Saving goals, automatic amounts and the forecast

A saving goal on Budgets puts a little aside each period for a bill you know is coming. An automatic amount lets a budget work out its own figure, Funded first says which budgets your income covers first, and What happens next shows where your balances are heading. They’re the parts of Budgets that look ahead, and each one starts from a budget set the usual way, which Budgets explains.

Save up for something#

A saving goal is a budget that sets aside part of a known future cost every period, so the money is there when the bill arrives. Car insurance due in June, a vacation in August and holiday gifts in December are the usual examples. What are sinking funds? explains the idea.

1. Open Budgets. Under Set a budget, choose the category the money will be spent from, such as Car insurance, in Category or group.
2. Type the total you need in Saving up for.
3. Set Needed by to the date you need it.
4. Set Starting, and press Set budget.

As soon as Saving up for has a number in it, the form changes:

• Amount and Amount decided by disappear. There’s no amount to type.
• Carry what is left over into the next month turns on and can’t be turned off, because a fund saves by carrying.
• Most to carry stays. Leave it blank, or set it at least as high as the goal.

The note under the form explains what happens next: “Each month puts aside what is still needed, divided by the months left before the date.”

How much each month asks for#

Each period asks for what’s still needed, divided by the periods left, counting the current one and the one the money is needed in. Saving $600 by June, starting in January, asks for $100 a month.

• As the fund fills, the figure adjusts. If you spend from the category before the date, that money comes out of the fund, and the months after ask for more to make it up.
• The month it’s needed in asks for whatever is still short, rather than a share of it.
• Once the fund is full, it asks for nothing.
• After the month it’s needed in, it asks for nothing. Set a new saving goal for the next time.

Standing budgets shows it with Calculated as the amount and a badge like Saving $600.00 by June 2027.

When a saving goal is refused#

• A Needed by date before Starting: “A sinking fund cannot be needed before it starts saving.”
• A Most to carry below the goal: “This cap is below what the fund is saving for, so it would throw away each period’s contribution and leave the whole amount due at the end. Raise the cap to at least the target, or remove it.”
• A goal of zero: “A sinking fund’s target has to be more than nothing.”

Change a saving goal#

The pencil on a saving goal only changes Funded first and Ends after, and its box says “Delete it and set a plain budget if that is not what you want.” To change the goal or the date, delete the budget and set it again with the same Starting date. Nothing is stored month by month, so the fund is worked out again from that date.

Let a budget work out its own amount#

Amount decided by has three choices besides The amount, every period. Each needs one number, in a field that shows up when you pick it. The average’s field follows Budgeting by, so on a weekly budget Months to average reads Weeks to average.

Type a percentage as a plain number, like 3 or 12.5. With a percent sign it’s refused: “A percentage is a plain number, such as 3 or 12.5. Leave the percent sign out.”

What the last few periods spent#

Good for a category that’s hard to guess, like groceries or gas. The month being budgeted is never part of its own average. Early on, it averages the months that exist rather than counting months before the budget started as zero, and until there’s a finished month to average it uses the Amount you typed (“Used until there are finished periods to average.”). It never goes below zero. The badge reads Average of 3 months.

The last period, plus a percentage#

For planned growth, or for cutting back a little at a time. The Amount you type is the first month’s budget (“The first period’s amount. The increase starts from the one after.”), and each month after is the month before plus the percentage, so 10% on $200 makes $220, then $242. A negative number tapers it down, and -100 tapers to zero. The badge reads +10% each period.

A share of the income before it#

For income that changes from month to month, such as “groceries get 15% of what came in last month”. It uses last month rather than this one, because a share of a month still running would change every time you looked. Income here is money that came in as income, so refunds and transfers don’t count. If nothing came in last month, the budget is zero that month. There’s no Amount to type, and the badge reads 15% of income. How to budget with irregular income puts it to use.

Things to know about automatic amounts#

• A one-month amount beats any rule. Set an amount for a single month (see Set a different amount for one month) and that month uses it. A budget that steps up by a percentage steps from your amount the month after.
• The rule can’t be changed afterward. On an average or a step, the pencil changes the starting Amount, carrying, Funded first and Ends after, but not the number of months or the percentage. On a share of income it changes only Funded first and Ends after. To use a different rule, delete the budget and set a new one.
• Standing budgets shows Calculated as the amount for an average or a share of income, and the typed first amount for a step.
• A saving goal can’t also use a rule. Filling in Saving up for puts Amount decided by back to The amount, every period.

