Budgets

What Budgets Do

A budget in Money OS is a spending limit assigned to one or more categories over a defined period.

When transactions are categorized, Money OS automatically tracks how much of each budget has been consumed in real time.

No manual entry. No reconciliation. The budget fills itself from your transactions.

Creating a Budget

Navigate to Budgets → New Budget.

Required:

• Budget name — Descriptive and specific. Monthly Software is better than Tech.
• Category — Select one category, or group multiple into one budget (e.g., Marketing + Advertising into a single Marketing Budget).
• Limit — The maximum amount for this period.
• Period — Monthly (default), quarterly, or custom date range.

Optional:

• Alert threshold — Receive an email at X% of the limit. Recommended: 80%.
• Notes — Rationale for the limit. Useful for reviewing at period end.

Save the budget. It immediately begins tracking matching transactions.

Budget Dashboard

The Budgets page shows all active budgets at a glance.

Each budget card displays:

• Category name and period
• Progress bar — Visual representation of spent vs. limit
• Spent amount / Limit — $342 / $500
• % remaining — 32% left
• Status badge — On Track, At Risk (>80%), or Over

Budgets are sorted by status: Over budgets appear first.

Budget Alerts

Enable email alerts in Settings → Notifications → Budget Alerts.

Alert triggers:

Alerts fire once per trigger per period. You won’t receive repeated emails once you’re over the limit.

Budget vs. Actual Analysis

The most useful budget feature isn’t tracking — it’s the retrospective.

Navigate to Reports → Budget vs. Actual.

This report shows:

• Every budget for the selected period
• Total transactions in each budgeted category
• Variance (over or under, in dollars and %)
• Month-over-month trend

Use this report monthly to answer:

1. Which categories consistently overspend?
2. Which budgets are always underutilized?
3. Where should limits increase or decrease next period?

Best Practices

Start with your highest-spend categories. Don’t create 20 budgets on day one. Create budgets for the 3–5 categories where you’re most likely to overspend. Add more over time.

Set limits slightly below reality. If you’ve historically spent $500/month on software, set the budget at $450. Friction creates awareness.

Review monthly, adjust quarterly. Budget limits that never change stop being useful. Adjust limits every quarter based on actual patterns.