget so the full amount is remaining:
Exceeding an expense budget
If you spend more than you budgeted, the budget bar will be adjusted to represent your total spending and any spending over budget will be displayed in red:
Exceeding an income budget
If you earn more than you budgeted, the budget bar will be adjusted to represent your total earnings and any earning over budget will be shown.
For example, $2,100 has been earned out of a total budget of $1900 / 2 weeks. The budget bar shows that $200 has been earned above target:
Alerts
The budget bar will display an ! icon when you're close to reaching the budgeted amount:
Timeframe for each budget
Hovering your mouse over a budget will show a bar that indicates how far through the budget period you are based on the current budget period being viewed:
Transactions from each budget category
The number of transactions assigned to a category within the period of the row will be displayed to the right of the category name. You can click on this number to quickly view the transactions in a pop-up and then to also choose the option VIEW ON THE TRANSACTIONS PAGE.
Unbudgeted categories
All of your categories are displayed on the Budget page, regardless of whether they have a budget set up. This makes it easy for you to create a new budget straight from the Budget page.
- Un-budgeted categories are represented with a folder icon
- Click Start to create a new budget
- The figure displayed on the far right of the category row reflects the average spending or earning in that category (as opposed to a budgeted category, where the figure reflects the budgeted amount)
Applying the Total Budget Summary date range to the entire page
If you'd like to analyse your individual budget categories based on the date range chosen for the Total Budget Summary, you can do this by ticking 'Use total budget summary date range for budget amount analysis'
How the Total Budget Summary date range is applied to your individual budget categories:
Once the Total Budget Summary date range is applied to your individual budget categories, regular categories will be calculated differently from bill categories.
Regular (non-bill) categories
- PocketSmith will evenly distribute the budget for regular categories over the entire budget period when 'Use total budget summary date range for budget amount analysis' is selected
- What this means is that if a budget period only partially fits into the date range being displayed, the budgeted amount calculated will include just the portion of the budget period that is within this range
Example
John has a $90 expense budget for his 🍬 Treats category that runs from November 1 - November 30. However, John has set his Total Budget Summary date range to show from November 1 - November 14 and has ticked 'Use total budget summary date range for budget amount analysis'.
Because PocketSmith evenly distributes this $90 budget across November 1 - November 30, once John decides to apply the date range November 1 - November 14 to the entire Budget page, the budgeted amount shown beside his 🍬 Treats category will be only $42.
Bill and scheduled income categories
- PocketSmith will treat bill or scheduled income category budgets as whole amounts that occur on the day the budget starts (or repeats)
- Repeating bill or scheduled income budgets are not distributed over the budget period from the budget start date to the next repeat date
Example
Sally has a $90 budget for one of her bill categories, 🛡Insurance. She started this budget on November 1, and it is set to repeat every three months. Sally sets the Total Budget Summary date range to show from November 1 - November 14 and has ticked 'Use total budget summary date range for budget amount analysis'
PocketSmith will not distribute the $90 budget across that three-month period; instead, it considers the bill to take place on November 1st (and then again on the date three months later). So once Sally has decided to apply the date range of November 1 - November 14 to the entire Budget page, the budgeted amount shown beside the 🛡 Insurance category will be the full $90.
Roll-up sub-categories into parent categories
If you've created parent and sub-categories, you can analyse your budgets in terms of individual sub-categories, or you can roll them up to see budget analysis on a parent category.
The roll-up feature applies to both transactions and budgets. As such, even if a sub-category does not have a budget, transactions occurring in that sub-category will be included in the roll-up.
Click on the arrow at the end of the row to roll-up the total of the sub-category budgets into a parent budget.
The roll-up budget will display alongside the parent category, and you will still be able to view the individual sub-category totals.
Roll-up with transfer and non-transfer categories
Transfer categories and non-transfer (regular) categories cannot be rolled up together.
If you have a mix nested under a parent, incompatible categories will show a 🚫 and will be excluded from the roll-up. To roll up all nested categories, ensure they all share the same transfer setting.
Learn more here: When a category can't be rolled-up
You can read more about transfer categories here: Dealing with transfers in PocketSmith.
Display options
You can use the column titles on the Budget page to change the order in which your categories are displayed.
By default, the category order on this page will match the order on the Categories page (see the user guide: Change the category order).
Click on any of the column titles to change the display order accordingly.
Category: Allows you to view in the default category order, alphabetically or reverse alphabetically.
Items: View budgets according to the number of transactions assigned to them. Choose to view in ascending or descending order.
Budget: This option orders budget categories according to the portion of the budget that has been spent or earned. Choose to view from the greatest portion spent/earned to the least, or vice versa.
