Budget Lines

Budget lines organize your transactions into categories that track spending and income patterns. Each line operates as an independent container where transactions accumulate according to your chosen budgeting mode. The app calculates totals, displays progress, and provides detailed spending analysis for each line throughout your budget cycles.

Creating, editing, and deleting lines

When you create a budget line, you provide a name and color that identify the line throughout the app. The app adds the created line to the Budget page, but it shows no activity until you assign transactions to it.

• Targets Mode: the create and edit form includes a target amount field that sets your spending goal for the current and future cycles.
• Envelope Mode: the create form includes an initial funding field where you transfer money from your unbudgeted funds pool into the new line.

Editing a line allows you to change its name or color at any time. These changes update the line across all historical records and carry forward into future cycles without triggering recalculations.

In Targets Mode, you can also modify the target amount, which affects the current cycle and all future cycles while refreshing calculations that compare spending against the target, such as “Remaining Amount” and status bar percentages.

If you want to remove a line from the app, in most cases you should archive the budget line rather than deleting it. Archiving removes the line from your main list and prevents new transaction assignments while preserving all historical data. If you need to fully delete a line, you must first reassign or remove all associated transactions. Deletion alters historical records as if the line never existed, which is why this action is deliberately difficult to perform.

Budget page overview

The Budget page displays all active budget lines in a list with each line showing its name and current cycle activity. Below each line name, a status bar fills from left to right representing spending as a percentage of a comparison metric that varies by mode.

• Tracking Mode: the status bar shows current cycle activity compared to previous cycle totals (spending $70 this cycle versus $100 last cycle displays as 70%).
• Targets Mode: the status bar represents spending against your defined target.
• Envelope Mode: the status bar shows spending against available funds, which includes carryover from the previous cycle plus net transfers into the envelope.

The status bar changes color based on spending thresholds to provide quick visual feedback. The page also shows an aggregated total of spending across all active lines for the current cycle, and includes a graph comparing current and previous cycle activity. In Targets Mode, additional statistics display targeted spending and remaining targeted spending across all lines. In Envelope Mode, a funding section shows total available funds across all envelopes, and a Line Transfers section records movements between envelopes and transfers from the unbudgeted funds pool.

Status bar colors

While viewing the main Budget page, each line has a status bar shown underneath the line’s name. This bar shows the amount spent as a percentage of the line’s spending limit, as defined in the chart below:

Budget Mode	Amount	Limit
Tracking	Expenses and income transactions assigned to that line	The total of all expenses and income in the previous cycle
Targets	Expenses and income transactions assigned to that line	The most recently defined line target at the end of the cycle
Envelope	Expenses and income transactions assigned to that line, which doesn’t include envelope transfers	The funds which carried over from the previous cycle, plus the net transferred funds into the envelope

The status bar is then also displayed with a color based on the threshold level to make it easier to view your budget status at a glance.

Threshold	Color
Income, >100%	Dark Green
Income, 0-100%	Green
Spending, 0-60%	Blue
Spending, 60-75%	Yellow
Spending, 75-90%	Orange
Spending, 90-100%	Red
Spending, >100%	Dark Red

Reading the Budget Line Detail page

The detail page for an individual budget line presents a comprehensive view of that line’s activity over time. A graph displays all historical spending for the line, while a transaction table lists every transaction assigned to the line across all past periods. The inspector pane displays spending statistics for multiple time ranges including “Spending this Cycle,” “Spending Last Month,” and “Spending Last Year.” Positive amounts appear in green while negative amounts display in red.

• Tracking Mode: The detail page displays current cycle metrics and compares spending against previous cycles.
• Targets Mode: The Budget Line Detail page includes a targets section showing “Remaining Amount” and “Targeted Amount” for the current cycle, along with a target history section that records all past and current target values you’ve set for the line.
• Envelope Mode: The detail page has a funding section showing “Remaining Funds” available in the envelope/line and provides a funding history showing all transfers into and out of the line, including movements from the unbudgeted funds pool and exchanges with other budget lines.