Preparing and tracking your monthly budget

The budget builds a theoretical projection from current or joint accounts already recorded. It does not replace their actual balance: the lines describe what should come in, go out, or be invested during each month.

Diagram of budget income, investments, expenses, and surpluses

1. Adding the account that receives and pays

First add the account under Portfolio > Savings accounts.
Open Budget, then Add an account.
Choose the current or joint account.
Enter the opening balance if the projection should include money already available.

The account card and all its lines are displayed in that account's currency. The global view then converts the accounts when necessary.

2. Adding independent income or an expense

In the account menu, select Add income or Add expense, then enter:

Name, such as Salary or Food;
Category;
Frequency, such as monthly or annually;
Next occurrence;
Currency and Amount.

An annual expense should not be manually divided by twelve if you want to see the actual payment month: choose Annual and its next date. The monthly average may then differ from the result for the displayed month.

3. Reusing wealth data

The same menu can create a linked line:

Add income from an asset uses rent, interest, or a dividend;
Add residence expenses uses its charges;
Add a liability expense uses a monthly payment;
Invest in an asset or Pay into a support describes planned saving;
Add an investment goal uses the monthly effort planned by the goal.

The line remains linked to its source item. Use its edit action if you need to allow a budget-specific adjustment.

In the illustrated fictional portfolio, salaries, family expenses, contributions to goals and transfers are separate lines. The monthly result depends on all of them: do not enter the calculated total as additional income.

4. Marking a completed occurrence

In the selected month, tick an occurrence when the income, expense, transfer, or investment has actually taken place. My Wealth then freezes its amount and currency for that month: a later change to the planned line does not retroactively rewrite the completed operation.

Clear the occurrence to remove this snapshot. You can also adjust the amount for the month when the actual amount differs from the planned amount. Lines linked to the wealth file and transfers follow the same principle.

5. Reconciling contributions to goals

A line linked to a goal distinguishes planned effort from the contribution actually completed. The monthly summary notably displays:

Available, after completed flows have been taken into account;
Already invested, calculated with the frozen amounts and currencies of occurrences;
Remaining, to complete the month's plan;
the number of completed and pending goals.

A completed goal contribution is added back when calculating available capacity so that it is not deducted twice. Reconciliation remains monthly and changes neither the goal's target nor its projection.

Relevant goals display their completion status for the month. From the investment summary, open the linked goal to check or change its target and assumptions; editing remains centralised in the Goals view.

6. Transferring a surplus between accounts

First add both accounts to the budget. In the destination account, choose to add another account's surplus, then select the source account. My Wealth transfers only its positive surplus according to the calculated order.

A cycle — A sends its surplus to B and B to A — prevents calculation. Checks identifies the accounts and provides access to the correction. Delete one transfer or choose a one-way flow; the issue disappears when the cycle is corrected. Affected amounts remain marked as incomplete.

7. Reading the month and projection

The Monthly result concerns the selected month; the Monthly average spreads frequencies over a longer period. The diagram separates external income, expenses, investments, transfers, and surpluses.

Browse the months in the Budget projection to identify the first insufficient balance. A recommendation or diagram marked as partial means that a conversion is missing or that a cycle prevents part of the calculation.

If a rate is missing, the result may be partial. Enter the conversion using the suggested action or under Properties > Exchange rates.