Choose what gets funded first#

When a month’s income won’t cover every budget, Funded first says which ones come first. It changes no budget and no balance. It works out how much of each budget the income actually covers.

1. On Set a budget, or with the pencil on a budget you have, type a number in Funded first. Lower goes first, so 1 comes before 2.
2. Leave it blank for budgets that don’t need a place in line. Unranked budgets are funded last, after every ranked one.
3. Press Set budget or Save budget.

Once any budget in a month has a number, two things appear in that month’s panel:

• a Funded column, filled in your order from that month’s income until it runs out, and
• “$3,000.00 came in, leaving $250.00 of the budget unfunded.” in the line under the heading.

Under Standing budgets, the budget also gets a badge like Funded 1.

Budgets with the same number are filled in alphabetical order. Income is what came in during that month in the budget’s currency, so a month still running counts what’s arrived so far. Funded first is for categories only. A group budget can’t have one, because ranking a group and the categories in it would spend the same income twice.

Give a saving goal Funded first 1 and your income covers it before anything else, which is the idea behind paying yourself first.

See where your balances are heading#

What happens next, at the bottom of Budgets, projects your balances forward a period at a time. Nothing in it has happened yet, and none of it is a balance: it’s what your accounts would do if nothing changed.

The options#

• Months ahead: 3, 6, 12 or 24, starting with the month you’re in. It starts on 6. The label and the length of each row follow Budgeting by, so a weekly view reads Weeks ahead.
• Counting: what the projection is built from.
  • Recurring plus what you usually spend is where it starts. Your recurring transactions, plus the average of what each category spent and what came in over recent finished months, wherever no recurring transaction already covers it. It works from your real spending, so it says something even before you’ve set up a recurring transaction or a budget.
  • Recurring transactions only counts the dated recurring transactions and nothing else.
  • Recurring plus what budgets intend adds the part of each budget no recurring transaction already covers. It’s the cautious reading: it assumes you’ll spend every budget in full.
• Averaged over: 3, 6 or 12 months, starting on 3. It only appears for Recurring plus what you usually spend, and the month you’re in is never part of the average.

The table#

There’s one table for each currency, titled like “Projected balances in USD, from Oct 6, 2026”. Each row is a month.

What it starts from, and what it leaves out#

• It starts from what every account in that currency holds today, cards and loans included, and whether or not the account is part of your budget. Recurring transactions count from today on.
• The month you’re in counts only what’s left. Today’s balance already reflects what you’ve spent this month, so budgets and usual spending count only the part you haven’t spent yet.
• A transfer between two of your accounts in one currency changes no total, so it isn’t counted. A recurring transfer between currencies is counted on both sides.
• Budgets intend counts category budgets with an amount you typed, including steps, which grow the same way the budget does. It leaves out group budgets, which would count the same spending twice, and one-month amounts.
• Anything that can’t be projected is named under the table: “Rent could not be projected, so the figures above are short by whatever they are worth.” That’s a recurring transaction with no amount, a recurring transfer between currencies that doesn’t say what arrives, and any budget that works out its own amount: saving goals, averages and shares of income.
• Only budgets of the Budgeting by length are read. If you have others, a note says so: “You also budget by week, and this projection reads only monthly budgets.”

When there’s nothing to work from, the panel says Nothing to project yet, with a line saying what the chosen Counting needs.

A first month, start to finish#

1. Bring in last month’s spending, by importing a statement or entering it by hand.
2. On Budgets, set plain budgets on your five biggest spending categories, at about what they cost now.
3. On the two you most want to control, turn on Carry what is left over into the next month.
4. Add a saving goal for the next big bill you know is coming.
5. Come back once a week and read left to assign and the So far rows. Change the budgets as you learn, and keep the transactions true: the page is only as right as the entries behind it.

How to make a budget, What is envelope budgeting? and What is zero-based budgeting? cover the ideas behind each step.